Showing posts with label emigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emigration. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Libya's Relationship With Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Libya, whose name in Hebrew is ironically "Love-Luv", did not have love for Israel in its beginning or now. The Greek name is based on the ethnonym Libu (Ancient Greek: Λίβυες Líbues, Latin: Libyes). Later, the name appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible  as Lehabim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well. In Hebrew, the B and V are the same letter.  To the Egyptians,  "it was the lands of the spirits."    It is mentioned in the Bible in connection with the Egyptian levies who fought against Judah, the southern part of Israel that separated from Israel when King Solomon died in 920 BCE.  Ramesses had fought the Libyans 2 times.  Pharaoh Shishak made an attack on Judah.  The Latin name Libya (from Greek Λιβύη, Libyē) referred to the region west of the Nile generally corresponding to the modern Maghreb. Its people were ancestors of the modern Berbers.   In the Hellenistic period, the Berbers were known as Libyans, a Greek term for the inhabitants of the Maghreb. Their lands were called "Libya" and extended from modern Morocco to the western borders of ancient Egypt. Modern Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, which was part of ancient Libya. Siwi, a Berber language, is still spoken in the area.

By plane, the distance from Benghazi, Libya on the coast  to Jerusalem is 886.387 miles.  By land it is 1,258.505 miles.

We find it mentioned again in the Talmud because of its agricultural product.

Jews lived in the area of Libya from pre-Roman times from about 300 BCE.  The name, Libya, included Cyrenaica and Tripolitania.   Tripolitania was Ottoman Tripolitania, the coastal region of what is today Libya having been ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1911, as the Eyalet of Tripolitania.  "The Phoenicians were the first to establish trading posts in Libya. By the 5th century BC, the greatest of the Phoenician colonies, Carthage, had extended its hegemony across much of North Africa, where a distinctive civilization, known as Punic, came into being. 

In 630 BC, the Ancient Greeks colonized Eastern Libya and founded the city of Cyrene.  Within 200 years, four more important Greek cities were established in the area that became known as Cyrenaica.    In 525 BC the Persian army of Cambyses II overran Cyrenaica, which for the next two centuries remained under Persian or Egyptian rule. Alexander the Great, beloved by Jews,  was greeted by the Greeks when he entered Cyrenaica in 331 BC, and Eastern Libya again fell under the control of the Greeks, this time as part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom."  Cyrenaica was overcome by the Muslims in 647 CE as Mohammad died in 632 and Islam spread throughout the world. 
                                                                           
 "After a successful invasion of Tripoli by Habsburg Spain in 1510,  and its handover to the Knights of St. John, the Ottoman admiral Sinan Pasha took control of Libya in 1551.  The Siege of Tripoli in 1551 allowed the Ottomans to capture the city from the Knights of St. John, so it went from Christian to Muslim hands.  After the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912), Italy simultaneously turned the three regions into colonies. From 1912 to 1927, the territory of Libya was known as Italian North Africa. From 1927 to 1934, the territory was split into two colonies, Italian Cyrenaica andItalian Tripolitania, run by Italian governors. Some 150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting roughly 20% of the total population." 
                                                                                   
Muammar Gadddafi, born June 7, 1942, was the youngest child
 born into a peasant family and grew up in the desert region of Sirte.
 He 
died October 20, 2011
shot in head and stomach at age 69. 

In skipping to 1951, when Libya became independent and had a king, "Muammar Gaddafi gained power in a 1969 coup and was "leader of the revolution" until his overthrow in 2011.  He was a madman.  However, "A gathering of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers, meeting on 27 August 2008 in the Libyan town of Benghazi, conferred on Colonel Gaddafi the title "King of Kings of Africa". France was the first to recognize these rebels.  "Gaddafi was known for backing a number of leaders viewed as anathema to Westernization and political liberalism, including Ugandan President Idi Amin, Central African Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Ethiopian strongman Haile Mariam Mengistu,  Liberian President Charles Taylor,  and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević."

"When Col. Qaddafi came to power in 1969, all Jewish property was confiscated and all debts to Jews cancelled. In 1999, the synagogue in Tripoli was was renovated, however, it was not reopened.
The last Jew living in Libya, Esmeralda Meghnagi, died in February 2002. This marked the end of one of the world's oldest Jewish communities, which traced its origins to the 3rd century B.C.E."

And all the time he was cruel to the Jews, he knew he had a Jewish mother! " Nouri Mismari, an official in Libya who served Ghaddafi at his side,  portrayed his former boss as a sadistic, ruthless and power-hungry leader.   Gaddafi  would have anyone killed if they revealed this secret.  Mismari said that all who knew the truth about the leader’s mother were liquidated." Salih Bu Farwa, a loyal officer in the army,  had received information from the Libyan ambassador to Italy, Ammar Dhu, documenting Gaddafi’s mother’s Jewishness.  Dhu himself was subsequently assassinated in Italy, along with the embassy’s press secretary."  Salih's death was masked as a hunting accident.  "Nuri al-Samara told the daily Al-Hayat that Gaddafi’s mother was Jewish,  and the Israeli daily Maariv reported on its NRG news website.  At 18 she married a Muslim man and converted, according to reports."
" In 1942, the Italian Fascist authorities set up forced labor camps south of Tripoli for the Jews, including Giado (about 3,000 Jews) and Gharyan, Jeren, and Tigrinna. In Giado some 500 Jews died of weakness, hunger, and disease. In 1942, Jews who were not in the concentration camps were heavily restricted in 
their economic activity and all men between 18 and 45 years were drafted for forced labor. In August 1942, Jews from Tripolitania were interned in a concentration camp at Sidi Azaz. "A savage pogrom in Tripoli on November 5, 1945, killed more than 140 Jews and wounded hundreds more. Almost every synagogue was looted. In June 1948, rioters murdered another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes.."    In the three years after November 1945, more than 140 Jews were murdered, and hundreds more wounded, in a series of pogroms.  By 1948, about 38,000 Jews remained in the country. Upon Libya's independence in 1951, most of the Jewish community emigrated and went to Israel."   What Gaddafi had said about Israel was, "“Israel is a colonialist-imperialist phenomenon. There is no such thing as an Israeli people. Before 1948, world geography knew of no state such as Israel. Israel is the result of an invasion, of aggression.”

 Today Tripoli is the capital and has the largest population of 1,250,000.  The 2nd largest populated city is Benghazi with 700,000, the city in 2012 that the USA lost its ambassador and aides,  "US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith; CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty; and approx. 100 Libyan attackers.  4 Americans and 7 Libyans  were injured.     The population today is 6,202 million Arabs. "About 97% of the population in Libya are Muslims, most of whom belong to the Sunni branch.   Small numbers of Ibadi Muslims, Sufis and Ahmadis also live in the country."   Israel has 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs.
                                                                             
End of 1967 War and accidentally gaining back Jerusalem, dancing the Hora in joy! 
The 6 Day War occurred in 1967 when all the neighboring countries attacked Israel.  Of course, Libyans had to demonstrate against the 6,000 Jews living in with them who had remained.  These Jews left shortly thereafter, as soon as possible with this reminder of hatred, so different from "Love.".

"Gaddafi also became a strong supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which ultimately harmed Libya's relations with Egypt when in 1979 Egypt pursued a peace agreement with Israel. As Libya's relations with Egypt worsened, Gaddafi sought closer relations with the Soviet Union. Libya became the first country outside the Soviet bloc to receive the supersonic MiG-25 combat fighters, but Soviet-Libyan relations remained relatively distant. Gaddafi also sought to increase Libyan influence, especially in states with an Islamic population, by calling for the creation of a Saharan Islamic state and supporting anti-government forces in sub-Saharan Africa."  This was a very close plan similar to ISIS in creating a caliphate. " By the mid-1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the “Black September Movement” which perpetrated the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics." 
                                                                             
Lt. Col Yonatan Netanyahu
born: March 13, 1946, died:  July 4, 1976 at age 30 in Entebbe. 
          We can't forget Israel's Operation Entebbe when a jet plane left Tel Aviv's airport for Paris with a stop in Athens.  What happened was it was diverted to Benghazi, Libya by the highjackers, no doubt with Gaddafi's knowledge and blessing.  " The highjackers were two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO), and by two Germans, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann, from the German Revolutionary Cells. The hijackers diverted the flight to Benghazi, Libya. There it was held on the ground for seven hours for refuelling.  During that time the hijackers released British-born Israeli citizen Patricia Martell who pretended to have a miscarriage.  The plane left Benghazi, and at 3:15 pm on the 28th, more than 24 hours after the flight's original departure, it arrived at Entebbe Airportin Uganda.  and then went on to the Entebbe, Uganda airport where the dictator, Idi Amin reigned, a man as nutty as Gaddafi.  " After moving all hostages from the aircraft to a disused airport building, the hijackers separated all Israelis and several non-Israeli Jews from the larger group and forced them into a separate room.   Over the following two days, 148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown out to Paris.   94, mainly Israeli, passengers along with the 12-member Air France crew, remained as hostages and were threatened with death."  Mossad heard about it.  "The hijackers threatened to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met. This threat led to the planning of the rescue operation. These plans included preparation for armed resistance from Ugandan military troops.  The operation took place at night. Israeli transport planes carried 100 commandos over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) to Uganda for the rescue operation. The operation, which took a week of planning, lasted 90 minutes. 102 hostages were rescued. Five Israeli commandos were wounded and one, the unit commander, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed, brother of today's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.  

Now, the USA is striking sites from the air in Libya who are harboring and protecting ISIS.  The coastal city hit was Sirte.  Tripoli and Benghazi also lie on the coast as well.  "The U.S. airstrikes came at the request of the Libyan Government of National Accord, or GNA, to support forces trying to quash ISIS in its primary stronghold in Libya, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. The GNA is Libya's U.N.-backed unity government."

Evidently NATO took out Gaddafi as found in Hillary's email.  "One of the over 3,000 new Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department on New Year’s Eve, contain damning evidence of Western nations using NATO as a tool to topple Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. 

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/declassified-emails-reveal-natos-true-motive-topple-gaddafi-stop-creation-gold-backed-african-currency/#vuw5lV2PowDylS4d.99
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/declassified-emails-reveal-natos-true-motive-topple-gaddafi-stop-creation-gold-backed-african-currency/

Update: 3:03pm
Update: 6:37pm, newest from Hillary's e-mail
Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/politics/us-libya-isis-airstrikes/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/libyajews.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Qaddafi.html
https://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between-jerusalem_-israel-and-benghazi_-libya.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Muammar_Gaddafi
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-dont-want-you-to-know/5414289
http://www.timesofisrael.com/gaddafi-killed-anyone-who-discovered-his-mother-was-jewish-claims-aide/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/gadhafis-mother-was-jewish-his-protocol-chief-says/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Libya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele  Egypt having problems with Libya and Israel
http://www.spiritweb.us/egypt/thebes/ramiii.htm
Ezekiel 30: 5:  Cush, Put, Lud and all the people of mixed blood, and Cub and the inhabitants of Egypt's allied lands will fall with them by the sword.  Or "Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.  Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia.—Ethiopia and Egypt were closely connected, and during much of their history were often under one government. Ethiopian soldiers served in great numbers in the Egyptian armies. Libya and Lydia are an unfortunate substitution for the original terms, Phut and Lud, which are preserved in Ezekiel 27:10, where see Note. They are there mentioned as furnishing mercenaries to the Tyrian army; and it is known historically that they supplied them to a still greater extent to the Egyptian army."

Monday, August 24, 2015

Khamenei's Double Hitter: Democrats Backing His Nuclear Deal and his Book Outlining Israel's Destruction

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      
Senior Senator Chuck Schumer b: November 23, 1950, Brooklyn, Democrat, voting against the Iran Deal, Harvard Law School 1974.  By going against the flow, he put his own position on the line.  He is to be commended for not following the leader, but thinking for himself.  He spent time analyzing the deal and it came up short in his eyes.  

This has become an American Partisan Decision.  The Republicans are nearly unanimous in opposing the nuclear deal while the Democrats believe the Iran nuclear deal is secure.  Schumer, head Democrat,  has decided against it while Democrat Eliot Engel is for it.  Both are Jewish Senators.

Obama knows how he'll handle the problem.  He plans to veto any disapproval of the deal.  To override the veto, 44 Democratic House members and 13 Democratic Senate members must join the Republicans to oppose the deal.  That's going to happen like Manna is going to drop from heaven at the right time.  Too many are voting according to their political party, not to their reasoning.
                                                                             
Khamenei  has put out his plans to destroy Israel and Obama  demands this faulty deal to go through  benefitting Iran.  
Khamenei is so sure of how to get rid of Israel that he has written a 416 page book titled PALESTINE.  In it he describes his long-term plan to destroy Israel, but doesn't plan to do it with one big atomic bomb.  Like a cat playing with a mouse, he intends to do it by making life hell, all right.  He wants to make it so unlivable in Israel that the population will emigrate back to the USA or Europe, for he thinks everyone is a  dual citizen.

In the book he continues to call Israel his pet names, such as the "cancerous tumor."  His reason for wanting to rid the Middle East of Israel will surprise you.  It has to do with Islamic Law or principle, one or the other.
                                                                               
His reason is that land that has come under Muslim rule, even briefly, evidently like the Ottoman Empire which was the rule of Palestine though few ever came to live there, can never again be ceded to non-Muslims, such as Jews.
                                                                             
He doesn't care that the land originally was Jewish land.  So suddenly we're hit with an absurd rationale that it has been hit with the hickory stick turning it into Muslim land forever.  The world has never operated under such thinking.

"What is important to him is that Islam is in control of Israel's government, even if the majority of people are non-Muslims."  Isn't this similar to the problem in Iraq of being ruled by a Shi'a when the Iraqis are mostly Sunnis?  Iraq is also Shi'a.  I believe Saudi Arabia is very aware of how Iran thinks.
                                                                 

He will give Israelis daily threats of death.  A nuclear powered Iran will make Israel think twice before taking military action against the Islamic Republic, he feels.   
                                                              
Defenders of Israel, the IDF Never Again WILL ISRAELIS BE WITHOUT THEIR STATE
He's going to make is worth their while to leave the country, and the cost of staying will be too high for the benefits, he thinks.  He should try going without his own country of Iran for the next 2,000 years and see how quickly he would leave?  
                                                           

Now here's the plum to pull out of the pudding.  The book has been approved by Khamenei's own office.  He okayed it.  Isn't that nice?  It is now the most authoritative document on the issue.  He didn't mention the use of nuclear power to do it, except he did plan on bringing death every day.  
                                                          

Immigration TO Israel is rising because of all the anti-Semitism going on in Europe, especially France.  There are over 6 million Jews in Israel now.  
                                                           
Making Aliyah to Israel

In 1919, 385,066 Jews came to Israel from America, Europe and Oceania.
             44,809 came from Asia and Africa.  Total:  452,158.  The descendants aren't going to leave Israel.  
                                                         

In 1951, 334,971 came from America, Europe and Oceania.
              330,456 came from Asia and Africa.  Total:  648,201.  
                                                           

Even tourists that came and stayed are citizens today.
               17,414 came from America, Europe and Oceania.  11,491 came from Asia and Africa.  Total: 29,272.  
                                                               

Israelis are not going to be scared away too easily.  This is their country and they have been defending it since before 1948.  Everyone who is able belongs to the IDF.  I see them getting mighty mad at being attacked daily like southern Israel has put up with.  Those that hit Israel get hit back.  It's called war.  Does he think Israel will just take it lying down?
                                                                           
The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight."
                                                                         
Golda Meir, May 14, 1948 Israel became a State
 “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs – we have no place to go.”

"Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here."

Resource:  The Jewish Press, Friday, August 7th, 2015, Dems Believe Iran Deal Secure As Khamenei Outlines Israel's Demise
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/4/congress-sets-september-votes-iran-nuclear-deal/?page=all
Facts about Israel, Division of Information, Ministry for foreign Affairs, Jerusalem




Saturday, August 15, 2015

Being Jewish in Russia Was the Pits

Nadene Goldfoot                                            
It started with living in Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.  Duke Vladimir, (958-1015) also the Prince of Novgorod, son of Prince Sviatoslav,  became powerful and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic and Eastern nomads.  His religion was that of a Slavic paganism.  He converted to Orthodox Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Russians.  This caused the Jews of that area to have to be involved in a debate against becoming Christianized in 986. Jews had emigrated to Kiev in the 700s, possibly from Khazaria and Jewish merchants had visited in the 800s and 900s.

Kiev in the 1100s had a Jewish Gate.  What?  Jews had to enter by a special gate?  Talk about discrimination.  That goes with being forced to live in the Jewish Quarter, which may or may not have been their choice. It was actually a ghetto and Jews were persecuted and  the ghetto looted in 1113.  During this period, the Jews were attending a western yeshivot and sent their questions of a religious nature to the German rabbis who were the experts living in Worms, Germany.
By 1240, the Tatars destroyed the community.
Kiev was excluded from the PALE OF SETTLEMENT.

1321 and Jews were entering Lithuania which would later be a part of the PALE OF SETTLEMENT along with Latvia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine.  .
1398 and Karaites made up a community in Lithuania in Troki.
In the late 1400s, Jewish traders from Lithuania helped to spread the knowledge and people of a Judaizing sect in Novgorod and Moscow and this started a drastic reaction.  It sounds like they were proselytizers.
1495 saw 10,000 Jews living in Vilna, Grodno and Kovno.  This same year they were excluded from Lithuania
1566 to 1572 those in Lithuania then had to wear the Jewish badge to identify them.

By 1563, 300 Jews were drowned at Polotsk and Vitebsk on refusing to accept baptism.  Boy, that sure told the Jews what a nice religion they didn't accept.

In 1667, the Jews were expelled from Eastern Ukraine when it was annexed to Russia.  Clauses prohibiting Jews from visiting the country of Russia were inserted in treaties signed by Russia with foreign powers in 1550 and 1678.  Expulsion orders were given out in 1727, 1738, and 1742.

In 1753, 35,000 Jews were driven out of Russia.  Where did they go?  To the neighboring countries that hadn't become as nasty yet.
                                                                     
In 1762, Catherine II permitted all aliens to live in Russia except the Jews.

                                                    CZAR RULE

Poland was partitioned off in 1772, 1793 and especially in 1795.  The great Jewish masses of White Russia (Belarus) , the Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland (Latvia) became Russian subjects and for over a century, the great majority of the world's Jews were under the horrid rule of the Czars.

By 1796 Jews were restricted to towns, the start of the land called the PALE OF SETTLEMENT. This was comprised of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.   Only the Karaites had equal rights with Christians in 1795.  Poland was the world's greatest center of talmudic study.  S. Russia, particularly Odessa, was the focus of Hebrew literary revival and the place where many remarkable people in Zionist and contemporary Jewish history had congregated and lived, just like Worms, Germany was the center when Jews lived there.

In 1802 Jews had a Council for Jewish Affairs established.  2 years later it defined the PALE.  Jews were legally restricted to live in the villages in 1807-1808 which limited their activities of the KAHAL( a Jewish congregation having autonomous rights and responsible for taxation, abolished in 19th century)  in religion and charity and prohibited the traditional Jewish clothing.  It took measures to promote agriculture among the Jews.

Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and the Jews remained loyal.  He issued several restrictive measure of his infamous decree relating to commerce and finance which restricted Jewish rights.
Alexander I (1801-1825) was benevolent at first.  He changed his attitude later and caused 20,000 Jews to be expelled from the provinces of Vitebsk and Mohilev in 1824.  Those remaining were forbidden to live near the frontier.
                                                                     
 About 600 oppressive acts regarding the Jews were published during the reign of NICHOLAS I a Czar reigning from 1825 to 1855.  He regarded Jews as an injurious element.  He tried to assimilate Jews by his police methods so introduced the kidnapping of boys called Cantonists.  Jewish clothing was forbidden to wear  in 1850.  Intellectual life was strictly supervised (the beginning of big brother is watching you).  If you converted to Christianity you were exempt from paying income tax for several years.

In 1827, military service was brutally imposed on Jews.  Jews became subject to this decree from this year and a much higher number of Jewish children were taken away from their families with the intent of converting them to Christianity.  This was the act of taking adolescents into the army and had actually started in 1805 and lasted until 1856.  The Jewish communities were bound to supply yearly a certain number of recruits between ages of 12 and even sometimes 8 to 25.  Service in the armed forces lasted for 25 years. and wasn't counted until they had reached age 18.  Jewish recruits were educated at special schools outside the PALE OF SETTLEMENT and then sent to far away places, the eastern provinces like Siberia.  Thousands were converted and assimilated this way while many died of hardship.  Most of these children, called the CANTONISTS, were from poor Jewish families.  The more wealthy Jews were able to buy their children.  The same thing has happened in other places as well.  However, there was a brutal police force that imposed on the the Jewish community the act of kidnapping these children and this had led to widespread corruption and deep resentment on the part of the poorer Jews against the rich.  No wonder some families cut off fingers and tried to make their children unfit for service.
                                                                     
Isador Kaufman 1853-1921, a Yeshiva Boy
In 1835, the frontiers of THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT were restricted and this remained a law until 1915.  In 1836 a censorship was imposed on Jewish books.
In 1844 the Kahal was abolished.  Alexander II tried to Russify the Jews by education and the gradual relaxation of restrictions.                                    
In 1864 the judicial law contained no anti-Jewish discrimination.  At this time there were 65,000 Jewish farmers.  They became prominent in economics, culture and left-wing politics.  Social anti-Semitism now began to replace or reinforce the former religious prejudices.

1881 was when Alexander II was assassinated causing the Jews to become the chief victims.  Horrid pogroms in the early 1880s took place and caused Russians to see Jews as a foreign element to be kept apart from the village population.
                                                                         
1891 started THE MAY LAWS pertaining to where they could live, when they could work.  Jews were expelled from Moscow and a law called NUMERUS CLAUSES was introduced into their high schools and secondary schools. " (4) The measures laid down in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 shall apply only to the governments within the Pale of Jewish Settlement [that is, they shall not apply to the ten governments of Poland].They were laws discriminating against the Jews.  The administration of the May Laws by petty officials who were very often ignorant of their meaning intensified abuses"                                                                       
                                                                        
My grandfather left Telsiai, Lithuania in June 1893 for England at age 22.  

Many Jews turned to ZIONISM.     Some opted to emigrate to the USA. They all wanted to leave.                                
1897 was the turning point for Jews to be interested in socialism like the Bund and the revolutionary movement.

1905 was the start of an organization advocating Jewish rights.  By 1906 they elected 12 Jewish deputies to the Duma, representing the Liberal Party. Anti-Semitism reached a peak with the Beilis case, one of many Blood Libels.In 1911 the body of a boy was found in Kiev and Menahem Mendel Beilis was charged with ritual murder.  The investigation lasted for 2 years with violent anti-Jewish propaganda in the Russian and anti-Semitic press and by a wave of protest in Jewish and libnertal circles in the world.  In 1913 the trial was held and Beilis was acquitted.  He traveled to Palestine and later in 1920  to the USA. His story was the subject in the book The Fixer by Bernard Malamaud.
                                                                     
Much emigration to the USA took place between 1900 and 1920.  I know from the reports of one family that they had to pay a leader to take them out, traveling at night.  Their story was about a foggy night and they had let go accidentally the hand of one of their children and almost lost her in fleeing.

1914 was the beginning of WWI and lasted until 1917.  At the outbreak of the war, 5,600,000 Jews lived in the empire of the Czars including almost 2 million in Poland.  Those living near the war zones were deported.  There happened to be 300,000 Jewish soldiers in the Russian army at the time.    Jewish shtetls (villages) were the scapegoats for Russian defeats.  Jews were expulsed from Kovno, Grodno and Courland.  They could do no printing in Hebrew or Yiddish.
Lithuania's 100,000 Jews were expelled and emigrated to Russian interior during war.
                                                                               
After the Russian Revolution on April 2, 1917, the government ended all anti-Jewish decrees.  Then Jews became active in the Kerensky regime and later men such as  Trotsky, Zinoviev, Sverd and Lov were prominent  in the Bolshevik Revolution.

1918 saw changes for Jews.  There were Jewish departments in the commissariats of national affairs and of education.  April 1919 the Soviet government ended the non-communist Jewish institutions
1919  Vilna, Lithuania went to Poland.
                                                                             
A Civil War started and with it was a wave of more pogroms but the Soviet government said that anti-Semitism was a criminal offense.  Jewish traders started to disappear.  Many went into heavy industry.  The Soviet Government became anti-religious.   and it became against the law to teach in public schools any religious teaching.  There was an economic revolution what affected all life.  Older Jews held onto their traditions, but the younger ones were affected by the changes.  The government recognized that Jews were not a nationality, so they discouraged Hebrew and persecuted Zionism.   They didn't like Jews but discouraged them from leaving Russia for Palestine, too.

Like the rest of the world, from 1921 to 1929, life was better for the Jews economically.  Jews were placed on the land to farm in the Ukraine, Crimea and in Biro-Bidjan.  The American Jewish Agricultural Corporation helped them, but not many Jews wanted to be farmers.
                                                                     
In 1930, Jews were being discouraged to continue with their religion.  Prominent Jews were taken away in purges of the 1930s.
                                                                       
1939 WWII started.  Poland was invaded by the Nazis on September 1, 1939.  "  In addition to stipulations of non-aggression, a treaty included a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries"   Countries were annexed such as Belarus, W. Volhynia, E. Galicia, N. Bukovina, Bessarabia (Moldova and Ukraine) , Lithuania and Latvia and this led to the mass-deportation of Jews by the Nazis, especially the intelligentsia from these places.
July 1940 Lithuania had 175,000 Jews.  Russians deported 25,000 and from Latvia.  The remaining were massacred by the Nazis and Lithuanians by 1943.                                                                              
1941 the Nazis invaded Russia.  Their aim was to exterminate the Jewish population.  There were 500,000 Jews in White Russia (Belarus).
                                                                                 
Russian Jew 
Only half escaped to the interior.  200,000 were slaughtered immediately.  The Soviet government appealed to the World Jewry in 1941 but quickly the anti-Jewish trend showed itself again.Many outstanding Jews were taken away, including most of the people of Yiddish culture.
                                                           
1947-1948 Jews were supporting Israel.  Russia adopted a strong pro-Arab and anti-Israel policy.

1952 showed the chutzpa of the Russians  to charge Jewish doctors of plotting against the state, part of another campaign against Jews after suffering from the Nazi Holocaust.
                                                                       
Joseph Stalin 1878-1953, Russian dictator from 1929 to 1953. 
 
1953 Stalin died! All doctors who survived prison were released.  The government continued to be anti-Semitic and restricted Jewish cultural expression.  Jews were removed and placed in different centers, changing the population.

1955 Russia strongly supported Arabs
1959 Jews living in Russia 2,268,000.
1967 After Six Day War USSR broke off relations with Israel and came out in support of the Arabs, especially supportive of Egypt.
Jews demanded the right to emigrate to Israel.  At this time, all synagogues were shut down and Russians were atheistic.  There was no religion practiced.  Many Jews were put in prison for wanting to leave.
                                                                           
 Sharansky was one of them.  He was able to write to my Hebrew teacher in Israel from prison in 1980 and she in turn sent back lessons, in secret.
                                                                     
Natan Sharansky, born 1948 in Russia. Chess champion, computer scientist, Knesset member 
1970s Jews started to come to Israel.  250,000 left Russia and of those 150,000 went to Israel.  By mid 70s, Russians came to USA instead.
Natan  Sharansky was denied an exit visa to Israel in 1973. The reason given for denial of the visa was that he had been given access, at some point in his career, to information vital to Soviet national security and could not now be allowed to leave. After becoming a refusenik, Sharansky became a human rights activist, working as a translator for dissident and nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, and spokesperson for the Moscow Helsinki Group and a leader for the rights of refuseniks.

Sharansky was released on 11 February 1986 as part of a larger exchange of detainees. He was the first political prisoner released by Mikhail Gorbachev due to intense political pressure from Ronald Reagan.

1980s saw doors closed to Jews again.  Finally in last years of 1980s, Gorbachev allowed emigration. Everyone felt freer, Jew and anti-Semites.  Now the USA severely limited Soviet Jews from entering.  Israel received almost 200,000 Jews in 1990 and it continued into 1991.

     I made aliyah in 1980 and joined a group of Russian Jews who were teachers of English in Russia.  We were all learning Hebrew in an ulpan lasting 10 months and had to pass a 3 hour Hebrew test at the end.  They were far better at learning languages than we Americans.  They could not return to Russia, but we were free to return to the USA having dual citizenship.  I loved them for loving my female German shepherd who I had brought with me.  One time we Americans and Russians had a big disagreement on managing our ulpan lunch money, and though we argued, they always loved my dog.  She brought us together.  

1989 census of Jews in Russia: 1,449,167, probably higher.  Some records say only 12,312 Jews remained.  
1991 relations with Israel re-established, just before liquidation of USSR.                                       
2015:  Russia meeting with Iran about nuclear plans of Iran.   Russia backs Iran in arming terrorists who are attacking Israel.  
                                                  
A Jew praying at the wall in Jerusalem

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natan_Sharansky
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10508-may-laws