Hebrew Union College
In honor of Jewish-American History Month, Jewish Treats presents the history of Hebrew Union College. Bohemian-born Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (born Weiss, 1819-1900) arrived in the United…
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi), whose yahrtzeit is on Lag Ba’omer, was one the five students who began studying with Rabbi Akiva after the horrible plague that…
A Texan Heroine
Rosanna Dyer Osterman (1809-1866) risked her life to act as a courier to the Confederate Army, after the city of Galveston, Texas, was occupied by the Union Army. From Osterman’s…
The Second Passover
On the first anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt, the Children of Israel prepared to celebrate their first Passover as free people. God decreed that they should eat matzah and maror…
Benjamin Nones
U.S. politics have never been pretty. Even as the colonists declared their independence from England, they were busy arguing with one another. Rather than Democrats (liberals) and…
Ethics of the Fathers
Ethics - it’s a big word in our day and age. Between political corruption and financial misdeeds, it is easy to wonder what ever happened to even the most basic ethical standards.…
How To Be Holy
God instructs Moses to tell the Jewish people: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). How does one make oneself holy? The remaining 35 verses of…
Jiri Mordecai
In celebration of National Poetry Month: One could easily say that the life of Jiri Mordecai Langer (1894-1943) was lived between the two World Wars. Born in Prague to an…
Jewish Genetics
The fact that one’s genetic code is a combination of the DNA one inherits from both mother and father is a basic lesson of high school biology. According to traditional Jewish…
Chaim Weizmann
Many of the greatest names in Israeli history belong to leaders of military battles and to eloquent spokespersons who rallied the Jewish people to fight for a modern homeland. Chaim…