Memorial Lecture for the Great Saul Lieberman in New York

I would greatly appreciate if anyone attending this lecture can tape and upload it.

The Significance of Given Names in Tanach, Part 1

When did the Jewish practice of naming children after someone (In the Ashkenazic tradition only after someone who is deceased and in the Sephardic tradition children are often named after living relatives) begin?

The practice seemed to have been instituted in Judea sometime between the years 500- 300 BCE (perhaps as a result of Hellenic or Persian influence?). Before that period, children were named after a significant event or occurrence in the life of the parent(e.g. Moses naming his son Gershom, ger- stranger, sham- there, to signify his sojourn in a foreign land). However we do see certain unique given names repeated in Tanach. Some examples include Gad, Eleazar, Saul etc.[1].

But the name that captured my greatest interest is Menasheh/Manasseh. In Genesis 41, Joseph’s wife Osnat, daughter of Potifera, gives birth to two sons. Joseph is said to have named the firstborn Menashe, (etymologically derived from the Hebrew word “nasha” which means to forget and it was commemorating the fact that Joseph “forgot his troubles”), and the younger one he named Ephraim (etymologically derived from the Hebrew word “poriah” which means to be fruitful).

I would venture to say that it is entirely possible- if not probable- that Menashe and Ephraim were in fact Egyptian names and not Hebrew. Joseph himself was not known to the Egyptians as Joseph but rather by his Egyptian name tzofnat paneach[2]. Firstly, why would Joseph give his sons Hebrew names? It seems unlikely he would burden his children with something that would be nothing less than a handicap for them; Egyptians were not known to be too friendly to foreigners and jealously guarded their own culture. Not to mention the fact that Joseph was the viceroy of Egypt! Why would the viceroy of Egypt give his children Hebrew names? (Imagine the taunts they would have received from their Egyptian playmates). Wouldn’t that serve to delegitimize his claim to the throne? After all, Joseph is a Hebrew foreigner. Would he really want to remind the Egyptians of his “lowly” (at least according to the Egyptians—“ki cherpa hi lanu..”) origins?

Let us take a look at a similar example of a name whose etymological root is given as Hebrew but is more likely Egyptian, namely Moses. In Exodus 10, he is said to have been named Moses by the daughter of Phaaroh, “ki min hamyaim meshitihu” literally because he was pulled from the water. The obvious problem with this explanation is how could Pharaoh's daughter have known the Hebrew language? and even if she did, why would she give him a Hebrew name? An additional problem lies in the fact that we don’t see the word masha (as in pulling), anywhere else in tanach (other than one obscure passage in Psalms 17: yamsheini mimayim rabim).

Therefore a much more logical explanation would be the one given by Ibn Ezra (and many other commentators) on the verse in Exodus, namely that Moshe was in fact an Egyptian name [3].

Egyptian meaning of the name Manasseh

Thomas Kelly Cheyne, John Sutherland Black in Encyclopædia Biblica cite the possibility that Manasseh is in fact a combination of two names of Egytpian deities deities: Men and Sa. Or perhaps Sa is used in this context to mean “son of” i.e. son of Men. Another possibility is that Manasseh is derived from Menes, a common Egyptian name (Menes is considered to be the first king of a unified Egypt).

Mannaseh King of Judah

Now let us for a minute turn to a different Manasseh, not Joseph’s son but rather the son of Hezekiah King of Judah (687 – 642 BCE). Although he reigned for a quite a long time, relatively little information is revealed about him in Tanach. What is clearly apparent from the Biblical account however is that he was wicked and an idol worshipper.

What struck me most about him is the fact that his is a pretty unique name in Tanach (see comment 1) . Why did Menashe’s righteous father Hezekiah give his son this name? Was it to commemorate forgetting something (as in Joseph’s case) or was it something more significant?

In order to attempt to answer this question let us for a moment take a look at the Talmud in Berkahot 10a. The Talmud relates that Isaiah the Prophet went to tell Hezekiah that he was going to die (the narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24, and Isaiah 38:1) because he (Hezekiah) deliberately did not have children. This was on account of the fact that Hezekiah had seen prophetically that his child would be an idolator and therefore he preferred not to have children.

Isaiah told him he was required to fulfil the biblical commandment of "be fruitful and multiply" and not outguess God about what the future would bring. Isaiah then suggested perhaps if his own daughter married Hezekiah in the merit of righteous parents their children would also be righteous. Hezekiah agreed and Isaiah's daughter bore him Manasseh who was an idolator and later murdered his grandfather Isaiah.

Forgive me if this sounds overly casuistic but a thought struck me when I read that. Perhaps, as Hezekiah shuddered to bring a child into a world awash in idol worship, he thought back to a time when another Hebrew monarch, at different time and place was faced with a similar dilemma. Joseph in Egypt, living in a land full of idol worship, surely had second thoughts about having children. Yet he did have children and not only did they not grow up to become idol worshippers but they have since become the prototype of “good children”. To this day fathers bless their sons with the blessing that the Patriarch Jacob gave to the sons of Joseph יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלֹהִים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה, "May God make you like Efraim and Menashe" (Genesis 48). Perhaps Hezekiah seized upon the name as a sort of “segula” (lucky charm) that his son may turn out righteous after all . And in fact, we see (in 2 Chr. 33:11-13) that Manasseh did repent during the end of his life. There is even an Apocryphal book “the Prayer of Manasseh” that commemorates this event (see here).

I also came across an interesting verse in Judges 18 that seems to link Moses and Manasseh. There we find mention of a priest, closely associated with an idol worshipping cult called pesel micha. His name is given as Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe. However the "נ" in Menashe is superscripted, which does not occur elsewhere in the Tanach. The correct reading is probably Moshe and Rashi and other sages suspected as much, arguing that the name was changed to Manasseh to avoid embarrasing his grandfather Moses. So here again we have illustrious ancestors and wayward idol-worshipping children ( I would also add that Moshe, like Menashe [the first] is raised in the king's palace in an atmosphere permeated with idol worship. Yet he too, like Menashe, is steadfast in his monotheism).

The Strange Cases of Menashe in the Bible

While researching the name Manasseh in the Bible, I noticed the strange themes and undercurrents surrounding the name. Francesca Stavrakopoulou in King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice points out the infrequency of the name Manasseh in the Bible and also mentions the possibility of an "anti-Manasseh polemic in the Hebrew Bible"; whenever Manasseh is mentioned there is the theme of idol worship or "gentile ways" present. The first would be the idol-worshipping priest Yehonatan ben Gershom ben Menashe (with Menashe substituting for Moshe), the second would be King Menashe and the third Menashe is mentioned in Ezra as having been chastised by Ezra for marrying foreign wives. The switching of order between the firstborn Manasseh and the younger Ephraim by Jacob is also explained by Stavrakopolou as part of “an anti-Manasseh polemic pervading the Hebrew Bible”. I would also add King Jehu of Israel who is said to be of the tribe of Menashe פסיקתא רבתי פרק ג (probably because of the peculiar name of his supposed father Nimshi, which sounds similar to Menashe). Yehu is the only Israelite King who instituted major reforms in the religion of the Northern Kingdom and made an initial effort to stamp out idol-worship (מלכים א יט:טז-יז, מלכים ב ט-י, דברי הימים ב כב ) before he himself succumbed to it.

There is also another Menashe mentioned in Antiquities by Josephus who left the Jerusalem Temple and joined the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim.

Other Opinions as to Why Hezekiah Named his Son Menashe

Some Bible scholars opine that Hezekiah's naming of his only son, Manasseh, was meant as a good will gesture toward the northern tribal kingdom (who were ruled chiefly by kings of Manasseh and Ephraim) "What could better show the desire to let all past offences and discord be forgotten than give the heir to his throne the name in which one of their tribes exulted" Hezekiah wanted to "to take advantage of the overthrow of the rival kingdom by Shalmaneser and the anarchy in which the provinces had been left, to gather round him the remnant of the population... it was at least partially succesful, divers from Asher Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover" [5].


NOTES:

[1]. However, I have noticed one case in Tanach where someone was named after a dead ancestor, albeit with a slight variation: one of Cain's descendants was apparently named after him, namely תּוּבַל קַיִן (בראשית ד:כב, thus indicating that the general practice of naming sons after dead ancestors and relatives may be much older than I previously thought.

While the names of the three patriarchs are not repeated anwhere in Tanach, some of the names of the 12 sons of Jacob are:

There is a Bohan son of Reuben in Joshua 15, a Shimon in Ezra 10, There are four Judahs in Nehemiah and one in Ezra, There is a Isaachar son of Oved Edom in Chronicles I, 26, A prophet named Gad mentioned in Samuel and in Chronicles, a Yigal son of Joseph mentioned in Numbers 13, a Asaf son of Joseph mentioned in Chronicles I, 25 and two more Josephs, one in Ezra and one in Nehemiah respectively It seems that the Jewish practice of naming sons after famous Biblical figures only became widespread during the second temple period. Thus we see many personages in the books of Ezra and Nehemia with very familiar Biblical names.

[2]. See an interesting discussion here on the possible meaning(s) of that name.


[3]. Heres a rundown of the different opinions as to the origin of the name Moses, the majority of whom posit an Egyptian origin of some sort: Strongs's concordance gives the name Moses as from the Egyptian mes ses.

In Egyptian the name "Moses" means mes (birth) ses (protect) so named by Pharaoh's daughter after she had pulled the infant from the banks of the river. (Shemot Rabbah 1:26, Chasidah p.345) Further, Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea, which also shows deliverance out of water. Josephus also cites this etymology.

Some medieval Jewish scholars had suggested that Moses' actual name was the Egyptian translation of "to draw out", and that it was translated into Hebrew, either by the Bible, or by Moses himself later in his lifetime.

Some modern scholars had suggested that the daughter of the pharaoh might have derived his name from the Egyptian name element mose, which means "son" or "formed of" or "has provided"; for example, "Thutmose" means "son of Thoth", and Rameses means "Ra has provided (a son)".

According to Islamic tradition, his name, Mūsā, is derived from two Egyptian words: Mū which means water and shā meaning tree (or reeds), in reference to the fact that the basket in which the infant Moses floated came to rest by trees close to Pharaoh's residence. A growing number of critical scholars believe that Moses actually had a full Egyptian name, consisting of the root word -mose and the name of a god (similar to Rameses), but the name of the god was later dropped, either when he assimilated into Hebrew culture or by later scribes who were dismayed that their greatest prophet had such an Egyptian name

[4]. The Prophet Isaiah’s martyrdom at the hands of Menasseh is referred to in both ancient Jewish and Christian texts. In addition to the account in Berkahot, it is also mentioned in a Christian apocryphal work called “Lives of the Prophets” and in “the Martyrdom of Isaiah” which has been preserved in part in the Christian work “the Ascension of Isaiah”.

[5]. Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature By John McClintock, James Strong

See also How the Bible Became a Book by William M. Schniedewind

The Difference Between Sephardim and Nusach Sefard

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760) known as the "Baal Shem Tov" founded the Chassidic movement in Eastern Europe and began spreading his teachings in circa 1734 . One of the results of this movement was the practical application of Kabalistic concepts and ideas into daily Jewish ritual. If until then most Eastern European Jews followed the (generally non-Kabbalistic) customs and traditions that they inherited from their Western European forbears (known as Minhag Ashkenaz), Chassidut now felt that Kabbalah should be dominant. One of the results of this was the complete change of Nusach (prayer liturgy) from the Ashkenazic tradition to the Sephardic one. The reason for this change was because the Chassidim felt that the Sephardic liturgy was more Kabbalistically oriented and therefore superior. This radical change was accompanied by much controversy and was one of the leading complaints against them by their opponents (known as the Mitnagdim).

To be sure, the Chassidim did not adopt the Sephardic nusach in its entirety, but rather modified the existing Ashkenazic nusach and incorporated within it many Lurianic formulae (the master Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria known as the ARI, was himself part Sephardic and part Ashkenazic, however he was raised and studied in a purely Sephardic milieu. In essence, it can be claimed that the preeminent figure in the Chassidic movement is not the Baal Shem Tov, but in fact it is Rabbi Isaac Luria).

To confuse matters even more, different versions of this new hybrid called "Nusach Sefard" abounded. Various Chassidic groups have different versions of it. The founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (pictured third from top) was the first to publish a new prayer book "according to the rite of the Arizal", known as "Nusach Ari". However, as mentioned, his version was not accepted by all Chassidim as in fact being that of the Arizal.

In some parts of Eastern Europe, Orthodox Jews sometimes used the term Sephardic to distinguish themselves from their less traditional coreligionists. In Hungary, the election of a moderate religious Zionist to the post of Chief Rabbi of Cluj, Transylvania (better known as Klausenberg) in 1878 precipitated the establishment of a newly formed “Sephardic” community in that city. The group consisted of about one hundred Chassidic families who decided that they could no longer remain subject to the authority of a Zionist Rabbi. The term “Sephardic community” was a sort of legal fiction designed to gain the recognition of the secular authorities that would recognize only one Orthodox community within a given town or district. The only “Sephardic” aspect of the community was that they recited prayers in “nusach sefard.” [1]

There were also many Ashkenazic Jews in Eastern Europe who adopted the Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew because they felt it was the correct one, but we'll leave that for a different post.

A CHASSID OR A SEPHARDI?

The portrait (second from top) of Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Falk (1710-1782), (I mentioned this enigmatic figure before in a previous post) known as the "Baal Shem of London" is often confused with that of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov and founder of the Chassidic movement.

An indication of the confusion that the misuse of the term “Sephardic” often engenders can be seen from the following example.

Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Rabbi Dr. Hertz Adler in his fascinating biographical sketch [2] of Rabbi Falk writes that Falk referred to himself in his personal book as “the son of Raphael the Sefardi”. However Adler is quick to point out that the term “Sephardi” in this case does not necessarily denote Iberian origins but rather refers to the (then) newly emerging sect of Chassidim who were often called “Sephardim” or “Anshei Sfard” because they prayed in a modified Sephardic rite. In a later republishing of the same article, Adler provides more clues as to the origins of Falk. This time no mention of his possible Chassidic connection is made. Adler merely wonders, “It is unclear why and how he (Raphael the Sephardi) received this appellation (Sephardi). Had he immigrated from Spain or Portugal?” and adds that “Falk's Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew may have been due to his parentage”. Additional evidence seems to bear this out. In the comment on that passage, Adler writes that Falk gives his name in his commonplace book as חיים שמואל יעקב דפאלק מרדיולה לנידו (Chaim Shmuel Yaakov d’falk Mardiola Laniado) and wonders whether he might possibly be related to the Laniados, a Sephardic family that settled in Italy and the Middle East. The answer seems to be in the affirmative.

Falk’s Sephardic ancestry is also briefly mentioned in the recently published Mibaal Shed L’baal Shem (translation mine) “it seems that his father Rabbi Joshua Refael the Sephardi was a descendant of Marranos who arrived in Poland in the 16th century and retuned openly to Judaism. Additional information on Falk’s family is unknown”. [3]

So it can be stated with assurance that the portrait which is purportedly that of the Baal Shem Tov is in fact not the Baal Shem Tov at all, but rather a Polish Kabbalist of Sephardic origin.

Another possible indication of how the conflation of the terms "sephardim" and "nusach sefard" can lead to assumptions and erroneous information can be seen from the case of the Bitterman family of Hrubieszow, Poland. The Bittermans had an oral tradition of Sephardic descent, however recent genetic testing has shown that the family falls within a large group of Ashkenazic families who have no tradition of Sephardic ancestry. The administrator of the Bitterman family website therefore concludes that “It is quite possible that Biterman ancestors were not Sephardim but rather part of a Nusach Sephard congregations, in the region where Hassidism developed” see here

AUTHENTIC SEPHARDIC CONGREGATIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE

(The following is a brief synopsis of a subject that is dealt with in much more detail in my upcoming paper).

However, there were authentic Sephardic congregations in Eastern Europe. Dr. Moshe Montalto, a Sephardic Physician who settled in Poland in the 17th century built a Synagogue in Lublin where the congregants prayed in the Sephardic (Spanish-Portuguese) rite. In Zamocz too, a Synagogue (pictured first from top) was established by Sephardic Jews who settled there in the 16th century and was still called the "Sephardic Synagogue" up until World War II, long after the descendants of the original Sephardic founder assimilated into the Ashkenazi community or moved out.

In Krakow, the historic capital of Poland, a community of Sephardic Jews, who arrived in Poland via Italy, maintained a separate existence until the middle of the 17th century. They kept their own traditions, including praying in the Sephardic rite and only marrying among themselves.

In Lithuania too, authentic Sephardic congregations existed. Shlomo Katzav in his booklet "Hasefardim be'eretz Lita" lists Sephardic congregations in places like Otian, Biraz, Dolhinov, Heidozishok, Vilkomir and Kopishok. Katzav lists several congregations with the name "Alsheikh" (in Horodna and Shavel, which probably indicate eastern origins). There are also two "Alfas" (indicating origins in Fez, Morocco) congregations, one in Tabarig and one in Lida.

Arthur Menton in The Book of Destiny: Toledot Charlap mentions one Lithuanian town whose Jewish community seems to have been founded by Sephardic emigres, namely Vilkaviskis (Vilkovishk). The community kept accurate records and as recently as 1920, a massive tome containing information about 400 years of Jewish life in Vilkaviskis was cited by several researchers. The book was unofrtunately lost or destroyed in the decades after World War I.

The book indicated that a Jewish settlement existed here at the beginning of the 16th century...Princess Bora Sforges made a gift of lumber to the community to build prayer houses and the copper domed synagogue known to its last days as "the old shul". Its ark... housed the profusely embellished Sefer Torahs which originated in Spain.

In Budapest, Hungary there once existed both a Sephardic and Mizrachi synagogue (the former composed of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish refugees and the latter composed of Syrian Jews who settled in the city). As their numbers decreased, gradually their seperate minyan folded up everywhere and those who remained joined the Ashkenazi minyan (a process that was repeated all across Eastern Europe). [4]

NOTES:

[1]. For the background and more information about the reasons behind the secession see http://www.dorrevii.org/. I am indebted to David Glasner (a descendant of Rabbi Moses Glasner) for this inormation.

[2]. The article is available in its entirety online here

[3]. See Oron, Michal. Mibaal Shed l’baal Shem (Hebrew). Mossad Bialik, (Tel Aviv, 2002). p. 29.

I was surprised to find descendants of Rabbi Falk in present day England, searching for their roots on this website. Unfortunately, up until the present moment, I was unsuccessful in intiating contact with them.

[4]. See Jewish Budapest; Monument, Rites History

Other parts of Hungary and Transylvania (not to mention Romania) also had Sephardi and Mizrachi populations. In Bekeczaba, Hungary, many Jews had a tradition they were descended from Mizrachi Jews who came from the region of Armenia. Recent genetic testing has vindicated this claim. More about this in a future post.

Calahora, a remarkable Sephardic family in Poland

What is the connection between a city in Spain, two Jewish martyrs, a moralist Rabbi, and a Socialist activist?

My upcoming paper (now over 30 pages and counting) explores the history and genealogy of Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe. It is a subject that I find fascinating and I believe is woefully unexplored.

In the course of my research I stumbled across a remarkable family -about whom I will cite here only several tidbits- namely the Kalahora/Calahora family of Poland.

Dr. Solomon Kalahora, Personal Physician to the Polish Monarch Sygmund August(1520-1572) and his successor King Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), was a Sephardic Jew (in some sources a converso/anus) who settled in Cracow, Poland in the 16th century[1]. Though the Kalahoras (The name would later undergo many variations and changes including: Kolhari, Kolchor, Kolchory, Kalifari, Calaforra, Kalvari, Landsberg Posner, Zweigenbaul, Rabowsky, Olschwitz and Misky) had come to Poland from Italy, the family name was based on the name of the Spanish town of Calahorra from where the family originated.

Of the Patriarch Solomon’s six children, Moses continued the family branch in Cracow, and Israel Samuel (1560-1640), the Rabbi of Lenchista founded the Poznan branch. One of Israel Samuel’s sons was Matityahu Calahora(pictured, third from top), who according to the contemporary Polish historian, Kochowski was a “well-known physician with an extensive practice in Christian and even clerical circles”. Matityahu’s life came to a violent end when he became embroiled in a religious dispute with a Dominican friar named Havlin. The Russian- Jewish historian Simon Dubnow describes the event, disturbing in its sheer brutality:

The priest invited Calahora to a disputation in the cloister, but the Jew declined, promising to expound his views in writing. A few days later the priest found on his chair in the church a statement written in German and containing a violent arraignment of the cult of the Immaculate Virgin. It is not impossible that the statement was composed and placed in the church by an adherent of the "Reformation or the Arian heresy" both of which were then the object of persecution in Poland. However, the Dominican decided that Calahora was the author, and brought the charge of blasphemy against him. The Court of the Royal Castle cross-examined the defendant under torture, without being able to obtain a confession. Wit- nesses testified that Calahora was not even able to write German. Being a native of Italy, he used the Italian language in his conversations with the Dominican. In spite of all this evidence, the unfortunate Calahora was sentenced to be burned at the stake. The alarmed Jewish community raised a protest, and the case was accordingly transferred to the highest court in Piotrkov. The accused was sent in chains to Piotrkov, together with the plaintiff and the witnesses. But the arch-Catholic tribunal confirmed the verdict of the lower court, ordering that the sentence be executed in the following barbarous sequence: first the lips of the " blasphemer " to be cut off ; next his hand that had held the fateful statement to be burned; then the tongue, which had spoken against the Christian religion, to be excised ; finally the body to be burned at the stake, and the ashes of the victim to be loaded into a cannon and discharged into the air. This cannibal ceremonial was faithfully carried out on December 13, 1663, on the market place of Piotrkov. For two centuries the Jews of Cracow followed the custom of reciting, on the fourteenth of Kislev, in the old synagogue of that city, a memorial prayer for the soul of the martyr Calahora. [2]

Matityahu’s son Michael and his two grandsons were also notable physicians in Poland. Matityahu's brother, Solomon Calahora married the daughter of the Posen physician, Judah de Lima (another Sephardic family that settled in Poland, of whom we shall talk more later).

One of Solomon's sons was Joseph (1601-1696), also known as Joseph Darshan (literally, preacher) of Poznan who authored a popular work on ethical and moral obligations, Yesod Yosef , published in Frankfurt, in 1679 (pictured first from top). Joseph's son, Arye Leib Kalifari, a preacher in Posen was the founder of the Landsberg and Posner families. Arye Leib became the second member of this family to be martyred when he was arrested and tortured by the Catholic authorities in 1735 in the course of a blood libel. Heinrich Graetz describes the event in his History of the Jews:

Adalbert Yablonowitz, a son of a prominent citzizen disappeared from his home and his mutilated body was found in a village near Posen. The Christian population of Posen....at once charged the Jews with the crime. The majority of the Jews of Posen-fearing violence- fled for their lives. The preacher, Aryeh Leib; the communal representative Jacob ben Pinhas and 2 parnasim Isaac and Hertz were seized and thrown in prison. The preacher and the representative were tortured and died in prison (Arye Leib rebuffed an offer to spare his life if he converted--J.D.) . The trial of the parnasim and 5 other prominent Jews dragged on for nearly 4 years when a foreign community, Vienna, it seems, procured an able advocate who succeeded in proving the innocence of the acccused and the latter were released in 1740. [3]

Aryeh Leib's great-grandson, Solomon Posner (1780-1863) was the author of a family chronicle, Toar Penei Shlomo.

Stanislaw Posner(pictured, fourth from top), pseudonym: Henryk Bezmaski(1868-1930) was a grandson of the aforementioned Solomon Posner and a Polish socialist activist, senator, lawyer and publicist. He also authored Poland as an Independent Economic Unit. See more about him here.

Notes:

[1]. Calahora was only one of a number of Jewish physicians who settled in Poland at that time. Other notable personages include: Samuel de Lima, Samuel bar Meshulam, Shlomo Ashkenazy, the brothers Levi-Lieberman Fortis Ostila, and Moses Montalto.

[2]. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland by Semen Markovich Dubnow

[3]. Popular History of the Jews by Heinrich Graetz. p. 284

I'm back (and better?) after a long hiatus

I apologize for being away for so long. Alot has changed for me over the past couple of months. I am currently residing on the west coast and teaching history at a local High School. Thank God, things are great here.

I am currently hard at work on an article of mine that explores the history of Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe. I have decided to devote more time writing comprehensive papers rather than continuing to do what i used to do, posting little snippets and teasers. Wishing all my loyal readers and fans a Shavua tov u'mvurechet.

English translation of Tzvi Zohar's review of the Artscroll Aleppo book

"And Artscroll Created Aleppo in its Own Image": The Positioning of Aleppo as a Holy Ultra-Orthodox Community in Aleppo, City of Scholars

By: Zvi Zohar

Translated from the Hebrew by Inbal Karo

Read it here in word format.

A blog worth checking out

The Orthodox Freelancers Guild blog discusses Jewish history and politics with a particular focus on American Orthodox Jewish history. See his latest post on the late Rabbi Soloveitchik and the Agudath Israel of America.