Fellow students of Jewish history!

Here’s an article I just published on JTA. about Nissim Black’s remarkable Mothaland Bounce. The genre is a little outside my comfort zone–I normally only write on Jewish history and thought–but I had a LOT of fun writing it. Thanks to my 18-year old son for explaining hip-hop to me.

Enjoy in good health!

Good morning fans of Jewish History!

We are scheduled to begin Series 2 of the “I Survived Jewish History” lectures, moving from the origins of the Talmud to the Golden Age of Spain. Live on Wednesday night, Members get the unedited video online sometime Thursday, and finally the Premiere of the edited version (cheesy jokes and asides removed) on Monday at 9pm EST. Looking forward to learning with you!

Good morning students of Jewish history! Here’s a planning note for your Presidents’ Day. Join me tonight for a lecture and live chat online at 9:00 pm EST. We will be discussing the Roman-Jewish Wars of the 1st and 2nd centuries: the initial rise of the rebellion against Rome, the intervention of Vespasian and the destruction of the Temple under Titus, the Kitos “war,” and the Bar Kochba Rebellion.

I’ll be online simultaneously to live chat with you (no hard questions, please). Even better: from his college dorm, my son will be acting as moderator to remove any unwanted intellectual vandals from hijacking the conversation with antisemitic or proselytizing viewers (a few dicey moments in the last two premieres, but he managed to keep us on track). With his help, I anticipate a productive conversation.

Here’s the link to the lecture and chat. There’s a little bell where you can set a reminder for yourself. Looking forward to studying this fascinating period of Jewish history with you tonight!

PS: Shout-out to my undergraduates in HISN 256: you are welcome to join us! This lecture isn’t part of your coursework but is absolutely relevant to your overall study of Jewish history. Optional but recommended.

PPS: To my students who attend the lectures in person: remember that we are not meeting this Wednesday (February 19), but will return on February 26.

Hello students of Jewish history! I’m really looking forward to this event next week. Please join me! I’m working on the lecture now. Register by clicking here.

Part I of the “I Survived Jewish History” lecture series is scheduled to premiere on YouTube this coming Monday, February 3 at 9:00 PM EST. Join me in a live chat! Just no hard questions, please. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/Vr9r0RgllWQ.

I am really enthusiastic about the Spring 2020 series of lectures in Jewish history, beginning Wednesday evening at 7:30 prompt at Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. Our plan is to cover the entire, amazing story of the Jewish people from the earliest time to the present day in twelve lectures (click here for calendar and topics). As always, these lectures are free and open to the community!

For those of you who can’t make it in person, we are trying something new on YouTube. I hope to upload an advance copy video of the lecture for students, researchers and colleagues the day following the Wednesday night lecture (click here for more information on how to get early access to the “director’s cut” version), and then open it up for the wider public (free of charge as always) in a Premiere showing on Mondays at 9:00 pm EST. The cool thing about the new Premiere feature is that I plan to be online at the same time, engaging in a live chat with Jewish history enthusiasts! I tried it out recently with my slightly absurd “All Jewish History in under 18 minutes” video, and it was a lot of fun. BTW that 18 minute video enjoys a ridiculous amount of popularity–it’s been viewed over 26,000 times in the past three weeks–and my favorite comments are the ones that say I left out this topic, or that period, etc.).

Wednesday’s lecture, covering the Origins of the Jewish People to the Maccabean Revolt, was particularly difficult to prepare because it reaches back into the murkiest past, and I had to do a lot of reading in archaeology (fascinating stuff, though).

Join us!