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),…
Before Bagels On Broadway
During the 2016 election, a presidential candidate uttered the words, “New York values,” and was accused of referring pejoratively to New York Jews. Of course, he denied the allegation.…
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, but connotes…
Virginia is for Lovers… of Israel
While cities like Charleston, Philadelphia and New York contained Jewish communities during the pre-revolutionary period, Virginia, the largest of the colonies, did not. Individual Jews…
Memorial Day Museum
Washington, DC, is a city of museums. Beyond the vast assortment of divisions and galleries at the Smithsonian Institute and the many political memorials, there are also smaller museums…
The Jews of Panama
The history of the Jews in Panama is similar to Jewish history in other South and Central American countries. Conversos came to the region with Spanish settlers but, in time, became…
Sand, Sun and Jewish History
In 1917, Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas (as well as the smaller surrounding islands) were transferred from the dominion of Denmark to the possession of the United States. As…
Jonas Phillips: Living in the Revolution
A few weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the BriTisha blockade intercepted a communication from Jonas Phillips to a relative on the Dutch Island of St.…
The Fascinating Life of Judah P. Benjamin
Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Judah P. Benjamin (1811, St. Croix - 1884, Paris) was 14 years old when he left home to attend Yale Law School. (For unknown reasons, he did not…
Gluckel of Hamelin
Twenty years after Samuel Pepys stopped writing his famous diary of life in London, Gluckel of Hamelin (1646-1724), the widow of a Jewish gem and metal dealer in Hamburg, took up her pen.…