Search Results

A Journey Across the Jewish Past

Feb 24, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video

Hidden in the nooks and crannies of libraries and museums across the world are clues to an often-surprising Jewish past: a 15th-century Italian woman’s siddur that includes a special prayer thanking God for “creating her as a woman”; a Haggadah from a Nazi concentration camp; manuscripts from the Court Jews enmeshed in the intrigues of European kings.

What a Manuscript Can Teach Us about the Jews of Medieval France

Dec 7, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video

Dr. David Kraemer explains what we can learn about the everyday lives of medieval French Jews from the text—and the margins—of a manuscript from the JTS Library collection.

The Real Lives of Jews in the Traditional World

Nov 23, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Many of us know the “official version” of the lives of Jews through the ages, according to which Jews were pious and thoroughly immersed in Jewish life—a life apart. But many of the rare materials in the JTS Library offer a different picture, according to which Jews lived in the world with their neighbors, experiencing life first as human beings and then as Jews. Dr. David Kraemer shares evidence from the Library’s great collections, surprising and even shocking you with a corrective to commonly repeated historical “truths.”

Times of Crisis and Possibility

Aug 10, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture

A series of online classes exploring pivotal moments in the Jewish experience with JTS faculty and fellows.

A History of the Talmud

Feb 25, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video

A discussion with JTS’s Dr. David Kraemer about his new book, which offers a sophisticated but accessible introduction to the Talmud, its origins, and its status through history.

Rare Treasures of the JTS Library

Nov 8, 2018 By David C. Kraemer

Teshuvah in Two Directions

Sep 26, 2016 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

Forgiving and Asking Forgiveness: Sound Bytes for the High Holidays 5777

Retelling Your Story

Apr 13, 2016 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Pesah

Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place

Mar 15, 2016 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event audio

In the aftermath of the conquest of the Holy Land by the Romans and their destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Jews were faced with a world in existential chaos—both they and their God were rendered homeless. In a religious tradition that equated Divine approval with peaceful dwelling on the Land, this situation was intolerable. In response, the Rabbis sought to build new “structures,” new homes for both God and Israel. Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place offers the first comprehensive study of spatiality in rabbinic Judaism, exploring how the Rabbis reoriented the Jewish relationship with space and place following the conquest and destruction.

Does Judaism Oppose Slavery?

Mar 26, 2015 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Pesah

The Artist As Teacher

Sep 9, 2014 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur

The Problem With The Convert

May 21, 2014 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Shavuot

The Bitter Truth

Apr 8, 2014 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video | Pesah

Clothing and Adornment: Sartorial Insights on Gender Definition in the Talmud

Mar 11, 2012 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video

How does the Talmud define Gender? Dr. David Kraemer seeks the answer to this question by looking into how the Talmud discussed clothing and adornment.