The Charleston Synagogue(s)
Charleston, South Carolina is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. The 1669 charter for the Carolina Colony explicitly included liberty of conscious for…
Mezuzah: Complete Fulfillment
A mezuzah on the doorpost is a public sign of a Jewish home. If you open the decorative container of the mezuzah you will find a piece of parchment with two sets of Hebrew verses from…
Chukat 5781-2021
“The Paradox of the Red Heifer” (updated and revised from Chukat-Balak 5762-2002) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat Chukat, we learn of the inscrutable law of…
Sir Moses Montefiore
Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) had an extraordinary impact on the world. Beginning a career in general business, Montefiore quickly gained one of the 12 brokers licenses allowed to Jews…
People of the (Printed) Book
Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468), credited as the developer of the printing press, published the Gutenberg Bible in 1445. The printing technology transformed the way people learned.…
Minsk, Pinsk and Dvinsk?
Dvinsk, also known as Daugavpils or Duenaburg, is Latvia’s second largest city, situated 140 miles southeast of Riga, Latvia’s capital (Dvinsk is the city’s Russian name). Dvinsk became a…
All That’s Left
August 13th is annually celebrated as “Left Handers Day.” Most Lefties, also known as “southpaws,” due to the orientation of baseball stadiums in regard to the sun, are proud of their…
The Five Prohibitions of Yom Kippur
“…on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all…for on that day God will forgive you and cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before God”…
A Man of Courage Honored
In 2001, it was recognized that in the course of American history, numerous heroes had been denied consideration for the United States Medal of Honor for extreme valor in battle, due to…
A Document Against Antisemitism
It was on this day in 1965 that the Catholic Church officially stopped blaming the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. This groundbreaking statement came after more than a millennium of…