The Exodus of the Syrian Jews
In 1948, Jews around the world celebrated the creation of the newly established State of Israel. After millennia of exile and centuries of struggle, the Promised Land would once again be…
If You Thought the Spanish Expulsion Was Bad…
Those familiar with Jewish history are well aware of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain that occurred concurrently with Columbus’ sailing for the new world. A great number of these…
Favoritism
“A person should never discriminate among his children even to the extent of a thread [garment] weighing only two weight-measures of silk, similar to that which Jacob gave to Joseph but…
It’s All Good
One ancient and ongoing philosophical question is: If God is perfect, and God created the world, can anything that God created be inherently bad? We all know that there is evil in the…
Autopsy
Medical mystery thrillers--novels in which the mystery is often solved through autopsy--are very popular these days. But most autopsies do not set off thrilling adventures of sleuthing.…
Sorcerers Beware
In Sanhedrin 67b, Rabbi Ashi states that he saw “Karna’s father blow his nose violently and streamers of silk issued from his nostrils.” Some magic tricks really do stem from ancient…
The Ghetto Of Venice
The Jewish ghetto of Venice, made famous in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ( “Shylock” ), was actually the very first “ghetto.” That does not mean that when the Venetian…
North American Shtetl
The word shtetl, invokes images of the pre-Holocaust Eastern European Jewish community. It might come as a surprise, therefore, that there actually are shtetlach in North America! Here…
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…
An Eye For Civil Law
You’ve heard the phrase “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand...” And you’ve likely heard frightening stories of societies in which this biblical rule is applied…