Jewish history

Apply for a Blog

Sheldon Kirshner

May 14, 2025, 11:34 PM

Confessions Of A Nazi Spy

Anatole Litvak's Confessions of a Nazi Spy, the first anti-Nazi feature film produced by a Hollywood studio, was released by Warner Bros. on May 6, 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. This taut espionage thriller stars...

May 14, 2025, 8:21 AM

What I Learned from the Founder of the Israel Day Parade

On Sunday, May 18, supporters of Israel will line Fifth Avenue to proudly celebrate the Jewish State. Today, the parade is the largest annual pro-Israel gathering in the diaspora. Historians trace its origins to 1965. But its story really...

May 13, 2025, 6:59 PM

An unanswered question

The eighth biblical portion of Leviticus, Emor, 21:1-24:23, the thirty-first of fifty-four portions, contains some enlightening and humane rules. But, it also leaves us with a question that has been asked for centuries without an adequate answer. In prior essays,...

Austin Reid Albanese

May 13, 2025, 6:45 PM

Massena Was More Than a Blood Libel

Author's Note: In recent years, Massena’s place in American Jewish memory has been revisited—often narrowly focused on the 1928 blood libel accusation. But few outlets, Jewish or otherwise, have examined the deeper civic and interfaith history that came before and after...

Audrey N. Glickman

May 12, 2025, 6:56 AM

2,000 Years Ago, Redux

2,000 Years Ago, Redux, artwork by Audrey N. Glickman. Used with permission.

Fellow Jews, we seem to be repeating the history of 2,000 years ago. The musical Jesus Christ Superstar takes place back then, a story about a bunch of Jews. I’ve produced the show, and I find it very Jewish, especially...

May 10, 2025, 10:31 PM

The Eternal Jew’s Tale, #186, Noah’s tale, 3

Night Watchmen; image colorized and modified by the author, from the public domain book Picturesque Palestine, published 1884, owned by the author.

In this episode, the illusionist work of a Greek carpenter. The Eternal Jew’s Tale Twenty Second Era, Part 2, 1492 C.E., Constantinople ...“Kuftee is here!”... Well, it don’t take long til Noah and Kleftees both realize words won’t work. ‘Come, come,’ Noah signals,...

May 9, 2025, 11:58 PM

Be Human: The Legacy of Margot Friedländer

Margot Friedländer. Photo: Michael Kuenne

Some people survive history. And then there are those rare souls who become it. The world has lost one of its last living bridges to the Shoah’s unfathomable abyss. Margot Friedländer passed away at 103. But make no mistake:...

May 9, 2025, 8:57 PM

The Yiddishe Momme

A story is told about the mother of the first Jewish President who receives a call inviting her to fly on Air Force One. She hangs up the phone, and her friend asks, “Who was that?” She replies, “You...

Sheldon Kirshner

May 9, 2025, 6:18 PM

Israeli And Palestinian Food Culture

Contemporary Israeli food is a fusion of diverse cuisines. Foreign conquerors, from the Greeks and the Romans to the Crusaders and the Ottomans, have swept through Israel, leaving behind gastronomic traces. But Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish immigrants, as well as Palestinian...

May 9, 2025, 6:03 PM

The Ghetto and the emergence from the Ghetto

During the 16th-18th centuries, many Jewish communities lived in conditions that separated them from non-Jews and were exclusive only to them. The phenomenon started for many reasons as towns sprung up over Western Europe, but the single main reason...

Load more