Really looking forward to meeting this community!

Lectures in Jewish History and Thought. No hard questions, please.




Always distracted but historical minutiae, I don’t think I was ever going to be a great Talmud student. Now, with the introduction of the amazing All Daf app (slated for launch on December 22), there’s finally a place for my approach to Talmud! Please enjoy this brief video from the recent Torah NY conference at……

Conference theme: Sustainability, Resilience, and the Torah.

The Internet is a strange and often wonderful place. Here’s a personal story from last week. When I first wrote The Sea of Talmud: A Brief and Personal Introduction seven years ago, Theodore Sternberg wrote one of the sharpest Amazon reviews of the first edition: “Too much about Henry Abramson, not enough about the Talmud.”……

Hello fellow students of Jewish history! I’m pleased to announce that the second edition of The Sea of Talmud: A Brief and Personal Introduction is now available in a second, revised edition, in commemoration of the upcoming Siyum ha-Shas! From Sunday December 8 through Thursday December 12 the Kindle ebook edition will be available for……

I got chills reading pages from this record book of Bet Din decisions from Bergen Belsen. Read this great piece of journalism by Molly Boigon at The Forward. Proud to have been asked for some background information.

Postmodernism and the Talmud in an era of unlimited connectivity.

Torah from the Years of Wrath: The Warsaw Ghetto Writings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira

Stories You Never Learned in Yeshivah: Three Surprising Lectures in Talmudic History. Please come by and say hello!


Review of Reuven Melekh ben Binyamin Yitzhak Schwartz, Emek Ha-Sufganim: Iyunim u-beiurim be-inyan minhag akhilat sufganim be-yemei hanukah Israel: Sh. Vaynraikh, Hanukah 5780 (2019), 431 pages. For a copy, please contact your local Jewish bookseller or the phone numbers listed on the copyright page: (718) 253-2804; (516) 581-3597; (718) 501-3165. Interested in studying more deeply?……

The Misnagdim Strike Back! Part II of the series on Hasidim, Mitnagdim and Maskilim: The Formation of Jewish Identity. Open to the Community at Beit Midrash of Teaneck, 70 Sterling Place, Teaneck NJ. Tuesday, November 30 at 11:45 am. Please write BMTeaneck@gmail.com for Zoom links. Take your learning to the next level: try a course!

We begin with 23 bedraggled refugees from the Inquisition, sailing into the harbor of what would become New York.
Three live lectures at Beit Medrash of Teaneck, 70 Sterling Avenue, Teaneck NJ 07666. Tuesdays November 23, November 30, and December 7. 11:45 AM ET. Please write BMTeaneck@gmail.com for Zoom information.

A brief look at the life and times of one of the most notorious false messiahs of Jewish history.

The Torah and Science Conference will be virtual this year, please visit http://www.torahscienceconference.org for details. I’m looking forward to speaking on “Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Wisdom: Postmodernism and the Digital Age,” Thursday December 9 at 1:45 pm ET. Join our class! Click here for course information and registration.

On the one hand, Maimonides and later Chabad traditions. On the other hand, some archaeological examples. Here’s a brief look at what we know. Now online! A new course in Biblical Jewish History. Check it out here, and join us!

Really thrilled to have so many people sign up for this new online course! If it interests you, please click here to check out the syllabus, and join us!
If only it were over so quickly. My part of a Kristallnacht commemoration at YILC. Warning: some graphic images.

Ancient Jewish History from Abraham to Bar Kochba. Really excited to announce this new online course! Please click here for course information and registration.

A brief overview of one of the major early battles in the Chanukah revolt in 166 BCE.

Really looking forward to meeting students of the Ashkenazium in Budapest in January! Here’s the online course I set up to prepare them for the lectures. It’s open to the public as well. Enjoy in good health!


