Jewish History

blurred candles against a black background
Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah: The Remembrance of Many

Rabbi P.J. Schwartz
Yom HaShoah challenges the covenantal relationship between God and the Jewish people, forcing us to question God's presence in our lives, to struggle with the reality that our world remains filled with inequality, and to vow "Never again."
matzah for the Jewish holiday of Passover
Passover

The Origins of Matzah, Passover’s 4,450-Year-Old Food

Jenna Weissman Joselit
More often than not, the history of the Jews is one of upheaval rather than stability. It is the story of migration, change, renewal - and more change. And yet, through it all, one phenomenon has endured and held its own for millennia: a very humble food product fashioned from wheat, water, and salt which we know as matzah.
Jewish History

If You Will It

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser

If the idea of Israel as imagined by American Jews sometimes seems like a fantasy that could not ever exist in reality, there is a reason for it. In many way, this country was founded as an impossible dream.
Jewish History

The Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant

Jonathan D. Sarna
As a Union general, Grant expelled Jews from his war zone; as president of the United States of America, he set a new national tone that helped usher in a brief "golden age" in the history of the American Jewish community.