Jewish History

[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 In 1861, for example, a decree that called for the expulsion of sixty Jewish families was retracted after one month.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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[whoisit]

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.

 

[whoisit]

“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.

“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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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).

 

[Sixties Fan]

Dani Rotstein’s journey from New Jersey to the Spanish island of Majorca was circuitous. There was a stint in corporate America; he spent semesters abroad in Israel and Spain. He was eventually tugged to the fashion and TV commercial world: “New Zealand for America’s Next Top Model, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires for Maybelline, Chile for Kmart, New Mexico for Subaru, and South Park, Colorado, for Toyota … yes, it’s a real place,” reads the bio on his website.

But amid all the globetrotting, Spain stood out. “I fell in love with the Spanish language, life, culture, and history,” Rotstein told me. “I just kind of said to myself, ‘I’m definitely going to come back here at some point in my life to live.’” After a hiatus in Miami, Rotstein found the lifeline he was looking for when a friend told him about a production job in Majorca.

“When I got there, I was pretty sure that I was going to be the only Jewish person living on the island,” said Rotstein. A coworker recommended he check out the local synagogue. When he found it, there was no security—or rabbi.

But one thing truly confused Rotstein: The Kaddish was skipped during the service.

The synagogue had 14 men present, so why not recite the prayer if they had a minyan? That’s when a man approached telling him that many of those in attendance were not halachically Jewish: “Some of them must be Xueta,” the man noted.

“I had never heard this term before,” Rotstein told me. “It kind of shook me. I’d lived in Madrid for a year. I’d studied the Inquisition. I speak Spanish. I was very confused as to what that meant.” After the services, he stepped outside to speak with the man. “He basically explained to me this incredible fascinating history that still excites me to this day to share.”




Violent pogroms in the 14th century devastated the Majorcan Jewish community, which traced its roots back a millennium. Fearing for their survival, in 1435 the entire community underwent a mass conversion. Henceforth, no one among these “New Christians” practiced their Judaism publicly, although a smaller subgroup of crypto-Jews did in private.

Still, the conversions didn’t satisfy everyone.

The Spanish Inquisition conducted periodic autos-da-fé (public burnings) singling out New Christians thought to have remained faithful to their Judaism. Suspected crypto-Jews persecuted by the Inquisition had their names written on sanbenitos that were publicly displayed in the Church of Santo Domingo in Palma (which is no longer existent). By some estimates, the lists included hundreds of names. However, burgeoning renovation costs (alongside speculations of bribery to have one’s name removed) led authorities in the mid-1700s to preserve only 15 surnames that persisted over the coming centuries on Majorca as a sign of forbidden Jewish roots. Descendants of these families came to be known as “Xuetas,” which some believe stems from combining the Catalan words for xulla(bacon or pork) and Jueu (Jew). Although the surviving members of these Xueta families of crypto-Jews were spared the worst aspects of the Inquisition, their surnames were tainted by association.

For centuries, these 15 families were effectively barred from marrying any other Majorcans and were forced to look for spouses within their small community. Today, there are roughly 20,000 Xuetas on Majorca, although most neither identify themselves as such, are unaffiliated with the Jewish community in Palma, and wish to forget their Jewish roots.

Even the basic notion of a “Xueta community” is something which many of the people I spoke with found foreign. There are no Xueta community centers or communal gatherings to speak of. Consequently, there is no official community cooperation between present-day Majorca’s roughly 500 to 1,000 Jews and the Xuetas. For the relatively small number of Xuetas interested in reconnecting with Judaism, the journey is the same as any other convert. Returning to the faith for such Xuetas involves studying at a beit din, going to the mikvah: “the whole nine yards,” Rotstein told me.

There is a synagogue that some Xuetas attend but, Rotstein said, “there is no Xueta who has ever walked in and immediately counted as a Jew, ever.” The organizations he spearheads seek to reach out to disaffected Jews on the island and raise awareness about Xueta history. However, the vast majority of Xuetas remain content as Christians. Stigma against the community has eased in recent decades as the taboo about their history has been publicized and spoken about more openly.



(full article online)

‘Xuetas’ Return to Their Roots in Majorca

Bringing a hidden piece of Spain’s Jewish history back into the light

www.tabletmag.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Detail of a portion of lines 12–16, reconstructed from the squeeze. The middle line (14) reads "Take Nabau against Israel."
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Written records of biblical King David discovered by researchers

The stele was discovered in fragments in 1868 roughly 15 miles east of the Dead Sea and currently resides in the Louvre museum in Paris.

www.jpost.com

 

[Ria_Longhorn]

At one time I belonged to the Jewish religion.

Prayerfully, you return to your people.