Really looking forward to meeting this community!

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



This lecture was sponsored by Eva Zack de Waiser.
Lecture sponsored by Young Israel of Bal Harbour.
Lecture sponsored by Mr. & Mrs. Leon Brum, Mr. & Mrs. Harold Wilinsky, Jay Farkas and Vivian Nemir.
This lecture was sponsored by Mali and Steven Schwartz.
Lecture sponsored by Mr. Eleazar Hirmes.
This lecture was sponsored by Eva Zack de Waiser and Aliza Abramson.

This lecture is sponsored by Mr. Daniel Sommer. The TorahCafe.com people later edited this video very nicely, although for some reason they keep removing my opening joke! Still, it’s great to have the PowerPoints integrated into the video, so here’s a slightly different version for your enjoyment. Click on the icon below for the……
Correction: the reference in the lecture was to the Pittsburgh Platform (not the Philadelphia Platform). Even that, however, was a mistake: I was thinking of the 1883 Cincinatti “Trefa Banquet.” Thank you for the clarification, Menachem!


Free for the High Holiday Season: a free download of The Kabbalah of Forgiveness, a translation and commentary of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah. Especially valuable reading in preparation for Yom Kippur! To download, visit https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/464044 and enter coupon code BQ57Y, valid through October 7, 2015. If you really must have a hard copy, visit Amazon……

Brief discussion of the anniversary of Tisha B’Av, the onset of World War I, and its implications for Jewish History.

In July of 1942 (coinciding with Av 5702), the Nazis began a major deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. By September, 235,000 Warsaw Jews were murdered in the gas chambers.

Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitshak) was a great 11th century commentator on the Torah. This brief video outlines his major scholarly contribution within historical context.

Viktor Frankl was a noted psychologist whose experience in the Holocaust formed the basis of logotherapy, his therapeutic approach to help people find meaning in suffering and in life.

A brief biography of Sigmund Freud, with emphasis on his Jewish background and identity. Part of the Jewish Biography as History Series, more available at http://www.henryabramson.com.

An introduction to the major themes in modern antisemitic ideology (1880-present). Warning: not quite as nasty as the lecture on medieval antisemitism, but disturbing nevertheless. Part of the Essential Lectures in Jewish History series, more available at http://www.henryabramson.com.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, also known as “Der Frierdiker Rebbe” (The Earlier Rebbe) to distinguish him from his successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was the sixth leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Living in tumultuous times, he shifted the center of the movement from its Eastern European origins to its current headquarters in the United States.

Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) was the first encyclopedic historian of the Jewish people, and his massive 10-volume History of the Jews had a phenomenal impact on the way Jews saw themselves as a nation living in the diaspora. Looking forward to seeing you at Limmud this Sunday! Click the image below to learn more about my……

Imagine that, while browsing in the library, you come across one book unlike the rest, which catches your eye because on its spine is written the name of your family. Intrigued, you open it and see many pages written by different hands in many languages. You start reading it, and gradually you begin to understand……

One of the most creative, unusual, and controversial Hasidic leaders at the turn of the 19th century, Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav (Nachman of Breslov) continues to inspire generations of disciples. Part of the Jewish Biography as History series, more available at http://www.henryabramson.com.


