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


  • The Last Hasidic Rebbe of Warsaw: Interview with Zev Brenner on Talkline

    The Last Hasidic Rebbe of Warsaw: Interview with Zev Brenner on Talkline

    I had the pleasure of speaking with Zev Brenner of the famous Talkline last week; really pleased that there’s a lot of interest in the work of the Piaseczno Rebbe. The broadcast was aired last Saturday night and will be rebroadcast again tonight at 8pm EST on WSNR AM 620. Here’s the link to the…

  • Proud to Honor Dean Stanley Boylan at Harvard Club

    Proud to Honor Dean Stanley Boylan at Harvard Club

    Dean Boylan has been a mentor of mine since I joined Touro in 2006. Proud to be with him this morning at the Harvard Club as he receives the Education Update Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. With Dean Moshe Sokol of Lander College for Men and Executive Dean Robert Goldschmidt of the Mighty Avenue…

  • Parashat Hukat in the Warsaw Ghetto (July 5, 1941)

    Parashat Hukat in the Warsaw Ghetto (July 5, 1941)

    Is it possible for a person to be struck and not experience physical pain?

  • Mr. Hunter Ross Loren Receives Award for Scholarly Enthusiasm in Jewish History

    Mr. Hunter Ross Loren Receives Award for Scholarly Enthusiasm in Jewish History

    Meet Mr. Hunter Ross Loren, a precocious 13-year old who, together with his uncle Alan Loren, contacted me this week to discuss Jewish history. Hunter is an avid fan of Jewish history–especially, of all things, the Jews of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth–and he is probably my youngest student online. As a follow-up to his Bar Mitzvah,…

  • Jews and Ukrainians since HURI (1968-2018)

    Jews and Ukrainians since HURI (1968-2018)

    Video from “Ukraine in the World” conference, Harvard University, May 2018.

  • SURVIVE JEWISH HISTORY: Take this free online course!

    SURVIVE JEWISH HISTORY: Take this free online course!

    Colleagues, I’m pleased to post a version of my new experimental course online for the public good. Please visit bit.ly/survivejewishhistory to access the course. The course is divided into twelve Existential Crises, covering historical eras from the Hellenistic to the Spanish Expulsion. Undergraduate students are required to complete several academic exercises to “survive” each level and…

  • Parashat Shlach in the Warsaw Ghetto (June 22, 1940)

    Parashat Shlach in the Warsaw Ghetto (June 22, 1940)

    Nonetheless, I proclaim my faith in God, that God is beyond limitation and nature, that God will save us. Let us go up and take it over, beyond reason and beyond logic.

  • The Seven Jewish Survival Skills

    The Seven Jewish Survival Skills

    The Seven Jewish Survival Skills HISN 155: Survive Jewish History I Divine Providence Two things: first of all, this isn’t a “skill” per se, since it is not directly dependent on human choice, and second, it’s very difficult to discern exactly when and how it operates. This is an academic course, as therefore we tend…

  • New Experimental Jewish History Course

    New Experimental Jewish History Course

    Hello Jewish History fans– Here’s a new project you might find interesting. A few months ago I came across the work of Ken Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do), which inspired me to take a dramatic new look at the way I’ve been teaching a bread-and-butter course for a long time: History of the…

  • Parashat Naso in the Warsaw Ghetto (June 8, 1940)

    Parashat Naso in the Warsaw Ghetto (June 8, 1940)

    “It is not sufficient for a person to merely perform a commandment to fulfill one’s duty as a Jew, rather one must transform one’s self into a Jew in the sense of and you will be a nation of priests unto Me, and a holy nation.”

  • Shavuot in the Warsaw Ghetto (1940)

    Shavuot in the Warsaw Ghetto (1940)

    Shimon Huberband was a student of the Rebbe and an amateur historian working for Emanuel Ringelblum’s underground Oneg Shabbat archive (Rabbi Huberband, who was killed along with Ringelblum and most of the archivists, was probably instrumental in convincing the Rebbe to entrust his manuscript to Ringelblum for burial). Rabbi Huberband  visited the court of Piaseczno…

  • Who Was HaRav Ovadia Yosef?

    Who Was HaRav Ovadia Yosef?

    Brief overview of the life and work of Hakham Ovadia Yosef, prominent Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. Final installment in the Spring 2018 Lecture Series: The Sephardic Diaspora. Sponsored by Katie and Vick Crespin of Miami Beach, FL In honor of the Six Million and all who were killed just for being Jewish.

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


Jewish Life in Visigothic Spain; Commemorating October 7

This is one of the most bizarre periods of Jewish history, and that’s saying a lot.

Dropping on Sunday, September 22 at 10am ET. 70 minutes.


A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz

New Lecture Series: The Sweep of Sephardic History; Faith in Times of Crisis: Commemorating the Tragedy of October 7

New Lecture Series: The History of Sephardic Jewry

Public at 10 am ET. Duration: 72 minutes.
Channel Members: Duration 70 minutes.
Channel members: 44 minutes.

Shabbat in Silver Spring; The History of Sephardic Jewry; Jews, Wine, and Bordeaux; Napoleon’s 1808 Decree on Jewish Names

Stories of Personal Transformation for Elul


Napoleon’s 1808 Imperial Decree on Jewish Names


The History of Sephardic Jewry (Lecture, 75 minutes)

Jews, Wine, and Bordeaux (7 minutes)


A Thousand Years of Ashkenaz

Four Jewish Survival Strategies in the Byzantine Era; The Strange World of Hebrew Abbreviations; Volume II of The Jewish People: A History Online; Shabbaton in Greater Washington

Jewish Resilience after the Bar Kochba Rebellion


New Series! Cool Things I Read in the Encyclopedia Judaica


YouTube Colleagues: Volume II of The Jewish People: A History now appearing online



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