Rabbi Katz's Lectures and Tours
Over the years, Rabbi Katz has delivered numerous lectures about various periods in our history. He also conducts a variety of historically themed tours both locally and abroad. Here is information about some of his lectures and tours:
Lectures
Select lectures now available in podcast format!
Lecture Series in Jewish History, 2020-2021 - Roller-Coaster: The State of Israel and the Jewish People in the mid-1980s
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2020 - Jews and Lithuanians: Glory - Horror - Revisionist History
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2019-2020 -- Two Parties and a State: Israel and the Jewish People 1980-1983
Summer 2019 - A Catastrophe (But Not a Holocaust):
The Ordeal of Orthodox Jews in the First World War 1914-1918
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2019 - The Russian Pogroms of 1881: Harbinger of Extermination or Blessing in Disguise?
The Henry Lehmann z"l Lecture Series in Jewish History - October 2018 - March 2019 Democracy, Peace, and its Discontents: The State of Israel and the Jewish World in the Late 1970s
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2018 - "פה לין" - Poles and Jews in 2018
Revolution! Jews and the Great European Revolutions
Yahrzeit lecture commemorating the 47th yahrzeit of Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Hertzberg, זצ״ל: Rabbis, Presidents, Immigration
(Video of the lecture can be seen here)
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2017-2018 --
Hubris and Atonement: The State of Israel and the Jewish People 1972-75
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2017 - Communities and Rabbis in Various Combinations
Kultukampf - השכלה :The Haskalah Wars - 2017 Three Weeks Lecture Series
The Balfour Declaration - A five part lecture series on its 100th anniversary - June 19th-23rd 2017
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2016-2017 --
War and No Peace: Israel and the Jewish People 1967-1971
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2016 - "After 1492 - Inquisition and Jews"
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2016
Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Jews: A Remarkable Yet Unknown Chapter in American History - June 2016
Mini-Medical Symposium on Jews, Weight and Health
The Jewish Doctor, the Fat King and the Tenth-century Diet that Made History: A Tale from the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry - June 26, 2016 at Tudor Heights (watch video here)
All-night Shavuos Program 2016 - Congregation Beth Abraham - Baltimore, MD
Congregation Bais Torah 37th Annual Elaine Fischer/Ilan Tokayer Chevra Mishnayos Siyum -
"Purim in History and Meta-History: The Talmudic Tension between the Queen and the Sages
Congregation Beth Abraham - Bergenfield, NJ - “Where is Yossele?” - The State of Israel and the Jewish Religion - February 2016"
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun - Teaneck, NJ - Scholar in Residence - February 2016
Motzei Shabbos Lecture Series - Seven Famous Hebrew Poets Including Geniuses, Heroes...and Scoundrel(s)? - Feb-March 2016
Anshe Sfard Kehilat Torah - Milwaukee, WI - Scholar-in-Residence - December 2015
Winter Medical Symposium - Did the Rambam's Medical Practice Affect his Learning?
(Watch this event on YouTube)
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series 2015-2016 - "The Last Years of the Old Order: Israel and the Jews 1962-1966"
Summer 2015 Jewish History Lecture Series:
Theological Bubble: Shabtai Tzvi, Messianism and its Discontents
Wine, Vinegar...and Honey?
Lecture on the occasion of the seventh yahrzeit of Mrs. Lenka Katz
Winter 2014-2015 Jewish History Lecture Series
The Ben Gurion Era at High Noon:
Israel and the Jews 1957-61
Summer 2014 Jewish History Lecture Series:
Murdering Jews for Something They Did Not Do:
Chimerical Christian Fantasies and their Lethal Results in Jewish History
Language, Prayer and The Language of Prayer:
Controversies Concerning Different "Hebrews" Over 1500 Years - June 30th, 2014
(in commemoration of the sixth yahrzeit of Mrs. Lenka Katz, a"h)
Video of this lecture is available by clicking here.
Winter 2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Progress Without Peace: Israel and the Jewish People, 1952-1956
Summer 2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Romans and Jews: The Age of Bar Kochba
Why Wouldn't They Let Us In? America, Jews, Quotas, Hitler, War: Unintended Consequences of America's Closing of The Golden Door - In commemoration of the fifth yahrtzeit of Rabbi Katz's mother, Mrs. Lenka Katz, A"H.
Video of this lecture is available by clicking here.
Winter 2012-2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Negotiating Choppy Waters - Israel and the Jews: the New State 1949-1952
Ezekiel Landau and Kabbalah: Observations on a Recent Historical Controversy
Tisha B'Av Kinos 2012-5772 - (video)
Summer 2012 Lecture Series - The War Against the Jewish Book
The Traditional Kehillah: Family Quarrels vs. Amicable Divorce - Thinking Historically about Rabbi Abraham Rice, his Congregants, & Baltimore's Jewish "Community" in the 19th & 20th Centuries - Date to be determined
Habsburg, Romanov, Rebbe, Shul - Yarhzeit lecture in memory of Mrs. Lenka Katz - June 24th, 2012 -- This video is available online by clicking here.
March 2012 - Purim in History & Meta-History: The Talmudic Tension Between the Queen and the Rabbis - at the University of Pennsylvania
Winter 2011-2012 - After the Hurricane: The Struggle for Israel 1945-1949
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2011
Summer 2011: Five-part lecture series entitled: Crusaders and Jews
Eishes Chayil, Pope, Rabbis
The Battle between Gracia Mendes and Pope Paul IV in the 1550s View this lecture online
Whose Truth? How Jews and Egyptians Battled Over the Passover Narrative 2,000 Years Ago (at the Jewish Museum of Maryland) View this lecture online
Winter 2010-2011 - The Hurricane: The Holocaust, and Steps and Missteps on the Road to the Establishment of a State of Israel
Thoughts on a Transitional Decade: Unity and Disunity in the Baltimore Jewish Community in the 1940s -- This lecture sponsored by the Leibtag family in honor of the first Yahrzeit of Mrs. Rose Leibtag
2010 Three Weeks Lecture Series: Cossacks & Jews, 1648-1649
Lecture on the occasion of the second yahrtzeit of Rabbi Katz's mother, Mrs. Lenka Katz, A"H: Reb Elchonon, Immanuel Kant, and the Sefer Ha-Bris: Deconstructing Maimonidean Metaphysics in the Dorm of the Telshe Yeshiva in the Late 19th Century? This lecture series is available online: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7
The Stormy Years of the Twentieth Century: 1914-1934 - October 2009
The Crisis of Traditionalism and the Emergence of Orthodoxy in the Nineteenth Century
The Slippery Slope: Chanukah to Tisha B'Av
Prelude to the Twentieth Century:
The Jews in America and in Eretz Yisrael in the Nineteenth Century
Churban 1492: The Jews of Spain - Acceptance, Excellence, Explusion
Seven Famous Jewish Historians
The four lectures of "The Slippery Slope" series are available in DVD and CD formats. For further information, contact Rabbi Katz at [email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore Jewish Times:
How Dovid Katz's Thirst For Jewish History Bends Minds and Preconceived Notions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scholar-in-Residence
Rabbi Katz often serves as a scholar-in-residence in communities across North America. Here are a few of of his recent visits and lectures:
Saint Louis Kollel Yarchei Kallah - July 2009
Seattle Kollel - June 2010
Ezra Bessaroth—Seattle Sephardic Bikur Holim—Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath - June 2010
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2010
Young Israel of Bal Harbour - December 2010
Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah - Milwaukee, WI - February 2011
Young Israel Shomrei Emunah - Silver Spring, MD - Community Adult Education Project - March 2012
Boca Raton Synagogue - Boca Raton, FL - Synagogue Flyer - May 2012
Boca Raton Synagogue - Boca Raton, FL - May 2012
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2012
Ohev Shalom - The National Synagogue - September 2012
Congregation Ohr Torah - Edison, NJ - November 16-17, 2012
Congregation Beth Jacob - Atlanta, GA - March 15-16, 2013
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2013 or Bais Medrash of Bergenfield's version
Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue - Shavuos 2014 Retreat - Charleston, SC
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2014
Congregation Adas Yeshurun - Anshe Kanesses Israel - Chicago, IL - November 2014
Ray Stein Memorial Scholar-in-Residence
Aish Denver - November 2014
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2015
Seattle - Scholar in Residence - October 2015
Persian Hebrew Congregation of Skokie and Young Israel of Skokie - November 2015
Chicago - Aron and Rivka Friedman Kollel Yom Rishon - November 2015
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2016 - Scholar-in-Residence
Boca Raton Synagogue - May 2018
Boca Raton Synagogue - May 2018 (BRS Version)
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2018 - Scholar-in-Residence - "Unusual Rabbis, Unusual Rebbetzins, Unusual Poets"
Young Israel of Bal Harbor - January 2019
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun Teaneck, NJ - January 2019
Williams Island (FL) - The Willie and Celia Trump Synagogue - February 1-2, 2019
Ner Yisrael Community - London, England - Parshas Korach - July 2019 - Scholar-in-Residence
"Just Between Us: Some Critical Thinking about the Modern Era in Jewish History" - Bais Medrash of Bergenfield (NJ) - August 2019
Young Israel of Fort Lee (NJ) - Scholar-in-Residence - December 2019
Chanukah: Historical Considerations of a Holiday Widely Celebrated--Surprisingly Misunderstood - December 2019
Suburban Torah - Ohel Yosef - Livingston, NJ - Scholar-in-Residence - February 2020
Purim - A Tale of Two Texts - The tension involved in the publication of מגילת אסתר in Rabbinic history as refracted through ספר עזרא - Spring Valley, NY - February 2020
Purim - A Tale of Two Texts - The tension involved in the publication of מגילת אסתר in Rabbinic history as refracted through ספר עזרא - Boca Raton, FL - February 2020
Young Israel of Boca Raton - February 2020
Tours
October 2019 - Museum of the Bible - Washington, DC
July 2019 - Jewish History Tour of Central Europe - Itinerary
Thanksgiving week 2017: Israel with Rabbi Binyamin Marwick and Rabbi Dovid Katz
August 2016 - Vienna and Prague
Summer 2014 -Young Professionals/Singles Jewish History Tour of Prague, Vienna, and Budapest
Chol HaMoed Pesach 2014 - Mount Vernon: Home of George Washington
Gettysburg National Military Park - American Jews and the Civil War - August 2013
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - July 2013
Spring 2013 - Philadelphia
Chol HaMoed Pesach 2013 - Washington, DC: United States Capitol and Presidential Memorials
Spring 2012 - Italy
Lecture Series in Jewish History, 2020-2021 - Roller-Coaster: The State of Israel and the Jewish People in the mid-1980s
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2020 - Jews and Lithuanians: Glory - Horror - Revisionist History
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2019-2020 -- Two Parties and a State: Israel and the Jewish People 1980-1983
Summer 2019 - A Catastrophe (But Not a Holocaust):
The Ordeal of Orthodox Jews in the First World War 1914-1918
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2019 - The Russian Pogroms of 1881: Harbinger of Extermination or Blessing in Disguise?
The Henry Lehmann z"l Lecture Series in Jewish History - October 2018 - March 2019 Democracy, Peace, and its Discontents: The State of Israel and the Jewish World in the Late 1970s
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2018 - "פה לין" - Poles and Jews in 2018
Revolution! Jews and the Great European Revolutions
Yahrzeit lecture commemorating the 47th yahrzeit of Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Hertzberg, זצ״ל: Rabbis, Presidents, Immigration
(Video of the lecture can be seen here)
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2017-2018 --
Hubris and Atonement: The State of Israel and the Jewish People 1972-75
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2017 - Communities and Rabbis in Various Combinations
Kultukampf - השכלה :The Haskalah Wars - 2017 Three Weeks Lecture Series
The Balfour Declaration - A five part lecture series on its 100th anniversary - June 19th-23rd 2017
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series - 2016-2017 --
War and No Peace: Israel and the Jewish People 1967-1971
Three Weeks Lecture Series 2016 - "After 1492 - Inquisition and Jews"
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2016
Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Jews: A Remarkable Yet Unknown Chapter in American History - June 2016
Mini-Medical Symposium on Jews, Weight and Health
The Jewish Doctor, the Fat King and the Tenth-century Diet that Made History: A Tale from the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry - June 26, 2016 at Tudor Heights (watch video here)
All-night Shavuos Program 2016 - Congregation Beth Abraham - Baltimore, MD
Congregation Bais Torah 37th Annual Elaine Fischer/Ilan Tokayer Chevra Mishnayos Siyum -
"Purim in History and Meta-History: The Talmudic Tension between the Queen and the Sages
Congregation Beth Abraham - Bergenfield, NJ - “Where is Yossele?” - The State of Israel and the Jewish Religion - February 2016"
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun - Teaneck, NJ - Scholar in Residence - February 2016
Motzei Shabbos Lecture Series - Seven Famous Hebrew Poets Including Geniuses, Heroes...and Scoundrel(s)? - Feb-March 2016
Anshe Sfard Kehilat Torah - Milwaukee, WI - Scholar-in-Residence - December 2015
Winter Medical Symposium - Did the Rambam's Medical Practice Affect his Learning?
(Watch this event on YouTube)
Winter Jewish History Lecture Series 2015-2016 - "The Last Years of the Old Order: Israel and the Jews 1962-1966"
Summer 2015 Jewish History Lecture Series:
Theological Bubble: Shabtai Tzvi, Messianism and its Discontents
Wine, Vinegar...and Honey?
Lecture on the occasion of the seventh yahrzeit of Mrs. Lenka Katz
Winter 2014-2015 Jewish History Lecture Series
The Ben Gurion Era at High Noon:
Israel and the Jews 1957-61
Summer 2014 Jewish History Lecture Series:
Murdering Jews for Something They Did Not Do:
Chimerical Christian Fantasies and their Lethal Results in Jewish History
Language, Prayer and The Language of Prayer:
Controversies Concerning Different "Hebrews" Over 1500 Years - June 30th, 2014
(in commemoration of the sixth yahrzeit of Mrs. Lenka Katz, a"h)
Video of this lecture is available by clicking here.
Winter 2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Progress Without Peace: Israel and the Jewish People, 1952-1956
Summer 2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Romans and Jews: The Age of Bar Kochba
Why Wouldn't They Let Us In? America, Jews, Quotas, Hitler, War: Unintended Consequences of America's Closing of The Golden Door - In commemoration of the fifth yahrtzeit of Rabbi Katz's mother, Mrs. Lenka Katz, A"H.
Video of this lecture is available by clicking here.
Winter 2012-2013 Jewish History Lecture Series - Negotiating Choppy Waters - Israel and the Jews: the New State 1949-1952
Ezekiel Landau and Kabbalah: Observations on a Recent Historical Controversy
Tisha B'Av Kinos 2012-5772 - (video)
Summer 2012 Lecture Series - The War Against the Jewish Book
The Traditional Kehillah: Family Quarrels vs. Amicable Divorce - Thinking Historically about Rabbi Abraham Rice, his Congregants, & Baltimore's Jewish "Community" in the 19th & 20th Centuries - Date to be determined
Habsburg, Romanov, Rebbe, Shul - Yarhzeit lecture in memory of Mrs. Lenka Katz - June 24th, 2012 -- This video is available online by clicking here.
March 2012 - Purim in History & Meta-History: The Talmudic Tension Between the Queen and the Rabbis - at the University of Pennsylvania
Winter 2011-2012 - After the Hurricane: The Struggle for Israel 1945-1949
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2011
Summer 2011: Five-part lecture series entitled: Crusaders and Jews
Eishes Chayil, Pope, Rabbis
The Battle between Gracia Mendes and Pope Paul IV in the 1550s View this lecture online
Whose Truth? How Jews and Egyptians Battled Over the Passover Narrative 2,000 Years Ago (at the Jewish Museum of Maryland) View this lecture online
Winter 2010-2011 - The Hurricane: The Holocaust, and Steps and Missteps on the Road to the Establishment of a State of Israel
Thoughts on a Transitional Decade: Unity and Disunity in the Baltimore Jewish Community in the 1940s -- This lecture sponsored by the Leibtag family in honor of the first Yahrzeit of Mrs. Rose Leibtag
2010 Three Weeks Lecture Series: Cossacks & Jews, 1648-1649
Lecture on the occasion of the second yahrtzeit of Rabbi Katz's mother, Mrs. Lenka Katz, A"H: Reb Elchonon, Immanuel Kant, and the Sefer Ha-Bris: Deconstructing Maimonidean Metaphysics in the Dorm of the Telshe Yeshiva in the Late 19th Century? This lecture series is available online: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7
The Stormy Years of the Twentieth Century: 1914-1934 - October 2009
The Crisis of Traditionalism and the Emergence of Orthodoxy in the Nineteenth Century
The Slippery Slope: Chanukah to Tisha B'Av
Prelude to the Twentieth Century:
The Jews in America and in Eretz Yisrael in the Nineteenth Century
Churban 1492: The Jews of Spain - Acceptance, Excellence, Explusion
Seven Famous Jewish Historians
The four lectures of "The Slippery Slope" series are available in DVD and CD formats. For further information, contact Rabbi Katz at [email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore Jewish Times:
How Dovid Katz's Thirst For Jewish History Bends Minds and Preconceived Notions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scholar-in-Residence
Rabbi Katz often serves as a scholar-in-residence in communities across North America. Here are a few of of his recent visits and lectures:
Saint Louis Kollel Yarchei Kallah - July 2009
Seattle Kollel - June 2010
Ezra Bessaroth—Seattle Sephardic Bikur Holim—Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath - June 2010
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2010
Young Israel of Bal Harbour - December 2010
Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah - Milwaukee, WI - February 2011
Young Israel Shomrei Emunah - Silver Spring, MD - Community Adult Education Project - March 2012
Boca Raton Synagogue - Boca Raton, FL - Synagogue Flyer - May 2012
Boca Raton Synagogue - Boca Raton, FL - May 2012
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2012
Ohev Shalom - The National Synagogue - September 2012
Congregation Ohr Torah - Edison, NJ - November 16-17, 2012
Congregation Beth Jacob - Atlanta, GA - March 15-16, 2013
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2013 or Bais Medrash of Bergenfield's version
Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue - Shavuos 2014 Retreat - Charleston, SC
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2014
Congregation Adas Yeshurun - Anshe Kanesses Israel - Chicago, IL - November 2014
Ray Stein Memorial Scholar-in-Residence
Aish Denver - November 2014
Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2015
Seattle - Scholar in Residence - October 2015
Persian Hebrew Congregation of Skokie and Young Israel of Skokie - November 2015
Chicago - Aron and Rivka Friedman Kollel Yom Rishon - November 2015
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2016 - Scholar-in-Residence
Boca Raton Synagogue - May 2018
Boca Raton Synagogue - May 2018 (BRS Version)
The Bais Medrash of Bergenfield - July 2018 - Scholar-in-Residence - "Unusual Rabbis, Unusual Rebbetzins, Unusual Poets"
Young Israel of Bal Harbor - January 2019
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun Teaneck, NJ - January 2019
Williams Island (FL) - The Willie and Celia Trump Synagogue - February 1-2, 2019
Ner Yisrael Community - London, England - Parshas Korach - July 2019 - Scholar-in-Residence
"Just Between Us: Some Critical Thinking about the Modern Era in Jewish History" - Bais Medrash of Bergenfield (NJ) - August 2019
Young Israel of Fort Lee (NJ) - Scholar-in-Residence - December 2019
Chanukah: Historical Considerations of a Holiday Widely Celebrated--Surprisingly Misunderstood - December 2019
Suburban Torah - Ohel Yosef - Livingston, NJ - Scholar-in-Residence - February 2020
Purim - A Tale of Two Texts - The tension involved in the publication of מגילת אסתר in Rabbinic history as refracted through ספר עזרא - Spring Valley, NY - February 2020
Purim - A Tale of Two Texts - The tension involved in the publication of מגילת אסתר in Rabbinic history as refracted through ספר עזרא - Boca Raton, FL - February 2020
Young Israel of Boca Raton - February 2020
Tours
October 2019 - Museum of the Bible - Washington, DC
July 2019 - Jewish History Tour of Central Europe - Itinerary
Thanksgiving week 2017: Israel with Rabbi Binyamin Marwick and Rabbi Dovid Katz
August 2016 - Vienna and Prague
Summer 2014 -Young Professionals/Singles Jewish History Tour of Prague, Vienna, and Budapest
Chol HaMoed Pesach 2014 - Mount Vernon: Home of George Washington
Gettysburg National Military Park - American Jews and the Civil War - August 2013
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - July 2013
Spring 2013 - Philadelphia
Chol HaMoed Pesach 2013 - Washington, DC: United States Capitol and Presidential Memorials
Spring 2012 - Italy