Really looking forward seeing my friends at YILC!

Lectures in Jewish History and Thought. No hard questions, please.





Here’s your opportunity to get an advance look at the first volume of my forthcoming The Jewish People: A History. Dear fellow students of Jewish History! I am in the last few months of producing the manuscript of volume one of my forthcoming book, The Jewish People: A History. I’ve been trying an experiment in…

Official languages of the seminar are Ukrainian and English, with simultaneous translation. The conference is open to the public. Here is a brief translation of the program with the full details in Ukrainian below. Petliura and “The Petliura Affair:” De(constructing) an Imperial Myth Friday, April 29, 2022, 10:00am-1:00pm ET Via Zoom: http://www.bit.ly/HREC-Petliura. Zoom address: 874…

Professor Norman Golb’s amazing, old-school discovery in the British Library collection of Geniza documents. The Sabbatean Episode (The Ashkenazium Lectures Part VI) New Chapters appearing in Biblical Jewish History Course

Wishing you all a redemptive Passover season.

“My parents went to Mt. Ebal and all I got was this lousy lead curse tablet.” This video is part of the Biblical Jewish History online course (click here for information and registration). Judaism in Medieval Ashkenaz (The Ashkenazium Lectures Part 3) Passover Thoughts on Jewish History and the Situation in Ukraine Lecture delivered as…

The History of the Jews of Ukraine in the Context of the Current Crisis The Social and Economic Foundations of Medieval Ashkenaz Premiering today at 11:00 am EDT (New York Time). Join us for a live chat (58m). Online Courses
Really proud of my son Aryeh for his upcoming competition at the 2022 Maccabiah games in Shotokan Karate. Please consider support his mission by clicking here: https://secure2.convio.net/musa/site/TR;jsessionid=00000000.app208a?px=1099195&fr_id=1160&pg=personal&NONCE_TOKEN=E0AB7F850711AC3D5904F77E36715460 Well done Aryeh! Thank you all!

The first in a series of twelve lectures delivered at The Ashkenazium of Budapest. Join us at 11:00 am (New York time) for a premiere and live chat. The last four lectures will be delivered on Monday and Tuesday: sign up for free registration at http://www.bit.ly/ASHKENAZ2022. The Jews and D-Day Did you know that some…

Join me for a discussion of the economic, social, political and religious background of the violent Khmel’nyts’kyi Uprising of 1648-49. Trigger warning: some cherished, yet incorrect, stereotypes may be challenged. Video with live chat.

With gratitude to The Ashkenazium and its Dean, Dr. Michael Chighel, I am pleased to offer twelve lectures on the history of Jews in Ashkenaz to the global audience. Please visit http://www.bit.ly/ASHKENAZ2022 to register for free! Can’t make the live classes? No problem. Sign up for the course I put together to prepare my Hungarian…

Twelve Lectures on the Jews of Ashkenaz (Free Registration) With gratitude to Dean Michael Chighel of The Ashkenazium of Budapest, my new series of lectures on the history of the Jews of Ashkenaz will be open to the global community of students of Jewish history via webinar. Please visit http://www.bit.ly/ASHKENAZ2022 for details and registration. Lectures…


Here’s the interview Pesach Charney and Nissim Lazari conducted at jrouteradio.com on April 4. Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Soviet-Campaign-to-Eliminate-Passover.html The Soviet Campaign to Eliminate Passover by Dr. Henry Abramson “Red Haggadahs” were published in the 1920s with the explicit goal of replacing belief in God with faith in Communist Russia. One of the most unusual episodes in the long history of anti-Semitic persecution is the Soviet anti-Jewish campaign of the 1920s. Utilizing formerly…
Brief overview of the history of Jewish immigration to the United States and demographic developments to the beginning of the 21st century.

Appointed as the head of Napoleon’s Grand Sanhedrin, respected Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva David Sintzheim created a political modus vivendi for Jews in modern Europe. Click here for the Prezi associated with this video.

Tractate “Prohibition”People of the Book: Great Works of the Jewish Tradition Dr. Henry Abramson “Reverend” Gershon Kiss of Brooklyn captured the spirit of Purim brilliantly in his 1929 parody of the Talmud, “Tractate Prohibition,” which pokes fun at both Rabbinic dialectic and American society. Written in a combination of Hebrew, Aramaic and the occasional Anglicism…

Intimidated by neither power nor position, Rabbi Yaakov Emden left a remarkable literary legacy in the form of his autobiography, Megilat Sefer. This brief lecture provides an overview of his life and work, including his epic controversy with Rabbi Yonasan Eibeschutz. R. Yaakov Emden, Megilat Sefer People of the Book: Great Works of the Jewish…

Detractors and admirers alike called him a “zealot, the son of a zealot” a fitting title for arguably the most divisive figure in early eighteenth-century Jewish history. A native son of Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Chagiz (1671-1751) originally journeyed to Europe to raise funds for his beleaguered Yeshiva. Within a short period of time, however,…

Two hundred years ago, Sefer Ha-Brit was a fixture in the library of every educated Jewish home. First published anonymously in 1797, this hugely popular 800-page tome appeared in forty editions, including translations into Ladino and Yiddish. It was widely read by Ashkenazim and Sefardim, western and eastern European Jews, Hasidim, Mitnagdim and Maskilim…

People Of The Book: Classic Works Of The Jewish Tradition This article originally appeared in the Five Towns Jewish Times on March 3, 2016. Click here for a video lecture on the topic. By Dr. Henry Abramson Working in the abandoned Judaica collection of the Kiev Vernadsky Library during the immediate post-Soviet period, a brilliant…

A mysterious figure of the early 18th century whose work, recently discovered by Dr. Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, sheds light on the world of popular culture from which Hasidism emerged.

People Of The Book: Classic Works Of The Jewish Tradition By Dr. Henry Abramson This article appeared in the February 25, 2016 edition of the Five Towns Jewish Times. The appearance of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s Tanya at the turn of the 19th century represented a sea change in Eastern European Jewish history. With…

Jewish History @ Avenue J A Community Project of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences 1602 Avenue J Monday Nights, 7-8pm Free and Open to the Community Lectures by Dean Henry Abramson No hard questions, please. March 7: R. Pinhas Hurwitz Author of the influential Sefer Ha-Brit, the work of Rabbi Hurwitz represented the…