Colonial Outreach: Alliance Israelite Universelle
North American Jews often hear of organizations created for the benefit of both Judaism and Israel, such as Hadassah, Bnai Brith, the Jewish National Fund, etc. And while these…
How Pirates Spread Torah
From the 6th to the 11th century, the center of Jewish life was in Babylon under Persian rule. The Jewish community was headed politically by the Exilarch and religiously by a sage known…
B’shalach 5771-2011
"Avoiding the Philistines" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald In this week’s parasha, parashat B’shalach, G-d leads the People of Israel out of Egypt in a most dramatic manner. It was in last…
Va’etchanan 5773-2013
"Behold the Beauty of the Land" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald This week’s parasha, parashat Va’etchanan, opens with Moses recalling his heartfelt plea to the Al-mighty, and its rejection,…
Chukat-Balak 5769-2009
"The Ultimate Value of Human Life" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald On this Shabbat, throughout the diaspora, a double Torah portion, Chukat-Balak, is read. In Israel, however, only the…
Navy Man
Jewish Treats presents a biography of Uriah P. Levy, the U.S.’s first Jewish commodore. Today is Levy’s yahrtzeit on the Jewish Calendar. Born in Philadelphia in…
The Jews Of Cyprus
The history of the Jews in Cyprus is surprisingly "benign" given the island’s proximity to both Europe and the Holy Land. The third largest island in the Mediterranean, Cyprus was home to…
The Jews of Cyprus
The history of the Jews in Cyprus is surprisingly "benign" given the island’s proximity to both Europe and the Holy Land. The third largest island in the Mediterranean, Cyprus was home to…
The Little Terror
While some athletes are known to be Jewish only because of their Jewish-sounding last names, others wear their Jewish identity on their shirtsleeves - or, in the case of Alphonse Halimi,…
Philistines
Few nations play as dominant a role in biblical history as do the Philistines. Settled in the lands along the Mediterranean coast (the area of contemporary Gaza), they were a continual…