Are you in the Five Towns over Shavuot? Please join us at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst for a remarkable series of classes in Jewish history! We’re starting at midnight and learning all night till dawn prayers. In keeping with our theme this year of “Transformation: Personal, Communal, Global,” I’ve chosen to look at the…

The final Ashkenazium lecture is now online! With this lecture, the online course A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz is now complete! Twelve Modules and 56 lessons in length (mostly videos). Enjoy in good health! Chapter Six of The Jewish People: A History Now Online! Over 200 pages of draft text are now available to students…

Formally emancipated in 1790-91, the rights of Jews as citizens were challenged a decade later. In his typically grandiose fashion, Napoleon addressed the question by reconvening the ancient Great Sanhedrin and asked the Jews of France twelve basic questions. The Holocaust in Ashkenaz Part 11 of The Ashkenazium Lectures, premieres today at 12:00 noon ET.…

Proud to work with Unpacked on this brief yet sophisticated discussion of a complex topic. New Draft Chapter in Biblical Jewish History now Online Very pleased to be receiving comments on the draft chapters in my forthcoming book with Koren Publishers! Students registered in the Biblical Jewish History course are welcome to read and critique.…

My friends, it’s almost Shabbos. Will you participate? Inscribe your name in the Book of Life by joining the list of donors to Renewal. Your contribution, large or small, will help them find a kidney for someone in desperate need. We can’t all be heroic altruistic kidney donors. But we can certainly be altruistic dollar…

900 years later, a document from the Cairo Geniza describes the tragic story of a French convert to Judaism during the Crusades Three years ago, my wife donated a kidney. Here’s why. Three years ago, on erev Yom Kippur, my wife Ilana donated a kidney to a total stranger. Although she literally gave someone the…

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

Great conversation with Max Sklar on The Local Maximum podcast!

Okay, this is going to be something different: four concentrated lectures on absolutely all of Jewish history, skipping the boring parts so we can cover it all. Free and open to the community; might be recorded for the Internet but depends on if anyone asks hard questions. Join us! Wednesdays in September 2019, 7:30-8:30 pm…

A world-class scholar of the Holocaust speaks at Touro College.

I’m really looking forward to lecturing at Citi Field next month as part of the incredible Torah NY gathering. There are going to be some absolutely phenomenal speakers there, including Rabbis Moshe Elefant, Moshe Schwed, Ya’akov Trump, Stephen Weil. They have also let me know that there’s a secret 10% discount for all registrations that…

Please join us at Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst for four lectures in Jewish History! Details below.

This week was unusually busy for interviews! Kind of surprised that people want to talk to me about this stuff, but really glad there are others who find this research FASCINATING. Yesterday I had a great convo with Rabbi Sholom Licht for a print article in Jewish Action. Our discussion began with the Jewish History…

“We were only a few broken Jews with two books, but…the day of the Siyum HaShas was my day of victory, the day of victory for all survivors, and the day of victory for every ‘Talmud Jew.’” The brick crematoria of Dachau had barely cooled when the surviving remnants of European Jewry were called upon…

I think Torah New York is going to be amazing! Please come by and say hello. I will be hanging out with Rabbi Moshe Schwed and Ec Birnbaum, talking about the launch of the amazing new AllDAf app for Daf Yomi study. Please click here for more information on this amazing event!