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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Who Was the Dark-Skinned Woman in the Sarajevo Haggadah?
Who was the mysterious dark-skinned woman in the Sarajevo Haggadah?
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Who Was Shmuel David Luzzatto (ShaDaL)?
Brief overview of the life and work of Shmuel David Luzzatto (ShaDaL), an important 19th-century Italian-Jewish thinker.
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The Mystery of the Birds’ Head Haggadah
Brief description of the world’s oldest illuminated Hebrew manuscript–and a 700-hundred year mystery, solved recently by a 10-year old boy.
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Who Was Azariah de’ Rossi?
He survived the 1570 earthquake in Ferrara–and became the world’s first Modern Orthodox Jew.
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Who Was Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinoro?
Brief overview of the life and work of Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinoro (Bartenura), best known for his commentary on the Mishnah but also an important communal leader in late 15th-early 16th century Jerusalem.
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The Romans Tried to Ban Wild Purim Parties in 408
Hello everyone–here’s a brief historical article for this time of year that appeared in today’s JTA. Thanks to my daughter Raphaela and Laura Adkins at JTA for some amazing editing help. Enjoy in good health!
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Looking for a Sponsor for Monday Night’s Lecture
Connect yourself with the Rav for as long as there is an Internet.
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The Ancona Affair of 1555-56 (Jews of Italy Pt. VI)
The remarkable story of two powerful Jewish women from Spain and Portugal and the challenge to Pope Paul IV for his maltreatment of Portuguese Jews in Italy.
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Who Was Natan of Rome? Jews of Italy Pt. V
True, he wrote a dictionary, but cryptic hints in his autobiographical poem suggest a more complicated background.
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Tonight! Nathan of Rome. Also, some Torah on the Piaseczno Rebbe.
Not enough snow to cancel tonight’s class on Nathan of Rome!
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The Legend of the Four Captives (Jews of Italy pt. IV)
A medieval historian recounts the remarkable story of four Rabbinic captives.
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What a Bergen-Belsen prenup teaches us about resilience
Please click here for a link to my recent article on a document I came across in the archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. I’m really grateful to Laura Adkins, Opinion Editor, for shaping the piece. Also thanks to the incredibly helpful staff of YIVO for permission…
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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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…
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Jews, Lepers and the Black Death (This Week in Jewish History)
The summer of 1321 was plagued with rumors that Jews had entered into a conspiracy with lepers (some versions also included Muslims) to poison the wells of Europe, resulting in mass hysteria and mob violence. King Philip V was eventually able to quell the movement, but it resurfaced twenty years later in a much more…
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Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (This Week in Jewish History)
In August of 1778, the non-Jewish writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote to his brother of a new literary project designed to further tolerance of Jews in German society. The result was Nathan the Wise, a sensation that was initially banned by the Church and heavily criticized by antisemites of the day.
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The Pale of Settlement (This Week in Jewish History)
Officially banned in 1479, no Jews lived in the Russian Empire until Tsarina Catherine II conquered a major portion of Polish territory, instantly inheriting the largest single concentration of Jews in the world. Under her rule the Pale of Settlement was established, determining the region where Jews were allowed to reside, however tenuously, until the…
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Two Jews, Three Opinions: Jews and Judaism in the Year Zero (HIS 155 Lecture 1.2)
To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from “The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History” Henry Abramson 2. Jews and Judaism in the Year Zero Two Jews, three opinions. The year zero was not nearly as auspicious or significant for Jews as it would later be for Christians. Jews observe a…
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“They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” (HIS 155 Lecture 1.1)
Instructions: please watch the lecture, review the reading below, and kindly take the anonymous poll. Thank you! To view the Prezi associated with this lecture, please click here. Excerpt from The Jewish Diaspora: A Brief History Henry Abramson 1. What is Jewish History? “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” So runs the…
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The Strange Story of Shabbetai Tsvi (This Week in Jewish History)
Devastated and demoralized after the violence of the Khmelnytsky rebellion, the Jews of Europe were astounded to hear that a young Kabbalist named Shabbetai Tsvi had proclaimed himself the long-awaited Messiah.
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
Remarks at Lander College for Men
Maimonides and the Controversy over His Work
Jewish Resilience After October 7; American Jews, Post-Honeymoon; The Jews of Al-Andalus
Three Strategies
Jews under the Visigoths II; The Spanish Golden Age
Public at 10am ET (44 minutes)
Online Courses in Jewish History
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.
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
