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,…
Thank You Nurses
Today, May 12th, is International Nurses Day, and so, Jewish Treats honors a woman who made a tremendous impact on the world of public health. Lillian D. Wald (1867–1940) was born to…
Great Scots
The story of the great masses of Eastern European Jews who arrived in New York and settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is more than simply conventional history. It is now regarded…
Vayigash 5782-2021
“The Virtues of Assimilation” (updated and revised from Vayigash 5762-2001) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Vayigash, the dramatic story of Joseph and his…
Fleeing in the New World
The history of the conversos, those Spanish and Portuguese Jews who hid their identities by publicly behaving as observant Catholics, is tragic not only for the horrible auto-de-fes (mass…
Appointed by Trudeau
In honor of Canada Day (July 1st), Jewish Treats proudly presents a brief biography of the first Jewish member of the Canadian Supreme Court, Bora Laskin (1912 – 1984). Born in Fort…
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…
On the Canadian Prairie
Thirty-three years old at the time of his immigration, Grodno-born Rabbi Israel Isaac Kahanovitch (1872-1945), was called to Winnipeg, Manitoba, after spending a year in Scranton,…
Making it Transfusable
Today is World Blood Day, and Jewish Treats takes a brief look at the Jewish researchers who made safe blood transfusions possible. In 1901, Karl Landsteiner (June 14, 1868 – June 26,…
The Charleston Synagogue(s)
Charleston, South Carolina is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. The 1669 charter for the Carolina Colony explicitly included liberty of conscious for…