Of all the national heroes who have arisen from among the Jewish people over the generations, fate has not been kind to Dahia al-Kahina, a leader of the Berbers in the Aures Mountains. Although she was a proud Jewess, few Israelis have ever heard the name of this warrior-queen who, in the seventh century C.E., united a number of Berber tribes and pushed back the Muslim army that invaded North Africa. It is possible that the reason for this is that al-Kahina was the daughter of a Berber tribe that had converted to Judaism, apparently several generations before she was born, sometime around the 6th century C.E.
According to the Tel Aviv University historian, Prof. Shlomo Sand, author of "Matai ve'ech humtza ha'am hayehudi?" ("When and How the Jewish People Was Invented?"; Resling, in Hebrew), the queen's tribe and other local tribes that converted to Judaism are the main sources from which Spanish Jewry sprang. This claim that the Jews of North Africa originated in indigenous tribes that became Jewish - and not in communities exiled from Jerusalem - is just one element of the far- reaching argument set forth in Sand's new book.
In this work, the author attempts to prove that the Jews now living in Israel and other places in the world are not at all descendants of the ancient people who inhabited the Kingdom of Judea during the First and Second Temple period. Their origins, according to him, are in varied peoples that converted to Judaism during the course of history, in different corners of the Mediterranean Basin and the adjacent regions. Not only are the North African Jews for the most part descendants of pagans who converted to Judaism, but so are the Jews of Yemen (remnants of the Himyar Kingdom in the Arab Peninsula, who converted to Judaism in the fourth century) and the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe (refugees from the Kingdom of the Khazars, who converted in the eighth century). Advertisement
Unlike other "new historians" who have tried to undermine the assumptions of Zionist historiography, Sand does not content himself with going back to 1948 or to the beginnings of Zionism, but rather goes back thousands of years. He tries to prove that the Jewish people never existed as a "nation-race" with a common origin, but rather is a colorful mix of groups that at various stages in history adopted the Jewish religion. He argues that for a number of Zionist ideologues, the mythical perception of the Jews as an ancient people led to truly racist thinking: "There were times when if anyone argued that the Jews belong to a people that has gentile origins, he would be classified as an anti-Semite on the spot. Today, if anyone dares to suggest that those who are considered Jews in the world ... have never constituted and still do not constitute a people or a nation - he is immediately condemned as a hater of Israel."
According to Sand, the description of the Jews as a wandering and self-isolating nation of exiles, "who wandered across seas and continents, reached the ends of the earth and finally, with the advent of Zionism, made a U-turn and returned en masse to their orphaned homeland," is nothing but "national mythology." Like other national movements in Europe, which sought out a splendid Golden Age, through which they invented a heroic past - for example, classical Greece or the Teutonic tribes - to prove they have existed since the beginnings of history, "so, too, the first buds of Jewish nationalism blossomed in the direction of the strong light that has its source in the mythical Kingdom of David."
So when, in fact, was the Jewish people invented, in Sand's view? At a certain stage in the 19th century, intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people "retrospectively," out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people. From historian Heinrich Graetz on, Jewish historians began to draw the history of Judaism as the history of a nation that had been a kingdom, became a wandering people and ultimately turned around and went back to its birthplace.
Actually, most of your book does not deal with the invention of the Jewish people by modern Jewish nationalism, but rather with the question of where the Jews come from.
Sand: "My initial intention was to take certain kinds of modern historiographic materials and examine how they invented the 'figment' of the Jewish people. But when I began to confront the historiographic sources, I suddenly found contradictions. And then that urged me on: I started to work, without knowing where I would end up. I took primary sources and I tried to examine authors' references in the ancient period - what they wrote about conversion."
Sand, an expert on 20th-century history, has until now researched the intellectual history of modern France (in "Ha'intelektual, ha'emet vehakoah: miparashat dreyfus ve'ad milhemet hamifrats" - "Intellectuals, Truth and Power, From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War"; Am Oved, in Hebrew). Unusually, for a professional historian, in his new book he deals with periods that he had never researched before, usually relying on studies that present unorthodox views of the origins of the Jews.
Experts on the history of the Jewish people say you are dealing with subjects about which you have no understanding and are basing yourself on works that you can't read in the original.
"It is true that I am an historian of France and Europe, and not of the ancient period. I knew that the moment I would start dealing with early periods like these, I would be exposed to scathing criticism by historians who specialize in those areas. But I said to myself that I can't stay just with modern historiographic material without examining the facts it describes. Had I not done this myself, it would have been necessary to have waited for an entire generation. Had I continued to deal with France, perhaps I would have been given chairs at the university and provincial glory. But I decided to relinquish the glory."
Inventing the Diaspora
"After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people remained faithful to it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom" - thus states the preamble to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. This is also the quotation that opens the third chapter of Sand's book, entitled "The Invention of the Diaspora." Sand argues that the Jewish people's exile from its land never happened.
"The supreme paradigm of exile was needed in order to construct a long-range memory in which an imagined and exiled nation-race was posited as the direct continuation of 'the people of the Bible' that preceded it," Sand explains. Under the influence of other historians who have dealt with the same issue in recent years, he argues that the exile of the Jewish people is originally a Christian myth that depicted that event as divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel.
"I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land - a constitutive event in Jewish history, almost like the Holocaust. But to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realization that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled."
If the people was not exiled, are you saying that in fact the real descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah are the Palestinians?
"No population remains pure over a period of thousands of years. But the chances that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judaic people are much greater than the chances that you or I are its descendents. The first Zionists, up until the Arab Revolt [1936-9], knew that there had been no exiling, and that the Palestinians were descended from the inhabitants of the land. They knew that farmers don't leave until they are expelled. Even Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, wrote in 1929 that, 'the vast majority of the peasant farmers do not have their origins in the Arab conquerors, but rather, before then, in the Jewish farmers who were numerous and a majority in the building of the land.'"
And how did millions of Jews appear around the Mediterranean Sea?
"The people did not spread, but the Jewish religion spread. Judaism was a converting religion. Contrary to popular opinion, in early Judaism there was a great thirst to convert others. The Hasmoneans were the first to begin to produce large numbers of Jews through mass conversion, under the influence of Hellenism. The conversions between the Hasmonean Revolt and Bar Kochba's rebellion are what prepared the ground for the subsequent, wide-spread dissemination of Christianity. After the victory of Christianity in the fourth century, the momentum of conversion was stopped in the Christian world, and there was a steep drop in the number of Jews. Presumably many of the Jews who appeared around the Mediterranean became Christians. But then Judaism started to permeate other regions - pagan regions, for example, such as Yemen and North Africa. Had Judaism not continued to advance at that stage and had it not continued to convert people in the pagan world, we would have remained a completely marginal religion, if we survived at all."
How did you come to the conclusion that the Jews of North Africa were originally Berbers who converted?
"I asked myself how such large Jewish communities appeared in Spain. And then I saw that Tariq ibn Ziyad, the supreme commander of the Muslims who conquered Spain, was a Berber, and most of his soldiers were Berbers. Dahia al-Kahina's Jewish Berber kingdom had been defeated only 15 years earlier. And the truth is there are a number of Christian sources that say many of the conquerors of Spain were Jewish converts. The deep-rooted source of the large Jewish community in Spain was those Berber soldiers who converted to Judaism."
Sand argues that the most crucial demographic addition to the Jewish population of the world came in the wake of the conversion of the kingdom of Khazaria - a huge empire that arose in the Middle Ages on the steppes along the Volga River, which at its height ruled over an area that stretched from the Georgia of today to Kiev. In the eighth century, the kings of the Khazars adopted the Jewish religion and made Hebrew the written language of the kingdom. From the 10th century the kingdom weakened; in the 13th century is was utterly defeated by Mongol invaders, and the fate of its Jewish inhabitants remains unclear.
Sand revives the hypothesis, which was already suggested by historians in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to which the Judaized Khazars constituted the main origins of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.
"At the beginning of the 20th century there is a tremendous concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe - three million Jews in Poland alone," he says. "The Zionist historiography claims that their origins are in the earlier Jewish community in Germany, but they do not succeed in explaining how a small number of Jews who came from Mainz and Worms could have founded the Yiddish people of Eastern Europe. The Jews of Eastern Europe are a mixture of Khazars and Slavs who were pushed eastward."
'Degree of perversion'
If the Jews of Eastern Europe did not come from Germany, why did they speak Yiddish, which is a Germanic language?
"The Jews were a class of people dependent on the German bourgeoisie in the East, and thus they adopted German words. Here I base myself on the research of linguist Paul Wechsler of Tel Aviv University, who has demonstrated that there is no etymological connection between the German Jewish language of the Middle Ages and Yiddish. As far back as 1828, the Ribal (Rabbi Isaac Ber Levinson) said that the ancient language of the Jews was not Yiddish. Even Ben Zion Dinur, the father of Israeli historiography, was not hesitant about describing the Khazars as the origin of the Jews in Eastern Europe, and describes Khazaria as 'the mother of the diasporas' in Eastern Europe. But more or less since 1967, anyone who talks about the Khazars as the ancestors of the Jews of Eastern Europe is considered naive and moonstruck."
Why do you think the idea of the Khazar origins is so threatening?
"It is clear that the fear is of an undermining of the historic right to the land. The revelation that the Jews are not from Judea would ostensibly knock the legitimacy for our being here out from under us. Since the beginning of the period of decolonization, settlers have no longer been able to say simply: 'We came, we won and now we are here' the way the Americans, the whites in South Africa and the Australians said. There is a very deep fear that doubt will be cast on our right to exist."
Is there no justification for this fear?
"No. I don't think that the historical myth of the exile and the wanderings is the source of the legitimization for me being here, and therefore I don't mind believing that I am Khazar in my origins. I am not afraid of the undermining of our existence, because I think that the character of the State of Israel undermines it in a much more serious way. What would constitute the basis for our existence here is not mythological historical right, but rather would be for us to start to establish an open society here of all Israeli citizens."
In effect you are saying that there is no such thing as a Jewish people.
"I don't recognize an international people. I recognize 'the Yiddish people' that existed in Eastern Europe, which though it is not a nation can be seen as a Yiddishist civilization with a modern popular culture. I think that Jewish nationalism grew up in the context of this 'Yiddish people.' I also recognize the existence of an Israeli people, and do not deny its right to sovereignty. But Zionism and also Arab nationalism over the years are not prepared to recognize it.
"From the perspective of Zionism, this country does not belong to its citizens, but rather to the Jewish people. I recognize one definition of a nation: a group of people that wants to live in sovereignty over itself. But most of the Jews in the world have no desire to live in the State of Israel, even though nothing is preventing them from doing so. Therefore, they cannot be seen as a nation."
What is so dangerous about Jews imagining that they belong to one people? Why is this bad?
"In the Israeli discourse about roots there is a degree of perversion. This is an ethnocentric, biological, genetic discourse. But Israel has no existence as a Jewish state: If Israel does not develop and become an open, multicultural society we will have a Kosovo in the Galilee. The consciousness concerning the right to this place must be more flexible and varied, and if I have contributed with my book to the likelihood that I and my children will be able to live with the others here in this country in a more egalitarian situation - I will have done my bit.
"We must begin to work hard to transform our place into an Israeli republic where ethnic origin, as well as faith, will not be relevant in the eyes of the law. Anyone who is acquainted with the young elites of the Israeli Arab community can see that they will not agree to live in a country that declares it is not theirs. If I were a Palestinian I would rebel against a state like that, but even as an Israeli I am rebelling against it."
The question is whether for those conclusions you had to go as far as the Kingdom of the Khazars.
"I am not hiding the fact that it is very distressing for me to live in a society in which the nationalist principles that guide it are dangerous, and that this distress has served as a motive in my work. I am a citizen of this country, but I am also a historian and as a historian it is my duty to write history and examine texts. This is what I have done."
If the myth of Zionism is one of the Jewish people that returned to its land from exile, what will be the myth of the country you envision?
"To my mind, a myth about the future is better than introverted mythologies of the past. For the Americans, and today for the Europeans as well, what justifies the existence of the nation is a future promise of an open, progressive and prosperous society. The Israeli materials do exist, but it is necessary to add, for example, pan-Israeli holidays. To decrease the number of memorial days a bit and to add days that are dedicated to the future. But also, for example, to add an hour in memory of the Nakba [literally, the "catastrophe" - the Palestinian term for what happened when Israel was established], between Memorial Day and Independence Day."
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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In a book "Last sigh of Moor" published in 1995, writer Salman Rushdie claims that according to Indian history books, first Jewish refugees, which in Antiquity have set their settlements in India, after Nabuchodonozor conquered their land in the 6th century BC, were... dark skinned, probably of NEGROID RACE.
According to Salman Rushdie the second wave of Jewish emigration to India, after the destruction of Israel by Romans in 1-2nd century, consisted of WHITE JEWS.Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
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quote:Originally posted by meninarmer: Now you making progress.
In a book "Last sigh of Moor" published in 1995, writer Salman Rushdie claims that according to Indian history books, first Jewish refugees, which in Antiquity have set their settlements in India, after Nabuchodonozor conquered their land in the 6th century BC, were... dark skinned, probably of NEGROID RACE.
According to Salman Rushdie the second wave of Jewish emigration to India, after the destruction of Israel by Romans in 1-2nd century, consisted of WHITE JEWS.
Look man, I will say it again! I'm in the business of research to finding real answers. So I post stuff what I find, never saying that everything I print is what I believe to be the truth. They are just sources, open for discussion. I still feel that discrimination is the true mark of ignorance. Because if these prejudices against Jews are true, well then those against Blacks should be true as well, because one cannot have it both ways. Why is it so difficult to see?
Myself; if massa Cordua and massa Neumann were Jews and not Lutherans, as alleged, and if they fathered those five young slaves named Codfried in 1863, well then I have some Jewish or Khazar or Wendel or whatever DNA floating in me. Might explain why I love Latkes and smoked Salmon with Sour Cream.
I do agree that people who have gained the power will do anything and use any means to keep this power. This has nothing to do with ethnicity or DNA, it’s just the thing to do. Then I have posted THE ENEMY OF THE NEGRO IS THE NEGRO HIMSELF to show Blacks that you cannot tell the enemy just by his skin colour. The enemy might be jet black and still be the worst housenigger since 1863. I mean, these Nurses and Orderlies who sent these hapless poor Black men to a painful death in Tuskegee were Blacks. What was their mindset?
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by meninarmer: Now you making progress.
In a book "Last sigh of Moor" published in 1995, writer Salman Rushdie claims that according to Indian history books, first Jewish refugees, which in Antiquity have set their settlements in India, after Nabuchodonozor conquered their land in the 6th century BC, were... dark skinned, probably of NEGROID RACE.
According to Salman Rushdie the second wave of Jewish emigration to India, after the destruction of Israel by Romans in 1-2nd century, consisted of WHITE JEWS.
Rushdie is a pro-Zionist novelist, not a historian.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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posted
Refresher: Sepharadiym ruled Srnan with a strong arm (David Cohen Nassy). You should be eating buermelos and sayadiyeh.
quote:Originally posted by Egmond Codfried: Myself; if massa Cordua and massa Neumann were Jews and not Lutherans, as alleged, and if they fathered those five young slaves named Codfried in 1863, well then I have some Jewish or Khazar or Wendel or whatever DNA floating in me. Might explain why I love Latkes and smoked Salmon with Sour Cream.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Rushdie is only reporting on what the Israelite communities in India themselves have to say. The Malabar coast has been home to Israelites since Solomon's time so they say. Ivory, apes, and peacocks were what they primarily sent back to the Levant from India and those words in the ancient Hebrew documents are loan words from Indian lects.
The dark skinned Israelites of India are the Cochini and the Bene Israel. Much later in history lighter skinned Israelites and white Jews arrived in the sub continent, Baghdadi (Sassoon)and Ashkenazi.
At least that much of what Rushdie writes is verifiable.
The Cochini of Malabar named themselves the Black Jews by colour in distinction of the Iraqi whom they dubbed White Jews. On the other hand, when Bene Israel use Black Jew they are referring to an internal caste they developed before the Iraqi arrived.
Benjamin Tudela a 12th century traveller to India from Iberia's Israelite community wrote:
quote:The inhabitants are all black and the Jews also. They know the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and to a small extent the Talmud and the Halakha.
The Bnei Manesseh now receiving much coverage were unknown to Malabar, Bene Israel, and Baghdadi alike. Nonetheless they are embraced by the well known older communities as a part of the Jews of India.
The Jews from India still experience discrimination from European Jews in Israel particularly at the time of marriages. Dr. Ben published a NY Times clipping recording the discrimination India's Jews faced during a wheat shortage in Israel. Shopkeepers refused to sell them any wheat at any price telling them: "White bread for white Jews and black bread for black Jews."
quote:Rushdie is only reporting on what the Israelite communities in India themselves have to say.
That is not evidence of the exile story sorry. Varied peoples converted to Judaism. Get over it.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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quote: Shopkeepers refused to sell them any wheat at any price telling them: "White bread for white Jews and black bread for black Jews."
This reminds of something in the 80's in Surinam when shopkeepers refused to sell goods to the Marron people, because it was alleged they horded food. I was really shocked that such a thing could still take place among Surinamese, and I was happy not to be there to witness this. So racism of any kind is the true mark of ignorance and I will have no part in any of that.
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote: Refresher: Sepharadiym ruled Srnan with a strong arm (David Cohen Nassy). You should be eating buermelos and sayadiyeh.
Massa Cordua and the Neumann’s came from Mecklenburg, Germany. Cordua´s ancestor is said to come from Portugal and his name seems to derive from Cordoba. Neumann sounds more German and the people from Mecklenburg regard themselves Wendels. But the Neumann’s might be Jews: Lutheran Jews!
The Neumann name also pops up on the list of aristocrats from that period. Charlotte Sophie of Mecklenburg Strelitz, Queen of Britain, is supposed to show her Wendel blood in her face and she looked African with brown skin and Classical African traits.
So if the Iberian Jews are North African Berbers, then I might have Berber blood too. I love couscous, harira and tajine. Then if the Ashkenazi are a sort of Turks, well I like anything Turkish. Next to these I have a Chinese great-grandfather and an Amerindian great-grandmother and the rest is West African.
So what part of me shall I discriminate.
By the way, Celeriac makes wonderful Latkes as well. Quite greasy, though!
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Did I hear some babbling about a so-called ‘Jewish gene?’ Did I see something on TV about ‘scientist’ who traced the ‘Cohen’ family DNA to god knows where? What do they have to say about this book and that there was no Diaspora to begin with?
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
You must be referring to the Cohen Modal Haplotype. It's Jewish quack science been discussed before.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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Jewish Diaspora is in all religious texts, even the Quran it says God put them all over the earth but later on there will be an Israel! its in the Quran, Surat el Ma2ida!
posted
And the Koran also speaks about Djins and horses with wings, and Hawa mothering about one hundred children who promptly married each other. So what’s your point, dear?
We are trying to have a scientific discussion, here.
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: Well, Cardozo immediately sprang to my misconstruing mind. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/23/arts/music/23cardozo.html?pagewanted=print Of course you know the story of the Iberian Jews: expelled from Spain and then Portugal, granted refuge in the Netherlands and settl
Yeh, we know the story of your Iberian brethrens alright.
[William of Orange, 'more brown then black,'or 'brown of complexion and the beard']
WILLIAM OF ORANGE WAS BACKED BY A JEWISH BANKER
This little piece, from a Turkish source, was a big eye-opener to me. It perhaps shows why Jews found a kind of welcome in Holland, because William of Orange had a Jewish school friend, a banker, who first went by the name of Don Juan Miguez and then on return to Istanbul Josef Nasi, to back him financially. But I read also that the nobility was traditionally anti-Jewish. They were taking loans and not repaying them, so it looks like ransoms and protection money to me. ========================================================
De “Turk” kwam zo dus dichterbij in het gezichtsveld. Het conflict van Hervorming en Contra-Reformatie en de strijd van de Nederlandse opstand tegen Rooms Spanje, leidde tot een nieuw Turkenbeeld. Van “gesel Gods” evolueerde de Turk tot een denkbare bondgenoot als zijnde de meest geduchte vijand van de eigen vijand. De leus “Liever Turks dan Paaps” kan zo verstaan worden. De Watergeuzen lieten: “Turkse” wimpels waaien aan hun scheepsmasten als symbool van de verschrikking die stond voor alles wat Turks uitstraalde. De eerste politieke verbindingen tussen de Nederlandse Staat en het Osmaanse Rijk kwamen tot stand onder leiding van Willem van Oranje. Bij het zoeken naar financiële en militaire steun in de strijd tegen Spanje wendde de Prins zich tot een internationaal bankier, een oude studievriend uit Leuven, van Spaanse huize, die te Antwerpen bij een bankiersfirma werkzaam was geweest en zich toen Don Juan Miguez noemde. Inmiddels had deze bankier een gedaanteverwisseling ondergaan. Hij was vertrokken uit het door de Spaanse inquisitie meer en meer geplaagde Antwerpen om weer op te duiken in Istanbul, waar hij zich vestigde onder zijn werkelijke naam van Josef Nasi. Als Spaanse Jood was hij evenals zijn 100.000 geloofsgenoten welkom in het rijk van de Sultan. Te Istanbul en te Saloniki ontstonden welvarende Spaans-Joodse gemeenten, die, wat Istanbul betreft (dat vrij bleef van Duitse bezetting), tot op de dag van vandaag voortbestaan. In de zeventiende eeuw vormden deze Sefardische bankiers en kooplieden in het Osmaanse Rijk, in de Levant en in Noord-Afrika, door middel van hun familievertakkingen met vestigingen in Nederland, een belangrijke schakel in de betrekkingen met Turkije. Willem van Oranje was de eerste, die er profijt van had. Na hem kwamen de Nederlandse kooplieden en zeevaarders, die vanaf de jaren 1590 in concurrentie met Spanjaarden en Portugezen hun handel uitbreidden naar de kusten van Afrika en de Middellandse Zee. De Nederlanders namen al snel een belangrijke plaats in, in de hele mediterrane wereld van Spanje tot Turkije, al was dit zelden de eerste plaats naast de rivalen, t.w. Venetianen, Fransen en Engelsen.
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Egmond Codfried: I mean, these Nurses and Orderlies who sent these hapless poor Black men to a painful death in Tuskegee were Blacks. What was their mindset?
The mindset is the same as repeated in all history of white invasion. Booker T. Washington's Journals detail Native Americans reported early colonists kidnapped their children aged 5-10 and kept them in Christian schools until they were aged, 18-20 before returning them to their tribes. Native Americans reported when these children were returned as adult leaders, their Christian indoctrination made them as cruel, or worst then their white indoctrinators towards the Native populations. Not much different then the example of a young Negro man urged to uncover European black ancestry, yet simultaneously compelled to lust for white pricks. Psychological programming is a bitch, especially when accountability is absent, and of course, someone of this flawed mindset could never be trusted in actual progressive actions.
The Tuskegee experiment continues even today in Black Historic colleges such as, Howard University's support of ethnic weapons development.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
Ok. I know Rome invaded etc but what happens to Jes in the last centuries BC and first centuries AD is mysterious to me.
How did they get to Spain and why are there communities claiming "Isrealite" descent clear to India and even Myanmar (Burma/Burmese) and South Africa (Lemba)?
Was it the Arabs who chased them out and absorbed the rest?
Then again, aren't there still native/"Middle Eastern" Jews?
Posts: 5555 | From: Tha 5th Dimension. | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Alive: Ok. I know Rome invaded etc but what happens to Jes in the last centuries BC and first centuries AD is mysterious to me.
How did they get to Spain and why are there communities claiming "Isrealite" descent clear to India and even Myanmar (Burma/Burmese) and South Africa (Lemba)?
Was it the Arabs who chased them out and absorbed the rest?
Then again, aren't there still native/"Middle Eastern" Jews?
The "Exodus" implies, the ORIGINAL Hebrews were black and were chased out and replaced by converting Romans who later became, Jews. They in turn were devastated and chased out by Romans, as detailed in Josephus's, Jewish Wars. The third wave into India were very likely chased out by Arab invasions.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
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quote:Originally posted by meninarmer: Now you making progress.
In a book "Last sigh of Moor" published in 1995, writer Salman Rushdie claims that according to Indian history books, first Jewish refugees, which in Antiquity have set their settlements in India, after Nabuchodonozor conquered their land in the 6th century BC, were... dark skinned, probably of NEGROID RACE.
According to Salman Rushdie the second wave of Jewish emigration to India, after the destruction of Israel by Romans in 1-2nd century, consisted of WHITE JEWS.
Rushdie is a pro-Zionist novelist, not a historian.
True, but even the Nazis and KKK reveal some truth in their rants.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
If there was no Diaspora then this research after a ‘Jewish Gene’ is utter nonsense. Jews are Jews just as catholics are catholics: a religion and a way of life; not a race!
There is now new and exciting DNA evidence for common Jewish origin -- not just among Cohanim, the Priestly Class, but among Jews scattered all over the globe.
Recently published research in the field of molecular genetics -- the study of DNA sequences -- indicates that Jewish populations of the various Diaspora communities have retained their genetic identity throughout the exile. Despite large geographic distances between the communities and the passage of thousands of years, far removed Jewish communities share a similar genetic profile. This research confirms the common ancestry and common geographical origin of world Jewry.
Jewish men from communities which developed in the Near East -- Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Yemen -- and European Jews have very similar, almost identical genetic profiles.
"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora." (M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)
The basis of this new field of population research is the study of the Y-chromosome, which is passed virtually unchanged from father to son. The rare mutations -- which are changes in the non-coding portion of its DNA -- can serve as markers, which can distinguish peoples. By studying the genetic signatures of various groups, comparisons can be made to determine the genetic relationships between the groups.
Y-chromosome research of the Jewish people began as an outgrowth of the study of Cohanim -- the Jewish priestly family. These studies showed a very high genetic affinity among present-day Cohanim, indicating that they do have a common paternal ancestor, estimated to have lived some 3,000 years ago. (See The Cohanim/DNA Connection)
MOST RECENT RESEARCH
The most recent genetic research consists of obtaining DNA samples, and doing laboratory analysis and comparison of the DNA markers on the Y-chromosome -- which is passed from father to son, and on the mtDNA (mitrocondrial DNA) -- which is passed intact from mother to son and daughter. This genetic anthropology promises to be particularly informative for tracking the history of Jewish populations, and helping to resolve the debate on the origins and migrations of Jewish communities in the Diaspora.
The researchers proposed to answer the question whether the scattered groups of modern Jews can be identified as the descendants of the ancient Hebrews of the Bible, or whether their common ancestry has been diluted through influx of converts and through intermarriage so that little remains of their "Jewish genes."
The complex recorded history of dispersal from the Land of Israel and subsequent residence in and movements between various countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is expected to produce a complex pattern of genetic relationships among Jewish populations as well as between them and the non-Jewish peoples among whom they lived.
The research was based on samples from 29 populations, 7 Jewish, categorized into five major divisions: Jews, Middle-Eastern non-Jews, Europeans, North Africans, and sub-Saharan Africans.
The findings were that most Jewish communities do indeed seem to be genetically similar.
The findings were that most Jewish communities -- long separated from one another in Europe, North Africa, the Near East and the Arabian Peninsula -- do indeed seem to be genetically similar and closely related to one another, sharing a common geographical origin.
These Jewish communities are more closely related to each other and to other Middle Eastern Semitic populations -- Palestinians, Syrians, and Druze -- than to their neighboring non-Jewish populations in the Diaspora.
The results also indicate a low level of admixture (intermarriage, conversion, rape, etc.) into the gene pool of these various Jewish communities.
Among the Jewish communities sampled, North Africans (Moroccans, etc.) were most closely related to Babylonian (Iraqi) Jews. These populations may best represent the paternal gene pool of the ancient Jewish/Hebrew population dating back to the First Temple period, before the Babylonian exile (approx. 2,500 years ago).
The Y-chromosome signatures of the Yemenite Jews are also similar to those of other Jewish and Semitic populations. In contrast, the paternal gene pool of Ethiopian Jews more closely resembles that of non-Jewish Ethiopian men.
ASHKENAZI LINKS
Although the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish community separated from their Mediterranean ancestors some 1,200 years ago and lived among Central and Eastern European gentiles, their paternal gene pool still resembles that of other Jewish and Semitic groups originating in the Middle East.
A low rate of intermarriage between Diaspora Jews and local gentiles was the key reason for this continuity. Since the Jews first settled in Europe more than 50 generations ago, the intermarriage rate was estimated to be only about 0.5% in each generation.
The findings oppose the suggestion that Ashkenazim are descended from the Kuzars.
The Ashkenazi paternal gene pool does not appear to be similar to that of present-day Turkish speakers. This finding opposes the suggestion that Ashkenazim are descended from the Kuzars, a Turkish-Asian empire that converted to Judaism en masse in or about the 8th century CE.
The researchers are continuing and expanding their studies particularly of the Ashkenazi community. They are hoping that by examining the DNA markers in Jewish populations from different parts of Europe, they will be able to infer the major historical and demographic patterns in Ashkenazi populations.
MIGRATION CLUES
In addition to questions of medical interest, there are many interesting possibilities concerning the origin of Ashkenazi populations and how they migrated in Europe. It seems likely that Jews began to arrive in Europe perhaps 1,000 to 1,200 years ago, when settlement was already sufficiently developed to provide them with opportunities to make a living.
One theory claims that the Jews of Eastern Europe derive predominantly from Jewish migrants from the Rhineland or from Italy, being fairly direct descendants of the original ancient Jewish/Hebrew populations.
A second theory suggests a northerly migration from the Balkans or from Central Asia, with the possibility of large-scale conversions of Slavs and/or Kuzars to Judaism.
This argument parallels the controversy over the origin and development of Yiddish -- the language of Eastern European Jews. One theory proposes that Jews, migrating from the Rhineland and neighboring regions spoke an old form of German which provided the basis of Yiddish.
Other scholars reject the German origin of Yiddish. These linguists see Yiddish grammar as fundamentally Slavonic, with modern Yiddish developed by incorporating large numbers of German and Hebrew words into the context of a basically Slavic grammar and syntax.
There has not been enough historical evidence to decide between such theories. Now, with the newly developed genetic methods, it is possible to test these ideas, for example to see if there was a significant Slavic contribution to modern Ashkenazic Jewry.
CONTINUING RESEARCH
The researchers plan to continue their research by investigating genetic variation in populations that can trace their Jewish ancestry to localized communities of Europe, in order to better understand the history and development of Ashkenazic Jewry.
The genetic research findings support Jewish tradition -- both written and oral.
These genetic research findings support Jewish tradition -- both written and oral.
After over 1,000 years of history in the Land of Israel, Jews dispersed to many and distant locations throughout the world. Some Jewish exile communities were relatively stable for two millennia -- such as in Babylonia (Iraq) and Persia (Iran). Others developed centuries later, following successive migrations to North Africa and Europe.
All of these communities maintained their Jewish customs and religious observance despite prolonged periods of persecution. Jews remained generally culturally isolated from their host communities. These genetic studies are a testimony to Jewish family faithfulness.
Only the Jewish people in the history of mankind has retained its genetic identity for over 100 generations, while being spread throughout the world -- truly unique and inspiring.
Perhaps, even more unique and inspiring, is that this most unlikely scenario was a prophecy and a promise.
And God shall scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth... (Deuteronomy 28:64)
And God shall return your captivity and be merciful to you, and will return and gather you from all the nations whither God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:3)
As the natural laws are set before Me, so shall the seed of Israel never cease from being a nation before Me, forever. (Jeremiah 31:36)
Christianity has no part in Tacitus's history of the Caesars. Except for one questionable reference in the Annals he records nothing of a cult marginal even in his own day.
Sometime before 117 AD, the Roman historian apparently wrote:
"Nero looked around for a scapegoat, and inflicted the most fiendish tortures on a group of persons already hated for their crimes. This was the sect known as Christians. Their founder, one Christus, had been put to death by the procurator, Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. This checked the abominable superstition for a while, but it broke out again and spread, not merely through Judea, where it originated, but even to Rome itself, the great reservoir and collecting ground for every kind of depravity and filth. Those who confessed to being Christians were at once arrested, but on their testimony a great crowd of people were convicted, not so much on the charge of arson, but of hatred of the entire human race. Their deaths were made farcical. Dressed in wild animals' skins , they were torn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, or made into torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for daylight"
(Book 15, chapter 44):
Update: The probing eye of science
11th century monk corrects Tacitus: "Goodies" to read "Christians"!
Ultraviolet photo of a critical word from the earliest known extant manuscript of Tacitus (second Medicean, Laurentian library, Italy).
The photograph reveals that the word purportedly used by Tacitus in Annals 15.44, chrestianos ("the good"), has been overwritten as christianos ("the Christians") by a later hand, a deceit which explains the excessive space between the letters and the exaggerated "dot" (dash) above the new "i". The entire "torched Christians" passage of Tacitus is not only fake, it has been repeatedly "worked over" by fraudsters to improve its value as evidence for the Jesus myth.
The truth may be that there was an original gnostic cult following a personified virtue, "Jesus Chrestos" (Jesus the Good). Consequently, they were called Chrestians, an appellation which seems to have attached itself at an early date to the sectarians of the "heretic" Marcion. Support for this possibility comes from the earliest known "Christian" inscription, found in the 19th century on a Marcionite church at Deir Ali, three miles south of Damascus. Dated to 318-9, the inscription reads "The meeting-house of the Marcionists, in the village of Lebaba, of the Lord and Saviour Jesus the Good", using the word Chrestos, not Christos.
As a flesh-and-blood, "historical" Jesus gradually eclipsed the allegorical Jesus so, too, did "goodness" get eclipsed by "Messiahship". Justin, in his First Apology (4), about thirty years after the death of Tacitus, plays on the similarity in sound of the two words Χριστὸς (Christ) and χρηστὸς (good, excellent) to argue for the wholesome, commendable character of Jesus followers.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Egmond Codfried: There is now new and exciting DNA evidence for common Jewish origin -- not just among Cohanim, the Priestly Class, but among Jews scattered all over the globe.
This is not "new" evidence. Its old bunk from Hammer (2000) that has been rubbished. Varied peoples converted to Judaism.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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Last time I posted somehow most of it got truncated.
quote: Originally posted by Alive: Ok. I know Rome invaded etc but what happens to Jes in the last centuries BC and first centuries AD is mysterious to me.
No mystery, there's plenty of history. The centuries surrounding the turn of the era, Jews were in their own nation Judea and in nearby nation states, notably Egypt and Babylon but also in the expanse between at least Libya to India.
quote: Originally posted by Alive: How did they get to Spain
Jews got to Spain primarily from littoral North Africa. Centuries after their arrival, as a fifth column, they flung various Andalusian city gates wide open for Tarif and Tarikh. Tarif may have been a Jew of the Tribe of Shim`on.
quote: Originally posted by Alive: why are there communities claiming "Isrealite" descent clear to India
The reason communities "clear to India" claim Israelite descent is because First Temple Era Israelites settled where ever they traded. In the case of the Lemba looks like a subset of Teimani Jews left the Yemen where they had settled in the wake of social upheavals occuring in the ancient kingdoms of Yisra'el and Y*hudah.
quote: Originally posted by Alive: Was it the Arabs who chased them out
Nobody chased Jews out of Palestina. There has always been a presense of Jews there as evidenced in documents from every century since Rome conquered Judea.
Romans did enslave and transport many Jews to Italy. Those Jews pioneered trade into what would in time become France and Germany laying the foundation for the Ashkenazi branch of the people.
A second century great revolt in Cyprus and Cyrenaica was suppressed by the Romans (I think the commanding general was a black man). Libyan 'Jews' fleeing the diasaster migrated westward and southwestward eventually arriving to Morocco and the Niger. From the Niger on to the Senegal. The first Arab reports on the Western Sudan record they met there blacks professing Judaism amng the Bafur.
In Arabia most Jews converted to Islam. Notable holdouts were the Teimani and the 'Jews' of Khaibar. The latter are reported to have executed any Muslims within their power and are reoprted to be black of skin as late as just 150 years ago.
In the Yemen, Muslims adopted all orphaned 'Jewish' children raising them under Islam. There's a lot of cross absorption between Jews and their host states everywhere which is why there is no one Jewish look.
quote: Originally posted by Alive: aren't there still native/"Middle Eastern" Jews?
The 'Jews' of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq are remnants of the ancient communities established there ramified with Jews from elsewhere over the millenia.
One Talmud was edited in Iraq and the 12th century 'Jews' of Iberia wrote to Iraq for an order of prayers. All authentic prayerbooks are spinoffs of the order of prayers the Iraqi's supplied to the Iberians. Even today the chief rabbi of the great Sephardi branch of the people is an Iraqi.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote: Tarif may have been a Jew of the Tribe of Shim`on.
This just sums up your entire thesis. All based on assumptions and conjecture.
The spread of Judaism, like Islam and Christianity, is due largely to conversion. Get over it.
Unless you are going to argue that "Jewish" books such as the Babylonian Talmud - that says blacks are cursed - was written by "authentic" Jews.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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And what about "Jews" like Eliyahu, a Sephardi chief rabbi? Are they "authentic" Jews? Notice he references fellow anti-black "authentic Jew" Moses Maimonides. Was Maimonides also an "authentic" Jew" also?
Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings. [Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza]
Christianity has no part in Tacitus's history of the Caesars. Except for one questionable reference in the Annals he records nothing of a cult marginal even in his own day.
I cannot see how this ties in with the topic! Is it me or are you getting more and more erratic? Where is the joy?
quote:Romans did enslave and transport many Jews to Italy. Those Jews pioneered trade into what would in time become France and Germany laying the foundation for the Ashkenazi branch of the people.
The lead article says that the Ashkenazi Jews are Khazar refugees, a Turkish like people who converted to the Jewish religion.
I have found that the Jewish name for Germany is Ashkenaz.
Many Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity have remained Christian I would guess. So their ethnicity, and looks, remained Berber or Khazar.
There is a puzzling portrait of Veronica van Aerssen, the sister of the Surinam governor, Cornelis van Aerssen, who married a Scottish noble; which show her and her infant son (James Boswell's uncle)who proudly presents his circumcised member in (almost)the centre of the portrait. Yet, this family was famous for its Christian faith which does not circumcise.
The granddaughter of the governor Anna Margaretha van Aerssen is described by her cousin James Boswell as 'Mrs Maasdam black as chimney.’ He describes himself as 'black' and his biography says: 'swarthy, with black hair and black eyes.'
Posts: 5454 | From: Holland | Registered: Aug 2008
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R' Mordechai Eliyahu is "anti-black?" Only to a breying Jack Ass Open. "It is great misswvah to educate and bring close the members of the community who are waiting for their aliyah from Ethiopia." Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, 1992
quote:Originally farted by flaming AssOpen:
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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My god, you really are a ******* Jew apologist! First you try to make victims out of your Iberian brethrens, now you're an apologist for Maimonides and chief rabbi of Zionist state!
You Africanist fraud!
Is that quote suppose to mean he is not anti-black? What has been the status of Beta Israel under his "reign"? Better yet, what has been the status of them in general?
The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion refers to Moses Maimonides as "the symbol of the pure and orthodox faith." His Guide to the Perplexed is considered the greatest work of Jewish religious philosophy:
"Some of the Turks [i.e., the Mongol race] and the nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climates. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey, because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does."
Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Pluto Press, London 1994 page 24/25 (Chapter 2: Prejudice and Prevarication)
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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Yes, well I disagree with the lead article. Decades of my own independent research swayed me from the Khazar hypothesis (which I even used to believe before my own in depth study) to verifiable historical realities.
I owned and read Koestler and much more relevant, Poliak. For Askenazi Jewry on their own Khazar limb, Kevin Brook's website (www.Khazaria.com) is your best modern day bet. I've recommended his site to ES forum members before. http://www.khazaria.com/khazar-diaspora.html
Of course the Khazars became a large element of Ashkenazi Jewry but they were not the start or the root of Ashkenazi Jewry whose origins I've given in my earlier post.
But if you want to base all your knowledge on one Ha'aretz article be my guest. Also if you don't want to entertain viable alternatives then I'll gladly shut up and go away.
In parting I'll say this, Sepharadiym not Ashkenazim are the Black Jews of Europe.
quote:Originally posted by Egmond Codfried:
quote:Romans did enslave and transport many Jews to Italy. Those Jews pioneered trade into what would in time become France and Germany laying the foundation for the Ashkenazi branch of the people.
The lead article says that the Ashkenazi Jews are Khazar refugees, a Turkish like people who converted to the Jewish religion.
I have found that the Jewish name for Germany is Ashkenaz.
Many Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity have remained Christian I would guess. So their ethnicity, and looks, remained Berber or Khazar.
There is a puzzling portrait of Veronica van Aerssen, the sister of the Surinam governor, Cornelis van Aerssen, who married a Scottish noble; which show her and her infant son (James Boswell's uncle)who proudly presents his circumcised member in (almost)the centre of the portrait. Yet, this family was famous for its Christian faith which does not circumcise.
The granddaughter of the governor Anna Margaretha van Aerssen is described by her cousin James Boswell as 'Mrs Maasdam black as chimney.’ He describes himself as 'black' and his biography says: 'swarthy, with black hair and black eyes.'
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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With Egmond's permission as this is his thread and at the risk of lowering myself to address a jackass,
my posted quote shows R' Eliyahu is indeed not anti-black since in it he supports the Jews of Ethiopia against Israelis who are in fact racist in outlook toward the black Jews of Ethiopia.
You were wrong, plain and simple. Calling in extraneous material to mask your error fails your purpose of distraction from your mistake which is duly noted to your rue.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
In Maimon's time period the world was divided into zones. The mid-zones were superior in material technology. The extreme northern and southern zones were mainly unknown but the people of these zones were sold by their own people to the Muslims. So many whites were selling their own kind their very own people that the name Slav was given to them. The English word slave is derived from Slav. The Jews called the white European Slavic peoples Canaanites because it seemed they were cursed to be slaves.
Maimon, a Spanish Jew who migrated to Morocco and then to Egypt, held both the blacks and whites from the outer zones as irrational peoples because to him they "have no religion, neither one based on speculation nor one received by traditon." He also included some peoples of the mid-zones in the same category. Maimon was not a racist. He never denied his medical services (sometimes for free) to whites nor blacks. In his Mishneh Torah when he writes of proselytes he says that nowadays all are admitted including whites and blacks.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 23:4 & 23:9 which delineate which peoples cannot become converts, Maimon writes: When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, arose, he mixed up all the nations, intermingling them one with the other, and exiled them from their homelands; the result was that the people who now dwell in Egypt are not the original Egyptians, nor are the Edomites now in the plain of Edom the original ones. Therefore, once these four forbidden nations have become commingled with all the other permitted nations, they all became permitted. For whosoever seperates himself from them in order to become a proselyte is presumed to have issued from the majority, consequently, when nowadays a person becomes a proselyte anywhere, whether he is an Edomite, an Egyptian, an Ammonite, a Moabite, an Ethiopian, or of any other nation, and whether male or female, he is permitted to enter the congregation at once.
posted
As I wrote days ago the Chief Sepharade Rabbis have been Iraqis not Spanish&Portuguese. That means they are 'Mesopotamian' not European. In Israel all under the wide bracket Sephardi are considered black. When they move to the USA they are instructed by immigration to check the white box under race or ethnicity.
And you remain wrong about him being anti-black.
quote:Originally posted by akoben:
quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: In parting I'll say this, Sepharadiym not Ashkenazim are the Black Jews of Europe.
Yes, this guy is definitely black. lol
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
It would be just as easy to refute all other comments Akoben would care to come back with as I have done in the three above instances but I do not intend to give him any further attention as he does not deserve even this little bit he got from me today.
If anyone else requires clarification of any of his points direct your enquiries to me and I'll respond.
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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Come great Jew you know better than to pull this **** with me. Whites say all manner of **** and you know this. You can even quote Bush saying he wants to help blacks and even Africans in the fight against AIDS. Does this mean he is not anti-black? It is what they do that counts, which is why you fail to answer the question because you know damn well black Jews are second class citizens. And you ******* quote Yale Judaica Series for your apology for Maimonides!!!! Whats next, are you going to go for that Ethiopian Jew (maybe it was YOU!!!!!) Harold Brackman got to write an apologia for Talmudic anti-black racism!!!!
You really are a spin doctor for Zionism which is why you want to portray WHITE DEVIL JEWS ("Sepharade") as victims and not THE main culprits who started the Atlantic slave trader!
You mole!
quote:It would be just as easy to refute all other comments Akoben would care to come back with as I have done in the three above instances but I do not intend to give him any further attention as he does not deserve even this little bit he got from me today.
If anyone else requires clarification of any of his points direct your enquiries to me and I'll respond.
Oh please great Jew you running for Yale Jew apologia "refuted" nothing. Just as your failed attempt to cover for Harold Brackman and Talmudic racism.
More on the "non racist" Maimonides, this time from blacksandjews.com
quote:The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion refers to Moses Maimonides, a.k.a. Rambam, as “the symbol of the pure and orthodox faith.” His Guide of the Perplexed is considered the greatest work of Jewish religious philosophy, but his view of Blacks was Hitlerian:
“[T]he Negroes found in the remote South, and those who resemble them from among them that are with us in these climes. The status of those is like that of irrational animals. To my mind they do not have the rank of men, but have among the beings a rank lower than the rank of man but higher than the rank of apes. For they have the external shape and lineaments of a man and a faculty of discernment that is superior to that of the apes.”
Several Jewish scholars have translated the “Guide,” interpreting the above passage as referring to Black Africans:
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed, translated and edited by Shlomo Pines; with an introductory essay by Leo Strauss (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), Chapter 51, pp. 618-19. Moses Maimonides, The Guide to the Perplexed, trans. and ed. Shlomo Pines (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963), 2:618-19. Other translations use the term “cushites” or “blacks” in place of “Negroes.” See M. Friedlander’s translation (1904; reprint, New York: Dover, 1956), 384.
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed; an abridged edition with introduction and commentary by Julius Guttmann; translated from the Arabic; Dalalat al-ha’irin; English; selections by Chaim Rabin; new introduction by Daniel H. Frank (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1995), p. 185.
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Guide of the Perplexed, translated from the original and annotated by M. Friedländer (New York: Hebrew Pub. Co., 1881), pp. 279-80. Here the word “Kushites” is used.
One might also see Essays on Maimonides; An Octocentennial Volume, edited by Salo Wittmayer Baron (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941). Baron is quite explicit about the attitudes of Maimonides on slavery. On page 239, for instance, he writes, “For Maimuni [Maimonides] a slave is not fully human in matters of sex...”
posted
alTakruri - jeez, I haven't heard such Jew Bullsh1t in quite a while.
First off, how the hell does some White A-hole get to determine who is a Jew, when he himself is NOT a Jew (as it relates to Hebrews).
Here is some encyclopedia history of Israel.
Hebrew Persecution
In 130 A.D. The Roman Emperor Hadrian planned a great temple to Zeus in the newly founded city of Aelia Capitolina, which was on the ruined site of Jerusalem. Moreover, Hadrian had recently outlawed circumcision. these Romanizing acts of the government, easily ignited the second great revolt of the Hebrews against Rome. This was the Bar Cochba or Kochba, (nickname for Simon - (Son of the Star), Revolt of 132 to 135 A.D, which was led by Simon ben Kosiba, (Simon son of Kosiba). Once again the Romans raised an enormous army to put down the revolt. Hadrian personally led the Roman attack on the rebels.
In the aftermath of the Bar Cochba Revolt, the Romans excluded Hebrews from a large area around Aelia Capitolina, which Romans only inhabited. The province now hosted two legions and many auxiliary units, two colonies, and a new name, "Syria Palaestina" to replace Judaea. The center of Hebrew settlement moved northward to Galilee and Gaulanitis. The number of Hebrew communities elsewhere declined, and many once Hebrew towns became Roman or received large numbers of Roman inhabitants. The towns lost their old Hebrew names for new Roman names. The ban on circumcision remained in effect until Antoninus Pius, who recognizing its dangerously provocative effect, revoked it.
After 135 A.D. Hebrews no longer had political, urban, or territorial institutions that could support another revolt, but they managed to maintain national identity as a result of the growth of rabbinical institutions and the patriarchate in Galilee. Poverty, famine, plague, and crime left the Hebrews too weak to mount any organized resistance.
The new state of Syria Palaestina thus became a good deal less problematic for the Roman government than Judaea had been. The government continued to permit the Hebrews certain religious freedoms, such as exemption from the imperial cult, and gradually the Roman governors permitted the Hebrews to recover certain of their communal rights, such as local courts and internal government, under the overall authority of the patriarch in Tiberias. The Samaritans (a sect practicing a strict and uncompromising version of the Hebrew religion), fared less well, as the Romans took steps to prevent a resurgence of Samaritan nationalism by founding a pagan temple on Mt Gerizim, just south of Neapolis, and refused to make concessions to Samaritan religious practices.
The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in about 300 A.D. set in motion events that made Palestine a major center of the Christian church. Before the fifth century A.D. very few Christians lived in Palestine. The non-Hebrew regions of the coast, the south, and Aelia Capitolina had several Roman and Greek Christian communities, and a few Minim (Hebrew Christians) lived in such Galilean towns as Sepphoris and Capernaum.
But beginning in the fourth century the government responded to Roman Christian interest in the Holy Land; by embarking on a massive program of patronage, especially church-building, that was designed to encourage Christians to move to Palestine. There was also an imperial policy geared to encourage Hebrews to convert to Christianity; this by offering protection and rewards.
As a result of Christian settlement in the vicinities of Nazareth, Capernaum, and Tabgha, the region of Galilee lost its Hebrew majority. By about 400 A.D. there were ninety six Christian communities in Palestine. The sack of Rome in 410 A.D. caused a new round of migration to Palestine as a group of aristocratic Romans responded to Jerome's invitation to settle in Aelia Capitolina and Bethlehem, (Jerome was a Caucasian born in Stridon (a city in modern Croatia), he was probably of Turkish/Khazar ethnicity, he was later canonized a Saint by the catholic Church. In addition, numerous Christians came to Palestine not to settle but to visit holy sites on pilgrimage and to scour the land for relics to take home.
On the other hand, the Hebrew population saw a constant and precipitous drop that lasted for centuries. In the second century, after the Bar Cochba Revolt, some two hundred Hebrew communities flourished in Palestine, but by the time of the Arab conquest in the late 630s we know of fewer than fifty. Except in the towns of Tiberias and Sepphoris and in the regions east of the Sea of Galilee, the Hebrews had become a minority in their own country.
The Christian and Hebrew leadership had encouraged their followers to have nothing to do with each other. Most Christian-Hebrew exchange took the form of vigorous attacks on the opinions and principles of each other. Now, after the conversion of Constantine, Christians found themselves in a position not merely to keep themselves separate from contamination by Judaism but to actively suppress it.
The Roman Emperors codified the separation of the two religions by forbidding intermarriage and conversion from Christianity to Judaism. However, Hebrew converts to Christianity; received protection from Hebrew retribution. Increasingly the Hebrews lost civil status. Imperial legislation labeled Judaism a wild and nefarious sect. Until about 500 A.D. Roman emperors regularly reaffirmed the Hebrews right to the free exercise of their religion, but it became increasingly difficult to control violence against the Hebrews and their property.
The accession of Roman Emperor Justinian, in 527 A.D. initiated the last great phase of Roman persecution of the Hebrews. The new emperor redefined heretics to include the Hebrews and excluded them from military and civilian offices. They had never served in the army, but now they could not even serve even in local municipal government. The leadership of the last Hebrew cities, Tiberias and Sepphoris, passed into Greek and Roman hands. Justinian dealt a further blow to the Hebrews when the new compilation of Roman law, the Codex Iustinianus, omitted the ancient law declaring Judaism a legitimate religion, and began to attack Hebrew religious practices and to force baptism.
Meanwhile there appeared renewed resistance from the Samaritans (a sect practicing a strict and uncompromising version of the Hebrew religion), they had never received any of the privileges that the Romans afforded the more liberal Hebrews. They were forbidden to circumcise their children since the second century, and forced to sacrifice to the pagan gods during the Tetrarchy. Now they were suffering under the Christian empire, even greater oppression than the Hebrews.
The Samaritans revolted against Emperor Zeno in 484 A.D. The Roman government put them down ruthlessly, and built a Christian church on their holy mountain, (Mt Gerizim) near Neapolis. Again in 529 A.D, they revolted after Justinian ordered the destruction of their synagogues. After they restored control, the Romans deported or forcibly baptized Samaritans and installed a garrison there. In both great revolts the Samaritans briefly set up their own royal state in the Davidic style.
In 603 A.D. the last war between Rome and Persia began. The Persians gradually occupied the eastern parts of the empire and in 613 A.D. they took Damascus. Then later, with Hebrew assistance, they occupied all of Palestine. They took Aelia Capitolina in 614 A.D. and gave it to the Hebrews. But within a few years they restored it to the Christians, because it was easier to deal with the majority population, which was Christian. In 622 A.D. Roman Emperor Heraclius turned the tide against Persia, and in 629 A.D. he recovered Palestine.
The Arab/Eurasian Invasion
But within a few years the Muslims - a conglomeration of Turks, Greeks, and Arabs, under the banner of the Prophet Muhammad - attacking from the south, through a Hebrew population that had no love for the Roman Empire, easily conquered Palestine.
The invasion began in 634 A.D, Gaza fell first, and the attack continued northward until, after the Battle of the Yarmuk southeast of the Sea of Galilee in 636 A.D. the Roman army withdrew from Palestine and Syria. Jerusalem held out until the spring of 638 A.D. Caesarea fell last, in 641 A.D, and with its conquest, the Muslims ended seven hundred years of Roman rule in Palestine.
From the time of the Roman occupation, Canaanites and Hebrews and begun to leave Canaan. By the time of the Muslim invasion, with the majority of the population already killed or displaced by Romans and Greeks, there is no telling how many were left alive to flee.
The population of Phoenicia (later Lebanon), also began to take its present form in the 7th century A.D. At some time during the earlier Byzantine period, a military group of uncertain origin, the Mardaites, had established themselves in the north among the indigenous population there. From the 7th century onward, another group entered the country, these were the Maronites, a Christian community adhering to the Monothelite doctrine. They had been forced by persecution, to leave their homes in northern Syria.
They settled in the northern part of Lebanon, and absorbed the Mardaites and the indigenous peasants, to form the present Maronite Church. Originally Syriac speaking (a Anatolian dialect of Aramaean), they gradually adopted the Arabic language although keeping Syriac for liturgical purposes. In the south of Lebanon, Arab tribesmen came in after the Muslim conquest, and settled among the indigenous people. In the 11th century A.D. many of these were converted to the Druze faith, an esoteric offshoot of Shi‘ite Islam.
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Barely Alive - Have you ever given any thought to actually reading and investigating for yourself. If you ever did that, then perhaps you wouldn't look so silly, fawning over alTakruri's Jew Bullsh1t.Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005
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The Muslims were also giving the Hebrews hell.
Qur'an 059.014 YUSUFALI: They (Hebrews) will not fight you (even) together, except in fortified townships, or from behind walls. Strong is their fighting (spirit) amongst themselves: thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom.
PICKTHAL: They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified villages or from behind walls. Their adversity among themselves is very great. Ye think of them as a whole whereas their hearts are divers. That is because they are a folk who have no sense.
SHAKIR: They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified towns or from behind walls; their fighting between them is severe, you may think them as one body, and their hearts are disunited; that is because they are a people who have no sense.
Qur'an 033.026 YUSUFALI: And those of the People of the Book (Hebrews) who aided them - Allah did take them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts. (So that) some ye slew, and some ye made prisoners.
PICKTHAL: And He brought those of the People of the Scripture who supported them down from their strongholds, and cast panic into their hearts. Some ye slew, and ye made captive some.
SHAKIR: And He drove down those of the followers of the Book who backed them from their fortresses and He cast awe into their hearts; some you killed and you took captive another part.
Qur'an 033.027 YUSUFALI: And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented (before). And Allah has power over all things.
PICKTHAL: And He caused you to inherit their land and their houses and their wealth, and land ye have not trodden. Allah is ever Able to do all things.
SHAKIR: And He made you heirs to their land and their dwellings and their property, and (to) a land which you have not yet trodden, and Allah has power over all things.
Tabari VIII:121 Ali struck the Hebrew with a swift blow that split his helmet, neck protector, and head, landing in his rear teeth. And the Muslims entered the city. Muhammad conquered the [Hebrew] neighborhood. Safiyah was brought to him, and another woman with her. Bilal led them past some of the Hebrews we had slain including the woman's dead husband. When she saw them, the woman with Safiyah cried out, slapped her face, and poured dust on her head. When Allah's Prophet saw her, he said, Take this she-devil away from me!
Who Safiyah was;
Safiyah Bint Huyeiy Ibn Akhtab, was a Hebrew woman who was captured when Muhammads troops attacked Khaibar. Safiyah was seventeen and very beautiful when Muslims killed her father, husband and many of her relatives. She was brought to the Prophet as his share of the booty. The Prophet desired her, but Safiyah requested the Prophet to wait till he had gone a stage away from Khaibar. One mile from Khaibar, the Prophet married Safiyah.
Who Bilal was;
Bilal ibn Rabah was an Ethiopian slave born in Mecca in the late 6th century. Slavery was common in Mecca, and many slaves accepted Islam. When an ordinary free man accepted Islam, despite opposition, he would enjoy the protection of his tribe. For slaves however, there was no such protection, and they were subjected to persecution. Abu Bakr felt for these slaves, so he purchased eight slaves, four men and four women and set them free. Bilal ibn Rabah was one of the slaves purchased by Abu Bakr.
The Islamic prophet Muhammad, chose Bilal as his muezzin (The chosen person at the mosque who leads the call to Friday service and the five daily prayers.), effectively making him the first official muezzin of the Islamic faith. He was known for his beautiful voice with which he called people to their prayers.
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quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: As I wrote days ago the Chief Sepharade Rabbis have been Iraqis not Spanish&Portuguese. That means they are 'Mesopotamian' not European.
Are you saying Eliyahu is 'Mesopotamian' hence not white? Well here are some more observations on your "Mesopotamian" brethrens.
quote:Scholar St. Clair Drake hypothesizes that "special conditions in Mesopotamia generated rabbinic stories associating Negroidness with excessive and aberrant sexuality and Noah's curse." Drake argues that the Mesopotamia Jews negatively encountered significant numbers of Africans called the Zanj. In fact, Drake insists that "some Jews had a stake in maintaining slavery. They were not just supervisors of slave labor; eventually, they became slave owners and dealers in the slave grade. A Diaspora Jewish culture with values quite different from those in Palestine developed." He explains as follows.
During the first century A.D.…among Babylonian Jewry was a class of native born aristocrats.…Under these circumstances, parts of the Jewish community became involved in the importation and exploitation of "Zanj" labor in southern Mesopotamia. Insofar as the landed upper class followed the ancient Babylonian pattern, it would have been a slaveholding class. And it is likely that some of the farmers and tradesmen held slaves as well. The Jewish people were also represented in commerce, in manufacturing, and in the ownership of vessels that traded in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, where they were in direct contact with the "Zanj."
quote:Dr. Harold Brackman, "The Ebb and Flow of Conflict: The History of Black-Jewish Relations Through 1900." Brackman's 632-page dissertation discusses the Jewish invention of the profoundly racist Hamitic Myth. Brackman wrote:
"There is no denying that the [Jewish] Babylonian Talmud was the first source to read a Negrophobic content into the episode by stressing Canaan's fraternal connection with Cush."
Picture of Great Sage's "mesopotamian" Jews who aren't white.
quote:Barely Alive - Have you ever given any thought to actually reading and investigating for yourself. If you ever did that, then perhaps you wouldn't look so silly, fawning over alTakruri's Jew Bullsh1t.
Jeeves is a socialite, he's not here to learn.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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akoben - I knew that these friking Jews were debased liars, but from your stuff, it seems that I really had no idea.
Dr. Harold Brackman, "The Ebb and Flow of Conflict: The History of Black-Jewish Relations Through 1900." Brackman's 632-page dissertation discusses the Jewish invention of the profoundly racist Hamitic Myth.
What lying bastards; Hebrew is Black, Black is a Hebrew!
This is a Hebrew
This is NOT a Hebrew, this is a Lying piece-of-sh1t Khazar Turk.
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Yes they are great spin doctors as you can see with Great Jew's apologia.
quote:So many whites were selling their own kind their very own people that the name Slav was given to them. The English word slave is derived from Slav. The Jews called the white European Slavic peoples Canaanites because it seemed they were cursed to be slaves.
This is another spin to give the impression that the "Jews" here were not the same whites who "were selling their own kind their very own people".
quote:The Jewish 'Slave trains moved across Europe from Germany to Verdun and finally to Moslem Spain" with enslaved humans that originated in "Bohemia, Moravia and remoter Slavic lands."...By the ninth century, the words "merchant" and "Jew" had become almost synoymous...The Jewish presence permeated throughout; and around A.D. 794, the Synod of Frankfort in Central Germany, attempted to break the Jewish trade monopoly...By A.D. 887, some German cities made Jewish merchants pay "an extra 10-cents tax," primarily to give the Christian competitors an advantage... [Jews and the Early Slave Trade]
^ No doubt this "tax" would be seen as yet another example of "anti Semitism" or evidence of Christian "Jew hatred". And just as how they dominated the trade in their own white kind, they eventually dominated trade the later Atlantic Slave trade.
Posts: 4165 | From: jamaica | Registered: May 2008
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Anyone who believes the Zionists airlifted the black Jews of Ethiopia out of the warmness of their hearts is mistaken. Russian Zionists understood well their false claim to legacy of Israel would be strengthened by having the real black Jews of Ethiopia in Israel. Therefore, they received financing from prominent New York Jews to plan and execute Operation Moses to airlift Ethiopian Jews into Israel in secret.
Prior to this, Israel or US Zionists did absolutely nothing to help the more than 400,000 Ethiopian Jews killed in Africa over the last 30 years reducing their number to a mere 20-30,000.
Now that these black Ethiopians are in Israel, white Zionists have discriminated against them the same as whites in Apartheid South Africa.
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Great sage knows of the discrimination in Israel as he read Dr. Ben's book. He is just caught between loyalty to the tribe and the truth.
Thanks for that article Menin. Ethiopia Jews are in the same dilemma as other black third world people: they live miserable lives in their home countries (primarily because of unfair trade policies etc of rich ones) so they jump at any opportunity to go off to the "developed" world even if they must endure racism.
The one below is somewhat related.
From Israeli slum to the pages of Vogue
By Tim Butcher in Hebsiba Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 04/11/2005
Israel's Ethiopian Jews, the Falasha, have found a role model in a 23-year-old whose looks have turned her into one of their most exciting new fashion talents.
Esti Mamo has moved on from the mud hut where she was born in eastern Ethiopia to Paris modelling studios and her face adorns the pages of magazines such as Elle and Vogue.
Esti Mamo had to overcome racism to become a model Nicknamed the Queen of Sheba by her agent, Miss Mamo flies to New York next week hoping to join the supermodel ranks and leave behind the racism suffered by Falashas in Israel.
The discrimination leads to joblessness, drug-taking and domestic violence. Miss Mamo's brother killed himself last year, a death she blames on an inherently flawed welfare system. "Ours is a very traditional society in Ethiopia," she said, "but once you come to Israel the hierarchy begins to break down. "There are few jobs for Ethiopians so a jobless father loses status in the community and family. That can develop into domestic violence with children no longer respecting their parents. "Sadly for Ethiopians living in Israel there is no shortage of tragedies."
Tracing their roots to Jewish tribes driven out of the Promised Land 2,000 years ago, the Falasha are offered a home by Israel, which was founded in 1948 as a sanctuary for all Jews. But unlike any other Jewish community, they are subject to a quota imposed by the Israeli government of 600 immigrants a month.
Community leaders complain that Falashas suffer clear discrimination because of their skin colour. "It boils down to racism," said Adam Baruch, a Falasha activist. "I have applied for jobs and when the employer hears my voice over the phone there is no problem. But when I turn up for the interview with my black skin, suddenly the job is no longer available."
Standing in the sink estate of Hebsiba where 300 Falasha familes are corralled on the edge of one of Israel's smartest towns, Netanya, the social deprivation is clear.
It is seen in the "Fuke [sic] The World" graffiti on the wall and the faces of teenage Falasha boys in the shadows as they smoke and complain about the lack of jobs.
Social problems make all the more remarkable Miss Mamo's transition from a childhood in rural Ethiopia to a Falasha ghetto in southern Israel and on to her modelling career.
She was discovered by a modelling agent as she shopped in Tel Aviv at the age of 15 but was reluctant as she wanted to finish school. But the agent persisted and she started modelling at 18.
"I was the first black face to be regarded as acceptable on the front pages of Israeli magazines," she said.
"It took time but after a few years they said I was the first to 'open the door for others'. "It took a bit of time to persuade my mother that it was OK to model underwear or swimsuits but now she supports me totally."
Back at Hebsiba a straw poll of Ethiopian children showed they had all heard of Esti Mamo. "She is a great example - I want more of us to make a success like that," said one teenage girl.
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I for one damn sure never said a word about the Ethiopian airlifts having anything to do with warmness of heart. In fact anyone with minimal reading comprehension can see I wrote R' Eliyahu countered the state on the issue of Beta Israel and Falas Mura immigration. Without efforts of those like him Ethiopians would never have made aliyah to begin with.
Anyone who doesn't understand the antipathy between Sepharadiym and Ashkenazim is out of their mind. As a remedy I suggest looking into the Black Panthers of Eretz Israel from their original documents or the case of the missing Teimani infants or for that matter the trouble all eastern Jews had in immigrating to Israel. With that info even the resident demagogues will know but not admit the link between Chief Sepharadi Rabbinate and all dark Jews in getting recognition and entrance to the Ashkenazi dominated settler state. The Chief Sephardi Rabbinate is a representative for the dark Jews be they North African Jews, Arab Jews, Ethiopian Jews, or Indian Jews. But then when have facts ever dissuaded a demagogue who knows from the outstart he hasn't a leg to stand on but mouths off just to rile people up for their cause.
And that is all the attention starved misoJudaic crowd is getting from me today with of course an invitation for any serious enquiries extended.
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"As an Ethiopian immigrant in Israel, you have to erase everything Ethiopian in order to be Israeli. For example, when you first get here they erase your name and give you a new one. When we arrived they asked me my name and I replied ‘Yuvnot.' The girl didn't understand what I said, so she said ‘OK, from now on you're going to be Rahel.' So I was Rahel until after my army service. All through my childhood I wanted to be Israeli so much, so I was Rahel, my accent was Israeli, I didn't like Ethiopian food, only Israeli food, I dressed Israeli and so on. The Ethiopian part of me was completely pushed aside. I didn't want to deal with it".
Instigated by the majority Ashkenazim, official absorption processes have often failed to account for the particular social and cultural needs of minority ethnic groups. Yuvi points to this identity crisis experienced by so many of the Ethiopian olim as a significant contributor to the alienation inadvertently fostered among the Ethiopian community by the Israeli establishment. "When two Ethiopian kids are speaking Amharic in class" she says, "the teacher will intervene and force them to speak Hebrew. When parents come to the school, the teacher will often have to translate what he says to the parents to their child, or vice versa. If you ask an Ethiopian youngster about Ethiopia or about his Ethiopian name, he'll say ‘I don't have any Ethiopian name--only Israeli'. I think it's a big problem. I think that this is a big part of the underlying cause of a lot of the things that are happening to Ethiopian youth--the crime, the drugs and so on".
Besides having to start virtually from scratch economically, Ethiopian Jews (like the Mizrachi immigrants two decades before them) have found themselves consistently confronted with prejudice, discrimination, and racism from both Israeli society and the country's political establishment.
While vast amounts of government money have been poured into absorbing these immigrants, progress has been slow. Figures released in 2007 show how serious the socio-economic disparities still remain between Israel's Ethiopian population and the rest of Israeli society: Ethiopians live in impoverished neighborhoods, face sky-rocketing unemployment, and have the highest high-school dropout rate of any Jewish group in Israel. With average per capita income among Ethiopian Jews standing at NIS 2,000 a month, Ethiopians' salaries are around half those of all other Israeli Jews, and considerably lower even than those of the country's Arab population. Ethiopian youth often fall behind in basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic early on in their education. As a result, around 40 percent of Ethiopian adults of employable age don't have an education beyond elementary school level. In deprived neighborhoods, drug use is increasing dramatically and criminal activity, practically unheard of among Ethiopian Jewish communities before they came to the country, is on the rise.
When Ethiopian immigrants began to settle in Israel during the early 1980s, their dream was to integrate and become accepted in their new homeland while at the same time retaining their own unique character, identity and values. It's a sad but very real indictment of Israeli society that they've been rewarded for their unparalleled devotion to this country with the racism, prejudice and discrimination that their communities continue to face to this day. The work being done by Yuvi and her friends in Gedera not only betrays ongoing concerns about the disempowerment of the Ethiopian community in Israel, but highlights the importance of grassroots action and local community involvement in creating meaningful and lasting political change in the face of a government and state unwilling, and often unable, to take care of its own people.
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