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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 625

Jewish history

Detail from a newspaper illustration of Nathaniel Isaacs's colony in Matakong. (Courtesy of Adam Rovner)
April 26, 2025, 8:26 am
How a 19th-century British Jew became a Zulu chieftain and slaveholding warlord
In new book ‘The Jew Who Would Be King,’ historian Adam Rovner tells the story of Nathaniel Isaacs, who survived a shipwreck and went on to a life of wealth, adventure and corruption
By Rich Tenorio
Adam LeBor, author of 'Last Days of Budapest.' (Courtesy Zoltan Tuba)
April 22, 2025, 2:38 am
New book portrays a chaotic Budapest just before the Holocaust reached Hungary
‘Last Days of Budapest’ by Adam LeBor features oblivious politicians, Zionist forgers, courageous diplomats and murderous priests in a sad but true history of the Hungarian capital
By Robert Philpot
Beniamin Levishvili, 23, is the gabbai of the ancient synagogue in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia. His late father Simon and grandfather Ioseb Levishvili held the position before him. (Sofia Poznansky)
April 18, 2025, 8:23 am
In Georgia, a 23-year-old maintains a venerable synagogue, the last remnant of his community
Soviet repression caused most Georgian Jews to flee, leaving behind a 2,500-year-old history whose memory is beginning to fade. In his village, one young man seeks to preserve it
By Sofia Poznansky
Streit's co-owners Aaron Gross, far left, and Aron Yagoda, far right, give two young visitors a tour of the matzah factory. (Courtesy Streit's via JTA)
April 11, 2025, 4:36 am
How your matzah gets made: A peek inside NY’s Streit’s factory
First opened in New York’s Lower East Side a century ago, the US bakery now supplies ritual Passover flat breads to seder tables as far away as Europe, South Africa and Israel
By Joseph Strauss
An illustration showing the boundaries of the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah in 928 BC, published by the Israel Arabic account on X on January 6, 2025. (Israel Arabic via X, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
January 8, 2025, 7:16 pm
‘Violation of international norms’: Biblical map of Israel sparks outrage from Jordan
Post from Israel Arabic account on X showing the borders of ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah denounced by Jordan, UAE for undermining Palestinian right to an independent state
By ToI Staff
The repurposed 1916 diary used by Charlotte Buchsbaum to document her life and the end of World War II. (Left image courtesy of Helaina Ferraoili. Center, right images screenshots via TikTok vi JTA)
December 19, 2024, 2:16 am
How a Jewish teen’s description of New York life in 1945 is going viral on TikTok
Charlotte Buchsbaum, who grew up in Brooklyn, wrote about going to bar mitzvahs, celebrating Passover and cheering the US victory over Japan. Now she has an audience of millions
By Jackie Hajdenberg
'Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down),' by painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. (Public domain via JTA)
December 1, 2024, 2:04 am
There are no Jewish fighters in ‘Gladiator II.’ But what about in ancient Rome?
‘It’s pretty clear from Josephus and from the archaeology’ that gladiators fought in Caesarea, says NYU professor; Israeli actors Lior Raz and Yuval Gonen among modern-day cast
By Luke Tress
'Why does the pig matter?' Jordan D. Rosenblum asks in his new book, 'Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig.' (Steve Evans/Wikimedia Commons)
October 14, 2024, 3:22 am
From snout to tail: New book tells 3,000-year-old story of Jews and the pig
While the ‘other thing’ is just as unkosher as oysters or cheeseburgers, the taboo around it practically delineates Judaism itself, Jordan D. Rosenblum argues in ‘Forbidden’
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
The Gateway Jewish Museum of Livingston charges roughly $.30 admission and also showcases Zambia's railroad history. (Harry Wall/JTA)
July 18, 2024, 6:17 am
A railway museum in Zambia offers a clue to the African country’s rich Jewish history
While almost no Jews live there today, the central African nation is still influenced by the community’s historic contributions — particularly as it expands medical infrastructure
By Harry D. Wall
Jeffrey Shandler, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, is the author of 'Homes of the Past: A Lost Jewish Museum.' (Etty Lassman; Indiana University Press via JTA)
July 9, 2024, 2:24 am
In the 1940s, Jewish scholars planned a museum about the world they were losing
A new book details how, like the Nova exhibit that was opened amid Oct. 7 fallout, a YIVO collection in NYC sought to commemorate European Jewry even before the Holocaust’s end
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Bettina Farack, a research fellow at the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem, speaks about the Library of Lost Books initiative during a launch event in Berlin in November 2023. (Courtesy Weiner Library via JTA)
July 6, 2024, 3:59 am
Amateur detectives invited to join search for lost Jewish library looted by Nazis
Researchers from the Leo Baeck Institute seek to virtually reunite 60,000 texts from the modern liberal Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin, destroyed in the Holocaust
By Shira Li Bartov
Books about Jews arriving and living in Shanghai in the late 1930s displayed at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited on May 7, 2013. (Peter Parks/AFP)
June 29, 2024, 7:12 am
How a Brooklyn dentist almost formed a Jewish homeland in pre-WW II China
Seeing a land free of antisemitism, Albert Einstein and Chinese leaders pushed plans to settle 100,000 Jews fleeing Nazis in Yunnan, the Himalayan foothills of China’s hinterland
By Harry Saunders
Rabbi Meir Shapiro sits in the library of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in a photograph taken between the yeshiva's opening in 1930 and his death in 1933. The fate of the yeshiva's library under the Nazis is a subject of mystery. (Courtesy Grodzka Gate-NN Theater Center)
May 6, 2024, 10:03 am
Thought to be destroyed by Nazis, books of the Lublin Yeshiva Library are turning up
Though story has it that the texts were burned in 1939, this is uncorroborated. Local Piotr Nazaruk has located and digitized 850 of them – the tip of the iceberg, he says
By Shira Li Bartov
Herod the Great, left, and the Second Temple. (Wikimedia Commons/iStock/Jerry Uomala)
March 31, 2024, 5:52 am
Temples, tantrums and tyranny: The peculiar legacy of Judean King Herod the Great
The 1st century BCE ruler played politics in Rome, lavishly rebuilt Judea, executed his own relatives out of paranoia, and is the subject of a new book by Prof. Martin Goodman
By Rich Tenorio
An illustrative picture of Israelites reading from a scroll. (iStock photos)
March 24, 2024, 10:52 am
How the Bible – and the Purim story – helped form a nation from an exiled people
In his bestseller ‘Why the Bible Began,’ theology Prof. Jacob L. Wright challenges conventional thought on the holy book’s history, positing that it was not all about religion
By Rich Tenorio
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