Mission Impossible
If you were to search the famous “Hollywood Walk of Fame” in Los Angeles, for a star with the name “Solomon Krakovsky,” you would be on a mission impossible. Solomon Krakovsky, who…
The Jews of Panama
The history of the Jews in Panama is similar to Jewish history in other South and Central American countries. Conversos (Jews who publicly recanted the Jewish faith and adopted…
Can You Say A Little Prayer For Me?
It states in the Talmud, “Rabbi Pinchas ben Hama gave the following exposition, ‘Whosoever has a sick person in his house should go to a tzaddik (righteous person) who will invoke…
They Make Us Laugh
When the hit comedy Funny People was released in movie theaters (2009), it was frequently noted in the Jewish press that almost all of the comic actors in the film, including the…
The Origins of Formal Jewish Education in the United States
Today, thankfully, there are hundreds of Jewish elementary schools in the United States that teach both Judaic and general studies. The paradigm for this movement was the founding of…
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 who had…
A Taste of Shakespeare
Yiddish theater, which saw its heyday in the early decades of the twentieth century, played an important role in the lives of the American Jewish community. More than just entertainment…
The Occident
In honor of World Press Freedom Day, commemorated annually on May 3rd, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly, Jewish Treats takes a quick glance at the first general Jewish…
First on the Court
Born in 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky, Louis Dembitz Brandeis was the child of European immigrants who maintained a minimal Jewish identity. However, his maternal uncle, Lewis Dembitz,…
The Truth About Mitzvot
It is recorded in the Midrash Rabbah that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was once confronted by a man who challenged him about the purifying ritual of the Red Heifer (click here for details)…