Jewish History

A fascinating look at one of the most famous illustrated manuscripts of Tanach.

A fascinating look at how some Second Temple texts fell in and out of favor.

How an early Hebrew dictionary influenced Rashi's Biblical commentary.

Glimpses into the lost world of Judeo-Arabic thought and literature.

Professor Schiffman showcases a variety of items that showcase the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible.

What is the status of an individual forcibly converted to Islam according to Maimonides?

The Manuscript known as Huntigton 80

2000 years of Jewish history in under an hour!

The daily lives and affairs of the Jewish community of Sudan.

An inside view of the Temple. Where on Temple Mount was it built? Was the Temple Mount always as large as it is today? How many gates were there?

What attracts 2 million people yearly to this site?

How recent excavations in the city of Oxford, England, point ot the existence of Jewish residents.

A look at the history of this prayer as told through manuscripts held in the Bodleian Libary, Oxford, and in the Cario Geniza collection held at Cambridge.

Does Rashi lean toward Midrashik and Talmudic interpretation? Or does he attempt to uncover the simple reading of Esther?

How the Book of Esther set the tone for the Jews in Exile

What do ancient inscriptions tell us about ancient synagogues and communities?

How and why Isaac Israeli's 'Yesod Olam' (Toledo 1310) underwent textual changes.

The tragic story of the Iraqi Jewish Community: how an ancient community was destroyed.

Judith Olszowy-Schlange traces the history of the oldest complete manuscript of the Babylonian Talmud, completed in 1342.

The key to understanding the Kabbalah of the middle ages, though the lens of Nachmandies' commentary on the Pentateuch.

Exploring the Ramchal's life, his conception of creation, and his belief in societal perfection.

A detailed analysis of the famous 13th-century mikveh in Friedberg Germany, and other medieval mikvaot, looking at the architecture, and attempting to answer the question, why were they dug so deep?

The importance and uniqueness of Jewish education. How the Mishnah, arranged by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, shaped generations of Jewish children.

Assessing the context of the biblical corpus through the lens of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A close look at the composition of a typical study hall during the early Mishnaic period. Looking for clues in the Kaufmann Manuscript of the fifth chapter of Ethics of Our Fathers.

A fascinating look at the manuscripts of Rashi found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Drawing conclusions from variations in the text.

A look at the development of this iconic prayer based on manuscripts housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, one of the largest collections of Hebraic manuscripts in the world.

The Jewish moral code and the reason for the destruction of the Second Holy Temple.

An illuminating look at the Regenburg Pentateuch from 14th century Germany, housed in the Israel museum, Jerusalem, Israel.

Benjamin Wright takes an in depth look at manuscripts of Ben Sira's Sirach from the Cairo Genizah and part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the caves at Qumran.

Textual analysis of fascinating manuscripts housed in Oxford's Bodleian Library, some written in Maimonides' own hand.

The interplay of positivity and negativity in the context of Jewish history and Sefirat Haomer.

A case study of how the close analysis of manuscripts yields new insights into the intellectual, social and cultural history of Chabad.

The reinvention of the Hebrew language in Europe and Israel in the mid 19th to early 20th centuries.

How a Tsarist ban on Hasidic books encouraged a boom in the dissemination of handwritten texts. Insights from a Hasidic manuscript collection in the Moses Gaster Collection of the John Rylands Library.

An interesting look at early manuscripts of the Megillah of Esther and its commentaries housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

A fascinating look at the philanthropic work of the Montefiore couple. How their engagement with a wide range of Jewish communities strengthened their religious commitment.

The perceived conflict between legitimate Torah knowledge and secular knowledge and culture has often figured as a point of controversy around the publication of biographies of rabbinic figures. Following the work of historian Prof. Immanuel Etkes, Dr. Naftali Loewenthal argues that this black and white perception was not shared by rabbis in the pre-enlightenment era. Within this context he appraises recent biographical works on the Rebbe, culminating with "Early Years: The formative years of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, as told by documents and archival data, 1902-1929" by Boruch Oberlander and Elkanah Shmotkin.

A third generation Jerusalemite tells of life in Jerusalem and his personal experience liberating the Jewish quarter during the opening days of the war.

How thievery unwittingly led to a renewed interest in French Jewish History.

500 years after the Venice Ghetto was first established, scholars explore the intellectual, legal, and cultural history and legacy of the Jews of Venice and Italy.

Tracing the postwar history of Yiddish publishing in the Soviet Union, describing the infamous purge of Yiddish writers in the early 50's and the subsequent revival in the late 50's. Looking particularly at the history of the Journal 'סאוועטיש היימלאנד' (Soviet Homeland) launched in 1961, and ran until 1991, reappearing in 1993 under the title 'די אידישע גאס' (The Jewish Street.)

Dr Yossi Stepansky recounts the history of two important cities in Israel through fascinating archaeological finds.

Tracing the history and possible usage of the 'Bodleian bowl', discovered in a moat in Norfolk, east England in 1696. Examining the meaning of its Hebrew inscription and its connection to the famed Tosafist Rabbi Yechiel of Paris and his son Yosef.

Precious little is known of the tremendous devotion and self-sacrifice of Chabad activists in upholding Judaism against the oppressive Communists’ ruthless stamping out of religion. Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie shares fascinating insights and anecdotes to illustrate the clandestine and heroic activities of the Chabad underground that ultimately laid the foundation for the phenomenal rebirth of Jewish life in Russia today.

At a time when Jews were forbidden from living in England, Shakespeare's portrayal of a Jew is shaped by complex influences, and reaches beyond stereotypical prejudices in subtle and surprising ways.

From the very beginning, the presence of the Jews in England would have been dependent on the express protection of the king. This shaped their legal status in ways both good and bad, and ultimately paved the way for their expulsion.

The Magna Carta was the result of a standoff between King John of England and his barons in 12th century England. The special status of the Jewish community as property of the king was a factor in the tensions that led to the standoff, and is reflected in the charter itself.

The many small distinctions between different manuscripts of two medieval Jewish works on the calendar and mathematics testify to the scribe's role in shaping the transmission of these texts.

In the world of ancient archaeology, there are many competeing interests and not everything is always as it seems.

A few fragments, scattered across centuries of history and different geographic locations, are all that is left of the ancient scripts from which today's Hebrew Alphabet (ketav ashuri) emerged.

Beginning with the Norwich libel of 1144, the blood libel was repeated again and again, becoming a classic model of strategic propaganda. How did this model emerge and what are the components that contribute to its success?

One of the most poignant moments of the High-Holiday prayers is the recital of the liturgical poem, Unessanneh Tokef. What is its significance? Who composed it, and under what circumstances?

One of the worlds oldest prayer books, housed in an Oxford library, provides new insight into the history of Jewish prayer.

Over many centuries changing political and economic realities brought several distinct waves of Jewish emigrants to China, their impact was international and their history reverberates until today.

Though the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is technically under Israeli sovereignty. But due to the complex history of the site's status under international and Israeli law, and also due to Jewish legal (i.e. halachic) considerations, access to Jews remains severely restricted.

For the last few hundred years Jews have not faced overt persecution or anti-Semitism. Though welcomed into society, the casual stigmatization they faced often forced them to abandon their unique identity as Jews. While individual Jews prospered in England, Judaism and the Jewish community has fared less well.

The founder of Chabad was imprisoned by the Tsar in 1798 and 1801, but yet took a patriotic stance in the war of 1812. In Soviet Russia, intense persecution forced Chabad underground and its center eventually moved to the United States. Nevertheless, Chabad retained a strong active and ideological connection, which has again come to the fore with the fall of the Iron-Curtain.

In the late Second Temple era, the Pharisees upheld the oral law and practiced the customs handed down by tradition, but the Sadducees held that Jews should only adhere to a strict literalist interpolation of the Law of Moses. Professor Martin Goodman explores the degree to which these two factions did or did not tolerate one another. ("The Isaac Meyers Memorial Lecture")

A history of synagogues in the Second Temple period in Northern Israel as presented by an archeologist who has excavated many of the sites of these synagogues.

Former President of the Central Council for Jews in Germany and Holocaust Survivor, Dr. Charlotte Knobloch, describes the current state of the German Jewish community, its past and where it is heading.

In the debate about science and religion, there are radical camps on both sides. However, various Jewish approaches, suggest Professor Cantor, have historically transcended both extremes.

Professor of Yiddish studies Shlomo Berger presents three famous historical examples of how the Torah was translated into Yiddish in Eastern Europe throughout the centuries.

How Nazi propaganda in the 1920s and 1930s distorted passages from the Talmud to vilify Jews and Judaism.

Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, chief rabbi of the Netherlands, describes the rich history of the Jewish people in his native country from medieval times until the present day.

A qualitative study on Jewish identity in contemporary Britain concludes that Jews of all backgrounds relate to the idea of being persecuted. Can this self-concept be positively channeled?

Director of the Chabad Society at Oxford University, Rabbi Eli Brackman, discusses the Oxford library's treasured manuscript of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and what makes it unique.

Archeologist, Yonatan Adler, tackles a medieval rabbinic debate about the proper arrangement of the parchments within tefillin by comparing these opinions to actual 2,000-year-old phylacteries found in Qumran.

An expert gives specific examples of amazing discoveries from the Cairo Genizah, a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo in 1896.

The rapid disappearance of ancient Jewish communities throughout the Middle East that has occurred in modern times.

How Jews were integral to braking the Nazi codes.

What was Rashi trying to accomplish with his commentary on the Torah?