The Great Disputation
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban/Nachmanides c. 1194-1270) was one of the great personages of the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. He authored commentaries on the Torah and the Talmud and was…
Choral in the Capitals
The history of Jewish settlement in Russia is as long and complex as the narrative of the ever-shifting areas of Russian power. In the 18th century, Empress Catherine the Great banished…
Jerusalem Day
In 1947, when the United Nations approved the plan to partition the British Mandate of Palestine (Israel) into a Jewish state and an Arab state, they determined that Jerusalem would be an…
The History of the Knesset
The founders of the State of Israel did not have much time to set up and plan the specifics of government, and so it is not surprising that the country emerged from its fight for…
Yom Ha’atzma’ut – Israel’s Independence Day
On the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, in the year 5708, corresponding to May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was born. On that day, the British Mandate was terminated and David…
The Jew Who Played for Germany
It is impossible to imagine what the thoughts of Rudi Victor Ball were when high ranking Nazi officials asked him to rejoin his German ice hockey teammates and play for Germany in the…
Ray Frank – An American Preacher
Ray (Rachel) Frank did not set out to be titled “Jewess in the Pulpit” or “Latter Day Deborah.” Frank’s famous career as a Jewish female preacher began in 1890, when, on a trip to write…
Unexpected Sri Lankan History
Today’s Jewish Treat will take a brief look at an unexpected location for Jewish history: Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). Located off the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka’s Jewish community…
Based in Burma
Today’s Jewish Treat presents the unexpected Jewish history of Myanmar (formerly Burma), which gained its independence from the United Kingdom on January 4, 1948. A synagogue is…
All-American Giver
Mervin Pregulman earned his initial fame as a college football star, but his real success was achieved later as a man of business and as a philanthropist. Born in Lansing, Michigan, on…