The cradle of the Chassidic movement was in the areas of the Polish Kingdom which were soon annexed to the Russian Empire during the partitions of Poland in the last quarter of the 18th century. This

The aftermath of the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 was a watershed time period in Russian Jewish history. A reactionary phase led to the passing of the infamous May Laws which restricted

From the time of the first partition of Poland in 1772, until the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Czarist Russian Empire was host to the largest Jewish population in the world. The generally antisemit

World renowned posek of the 19th century, prolific author and courageous leader, Rav Shlomo Kluger (1785-1869) achieved immortality in the Torah world through his nearly half century tenure as Magid a

As the architect of Orthodoxy in the modern era, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) has an outsized impact on the Torah world until this very day. In his own lifetime his leadership of German Jew

One of the leading halachic authorities of the 19th century, Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829-1908) achieved immortality through his indispensable magnum opus Aruch Hashulchan. He grew up in Bobruisk

After losing his family, community and yeshiva in Ponovezh, Lithuania during the Holocaust, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969), the Ponovezh Rav, endeavored to rebuild what was lost in the Land of

A special place in Jewish history is reserved for the Machal fighters of 1948. These were primarily World War II veterans, who volunteered to fight for Israel during its War of Independence, and their

In this final installment of The Great Shanghai Escape series, we explore the story of the refugees stay in Shanghai during the war years. While integrating with the local Jewish community in Shangh

The refugees stay in Japan lasted much longer than their brief transit visas had initially allowed for, with the imperial government allowing them to remain for several months. Though some refugees ma