Debbie Lechtman, Author at Unpacked

This week in Jewish history: Oslo II and the start of the Second Intifada

Five years apart, two September 28 events captured the promise of Israeli-Palestinian peace and the violence that followed. What happened between them?

This week in Jewish history: The first Shabbat and the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto

From the first Shabbat to the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, this week’s stories trace the traditions that sustained Jewish life and the people who fought to preserve it.

This Week in Jewish History: The Nuremberg Laws and a Jewish refuge in New York

The Nazis enact the Nuremberg Race Laws, and Mordecai Manuel Noah dedicates Ararat, his unrealized Jewish refuge near Buffalo.

This Week in Jewish History: Italy bombs Tel Aviv and Israel signs a reparations deal with West Germany

Fascist Italy bombs Tel Aviv during World War II, and Israel signs a fiercely contested reparations agreement with West Germany.

This week in Jewish history: World War II begins and Dutch Jews gain equal rights

How did Jews become equal citizens in the Netherlands, and how did Germany’s invasion of Poland unleash the horrors of World War II?

This week in Jewish history: Nazi naming laws and Operation Magic Carpet

Nazi Germany tried to mark Jews through their names. A decade later, Operation Magic Carpet transported an entire Jewish community to Israel.

This week in Jewish history: The lynching of Leo Frank and George Washington’s promise to American Jews

Leo Frank’s 1915 lynching revealed the deadly power of antisemitism. George Washington’s 1790 letter offered a radically different vision of Jewish life in the U.S.

This Week in Jewish History: The Night of the Murdered Poets and Białystok Ghetto Uprising

Stalin executed 13 Soviet Jewish intellectuals, while Jewish resistance fighters rose against the Nazis in the Białystok Ghetto.

This Week in Jewish History: Jews are forced to hear conversion sermons — and earn the right to marry

Why were medieval Jews forced to hear Christian sermons, and why did Jewish soldiers have to earn the right to marry?

This week in Jewish history: Göring’s Final Solution order and first Russian Jews arrive in NYC

This week in Jewish history, Göring ordered preparations for the Final Solution, and Russian Jewish immigrants arrived in New York City.

This week in Jewish history: The Khmelnytsky pogroms and the founding of Hebrew University

This week in Jewish history, we remember the Khmelnytsky pogroms and the laying of Hebrew University’s first cornerstones.

This week in Jewish history: The Vel d’Hiv roundup and the end of the Spanish Inquisition

This week in Jewish history: Remember the Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris and the surprising abolition of the Spanish Inquisition in 1834.

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Debbie Lechtman

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