BACKSTORY: Glückel of Hameln
Just as we are today preoccupied with making a living, raising a family and ensuring our children succeed, so too was Glückel of Hameln, born in 1646 near Hamburg, Germany
BACKSTORY: My three epiphanic inoculations
I imagine that most people have some epiphanies during their lifetime wherein they gain insight into something that may have been illusive prior to their sudden realization of its truth, or even its existence
BACKSTORY: The case of the unlikely Holocaust scholar
How did a secular Jew, who didn’t even know he was Jewish until he was 11, become the world’s authority on Auschwitz?
BACKSTORY: The enigmatic Franz von Papen and the crystal vase
No Weimer-era politician played a greater role in placing the crown of tyranny on the brows of Hitler than Franz von Papen
BACKSTORY: What will it take for a Muslim-Jewish Nostra Aetate?
Can the mostly violent model that has plagued Muslim-Jewish relations also be replaced with one of dialogue?
BACKSTORY: Slavery still exists and the UN is doing nothing about it
William Wilberforce, who paved the way for the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, found solace for his views in both the Old and New Testaments
BACKSTORY: Trump, Ford and ‘The International Jew’
Henry Ford, unlike Donald Trump, did not have the requisite “big” personality for the political arena, stage presence and ability to fend off his critics with insults. But the two do share an apparent affinity for bigotry
BACKSTORY: Sergei Eisenstein’s continuing legacy – Orwell to The Hobbit
Eisenstein was one of the towering Jewish minds of global cinematography, and his epitaph is projected on thousands of silver screens the world over to this day
BACKSTORY: Uriel Da Costa’s path off the derech
Similar to Baruch Spinoza, Uriel Da Costa’s first break with Judaism was also a matter of principle
BACKSTORY: Jews have faced BDS movement before
Looking at the history of boycotts and the Jewish people
