Jewish Religion History

This audiobook is the first audiobook in the new academic book series, Hermit Kingdom Studies in Christianity and Judaism, which seeks to encourage advancement of knowledge in the area of Hebrew language studies, Jewish historical studies, and Early Christianity/New Testament studies. The academic series particularly encourages the use of interdisciplinary approaches and creative thinking.

In the context of Crypto-Jewish individuals and communities, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of the New World, as well as in India, the knowledge of and distinction between halakhah and minhag persisted. But as contact with established Jewish communities (in particular, in Spain before the expulsion), with rabbis, and with Jewish texts lessened, the overall knowledge of Jewish practice and beliefs diminished. This short work explores the practices and beliefs that characterized the dual identity of crypto-Jews.

Lleida, a Catalonia-based town, has started marking the rocky unforgiving routes taken by the Jews to flee Nazi Europe to neutral Spain. According to Spanish daily Europa Press, Jewish European citizens migrated from France to Spain through the Pyrenees. The fifth route was recently commemorated after four other routes had been discovered and celebrated by Lleida council president Joan Reñé and the Israeli ambassador Alon Bar back in 2014. The routes measure around 151.6 kilometers and are spread over the Spanish provinces of Vall d’Arán, Pallars Sobirà, Alt Urgell, la Cerdanya and l’Alta Ribagorça.

In 1942, in Kaunas, Lithuania, the occupying German forces decreed that any pregnant Jewish woman would be summarily executed. On August 26, 1942, a Jewish woman realized she was pregnant and approached her rabbi, Ephraim Oshry, seeking advice. He determined that an abortion was necessary to save her life. The situation was something no woman or rabbi should have to face. But the scenario was real, and Rabbi Ephraim Oshry ruled based on Jewish law.