Tomorrow is the tenth of Shvat, an important day of the calendar of Chabad Hasidim. On this day in 1950 the 6th Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, passed away; one year later his son-in-law Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson took over the leadership of Lubavitch Hasidim. His role at the helm of Chabad was truly transformational,……

Moses Maimonides was one of the greatest scholars of medieval Jewish history, yet his works were hardly without controversy in his day. This video (48m) surveys his life and work, with emphasis on the subsequent controversies and their resolution.

Good morning fellow students of Jewish History! The Jews of Hungary (A Very Quick Survey!) The Remarkable Wooden Synagogue of Gwoździec, Poland Aryeh at 29%! Great Progress towards his Goal of Representing Team USA at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem!

My wife Ilana and I are proud to serve as the Guests of Honour (note the Canadian spelling, very considerate of them) at the time 41st Annual Dinner of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, together with the Young Leadership Awardees Gila and Alan Goldberg. We are enthusiastic participants in YILC, a wonderful community resource under……

Proud to address the famous Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst Teshuvah Haburah (at first I thought they were all about repentance, but in reality it’s a group of highly intelligent people who gather to discuss Rabbinic Responsa, also good). Please join in person tonight at 9pm ET or via zoom: bit.ly/YILCSHUT, passcode is yilctorah.

European Jews Achieve Citizenship Good morning fellow students of Jewish history! Please join me at 11:30 am ET for a half-hour discussion of the emancipation of the Jews of Western Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Help Aryeh achieve his goal! I’m very proud of our teenage son Aryeh, selected to participate……

Hello fellow students of Jewish history! Here’s something historic, at least in terms of the Abramson family: our teenage son Aryeh has been selected to represent Team USA at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem! His sport is Shotokan Karate. It’s a kind of a family tradition now: his older sister Aliza competed four years……

Very honored to serve as a Scholar-In-Residence this Shabbos, parshas Vayehi, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, New York. Please view the video for the planned public talks (which will not be recorded, of course). Friday Night, December 17, 8pm Rabbis Who, If they had the Temerity to Show up in Our Shuls today………

Good morning fellow students of Jewish history: please join me for this week’s series of video premieres (with live chat), live in-person and zoom classes. We’ll be looking at the 18th century with some forays into Jewish art history and the controversy that led the Jews of France to torch Maimonides’ works in 1232. Here’s……

Good morning fellow students of Jewish history. Please join me today for a discussion of the implications of postmodernism and the digital age in the XIV Torah and Science conference, held virtually at this link. My presentation is at 1:45 PM ET, the conference program is below. I hope to release a recording later, but……

Sunday Premiering today at 12pm ET: Jewish Migration to the New World. Following up on the previous Jewish History Lab video on the Origins of the Jews in the New World, this brief video will survey the major waves of Jewish migration in the 18th-20th centuries. Tuesday Final lecture in the three-part series entitled Hasidim,……

Strange but true: Jewish sources largely ignored the history of Chanukah until the 10th century! Here’s a quick review of the major works, and how they affected the Jewish memory of this remarkable period in Jewish history. Here’s a few Sefaria links to texts mentioned in the video: Relevant section of Talmud, Tractate Shabbat Megilat……

School principal Chaim Kaplan recorded the bleak mood in the Warsaw Ghetto on the eve of Passover of the Hebrew year 5701 (1941): Like the Egyptian Passover, the Passover of Germany will be celebrated for generations.  The chaotic oppression of every day throughout this year of suffering will be reflected in the days of the……

Really nice to see that readers in my native Canada are encountering the Piaseczno Rebbe: Here’s a new review by Dr. Norman Ravvin, appearing in the current Canadian Jewish News. Note to my dear readers: the book is in Judaica stores, on Amazon and Kindle, but my favorite (and the best value) is the beautiful……

I’m grateful to Rabbi Josh Rosenfeld for his kind and thoughtful review of Torah from the Years of Wrath, which appeared in this month’s Jewish Action. Please click here to read his thoughts on the work of the Piaseczno Rebbe.

Brief lecture on the life and times of Daniel Mendoza, a Sephardic Jewish champion boxer of the 18th and early 19th century.

In early February 1940 the Nazis promulgated decrees that prohibited Jews from benefitting from general community charity services. Ration cards were distributed with racial distinctions: Jews received cards with a Star of David marked on them, while Poles and Germans received colored, otherwise unmarked cards. At this early date in the war, hunger did not……

Brief presentation on the life and works of Sir Moses Montefiore, an important 19th century Sephardic English philanthropist. Part of the Sephardic Diaspora series.

“Faith is not an argument. It is a conversation, in which we listen, accept the premises of the interaction, make active choices and contributions, shift our direction as necessary based on the cues we hear, and most importantly, keep the conversation alive and active…Abramson’s work allows us to eavesdrop on one of the most powerful……

I am grateful for this thorough and kind review of the recent Ukrainian translation of “Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times” by Oleksandr Zinchenko, published in today’s Istorichna Pravda. If you don’t read Ukrainian (and refuse to read Google translate, which is close enough to the original to be seriously misleading), the revised English edition……

Brief presentation of the life and work of Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azoulay, a fascinating Sephardic Rabbi of the 18th century. Part Three of The Sephardic Diaspora series.

Tonight at Machon Chana: part two of The History of Sephardic Jewry series. Last week we looked at the origins of Spanish Jewry and the Muslim period; tonight we will focus on the Reconquista up to the Expulsion of 1492.

Main Auditorium of the Mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College 1602 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230 7pm  Free and open to the community.  No hard questions, please.  For more information please click here. 

My old friend Dr. Michael Chigel tagged me on Facebook this morning with his remarkably kind and generous unsolicited review of Torah from the Years of Wrath. I’m deeply moved and grateful to Mike for promoting the Torah of the Aish Kodesh, as well as for the undeserved praise he lavished on my small contribution, but also……