Editor's Pick ·
When the Soviet Police Surveilled Purim Parties
A failed escape and a beloved sacred tune.
Dovid Margolin
Dovid Margolin is a senior editor at Chabad.org, where he writes on Jewish life around the world, with a particular interest in Russian Jewish history.
Latest Content
Editor's Pick ·
A Visit to the World’s First Hasidic Art Gallery
“Are these relatively drab-looking, strict people allowed to indulge in such colorful work?”
Editor's Pick ·
How Exile and Imprisonment Forged Kazakhstan’s Jewish Community
A hasidic pilgrimage to commemorate the country’s most famous Jewish resident.
Observation ·
Podcast: Dovid Margolin on Kommunarka and the Jewish Defiance of Soviet History
By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
How a Latvian Parliamentarian Rescued a Lubavitcher Rebbe from the Soviet Union
Playing hardball.
Editor's Pick ·
Ukrainian Jewry after a Year of War
“I remember telling my wife that this was the first time in years that I wouldn’t have matzah and wine on Passover.”
Editor's Pick ·
A Glimmer of Hope for a Jewish Community in War-Torn Ukraine
The menorah of Mariupol.
Editor's Pick ·
When Stalin’s Secret Police Persecuted the Chabad Movement as Spies
The beginnings of the Doctors’ Plot.
Observation ·
Podcast: Dovid Margolin on Jewish Life in War-torn Ukraine
By Dovid Margolin, Tikvah Podcast at MosaicCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
In a Beleaguered Ukrainian City, Jews Pray for Peace
“Where else should I be now if not the synagogue?”
Editor's Pick ·
One Man’s Story of Maintaining Judaism in the Face of Soviet Tyranny
The tsaddik of Leningrad.
Editor's Pick ·
The Rabbinic Debate over Napoleon
Beware the Gentile who doesn’t cross himself in front of a church.
Editor's Pick ·
When Jewish Neighborhoods Disappeared, Crown Heights Remained
The history of Brooklyn's best-known ḥasidic community.
Editor's Pick ·
A Great Jewish Sage on the Dangers of Political Violence
The rebbe and the riots.
Observation ·
Podcast: Reflections for the Days of Awe
By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Tara Isabella Burton, David Bashevkin, Christine Rosen, Meir Soloveichik, Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
How Pious Jews Hid a Hasidic Rabbi’s Grave from the Communists
In the mega-shtetl of Berdichev.
Observation ·
What Has Happened to the Jews of Ukraine
By Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
When the Ukrainian KGB Apologized for the Persecution of a Rabbi
The arrest records of Levi Yitzḥak Schneerson.
Observation ·
Podcast: Dovid Margolin on the Rebbe’s Campaign for a Moment of Silence
By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
How Train Cars Filled with Matzah Made it to the Soviet Union in 1929
Thanks to a small group of dedicated rabbis.
Editor's Pick ·
How Some 1,800 Jewish Children Escaped Iran to Brooklyn during the Revolution
Operation Exodus.
Editor's Pick ·
Interwar Latvia’s Great Hasidic Politician
Mordechai Dubin.
Editor's Pick ·
Jacques Lipchitz, Tuscany’s Great Jewish Sculptor
His villa is now a ḥasidic summer camp.
Editor's Pick ·
How Ḥasidic Jews Have Kept Calabrian Citron Farmers in Business
A bitter frost threatens this year’s crop.
Observation ·
What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba
By Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Response ·
The Roots of Today’s Revival of Russian Judaism Lie Deep in the Soviet Past
By Dovid MargolinI read with great interest Maxim Shrayer’s elegantly composed “ The Prospect for Russia’s Jews .” Striking an especially strong chord with me were his memories of growing up as the child of refuseniks...
Editor's Pick ·
Jewish Life Carries on in Eastern Ukraine
A visit to Mariupol.
Editor's Pick ·
In Today’s Russia, the Memory of Soviet Repression Is Threatened by Oblivion
A post-Soviet Jew searches for traces of his great-grandparents.
Editor's Pick ·
The Rabbi, the Rebbetzin, and the Yiddish Poet
Peretz Markish and the Schneersons.
Observation ·
The Soviet Jews Who Risked Persecution for the Sake of Matzah
By Dovid MargolinCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
