Jewish History Soundbites

The newly published excellent book in Hebrew about the life and times of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) by Rav David Kamenetsky, entitled Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski: Rabban shel Kol Bnei Hagola…

The recent passing of Rabbi Berel Wein (1934-2025) is an opportunity to reflect on the Jewish world in which he grew up and later had such a wide impact. A child of Lithuanian immigrants, he grew up …

The recent passing of the great teacher of Jewish history Rabbi Berel Wein (1934-2025) provides a moment to reflect on his historic contribution and trailblazing efforts in bringing Jewish history to…

Special Tisha B'av episode: A recording of a live lecture delivered in May 2025 at the Shappell's Darche Noam Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, on the topic of the first Nazi death camp at Chelmno, near Lodz,…

Journeying through large swaths of the Jewish world of the 18th century, Rav Chaim Yosef David Azulai (1724-1806), known by his acronym the Chida, was privy to the broad range of the various Jewish c…

On the afternoon of September 6, 1848, the progressive Rabbi Avraham Kohn (1807-1848) of Lemberg (Lvov in Polish) in Austrian Galicia, was poisoned to death. Who assassinated him? What were their mot…

One of the largest and influential branches of the Polish Pshischa Chassidic dynasty, Radzymin was completely decimated in the Holocaust, and is unfortunately not so well known today. In its heyday, …

The Spinka chassidic dynasty was established in the late 19th century as a sort of offshoot of the Zidichov dynasty, by Rav Yosef Meir Weiss (1838-1909) in the town of Spinka, in the Maramuris region…

With rising secularization in large urban centers of Western Europe during the 18th century, it would take a concerted effort by the traditional rabbinical establishment to formulate an appropriate r…

In honor of the 100th yahrtzeit of Rav Shayale of Kerestir (1851-1925), Jewish History Soundbites is proud to rerelease the original episode, the first ever on this podcast, about the unique historic…

For nearly two thousand years Jews lived in the shadow of the Catholic Church. As heads of the church, popes throughout the ages formulated an official papal policy regarding the Jews as a religion, …

Among the many manifestations of medieval European antisemitism was the blood libel – the infamous false accusations of ritual murder which were used against Jewish communities for a millennium, resu…

Rav Yosef Chaim (1835-1909), better known by his popular work Ben Ish Chai, was an important leader of the Baghdad Jewish community of the 19th century, whose influence reached across the Ottoman Emp…

External forces of the modern era such as political & economic changes, emancipation, the collapse of the kahal autonomy, technological advancement, wars, urbanization & immigration, led to the mass …

The secularization of the Jewish People in the modern era really begins as a slow but growing trend within the communities of the Spanish Jewish diaspora of northern Europe in the 16th century. In th…

The modern era brought many external changes which challenged the centuries old Jewish communal structure. Political change, emancipation, wars, revolution, economic development, technological advanc…

At the dawn of the 18th century, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish People were religiously observant in the traditional sense. By mid-20th century, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish Peopl…

As someone who experienced the upheavals of both the Thirty Years War, as well as the Khmelnytsky uprisings of 1648-49 (Tach Vitat), Rav Yomtov Lipman Heller (1579-1654) lived and led his people duri…

With its origins in 19th century Poland, Lelov is unique among Chassidic dynasties due to its migrating to Ottoman Jerusalem in 1851. Rav David Biderman established the dynasty in Lelov, Poland, and …

The majestic and beautiful edifice of the Tiferes Yisrael Shul, also known as the Nisan Bak shul after its founder and leader, stood as the central shul of the Chassidic Old Yishuv of Yerushalayim, f…