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On Yom Kippur Minha’s Haftarah, in the synagogue (this year also in yards and balconies all over) it is customary to read a short, somewhat odd story, only 48 verses long, of which the protagonist is one prophet called Jonah. In the beginning of Jonah’s story, he is ordered by God to speak to the residents of the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, and warn them to correct their evil ways, that included everyday corruption, theft, social splits and moral decay. Jonah ignores the divine command. As far as he cares, the Nineveh people can go on making each other[…]

If there was a Jewish years hit parade, 1948 would have undoubtedly made it to the top. 2000 years of yearning and hopes, poems and prayers, persecutions, golden ages, then the horrifying epilogue of the holocaust have passed – then on one crucial moment on 5 Iyyar 1948, one short great man got on a small podium in Tel Aviv Rothschild street and declared the foundation of the state of Israel. By the time of the first Rosh Hashana, October 3rd 1948, the new state was just a baby – four and a half months old. Whereas other infants do[…]

Jewish-Polish history definitely had its tragic moment – but over centuries of strange co-existence there were moments of optimism too. Included stories of the Jews who were “Rulers of Poland”. Prominent historian Konstanty Gebert explores a collection of historical facts and myths. Abraham Prochownik After the gory but just death of Prince Popiel (9th century CE), eaten alive by mice after having poisoned his alleged rivals, Polish nobles assembled in Kruszwica to elect his successor. Unable to agree, they decided that whoever will be the first to cross the city gates next morning will be their ruler – and the[…]

“Though Rembrandt was not Jewish, we must consider him as “a Jew of honor”, for his love and empathy towards the Jews”, the national poet Bialik wrote in 1932, in a preface he contributed to the Jewish painter Leonid Pasternak’s book on the art of Rembrandt. Bialik also noted that “this gifted genius has miraculously grasped and seized the core of the Hebrew soul, like no other gentile painter has ever succeeded to do.” Bialik was not the only admirer of the outstanding Dutch painter. He is the most mentioned artist in Hebrew literature, referred to in stories by Agnon;[…]

Flames and confusion wrap America in the past three weeks. Flames – the result of a hideous murder followed by bloody riots in which hundreds of years of black discrimination, anger, and hate exploded like bursting steam; and confusion – didn’t a black man ended two terms as one of the most popular American presidents, only four years ago? Didn’t a popular series about a black kid who ended up a legendary basketball star and an American icon admired by whites and blacks, ended only last month? Amongst this riotous chaos, it seems that the forefathers’ promise for “Life, Liberty[…]

In the early 1990s, when commercial t.v. was first introduced in Israel, we finally learnt why we celebrate Shavuot. Cool creative copywriters brain stormed in their fancy agencies and fabricated for us the following story: 4,000 years ago, while crossing the Sinai desert on their way to the promised land, the Children of Israel suffered acute low levels of calcium, resulting in a variety of bones diseases, that made desert hiking almost impossible. God heard their cry and provided them with Manna, a substance made of wheat and honey, known for its curing qualities. To his disappointment though, they went[…]

Born in 1825, the German scholar Ferdinand Lassalle was a bright economist, advocate of the “Iron Law of Wages”, who was highly accomplished: one of the founders of the modern political party concept, of the leaders of the German labor movement, and founder of the SPD, the Social Democrat party in Germany. One unfortunate personal detail got in his way, though: he was circumcised. And to be circumcised in 19th century Germany was unforgiveable. Let us now “enjoy” this heartwarming description of Lassalle from 1862: “It is now clear, from both the shape of his head and the pattern of[…]

The Jewish community of Egypt flourished from the mid-19th century through the 1950s. Egypt’s increasing integration into international trade, particularly after the opening of the Suez Canal, attracted Jews from other parts of the world who settled in Egypt, manly in Cairo and Alexandria, alongside members of the veteran local Jewish community. Their arrival in Egypt coincides with the period when the use of surnames became widespread. An investigation into the meaning of the family names documented among the Jews of Egypt during modern times allows for a glimpse into the ancestry of their families and their country of origin[…]

Hereby is an alternative narrative of the biblical story of the Exodus, based on historical and archaeological findings, as well as Egyptian anti Jewish literature regarding the origin of the Jewish nation and the character of Moses. This alternative story relies on Prof. Israel Knohl’s fascinating book How the Bible Was Born. The first author to offer us a glimpse on the Egyptian Exodus story is the Egyptian Greek historian Manetho, who lived in Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period in the 3rd century B.C. Manetho reports that in the 17th century B.C., foreign invaders called the shepherds – Hyksos in[…]

Not only in these trying times, but in the 16th century, the Italian region was the site of a “fatal virus.” Catholic scholars knew the invader well. They “studied” it for 1,500 years, and knew how to identify it from more than two meters away. They heard the primal story for generations – from father to son and mother to daughter: How the devious “plague” – the Jewish People – murdered their ancient Father and Savior and left him bleeding to death on the cross. The Christian leaders did not admit it, but in their hearts, they knew that they[…]