Jewish History

[The Duke]

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!

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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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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

 

[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 tzitzitgarment. 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

 

[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]

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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Hava Nagila's Long, Strange Trip | My Jewish Learning

Hava Nagila. Israeli Folk Music. Israeli Music. Jewish Music

www.myjewishlearning.com

 

[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