Jewish Treats

Grandmaster R

When Samuel Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski, 1911-1992) was five years old, his father showed him how to play chess. Three years later, the boy was a recognized child prodigy who gained…

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Jewish Treats

Herzl’s Vision of Haifa

International air travel, especially in recent years, can be frustrating, annoying and anxiety-provoking. Because of the extra costs of traveling to and from airports, navigating the…

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Jewish Treats

The Hebrew University

Since its first official overseas program in 1955, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has attracted hundreds of young Jewish adults from both North America and Europe. Hebrew University…

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Jewish Treats

A Woman in Charge: Bessie Gotsfeld

Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America (MWOA, known today as AMIT – Americans for Israel and Torah) began as part of the religious Zionist organization known as Mizrachi of America. The…

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Jewish Treats

Minsk, Pinsk and Dvinsk?

Dvinsk, also known as Daugavpils or Duenaburg, is Latvia’s second largest city, situated 140 miles southeast of Riga, Latvia’s capital (Dvinsk is the city’s Russian name). Dvinsk became a…

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Jewish Treats

A Diplomat to Romania

In July 1944, it was announced that a new Liberty ship under construction was to be named for Benjamin Franklin Peixotto (November 1834-September 1890). The descendant of a distinguished…

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Jewish Treats

Tooning Machines

There are not many people whose names appear as a dictionary entry, and even fewer whose names have become adjectives. As of 1966, however, the name “Rube Goldberg” took on an official…

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Jewish Treats

Painting Our People

Born on December 26, 1902, in Rahachow, Belarus (in the Pale of Settlement), Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan was a Jewish painter who celebrated his Jewish heritage and the Jewish world in his…

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Jewish Treats

A National Poet

Chaim Nahman Bialik (born January 9, 1873) was an Israeli national icon who came to be recognized as one of Israel’s greatest national poets. Born in the Russian town of Radi, he was…

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Jewish Treats

Berlin’s Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

On May 11, 1820, a child was born in Prussia who would, as a grown man, almost single-handedly change the face of German Jewry. Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer attended yeshiva in Hanover, and,…

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