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Simcha Gross

Simcha Gross is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a historian of Jews in the first millennium of the Common Era.

Summer 2026

Cover Story

By: Simcha Gross

Where did the kippa come from?

Spring 2022

“Whoever Is Hungry, Come and Eat”? From the Babylonian Poor to the Ashkenazi Elijah

By: Simcha Gross

Why do we begin the seder by inviting “whoever is hungry” to come and eat? Aren’t the guests already at the table? And why do we do it in Aramaic? It has something to do with Babylonian magic bowls . . .