Nadene Goldfoot
Greece is in SE Europe. Jews came into contact with the Greeks ever since Biblical days. They settled on the Greek mainland by the 2nd century BCE. We know this because of inscriptions that have been found. It was the Greek Syrians who had invaded Jerusalem and had taken over the Temple, putting their gods in there. This is our Chanukah story. It goes back to "Alexander the Great, a Greek, who conquered Syria in 332 BCE and, after his death in 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire ruled the region. That was one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus Nicator who then established his Hellenistic royal dynasty of the Seleucids. "
Saul of Tarsus was a Jew born in a Hellenistic city in Asia Minor who was born near the very first year of what was to become the Common Era on our calendars. He could have been born right in Athens or even as far away as Damascus. "Several Greek cities became dominant in the Hellenistic era. City-states of the classical Greece like Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Miletus, and Syracuse continued to flourish, while others emerged as major centers throughout the kingdoms. Pergamum, Ephesus, Antioch, Damascus, and Trapezus are few of the cities whose reputations have survived to our day."
Saul had studied Greek philosophy and was also familiar with the mystery cults popular at the beginning of the Christian era. It was said that he had even studied in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder, but his writings show little comprehension of Pharisaic Judaism. Gamiel the Elder was descended from Hillel. They were rabbis in Palestine and the Diaspora. Saul did show an early zeal in persecuting members of the new Christian sect which contrasts with Gamaliel's tolerant attitude. This must have finally caused him his own torment of feelings of guilt in not following the Golden rule of not treating people like you would not like to be treated. As Hillel had said," What you do not like when done to you, do not do to others. " Lev. 19:18-which Rabbi Akiva said was the fundamental rule of the Torah.
He had a vision, as is written in the New Testament. He converted to this new religion, Christianity and changed his name to Paul. He contributed a great deal to Christian theology as the apostle to the Gentile, he was able to convert thousands of new converts who didn't adopt Jewish loyalty or Jewish observance, as converts of the other disciples had done. Paul's thinking was dominated by the doctrine of ORIGINAL SIN.
By the 1st century CE, synagogues and organized communities were found by the apostle Paul in all the principal cities. They suffered the same vicissitudes as Jews in the remainder of the BYZANTINE EMPIRE. Attempts were then made to enforce wholesale conversion from the 7th century onward. This was the period of the Eastern Roman Empire with their capital in CONSTANTINOPLE/Istanbul. They ruled over a great mass of land which included Palestine. Jews were in this empire as we know from the 4th century on.
Their emperors developed their specific anti-Semitic religious attitudes of the positions that Jews were to have, which just kept deteriorating. JUSTINIAN ruled from 527 to 65 and had created elaborate anti-Jewish laws in his CODE, and had issued a decree in 553 which interfered with the conduct of the synagogue services. They were getting that specific. HERACLIUS in 614 issued an edict ordering the conversion of the Jews. The practice of Judaism was formally forbidden by successive emperors--by LEO in 723, by BASIL I in 873 -4. by ROMANUS LACAPENUS in 932-6, etc.
Paul retained an emotional attachment to the Jewish people and hoped that in the future they would accept the Gospel and be reinstated as G-d's chosen. Evidently with his theory, they had been replaced, starting today's replacement theory with many Christian groups. To him, he had lost respect for the Torah's goal as something unattainable. He saw it as a measuring rod showing man that he was in a hopeless situation in not being able to achieve righteousness. This came from thinking that all men were contaminated by the guilt of Adam and could not find freedom from it other than this new religion, not the Torah.
Such guilt does not exist in Judaism, and certainly not Adam's act of eating Eve's apple. More likely we should feel guilty from breaking one of the 10 Commandments given to us by Moses. Paul was converting people that were not Jewish and had been if following the going religion of the area, a polytheistic Greek religion about Mt. Olympus. However, he had been Jewish, yet not educated or believing in the prevailing Jewish belief. He could not shake his fears till he came across Christianity.
By the year of 1165 CE, Benjamin of Tudela found Jews in many parts of the country engaged mostly in silk and weaving it. There were farmers as well, which is a switch for Jews since in other parts of Europe, Jews could not own land.
At the end of the 15th century, refugees from Spain entered the land and overwhelmed the local communities which lost their former character and became henceforth entirely Sephardi in culture. Only in Corfu was the original Greek rite of prayer ultimately preserved.
Salonica attracted the most settlers, but there were many other communities, especially in the seaports. Constantinople was later called Istanbul.
The kingdom of Greece of the 19th century had small and unimportant Jewish communities in Athens and in other places which suffered from on and off anti-Semitic attacks. The capture of Salonica of Turkey in 1912, part of the Ottoman Empire, brought under Greek rule one of the largest Jewish communities of the Mediterranean. Salonica or Thessaloniki, was a Greek port to the Jewish community dating back to classical times and was visited by Paul in 50 CE. He died in 65 CE.
This brought about the many exchanges of population between Greece and Turkey which reduced the importance and economic value of the Jews.
From the time of German occupation of Greece, wholesale deportations took place of Jews from 1941 to 1943. Many communities lost up to 90% of their numbers. The losses added up to 60,332 out of a former total of 76,420 Jews. The community of Salonica was reduced to 1,100. Over 2,000 Greek Jews immigrated to Israel after the etablishment of the state. By 1990 there were 4,875 Jews living there again.
I met a beautiful Greek Jewish gal when I lived in Haifa, Israel. She was next door to our ulpan and looked exactly like Sofia Loren on a smaller scale. She and her young husband offered to care for our German shepherd that I had brought with us to Israel, and then we were told that our dog could not continue living with us on the 3rd floor of the ulpan. The next thing I knew was that our neighbor was pregnant and I got my dog back who was able to stay with us, finally.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-major-hannukah-story-judahs.html
https://www.ancient-greece.org/history/helleninstic.html
Greece is in SE Europe. Jews came into contact with the Greeks ever since Biblical days. They settled on the Greek mainland by the 2nd century BCE. We know this because of inscriptions that have been found. It was the Greek Syrians who had invaded Jerusalem and had taken over the Temple, putting their gods in there. This is our Chanukah story. It goes back to "Alexander the Great, a Greek, who conquered Syria in 332 BCE and, after his death in 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire ruled the region. That was one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus Nicator who then established his Hellenistic royal dynasty of the Seleucids. "
Saul of Tarsus was a Jew born in a Hellenistic city in Asia Minor who was born near the very first year of what was to become the Common Era on our calendars. He could have been born right in Athens or even as far away as Damascus. "Several Greek cities became dominant in the Hellenistic era. City-states of the classical Greece like Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Miletus, and Syracuse continued to flourish, while others emerged as major centers throughout the kingdoms. Pergamum, Ephesus, Antioch, Damascus, and Trapezus are few of the cities whose reputations have survived to our day."
Saul had studied Greek philosophy and was also familiar with the mystery cults popular at the beginning of the Christian era. It was said that he had even studied in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder, but his writings show little comprehension of Pharisaic Judaism. Gamiel the Elder was descended from Hillel. They were rabbis in Palestine and the Diaspora. Saul did show an early zeal in persecuting members of the new Christian sect which contrasts with Gamaliel's tolerant attitude. This must have finally caused him his own torment of feelings of guilt in not following the Golden rule of not treating people like you would not like to be treated. As Hillel had said," What you do not like when done to you, do not do to others. " Lev. 19:18-which Rabbi Akiva said was the fundamental rule of the Torah.
He had a vision, as is written in the New Testament. He converted to this new religion, Christianity and changed his name to Paul. He contributed a great deal to Christian theology as the apostle to the Gentile, he was able to convert thousands of new converts who didn't adopt Jewish loyalty or Jewish observance, as converts of the other disciples had done. Paul's thinking was dominated by the doctrine of ORIGINAL SIN.
By the 1st century CE, synagogues and organized communities were found by the apostle Paul in all the principal cities. They suffered the same vicissitudes as Jews in the remainder of the BYZANTINE EMPIRE. Attempts were then made to enforce wholesale conversion from the 7th century onward. This was the period of the Eastern Roman Empire with their capital in CONSTANTINOPLE/Istanbul. They ruled over a great mass of land which included Palestine. Jews were in this empire as we know from the 4th century on.
 |
| Emperor Alexius |
Their emperors developed their specific anti-Semitic religious attitudes of the positions that Jews were to have, which just kept deteriorating. JUSTINIAN ruled from 527 to 65 and had created elaborate anti-Jewish laws in his CODE, and had issued a decree in 553 which interfered with the conduct of the synagogue services. They were getting that specific. HERACLIUS in 614 issued an edict ordering the conversion of the Jews. The practice of Judaism was formally forbidden by successive emperors--by LEO in 723, by BASIL I in 873 -4. by ROMANUS LACAPENUS in 932-6, etc.
Paul retained an emotional attachment to the Jewish people and hoped that in the future they would accept the Gospel and be reinstated as G-d's chosen. Evidently with his theory, they had been replaced, starting today's replacement theory with many Christian groups. To him, he had lost respect for the Torah's goal as something unattainable. He saw it as a measuring rod showing man that he was in a hopeless situation in not being able to achieve righteousness. This came from thinking that all men were contaminated by the guilt of Adam and could not find freedom from it other than this new religion, not the Torah.
Such guilt does not exist in Judaism, and certainly not Adam's act of eating Eve's apple. More likely we should feel guilty from breaking one of the 10 Commandments given to us by Moses. Paul was converting people that were not Jewish and had been if following the going religion of the area, a polytheistic Greek religion about Mt. Olympus. However, he had been Jewish, yet not educated or believing in the prevailing Jewish belief. He could not shake his fears till he came across Christianity.
By the year of 1165 CE, Benjamin of Tudela found Jews in many parts of the country engaged mostly in silk and weaving it. There were farmers as well, which is a switch for Jews since in other parts of Europe, Jews could not own land.
At the end of the 15th century, refugees from Spain entered the land and overwhelmed the local communities which lost their former character and became henceforth entirely Sephardi in culture. Only in Corfu was the original Greek rite of prayer ultimately preserved.
Salonica attracted the most settlers, but there were many other communities, especially in the seaports. Constantinople was later called Istanbul.
The kingdom of Greece of the 19th century had small and unimportant Jewish communities in Athens and in other places which suffered from on and off anti-Semitic attacks. The capture of Salonica of Turkey in 1912, part of the Ottoman Empire, brought under Greek rule one of the largest Jewish communities of the Mediterranean. Salonica or Thessaloniki, was a Greek port to the Jewish community dating back to classical times and was visited by Paul in 50 CE. He died in 65 CE.
This brought about the many exchanges of population between Greece and Turkey which reduced the importance and economic value of the Jews.
 |
| Salonika |
From the time of German occupation of Greece, wholesale deportations took place of Jews from 1941 to 1943. Many communities lost up to 90% of their numbers. The losses added up to 60,332 out of a former total of 76,420 Jews. The community of Salonica was reduced to 1,100. Over 2,000 Greek Jews immigrated to Israel after the etablishment of the state. By 1990 there were 4,875 Jews living there again.
 |
| Greek goddess hairstyle |
I met a beautiful Greek Jewish gal when I lived in Haifa, Israel. She was next door to our ulpan and looked exactly like Sofia Loren on a smaller scale. She and her young husband offered to care for our German shepherd that I had brought with us to Israel, and then we were told that our dog could not continue living with us on the 3rd floor of the ulpan. The next thing I knew was that our neighbor was pregnant and I got my dog back who was able to stay with us, finally.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-major-hannukah-story-judahs.html
https://www.ancient-greece.org/history/helleninstic.html
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