יום שלישי, ח׳ תמוז תשפ״וTuesday, June 23, 2026
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By Libi Astaire
Those of us who engage in the pursuit of factual accuracy do so out of love.
By Libi Astaire
Why, though, was our remembrance not confined to the Kinot of Tisha B’Av, when we recall other tragedies? What was unique about the Crusades?
By Libi Astaire
Hoping to thwart the impending danger, French Jews provided soldiers with food and supplies
By Libi Astaire
There is no question that relations between the Jews and the Church have improved immensely since Vatican II.
By Libi Astaire
With those two words, Pius X summed up the 1,900-year-old “special” relationship between the Jews and the Catholic Church – a tortuous theological and political relationship that would see tremendous changes before the century’s end.
By Libi Astaire
When the United States opened its doors to new immigrants, both Jews and Catholics responded in large numbers – and soon discovered that old prejudices had immigrated too.
By Libi Astaire
Catholics like Father Coughlin weren't the only threat during this period.
By Libi Astaire
Even within the Catholic world, the bishops of some countries, such as Germany, acted autonomously, with only minimal input from Rome.
By Libi Astaire
We did get out state in 1948, but not thanks to the British.
By Libi Astaire
The Jews had traded in the traditional religion-based anti-Semitism of the Church for something new and more dangerous: a secular anti-Semitism based upon race, genetics, and economics.
By Libi Astaire
During the 1500s, the Church added another reason for the enforced segregation: to further degrade and humiliate the Jewish community so they would convert to Christianity.
By Libi Astaire
It’s estimated that the total number of Spain’s Jews who succumbed to the pressure to convert was between 200,000 and 250,000 souls.
By Libi Astaire
The thirteenth century was a turning point in Jewish-Church relations.
By Libi Astaire
It’s difficult to sort out the historical person from the figure who was later deified in the Christian bible.
By Libi Astaire
The local feud became an international one when the two brothers turned, separately, to the Roman general Pompey for help.
By Libi Astaire
The house is clean. The last bit of chametz has been burned. What happens next?
By Libi Astaire
Were the Jews Eldad encountered during his life and travels really descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes?
By Libi Astaire
Whatever their reasons for navigating those icy waters, it was a challenge for all early explorers, including the Jewish scientists who made contributions to the endeavor, sometimes at the cost of their lives.
By Libi Astaire
Was it the Jewish Rhadhanites who brought the Chinese art of papermaking to the Western world and not the Arabs?
By Libi Astaire
One thing klezmer instruments usually had in common was their portability.
By Libi Astaire
Perhaps even more would have perished if not for the efforts of thousands of women who volunteered to help nurse the soldiers, including Clara Barton, who would later found the American Red Cross, and Louisa May Alcott, author of the Civil War-era classic Little Women.
By Libi Astaire
Even when the mob threatened to kill her children that were in the house, she refused to give them any information.
By Libi Astaire
Perhaps the biggest draw for the seminar’s attendees is having the opportunity to meet with Orthodox book publishers and representatives from the English-language magazines.
By Libi Astaire
What motivated these early "pioneers"? And what became of them and their efforts?
By Libi Astaire
The song only became popular with Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews much later, and it was eventually translated into Ladino, Arabic and other languages. But what is it doing in our haggadah?
By Libi Astaire
The year 1648 was supposed to have been a momentous one for the people of Israel.
By Libi Astaire
In fact, you can barely turn around in Krakow’s Jewish quarter without bumping into a legend of some sort.
By Libi Astaire
During the Middle Ages Girona was one of Europe's most important centers of Kabbalah.
By Libi Astaire
He held no public office. Indeed, he rarely left his room. Yet the Vilna Gaon, remains one of modern Jewry's most influential figures.
By Libi Astaire
SA and Hitler Youth members shattered the windows of 7,500 Jewish-owned shops (hence the name Kristallnacht, or Night of Shattered Glass) and the stores were looted.
By Libi Astaire
How did an unresolved murder case turn into an accusation of ritual murder?
By Libi Astaire
The pogroms of 1881-1884 were sparked by the assassination of Alexander II.
By Libi Astaire
It was modeled upon a similar fund that had been set up by Sephardic Jews in Venice. But Amsterdam’s Dotar was initially more ambitious in scope.
By Libi Astaire
After diamonds were discovered in South Africa in the mid-1800s, Antwerp regained its prominence as the diamond capital of the world.
By Libi Astaire
If the people lacked for material things, the Pale was spiritually rich.
By Libi Astaire
After the last of Austria's Jews were murdered, Albert confiscated whatever Jewish property remained.
By Libi Astaire
One of the earliest special Purims we have on record was celebrated by the Jews of Granada and Shmuel HaNagid, the eleventh-century rav, poet, soldier and statesman, and one of the most influential Jews in Muslim Spain.
By Libi Astaire
There were many French Jews who jumped at the chance to shed their ancient identity and assimilate.
By Libi Astaire
It was a land of opportunity, a place where someone who wasn’t afraid of a little hard work, or the challenges of adapting to a different climate and culture, could prosper.
By Libi Astaire
"There are no people on earth as foolish as you who deny the Living God."
By Libi Astaire
His entire life was dedicated to Torah and he became a pivotal figure in the transmittal of the Oral Torah to the next generation.
By Libi Astaire
The interpreter was expected to be a talmid chacham himself and be able to also offer explanations and clarifications to the students.
By Libi Astaire
"Rabi, if I make the flames hotter and remove the wool sponges from your heart, will you bring me to the World to Come?"
By Libi Astaire
In addition to his great erudition, Rabi Akiva was known for his optimism.
By Libi Astaire
This went on until she had immersed eighty times, and then Hashem at last took pity upon her.
By Libi Astaire
Woe to us that we have to be put to death like common heathen and murderers!
By Libi Astaire
Even though the Roman victory signaled the end of Jewish sovereignty, it did not mean the end of Torah Judaism.
June 21, 2026 
