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


  • Hannah Szenes: Poet-Martyr of the Resistance (This Week In Jewish History)

    Hannah Szenes: Poet-Martyr of the Resistance (This Week In Jewish History)

      Hannah Szenes was a young Hungarian Jewish woman who joined the resistance in 1943, parachuting into Nazi-occupied territories with British support. She was captured and tortured, but did not divulge secret information on her colleagues. Her poetry, including the classic “Blessed is the Match,” survive and add to her legacy.

  • Paul of Tarsus: The Origins of Christianity in Jewish Context

    Paul of Tarsus: The Origins of Christianity in Jewish Context

    Credited with the popularization of Christianity, Saul (later Paul) of Tarsus was influential in mediating Jewish ideas to an increasingly Gentile audience. Combining appealing concepts such as life after death and a personal Deity with a relaxed approach to the requirements of Rabbinic Judaism, the former Pharisee succeeded in spreading Christianity well beyond its narrow…

  • Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky (This Week in Jewish History)

    Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky (This Week in Jewish History)

    Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) was one of the most influential political thinkers in the first half of the twentieth century, founder of the Revisionist movement.

  • The Mishnah: Creating a Portable Judaism HIS 155 Lecture 1.5

    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…

  • Philo Judaeus of Alexandria: Jews in the Greek World

    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…

  • The Dreyfus Affair (This Week in Jewish History)

    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…

  • Who Was Josephus?

    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…

  • Rembrandt and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History)

    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.

  • Who Was Josephus? Fall 2013 Lecture Series in Jewish History Resumes This Week

    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…

  • Free Download of Maimonides on Teshuvah by Dr. Henry Abramson

    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…

  • Pope Gregory I and the Jews (This Week in Jewish History) Dr. Henry Abramson

    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.

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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