Berlin’s Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary
On May 11, 1820, a child was born in Prussia who would, as a grown man, almost single-handedly change the face of German Jewry. Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer attended yeshiva in Hanover, and,…
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…
Pinchas 5782-2022
“Can a Perfect G-d Sin?” (Updated and revised from Pinchas 5763-2003) by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Pinchas, is full of fascinating narratives. The parasha…
People of the (Printed) Book
Johannes Gutenberg, credited as the developer of the printing press, published the Gutenberg Bible in 1445. Printing technology transformed the way people learned. International literacy…
Using A Live Virus
Mention the polio vaccine and most people think of Jonas Salk. The fact is, however, that the polio vaccine used today is actually based on the work of another Jewish physician, Albert…
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…
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”…
The Jews of Amsterdam
October 27, 1275 is noted as the first time the name “Amsterdam” was recorded as the name of a settlement in the Netherlands, near a dam on the Amstel River. That small fishing village…
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, literally the Night of Crystal, but generally translated as the Night of Broken Glass, was a tragic turning point in the fate of Germany’s Jewish community. The…
These Lights We Kindle
While the mitzvah of lighting the menorah is an outward-focused mitzvah – the menorah is lit in a window or doorway – it is also an opportunity for personal reflection on the deeper…