Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760), known as the “Baal Shem Tov,” founded the chasidic movement in Eastern Europe and began spreading his teachings circa 1734.

Part 1: Zamosc, a Sephardic settlement in Poland. Poland, the place where the majority of the world’s Jewish population could be found by the eve

Part II Rabbi Da Modena did not experience much joy from his family, as he famously laments in his memoir. There was, however, one ray

Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh (Leon) of Modena (1571-1648) was one of the most colorful Jewish rabbis and scholars of the 17th century. He was born in

Part I Kabbalah or Lurianic Kabbalah—as taught and popularized by the Arizal—has an interesting and complicated history in Italy. By the 17th century, Lurianic Kabbalah

Friday, November 9, marked 80 years (on the Gregorian calendar) since that fateful night in 1938 when bands of ordinary Germans went about Berlin setting

Conclusion Ninth and 10th of Cheshvan *Purim Vidin, 1807. Background: Passvanoglu, the feudal lord of Vidin (Bulgaria) on the Danube, had in his service a

Part 1 Firstly, it is hard to believe we are already at Parshat Noach and past the jam-packed month of Tishrei. I hope all of

In the Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 7B, we find: “Customarily, a man who knows that he is on trial wears black and wraps himself in

Conclusion Firstly I’d like to apologize to my readers for being on a rather long hiatus from my writings. Our new joyful addition to the

Part 3 (continued from last week) In an April 20, 1906, article for the English Jewish Chronicle, Herbert Loewe provides an eyewitness account of an

Part II While most of us are quite familiar with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492, many of us are