Salonika’s Mystic Quartet – Kabbalists in Salonika

As one of the Ottoman Empire’s few Mediterranean ports, Salonika welcomed Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal. Four great mystics emerged from its shores – each with a different approach to redeeming the Jewish people

Royal Convert – Queen Helene of Adiabene

Even antiquity had its celebrity culture, with intellectuals chronicling the lives of the famous. The conversion of an entire royal family to Judaism thus fascinated both the sages and Josephus, who recorded the wondrous deeds of Helene, Monbaz, and Izates of Adiabene

The Kaiser’s Cap – Tiferet Israel

Fact and fiction intertwine in the tale of Jerusalem’s historic Tiferet Israel Synagogue, which tipped its hat to Austria’s Kaiser Franz Joseph