The Warsaw "Black list"

"And we need to strengthen religion.. and we should have a black list, like they had in Warsaw.. and anyone who desecrates Shabbos in public, we will not bury hm, and we will separate him from the rest of Israel..and the bring close those who have severed the cords that attach them to our religion and our Torah, that is against the law.."

If I had time, I would cite sources that show that the vast majority of Posekim vehemently disagree with this position - but anyone is welcome to comment...

Quote of the month

But the academy finds its own way in these things, and often prefers the maunderings of nineteenth centry antisemitic German alcoholics to anything else.

Biblicalia

I second!!

Does anyone have Ze'ev Rabiner's biography of R Yosef Zecharia Stern? If so, what information is there on R' Yosef Zechariah's wife/ves?

New Hebrewbooks update

I don't have time for a full list but a god many of Leopold (YY) Greenwalds books have been added including his two volume work on the relationship between Bavi and Yerushalmi (see most recently, Alisssa Gray's dissertation for a continuing discussion of the subject) and his books on Hungarian Jewry.

Feel free to comment with any other interesting titles ou might find.

Way cool!!

Check out the - Collection of pictures of Jerusalemites - http://www.hebrewbooks.org/36605

This is the first picture I've seen of R' Chaim Hirschenson pg. 15

A prophecy unfulfilled - on Rachel Morporgo

Morporgo was a great poet (and a bit of a feminist, see this poem which is somewhat similar in style to the beginning of Yeleg's later Kutzo Shel Yud). She was also an adherent of the Kabbalah, and was well-versed in Talmud, Zohar, Chovos HaLevavos and more.

The following "prophecy" seems to be predicting some type of war between the Arabs and the Germans [?]

Ephraim Deinard on Abraham Geiger

See Wiki for some biographical info on Ephraim Deinard who was one of the most interesting people of the last century (you can read some of his stuff over at Ben Yehuda and more at Google Books and Hathi).

In the second volume of his Memoirs he has a sort of Shem HaGedolim on the scholars and Rabbis of his century. I place the entry on Avrham Geiger here as it sort of mirrors the complexity of the man as I discussed in my earlier post on Geiger.)