Jewish History

Judah Maccabee is no longer a youth, but a great warrior and the unchallenged leader of the Jewish People. He leads his people to victory after victory on the fields of battle and diplomacy, shocking the leaders of the mighty Seleucid Empire. Relentlessly, the armies of the empire are sent to crush the rebellion in Judea. They will do anything to eliminate the Maccabee army and suppress the Jewish faith. But although the Maccabees are massively outnumbered, they have no choice but to overcome their foes. They know that their defeat would be the end of the Jewish People.

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than 30 feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater. Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance. Among them are 14-year-old Molly McHugh.

In 11th-century France, Vigdis Adelaïs, a young woman from a prosperous Christian family, falls in love with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and yeshiva student. To be together, the couple must flee their city, and Vigdis must renounce her life of privilege and comfort. Pursued by her father’s knights and in constant danger of betrayal, the lovers embark on a dangerous journey to the south of France, only to find their brief happiness destroyed by the vicious wave of anti-Semitism sweeping through Europe with the onset of the First Crusade.

Relli, a Jewish girl in Poland, was denied a normal childhood. When Relli was just a baby, the Nazis occupied Poland and she, together with her parents, were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, a way station before death. Her parents correctly assessed the new situation and decided to act heroically in order to save their only child. They succeeded in smuggling her out of the Ghetto and entrusted her to a Gentile Polish couple who agreed to hide her for the duration of the war under a false identity.

Traditionally, American Jews have been broadly liberal in their political outlook; indeed African-Americans are the only ethnic group more likely to vote Democratic in US elections. Over the past half century, however, attitudes on one topic have stood in sharp contrast to this group's generally progressive stance: support for Israel. Despite Israel's record of militarism, illegal settlements, and human rights violations, American Jews have, stretching back to the 1960s, remained largely steadfast supporters of the Jewish 'homeland'.

The stunning story of the breathtaking journey of nine extraordinary men from Budapest to the New World, what they experienced along their dangerous route, and how they changed America and the world. In a style both personal and historically groundbreaking, acclaimed author Kati Marton (born in Budapest) tells the tale of their youth in Budapest's Golden Age of the early 20th century, their flight, and their lives of extraordinary accomplishment, danger, glamour, and poignancy.

In this stirring tale of the last days of the Temple at Jerusalem, robber bands and political infighting set the stage for the Roman destruction of the city in 70 A.D. In the face of overwhelming odds, John of Gamala does his best to save God's Temple, harassing Roman work parties, burning Roman camps, defending Jerusalem during the Roman siege, and even fighting Titus himself in hand-to-hand combat, forging a relationship with the Roman leader that lasts until after the war.

In 1937, the Shwartz family lived a calm life in their small village in Poland. Fifteen-year-old Rachel liked to sing and go out dancing at a local night club, while her older brother David was busy running a farm and raising a family with his wife Hinda. But all that changed when the war reached Butla. First, the Russians came and kicked them out of their house. Then, the Nazis came to cart them off. But the Shwartz family resisted. David decided that no matter what, his family would not be taken captive. Instead, he snuck his family out of their village and into Hungary.

Jankele Kuperblum was just nine years old when he returned home and found his family gone. The night before, Germans had come to his town in rural Poland and taken away all the Jews. Now alone in the world, he has to change his name, forget his language, and abandon his religion in order to survive. Jack wanders through Nazi-occupied Poland for four years, with no place to hide and no one to trust.

As a young adult in wartime Vienna, Georg Rauch helped his mother hide dozens of Jews from the Nazis behind false walls in their top-floor apartment and arrange for their safe transport out of the country. His family was among the few who worked underground to resist Nazi rule. Then came the day he was shipped out to fight on the eastern front as part of the German infantry—in spite of his having confessed his own Jewish ancestry.

There is one human mentioned in the Quran more than any other: Moses. Why is it that the Jewish prophet dominates the Islamic scripture? Because he is the role model for Muhammad, Islam's own prophet. Because Islam, just like Christianity, is deeply intertwined with Judaism-although surprisingly little attention has been given to this fascinating connection between the two religions. Author and journalist Mustafa Akyol takes listeners on a theological and historical walk through that much-neglected side of the Abrahamic triangle: the Judeo-Islamic tradition.

“Among the most lucid, authoritative accounts of Jewish culture in the English language. A work of impressive breadth, great intelligence and clarity.” —Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University "Jess Olson guides his readers through four thousand years of Jewish experience, his eye set firmly on the life of the Jewish people today. An “incisive insider” and master teacher, Olson’s A Quick Immersion in Jewish Culture? is a delightful entry point to all things Jewish." —Steven Fine, Churgin Professor of Jewish History...

History of Israel Israel is a unique country, and its history is a mere testament to that. This book’s aim is to track the history of Israel back to ancient times, the patriarchs, the exodus, the most influential Kings, as well as other critical events that inevitably marked its development. This is the story of a nation that fought hard to establish a country. It is the story of a nation that went through a rebirth process after living in diaspora for centuries. We are confident that you will find this book appealing if you want to expand your understanding of Israel and its history! Buy...

June 1942. The shadow of the Third Reich has fallen across the European continent. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. The resulting volunteers are a motley group of intellectuals, artists, and athletes, most from Germany and Austria. Many have been interned as enemy aliens and have lost their families, their homes - their whole worlds. They will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis.

On June 7th 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, as many on board have dreamt, but to Texas. The man who persuades the passengers to go is David Jochelmann, Rachel Cockerell's great-grandfather. It marks the beginning of the Galveston Movement, a forgotten moment in history when 10,000 Jews fled to Texas in the lead-up to WWI. The charismatic leader of the movement is Jochelmann's closest friend, Israel Zangwill, whose novels have made him famous across Europe and America.

Facing the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jewish survivors, community and religious leaders, and Allied soldiers viewed marriage between Jewish women and military personnel as a way to move forward after unspeakable loss. Proponents believed that these unions were more than just a ticket out of war-torn Europe: they would help the Jewish people repopulate after the attempted annihilation of European Jewry.

Edgar Bronfman's clarion call to a generation of secular, disaffected, and unaffiliated Jews, Why Be Jewish? addresses the most critical question confronting Judaism worldwide. Completed in December 2013, just weeks before he passed away, Why Be Jewish? expresses Edgar Bronfman's awe, respect, and deep love for his faith and heritage. Bronfman walks listeners through the major tenets and ideas in Jewish life, fleshing out their meanings and offering proof texts from the Jewish tradition.

There was not any one entity more central to the Yahwistic Judean religion during the monarchy than the temple of Solomon. It symbolized the presence of YHWH in the nation, as well as his enduring protection of the nation and the Davidic royal throne. Judean worshippers directed their prayers toward the Solomonic temple, and eventually, the Judean prophets and theologians declared that this was the only legitimate location where priests could perform sacrifices and other religious rites for YHWH.

Alexander Rosenberg was a smart and curious teenager who spoke many languages, and lived a pampered life with his parents in a tranquil Czechoslovakian town. The rise of fascism and Nazi Germany causes his protected existence to collapse, alongside the illusion of secular Jewish assimilation in 1930s Europe. Using their last reserves of wealth and influence to escape extermination, the Rosenbergs go underground to avoid the Gestapo. Eventually exposed, captured, and taken to Buchenwald, the largest concentration camp in Germany, Alexander and his father collaborate to survive one day at a time

In 2019 a small amulet was discovered in the excavation at Mt. Ebal which is in the Samaria Region of Israel. When the inscription on the amulet was deciphered, it was found to contain a ritual curse in Ancient Hebrew text. Further, it was dated by experts to approximately 1200 BCE, which makes it the oldest Israelite inscription found in the Land of Israel. This little metal object has raised big issues about the early history of Ancient Israel and the related portions of the Hebrew Bible. Much is currently being written about the finding, deciphering, dating and implications of the amulet...