About

Stav Appel is a data scientist and a lifelong student of Torah who has deciphered Hebrew letters, Torah stories, Judaic ritual objects and Jewish holy days hidden in one of the oldest preserved decks of Tarot cards. Given that the Tarot was created shortly after the expulsion of Spanish Jewry, its secret content suggests it was originally used as a tool for clandestine Jewish education.

Endorsements

Stav Appel delivered a spell binding lecture entitled “The Torah and the Tarot" before 85 people at our Club Shalom, Heritage Hills Somers, NY. His passion for teaching and scholarly research was evident in his address. Our audience was so taken with his presentation, that through a prolonged question and answer session his program happily continued way beyond its planned time.

— Joel Feerst, Program Director, Club Shalom, Somers, NY

Stav Appel’s talk, based on his discovery of Jewish content in Tarot cards, introduced us to something entirely new. The talk was fascinating, well done and very well received. Stav is a fine speaker and has something original to offer. I highly recommend him.

— Margery Lazar, Chair, Continuing Education, HaMakom, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Stav provided a passionate and insightful presentation of his research on the hidden teachings of Crypto-Jews, as part of a series sponsored by the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires on Sephardic Jewish history. Stav’s scholarship drew the rapt attention of participants as he illustrated this fascinating interpretation of Jewish tradition, ritual and spirituality embedded in Tarot cards.

— Rabbi Daveen Litwin, Director of Community Engagement and Programming, Jewish Federation of the Berkshires, Berkshires, MA

Contact Stav