Surprising parallels to our contemporary situation Please join me for an all-night learning session on Shavuot!

International Conference with Bar-Ilan University Please join us for a day-long conference on the subject of what has been called “The Jewish Nakba”: the mass displacement of Jews living in Arab and Muslim lands after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Part II of the Project Witness Webinar, premieres at 10am ET…

Good morning fellow students of Jewish History! Renewal for Kidney Transplants Several years ago my wife read a notice about a woman in our neighborhood who was seeking a life-saving kidney donation. My wife didn’t know her, but she swabbed anyway with the Renewal organization. Initially she was matched, but secondary testing suggested not, so…

Join me for a live, in-person lecture at the Queens Jewish Center. Premieres at 10am ET: Last week’s Project Witness webinar (Part I) Join me for Part II of the Project Witness Webinar on The Rise of Antisemitism in the United States after October 7

This one is for the serious Jewish History Nerds Love working with the team at Unpacked! Lecture from Dallas on the Eclipse (click on link) https://torahanytime.com/lectures/293151 Stages of Antisemitism (Jewish Learning Institute) Upcoming Live Lecture in Queens

Event begins at 3:00 pm, my slot is 5:00-5:30 CDT (6PM ET). Join us! Please click here for livestream

Really looking forward to the Eclipse Shabbaton in Dallas! Here’s some information. Even though this was a mock trial, I was nervous to testify! Jews of Israel before Modern Zionism

Love working with the team at Unpacked! What’s with this Bizarre 14th century Hebrew Stone from Porto? Getting Ready for Dallas! Happy Purim Everyone!!! This Persian video is either true (and good news), or it’s Purim Torah. Either way, appropriate for today…

Video version of one of the lectures delivered in Vancouver last week, live chat at 10am ET Looking forward to speaking in Dallas, Shabbos and Yom Iyun before the Eclipse!

I enjoyed this conversation at the recent JLI Retreat. I thought this turned out okay. Looking forward to setting up the next one! Review of Ilan Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine

Grateful to Beth Israel and the Jewish National Fund for the Invitation. Invitation-only lectures for students at the University of British Columbia and elsewhere: please contact Hillel BC for details. Jewish Prayer under the Inquisition The Strange Inscriptions of Trancoso, Portugal With Pyotr Kurzin of The Global Gambit New Episodes of Jewish History Nerds Podcast!…

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…

Very pleased to see this revised edition of my first book available. Includes a new foreword and afterword.  

To the Hasidim steeped in the religious significance of the ritual calendar, the Sabbath known as Zakhor (March 23, 1940) must have seemed a cruel redundancy. Literally called “remember,” the Sabbath preceding the holiday of Purim is named for a few publicly read Torah verses (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) that memorialize the attack of Israel’s primordial enemy,…