Jewish History

Did you know the first Jewish colonist arrived in Roanoke, Virginia in 1585?


Since then, Southern Jews have been settlers, soldiers, merchants, civic and social leaders, rabbis, politicians, and people of faith.


The South has long been the most religious region of our country.

The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, located in New Orleans, tells the surprising and remarkable story of Jewish survival and success in the heart of America's Bible Belt.
 

Today in Jewish History​

• Martyrs of Blois (1171)
The 20th of Sivan is the anniversary of the first blood libel in France. On this date in 1171, tens of Jewish men and women were burned alive in the French town of Blois on the infamous accusation that Jews used to the blood of Christian children in the preparation of matzot for Passover. For a detailed account see link below.
 
Today in Jewish History

• Egyptians "Sue" For Gold & Silver (4th Century BCE)
Egyptian representatives appeared in the court of Alexander the Great, demanding that the Jews pay restitution for all the Egyptian gold and silver they took along with them during the Exodus. Geviha the son of Pesisa, a simple but wise Jew, requested the sages' permission to present a defense on behalf of the Jews.

Geviha asked the Egyptians for evidence that the Jews absconded with their wealth. "The crime is clearly recorded in your Torah," the Egyptians gleefully responded.

"In that case," Geviha said, "the Torah also says that 600,000 Jews were unjustly enslaved by the Egyptians for many, many years. So first let us calculate how much you owe us..."

The court granted the Egyptians three days in which to prepare a response. When they were unable to do so they fled on the following day and never returned.

In Talmudic times, the day when the Egyptian delegation fled was celebrated as a mini-holiday.

(According to some traditions, this event took place on Nissan 24.)
 

Today in Jewish History​

• Jews of Olyka Saved from Cossack Mob (1649)

During the Chmielnitzki Massacres (see entry for 4 Sivan), a Cossack mob gathered around the fortified town of Olyka. Among the Jews who had found refuge inside was R. David Halevi (the Taz), a refugee from the nearby city of Ostroh. As the Cossacks prepared to breach the walls, the Jews gathered in prayer in the synagogue. Weak and tired, R. David drifted off to an uneasy sleep, and in his dream he envisioned the verse, “I will protect this city to save it, for My sake and for the sake of My servant David” (II Kings 19:34). Indeed, the old cannons atop the walls miraculously fired spontaneously toward the enemy, who proceeded to flee (Minhagei Beis Alik, p. 752).
 
Apparently Herod the Great was part Jew and Part Arab and a Roman soldier to boot in B.C. Israel. His building agenda is evident even today.
 
Sheldon Harnick, the lyricist who put words to the sorrows and simchas of Jewish life in Fiddler on the Roof, died Friday at 99.

Through Fiddler, which he adapted from the stories of Sholem Aleichem with composer Jerry Bock and book writer Joseph Stein, Harnick’s words traveled the globe and gave voice to a lost Jewish world. Debuting fewer than 20 years after the end of the Holocaust, Harnick’s deeply human portrait of shtetl life — its customs, hopes and fears — bestowed the source material wide-ranging appeal and gave midcentury Jews, especially those who felt themselves to be at some remove from their roots, a common language.

Harnick was born in Chicago on April 30, 1924, to a dentist father and homemaker mother. He started playing violin early and, influenced by poems his mother wrote for special occasions, began writing poetry. He was published soon after — in his grammar school paper.


Harnick started writing music and lyrics in high school with a classmate, a collaboration cut short when Harnick was drafted to fight in World War II. While in the service, he wrote tunes about his time in the Army, performing them on Monday nights for the troops.

On his return to civilian life, Harnick attended Northwestern University to study violin. But he also continued to write, and moved to New York on graduating in 1949, where he found work writing for revues and industrial musicals, and initially penned music as well as the words.


(full article online)

 

Today in Jewish History​

• Purim Ostroh (1792)
The Jewish community of Ostroh (in what is now western Ukraine) was miraculously spared when a Russian army led by General Suvorov attempted to breach its walls, claiming Polish insurgents were present inside. To commemorate the miracle, the day of 7 Tammuz was established as a local day of rejoicing, and a special scrollin which the story was inscribed was read each year on this date.

According to legend, two cannons that struck the great Maharshasynagogue caused no harm. The two cannons were thereupon displayed in the synagogue for all to see. (Yalkut Volhynia,issues 2–3)

Link: Other Purims
 

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.

Links:

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.
 
Apparently Herod the Great was part Jew and Part Arab and a Roman soldier to boot in B.C. Israel. His building agenda is evident even today.
well---not exactly---depends on what you call "arab"-----Herod was an EDOMITE---
Edom was a land mostly now Jordan-----they were not particularly from Arabia.
As to language---some semitic thing but not arabic. Edom was at odds with Judea
for centuries and also under attack from mesopotamia----they is gone now----
Herod was educated to some extent in Rome and was a client of Rome---there are
stories indicating that his mother was a fervent Jewess-----but that Herod was more
Roman than the jews liked----actually---he was not liked at all and was not considered
a legal "king"
 
Apparently Herod the Great was part Jew and Part Arab and a Roman soldier to boot in B.C. Israel. His building agenda is evident even today.

The Babylonian Jews were a fanatically racist cult, so they wouldn't have considered Herod a 'real Jew'; in fact, they wouldn't have even considered Moses to be a 'real Jew', going by their extensive 'Racial Purity' laws in place then. That's why they probably made up their own Torah and dumped the written Torah put down by Moses.
 
The Babylonian Jews were a fanatically racist cult, so they wouldn't have considered Herod a 'real Jew'; in fact, they wouldn't have even considered Moses to be a 'real Jew', going by their extensive 'Racial Purity' laws in place then. That's why they probably made up their own Torah and dumped the written Torah put down by Moses.
try again, Mr dud. The Jews of Judea---most especially the Pharisees, rejected the
Roman appointee, Herod, as King for MANY REASONS---especially the Roman
control. The Pharisee cousin, John the Baptist of Jesus and Jesus (the Pharisee)
also rejected Herod as King. Your jelly bean teacher forgot to tell you that Jesus and
his cousin were so ANTI-HEROD---that Herod killed cousin John. Even the NT
makes some sense if you have a minimal grasp of the life and times of
Jesus and cousin John
 
try again, Mr dud. The Jews of Judea---most especially the Pharisees, rejected the
Roman appointee, Herod, as King for MANY REASONS---especially the Roman
control. The Pharisee cousin, John the Baptist of Jesus and Jesus (the Pharisee)
also rejected Herod as King. Your jelly bean teacher forgot to tell you that Jesus and
his cousin were so ANTI-HEROD---that Herod killed cousin John. Even the NT
makes some sense if you have a minimal grasp of the life and times of
Jesus and cousin John
Mr Duds has denied the fact that Herod killed JOHN THE BAPTIST-----sheeeesh---
he spits on the NT
 

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