Really looking forward seeing my friends at YILC!
RESURGENCE in Jewish History (Shabbaton at YILC, 5 Towns); Intrepid Rabbi-Explorers of the 3rd Century; Sephardic Diaspora in the New World
Eurafrican Jews in the Caribbean; Jewish Caribbean Migration Patterns; and a retrospective mini-documentary
Hard to believe such beautiful places exist!
Jewish Caribbean Migration Patterns
Eurafrican Jews in the Caribbean
The Sephardic Diaspora: Europe
Want to learn more Jewish History? Try one of these online courses!
Saga of Sephardic Jewry (New Online Course!); Volume II:Chapter 2 now online; Benjamin of Tudela; Guide for the Perplexed; Review of Koren’s New Mikraot Hadorot
Jewish History Lab Report: Friday, January 3, 2025
Benjamin of Tudela, Great Jewish Explorer of the 12th Century!
The Saga of Sephardic Jewry: New Course Now Online!
Stunning new work of Torah Scholarship: The Koren Mikraot Hadorot
Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed: Battle of the Translators
Shabbat in Rosyln, NY; Hello from Jerusalem;
Really looking forward to meeting this community!
Message recorded from Jerusalem last week
Medieval Antisemitism and the Spanish Inquisition
Invitation to LCM Breakfast; Caribbean Jews and the History of Chocolate; Spanish Disputations and the Pogroms of 1391
Please join me at our First Annual Breakfast!
Jews and Chocolate! Who knew?
Disputations and the Pogroms of 1391
The Jews of Bukhara (Sunday in Denver); the Maimonidean Controversy; Save the Date for Roslyn NY
Really looking forward to speaking to the Or Avner community in Aurora, CO!
The Maimonidean Controversy
Save the Date: Shabbaton in Roslyn NY, December 20-21
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The Mishnah: Creating a Portable Judaism HIS 155 Lecture 1.5
Compiled by Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi in an exceptionally difficult time for the Jewish people, the Mishnah created the possibility of creating a “portable Judaism.” After the destruction of the Temple in 70 and the dramatic escalation of the diaspora, the Mishnah allowed Jews to define their religion within an intellectual and textual context, outside of…
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Philo Judaeus of Alexandria: Jews in the Greek World
Virtually ignored by Jewish philosophers, Philo of Alexandria represented the high point of synthesis between Greek and Jewish thought in the ancient world, and had a huge influence on early Christian thinkers. A prominent representative of the Egyptian Jewish community to the Roman Emperor, and well-respected in his day by his coreligionists, he nevertheless had…
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The Dreyfus Affair (This Week in Jewish History)
Wrongly accused of espionage, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to Devil’s Island on the basis of remarkably tenuous evidence. May critics, including the famous writer Emile Zola, argued that Dreyfus was unfairly charged simply because he was a Jew in the French army. As evidence mounted that another officer was guilty, the Dreyfus Affair exposed…
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Who Was Josephus?
Captured by the Romans, Josephus was a Jewish general who ultimately served as a military advisor to General Titus. Josephus recorded his first-hand observations of the destruction of the Temple, and went on to a brilliant literary career in Rome, describing Jews and Judaism to a wider audience. Who was Josephus–traitor to his people or…
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Rembrandt and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History)
Rembrandt is well-known for his depictions of Jewish subjects, both as contemporary portraits and as models for Christian biblical characters.
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Who Was Josephus? Fall 2013 Lecture Series in Jewish History Resumes This Week
Photo: Aryeh Abramson looks out over Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada, where he spent the Sukkot vacation visiting his grandparents. Captured by the Roman General (and later Emperor) Vespasian while defending the Galilee, Josephus ultimately turned against his coreligionists and served as an advisor to the forces besieging Jerusalem during the first Roman-Jewish War. His first-hand…
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Free Download of Maimonides on Teshuvah by Dr. Henry Abramson
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was one of the greatest minds the Jewish people ever produced: philosopher, jurist, physician, and an extremely prolific writer who left us classics like The Guide for the Perplexed and the Mishneh Torah. For several years I have been in the habit of reviewing his Laws of Repentance in the weeks leading up to the…
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Pope Gregory I and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History) Dr. Henry Abramson
Pope Gregory I (“the Great”) was one of the most influential Church leaders of the medieval period. His policy on the treatment of Jews in Christian Europe, known by the Latin phrase “Sicut Judaeis,” instituted an official if ambivalent position that lasted from the sixth century to the beginnings of the modern era.
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Jewish Children Forced Into the Tsar’s Army (This Week in Jewish History)
Reeling from the humiliating defeat of the Crimean War, the Russian Empire decides its policy of forcibly conscripting Jewish boys into military service is counterproductive, and finally abandons the cruel decades-old policy of taking underage children into thirty-one years of military training and service.
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The Fox in the Ruins: The Roman-Jewish Wars (HIS 155 Lecture 1.3)
To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from “The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History” Henry Abramson 3. The Roman-Jewish Wars Our sources for the Roman-Jewish wars of the first and second centuries are more substantial than those of earlier periods, primarily because the importance of developments in this tiny…
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Judaism and the Origins of Christianity HIS 155 Lecture 1.4
Born in turbulent times, Christianity emerged from its intensely Jewish roots to become the official religion of the Roman Empire within a remarkably brief period of time. As a daughter religion to Judaism, however, dissent between the two faiths slowly dominated the discourse as Christianity became less of a Jewish movement, and more of a…
The Jews of Bukhara (Denver, CO); The Jews of the Lesser Antilles; Varieties of Crypto-Jewish Identity; Wait, Alexander Hamilton was Jewish?
Looking forward to a wonderful Shabbat in the Denver Jewish community!
Our Itinerary of Discovery in the Western Caribbean
Channel Members
Premiering at 10am ET
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Rabbi Dr. Yosef Baer (J.D.) Soloveitchik (The Rav) Jewish Biography as History
Known as simply “The Rav,” Rabbi Dr. Yosef Baer (J.D.) Soloveitchik was arguably the most influential figure shaping the Orthodox Rabbinate in the United States in the 20th century. From his position at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Rabbinical Seminary at Yeshiva University, he ordained some 2,000 Rabbis over four decades. To view the Prezi associated…
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Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro, The Esh Kodesh (Jewish Biography as History)
Discovered in the rubble of the Warsaw Ghetto, the wartime writings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro (1889-1943) offer a unique and powerful perspective on the life and suffering of religious Jews during the horrific years of the Nazi occupation. By Dr. Henry Abramson According to my knowledge of the words of the Sages and the…
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Help a Teen Visit Israel (Special Guest Post by Alexander Abramson)
I’m a runner. I’ve been running as long as I can remember, including my first half-marathon at age 12 and my first full marathon at 14. Running gives me energy, and makes me feel like I can accomplish anything. I’m proud of my finishes, and even more proud that over the years I’ve raised almost…
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Rabbi Israel Meir Kahan, The Chofetz Chaim (Jewish Biography as History)
Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, better known as the Chofetz Chaim for his classic work on the sanctity of speech, was one of the major Rabbinic leaders of the late 19th and early 20th century. To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, click on the image below or here.
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Classes Resume Tonight at Young Israel
Hello students– We are scheduled to resume our lecture series this evening with a presentation on the Chofetz Chaim,one of the most influential Rabbinic thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan is known principally for his dramatically creative analysis of the topic of forbidden speech (lashon ha-ra), and rose…
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The Boundaries of the State of Israel (Essential Lectures in Jewish History)
This video describes the changes in the political boundaries of the State of Israel from its inception 1948 through the disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Part of the Essential Lectures in Jewish History series by Dr. Henry Abramson. To view the Prezi associated with this video please click here.
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Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, Jewish Teacher of Deaf-Mute People (This Week in Jewish History)
Jacob Rodrigues Periera (1715-1780) was the inventor of dactylology, a method for teaching deaf-mutes to communicate. A crypto-Jew from Portugal, his first student was his sister. His methodology received phenomenal acclaim, he received honors from the King of France and was named to both the Royal Society of London. This video is part of This…
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The Holocaust (Essential Lectures in Jewish History by Dr. Henry Abramson)
This is a brief academic presentation of the history of the Nazi attempt to destroy the Jews of Europe during World War II. Part of the Essential Lectures in Jewish History series by Dr. Henry Abramson. To view the Prezi used in this lecture, please click here.
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Heinrich Heine: Poet of Judenschmerz
Revered by many as Germany’s greatest poet, Heine struggled mightily with his Jewish identity in the culturally inimical milieu of the 19th century. This phenomenon, known as Judenschmerz, was widespread among 19th century western European Jews. Despite his 1825 conversion to Christianity, Heine maintained a long, albeit conflicted, relationship to his Jewish background. Part of…
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Sarah Schenirer and the Revolution in Jewish Education for Women (This Week in Jewish History)
Sarah Schenirer (1883-1935) founded the Bais Yaakov (Bet Ya’akov) school system for women. One of the most visionary educators of the twentieth century, her movement had global impact. To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here.
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Benjamin Disraeli: Jewish-born Prime Minister of England
Baptized at age 12 as the result of his father’s dispute with a synagogue, Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) rose to prominence as a novelist and politician, serving several times as England’s Prime Minister. Colorful and flamboyant, Disraeli dismissed his antisemitic critics by emphasizing, rather than downplaying, his Jewish origins.
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The Beilis Affair of 1911-1913 (This Week in Jewish History) by Dr. Henry Abramson
The discovery of the mutilated body of a young boy in Kiev led to the false arrest of a Jewish laborer named Mendel Beilis. Ignoring the argument of investigating officers, the Russian government under Tsar Nicholas II pressed ahead with the prosecution of Beilis, arguing that the boy was murdered as part of a Passover-related…
Visits to Synagogues in Bordeaux and Libourne (France); Another Open Letter to Jewish Participants in anti-Israel Protests re: Amsterdam; Conference Presentation on Sheptytsky and WW II
Fantastic Voyage of Discovery with Kosher River Cruises
A Difficult Conversation
Recent Conference Presentation in Toronto
Wait, Christopher Columbus was Jewish? Documentary on Roman-Jewish War now Online
Surprised how much attention this got.
Herod’s Tragic Reign
The Fatal Conflict
How Jewish Culture will Thrive after October 7; The Jews of Al-Andalus Part II
Henry Abramson 