Colourful Profiles
These aren’t the famous stories.
These are twelve stories that few have heard. Stories that will fascinate you and bring you into a rich and beautiful past you didn’t know you had.
You’ll hear astonishing stories of converts , hostages , remarkable women, and Jews who impacted wider society.
Meet people who did incredible things. Like the Torah scholar who led Muslim armies , the printer who influenced Oliver Cromwell , the woman who outfoxed the Inquisition —and many more
4 Tuesdays, 8-9:30 PM. Starting 13 May 2025
Chabad HGS 39-41 Falloden Way, London NW11 6JT
Instructor: Rabbi Bentzi Sudak
COURSE OVERVIEW
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?
