The Ancona Affair of 1555-56 (Jews of Italy Pt. VI)

The remarkable story of two powerful Jewish women from Spain and Portugal and the challenge to Pope Paul IV for his maltreatment of Portuguese Jews in Italy.

Please join us Monday night in Brooklyn for the next installment of the The Jews of Italy! We plan to look at the life and work of Rabbi Ovadia of Bertinoro, an Italian Rabbi who revolutionized the study of the Mishnah and had a major impact on the life of Jews in 15th century Israel.

7:00 pm sharp at the mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College. Free and open to the community. No hard questions, please.

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Who Was Natan of Rome? Jews of Italy Pt. V

Who knew that writing a dictionary was so important? (For those of you born after 1985: a dictionary is an actual paper book full of words and their meanings). Natan ben Yehiel of Rome (c. 1035-1110) left the world a remarkable scholarly achievement in the form of the massive Arukh, a Talmudic dictionary that defined terms in Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Persian, and even Slavic languages. We know little about his life other than a cryptic poem he attached to his magnum opus and the testimony of an 18th century Rabbi–but what little we know is fascinating.

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Tonight! Nathan of Rome. Also, some Torah on the Piaseczno Rebbe.

Good morning friends and students of Jewish history!

Coming from Iroquois Falls, Ontario, I have a hard time understanding why New Yorkers get so energized about a little spring snowfall. I mean, we are well below the average snowfall of 13 inches recorded in my home town in March–and it’s so much warmer than the record cold of -72 degrees Farenheit that Brooklyn might as well be Miami. Nevertheless, the good news is that despite the late opening of Touro College this morning, we are on schedule for the 7pm lecture on Nathan of Rome.

Also, this piece on the Piaseczno Rebbe came out in the Lehrhaus today, great editing by Yehuda Fogel and Mindy Schwartz. I thought it turned out well.

For those of you brave (or Canadian) enough to make it to the lecture–I look forward to seeing you tonight!

HMA

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The Legend of the Four Captives (Jews of Italy pt. IV)

Brief reading of ibn Daud’s description of four Rabbis who left Italy by sea, only to fall prey to pirates. Their survival and eventual redemption, according to the medieval historian, is the reason for the development of Torah learning throughout the Mediterranean basin.

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What a Bergen-Belsen prenup teaches us about resilience

Please click here for a link to my recent article on a document I came across in the archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. I’m really grateful to Laura Adkins, Opinion Editor, for shaping the piece. Also thanks to the incredibly helpful staff of YIVO for permission to reproduce documents from their collections.

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Who was Josephus, the Roman Jew?

Who was Josephus, the Roman Jew? A brief lecture providing an overview of the life and work of Josephus, a major Jewish historian who lived through the first Roman-Jewish war of the first century. Part III of The Jews of Italy series.

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Monday Night in Brooklyn

Who was Josephus, the Roman Jew?

As a youth, he was dazzled by the brilliance of Rome, an experience that ultimately led him to betray his people and join Vespasian’s army in the first Roman-Jewish war. He watched the Temple burn in Jerusalem, and in Rome he lived a life of luxury as Jewish prisoners of war were taken to the city and enslaved. His account of the war and his massive books on Jewish history offer an unparalleled look into the ancient world: do his final books indicate regret of his youthful choices?

The opening lecture of the Jewish History @ J series for Spring 2019 is scheduled for 7:00 pm (prompt) at the mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College, 1602 Avenue J. Free and open to the community. No hard questions, please.

The Jewish History @ J series of lectures is a service to the larger New York community of Jewish History enthusiasts. Please consider supporting our student Jewish History Scholarships with a donation or by sponsoring a lecture for $500.

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The Final Months of the Rebbe’s Life: Tonight at Yeshiva University

Good morning students of Jewish history–

If you are in Washington Heights tonight, please consider dropping by Yeshiva University at 8pm for a gathering of scholars and Hasidim of the Piaseczno Rebbe, the saintly Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapiro הי׳׳ד. I’ll be speaking in the Sky Cafe of Belfer Hall (2495 Amsterdam Avenue, Wilf Campus of Yeshiva University) on the recent, heated discussions taking place regarding the Rebbe’s last months in the Warsaw Ghetto and Trawniki Labor Camp.

Members of the Piaseczno Rebbe Facebook group recently witnessed an intense exchange involving colleagues Professor Shaul Magid and Rabbi Pesach Sommer (Professor Daniel Reiser, winner of the 2018 Yad Vashem prize for Holocaust research for his critical edition of the Rebbe’s work, tried to calm the discussion by suggesting that “everyone should practice yoga to achieve inner peace”). The principal locus of the dispute was Professor Magid’s assertion that the Rebbe’s faith was “broken” by the Holocaust.

Since then there’s been a lot of back-channel communication that places this argument within the category of “controversies for the sake of Heaven,” in my opinion. I’m especially grateful to Shaul for sharing proofs from his forthcoming book, Piety and Rebellion: Essays in Hasidism, which includes a lengthy and sophisticated chapter on the Piaseczno Rebbe.

I hope to spend the hour discussing the specific historic events of the final days of Warsaw Jewry and link them to the Rebbe’s sermons, with a view to clarifying the parameters of the controversy.

Please do join us and participate in the conversation.

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Tonight in Passaic/Clifton: Torah from the Years of Wrath

HELLO STUDENTS OF JEWISH HISTORY!

IF YOU ARE IN PASSAIC/CLIFTON TONIGHT, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DROP BY AND SAY HELLO. TONIGHT’S TALK WILL BE A DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE OF RABBI KALONYMUS KALMISH SHAPIRO (THE AISH KODESH), TAKEN FROM MY RECENT BOOK ON HIS HEROIC SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP AND TRAGIC MARTYRDOM IN THE HOLOCAUST.

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Preparing for Josephus in Rome Lecture

Good morning students of Jewish history!

I drove to work this morning. Normally I take the Long Island Railroad, which I really love because that’s when I get my writing done, but since I had to be in the car today I spent the drive preparing for my first Brooklyn lecture by listening to Who Was Josephus? I gave this lecture back in 2013, and it’s one of my most popular (viewed a crazy 150,000 times). I actually had fun listening to me–wish I had time to attend more of my lectures!

Anyway, my presentation on Josephus scheduled for the 25th at the Mighty Avenue J campus of Touro College is going to be my third on this incredibly important figure in ancient Jewish history. I’ll probably provide a very brief overview of this lecture, and a bit from my second, which focuses on his defense of Judaism from the charges of one Apion (viewed only 6,000 times), but the main point of this month’s lecture will be to focus on his career in Rome.

I know it’s a violation of my usual rule of “no hard questions,” but I figure if some people in the audience have seen these videos, perhaps the Q&A will be even more stimulating than it normally is. Let’s start off the year with a high-level encounter with Jewish history!

HMA

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