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During Sukkot, ushpizin – Aramaic for guests – are invited to the sukkah. According to the Jewish faith, the spirits of exalted ushpizin come to the sukkah on each day of the seven days of the holiday. One of them heads the ‘delegation’ and the others accompany him. The order of the ushpizin visits varies somewhat between Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are always the first three guests, and that protocol is not up for debate. But after them, the order of the visits of Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David can vary between the Ashkenazi custom which[…]

From 1502 to 1504, the Inquisition in Cordoba conducted an investigation against Juan de Cordoba Membreque, a judge and one of the city’s elders. Those titles were of no use to him when forced to contest a serious allegation that reflected the spirit of the time. He was accused of observing the “fast of the Jews” in his home and, to make matters worse, in the company of other people. The charges relied on testimony provided by a Muslim female servant who worked in the judge’s home. She testified that the master of the house and his guests bathed, put[…]

She had plenty of reasons not to go to Moscow. Israel was less than a month old, the War of Independence was raging, and she was in the middle of a fundraising campaign in the United States. She had left Kiev when it was still part of the Russian Empire. She was 8 years old when her family emigrated to the United States in search of livelihood and a new life. She didn’t even speak Russian. And, in general, there was finally an independent Jewish state and she wanted to be in Israel. On the other hand, she was an[…]

In the midst of the uproar surrounding the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that overturned a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, many have tried to assess what actual impact the Court’s decision will have. The optimistic interpretation offered by abortion opponents is that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will lead a reduction of about 20 percent in the number of abortions that are performed. But the invention that lowered the abortion rate most dramatically was the birth control pill. So, this time we will talk about three Jewish scientists who were among its inventors.[…]

In 2014, I went to Bosnia to do a story on the rescue of the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is one of the oldest Jewish books in the world. It was rescued by Muslim curators in two different wars – in the Second World War and in the war in the Balkans. The story was told to me by Enver Imamovic, who salvaged the Haggadah in the 1990’s. According to him, in World War II the librarian, Dr. Dervis Korkut, rescued it from the clutches of the Nazi criminal, Johann Hans Fortner, who was sent to Sarajevo to seize the Haggadah[…]

When and why did the matzos that we’re all familiar with become square-shaped? Seemingly, it’s easier to package them that way and perhaps even break off a piece if needed. But since when have convenience and logic characterized kashrut – Jewish dietary laws – or traditions associated with Jewish food? Therefore, it’s hard to disagree about one thing: when our forefathers left Egypt and their dough did not have enough time to rise, it definitely occurred during an attempt to bake pita bread. Pita bread was round, as were regular matzos for hundreds of years, and so are most of[…]

Rabbi Henry Sobel was a young rabbi in Sao Paulo, only 31 years old, when he was forced to make a decision that would define his life, and to a great degree would also impact the entire Brazilian nation. The year was 1975 and Sobel, the son of Jewish refugees who was born in Lisbon while his parents were fleeing the Second World War and were en route to New York, was in his fifth year as rabbi of a large Jewish congregation in Sao Paulo. And, then, the body of Vladimir Herzog was delivered to him for burial. Herzog,[…]

Herbert Pike Pease had no idea what had hit him and where it came from. He was at the height of his political career, initially as Darlington’s Liberal Unionist Party representative in the House of Commons. In those days, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Parliament was an island of stability in the stormy seas of British politics. After the title of 1st Baron Daryngton was created for him, he also served in the House of Lords. Following his retirement, which came after serving a total of 25 years in Parliament, his peerage was inherited by his son.[…]