Jewish Treats

Mordecai Manuel Noah

While one of the founding principles of the United States of America is freedom of religion, any historian would agree that in the early days this was often more principle than practice.…

Read More

Jewish Treats

The Great Disputation

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban/Nachmanides c. 1194-1270) was one of the great personages of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. He authored commentaries on the Torah and the Talmud and was…

Read More

Jewish Treats

Go Vote! It’s an American and Jewish Value!

Voting in free and fair elections is one of the most profound privileges Americans and citizens of other democratic countries enjoy. Almost 700,000 American soldiers* have died in wars to…

Read More

Jewish Treats

You Are Royalty

Passover is known as the festival of freedom. And who is more free than royalty? At the Seder, all Jews are supposed to consider themselves royalty. Some of the ways we demonstrate this…

Read More

Jewish Treats

Choral in the Capitals

The history of Jewish settlement in Russia is as long and complex as the narrative of the ever-shifting areas of Russian power. In the 18th century, Empress Catherine the Great banished…

Read More

Jewish Treats

The Passover Story in Brief

On Passover, we commemorate the exodus from Egyptian slavery. The following is a brief summary: Jacob's family came to Egypt to escape a famine in Canaan. Joseph, Jacob's son and the…

Read More

Jewish Treats

Putting Chanukah in Historical Perspective

The events of Chanukah took place about 150 years after the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE), which brought 40 years of civil war to his empire. Eventually, the empire was divided…

Read More

Jewish Treats

Based in Burma

Today’s Jewish Treat presents the unexpected Jewish history of Myanmar (formerly Burma), which gained its independence from the United Kingdom on January 4, 1948.  A synagogue is…

Read More

Jewish Treats

A Look At The Law

There are three types of laws in the Torah...mishpatim, edot and chukim: Mishpatim are basic laws. In fact, mishpatim are generally translated as those laws…

Read More

Jewish Treats

The Jews of Puerto Rico

On October 18, 1898, the “Stars and Stripes” flag of the United States was raised over Puerto Rico, announcing that the island was now under American sovereignty. Today’s Treat presents…

Read More