On this day in 1684, a mob attack on the ghetto of Padua led to the establishment of Buda Purim, celebrated long thereafter by the Jews of Padua on the 10th of Elul each year. In the midst of the war between Venice and Turkey, the Jewish community of Padua gathered for prayer on Tisha B’Av. However, their Christian neighbors accused them of praying for the welfare of the Turkish armies under siege by imperial troops in Buda (the right bank of the Danube, across the Danube from Pest). When news arrived of the Turks’ defeat nearly one month later, a mob began to attack the Padua ghetto. When the inhabitants sent a messenger to beseech the doge of Venice for assistance, thousands of rioters poured into the ghetto, looting and destroying what they could lay their hands on. Ultimately, the Venetian government proclaimed that death awaited anyone who continued [...]

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” One-hundred-fifty years ago today, the famous financier, Bernard Baruch, was born in Camden, South Carolina. His business acumen, philanthropy, and relentless support of three administrations paid homage to a generations-old tradition of American Jewish patriotism dating back to Haim Solomon and illustrated how industrialists could make lasting contributions across the business, social, and political realms. In both the first and second world wars, Baruch spearheaded efforts to mobilize American industry to support the war efforts. By establishing comprehensive policies to control mining, production, manufacturing, and distribution, he effectively balanced the needs of military efforts and the American civilian population, enabling America to fully arm itself years earlier than anticipated by its enemies. Baruch also commissioned a committee to develop plans for providing rehabilitation to soldiers injured during service, and later served as the U.S. representative to the United [...]

"The secret of our Peoples' persistence is that at a very early period, the Prophets taught us to respect only the power of the spirit and not to worship material power." On August 18, 1856, Asher Ginsberg, better known as Ahad Ha'am, was born in Ukraine to wealthy Hasidic parents. As he matured, he grew critical of religious dogma but remained loyal to the ethics and culture of Judaism, which he advanced in his many Zionist essays. Unlike his contemporaries, however, Ahad Ha’am remained suspicious of the Zionists’ quest for political power, sensing within it the potential to corrupt what he saw as the most valuable assets of Judaism—its culture and values. Ahad Ha’am advocated a Zionism that viewed the cultural health of worldwide Jewry as its primary responsibility, fueling diaspora Judaism with passion and creativity expressed through the Hebrew language and the Jewish arts. Power, he warned, would misuse Jewish [...]

For those of us keeping count, today marks the 105th anniversary of Leo Frank’s lynching in Atlanta. A 31-year-old New York Jew turned manager of an Atlanta pencil factory, he had spent two years in prison for the murder of Mary Phagan, a twelve-year old employee of the factory, before 28 men referring to themselves as the “Knights of Mary Phagan”—including Mary’s uncle and a former Georgia governor—abducted Frank from his prison cell and took him to Phagan’s small hometown near Marietta, where they lynched him. History ultimately exonerated Frank of his crimes, and he received a posthumous pardon in 1986. Despite incriminating evidence against the factory’s watchman and janitor, police remained convinced that Frank, denounced for his identity as a Jew, a Northerner, and an industrialist, was the killer. No one, unfortunately, was ever charged for his lynching. The injustice apparent in Frank’s trial in 1913 and his death [...]