Maharam (R. Meir ben Baruch) of Rothenburg

By order of King Rudolph, Rabbi Meir was imprisoned in the fortress of Ensisheim and held for ransom. The king knew that the Jews would give away their last mark to redeem their beloved rabbi, and indeed the sum of 20,000 marks was raised for Rabbi Meir's...

Rabbi Meir ben Baruch ("Maharam") of Rothenburg (1215?-1293), the great Talmudic commentator and leading Halachic authority for German Jewry, was imprisoned in the fortress at Ensisheim. A huge ransom was imposed for his release. The money was raised, but...

Renowned Talmudist Rabbi Meir ("Maharam") of Rothenburg (1215?-1293) died in his cell in the Ensisheim fortress, where he had been imprisoned for ten years in an attempt to exact a huge ransom from the Jewish community. The money had been raised...

The tragic saga of the imprisonment of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch ("Maharam") of Rothenburg came to a close when his body was ransomed, 14 years after his death, by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpen. "Maharam" (1215?-1293) was the leading Torah authority ...

Learn about some of the Jewish leaders who were imprisoned throughout our history.

The Jewish people have never stopped studying Torah, regardless of whether we’ve lived in times of prosperity or persecution . . .

Overview of the major Ashkenazi rishonim.

This class covers more of the medieval scholars (“Rishonim”) of Sephardic Jewry, including Nachmanides, R. Shlomo ben Aderet, Rabbeinu Asher, the Baal HaTurim and Rabbeinu Nissim. This class concludes with the proliferation of Kabbalah in Spain.