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 […]
Upon visiting Portugal it isn’t generally apparent where significant moments transpired concerning Jews, unless someone shows them to you. That is mostly the case in Coimbra, too, where the Portuguese Inquisition […]
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 […]
I finally feel like the proverbial Jew. For the first time in my life I am an immigrant! All joking aside, Jews are accustomed to relocating, whether forced to do […]
This post will leave you stunned. I’ve returned to Portugal, this time with a group of 40 Jews from Israel and America. One place that we visited that was entirely […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Yosef saga concludes with the passing of his father, Ya’acob. Finally, we can see how the brothers really feel about each other without their worrying about how it will […]
As I walked Portugal’s medieval streets, and spoke to its people, I began to understand Portuguese Jewish history. I now ‘get’ the Portuguese Jews of long ago. I more fully […]
I ended my visit to Portugal in Lisbon, where Jewish life first resurfaced in Portugal during the early 19th century. Fittingly, I first went to see Portugal’s oldest remaining synagogue, […]