One of the favorite “great insights” of apikorsim is their opt-repeated claim that our holidays originated as agricultural festivals and follow the natural order of the seasons. Only “later”, they say, “the Rabbis” superimposed historical or spiritual meaning upon the festivals. That nature and history are one, that they have one Source, that there can […]
Rabbi Pinchas Stopler recounts the beginnings of NCSY in the 1960’s, a time when all the “experts” predicted the project was doomed to fail.
There Once Was a World has been 19 years in preparation. A book of over 800 pages, it was lovingly written by one of the few survivors of the German murder of all 5,000 Jewish residents of Eishyshok, in September of 1941. The book is fascinating, extremely well-written and documented, with copious notes and photographs. It is encyclopedic in scope, touching on every aspect of Jewish life. Each chapter is a gem: rich, colorful and filled with depth, information and insight including history, biography, anecdotes and local color. While the book concentrates on Eishyshok, in a larger sense it tells the story of both Lithuanian and European Jewry.