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Historical research indicates that there were Jews in ancient Ethiopia, but their unknown origin and history has inspired many varying theories. The debate among researchers focuses mainly on the quality of the ethnic affiliation between those ancient Jews and the Jews who were first documented in the 9th-Century writings of Eldad HaDani and in Ethiopian sources in the 14th-Century. The Jewish community in Ethiopia, Beta Israel, cites various traditions as to their origins. One tradition maintains that Jews arrived in Ethiopia in waves, mainly via the Nile and its tributaries. Other traditions associate the Jews’ arrival in Ethiopia with the[…]

That Gaza is a hotbed of fundamentalist religion is nothing new. Throughout history, the city has attracted zealous believers, inflamed with high-voltage messianism and a burning passion to save humanity from its earthly suffering. From the time of Samson – who uprooted the gates of the Philistine city in a fit of sacred rage – to Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif, who strive in the name of jihad to turn the whole world into Dar al-Harb. Messianism and zealotry are certainly not foreign to any religion, and Judaism also had its share of would-be messiahs, false prophets and eccentrics who[…]

While Isaiah Berlin was on his deathbed, Oxford University dean Roy Jenkins asked if he wanted the traditional memorial service in London’s iconic Westminster Abbey afforded to the kingdom’s celebrated figures. Berlin barked, “Hell no. I’m gonna have it in the Hampstead Synagogue.” The British Isle’s best and brightest gathered in the Orthodox Hampstead Synagogue a few days later to escort Berlin to his final reward. A colorful mosaic of Jews and non-Jews, women and men, aristocrats and public figures attended the service. Honored Lords wore kippot, and Ladies vied for space in the women’s galley. The ancient words of[…]

During the second season of Israel’s “Master Chef,” contenders were asked to cook a meal for someone close to their heart. One of them, Emanuel Rosenzweig, dedicated his meal to his grandfather Franz Rosenzweig, the renowned philosopher whom he sadly never had the privilege to meet. The studio fell silent. The judges – whose menus rarely feature spiritual sustenance – exchanged awkward glances. “Who is Franz Rosenzweig?” they wondered.  The other competitors looked at Emanuel with inquiring eyes. Chances are the viewers at home also lacked a clue as to who he was. It is truly hard to imagine anything[…]

By: Itamar Kremer What would you say is the most Jewish food? Well, this is a tough one. For some, there is nothing on earth like grandma Genia’s Gefilte Fish, for others, it’s grandpa Ezra’s Kibbeh, yet others will swear by aunt Margalit’s Kubaneh, whereas if you ask Israeli young kids, they will probably rule that Bamba rules. However, for members of the second-largest Jewish community in the world – the Jewry of the United States – there is no argument that bagel was, is, and shall ever be the most Jewish food. How did it win the title? Well,[…]

Itamar Kremer On February 11, 1954, IDF spokesman released a brief laconic message: “21 years old private Nathan Elbaz sacrificed his life in order to prevent a catastrophic loss of lives of his friends, while a grenade exploded. The deceased soldier has no address, and no relatives to announce his death to”. However, Nathan Elbaz (born on October 17, 1932 – 87 years ago), did have an address. When he came to Israel from Sefrou, near Fez in Morocco, he left behind his parents, who eventually received the letter with the sad news of their son’s heroic death, along with[…]

It happened in November 1919, almost one whole century ago. World War I was over, the Versailles treaty was signed in Europe, and the Russian civil war was raging, between the reds and the whites – supporters of the old Czarist regime. Jewish refugees from all across Europe, including those deported from Palestine by the Turks, gathered in Odessa, on the shores of the Black Sea. The leadership of the Odessa Committee, formerly Chibat Zion, applied for refugee status papers on behalf of the Eretz Israeli refugees, in which the applicants were required to prove their knowledge about their homeland.[…]

Growing up as a religious boy in Haifa during the 1990s, I used to argue with a secular boy my age, a sharp clever kid called Baruch, named so by his father, a Math Professor in the Technion, who was an enthusiastic fan of the greatest Jewish heretic ever – Baruch Spinoza. I can still remember the passionate theological arguments between Baruch and me. Our budding intellectual Eros; the strong motivation to refute one another’s case, and how each time it ended with the neighbors shouting at us to keep it down, and the two us abandoning the loud debate[…]

“Fart Proudly” (also titled “A Letter to a Royal Academy About Farting”, and in some cases “To the Royal Academy of Farting”) is an essay published in 1781 by Benjamin Franklin, who served as the American ambassador to France at the time, about the study of wind passing. Franklin published the essay as a response to an invitation he had received from the Brussel’s Royal Academy. Resenting everything about the European academic sphere’s pomposity, pretentiousness, and narcissism, he composed a sarcastic work in which he suggested to specify funds for studying ways to improve the smell of human farts, in[…]