Some of my students are working on a project entitled “The US and the Holocaust”. They have decided to start in 1933. This dates coincides with the arrival of Hitler to power and they intend to deal with what happened to the Jews from then on in Germany. For instance, they’ll menti...

By the age of seven, Séraphine Louis Maillart 1864-1942) was already an orphan. She lived for six years with her older sister then, like most girls from poor families at the time, got a job as a servant. She worked in a convent then for different families in the town of Senlis. One of the people sh...

The Rosenstrasse today: the building in which the detainees were held no longer exists. A rose colored Litfaß column commemorates the event. This book is a fascinating account of one of the most successful protests during the Nazi regime. When the Jewish partnerss in mixed-marriages were taken away...

Teaching seems enjoyable to outsiders since we are in contact with young people a lot or because of the holidays we get . As regards the holidays, I think we need them so as to erase the “hard disk” and forget all the horrible experiences we have had during the previous weeks. Concerning...

Guillaume Ribot wished to be a singer, he became a photographer. He now specializes in photographing the Holocaust, or rather how he can convey what the Holocaust was. For five years now he has traveled with Patrick Desbois, the author of The Holocaust by Bullets . He has photographed Ukranian peasa...

  This day is a half-day fast (dawn to dusk) in Judaism. The Mishnah lists five catastrophes that befell the Jewish people on this date: - Moses descended from meeting God and receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai, saw the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf, and broke the two stone tablets God had given...

Frumsatire remembers how wearing different yarmulkes elicited different responses. - Shimshonit acknowledges that judging others favorably is not straightforward and so gives practical advice on how to improve. While you’re at it, don’t hesitate to read her other posts. - Daniel Saunders...

Jeremiah by Michelangelo. In numerous Western languages, the term “prophet” is often misunderstood and thus misused. Mostly it refers to someone who is able to make predictions. In Hebrew, however, the term navi means a spokesperson. Our tradition distinguishes between two categories of ...

Jewish Ethics did not start with Pirkei Avot; its very essence is inscribed in the Torah (or Chumash - the five books of Moses). - Thus in the first chapter of Bershit, we read that man was created “in the image of God” (Bereshit 1:27). Some commentators have understood this “phras...

In Relevance , a book on Pirkei Avot for the twenty-first century, Rabbi Dan Roth choses to focus on 24 mishnayot (paragraphs or verses) rather than explain all of them. In a chapter entitled “Beyond Is the Chicken Kosher?“, he focuses on the personnal connection each Jew should develop ...