A Hero in Hollywood
Like many of the Jews who found success in the early decades of Hollywood show business, Ben Hecht (1893 - 1964) was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. When Hecht was born, the family…
Viewing Vashti
She was raised a royal princess, he was raised in the stables. Vashti the daughter of the great Babylonian king, Belshazzar, and Achashverosh the son of Darius the Mede, were a match…
Hamantashen History
If you are active on Jewish social media, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other, you have probably been inundated with a thousand and one ways to take hamantashen baking to a…
President William Howard Taft – Friend of the Jews
In honor of Presidents Day, Jewish Treats presents a quick look at the relationship of President William Howard Taft (1857 - 1930) and the Jewish people. Taft’s presidency (1909 - 1913)…
Making it Kosher
If you have ever researched how to make a kitchen kosher, you might have noticed a lot of references to blowtorches and boiling water. Many items in a kitchen can be made kosher, even if…
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai and the City of Yavne
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai lived during the tumultuous times when the Jewish residents of Judea rebelled against Rome, and the Romans besieged and then destroyed Jerusalem. At the time,…
Water, On the Rocks
Reams of text have been written about the one seeming error in Moses’ life - the one act for which he was prohibited from entering the Land of Israel. This was an incident recorded in…
Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz
Can you name the speaker who preceded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington? It was Rabbi (Dr.) Joachim Prinz,…
Skeptic Questioning
Today, January 13, is National Skeptics Day, a day that encourages people to ask questions. One might be inclined to ask whether Judaism has any room for skepticism, since faith,…
A Man of His Own
One does not often hear of a decorated soldier from the United States army choosing to move to the German Democratic Party (East Germany under Communist rule). Stefan Heym, however, did…