Really looking forward to meeting this community!

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




Another opportunity for social media creep into your life! But this stuff is interesting, actually.

Great for magidei shiur: an index to over 150 videos on Jewish History in Daf Yomi! Over 2,600 more on the way.

From the legend of Vespasian’s rudderless ships to the expulsion of 1494.

Arakhin, traditionally pronounced “Erchin” in Ashkenazi circles, begins tomorrow. Now’s your chance to join the worldwide community of Daf Yomi learners! Click here for more information on this unusual tractate. Kudos to Rabbi Moshe Schwed, Director of the OU Daf Yomi Initiative, for putting together this really nice promo for my small contribution, Jewish History……

Archelaus, son of Herod. Okay, probably not really the first Jew, and it wasn’t France then, but close enough.

Click here for my latest guest post on the Orthodox Union Torah blog: “Want to lose weight? Start Daf Yomi.“

“Leadership” is the theme for our learning at YILC this Shavuot. Here’s my small contribution. All are welcome!

Hello students of Jewish history! I’m really thrilled to inform you that the Jewish History in Daf Yomi podcast is now online! Part of the OU Daf Yomi Initiative, the podcasts feature brief (2-5 minute) videos discussing some historical aspect of the daily page of Talmud (Daf Yomi). Obviously most relevant to those actually studying……

This is what historians think about during Passover.

Dear fellow students of the Daf Yomi cycle of Talmud! I am extremely proud to announce that a new series, Jewish History in Daf Yomi, is scheduled for launch as part of the Orthodox Union Daf Yomi Initiative, spearheaded by the incomparable Rabbi Moshe Schwed. My small part in the overall plan is to spend……

Remarkable story of how the villagers of San Nicandro followed their leader Donato Manduzio to convert en masse to Judaism and then immigrate to Israel.


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.
“Origins of the Jewish People to the Maccabean Revolt,” part I of the new I SURVIVED JEWISH HISTORY series, goes live tonight at 9:00 PM EST! Join me for a live chat! Here’s the link to the video: https://youtu.be/Vr9r0RgllWQ

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)….…

Good morning students of Jewish History! I’m really excited about the I SURVIVED JEWISH HISTORY Spring Semester of Jewish History Lectures beginning later this month. Please check the flyer for the live lectures with our New York audience (please join us if you’re in town!). Here’s a tentative syllabus of the online dates and times……
Here’s the trailer for the Spring series of lectures in Jewish History @ YILC. There’s a free T-shirt, too.

Thanks to Sandy Eller of Mishpacha Magazine for writing this piece about one of my best chevrusas ever, Rabbi Nati Gamedze. Here’s the link to the full piece, pasted in below. BETTER TOGETHER: LEARNING WITH THE SWAZI PRINCE By Sandy Eller | DECEMBER 25, 2019 It was the unlikeliest of pairings: a Swazi prince and a Toronto……

By now your social media feed (not to mention your news feed) should be filled with the phenomenal Siyum HaShas, the monumental gathering of Jews in celebration of the global study of the Babylonian Talmud. I was privileged to be among nearly 100,000 Jews gathered in Met Life stadium yesterday, along with tens of thousands……

Friends, if the second best thing is to go to the Siyum Ha-Shas tomorrow morning, certainly the very best thing is to start Daf Yomi on Sunday. Let’s do it together at YILC! And for those of you who live too far away to enjoy the breakfast: be sure to download the free All Daf……
Feedback on this lecture was very positive, but one person suggested I was “the Grinch who stole Chanukah.” Kind of an ironically Hellenistic comment. So viewer beware: this is a more historical treatment of the social, economic, and political roots of the Maccabean revolt. Happy Hannukah!

Tonight at YILC: a deeper discussion of the Maccabean Revolt, from Antiochus’ inferiority complex to fissures between Jewish factions under Yehudah Maccabee’s role. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) relevant issues for our own times. What else are you doing tonight? Join us at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst at 7:30 for a timely talk on Chanukah….…


