The Jews of Luxembourg
When the small European nation of Luxembourg became independent in 1815, there were fewer than 100 Jews in the country. The earliest records of Jewish residence in Luxembourg, however,…
What A Player!
Today marks 171 years since the first official game of baseball was played on June 19, 1846. In honor of this anniversary, today’s Jewish Treat presents a brief biography of a unique…
The Buttonwood Jews
On the 17th of May, 1792, 24 businessmen met under a buttonwood (sycamore) tree and made an agreement to deal only with one another and to set a .25% commission rate on all transactions.…
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 now more than conventional history, but an ingrained…
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…
The First Advisor on Jewish Affairs
In 1942, after first serving as a rabbi in Buffalo, New York, and then in Chicago, Illinois, Rabbi Judah Nadich (Baltimore 1912 - New York 2007) enlisted in the United States Army as a…
They Came to Texas
From the annals of history, we are often left with the mistaken impression that all Jewish immigrants to the United States in the early twentieth century arrived through Ellis Island.…
A Very Serious Woman
They called her “Battling Bella,” and Bella Savitsky Abzug (1920-1998) lived up to that nickname. Born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, Bella earned an undergraduate degree…
NJOP – A History
It all began in December 1975, when Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald, then the Educational Director at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, launched the now acclaimed "Beginners Service." As…
Frankfurt on the Hudson
Rabbi Joseph Breuer (1882 - 1980) was 57 years old when he and his family arrived in New York City from Europe. It was 1939, and the grandson of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch immediately…