Jewish History

The History of Yud-Tes Kislev. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad- Lubavitch Chasidism, was arrested, persecuted, and imprisoned in the year 1798 for his selfless efforts to strengthen the Jewish people and to disseminate Chasidic teachings. Rabbi Schneur Zalman's arrest imperiled not only his own life, but also the future of Chasidism.This book explores this noteworthy turning point in the Chasidic movement, and its importance as a milestone in Jewish History.

Through meticulously researched and stirring accounts — some well known and some chronicled here in book form for the first time — Doreen Rappaport brings to light the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. These resisters answered the genocidal madness and unspeakable depravity that was Hitler’s Holocaust with the greatest weapons of all — courage, ingenuity, the will to survive, and the resolve to save others or to die trying.

Lusius Quietus was the military commander responsible for helping quell one of the biggest rebellions in Roman history. The conflict was named the Kitos War, but how much do we know about it? The topic itself, much like other major Jewish revolts against Rome, is difficult to discuss due to the scarcity of historical evidence. But in this handy tome, you’ll learn some of the basics of the Kitos War. We have included facts and hypotheses constructed from available historical data found in scrolls, inscriptions, statues, and archaeological findings.

It's been 2,000 years after most Jews were exiled from Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, and two generations since the Holocaust led to the founding of modern Israel. Still, small yet resilient Jewish communities continue to endure and thrive around the world - sometimes in the most unlikely places, and often in the face of extreme persecution. Journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein has spent two years of her life uncovering the hidden beauty of these largely forgotten Jewish enclaves.

When Nazi occupiers arrived in Greece in 1941, it was the beginning of a horror that would reverberate through generations. In the city of Salonica (Thessaloniki), almost 50,000 Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps during the war, and only 2,000 returned. A Jewish doctor named Isaac Matarasso and his son escaped imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Nazis and joined the resistance. After the city’s liberation they returned to rebuild Salonica and, along with the other survivors, to grapple with the near-total destruction of their community.

As studio bosses, directors, and actors, Jews have been heavily involved in film history and vitally involved in all aspects of film production. Yet Jewish characters have been represented onscreen in stereotypical and disturbing ways, while Jews have also helped to produce some of the most troubling stereotypes of people of color in Hollywood film history. In Hollywood's Chosen People, leading scholars consider the complex relationship between Jews and the film industry.

A chronicle of the experiences of Sigmund Weiss as a teenager trying to survive during the turbulence of Hitler’s mad aggression towards Poland and the Jews. A story about an escape that was near impossible and totally unlikely without luck, courage, and miracles all happening together.

Peace between Arabs and Jews seems forever out of reach, both sides caught in a never-ending cycle of violence and revenge. But while treaties and other top-down solutions have had little lasting effect, peacemakers on the ground are creating real change - within themselves and with their enemies. In Bridges Across an Impossible Divide, American professor Marc Gopin offers an unprecedented exploration of the spiritual lives of Arab and Jewish peacemakers who have evolved deep friendships despite decades of war and suffering on all sides.

In autumn 1942, Anna Goldenberg's great-grandparents and one of their sons are deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Hans, their elder son, survives by hiding in an apartment in the middle of Nazi-controlled Vienna. But this is no Anne Frank-like existence; teenage Hans passes time in the municipal library and buys standing-room tickets to the Vienna State Opera. Hans never sees his family again. Goldenberg reconstructs this unique story in magnificent reportage.

Based on the true story of the French villagers in WWII who saved thousands of Jews, this novel tells how a group of young teenagers stood up for what is right. Among them is a young Jewish boy who learns to forge documents to save his mother and later goes on to save hundreds of lives with his skills. There is also a girl who overcomes her fear to carry messages for the Resistance. And a boy who smuggles people into Switzerland. But there is always the threat that they will be caught. As the knot tightens, the young people must race against time to bring their friends to safety.

On June 6, 1944, Werner T. Angress parachuted down from a C-47 into German-occupied France with the 82nd Airborne Division. Nine days later, he was captured behind enemy lines and, concealing his identity as a German-born Jew, became a prisoner of war. Eventually, he was freed by US forces, rejoined the fight, and participated in the liberation of a concentration camp. Although he was an American soldier, less than 10 years before he had been an enthusiastically patriotic German-Jewish boy. Rejected and threatened by the Nazi regime, the Angress family fled....

In the eighth century, a debate between Sergius the Stylite and a Jew occurred. The discussion was conveniently titled Debate against a Jew. It records arguments about the relevance of biblical texts to Christians and the Jewish people. The anti-Jewish perspectives of Sergius are not surprising. The response given by his Jewish interlocutor is, however. The Jew noted that he was surprised by the number of Christians who attended his synagogue, contributed to it, and celebrated various Jewish holidays alongside Jews.

Anything But Yes is the true story of a young woman's struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts.

They Forgot to Tell Me I Was Jewish is the story of acclaimed jazz pianist Les Horan, born in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. They Forgot to Tell Me I Was Jewish begins with a montage of Les' early memories: When his family is hiding in an underground bunker, he thinks they're camping in the woods. When Hungarian soldiers, under the impression that he's a girl, take him on a picnic, he has no idea of the danger he's in. It would appeal to listeners who want to learn about the effects of the Holocaust, postwar anti-Semitism bound in a uniquely personal memoir.

From the creators of the smash hit play comes the ultimate audiobook of Jewish humor, a hysterical guide to Judaism that explores all of the religion's stereotypes, history, and shameless guilt trips.

Doing gymnastics, Ágnes Keleti feels free—until the day her coach tells her there's a new law in Hungary barring Jewish athletes from the gym. Once Germany sends soldiers into Budapest, they are impossible to ignore and Ágnes hatches a plan. With identity papers from a Christian woman, she goes into hiding in a small farming village. She does housework for a family who support the Nazis, but she never stops dreaming of the day she will be able to compete at the Olympics.

A young American author immerses herself in modern Jewish Hungary. The 21 stories she shares will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want to be your own best self. Somehow I Am Different provides an opportunity to connect in a world that otherwise begs us to stand alone. This book serves as a reminder that in spite of the factors working against us, we have the power to make a difference.

One of the most common assumptions about World War II is that the Jews did not actively or effectively resist their own extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In this powerful book, Benjamin Ginsberg convincingly argues that the Jews not only resisted the Germans but actually played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The question, he contends, is not whether the Jews fought but where and by what means.

Jeune Juif persécuté à Paris sous l'occupation allemande, le héros de ce roman se retrouve en Israël après la Guerre des Six Jours, citoyen d'un pays devenu à son tour occupant de territoires arabes. David, que les souffrances de sa jeunesse ont profondément marqué, ne peut s'empêcher de réfléchir au destin d'un peuple condamné autrefois par sa faiblesse à endurer les humiliations et les tortures, condamné aujourd'hui par ses victoires à glisser vers le rôle de l'oppresseur, peut-être un jour du bourreau.

This true story begins long ago in Spain, where a bride and groom are gifted a hand-painted haggadah. It is used at many Passover seders until the Spanish Inquisition when the family escapes. The haggadah survived for centuries in different countries. Scholars declared it a treasure. To protect it from the Nazis, a curator smuggled it out of a Sarajevo museum and hid it in a village mosque. On Passover of 1995, with bombs exploding overhead, the Bosnian president brought out the book from an underground vault to show the world that it was safe.