Nitzavim-Vayeilech 5771-2011

"Renewing the Covenant" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s double parashiot, Nitzavim-Vayeilech, Moses, on the last day of his life, dramatically gathers all the people of…

Read More

Rosh Hashana 5772-2011

"The Dialectic of Joy and Fear" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald There is an inherent inconsistency with respect to the nature of the High Holidays. On the one hand, these fateful days of…

Read More

Belarus, China, Jerusalem and Brooklyn: The Odyssey of the World’s Largest Yeshiva

For 125 years, from 1814 until 1939, the Mir Yeshiva served as a beacon of elite Torah study on the European continent. Situated in the small town of Mir in Belarus, the yeshiva was…

Read More

Making it Transfusable

This past Sunday, June 14, was World Blood Day. Today's Jewish Treats takes a brief look at the Jewish researchers who made safe blood transfusions possible. In 1901, Karl Landsteiner…

Read More

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

In 2006, the month of May was officially designated as Jewish American Heritage Month. And what better way to celebrate Jews in America than with a little bit of baseball? Certainly…

Read More

The Best Type of Bagel

December 11th is celebrated as “Have a Bagel Day.” Jewish Treats has already covered the history of the bagel, the popular pastry favored in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. But, the term…

Read More

“In Every Generation” 1903

This Passover, Jews around the world will recite: “In every generation, our enemies rise up to destroy us.” Passover, Purim, Chanukah, the Inquisition, the Holocaust...we are well aware…

Read More

Meet Me at the JCC

If you ask a cross-section of Jews what they associate with the “JCC,” you may get a variety of answers. That is because the JCC offers a large swath of services to a very large variety…

Read More

The Jewish Winter Palace

November 7, 1917, or October 25th on the Julian Calendar that was still used by the Russian Orthodox Church at the time, marks the climax of the Russian Revolution. On that day, the…

Read More

Who Was Hagar?

Stating simply that Hagar was the second wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael simplifies an incredibly complex character whose emotions and motivations are fleshed out in the Oral…

Read More