Jewish history

Documentary about Jews murdered after Nazi occupation threatened with ban in Poland

The Jews at the heart of Among Neighbors, from California-based filmmaker Yoav Potash, died six months after the end of Nazi occupation.

PELAGIA RADECKA, featured in "Among Neighbors," witnessed the postwar murder of five Jews as a 15-year-old girl.
 A person holds a placard during a demonstration against antisemitism, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Brussels, Belgium December 10, 2023.

Is antisemitism inevitable? A disturbing old-new view of Jew-hatred - opinion

‘WORMS MACHZOR,’ 1280; reconstructed cover, Volume 2.

How a machzor survived over six centuries and Nazi attacks to make it to Israel

DIZENGOFF SQUARE, named for the Tel Aviv founding father.

This month in Jewish history: The first permanent government of Israel


Israel's heart is not in Tel Aviv - it is in Judea and Samaria - opinion

Tel Aviv does not boast the long history cities like Jerusalem, Beersheba, or even 2,000-year-old Haifa. 

 MAN walks in the Jewish outpost of Yahish Zion, near the Jewish settlement of Psagot, in the West Bank.

What honoring our parents teaches us about faith, logic, and Judaism

The mitzvah of honoring one's parents is not a narrow religious demand but a foundational moral duty.

RED HEIFER

Parashat Beshalach's lessons on unity, shared risk, and IDF service

A segment of Israeli society – largely comprising traditional, Religious-Zionist, and secular Jews – carries the overwhelming weight of military service.

A STATUE of Deborah dated 1792 stands in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Parashat Beshalach: The joy of ‘mitzvot’

Recounting for the first time the story of an entire people who, after long years of harsh and grueling bondage, emerge into freedom.

JOSEPH’S TOMB in Nablus.

Does history repeat itself? Recognizing the potential danger of modern antisemitism - opinion

It seems that when the term antisemitism is replaced by anti-Zionism, in a twisted manner, legitimacy is achieved globally.

 A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a sign, as they take part in a protest against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Turkey, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Istanbul, November 4, 2023.

A new exhibit honors writer Lore Segal, a child survivor and lifelong skeptic of easy truths

The title of a new exhibit mounted by the Leo Baeck Institute in New York: “And That’s True Too: The Life and Work of Lore Segal,” will be available on April 15.

Actress Toni Kalem, who appeared in “The Sopranos,” reads an excerpt from “Other People’s Houses" at the opening of an exhibit of the life and work of writer Lore Segal, Jan. 22, 2026.

This week in Jewish history: Nobel prize winners, biochemists, and the Baba Sali

A highly abridged weekly version of Dust & Stars – Today in Jewish History.

Baba Baruch, heir of Baba Sali, speaks to prime minister Yitzhak Shamir during traditional ceremonies in Netivot, 1988.

The high price of not listening: What Pharaoh teaches us about power and humility

Pharaoh ignored every warning until his nation collapsed. His mistake isn’t ancient, it’s painfully familiar today.

Statue of a mans head wearing headphones.

One degree of separation: How Jews connect through trauma, unite in hope - opinion

By every rational measure, such repeated traumas should have left the Jews scattered, fragmented, and broken. But as our story goes, that’s not what happened.

A memorial ceremony at the Nova festival marking two years since the October 7 massacre when Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, murdering more than 1200 people. October 07, 2025.

Zionism didn’t start in Europe, and Ethiopian Jews can prove it - opinion

For more than 2,500 years, Ethiopian Jewish leaders preserved Jewish law, ritual, and identity in one of the most isolated Jewish communities on Earth.

ETHIOPIAN JEWS take part in a prayer of the Sigd holiday on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade overlooking Jerusalem, in November 2025.