Past Course: Colorful Profiles

Lesson One
Courageous Converts

A Roman prince outwits his uncle to study Torah, an Italian priest studies his way to a new life, and a Polish noble meets an old Jew studying Talmud on a Paris park bench—see their journey to Judaism and what came next.

Lesson Two
Influential Jews

Spain’s top Torah scholar leads a Muslim Army, an Amsterdam rabbi with a printshop talks England into readmitting Jews, and a rabbi teaches a Catholic scholar and saves Central Europe’s Jewish books— how did they integrate Judaism into their influence?

Lesson Three
Unsung Heroines

A businesswoman saves thousands from the Inquisition and rebuilds Jewish life across the Mediterranean, and a female Torah scholar shapes Halachic discourse while raising a family, feeding students, and caring for the sick—see the secret ways women shaped Jewish history.

Lesson Four
Heroes and Hostages

Four rabbis are captured by 10th-century pirates, Germany’s foremost Jewish leader is held for ransom, and thousands of East European Jews languish in Ottoman slave markets—how did Jewish communities respond?