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 […]
Tag Archives: Marrano
Lekh Lekha – The Secret of Circumcision
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 […]
Temple Buffault – Paris
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 […]
Talmud Torah & The Esnoga – Amsterdam
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, […]
Ets Haim Library – Amsterdam
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
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 […]
Passover and The Living Law of Moses
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 […]
Purim and the Secret Esthers of Today
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 […]
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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 […]
Shemot – The Fifth Column Canard?
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 […]
Shalom Says Hello 