It was on this day in the year 66 A.D. that the historian Josephus arrived to assume command of some insurgent Jewish forces in the Galilee and consequently save the local Jewish population from an attack by non-Jewish forces. Two months later, the official outbreak...

It was on this day in the year 42 A.D. that King Agrippa began construction on a gate within the walls of Jerusalem. Six months later, the gate was dedicated and that day became an ancient holiday.  If you ever traveled to Jerusalem, you have seen that there are...

It was on this day in the year 1790 that the first advertisement, offering private Hebrew instruction in an American publication, appeared in The Pennsylvania Packet, placed there by Abraham Cohen. In those days, there were no organized Hebrew schools and so the...

According to tradition, it was on this day that Moses was circumcised in Egypt. His circumcision would have occurred in a very troubling time for Hebrew parents who saw the birth of a male child, considering that Pharaoh had ordered their deaths. Later, Moses would be...

It was on this day that the 10 sons of Haman were hung upon the gallows that had been prepared for Mordechai and his fellow Jews. It’s recorded for us in the book of Esther 9:1, 5-6, 10: “Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, the...

It was on this day in the year 19 B.C. that a dedication ceremony was held to initiate the expansion of the Temple under the auspices of Herod the Great. The historian Josephus recorded that:  “In the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the Temple, and...

It was on this day in the year 1488 that the first printed edition of the Tanach, that is the Torah, the Prophets and the different Hebrew writings, was printed in Soncino, Italy. This occurred in a time when other key events were taking place or were about to take...

It was on this day in the year 1349 that Jews of Freiburg, Germany were massacred due to the Black Death riots that were sweeping across Europe. During the plague, thousands of Europeans died, with the glaring exception of Jewish populations. Thus, it was believed...

Today is the traditional date that witnessed the first controversy between the rival schools of Shammai and Hillel. These two Jewish schools of thought emerged in the first century A.D., a time that was characterized by great schism in Judaism. This was the time when...