# Jewish  History



## Sixties Fan

I love History and there is a lot of Jewish history to be learned.  This is the perfect place to dig through it and unearth lots of that history which is not known.

If anyone finds any of that history they have been fascinated with, or wish others to know, please post it here.


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## Sixties Fan

This is a story of resistance and spiritual audacity. It is a story that unfolds in the deserts of Mexico’s silver mining regions, on the streets of the emerging colonial metropolis of Mexico City, inside the libraries of Franciscan monasteries, and in the underground cells of the Inquisition. It connects the far reaches of the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora with the global trade routes linking East and West. It is about colonialism, religious persecution, love, family, and faith but ultimately, it is a story about a book. 
We begin with a small, leather-bound notebook filled with a highly original anthology: poems, prayers, meditations on the Ten Commandments, an electrifying autobiography, and even a holiday calendar. The book was written in the gifted scribal hand of Joseph Lumbroso, a 16th-century Mexican religious thinker, poet, and crypto-Jewish martyr, otherwise known as Luis de Carvajal, el mozo. Carvajal wrote this religious anthology in the few years between his two arrests by the Holy Office of the Mexican Inquisition for Judaizing. Shortly after his arrest, the book was found in his family’s home and was preserved as evidence against Lumbroso and his family on charges of heresy.
Heresy was a common accusation in this time, as was the crime of Judaizing—holding onto Jewish practices and beliefs. The Inquisition was focused on heresy, and as such sought to police the religious lives of Christians. But Spain had a large group of Christians who were, as their suspicious neighbors called them, New Christians. These descendants of Jewish converts were viewed by their Christian neighbors as less-than. They were seen as still deeply rooted in their Judaism and attached to the “dead law of Moses.” So the conversos entered the church by and large under duress—whether it was during the murderous riots of 1391, during the intense preaching campaigns of Vicente Ferrer, or when faced with the awful choice of abandoning their millennial home in Sepharad in 1492. 
Once they converted, many sincerely embraced Christianity while others lived a double life, publicly comporting themselves as faithful Christians while secretly holding on to aspects of Jewish belief and practice. Regardless of their inner religious conviction, however, most conversos remained socioeconomically and culturally other. They continued to live in the same neighborhoods as before, worked in the same businesses, and continued similar marriage practices, namely marrying children into the family of business partners. No longer Jewish, now the conversos married their children to other conversos instead of other Jews. The court historian Andrés Bernáldez captured this succinctly when he described the atavistic Jewishness of the conversos:


> You also have to know that before the Inquisition arrived, the customs of the ordinary conversos were the same as the same stinking Jews which is why they continually talked to each other. Thus, they were gluttons and comrades and they never stopped the Jewish customs of eating little dishes and stews cooked overnight on coals, little dishes of onions and garlic fried with oil … in order to avoid the pork … the other things they stewed smelled very bad on the breath, and their houses and doors smelled very bad from that food. Thus, they themselves had the smell of the Jews on account of the food that they ate … (translation from Lu Ann Homza’s Spanish Inquisition: 1478-1614)



Eating garlicky tapas drizzled in olive oil or preparing adafina is not an act of heresy. But for Bernaáldez the attachment to Jewish cuisine was a sign of cultural heresy. He goes on to refer to outright acts of Judaizing, such as keeping the laws of Passover and avoiding the Sacraments and then he turns to another sociocultural critique of the conversos Jewishness:

(full article online)









						The Auto-da-fé of Mexico City
					

On Dec. 8, 1596, Luis de Carvajal the Younger, along with members of his prominent extended family of crypto-Jews, was burned at the stake. Their story has fascinated historians ever since.




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

“So successful were the Jewish pioneers that by 1900, there wasn’t a single settlement west of the Mississippi of any significance which had not had a Jewish mayor,” says historian Kenneth Libo. “This includes Deadwood, Dodge City, and Tombstone.”

Between 1840 and 1880, the European Jewish population in America increased from 15,000 to around 250,000. Most migrated for familiar reasons—to escape religious persecution, political upheaval, and poverty. “What is clear, even at this early stage, is the complex nature of the collective Jewish experience in America,” writes Libo in his 1985 book _We Lived There Too_, coauthored with the late Irving Howe. “For already there are those who stay east and those who go west, those who come with special privileges and those who suffer discrimination, those who care about the faith of their fathers and those who do not, those who remain uprooted and those who transplant themselves.” Jewish settlers encountered little prejudice in the West, according to Libo. “They were looked upon as fellow settlers.”

During this same time, the United States increased its size by a third with the annexation of Texas in 1845, the ratification of the Oregon Treaty, the seizure of tribal lands, and the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as spoils from the Mexican-American War.

With expansion came opportunities. Boomtowns appeared as word spread of copper in Montana and Arizona, silver in New Mexico, and gold in California. Just like their Gentile counterparts, Jewish men and women were lured into hostile landscapes, traveling west by buckboard, stagecoach, horseback, and prairie schooner through Indian country to new settlements in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and the gold fields of California with the hope of striking it rich, or at the very least, the possibility of a new life for themselves and their families.






Photo caption
Trader Julius Mayer with Chiefs Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail. The Pawnee tribe also gave him the name Box-ka-re-sha-has-ta-ka or Curly-headed white chief with one tongue.
Nebraska State Historical Society


But it was the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night prospector, who played a major role in the development of the West, turning dusty little cow towns into urban centers. “Jews literally brought civilization to countless cities and towns in America west of the Mississippi by establishing ‘the department store’ in every town of any consequence,” says Libo. “Their numbers may have been small, but their influence was substantial.”



(full article online)









						Jewish Pioneers
					






					www.neh.gov


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## Sixties Fan

Hebrew National
					






					www.neh.gov


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## Sixties Fan

Walking in historic Palermo, regional capital of Sicily – the vast island off of the boot of the Italian peninsula – visitors will see street signs written in Hebrew and Arabic, as well as Italian. The newly-placed signs pay homage to the island’s Jewish and Moorish roots. Though little survives, the Jewish presence in Sicily dates back to the Roman era and represents an important page of the island’s history, as explained in the temporary exhibit “Documenti di storia ebraica dalle collezioni del Museo Salinas,” (Documents of Jewish history from the collections of Salinas Museum) at Palermo’s Regional Archaeological Museum Antonio Salinas.
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As explained in the exhibition, only several centuries later the oblivion surrounding the Jews of Sicily began to lift, with scholars starting to take a new interest in the topic.

“In the second half of the nineteenth century, studies on the Jewish world flourished,” Ferruzza told the Post, noting that already in 1748, when King Charles III of Spain for the first time allowed Jews to reside in some cities in Sicily, a tractate on the Jewish history of the island was compiled, albeit with a decisive antisemitic perspective. The volume is on display.

The turning point was represented by the Risorgimento (the unification of Italy in 1870), a process that saw Italian Jews heavily involved and on the front line. In the newly-established kingdom, Jews also receive full equality in all its territories for the first time in history.

“After the unification of Italy, we had a number of articles on the topic of the Jewish presence in Sicily, often promoted by Italian patriots who seemed to think that in order to build the Italian national identity was important to bring to light the memory of this important element of Sicilian history that had been forgotten,” the curator highlighted. “It is a topic that we would like to further explore.”

Today only a few dozen people in Sicily identify as Jewish. Palermo has only recently officially become a branch of the Jewish Community of Naples after in 2017 the Catholic Church offered to local Jews the use of the Oratory of Santa Maria del Sabato, a monastery believed to stand where the magnificent synagogue described by Bartenura was once located.

As it happened in Spain, in 1492, many Jews who were forced to either leave or convert pretended to do so and kept their Judaism secret. Centuries later, their descendants are often re-discovering their Jewish roots and seeking a connection. For now, it is still isolated cases. But the history of the Jewish presence in the island might be far from over, after all.

(full article online)









						Little-known Jewish history of Sicily on display centuries after expulsion
					

. “After 1492, Jews had to leave the island and their possessions were sold, destroyed or reused for other purposes, as it happened to many of the Jewish sites."




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

Elena Kingsbury grew up in Maitland, Ont., a small town of about 1,200 people—including just two Jewish families. She would hop across the St. Lawrence River into Ogdensburg, NY, where her family were members of the international Anshe Zophen synagogue, which supported congregants from nearby towns on both sides of the border.

In 2000, Kingsbury would be the last bat mitzvah in the now-closed synagogue. The 9/11 attacks made border crossings too difficult, and a declining population led to the regional exodus of many young locals—including herself. Now an education specialist at the Friends Of Simon Wiesenthal Center For Holocaust Studies in Ottawa, Kingsbury joins to recall her years growing up in the tiny riverside town, and how it shaped her conception of what it means to be Jewish.

(podcast online)









						Remembering the last Jews of Maitland, Ont.
					

The few local Jews used to hop across the river to their New York synagogue—until 9/11.




					thecjn.ca


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## whitehall

You could fill a building the size of the Smithsonian with Jewish history.


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## Sixties Fan

“Stone Paths – Stories Set in Stone: Jewish Inscriptions in Greece” opened this week and will remain open to the public through February 2023.

The exhibit is being co-organized and co-hosted by the Epigraphic Museum in Athens.

A total of 10 inscriptions are on display at the Jewish Museum and about 30 more on display at the Epigraphic Musuem.

The Jewish Museum’s president, Makis Matsas, said, “The exhibition has a very significant value because, on the one hand, it documents the existence and presence of Jews in Greece since the end of the fourth century BCE, thus highlighting the Jewish element in Greece as one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe, but at the same time highlighting the multicultural past of our homeland, Greece.”

One of the Greek inscriptions referring to Jews dates to between 300 and 250 BCE and references a freed slave from Judea, according to _AFP_. It was discovered at the Amphiareion of Oropos sanctuary near Athens.


(full article online)



			https://www.jewishpress.com/news/middle-east/cyprus-greece/museum-exhibit-dates-jewish-presence-in-greece-to-fourth-century-bce/2022/05/21/


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## mikegriffith1

If you want the real history of Israel, I invite you to visit my website The Case for Israel:









						The Case for Israel
					

The Case for Israel Why Israel Deserves Our Support Michael T. Griffith If any nation on Earth deserves our support, it is the nation of Israel. After the Holocaust, the United States led the way to help establish the state of Israel in 1948. Israel was founded mostly by Jews who left Europe




					sites.google.com


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## Sixties Fan

A 15th-century manuscript from Italy – the smallest known one of its kind in Hebrew – is going to be auctioned off in Jerusalem this Tuesday.


The manuscript was constructed from a single piece of parchment which was cut into roundels at 5.5 centimeters in diameter alone.


"We know of only two other similar Hebrew manuscripts, and we can say neither comes close to the size and magnificence of this manuscript," said Kedem Auction House founder and co-CEO Meron Eren. "It is the most unique we've ever seen."

It contains a complete Passover Hagaddah from Italian tradition, as well as piyuttim (liturgical poems). It has 98 pages altogether.










The collection of pieces of the smallest known Hebrew manuscript which all together make up the Passover Haggadah. (credit: KEDEM AUCTION HOUSE)

(full article online)










						Smallest known medieval Hebrew manuscript auctioned off in Jerusalem
					

The manuscript was constructed from a single piece of parchment which was cut into roundels at 5.5 centimeters in diameter alone.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Kennan Institute scholar Izabella Tabarovsky wrote in a 2019 essay for Fathom that the Soviet Union’s campaign against Zionism and Jews “succeeded at emptying Zionism of its meaning as a national liberation movement of the Jewish people and associating it instead with racism, fascism, Nazism, genocide, imperialism, colonialism, militarism and apartheid.” Not surprisingly, students on college and university campuses across the United States often hear similar if not identical rhetoric from anti-Zionist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Solidary for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

The Soviets’ decades-long anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist campaign was multi-faceted and not limited to statements from the Soviet government itself. Anywhere that Communist cells were active, on any radio broadcast controlled by Moscow, in any printing house receiving instructions from the Kremlin, the demonization of Zionism featured prominently and was always related to specific current events in order to keep the embers of the world’s oldest hatred aglow.

This campaign also went beyond mere rhetoric. At times, it involved outright judicial murder. In 1951, for example, leading Czech communist Rudolf Slansky was imprisoned and, under extreme torture, falsely confessed to involvement in a Zionist conspiracy, for which he received the death penalty. In 1952, on the “Night of the Murdered Poets,” Stalin executed 13 pro-Soviet Jewish intellectuals for supposed loyalty to Israel and the “imperialist camp.” These are only two of many examples.

(full article online)









						The Soviet origins of left-wing anti-Zionism
					

Today’s haters of Israel are heirs to one of the longest and most effective anti-Semitic propaganda campaigns in modern history.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Dario Calimani, the president of the Jewish Community of Venice, poses inside the Spanish Schola Synagogue in Venice, northern Italy, June 1, 2022. The Spanish Schola, founded about 1580, but rebuilt in the first half of the 17th century, is the biggest of the Venetian synagogues. Venice’s Jewish ghetto is considered the first in Europe and one of the first in the world, and a new effort is underway to preserve its 16th century synagogues for the Jews who have remained and tourists who pass through. (AP Photo/Chris Warde-Jones)



External view of the Spanish Schola Synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, northern Italy, June 1, 2022. Venice’s Jewish ghetto is considered the first in Europe and one of the first in the world, and a new effort is underway to preserve its 16th century synagogues for the Jews who have remained and tourists who pass through. (AP Photo/Chris Warde-Jones)

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice’s Jewish ghetto is considered the first in Europe and one of the first in the world, and a new effort is underway to preserve its 16th-century synagogues for the Jews who have remained and tourists who pass through.
For nearly two years, restorers have been peeling away paint and discovering the original foundations of three of the ghetto’s synagogues, which are considered the only Renaissance synagogues still in use, art historian David Landau said.
Landau is spearheading the fundraising effort to restore the synagogues and nearby buildings both for Venice’s small Jewish community, which numbers around 450 people, and for tourists who can visit them on a guided tour through the Jewish Museum of Venice.

(full article online)









						PHOTO ESSAY: Venice ghetto’s synagogues undergo a restoration renaissance
					

Effort underway to preserve historic neighborhood's 16th-century houses of prayer, both for the small remaining Jewish community and for tourists




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

I always see the Forward find Jewish angles in the most goyishe seeming parts of pop culture, so I'll do one too - from decades ago.

"Bewitched" was a hugely popular TV series about a witch Samantha, who marries mortal man Darrin Stevens. Most plots involve her magical relatives meddling in her marriage, especially her disapproving mother, Endora.

The show was created by Sol Saks under executive director Harry Ackerman and director William Asher. Saks and Ackerman were Jewish, Asher's father was Jewish and he married Bewitched's star, Elizabeth Montgomery. 





Many people see the show as an allegory for the Jewish American experience. Samantha comes from the old country but wants to assimilate in American society, while her relatives disapprove of her mixed marriage to a mortal. Endora looks very "foreign." 

Darrin loves her but wants her to be a "normal" woman and not perform her strange rituals. He's tolerant - but not that tolerant.

In the pilot episode, when Darrin marries Samantha, the theme of prejudice is made explicit. Endora says, "You’re still very young and inexperienced. You don’t know what prejudice you’ll run into!" And later, when Samantha first tells Darrin her secret, he exclaims, "Okay, if you're a witch,  where's your black hat and broom and how come you're out when it isn't even Halloween? Samantha answers, "Mother was right, you're prejudiced!"

There is one other telling incident in the pilot. Darren's ex-girlfriend Sheila invites the newlyweds to a party, where she attempts to demean Samantha as not being sophisticated while making snide comments. At one point, Sheila engages Samantha in a conversation - about nose jobs:

_ “Do you know Dr. Hafter, dear? Samantha?”
 “Beg your pardon?”
 “Dr. Hafter, do you know him?”
“No.”
“The plastic surgeon. Does beautiful nose work.”
"No, I don’t know him.”
”Funny, I could have sworn…”_

In the 1960s, nose jobs were considered _de rigueur_ for young, upwardly mobile Jewish women.

In the end, as much as Samantha tries to assimilate and stop doing her magic, she can never deny her witchhood.











						The Secret Jewish History of "Bewitched"
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Sixties Fan

Oppenheimer and Ball at the 1952 end-of-the-season party. Ball had just told Oppenheimer that she was pregnant with her second child with husband Desi Arnaz. Photo credit: Laughs, Luck...and Lucy by Jess Oppenheimer


“I am firmly convinced that having some kind of serious maladjustment in childhood that gives you an offbeat slant on life is one of the most important prerequisites for a comedy writer,” Jess Oppenheimer, the creator, head writer and producer of “I Love Lucy” observed at the outset of his memoir (co-written by his son, Gregg), “Laughs, Luck…and Lucy…How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time” (Syracuse University Press, 1996). Yes, the man behind one of the most beloved television shows of all time, whom Lucille Ball called “the brains” of “I Love Lucy,” was a nice Jewish guy with a difficult childhood, an overbearing mother and an eye for the utter ridiculousness of the human condition that still remains unmatched by most comedy writers. 

For me, the sun and the moon revolve around “I Love Lucy,” which premiered over 70 years ago. Anyone who loves to laugh ought to appreciate Lucille Ball. But anyone who loves to _write_ ought to appreciate Jess Oppenheimer. I had always wanted to interview his son Gregg about his iconic father, whom I believe doesn’t receive enough credit as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century — television, literary or otherwise. So, when Gregg granted me an interview last month, I immediately pitched a cover story about Oppenheimer and his son for our Father’s Day issue. At the Journal, we often focus on present-day visionaries, and for good reason. But sometimes, isn’t it great to look back on the lives of past luminaries? They ground us and always serve as a reminder that there often is so much to admire from the past.


(full article online)









						Father  Knows Best – How Jess Oppenheimer Overcame His Struggles to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
					

'I am firmly convinced that having some kind of serious maladjustment in childhood that gives you an offbeat slant on life is one of the most important prerequisites for a comedy writer...”




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

Many Jamaican Jews trace their origins to Portugal, where their ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism by King Manuel I in 1497. Although legally prohibited from emigrating, many still found ways to leave, moving to Spanish-Portuguese Jewish communities in Hamburg, London, Livorno (Italy), Amsterdam — and especially Bayonne, an the area of southwest France near the Iberian peninsula. Over the next 100 years, some of these former conversos (forced converts) came from Amsterdam to the Caribbean — including Jamaica, settling in Port Royal, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, and Kingston, as well numerous smaller towns throughout the island. Although Jamaica was then a Spanish colony, it was controlled by Christopher Columbus’ family, who refused to allow the Inquisition to establish a base on the island. Practicing Judaism was technically illegal, but there was no governmental mechanism for prosecuting suspected heretics.

After the British colonized Jamaica in 1655, another wave of Jewish immigrants arrived. Under the British, it became legal to practice Judaism, which in turn led to the establishment of the island’s first synagogue in Port Royal, a bustling commercial center known as a home base for pirates. Little is known about this synagogue, which was destroyed along with much of the city in an earthquake and tsunami in 1692.






A skull and crossbones on the grave of David de Leon at the Hunt’s Bay Cemetery in Jamaica. (Laura Leibman, courtesy Jewish Atlantic World Database.)

Just across the bay from Port Royal is the Hunt’s Bay Cemetery, the oldest Jewish burial ground in Jamaica. Seven graves in the cemetery bear the skull and crossbones, leading some to suggest that there were Jewish pirates looting Spanish ships. According to this theory, the Jewish pirates of Jamaica were Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisition and attacked Spanish shipping out of a desire for revenge. The Jewish pirate mentioned most frequently was Moses Cohen Henriques, who was able to steal shipments of gold and silver from Spanish boats off of the coast of what is today Cuba in 1628. Henriques also set up his own pirate Island off the coast of Brazil and worked with Captain Henry Morgan in Jamaica after 1654. But much of this history is undocumented and popular writers have exaggerated or invented much of the story.

(full article online)









						The Jewish Community of Jamaica | My Jewish Learning
					

The Jews of Jamaica make up a small but vibrant religious community centered today in the capital of Kingston. While ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Rear Adm. Hyman Rickover, a pioneer in the development of atomic submarines, boards Navy's nuclear-powered sub Nautilus from a tugboat in New York Harbor, August 25, 1958. (AP Photo)
In the midst of the Cold War in 1958, the underwater journey of the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine transfixed America as it achieved the incredible feat of navigating the polar ice cap.

It came at the right time for the United States, which was looking for a technological breakthrough in response to the launch of Sputnik by the USSR. Yet the man who developed the USS Nautilus — Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, an American Jew who was born in a Polish shtetl — was initially left out of the celebration because his abrasive personality had alienated colleagues in the Navy.
Rickover’s complex life is explored in a new book, “Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power,” by Marc Wortman.

“I didn’t know what an extraordinarily complicated, pugnacious and brilliant guy he was, and how much his career was marked by one controversy, one battle, after another,” Wortman told The Times of Israel. “That really was the compelling story to tell.”

Part of the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press, the book centers on a son of the shtetl who returned to Poland decades later, during a Cold War visit to the Soviet Union with then-vice president Richard Nixon. Later, Rickover became a White House confidant of president Jimmy Carter, who had served in the admiral’s nuclear navy. Carter said that no other man except for his father had such an influence in his life.

(full article online)










						How a Jewish immigrant from the shtetl became the father of America’s nuclear Navy
					

Abrasive, controversial and tenacious, Admiral Hyman Rickover was called 'the greatest engineer to ever live' by Jimmy Carter. A new biography tells his incredible life story




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

An appeal to advance cooperation across Africa in preserving Jewish-African heritage was signed by African and international Jewish leaders this week in Morocco.

The “Call of Rabat” appeal pushes for recognition by individuals, civil society groups, and governments of the long history of Jewish life in Africa, while  emphasizing preservation and accessibility for Jewish historical sites.

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“We recognize the importance of the Jewish heritage that exists in our country, Cape Verde, at every level… I truly hope this Conference will shed light and … promote unity, solidarity, and cooperation in the world,” said Santos.

(full article online)









						Appeal to Preserve Jewish-African Heritage Signed by International Leaders in Morocco
					

(L to R): Elmehdi Boudra (Founder & President, Mimouna Association), Serge Berdugo (secretary general of the Council of Moroccan Jewish …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

20 Black Jews You Should Know | My Jewish Learning
					

Just about every person who is Black and Jewish has inevitably been met with surprise upon sharing their identities. Widespread ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

An exhibition featuring the life stories of athletes who were pioneers in forging relations between Hungary and Israel recently opened at the new Puskas Arena in Budapest.


The Game Changers exhibition tells the story of the connection between Hungarian Jewry and Israel utilizing Hungarian sports. Sports have always been used as a tool for social mobility due to athletes being judged only according to their performance.


The exhibit outside the stadium shows photos of former athletes and tells their stories. Each athlete’s picture is accompanied by a short biography in English, Hungarian and Hebrew.

According to a website promoting it, the exhibition “highlights the possibility given by Hungarian sports to touch fame, shatter myths and allow dreams to come true.”



> *“No area throughout history has allowed this equality and the possibility of conquering the world through the football field, the swimming pool or the fencing halls. This is the first time this connection has been seen through the eyes of those who have been there and changed Hungarian and Israeli sports as well.”*
> Adi Rubinstein



(full article online)









						New Budapest exhibition commemorates Jewish-Hungarian athletes
					

The Game Changers exhibition tells the story of the connection between Hungarian Jewry and Israel utilizing Hungarian sports.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

Ukrainian history is steeped in violence and tragedy. Long before the recent Russian invasion, Ukraine was part of what Yale historian Timothy Snyder has called “the Bloodlands” — the swath of Central and Eastern Europe where Hitler and Stalin’s clashing forces murdered millions of noncombatants. In Ukraine alone, more than a million Jews were slaughtered by Nazi killing squads, often assisted by the local population, in the so-called Holocaust by bullets.

But decades before it became a Holocaust killing field, Ukraine was the site of genocidal pogroms in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. The deadliest massacres occurred between 1917 and 1921, during the Russian Civil War. That violence impelled a mass flight from the country, with many emigrants ending up in the United States. Author Lisa Brahin’s ancestors were among them.

The impact of the pogroms has been muted to some extent by the even more powerful trauma of the Holocaust — and by the overwhelming desire of many survivors to move on and embrace their new American lives. Brahin, a Jewish genealogist and researcher, confronts that silence in her family history, “Tears Over Russia.”







In “Tears Over Russia,” genealogist Lisa Brahin details the horrors of the pogroms in Ukraine. Courtesy of Pegasus Books


Starting with her grandmother’s recollections, she has produced a remarkably vivid account of life in the Old Country that reads at times like a novel — or a series of Sholem Aleichem stories — with matchmakers racking up both triumphs and disasters and marauding thugs imperiling Jewish villagers.

The parallels are deliberate. A wedding in her family’s hometown of Stavishche, Brahin writes, “resembled a scene that one might find in a Sholem Aleichem story,” where joy, like sorrow, was often collective. “When someone laughed,” she writes, “the whole town laughed.” As it happens, the famous folklorist himself had a connection to Stavishche through his wife’s family.

Aspects of “Tears Over Russia” have a mythic quality, with larger-than-life characters surmounting impossible circumstances. The town rabbi, Rabbi Pitsie Avram, cousin to Israeli politician and military leader Moshe Dayan, was “a brave, charismatic, and effective negotiator” whose gutsiness — admired by bandit leaders — saved many Jewish lives. Brahin’s cousin-by-marriage Barney Stumacher was equally resourceful and courageous, enduring fantastical adventures to rescue friends and family in Ukraine.

(full article online)









						Breaking the silence on the pogroms in Ukraine
					

In "Tears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine’s Pogroms," Lisa Brahin breaks the silence surrounding a family history.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

(full article online)









						A new exhibit shows how Jewish marriage evolved - from 12th-century Egypt to modern-day America
					

The Jewish Theological Seminary's new exhibit “To Build a New Home: Celebrating the Jewish Wedding,” displays rare ketubot and related items.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

Italy has the highest quality of Jewish life on the European continent, with Poland and Belgium identified as the most troubling countries in that regard, according to a new index published by the European Jewish Association (EJA).

Unveiled at the EJA’s leadership conference in the Hungarian capital Budapest on Tuesday, the index covers 12 EU member states, combining facts about government policy and polling data to create a single metric with which to measure the quality of Jewish life in those countries.

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The scores of several countries were compromised by the feelings of insecurity reported in their Jewish communities, creating some striking discrepancies. While the German government was given a performance score of 89 due to its federal budget for securing Jewish institutions, its creation of a federal commissioner to combat antisemitism and similar measures, the sense of security among German Jews was measured at just 46, compared with 73 for Denmark and 72 for Hungary. France performed in similar fashion; despite having adopted many of the same measures as Germany, the sense of insecurity among French Jews is the most intense in Europe, with a score of just 31.

By comparison, Belgium’s government performance was weak when it came to security for the Jewish community. “The Belgian government, which holds the last place in the study, significantly reduced security around the Jewish communities without even consulting them, banned kosher slaughter and threatened the issue of circumcision, did not appoint a coordinator for the fight against antisemitism and more,” an accompanying statement from the EJA declared.

(full article online)









						Italy Ranked Top, Poland and Belgium Bottom, in New Index Measuring Quality of Jewish Life in Europe
					

A Torah service at a summer camp for young Jews in Szarvas, Hungary. Photo: JDC. Italy has the highest quality …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Israeli government on Sunday approved the allocation of more than $1.8 million to document and preserve the history and heritage of Jewish communities from Arab countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“For me, this is my legacy. We were all in Morocco. We were all in Europe. We have all been to Iraq and Ethiopia. We are all Jews,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “This program is of very great importance – the preservation of the memory and heritage of a large part of our people.”

“Unfortunately, in a country where about 50 percent of its citizens are from Arab countries and Iran or descendants of immigrants, the history and heritage of their Jewish communities has not been sufficiently passed on and their legacy is not properly instilled in the public discourse,” Cohen said. “This is a different generation of pioneers, whose life experience and contribution to the Zionist enterprise is not heard enough.”

(full article online)









						Israel to Allocate $1.8 Million to Preserve Heritage of Jewish Communities From Iran and Arab Countries
					

Yemenite Jews walking through a desert, near Aden, before being airlifted to Israel, November 1949. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. The Israeli …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

The village of Moises Ville, where the murders occurred, is located around 400 miles north of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. For Argentine Jews, it is a mythical place, to which they attach feelings of nostalgia like those American Jews feel for Manhattan’s Lower East Side. However, as Sinay underlines, “its history is unique since Argentina has the only Jewish community that started as an agricultural community.”

Fleeing poverty and pogroms, hundreds of thousands of Jews left Czarist Russia at the end of the 19th century. Munich-born philanthropist Baron Moritz von Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association, which facilitated their resettlement in Latin America under the theory that Jews who lived in small shtetls would find it easier to become farmers in the New World than resettle in urban areas. However, as the book’s publisher puts it, “like their town’s prophetic namesake, these immigrants fled one form of persecution only to encounter a different set of hardships: exploitative land prices, starvation, illness [and] language barriers.”

The first residents of Moises Ville were a group of families from Bessarabia and the Podolia region in today’s Ukraine. The village would soon become the cultural center of Jewish life in Argentina. Among the founders were Sinay’s great-grandfather, Mijel Hacohen Sinay, who arrived in 1894, and Alberto Gerchunoff, who in 1910 would publish “Los Gauchos Judios” (“The Jewish Cowboys”), a collection of short stories set in a village inspired by Moises Ville. Gerchunoff’s book is considered the first Latin American literary piece focusing on Jewish immigration to the New World.

(full article online)









						A series of 19th-century murders connects an Argentine writer to his family’s past
					

When Javier Sinay learned that his great-grandfather was a fellow journalist who covered the killing of shtetl immigrants, he connected with his Jewish roots - and wrote a hit book




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Sandy Koufax, left, with sculptor Branly Cadet. (Jacob Gurvis via JTA)









						Jewish baseball legend Sandy Koufax immortalized with a statue
					

Koufax’s Jewish identity — and his famous Yom Kippur sit-out — are highlighted alongside his many career accolades during an unveiling ceremony at Dodger Stadium




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

The British golfer who won the US Open over the weekend has said in the past he was inspired to change his attitude to the game this year by a startling phone call with his Israeli ex-girlfriend tennis star who told him about the suffering of her family in Ukraine.

Matt Fitzpatrick, 27, said that he called Deniz Khazaniuk in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK Daily Mail newspaper reported in March.

Khazaniuk’s family is from Lviv and her parents immigrated to Israel. A former professional tennis player, Khazaniuk was born in Ashkelon and grew up in Netanya.

-----------------------
I was sitting there in Florida ready to practise and it hit me, the contrast between the fact he might never come back and what I do,” he continued.

“I’d already decided to be a little easier on myself this year and appreciate all that I have but that phone call just emphasized I don’t want to be miserable for the rest of my life worrying about winning golf tournaments.

“I think 100 percent I’ve got too worked up about them in the past,” he explained. “The people around me say that I’m different in a major week and while I can’t see it myself it’s something that I need to work on. I feel that I’m a different player now to 2015-18, so hopefully I can relax in the majors and it will start to show.”

That change in mindset appeared to bear fruit when on Sunday Fitzpatrick defeated Will Zalatoris in a close contest to take the coveted open title.

Though she in no longer playing tennis professionally, Khazaniuk was once ranked 200 in the world and won the Israeli Singles Championship in 2016, as well as other international contests. She is currently studying at Barry University in Florida, where she plays on the school team that won the 2021 NCAA Division II Women’s Tennis Tournament, the Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

(full article online)









						US Open golf champ inspired by Israeli tennis star ex-girlfriend
					

Matt Fitzpatrick said in March he called Deniz Khazaniuk to ask about her family in Ukraine after Russia's invasion; what she had to say changed his sporting mindset




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Mongol period​The Caliphate hastened to its end before the rising power of the Mongol Empire. As Bar Hebræus remarks, these Mongol tribes knew no distinction between heathens, Jews, and Christians; and their Great Khan Kublai Khan showed himself just toward the Jews who served in his army, as reported by Marco Polo.

Hulagu (a Buddhist), the destroyer of the Caliphate (1258) and the conqueror of Palestine (1260), was tolerant toward Muslims, Jews and Christians; but there can be no doubt that in those days of terrible warfare the Jews must have suffered much with others. Under the Mongolian rulers, the priests of all religions were exempt from the poll-tax. Hulagu's second son, Aḥmed, embraced Islam, but his successor, Arghun (1284–91), hated the Muslims and was friendly to Jews and Christians; his chief counselor was a Jew, Sa'ad al-Dawla, a physician of Baghdad.

It proved a false dawn. The power of Sa’ad al-Dawla was so vexatious to the Muslim population the churchman Bar Hebraeus wrote so “were the Muslims reduced to having a Jew in the place of honor.”[24] This was exacerbated by Sa’d al-Dawla, who ordered no Muslim be employed by the official bureaucracy. He was also known as a fearsome tax collection and rumours swirled he was planning to create a new religion of which Arghun was supposed to be the prophet. Sa’d al-Dawla was murdered two days before the death of his Arghun, then stricken by illness, by his enemies in court.
After the death of the great khan and the murder of his Jewish favorite, the Muslims fell upon the Jews, and Baghdad witnessed a regular battle between them. Gaykhatu also had a Jewish minister of finance, Reshid al-Dawla. The khan Ghazan also became a Muslim, and made the Jews second class citizens. The Egyptian sultan Naṣr, who also ruled over Iraq, reestablished the same law in 1330, and saddled it with new limitations. During this period attacks on Jews greatly increased. The situation grew dire for the Jewish community as Muslim chronicler Abbas al-’Azzawi recorded:
“These events which befell the Jews after they had attained a high standing in the state caused them to lower their voices. [Since then] we have not heard from them anything worthy of recording because they were prevented from participation in its government and politics. They were neglected and their voice was only heard [again] after a long time.”[24]

Baghdad, reduced in importance, ravaged by wars and invasions, was eclipsed as the commercial and political centre of the Arab world. The Jewish community, shuttered out of political life, were reduced too and the status of the Exilarch and the Rabbis of the city diminished. Great numbers of Jews began to depart, seeking tranquility elsewhere in the Middle East beyond a now troubled frontier.[24]

Mongolian fury once again devastated the localities inhabited by Jews, when, in 1393, Timur captured Baghdad, Wasit, Hilla, Basra, and Tikrit, after obstinate resistance. Many Jews who had fled to Baghdad were slaughtered. Others escaped the city to Kurdistan and Syria. Many were not so fortunate, with one report mentioning 10,000 Jews killed in Mosul, Basra, and Husun Kifa.

The ruins of Baghdad after Timur's conquests was described in 1437 by the Muslim chronicler Al-Maqrizi: “Baghdad is in ruins. It has no mosque, no congregation of believers, no call to prayer and no markets. Most of the date palms have withered. Most of the irrigation canals are blocked. It cannot be called a city.”[24]

After the death of Timur, the region fell into the hands of marauding Turkmen tribesmen who were unable to establish a government of any kind. Ravaged by conquest, Iraq fell into lawlessness and became close to uninhabitable. Roads became dangerous and irrigation systems collapsed, seeing precious farmland in the delta region sink below water. Rapacious Bedouin filled the vacuum, rendering the caravan trade all but impossible. Denied authority of any kind and severed from its historic trading ties with the Middle East and the Far East, the ancient city of Baghdad had become a minor town.[24]

The cumulative effect of the Mongol rampage and the social collapse that followed was that of the pre-existing Jewish community of Baghdad either died or fled. Jewish life entered a Dark Age. According to historian Zvi Yehuda, the fifteenth century sees no reports on Jews in Baghdad or in its surroundings, in Basra, Hilla, Kifil, ‘Ana, Kurdistan, even in Persia and the Persian Gulf.[24] The organized Jewish community of Iraq appears to have disappeared in this period for more than four generations.

This is behind the discontinuity between the present traditions of Iraqi Jewry and the Babylonian traditions of Talmudic or Geonic times.[25] It remains the case that most Jewish Iraqis are of indigenous Middle Eastern ancestry rather than migrants from Spain, as in the case of parts of North Africa and the Levant.










						History of the Jews in Iraq - Wikipedia
					






					en.m.wikipedia.org


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## Sixties Fan

Today we are joined by Noam Urbach, a China expert active in academia, business and media. Noam specializes in the study of the history of foreign religions in China, in particular the history of Chinese Jews, as well as Chinese religious policy. We’re super excited to have him on the show today to talk China.

(listen to audio online)









						The Chinese Jews you never heard about
					

Noam Urbach talks about the history of Chinese Jews, as well as Chinese religious policy.




					www.israelnationalnews.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Land Of Israel - Soviet Jewry - The End Game
					

Broadcasting the Truth & Beauty of Israel to the World




					thelandofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

September 1894:








In a roundup of the year's stories in 1903 from the Louisville Courier-Journal, we see this from July 26:





(I could not verify this incident.)

In November 1903, the New York Times reported:





September 1906:





April 1912:















						Jews murdered in Morocco on multiple occasions from 1894-1912: They must have been Zionists
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today, America’s Jewish community is largely Ashkenazi c, meaning it is made up of Jews who trace their ancestry to Germany and Eastern Europe. However, the first Jews to arrive in what would become the United States were Sephardic — tracing their ancestry to Spain and Portugal. The following article looks at the three major waves of Sephardic and Ashkenazic immigration to America.

Historians have traditionally divided American Jewish immigration into three periods: Sephardic, German, and Eastern European. While the case can be made that during each period, immigrants were not solely of any one origin (Some Germans came during the “Sephardic” period and some Eastern Europeans arrived during the “German” era, for example), the fact remains that the dominant immigrant group at the time influenced the character of the American Jewish community.

(full article online)









						Jewish Immigration to America: Three Waves | My Jewish Learning
					

Jewish Emigration to America. 19th Century Jewish Emigration. Jewish History from 1650 - 1914. Modern Jewish History. Jewish History and Community.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

A Scene from ‘Sons of Liberty’: Not since “The Jazz Singer” had a Hollywood studio staged so elaborate a scene in a fully decked-out Jewish synagogue.  Photo by Getty Images


In the pantheon of name-brand Founding Fathers, Haym Salomon stands well back of the pack. His picture is not on our currency, his statue is not in the Capitol Rotunda, and his character is not on stage in “Hamilton.” Unless you’re a Revolutionary War buff or an alumna of Hebrew School during the Cold War, the name will probably not ring a bell.

In spring 1939, however, as Americans tried to ignore the sound of goosesteps in Europe, Salomon was given an honor bestowed on only a select few from the pageant of history — a Hollywood biopic. Admittedly, it was not a feature-length biopic on the order of the “Great Man” epics that thrived in the 1930s, a decade in dire need of larger-than-life heroes, when audiences flocked to well-mounted hagiographies like “The Story of Louis Pasteur” (1936), “The Life of Emile Zola” (1937), and “Young Mr. Lincoln” (1939).

Salomon’s time on the screen lasted a mere 20 minutes and his name was not even in the title: “Sons of Liberty.” What made the film noteworthy was the fact that the son of liberty in question was Jewish.

(full article online)









						Once upon a time, Hollywood told the story of a forgotten Jewish patriot
					

For 'Sons of Liberty,' which starred Claude Rains and was directed by Michael Curtiz, Warner Bros spent more than they had on any short film.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

. The very first Jews in Brazil were Sephardim fleeing the Inquisition, They relocated from Recife to Dutch colonies in north America in the 17th century.

In modern times, 1,500 families emigrated to Brazil from Egypt. They are  one of three Sephardi communities in Brazil. Jews arrived in the 19th century from northern Morocco to profit from the Amazonian rubber boom. Small communiies still exist in Belen and Manaus in the north of the country.

Almost the first thing visitors see at Sao Paulo airport is a branch of Safra bank, established by a lebanese-Jewish family from Beirut. In the 1950s and 60s, Jews resettled in Sao Paulo from Syria and  the  Lebanese town of  Saida (Sidon).

Numbering 8,000 people in a mainly Ashkenazi community of 100,000, the Jews from Egypt barely warranted a paragraph of explanation at Sao Paulo’s  Jewish Museum. And so they decided to tell their own story.

The exhibition marks 70 years since the Free Officers’ coup deposed King Farouk. The writing was on the wall for the Jewish community: 25,000 were expelled after the Suez crisis.

In the 1950s Brazil was seeking to attract immigrants. Jewish employees of US multinational companies were able transfer their jobs to  Sao Paulo, the commercial capital. Others were assisted by the refugee agency HIAS which never demanded repayment of financial support.  Some children were offered free places at Jewish schools.

About half the Egyptian Jews  arrived stateless in Brazil. Some acquired Iranian nationality. One moved from France in the 1950s but threw his French passport in the Seine when he was called up to the army to fight in the Algerian war. He bought an Iranian passport and left for Brazil.

The refugees were not allowed to take more than 20 dinars out of Egypt. They filled wooden crates with clothing and hid jewellery in the base. They also brought odd items like a coffee grinder, a device for chopping herbs to make the traditional molokheya or a police First  Aid manual.

The crates were used for sleeping until the refugees could afford to buy a sofa bed in part exchange.











						Egyptian Jews in Brazil mark seventy years since their exodus • Point of No Return
					

Jews expelled from Egypt who resettled in Brazil are finally telling their story in an exhibition in Sao Paulo. . The very first Jews in Brazil were Sephardim fleeing the Inquisition, They relocated from Recife to Dutch colonies in north America in the 17th century. In modern times, 1,500...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Today is Thursday, Tammuz 8, 5782 · July 7, 2022​Today in Jewish History​
*• Spanish Inquisition Abolished  (1834)*

On July 15, 1834, the Office of the Spanish Inquisition was abolished by the Queen Mother Maria Christina, after nearly three and a half centuries. However, the right of public worship (including permission to mark places of worship and advertise religious services) was not granted to the Jews until 1967.

The Inquisition

*• Jews expelled from Genoa  (1567)*
Having become a virtual vassal of Spain, the Republic of Genoa expelled the Jews at the behest of their Spanish overlords.


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

18th century manuscript, found in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People at the National Library of Israel, includes details from the first 130 years of the Portuguese Inquisition in Lisbon, including numbers of the victims, charges and sentences
(photo credit: THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL)

The manuscript is meticulously detailed​The 60-page manuscript includes a great deal of information about autos-da-fé in Lisbon during the Inquisition’s first 130 years, from 1540-1669. Among the details listed are the number of victims at each trial, the dates and locations of the ceremonies and the names of priests who officiated. In addition, the number of people burned at the stake in each auto-da-fé is mentioned, per the release.


Many of the victims included in the manuscript were newly converted Christians accused of continuing to practice Judaism. Nevertheless, Christians who came from Christian backgrounds were also listed for crimes of sodomy, bigamy, possession of forbidden books and sacrilege, the release stated.

(full article online)









						Manuscript discovered detailing Inquisition trials against Jews
					

The 60-page document lists the dates and locations of autos-da-fé along with the number of victims at each trial.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

FBI agents gathered background information from what they called “persons in New York City who are familiar with Israelite matters.” They also eavesdropped on the Bergsonites’ telephone conversations, opened their mail, went through their trash, and planted informants in the group to steal documents from Bergson’s office. The FBI hoped to find proof the Bergson Group was secretly assisting the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the underground militia in Palestinethat was headed by Menachem Begin. They found no such evidence.

The authorities’ second goal was to find a link between Bergson and the Communist Party. One FBI memo approvingly quoted a rival Jewish organization’s description of the Bergsonites as “a group of thoroughly disreputable Communist Zionists.” In a private letter, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover referred to the playwright Ben Hecht and six other leading Bergson activists as “fellow travelers.” But the FBI’s spying on Bergson did not turn up any evidence of a Communist link, either.

At the same time, the IRS launched a full-scale inquiry into the Bergson Group’s finances, seeking to revoke its tax-exempt status. For nearly a year, IRS agents repeatedly visited the group’s New York City headquarters, once for a stretch where they stayed from morning until night for more than two weeks.

Louis and Jack Yampolsky, a father-and-son accounting team that handled Bergson’s finances pro bono, had to dig out and reconcile every piece of financial information in the group’s records. “There were no photocopy machines in those days, so we had to hand-copy every disbursement and every receipt that was given for every donation,” Jack Yampolsky told me in an interview some years ago. “And because the Bergson Group had enormous grassroots appeal, it received literally thousands of one-dollar or two-dollar donations from people all over the country.”
In the end, the IRS investigators were unable to find evidence of any wrongdoing. In fact, as the IRS team became familiar with the group’s work, they came to sympathize with it, and “when they finished, [they] made a contribution between them–every one of them gave a few dollars,” Bergson later told Prof. David S. Wyman.

The sympathy expressed by the IRS agents contrasted sharply with the sentiments expressed in some of the FBI documents which I obtained. One FBI report about Bergson activist Maurice Rosenblatt derisively referred to the leftwing Coordinating Committee for Democratic Action, in which Rosenblatt was active, as “this Semitic Committee.” The FBI memo complained that Rosenblatt and his colleagues were trying to “smear” Nazi sympathizers in New York City.

“When there is a genuine threat, governments sometimes have to do things like eavesdrop,” Jack Yampolsky conceded. “But in our case, they were doing it for political reasons, and antisemitism also played a role. The fact that we vocally disagreed with U.S. government policy regarding the Holocaust and Jewish statehood was not a valid reason for the Roosevelt administration to enlist the FBI and the IRS in a war against the Bergson group.”


(full article online)










						When the IRS Targeted Jewish Activists
					

The Jewish target of U.S. government wrath in the 1940s was the Bergson Group, a political action committee led by Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), a Zionist emissary from Palestine.




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today is Wednesday, Tammuz 14, 5782 · July 13, 2022​Today in Jewish History​*• Jews of Schaffhausen (Switzerland) Burned at the Stake (1401)*

After the postilion (coach driver) of the governor killed the four-year-old son of a councilor, charges were lodged against a Jew named Michael Vinelmann, a former resident of Basel, alleging that he had promised the murderer three _gulden_ for the blood of the child. The murderer was broken on the wheel, and the Jew burned alive without trial. 

Shortly before, a similar accusation had been brought against the Jews of Schaffhausen and been successfully refuted. When news of Michael Vinelmann's fate was brought to Schaffhausen, several of the Jews of the city fled and were soon captured. They were taken back to Schaffhausen, where they were thrown into a dungeon and terribly tortured. Unable to endure the pain, they "confessed" to the crime of which they had been accused, whereupon all the Jews living in Schaffhausen were condemned to death. Thirty Jews were burned alive. Four weeks later, eighteen men and women died at the stake in Winterthur in a similar context.


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Monty Norman, the Jewish-British composer and lyricist who wrote the theme song for the James Bond films, died on Monday at the age of 94 after battling a “short illness,” according to a statement posted on his official website.

A lifelong resident of London, Norman was born in 1928, the only child of Ann and Abraham Noserovitch. His mother bought him a guitar when he was 16, and he went on to have guitar lessons with Bert Weedon, who eventually became one of Britain’s top guitarists.

Norman also got a singing teacher and began performing radio broadcasts with small jazz bands before joining big bands and performing a series of variety show double acts with comedian Benny Hill. He later wrote songs for early British rock artists Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele, and composed for stage musicals.

Norman was hired by producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to compose a score for the first James Bond film, “Dr. No,” which was released in 1962. The theme song he created has been used in all 25 Bond films.

(full article online)









						Monty Norman, Jewish-British Composer of James Bond Theme Song, Dies at 94
					

The opening sequence of the James Bond film “Dr. No.” Photo: Screenshot. JNS.org – Monty Norman, the Jewish-British composer and …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Rigby5

It is illegal, immoral, and in violation of law for any religion to try to create a state religion.  And even more so with Israel since that is Palestine, and not the origin of any Jewish culture at all.
The Hebrew tribes have to be considered either Egyptian or from the Sinai.
They are NOT from Jerusalem in any way.
And they only invaded and controlled Jerusalem for about 250 years.
The later Jewish leadership over Jerusalem was really just a fake puppet minority established by the Romans.
Current Zionism is a corrupt lie.
With REAL Zionism, people are supposed to act ethically, with Zion as a reward, likely on the after life, not on earth.  And certainly no Jew is supposed to go looking for Zion until the coming of the Messiah.


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## Sixties Fan

Jews in India​Though often overlooked amid the subcontinent's vast and diverse population as well as the reaches of the Jewish community in the Middle East and Europe, India has its own distinctive rich Jewish history.


Traditionally, there thought to be a few distinct groups of Jews in India today, who are located throughout the country. 










Jew Town signage remains in the city (credit: CHRISTABEL LOBO/JTA)
Considering how vast India is and the varying backgrounds of these communities, they formed some distinct traditions, learning different languages and so on.


One of these Jewish communities were known as the Jews of Madras, also known as the Chennai Jews. These consisted of Paradesi Jews, meaning Jews who came to India following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, with the world Paradesi being derived from a Malayalam word for "foreign."


As they came to India following the Alhambra Decree expelling all Jews from Spain, these Jews were largely Sephardi, and as such had many links to other Sephardi Jewish communities. 

In particular, the Paradesi Jews who came to Madras – now Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu – tended to work as traders and merchants and spoke Ladino, though they soon learned Tamil.


Today, this community largely no longer exists. In fact, it was reported in 2020 that Tamil Nadu's last Jewish family left.

However, while this is the longest and most established Jewish presence in Tamil Nadu, it doesn't seem to be the earliest. After all, the Paradesi Jews only came to Tamil Nadu in the 15th and 16th centuries, whereas this latest finding is several hundred years older.


Three of the other groups of Jews in India claim to have been there longer. The Bnei Menashe and Bene Ephraim Jews are both groups who converted to Judaism but claim ancestry from the 10 lost tribes.


Another relevant group were the Nagercoil Jews: Arabian Jews who supposedly came to India around 52 CE and were known to have been as far south as Cochin, also in southern India.


But overall, Jewish history in India may predate most of these groups.

(full article online)









						Stone in Tamil Nadu may shed light on India's oldest synagogue, Jews
					

The finding is significant as it sheds light on south Indian Jewry, as well as information relating to what may be the oldest synagogue in the area.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Kingdom in Arabia
					

In these turbulent times in the Middle East, I have found myself working on the rise and fall of a late antique Jewish kingdom along the Red Sea in the Arabian peninsula. Friends and colleagues alike have reacted with amazement and disbelief when I have told them about the history I have been...




					www.ias.edu


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## Sixties Fan

Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Ria_Longhorn

Rigby5 said:


> It is illegal, immoral, and in violation of law for any religion to try to create a state religion.  And even more so with Israel since that is Palestine, and not the origin of any Jewish culture at all.
> The Hebrew tribes have to be considered either Egyptian or from the Sinai.
> They are NOT from Jerusalem in any way.
> And they only invaded and controlled Jerusalem for about 250 years.
> The later Jewish leadership over Jerusalem was really just a fake puppet minority established by the Romans.
> Current Zionism is a corrupt lie.
> With REAL Zionism, people are supposed to act ethically, with Zion as a reward, likely on the after life, not on earth.  And certainly no Jew is supposed to go looking for Zion until the coming of the Messiah.


The Land Belongs to the Jewish People.


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## Sixties Fan

On July 18, 1290, King Edward I of England signed the Edict of Expulsionwhich ordered all the Jews in England to leave by November of 1290.


A part of the reason for the expulsion of the Jews was intense antisemitism that stemmed from their role in European society as moneylenders.  


Christianity at the time considered lending money with interest, usury, to be a wholly non-Christian thing, so the church in England outlawed it. The Jews, however, arrived in England with William the Conquerer in 1066, and they didn't have to abide by the church, so they filled the financial system gaps that the Christians could not.

-----
The antisemitic images of the Wandering Jew and myths such as Jews murdering Christian children to make matzah with their blood on Passover spread through England. As a result anti-Jewish riots often broke out. One of the most notable of these riots was in 1190 in York where hundreds of Jews were murdered by mobs.


Antisemitism also began to grow in the state's treatment of Jews. In 1218, England became the first country in Europe to require Jews and Muslims to identify themselves through their dress, and Jews were forced to wear identifying badges. 


The process to expel the Jews was started in 1275 with the Statute of Jewry which outlawed moneylending to all Jews. The Jews were told they had to acclimate to the new law within 15 years, but antisemitism made getting other jobs extremely difficult for them.

(full article online)









						On This Day: King Edward I signs edict expelling Jews from England
					

In 1290, King Edward I expelled the Jews from England after antisemitism grew steadily over almost two centuries.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

*Lived 1882 – 1935.*

Emmy Noether is probably the greatest female mathematician who has ever lived. She transformed our understanding of the universe with Noether’s theorem and then transformed mathematics with her founding work in abstract algebra.

Expulsion from Germany: moving to America​In the early 1930s Noether’s career was finally taking off. Her name was becoming known, and she was receiving invitations to speak at important mathematics conferences.

Then, in January 1933, everything changed. Adolf Hitler came to power. By April of that year Noether, who was Jewish, had been dismissed from the University of Göttingen by order of the Prussian Ministry for Sciences, Art, and Public Education. Sadly, in Nazi ideology Emmy Noether’s religion was of more significance than her extraordinary genius.

Fortunately, her genius was valued elsewhere. Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA – a women’s college – obtained a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and, in October 1933, Emmy Noether sailed on the Bremen to begin work as a lecturer in America. 

The following year she also began lecturing at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 

A year later she was dead.

(full article online)






						Emmy Noether - Biography, Facts and Pictures
					

Lived 1882 - 1935. Emmy Noether is probably the greatest female mathematician who has ever lived. She transformed our understanding of the universe with Noether's theorem and then transformed mathematics with her founding work in abstract algebra. Advertisements Beginnings Amalie Emmy Noether...




					www.famousscientists.org


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## Sixties Fan

Hannah Szenes was a poet and a Special Operations Executive member. She was one of 37 Jewish SOE recruits from Mandate Palestine parachuted by the British into Yugoslavia during the Second World War to ... Wikipedia

Born: July 17, 1921, Budapest, Hungary
Died: November 7, 1944, Budapest, Hungary
Buried: Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, Israel
Unit: Special Operations Executive (SOE)
Books: Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary
Siblings: György Szenes
Parents: Béla Szenes, Catherine Szenes










> Hannah Senesh (originally Szenes) was a paratrooper trained to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Captured and killed by the Nazi's, she is still a national heroine in Israel.







Senesh dressing up in costume as a Hungarian soldier​



> Through her brief but noteworthy life, Senesh became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice. Her poems, made famous in part because of her unfortunate death, reveal a woman imbued with hope, even in the face of adverse circumstances.





> Senesh (born July 17, 1921; died November 7, 1944) was born in Budapest, Hungary as the daughter of an author and journalist. She demonstrated her own literary talent from an early age, and she kept a diary from age 13 until shortly before her death. Although her family was assimilated, anti-Semitic sentiment in Budapest led her to involvement in Zionist activities, and she left Hungary for Eretz Yisrael in 1939. She studied first at an agricultural school, and then settled at Kibbutz Sdot Yam. While there she wrote poetry, as well as a play about kibbutz life.​





> In 1943, Senesh joined the British Army and volunteered to be parachuted into Europe. The purpose of this operation was to help the Allied efforts in Europe and establish contact with partisan resistance fighters in an attempt to aid beleaguered Jewish communities. Senesh trained in Egypt and was one of the thirty-three people chosen to parachute behind enemy lines. With the goal of reaching her native Budapest, Senesh parachuted into Yugoslavia in March 1944, and spent three months with Tito’s partisans. Her idealism and commitment to her cause are memorialized in her poem “Blessed is the Match,” which she wrote at this time.​





> On June 7, 1944, at the height of the deportation of Hungarian Jews, Senesh crossed the border into Hungary.​





> She was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian police, and tortured cruelly and repeatedly over the next several months. Despite these conditions, Senesh refused to divulge any information about her mission. Even the knowledge that her mother was at risk and that she too might be harmed did not compel Senesh to cooperate with the police. At her trial in October 1944, Senesh staunchly defended her activities and she refused to request clemency. Throughout her ordeal she remained steadfast in her courage, and when she was executed by a firing squad on November 7, she refused the blindfold, staring squarely at her executors and her fate. Senesh was only 23 years old.​







Senesh's grave stone in Israel​



> The following poem was found in Hannah's death cell after her execution:
> 
> 
> 
> _One - two - three... eight feet long
> Two strides across, the rest is dark...
> Life is a fleeting question mark
> One - two - three... maybe another week.
> Or the next month may still find me here,
> But death, I feel is very near.
> I could have been 23 next July
> I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost._
> 
> 
> 
> In 1950, Senesh’s remains were brought to Israel and re-interred at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Click to expand...





> Her diary and literary works were later published, and many of her more popular poems have been set to music. The best known of these is “Towards Caesarea," more popularly known today as "My God, My God" with a melody created by David Zahavi and sung by artists including Ofra Haza, Regina Spektor, and Sophie Milman.





> Senesh has also been the subject of several artistic works, including a play by Aharon Megged.











						Hannah Senesh
					

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.




					www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org


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## Sixties Fan

Before Old Bay was invented in the 1940s, steamed crab, the dish most associated with the blend, was absent from regional cookbooks, including Mrs. B.C. Howard’s_ Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen_ and Mrs. Charles Gibson’s _Maryland and Virginia Cookbook_.

How did Brunn, a man who miraculously escaped Nazi-occupied Germany, revolutionize the way Americans eat crab?

The story begins in 1906 in the town of Bastheim, Germany, when Gustav Brunn was 13 years old. He quit school because it was too expensive and began working as a tannery apprentice. In 1923, the value of the German mark plummeted and in turn, the fur business collapsed and the tannery closed. Brunn bought the store and began selling cases and spices to sausage makers, the beginning of his career in the spice industry. 

Brunn’s spice business was a success. That was, until 1933 when Hitler came to power. According to the _Baltimore Jewish Times_, as anti-Semitism grew, Brunn lost customers and his bookkeeper resigned out of fear that the Nazis would punish him for working for a Jew. To protect his family and his livelihood, Brunn moved his shop to Frankfurt where there was a larger Jewish population.

In 1937, Brunn and his family applied for visas to the United States. The plan was to leave by the end of 1938, but that changed on the night of November 10, 1938, Kristallnacht, the mass pogrom that destroyed synagogues, Jewish business, and schools, and the first time the Nazi regime arrested Jews on a massive scale.

The next day, radio announcements called for all Jews to surrender their firearms to the nearest police station. Brunn, an avid hunter with eight rifles, complied. Upon arriving at the police station, he was told that he couldn’t leave. Within hours, Brunn was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp.

Remarkably, after two weeks, Brunn was released, bearing a shaved head and suffering from pneumonia. Brunn’s early release was arranged by a Frankfurt lawyer for 10,000 marks, a hefty price at the time, who bribed the Gestapo. Within a week, Brunn, his wife, and their two children sailed for America, bound for Baltimore, with his hand-crank spice grinder in tow. 

Brunn struggled to find work in Baltimore and finally landed a job at McCormick & Company, the world’s biggest spice maker. According to _The Baltimore Sun, _Brunn’s son Ralph recalls that after only a few days, McCormick learned that Brunn was Jewish, and fired him, directing him “to go and see the Jewish charities.”

Brunn did not give up on his career in the spice industry. He opened his own store, the Baltimore Spice Company, on the second floor of 26 Market Place, across from the bustling fish market. Soon, seafood vendors were stopping in his store, searching for spices for steaming crabs. Brunn took note of what they ordered — a mix of pepper, salt, and mustard — and began experimenting with his own blends.

Enter Old Bay, a kitchen sink of 18 spices, including mustard, paprika, celery salt, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, bay leaf, red pepper, cardamom, celery seed, cloves, laurel leaves, mustard, salt, pepper, and ginger. Ralph told the _Baltimore Jewish Times _that, to his father’s amazement, “Those minor things he put in there — the most unlikely things, including cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves…had nothing to do with crabs at all — gave a background bouquet that he couldn’t have anticipated…Old Bay, per se, was almost an accident.”

(full article online)










						The Jewish Roots of Old Bay Seasoning | The Nosher
					

Old Bay — the zesty, saliferous, burnt orange spice synonymous with seasoning shellfish — was invented by Gustav Brunn, a ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Van Leeuwen brothers certainly aren’t the first of their people to make a successful foray into ice cream production, as Jews have a long history as being game-changers in the business, but they definitely have the most interesting story.

A Jewish husband and wife well into their forties, Jeanette and Philip Van Leeuwen, were struggling to conceive a child while living in Nazi-occupied Holland. Following a series of horrific bombings, they took cover in the Dutch forest, whose harsh natural features required a different, but equally challenging, struggle to survive. They made their way to Spain, where they miraculously found themselves pregnant. Then, they caught a boat from Bilbao to a refugee camp in Jamaica, where their first son was born. The young couple moved again (to Aruba), before finally settling in Forest Hills, New York. They eventually found peace and achieved prosperity, though they never forgot with sadness and gratitude the perilous journey required to forge this new existence for themselves, their children, and grand-children.

That little boy Jeannette and Philip miraculously conceived in the midst of World War II, had two little boys of his own, Ben and Peter, who (fast forward to 2008) opened acclaimed Van Leeuwen Ice Creamalong with their friend, Laura O’Neill.

So, besides its origins, what makes Van Leeuwen Ice Cream so unique?

While many high-end ice cream makers wax poetic about using “quality-sourced” ingredients, Van Leeuwen’s dedication is next level. Their ‘Earl Grey’ ice cream, for example, involves leaves harvested from China’s Hunnan province, and their ‘Sicilian Pistachio’ is studded with bright emerald nut bits straight from Mount Etna. 

Having educated themselves on ice cream design by studying yolk-heavy classic recipes from the likes of Thomas Keller, the creators were inspired to up the ova ante when mixing their own products in order to ensure a silky mouthfeel. Because of the high yolk content, this Jewish-American ice cream is _technically _considered to be “French” (custard) and must be labeled as such.



(full article online)









						The Family Behind This Trendy Ice Cream Company Escaped the Nazis | The Nosher
					

The Van Leeuwen brothers certainly aren’t the first of their people to make a successful foray into ice cream production, ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Jews of Jerusalem are set aflame  (1099)*

When the crusaders captured Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Jews of Jerusalem fled into a synagogue. The crusaders then set flame to the synagogue, burning alive all the Jewish men, women, and children who had taken refuge there. All Jews were barred from living in the city of Jerusalem for the following 88 years.


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## Sixties Fan

The Monteith Inn was a 150-room hotel on Muskoka’s Lake Rosseau, a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of Toronto. Harry and Jennie Shopsowitz—the founders of Shopsy’s Delicatessen, which started as an ice cream parlour in Toronto’s garment district—purchased the property for $25,000 in 1935. It was one of the local “Jewish resorts” (along with Muskoka Lodge in Huntsville, Gateway Hotel in Gravenhurst, and Smith’s Bay House, Arcadia Lodge and Taub’s Lodge in Port Carling) that thrived because Jews weren’t welcome elsewhere. When the Monteith opened, a one-week all-inclusive stay cost $14. This 1937 advertisement promotes kosher meals by a famous chef from Miami. The Shopsowitz family operated the hotel until 1949. (The next year, it was destroyed by a fire.)

(full article online)









						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## surada

Meet Jacob Herzog, Saudi Arabia's self-proclaimed chief rabbi
					

Rabbi Herzog, a 46-year-old American-Israeli rabbi who made aliyah from the US as a child, thought of traveling to Saudi Arabia only four years ago.




					m.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

If ever a comment with the potential to psychologically cripple a child was made, this is it.


The date was March 19, 1963. The setting was a military court in Beirut where the verdict was being read in the trial of Shulamit Cohen-Kishik for spying, treason and smuggling Jews to Israel. The verdict for her husband, Jozef, accused of assisting in the smuggling and not informing the authorities of his wife’s activities, was also being read in the courtroom.


The trial, which generated huge headlines both in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world, began in November 1962, more than a year after Shulamit’s arrest and torture. The verdict was delivered in a packed courtroom. Among those in attendance was one of her seven children, Isaac, who had not yet turned 18. For weeks he had done everything he could, left no stone unturned, to get the sentence of his parents commuted.

“Because of the severity of the crime, the court ruled that the accused, Shulamit Cohen, should get the maximum sentence: Death,” the son, Itzhak Levanon, wrote of the verdict in a recently published book.


The judge then turned to Jozef, and sentenced him to 10 years, reduced to two years in prison because of his age and his need to support his family. Then the judge turned back to Shulamit and said that while she deserved to die, she would instead be sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for betraying the country she lived in for so many years.










IN BEIRUT with one of his younger brothers. (credit: Courtesy Itzhak Levanon)
“Two soldiers approach my father, Jozef, handcuff him and take him out of the hall,” Levanon wrote. “Two others approach mother, lift her from the bench and drag her from there. She is barely walking. I stand. Mother passes by me. One or two meters apart. So close, but yet so far. Mother does not bow her head. Her legs barely move, but her head is erect. She throws a piercing glance at me that transmits anger and dissatisfaction. ‘That’s all you can do, Isaac?’ she whispers to me.


“Her look rips my heart to pieces: That is what you are able to do, Isaac? What happened to all the promises, all the hopes? Why did we waste all the money? So that I sit in prison for 20 years?”


Those words, wrote the 77-year-old Levanon, who in 2011 retired from the Foreign Ministry after a career of some 40 years, echo in his mind to this day, some 60 years later.

(full article online)









						From a spy’s son to ambassador to Egypt: Itzhak Levanon’s story
					

Kicked along with his family from Cairo as a boy, Levanon was dispatched 42 years later to serve as Israel’s ambassador. His story is revealed in a new book.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

By far the greatest threat to those who remain is from Russian attacks, which are unrelenting as the Russian army steps up its offensive. But already, local Jewish leaders in cities across Ukraine have begun to assess the toll on their communities’ strength — and are arriving at disquieting conclusions.

“It feels like we’ve gone back in time to 30 years ago because the pillars of the community have pretty much all gone out of Ukraine,” Rabbi Shaul Horowitz, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s emissary to Vinnytsia, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The wheel rolled back. We need to rebuild it all. Back to square one.”

Horowitz was referring to what happened in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell and Ukraine became independent. Jews from across the former Soviet Union who had been prevented from leaving fled out of the region — 1.6 million in total over more than a decade, mostly to Israel. Since Jewish education had been prohibited, few who remained had fluency in Jewish prayers or practice. But over the last three decades, a range of efforts, many fueled by Chabad, have introduced Ukrainian Jews to Judaism and built thriving communities in cities across the country.

Now, the conflict seems to have undone some of the revival enjoyed by Ukrainian Jewry, a minority whose prewar size was estimated to be at least 47,000.

In Vinnytsia, Horowitz estimated, half of local Jews are gone. His congregation gathers at a small synagogue that is accessible through a back alley that requires members to walk past a ramshackle car repair shop and apartment courtyards where chickens roam.

(full article online)









						How Russia’s war is undoing 30 years of Jewish community building in Ukraine
					

While the post-Soviet era has seen a gradual reawakening of communal life for the tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews, the once-bustling synagogues and centers are now eerily quiet




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

A Story Of The American Jewish Dream - Israel Unwired
					

This short video truly unpacks the story of Jews in America in the 20the century in an honest and truthful fashion.




					www.israelunwired.com


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## Sixties Fan

Ancient Coin Discovered from Reign of Pro-Jewish Roman Emperor​
According to the online Jewish Encyclopedia, “The reign of this just and humane emperor came like a blessing to the Jews, particularly to those of [the Land of Israel]. The religious persecutions of Hadrian had devastated the country, depopulated the cities, and made the intellectual development of the Jews impossible.”

The source notes that at the outset of Antoninus Pius’ tenure as head of the Roman Empire, the Jewish people sent a delegation to Rome headed by Rabbi Judah ben Shamu’a “to negotiate for improvement in their condition.”

Among the emperor’s overtures to the Jews was permitting them to bury Jewish soldiers and martyrs killed in battle against the Romans. He also repealed the edicts of Hadrian, “which had prevented the Jews from exercising their religion,” on the condition that they should not receive converts. Hadrian had prohibited Jews from performing the mitzvah of brit milah.

Gradually, Jews who fled the Land of Israel to escape persecution under Hadrian’s rule returned to home.

(full article online)









						Ancient Coin Discovered from Reign of Pro-Jewish Roman Emperor | United with Israel
					

A rare bronze coin dating back almost 2,000 years was discovered off of Israel's coast.




					unitedwithisrael.org


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## Ria_Longhorn

Sixties Fan said:


> Ancient Coin Discovered from Reign of Pro-Jewish Roman Emperor​
> According to the online Jewish Encyclopedia, “The reign of this just and humane emperor came like a blessing to the Jews, particularly to those of [the Land of Israel]. The religious persecutions of Hadrian had devastated the country, depopulated the cities, and made the intellectual development of the Jews impossible.”
> 
> The source notes that at the outset of Antoninus Pius’ tenure as head of the Roman Empire, the Jewish people sent a delegation to Rome headed by Rabbi Judah ben Shamu’a “to negotiate for improvement in their condition.”
> 
> Among the emperor’s overtures to the Jews was permitting them to bury Jewish soldiers and martyrs killed in battle against the Romans. He also repealed the edicts of Hadrian, “which had prevented the Jews from exercising their religion,” on the condition that they should not receive converts. Hadrian had prohibited Jews from performing the mitzvah of brit milah.
> 
> Gradually, Jews who fled the Land of Israel to escape persecution under Hadrian’s rule returned to home.
> 
> (full article online)
> 
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> Ancient Coin Discovered from Reign of Pro-Jewish Roman Emperor | United with Israel
> 
> 
> A rare bronze coin dating back almost 2,000 years was discovered off of Israel's coast.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> unitedwithisrael.org


"For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will turn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.' "
-- Jeremiah 30:3

"And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the habitable places of the country."
-- Ezekiel 34:13


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## Sixties Fan

Tiny Temples
					

How models of Jerusalem’s holy sites became tourist attractions around the world




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Third expulsion from France  (1322)*
After having been allowed back into France in the year 1315 (after the expulsion in 1306 by Philip IV), the Jews were once again expelled from France by Charles IV, who thus broke the pledge made by his predecessors in 1315 that the Jews would be able to stay in France for at least 12 years.


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## Sixties Fan

Abdellah Ben Salem Mosque, until 1975 the Great Synagogue of Oran; PHOTO CREDIT: Nicolas

Like many Jews, I like visiting old synagogues, which may or may not still be home to living communities. Prague is nice, Budapest and Krakow too. Been there, done that – I even lived for 18 months in Hungary. Qirmizi Qesebe – the world’s last remaining Jewish town, outside of Israel? In Azerbaijan, in case you didn’t know. Well, I got that t-shirt too, back in 2013. So how about Algeria? Anyone been there? Probably not.

That’s unfortunate.

Algeria has a long — if troubled — Jewish history. Jews flourished in the 19th century. In 1870, the Cremieux decree awarded Jewish Algerians with French citizenship. While the community suffered in the Second World War under the Vichy regime, it was during the subsequent struggle for independence that Jewish life in the new independent country came to an end. Nationalists saw Algerian Jews as “French” and more than 130,000 left the country by 1962, with most taking residence in France.

(full article online )









						Rock the Casbah: Algeria’s deep Jewish connection
					

Don’t expect flights from Tel Aviv to Algiers opening up any time soon - there are no Jewish communities left in the country. But what a glorious Jewish past!




					blogs.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

How a great Jewish actor made a name for himself by playing antisemites and other villains
					

Russian Jewish-born proprietor of a nursing home, David Warner specialized in complicated characters, many of them antisemites.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

The History of Ethiopian Jewry | My Jewish Learning
					

A history of the Beta Israel, the Jews of Ethiopia.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of "Ari" (1572)*
Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, known as _Ari HaKadosh_ ("The Holy Lion") passed away on the 5th of Av of the year 5332 from creation (1572 CE). Born in Jerusalem in 1534, he spent many years in secluded study near Cairo, Egypt. In 1570 he settled in Safed, where he lived for two years until his passing at age 38. During that brief period, the Ari revolutionized the study of Kabbalah, and came to be universally regarded as one of the most important figures in Jewish mysticism. It was he who proclaimed, "In these times, we are allowed and duty-bound to reveal this wisdom," opening the door to the integration of the teachings of Kabbalah--until then the province of a select few in each generation--into "mainstream" Judaism.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• First Temple Invaded (423 BCE)*
After nearly a month of fierce fighting inside Jerusalem (see "Today in Jewish History" for Tammuz 9), the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia broke through into the Temple compound, where they feasted and vandalized until the afternoon of Av 9, when they set the Holy Temple aflame.


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## Sixties Fan

*Not many Jews have recorded their memories of the 14 July 1958 revolution in Iraq, when a bloody army coup d’état led by Abdul Karim Qasim overthrew the Hashemite monarchy. Tamara Ruben interviewed her aunt Amy, a young woman at the time, to record her memories of this period as part of Tamara’s efforts to raise awareness of the plight of Jews from Arab countries.  The events she lived through were so traumatic that  her aunt Amy, who now lives in England, resolved to depart from Iraq, even if it meant leaving her parents behind – an act that demanded much courage. These are her aunt’s words (With thanks: Nancy):*






The young King Faisal II, murdered in the 1958 revolution aged 18
The revolution in Iraq of 1958 took me back to one of the scariest and most agonizing times of my life. This is because the Iraqi masses believed that killing and abusing Jews would be a safe bet at a time when the new military government was busy consolidating its power and grip on the country.

The Jews had their telephones cut off, Jewish government officials were fired (if there were any left after the establishment of Israel), and several Jewish homes, including ours, were raided.  We waited in fear for them to take us and throw us in jail. Some prominent Jews were left to rot in prison. Six soldiers armed with rifles raided our house. It was three storeys high. They searched every corner. One soldier asked my father to sit at the table and sign a document. My father, horrified and grey-faced, was ready to sign. When I mustered enough courage to ask the soldier what document he was signing, the soldier replied, “We couldn’t find any spy equipment.” After they left, I told my father that I was leaving Iraq and that he had to leave too. He refused because of his age and my mother’s various illnesses.

I was told that the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad was so concerned that he complained to the leader of the revolution, Abdul Karim Qasim, who had pledged to protect the Jews. Qasim tried to keep his promise until he was assassinated in his office in the Ministry of Defence.* This was the counter-revolution of  February 1963. Power was passed to his assistant and revolutionary collaborator,*ʿ*Abd al-Salam ʿArif, who died three years later in what they believed to be a ‘planned’ helicopter accident….

In the 1958 revolution, the entire royal family was put to death.

The body of the young King Faisal II was secretly exhumed and buried when the junta realised that there would be a rebellion if it was known that the body of the beloved young king had been dragged through the streets. I don’t think  that the British dared to intervene because Iraq had remained under their influence while it was supposedly independent!

The hated crown prince, Abdel Il-llah, whom the mob thought was the agent of the British colonialists, was tied up, murdered and his body dragged through the streets of Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Said escaped, but was caught the next day, disguised in a woman’s _abaya_, and was shot immediately.

The next day, I got up to go to work as usual when I discovered that our front gate was blocked by a tank. Martial music blared on all radio stations. I left on July 14, 1959:  it took me one year to get a passport.

My parents stayed another year and left in 1960 via Turkey to join the rest of the family already in Israel”.











						Memories of the 1958 Iraqi revolution • Point of No Return
					

Not many Jews have recorded their memories of the 14 July 1958 revolution in Iraq, when a bloody army coup d’état led by Abdul Karim Qasim overthrew the Hashemite monarchy. Tamara Ruben interviewed her aunt Amy, a young woman at the time, to record her memories of this period as part of Tamara’s...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## Sixties Fan

A century after the first archaeological excavations at the site of ancient Shiloh in the Binyamin region, a new dig has unearthed a number of rare finds, including five intact jugs that date back some 2,000 years to the time of the Talmud.

The jugs were in a row, underneath a floor, most likely to keep their contents cool. Their location is also likely what kept the vessels intact.

The excavation also turned up a number of coins, a key apparently used to unlock a chest, and even wooden dice identical in shape to dice used today.






Look familiar? These 2,000-year-old dice are nearly identical to the ones we use today

The discoveries were presented at the 12th Shiloh Conference to mark a century since the site was first excavated, along with other research.

(full arctic  online)



			https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/08/02/great-jugs-five-talmudic-era-storage-vessels-unearthed-in-shiloh/


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## Billo_Really

Sixties Fan said:


> “So successful were the Jewish pioneers that by 1900, there wasn’t a single settlement west of the Mississippi of any significance which had not had a Jewish mayor,” says historian Kenneth Libo. “This includes Deadwood, Dodge City, and Tombstone.”
> 
> Between 1840 and 1880, the European Jewish population in America increased from 15,000 to around 250,000. Most migrated for familiar reasons—to escape religious persecution, political upheaval, and poverty. “What is clear, even at this early stage, is the complex nature of the collective Jewish experience in America,” writes Libo in his 1985 book _We Lived There Too_, coauthored with the late Irving Howe. “For already there are those who stay east and those who go west, those who come with special privileges and those who suffer discrimination, those who care about the faith of their fathers and those who do not, those who remain uprooted and those who transplant themselves.” Jewish settlers encountered little prejudice in the West, according to Libo. “They were looked upon as fellow settlers.”
> 
> During this same time, the United States increased its size by a third with the annexation of Texas in 1845, the ratification of the Oregon Treaty, the seizure of tribal lands, and the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as spoils from the Mexican-American War.
> 
> With expansion came opportunities. Boomtowns appeared as word spread of copper in Montana and Arizona, silver in New Mexico, and gold in California. Just like their Gentile counterparts, Jewish men and women were lured into hostile landscapes, traveling west by buckboard, stagecoach, horseback, and prairie schooner through Indian country to new settlements in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and the gold fields of California with the hope of striking it rich, or at the very least, the possibility of a new life for themselves and their families.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Photo caption
> Trader Julius Mayer with Chiefs Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail. The Pawnee tribe also gave him the name Box-ka-re-sha-has-ta-ka or Curly-headed white chief with one tongue.
> Nebraska State Historical Society
> 
> 
> But it was the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night prospector, who played a major role in the development of the West, turning dusty little cow towns into urban centers. “Jews literally brought civilization to countless cities and towns in America west of the Mississippi by establishing ‘the department store’ in every town of any consequence,” says Libo. “Their numbers may have been small, but their influence was substantial.”
> 
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> (full article online)
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> Jewish Pioneers
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> www.neh.gov


Very good post! Very informative!


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Ancient Destroyed Walls of Jerusalem
					

Join me at the Southern Wall excavations as we look upon Temple stones and walls of Jerusalem that were destroyed thousands of years ago.




					pulseofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Jewish Agency, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel, stands on shaky ground in Russia, as a Moscow court is set to hold a trial on its dissolution August 19. Even though it’s operating under a cloud of uncertainty, and immigration to Israel has skyrocketed, the Agency continues to operate business as usual, JNS has learned from a government source familiar with the matter.

Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine in February, 19,100 Russians have immigrated to Israel, a leap from the 7,733 immigrants that came in 2021, according to Jewish Agency numbers. It’s not a stretch to see immigration numbers triple over those of last year by year’s end, assuming the Agency isn’t shut down.











						Jewish Agency in Russia soldiers on despite tensions, immigration surge
					

“The truth is Israel’s government doesn't know what will happen,” says an Israeli government source In the runup to August 19 hearing on the shuttering of the Agency in Russia.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan

You may be surprised to learn that fish and chips, though wildly popular in England for what seems like eternity, was actually a specialty of the Portuguese Sephardic Jews who fled the Inquisition in the 16thcentury and found refuge in the British Isles. Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver referred to this recently in an article in the _New York Times_, adding that, “Dishes evolve, impacted by trade, war, famine and a hundred other forces.” 

Among those “other forces” are dishes born of religious ritual. For observant Jews, fish is pareve, a neutral food in kosher terms, thus an easy way to avoid _treyf_ (non-kosher food) and possibly include dairy in the same meal. It was especially important for Marranos, the so-called crypto-Jews, who pretended to be Christian during the Inquisition. They ate fish on Fridays, when meat was forbidden by the Church, and also saved some to eat cold the next day at lunch, to avoid cooking on Shabbat. 

Frying was natural for Jewish home cooks — think of latkes and sufganyiot — and as the Jewish community began to flourish in England, it spurred a taste for its beloved fried, battered fish throughout the country. According to Claudia Roden’s _The Book of Jewish_ _Food_, Thomas Jefferson tried some on a trip to London and noted that he ate “fish in the Jewish fashion” during his visit. Alexis Soyer, a French cook who became a celebrated chef in Victorian England included a recipe for “Fried Fish, Jewish Fashion” in the first edition of his cookbook _A Shilling Cookery for the People _(1845). Soyer’s recipe notes that the “Jewish manner” includes using oil rather than meat fat (presumably lard), which made the dish taste better, though also made it more expensive.

There’s some dispute about the where and when of “chips” (what we Americans call French fries and the French call pommes frites). Many historians say that deep-fried, cut-up potatoes were invented in Belgium and, in fact, substituted for the fish during hard times. The first time the word “chips” was used was in Charles Dickens’ _A Tale of Two Cities _in 1859: “husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.”

The official pairing of fish and chips didn’t happen until a few years later, though. Although there are some who dispute it, most authorities say that it is thanks to a Jewish cook, this time a young Ashkenazi immigrant named Joseph Malin, who opened the first British chippy, AKA fish and chip shop, in London in 1863. The shop was so successful it remained in business until the 1970s.

Who could foresee that fearful Jewish immigrants hiding their true religion and practicing in secret would be responsible for creating one of the most iconic dishes in the U.K.? The down-home dish that Winston Churchill claimed help the British defeat the Nazis, the comfort food that George Orwell said helped keep the masses happy and “averted revolution.” The dish, by the way, that was among the only foods never rationed during wartime because the British government believed that preserving access to it was a way of keeping up morale. A dish that continues to be a mainstay of the British diet.  

(full article online)









						Fish and Chips' Surprising Jewish History | The Nosher
					

You may be surprised to learn that fish and chips, though wildly popular in England for what seems like eternity, ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Long ago, as prescribed by the Hebrew scriptures, Jewish worship revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. For a thousand years, the Temple was a hub for offering sacrifices of all sorts (peace offerings, thanksgiving offerings, atonement offerings and more) every day of the year. On the three annual pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — all Israel was invited to ascend to Jerusalem to offer special sacrifices and celebrate. The Temple also served as an important administrative center of the Jewish people.

All this came to a screeching halt in 70 CE when the Temple was destroyed in a devastating war with the Romans. In its wake, rabbinic Judaism (the Judaism practiced by virtually all Jews today) and its central text, the Talmud, laid the foundation for Jewish ritual and worship in a world without the Temple. 

Though the Temple is long gone, it is far from forgotten. The construction of the Temple is described in great detail in the Hebrew Bible, and its practices are meticulously documented and parsed in the Talmud. An entire annual holiday — Tisha B’Av — is given over to mourning its absence from Jewish life. And a piece of the Temple — the western retaining wall of the platform on which it stood, called the Kotel or Western Wall — is today one of the holiest sites for Jews.

Even though remembering the Temple remains a central part of Jewish practice today, it can be difficult to grasp just how central the Temple was to ancient Jewish life. Here are 12 facts that help illustrate what the ancient Temple was really like, and what it has meant to Jews throughout history.

(full article online)











						12 Things To Know About the Temple in Jerusalem | My Jewish Learning
					

Long ago, as prescribed by the Hebrew scriptures, Jewish worship revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. For a thousand years, ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

The city of Constantine, built across a steep gorge

In my childhood, there was that terrible day of August 5, 1934.

I was five and a half years old. It was a hot summer day. We were all gathered at my grandfather’s house and Bouchareb, our trusted servant, did the shopping alone, so dangerous was it to go out into town.

Our customary car ride had been cancelled. At the time, I didn’t understand why. To the questions that we children asked – we  who were gathered at my grandfather’s house – there was only one answer: “you are too young to understand.”

When we were allowed to play, we felt we had to do it quietly. On August 5, 1934, things puzzled me. What was going on? The front door was never locked: it could  be opened only by turning the latch. It was now locked and the iron bar in place. The phone often rang in the hallway. At times, by straining our ears, we managed to catch snippets of adult conversation: basin, blood, throat cut.

Later, when I was old enough to understand, the tragedy was explained to me at length: Jewish families had been slaughtered by Arab rioters. The French government had done nothing to stop the massacre. I had been particularly struck by the murder of an entire friendly family, with the exception of an eleven-year-old child, hidden by his father in the attic of their house. Crouching  and dazed in the attic, he witnessed the killing without crying out.

Read article in full (French)

_More about the Constantine pogrom_











						A witness to the Constantine pogrom of 1934 • Point of No Return
					

It was a hot August day almost exactly 88 years ago that some 25 Jews were killed in  a pogrom in Constantine, Algeria. Josy Adida-Goldberg was too young to be told what was happening, but sensed that things were not right. Here is her account, from Morial, the Association representing Algerian...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Gerald Teldon, 97, nicknamed himself “Mr. Lucky,” flying more than 60 missions for the U.S. Army during World War II. What he never received, however, were his service medals.

That changed on July 29, when—surrounded by three generations of his family—the 97-year-old Teldon was decorated with six medals for his service, including an Air Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign with three bronze service stars, National Defense and a World War II Victory medal.

(full article online)









						Decades after serving, Jewish lieutenant receives World War II war medals
					

Gerald Teldon (aka “Mr. Lucky,”) from Long Island, N.Y., joined the service in April 1944. He initially applied for the Navy Air Force, but it was over its “Jewish” quota, so he was denied a spot.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Holy Temple Burns (69)*
The Romans set the Temple aflame on the afternoon of Av 9 (see yesterday's Today in Jewish History and it continued to burn through Av 10. For this reasons, some of the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" are observed through the morning hours of Av 10 (see "Laws and Customs" below)

*• AMIA Bombing (1994)*
Arab terrorists exploded a bomb in the the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 86 and wounding more than 300, in the most lethal attack against any diaspora Jewish community since the Holocaust.

*Link:* Terrorism

*• Expulsion from Gaza (2005)*
More than 8,500 Jewish residents were forcefully expelled from their homes in 25 towns and settlements in the Gaza Strip (including 16 settlements in the flourishing "Gush Katif" belt) and Northern Shomron in the summer of 2005, as part of the Israeli government's ill-fated "Disengagement Plan."

Av 10 was the deadline set by the governments for all Jews to leave their homes in these areas. Two days later, tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers began the forceful removal of the thousands who refused to leave willingly. The removal of all Jewish residents from Gush Katif and the Gaza Strip was completed by Av 17, and from Northern Samaria a day later. The army completed its withdrawal from these areas on the 8th of Elul, after bulldozing all the hundreds of homes and civic buildings in the settlements. The Jewish dead were disinterred and removed from the cemeteries. Only the synagogues were left standing.

The government's hopes that the "disengagement" would open "new opportunities" in relations with the Palestinian Arabs were bitterly disappointed. No sooner had the last Israeli soldiers departed from the Gaza Strip that Arab mobs began looting, desecrating and tourching the synagogues. The vacated settlements became the staging grounds for terrorist attacks against Israel, including the unremitting rocket fire on the nearby Israeli town of Sederot and the cities and settlements of the Western Negev.


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## Sixties Fan

Kfir Arbiv, Israel Antiquities Authority excavation director, cleans a 2000-year-old ballista stone at the Russian Compound excavation site in Jerusalem. (Yoli Schwartz/srael Antiquities Authority)



The Russian Compound excavation site in Jerusalem. 2000-year-old ballista stones from the Roman conquest of 70 CE are visible on the ground. (Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority)



Huge catapult arrowheads that were launched from ballista firing machines in the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 CE, found in the Russian compound excavations. (Kfir Arbiv/Israel Antiquities Authority)



The Russian Compound excavation site in Jerusalem. 2000-year-old ballista stones from the Roman conquest of 70 CE are visible on the ground. (Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority)



Spearhead from the battle against the Roman army in 70 CE. (Clara Amit/Israel Antiquities Authority)
For the first time in the research of ancient Jerusalem, physical evidence uncovered in recent excavations has proven Jewish historian Josephus Flavius’s account of the 70 CE conquest of the holy city.

Through computer analysis of 2,000-year-old Roman ballistics uncovered in Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound near modern Jerusalem’s Municipality building, archaeologist Kfir Arbiv claims he has demonstrated the veracity of Josephus’s narrative charted in his book, “The History of the Jewish War against the Romans.”

“It is extremely exciting to be proving the narrative of Josephus onsite,” Arbiv told The Times of Israel on Sunday, Tisha B’av, the Jewish day of mourning that annually commemorates the conquests of Jerusalem.


(full article online)









						Proving Josephus: Research on Roman ballistics confirms Second Temple battle account
					

Computer calculations of 70 CE Roman arsenal uncovered in excavations in Jerusalem demonstrate veracity of Jewish historian Josephus's report of intense fighting near Third Wall




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Salvation of Baghdad Jewry (1733)*
In 1733, the Persian conqueror Nader Shah Afshar laid siege to Ottoman-held Baghdad. Knowing that Persian rule would not bode well for them, the Jewish community prayed for an Ottoman victory. On 11 Menachem Av, an Ottoman force led by Topal Osman Pasha drove away the Persian forces and the siege was lifted. The Jewish community commemorated this day each year, refraining from reciting the penitential prayers of _tachanun_.

*• Passing of R. Hillel of Paritch (1864)*
R. Hillel of Paritch was one of the outstanding followers of the second and third Rebbes of Lubavitch, R. DovBer and R. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. He was an exceptional scholar and served as rabbi of Paritch and then of Babroisk. Additionally, he would make a yearly visit on behalf of the Rebbe to the Jewish colonies in the Kherson region, teaching them Chassidut and inspiring their residents to increase in their observance of the mitzvot.

R. Hillel was known for his scrupulous adherence to every detail of Jewish law. He authored _Pelach Harimon_, a collection of sermons on chassidic philosophy, and composed a number of heartfelt tunes sung often at _farbrengens_ until today.


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## Sixties Fan

_Editor’s Note: Olivia Newton-John has died at the age of 73. As a remembrance of her, we are republishing this 2019 article about her Jewish heritage and influences._

In a recent celebrity memoir, the author writes, “In 1933, my Jewish grandfather fled from Germany with his wife, Hedwig, to escape Hitler’s regime. He was not only a brilliant mind but also a humanitarian who helped Jews escape Germany. I’m extremely proud of my peace-loving grandfather.” The grandfather was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, one of the founders of quantum mechanics and a longtime friend of Albert Einstein. The granddaughter, which might come as a surprise to some, is Olivia Newton-John.

In fact, the English-born Australian singer/actress has plenty of _yikhes_ to spread around. Her maternal great-grandfather was prominent German-Jewish jurist Victor Ehrenberg; her father was a British intelligence officer who took Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess into custody during World War II; and she also traces her ancestry back to Protestant theologian Martin Luther.


Some of these details are covered in Newton-John’s new memoir, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” named after the title track of her 1976 album (not to be confused with the execrable 1981 hit of the same name by the band Journey). The phrase “Don’t Stop Believin’” is also a concise summary of God’s commandments to the Israelites, although this may not be what Newton-John had in mind when she titled her autobiography.

Newton-John apparently did, however, have some serious Jewish mystical concepts in mind when she recorded her 2006 album “Grace and Gratitude.” The new-agey confection is rife with instrumental interludes with titles including “Yesod,” “Hod,” “Nezah,” “Tiferet,” “Hesud-Gevurah,” “Binah,” “Hochmah” and “Keter” – names corresponding with the divine _sefirot,_ or vessels of divine energy, in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Although she doesn’t discuss this in her memoir, she does write about her friendship with fellow pop star/actress Madonna, a self-professed adept of Kabbalah.

(full article online)











						The Secret Jewish History of Olivia Newton-John
					

In her memoir, Olivia Newton-John spoke of how her Jewish grandfather escaped Hitler's regime and she ascribed her restlessness to Max Born.




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## Sixties Fan

120 Jewish Books For Every Age | My Jewish Learning
					

Reading is a lifelong Jewish practice. Deepen your knowledge of Judaism with a book for every age, from birth all the way to 120.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Nachmanides' Disputation (1263)*
By order of King James I of Aragon (Spain), Nachmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 1194-1270) was compelled to participate in a public debate, held in the king's presence, against the Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. His brilliant defense of Judaism and refutations of Christianity's claims served as the basis of many such future disputations through the generations.

Because his victory was an insult to the king's religion, Nachmanides was forced to flee Spain. He came to Jerusalem, where he found just a handful of Jewish families living in abject poverty, and revived the Jewish community there. The synagogue he built in the Old City is in use today, and is perhaps the oldest standing synagogue in the world.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Nassan Nata Schapiro (1633)*
R. Nassan Nata Schapiro was a saintly scholar who was proficient in both Talmud and kabbalah. He served as rabbi of Cracow, and authored _Megaleh Amukos_, a kabbalistic Torah commentary.


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## Sixties Fan

Betty Boop, the iconic scat-singing cartoon flapper with a giant head and tiny dress, made her debut on Aug. 9, 1930, in the animated short “Dizzy Dishes.” Like many other characters at the time, she heavily reflected the Jewish background of her creators.

She was created by Max (Majer) Fleischer, a Krakow-born Jew from Brooklyn, who together with younger brother Dave founded the Fleischer Studios in 1929. The Fleischers were pioneers of animation and at the time the only major competitors to Walt Disney.

Everything Disney was not​Fleischer Studios were everything Disney was not. They were based in New York (later Florida, as is Jewish custom), not California. And instead of sweet fairytales, they created cartoons that were modern, urban, scruffy, sardonic, political, often ethnic and occasionally suggestively Jewish.


Rather than cuddly animals and winsome royals, their characters tended to be exaggerated humans like Koko the Clown and Betty Boop, along with comic strip adaptations. It was the Fleischers who gave Popeye super-strength derived from spinach and Superman the ability to fly instead of leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Between 1929 and 1932, Fleischer Studios produced and distributed through Paramount Pictures a series of 42 black-and-white “Talkartoons,” the first animated talkies. They were shown in movie theaters before feature films and were aimed largely at adult audiences.

(full article online)










						Just how Jewish is Betty Boop?
					

Like many Jewish women of her day, Betty Boop was born to an immigrant family on New York's Lower East Side.




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## Sixties Fan

Michael Millenson was puzzled after stumbling on an exhibit about Gen. Julius Klein during a spontaneous visit to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington, D.C., this spring. The modest museum has devoted a room to Klein as one of its three permanent exhibits: “Major General Julius Klein: His Life and Work.”

The small, wood-paneled room is constructed almost like a shrine. It features a bust of Klein and his personal battle flag. Placards along the walls provide a fawning description of his colorful career.

“Julius Klein was a remarkable individual who achieved great heights as a soldier and a statesman,” the exhibit’s introduction reads.


Millenson, a Chicago healthcare consultant, knew perhaps more than most visitors about Klein. His father, Roy, briefly worked for Klein’s public relations firm in the 1950s and left with a sour taste in his mouth over his boss’s work to help German companies launder their extensive ties to the Nazi regime.

After distinguishing himself as an officer during World War II, Klein spent the 1950s and 1960s as one of the top American lobbyists for the West German government. This work included defending a former top Nazi official, and severely damaged Klein’s reputation at the time, forcing his resignation from the Jewish War Veterans of the United States — the very organization that operates the museum. But the exhibit glosses over this history in a few lines that don’t mention Nazism and attribute the controversy to a simple case of bad publicity — perhaps because the exhibit was essentially a gift of Klein’s estate.

(full article online)










						He lobbied for Nazis — why did a Jewish museum honor him?
					

Michael Millenson was puzzled after stumbling on an exhibit about Gen. Julius Klein during a spontaneous visit to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington, D.C., this spring. The modest museum has devoted a room to Klein as one of its three permanent exhibits: “Major...




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## Sixties Fan

​

*On this day in history (70):* The Roman emperor and former military commander Titus besieged and invaded Jerusalem, destroying the city and the Second Temple. His victory was later commemorated by the construction of the Arch of Titus in Rome, which depicts the conquest, and is now a popular tourist site.


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## Sixties Fan

The secret Jewish history of Jethro Tull
					

Jethro Tull, whose 1971 album 'Aqua-Lung' was designed by a Jewish artist, has some surprising Jewish affinities.




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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• R. Schneur Zalman Settles in Liadi (1801)*
The first Rebbe of Chabad, R. Schneur Zalman (known as the Alter Rebbe), served as preacher in the town of Liozna (in present-day Belarus) from 1783 until 1801. In that year, R. Schneur Zalman was imprisoned for a second time in Petersburg, due to trumped-up charges presented by his opponents to the government. After his release, he relocated to Liadi (also in Belarus), where he continued leading his followers and teaching the philosophy of Chabad. He remained in Liadi until 1812, when he and his family fled eastward from the oncoming French forces of Napoleon.

Under the leadership of R. Schneur Zalman’s son, R. DovBer, in 1814 the seat of the Chabad movement was transferred to the town of Lubavitch (in Russia near the Belarussian border). It remained there for over 100 years, until 1915, when the fifth Chabad Rebbe, R. Sholom DovBer, fled from Lubavitch to Rostov in face of the advancing German army during World War I.


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## Sixties Fan

Tu B’Av , the 15th Day of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the Second Templeperiod (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). Tu B’Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine’s Day in English-speaking countries.

There is no way to know exactly how early Tu B’Av began. The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (compiled and edited in the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted saying:



> There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife)? (_Ta’anit_, Chapter 4)



(full article online)









						Tu B'Av, the Jewish Day of Love | My Jewish Learning
					

Tu B'Av, the fifteenth day of the month of Av, is a Day of Love in Judaism.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Vatican cardinal with Jewish ancestry honors Jewish-born nun and saint who was murdered at Auschwitz
					

Cardinal Czerny noted that his mother’s relatives, despite their conversion to Catholicism, were also persecuted by the Nazis for having Jewish ancestry.




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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Hebron Massacre (1929)*

Sixty-seven Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered, and scores wounded, raped and maimed, by their Arab neighbors in the city of Hebron, who rioted for three days amid cries of "Slaughter the Jews." The killings began on Friday afternoon, 17 Av, and most of the victims lost their lives on Shabbat, 18 Av. The survivors were forced to evacuate to Jerusalem, and the ancient Jewish community of Hebron, which had lived in relative peace in the city for hundreds of years, was not revived until after Israel's capture of Hebron in the 1967 Six Day war.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Western Lamp Extinguished (c. 578 BCE)*

Every evening, the priest would kindle the seven lights of the menorah in the Holy Temple. Miraculously, although six of the seven candles would burn out, the western lamp would remain lit until the following evening. (See link below for the exact identity of the western lamp.)

During the reign of the idolatrous King Ahaz (father of the pious King Hezekiah), this miracle discontinued. The first time the western lamp was found to have extinguished was on 18 Menachem Av (or, according to other versions, 17 Menachem Av). (_Shulchan Aruch_, _Orach Chaim _580:2)


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## Sixties Fan

The backdrop to the movement’s emergence was the Emancipation, the process begun in late 18th century to grant European Jews equal rights and eliminate the legal barriers that had impeded their social and economic progress for centuries. The emergence from the European ghetto had an enormous impact on the practice of Judaism, leading some Jews to abandon long-observed religious practices in an effort to assimilate more easily into the broader culture.

“Eager to participate and demonstrate to their neighbors what loyal and productive citizens they could be, many Jews decided to jettison kashrut [Jewish dietary laws] and other traditional laws and practices which prohibited them from eating at the homes of their gentile friends or attending social gatherings at cafés,” the Reform Rabbi Lawrence Englander has written in an essay on the movement’s origins.  “They were embarrassed, too, should neighbors accustomed to the decorum of the Protestant or Catholic church visit the synagogue and witness a spectacle of men wrapped in strange prayer shawls noisily davening [praying] a repetitive liturgy while children tore up and down the aisles.”

The early Jewish reformers sought to fashion a Judaism more consonant with European life. Rabbis led services in black clerical robes similar to those worn by Christian clergy and employed professional choirs and organ players. Men and women sat together, rather than in separate sections of the synagogue, and male worshippers prayed bareheaded, without the traditional kippah (head covering). For a time, the main Shabbat service — conducted in the vernacular, rather than Hebrew — was held on Friday night (or Sunday) so as not to interfere with activities on Saturday, which was generally a work day. (The two-day weekend wasn’t introduced until the early 20th century.) And the vast body of ritual practice that had served to set Jews apart from the wider culture was de-emphasized in favor of universal ethics and the prophetic vision of justice and peace.

The first permanent Reform temple was founded in 1818 in Hamburg, Germany. Early Reform leaders preferred to call their houses of worship temples rather than synagogues, partly to distinguish them from traditional synagogues and partly to signify that they had abandoned the Jewish longing to rebuild the ancient temple in Jerusalem. A number of other Reform congregations were established in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in the early 1800s, but the movement really began to flourish in the United States, where it was embraced by the German Jews who were then the dominant force in American Jewish life.

(full article online)









						History of the Reform Movement | My Jewish Learning
					

Reforming Judaism. Modern Jewish Denominationalism. Modern Jewish Religion and Culture. Modern Jewish History. Jewish History and Community.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Is Mah-Jongg a Jewish Game? | My Jewish Learning
					

Jewish women have kept Mah-Jongg alive in North America.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Debra Messing Talks Jewish Pride, Her Bat Mitzvah and Netflix's ‘13: The Musical’ – Kveller
					

I can’t help but tell Debra Messing how much I love her chai necklace. I may not have a lot of time to interview one of my favorite Jewish actresses (I’m totally cool about it!) about her role in Netflix’s new bar mitzvah movie, “13: The Musical,” in which she plays the mother of the […]




					www.kveller.com


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## Sixties Fan

*ELVIS' YAHRTZEIT*



​

Elvis often wore both a chai and cross necklace, joking that it was his guaranteed ticket into heaven. (Getty)

Elvis Presley died 45 years ago today on Aug. 16, 1977. He was the king of rock ‘n’ roll and the biggest celebrity of his time. Decades later, he is still ever-present in the zeitgeist: whether in Las Vegas wedding chapels, at Graceland or on the big screen in Tom Hanks’ latest movie.

He was also, to many people’s surprise, Jewish.

The headstone on the grave for Elvis’ mother, Gladys, features a Jewish star; his maternal great-great grandmother, Nancy Burdine, was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who settled in Memphis in the 19th century. When Gladys told Elvis about his Jewish roots, she told him to keep it a secret as many people disliked Jews — including her own husband, Vernon.

Seth Rogovoy, our music critic, writes that in 1958 after Gladys died, Vernon put a cross on the upper corner of her gravestone. “A few years later, Elvis had a Star of David added to the opposite corner of her grave marker to balance out the cross and to acknowledge his mother’s Jewish heritage,” Rogovoy wrote. As for Elvis? He regularly wore necklaces of a chai along with his cross at the same time, memorably justifying this interfaith bling by saying, “I don’t want to miss out on heaven due to a technicality.” *Read the story ➤*










						Was Elvis Presley actually the Jewish Elvis?
					

“The Jewish World of Elvis Presley” by Roselle Kline Chartock tells of the king of rock 'n' roll's many Jewish affinities and ancestors.




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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Rabbi Yaakov Culi (1732)*

Born in Jerusalem in 1689 (5449?), Yaakov Culi moved to Constantinople, Turkey, where he found adequate facilities and financial backing to publish the scholarly output of his learned grandfather, Rabbi Moses ibn Habib, including classics such as Get Pashut and Ezrat Nashim. 

The brilliant young scholar quickly came to the attention of the chief rabbi of Constantinople, Yehuda Rosanes, the undisputed leader of Sephardic Jewry at the time, and he was appointed to the beth din (rabbinical court). 

Upon the passing of Rosanes, Rabbi Yaakov edited and published his late teacher’s writings with his own additional glosses: Mishneh Lamelech on Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah and Perishat Derachim. 


Toward the end of his own short life, Rabbi Culi began work on the Mea’am Loez, a compendium of rabbinic lore and commentary on all books of Scriptures. He wrote in Ladino, then the common language of the Sephardic diaspora. 

Unfortunately, he never completed his project and passed away on 19th Av, 5492 (1732), having only completed the book Genesis and most of Exodus. However, subsequent scholars used his extensive notes to finish the work. Popular to this day, the Mea’am Loez has been translated into many languages, including Hebrew, English, and even Arabic.


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## Mushroom

Sixties Fan said:


> He was also, to many people’s surprise, Jewish.
> 
> The headstone on the grave for Elvis’ mother, Gladys, features a Jewish star; his maternal great-great grandmother, Nancy Burdine, was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who settled in Memphis in the 19th century.



That does not make one Jewish, and he was not Jewish.

Even under the radical Nuremberg Laws, he was not "Jewish".  Under even those radical laws, one had to be ½ or more Jewish to be considered a "Jew".  Even one who was a "Mischling Second Degree" (one Jewish Grandparent) could maintain their German citizenship.  And you talk about a great-great-grandmother?  Neither the Nazis or most radical Klukkers follow that kind of "purity" requirement.


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## Sixties Fan

Mushroom said:


> That does not make one Jewish, and he was not Jewish.
> 
> Even under the radical Nuremberg Laws, he was not "Jewish".  Under even those radical laws, one had to be ½ or more Jewish to be considered a "Jew".  Even one who was a "Mischling Second Degree" (one Jewish Grandparent) could maintain their German citizenship.  And you talk about a great-great-grandmother?  Neither the Nazis or most radical Klukkers follow that kind of "purity" requirement.


He did not follow Judaism but seemed to have an affinity for it.


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## Mushroom

Sixties Fan said:


> He did not follow Judaism but seemed to have an affinity for it.



Does not make him Jewish.

Most Mormons do also, once again does not make them Jewish.


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## Sixties Fan

Mushroom said:


> Does not make him Jewish.
> 
> Most Mormons do also, once again does not make them Jewish.


No one has said that it made  Elvis Jewish. He had family before him who were Jewish and had been made aware that he had come from a Jewish family.  Nothing else.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Chaim Brisker (1918)*
Passing of Rabbi Chaim Soloveichik of Brisk (1853-1918), outstanding Talmudic scholar and Jewish leader.


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## Sixties Fan

In 1913, Leo Frank was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the Atlanta pencil factory that Frank managed. After Georgia’s governor commuted his death sentence, a mob stormed the prison where Frank was being held and lynched him. Leo Frank thus became the only known Jew lynched in American history.

The case still spurs debate and controversy — it even inspired a Broadway play. What are the facts of the Frank case?

The Case Against Frank​“Little Mary Phagan,” as she became known, left home on the morning of April 26 to pick up her wages at the pencil factory and view Atlanta’s Confederate Day parade. She never returned home.

The next day, the factory night watchman found her bloody, sawdust-covered body in the factory basement. When the police asked Leo Frank, who had just completed a term as president of the Atlanta chapter of B’nai B’rith (a Jewish fraternal organization), to view her body, Frank became agitated. He confirmed personally paying Mary her wages but could not say where she went next. Frank, the last to admit seeing Mary alive, became the prime suspect.


Georgia’s solicitor general, Hugh Dorsey, sought a grand jury indictment against Frank. Rumor circulated that Mary had been sexually assaulted. Factory employees offered apparently false testimony that Frank had made sexual advances toward them. The madam of a house of ill repute claimed that Frank had phoned her several times, seeking a room for himself and a young girl.

In this era, the cult of Southern chivalry made it a “hanging crime” for African-American males to have sexual contact with the “flower of white womanhood.” The accusations against Frank, a Northern-born, college-educated Jew, proved equally inflammatory.

The Exonerating Evidence​For the grand jury, Hugh Dorsey painted Leo Frank as a sexual pervert who was both homosexual and who preyed on young girls. What he did not tell the grand jury was that a janitor at the factory, Jim Conley, had been arrested two days after Frank when he was seen washing blood off his shirt. Conley then admitted writing two notes that had been found by Mary Phagan’s body. The police assumed that, as author of these notes, Conley was the murderer, but Conley claimed, after apparent coaching from Dorsey, that Leo Frank had confessed to murdering Mary in the lathe room and then paid Conley to pen the notes and help him move Mary’s body to the basement.

Even after Frank’s housekeeper placed him at home, having lunch at the time of the murder and despite gross inconsistencies in Conley’s story, both the grand and trial jury chose to believe Conley. This was perhaps the first instance of a Southern black man’s testimony being used to convict a white man. In August of 1913, the jury found Frank guilty in less than four hours. Crowds outside the courthouse shouted, “Hang the Jew.”

Historian Leonard Dinnerstein reports that one juror had been overheard to say before his selection for the jury, “I am glad they indicted the God damn Jew. They ought to take him out and lynch him. And if I get on that jury, I’ll hang that Jew for sure.”

Facing intimidation and mob rule, the trial judge sentenced Frank to death. He barred Frank from the courtroom on the grounds that, had he been acquitted, Frank might have been lynched by the crowd outside.

Frank Is Saved, Briefly​Despite these breaches of due process, Georgia’s higher courts rejected Frank’s appeals and the U. S. Supreme Court voted, 7-2, against reopening the case, with Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Evans Hughes dissenting. Frank’s survival depended on Georgia Governor Frank Slaton. After a 12-day review of the evidence and letters recommending commutation from the trial judge (who must have had second thoughts) and from a private investigator who had worked for Hugh Dorsey, Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life imprisonment.

That night, state police kept a protesting crowd of 5,000 from the governor’s mansion. Wary Jewish families fled Atlanta. Slaton held firm. “Two thousand years ago,” he wrote a few days later, “another Governor washed his hands and turned over a Jew to a mob. For two thousand years that governor’s name has been accursed. If today another Jew [Leo Frank] were lying in his grave because I had failed to do my duty, I would all through life find his blood on my hands and would consider myself an assassin through cowardice.”

On August 17, 1915, a group of 25 men — described by peers as “sober, intelligent, of established good name and character”— stormed the prison hospital where Leo Frank was recovering from having his throat slashed by a fellow inmate. They kidnapped Frank, drove him more than 100 miles to Mary Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and hanged him from a tree.

Frank conducted himself with dignity, calmly proclaiming his innocence.

Townsfolk were proudly photographed beneath Frank’s swinging corpse, pictures still valued today by their descendants. When his term expired a year later, Slaton did not run for reelection and Dorsey easily won election to the governor’s office.

In 1986, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles finally granted Leo Frank a posthumous pardon, not because they thought him innocent, but because his lynching deprived him of his right to further appeal. Mary Phagan’s descendants and their supporters still insist on his guilt.











						The Lynching of Leo Frank | My Jewish Learning
					

Leo Frank Lynching. Modern Anti Semitism. Modern Jewish Intergroup Relations. Modern Jewish History. Jewish History and Community.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Dr. Brown, who lived in the Lower East Side or Williamsburg depending on whom you ask, began in the late 1860s making his own homemade celery “tonic,” which was sold in local delicatessens. In 1886, Dr. Brown’s tonic assumed bottled form, thus achieving a higher level of quality control regarding its carbonation and improving its mass appeal. However, the nascent Food and Drug Administration was not a fan of the “tonic” label, which misleadingly implied the drink’s medicinal utility, and insisted on a name change. The concoction was reborn, “Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Soda.” 

Believe it or not, bubbly botanical beverages were actually a _thing _around the turn of the century.  If pumpkin spice was the official flavor of the 2000s, the 1930s analogue was celery. As agricultural production of this vegetable expanded rapidly across the United States due to the recent availability of seeding plants, celery, like today’s spiced squash, trended heavily as a theme ingredient. Several companies, including Coca-Cola and Lake’s of Mississippi also made celery sodas, but their popularity was ephemeral and by the 1930s they had been discontinued.

Only Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray had staying power, and developed a loyal following among Jews along the East Coast, earning a permanent spot on delicatessen menus and its nickname, “Jewish Champagne.” 

(full article )









						A Brief Jewish History of Cel-Ray Soda | The Nosher
					

Celery juice may be the all the rage right now as the detox drink of choice, (according to the Kardashians, ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Five years ago, the signing of a cultural property agreement with Libya blocking entry to art and artifacts from 12,000 BCE to 1911 CE alerted Americans of Middle Eastern Jewish heritage that their rights to community, personal, and religious treasures were threatened – even in the United States. Today, all that remains of the Libyan Jewish community is in the diaspora – and only in the diaspora is this heritage kept alive. There is not a single Jew left in Libya after the community was forced out in the mid-20th century, leaving behind all their possessions and property.

By signing a cultural property agreement with Libya, the US government asserted, wrongly, that Libya was doing its best to protect the heritage of all its peoples. The US agreement also recognized Libya’s national authority over every ancient and antique object made in Libya, including those of its 2,000-year-old Jewish community. If cultural objects crossed U.S. borders without a Libyan export permit – and Libya issues no export permits – they could be seized and returned to the Libyan government, not to the communities forced to abandon them when they were driven into exile.






Dar El Bishi Synagogue, Tripoli, Libya, today. Courtesy JIMENA.

The 2017 ‘emergency’ agreement and 2018 Memorandum of Understanding with the Libyan government caused outrage in the Jewish community, but their protests did little to stem the tide of a misguided U.S. policy that rewarded excessive claims by nationalist regimes. This July, a hearing was held at the Department of State to renew the Libyan agreement, despite Libya’s fractured, multiple regional governments, an ongoing civil war, and the complete failure of the various parties to act to protect its cultural heritage.

Cultural property agreements may be renewed or terminated after five years, under the 1983 Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA). An agreement must actually be shown to be effective in protecting heritage or stemming looting for it to be enacted or renewed. The Act establishes requirements for self-help, for each nation to protect its existing heritage, and to ensure access to it by a global public. There were clearly many reasons not to renew the 2017-2018 cultural property agreements. Libya had failed to protect five ancient World Heritage sites from graffiti, damage, and encroaching illegal property development; its educational and cultural infrastructure was in ruins and its workers unpaid, and it was engaged in a civil war that was bombing antique built heritage in its cities into dust.


(full article online)









						Libyan Jewish Community Fights for Rights to Heritage
					

“The story of Jewish refugees and the advocacy work that we do is not only a Jewish story. It is a story of most of the religious minorities in the region. It is continuing today




					culturalpropertynews.org


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## Sixties Fan

Theodor Herzl and the Jews’ Leap of Hope
					

Today, Theodor Herzl is best known for his beard, not his books, for an Aha-moment he never had, for being an anti-anti-Semite rather than an idealist, and for launching the Zionist movement in 1897 – eighteen months after he released his history-changing Zionist manifesto.




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

In unassuming Rishon Lezion, a treasure trove of Israeli history comes alive
					

With museums boasting lifelike reproductions of life in the olden days and a seemingly endless number of historically significant sites, one of Israel's oldest towns is a must-see




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

How a Catholic-born Peruvian villager led hundreds to Jewish conversion – and Israel
					

In 'The Prophet of the Andes,' author Graciela Mochkofsky documents unlikely tale of Segundo Villanueva, whose revelations and efforts brought the 'Inca Jews' to the Promised Land




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Jewish cemetery in Aden has existed for more than 160 years and is believed to house hundreds of graves belonging to members of a community that no longer exists.

A local researcher told local media that, according to Jewish tradition, the cemetery is the burial site of the biblical figure Abel.

And while work is underway and significant parts of the cemetery’s wall have been restored, the graves are still in dire need of attention, the report said, requiring a budget that war-torn Yemen might be hesitant to allocate.


(full article online)









						Yemen restores Jewish cemetery, remainder of a once booming, now long-gone community
					

Restoration of the 160-year-old burial ground that had been neglected for years began with civil organizations, before being picked up by government




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today is Wednesday, Av 27, 5782 · August 24, 2022​Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yehoshua of Cracow (1648)*
R. Yehoshua was one of the leading Polish scholars of his day, and was held in great reverence by his contemporaries. He led a Talmudic academy in Cracow which attracted many noteworthy disciples (such as R. Shabtai HaKohen, the _Shach_). 
R. Yehoshua authored _Maginei Shlomo_, devoted to answering the difficulties raised by the Tosafist scholars against Rashi in his Talmud commentary. He also authored a collection of halachic responsa titled _Pnei Yehoshua _(not to be confused with the Talmudic commentary of the same name authored by his great-grandson, R. Yaakov Yehoshua [see entry for 14 Shevat]).​


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Israel is a land rich in history, which is why the Institute of Archaeology plays a unique role in the research conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. No other discipline offers such tangible connections to the history of Jerusalem; no other discipline can continue to offer fresh data on Jewish history and the connection of Jews and Judaism to the ancient land of Israel; and no other discipline can provide exciting new insights into the formative centuries of Judaism, the development of Christianity, and the history of early Islam.

The Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology was founded in 1934 as the Department of Archaeology, becoming the Institute of Archaeology in 1967. Jerusalem’s reunification not only allowed the Institute to return to its original Mt. Scopus home but also enabled large-scale excavations at sites that provide physical links to the rich history of the Temple Mount, Jewish Quarter, and City of David. The Institute is an independent research and teaching unit within the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Humanities, with a staff that provides scientific assistance, technical facilities, and administrative support to researchers from Israel and around the world.


(full article online)









						The Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology: Unearthing Ancient Israel - Sponsored Content | The Times of Israel
					

The discovery of the remains of a fortified city was shown to be the first archaeological site in the region verified to be from the era of King David.




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Modern Jewish history’s most famous bearded political leader could be coming to streaming services soon, thanks to one of the creators of “Shtisel.”

Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, who died in his native Austria in 1904, is the subject of a series being developed by Ori Elon, according to a report in Deadline.

Elon wrote the script for “Shtisel,” the hit Israeli TV show about the travails of a Haredi Orthodox family, as well as “Srugim,” a popular series about Modern Orthodox singles in Jerusalem.

(full article online)









						Creator of ‘Shtisel’ working on new Herzl series
					

Considered the father of modern political Zionism, Herzl's contribution to Jewish history will be depicted on TV for the first time




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin of Volozhin (1894)*
R. Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (known by his acronym, the _Netziv_) led the famed Volozhin yeshiva for almost forty years. He authored numerous works, including _Ha’amek Davar_, _Ha’amek She’eilah_, _Meromei Sadeh_, and a collection of halachic responsa titled _Meishiv Davar_.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Flight from Liadi (1812)*
On this date, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, who supported and aided the Czar's army during the Napoleonic wars, was forced to flee his hometown from Napoleon's forces which were advancing through White Russia in their push toward Moscow. After five months of wanderings he arrived in the town of Pyena. There he fell ill and, weakened by the tribulations of his flight and the harsh Russian winter, passed away on the 24th of Tevet, 5573 (1812).

*Links:* The Rebbe vs Napoleon

*• Passing of R. Eliezer Zusia Portugal, the Skulener Rebbe (1982)*
R. Eliezer Zusia Portugal (1898–1982), the Skulener Rebbe, is best known for his superhuman efforts to rescue Jewish orphans and refugees in Eastern Europe before, during, and after World War II and his continuing support of them. He immigrated to the United States in 1960, after imprisonment in Rumania and international efforts to secure his release. He was renowned for his lengthy prayers and the beautiful tunes he composed.


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## Sixties Fan

Genetic analysis of human skeletal remains in Norwich, England, found by construction workers preparing the site for a shopping center has provided serious evidence that the bones are those of at least 17 Ashkenazi Jews who were murdered during a proven historic episode of antisemitic violence on February 6, 1190.


The genomes from a medieval mass burial show that Ashkenazi-associated hereditary diseases pre-date the 12th century. The findings resulted from a revised radiocarbon analysis of the bones carried out by experts at London’s Natural History Museum, University College and Francis Crick Institute; the Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution in Mainz, Germany; the University of Cambridge; and the Archive Center in Norwich.


They have just been published in the journal Current Biology under the title “Genomes from a medieval mass burial show Ashkenazi-associated hereditary diseases pre-date the 12th century.”

(full article online)









						Skeleton examinations reveal 1,000-year-old antisemitic violence - study
					

The position of the remains, their completeness and their conversion by archaeologists into cleaned and articulated skeletons suggested that they had all been buried at once shortly after death.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

Former refusenik and prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky said on Wednesday that the late leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev would never have released Soviet Jewry had it not been for the global pressure campaign to do so.

Sharansky’s comments came following the death of Gorbachev at 91 on Tuesday.

The former Israeli cabinet minister and chairman of the Jewish Agency said that for Gorbachev, the heavy cost the Soviet Union paid due to its political repression was what convinced him to relax policies toward Jewish practice and emigration, not any particular sympathy he had for Soviet Jews.

Sharansky, who spent almost nine years in a forced labor camp, was the first Soviet political prisoner to be released by Gorbachev after the latter assumed the leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985.

“Gorbachev strongly believed in communism and believed that the ideas of Marx and Lenin were truly what was best, but also realized that the system wasn’t working for the Soviet Union,” Sharansky told The Times of Israel.










						Sharansky: Gorbachev wouldn’t have released Soviet Jews if not for global pressure
					

Former prisoner of Zion praises late Soviet leader for freeing Jewish prisoners but says his policy was driven by the cost to the Soviet Union, not sympathy




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today is Thursday, Elul 5, 5782 · September 1, 2022​Today's Laws & Customs​*• Elul Observances*
As the last month of the Jewish year, Elul is traditionaly a time of introspection and stocktaking -- a time to review one's deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming "Days of Awe" of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
As the month of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 1) it is a most opportune time for _teshuvah_ ("return" to G-d), prayer, charity, and increased Ahavat Yisrael (love for a fellow Jew) in the quest for self-improvement and coming closer to G-d. Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi likens the month of Elul to a time when "the king is in the field" and, in contrast to when he is in the royal palace, "everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all."
Specific Elul customs include the daily sounding of the shofar (ram's horn) as a call to repentance. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below to view today's Psalms.
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Elul is also the time to have one's _tefillin_ and _mezuzot_ checked by an accredited scribe to ensure that they are in good condition and fit for use.
*Links:* More on Elul
Today in Jewish History​*• First Chassidic Aliya (1777)*
The first Chassidic _aliyah_ ("ascent" - immigration to the Holy Land), led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, Rabbi Abraham of Kalisk and Rabbi Yisroel of Polotzk, reached the Holy Land on Elul 5 of the year 5537 from creation (1777 CE). They were all disciples of the 2nd leader of the Chassidic movement, Rabbi DovBer, the "Maggid of Mezeritch" (who had passed away five years earlier) and colleagues of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad. Initially, Rabbi Schneur Zalman was part of the group; but when the caravan reached the city of Moholiev on the Dnester River, Rabbi Menachem Mendel -- whom Rabbi Schneur Zalman regarded as his teacher and mentor after the Maggid's passing -- instructed him to remain behind to serve as the leader of the Chassidic community in White Russia and Lithuania. Rabbi Schneur Zalman retained close ties with the settlers in the Land of Israel and labored to raise funds for their support.
*• Ezekiel Envisions Jerusalem's Downfall (428 BCE)*
On the fifth of Elul, Ezekiel was sitting in his home in Babylonia, with the elders of Judah seated before him. Suddenly, the hand of G‑d fell upon him, and he experienced a vision in which he was transported to Jerusalem and shown all the abominations taking place there. He was then informed about Jerusalem’s impending destruction, which indeed took place less than five years later.
Ezekiel’s prophecy of that day ended on a positive note:


> So said the L‑rd G‑d…although I have scattered them among the lands, I will be a minor sanctuary for them in the lands where they have come…I will gather you from the nations, and I will assemble you from the lands where you have been scattered, and I shall give you the Land of Israel…I shall place a new spirit within you, and I shall remove the heart of stone from their flesh, and I shall give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:16–19)


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## Sixties Fan

Today is Friday, Elul 6, 5782 · September 2, 2022​Today's Laws & Customs​*• Elul Observances*
As the last month of the Jewish year, Elul is traditionaly a time of introspection and stocktaking -- a time to review one's deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming "Days of Awe" of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
As the month of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 1) it is a most opportune time for _teshuvah_ ("return" to G-d), prayer, charity, and increased Ahavat Yisrael (love for a fellow Jew) in the quest for self-improvement and coming closer to G-d. Chassidic master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi likens the month of Elul to a time when "the king is in the field" and, in contrast to when he is in the royal palace, "everyone who so desires is permitted to meet him, and he receives them all with a cheerful countenance and shows a smiling face to them all."
Specific Elul customs include the daily sounding of the shofar (ram's horn) as a call to repentance. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below to view today's Psalms.
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Elul is also the time to have one's _tefillin_ and _mezuzot_ checked by an accredited scribe to ensure that they are in good condition and fit for use.
*Links:* More on Elul
Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yom Tov Lipman Heller, the "Tosfot Yom Tov" (1654)*

R. Yom Tov was a preeminent Torah scholar who served as rabbi in many distinguished communities in Austria and Poland. He is most famous for his Mishnahcommentary, called _Tosfot Yom Tov_, which appears in most large editions of the Mishnah and is an indispensable tool for obtaining a thorough understanding of the text. He authored numerous other works as well, including a commentary on the halachic work of R. Asher ben Yechiel (the Rosh), and _Tzurat Habayit_, clarifying the future layout of the third Holy Temple.

In his autobiographical work _Megilat Eivah_, R. Yom Tov describes how, when serving as rabbi of Prague, his enemies slandered him to the Austrian Emperor, resulting in his imprisonment and a death sentence. Thankfully, the verdict was later mitigated to a monetary fine and a prohibition against serving as rabbi in Prague (see entry for 30 Shevat).​


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Moses' parents remarry (1394 BCE)*

Amram and Jocheved had separated because of Pharaoh's decree that all male Jewish babies be killed. Prompted by their six-year-old daughter Miriam's rebuke ("Pharaoh decreed against the males; you decreed against the males and the females") they remarried on the 7th of Elul of the year 2367 from creation (1394 BCE). Moses was born six months and one day later on Adar 7, 2368 (Talmud, Sotah 12b).

*Links:* Midrashic account of Amram and Jocheved's remarriage

*• Spies die (1312 BCE)*
The Spies who slandered the Land of Israel died in the desert (Talmud, Sotah 35a; see Numbers 13-14 and text and links for Av 9 and Av 15).


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Washington Responds to Newport Jews (1790)*
The sexton of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, wrote a heart warming letter to George Washington, on behalf of the Jewish community welcoming the President on his visit to Newport. In his letter, he expressed a vision of an American government that would permit all religions to live side by side in harmony, giving all its citizens the freedom to practice their religions.

On August 18, 1790, President Washington responded:

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

...May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid...


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## Sixties Fan

Jewish Workers and Trade Unions | My Jewish Learning
					

American Jewish Trade Unions. American Jewish Socialism. Jews and Socialism. Jewish History from 1650 - 1914. Modern Jewish History. Jewish History and Community.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Nachmanides Renews Jerusalem community (1267)*
Nachmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270) arrived in Jerusalem, after being forced to flee his native Spain (see "On This Date" for Av 12) and renewed its Jewish community there. The synagogue he established is functional today, having been restored following the liberation of the Old City during the Six-Day War in 1967.

*• Birth of Dan (1566 BCE)*
Dan, the son of Jacob and Bilhah, fifth of the Twelve Tribes, was born on 9 Elul in Haran. He lived to the age of 125. (_Yalkut Shimoni, Shemot, remez _162)

Link: The Collectors

*• Passing of R. Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin (1900)*
R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin was one of the most famous chassidic leaders in the second half of the nineteenth century. An original thinker and prolific author, his many works span the gamut of Jewish literature and beyond, addressing topics as diverse as Jewish law, mysticism, chassidic thought, biblical interpretation, and even a collection of scholarly interpretations revealed to him in dreams.


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## Sixties Fan

Chew on this: One of America’s most iconic gum brands was originally a Jewish-owned tobacco business.  

In 1891, Morris Chigorinsky emigrated from Russia to the United States, where in the early 1900s he assumed control of the American Leaf Tobacco Company. But by 1938, Chigorinsky’s (who by then had changed his surname to Shorin) business was flailing. His four sons, Abram, Ira, Joseph and Philip decided to save the family from certain penury by starting a new penny candy business, Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., whose name was borrowed from an eponymous Chattanooga candy company they purchased.  

Following the end of the Second World War, the Shorin brothers aggressively set about supplanting their then-dominant competitor Dubble Bubble, manufactured by Fleer, through the launch of Bazooka Bubble Gum. The gum cleverly capitalized on the nation’s post-war patriotic pride in the wake of their recent victory, not only via its name (derived from the rocket-propelled weapon invented and deployed by American troops) but also through its red, white and blue packaging. 

The product sold well, but in 1953, Topps made an alteration to the design that proved to be a game changer: the inclusion of small comic strips starring Bazooka Joe, a swashbuckling kid who donned a black eye patch and got into various scrapes and adventures with his crew of streetwise companions. The wrappers (of which there were ultimately over 1,500 manufactured) also featured fortunes and immediately became a collector’s items among consumers and candy enthusiasts, who still vigorously buy and sell vintage strips on online auction websites. While the original flavor continues to be the bestseller, Topps has also introduced variations, such as Grape Rage, Cherry Berry and Watermelon Whirl.

(full article online)










						The Jewish History of Bazooka Bubble Gum | The Nosher
					

Chew on this: One of America’s most iconic gum brands was originally a Jewish-owned tobacco business.  In 1891, Morris Chigorinsky emigrated ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Noah Dispatches Raven (2105 BCE)*
On the 10th of Elul of the year 1656 from creation (2105 BCE), as the Great Floodneared its end, Noah opened the window of the Ark and dispatched a raven to determine if the flood waters had begun to recede (Genesis 8:1; Rashi). For a discussion of the deeper significance of this event, see The Window

*• Passing of R. Pinchas Schapiro of Koretz (1791)*
R. Pinchas Schapiro of Koretz (1726–1791) was one of the greatest disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, and a colleague of R. Dovber, the Maggid of Mezeritch. His teachings were published posthumously in various books, such as _Likkutei Shoshanim _and_Midrash Pinchas_.

R. Pinchas’ son, R. Moshe, and grandsons, R. Shmuel Abba and R. Pinchas, managed the famed printing press in Slavuta (see entry for 5 Adar).


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## Likkmee

Sixties Fan said:


> “So successful were the Jewish pioneers that by 1900, there wasn’t a single settlement west of the Mississippi of any significance which had not had a Jewish mayor,” says historian Kenneth Libo. “This includes Deadwood, Dodge City, and Tombstone.”
> 
> Between 1840 and 1880, the European Jewish population in America increased from 15,000 to around 250,000. Most migrated for familiar reasons—to escape religious persecution, political upheaval, and poverty. “What is clear, even at this early stage, is the complex nature of the collective Jewish experience in America,” writes Libo in his 1985 book _We Lived There Too_, coauthored with the late Irving Howe. “For already there are those who stay east and those who go west, those who come with special privileges and those who suffer discrimination, those who care about the faith of their fathers and those who do not, those who remain uprooted and those who transplant themselves.” Jewish settlers encountered little prejudice in the West, according to Libo. “They were looked upon as fellow settlers.”
> 
> During this same time, the United States increased its size by a third with the annexation of Texas in 1845, the ratification of the Oregon Treaty, the seizure of tribal lands, and the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as spoils from the Mexican-American War.
> 
> With expansion came opportunities. Boomtowns appeared as word spread of copper in Montana and Arizona, silver in New Mexico, and gold in California. Just like their Gentile counterparts, Jewish men and women were lured into hostile landscapes, traveling west by buckboard, stagecoach, horseback, and prairie schooner through Indian country to new settlements in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and the gold fields of California with the hope of striking it rich, or at the very least, the possibility of a new life for themselves and their families.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Photo caption
> Trader Julius Mayer with Chiefs Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail. The Pawnee tribe also gave him the name Box-ka-re-sha-has-ta-ka or Curly-headed white chief with one tongue.
> Nebraska State Historical Society
> 
> 
> But it was the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night prospector, who played a major role in the development of the West, turning dusty little cow towns into urban centers. “Jews literally brought civilization to countless cities and towns in America west of the Mississippi by establishing ‘the department store’ in every town of any consequence,” says Libo. “Their numbers may have been small, but their influence was substantial.”
> 
> 
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jewish Pioneers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.neh.gov


When and where was the first pawn broker ?


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## Sixties Fan

Journalist forced to flee after capturing rare images of Iranian Jews publishes book
					

15 years after a Muslim AP newsman photographed daily life of Jews in the nation that is home to the Middle East’s second-largest community, his unique project finally sees light




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

What Sue Bird means to her Jewish fans
					

The WNBA legend, who identifies as Jewish, ended a 19-year career that included four WNBA championships and five Olympic gold medals.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

* Completion of Yosef Caro's Commentary (1542)*
In 1522, Rabbi Yosef Caro started writing the _Beit Yosef_, his famous commentary on the _Arba Turim_, Yaakov Ben Asher’s comprehensive Halachic code. He started writing this commentary in Adrianople, Turkey, and continued for the next twenty years, during which time he relocated to Safed, Israel. He completed the monumental work on the 11th of Elul. It took another ten years for the writings to be published.

*• Rashab's marriage (1875)*
Marriage of the fifth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn("Rashab", 1860-1920), to Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah Schneerson (1860-1942).


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## Sixties Fan

The 'Ishmael Papyrus,' a rare document from the First Temple period. (Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority)

The hunt for additional Dead Sea Scrolls has taken archaeologists and adventure-seekers all over the Judean Desert. But the successful quest for a recently repatriated First Temple-era papyrus letter took the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Theft Prevention Unit to a much more unlikely location — Montana.

This 4-centimeter-high, 5-centimeter-wide (1.5 inch x 2 inches) fragment joins only two other known contemporary papyrus fragments inscribed with early Hebrew in the Land of Israel to date.

The treasure hunt ended earlier this year after the IAA’s Eitan Klein located the owner of the exceedingly rare papyrus in the fittingly nicknamed Treasure State.

The inscription is composed of four fragmented lines, the first of which begins with the intriguing command “To Ishmael, send….” and then stops. According to epigraphical analysis as well as carbon-dating of a small piece of the papyrus, it is from the late seventh or early sixth century BCE, the last days of the Kingdom of Judah.

The search for the recently repatriated “Ishmael Papyrus” began after the death of leading epigrapher Dr. Ada Yardeni in June 2018. Her colleague, Israel Prize-winning Ben-Gurion University Prof. Shmuel Ahituv, was asked to complete Yardeni’s final project — a book about First Temple-period Hebrew scripts. While going through her papers, Ahituv noted an image of an unfamiliar, unlabeled and unprovenanced papyrus. He alerted Klein of its existence.


(full article online)









						Ingathering of the exiles? Extremely rare First Temple-era papyrus repatriated
					

2,700-year-old inscribed papyrus, a letter to 'Ishmael' written in early Hebrew script, joins only two others from biblical times. But that's just the beginning of the story




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Nachmanides Born (1194)*
Birth of Nachmanides ("Ramban", Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270) -- Torah scholar, Kabbalist, philosopher, physician and Jewish leader -- in Gerona, Spain, in the year 4954 from creation.

*• Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe visits US (1929)*
On the 12th of Elul (September 16) of 1929, two years after escaping a death sentence imposed upon him by the Russian Communist regime and his subsequent departure from that country, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, arrived in New York for a ten-month tour of the United States. In the course of his stay the Rebbe visited the Jewish communities in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, S. Louis, Boston and several other communities, and was received by President Hoover at the White House. The purpose of the Rebbe's visit was twofold: a) to bring the plight of Russian Jewry to the attention of the American Jewish community and raise funds for the Rebbe's efforts on its behalf; b) to improve the state of _Yiddishkeit_ (Torah-true Judaism) in America and strengthen the ties of the American Chabad-Chassidic community with the Rebbe. The Rebbe also wished to explore the possibility of settling in the U.S. and establishing the headquarters of Chabad there; though he did not decide to do so at that time, his 1929 visit laid the foundations for his move to New York in 1940 and the revolutionary changes he wrought in American Jewish life.

*• Passing of R. Simcha Bunim of Peshis'cha (1827)*
R. Simcha Bunim of Peshis’cha(1765–1827) was a disciple of R. Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz, the “Seer of Lublin” (see entry for 9 Menachem Av), and of R. Yaakov Yitzchak, the “Holy Jew" of Peshis’cha, whom he succeeded as rebbe. His major disciples included R. Menachem Mendel of Kotzk and the first Rebbe of Ger, R. Yitzchak Meir Alter.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn's marriage (1897)*
Marriage of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn(1880-1950), to Rebbetzin Nechamah Dinah (1882-1971).

*• Passing of Ben Ish Chai (1909)*
Elul 13 is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad (1835-1909), the renowned Sephardic Halachic authority and Kabbalist, known as "Ben Ish Chai" after his work by that name.


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## Sixties Fan

They were forced to sell their beloved synagogue. 7 decades later, they finally have a chance to buy it back

By Sarah Nachimson

The Las Vegas, New Mexico, Jewish community is determined to buy back its synagogue.
It’s an opportunity few saw coming. The Santa Fe Archdiocese has owned the Montefiore Synagogue for some seven decades, and consistently refused to sell it back to the local Jewish community, despite repeated pleas.
But a $121.5 million settlement related to a Chapter 11 lawsuit about sexual abuse in the New Mexico church has pushed the archdiocese into bankruptcy — and forced a sale of the historic building, which Jewish leaders in the city of 13,055 have long aspired to make a new center of Las Vegas Jewish life.

Sure, the community has to drum up the funds to purchase the building. But “it will be bought by us,” said Zelda McCrossen, treasurer for the Las Vegas Jewish Community. “That’s a given.”
A GoFundMe page to help the community purchase the Montefiore Synagogue — which, per the archdiocese’s bankruptcy agreement, the archdiocese must sell within 30 days of signing — had raised more than $78,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. According to court documents, the Las Vegas Jewish Community and Archdiocese of Santa Fe entered a deal for the community to buy the synagogue and an adjacent house for an undisclosed amount on Aug. 23.

Since the Las Vegas Jewish Community does not have sufficient funds to meet that price on hand, they are crowdfunding to cover the costs.

A history, and a rebirth

The Montefiore Synagogue dates to 1886, a time when a large Jewish community had settled in Las Vegas and nearby Santa Fe. A train station was was added to Las Vegas in 1899, making it more accessible.

However, by the 1950s, the Jewish community had dwindled, and could no longer afford to maintain the synagogue. The archdiocese purchased the property, and transformed it into a private facility for students at the nearby public Highlands University for students to learn about Catholicism.

The Jewish community of Las Vegas, which has been growing in the past decade, has, McCrossen said, made multiple offers to buy back the building in the past few years.
Tom Macken, a representative of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, said the church would be “delighted” if the synagogue returned to the Jewish community as planned.

The Las Vegas Jewish community today, McCrossen said, is a “mixed community” without any official denomination. “We do have a lot of converso and crypto Jews in northern New Mexico,” she said. But, she said, “we’re from all over.”

In recent years, the community has hosted major events at the city’s Episcopal Church, including Passover seders and Hanukkah celebrations. It also held Hebrew classes over Zoom during the pandemic.

The community does not have an in-person rabbi, but visiting rabbis from Albuquerque regularly help with events.

The community plans to hold High Holiday services this year in the synagogue after reclaiming it, and to use it as a community space. At least for the moment, weekly services don’t appear to be in the community’s future, but there are plans in the works for the synagogue to host a museum and community events, and to serve as a center for Jewish education.

“The only way we’re going to fight antisemitism is through education,” McCrossen said, ”and that’s part of our goal in wanting to have this building back.”


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## Sixties Fan

Moroccans now living in the _mellahs_ – historic urban neighborhoods in Moroccan cities that were once thriving Jewish quarters – do not know anything about the people who lived there before them. These neighborhoods later became small, mostly poor ghettos, with little to no connection to Jews today. 

But a new program might change this. “Rebuilding Our Homes” is a multi-year US Agency for International Development-supported New Partnership Initiative of the American Sephardi Federation and Mimouna Association. It aims to revive the prosperous Jewish life in the historic urban areas in Fez, Essaouira and Rabat, by teaching their current residents about local history, and helping to make them part of the rich heritage of the place. 


“We make the residents of these neighborhoods take part in preserving the place by letting them document and upload photos of old Jewish houses to our archive, and teaching them Hebrew,” Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation, told The Media Line.


Guberman is one of the founders of the three-year project, which still has another 18 months to go.


 “We wanted to establish a connection between youth and grownups in these neighborhoods and their own history – as well as to the rich Jewish heritage surrounding them,” he explained. 











Judaica created by local Muslims on display at the Rebuilding Our Homes exhibit opening at the Mohammed V Foundation in Fez. (credit: COURTESY/REBUILDING OUR HOMES)


(full article online)










						Moroccan Muslims are reviving Jewish heritage in Jewish neighborhoods
					

A new project teaches Muslims living in the old Jewish quarters of Moroccan cities about their former residents, and gives them the tools to develop their neighborhoods.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

For more than 2,500 years, Baghdad was home to one of the most vibrant and historically significant Jewish communities in the world. This ancient Jewish community is now extinct – ethnically cleansed, persecuted and expelled from the country in the 20th century, when they were stripped of their citizenship, property and possessions. 


The Jewish cultural treasures of this community – which have been preserved in the Iraqi Jewish Archive, an invaluable collection of tens of thousands of books, artifacts and documents that have not been fully or properly inventoried or digitized – are now at grave risk at the hands of an Iraqi government that has criminalized relations with Jewish people.


The US government acquired the Iraqi Jewish Archive days after coalition forces took over Baghdad in May 2003. American soldiers entered the flooded building of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat. In the basement, under four feet of water, they found tens of thousands of confiscated Jewish books, artifacts and documents – materials that had been seized from synagogues, schools and other Jewish institutions.

On August 20, 2003, the US Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which was dissolved in 2004, signed an agreement with the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that the items would be restored by NARA, but it left open their ultimate future. No Iraqis or Iraqi Jews were consulted when agreements determining the future of the archive were made. This collection has not even been fully examined by a rabbinical scholar and could contain highly important Jewish manuscripts like the Aleppo Codex.


For years, our organization, JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, and many other organizations representing the interests of the Jewish people, have petitioned the US government to not return the archive to Iraq as it is ultimately the patrimony of Iraqi Jews and not the government of Iraq, which eradicated its Jewish population. Iraq has no Jews and no official interest in rebuilding relationships with its exiled Jewish community. To the contrary, the Iraqi government’s antisemitic hostilities toward the Jewish people has intensified greatly in recent months.

(full article online)









						Iraqi Jewish archives need to be returned to Iraqi Jews - opinion
					

The Iraqi Jewish Archive is now at grave risk at the hands of an Iraqi government that has criminalized relations with Jewish people.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Maharal (1609)*
Elul 18 is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yehudah Loewe, the "Maharal" of Prague (1525-1609), outstanding Torah scholar, philosopher, Kabbalist and Jewish leader. Popularly known for creating a "golem" (clay man) to protect the Jewish community of Prague from the frequent threat of blood libels.

*• Baal Shem Tov Born (1698)*
Elul 18 is the birthday of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism

Rabbi Israel was born in a small town in Ukraine in 1698. His father, Rabbi Eliezer, who was a member of the secret society of "hidden _tzaddikim_," passed away when young Israel was only five years old; his last words to his son were, "Fear nothing but G-d alone. Love every Jew with all your heart and all your soul."

The young orphan would spend much of his time wandering and meditating in the forests that surrounded his hometown; there, he one day met with one of his father's compatriots, and eventually joined their society. For many years, he lived disguised as a simple innkeeper and clay-digger, his greatness known only to a very small circle of fellow mystics and disciples. But on his 36th birthday, he was instructed by his master to "reveal" himself and publicly disseminate his teachings.

Drawing from the mystical "soul of Torah," the Baal Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name," as he came to be known) taught about the spark of G-dliness that is to be found in every creation, and about the great love that G-d has for each and every one of His children, scholars and simple folk alike. He emphasized the importance of joyand simple faith in serving G-d, rather than asceticism. Initially, his teachings encountered fierce opposition from the scholarly elite and established leadership of the Jewish community; but many of those very scholars and communal leaders ended up becoming his devoted disciples. When Rabbi Israel passed at age 62 on Shavuotof 1760, the movement he founded was well on the way of becoming the most vital force in Jewish life.


----------



## Sixties Fan

This story was in a couple of British newspapers in  October 1844, including The Standard of London. It starts off sounding like it will be a classic blood libel, but luckily things worked out for the best.

















						1844: Jews of Cairo avoid a blood libel
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> That does not make one Jewish, and he was not Jewish.
> 
> Even under the radical Nuremberg Laws, he was not "Jewish".  Under even those radical laws, one had to be ½ or more Jewish to be considered a "Jew".  Even one who was a "Mischling Second Degree" (one Jewish Grandparent) could maintain their German citizenship.  And you talk about a great-great-grandmother?  Neither the Nazis or most radical Klukkers follow that kind of "purity" requirement.


Elvis’s grandmother was Jewish, this his mother was.


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## Sixties Fan

The Jewish city and history of Beitar is remembered by observant Jews each time they break bread, for the fourth blessing of the Grace after Meals commemorates the massacre and the miracle that happened there in that place. The massacre occurred in 135 CE. Hundreds of thousands (some say millions) of Jews were slaughtered by the Romans, and the Jews were not allowed to collect the bodies for burial for many years. Today, there is a thriving Jewish city there of some 59,000 residents, Beitar Illit. But there is also an Arab village with fewer than 5,000 villagers, called Battir. In 2014, Battir was named a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, and inscribed on the UNESCO website as “Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines — Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir.”
Battir lies directly northeast of “Khirbet el-Yahud,” Arabic for “Ruin of the Jews,” the archaeological site of the ruins of the ancient Jewish city of Beitar. The Arabs named it “Ruin of the Jews” because they know exactly what happened there, and that the city was Jewish. They know it was called “Beitar” and adopted it, corrupting the name to the more Arabic-sounding “Battir.” You can be sure that UNESCO knows these things, too. Which is why they were so desperate to rename the village, “Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines — Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir,” a name that erases the Jewish identity, character, and history of the place.

Ruined walls of the Beitar fortress, the last stand of Bar Kochba
UNESCO would very much like to disappear the Jewish history of this place that saw a massacre and a miracle, in the time of Roman Emperor Hadrian. Beitar, as it happens, was the base for the failed Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans. After the Romans defeated Bar Kochba’s army, they avenged themselves by slaughtering the population of Jewish Beitar. The cruel nature of the Roman slaughter is gruesome and difficult to recount: babies’ heads dashed against rocks; horses drowning in rivers of Jewish blood.
Tragic, tragic.
But not enough for the Romans, who then refused the Jews the right to bury their dead.

Remains of Hurvat Itri, destroyed during the Bar Kochba revolt
Years went by. Rabban Gamliel, along with his court, fasted and prayed for days on end, and then Gamliel laid waste to his inheritance, hoping to buy permission from the Roman despots to bury the dead of Beitar. All this time, the bodies of the slain remained where the lives of the victims had been cut short, out in the open in the fields. Each time a Jew passed Beitar, he would be sick at heart, knowing that there in that spot lay the unburied. It was a constant wound.
At last the Romans granted permission for burial, and when the Jews went to retrieve the bodies for burial, they witnessed a miracle: the bodies were not in the least degraded. They were still fresh, still whole, though out there in the wilderness there was and still is, no shortage of predators.
The profound nature of this miracle that happened to the Jewish people, inspired the rabbinical court to institute the aforementioned blessing thanking God for His double measure of goodness in both preserving the remains and allowing the dead their final honor (Brachot 48b).
It's a blessing that's used on a variety of occasions, for example on hearing good news, drinking a second wine, or when it rains in Israel after a drought. The main application for the blessing, however, is during the Grace after Meals, since a meal is always a part of Jewish celebration—and what better time than a festive meal to acknowledge God’s goodness after Jewish tragedy?
But back to UNESCO, which surely knows that Beitar was populated by Jews from the Iron Age until the second century CE, and the Bar Kochba revolt. The UN body would know this and be well aware too, of the massacre of the Jews at Beitar, after the fact. These are established, well-documented facts.
“Palestine,” on the other hand, was never and still is not an Arab state or country—which UNESCO also knows. By inscribing the Judean city as “Palestine” on its website, UNESCO once more betrays its antisemitic goal of erasing the Land and State of Israel and its indigenous people, the Jews. We all know of the UN’s constant resolutions against the democratic Israel, as compared to the paucity of resolutions against all the other UN member states, combined. This is just more of the same—the same antisemitism, that is.
How did “Battir” come to be protected by UNESCO? It begins in 2007, with the inception of the building of Israel’s security fence. At that time, Battir sued the Israeli Defense Ministry in an effort to force Israel to change the planned route of the fence, which they claimed would cut through a 2,000-year-old irrigation system, which Wikipedia helpfully notes is “still in use.” UNESCO no doubt helped Battir take Israel to court, and in fact, in 2011, also according to Wikipedia, awarded Battir “a $15,000 prize for ‘Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes’ due to its care for its ancient terraces and irrigation system.”
In other words, $15,000 to help erase Jewish history.
This generous award naturally encouraged the Arabs to go further, and so, in May 2012, the Palestinian Authority sent a delegation off to UNESCO headquarters in Paris, to suggest they add Battir to its World Heritage list. At the time, the PA deputy minister of tourism, Hamadan Taha, announced that UNESCO wanted to “maintain [Battir] as a Palestinian and humanitarian heritage.”
But the thing is, since there was never an Arab state called “Palestine,” there is no such heritage. The place is specifically Jewish. To suggest otherwise is to express Jew-hatred through the denial of documented history—it's laughable. Hello: The Arabs call it “Battir” because it’s _Beitar_.

Roman inscription found near "Battir," which mentions the 5th and 11th Roman Legions.
Speaking of antisemitism and erasing Jewish history, let’s remember why that security fence, the pretext for the UNESCO inscription: “Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines — Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir,” was built in the first place.
From the Jewish Virtual Library:


> Before the construction of the fence, and in many places where it has not yet been completed, a terrorist need only walk across an invisible line to cross from the West Bank into Israel. No barriers existed, so it is easy to see how a barrier, no matter how imperfect, won’t at least make the terrorists’ job more difficult. Approximately 75% of the suicide bombers who attacked targets inside Israel came across the border in the area where the first phase of the fence was built.
> From September 2000 until the end of 2006, more than 3,000 terrorist attacks originated in the West Bank, resulting in the deaths of 1,622 people inside the Green Line. By comparison, since 2007, when most of the fence was erected, until mid-2022, 141 attacks killed 100 people.
> Even Palestinian terrorists admitted the fence is a deterrent. On November 11, 2006, Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Ramadan Shalah said on Al-Manar TV the terrorist organizations had every intention of continuing suicide bombing attacks but that their timing and the possibility of implementing them from the West Bank depended on other factors. “For example,” he said, “there is the separation fence, which is an obstacle to the resistance, and if it were not there, the situation would be entirely different.”


The Jewish history of Beitar was, by the way, the inspiration behind Vladimir Jabotinsky’s youth organization of the same name, in part because Bar Kochba was a Jew who fought back against foreign domination. The Etzel and also the Likud Party have their roots in the Beitar Movement. Prime ministers Begin and Shamir were both members of Beitar in their youth, and later, both were in the Etzel.
The Beitar youth movement is named for the last stand of the Beitar warriors, and remains active today as a Zionist leadership group.

A cluster of papyrus containing Bar Kochba's orders during the last year of the revolt, found at the Cave of Letters in the Judean desert by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin.
With all this Jewish history behind it, what should we think about the Arab village of Battir that is planted atop this site of Jewish massacre and miracle? How are we supposed to view UNESCO’s naked antisemitism in bribing the PA to assist them in wiping out Jewish culture of the place?
And why should we pretend that “Battir” is “Palestinian,” when it was and always will be Jewish Beitar?











						Beitar’s Firm Jewish History and the Falsehood of Battir (Judean Rose)
					

The Arab village of Battir is the site of the ancient Jewish city Beitar. UNESCO wants to erase that ancient history.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> Elvis’s grandmother was Jewish, this his mother was.



No, she was not.  She was Pentacostal.  There is no evidence that either his mother or grandmother ever attended Jewish religious services.

They were not practicing, and it was such a small amount of his background that even Hitler would have said he was a "Good Aryan".


----------



## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> No, she was not.  She was Pentacostal.  There is no evidence that either his mother or grandmother ever attended Jewish religious services.
> 
> They were not practicing, and it was such a small amount of his background that even Hitler would have said he was a "Good Aryan".


You have zero idea of what you are babbling about.
Hitler knew all about the definition of a Jew and traced them back 10 generations.
If you were Catholic but 10 generations ago a maternal Jew, you were stripped of your cross and had a Yellow Star put on your arm.









						Elvis Presley’s Jewish Roots - aish.com
					

I was all shook up in Mississippi.




					aish.com
				



Do I care of Elvis was a Jew?  Not a tad.


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## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> You have zero idea of what you are babbling about.
> Hitler knew all about the definition of a Jew and traced them back 10 generations.
> If you were Catholic but 10 generations ago a maternal Jew, you were stripped of your cross and had a Yellow Star put on your arm.



Oh nonsense, what a load of garbage.

Being typical "Germans", the Nuremberg Laws were very meticulous and specific as to what made somebody "Jewish".

Deutshblutiger:  "German Blood", can have at least 1/8 "Jewish Blood".  That means no more than one great-grandparent.  So this alone shows that what you said was a lie.

Mischling zweiten Second Degree:  No more than one grandparent, could apply for German Citizenship (most that applied received it)

Mischling zweiten First Degree:  Half or 3/8 Jewish, must apply for German Citizenship (very few who applied got it).

Jude:  Anybody 3/4 Jewish or more.

You say 10 Generations?  The very fact that almost nobody can trace back that far shows you are simply making that up.  In addition to the very Nuremberg Laws which clearly stated who was a Jew and who was not shows quite clearly that you are wrong.

Please just stop making things up, because it makes you look like a fool.





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					www.yadvashem.org


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Chaim Benveniste (1673)*
R. Chaim Benveniste was a renowned scholar who served as rabbi in Tire, a town near Izmir, Turkey, and then in Izmir itself. His most famous work is _Kenesses Hagedolah_, a collection of halachic material arranged according to the order of the Code of Jewish Law.

Other notable members of the Benveniste family include Don Joseph Benveniste and Dona Gracia Mendes-Nasi.


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## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> Oh nonsense, what a load of garbage.
> 
> Being typical "Germans", the Nuremberg Laws were very meticulous and specific as to what made somebody "Jewish".
> 
> Deutshblutiger:  "German Blood", can have at least 1/8 "Jewish Blood".  That means no more than one great-grandparent.  So this alone shows that what you said was a lie.
> 
> Mischling zweiten Second Degree:  No more than one grandparent, could apply for German Citizenship (most that applied received it)
> 
> Mischling zweiten First Degree:  Half or 3/8 Jewish, must apply for German Citizenship (very few who applied got it).
> 
> Jude:  Anybody 3/4 Jewish or more.
> 
> You say 10 Generations?  The very fact that almost nobody can trace back that far shows you are simply making that up.  In addition to the very Nuremberg Laws which clearly stated who was a Jew and who was not shows quite clearly that you are wrong.
> 
> Please just stop making things up, because it makes you look like a fool.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Loading…
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.yadvashem.org







__





						German Blood Certificate - Wikipedia
					






					en.m.wikipedia.org


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## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> __
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> German Blood Certificate - Wikipedia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> en.m.wikipedia.org



And nowhere in your reference does it say anything about going back 10 generations.

In fact, your own reference did say this:



> The Nuremberg Laws did not define people as Jewish by cultural values, but rather looked at how many Jewish grandparents they had. Specifically, those who had three or four Jewish grandparents were considered Jews, despite any conversions to Christianity.



Gee, so your very own reference said the exact same thing I just did, it only looked as far back at grandparents.  And I quite clearly stated this when I described the classifications.  "Mischling zweiten" is "Mixed Race", and only having a single grandparent that was Jewish was mostly ignored.  Submit a form and never practiced the religion, and even to the "Master Race" you were a good Aryan.  Even two or three Jewish grandparents and you could be "made pure again" so long as you yourself were not practicing.

Wow, I absolutely love it when somebody tries to throw up a "reference", and they did not even bother to read it and it destroys their own argument and supports mine.

Now, how about a reference that states that you get thrown into camps if you have a Jew in your family tree 10 generations back.


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## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> And nowhere in your reference does it say anything about going back 10 generations.
> 
> In fact, your own reference did say this:
> 
> 
> 
> Gee, so your very own reference said the exact same thing I just did, it only looked as far back as grandparents.  And I quite clearly stated this when I described the classifications.  "Mischling zweiten" is "Mixed Race", and only having a single grandparent that was Jewish was mostly ignored.  Submit a form and never practiced the religion, and even to the "Master Race" you were a good Aryan.  Even two or three Jewish grandparents and you could be "made pure again" so long as you yourself were not practicing.
> 
> Wow, I absolutely love it when somebody tries to throw up a "reference", and they did not even bother to read it and it destroys their own argument and supports mine.
> 
> Now, how about a reference that states that you get thrown into camps if you have a Jew in your family tree 10 generations back.


Learn how to read.
1750 and maternally genetic.
And I know “non-Jews” who were in camps.


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## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> And I know “non-Jews” who were in camps.



Hell, a lot of the people in camps were not Jewish.

What, did you really think they were only for Jews?  Holy hell, the Germans were so efficient they created an entire badge system to show who was in the camp for what.  What, you think only Jews wore badges?






The Red Triangles were politicals.  Mostly Communists but also unionists, anarchists, Masons, and others.

Green triangles were criminals.

Purple triangles were Jehovah's Witnesses.

Pink triangles should be obvious, that is where the current logo originated.  Those were homosexuals.

Black triangles were "Others".  Roma (gypsies), mentally ill or impaired, alcoholics and addicts, vagrants, even pacifists.

Jews were the largest number of those in camps, but not the only ones by far.

You really need to do some research, and not simply try to make things up.


----------



## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> Hell, a lot of the people in camps were not Jewish.
> 
> What, did you really think they were only for Jews?  Holy hell, the Germans were so efficient they created an entire badge system to show who was in the camp for what.  What, you think only Jews wore badges.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Red Triangles were politicals.  Mostly Communists but also unionists, anarchists, Masons, and others.
> 
> Green triangles were criminals.
> 
> Purple triangles were Jehovah's Witnesses.
> 
> Pink triangles should be obvious, that is where the current logo originated.  Those were homosexuals.
> 
> Black triangles were "Others".  Roma (gypsies), mentally ill or impaired, alcoholics and addicts, vagrants, even pacifists.
> 
> Jews were the largest number of those in camps, but not the only ones by far.
> 
> You really need to do some research, and not simply try to make things up.


And you need to learn how to read.


----------



## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> And you need to learn how to read.



Still waiting on the proof that they threw you into camps if you had "Jewish blood" going back to ten generations.


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## Indeependent

Mushroom said:


> Still waiting on the proof that they threw you into camps if you had "Jewish blood" going back to ten generations.


I posted it…1750.
Perhaps 7 generations but certainly not 1 or 2.


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## Mushroom

Indeependent said:


> I posted it…1750.
> Perhaps 7 generations but certainly not 1 or 2.



No, you did not.

1750?  That does not even make sense.


----------



## DudleySmith

Only a small percentage of Jews lived in Germany, some 300,000 total, and many of those escaped. The vast majority of Jews sent to the camps were Polish or Russian, and the Nazis had plenty of Polish and Slavic help in rounding up Jews and sending them to the Operation Reinhardt camps.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yonatan Eibeshitz (1764)*
R. Yonatan Eibeshitz was a brilliant Torah scholar, preacher, and kabbalist. He led a Torah academy in Prague, and later served as rabbi in Metz and in the joint cities of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek. R. Yonatan authored many works in the fields of Jewish law, homily, and other topics. Some of his more well-known works include _Kereiti U’Pleiti, Urim Ve’Tumim _(both commentaries on various sections of the Code of Jewish Law), and _Yaarot Devash _(homiletic sermons).

R. Yonatan was held in high esteem by many members of the nobility and clergy. Many stories are told of his clever responses to the queries they posited to him.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yaakov Moelin (the Maharil) (1427)*

R. Yaakov Moelin, known as the Maharil, was recognized as the supreme halachic authority for Ashkenazi Jewry in his day. His customs, collected in _Minhagei Maharil _(and cited often by R. Moshe Isserles in his comments to the Code of Jewish Law), are the basis for the conduct of Ashkenazi Jewry in many areas of Jewish life, especially in matters relating to prayer and synagogue procedure.​


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## Sixties Fan

*According to a report in a Germany daily, circulated by AFP, the Palestinian terrorist remained in the country with full knowledge of the German authorities.*

(full article online)


https://worldisraelnews.com/terrorist-lived-in-germany-for-years-after-1972-massacre-of-israeli-athletes-report/?utm_source=newsletters_worldisraelnews_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=SHOCKING%3A+Germany+Sheltered+Terrorist+for+Years+After+1972+Massacre+of+Israeli+Athletes%3B+Odds+Boosted+for+Netanyahu+Election+Win%3B+Lapid+to+Meet+with+Turkey’s+Erdogan&utm_campaign=20220918_m169558257_SHOCKING%3A+Germany+Sheltered+Terrorist+for+Years+After+1972+Massacre+of+Israeli+Athletes%3B+Odds+Boosted+for+Netanyahu+Election+Win%3B+Lapid+to+Meet+with+Turkey’s+Erdogan&utm_term=_0D_0A_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09Read+Now_0D_0A_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Dove brings Olive Leaf (2105 BCE)*
On the 301st day of the great Flood, Noah sent a dove for the 2nd time from the ark (see "Today in Jewish History" for Elul 17). This time, the dove stayed away all day; "the dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth" (Genesis 8:11).

*• Yahrzeit of the 9/11 Terror Attack Victims (2001)*
On a sunny fall morning, Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger airplanes. Two were crashed into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. A third was rammed into the Pentagon, the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. The last plane was intended for Washington as well, but crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers. In total, almost 3,000 people died in the attacks, including the 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. It also was the deadliest incident for firefighters in the history of the United States.

Known as 9/11, the events of the day deeply affected the American approach to security and diplomacy, instigating the global War on Terror.

*Link:* Looking Back at Nine Eleven

*• Passing of R. Meir Shlomo Yanovsky (c. 1933)*
R. Meir Shlomo Yanovsky was the rabbi of Nikolayev, in the Ukraine, from 1890 until his passing. His daughter Chana married R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, and their son was R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe repeated a number of anecdotes about his grandfather (see link below), and he would say Kaddish on this date in his memory.

R. Meir Shlomo composed a number of stirring tunes that are commonly sung at _farbrengens_ and other occasions.


----------



## Sixties Fan

German-born lawyer arrived in Israel in 1938 after Kristallnacht, settled in Kiryat Arba in 1972, helped found settlement umbrella group and served in Knesset for nationalist party​
(full article online)









						Former MK and father of settlement movement Elyakim Haetzni dies aged 96
					

German-born lawyer arrived in Israel in 1938 after Kristallnacht, settled in Kiryat Arba in 1972, helped found settlement umbrella group and served in Knesset for nationalist party




					www.timesofisrael.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Millions of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, whose ancestors were forcibly converted from the 14th Century onwards, can now apply for a Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry, it was announced Monday.

The initiative was launched by the American Sephardic Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience, Reconectar, which helps descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with the Jewish people, and Genie Milgrom, an author, researcher and genealogist.

“The Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry is historic for so many around the world and especially in Latin and North America who yearn to connect with their past and up to now have had no way to accomplish this,” said Milgrom, who was able to document her unbroken Jewish maternal lineage back 22 generations to 1405.

Help in applying for the certification, along with Milgrom’s genealogy tools designed for people with Crypto-Jewish and Sephardic lineages, is available on the institute’s website.

Recent research shows that as many as 200 million people, mainly in Latin and North America and Europe, have “significant Jewish ancestry” dating back to the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.










						First-ever certificate of Jewish ancestry connects descendants of forced converts to stolen past
					

As many as 200 million people have “significant Jewish ancestry.”




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Chafetz Chaim (1933)*
Elul 24 is the yahrtzeit of the revered Torah scholar, pietist and Jewish leader Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838-1933) of Radin (Poland), author of _Chafetz Chaim_ (a work on the evils of gossip and slander and the guidelines of proper speech) and _Mishnah Berurah _(a codification of Torah law).

*Link:* A Tzaddik's Tear

*• Preperations for Second Temple Construction Begin (353 BCE)*
Inspired by Haggai’s prophecy on the first of Elul (see entry for that date), Zerubavel son of She’altiel, ruler of Judah, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the High Priest, began the preparations for the construction of the Second Temple (Haggai 1:15). The actual construction began exactly three months later, on Kislev 24 (see entry for that date).


----------



## Sixties Fan

Jewish Genealogy Website Helps Lviv Digitalize Records Amid War
					

Refugees fleeing the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine wait for hours to board a train to Poland, outside the train …




					www.algemeiner.com


----------



## Sixties Fan




----------



## Sixties Fan

Thursday September 23rd.
This Day in Jewish History

*Frankfurt Jews Expelled  (1614)*
On this date in 1614, the evil Vincent Fettmilch organized an attack on the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt, and the Jews were expelled from the city (_Yosef Ometz_ §953). Thanks to the Emperor’s intervention, two years later the Jews were allowed to return to the city in honor, and Vincent and his cohorts were hanged (see entry for 20 Adar 1). 

Link: Purim Vincent

*• Passing of R. Nathan Adler (1800)*
R. Nathan Adler, a known kabbalist and mystic, headed a Talmudic academy in Frankfurt. Among his many students was the famed R. Moshe Schreiber, known as the Chatam Sofer, who viewed R. Nathan as his primary teacher and accorded him the utmost reverence.


----------



## irosie91

Sixties Fan said:


> This is a story of resistance and spiritual audacity. It is a story that unfolds in the deserts of Mexico’s silver mining regions, on the streets of the emerging colonial metropolis of Mexico City, inside the libraries of Franciscan monasteries, and in the underground cells of the Inquisition. It connects the far reaches of the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora with the global trade routes linking East and West. It is about colonialism, religious persecution, love, family, and faith but ultimately, it is a story about a book.
> We begin with a small, leather-bound notebook filled with a highly original anthology: poems, prayers, meditations on the Ten Commandments, an electrifying autobiography, and even a holiday calendar. The book was written in the gifted scribal hand of Joseph Lumbroso, a 16th-century Mexican religious thinker, poet, and crypto-Jewish martyr, otherwise known as Luis de Carvajal, el mozo. Carvajal wrote this religious anthology in the few years between his two arrests by the Holy Office of the Mexican Inquisition for Judaizing. Shortly after his arrest, the book was found in his family’s home and was preserved as evidence against Lumbroso and his family on charges of heresy.
> Heresy was a common accusation in this time, as was the crime of Judaizing—holding onto Jewish practices and beliefs. The Inquisition was focused on heresy, and as such sought to police the religious lives of Christians. But Spain had a large group of Christians who were, as their suspicious neighbors called them, New Christians. These descendants of Jewish converts were viewed by their Christian neighbors as less-than. They were seen as still deeply rooted in their Judaism and attached to the “dead law of Moses.” So the conversos entered the church by and large under duress—whether it was during the murderous riots of 1391, during the intense preaching campaigns of Vicente Ferrer, or when faced with the awful choice of abandoning their millennial home in Sepharad in 1492.
> Once they converted, many sincerely embraced Christianity while others lived a double life, publicly comporting themselves as faithful Christians while secretly holding on to aspects of Jewish belief and practice. Regardless of their inner religious conviction, however, most conversos remained socioeconomically and culturally other. They continued to live in the same neighborhoods as before, worked in the same businesses, and continued similar marriage practices, namely marrying children into the family of business partners. No longer Jewish, now the conversos married their children to other conversos instead of other Jews. The court historian Andrés Bernáldez captured this succinctly when he described the atavistic Jewishness of the conversos:
> 
> 
> Eating garlicky tapas drizzled in olive oil or preparing adafina is not an act of heresy. But for Bernaáldez the attachment to Jewish cuisine was a sign of cultural heresy. He goes on to refer to outright acts of Judaizing, such as keeping the laws of Passover and avoiding the Sacraments and then he turns to another sociocultural critique of the conversos Jewishness:
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Auto-da-fé of Mexico City
> 
> 
> On Dec. 8, 1596, Luis de Carvajal the Younger, along with members of his prominent extended family of crypto-Jews, was burned at the stake. Their story has fascinated historians ever since.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.tabletmag.com


more history for you-----the  LOMBROSO family ---originating in Italy -----are a  kinda dynasty of 
NEUROPSYCHIATRISTS  ----   jews,   of course


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## Sixties Fan

Cesare Lombroso | Encyclopedia.com
					

Lombroso, CesareWORKS BY LOMBROSO [1]SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY [2]Born of Jewish parents in Verona, Cesare Lombroso [3] (1835–1909), the Italian criminologist, was educated by the Jesuits; he received a degree in medicine from the University of Pavia in 1858 and a degree in surgery from the Uni




					www.encyclopedia.com


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## Sixties Fan

Dutch Museum Returns Looted Kandinsky Painting From WWII to Heirs of Former Jewish Owner
					

“Blick auf Murnau mit Kirche” by Wassily Kandinsky. Photo: Van Abbemuseum. A museum in the Netherlands is returning a painting …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Thunderbird

Some interesting facts about ethnic cleansing by Jews: An Interview with Benny Morris


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## Thunderbird

More Jewish history:


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## Thunderbird

More Jewish history: How The Sackler Family Profited Off Of Lies And Addiction


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## Thunderbird

More Jewish history: Toxic neighbour: Monsanto and the poisoned town


----------



## Thunderbird

Sixties Fan said:


> I always see the Forward find Jewish angles in the most goyishe seeming parts of pop culture, so I'll do one too - from decades ago.
> 
> "Bewitched" was a hugely popular TV series about a witch Samantha, who marries mortal man Darrin Stevens. Most plots involve her magical relatives meddling in her marriage, especially her disapproving mother, Endora.
> 
> The show was created by Sol Saks under executive director Harry Ackerman and director William Asher. Saks and Ackerman were Jewish, Asher's father was Jewish and he married Bewitched's star, Elizabeth Montgomery.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Many people see the show as an allegory for the Jewish American experience. Samantha comes from the old country but wants to assimilate in American society, while her relatives disapprove of her mixed marriage to a mortal. Endora looks very "foreign."
> 
> Darrin loves her but wants her to be a "normal" woman and not perform her strange rituals. He's tolerant - but not that tolerant.
> 
> In the pilot episode, when Darrin marries Samantha, the theme of prejudice is made explicit. Endora says, "You’re still very young and inexperienced. You don’t know what prejudice you’ll run into!" And later, when Samantha first tells Darrin her secret, he exclaims, "Okay, if you're a witch,  where's your black hat and broom and how come you're out when it isn't even Halloween? Samantha answers, "Mother was right, you're prejudiced!"
> 
> There is one other telling incident in the pilot. Darren's ex-girlfriend Sheila invites the newlyweds to a party, where she attempts to demean Samantha as not being sophisticated while making snide comments. At one point, Sheila engages Samantha in a conversation - about nose jobs:
> 
> _ “Do you know Dr. Hafter, dear? Samantha?”_
> _“Beg your pardon?”_
> _“Dr. Hafter, do you know him?”
> “No.”
> “The plastic surgeon. Does beautiful nose work.”
> "No, I don’t know him.”
> ”Funny, I could have sworn…”_
> 
> In the 1960s, nose jobs were considered _de rigueur_ for young, upwardly mobile Jewish women.
> 
> In the end, as much as Samantha tries to assimilate and stop doing her magic, she can never deny her witchhood.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Secret Jewish History of "Bewitched"
> 
> 
> Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> elderofziyon.blogspot.com


Elizabeth Montgomery’s husband chose homosexual men to be her TV husbands because he didn’t want her to cheat on him with her costars. It didn’t work she cheated on him anyway.


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## Thunderbird

More Jewish history:


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## gipper

*Stalin’s Jews*
It should be noted that, while Jews were only a minuscule percentage of Russia’s population, *between 80% and 90% of all Russian revolutionaries were Jews*and, in some segments like the *Gulags and the CHEKA, Jewish participation was effectively 100%.* Jews absolutely dominated the entire Bolshevik regime after the 1917 Red October Revolution. Almost all the ministers in the first Soviet government were Jews, and the few who were not, were Freemasons, had Jewish wives, and spoke Yiddish. *“The Bolshevik’s revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose goal is to create a new order in the world.” *[12]
https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/stalins-jews/#footnote_12
As noted above, about 90,000 Jews from many European regions poured into the major cities of Russia, to be given prominent executive positions in all major sectors of government and the economy.

*Alexander Solzhenitsyn* wrote: “You must understand. The . . . Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians! They hated Christians! Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured & slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the ‘Russian Revolution’. It was an invasion & conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at the blood-stained hands than any people, or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated! Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is in the hands of the perpetrators. We cannot state that all Jews are Bolsheviks, but without Jews there would have been no Bolshevism. For a Jew, nothing is more insulting than the truth. *The blood-maddened Jewish terrorists murdered 66 million in Russia from 1918 to 1957*.”[15
Stalin’s Jews


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## Sixties Fan

One of the great merits of Paul Hanebrink’s _A Specter Haunting Europe_ is its demonstration of how Europe’s most pervasive and powerful twentieth-century manifestation of anti-Semitic thought—the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism—emerged before the rise of National Socialism and has continued to have a curious life long after the Holocaust and the defeat of Nazi Germany. Hanebrink’s approach is not to repeat what he considers an error of the interwar era—the futile attempt to refute a myth on the basis of historical facts and statistical data. A small kernel of truth underpinned the stereotype of the Jewish Bolshevik: a number of well-known early Bolshevik leaders (Béla Kun, Leon Trotsky, Karl Radek, and others) were of Jewish origin. That Stalin killed almost all of them, that overall a very small percentage of Jews were Bolsheviks, and that many prominent non-Jewish revolutionaries (Lenin and Karl Liebknecht, for example) were mistakenly identified as Jewish had no countervailing impact, because, Hanebrink writes, the Jew as “the face of the revolution” was a “culturally constructed” perception.

Trying to discredit powerful political myths with mere facts, as we know all too well today, is a frustrating endeavor. Thus Hanebrink seeks instead to understand the historical background and the “cultural logic” of the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism—how it functioned and morphed through different phases. Ultimately Judeo-Bolshevism embodied, in the form of “Asiatic barbarism,” an imagined threat to national sovereignty, ethnic homogeneity, and Western civilization conceived as traditional European Christian hegemony. It fused, in short, political, racial, and cultural threats into a single “specter haunting Europe.”

Hanebrink notes that amid the exhaustion, defeat, and political dissolution of many European countries at the end of World War I, the threat of the spread of Bolshevik revolution from Russia into Europe caused not only widespread fear and loathing but fear and loathing that identified Jews as the real cause of Bolshevism. He is correct, I think, to point out that this pervasive identification required more than the prominence of Jewish revolutionary leaders, and that Judeo-Bolshevism was constructed from the “raw materials” of earlier anti-Semitism. For Hanebrink the “three venerable pillars” of anti-Jewish thought were the attributions to the Jews of social disharmony, conspiracy, and fanaticism, which made Judeo-Bolshevism both a coherent idea and a ubiquitous, self-evident assumption.

Here I think that Hanebrink could have been more concrete; in particular he could have shown how easily the negative stereotype of the Jew that had originated in the Middle Ages could be updated for the twentieth century. Even before the crisis of 1918–1919, which combined the experiences of defeat and revolution for many Europeans, Jews were invariably disproportionately represented in liberal and socialist parties because they were not welcome to participate in conservative and Catholic political parties. The tendency to stigmatize anything to the left of conservative as Jewish was already evident in 1912, when the electoral victory in Germany of the liberal democrats, Social Democrats, and Catholics—who also made up the “Weimar Coalition” of 1919 that was largely responsible for drafting the Weimar Constitution, so despised by German conservatives—was dubbed the “Jew election.”














						The Fake Threat of Jewish Communism | Christopher R. Browning
					

One of the great merits of Paul Hanebrink’s A Specter Haunting Europe is its demonstration of how Europe’s most pervasive and powerful twentieth-century manifestation of anti-Semitic thought—the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism—emerged before the rise of National Socialism and has continued to have a...




					www.nybooks.com


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## Sixties Fan

*Jewish Bolshevism*, also *Judeo–Bolshevism*, is an anti-communist and antisemitic canard, which alleges that the Jews were the originators of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and that they held primary power among the Bolsheviks who led the revolution. Similarly, the conspiracy theory of *Jewish Communism* alleges that Jews have dominated the Communist movements in the world, and is related to the Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory (ZOG), which alleges that Jews control world politics.[1]

In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, the antisemitic canard was the title of the pamphlet _The Jewish Bolshevism_, which featured in the racist propaganda of the anti-communist White movement forces during the Russian Civil War(1918–1922). During the 1930s, the Nazi Party in Germany and the German American Bund in the United States propagated the antisemitic theory to their followers, sympathisers, and fellow travellers.[2][3][4][5] In Poland, _Żydokomuna_was a term for the antisemitic opinion that the Jews had a disproportionately high influence in the administration of Communist Poland. In far-right politics, the antisemitic canards of "Jewish Bolshevism", "Jewish Communism", and the ZOG conspiracy theory are catchwords falsely asserting that Communism is a Jewish conspiracy.[6]


Origins​



White movement propaganda poster from the Russian Civil War era (1919), a caricature of Leon Trotsky, who was viewed as a symbol of Jewish Bolshevism.[7]

The conflation of Jews and revolution emerged in the atmosphere of destruction of Russia during World War I. When the revolutions of 1917 crippled Russia's war effort, conspiracy theories developed far from Berlin and Petrograd. Some commentators in Britain ascribed the revolution to an "apparent conjunction of Bolsheviks, Germans and Jews".[8] By December 1917, five of the twenty-one members of the Communist Central Committee were Jews: the commissar for foreign affairs, the president of the Supreme Soviet, the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, the president of Petrograd Soviet, and the deputy director of the Cheka secret police.[9]

The worldwide spread of the concept in the 1920s is associated with the publication and circulation of _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_, a fraudulent document that purported to describe a secret Jewish conspiracy aimed at world domination. The expression made an issue out of the Jewishness of some leading Bolsheviks (such as Leon Trotsky) during and after the October Revolution. Daniel Pipes said that "primarily through _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_, the Whites spread these charges to an international audience."[10] James Webb wrote that it is rare to find an antisemitic source after 1917 that "does not stand in debt to the White Russiananalysis of the Revolution".[11]







						Jewish Bolshevism - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


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## Sixties Fan

Trotsky’s life before the revolution is more instructive of the networks of Jewish Bolsheviks. Arrested in 1906, he was sent into exile by the tsarist state. He escaped and made his way to Vienna, where he became friends with Adolph Joffe. Joffe came from a family of Jewish Crimean Karaites and became an editor of Pravda. Close friends for the rest of their lives, they opposed the more lenient attitude of their fellow Jews Kamanev and Zinoviev on the Central Committee in 1917, opposing the inclusion of other socialist parties in the government that emerged after the revolution. Trotsky was expelled from the Central Committee in 1927 along with Zinoviev. He went into exile in 1929 and was assassinated on Stalin’s orders in 1940. Joffe committed suicide in 1927; his wife Maria and daughter Nadezhda were arrested and sent to labor camps and were not released until after Stalin’s death in 1953.

Late in life, as many thousands of Jews were being executed in the purges by Stalin, not as Jews but as leading communists, Trotsky penned several thoughts on Jewish issues. He said that in his early days, “I rather leaned toward the prognosis that the Jews of different countries would be assimilated and that the Jewish question would thus disappear.” He argued, “Since 1925 and above all since 1926, antisemitic demagogy – well camouflaged, unattackable – goes hand in hand with symbolic trials.” He accused the USSR of insinuating that Jews were “internationalists” during show trials.

The Central Committee of the USSR is instructive as an indicator of the prominence of Jews in leadership positions. In the Sixth Congress of the Bolshevik Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and its Central Committee elected in August 1917, we find that five of the committee’s 21 members were Jewish. This included Trotsky, Zinoviev, Moisei Uritsky, Sverdlov and Grigori Sokolnikov. Except for Sverdlov, they were all from Ukraine. The next year they were joined by Kamenev and Radek. Jews made up 20% of the central committees until 1921, when there were no Jews on this leading governing body.

The high percentage of Jews in governing circles in these early years matched their percentage in urban environments, politburo member Sergo Ordzhonikidze told the 15th Congress of the party, according to Solzhenitsyn. Most Jews lived in towns and cities due to urbanization and laws that had kept them off the land.

Jewish membership in top circles continued to decline in the 1920s. By the 11th Congress, only Lazar Kaganovich was elected to the Central Committee in 1922 alongside 26 other members. Subsequently few Jews served in these leadership positions. In 1925 there were four Jews out of 63 members. Like the rest of their comrades, almost all of them were killed in the purges. Others elected in 1927 and 1930 were shot as well, including Grigory Kaminsky, who came from a family of blacksmiths in Ukraine. With the exception of Lev Mekhlis and Kaganovich, few senior communist Jews survived the purges.

During the 1936 Moscow Trials, numerous defendants were Jewish. Of one group of 16 high-profile communists at a show trial, besides Kamenev and Zinoviev, names like Yefim Dreitzer, Isak Reingold, Moissei and Nathan Lurye and Konon Berman-Yurin ring out as Jewish. In a twisted irony, some of these Bolsheviks who had played a prominent role executing others, such as NKVD Director Genrikh Yagoda, were themselves executed. Solzhenitsyn estimates that Jews in leading positions went from a high of 50% in some sectors to 6%. Many Jewish officers in the Red Army also suffered in the purges. Millions of Jews would remain in Soviet territories, but they would never again obtain such prominent positions in the USSR.

In a July 1940 letter, Trotsky imagined that future military events in the Middle East “may well transform Palestine into a bloody trap for several hundred thousand Jews.” He was wrong; it was the Soviet Union that was a bloody trap for many of those Jews who had seen salvation in communism and thought that by total assimilation and working for a zealous greater good they would succeed.

Instead, many ended up being murdered by the system they helped create.

WITH 100 years of hindsight it is still difficult to understand what attracted so many Jews to communism in the Russian empire. Were their actions infused with Jewishness, a sense of Jewish mission like the tikkun olam and “light unto the nations” values we hear about today, or were their actions strictly pragmatic as a minority group struggling to be part of larger society? The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Many Jews made pragmatic economic choices to leave for the New World when facing discrimination and poverty. Others chose to express themselves as Jews first, either through Jewish socialist groups or Zionism. Still others struggled for equality in the empire, so they could remain Jews and be equal. One group sought a radical solution to their and society’s predicament, a communist revolution, and one that would not include other voices such as the Bund or Mensheviks, but solely that of their party. They had no compunction at murdering their coreligionists. They were not more or less ethical than their non-Jewish peers. How can we explain their disproportionate presence in the leadership of the revolution? It would be as if the Druse minority in Israel made up half of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, or Armenians were half of Emmanuel Macron’s government in France.

Perhaps the only way to understand some of it is to recognize that at Nelson Mandela’s 1963 Rivonia trial in South Africa five of the 13 arrested were Jewish, as were around one quarter of the 1960s Freedom Riders in the US. The 20th century was a century of Jewish activism, often for non-Jewish causes and often without an outwardly “Jewish” context. The Freedom Riders didn’t go as a “Jewish voice for African- Americans,” they went as activists for civil rights.

We prize minorities today who act for social justice as minorities, but the 20th century required a more nuanced approach. The situation Jews were born into in the 19th-century Pale of Settlement has no parallel with today’s Jewish experience. But despite economic hardship there was a spark in this community amidst unique circumstances of radical change that impelled it forward to leadership in numerous sectors in Russia and abroad.


(full article online)










						Was the Russian Revolution Jewish?
					

A hundred years after the Bolsheviks swept to power, historians and contemporaries still struggle to understand the prominent role played by Jews.




					www.jpost.com


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## gipper

And us, the Jews? An Israeli student finishes high school without ever hearing the name "Genrikh Yagoda," the greatest Jewish murderer of the 20th Century, the GPU's deputy commander and the founder and commander of the NKVD. *Yagoda diligently implemented Stalin's collectivization orders and is responsible for the deaths of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and managed the Gulag system. After Stalin no longer viewed him favorably, Yagoda was demoted and executed, and was replaced as chief hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the "bloodthirsty dwarf."*
Stalin's Jews


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## Sixties Fan

The Norwich skeletons were first discovered in 2004 during construction work on the Chapelfield shopping centre – now known as Chantry Place. A subsequent archaeological dig discovered a medieval well with the remains of at least 17 people inside including adults, children and infants who have since been reburied.  

The remains were initially thought to have been those of plague victims, with the range of ages suggesting a catastrophe such as a disease outbreak or famine. However, subsequent analysis in 2011 for the TV series History Cold Case raised the possibility they could instead have belonged to the city's Jewish diaspora.

Radiocarbon dating of the bones had suggested they were from some point in the eleventh or twelfth century, which is supported by the age of pottery fragments also found in the well. 

This date has been used to suggest that the skeletons were from victims of an antisemitic riot that took place in Norwich on 6th February 1190, when individuals heading on the Third Crusade massacred the city's Jewish community.

The position of the remains also added credence that these people were murdered. Unlike other medieval mass graves, the skeletons were generally complete but co-mingled, suggesting that bodies had been thrown down the well shortly after death.

Co-author Dr Tom Booth says, 'Our study shows how effective archaeology, and particularly new scientific techniques such as ancient DNA, can be in providing new perspectives on historical events.'

'Ralph de Diceto's account of the 1190 AD attacks is evocative, but a deep well containing the bodies of Jewish men, women, and especially children forces us to confront the real horror of what happened.'

(full story online)









						Ancient DNA from medieval Norwich skeletons shed light on Jewish history
					

The twelfth century skeletons have provided an unprecedented look at the genetic history of Ashkenazi Jews.




					www.nhm.ac.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Pivotal Shofar Blasts throughout Jewish History - aish.com
					

The shofar has become the voice of the Jewish people at different occasions throughout history.




					aish.com


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## Thunderbird

Beginning with Marx many Jews have played leading roles in Communist tyranny, which killed    about 100 million in the last century.









						Was the Russian Revolution Jewish?
					

A hundred years after the Bolsheviks swept to power, historians and contemporaries still struggle to understand the prominent role played by Jews.




					m.jpost.com
				




Lenin was part Jewish.









						Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com
					

The cult of Lenin lives on in modern-day Russia among hardline nostalgics. But new proof revealing Lenin had Jewish roots may not sit well with those who long for a Soviet past that included state-backed anti-Semitism.




					content.time.com


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## gipper

Thunderbird said:


> Beginning with Marx many Jews have played leading roles in Communist tyranny, which killed    about 100 million in the last century.
> 
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> Was the Russian Revolution Jewish?
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> A hundred years after the Bolsheviks swept to power, historians and contemporaries still struggle to understand the prominent role played by Jews.
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> m.jpost.com
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> Lenin was part Jewish.
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> Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com
> 
> 
> The cult of Lenin lives on in modern-day Russia among hardline nostalgics. But new proof revealing Lenin had Jewish roots may not sit well with those who long for a Soviet past that included state-backed anti-Semitism.
> 
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> content.time.com


It’s possible Stalin was a Jew too. He certainly preferred Jewish women.


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## Sixties Fan

Ancient shipwreck found 1,200 years after sinking in the Holy Land
					

It shows that trade persisted with the rest of the Mediterranean despite the religious divide, said Deborah Cvikel, a nautical archaeologist at the University of Haifa and director of the dig.




					www.dailymail.co.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Two new related initiatives are making it easier for descendants of Jews who were persecuted, forced to convert to Christianity or expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 14th and 15th centuries’ Inquisition to reconnect with their roots.

The first is a Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry, for which descendants of the Sephardic communities of Spain and Portugal who are not part of the organized Jewish community and not recognized by halacha (Jewish law), can apply. The certificate recognizes a person’s genetic or historical connection to Sephardic Jewry but is not official for religious purposes (such as conversion) or application for Spanish or Portuguese citizenship.

The certification is a joint effort of the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience; Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with the Jewish people; and Genie Milgrom, an author, researcher, and genealogist who fully documented her unbroken maternal lineage 22 generations as far back as 1405 in pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal.

“Many people have said that they wanted some level of recognition of their Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Having a certificate like this would be a point of pride for them,” said Ashley Perry, founder of Reconectar, which has a total of 20,000 followers on its English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan Facebook pages.

“Recent academic and genetic research has demonstrated that there are as many as 200 million people, largely in Latin and North America and Europe, who have ‘significant Jewish ancestry,’ meaning at least five percent Sephardic DNA,” Perry said.

(full article online)









						Initiatives help descendants of Crypto-Jews reconnect with stolen Sephardic heritage
					

Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry validates identity, while an online ancestral database of 45,000 Sephardic family names makes searching for roots easier




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## gipper

Sixties Fan said:


> Two new related initiatives are making it easier for descendants of Jews who were persecuted, forced to convert to Christianity or expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 14th and 15th centuries’ Inquisition to reconnect with their roots.
> 
> The first is a Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry, for which descendants of the Sephardic communities of Spain and Portugal who are not part of the organized Jewish community and not recognized by halacha (Jewish law), can apply. The certificate recognizes a person’s genetic or historical connection to Sephardic Jewry but is not official for religious purposes (such as conversion) or application for Spanish or Portuguese citizenship.
> 
> The certification is a joint effort of the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience; Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with the Jewish people; and Genie Milgrom, an author, researcher, and genealogist who fully documented her unbroken maternal lineage 22 generations as far back as 1405 in pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal.
> 
> “Many people have said that they wanted some level of recognition of their Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Having a certificate like this would be a point of pride for them,” said Ashley Perry, founder of Reconectar, which has a total of 20,000 followers on its English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan Facebook pages.
> 
> “Recent academic and genetic research has demonstrated that there are as many as 200 million people, largely in Latin and North America and Europe, who have ‘significant Jewish ancestry,’ meaning at least five percent Sephardic DNA,” Perry said.
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Initiatives help descendants of Crypto-Jews reconnect with stolen Sephardic heritage
> 
> 
> Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry validates identity, while an online ancestral database of 45,000 Sephardic family names makes searching for roots easier
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.timesofisrael.com


What about the Jews who helped instigate WWII?


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## gipper

Are all these neocons Jews?


The neocon movement emerged in the 1970s around a group of public intellectuals, several of whom were influenced by University of Chicago political scientist Leo Strauss and Yale University classicist Donald Kagan. Neocon leaders included Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Kagan (son of Donald), Frederick Kagan (son of Donald), Victoria Nuland (wife of Robert), Elliott Abrams, and Kimberley Allen Kagan (wife of Frederick).


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## Sixties Fan

How come you’ve never heard of these Jewish artists?
					

How come you’ve never heard of these Jewish artists? – The ForwardWhy aren't the artists in a show at the Derfner Judaica Museum better known? Maybe it's because they're women.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Temple Dedicated (826 BCE)*
The 14-day dedication festivities, celebrating the completion of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem built by King Solomon, commenced on the 8th of Tishrei of the year 2935 from creation (826 BCE). The First Temple served as the epicenter of Jewish national and spiritual life for 410 year, until its destruction by the Babylonians in 423 BCE.

*Links:* The Holy Temple: an Anthology

*• Passing of R. Baruch (1791)*
Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Baruch, father of the founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

*• Massacres at Babi Yar (1941)*
On 29–30 September (8–9 Tishrei), 1941, German forces aided by Ukrainian collaborators massacred over 30,000 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine near Kiev, Ukraine.


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## Sixties Fan

The Temple was destroyed and a million people were said to have died in the siege. 


The Arch of Titus, at the end of the Roman Forum nearest to the Colosseum, commemorates the victory, and bas-reliefs show Roman soldiers making off with booty from the temple. 

 Two years after the sack of Jerusalem, in AD 72, work on the Colosseum, officially known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, began.”
Colosseum 'built with loot from sack of Jerusalem temple'

 On March 26, 2017 the Biblical Archeology Review reported “…As demonstrated in a BAR article by Louis H. Feldman, a hidden inscription on the Colosseum itself suggests that the construction of the amphitheater was financed by the plundered booty from the Jewish Revolt.b Vespasian faced a serious deficit when he became emperor, but the spoils of war from Judea—the riches of the Temple treasury, the golden vessels from the Temple, the seized personal treasures of Jewish citizens and the sale of the Jewish captives themselves—provided enormous wealth for the emperor and the plundering army commanded by his son Titus. 

(full article online)









						Why is the Vatican withholding powerful evidence that reinforces the Jewish connection to the Temple & Jerusalem?
					

The Roman Colosseum was built with money from the Temple plunder. What does the Vatican know today that it is withholding from Israel?




					www.israelunwired.com


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## Sixties Fan

The IDF has identified the remains of Yitzhak Rubenstein (left) and Binyamin Aryeh Eisenberg (right) who were previously listed as fallen soldiers whose remains are missing, October 7, 2022.(supplied)
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday announced it has identified the remains of two soldiers killed fighting Egyptian forces during the War of Independence, over 74 years after their deaths.
Yitzhak Rubinstein and Binyamin Aryeh Eisenberg, both members of the Palmach, were among the troops who defended Kibbutz Yad Mordechai from an Egyptian attack in May 1948, days after Israel declared independence.
The two, along with Palmach medic Livka Shefer, were captured by the Egyptians while Eisenberg was evacuated on a stretcher to a nearby kibbutz. It was unknown where they were taken and in 1952 they were recognized as fallen soldiers whose remains are missing.

(full article online)










						After 74 years, IDF identifies remains of 2 soldiers killed in War of Independence
					

Military determines that Yitzhak Rubinstein and Binyamin Aryeh Eisenberg, who along with a third soldier were captured by Egyptian forces, are among those buried in mass grave




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

In the capital Kyiv, which before the war was home to a large and thriving Jewish community, the historic Brodsky Synagogue is now half empty. In winter and spring, it housed hundreds of refugees, but by now many Jews have fled the country. The city’s other synagogues also saw their High Holiday numbers slashed to fractions of the usual.

“Now it is quiet, but I know it’s a temporary quiet,” said Rabbi Moshe Azman, who leads the Brodsky synagogue and is one of multiple men to claim the title of Ukraine’s chief rabbi. He added that his synagogue has also spent upwards of $2 million evacuating Jews from all over the country

(full article online)










						Somber High Holidays in Ukraine reveal a local Jewish community changed by war
					

Resilient, united, and even growing, the country's Jews see how 7 months into the Russian invasion difficult times are bringing people closer - including their non-Jewish neighbors




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

The heavily Jewish town of Surfside, Florida, passed a resolution last week establishing a twin city relationship with the Samaria Regional Council.

Passed by a 5-0 margin, the partnership encompasses some three dozen Jewish communities and will honor Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan with a ceremonial key to the town.

Surfside’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, Shlomo Danzinger, told JNS the move was motivated in part by a desire to thank Israel for its help in the search and rescue operation at the site of the collapse last year.

(full article online)










						Surfside, Site of Florida Condo Collapse, Establishes Twin City Relationship with Samaria | United with Israel
					

Florida town’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, Shlomo Danzinger, told JNS that he wanted to thank Israel for its assistance in the search and rescue mission last year.




					unitedwithisrael.org


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## Sixties Fan

Once on This Island
					

For Australia’s small but growing Jewish community in Tasmania, celebrating Sukkot poses some unique obstacles




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo (1655)*

R. Yosef Shlomo was a rabbi, philosopher, and physician. A prolific author, he was proficient in many sciences in addition to Talmudic studies. He is known as “the Yashar from Candia,” _Yashar_ being an acronym for Yosef Shlomo Rofei (Hebrew for _doctor_), and Candia (Crete) being his place of birth. Among his more famous works are _Sefer Eilim_—on mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences—and _Matzref Lechachmah_, a defense of Kabbalah.


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## Sixties Fan

Israel Is Beautiful: Ein HaKshatot - Israel Unwired
					

Share on FacebookTweet Whatsapp Did you know that the Golan Heights was home to more than 20 Jewish communities during the Byzantine era?  Just like today, the volcanic soil and…




					www.israelunwired.com


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## Sixties Fan

Marking The Anniversary Of Saladin's Conquest Of Jerusalem, Muslim Intellectuals, Islamists Express Hope, Conviction That Muslims Will Reconquer Jerusalem
					

Hundreds of Muslim intellectuals and Islamists online marked on October 2, 2022, the anniversary of the 1187 conquest of Jerusalem by Saladin, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria who took the city from the Crusaders.




					www.memri.org


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## Sixties Fan

“We discovered evidence of actions taken to suppress the number of Jewish students admitted to Stanford during the early 1950s,” the university report said. “Second, we found that members of the Stanford administration regularly misled parents and friends of applicants, alumni, outside investigators, and trustees who raised concerns about those actions throughout the 1950s and 1960s.”

The report revealed that in 1953 former director of admissions Rixford Snyder lobbied for discarding Stanford University’s policy of “paying no attention to the race or religion of applicants” after expressing in a memo “concerns about the number of Jewish students” at the university to President Wallace Sterling’s assistant, Frederic Glover.

(full article online)









						Stanford University Used Jewish Quotas in College Admissions, New Report Finds
					

The main quadrangle at Stanford University. Photo: King of Hearts / Wikimedia Commons. Stanford University on Wednesday issued a report …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

On Monday morning, Russian forces fired dozens of missiles into Ukraine, targeting cities and infrastructure in response to an explosion on a key bridge to Russian-controlled Crimea over the weekend.

Some of the projectiles struck the heart of Kyiv, killing several civilians and driving residents into shelters.

As the first wave of missiles slammed into the capital, Kyiv’s Jewish residents were preparing for morning prayers on the first day of the Sukkot holiday.

(full article online)










						Jews in Kyiv celebrate Sukkot by candlelight as missiles fall nearby
					

No members of the community injured, says rabbi; Israeli diplomats remain in Warsaw as attacks pick up again in Ukrainian capital




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Tuesday, Tishrei 23, 5783 · October 18, 2022
Simchat Torah​​Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Chanoch of Cordova (1014)*
As a youngster (in c. 960), R. Chanoch was captured by pirates, along with his father R. Moshe and three other great Torah scholars. R. Moshe and his son were ransomed by the Jewish community of Cordova, Spain, where R. Moshe opened a yeshivah for Talmudic studies. When R. Moshe passed away, he was succeeded by his son.

These events marked a turning point in Jewish history. Until then, the primary centers of Torah scholarship were located in the great and ancient Jewish communities of Babylonia, and Jews throughout the Diaspora depended on their leaders for guidance. With the opening of the yeshivah of R. Moshe and R. Chanoch in Spain, Jewish leadership shifted westwards, and European Jewry slowly became independent of the Babylonian community. Thus began the golden age of Torah scholarship in Western Europe, where it flourished for the next five hundred years.


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## Sixties Fan

Simhat Torah: Russian-Jewish stories about the holiday - excerpt
					

Rabbi Jonathan Porath didn’t make countless trips to Russia. He counted them – 175 trips from 1965 through 2019. The following is an excerpt from his book centered primarily on Simhat Torah.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

*Should there be a national park honoring the Jewish businessman who built Black schools in the South?*

Julius Rosenwald is most famous for helping to transform Sears into a retail giant — and becoming fantastically rich in the process. But Rosenwald, the son of German-Jewish immigrants, may have made a more lasting impact on the American landscape through the network of 5,000 schools he created in rural Black communities during Jim Crow. Now, a coalition is lobbying for the creation of a national park to recognize the schools, which produced alumni like Maya Angelou and the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis

(Full article online)









						This would be the only national park telling the story of a Jewish American
					

A proposed national park would honor Sears Roebuck owner Julius Rosenwald, who created a network of schools serving Black communities.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

How Fleischmann's Yeast Built the Jewish Catskills | The Nosher
					

Many home cooks this past year, in an Insta-inspired spirit, upped their challah-baking game with new braiding patterns, interesting flavors ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

*Setting the scene: *The backyard of the Penguin restaurant in Nahariya once hosted fashion shows, weddings and concerts by Israel’s leading singers. On its patio, British Mandate-era soldiers drank cold beer, unaware that the young women making conversation were sent to distract them from nearby ships that were discharging arriving Jews. Out front, horse-drawn carriages ferried summer tourists to their hotels.



*Changing times: *But come Jan. 1, the Penguin will exist only in sweet memories; its property in the coastal town is slated to become a nine-story residential building. Not because of changing tastes or declining business – the restaurant never seems to be empty – but because its second-generation owner, 75-year-old Ilan Oppenheimer, is ready to retire.



*Ups and downs:* Occasional missile strikes, terrorist attacks and flash floods killed several Nahariya residents over the years. People fled the area in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War. Except for certain holidays, though, the Penguin never closed. Even during the pandemic, it offered a full menu for pick-up or delivery.



*Quotable:* “People are angry I’m closing,” Oppenheimer said. “Someone told me, ‘You’re lucky. They’re eulogizing you while you’re still alive.’”

(full article online)










						The last schnitzel: End of an era for Israel's famed Penguin restaurant
					

The Israeli city of Nahariya bids goodbye to The Penguin restaurant, a symbol of its German roots, founded by Jews fleeing Hitler.




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Returning Exiles Commit to Follow the Torah (335 BCE)*
The Jews who had returned to the Land of Israel with Ezra and Nehemiahgathered on this day and repented their misdeeds, signing a document in which they committed to trust in G‑d and follow His ways. Among the mitzvot they specified were to refrain from intermarriage and from purchasing produce on Shabbat (Nehemiah 9:1–3; 10:1–32).

Link: The Return to Israel

*• Passing of R. Yaakov Yosef of Polonye (1781)*
R. Yaakov Yosef was one of the foremost disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. He was the first one to disseminate the teachings of Chassidut in print, publishing the work _Toldot Yaakov Yosef _in 1780.

Link: The Rabbi’s Secret Sins

*• Passing of the Ribnitzer Rebbe (1995)*
On this day in 5756 (1995), the Ribnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, passed away. For decades, with great self-sacrifice, he lived a full Chassidic lifestyle under Soviet rule before emigrating to Israel and then the U.S.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Yitzchak of Dampierre (C. 1190)*
R. Yitzchak was a great-grandson of R. Shlomo Yitzchaki, the seminal Biblical and Talmudic commentator commonly known as Rashi. R. Yitzchak and his three uncles—R. Shmuel (Rashbam), R. Yaakov (Rabbeinu Tam), and R. Yitzchak (Rivam)—are among the earliest and most well-known Tosafists. Their comments and explanations, which appear on the outer margin of all classical prints of the Talmud, are vital to any serious student who wishes to properly understand the Talmud.

Link: The Tosafists


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## Sixties Fan

Jews have lived in the city of Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch, for over 23 centuries. And the city wants visitors to know that.


A symbol composed of a Star of David entwined with a Christian cross and Islamic crescent has practically become the city’s logo, as it’s plastered all over town, especially on restaurants peddling the southern Hatay province’s patently spicy cuisine.


“I was born in Antakya and I will die in Antakya,” said Selim Cemel, a Jewish clothing merchant with a shop in the city’s famed Long Bazaar — a snaking maze of Ottoman Era caravanserais and even older shops, rivaling Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar or Jerusalem’s Arab Shuk. In it, one can find everything from textiles to spices to some of the best hummus in Turkey. 

The Star of David imagery is so prevalent that one would be forgiven for thinking Jews were a significant portion of the city’s 200,000-strong population. In reality, barely more than a dozen Jews remain.


The last Jews remaining​









Jewish community members attend the re-opening ceremony of Great Synagogue in Edirne, western Turkey March 26, 2015. A five-year, $2.5 million government project has restored the Great Synagogue in the border city of Edirne, the first temple to open in Turkey in two generations. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (credit: MURAD SEZER/REUTERS)
The youngest member of the local Jewish community is over 60, and many are talking about joining their children elsewhere in the world. 


Like many cities in Turkey, Antakya has been losing its youth of all faiths and ethnicities over the past century to the metropolises of Istanbul and Ankara. Today one in four Turks live in Istanbul. 


For Antakya’s Jews, the exodus began in the 1970s, when Turkey experienced a period of particular political instability. The first half of the decade saw Turkey embroiled in a civil war in Cyprus, and in the second, a breakout of sectarian violence across the country between Turkish nationalists and Kurdish separatists culminated in a 1980 military coup. 


“Some have died, some moved to Istanbul, and the youth left one by one. This is the way they dispersed,” explained Daoud Cemel, a relative of Selim and another Jewish merchant in the Long Bazaar who sells towels and other textiles.

(full article online)









						On Turkish-Syrian border, a city’s last Jews watch ending of an epoch
					

A symbol composed of a Star of David entwined with a Christian cross and Islamic crescent has practically become the city’s logo.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Arrest of R. DovBer of Lubavitch  (1826)*
R. DovBer of Lubavitch was arrested due to trumped-up charges fabricated by a jealous relative. Among his alleged “crimes” was that he was sending money to the Turkish sultan, who was at war with Russia at the time. R. DovBer was released six weeks later (see calendar entry for 10 Kislev).

Link: The Arrest and Liberation of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch


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## Sixties Fan

L.A. Star Ryan Turell First Orthodox Jew Drafted by an NBA G League Team
					

Turell, who attended Valley Torah High School and Yeshiva University (YU), set scoring records throughout his tenure playing for the schools.




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

L.A. Star Ryan Turell First Orthodox Jew Drafted by an NBA G League Team
					

Turell, who attended Valley Torah High School and Yeshiva University (YU), set scoring records throughout his tenure playing for the schools.




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Land Of Israel - Electoral Dysfunction, part II
					

Broadcasting the Truth & Beauty of Israel to the World




					thelandofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Rabbi Don Isaac Abravanel (1508)*
Today is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), one of the leaders of Spanish Jewry at the time of the 1492 expulsion. A minister in the king's court (after having served as treasurer to the king of Portugal), he chose to join his brethren in their exile. He began writing his extensive and highly regarded commentary on the Torah in 1503 in Venice (where it was published in 1579).

*• Passing of Simeon the Righteous (Shimon HaTzadik) (313 BCE)*
Simeon the Righteous was the spiritual and political leader of the Jewish nation during a turbulent time in history—when Alexander the Great conquered and dominated the entire civilized world. Known as “the righteous” due to his saintly character, Simeon was the last member of the Men of the Great Assembly (_Anshei Knesses Hagdolah_), a 120-member panel of prophets and sages who guided the Jews at the onset of the Second Temple era.

Link: Shimon HaTzadik


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## Sixties Fan

The Bene Israel have always been the largest of the three Jewish communities in India. (The other two are Cochin and Baghdadi.) In 1838, for example, the total Bene Israel population of India was estimated at 8,000, far more than the combined numbers of Baghdadi and Cochin Jews. For generations they lived as a distinct endogamous group in rural villages, some of them in remote areas, throughout the Kolaba District of Maharashtra State. Traditionally, the Bene Israel worked in sesame-oil pressing; they also farmed their land, peddled produce, and worked as skilled carpenters.

Because the Bene Israel families were scattered among many villages, community life in Kolaba District was extremely limited, and group prayer and Jewish rituals took place in the home. The community’s religious observance was based on biblical Judaism: they celebrated Jewish holidays related to the Bible; the Sabbath was strictly observed; all male children were circumcised eight days after birth; and the first Hebrew verse of the Shema was recited on all occasions for prayer.

Initially, the Bene Israel had no Torah scrolls, prayer books, or synagogues, nor were they familiar with rabbinic Judaism or the details of halakhah. They were guided by three Bene Israel religious leaders called _kazis_, who traveled from village to village in order to officiate at all rites of passage.

Origins of the Community​According to the community’s own oral tradition, they are descended from “seven couples from a country to the north,” the sole survivors of a shipwreck off the Konkan coast near Navagaon (about 48 km south of Bombay).

Ever since the early 19th century, Christian missionaries and Jews (non-Bene Israel as well as Bene Israel) have offered diverse suggestions to explain the community’s origins. For example, the centrality of the prophet Elijah in Bene Israel tradition produced the theory that their ancestors lived in the Holy Land in the time of Elijah (eighth century BCE) and that the “country to the north” was actually Israel.

Other theories have these ancestors tarrying in Persia or Yemen before ending up, shipwrecked, on the Konkan coast. Dating of their arrival in the Konkan ranges anywhere from the eighth century BCE to the sixth century CE.

The Bene Israel Community in Bombay​In 1674, the British East India Company moved its headquarters to the islands of Bombay (Mumbai). By the mid-18th century, Bombay had developed into a metropolis with a bustling port city, attracting thousands of Indians from the countryside, including hundreds of Bene Israel.

Although most of the community remained in the villages, many Bene Israel were tempted by the opportunities in Bombay for employment and education. Others moved to the city in order to enlist in the “Native Forces” of the British East India Company‘s (and later the British Government’s) Military Services. The relative proportion of enlistment, of decorations for bravery, and of promotion to the highest ranks possible for Native Forces was extremely high among the Bene Israel, given the size of their total population.

In Bombay, Bene Israel worked mainly in construction, in the shipyards, and as carpenters. Here, they were introduced to new techniques and new kinds of tools. Because an oil-pressing monopoly already existed in the city, they did not pursue their traditional occupation.

In 1796, the first Bene Israel synagogue, Sha’ar haRahamim, was founded in Bombay.

Thanks to the Missionaries​India’s Bene Israel are unique among Diaspora communities because it was a Christian missionary who created — albeit unintentionally — a firm basis for the Bene Israel community’s entry into mainstream Jewry.

The British did not allow missionaries into British territories in India until 1813, but soon thereafter European and American Christian missions were established with headquarters in Bombay. The Reverend John Wilson of the Church of Scotland (later of the Free Church of Scotland) arrived in India in 1829 and worked with the Indians of Bombay and Kolaba District until his death in 1875. He was a scholar, an erudite writer, and one of the founders of Bombay University (1857).

Wilson introduced Hebrew as a subject for matriculation and for higher education. He saw in the Bene Israel the biblical “remnant of Israel.” It was Wilson who wrote, in 1838, the first serious account of the Bene Israel and their customs. Already in 1832, he wrote and published in Bombay _The Rudiments of Hebrew Grammar in Marathi_, “intended for the benefit of the Native Israelites.”

Using Wilson’s book of Hebrew-Marathi grammar as a first step, some pupils became very proficient in Hebrew. In due course, they themselves became teachers of Hebrew, not only in Wilson’s schools but also at the college and university level. These Bene Israel scholars published Marathi translations of classic Hebrew texts, Jewish prayer books, rabbinical commentaries, and sermons. Each Hebrew text was accompanied by a parallel translation into Marathi, for the first time giving the Bene Israel access to a wide range of Jewish texts.

In addition, Bene Israel studied the English language and secular subjects in Wilson’s schools, which opened up a whole new world of knowledge. Most important, their literacy in Hebrew and in English enabled them to communicate and maintain contact with mainstream Jewry.

It is remarkable that during a century of concentrated efforts to convert Bene Israel to Christianity, the various missions met with almost no success at all. In 1854, after Rev. Wilson had been in India for 25 years, he wrote “… the labours of the Bombay Missions have not yet been blessed to the conversion of any of their number.”


(full article online)










						India's Bene Israel Jews | My Jewish Learning
					

The oldest and largest of the three Jewish communities in India.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Jewish Soccer Star David Beckham Loves Matzah Ball Soup | The Nosher
					

David Beckham is a man of many talents. Case and point: Not only is the 46-year-old Brit one of the ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

The Surprising Jewish History of Mushroom Barley Soup | The Nosher
					

Ask anyone to name a classic Ashkenazi soup and, odds are, they will say chicken soup (with or without matzah ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• "Purim Algiers" (1541)*
In 1541, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of Spain, led a fleet in an attempted attack against Algiers. Miraculously, a storm capsized many of the attacking boats, resulting in the expedition’s failure and rescuing the city’s Jewish community from Spanish anti-Semitic rule. In commemoration of the miracle, the local community marked 4 MarCheshvan as a “minor Purim,” omitting the penitential Tachanunprayers and partaking of festive meals (_Zeh Hashulchan _pp. 96–97).

Link:
The Other Purims


----------



## Sixties Fan

*The World Series? Invented by a Jewish guy:* Sure, baseball has been America’s pastime for time immemorial. But it was only at the turn of the 20th century that its grand annual event, the World Series, came into being — all thanks to Barney Dreyfuss, the immigrant owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Dreyfuss conceived the series as a way to show off his team’s talents (and make more profit from them), and the Pirates won two World Series under his ownership. Alas, the Dreyfuss magic hasn’t quite extended to today’s Pirates: They finished last in their National League division. *Read the story ➤*









						The World Series? Invented by a Jewish guy
					

Barney Dreyfuss needed a new way to showcase his Pittsburgh Pirates.




					forward.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Israel of Ruzhin (1850)*
The 3rd of Cheshvan is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the famed Chassidic master Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin (1797-1850), known as "The Holy Ruzhiner."

Rabbi Israel was a great-grandson of Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch; a close friendship existed between the Ruzhiner Rebbe and the 3rd Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch.

*Link:* Three Stories

*• Passing of R. Ovadia Yosef (2013)*
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a leader of Sephardic Jewry and chief rabbi of Israel, passed away on 3 Cheshvan, 5774 (2013), at the age of 93.

A widely published author on Jewish law, Rabbi Yosef was considered by scholars of all backgrounds to be a rabbinical authority with a rare grasp of nearly every area of Torah scholarship. He was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of a wide swath of halachic texts, ranging from the well-known to the most obscure. In his halachic rulings, he would often list dozens of previous rulings and then decide in accordance with what he perceived to be the majority opinion.


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## Sixties Fan

Though the Jews of Herat in western Afghanistan haven’t lived there in decades, the city’s historic synagogue, thought to have been built around the turn of the 20th century, is set to undergo a conservation project with the backing of the Taliban government, according to the Art Newspaper.

The 16-month project, set to start in November, is aimed at preventing the collapse of the Yu Aw synagogue’s structure. It is being planned by the Herat municipality and other local organizations, and it is being funded with nearly $500,000 from the Aliph Foundation, a Swiss group aimed at protecting cultural heritage sites in conflict areas. The community mikveh, known as the Hammam-e Mosaie, will also be repaired as part of the project.

The synagogue last underwent a two-year restoration project that was completed in 2009, with funding from another Swiss organization. For a few years, it served as an educational center for women and children, but it was shut down again in 2014 due to seepage from a “poorly constructed, UN-funded municipal drainage channel in the adjoining road,” the Art Newspaper reported. It is also not explicitly a Jewish heritage project.

(full article online)









						Taliban approves conservation work on historic Afghan synagogue, mikveh
					

Yu Aw synagogue in Herat, formerly home to tens of thousands of Jewish residents, set for $500,000 renovation despite last Jew abandoning city after Taliban takeover




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

“Free Soviet Jews” was expressed on this pin as part of the international effort to free Jews caught behind the Iron Curtain. The movement started after Israel’s miraculous victory in 1967’s Six Day War, when a number of Russian Jews applied to move to Israel. Their applications were refused, and these “refuseniks” were persecuted for merely making the attempt. A cry for Russia to let our people go to Israel was expressed through press releases, signs, banners, protests and rallies—including an annual one on Simchat Torah. “The 35s” (a group of Canadian women around that age) specialized in gaining media attention for the cause until the Iron Curtain fell in 1991. At that time, said Wendy Eisen, a Canadian leader in the movement: “One million Jews began their 2000-year journey home… to burst brilliantly onto the landscape of Jewish history.”











						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

“Gift from Israel” is inscribed on the base of this etrog holder, whose green colour was typical of the metal crafts that became a tourist favourite in the 1950s and ‘60s. Maurice Ascalon, a Hungarian immigrant, developed the chemical process that created the green patina that gave these items an aged, archaeological look. Before regular steamship service from New York to Palestine started in 1867, the etrogs (citroen) used in North America for the Sukkot holiday came from Corsica, the Caribbean and the United States. Within a decade, the first etrogs from the Land of Israel arrived in New York. Since then, most etrogs sold in North America come from Israel—and they often end up in holders like this one.










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

_Altneuland_ (“Old-New Land”) is a utopian novel by Theodor Herzl, first published in October 1902. The author shares his vision of the New Society to be built in the ancient land, and he anticipates a vigorous democracy, communal farming, free health care and education, equal rights for all, a seven-hour work day and scientific developments that benefit the world. Herzl’s title was translated (by Nahum Sokolov) as _Tel Aviv—_the city is named after the book. This 2015 edition includes Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Amharic and English translations in a volume published by Noar HoOved VeHaLomed (“Working and Studying Youth”): it’s an Israeli movement with young Jewish, Arab and Druze members who are dedicated to the equality of human value, democracy, Zionism, peace and social justice. 











						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

The Hebrew Publishing Company of New York issued a set of 116 postcards in 1910, which included this Jewish New Year greeting that featured a polar bear in front of an American flag planted at the North Pole. The image celebrates how Robert Perry became the first person to reach it on April 6, 1909, having been accompanied on this expedition by his assistant Matthew Hanson, and four Inuit men. While there is no connection between a polar bear and Rosh Hashanah, it gives Treasure Trove the opportunity to wish everyone in the Great White North a year of warmth, adventure and peace. 










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

Labour Zionism (_Poale Zion_) envisioned a progressive society constructed in Palestine by a Jewish working-class—one which could also serve as a new model for humanity. At its fifth North American convention, held in Montreal in 1910, delegates resolved to establish a secular Yiddish-based school system across North America. This postcard shows the newspaper and tobacco store of Henry (Hirsh) Hershman on the Main (St. Lawrence Blvd.), which was festively decorated to welcome delegates. Hershman also opened Montreal’s first Jewish library in his house—as the precursor to the Jewish Public Library—along with being a pioneer of the Jewish press, and a founder of the Peretz School and the Canadian Jewish Congress. 










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

_The Eternal Road_ was an epic musical drama that ran in the Manhattan Opera House for 153 performances in 1937. At the time, it was the largest, most grandiose and costly production ever mounted in New York. Produced by Max Reinhardt, with music by Kurt Weill and script by Franz Werfel (all three were German-Jewish refugees) the production had three purposes: to respond to Germany’s state sponsored persecution of Jews, to relate the historical wandering and suffering of the Jewish people through bibilical stories, and to suggest that a Jewish homeland is the alternative to 2,000 years of the “eternal road” of helplessness. For the last performance Reinhardt proclaimed: “The light that we lit together… will shine undimmed in the history of the theater and of the Jewish people.”











						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


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## Sixties Fan

The Monteith Inn was a 150-room hotel on Muskoka’s Lake Rosseau, a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of Toronto. Harry and Jennie Shopsowitz—the founders of Shopsy’s Delicatessen, which started as an ice cream parlour in Toronto’s garment district—purchased the property for $25,000 in 1935. It was one of the local “Jewish resorts” (along with Muskoka Lodge in Huntsville, Gateway Hotel in Gravenhurst, and Smith’s Bay House, Arcadia Lodge and Taub’s Lodge in Port Carling) that thrived because Jews weren’t welcome elsewhere. When the Monteith opened, a one-week all-inclusive stay cost $14. This 1937 advertisement promotes kosher meals by a famous chef from Miami. The Shopsowitz family operated the hotel until 1949. (The next year, it was destroyed by a fire.)










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan were Israel’s Chief of Staff and Minister of Defence at the time of a miraculous military victory. The Western Wall of the ancient Temple had been inaccessible to Jews since 1948, as the Old City of Jerusalem was under Jordanian administration. That changed on June 7, 1967, when Jerusalem was reunited. When the war ended after six days, Israel controlled three times as much territory as it had before. Rabin was given the honour of naming the conflict: War of the Daring, War of Salvation and War of the Sons of Light were all considered. He chose The Six-Day War as it evoked the wonder of the six days of creation.











						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934), pictured here on Israel’s 10 lira banknote from 1970, was a poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew. Ukrainian born, he earned the status of “national poet” for his depiction of Jewish life in exile—and descriptions of the future in which we controlled our own destiny. “City of Slaughter” was written after the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, in which 47 Jews were murdered: it reflects Bialik’s bitterness about the absence of justice, and it’s also critical of those who didn’t act to defend themselves. Today, his surname is still famous thanks to a distant relative, _The Big Bang Theory_ star and _Jeopardy_ co-host Mayim Bialik, a modern Orthodox Jew and very public supporter of Israel.









						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

The Montreal Expos hosted the St. Louis Cardinals at Jarry Park on April 14, 1969, for what was the first Major League Baseball game played in Canada. The team’s majority owner was Charles Bronfman, a member of the family that controlled distilling giant Seagram. Bronfman initially agreed to be one of 10 equal partners funding the US$10 million expansion fee—but as other investors withdrew, he increased his investment ensuring that Montreal (and not Buffalo) got the team. He sold the Expos in 1991—and they left Montreal to become the Washington Nationals in 2005. Among his many philanthropic initiatives, Bronfman co-founded Birthright in 1999, which has since taken over 750,000 young Jews to Israel for free.










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Schapiro’s Kosher Wines billed its product as the kind “you can almost cut with a knife” in marketing its appeal. The company was founded in 1899 by Sam Schaprio in the basement of his Manhattan restaurant: as sales increased, he focused exclusively on making and selling wine. Business was good during the U.S. Prohibition era due to an exemption allowing a family to buy up to 10 gallons of sacramental wine per year. The era of drink-slicing ended when Schapiro’s closed in 2007. We have better Passover seder options today—as wines from Israel compete favourably with the world’s best. _L’chaim and Chag Sameach.










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca
				



_


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## Sixties Fan

Moe Berg (1902-1972) played for five American League teams, and was with the Boston Red Sox when he ended his 15-year baseball career in 1939. He also spoke 10 languages—including Hebrew and Yiddish—read 10 newspapers a day, and graduated from Princeton and Columbia Law School. During the Second World War, he was a spy for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. In 1944, Berg was tasked to kill German physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland if he concluded that the Germans were close to developing a nuclear bomb—but he concluded they weren’t. Paul Rudd played Berg in the 2018 biopic _The Catcher Was a Spy. _This baseball card is from the Jewish Major Leaguers set issued in 2003 by the American Jewish Historical Society.










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire erupted on March 25, 1911, on the eighth floor of a building in Greenwich Village, New York. The death toll of garment workers was 146—who were mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women, aged 14 to 23. Stairwells and exits had been locked in a common practice to prevent break-ins and thefts, but it meant many couldn’t escape the fire, and jumped to their deaths. Subsequently, new safety standards were introduced for factory workers, and unions were formed to fight for improved working conditions. “Mameniu” (“Dear Mother”) is an elegy for the victims which begins: “Hearts torn by the horror, the Jewish nation wrings its hands, weeping.”










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who in 1894 was wrongly convicted of spying for Germany. His conviction and later exoneration became known as the Dreyfus Affair, a miscarriage of justice rooted in antisemitism, which divided France. Imprisoned on Devil’s Island for five years, Dreyfus was convicted again in a second trial, and ultimately pardoned. He was exonerated in 1906 and reinstated in the French Army, in which he served through the First World War. The yellow jersey worn by the leader of the Tour de France is related to the Dreyfus Affair—as the bicycle race was founded in 1903 by the anti-Dreyfus sports paper, _L’Auto_. (To celebrate Family Day, here’s Dreyfus with his children, Pierre and Jeanne.) 










						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Academic anti-colonialism can distort Jewish history
					

A book on the Jews of Algeria ignores centuries of pre-colonial oppression.




					www.jns.org


----------



## alexa

Sixties Fan said:


> Academic anti-colonialism can distort Jewish history
> 
> 
> A book on the Jews of Algeria ignores centuries of pre-colonial oppression.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.jns.org


I am pretty sure the Jews of Algeria worked with the French against the people of Algeria.  This would cause them not to be liked.  They were fighting against each other.  However France offered them citizenship.  France indeed offered all of them citizenship.  That is the Christians and Muslims as well.  I think Algerians are the main source of Muslim and Jew refugees en mass in France.  France seems to have issues between its Jewish and Muslim communities.  Some people think this is the reason.

Your book may give reason for the Jews to hate everyone else and join the French and their must have been a reason.  Impossible to know without reading it. Unfortunately what people remember is the Jews of Algeria fighting with the French against them.


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## Sixties Fan

alexa said:


> I am pretty sure the Jews of Algeria worked with the French against the people of Algeria.  This would cause them not to be liked.  They were fighting against each other.  However France offered them citizenship.  France indeed offered all of them citizenship.  That is the Christians and Muslims as well.  I think Algerians are the main source of Muslim and Jew refugees en mass in France.  France seems to have issues between its Jewish and Muslim communities.  Some people think this is the reason.
> 
> Your book may give reason for the Jews to hate everyone else and join the French and their must have been a reason.  Impossible to know without reading it. Unfortunately what people remember is the Jews of Algeria fighting with the French against them.


Alexa, a little bit of time that you could spend doing some research online would be helpful to discussing anything with you, instead of answering to your suppositions about why Jews are hated in any place they have lived.


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## Sixties Fan

alexa said:


> I am pretty sure the Jews of Algeria worked with the French against the people of Algeria.  This would cause them not to be liked.  They were fighting against each other.  However France offered them citizenship.  France indeed offered all of them citizenship.  That is the Christians and Muslims as well.  I think Algerians are the main source of Muslim and Jew refugees en mass in France.  France seems to have issues between its Jewish and Muslim communities.  Some people think this is the reason.
> 
> Your book may give reason for the Jews to hate everyone else and join the French and their must have been a reason.  Impossible to know without reading it. Unfortunately what people remember is the Jews of Algeria fighting with the French against them.


First of all, there is no Arabs of the Jewish Faith, when referring to Jews who lived in Arab conquered lands.  Those are Jews from the Land of Israel descendants of the Hebrews/Israelites.

There are, of course, some Arabs who have converted to Judaism during those centuries, but they are very few.  There are many Arabs, since the Mandate for Palestine, who have also converted to Judaism.

Alexa,  I have my doubts that you have read the article you answered to.  Here is a part of it.  It would be nice if one would bother to learn the history of the country, or region, towards Jews after 1400 years of Islam :

*Missing from the context of this discussion is any in-depth examination of how Jews were treated before the colonial era, when Muslim sharialaw was in place under Ottoman rule: The Jews were dhimmis, institutionally inferior to Muslims, with few legal rights.

Schreier acknowledges that Jews were not immune from humiliations, additional taxes and sumptuary laws during this period. If they enjoyed important posts, it was not as decision-makers. They could only execute orders. Jews could be assassinated by rivals and targeted by waves of mob violence.*

However, Schrier claims, “a literal interpretation of dhimmi status should not stand in for social history,” which “suggests that Jews were relatively secure and an integral component of late Ottoman and early colonial Algerian society.” He points to the powerful Jewish mercantile elite, which traded in cereal, crops, wool and livestock—though he does not say that several of these successful merchants enjoyed the protection of foreign nationality. He also produces examples of semi-nomadic Jews “who were armed and dressed like Arabs,” particularly in southern Algeria.

Other scholars, often born in Arab countries, have argued that colonial emancipation was a liberation from dhimmi status. As far as most Jews were concerned, colonialism has much to recommend it. It gave Jews greater security, equality and legal rights for the first time in centuries. It introduced basic standards of health care and hygiene and put a stop to corporal punishment in schools. It gave Jews a Western education that permitted them to thrive in the modern world.

To downplay dhimmi status is to ignore the substantial corpus of testimony from European travelers describing the exactions and abuses suffered by Jews in the pre-colonial era. Schreier dismisses these reports as “exaggerated.” He holds that they should be treated with skepticism because they were written to serve a colonial agenda that promoted emancipation and assimilation to French values. Schreier’s suspicions extend to scholars like the late respected Algerian-born French professor Richard Ayoun, whose work Schreier calls “an example of scholarship echoing the colonial model of emancipation from an Oriental state of abasement.”

*In fact, it was primarily to equip the Jewish communities of Muslim countries with the wherewithal to fight for their rights as emancipated citizens that a group of French Jews set up the Alliance Israelite Universelle in 1860. This institution was not just a Jewish version of the French “civilizing mission.” It was a response to the very real abasement observed and chronicled in the pre-colonial era, ranging from blood libels and forced conversions to beatings and synagogue burnings. *The book Exile in the Maghreb by David Littman and Paul Fenton provides ample evidence of this—not just from European, but also Jewish and Muslim sources.

*Yet the Alliance’s efforts to combat Muslim anti-Semitism barely rate a mention in Arabs of the Jewish Faith*, ostensibly because the first Alliance school in Algeria was only set up in the early 20th century.

All too often, modern scholars’ anti-colonialism blinds them to or causes them to minimize Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism. “Social history” should not be an excuse for wishful thinking.










						Academic anti-colonialism can distort Jewish history
					

A book on the Jews of Algeria ignores centuries of pre-colonial oppression.




					www.jns.org


----------



## Sixties Fan

Published in the UK last year and in the US on October 25, “The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Famous Dynasty,” sets the record straight by shining a light on the amazing lives of some of the most prominent and interesting mothers, daughters and wives in the Rothschild family’s British branch.

Livingstone introduces readers to Rothschild women who mixed with royalty, fought for Jewish emancipation, and were the brains behind their husbands’ political victories. Some were economic geniuses, talented athletes or great scientists. Others were among Zionism’s most fervent early supporters. One flew planes in World War II and drag-raced with jazz greats Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.

(full article online)










						No longer just pretty faces, Rothschild family women take center stage in new book
					

Captivating, meticulously researched historical work brings to light myriad ways banking dynasty's 'silent' mothers, daughters, and wives exerted key soft power for three centuries




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Maimonides Visits Jerusalem ((1165))*
After leaving Morocco and before settling in Egypt, Maimonides visited Jerusalem and prayed at the site of the Holy Temple. Three days later, on 9 MarCheshvan, he visited Hebron and prayed at the Cave of Machpelah. Maimonides resolved to keep these two days—6 and 9 MarCheshvan—as a personal holiday (_Charedim _ch. 65 [5744 ed.). 

Link: Rambam (Maimonides)


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Last Jew comes home (2nd Temple Era)*
During the Second Temple Era (circa 230 BCE), Cheshvan 7 was the date on which the Jew most distant from the Holy Temple -- who resided on the banks of the Euphrates River, a 15-day journey's distance from Jerusalem -- arrived at his homestead upon returning from the Sukkot pilgrimage. All Jews would wait for this before beginning to pray for rain. Cheshvan 7 thus marked the return to everyday activities following the spirituality of the festival-rich month of Tishrei.

*Link:* The Last Jew

*• Passing of R. Meir Shapiro (1933)*
Passing of Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin, founder of the daily "page a day" regimen of Talmudic study known as _Daf Yomi_.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Jonah of Gerona (1263)*
R. Jonah was a thirteenth-century scholar who lived in Spain. Although originally opposed to Maimonides’ philosophical works (most notably, his _Guide for the Perplexed_), he later changed his views, and even vowed to travel to Maimonides’ gravesite to posthumously beg for forgiveness. (He indeed began the long journey, but passed away before completing it.) 

R. Jonah authored _Shaarei Teshuvah_ (an ethical work on repentance), a commentary on R. Isaac Al-Fasi’s halachic compendium, and a commentary on _Ethics of the Fathers_, among other works.

Others date his passing as 1 or 28 MarCheshvan.

Link: Rabbeinu Jonah Gerondi


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Rosh (1327)*
The life and influence of Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel, known by the acronym "Rosh", straddled the two great spheres of the Jewish diaspora of his time, the Ashkenazic (Franco-German) and the Sephardic (Spanish-Mediterranean) communities. Born approximately 1250 in Western Germany, Rabbi Asher studied under the famed Tosaphist Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, fathered eight sons, and authored one of the earliest codifications of Jewish law. In mid-life he fled the persecutions of medieval Christian Europe, settling in Spain where Jews prospered materially and Jewish learning flourished in the Spanish Golden Age.

Though a penniless exile and newcomer, Rabbi Asher's genius and erudition quickly earned him a position of prestige and influence. In 1304 he was invited to to serve as the spiritual leader of the Jews of Toledo, where he established a Talmudic academy and transplanted the Ashkenazic Tosaphists' system of Talmudic interpretation and analysis. He also introduced the traditionalism and piety of the early Ashkenazic "Chassidim" (reversing the secularist trends in certain segments of Sephardic Jewry).

Rabbi Asher passed away in Toledo on Cheshvan 9 of the year 5088 from creation (1327 of the Common Era).


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## Sixties Fan

Amid criticism, London theater group drops planned Nazi-Jewish ‘Romeo and Juliet’
					

Icarus Theatre Collective stresses it did not intend to depict Nazis and Jews on an equal footing; Jewish founder also apologizes for casting call that didn't specify Jewish actors




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

An elderly couple waited patiently on a steel bench for a food parcel. A teenage boy negotiated furiously with a gruff flat-capped caretaker about how much support his family needed. A little girl timidly held her mother’s hand as she waited in line for a week’s worth of supplies.

Such was the scene on a recent morning outside the main synagogue in Lviv, the western Ukraine city that has become a hub for refugees from across the war-torn country. By the time the families received relief parcels being distributed there, a dozen more had passed through the metal gates leading to the synagogue courtyard.

“We have people from all over,” said Sara Bald, the rebbetzin of the synagogue known as the Beis Aharon V’Yisrael. She has been overseeing the broad effort to meet mostly Jewish refugees’ needs, which includes distributing food and other goods and finding new arrivals apartments and hotels to stay in, and said the number of Jews the synagogue was helping had grown from 600 before the war to about 2,000 today.

(full article online)










						Refugees grow some Ukrainian cities’ dwindling Jewish communities, possibly for good
					

As Russia's bombardment of the south and east shows no signs of relenting, western border towns are being revived by an influx of newcomers, some of whom are putting down roots




					www.timesofisrael.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Burning of the Talmud in Venice (1553)*
By order of the Pope, the Talmud was burned in Venice on the 13th and 14th of MarCheshvan, 1553 (_Minchah Belulah_, Deuteronomy 33:2). The reason given was that the Talmud contained statements heretical to the Christian faith. Venice boasted many famous Hebrew printing houses, including that of Daniel Bomberg, an Italian gentile who published the Talmud there during the years 1519–1523.

Link: What Is the Talmud?


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today is Sunday, Kislev 3, 5783 · November 7, 2022​Today in Jewish History​*• Kamenitz-Podolsk Talmuds Saved (5518/1757)*
As a result of the libelous slander of the Frankists (followers of Sabbatai Zevi, the archbishop of Kamenitz decreed that all Hebrew books of the communities in his jurisdiction should be burned. On this day, he suffered a miraculous downfall and the decree was annulled. (_Imrei Pinchas_, 2003 ed., vol. 1, pp. 496–498) 

*• Pnei Yehoshua Saved (5463/1702)*
The explosion of some barrels of gunpowder that had been caught on fire resulted in the collapse of a number of nearby buildings, placing Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk in mortal danger. In distress, he pledged that if he would survive, he would commit himself to studying the Talmud and its commentaries. He was miraculously saved, and went on to author his classic Talmudic commentary, _Pnei Yehoshua_. (Introduction of the author to the above work)

*• Temple Cleared in Chanukah Miracle (3622/-139)*
After overcoming the Greek forces, the Hasmoneans cleared the Temple from the idolatrous images that had been erected there. (_Megilat Taanit _ch. 9)​


----------



## Sixties Fan

The History of Mah Jongg Snacks | The Nosher
					

“Four Bam, One Crack, Six Dot.”  Generations of Mah Jongg players and their children and grandchildren recognize the names of ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Jews of Prague Saved (1620)*

In May 1618, the Bohemian Revolt broke out in Prague, triggering the Thirty Years’ War. In November 1620, King Ferdinand II suppressed the rebels in Prague in the Battle of White Mountain. Notwithstanding the widespread looting, the king gave orders that no Jew be harmed. To commemorate the miraculous turn of events, R. Yomtov Lipman Heller, rabbi of Prague, instituted penitential prayers to be said every year on the 14th of MarCheshvan, which he published in Prague later that year. (The above account was recorded by R. Yomtov in his introduction to the publication.)


----------



## Sixties Fan

Stepping inside Romania’s Fabric Synagogue in real life would be a dangerous proposition: Closed since 1986, the ornate 1899 structure in the heart of the city of Timisoara is crumbling inside.

Online is a different story. There, visitors to the Fabric Synagogue can look up at the domed cupola, its stained glass still intact even as holes dot the ceiling, and approach the ark, its closed doors leaving the illusion that a Torah might be contained inside. They can climb to the balcony and look out over the Hebrew letters still affixed to walls, then turn their gaze to the massive graffiti tag that occupies one whole wall of the second floor. They can even check out the synagogue’s dust-laden organ before walking into the Timisoara sunshine and strolling to the municipal parks along the Bega River just a block away.

The virtual tour is one of eight launched recently to give Jews — and non-Jews — the chance to immerse themselves in a world that is no more: that of the non-Orthodox Jewish communities that developed under the Habsburg Empire in the western part of today’s Romania.


(full article online)










						Romania’s ornate and sometimes crumbling synagogues get new access via virtual tours
					

Through the Stories of the Synagogues website, visitors can view the beautiful houses of worship that stand where few, if any, of their previous congregants remain




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• R. Sholom Dovber of Lubavitch Leaves the Town of Lubavitch (1915)*
With the approach of the German army during World War I, R. Sholom DovBer and his family left Lubavitch, located in modern-day Russia near the border of Belarus, for the city of Rostov. Lubavitch was the seat of the Chabad movement for 102 years, starting when R. DovBer, second Chabad Rebbe, settled there in 1813.


----------



## Sixties Fan

Three Centuries Ago, Jewish Gravestones Were Used to Repair a Historic Landmark. In the 1960s, They Were Desecrated a Second Time » Mosaic
					

The columns of Ferrara.




					mosaicmagazine.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

National Library of Tunisia stands up to antisemitic bigots
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Sixties Fan

Why you never heard of the avant-garde Jewish artist Sarah Shor
					

Like many talented Jewish artists at the turn of the 20th century, Sarah Shor (1897-1981) is hardly known to the general public today. She belonged to the most avant-garde circles in her native Ukraine, and was well-respected by both Jewish and non-Jewish painters and graphic designers. She made...




					forward.com


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## Sixties Fan

_Jewish and Greek Communities in Egypt _ offers a view of the breathtaking rise and fall of these minorities, which together constituted no more than one percent of Egypt’s population. During the first half of the twentieth century, Greeks and Jews played a crucial part in the cotton, sugar, railway, banking, retail, and many other enterprises. But with the 1950s promotion of nationalization and Egyptianization, they lost that position and departed Egypt _en masse_.

Greeks and Jews were the largest ethno-religious groups in modern Egypt, distinct from the Arabic-speaking Muslims and Copts. From the outset, there were significant differences between Greeks and Jews, which the first and second chapters of the book elaborate in detail. Greeks were cohesive in ethnic and linguistic terms, and rarely proficient in Arabic. Jews were an extremely heterogeneous group in terms of language, ethnicity, and nationality, encompassing autochthonous Arabic speaking Jews and Ottoman, Mediterranean, and Eastern European migrants. The Jewish business elite were francophone, with Arabic-speaking elements. Greek business strength developed around the nineteenth-century cotton boom, in which Greeks played a vital role in both the countryside and in Alexandria. The Jewish business elite emerged from urban trading and money changing. As the rich historiographical review here shows, Egypt’s Jews have received greater scholarly interest, and their study has been conducted in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict. As a result, 
discussion of Jews in Egypt is considerably more charged than the discussion of the Greek minority.

Despite these differences, there were striking similarities in the rise of both groups to prominence in modern Egypt. While they differed in terms of business practices and influence, Greeks and Jews played a crucial role in investment and entrepreneurship. Their over-representation in modern Egyptian capitalism is well known and has been discussed by many scholars. Abdulhaq, however, goes beyond anecdotal references to elite families—such as the Salvagos and Qattawis—and through a painstaking survey of items from the
_Egyptian Gazette _ held in the Egyptian National Archive, the book demonstrates the astonishing magnitude of Greek and Jewish involvement. Of the 759 joint-stock companies established in Egypt between 1885 and 1960, 35 percent had Jewish participants, and 23 percent had Greek participants. One typical explanation for this disproportionate role presented Greeks and Jews as foreign, or “quasi-Egyptian,”elements, who benefited from British colonialism and access to foreign capital. Robert Vitalis and Joel Beinin have already challenged this narrative of “foreign”versus “local” capitalists in Egypt.

 Abdulhaq goes further by demonstrating that colonial privileges played a limited part in the success of these groups. As her empirical data convincingly shows, even in 1940s, after the dismantling of the Capitulations, Greeks and Jews continued to have leading positions in enterprise. Her explanation, which builds on Schumpeterian growth theory, attributes Greek and Jewish success to the strength of their networks and their role in innovation. Being part of diasporic networks extending across the Mediterranean and beyond gave  Greeks and Jews a built-in advantage over other groups. Through networks of kinship and cultural affinities, they could establish trust more easily, gain access to new information, and reduce investment risks. This became especially crucial for innovative enterprises, where the risk was higher. Abdulhaq shows that in enterprises involving new technologies, products, and practices, Greeks and Jews had an even higher share of participation.


(full article online)












						Xenophobia caused Jewish and Greek entrepreneurs to flee Egypt • Point of No Return
					

In his review of Najat Abdulhaq’s  Jewish and Greek Communities in Egypt: Entrepreneurship and Business before Nasser (Tauris, 2016)  SOAS lecturer Yair Wallach writes in the Journal of Levantine Studies (Summer 2018)  that the book exposes the xenophobic discrimination to which both...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Pierre van Paassen (1895-1968) was a Dutch immigrant to Canada who became a world-famous foreign correspondent for the _Toronto Star _from 1931 to 1936. Fluent in German, he reported on the Nazis and exposed the policies of Hitler’s fascist regime—which led to the _Star _becoming the first North American newspaper to be banned from Germany: Van Paassen was expelled after being imprisoned for several weeks. One of the most fervent non-Jewish Zionists of his time, he wrote books and articles that reflected his enthusiastic support of Zionism including _The_ _Forgotten Ally _which was a sharp indictment of Britain’s anti-Zionist policy, published in 1943. Three years later the book was banned by the British in Mandatory Palestine.









						Treasure Trove: A weekly piece of our history from the collection of David Matlow
					

The latest items via @TheCJN on Instagram.




					thecjn.ca


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Birth of Rabbi Sholom DovBer of Lubavitch (1860)*
The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn (known by the acronym "Rashab"), was born on the 20th of Cheshvan of the year 5621 from creation (1860).

After the passing of his father, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, in 1882, Rabbi Sholom DovBer assumed the leadership of the movement. Over the next 38 years, he wrote and delivered some 2,000 _maamarim_ (discourses of Chassidic teaching) including the famed _hemshechim_ (serialized discourses) which contain his profound analytical treatment of Chabad Chassidism. In 1897, he established the _Tomchei Temimim_ yeshivah in Lubavitch, the first institution of Jewish learning to integrate the "body" (Talmudic and legal studies) and "soul" (philosophic and mystical) of Torah into a cohesive, living whole; it was this unique form of education and Torah study that produced the "Temimim" -- the army of learned, inspired and devoted torchbearers who, in the decades to come, would literally give their lives to keep Judaism alive under Soviet rule.

In 1915 Rabbi Sholom DovBer was forced to flee Lubavitch from the advancing WWI front and settled in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. In his final years, he began the heroic battle -- carried on under the leadership of his son and successor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn -- against the new Communist regime's efforts to destroy the Jewish faith. Rabbi Sholom DovBer passed away in Rostov in 1920.

*Links:* Want it All; To Know G-d and On Ahavat Yisrael -- two _maamarim_by Rabbi Sholom DovBer.


----------



## Sixties Fan

Book ‘Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War,’ out November 15, shows how Jewish troops fought in an army that served pork, rested Sundays and was led by a general who didn’t want them​
(full article online)










						Braving bigotry and enemy fire, Jews served the Union valiantly during the Civil War
					

Book 'Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War,' out November 15, shows how Jewish troops fought in an army that served pork, rested Sundays and was led by a general who didn't want them




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Sadly, even as many Jewish soldiers became American by serving in the Union army, the Civil War produced a range of pernicious ideas about Jews that have proven remarkably durable.​
(full article online)









						The antisemitic history of the Union Army and the US civil war - opinion
					

Sadly, even as many Jewish soldiers became American by serving in the Union army, the Civil War produced a range of pernicious ideas about Jews that have proven remarkably durable.




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

From The Arab News in 2020:



> In 2014, when the Magen Abraham Synagogue reopened in Beirut, Lebanese politicians from across the spectrum were present, bathed in the glare of TV cameras. They all reiterated their support for a community they said they cherished as much as the other 17 sects that make up the Lebanese government.
> 
> Former prime minister Fouad Siniora declared: “*We respect Judaism. Our only problem is with Israel*.”
> 
> Even Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah weighed in: “This is a religious place of worship and its restoration is welcome.”


Hussain Rahal, a spokesman for Hezbollah, likewise said: "We respect the Jewish religion just like we do Christianity. The Jews have always lived among us. We have an issue with Israel's occupation of land."

This is a standard lie we hear throughout the Arab world, and nowhere is it as obviously false as in Lebanon.

Because there are still a handful of Jews in Lebanon - modern day crypto-Jews, frightened to be revealed to their neighbors.

Monte Carlo Doualiya reports that there are only 27 Lebanese Jews left.  They live in great fear and hide their true religious identity. In Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the remaining members of the Jewish community are not known to their neighbors and practice Judaism in complete secrecy. 

The Magen Abraham synagogue is not used as a house of worship. The Jews are too frightened to go there publicly.

If the Lebanese have no problem with Jews, then why do the remaining Jews have to hide?

The Arab News article, which is pretty good, describes the fear in starker terms:



> The story has it that a Jewish woman from Beirut who was keen to meet other Jews heard of a coreligionist living in the town of Zahle, 50km east of the capital. She went there and searched for her. It was difficult as the woman had changed her name, *something many Jews have done for safety reasons*. But when she finally found her, the Zahle woman met her with a glacial stare. *She spoke one word: Leave*. The woman was obviously scared of the attention her visitor might awaken.
> 
> Those who are still there preserve a total silence about their identity. They gather secretly in each other’s houses for their prayers.



The Arab News feature notes that  Lebanese Jews who now live in New York are nostalgic for the good times in the past, but in Lebanon they were attacked every time something happened in Israel.



> True, Lebanese Jews were not rounded up and thrown out like their Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian counterparts, yet “whenever something happened in Palestine, people would take revenge on the Jews,” said (author of a book on the Jews of Lebanon) Zeidan.
> 
> “They would throw a bomb at a synagogue or kidnap a Jewish man. Protests would erupt, inciting violence against the Jews.”



It seems almost unbelievable that there are crypto-Jews today, hiding their Jewish identity the way that their ancestors did in Spain and Portugal out of fear for their lives. But they still exist, and they are living proof that "anti-Zionism" always was, and always will be, antisemitism.










						There are crypto-Jews, today - in Lebanon
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Lisbon Earthquake (1755)*
A great earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal, destroying much of the city including the courthouse of the Inquisition.


----------



## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Hasmonean Holiday (137 BCE)*
In Talmudic times, Cheshvan 23 was commemorated as the day on which the stones of the altar which were defiled by the Greeks were removed from the Holy Temple.


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## TheParser

I have been impressed by the many medical breakthroughs discovered by Jewish researchers  throughout the centuries.

Their findings have done so much to alleviate human suffering.  I am very grateful to them. 

Perhaps someone can post  a list of some of these medical achievements.

Thank you.


----------



## Sixties Fan

Jewish Inventors and Their Inventions | IMAGE Magazine
					






					imageusa.com


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## Sixties Fan

Accomplishments & Awards
					

Read about different research achiements by and institutional awards to National Jewish Health from US News & World Report, 5280, Castle Connolly and others




					www.nationaljewish.org


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## Sixties Fan

The Jewish contribution to medicine. Part II. The 19th and 20th centuries - PubMed
					

Despite the opening of German universities to Jews in the 1860s, they were restricted to fields not attractive to their gentile colleagues, e.g. the basic sciences, dermatology, psychiatry, neurology, paediatrics and venereology. They pioneered these specialties when the latter were still in...




					pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Avraham Azulai  (1643)*
R. Avraham was a famous kabbalist who resided in Hebron, Jerusalem, and Gaza. He authored _Chesed L’Avraham_, and was the great-grandfather of R. Chaim Yosef David Azulai (the Chida).

R. Avraham’s signature had the appearance of a ship, to commemorate the time when the ship he was traveling on capsized along with all his possessions, and he was miraculously saved (_Shem Hagedolim_).

Link: Me’arat Hamachpelah Facts


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## Sixties Fan

La Revue Blanche
					

Tablet’s French literary ancestor was founded by three Warsaw-born brothers who were high school friends and classmates of Marcel Proust, and who published everyone from André Gide to Paul Claudel. Then came the Dreyfus affair.




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

Ulysses Shmulysses
					

James Joyce was the first to understand that Jews make the perfect protagonists




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

As news of increased pogroms committed against Jews in Europe reached British Mandate Palestine in 1939, David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Jewish community and later Israel’s first prime minister, called on Jewish youth to “assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper [British Mandate policy limiting Jewish immigration] and… resist the White Paper as if there were no war. ”

His call was widely heeded: To do their part in fighting the Axis powers and save European Jewry from the Nazis, 40,000 young Jews from pre-state Israel served in the British Army. This was almost 10% of the Yishuv’spopulation at the time.

The National Library of Israel recently acquired at auction a collection of 40 Hebrew-language journals, newspapers, and booklets produced by units of Palestinian Jews in the British Army during World War II.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that an entire generation left the country to serve. It was a huge phenomenon. It was also the first time that women could participate in the fighting effort,” said Dr. Hezi Amiur, curator of the Israel collection at the National Library.

Young people enlisted with the British Army — save for those who chose to join the Palmach, the Yishuv’s underground army fighting the British and Arabs in Palestine.


(full article online)









						Trove of publications by WWII Jewish soldiers from Palestine gets new home at NLI
					

Newspapers, journals, and other periodicals produced by Jewish units from Palestine in British Army reveal rich intellectual and emotional lives of soldiers fighting in Europe




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Dave Chappelle isn’t the first to suggest that Jews run Hollywood. Here are the origins of the trope. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
					

The film industry was largely founded by Jews who wanted nothing to do with their Jewishness.




					www.jta.org


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## Sixties Fan

With a jam-packed schedule at 70, comedian Mark Schiff asks ‘Why Not?’ in new book
					

The longtime opening act for Jerry Seinfeld looks back on 50 years in the business, as well as his connection to his Jewish faith




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

What is Sigd? | My Jewish Learning
					

Sigd is an Ethiopian Jewish holiday celebrated on the 29th of Cheshvan, exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur.When is Sigd ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

As I browse through old newspapers looking for interesting things to blog, I came across a story of a January 1916 banquet in Mexico, Missouri. One participant jokingly complained that he didn't get the chance to dance the "kosher turkey-trot."





Was that a real thing?

At first, I thought not. It seems to have been a lyric to a novelty song from 1912 called "At the Yiddisher Ball."





The lyrics:




> In our neighborhood we have, what you call,
> Once a year a sociable ball,
> What a time, there's everything you wish
> Ev'ry one is dressed from soup to fish;
> You take Rifky, she looks pretty nifty,
> Don't you mind to bring the lunch, it only costs you fifty;
> There'll be wine and ev'ry thing that's fine
> At the yiddish sociable ball.
> CHORUS:
> At the ball, at the ball, at the yiddisher ball,/
> There'll only be class, or there'll be nothing at all,
> And when that orchestra plays/ Yiddish kazotskys and Bombershays,
> At the ball, at the ball, and the yiddisher ball
> 
> We'll make monkey doodles 'round the hall,
> Out upon the floor I'll be Jakey on the spot,
> *Doing the kosher turkey trot,*
> At that first class yiddisher sociable,
> (Remember, fifty cents admits the ladies and the gents)
> At that first class yiddisher sociable ball.
> 
> VERSE 2:
> I have tickets here I don't want to keep,
> Say you'll come, I'll give you them cheap;
> I'll sing there if you will surely come,
> I'll knock them from the seats singing Chill-i-bom-bom;
> A theatre won't be half so good
> Don't stay away treat yourself just like you should,
> Once a year, you know, you should appear
> At the yiddish sociable ball.



I didn't think it was likely that this was turned into a real dance, but, apparently, it was ...at least once.

From Harvard University's Delta Upsilon Quarterly, 1912, a description of a friendly talent competition between Rutgers, New York and Columbia undergrads of that organization.

Columbia's entry:



> Columbia pinned her faith on two performers, and they certainly were top-notchers! Sengstaken, at the piano, made that instrument do everything but talk, and to make up for that deficiency, "monologued" at the same time he played. Then Barrett sang two "Yiddisher" songs in true East Side style, and incidentally danced the "Kosher turkey-trot."


Columbia came in last place, behind Rutgers The New York chapter performed in blackface.












						The Kosher Turkey-Trot (c. 1912)
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


----------



## elektra

1916 *Sykes–Picot Agreement*

Speaking of 1916 reminds of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. France and England dividing up the old Ottoman Empire in the Middle East


----------



## Sixties Fan

The Multifaceted History and Culture of Bukharian Jews
					

Monday, November 28th, 12 p.m. ET  The eclectic story of Central Asia's ancient Jewish community—Bukharian Jews—is situated at the lesser-known intersection of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Russian-Speaking Jewish identities. Join My Jewish Learning educator and community builder Ruben Shimonov to...




					docs.google.com


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## Sixties Fan

Why The Mishnah Is the Best Jewish Book You've Never Read | My Jewish Learning
					

The Mishnah, a body of Jewish legal text compiled around the year 200 C.E, has played a foundational role in ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Kamenitz-Podolsk Talmuds Saved (5518/1757)*
As a result of the libelous slander of the Frankists (followers of Sabbatai Zevi, the archbishop of Kamenitz decreed that all Hebrew books of the communities in his jurisdiction should be burned. On this day, he suffered a miraculous downfall and the decree was annulled. (_Imrei Pinchas_, 2003 ed., vol. 1, pp. 496–498) 

*• Pnei Yehoshua Saved (5463/1702)*
The explosion of some barrels of gunpowder that had been caught on fire resulted in the collapse of a number of nearby buildings, placing Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk in mortal danger. In distress, he pledged that if he would survive, he would commit himself to studying the Talmud and its commentaries. He was miraculously saved, and went on to author his classic Talmudic commentary, _Pnei Yehoshua_. (Introduction of the author to the above work)

*• Temple Cleared in Chanukah Miracle (3622/-139)*
After overcoming the Greek forces, the Hasmoneans cleared the Temple from the idolatrous images that had been erected there. (_Megilat Taanit _ch. 9)


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Jehoaikim Burnt Lamentations  (3321/-440)*
Jehoaikim, King of Judah, burnt a scroll dictated by the prophet Jeremiahand written by his disciple Baruch son of Neriah. This scroll was the book of Lamentations, and was written to forewarn the king of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. (_Jeremiah ch. 36_. _Megilat Taanit_, _perek ha’acharon_. It should be noted that other sources provide alternate dates—see _Shulchan Aruch_, _Orach Chaim _580:1 and _Magen Avraham _ad loc.)

Link: Jehoahaz and Jehoaikim

*• Death of King Herod  (3760/-1)*
Death of Herod, King of Judea. Herod seized the rule from the Hasmoneans, after killing them all. Fearing that the rabbis would challenge his authority, he killed them all, leaving only Bava ben Buta. Later, out of remorse for his cruelty, he had the Holy Temple completely renovated.

Link: Herod the Great


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## Sixties Fan

14 years after his death, megastar Paul Newman’s memoir is a portal into his soul
					

Editor David Rosenthal wrangles thousands of pages of recently discovered interview transcripts with the actor, his friends, colleagues, and family members into a revealing read




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Birth & Passing of R. Dovber of Lubavitch (1773; 1827)*
Kislev 9 is both the birthday and day of passing of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch, son of and successor to the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman·of Liadi. Rabbi DovBer was known for his unique style of "broadening rivers" -- his teachings were the intellectual rivers to his father's wellspring, lending breadth and depth to the principles set down by Rabbi Schneur Zalman.

Born in Liozna, White Russia in 1773, Rabbi DovBer was named after Rabbi Schneur Zalman's mentor and teacher, Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch, who had passed away on Kislev 19 of the previous year. Rabbi DovBer assumed the leadership of Chabad upon his father's passing in 1812. In 1813 he settled in the town of Lubavitch, which was to serve as the movement's headquarters for the next 102 years. In 1826, he was arrested on charges that his teachings threatened the imperial authority of the Czar, but was subsequently exonerated.

Rabbi DovBer passed away on his 54th birthday in 1827, a day before the first anniversary of his liberation (see calendar entries for tomorrow, Kislev 10).

*Links:* A Precise Life;
Four stories: The Rebbe's Son and the Chassid; Two Against One; Yechidut; Yosef the Wagon Driver


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## Sixties Fan

Over time, the genealogist’s recording of his own family tree branched off, and he uncovered information on the entire Irish-Jewish community. The records span over 70,000 individual names.


(full article online)









						‘Living encyclopedia’ Stuart Rosenblatt donates Irish-Jewish family records to National Library of Israel
					

Over time, the genealogist’s recording of his own family tree branched off, and he uncovered information on the entire Irish-Jewish community. The records span over 70,000 individual names.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan

Adam Sandler talks about ‘The Chanukah Song’ and a new film with the Safdie brothers
					

Jewish celeb credits family for success and says his career didn’t start off with a bang.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan

Slivovitz, a spirit with a cherished Jewish history, gets UNESCO World Heritage protection - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
					

“Jews would acquire this local drink after moving into European kingdoms,” a slivovitz scholar said.




					www.jta.org


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Ravina II; Talmud completed (475 CE)*
In the first decades of the 5th century, Rav Ashi (d. 427) and Ravina I (d. 421) led a group of the _Amoraim_ (Talmudic sages) in the massive undertaking of compiling the Babylonian Talmud -- collecting and editing the discussions, debates and rulings of hundreds of scholars and sages which had taken place in the more than 200 years since the compilation of the Mishnah by Rabbi Judah HaNassi in 189. The last of these editors and compilers was Ravina II, who passed away on the 13th of Kislev of the year 4235 from creation (475 CE); after Ravina II, no further additions were make to the Talmud, with the exception of the minimal editing undertaken by the Rabbanan Savura'i (476-560). This date thus marks the point at which the Talmud was "closed" and became the basis for all further exegesis of Torah law.

*Links:*
What Is the Talmud?


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## Sixties Fan

* Pulver Purim (1804)*
"Pulver Purim" was established by Rabbi Avraham Danzig (1748-1820) author of the halachic works _Chayei Adam_ and _Chochmat Adam_, after he and his family were miraculously saved from a fire on the eve of the 16th of Kislev.

The inferno engulfed many homes, including his own home and the very room where all of his family members were, causing some of the walls to collapse. Rabbi Avraham Danzig then established the 16th of Kislev as a day of celebration for all of his future descendents.


----------



## Sixties Fan

Continuing looking at the newspapers from 75 years ago in the wake of the UN Partition vote.

From the Manchester Guardian, December 10, 1947:





From the Palestine Post, December 11, 1947:





Commentary magazine summarized the pogrom in Aden a few months later:




> In the riots that broke out suddenly last December 2 after the decision of the United Nations in favor of partition in Palestine, and following an appeal of the Arab League for a three-day strike of protest in all Arab countries, over eighty Jews were killed and as many seriously wounded. Fourteen Jewish houses were burnt to the ground, and many more were looted. Of one hundred and seventy Jewish shops and stores, over a hundred were burnt or looted and the two Jewish schools were burnt out.
> 
> It is alleged that the greatest part of the casualties was caused by the military force, the Aden Protectorate Levies, which were called in by the civil authority when the police were unable to deal with the mob. The Aden Levies are composed of Arab tribesmen with British and Arab officers. It was apparently asking too much for them to take firm action against Arab looters attacking Jewish houses and shops. They soon turned to take an active part themselves in the looting and shooting of Jews.











						75 years ago: Jews in Arab countries in grave danger
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Adas Affair
					

The life and death of the richest Jew in Iraq




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

Chanukah Treasure: Menorah Drawing from Jewish Sage to be Displayed | United with Israel
					

The exhibition will also feature a copy of the Rambam’s 'Mishneh Torah' that was reportedly personally signed by Maimonides.




					unitedwithisrael.org


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## Sixties Fan

HonestReporting Executive Director Among Algemeiner's 'Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life' | Honest Reporting
					

Other honorees include prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan.




					honestreporting.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Alexander in Jerusalem (313 BCE)*

On Kislev 21 of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE), there occurred the historic meeting between Shimon HaTzaddik and Alexander ('the Great") of Macedonia. (Source: Megillat Taanit)

The Samarians, bitter enemies of the Jews, had convinced Alexander that the Jews' refusal to place his image in their Temple was a sign of rebellion against his sovereignty, and that the Holy Temple should be destroyed. The Kohen Gadol ("High Priest") at the time was Shimon HaTzaddik, the last of the "Men of the Great Assembly" who rebuilt the Holy Temple and revitalized Judaism under Ezra. On the 21st of Kislev Alexander marched on Jerusalem at the head of his army; Shimon, garbed in the vestments of the High Priest and accompanied with a delegation of Jewish dignitaries, went forth to greet him. The two groups walked towards each other all night; at the crack of dawn they met. As Alexander beheld the visage of the High Priest, he dismounted his horse and bowed respectfully; to his men he explained that he often had visions of a similar-looking man leading him into battle. Shimon HaTzaddik brought the emperor to the Holy Temple and explained that Judaism prohibits the display of any graven image; he offered to name all the male children born to priests that year "Alexander" as a demonstration of loyalty to the emperor (which is how "Alexander" became a common Jewish name). The Samarians plot was rebuffed, and Kislev 21 was declared a holiday. 

_According to an alternative version (see Talmud Yoma 69a), this episode occurred on the 25th of Tevet._


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## Sixties Fan

10 treasures from the New York Public Library’s 125-year-old Jewish collection - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
					

The NYPL's Dorot Jewish Division celebrates it quasquicentennial.




					www.jta.org


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## The Duke

Sixties Fan said:


> I love History and there is a lot of Jewish history to be learned.  This is the perfect place to dig through it and unearth lots of that history which is not known.
> 
> If anyone finds any of that history they have been fascinated with, or wish others to know, please post it here.


You sure seem to have a Jew boner, brah. What happened? Hot Princess turn you down in high school, er wut?

Jews know how to make brisket good, and I don't. It is what it is. 

One thing I've learned in life is that you have to accept your limitations and capitalize on your strong points; True Story.

Things work out better that way; Prove me wrong!


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## Sixties Fan

Debbie Gibson on Her New Hanukkah Song and Connection to the Jewish Community
					

Before there was Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, or any of the young female singer-songwriters on the charts today, there was Debbie Gibson.




					jewishjournal.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Jews Accused of Poisoning the Wells during the Black Plague (1348)*

As the “Black Death” plague decimated Europe, Christians accused the Jews of causing the plague by poisoning the wells in an effort to wipe out the Gentile population. 

On the 23rd of Kislev 5109 (Nov. 15, 1348), Rudolph of Oron, bailiff of Lausanne, sent a letter to the mayor of Strasburg informing him that certain Jews of Lausanne had “confessed” under torture that they together with their coreligionists had poisoned all the wells in the Rhine valley. This resulted in the masses persecuting and killing tens of thousands of Jews throughout Europe.


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## Sixties Fan

How priests, prophets and kings united Israel in monotheism and codified the Torah
					

In 'The Book of Revolutions,' Rabbi Edward Feld analyzes three of the Bible's main precepts, written over hundreds of years and later compiled by exiled priests in Babylon




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

Ungrateful France's 'national narrative' ignores the Jews • Point of No Return
					

France has had Jews for over 2,000 years, and their contributions to the economy, politics, culture and science cannot be denied. But the journalist and blogger Veronique Chemla notes that Judaism and the Jews are virtually absent from the “national narrative” in school curricula and textbooks...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• 2nd Day of Chanukah Miracle (139 BCE)*

On the 25th of Kislev in the year 3622 from creation, the Maccabeesliberated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, after defeating the vastly more numerous and powerful armies of the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV, who had tried to forcefully uproot the beliefs and practices of Judaism from the people of Israel. The victorious Jews repaired, cleansed and rededicated the Temple to the service of G-d. But all the Temple's oil had been defiled by the pagan invaders; when the Jews sought to light the Temple's menorah (candelabra), they found only one small cruse of ritually pure olive oil. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new, pure oil could be obtained. In commemoration, the Sages instituted the 8-day festival of Chanukah, on which lights are kindled nightly to recall and publicize the miracle.

*Link:* The Story of Chanukah


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## Sixties Fan

* 3rd Day of Chanukah Miracle (139 BCE)*

On the 25th of Kislev in the year 3622 from creation, the Maccabeesliberated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, after defeating the vastly more numerous and powerful armies of the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV, who had tried to forcefully uproot the beliefs and practices of Judaism from the people of Israel. The victorious Jews repaired, cleansed and rededicated the Temple to the service of G-d. But all the Temple's oil had been defiled by the pagan invaders; when the Jews sought to light the Temple's menorah (candelabra), they found only one small cruse of ritually pure olive oil. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new, pure oil could be obtained. In commemoration, the Sages instituted the 8-day festival of Chanukah, on which lights are kindled nightly to recall and publicize the miracle.

*Link:* The Story of Chanukah

*• Passing of R. Chaim of Tchernovitz (1817)*

Rabbi Chaim of Tchernovitz (1760-1817) was a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and of Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov. He authored _Be'er Mayim Chayim_ ("Well of Living Waters"), a commentary on Torah. Rabbi Chaim passed away on the 3rd day of Chanukah.

*• 2nd liberation of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1800)*

Two years after his arrest and liberation in 1798 (see entries for "Kislev 19" and here), Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (founder of Chabad, 1745-1812) was arrested a second time; again, the charges were that his teachings undermined the imperial authority of the Czar. His second incarceration was less severe than the first; yet Chassidim mark the anniversary of his release on the third day of Chanukah with _farbrengens_(Chassidic gatherings) and the study of his teachings.

According to other versions of the story, the liberation occurred on the fifth day of Chanukah. Apparently the liberation happened in two stages.


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## Sixties Fan

A tower in England where the deadliest massacre of Jews in British history took place hosted a Hanukkah lighting for the first time.

York’s Clifford’s Tower was the site of a deadly 12th century mass killing in which 150 Jews were murdered.

But this week it was illuminated for Hanukkah in a unique ceremony, the UK _Jewish News_ reported.

The massacre took place on March 16, 1190 when multiple antisemitic riots culminated in the murder of the whole Jewish community of York. The community had taken shelter in the castle, the area where Clifford’s Tower currently sits. It was the worst massacre of Jews in British history.











						Site of 12th century massacre of UK Jews hosts Hanukkah event
					

Castle where deadliest killing of Jews in British history occurred in 12th century used for menorah lighting for first time.




					www.israelnationalnews.com


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## Sixties Fan

English World Cup winner George Cohen dies at 83
					

Defender, who had a Jewish grandfather, played every minute of England's 1966 victorious campaign




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

The Jews of Kaifeng: China's Only Native Jewish Community | My Jewish Learning
					

Jews have lived in Kaifeng, a city in central China’s Henan province, for over 1,000 years. This makes the Kaifeng ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

How a standup show at a Chinese restaurant became a 30-year Jewish comedy tradition
					

Inspired by a gig that seemed like a joke, Lisa Geduldig started Kung Pao Kosher Comedy in 1993. It was an instant hit and now lures serious talent like Marc Maron and Margaret Cho




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

NY family’s ‘Hanukkah House’ a glowing tradition of 25 years
					

Decades after her crestfallen son prompted Gail Nalven Fuchs to decorate her Brooklyn home to rival any Christmas display, the festive setup continues to delight neighbors




					www.timesofisrael.com


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## Sixties Fan

CHANUKAH ROCKS! Superstar’s Secret Holiday Concert Goes Viral | United with Israel
					

The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl delighted 250 fans at a secret Chanukah celebration he produced with his Jewish friend, producer Greg Kurstin.




					unitedwithisrael.org


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## Sixties Fan

Why Are These Icelandic Christmas Sweets Known as 'Jewish Cookies'? | The Nosher
					

You have heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie?As Jews move from country ...




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of R. Gershon Henoch Leiner (1890)*
R. Gershon Henoch was a Polish Rebbe centered in the town of Radzyn. He is famous for his efforts in reinstituting the _tekhelet_—the blue wool mentioned in Scripture, that is to be attached to each corner of the _tzitzit_garment. The blue color derives from a marine creature known as the _chilazon_, the identity of which has been forgotten over centuries of exile. R. Gershon Henoch identified the _chilazon _with the cuttlefish.

Link: Tekhelet: The Mystery of the Long-Lost Biblical Blue Thread


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## Sixties Fan

Sixty years ago, Algeria declared its independence from France after a bloody war that is thought to have claimed over a million lives. In the course of throwing off the French colonial yoke, Algeria divested itself of 800,000 “white settlers” or pieds noirs. But along with the settlers went 130,000 native Algerian Jews.

There was a reason for this: Within a year of independence, it was clear that there would be no place for non-Muslims in the new Algeria. Indeed, the country’s constitution stipulated that only those with a Muslim father or grandfather could acquire Algerian citizenship.

The Jewish refugees, who held French citizenship, were “repatriated” to France, where they had never lived. One of them was Shmuel Trigano, then 14-years-old. Within two days and with two suitcases in hand, his life changed forever. Uprooted from the only home he had ever known, he was left permanently scarred.

However, it was only relatively recently, when he saw Palestinians brandishing the keys to homes they had left in 1948, that Trigano realized there was a political dimension to his trauma.

“We also had keys,” he says of the 900,000 Jews forced to flee Arab countries. “But we were too modest. We did not make claims—and because we were silent, we allowed a false narrative to fill the vacuum.”

In order to counter what he calls a massive distortion of the facts, Trigano set about applying the tools of his trade as a professor of sociology. He constructed a conceptual framework to make sense of the post-1940s Jewish exodus from 10 Arab countries over a period of 30 years.

As Trigano points out, the words we use to describe this event lack rigor. For example, the expression “forgotten exodus” is often employed to describe this cataclysmic displacement. But forgotten by whom? Certainly not by the people who were displaced. “Liquidation” or “ethnic cleansing” are more accurate than the passive term “exodus,” Trigano suggests.

The history of this period has still not been properly written, but Trigano has made a start by editing a book, La fin du Judaïsme en terres d’Islam, that assembles data accumulated by 10 specialist historians.

For centuries, Jews were, along with Armenians and Greeks, a subject, second-class dhimmi people living under Muslim domination, principally in the Ottoman Empire. But after the Arab defeat in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, that oppression descended into outright ethnic cleansing.

This ethnic cleansing took two forms: Exclusion, a “softer” form of oppression, in places such as Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon; and expulsion from places like Egypt, Iraq and Libya.

Trigano identifies several factors that afflicted all of these Jewish communities at various times: Denationalization (denial or withdrawal of citizenship), isolation (denial of passports and travel bans), sequestration, legal discrimination (Arabization, the state takeover of Jewish communal bodies), socioeconomic discrimination (forced business partnerships with Muslims and boycotts), dispossession (extortion, freezing of bank accounts, ransoms and seizures) and violence (riots and arrests on spurious grounds). All these measures recalled the statut des juifs, the set of discriminatory laws imposed by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime in North Africa during World War II.

The antisemitic nature of the measures taken by Arab states is clear for all to see: Whatever their political opinions, all Jews were punished for the “crime” of Zionism. According to Trigano, this collective punishment was derived from the antisemitic myth of the individual Jew as someone who hides behind his own emancipation in order to exercise secret power and control.

Although the Jews of then-Palestine suffered pogroms instigated by the Palestinian mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, and were targeted for extermination in the 1948 war, the facts have been turned on their head to suggest that the losing Arab side was targeted for ethnic cleansing.

According to Professor Trigano, the problem is that Israel has failed to speak the truth, allowing free rein to historical distortion and propaganda, to the extent that a perverse resolution condemning Israel as an “apartheid” state has been proposed in the French parliament.

Zionism is blamed for the plight of the Jews, and too many people believe in the myth of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs before the establishment of Israel. Unfortunately, there has also been a tendency among Jews to gloss over inconvenient facts or sugarcoat the history of relations between the two groups.

Have the Abraham Accords altered the situation? The Accords must be celebrated, Trigano says, but not at the expense of history and memory.













						Making sense of the great Mizrahi exodus
					

The history and memory of the Jews expelled from Arab countries has been suppressed in order to demonize Zionism.




					www.jns.org


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## Sixties Fan




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## Sixties Fan

Podcast | Lyn Julius, "Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish…
					

Lyn Julius, "Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight" (Vallentine Mitchell, 2018)




					newbooksnetwork.com


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## Sixties Fan

Hava Nagila's Long, Strange Trip | My Jewish Learning
					

Hava Nagila. Israeli Folk Music. Israeli Music. Jewish Music




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

The first Jews to arrive in Zambia were Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe (mostly Lithuania) who migrated in the 19th century when it was a British colony. A few Sephardim also came, including the Katzenellenbogen family from Germany.

The main waves of migration came during the several diamond and gold rushes; other newcomers were pioneers in the cattle industry, copper mining and agriculture. Jewish merchants were active.

Some of the descendants of the early Jewish settlers still live in Zambia. The nation had its first Jewish wedding in 1905. During World War II, a few Holocaust survivors arrived, mostly from Germany and Lithuania fleeing Nazi persecution and seeking refuge in the furthest place they could reach.

The Jewish population peaked in the 1960s at around 2,000. However, the community dwindled as part of a larger white emigration. Many Zambian Jews moved to the United Kingdom, Australia or Israel.

Lusaka, the capital and largest city, historically had the largest Jewish population. The second biggest community was in Livingstone, near Victoria Falls.

The community in Livingstone had around 200 Jewish members at its peak and had a distinct identity, maintaining closer ties with the Jews in Bulawayo (now in Zimbabwe) because it was nearer, back when Zambia and Zimbabwe were Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia, respectively, under British rule (1911-64).

A synagogue built in Livingstone in the 1920s is now a church. A Star of David over the main entrance still remains visible, attesting to the historic Jewish presence.

(full article online)









						Zambia to Get First Rabbi in Six Decades
					

A road in Zambia. Photo: Francis Ackson Soko via Wikimedia Commons. JNS.org – Rabbi Mendy and Rivky Hertzel will move …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

Early History​From the period of the 12th century C.E. until the mid-18th century, Jews in Serbia were generally treated well. They were traders mainly involved in selling salt. By the end of the Turkish rule over Serbia, Jewish tradesmen were largely responsible for the trade route between the northern and southern ends of the lands ruled by the Turks.

In 1804, the Serbs waged a war against the Turks for their independence. In response to the violent revolt, many Jews moved to Zemun and created their own community there. In support of the wars of independence, Jews supplied the Serbs with weapons, and in return, Jews faced brutal attacks by the Turks.

The wars of independence lasted until 1830 when the Serbs gained the right to self-rule.

The new Serbian government was not as friendly in their relations with Jewish citizens. In fact, by 1831, the Serbs had already begun to prohibit Jews from certain professions. Prince Milosh Obrenovich tried to improve the Jewish situation, but he was overtaken by the Karageorgevich family in 1842. The new dynasty sympathized with non-Jewish merchants and, by 1845, the Serbian Jews had been prevented from participating in even the most basic of professions such as tailoring.

In 1856, Jews were expelled from provincial towns. Prince Milosh Obrenovich reclaimed his role as ruler and again Jews were hopeful of their situation. By 1860, however, Milosh's son was ruling and he followed the ways of the Karageorgevich rulers. Non-Jewish merchants were again favored and Jewish Serbs were prohibited from the mercantile industry.

The inconsistency of the laws regarding Jews continued through the end of the 19th century. In 1861, for example, a decree that called for the expulsion of sixty Jewish families was retracted after one month. In its place, a law was written to allow Jews freedom to practice professions within their own communities. At the same time that the government declared an emancipation of all Serbian citizens, it also reverted back to past discriminatory laws against Jews. The Serbian parliament did not lift its restrictions on Jewish citizens until 1889. Because of blatant Serbian anti-Semitism, the Jewish population in the area decreased each year. In 1912, 5,000 Jews remained in Serbia. Jews in the region began to give their support to the Zionist cause. Sephardic communities, in particular, were influenced by Zionist ideals.


(full article online)​






						Serbia Virtual Jewish History Tour
					

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.




					www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org


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## Sixties Fan

Jewish-Muslim Conviviality In Morocco – Analysis
					

Early Jews in the Maghreb Since antiquity, Morocco has been at a crossroads of encounters for several civilizations, all have been there, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vandals, and the Byzantine…




					www.eurasiareview.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Torah translated into Greek (246 BCE)*
In a second attempt to translate the Torah into Greek (after an unsuccessful attempt 61 years earlier), the ruling Greek-Egyptian emperor Ptolemy gathered 72 Torah sages, had them sequestered in 72 separate rooms, and ordered them to each produce a translation. On the 8th of Tevet of the year 3515 from creation (246 BCE) they produced 72 corresponding translations, including identical changes in 13 places (where they each felt that a literal translation would constitute a corruption of the Torah's true meaning). This Greek rendition became known as the Septuagint, "of the seventy" (though later versions that carry this name are not believed to be true to the originals). Greek became a significant second language among Jews as a result of this translation. During Talmudic times, Tevet 8 was observed by some as a fast day, expressing the fear of the detrimental effect of the translation.

*Links:* The Day Before; Translating Truth; more on translation


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Passing of Ezra (313 BCE)*
Ezra, who led the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel after the Babylonian exile (423-353 BCE), oversaw the building of the Second Temple, canonized the 24 books of the Holy Scriptures ("bible") and, as head of the "Great Assembly" legislated a series of laws and practices (including formalized prayer) which left a strong imprint on Judaism to this very day, passed away on the 9th of Tevet of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE -- exactly 1000 years after the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai). The passing of Ezra marked the end of the "Era of Prophecy".

*Links*

Learn more about Ezra
Men of the Great Assembly

*• Alfred Dreyfus Dismissed from Military (1895)*
Alfred Dreyfus, a captain in the French Army, was falsely accused of treason, largely on account of his Jewish identity. On this date, he was formally stripped from his rank, following which he was deported to Devil’s Island, where he languished for over four years. The case and its aftermath, known as the Dreyfus Affair, served as a poignant reminder that despite modern promises of equality and progress, anti-Semitism was still prevalent and Jews were unable to fully integrate into European society.


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## Sixties Fan

[ King Charles ]









						Holocaust Survivor Included in Prince Charles’ First New Years Honors List After Celebrating 99th Birthday
					

Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert. Photo: Matti Zoman Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp survivor and published author Lily Ebert received one of Britain’s …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

*No  Jew lives in Libya today, so Elia Meghnagi’s autobiography is a valuable, and lively, testimony to a vanished world.  Lyn Julius reviews ‘Escape froM Benghazi’ in *_*The Times of Israel’ (Jewish News*_*):*






Nazis, kidnappings,  brawls, great escapes — Elia Meghnagi’ s autobiography _Escape from Benghazi_ appears to have all the ingredients of a fast-paced adventure story. Sometimes it is hard to believe that what he writes is not fiction.

The subtitle is ironic — _Diary of an imposter._ If any community were emphatically not imposters, it was the 2,000 year-old Jews of Libya, whose presence predates the Arab Muslim conquest.

Libya was an Italian colony when Elia was a baby in Benghazi, the capital of the province of Cyrenaica, not far from the Egyptian border. He grew up  immersed in Italian culture, yet attached to traditional religious values,  in a city where half the population was Jewish.
Just before he was born in 1941, Elia’s community was subject to fascist racial laws. The Jews found an ingenious solution when they were forced to open their shops on the Sabbath. Anxious to avoid handling money, they inflated prices by 40 percent, urging customers to come back on a weekday.
Word War II was a dark time: Benghazi changed hands several times between the British and the Axis powers. The city was ravaged by bombing and looting. Ninety percent of the devastated community — Libya’s Jews numbered 38,000 — were to flee to Israel after the war.

The heroine of the book is Elia’s mother. Rather than let her son Clem be treated by a “Nazi doctor” in the local  hospital, Elia’s mother, eight months pregnant, journeys the 650 miles to a Tripoli hospital to have a life-threatening carob seed dislodged from her son’s ear. Even after the war, German doctors in Libya presented a hazard.

Elia’s mother shows her mettle once more when she rescues a Jewish girl who has been kidnapped by an Arab youth.
Thanks to her strength of character, the family is spared deportation to Giado, the notorious desert camp where Arabs patrol on horseback wielding whips and swords. Some 500 Jews die of typhus or starvation — a fifth of the prisoners.

But not all Arabs are hostile, especially the older generation. During the war, the Meghnagi family find shelter with friendly Bedouins. And a human chain of Arabs saves them from a mob enraged by the Suez crisis in 1956.
The rising tension over Israel aggravates relations, and brawls between young Jews and Arab are almost a fact of life. In one such incident, Elia witnesses his younger brother Ever being beaten up by Arab youths. Elia runs to fend off the assailants with his lunchbox.
It was an episode which was to haunt him in years to come.

Even when the 17-year-old Elia wins a place to study telecomms engineering in England, his tribulations are not over. The Libyan government repeatedly demands that he return to his home country to face charges perversely accusing _him_ of assault. An ill-advised visit to the Libyan embassy in London leads Elia to make a quick getaway out of fear he might be abducted.

In the second part of  the book, set in England, Elia typifies “the refugee made good.” He navigates difficulties with aplomb — statelessness and penury. He is forced to support himself and his family, bringing them in to England, while having to cope with his mother’s deteriorating mental health. It is hard not to conclude that her condition is connected to the traumas she has suffered.
Adaptable, versatile and resourceful, Elia meets all challenges with fortitude and humour. He makes a career in the corporate world and later becomes a director of the kosher food firm Snowcrest. He is the archetypal survivor. All’s well that end’s well: Elia becomes a fulfilled family man and a pillar of his Edgware synagogue and the wider community.

The book is a lively read, with jaunty subheadings and amusing anecdotes. The first part, set in Libya, is a particularly valuable testimony to a vanished world. After 2,000 years, no Jew lives there anymore.
Read article in full











						Testimony to a vanished Libyan-Jewish world • Point of No Return
					

No  Jew lives in Libya today, so Elia Meghnagi’s autobiography is a valuable, and lively, testimony to a vanished world.  Lyn Julius reviews ‘Escape froM Benghazi’ in The Times of Israel’ (Jewish News): Nazis, kidnappings,  brawls, great escapes — Elia Meghnagi’ s autobiography Escape from...




					www.jewishrefugees.org.uk


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## whoisit

Sixties Fan said:


> This is a story of resistance and spiritual audacity. It is a story that unfolds in the deserts of Mexico’s silver mining regions, on the streets of the emerging colonial metropolis of Mexico City, inside the libraries of Franciscan monasteries, and in the underground cells of the Inquisition. It connects the far reaches of the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora with the global trade routes linking East and West. It is about colonialism, religious persecution, love, family, and faith but ultimately, it is a story about a book.
> We begin with a small, leather-bound notebook filled with a highly original anthology: poems, prayers, meditations on the Ten Commandments, an electrifying autobiography, and even a holiday calendar. The book was written in the gifted scribal hand of Joseph Lumbroso, a 16th-century Mexican religious thinker, poet, and crypto-Jewish martyr, otherwise known as Luis de Carvajal, el mozo. Carvajal wrote this religious anthology in the few years between his two arrests by the Holy Office of the Mexican Inquisition for Judaizing. Shortly after his arrest, the book was found in his family’s home and was preserved as evidence against Lumbroso and his family on charges of heresy.
> Heresy was a common accusation in this time, as was the crime of Judaizing—holding onto Jewish practices and beliefs. The Inquisition was focused on heresy, and as such sought to police the religious lives of Christians. But Spain had a large group of Christians who were, as their suspicious neighbors called them, New Christians. These descendants of Jewish converts were viewed by their Christian neighbors as less-than. They were seen as still deeply rooted in their Judaism and attached to the “dead law of Moses.” So the conversos entered the church by and large under duress—whether it was during the murderous riots of 1391, during the intense preaching campaigns of Vicente Ferrer, or when faced with the awful choice of abandoning their millennial home in Sepharad in 1492.
> Once they converted, many sincerely embraced Christianity while others lived a double life, publicly comporting themselves as faithful Christians while secretly holding on to aspects of Jewish belief and practice. Regardless of their inner religious conviction, however, most conversos remained socioeconomically and culturally other. They continued to live in the same neighborhoods as before, worked in the same businesses, and continued similar marriage practices, namely marrying children into the family of business partners. No longer Jewish, now the conversos married their children to other conversos instead of other Jews. The court historian Andrés Bernáldez captured this succinctly when he described the atavistic Jewishness of the conversos:
> 
> 
> Eating garlicky tapas drizzled in olive oil or preparing adafina is not an act of heresy. But for Bernaáldez the attachment to Jewish cuisine was a sign of cultural heresy. He goes on to refer to outright acts of Judaizing, such as keeping the laws of Passover and avoiding the Sacraments and then he turns to another sociocultural critique of the conversos Jewishness:
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Auto-da-fé of Mexico City
> 
> 
> On Dec. 8, 1596, Luis de Carvajal the Younger, along with members of his prominent extended family of crypto-Jews, was burned at the stake. Their story has fascinated historians ever since.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.tabletmag.com


I respectfully disagree with your understanding of history.
I've always been a history buff, especially religion as I always searched for the truth.
 At one time I belonged to the Jewish religion. 
The first religious group in the America's were Quaker. The people of ships originated from The Tribe of Dan. He was the first to travel to Europe and Scandinavia. It says so in The New Testament.
 My memory is not good these days be it illness or stress not sure, but I have 1000s of notes on both ancient and recent history.
  I hope this can be a social debate and not a flaming contest.


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## whoisit

Sixties Fan said:


> “So successful were the Jewish pioneers that by 1900, there wasn’t a single settlement west of the Mississippi of any significance which had not had a Jewish mayor,” says historian Kenneth Libo. “This includes Deadwood, Dodge City, and Tombstone.”
> 
> Between 1840 and 1880, the European Jewish population in America increased from 15,000 to around 250,000. Most migrated for familiar reasons—to escape religious persecution, political upheaval, and poverty. “What is clear, even at this early stage, is the complex nature of the collective Jewish experience in America,” writes Libo in his 1985 book _We Lived There Too_, coauthored with the late Irving Howe. “For already there are those who stay east and those who go west, those who come with special privileges and those who suffer discrimination, those who care about the faith of their fathers and those who do not, those who remain uprooted and those who transplant themselves.” Jewish settlers encountered little prejudice in the West, according to Libo. “They were looked upon as fellow settlers.”
> 
> During this same time, the United States increased its size by a third with the annexation of Texas in 1845, the ratification of the Oregon Treaty, the seizure of tribal lands, and the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as spoils from the Mexican-American War.
> 
> With expansion came opportunities. Boomtowns appeared as word spread of copper in Montana and Arizona, silver in New Mexico, and gold in California. Just like their Gentile counterparts, Jewish men and women were lured into hostile landscapes, traveling west by buckboard, stagecoach, horseback, and prairie schooner through Indian country to new settlements in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and the gold fields of California with the hope of striking it rich, or at the very least, the possibility of a new life for themselves and their families.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Photo caption
> Trader Julius Mayer with Chiefs Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail. The Pawnee tribe also gave him the name Box-ka-re-sha-has-ta-ka or Curly-headed white chief with one tongue.
> Nebraska State Historical Society
> 
> 
> But it was the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night prospector, who played a major role in the development of the West, turning dusty little cow towns into urban centers. “Jews literally brought civilization to countless cities and towns in America west of the Mississippi by establishing ‘the department store’ in every town of any consequence,” says Libo. “Their numbers may have been small, but their influence was substantial.”
> 
> 
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jewish Pioneers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.neh.gov
> 
> 
> 
> 
> is false history.





Sixties Fan said:


> “So successful were the Jewish pioneers that by 1900, there wasn’t a single settlement west of the Mississippi of any significance which had not had a Jewish mayor,” says historian Kenneth Libo. “This includes Deadwood, Dodge City, and Tombstone.”
> 
> Between 1840 and 1880, the European Jewish population in America increased from 15,000 to around 250,000. Most migrated for familiar reasons—to escape religious persecution, political upheaval, and poverty. “What is clear, even at this early stage, is the complex nature of the collective Jewish experience in America,” writes Libo in his 1985 book _We Lived There Too_, coauthored with the late Irving Howe. “For already there are those who stay east and those who go west, those who come with special privileges and those who suffer discrimination, those who care about the faith of their fathers and those who do not, those who remain uprooted and those who transplant themselves.” Jewish settlers encountered little prejudice in the West, according to Libo. “They were looked upon as fellow settlers.”
> 
> During this same time, the United States increased its size by a third with the annexation of Texas in 1845, the ratification of the Oregon Treaty, the seizure of tribal lands, and the acquisition of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, as spoils from the Mexican-American War.
> 
> With expansion came opportunities. Boomtowns appeared as word spread of copper in Montana and Arizona, silver in New Mexico, and gold in California. Just like their Gentile counterparts, Jewish men and women were lured into hostile landscapes, traveling west by buckboard, stagecoach, horseback, and prairie schooner through Indian country to new settlements in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the deserts of the Southwest, and the gold fields of California with the hope of striking it rich, or at the very least, the possibility of a new life for themselves and their families.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Photo caption
> Trader Julius Mayer with Chiefs Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail. The Pawnee tribe also gave him the name Box-ka-re-sha-has-ta-ka or Curly-headed white chief with one tongue.
> Nebraska State Historical Society
> 
> 
> But it was the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night prospector, who played a major role in the development of the West, turning dusty little cow towns into urban centers. “Jews literally brought civilization to countless cities and towns in America west of the Mississippi by establishing ‘the department store’ in every town of any consequence,” says Libo. “Their numbers may have been small, but their influence was substantial.”
> 
> 
> 
> (full article online)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jewish Pioneers
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.neh.gov



Plenty of proof this is false history, although nobody will object to its claim in fear of being called antisemitic. Which of course most don't have anything at all against Jews in my relatives or friend's. We care for Jews, but the feeling seldom seems mutual.
  My nation and ancestor's accomplishments are basically extinct now, but it gets tiring hearing so much negative half-truths and lies about the white Christian's or non-religious Caucasians and his ancestor's.
  Including many who have fought and died protecting from evils of a few of them and others.
  In a month from now you'll probably have changed history so drastically that you founded, built and totally created the whole American Continent.
  Jews have accomplished much and given much to the world but not everything or alone.
  Now you can start with the attacks.


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## Sixties Fan

[ Someone should tell him ?  ]


From EanLibya:




> Fathi al-Shibli, head of the People's Voice Party and the official spokesman for the Gathering of Libyan Parties, said that Libyan Jews are Libyan citizens, with no difference between them and any other Libyan citizen in terms of rights and duties.
> 
> He added in his statement: “There is a Libyan Arab, there is a Libyan Tariq, there is a Libyan Tabawi, and there is a Libyan Berber, all of whom are components of the Libyan people..and all of them have the right to live and citizenship..we never differentiate between them.”
> 
> Al-Shibli continued: “Judaism is a heavenly religion that we Muslims recognize and respect.
> 
> He concluded by saying: “As for the position on the Zionist movement, that is another matter.”



What a great guy! He emphasizes that Libyan Jews have the same rights as any other Libyan. He's so liberal!

Except for one tiny detail. *There are no Libyan Jews, *and there hasn't been a single one for 20 years.

They were discriminated against, slaughtered, plundered  and chased out of Libya. They were placed in concentration camps during World War II, and then afterwards...




> In November, 1945 there was* a vicious, three-day pogrom against the Jews in Tripoli: 120 Jews were murdered, hundreds more were wounded, and at least five synagogues were completely destroyed.* The rioters not only destroyed and looted the city’s synagogues, but they also ruined hundreds of homes and businesses as well.
> 
> Again in 1948, coinciding with the declaration of the State of Israel, anti-Semitism escalated and* rioters killed 12 Jews and destroyed 280 homes*. This time, though, the Jews fought back and prevented even more deaths and injury. As a result of the rampant anti-Semitism, 30,972 Jews immigrated to Israel.
> 
> A new law in 1961 required a special permit to prove Libyan citizenship.* Virtually all Jews were denied this permit.* By 1967 the Jewish population had decreased to 7,000. Following Israel’s Six Day War, antisemitic rioting began again. The King of Libya, as well as Jewish leaders, urged the remaining Libyan Jews to emigrate. An Italian airlift saved 6,000 Jews and relocated them to Rome, though they were forced to leave behind homes, businesses and possessions. In 1969, when Muammar al-Qaddafi came to power, there were only 100 Jews remaining in Libya. *His government confiscated all Jewish property, cancelled Jewish debt and made emigration for Jews legally prohibited.* Some Jews still managed to get out. By 2004 there were no Jews left in Libya.



So this is nothing but virtue signaling. 











						Libyan politician says Libyan Jews have equal rights. Only one problem.
					

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.




					elderofziyon.blogspot.com


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## Sixties Fan

Why American Jews Love Stella D'Oro Cookies | The Nosher
					

Are they Jewish cookies? Italian? Either way, they are beloved.




					www.myjewishlearning.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Purim Hebron*
On this day, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to the rescue of the Jewish community of Hebron, after an evil Pasha imprisoned its leaders and threatened to sell the entire Jewish population into slavery.

The Sephardic community of Hebron would celebrate this day to mark the great miracle which occurred.

*Links:
Purim Hebron* 
*22 Facts About Hebron Every Jew Should Know

• R. Abraham Ibn Ezra Receives a Letter From the Shabbat Queen (1159)*
R. Abraham Ibn Ezra was visiting London when, one Friday night, he had a fascinating dream. In it, a venerable man approached him and handed him a letter from the Shabbat Queen. R. Abraham read the letter, in which Shabbat informed him that one of his students had attempted to prove that Shabbat begins Saturday morning, and not Friday night, and beseeched his assistance. As a result of this dream, R. Abraham wrote his _Epistle of Shabbat_, in which he demonstrates beyond doubt that Shabbat indeed begins Friday night.

*Links:* Four Reasons Shabbat Is Compared to a Bride and a Queen


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## Sixties Fan

Picturing a Lost World
					

As the documentary ‘Three Minutes’ brings a Polish town’s Jewish pre-Holocaust history into focus, a Yizkor book helped me imagine life in my parents’ Romanian hometown




					www.tabletmag.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Salvation of Baghdad Jewry (1638)*
On this date, Murad IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, recaptured Baghdad from the Persian Shah after a forty-day siege. The Jews of Baghdad, who had suffered under the Shah’s tenure, celebrated this day each year to praise G‑d for rescuing them from Persian rule. According to legend, the Jews assisted in the capture by secretly conveying a message to the Sultan about a breach in the wall through which his forces could enter the city.


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• First New York Synagogue (1728)*
In 1684, a group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisition (see "Today in Jewish History" for Tevet 22) held a Rosh Hashanah service in New Amsterdam, thereby founding congregation Shearith Israel ("Remnant of Israel"). On this 17th of Tevet in 1728, the congregation purchased a lot in Lower Manhattan to erect the first synagogue in New York.


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## Sixties Fan

The Austrian Jewish journalist Karl Pfeifer. Photo: Austrian Cultural Forum


The death of Karl Pfeifer last Friday marks the end of an unforgettable and unparalleled chapter in the history of Jewish journalism after World War II.

Karl — who passed away in Vienna at the grand age of 94 — was buried on Sunday in the Jewish cemetery in Baden, the Austrian spa town where he was born in 1928 into a secular Jewish family. Karl’s personal odyssey, and later his career as a journalist, spanned the Holocaust, the creation of the State of Israel, the depths of the Cold War and then the implosion of the communist bloc, the subsequent trials of democratization, and the emergence of a renewed, full-throated nationalism in the last decade of his life. But while most people of his generation were spectators at these events, Karl was an active participant in body, mind and soul.

(full article online)










						Karl Pfeifer, Journalist Who Documented 20th Century With A Jewish Eye, Dies at 94: A Personal Memoriam
					

The Austrian Jewish journalist Karl Pfeifer. Photo: Austrian Cultural Forum The death of Karl Pfeifer last Friday marks the end …




					www.algemeiner.com


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## Sixties Fan

Jewish American poet Naomi Replansky dies at 104
					

Replansky was described as "an intensely political poet, appalled by the cruelty, greed, and corruption of the masters of nations and corporations."




					www.jpost.com


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## Sixties Fan

Today in Jewish History​*• Huna Killed (469)*
The Exilarch ("Reish Galuta") of Babylonian Jewry, Huna Mori bar Mar Zutra, was executed in Pumpadita by order of the Persian emperor on the 18th of Tevet of the year 4229 from creation (469 of the common era). Also killed on that day was Rav Mesharshia bar Pekod (the third Jewish leader who was arrested with them, Rav Ameimar bar Mar Yenuka, was executed two months later).


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