Jewish history

Exploring Jewish history on an Adriatic cruise - review

Join a seven-night luxury cruise uncovering Jewish history in Greek caves, Game of Thrones sets, and Europe's oldest active Sephardi synagogue.

THE PARTHENON TEMPLE on the Acropolis in Athens. Exterior scaffolding was removed in 2025, improving the view.
RABBI MOSHE SILVER blows a Yemenite shofar at the Jerusalem Promenade

Rosh Hashanah and 9/11: Preparing for the year ahead through trauma and grief - opinion

THE COLORFUL and beautiful Jerusalem Synagogue.

Prague’s spires whisper Maharal’s hidden history

The Tomb of Esther and Mordechai

Outrage after Jewish custodian of tomb of Esther, Mordechai in Iran faces antisemitic abuse


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.

Vayigash after October 7: Tears, envy, and consolation pedagogy - opinion

What Joseph teaches Israeli society today

 Rembrandt - Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife

Hanukkah: The Maccabees weren’t symbols; they were fighters - opinion

The Maccabees prevailed because they refused erasure – militarily, culturally, and spiritually. Contemporary Jewish survival requires the same multi-front refusal.

The Maccabees receive their father's blessing, 1873.

The Great Inversion: When Israel became the Diaspora's shield - opinion

It is no longer the Diaspora nurturing and protecting tenuous Israel. Now it is the reverse.

An illustrative image of a Star of David.

This week in Jewish history: Yearning for Zion

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

PORTRAIT OF Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber, from The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1920.

Prophet Zechariah: Not by might nor power, but by spirit

These words are a declaration of faith and a clear-cut explanation of Jewish survival.

Mourners accompany the body of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, on December 14.

Beyond the Headlines: First night of Hanukkah in Australia - opinion

A weekly glimpse into the Israel you won’t read about in the news

Rabbi Aharon Tzohar with Saba Shmuel.

This Hanukkah, my synagogue is illuminating our walls with relics of our Jewish immigrant stories

What better place to encourage people to learn and share their own immigrant history, digging out the details of who came when, from where and why?

An exhibition launching in December 2025 at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City celebrates congregants' family immigration stories.