Really looking forward seeing my friends at YILC!

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




This lecture was sponsored by Eva Zack de Waiser and Aliza Abramson.

This lecture is sponsored by Mr. Daniel Sommer. The TorahCafe.com people later edited this video very nicely, although for some reason they keep removing my opening joke! Still, it’s great to have the PowerPoints integrated into the video, so here’s a slightly different version for your enjoyment. Click on the icon below for the…
Correction: the reference in the lecture was to the Pittsburgh Platform (not the Philadelphia Platform). Even that, however, was a mistake: I was thinking of the 1883 Cincinatti “Trefa Banquet.” Thank you for the clarification, Menachem!
Lecture sponsored by Young Israel of Bal Harbour
Lecture Sponsored by Judy Seed
Lecture sponsored by Joe and Zohara Weiss
Rabbi Yosef Karo: The Kabbalah of Halakhah Delivered at the Young Israel of Bal Harbour, January 25, 2012. Lecture sponsored by Menachem Sternbaum, Susan Leaventon, and an anonymous donor. Correction: it wasn’t Rothschild after all, it was the Duke of Naxos. Update: The nice people over at TorahCafe took this video and improved it considerably.…
Welcome to the new website for Hillel Abramson‘s Lecture Series in Jewish History at Young Israel of Bal Harbour! This site will feature information on the series, and host video recordings of the lectures. We encourage you to sign up for our Email Newsletter below, which is our principal way of letting participants know what’s…


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…