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The Arab Question—with which the youngsters born in this Land have been familiar for many years, and because of which they were subject to disgrace and ridicule by the prominent men within the Yishuv…
The origin of this Torah scroll is in Turkey. It was donated by the Camondo family, one of the most important Jewish families in Istanbul, many of whose members settled in Paris and greatly…
The ketubah is a religious and legal contract of marriage. Traditionally, it outlines the conjugal and economic conditions of a marriage and is written in Aramaic. This ornate one from Isfahan, Iran…
The story of my life is only exceptional in that it represents a great change of identity in the heart of the Jewish people. [ . . . ]
I was born a Jewish Algerian—a French citizen to boot—and during…
Haifa 1 Elul, 5724 August 9, 1964 To: His Excellency David Ben-Gurion Sde BokerDear Sir,From your letter of May 19, 1964, I understood that you wish to avoid a comprehensive discussion of the problems…
The Bah (Bayit Hadash) was asked concerning the practice in synagogues of using music which is sung in the houses of worship (of non-Jews). It is only forbidden regarding…
Mikve Israel-Emanuel is a synagogue that served the Spanish Portuguese Jewish community in Curaçao (and continues to function today as a Reconstructionist congregation). It is the oldest surviving…
This text of an excommunication, found in David Aboab’s manuscript of Sefer emet ve-yatsiv (True and Certain), chronicles a conflict in the Sephardic congregation of Curaçao. The first Jews arrived in…
Simcha (Gimar) Belmonte (born Vaz; 1582–1643) was the wife of Jakob Israel Belmonte (a poet, writer, and trader). She and her husband were among the founders of the Jewish community in Amsterdam after…
The author had a tradition from his ancestors, also based on a book of his genealogy that was lost in all the upheavals of the expulsion and the persecutions, that this holy and lofty family, whose…