Traveling Man
When Rabbi Jacob Levi Saphir (1822-1886) was 10, his family moved from Oshmiani, a town in the greater municipality of Vilna, to the city of Safed, Palestine (Israel). By the time he was…
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…
The Hebrew University
Since its first official overseas program in 1955, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has attracted hundreds of young Jewish adults from both North America and Europe. Hebrew University…
Bankrupt
The concept of forgivable bankruptcy--declaring one’s self legally destitute and thereby being forgiven of one’s major debts, is a recent development in history. Until the mid-1800s (in…
Always A Jew
There are certain renowned figures in history whose relationship with their Jewish heritage was so tenuous that they had no hesitation in accepting Christianity, but was strong enough…
Judah The Prince
Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, begins: “Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it…
In Honor of Armistice Day: A Jewish War Hero Remembered
Sammy Dreben, “The Fighting Jew,” (1878-1925) was a new immigrant to the United States when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. It’s ironic that one of the main reasons that Dreben fled from…
The Divine Dwelling
In Judaism, there is a strong focus on the city of Jerusalem and the first and second Holy Temples that were built in that city. And while Jerusalem was the place God chose for His spirit…
Changing Ukraine
Kiev, Odessa, Zhitomyr, Uman...the cities of Ukraine are places marked in Jewish history for both horror and hope. Jews have lived in Ukraine for well-over a thousand years, and there is…
Yente the Yiddish Writer
Yiddish literature entered its modern era in the 1860s, when Jewish writers began using the Germanic-Jewish language to compose stories and poems. Many of the early writers of this era…