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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 429

Jewish history

'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
Interior of the Meir Tweig Synagogue in Baghdad, Iraq, on January 7, 2022. (Sabah ARAR / AFP)
February 21, 2024, 1:38 am
Search this new list of Jewish family names from across the Middle East
Former Israeli ambassador Jacob Rosen-Koenigsbuch might be Ashkenazi himself, but his meticulous lists of names from ancient Cairo to Baghdad have earned him the title of ‘genius’
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
Jon Bernthal and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in a scene from 'Origin.' (Array Filmworks/Neon via JTA)
January 26, 2024, 1:29 am
‘Origin’ story: How Ava DuVernay’s new movie connects the Holocaust, slavery and caste
Based on Isabel Wilkerson’s bestseller, the drama, now in theaters, includes a portrayal of the real-life author and uses historical recreations to capture the book’s cerebral tone
By Andrew Lapin
Holocaust survivor Naki Bega looks at her Auschwitz-Birkenau serial-number digits tattooed on her skin, as she poses at her daughter's home in Athens, Greece, on March 14, 2023. (Louisa GOULIAMAKI/AFP)
January 18, 2024, 12:06 pm
Hit book ‘Tattooist of Auschwitz’ being adapted for small screen
Creators of TV series, to air on Peacock in May, aim to authentically reproduce story of survivor Lali Sokolov, including by casting Jewish actors Harvey Keitel, Jonah Hauer-King
By Shira Bartov
The Association for Jewish Studies held its 55th annual conference in San Francisco, Dec. 16-20, 2023. (JTA photo)
December 22, 2023, 2:57 pm
What is antisemitism? At a US conference, scholars use archives as a guide and warning
The 55th Association for Jewish Studies conference was to focus on history — but the challenges facing Diaspora Jewry due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza couldn’t be ignored
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
A photo of the late Jewish Canadian-American author Saul Bellow used for the first-edition back cover of 'Herzog' in 1964. (Photo by Jeff Lowenthal, Published by Viking Press, Public Domain, Wikimedia)
December 22, 2023, 5:15 am
Florida district pulls many Jewish and Holocaust books from classroom libraries
Removed works include Saul Bellow’s ‘Herzog’ and ‘Black, White and Jewish’; no individual reasoning given for books’ removal
By Andrew Lapin
Film director Talia Finkel interviews Yifat Ben Shoshan, resident of Netiv HaAsara for the 'Edut 710' oral history initiative (Kobi Yonatan)
December 12, 2023, 7:25 am
National Library of Israel collecting all documentation of Hamas massacre and war
Institution for collective cultural memory of the State of Israel and the Jewish people meets the challenge of amassing material in real time while the events are being denied
By Renee Ghert-Zand
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