25 Jewish Things You Should Be Learning
From philosophy and sociology, to humanities and history, to literature and theology.
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
As we look forward to 2025, we wondered:
What are the most integral aspects of Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish culture, Israel, and Zionism that everyone should be learning, regardless of age?
While virtually limitless, we filtered them down to 25 subjects and topics — from philosophy and sociology, to humanities and history, to literature and theology.
Here they are, along with a complementary video for each one so you can immediately start learning more:
1) Jewish Literature
Subject: Humanities
Wow, where to start?! Ancient Jewish literature comprises Biblical literature and rabbinic literature, while its modern form includes Yiddish literature, Judeo-Tat literature, Ladino literature, Hebrew literature (especially Israeli literature), and Jewish American literature.
2) Jewish Sages
Subject: Philosophy
Nowadays, when someone seeks wisdom, they might turn to people like Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, and the Dalai Lama. One would be wise to turn to Jewish sages as well, such as ancient Jewish sages Hillel the Elder, Maimonides, and Ezra the Scribe.
Fun Fact: The Hebrew term chazal (חז״ל) is an acronym for the hakhameinu zikhronam liv’rakha (חכמינו זכרונם לברכה), meaning: “Our Sages, may their memory be blessed” — referring to all Jewish sages of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud eras, spanning from the times of the final 300 years of the Second Temple of Jerusalem until the seventh century CE.
3) Getting to Know the ‘Other’
Subject: Humanities
Jews are as diverse a group of people as exists. And, naturally, we don’t agree on everything. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get along, even if we decide to enjoy different lifestyles and subscribe to different beliefs. Despite sharing the same prefix, unity is not uniformity. If uniformity asks, “Can we all agree?” then unity posits: “Can we all get along?” To get along, we need to get to know each other.
4) Jewish Peoplehood
Subject: Social Studies
“Being Jewish is defined by membership in the People and not by religion. The Jews have a religion, but Judaism is not a religion. The moment you define Judaism as a religion, the first thing that happens is you create religious denominations. Where was Reform, even Orthodox Judaism, 700 years ago? They did not exist because we did not define ourselves as a religion.” — Avraham Infeld, President Emeritus of Hillel International1
5) The 5-Legged Table
Subject: Humanities
“The 5-Legged Table” is Avraham Infeld’s metaphor for describing a strong and stable Jewish identity. According to him, there are five components or “legs” that combine to make up a person’s Jewish identity: memory, family, covenant, Israel, and Hebrew.
6) Jewish History
Subject: History
Luckily, we have this hour-long, all-encompassing survey of Jewish history by the President & CEO of the Center for Jewish History, David Myers (author of “Jewish History: A Very Short Introduction”).
7) Jewish Poetry
Subject: Humanities
From holiday poems to quiet spiritual reflections, Jewish and Israeli poems celebrate the interweaving of Jewish faith, cultural traditions, and literary history. Famous Jewish poets include Emma Lazarus, Kalonymos Ben Moses of Lucca, Yehuda Amichai, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Anna Margolin, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and Grace Aguilar.
Fun Fact: Israel’s national anthem — HaTikvah (Hebrew for “The Hope”) — is based on a 19th-century Jewish poem by Naftali Herz Imber, who wrote the first version in 1877, while he was the guest of a Jewish scholar in Romania.
8) Torah
Subject: Theology
The Torah is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (the Five Books of Moses). If in bound book form, it is called Chumash, and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries (perushim).
At times, the word Torah can also be used as a synonym for the whole of the Hebrew Bible, in which sense it includes not only the first five, but all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible.
9) Jewish and Israeli Music
Subject: Humanities
There exists both traditions of religious music — as sung at the synagogue and domestic prayers — and of secular music, such as klezmer. While some elements of Jewish music may originate in biblical times, differences of rhythm and sound can be found among later Jewish communities which have been musically influenced by location (i.e. Israeli music and the Middle East).
According to Edward Seroussi, an Israeli musicologist of Uruguayan origin:
“What is known as ‘Jewish music’ today is thus the result of complex historical processes.”2
10) Shabbat
Subject: Jewish Studies
As the legendary Hebrew essayist, Ahad Ha’am, put it: “More than the Jewish People have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.”
Another legendary Hebrew essayist, Hayim Nahman Bialik, wrote: “Shabbat is a day of rest, of mental scrutiny, and of balance. Without it, the workdays are insipid.”
11) Jewish Farming
Subject: Environmental Studies
What does farming and taking care of the Earth have to do with Judaism? Take a tour of Urban Adamah, a Jewish farm in California, to learn how Jewish values and traditions relate to farming.
12) Jewish Wisdom and Business
Subject: Business Administration
Rabbi Daniel Lapin proposes a new way to view and approach success, based on key concepts from the Bible (which are actually surprisingly simple). Drawing on his wisdom and knowledge of the Bible, he reveals the clear link between making money and spirituality, and urges listeners to focus on self-discipline, integrity, and character strength in order to achieve personal prosperity.
13) Modern Hebrew
Subject: Linguistics
Hebrew spoken today is not the same as the Hebrew in the Bible. But how did Hebrew come to be, anyway? Watch this video to discover the brief history of modern Hebrew — featuring Joshua Mallett, and written by University of Washington’s Dr. Liora Halperin.
14) Zionism
Subject: Political Science
Where did the idea of Jewish return to the Land of Israel come from, what does this return look like, how has it changed through the centuries, and what does Zionism mean anyway? All of these questions are addressed in the video above.
15) Entrepreneurship
Subject: Business Administration
Joseph “Yossi” Vardi is an entrepreneur and investor, and one of Israel’s first high-tech entrepreneurs. For more than 47 years, he has founded and helped to build over 85 high-tech companies in a variety of fields, among them software, energy, Internet, mobile, electro-optics, and water technology.
16) Happiness in the Jewish Perspective
Subject: Philosophy
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (of blessed memory) offers an academic address on the meaning and measure of happiness in the Jewish tradition. An English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author of countless books, Rabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013.
17) Telling Israel’s Story
Subject: Communications
Michael Dickson serves as Executive Director of the StandWithUs office in Jerusalem, an international and non-partisan Israel education organization. He is also co-author of the book, “ISResilience: What Israelis Can Teach the World.”
18) The 500-Year-Old Book That Shaped Jewish Practice
Subject: Jewish Studies
At the dawn of the 16th century, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews relied on oral traditions of Jewish law — halakha. Both groups passed down their own unique customs.
However, after the Spanish Inquisition’s mass expulsion, Sephardic Jews found themselves living alongside the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. This led to confusion over which traditions and laws to follow.
Though they would never meet, Rabbi Yosef Karo and Rabbi Moses Isserles (AKA the “Rema”) worked together to create a book that would continue to shape Jewish practice for the next 500 years, and counting.
19) Kabbalah
Subject: Theology
What is Kabbalah? Where does it come from? Who is it for? Jewish mysticism is often surrounded by mystery. Hear from Rabbi Shais Taub, acclaimed author and spiritual speaker, as he takes on some of the most fundamental questions on Kabbalah and its impact on Jewish life.
20) The Lost Tribes of Israel
Subject: History
How did the Jews lose sovereignty in the Land of Israel after just 500 years? Was it simply a matter of regime change, with the Assyrians and Babylonians asserting their dominance in the region, or was it because the leaders repeatedly failed to listen to Divine advice? And what happened to the 10 lost tribes? This video explains it all.
21) The Holocaust
Subject: History
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.
Nowadays, there are two calendar days to commemorate the Holocaust: International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th) and Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoa in Hebrew (usually in April or May, depending on the Hebrew calendar).
22) The New Middle East
Subject: Middle Eastern Studies
Go inside the meaning and the promise of normalized relationships between Arab states and Israel, a configuration that was unimaginable just a few years ago. The result is “a new Middle East.”
23) How to Fight Antisemitism
Subject: Social Studies
Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss discusses her deeply personal relationship to antisemitism (she became a Bat Mitzvah at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the 2018 site of the deadliest attack on Jews in American history); how social media and political polarization have reignited the problem in recent years; and how everyone can fight back against hatred.
24) The Number 7
Subject: Jewish Studies
The Sages state that all sevenths are cherished: the seventh day (Shabbat), Moses was the seventh from Abraham, self-sacrifice is expected from each of us in the seventh generation, and so forth. But why the number seven?
25) Israeli Politics
Subject: Political Science
Learn about the parties which make up the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), and what is a so-called coalition government.
Bonus: Jewish Impact on the World’s Values
Subject: Sociology
Where do the values that we all take for granted today come from? We have been led to believe that Greece and Rome formed the foundations of Western civilization, but is that entirely true? Did they practice the values we believe in?
Infeld, Avraham. “Who is a Jew? Peoplehood Versus Religion.” eJewish Philanthropy.
Seroussi, Edwin et al. (n.d.). “Jewish Music.” Oxford Music Online.
As the screenwriter who adapted Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Enemies, A Love Story" for the film with Angelica Huston and Ron Silver, I was pleased to see your short video with Mr. Singer as your representative of the best Jewish literature. He is arguably the greatest Jewish writer of the 20th Century and worthy of comparison to the great Russian authors like Tolstoy, Turgenev and so forth. I met him briefly on two occasions. He read and was pleased with the screenplay, which I considered an extraordinary honor. (He hated Streisand's version of Yentyl.). Unfortunately he died before the finished film was completed. Roger Simon
Thank you! This is a wonderful Chanukah gift!!