Jewish history

‘Extra, extra!’ New book brings ancient Talmudic texts to life for readers of all ages - review

The Talmud Chronicles: Bringing Talmudic Events to Life covers significant historical events from around 100-200 CE and breathes life into characters from the Talmud.

|ByMARION FISCHEL
'The Talmud Chronicles.'
Oscar Levis, known early in his career as “Chick Levy,” and later as “Oscal,” was celebrated as the premier pitcher in Panama before joining the Cuban Stars and Hilldale Daisies in the Negro Leagues.

The discovery of a Jewish Negro League star forces a rewrite of Jewish baseball history

Oscar Levis was one of the finest pitchers of his era. He was Black and he was Jewish. And for a century, baseball didn’t have the categories to say so.

|ByZACHARY KRANC/JTA
On Febuary 7, 1964, two enormous trucks carrying the 1,800 stained and tightly packed scrolls arrived in London...

Saved from Nazi-occupied Prague, thousands of Torah scrolls find new life through a Satmar scribe

A Satmar scribe and a Reform synagogue joined forces to restore 1,564 Torah scrolls rescued from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

|ByZALMAN EISENSTOCK
The National Museum of American Jewish History is closed to the public due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on March 17, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Jewish American history museum moves closer to joining Smithsonian amid political tensions

Jewish history could gain a more prominent place in the Smithsonian as a congressional commission considers adding Philadelphia's Weitzman Museum to the national network.

|ByANDREW LAPIN/JTA

This week in Jewish history: Yearning for Zion

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

DECEMBER 20, 2025BySTEVEN DRUCKER
PORTRAIT OF Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber, from The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1920.

Prophet Zechariah: Not by might nor power, but by spirit

These words are a declaration of faith and a clear-cut explanation of Jewish survival.

DECEMBER 19, 2025ByMICHAEL FREUND
Mourners accompany the body of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, on December 14.

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

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

DECEMBER 15, 2025BySIVAN RAHAV MEIR
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?

DECEMBER 12, 2025ByRUTH MESSINGER, JTA
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.

DECEMBER 10, 2025ByHERBERT LEVINE/JTA
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.

DECEMBER 7, 2025ByURI PILICHOWSKI
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.

DECEMBER 3, 2025ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
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.

NOVEMBER 30, 2025ByASHLEY PERRY
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.

NOVEMBER 26, 2025ByREUTERS
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.

NOVEMBER 22, 2025BySTEVEN DRUCKER
ETHIOPIAN IMMIGRANTS upon their arrival at an absorption center in Ashkelon, 1984.