Category Archives: Marc B. Shapiro

Should A Religious Jew Save The Life Of A Non-Religious Jew?

Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: Here is another responsum, by R. Israel David Harfenes, Nishmat Shabbat, vol. 5 no. 500:4. The author is asked if you can violate Shabbat to save the lives of irreligious Jews who came from the … Continue reading

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How Do The Haredim Feel About The Non-Haredim?

Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: One of the leaders of the extremist haredim is R. Moshe Sternbuch. Here is the first page of a responsum he wrote (Teshuvot ve-Hanhagot, vol. 1, no. 816) in which he states that if a … Continue reading

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What Would A Haredi Israel Look Like?

Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: I can’t speak about the haredi man on the street, but examination of the writings of the haredi leadership – and in the haredi world that is what really matters – shows that time and … Continue reading

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Distorting Jewish History

Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: “While the examples Horowitz discussed are motivated by a Victorian style of writing, the example I give is probably motivated by a desire to shield the masses from the knowledge that even in pre-Reform Europe … Continue reading

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Were The Africans Unattractive?

According to Wikipedia: “The word Cushi, also spelled Kushi (Hebrew: כושי‎) is a Hebrew term generally used to refer to a dark skinned person usually of African descent and was recently interpreted as being similar in meaning to the English … Continue reading

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