Life Outside of Israel and Judea in Diaspora: Expulsions in an Intolerant World Society

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                         

                     The Life, Culture and Religion of the Byzantine Empire

 Jews faced expulsion from Rome in 139 BCE by the praetor, Hispanus.  Jews had migrated to Rome from Alexandria, Egypt.  They then made up a significant part of the population there.   This was during the Ptolemaic era.   They had then gone to Rome.  Josephus, the Jewish general who had been the historian for the Romans said that he himself had led 120,000 Jewish captives, probably from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE  to Egypt from Jerusalem and other parts of Judea, Samaria and Mt. Gerizim.  Soon after they were freed of their bondage  by Philadelphus.

The Roman Empire made Constantinople its capital by the 4th Century and this was called the Byzantine Empire.  This empire extended throughout the world and included "Palestine" even by the year 637.  The eastern emperors  had specific religious attitudes towards Jews.  Justinian (527-65) created anti-Jewish laws in his Code, and also issued a decree in 553 which affected the conduct of the synagogue services.  Heraclius around 614 to have issued an edict ordering the conversion of the Jews.  Judaism was continually forbidden by successive emperors; by Leo in 223, Basil I in 873-4, Romanus Lucapenus in 932-6, and so it went.  Each time Jewish life picked up and continued.  It was not about to be stomped out.

Benjamin of Tudela around 1170 found Jewish communities throughout the Byzantine Empire.  He discovered that Jews were treated with contempt in Constantinople.  The last remaining Jews there were conquered by the Turks in 1453.

The results of religious intolerance grew in the early Middle Ages.  Forced conversions to the dominant faith of Christianity without the alternative of exile was frequent during the days of the Byzantine Empire.  Jews faced expulsions when they refused to be converted to Christianity.  Today, the city of Constantinople is renamed as Istanbul.  The Eastern orthodox church grew out of it and separated from the Western Church with its headquarters in Rome in 1054.  Later it again divided into the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox with each group being independent.

  This is why the Pilgrims braved a journey in the Mayflower and sailed from Holland to the unknown land of America in 1620.  Though they were Christians, their outlook was a little different than the English viewpoint.  Thus, the USA became a country of religious tolerance; not quickly, but eventually.

We're still wondering if Christopher Columbus was Jewish by birth.  He wrote letters to his son in Hebrew.  His interpreter, Luis de Torres, a converted Jew, was the first European to set foot on American soil. His name was Yosef ben HaLevi Halvi.   Jews who were hiding the fact and pretending to be Catholics that had been converted were called Marranos.  Marranos had settled in both the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies because of the Inquisition of 1492.  The term, Marranos is not used today. Jews do not eat any meat from pigs.   It means "swine" in Spanish and was applied in Spain and Portugal to the descendants of baptized Jews who were suspected of secret adherence to Judaism.  Another word used today to replace the pejorative term of Marranos is Anussim, a Hebrew word.   Inquisitors would have people report on suspects who were thought to have evidence of them refusing to eat any pork products.  It is said that the Inquisition still exists in Portugal today!

 After the massacres in 1391 in Spain, more Jews in this position grew to appreciate their Jewish heritage.  All the Jews of Portugal for forcibly converted in 1497.  With the Inquisition in Portugal by 1540, the Marranos/Anussim were persecuted in Spain to the close of the 18th century and into Mexico into the 1800's.  Many escaped to Italy, North Africa and Turkey.  Anussim in Italy lived in Ancona, Ferrara, Venice and Leghorn.  Antwerp was another popular center in the 16th century.  Amerstadam, Holland was another as well as the Hague and Rotterdam.   When Brazil was under Dutch rule (1630-54) the first openly Jewish communities were founded by native Anussim and immigrants from Holland.

By 1880, the Jewish population in the USA had grown to 250,000 mostly from German Jews.  A small group settled in Canada then.   The pogroms of 1881 in Russia brought Russian Jews and immigration continuing into 1914, when it was lessened.  Jews went into Latin America such as Baron de Hirsch's agricultural colonies in Argentina.  1924's legislation in the USA  caused more Jews to immigrate to Canada and South America.  By 1933 those Jews in Germany were trying to immigrate to these places.  Spanish-speaking Sephardi immigrants were attracted to South America.  By 1989, Jews of the USA numbered 5,825,000.  47,000 lived in Central America and 390,000 lived in South America.

Religious intolerance continues in the USA but has taken on a new form.  By being intolerant to Israel, people  are venting their intolerance again towards Jews.  I notice many Protestant groups that are boycotting Israel's products as a religious body in trying to force them to think their way, not towards religion, necessarily but towards their attitude towards the Palestinians whom they know very little.  They side with a people trying to destroy Israel.  This is plain enough for me to see that they are not much different than the Byzantine Empire's attitude towards Jews.  On the other side of the coin are the Evangelical Christians who support Jews in order to carry forth their own religious concepts and that they support our right to live there as Jews.

139 BCE:  Jews expulsed from Rome

 19 CE        "        "                       "

 49/50        "        "                       "

115 CE     Jews expulsed from Cyprus

1182      Royal dominions of France-expulsed Jews who wouldn't convert

1290     All Jews expulsed from England

1306      Jews expulsed from France
1322       "                                "
1394      "                                "
1348/49  Jews expulsed from Germany  after Black Death Massacres
1349-60 Jews expulsed from Hungary
1421     Jews expulsed from Austria
1484     Jews  kept out of Andalusia, an autonomous community in Spain with Seville as capital
1492    Jews expulsed  from Spain and Spanish dominions including Sicily and Sardinia of 180,000
1495    Jews expulsed from Lithuania
1497    Jews expulsed from Portugal or fate was forced conversions, also Sicily and Sardinia
1498    Jews expulsed from  Navarre, now part of Spain and France
1502    All Jews expulsed from Rhodes, or forcibly converted or taken as slaves
1512   Jews expulsed from  Provence, a province of SE France
1541   Jews expulsed from kingdom of Naples, Italy
1569   Jews expulsed from smaller centers of papal dominions in Italy and France.
1727   Jews expulsed from Little Russia
1739    "                              "
1742   "                              "
1747  Jews expulsed from Russia again.
1891  Jews expulsed from Moscow and St. Petersburg
19th Century Jews expulsed periodically from areas outside of PALE OF SETTLEMENT (Russian land where Jews were allowed to live-Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belorussia, Ukraine)
1930's during Nazi power people with Jewish ancestry, regardless of present religious affiliations, compelled their emigration by means of ferocious persecution before they even started to deport and exterminate Jews.

For the Jewish people today, the remnant of a people who brought to the world the 10 Commandments and laws of which acts are acceptable and which aren't,  as well as a vast history of the beginnings of man in the Middle East and even brought into the world Jesus according to their own history,  there has been nothing but intolerance and unacceptedness.  Because Jews refused to convert and let go of their beliefs, they have suffered mightily.  Here they are today in their own land once again.  They know what has happened to their people when they were forced to leave.  They hold on with all their might to land legally theirs once again.

One of the miracles of today are a few Christians who are actually studying the Torah and are finding it awesome.This is not through any Jewish proselyting but they are discovering this on their own.   I believe this has brought on new found respect for the Jewish people who have always found it awesome and worth saving.  Perhaps if such an attitude existed long ago, the world would be a much different society.  At least we can say that many Jewish lives wouldn't have been uprooted or wouldn't have suffered such horrible deaths.  .

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10721a.htm on Navarre
http://sefarad.org/sefarad/sefarad.php/id/29/  "I am a Marrano"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrano
http://www.jackwhite.net/iberia/portugal.html   excellent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Egypt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_II_Philadelphus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Cornelius_Scipio_Hispanus
Facts About Israel , divisionof Information, Ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem 

THE Land, Ha'Aretz- PALESTINE

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Territories for Simeon, Judah, Dan, Benjamin, Reuben, Ephraim, Gad, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Manasseh

Palestine was Jewish land.  It was a basic tenet to Christian theology that the loss of the Jews' national independence was an act of G-d.  It was designed to punish the Jewish people for their rejection of "Christ." Christians felt they had to help G-d so that some emperors' minimal criteria of oppression and restriction of the Jews was always maintained as well as the maximum sort, such as in the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.

Eretz Yisrael (Israel and Judea) was the country of the Jews of which even the size and geography is outlined in the Torah/Bible.  That it was his country was a part of his theoretical exercise, an article of his theology and a sophisticated political feeling.  It was a pervasive and inextricable part of his daily life.

Jewish prayers and Jewish literature are filled with the love and longing for and the feeling of belonging to Eretz Yisrael and has been going on for the past 4,000 years.  It's part and parcel of our DNA.  It's in our soul.  "There is no theme so pervasive in the literature of any other nation," no theme that has yielded so much thought and feeling and expression as the relationship of the Jew to his land in Jewish literature and philosophy.  After all, G-d had led Moses back to the land and through Moses directed the people of the Exodus  where they should settle.

Jerusalem was taken and burned in 70 CE by the Romans.  The Jews' attachment to this land has never wavered.  Though many of the Jews were led away then as slaves, there were others, especially in the Galilee, who had never left.  Jewish life was maintained in the country.

In 135 CE, Simon Bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans which failed. It had been the fiercest and longest revolt ever faced by the Roman Empire.  There were 580,000 Jewish soldiers that died defending their land.  Many civilians died of starvation and pestilence.  985 Jewish villages were destroyed.

 That was over 60 years after the 2nd Temple was destroyed.  The Romans decided to waste the country then in a determined effort to stamp out the Jewish identity.  They plowed over Jerusalem at the direction of Emperor Hadrian.  Then they renamed it Aelia Capitolina, and Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina.

Banished from Jerusalem, Jews went to the Galilee in the northern section of their land.  Refugees returned.  Jews sold into slavery were redeemed and returned.   There arose some of the most important creativity of the Jewish people when the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud were finished.  Most of the people farmed the land.

The Roman Empire became Christian by the 4th century CE.  Their policy was to stop any spark of Judaism that might show up.  Even so, 43 Jewish communities in Palestine in the 6th century were revived:  12 towns on the coast, in the Negev and east of the Jordan,  and 31 villages in Galillee and in the Jordan Valley were reborn.  National restoration was in the hearts of the Jews.  In 351 they staged another revolt which was put down.  In 438 the Empress Eudocia ended the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site.

This caused the Jews to think that a period of restoration had finally come and they made an alliance with the Persians who invaded Palestine in 614.  Jews fought at their side and overwhelmed the Byzantine garrison in Jerusalem.  They governed the city for the next 3 years.  The Persians made peace with Emperor Heraclius and Christian rule was reestablished.  This meant that Jews were banished from the city again.  The Byzantine persecution started up again but was short-lived because in 632, when Mohammed died, the Moslem Arab invaders came and conquered the land.  By 640, Palestine had become part of the Moslem Empire.

They ruled for 450 years, first under the Omayyads (mostly all Arabs) who governed tolerantly from Damascus, and then under the Abbasid dynasty (mostly all Turkish) who governed from Baghdad.  So Jews were governed either tolerantly or persecuted and then ruled by the Fatimids from Cairo.  The Moslem Arabs took away lands from the Jews that they had held onto for 20 generations after the fall of the Jewish state.  The Crusaders came after them and had ruled Palestine or parts of it for a little more than 2 centuries and it was they who massacred the Jews in the cities.  Under the Moslems and Crusaders, the Jewish communities of Palestine held on with their prayers and chutzpah and survived.  The Jews had been some of the best fighters against the Crusaders.  When the city of Jerusalem fell, the Crusaders had gathered the Jews up in a synagogue and burned them.  Haifa was defended by the Jews for a month from June to July 1099.  In that year, 1,000 years after the 70 CE fall of Jerusalem, there were Jewish communities that had sprung up all over Ha'aretz (Palestine).  50 of them remain well known, such as Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ramleh, Ashkelon, Caesarea and Gaza.

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks were tolerant and fairly  friendly towards the Jews.  30 Jewish communities were recorded then:  Haifa, Sh'chem, Hebron, Ramleh, Jaffa, Gaza, Jerusalem and many in the north.  Their center was Safed (Tzfat) which became the largest in Palestine and took on the spiritual leadership of the whole Jewish world.  The mystic Caballa was developed.  8,000 to 10,000 Jews lived here in 1555 and the population grew to 20,000 or 30,000 by 1600.  Some of the Galilean villages survived, showing that Jews clung to the land for 15 centuries in succession.  Jews brought in the first printing press into Palestine, and Asia, for that matter.  It was brought to Safed and printed in Hebrew.  Maybe it was their prosperity that caused Sultan Murad III in 1576-77 to deport 1,000 wealthy Jews from Safed to Cyprus, where he needed some economic assistance.

                                          Chronology of Jews in Ha'aretz

1250 BCE    Moses' appointed leader, Joshua, led the 600,000 Israelites into the Land of Israel
1000-922 BCE  King David and son Solomon ruled a united Jewish kingdom in Israel
721 BCE           10 of 12 tribes of Jacob  are defeated by Assyrians and taken into exile, slavery
586 BCE           Babylonians defeat kingdom of Judah and exiled leaders, people to Babylon
539 BCE          Cyrus the Great of Persia sends Jews back to Israel, live and rebuild temple
458 BCE          Ezra leads exiled Jews back to Israel
332 BCE          Alexander the Great conquers Israel
167 BCE          Jewish Maccabees revolt against Greek  Antiochus IV Epiphanes
37-4 BCE        Herod, appointed by Rome, ruled over Judea, works on Temple
70 CE              Titus, emperor of Rome, crushes Jewish revolt
135                  Bar Kokhba Revolt
1096          First Christian Crusade massacre Jews across France, Rhineland, Bohemia on way to Jerusalem
1146                Second Christian Crusade, Jewish communities attacked
1453               Ottomans conquer Constantinople, invite Jews to return to the city
1880-1897      Theodor Herzl holds 1st Zionist Congress for return to Eretz Yisrael, Jews have returned
1904-1914      2nd Aliyah, 40,000 Jews from Russia return to Ha'Aretz, 3rd and 4th aliyote followed
Nov 2, 1917   Balfour Declaration of Jewish National Homeland Declared
May 14, 1948  State of Israel Declared; 600,000 Jews in Population
2013               Israel population :  6 million Jews, 1.7 million Arabs

There is no other people in the world who have maintained their love for their original land as much nor as long as the Jews have, nor has there been a people from the ancient days that have existed for so long as this people maintaining their religion.  Though Judaism has grown along with the generations, the main concept has remained the same.  It is not an "old time" religion but one that is prevalent in today's age along with its people who are  among the most creative and intelligent. Judaism is based on social righteousness.   Jews in Israel continue to cling to their beloved Ha'Aretz; the tiny speck of land of Israel;   the granted 20% of what used to be theirs.

Jews were chosen by G-d to carry out a heavy duty, and only G-d knows how hard they have tried to do this.  They were chosen not because they were the best of all people but because they had such a stubborn trait, a stiff-necked people.  They had been chosen to carry the message of G-d's law to the world, based on the covenant between G-d and Abraham and renewed at Sinai with Moses.  Isaiah described Israel as  those whose sufferings will bring salvation to the world.  One thing we know.  Jews have long suffered in the world.  Israel was said to be a kingdom of Priests and a holy nation.  How many people of the world still scoff at the Golden Rule today?

Resource:  Battleground-fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
Jews and Power by Ruth R. Wisse
The Source by Leon Uris

A Lot of BS From BDS People Against Israeli Product

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

                                                    Funeral of Gilani Brigade IDF Soldier

BDS is active here in the United States and The University of Denver has been targeted by starting a petition by DU Students for Justice in Palestine.  They are accusing the Golani and Givati Brigades of the IDF of egregious human rights violations of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which in itself is a false claim according to what Professor Eugene Kontorovich of the Northwest U. School of Law would say about occupying Palestine.

This Denver group, with Arabic written on their website, faults the brigades of being involved in the Operation Cast Lead intervention of Israel's IDF in Gaza in 2008-2009.

They then accuse them of imprisoning children in Israeli dungeons.  This is such an outrageous lie that one cannot even think how they came up with this one.  Any kidnapping has been on the side of the Hamas terrorists, like the kidnapping of Shalit.    They're also accusing Israel of "ethnic cleansing!"

They claim that an Israeli product should not be bought because they are "subsidizing their living costs, playing expenses in the 5 and 6 figures."  The truth of this is most likely through being a tax-payer, and Israel does pay higher taxes than we Americans do.  Our taxes also pay for the living costs of our soldiers as well.  The money to any IDF soldier would be in shekels, not dollars, so where the decimal point is, would be interesting.  I know that as a teacher, I was only making the equivalent of $300 per month in 1981-85 in Israel as a junior high teacher of English.  You don't go to Israel to make money but to help a country who is righteous and is being wrongly attacked.  Israel doesn't have any other ulterior motives than to protect its citizens from harm.  

It just so happens that Israel has been commended for their care in not harming civilians in Operation Cast Lead. Goldstone had to eat his initial report. Cast Lead  came after rockets, mortars and missiles came from Gaza into Southern Israel since 2001, with more flying in each year.  In 2000, the 2nd Intifada started, meaning that there were growing Palestinian attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.  Hamas took over in 2005 and they really flew in helter-skelter, at civilians.  Gaza was warned that Israel could not accept this attack and they had to stop which they didn't, bringing on Israel's operation. The 2nd Lebanon War started in July 2006 and the Golani Brigade fought to protect Israel like all the others involved.  They all fought for 34 days against Hezbollah.  That go around didn't end until September 8th.   One June 6, 2009, 3 soldiers of the Golani Brigade were killed in northern Gaza in friendly fire.  3 others were severely wounded and 20 more had minor injuries.

As for "occupation,"  Palestine was to be the Jewish Homeland as decided by the League of Nations.  However, Britain, who had the mandate, made changes and decided to reward King Abdullah 80% of the Jewish Homeland by creating Transjordan.  Actually, Israel is not occupying what was earmarked theirs in the first place.  Israel turned over Gaza to Egypt, but then got it back in 1967.  They left in 2005 for the sake of peace, and Jews have been living there ever since Samson and Delilah.  Peace didn't happen.  Gaza's Hamas  terrorists just felt freer to attack Israel daily instead.  So who is trying to do the ethnic cleansing?  It's the Arabs living in Gaza.  The proposed state of Palestine is to be only for Muslims.  They won't allow any Jews to live there.  That's Judenrein in German, which is what the Nazis tried to bring about.  I find it amazing that what is slung at Jews and Israelis is exactly what  the slingers are actually doing.

The Givati Brigade is an infantry Brigade that also serves as an amphibious force.  "They also participated in the ground phase of Operation Cast Lead." in Gaza (ended in 2009).The brigade's reconnaissance battalion entered the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood in search of Hamas operatives two days before the cease fire went into effect. An estimated 40 Palestinian gunmen were killed as dozens of apartments were swept.   Hamas reportedly decided to fire the commander of the Gaza City Brigade after its forces fought against the Givati."  They were a brave group of young men.

Anyone that harbors hatred for these young men who have been called upon to protect their people from rockets, mortars, missiles, suicide killers and from people trying to destroy their whole country will probably choke on their own bile filled with hatred and misunderstandings.  I say:  good for the company that these college students are tying to blackball with their demanding that their university not buy their product.  These soldiers need all the pats on the shoulder that they can get.

Israel had to stop rocket fire into Israel and prevent the weapons being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.  When the IDF went into Gaza, they weren't aiming for people.  Their target was the police station, military targets, weapons caches and rocket firing teams.  They went after political  (Hamas terrorists) and administrative institutions in the cities of Gaza, Rafah and Khan Yumis.

Occupation?  There aren't any Jews living in Gaza, but Israel reserves  the right to protect itself from attacks which is "unconscionable".

Here are a few words from a non-Jewish Scottish Professor to the Edinburgh University Student Union about boycotting Israel products.  It's from his letter.  "University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak.

 

 I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel . I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it’s clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.

Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia , Yemen , and Iran . They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world’s freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Bahai’s…. Need I go on?
 

 The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument.

They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930′s (which, sadly, there was not), don’t you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it?"

Resource:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golani_Brigade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Givati_Brigade
Petition to the University of Denver and Sodexo Foods from DU Students for Justice in Palestine
Letter from Scottish Professor to Edinburgh Student Union 

When The Third Temple Will Be Built

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                              Cornerstone for the 3rd Temple: 1999 with Temple in the Middle

The 3rd Temple, following the destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, is to be built no later that the year 2,240.  That gives us 227 more years to start building.  The very first Temple was built by King Solomon (961-920 BCE) and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The stipulations are many.  When the 2nd Temple fell in 70 CE, most all the Jews of Judah were dispersed.  Some were scattered into the Middle Eastern lands while others left it completely and were taken to Rome, and then later to Germany and points in eastern Europe.  Synagogues were created as a house of learning and prayer.  The 3rd Temple or Ezekiel's Temple  called the Beit haMikdah is described and prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel.  It is to be a house of prayer for all people and is to be an eternal edifice and permanent dwelling place of the G-d of Israel on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The organization in Jerusalem called the Temple Mount get their plans that they already started working on in the 1980's from the Book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-47.  The Temple Scroll also has descriptions of the 3rd Temple.

Orthodox scholars and rabbinic authorities believe that rebuilding the Temple should happen when our Moshiach is at the hand of divine Providence and that Jews should try to rebuild the temple themselves.  Jews believe that the Moshiach is due anytime from now to about 200 some more years.  Christians are anxious for Jesus and his 2nd coming so are also anxious to have Jews rebuild the 3rd Temple.  The question of sacrifices which took place in the 1st and 2nd Temples are to become part of the 3rd Temple agenda, and there is mixed thought on that.  Orthodox feel that this will be resumed, but Maimonides wrote in his "A guide for the Perplexed" that "G-d deliberately has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher form of worship"  Then again, in his book, "Mishneh Torah", thought to be the final authority in Jewish law, says that animal sacrifices will resume in the 3rd temple and details how they will be carried out."  It could be that only grain offerings will be offered.
                                                                     

                                              Model of the 3rd Temple As Seen in Jerusalem

In an orthodox synagogue, one would hear prayers for the reconstruction of the 3rd Temple.  The morning prayer service includes a study session of the daily Temple ritual and offerings as a reminder.  They would also hear the daily and special-occasion psalms that the Levites used to sing in the Temple.  After the Torah reading is a prayer to "restore the House of our lives and to cause the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) to dwell among us.  The Amidah includes prayers for acceptance of the "fire-offerings of Israel."  It ends with meditation for the restoration of the 3rd Temple.

The Temple had rules of ritual purity before entering.  The laws of "family purity" are based on these Temple rules that are followed today at home.  Other rules come from the Temple days such as immersing in the mikveh before Yom Kippur, washing hands in the morning and before meals and after attending a funeral.  If ever the Israeli authorities permit Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, one has to observe certain ritual purity rules first..  Going to the mikvah is going to be expected.

Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi of the IDF in August 1967, organized public prayer for Jews on the Temple Mount.  This was after winning the Six Day War which was a miracle in itself.  Jews had not been allowed there since 1948 by the Muslim Jordanians.  Rabbi Goren was all for Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount even though our 2nd Temple had been destroyed there and replaced with a Muslim mosque. The site was holy.  They had to fight off Muslim guards and Israeli police, but held a prayer service.  Rabbi Goren continued to pray in the Makhkame building overlooking the Temple Mount and conducted yearly High Holiday services there.  He called for the establishment of a synagogue on the Temple Mount and this call has been picked up by his brother-in-law, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, She'ar Yashuv Cohen.

This was despite the fact that Moshe Dayan had given the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf, so Goren was criticized by the Israeli Defense Ministry for doing this.  The Chief Rabbis have since restated that no Jews were allowed on the mount due to the issues of ritual and impurity.  The secular people went along with this as it kept the peace with the worried Muslims.  Goren continued to say that Jews were not only permitted but commanded to ascend and pray on the mount.  He did support building the 3rd Temple on the Temple Mount and was involved in projects involving the site, possibly such as the Temple Mount group.

Opposing this were the Chief Rabbis of Israel; Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, along with others saying that they had warned for generations against entering any part of the Temple Mount.  This could have been prompted by the government's pressure in preventing Muslim-Jewish friction over the Mount.  The rule remains.  It is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount.  In January 2005 a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision of Moshe Dayan who single-handedly made this decision on his own without consulting anyone.  The Jewish state of Israel controls everything in Jerusalem except the Temple Mount, which many people are frustrated about.  They feel the need to pray there as well.  Non Muslims are allowed to enter mosques in other places.  For the waqf to have this ruling here in Jerusalem is unfair, they state.  It happens to also be a big tourist attraction, and Christians have been allowed to visit.  Only the Jews are kept away.  This is the only discrimination going on in Israel and it comes from the Muslims against the Jews over the most precious holy site in Jerusalem.

Right now the biggest problem is the creation of Palestine in which the Arabs are insisting on taking over east Jerusalem which includes many sites such as the Western Wall that Herod built around the Temple area where all Jews come to pray today.  Israel has been legally unified as one city again, making life much better for all.  Thoughts about the 3rd Temple are causing the Muslims to react most fearfully with rioting.  If they were really smart, they'd open it to all people for prayers, fullfilling the desire of Levi Eshkol, who was Prime Minister in 1967 and died in 1969.  Then there would be no cause to riot.  All would be happy.

However, what is happening today is that the Al Aqsa Mosque site on the Temple Mount has been closed by the Jerusalem police to Jews and non Muslim visitors today as the police are afraid of riots from the Muslims.  It is open every day except Friday in the morning and afternoon but one cannot pray.  It is forbidden unless one is Muslim.  The police in Jerusalem are carrying shields that are about 10 feet high and look like they are made of pexiglass as they are transparent.  That's to protect them from things that are thrown;  chairs, food, rocks, etc.  Religious segregation causing violence practiced by rules issued from the Waqf is the worst type of apartheid!    Oh, but Moshe Dayan certainly didn't know what he was doing when he tried to calm the Muslims down by handing their waqf the keys to the Mount.  He gave us back all of Jerusalem, but deleted the most special of all sites.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Temple
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.templemount.org/recent.html
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Temple-Mount-closed-over-security-concerns-313440

Temple Mount in Jerusalem Barred From Jews: No Jewish Praying Allowed

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          

           
The Temple Mount is on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Today's 2nd Temple that was first built by King Solomon (961-920 BCE) in Jerusalem was on this same site.  . King David, his father,  wasn't allowed to build it as he was a king of war.  Solomon was known for his wisdom and peace and built it as a shrine for the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred vessels and offerings for worshippers.  

 The Babylonian exiles, Jews taken away by the Babylonians in 597 and 586 BCE were allowed to return in 538 BCE and they rebuilt the Temple by 515 BCE., known as the 2nd Temple.   When Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE, the Temple was destroyed, but not before the Romans carried off all the loot from it.  A Roman temple was later built on the site, and since the Moslem Period, the Mosque of Omar, otherwise known as the Dome of the Rock,  has stood there.  It was built in the center of the Temple area by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 CE to replace the temporary structure set up by Caliph Omar in 638 CE. Mohammad had died in 632 CE.

The Temple Mount is referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and is ranked as one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world.  There have been sporadic riots here which is said to have the potential to ignite much wider unrest.

The Six Day War in 1967 was when the Temple Mount fell into Israel's hands again, after a wait of 2,000 years. Since then, Jerusalem is a united city.   Though Israel became a state on May 14, 1948, the eastern portion of Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount is, was barred to Jews by Jordan.   Prime Minister Levi Eshkol made plans to takeover the Temple Mount and thought that the administration of such a holy site should be filled equally by Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics so that everyone would have the right to be atop the mount and pray at this holy site for the 3 faiths.  He wanted to have his dream of a multi-faith council to run the compound.  The Muslim mosque would not have been touched, but all faiths would be allowed up on top of the mount.

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981),  minister of Defense, deciding otherwise, gave the keys to the Muslim Waqf. Evidently, in his biography, Dayan clearly stated that the last thing he wanted was the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt, the Beit Hamikdash.  We are supposed to wait for the coming of the Messiah for that.  There is the Temple Mount Faithful Group that Stanley Goldfoot belonged to preparing for that day.  Being a progressive, Dayan didn't consult the Prime Minister or the Knesset, and the Israelis didn't get to vote on it.  That's who controls it to this very day.  Being Dayan was a war hero, there wasn't much Eshkol could do about it.   "Dayan had gone ahead and told the Muslims running the Temple Mount that they could continue to run the mosques there-and later went further by preventing Jewish prayer all over the Mount."  His reasoning was that he felt matters would get out of hand and lead to a religious clash.  He even told the chief of staff that the army chaplain was to remove the branch office he had established in the building which adjoins the mosque compound.  For this Moshe Dayan will be known as the man who gave away the Temple Mount giving the Muslims an opportunity to make Jerusalem a huge issue in creating a Palestine.

Jews have been allowed atop the Temple Mount but are not allowed to pray, say the Muslim rule.  Only Muslims are allowed to pray there.  Jews can't even look like they are praying.  Then the Waqf has done more construction on top and has thrown out relics from the Temple of which an archaeology team has begun to sift through the dirt.  It was deposited like garbage by the Muslims.

Since that day, Muslims have been trying to reclaim Jerusalem's Holy sites in order to de-legitimize the Jewish connection to the land and the city.   It's their way of wiping Israel off the map and into the sea.  Police are forced to bar Jews from entering the Temple Mount.  Of course the Muslims had threatened violence. No excuse is listened to, such as bringing children there to demonstrate rituals associated with the Temple, like the bringing of the first fruits on Shavuot.  People can't understand this and feel it's unfair to them.  However, hundreds of Jews were able to visit the Mount over Shavuot.  At times, dozens of Muslims sat and blocked the entrance of Mughrabi Gate, the one non-Muslims have to use to ascend the Mount.  Any Jews who could manage to run the gauntlet were followed and harassed by Muslims, yelling the whole time the Jews were up there.  This year a riot did break out and the police had to intervene and closed the gates and evacuating the Jews.

There's more than what meets the eye in this clash.  The Islamic Movement in Israel had told its followers that Jewish groups were planning to desecrate, storm or endanger the al-Aqsa mosque and even arranged buses for worshippers to come and "protect" the site.  Sheikh Raed Salah, head rabble-rouser said to his crowd, "We'll liberate al-Aqsa with blood and fire!"  He told his crowd that Israel wanted to build a synagogue on top of the mosque.  Hamas's Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, told some foreign ambassadors that the riots were due to "an assault by extremist religious settlers on the Temple Mount compound."  Syria's foreign ministry added that Damascus believes the Israeli security forces' invasion of al-Aqsa was part of Israel's scheme to Judaise Jerusalem and destroy the mosque"  I don't think these people ever read a real history book.  These were all lies.

Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are parts of Israel that are  re-establishing the Jewish National Home.  The synonym for Jerusalem happens to be "Zion."  Every day for 3 times a day for the past 2,000 years, Jews all over the world face Jerusalem and pray for it to be restored to its former glory.  It's unfathomable that Jews are banned by its own government from praying on the Temple Mount.  What a concession we have given to the Muslims!  What concessions have they ever given us to promote peace!  None.  Recently a female Knesset member decided to get to the bottom of this matter and find out why they can't pray there.  Many are angry with their government  for allowing this to happen.
                                                                     

Today, Jews pray at the Western Wall(Wailing Wall) that surrounded the Temple, built by Herod.  The Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple was at the western end of the Temple is very close to this wall.  It was regarded as sacred as far back as the Talmudic Period of the 10th century CE.  From 1948 till 1967, Jews were kept away from this wall which is now under Jewish sovereignty.  On Shavuot 1967, 200,000 people visited.

In the meantime, Muslim adults and children are not taught of the Jewish connection to Israel and their land.  Muslims all over the world do not understand the depth of feeling Jews have for their holy places and their historical homeland.  "Palestinian and Muslim leaders must desist from the incitement against Israel and the deligitimisation of the Jewish connection to the land."

Resource: Arutz Sheva, news@israelnationalnews.com, 5. Police Bar Jews from Temple Mount As Muslims Threaten More Riots
http://www.templemount.org/recent.html
The New Jewish Encyclopedia
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/05/jerusalem-day-how-moshe-dayan-made-the-temple-mount-a-palestinian-issue-2636624.html

Who Were the Jews of Ukraine? Khazars?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                            

                                                                                                   Kiev, Russia
Jews from Judah have lived in the Balkans, in the Caucasus including Georgia, along the northern shores of the Black Sea and in other areas of eastern Europe since Roman days, probably even before 70 CE when Jerusalem fell and people were either slaughtered or taken as captives destined to be slaves.  Jews have been traders for ages as they lived in the crossroads of civilization.  There were large Jewish communities there before the Khazar empire was established.  Romans and Byzantines took control over ancient Greek colonies, and the Crimean Jews began to trade often with the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.  Later, most of the Crimea became part of the Khazarian empire.  The descendants of the early Jewish populations of the Crimea and Caucasus could have influenced the decision of the Khazars to convert to Judaism.  It was the Crimean Jews that came into direct contact with the Khazars.

Southern Russia back in the 600's was known as Khazaria.  They were Turkic horsemen from the steppes of central Asia, or the mountains of the Urals or Caucasus who believed in shamanism, the worship of spirits,  and the sky,  and lived as nomads. Trees were sacred.  They came to settle down as the centuries went by and a Kagan (king), named Bulan,  chose Judaism for the royal house and converted.  Only the king, leaders and members of the upper class converted to Judaism as reported in 903, by a Persian historian named Muhammad ibn Rustah, in Kitab A'laq an-Nafisa. He said that Judaism later spread to the general populace.   His people were able to choose for themselves whether they wanted to be Christians, Muslims or Jews as everyone was replacing their former Tengri beliefs.  It's thought that he chose Judaism as it was more politically correct at that time since then he didn't have to side with the many Muslims against Christians in trading.  There  was no anti-Semitism and the people were very liberal in Khazaria.

After the Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity, conversion to Judaism became prohibited. "Many Greek and Roman women married Jewish men before conversion to Judaism was outlawed by the Roman Empire, and many of the Southern European ancestral lines in Ashkenazic families come from these marriages." In 315, Emperor Constantine I issued the first Roman edict forbidding Jews from seeking converts.  No wonder it isn't our thing to do.  Even today we do not  practice this.  The punishment for doing so was that property would be taken away from  Jews caught assisting anyone to convert.  However, Judaizing movements did continue to spring up in many lands.   Bulgaria proselytes converted others to Judaism in the 800's.  There were even some Christian clergy members who converted.

The Byzantine Empire from 324-638 had strong anti-Jewish policies where they forced many Jews to leave for less dangerous places such as Khazaria.  Some of their emperors' policies were of forced baptism.  By 632, the emperor Heraclius said that all Jews must convert to Christianity.  Emperor Leo in  722 had the same policy.  Jews could not live in that empire.

Everyone referred to The Khazars as Turks.  They were described as having blue eyes, light or white skin and reddish hair.  Other Turkish tribes also had red hair.  Other writers said they had black hair and that there were black Khazars and white Khazars, light and dark skinned.  In an excavation of burial mounds from the 10th to 12 centuries, archaeologists found Khazars belonging to the Slavic people while others were short-skulled Europeans.  Only a few Mongolian types were found.  Another theory was that they originated from Khorasan which was eastern Persia who united with the Sabirs in the 6th century.  One claim is that they are related to the Georgians and Armenians.  Some of the Turkic people believe that they descended from Noah through Japheth and son Gomer to Togarmah who had 10 sons and that the Khazars were descendants of the 7th son.  According to what I find in the Bible, Noah leads right from Shem to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he leads to Moses and Aaron.
                                                                     

Khazaria was on the Silk Road and a lot of trading with everyone, east and west, went on.  Jews came to live in Khazaria from other places who had been persecuted and found a haven there. Being it was a trading center, people of all types lived there.   Ancient Russian chronicles say that some Jews from Khazaria visited Vladimir, the prince of Kiev, which became the capital of Ukraine, to try to convert him to Judaism in 986.  Jews were already living in Kiev by then.  It lay on the River Dnieper which was the commercial crossroads of Western Europe and the Orient which attracted Jewish traders in the 8th century.  Jewish merchants from the West called Radanites were traders in the city and were referred to in Hebrew as "goers to Russia."

Khazaria was a large empire with many large Jewish settlements.  At its maximum size, it took in the northern Caucasus and the Volga delta, and went as far east as the steppes of Khwarizm/Khorezm and as far west as Kiev. Between 730 and 750, the city of Atil, which was serving only as a royal camp, became the 3rd and final capital of the Khazar Empire. Here the kagan lived with the bek, members of the army, 4,000 attendants and "pure-bred Khazars.  A brick wall surrounded the city.  This could have been a Jewish camp.  Khazaran-Atil sat on the lower Volga near the Caspian Sea in eastern Khazaria and was the most important trading center of the empire and also was the center of religion and government.  It had many markets and baths.  People of all 3 religions lived here in harmony!  Iranians and Khwarizms, Muslims lived in the eastern half of the city which was known as Khazaran.  30 mosques were in the capital in the 920's.  There were still pagans who lived here.  In the 920's the ruler was Khaz, a Muslim.

  Starting in the 10th century the empire started to get smaller and eventually ended.  In the year 930, Kiev was under Khazarian rule.  Two Jewish suburbs of Kiev were Kozary and Zhidove.  There were riots that broke out on the the death of Prince Svyatopolk in 1113 when the people attacked Jewish homes and burned them down.

In comparing Ashkenazis to Sephardim,
1. Ashkenazi showed twice the amount of R1a haplogroup DNA than Sephardim-10:5. and is very common throughout Europe and western Eurasia.
2.  J1, called the Cohen gene,  was almost even with a few more in Sephardim-22:19. found in Jews, Arabs, Armenians and Kurds, higher % in Iran and Iraq, carried by traders into Europe, central Asia, India, Pakistan
3. E showed up twice as much in Ashkenazim-20.5:9 but is found in the Middle East.
4. Q showed Ashkenazim being more prominent-5:2. found in northern and central Asian population, native Americans and 5% of Jews have this haplogroup.
5. Neither showed any N which was 0:0, found in northern Eurasia in Finns, Russians and Hungarians.  It's a common line in western Siberia.

The Jews tested today from Ukraine for their DNA most likely are showing genes inherited from Khazaria along with genes from Judea and Israel itself besides other possibilities.  Not all Ashkenazi Jews originated from Khazaria from the royal house that were converts.  Many Jews had lived in this empire from all sorts of other places.  It is possible that Jews whose ancestors had resided in Ukraine back to the 600's could have have Khazarian ancestors.  There are Jews whose haplogroup is an R1a1 who might show this distinction as this haplogroup is thought to come from southern Russia.    At one time I thought my father's line of Q1b1a could be the royal descendants, but that theory has been discarded even though we are connected to other Q'a who are the native Americans and we both originated from Mongolia, Siberia and parts of  Turkey and make up only 5% of today's Jews. My grandfather came from Lithuania.   Whatever ancestors reside in the Jews from Ukraine, they have turned out to be some of the most intelligent people with great leadership skills such as Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meier and Yitzhak Rabin, former prime ministers of Israel.    A Jew from Ukraine should feel most proud of his rich heritage.

Resource: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11117.html
The Jews of Khazaria, 2nd edition, by Kevin Alan Brook
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/european_y-dna_haplogroups.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-DNA_haplogroups_in_European_populations
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html
http://www.khazaria.com/

Ukraine's Massacre of Jews-Worse Than Nazis

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

The Chmielnicki Massacre in Ukraine from 1648 to 1649 beats anything I've ever read about massacres.  The behavior of the Cossacks, led by Bohdan or Bogdan Chmielicki/ Khmelnitsky was to begin a series of campaigns by instigating the uprising of the Cossacks against the Jews.

 Chmielicki told people that the Polish had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews."  The Cossacks, a military class of Ukranian-southern Russians were so angry when they heard this that they massacred tens of thousands of Jews during 1648-49 in a war that would later be known as among the worst of that time period.  To me, it's the worst of any time on earth.  Barring the recent reports out of Syria of a Syrian eating the heart of another Syrian enemy, this description of what happened in Ukraine is the most  barbaric that I have ever heard.    This leader, Bogdan, was against Polish landowners, the Catholic clergy and the Jews.  Hundreds of Jewish communities were annihilated and hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed brutally.
                                                                         

                                                       Where Chmielnicki Massacres Took Place

One result was that the horror of this massacre sent a shock wave throughout Jewry and the consequent messianic impulse served to gather support for Shabbetai Tzevi, considered a false messiah.  One was certainly needed after this experience.  The gentile Ukrainians regarded Chmielnicki as a national hero.

At the close of the 16th century there were about 45,000 Jews out of the 100,000 Jews were lived in Poland living in the eastern region where Ukrainian Catholics lived.  Before the massacre, they had increased to about 150,000.  In the census of 1764, 258,000 Jews were listed, but it is known that their number was over 300,000.

From the Jewish Virtual Library are excerpts describing eyewitness accounts of the atrocities that took place in regions of Mogila, Zaslav and Nemirov from 1648 to 1651; 3 years of hell.
                                                                         

The Cossacks wanted to free Ukraine from Polish domination and to be the rulers themselves.  In Mogila 700 Jews with their wives and children were slaughtered.  Some were cut into pieces.  Others were ordered to dig graves where Jewish women and children were thrown in and buried alive.  Jews were given rifles and ordered to kill each other.  Cossacks surrounded young women and cut their clothes off their bodies and then performed abominations on them until they died screaming.  It was probably gang rape.  Cossacks came dressed as Poles to get in through the gates of the fortress and massacred about 6,000 townspeople.  They drowned several hundreds in water.  In the synagogue before the Holy Ark they slaughtered people with butcher knives.  Afterwards they destroyed the synagogue and took out all the Torahs and books and tore them up then laid them out for men and animals to trample.  They also made sandals out of them and several other garments.

Some were skinned alive and the flesh was thrown to the dogs to eat.  Some had their hands and limbs chopped off and their bodies thrown on the highway to be trampled on by wagons and crushed by the horsses.  some had wounds inflicted and were then thrown on the street to die a slow death.  They tore open women and whipped them, forcing them to crawl to their deaths while others were buried alive.  The cossacks slaughtered infants in their mothers' laps.  They were sliced into pieces like fish.  The infants were hung on the breasts of their mothers.  some children were pierced with spears.

Jews had moved to Ukraine from Poland's western provinces.  This was due to the economic opportunities because Poland was expanding with the consolidation of Poland-Lithuania.  By the end of the 15th century, between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews were living in 60 communities throughout Poland-Lithuania, mostly in cities.  Ukraine became the center of Jewish life in the area of Poland-Lithuania.  Ukraine was part of it.

Life in Poland-Lithuania wasn't easy for Jews.  The Catholic  church continued  to pressure nobles to punish and limit Jewish influence.  The nobles were on the spot as they saw the economic contribution made by Jews in society.  Jews became prominent in the trade business of Ukraine.  They sold dye, cloth, horses, cattle and estates.  They were ones who had connections with other Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire and served as liasons between the east and the west in economic trade.  What Jews were known for was the job they had with the Polish government:  collectors of customs, duties and taxes for the Polish landlords, bankers and physicians.  There were so many things they were not allowed to do, and this was one bestowed up them because the Christians didn't want the job.

The Jews prospered as they didn't throw their money away on drinking or gambling, and thus anti-Semitism grew.  The lower classes of Ukrainian Cossacks saw Jews as workmen for the nation's wealthy landowners and accused Jews of robbing the wealth of poor people to better enrich themselves.  By the end of the 16th century, Poland tried to get more control over the Ukrainian Cossacks by rising up against them along with the Jews in the Chmielnicki Massacre.

Such hated!  Such violence for a people.  Where did it come from?

In 965 CE, the Khazar Empire, which had experienced a shift of the royal family to convert to Judaism, had become a haven for Jews escaping persecution.  The Russians ransacked its capital.  By 1241 the Khazars were defeated by the Mongol invasion which also devastated all of Poland.  Poland recruited immigrants from Germany and promised to help them settle in villages and towns.  German Jews who had ancestors who suffered from the Crusaders in 1200 and then the Black Death in 1300, immigrated to Poland.  There were Jews already living in Poland, and they shared a heritage with the new immigrants.  This is when Yiddish was developed which was a mixture of Middle German, Hebrew, Polish and German-Hebrew and beame the Ashkenazi national Jewish language.

Resource: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/ukraine.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_20168.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IRn5b0aik&feature=youtu.be Syrian atrocity
Update 3/7/14:  http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/100-ukrainian-jews-want-to-make-aliyah-settle-in-judea-and-samaria/2014/03/07/