Rabbi Yehuda Bibas
Rabbi Yehudah Bibas was the scion of a prominent rabbinical family of Morocco, which had originated in Spain. He was born in Gibraltar, where he spent his youth studying Torah. […]
Judeo-Greek Literature
Until about a hundred years ago almost the entire Judeo-Greek literary heritage of Romaniot communities – translations of books of the Bible and songs= remained in manuscript. The only two […]
Corfu Ethrogim
For several centuries Corfu was one of the chief suppliers of Ethrogim to Jews all over the world. The use of Corfu Ethrogim by Jews is already mentioned by Giovanni […]
Yalta — The Wisest Woman of her Time
Yalta– Wife of Rabbi Nachman Bar Yaakov — The Wisest Woman of Her Tןme Very few women are alluded to by name in the Babylonian Talmud. And even those few […]
The Jewish Archeological Remains in France
Several weeks ago, I took a train from Paris into the Jewish past. I travelled about an hour’s ride from the French capital to Rouen to visit the remains of […]
Palmyra
Palmyra has been in the news recently because of its capture by ISIS. Located in central Syria, about 130 miles northeast of Damascus, the historical treasures of the millenia-old city […]
Prague Passover Massacre 1389
On Pesach, more than six hundred years ago, as a result of young Jewish boys playing with some pebbles, almost the entire Prague community was massacred — three thousand Jews […]
Two Synagogues Named for Women
Two Jewish communities in Ukraine, one in the capital of Galicia known in Polish as Lvov (Lemberg in German) and the other in the small shtetl of Brahilov, were both distinguished […]
Reizes Brothers of Lemberg
Almost three hundred years ago the Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov) was traumatized when two of its spiritual leaders, the Av Beis Din, Rabbi Chaim ben Yizchok Halevi Reizes and […]
The Jews Who Did Not Wish To Make Aliyah
Many Jewish communities in the Diaspora have maintained traditions concerning the ancient origins of their settlement in the places of their exile. A surprising number also have accounts from the […]