Jewish history

What honoring our parents teaches us about faith, logic, and Judaism

The mitzvah of honoring one's parents is not a narrow religious demand but a foundational moral duty.

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A STATUE of Deborah dated 1792 stands in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Parashat Beshalach's lessons on unity, shared risk, and IDF service

JOSEPH’S TOMB in Nablus.

Parashat Beshalach: The joy of ‘mitzvot’

 A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a sign, as they take part in a protest against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Turkey, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Istanbul, November 4, 2023.

Does history repeat itself? Recognizing the potential danger of modern antisemitism - opinion


Beyond the Headlines: First night of Hanukkah in Australia - opinion

A weekly glimpse into the Israel you won’t read about in the news

Rabbi Aharon Tzohar with Saba Shmuel.

This Hanukkah, my synagogue is illuminating our walls with relics of our Jewish immigrant stories

What better place to encourage people to learn and share their own immigrant history, digging out the details of who came when, from where and why?

An exhibition launching in December 2025 at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City celebrates congregants' family immigration stories.

Jews need new story of Hanukkah or risk losing next Jewish generation to disillusionment - opinion

It is time for a new Hanukkah, kind and compassionate, turning narrow nationalism into a universalist pursuit of the world to come promised by our prophets.

 An illustrative image of Hanukkah candles lit.

The struggle to perceive miracles in real time links Hanukkah’s origins to recent events - opinion

From the Maccabees to modern Israel, people miss miracles as they occur and grasp them only later.

The site of the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last year, in Beirut’s southern suburbs: Today’s Jews can’t perceive the miraculous nature of the events of the last two years, the writer maintains.

Greek textbooks discuss Judaism, Holocaust in detail, but fall short on antisemitism

Greek textbooks give limited attention to local Jewish history and contributions to Greek society. Even though they include Jewish history and misfortunes, the books leave antisemitism behind.

A slogan reading "Outside the Jewish Snakes" is written outside a Jewish synagoue in the central Greek town of Trikala, some 300 kilometers north of Athens, on December 31, 2019

Zionism beyond Europe: Restoring the Mizrahi narrative in Jewish education - opinion

Theodor Herzl stood on the shoulders of these pioneers, and his ideas for a Jewish state can be traced directly to them.

 Jewish girls at a school performance in Benghazi, Lybia.

AI opens vast trove of medieval Jewish records from the Cairo Geniza

The Cairo Geniza, the biggest collection of medieval Jewish documents in the world, has been the object of countless hours of study by scholars for more than a century.

A researcher of MiDRASH, a project dedicated to analysing the National Library of Israel’s digital database of all known Hebrew manuscripts using Machine Learning, including manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza, holds up a 12th century fragment of a Yom Kippur liturgy in Jerusalem November 24, 2025.

This month in Jewish history: Operation Moses, Hanukkah, and Spinoza

A highly abridged monthly version of Dust & Stars – Today in Jewish History.

ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANTS upon their arrival at an absorption center in Ashkelon, 1984.

Haaretz’s claims on brit milah: Separating fact from misconception - opinion

That this family continues to have a strong connection to our nation, history, and customs speaks to how brit milah – unchanged itself across millennia – continues to preserve the Jewish people.

THE WRITER, second from left, performs a circumcision in the presence of four generations, great-grandfather to newborn. Just as much as the Jewish people have continuously kept the commandment of circumcision, the practice has preserved our identity, he asserts.

Beyond the beaches and medieval walls: Discovering Jewish Rhodes

From airport signs, restaurant menus on buzzing streets, and business cards in Hebrew, an Israeli visitor can almost feel at home in Rhodes.

KAHAL SHALOM Synagogue.