יום חמישי, כ״ד תמוז תשפ״וThursday, July 9, 2026
Follow Us
Although he presented a supremely confident public face, Dewey was deeply concerned that the Regents would fire him. Accordingly, he and his two greatest supporters, Funk and Singer, commenced an ambitious campaign designed to skew the Regents’ decision in Dewey’s favor, focusing particularly on the Jewish community.
These calendars, printed in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, shed a bright light on the life in these unique communities and cultures and the language spoken by the Jews within, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish).
Halévy’s seminal work, La Juive (“The Jewess,”1835), essentially a “one-hit wonder” for him that became one of the cornerstones of the French repertory for a century, was one of the grandest of grand operas and included a formal ballet, major choruses, and spectacular processions and celebrations.
In the Shulchan Aruch, the Rema forbids marriage with Karaites, though historically, we have many records of Karaites rejoining the Rabbinate community and numerous rabbinical authorities have been recorded as allowing such marriages.
Dali was also influenced by his experiences in Spain, where Jewish culture has a long and complex history, and he may have been drawn to Jewish themes as a way to explore the intersection of different cultural traditions.
My introduction to this era was the purchase of a small celluloid pinback button which had a paper insert dated 1916 on the reverse.
This Letter was written by Rabbi Chaim Oizer Grodzinsky, dated 1938, a few months before his passing.
Innumerable bizarre theories are still floating around regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper, including one that identifies Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland)...
During Israel’s early years, the general public mostly accepted the Status Quo Agreement for several reasons, including that most Jews who were not observant were still generally traditional; there was broader interest in preserving unity in the young country...
While the provenance of this handwriting was good, having been owned and kept within the family of the Ruzhin/Sadigura rebbes, authenticating such handwriting can be a challenge, being that almost no handwriting of his is known.
The Federation also gave Jewish farmers more purchasing power by, among other things, launching a bureau that liberally granted credit to struggling farmers who needed assistance and offering reduced prices on essential goods to Jewish farmers in need, such as seeds and farming implements.
Other than the main subject of this sefer – brilliant commentary on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides – the volume's pages were filled by the author with various other content, which I found most fascinating.
She was particularly interested in whether the future of the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel would also affect the state of psychoanalysis, and whether the new ties to the land would cause the Berlin analysts in Eretz Yisrael to suddenly become landowners or even farmers.
Despite odds stacked against the work being written and published, it managed to survive and has become a classic in Torah commentary, being both brilliant and original in its content.
Any document from the Revolutionary War period relating to Jewish soldiers, particularly those killed or wounded for the cause, is truly extraordinary and monumentally rare, let alone one originally signed by Franklin.
Best known for his publication of many works of the Vilna Gaon, he was also the first to publish a Jewish edition of the Bible that was published by religious Jews and for religious Jews in Eretz Yisrael.
Apologists have engaged in all kinds of contortions to try to explain away Lawrence’s antisemitism.
The papal decree also shifted the center of Talmudic studies to Poland, where the Jews were still allowed to study Talmud and many of the classic commentaries on Talmud were written and printed here in this era.
LEHI characterized Bernadotte as a British and Arab puppet who threatened the establishment of a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River and, after gathering intelligence about his schedule and movements, it decided to assassinate him...
Reading through correspondence of great Jewish leaders of old never fails to inspire, though for me, the most exciting letters are the ones that are personal in nature and that deal with challenges of the communities they led.
Even after leaving office, Cleveland continued to stand up for the Jewish people.
While it is often compared to the Mishnah Berurah, as it served as the alternative to the Mishnah Berurah throughout the Sephardic world, it differs greatly both in structure and approach to halacha.
In honor of my grandson’s bar mitzvah, and in honor of what I hope and pray will be a long lifetime of his putting on tefillin every day, I have selected for this article some of my favorite bar mitzvah and tefillin items from my collection.
Despite thousands of years of exile and persecution of the Jewish people, the Tanach we have today is remarkably intact and precise and demonstrably the same text used by our ancestors thousands of years ago.
By feeding off upstanding English citizens, Stoker’s Dracula maintains the survival of his race, just as Jews newly arrived in Great Britain sustain themselves by usurping money and wealth through devious means, leaving their victims” dry.
This tome can thus serve as a study of the evolution of the Sephardic Hebrew script, so very different from those used by the Ashkenazi Jews in the nearby countries of Central Europe.
A word of caution to collectors of Bezalel: Beware of forgeries. Since prices for some Bezalel items began reaching five figures at auctions starting in the late 1990s, an entire industry of counterfeit Bezalel items has been created by the unscrupulous...
Interestingly, by accepting the Torah, the Jewish people took on 606 new mitzvot – there were already sheva mitzvot B’nei Noach (the seven commandments that had been given to non-Jews at the time of Noah) – and the name “Ruth” in Hebrew has the numerical value of 606.
The author had messianic ambitions and the book contained many prophecies and doomsday projections of what will befall world Jewry if they do not repent.
While Cardozo accepted membership in the Century Club, an elite and exclusive Washington club that discriminated against Jews – for which he was criticized by Felix Frankfurter, his later successor on the Supreme Court, and others – he also proudly joined the Judean Club.
During his time in office, Thant oversaw the entry into the UN of dozens of new Asian and African states, and he was a steadfast opponent of South African apartheid.
The document was written by the Noda Beyehuda, to his employers, the parnassim (community leaders) of Prague, confirming receipt for his salary as Chief Rabbi of the city.
Some critics suggest that the Frankenstein monster was named after Jacob Frank who, at the time that Shelley wrote her novel, was perhaps not only the dominant issue in the Jewish world of Eastern Europe but was very well known in non-Jewish circles as well.
Occasionally there are extraordinary purchases, which cause even an experienced bookseller to get emotional.
In fact, it was not Ben Gurion who came up with the phrase but, rather, he put forth the language that Beham had used in his draft weeks earlier before the politicians became involved in redrafting the document.
R. Tzvi Hirsch Katzenelebogen was born in to a wealthy family in Vilna, though a rabbi and associated with many of the greatest Orthodox rabbis of the day, he was also from the first to embrace Haskalah worldview.
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the enigmatic factory, which operates behind mammoth locked iron gates – and from where no one ever comes out – continuously belches pillars of smoke out into the air, an unmistakable analogy to Nazi crematoria.
For this column, I thought I would share some interesting items relating to Pesach that have appeared at auction, are in a museum, or are from my personal collection.
The Shadal’s beliefs, teaching, and writings were characterized by the strictest fidelity to halacha, and he was perhaps the fiercest critic of Jewish Science and higher Torah criticism.
At the end of Vayikra, several blank leaves were bound, containing eight handwritten pages, with a detailed report of the extreme weather conditions during the autumn and winter of the following years: 1839, 1842, 1844, 1847, 1850, 1852, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1860 and 1861.
R. Auerbach’s recognition of the State of Israel was so profound that he ascribed to it the term “The Kingdom of Israel,” a term which he applied broadly to a broad range of halachic issues, such as the definition of Eretz Yisrael.
At end of his writings in this volume, R. Guttentag writes in Hebrew "These comments were written in the city of Kolshek, in 1903, in my stay there for a few days while in hiding from the ambushing Russians who were searching for me to conscript me to the Army."
Freleng, who was self-taught and had no formal training in animation, began his incredible career at United Film Advancement Services at age 17, where he met a fellow animator who later introduced him to Walt Disney, who invited him to join the Disney Studio in California.
The Jews of Ponovezh were from the first to suffer. In the spring of 1915, the Germans had approached the Baltic coast, Zeimelis and Bauska. Nikolai Nikolaevich, the Tsar’s uncle, had to explain the defeat and he accused all Jews as being spies and expelled them all in 24 hours.
Carvalho’s broad public fame was not based entirely upon his critical role in the Dreyfus case, which was but one of the many famous cases in which he served as a graphology expert.
They were made in huge numbers – many tens of thousands – and as such, are easily found in the marketplace. Whether Russian or Latvian in origin, the value is the same: $150-$200 per cup.
The Jewish Agency has accepted upon itself the responsibility for the children of the diaspora, to bring them to Eretz Yisrael and settle them in Eretz Yisrael.
Beautiful flowers will grow in the garden, they are the Children of Israel. From the heat of the sun they will swim, from heaven’s dew they will bloom again!
His few months in Riga, from Dec 1939 to early 1940 when this letter was sent, found the Rebbe in the midst of a huge displacement of Jews and every attempt was made to ensure the escape of every person possible.
LBJ was an important initiator in providing American aid to Israel. As early as 1951, with Israel in desperate need of money and material to settle the massive influx of Jewish immigrants, he successfully lobbied the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for $150 million (equivalent to $1.66 billion in 2022 dollars) in support.
Omaha's relative isolation as a Jewish community allowed Rav Grodzinsky to focus more of his time on his writings, and in the ensuing decades, he wrote and published an impressive array of halakhic works.
Sabin’s interest in Eretz Yisrael began when he first traveled to the Middle East in 1943... The visit triggered his memories of his grandfather’s Torah stories about ancient Egypt and the Exodus and reawakened his Jewish feelings.
In 1939, escaping the Nazi invasion of Poland, Rav Baruch Ber, already in ill health, led the Yeshiva to the safe haven at the time of Vilna. Shortly after his arrival, he passed away, and tens of thousands attended his funeral in the main shul in Vilna.
Although most of the prominent Jews in colonial America were strong supporters of the colonialists and their struggle for independence, Hart was a conspicuous exception.
While demographic shifts and the rise of the internet has eradicated any Jewish book-row, this visitor log allowed me to recreate in my mind the world that was, and perhaps one day will be again.
Through his lawyer, Peter Zürcher, Lutz threatened SS commanders with war crime charges if the Jews of the Pest ghetto were not protected and, as a result, most of the 70,000 Jews of the Pest ghetto survived until the Russian Army liberated the city on January 18, 1945.
Despite its importance, the book was not reprinted from the 16th century until the latter half of the 20th century.
While most of the items offered sold within the estimates set by Sotheby’s, quite a few far surpassed them.
There is also evidence that Edison's financial legacy helped to fuel the Institute for Historical Review, a movement dedicated to denying that the Holocaust ever occurred.
Using the most modern method of recording, his recording device being the first such in the Holy Land, he found a group of Yemenite Jews to sing for him in return for payment.
Notwithstanding the tribunal’s strict imposition of restrictions on taking photographs... D’Addario proved to be incredibly prolific, as he took many thousands of amazingly sharp photographs in both monochrome and color.
By WWII, there were four synagogues – one still exists today – and a well maintained Jewish cemetery.
After considering various sites in the Caribbean to deport the Holocaust survivors, including British Honduras, and Trinidad, the British decided to transfer them to Mauritius.
R. Asher Anshel ben Mordecai Ashkenazi (1833-1901) was a grandson of the renowned R. Moses David Ashkenazi (c. 1780–1856) who was born in Galicia where his father Asher served as rabbi.
Perhaps inexplicably, Eliot voiced support for the State of Israel and increasingly viewed Judaism as a paradigm for the survival of diverse religious cultures in an increasingly secular world.
Flora Sassoon personally responded to all requests for financial assistance and helped to build a Jewish hospital in London in 1907.
When the German Army took Lublin during World War II, they stripped the interior and burned the vast library in the town square.
Goldberg, who successfully fought for a cease-fire that would not require Israeli withdrawal as a condition precedent to any peace agreement, recognized that Israel’s pre-1967 borders were all but indefensible as Auschwitz borders.
The issue Stybel encountered was crooked book dealers who were buying quantities in Poland at reduced rates and then selling them in the States at a reduced price relative to the price Stybel was attempting to sell it at.
Many critics consider 'Lincoln, the Man of the People' it to be the greatest poem ever written about the beloved and immortal president.
While the Malbim's fame rests on his commentary on the Bible, he was first and foremost a posek and defender of halacha against the many attacks it was facing from the Reform in his era.
Your little box was one of a number of pieces that made up an olivewood lap desk set, which included an ink blotter, ink well, and more, that was marketed to tourists visiting Jerusalem.
By Chana Ford
The idea is to slowly create an operating standard: approved batei din are ones which are transparent, which don’t allow for shady deals, and which recognize abusive behaviors when they present themselves.
Always a Zionist pragmatist, he played a leading role in the first Zionist Congresses, including serving as Hebrew Secretary of the First Congress (Basle, 1897) and as president of the Twentieth Congress (Zurich, 1937).
It was as Webster’s emissary to Berlin that Solomons visited the Jewish ward in a Frankfort Hospital and determined to raise funds to help found Mt. Sinai Hospital.
The Lodz Ghetto, the second largest after that of Warsaw was sealed off from the world on April 30, 1940, with the Jews and Roma locked within.
Wolf also made important contributions depicting the regional character of San Francisco at a time when it was becoming a sophisticated city and cultural center.
In Sansan Leyair published by the Hid"a first in 1794, a version of this prayer appears but from a man's perspective, of a man praying on his wife's behalf.
Every time Matatia and his wife come into Montreal, they go over the the Bauers’ Friday night – from Oneg Shabbat to Oneg Shabbat and, well, compare ties.
I have aggregated here a selection of such items, most relating to American and Israeli political leaders that I hope readers will enjoy.
He wished to return to Palestine but was unable to due to the outbreak of WWI. He decided instead to travel to the United States to raise money for the yishuv in Eretz Yisrael.
The book's theme is the Jewish star, the Magen David, and it features prominently on the cover and title page of the book.
When the Volozhin Yeshiva appointed the Netziv and Bais HaLevi as roshei yeshiva, Rav Dovid Luria (RADAL) was asked to be the first to sign the declaration of appointment.
Almost certainly because of Einstein’s reputation and prestige, McEwen took immediate action, the result of which was that Ehrmann was granted an exit visa to emigrate to the United States, where he arrived in New York via England on September 12, 1939, and was sworn in as an American citizen in 1945.
In the four years that I’ve had this column in The Jewish Press, my answer to your question will be, by far, the most helpful to readers of this column of any question I’ve ever been asked up until this point.
Despite being the highest paid chazzan in history at the time, Rosenblatt was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1925.
Wald asserted that Air Force data had ignored the thousands of bombers that had been unable to return to base because they’d been struck in other plane sections, including the engines, the cockpit, and the tail which, he maintained, are the very areas that must be more heavily armored.
This document was written on behalf of a shada"r, (i.e. shelucha d’rabanan – rabbinical agent), an emissary sent by the Safed community to procure funds for the Jewish community.
Rotta’s interventions not only resulted in saving Jewish lives on his own account, but he also facilitated and promoted the ability of others, including particularly Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz, to perform their heroic work.
Shatzkes would read the book to friends and it was very well received and became known in the circle of Jewish writers in Kiev.
Through his sharp wit, much of Offenbach’s work mocked the establishment, attacked political governance, and satirized societal norms, including parodies of traditional musical forms and specific works by other composers.
By Baruch Lytle
There’s no question there’s an international mashgiach shortage, not just in America but across the world, Dubin admitted.
The mission of Am Olam was to establish agricultural colonies in America and encourage Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia to move there and work the land.
July 3, 2026 
