Jewish Treats

Lancaster Jews

Many people do not realize that Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home to the famous Amish community, was one of the few active Jewish communities during the colonial era and has the fourth oldest…

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Jewish Treats

Samuel Gompers, Labor Leader

Jewish Treats presents a brief biography of Samuel Gompers, a man who helped transform the early American Labor Movement. Born in London, England, on January 27, 1850, Gompers was the son…

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Jewish Treats

Chanukah and Divine Order

Chanukah always overlaps with at least one Shabbat (if not two), and since Chanukah begins on the 25th of Kislev and lasts for eight days, the holiday always coincides with the…

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Jewish Treats

Justice and Ambassador

On August 8, 1908, Rebecca and Joseph Goldberg were blessed with their eighth child, whom they named Arthur. As the youngest in the family, Arthur was the only Goldberg who was not forced…

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Jewish Treats

Under Cover of Darkness

Of the ten plagues that devastated the land of Egypt, the plague of darkness appears to be the most benign. Certainly, being trapped in the dark is frightening (sensory deprivation is a…

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Jewish Treats

Martin Buber

I and Thou (Ich und Du), the best-known philosophical work of Martin Buber (February 8, 1878–June 13, 1965), was published in 1923. I and Thou presents Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, the…

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Jewish Treats

Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement

The Mussar movement, the formal study and program of ethical improvement, was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883). Rabbi Israel’s family name was…

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Jewish Treats

Presidents’ Day: The Jews and Martin Van Buren

In 1840, the news of the terrible fate of the Jewish community of Damascus (Syria) reached the shores of America and brought the disparate Jewish communities of the young American nation…

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Jewish Treats

When Adar Begins

The month of Adar begins tonight. About Adar, the twelfth month of the Jewish calendar year (in non-leap years), the Talmud (Ta’anith 29a) states: “Mee’sheh’nichnas Adar, marbin…

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Jewish Treats

Purim Narbonne

During the holiday of Purim, celebrated just last week, Jews around the world commemorated the salvation of the Jewish people from physical decimation. Because Haman had such great…

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