Optical Antique And A Puzzling Bar Mitzvah Gift
Indeed your chanukiah has been in your husband’s family a long time – quite likely well over 100 years.
View ArticleThe Maale Akravim Massacre
Israel’s birth in the ashes of the Holocaust was still uppermost in the minds of most Israelis and, although the phrase “never again” had not yet been coined, that idea was central to the Israeli ethos.
View ArticleThe Rambam’s Fame As A Doctor
A traditional prayer used by many doctors and pharmacists to this day is attributed to the Rambam and attests to his devotion to his patients.
View ArticleThe Assassination Of Lord Moyne
Bet-Zuri and Hakim did use their trial as a means to draw international attention to British atrocities and malfeasance in Eretz Yisrael and to advocate for the justice of a Jewish state...
View ArticleSending Siddurim To Persian Jews
As Persian Jews lacked much of a printing press of its own, Morocco became the only country that still had an active Hebrew press that was not under an Iranian trade embargo.
View ArticleThese Children Survived – Two Tales in Honor of International Holocaust...
People who saved strangers are called ‘The Righteous Among the Nations’ because we have to understand that not only did they risk their own lives, but they risked the lives of their entire family.
View ArticleHerbert Hoover And The Jews
In a move contrary to his own political interests – he hoped to win the 1940 Republican presidential nomination, and most Republicans were anti-immigration – Hoover fought hard for increasing American...
View ArticleA Shoemaker’s Sefer – The Only Known Copy In The World
The rest of his work remained in manuscript form, part of which is currently in the possession of the National Library of Israel.
View ArticleVarian Fry: A Largely Forgotten Holocaust Hero
He steered refugees to interviewers, found hiding places, delivered messages, and made deals with Marseille gangsters, but perhaps his most interesting contribution was marrying six different Jewish...
View ArticleRabbi Menashe Ben Israel: The Chacham Who Opened England To Jews
He was fluent in 10 languages and had a broad knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy.
View ArticleA Kollel In 1946 Germany
A bookplate on the free-end of a copy I just acquired states that it was donated by the kollel to the Beit Medrash in the Windsheim, Germany, D.P. Camp.
View ArticleLiberating Italy, Dreaming Of Israel: The Heroism Of Enzo And Ada Sereni
After a lengthy trial, the ship was ordered returned to its owner, and it sailed back to Italy. In an act of revenge, the Irgun blew up the British radar station on Mount Carmel.
View ArticleA Mini Sefer Torah Among Items At Sotheby’s Judaica Double-Header
If not for the attention-grabbing Torah shields, I think the star of this sale would have been the most magnificent Esther scroll case for Purim I have ever seen.
View ArticleA Sefer By New York’s Chief Rabbi
Orthodoxy in America at the time was in a dismal state, and R. Jacob Joseph's courageous attempts to raise the standards of the kosher meat industry faced fierce opposition.
View ArticleThe History Of El Al And Shabbat Flights
Even after the El Al Shabbat law was passed, Lod Airport (later Ben-Gurion Airport) continued operations, and charedim and religious groups were concerned that Jewish workers were being forced to work...
View ArticleThe Chief Rabbi Of Prague’s Library
After his passing, the library changed hands a few times but was eventually cataloged in Koheleth David and subsequently purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1829.
View ArticleThe Origins Of The Purim Adloyada
Unlike carnivals in other countries, which were known for their licentiousness and violence, the Adloyadas were characterized by proper behavior.
View ArticleA Few Of My Purim Favorites
We all remember as children waiting to spin our gragger or stomp our feet when the name of Haman was mentioned during the megillah reading.
View ArticleJews And Chess
The national interest in chess grew even greater when over a million Russians, for whom chess was the national pastime, made aliyah when the Iron Curtain opened in the 1990s.
View ArticleA Letter From R. Chaim Ozer
R. Bakst raised funds for the yeshiva in Cleveland, OH, and its environs, and this letter, requesting assistance, describes the sorry financial state of the yeshiva.
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