Janusz Korczak: Hero to Children in the Warsaw Ghetto (This Week in Jewish History)

Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

 

Beloved for his children’s stories, Henryk Goldszmidt wrote under the pen name Janusz Korczak.

A lifelong advocate for children’s rights, he ran an orphanage in Warsaw that was world-famous for his innovative pedagogic techniques.

Imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation, he continued to serve in this capacity until the terrible order to deport the Jews to the Treblinka death camp in August 1942. He refused all offers of personal rescue, choosing rather to remain with his young charges right to the very end.

 

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The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara: This Week in Jewish History

R-L: Edgardo Mortara, mother Marianna, and unidentified brother, c. 1880. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
R-L: Edgardo Mortara, mother Marianna, and unidentified brother, c. 1880. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

In the summer of 1858, 6-year old Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, was forcibly taken from his home by Italian police acting at the behest of the Inquisition. It had come to the attention of the Church that a teenage non-Jewish servant girl had performed an “emergency baptism” on Edgardo several years earlier, fearing that he would die of a childhood illness and not be allowed entry into Heaven.  Despite strenuous efforts by Jewish communities around the world, Pope Pius IX refused to release Edgardo, who ultimately became a priest in the Augustinian order and devoted his life to converting Jews to Catholicism.

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The Pogroms of 1881-1884: This Week in Jewish History

 

Immigrants approaching Statue of Liberty. Photo by Edwin Levick, Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Immigrants approaching Statue of Liberty. Photo by Edwin Levick, Source: Wikimedia Commons.

For a larger discussion of the five historical narratives, please see my article The end of intimate insularity: new narratives of Jewish history in the post-Soviet era, in Acts of Symposium “Construction and Deconstruction of National Histories in Slavic Eurasia,” originally delivered at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, on July 10–13, 2002.

 

 

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This Week in Jewish History: The Jewish Badge

Jewish Man in Worms, Germany, 16th c. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Jewish Man in Worms, Germany, 16th c. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

This is a new experiment, suggested by Elya at TorahCafe.com: a weekly, 3-minute “This Week in Jewish History” mini-lecture.  I’m trying it out, let me know what you think!

Please click here for the refined, edited version from TorahCafe.com.

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Albert Einstein Video (now with PowerPoint) from TorahCafe editors

Here’s a new version of the Albert Einstein lecture, edited by the wonderful people at TorahCafe.com to include the PowerPoint. It’s basically the same, except without the lame jokes. Click on the icon below to watch the video.

Watch on TorahCafé.com!
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Isaac Bashevis Singer: Singer in the Shtetl, the Shtetl in Singer (2004 lecture)

Isaac Bashevis Singer. Source: MDCarchives cropped by Beyond My Ken, Wikimedia Commons.
Isaac Bashevis Singer. Source: MDCarchives cropped by Beyond My Ken, Wikimedia Commons.

This is a lecture I delivered at the University of Central Florida back in October 2004 (my hair was quite a bit darker and, well, there).  Found the CD when I was cleaning out some old files. There’s a PPT that goes with this lecture, and I’m going to try to find a way to post it.  Anyway, this is the summer, so I won’t be sending out too many new lectures, thought I would add this one as well.  Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) was a Nobel Laureate for Literature, the first Yiddish writer to receive this distinguished award.  He was also a resident of my current home in Surfside, Florida. Hope you enjoy it!

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Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Photograph by Mordecai Baron. Source: Wikipedia Commons.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Photograph aby Mordecai Baron. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

A presentation on the life and work of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), the Seventh Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. A native of Nikolaev, Ukraine, and educated in Germany and France, his leadership transformed his Hasidic followers into an international movement that continues to shape the lives of Jews world wide. The lecture was held at the Young Israel of Bal Harbour on Wednesday, June 5th.

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