A Jewish Treats Guide to Visiting the Zoo
Throughout the world, April 8th is celebrated as “Zoo Lovers Day.” The first zoo of record was built in 1752 at the behest of Emperor Francis I in Vienna, Austria. Although it was built…
A Dictionary for the Days of Awe
In Maimonides’ Laws of Repentance, he invokes five important and pertinent terms in his first paragraph, that are worth defining. Teshuva – means return (click here to the week before),…
Hester Panim
One might think that the Book of Esther is a heroic tale about Mordechai and Esther saving the Jewish people through diplomatic skill (Click here to read a summary of the Book of Esther),…
Is It Good To Be The King?
Parashat Shoftim addresses many issues, among them the Jewish jurisprudential system, false prophets, and the Arei Miklat, cities of refuge. The guidelines for the appointment of a future…
The Samurai Who Saved Thousands of Jews from the Nazis
Often, when tragedy strikes, many seek to uncover a silver lining by searching for heroes and their selflessness. On the pantheon of such heroes during the Shoah (the Holocaust) is Chiune…
The Jews Of Jamaica
As in many countries of the New World, the Jewish history of Jamaica begins with conversos, the secret Jews who fled Spain. They came to the New World seeking not only new opportunities,…
Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America
In the year 1912, there was no state of Israel, women had not yet earned the right to vote in the U.S., and Henrietta Szold (Baltimore 1860 - Jerusalem 1945) was inspiring Jewish women…
People of the (Printed) Book
Johannes Gutenberg, credited as the developer of the printing press, published the Gutenberg Bible in 1445. The printing technology transformed the way people learned. International…
The Seventh Of Av
One Scriptural verse (Kings II 25:8-9) notes that the Babylonians came to the Temple Mount on the 7th of Av while another verse ( Jeremiah 25:12) claims it was on the 10th of the month.…
Military Trappings
On October 22, 1973, the tenuous ceasefire between the Israelis and the Egyptians attempting to end the Yom Kippur War, was broken. As a result, the Israel paratroopers captured the road…