How Chanukah Has Nothing To Do With Christmas

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

I'm finding that many Christians think, because of the dates Christmas and Chanukah are so close together, that Chanukah is just the Jews' way of celebrating Christmas.  

I'm afraid not.  Their dates of celebration in December is just a coincidence.  One has nothing to do with the other.

Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday in the context of all our Jewish holidays.  Because gift-giving is involved, it's become more of a celebrated holiday, perhaps because it's in competition with Christmas.

Chanukah is celebrating a historic war where Judah, once one of the 12 states of Israel, had battles with the Greek-Syrians of Hellenism.  They tried to take over the country and even got away with putting the idol of Zeus in the Jewish Temple ! Everyone was afraid to speak out.  They were trying to force Jews to eat parts of pigs, you know, pork.  That's forbidden for Jews, highly offensive in those days .  They wanted to put an end to circumcision.  That did it! 

 A very macho-man who had 5 sons, was furious. Mattathias was a patriot, a priest and a landowner of Modiin. He had 5 sons; Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John, and Eleazar. Mattathias killed the royal official who was sent to make the Jews worship Zeus.  This was the focus of the revolt of his sons against Antiochus Epiphanes. This was very serious;  it meant the end of Judaism if not stopped.  The Syrians had become Hellenized (fall for Greek beliefs)  way before it was a threat to the Jews.  That's why the Jews had to fight Syrian-Greeks.   

Mattathias was the leader of the revolt and was staying in the Judean hills and waged a guerilla war on the Syrians. (In fact, he introduced fighting in that manner.)  He was killed and his son, Judah the Maccabee, took over.  He was later called the Hammerer because he hammered away at the Syrians.  We remember Judah and his brothers being victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes and their rededication of the Temple that the Greeks had taken over.

 Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the Hellenistic king of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 175 BCE until his death in 164 BCE, born around 215 BCE, known for his aggressive Hellenization policies that led to the Maccabean Revolt against his rule in Judea. 

This means that the event happened about 2,200 years ago, and at least 175 years before the birth of Jesus.  

In the temple hung the eternal light lamp of oil which was always kept full.  With the Syrians taking over, it burned down to no oil left by the time Mattathias decided to risk his and his son's lives by rebelling.  With them succeeding, they threw out Zeus and sent runners to the next town for oil.  The lamp kept on burning for 8 nights anyway until the runners returned;  a miracle.  We remember this by eating foods fried in oil, like sufganiot (donuts) and potato latkas (hash browned potatoes-bought frozen are yummy in a pinch).  

Young men were being kept from studying the Torah, so they would go into the woods and study.  If the Syrian soldiers saw them and were questioning them, they denied they were studying, only gambling with a dreidal.  That's where the dreidal comes into our holiday.  

If this hadn't taken place, neither would Judaism have continued, so because of this event, Jesus was born and Christianity was able to develop.  

Resource:

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-revolt-against-syrians-by-jews.html

 

Happy Hanukkah Since 165 BCE

Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

      In Sderot , Israeli soldiers secure an area near the bodies of civilians killed by a Palestinian militant attack. .

Remembering from 165 BCE our victory in succeeding to fight for Freedom led by JUDAH MACCABEE over the immense Assyrian -Greek Empire who were trying to replace Judaism with the worship of idols. 

And here we are, still fighting for freedom in 2023 CE.:  2,188 years later.  Remember October 7th. 

        Our Hannukiah                                          

                         Sufganiot (filled donuts)

                        More sufaniot                                
                   

                         potato latkas

                                                       

      Gift giving comes in the form of Chanukah Gelt-or gifts for the 8 nights

Our remembrance commences today when we light our 1st candle to remember our re-dedication of the Temple to reclaim their sacred space.   They had enough oil for one night, and it lasted for 8 nights; which is why we light 8 candles over 8 nights. Because of the oil, we eat foods fried in oil-and no doubt olive oil is the best.   

Our Chanukah Story 's Ending with Hellenization of Israel- Judah-A Bloody History

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

The Greek Athenian Empire invaded Israel and saw to it that much of the country was Hellenized.  This would change the path the Israelites were on and they were forced to take a detour in their history. 

Notice that Athens is closer to Jerusalem than Rome is.  

 Alexander the Great was beloved by the Israelites and he had everything to do with it happening.  Just how powerful were the Greeks with the rest of the world?  

Alexander was king of Macedonia, son of Philip,  from 356 to 323 BCE.died

at 33.  Born: 356 BCE, Pella, Macedonia [northwest of Thessaloníki, Greece]

Died: 

June 13, 323 BCE, Babylon [near Al-Ḥillah, Iraq]

  who overthrew the Persian empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career.  

He traveled with his army:  with over 13,000 men; he himself commanded about 30,000 foot and over 5,000 cavalry, of whom nearly 14,000 were Macedonians and about 7,000 allies sent by the Greek League. This army was to prove remarkable for its balanced combination of arms. Much work fell on the lightarmed Cretan and Macedonian archers, Thracians, and the Agrianian javelin men. But in pitched battle the striking force was the cavalry, and the core of the army, should the issue still remain undecided after the cavalry charge, was the infantry phalanx, 9,000 strong, armed with 13-foot spears and shields, and the 3,000 men of the royal battalions, the hypaspists. Alexander’s second in command was Parmenio, who had secured a foothold in Asia Minor during Philip’s lifetime; many of his family and supporters were entrenched in positions of responsibility. The army was accompanied by surveyors, engineers, architects, scientists, court officials, and historians; from the outset Alexander seems to have envisaged an unlimited operation.

First hit was Tyre (Lebanon). Alexander wanted money.   The Phoenician cities Marathus and Aradus came over quietly, and Parmenio was sent ahead to secure Damascus and its rich booty, including King Darius III’s war chest. In reply to a letter from Darius offering peace, Alexander replied arrogantly, recapitulating the historic wrongs of Greece and demanding unconditional surrender to himself as lord of Asia.

While the siege of Tyre was in progress, King Darius sent a new offer: he would pay a huge ransom of 10,000 talents for his family and cede all his lands west of the Euphrates. “I would accept,” Parmenio is reported to have said, “were I Alexander”; In November 333 BC, King Darius III had lost the Battle of Issus to Alexander the Great, which resulted in the subsequent capture of his wife, his mother and his two daughters, Stateira II and Drypetis.

 “I too,” was the famous retort, “were I Parmenio.” The storming of Tyre in July 332 was Alexander’s greatest military achievement; it was attended with great carnage and the sale of the women and children into slavery. Leaving Parmenio in Syria, Alexander advanced south without opposition until he reached Gaza on its high mound; there bitter resistance halted him for two months, and he sustained a serious shoulder wound during a sortie. There is no basis for the tradition that he turned aside to visit Jerusalem. After the battle, King Darius retreated to Babylon where he regrouped with his remaining army that was there, on-site from a previous battle.

Alexander fought at the Siege of Tyre (332 BC), which lasted from January to July, and the victory resulted in his control of the Levant. Alexander then again fought at the Siege of Gaza. Persian troop counts in Egypt were diminished due to many soldiers being removed to support the Battle of Issus and dying there. As a result, the Persian satrap of Egypt, Mazaces, peacefully surrendered to Alexander upon his arrival.

 The Talmud has a tradition of his meeting between the Jews with him at Antipatris. Antipatris was a city built during the first century BCE by Herod the Great, who named it in honour of his father, Antipater. The site, now a national park in central Israel, was inhabited from the Chalcolithic Period to the late Roman Period, but he had died in 323 BCE, so that couldn't have happened there.  He no doubt did meet Jews and they were very impressed with him.  

 He suppressed a Samaritan revolt which gave the Jews of Jerusalem the occasion to stress their own loyalty.  Alexander figures prominently in Talmudic, Midrashic and medieval Jewish legends.  Many sons were named Alexander for centuries after.   

Earlier in 415 BCE, a large Athenian naval force went to the island of Melos and demanded that the Melians submit and begin paying tribute. Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general's History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens and  recounts what ensued;  the famous Melian dialogue in the 5th book of his history: You're either with us or against us, the Athenians threatened, and if you are against us we will destroy you. The Melians refused to submit and so following the siege, the Athenians massacred the adult men of Melos and enslaved the women and children.  The reaction later was surprising to the Greeks.   the Peloponnesian War broke out and most of the Greeks wanted Sparta to win, not Athens.  Yet Athens was the home where democracy was born and Sparta was an oligarchy.  Athens was the home of Socrates, Pericles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles.  Sparta was rural and backward.  Why?  Sparta was not at the imperial stage like Athens was. Ill will was against them.  

 Then there was much later, Antiochus IV Epiphanes who reigned from 175 to 163 BCE.  He was the 4th of 13 Greek kings of the House of Seleucus who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic Period. His father, Antiochus III (223-187 BCE) is known for transferring 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrygia.  He captured Jerusalem in 198 BCE, but it's said he treated the Jews with understanding.  

The son, the 4th Antiochus attacked Egypt twice, and Rome turned him back the 2nd time.  He occupied Jerusalem, plundered the Temple treasure, and endeavored to hellenize Judea aby force in order to convert it into a reliable frontier-province.  This is what brought about a rising which Antiochus suppressed with great cruelty;  thousands of Jews were killed and many sold into slavery. 

Antiochus IV brought gentile settlers into Jerusalem and fortified the ACRA as a stronghold of the hellenizers to dominate the city.  The Acra (also spelled Akra, from Ancient Greek: Ἄκρα, Hebrew: חקרא ,חקרה Ḥaqra(h)), with the meaning of "stronghold" , was a place in Jerusalem thought to have had a fortified compound built by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, following his sack of the city in 168 BCE. 

The dreidel was a game for subtrafuge; when asked, the students of talmud/Tanakh would pull out this game, saying they were just playing a game, heavens;  not studying anything Jewish !!!

He now began a fierce religious persecution of the Jews. He forbid circumcision and observance of the Sabbath, desecrated the Temple altar, set up pagan altars in the provincial towns, and compelled the Jews to participate in pagan ceremonies.  His excesses caused the Hasmonean uprising.  

Of course, his son, Antiochus V (164-162 BCE) continued the war against the Jews until 163 BCE, when he granted them religious and some political autonomy in return for their acceptance of his rule. 

Chanukah is celebrating the Jewish victory in 165 BCE of the small Judean nation led by Judah Maccabee over the immense Assyrian-Greek Empire attempting to replace Judaism with the worship of idols.  

Antiochus VII Sidetes (138-128 BCE) reasserted the Seleucid claims on Judea.  After an initial repulse in 138 BCE, he again invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem. 

 In 135-134 BCE John Hyrcanus, son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean (135-104 BCE)  led the people in peace and prosperity, until in February 135 BCE, he was assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law Ptolemy who had married one of Simon's daughters;  son of Abubus (also spelled Abobus or Abobi), who had been named governor of the region by the Seleucids. Simon's eldest sons, Mattathias and Judah, were also murdered, and Simon  was forced to surrender, destroy the walls of Jerusalem, cede his conquests outside Judea, and pay tribute;  but after Antiochus's death in 129 BCE, he reasserted his independence.  

John Hyrcanus had been the governor of Gezer, but after the murder of his father and 2 brothers by Ptolemy, 1st Macedonian king of Egypt and originator of the Ptolemaic dynasty (his brother -in-law), had to escape to Jerusalem, where he seized power before Ptolemy could gain control.  Ptolemy escaped after murdering John Hyrcanus's mother whom he had been holding in hostage.  Then in 135-4 BCE, Antiochus Sidetes captured Jerusalem.  John was confirmed as high priest but had to accept harsh peace terms which made the Hasmonean state again tributary to Syria. 

Mattathias and Judah, Jonathan, Simon, John, Eleazar

So you see, Judah, the Hammerer of our Chanukah story was the 1st son of Mattathias which was a priestly family.  Jonathan was the 2nd son, Simon the 3rd, John the 4th, and Eleazar the 5th.  They directed the popular revolt against the hellenizing policy adopted in Palestine by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes.  Simon's son was John Hyrcanus.  John's sister was married to the Greek Macedonian king of Egypt, Ptolemy.  

Ptolemy, son of Abubus, was an official in the early Hasmonean kingdom which then controlled Judea. According to the book of 1 Maccabees, in 135 BC, he served as the governor of Jericho. While High Priest Simon Thassi (the 3nd son of Mattathias)  was visiting, Ptolemy orchestrated the murder of Simon and two of his sons, as well as some of Simon's servants. This act of betrayal of guest right earned Ptolemy a place in Dante's The Divine Comedy; one of the sections of the ninth layer of hell described in Inferno is called Ptolomea, where those who betray guests in their home suffer.  People just whacked each other off when they needed them to disappear and not be a bother.  Murdering was a constant.  Taking over another's land was also a constant.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

Imperialism:  Lessons from History by Victor Davis Hanson from Imprimis 

The only sources that survived from antiquity describing Ptolemy are the book of 1 Maccabees and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities Book 13, Chapter 7–8. According to these accounts, Ptolemy was the cause of the death of High Priest Simon Thassi despite having married one of Simon's daughters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_son_of_Abubus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acra_(fortress)

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hellenism-2

The Hateful Syrian Rulers From Greece of the Hellenistic Period: Chanukah

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

There was a family from Greece who held an awful lot of power in ancient Hellenistic times.  It was the Seleucus family who produced many descendants that also held that power.  This line was called the House of of Seleucus.  The first of the line that was noteworthy was Antiochus  III, a king,  and that power stayed with the males of this family.                                  

Antiochus III was followed by 12 other Greek kings of the House of Seleucus who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic Period.  

Antiochus III  reigned from 223 to 187 BCE. He transferred 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrygia. After his capture of Jerusalem in 198 BCE, he treated the Jewish with understanding.   It had been Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE and then again in 586 BCE that (Israelites) Jews  had been taken out of Judah (southern Israel) in the first place and brought to Babylon, so these Jews had remained there for about the past 400 years. 

Located in western Anatolia (Asia Minor) a peninsula in SW Asia, and bordered by the kingdom of Phrygia to the east and Ionia to the west, the kingdom of Lydia flourished during the first millennium B.CE. Much of what is known about Lydia derives from the Greek historian Herodotus (fifth century B.C.).

Could it be that some Turks of today carry some Jewish genes?

Antiochus IV Epiphanes reigned from 175 to163 BCE.  He decided to attack Egypt but was turned back by Rome on his 2nd expedition in 168 BCE.  He occupied Jerusalem, plundered the Temple treasure, and endeavored to hellenize Judea by force in order to convert it into a  province he thought was reliable, beaten down.  From this episode comes our history and remembrance with the festival of Chanukah.   This brought about a rising which Antiochus suppressed with great cruelty:  thousands of Jews were killed and many sold into slavery. 

Antiochus IV Epiphanes followed it up with bringing in foreign settlers into Jerusalem and fortifying Acra as a stronghold of the Hellenizers to dominate the city.  He now began a fierce religious persecution of the Jews, forbidding circumcision and observance of the Sabbath, desecrating the Temple altar, setting up pagan altars in the provincial towns, and compelling the Jews to participate in pagan ceremonies.  His excesses caused the Hasmonean uprising and what we know about Chanukah.  

Antiochus V reigned from 164 to 162 BCE.  He was the son of Antiochus IV.   He continued the war against the Jews until 163 BCE, when he granted them religious and some political autonomy in return for their acceptance of his rule.  

Antiochus VII Sidetes reigned from 138 to 128 BCE and reasserted the Seleuicid claims on Judea.  After an initial repulse in 138 BCE, reasserted the Seleucid claims on Judea.  After and initial repulse in 138 BCE, he again invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem in 135-134 BCE.  John Hyrcanus was forced to surrender, destroy the walls of Jerusalem, cede his conquests outside Judea, and pay tribute, but after Antiochus VII's death in 129 BCE, he reasserted his independence. John was the son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean who ruled from 135 to 104 BCE.  During his father, Simon's lifetime, John Hyrcanus was governor of Gezer (once the Canaanite center in 3rd and 2nd millennia, held by Egyptians who gave it to Solomon as dowry for his daughter, then recaptured by Pharaoh Shishak.), but after the murder of his father and 2 brothers by his brother-in-law Ptolemy, escaped to Jerusalem.  Simon was one of the 5 sons of Mattathias of Modiin of our Chanukah story who rebelled against Antiochus IV and his hellenizing policy. From 166 to 164 BCE, the Hasmoneans fought a number of successful battles against the Syrians and in 164 BCE Judah captured Jerusalem back and rededicated the Temple that they cleaned out, taking their idol of Zeus out as well.  This was followed up with a series of raids to rescue the Jewish population of Ammon, Idumea, Gilead, and Galilee.

Antiochus IX Cyzicenus reigned intermittently from 125 to 95 BCE and was severely defeated in  107 when endeavoring to assist Samaria (what had once been Israel, land of 10 of the 12 tribes that had split when Solomon died in 920 BCE which was under siege by a Jewish army. Samaria had been the capital under Jeroboam, Solomon's overseer who took command, then referred to all the land surrounding Samaria).

To hellenize the Jews meant to erase all connections that they had with their beginnings and turn them into the populace they were then living among; and here it was the Syrians who had already been turned into Greeks.  We see it happening to American Jews as well, who have intermarried with American gentiles and have dropped the customs of their ancestors.  They have been hellenized, are products of assimilation. There are groups of distinct gentiles in the USA who have maintained their ancestral customs such as the Swedes.  They can return today to Sweden  for holidays to rejuvenate their roots if they want.                                    

Journey of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan

 Jews go back 4,000 years to their roots, so they have gone through so much hellenization, going through many cultures, yet keeping their religion just barely by today.  Most show through DNA testing that marriages have been kept among Jews and not too much intermarriages due to the hatred other people have for Jews.  Intermarriages have occurred more in the  20th century  and this brings about more hellenization.  

We find the Pashtuns, a distinct people found in Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India  who have been practicing a few Jewish cultural acts without even knowing its origins or why they do so, who should win the prize for keeping something of their Jewish roots.  However, they have long since stopped their Jewish thoughts and have accepted Islam, but they still have kept their own "Pashtunwali" precepts, which we find come from the Torah.  DNA testing also shows our connection to these people.                 

Remembering Chanukah, our story of stopping hellenization or assimilation is done with lighting of the Chanukiah, and giving out presents and eating Potato latkas, a fried in oil potato pancake with onion that is so delicious.  Also, for  dessert, we have, at least in Israel, sufganiot, a special donut reserved for Chanukah and eaten because it's another product fried in oil.  It's the oil in the Chanukah story that is to be remembered --at least by the children.  I remember that if the brave family of Hasmoneans hadn't stopped such hellenizing, Judaism would have been erased completely.  I leave it to you to understand the repercussions of that.  We'd all be honoring Zeus today and every day. 

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia    

Where the "Palestine" Moniker Came From

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

The biggest lie told in the world is about Palestine;  what it is and its history.  This is being told by anti-Semites throughout the world.

Here's the truth about Palestine:  

Palestine was not the name of a country.

It's on maps but leads people to think it was a country.  It was a name the Romans created to replace Israel's name--the country they had taken. Both Arabs and Jews living there were called Palestinians until May 14, 1948-Israel's re-birth.

There was no actual country of Palestine.  

   Jacob (Israel), father of 12 sons who became 12 tribes, received the name, ISRAEL, after wrestling or struggling with a heavenly emissary (angel?) and overcame him,  given this name. Perhaps its meaning is "one who overcame."   Actually, Israel today has overcome all odds of existence, even after being accepted  by the LEAGUE OF NATIONS and the UNITED NATIONS after World War I.  Anti-Semitism has arisen since then and continues among the nations of the earth.  Israel came about by following all the legal needs of the time-losing promised land to Jordan before they even received it, and yet still has to prove every day their worth;  shameful.  No other country in the world has gone through what they have had to overcome. To read of such nonsense happening in our college campuses, a place of higher education, makes me sick.  Our students should be learning how to make decisions out of facts, not hearsay-gossip.  They who are against Israel's right to exist  are coming out no smarter than sheep at this rate.     

Countries had to have leaders such as kings or queens or presidents.  Palestine was the new name for old land-Israel, land already  1,070 years old of being Israel- land of Jacob's 12 tribes when the Romans named Israel "Palestine."  It was a slap in the face name, a cruel name-giving the name of their long-time enemy, the Philistines, the name for their land.  

                           

                                         Israel's History

Israel had been created by Joshua arriving with 600,000 Israelites from Egypt in a 40 year trek to get there, arriving about 1271 BCE-Jewish calendar time; using leaders of the tribes such as Deborah as Judges,  and was officially Israel with a king with King Saul in about 1000 BCE. King David then ruled from 1010-970 CE, and his son, Solomon from 961-920 BCE.  Solomon took on the task of the actual building of the Temple, spoken of by Moses.  To do this he overworked his people, and taxed them as well.  This caused the Civil War between the North and the South.  

Jerusalem was in the tribe of Judah's land, became the united capital of Israel-(new name of Jacob, father of the 12 tribes of Israel). Jerusalem is also called the City of David. David had found Jebusites living here and dealt leniently with them in 1010 BCE.  

Solomon's death brought on a Civil War. His son, Rehoboam ruled 933-912 BCE but the kingdom went through a Civil War with the North and their new king, Jeroboam- Solomon's former superintendent of forced labor,  where the North (new name of Samaria for their new capitol) ceded from the South (Judah).   Then in 721 BCE the Assyrians attacked, took away the best of the population of 27,290 Israelites  and left their unwanted slaves.  

Babylonians attacked Judah  in 597 BCE, then again in 586 BCE taking Judeans to Babylon.  The next Babylonian,  king Cyrus,  allowed them to return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE but some had remained. 

    Roman Occupation-Aggressive Take-Over

 The Romans had occupied Jerusalem in 63 BCE  and then their leader, General Pompey the Great (106-48 BCE),  burned it down in 70 CE, including its Temple.

Judaea  had been a Roman ally since the second century BCE and became a Roman province in 6 CE.

Eventually Josephus (Jewish general who went over to the Roman side to save his life),  and his men sheltered within the walled city of Jotapata, surrounded by Romans. Just before dawn on the 47th day of the siege, Roman soldiers scaled the city's walls and poured into the city. They killed around 40,000 Jews.

  (For some time Rome had been expanding its authority in Asia, and in 63 BCE the Roman triumvir Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem)..   Pompey was involved in the fight over the throne of Judea (southern Israel).  It was Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus who were fighting over it.  Pompey favored  Hyrcanus so captured Jerusalem and the Temple from Aristobulus supporters.  Judea was made a tributary and stripped of the territories acquired by the Hasmonean Jews.  Aristobulus and his family were taken to Rome to grace Pompey's triumph.  Pompey ended Jewish independence enjoyed since Simon the Maccabee of the Hasmonean era.of which we're about to remember with the holiday of Chanukah.  

Palestine's  the name given to Israel by the Romans after 132-135 CE (AD) out of anger at the Jewish General Bar Kokhba-meaning son of the star;  real name was Bar/Ben (son of) Kosiba Simeon.  He was the nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin and of Davidic descent.                          

A revolt had begun against the Emperor Hadrian (P.Aelius Hadrianus) Roman Emperor (117-138)  in 132 which he led.  Hadrians initial eastern policy was the removal and execution of the savage Roman governor of Judea, Lucius Quietus, who was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea in (117–120). He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (Kitos is a later corruption of Quietus). As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.

Who were the Berbers who were in the Roman army?  The two largest populations of Berbers are found in Algeria and Morocco, where large portions of the population are descended from Berbers but only some of them identify as Amazigh. Roughly one-fourth of the population in Algeria is estimated to be Berber, while Berbers are estimated to make up more than three-fifths of the population in Morocco. In the Sahara of southern Algeria and of Libya, Mali, and Niger, the Berber Tuareg number more than two million.  Romans used people they had fought against such as the Germanic tribes.  

Rabbi Akiva (greatest scholar of his time, had thousands of students)  claimed Aluf (General) Bar Kokhba was the awaited Messiah, but other rabbis didn't agree. Causes of revolt were many:  1)rebuilding Jerusalem as a Roman colony;  2) prohibition of circumcision;  3) repression of Judaism carried on since 70 CE... 

It is written about him that he had great personal strength, was autocratic, irascible that were mentioned in letters found near the Dead Sea in letters from Bar Kokhba.  

    Romans fighting Bar Kokhba in 133 CE in Jerusalem

Bar Kokhba's soldiers had captured Jerusalem back in 132 and held it for 3 whole years!  It was in 133 that the Romans counterattacked with an army of 35,000 under Hadrian and the commander Julius Severus.  

  After 3 years of fighting and winning the hardest fight they had in a long time, the Romans had renamed the land after Israel's worst past enemy, the Philistines. 

Jews taken as slaves from Jerusalem forced to carry the loot from the Temple to Rome as shown on Arch of Titus 

What had led up to this fight was that Rome had occupied Jerusalem and then had burned the city and its Temple in the year 70 after looting and taking everything of value.  They even documented the occasion by having the Arch of  Titus picture the great event that pleased the Romans in Rome; seeing all the loot brought back.  

The Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean communities, more so than during the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many more died of hunger and disease, 50 fortresses and 985 villages were destroyed. In addition, many Judean war captives were sold into slavery. Some modern historians assert that Dio's numbers were somewhat exaggerated, but other researchers support Dio's claim of massive depopulation. The Jewish communities of Judea were devastated to an extent which some scholars describe as a genocide.

 However, the Jewish population remained strong in Galilee, Golan, Bet Shean Valley, and the eastern, southern, and western edges of Judea. Roman casualties were also considered heavy – XXII Deiotariana was disbanded, perhaps after serious losses in this conflict. In a possibly punitive act, the province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina-thus, Palestine.

The Bar Kokhba revolt greatly influenced the course of Jewish history and the philosophy of the Jewish religion. Despite easing the persecution of Jews following Hadrian's death in 138 CE, the Romans barred Jews from Jerusalem, except for attendance in Tisha B'Av. 

Jewish messianism was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative. The Talmud, for instance, refers to Bar Kokhba as "Ben-Kusiba", a derogatory term meaning "son of deception", used to indicate that he was a false Messiah. It was also among the key events to differentiate Christianity as a religion distinct from Judaism. Although Jewish Christians regarded Jesus as the Messiah and did not support Bar Kokhba, they were barred from Jerusalem along with the other Jews.  

This brings to mind the Nazis, who said that if you had one 

grandparent who was Jewish, even if you were a Christian, you were 

marked a  Jew and were killed. 

Resource:

https://www.jns.org/opinion/genocidal-antisemitism-is-conquering-american-campuses/

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusius_Quietus

https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/josephus.html#:~:text=Judaea%2C%20now%20part%20of%20modern,Roman%20province%20in%206%20AD.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Jerusalem/Roman-rule

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt#:~:text=In%20132%2C%20the%20revolt%20led,in%20Aelia%20Capitolina%20(Jerusalem).