History Crash Course #60: The Holocaust
While Nazi Germany systematically rounded up and executed Jews, the world closed its eyes and its doors. As we begin to discuss this most painful of subjects to the Jewish people, please keep in [...]
While Nazi Germany systematically rounded up and executed Jews, the world closed its eyes and its doors. As we begin to discuss this most painful of subjects to the Jewish people, please keep in [...]
Even in such civilized nations as France and the United States, anti-Semitism never died out. In this installment we will briefly examine the anti-Semitism that ― with the coming of the [...]
Jews gained untold riches in America, at the cost of their heritage and spirituality. When we last left off the Jews of America ― at the beginning of the 19th century ― there were only about [...]
Government-organized pogroms against the Jews deflected attention from the corrupt regime. It is arguable which of the Russian Czars was the worst to the Jews. We’ll start with Czar [...]
This area of Russia where Jews were most oppressed gave rise to amazing achievements. The Napoleonic Enlightenment, which emancipated the Jews of Western Europe, did not make it to Eastern Europe [...]
The amazing story of Jewish influence on the founding fathers of American democracy. The creation of the United States of America represented a unique
Germans emphasized their loyalty to the “fatherland” in order to be accepted in mainstream society. Author’s note: This section on the Reform Movement (and part 58) is meant as [...]
The Age of Reason gave Jews civil rights, but its emphasis on a Godless society was bound to backfire. The middle of the 17th century marked the end of the Renaissance. The new ideology that [...]
Initially a movement largely of the poor and uneducated, Hassidism emphasized spirituality in everyday life. The Hassidic movement ― the movement of the “pious ones” or Chassidut, in [...]
In the 16th century, the Israeli mountaintop town of Tzfat became the center of Jewish mysticism. In the past few installments, we have been relating the events in the history of the Jews that [...]