Really looking forward seeing my friends at YILC!

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





Part Four of the Jews of the Danube series. Filmed in a new location without my usual technical support–sorry for the lower video and audio quality, but the lecture is ok. To see the visuals better, please click here. Next week we are back at our usual location with IT support!
Okay, this is cool: just saw the trailer for a documentary project I worked on several months ago. I can’t wait to see the whole thing! I was especially honored to work with Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, world expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and senior scholar in Jewish history (he’s the last talking head in…

A scholar and a fighter, the Hatam Sofer articulated a definition of Orthodoxy for the modern era.

Brief video lecture on the life and work of Isaac of Vienna (c. 1180-c. 1250), author of the important Or Zaru’a.

We begin our discussion of the Jews of the Danube with the question: “Who Was Isaac of Vienna (the Or Zaru’a)?”

Unexpected and unexplained, a phalanx of glass obelisks emerge silently from the earthen mound, punctuating the atmosphere above what appears to be an anonymous tel. Some are transparent, others pebbled and translucent, but all glow with a faint green hue. Unyielding, they stand in rigid formation on the angled surface of the earth. These mute…

When the Hungarians purchased their alphabet, vowels were on sale (also plastic sofa coverings and chandeliers). By the time the Poles came around, all that was left were the consonants. This helps explain why we anglophones are so challenged by both languages: in the case of Hungarian, there are just way too many umlauts and…

Abandoned Nazi trucks were discovered by children playing in the shallows of the diminished Danube.


Here’s a lecture I delivered at the Shul of Bal Harbour, not part of the regular HIS 155/156 Series, but kind of nice. Edited by the great people at TorahCafe.com. Please click on the icon above to see the video. I hope you find it interesting!

The nice folks over at TorahCafe took my lecture on Rabbi Yosef Karo and worked their magic on it, integrating the PowerPoint well with the lecture, and edited it down to a tighter presentation. Please click on the TorahCafe icon below to view the improved version.