Tuesday, May 28, 2019 7PM
Instructor: By Michael Chighel
The historian Arnold J. Toynbee called Judaism a “fossil civilization.” Was he just an anti-Semite? Or there some truth to his statement? Was it meant as an insult? And even if it was, could it not also be taken as a compliment? In this video lesson, we take up the second half of Jewish history—from 70 CE until today—the “painful” and “boring” half. The half full of massacres and pogroms, and of Jewish scholars scribbling by candlelight. But wait. Is this half really so “boring”? Or is there something wrong with our historiography? Against the background of Emancipation, Haskalah, Assimilation and Zionism, we offer a Chassidic approach to history.
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