Features On The Jewish World

While codifying and summarizing halachot for easy reference seems natural today, it was met with fierce criticism from some of the greatest gedolim centuries ago.

If there was a historical "Palestinian" nation, when did it begin, when did it cease to exist, and what caused its demise?

In it, the anonymous translator notes two objections voiced against publishing Jewish texts in Ladino...

The tale of Robinson’s integration of baseball in 1947 provided Jews with a reference for their own experience of post-WWII assimilation into American society.

He recorded the information he compiled regarding sefarim and their authors in Shem Hagedolim, which contains an alphabetical list of authors of sefarim followed by a list of known sefarim.

During a journey down the Nile River, Mendes created a makeshift American flag, flew it from a mast, and persuaded the crew of his vessel to salute it and promise to defend it.

He started publishing a set of Yerushalmi with his commentary and others in 1899, but found himself lacking funds to print the final volume.

According to Segal’s own account, Eban shamed the Israeli authorities by arguing that Israel, as the only democracy in the Middle East, dare not censor freedom of artistic expression.

A keen and careful observer, he noted in detail Yemenite Jewish life, including its educational system, manner of dress, minhagim, and unique pronunciation of Hebrew.

Although Kovner never came close to achieving the grandiose Nakam goal, he played a fundamental role in telling the story of Jewish rebellion and keeping alive the tales of Jewish heroism during the Shoah.

In his introduction, the author writes that he had no intention to publish the work, thinking it unworthy of publication.

I am not familiar with European examples of this menorah, but I guess it is possible for there to be some.

Anti-Semitism caused the first defection from the Impressionist movement when the deeply prejudiced Pierre-Auguste Renoir broke off all contact with Jews and ended his relationships with Jewish patrons.

The psak concerned a very wealthy elderly Jew who passed away childless, leaving his wife in need of yibum or chalitzah.

So much of it was reminiscent of a different time, when Jews were forced to be secretive in the practice of Torah and mitzvos.

Children’s train rides and sea/river cruises have long been an important part of many Lag BaOmer celebrations, and one of the highlights for Jewish children in pre-World War II Warsaw was the annual Lag BaOmer train ride.

This sefer is notable for being the first published Hebrew book to include a portrait of its author.

Challenging medical orthodoxy, which held that only vaccines made of living viruses could provide effective, enduring immunity, Jonas Edward Salk (1914-95) produced a “killed-virus”...

It now provides twice weekly kosher food packages to the homebound and others in need of assistance, including recovering coronavirus victims.

He was reputed to have had a photographic memory, with the contents of each sefer he handled committed to his memory.

One exceptional way to best capture that feeling is to talk to the people who actually signed the Declaration, to experience history through those who lived it but, unfortunately, all 37 signers are gone.

This week I acquired a work titled Mesharet Moshe, published in 1858 in Koenigsberg, which today is known as Kaliningrad, Russia.

The staging of a production with the scope, breadth, and vision of "The Eternal Road" represented an almost inconceivable challenge, as nothing on this scale had ever been previously attempted.

Involved in numerous controversies in the local Jewish community, he was a prolific author and active on behalf of the poor Jewish immigrants who were arriving in droves from Eastern Europe at the time.

What had this soldier experienced? What horrors might he have seen? His future, and the future not just of the Jews, but of the entire planet was at stake.

When the plague struck Vilna in 1848, Rav Israel Salanter directed all his energies toward relief efforts and sent his students out to care for the victims of the disease.

Sephardic and Near-Eastern communities originally recited the entire 82 stanzas of the poem on Shabbat Zachor in the middle of the final beracha before Shemoneh Esrei.

Before King Solomon built the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem in the mid-10th century BCE, Jews did have other places where they worshipped.

Proust read the Zohar and frequently made observations and employed language in 'Lost Time' that can only be characterized as Jewish-mystical.

It was while serving there that he realized there was a large contingent of worshippers coming for services from the Covered Bridge development, a retirement community comprised of elderly Holocaust survivors and an assortment of mostly Jewish, but religiously diverse, “over 55” residents.