The Jews of Genoa
In honor of Columbus Day, Jewish Treats presents a brief history of early Jewish life in Columbus’ hometown of Genoa (also called Genova). Although it is generally presumed that Jews…
A Jewess in the Revolution
For a Jew to be a landowner, or the owner of an import and export business, or a tavern-keeper, was a rare feat. For a Jew to be all three and a woman who also raised eight children (a…
A Western Frontier
The pleasant temperatures of the short spring and summer of the fertile plains of the Canadian Midwest are a stark contrast to the winter, when temperatures can plummet to -40 degrees…
Opening England
Menashe ben Israel (Manoel Dias Soeiro, 1604 -1657), whose family fled Portugal after the Lisbon auto-de-fe of 1603, was raised in Amsterdam where he received a full Jewish education and…
The Palmach
The IDF (Israeli Defense Force), was born in the heat of the Israeli War of Independence. As the brand new state was declared and the country came under attack, the Israeli government…
The Battle of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai
At the time of the Declaration of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948), Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was a five year old settlement, ten kilometers south of Ashkelon, just north of the Gaza…
Mordecai Manuel Noah
While one of the founding principles of the United States of America is freedom of religion, any historian would agree that in the early days this was often more principle than practice.…
Get Out!
The history of the Jews in Europe can almost be read as a timeline of expulsions. At one time or another, Jews have either been expelled from, or prohibited to settle in, almost every…
Baron Edmond James de Rothschild
Although he came from a prominent banking family and was employed in the family bank, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (August 19, 1845 - November 2, 1934) was best known for his love of…
Settling Texas
On December 29, 1845, the sovereign nation known as the Republic of Texas became the 28th state of the United States of America. In the ten years of Texas’ independence before becoming a…