Basque Country – Following The Converso Escape Route
Basque Country is a unique and fascinating region. It preserves its own language – not like any other, though it straddles both sides of the French-Spanish border. Located just west […]
Basque Country is a unique and fascinating region. It preserves its own language – not like any other, though it straddles both sides of the French-Spanish border. Located just west […]
The practice of newborn male circumcision is synonymous with Jews and Judaism. The Torah records that the commandment of this procedure was first directed at Abraham and his family. Since […]
During my recent swing through Europe, and my visits to the Spanish and Portuguese congregations of Amsterdam and London, I also visited the Portuguese synagogue of Paris, Temple Buffalt. I […]
To pray and teach at the Esnoga was extraordinary. The Esnoga and Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam are the things of lore. Ever since I began serving at Shearith Israel, […]
It is a humbling experience to walk into the library of the Ets Haim yeshiba. Surrounded by sefarim, many from the 17th century, one can only imagine the Torah immersion […]
Amsterdam means something quite different to me than it does to most other visitors, I suppose. When I think of Amsterdam, I immediately think of Portuguese Jewry, and how in […]
It is true that Christianity is inextricably tied to Judaism. Not only is this so historically, but also theologically, as in the Christian self-conception as ‘New Israel.’ This adoption, or […]
There is a custom on Purim to wear masks. The origins of this practice likely lies in the Christian celebration of Carnival, and its calendrical proximity to Purim. However, the […]
How I came to teach a class at Congregation Kol Beramah in Santa Fe, New Mexico is a story which kind of spans 400 years, but more personally, the past […]
Pharaoh is the first world leader to levy an accusation that scores of others have since made throughout Jewish history. Pharaoh declares that the Jews must be enslaved lest ‘when […]