German Newspaper Investigative Report Backs Up Jerusalem Post Findings On Famine Reporting In Gaza

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

The Süddeutsche Zeitung, published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. It is considered one of Germany's newspapers of record.

We in defense for Israel have been writing about this deceit of how the large TV stations have been duped by Hamas and have been showing these altered damning pictures blaming Israel for all the starvation in Gaza.  

Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung published an investigative report revealing how Hamas terrorists manipulate imagery (pictures) to shape international opinion. 

The report details how the group stages images of hunger and despair in Gaza, using professional photographers covering the war. While acknowledging the reality of severe food shortages in the Gaza Strip, the paper emphasized that many widely circulated images of emaciated children do not accurately reflect current conditions. Some of the photos are not from Gaza at all, while others feature children suffering from chronic illnesses unrelated to the war. (at least one that I have read about that has been used over and over again). One image obtained by the paper shows photographers directing Gazans to pose as though they were waiting in line for food. Other pictures I've seen in other places in Gaza do not attempt to show such conditions.  

Germany’s Journalists’ Association (DJV) also issued a warning to local media outlets about “manipulation attempts through professionally produced press photography.” [This doesn't mean that there aren't food shortages in Gaza and that civilians are not suffering from them. But it does prove that Hamas is manipulating photos and media reports to paint a much more dire picture in order to demonize Israel in sway world opinion against Israel and in line with the goals of Hamas. For the most part, Hamas is succeeding in a big way -- which is why spreading the truth, including this email, is so important.]   

Military personnel prepares humanitarian aid packages for Gaza before they are loaded into an aircraft, at a military airport in Cairo, Egypt, July 30, 2025.

(photo credit: Egyptian Ministry of Defense/Handout via REUTERS)

From IDF (Israel Defence Force-service) UN enabling Hamas through aid mismanagement in Gaza:  

In a closed-door briefing, Israeli defense officials accused UN agencies of legitimizing “false data” from Hamas and failing to protect the humanitarian aid system from systemic exploitation. 

“There is a huge gap between reality and what we see reported,” the official said, asserting that the famine narrative promoted by international media and humanitarian actors originated in a deliberate disinformation campaign launched by Hamas during hostage negotiations. “They’re succeeding. The UN legitimizes their claims.” According to the military, much of the data cited by international bodies originates from the Gaza Health Ministry, which the Israeli side considers a Hamas-controlled institution.

Resource:

israelAM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCddeutsche_Zeitung

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-863410

Pharaoh Asking Jacob Resume Questions Of Age And Occupation

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

   People of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and his 12 sons, shepherds

The Pharaoh was inquisitive about his  viceroy's father, Jacob of Canaan, and asked him his age and  occupation.  Joseph knew beforehand what the questions would be and so prepped Jacob.

(Gen.47:1-13).  Joseph was his father's 11th son, 1st son of Rachel-Jacob's true love.  Rachel died later in childbirth to Benjamin, raised by his step-mothers.  Joseph was the apple of his father's eye, making his siblings very jealous, so jealous that they sold him to some passing Ishmaelites in a caravan one day who sold him again in Egypt.  From this lowly position with the gift of dream interpretation, he rose to the position of viceroy to the pharaoh.                             

  Jacob's 10 sons, happy they arrived finally in Egypt

Joseph spoke to the Pharaoh first and told him that his father and brothers were there in Goshen with their flocks, their cattle, everything they had.  The Pharaoh then replied to Joseph that the land of Egypt is before you;  settle your father and your brothers in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land.  If you think there are capable men among them, appoint them as chamberlains over my livestock.                                  

                                                A bull

      Cows pictures in mural

Long-horned, humpless domestic cattle were well established in the Nile Valley by 4000 B.C. These cattle, known as the Egyptian or Hamitic Longhorn, appear in pictographs in Egyptian pyramids.Over the next twenty centuries (2.000 years), the Egyptian Longhorn migrated with its owners from the Nile to Ethiopia, and then down to the southern reaches of Africa.

Joseph insinuates that they have brought both cattle and sheep.  We know today that you have only one and not the other, and that sheep men and cattle men do not get along as their animals' needs are different.  Sheep could ruin the cattle range.  The pharaoh unknowingly is giving away good grazing land for his growing herd of cattle.                                

     Drawing of Sheep Raid in Colorado

One of the most drawn-out of those conflicts was the so-called range wars. Beginning in the 1880s, cattlemen and sheepmen fought over land and water; dozens of sheepherders were murdered, and up to 100,000 sheep were slaughtered, all before a Colorado congressman ended the violence in 1934.So what led to this conflict? Sheep and cattle came to the Americas with Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s and immediately made their mark on the landscape. That is, they ate everything in sight. While sheep get all the blame, overgrazing by both sheep AND cattle helped turn the dry west into true desert in places. 

 This is true in my father's day, and is the background of many cowboy movies, but not now with beef prices so high.  They are finding some new facts, raising the two animals together these days. “The biological needs of sheep fit very well with cattle,” Ringwall says. That’s because cows and ewes tend to eat different things, Ollila says. Cattle eat the taller grasses while sheep eat forbs and short grasses.

   Joseph on the left in the striped cloak; looking for 5 lean brothers

Joseph picked out five of his brothers, the least muscular ones, to meet the Pharaoh first. The reason was that if Pharaoh were introduced to powerful men, he would enlist them in his military (so thought Rashi-rabbi in year 1040-1105).  Joseph chose the five who were least impressive physically.  Pharaoh asked them what their occupation was.  They answered that they were shepherds, and that their forefathers had also been shepherds.   Then they explained that there was no grazing land left for their flocks for the famine is severe in Canaan.  They then asked permission to live in Goshen.  

Joseph introduced Jacob, his father, to the pharaoh.  Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and Pharaoh asked him how old he was.  Jacob replied that he was 130 years old.  He went on, saying that he'd had good and bad days so far, but he hadn't reached the old age yet that his ancestors had reached.  Evidently he felt he was only middle-aged.    Jacob blessed the pharaoh again, and left the room. Joseph had been his 11th son and he was already a man, 2nd only leader of Egypt under the pharaoh, having gone from slave to  viceroy.  The land was given to him and his brothers.  

The Pharaoh knew the answer to his question he put to Jacob already because Joseph had told him about being shepherds, and his siblings had also told the Pharaoh.  Pharaoh was just double checking on everyone's honesty.  

Joseph had become ruler (under Pharaoh) over the land, much of the administrative power of Egypt was now concentrating in the Delta region (with the capital actually relocating there during the Hyksos period which followed). During a famine, due to irrigation, the Delta region would also suffer the least (Genesis 41:53-57). When Joseph wanted his family to move into the land, the Land of Goshen was a primary location for a number of reasons...

It was close to where Joseph lived and worked (including nearby large-scale food storage).

It was ideal land for raising flocks and herds

It kept them closer to a border area nearest Canaan

The final reason, listed above, has much intertwined with it. During this time in Egypt, shepherds were considered outcasts. Had Joseph's family needed to travel further into Egypt, away from their border of entry, it would have provoked reaction from the Egyptian people. All these reasons came together to enable Joseph to provide his people with some of the best land in the country (for tending livestock, versus growing crops).Genesis 46:28-43 Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. 30 Israel said to Joseph, "Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive." 31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, "I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, 'My brothers and my father's household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

(Was age given logical?  This was over 4,000 years ago, and writing numerals was quite different.  It's a miracle we still have copies of Moses' 5 books-this being in Genesis. Factual?  Smudging of writing?  style of numbering?  It makes no difference.  The heart of the story is profound and applicable for every generation of people.  It all fits together like a 1000 piece puzzle is meant to end up.  

Resource:

Tanakh, The Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.beefmagazine.com/pasture/sheep-cattle-the-combination-really-works

https://www.interweave.com/fiber-nation/sheep-and-cattle-wars/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20drawn,ended%20the%20violence%20in%201934.

 

Rachel and Jacob's 2nd AND Last Child, Benjamin, the 12th Son

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Rachel and Jacob conceived Benjamin during Jacob's depressive state when he had found out that his first son with Rachel had been kidnapped.  He feared he would never see him again and this was his favorite son out the 11.              

     This is an ancient depiction of giving birth.  Rachel may or may not have had a chance to be in this position.  In primitive times, women hunched themselves over a hole in the ground, standing on bricks or stones placed at either side. They gave birth in a squatting position, with relatives and friends taking turns to support them.

To top off his joy after so much grief, Rachel died in childbirth with Benjamin. Rachel had died on a journey from Beth-el going to Ephrath when she had gone into labor and had difficulty in her childbirth.  The midwife was with her.  Rachel was able to name her new son Ben Oni, and she was buried on the road to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.  Jacob set up a monument over her grave. Jacob called the newborn, Benjamin.  (Gen 35:16-21).  Benjamin was the only son born in Canaan.                                    

        Mother of Benjamin: Rachel, sister of Leah, 1st wife of Jacob

 His 11 aunts, or at least Leah, probably took care of him as she was Leah's sister.  

The exceptionally strong mutual devotion of Jacob and Benjamin developed played a prominent part in the events which ended with Jacob's migration to Egypt during a time of famine.  

Benjamin was not part of the conspiracy concocted by his ten older brothers to kill their brother Joseph (coat of many colors inspired jealousy). Later, when the brothers had to travel to Egypt to seek food during a famine, Jacob’s love for his youngest son compelled him to keep Benjamin home “because he was afraid that harm might come to him” (Genesis 42:4). The other brothers traveled to Egypt and met with the governor of Egypt (Joseph, whom his brothers did not recognize). Joseph tested his brothers by accusing them of spying and demanding that they prove their honesty by bringing Benjamin back with them: “You will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here” (Genesis 42:15). Joseph shut them all in prison for three days and then released all but Simeon. The others returned home with the grain they had purchased—and the money that Joseph had secretly returned to them (verse 25).

Back in Canaan, Jacob laments his predicament: “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” (Genesis 42:36). For a while, Jacob refused to allow Benjamin to make the trip back to Egypt (verse 38). He later relented when they ran out of grain and Judah promised to personally guarantee Benjamin’s safe return (Genesis 43:8–9).

 Joseph, as he greeted the brothers this second time, “looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, [and] he asked, ‘Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?’ And he said, ‘God be gracious to you, my son.’ Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep” (Genesis 43:29–30).

Years later in Egypt, as Jacob prepared to die, he blessed Benjamin, saying, “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder” (Genesis 49:27). Benjamin: Jacob’s youngest son would be a warrior, producing many of Israel’s military leaders, such as Ehud, Saul, and Jonathan. His tribe would be known for its warring characteristics (Judges 5:14; 20:16; 1 Chronicles 8:40).

The Blessing of Moses, portrayed in the Bible as a prophecy by Moses about the future situation of the twelve tribes, describes Benjamin as "dwelling between YHWH's shoulders," in reference to its location between the leading tribe of the Kingdom of Israel (Ephraim), and the leading tribe (Judah) of Kingdom of Judah.

(Judg 20:13)Benjamin's refusal: " But the children of Benjamin refused to heed the voice of their brothers, the Children of Israel.  The children of Benjamin were gathered together from the cities to Gibeah, to go out to war with the Children of Israel.  The children of Benjamin from the cities were numbered that day at 26,000 sword-wielding men, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered at 700 choice men.  among all these people there were 700 choice left-handed men, all of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.  Besides Benjamin, the men of Israel were numbered at 400,000 sword-wielding men, all these were warriors." (This story has more to come-you'll see as you go on.)

The tribe of Benjamin became famous for their skill in battle and warlike nature. We learn more about Benjamin and the tribe of Benjamin throughout the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. 

During the Exodus, the 1st census showed that Benjamin had 35,400 men.  In the 2nd and last census, they had 45,600 showing an increase of 10,200 men.  

This  shows the total entering Canaan to have been 601,730.  They had lost during the 40 year exodus a total of 1,820 men from the time they had started with 603,550.       

 The tribe of Benjamin occupied a little territory between Ephraim and Judah which included Jerusalem.  Jericho is also included.  Saul, the 1st king of Israel, was a Benjamite.  The territory was a bone of contention between the kingdoms of the north-Israel, and the south-Judah after the division of the kingdom when Solomon died in 920 BCE.  Eventually the land of Israel and Judah was partitioned between the two kingdoms.  

According to the Hebrew Torah, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen dates this conquest to just after 1200 BCE. I have King David reigning already from 1010-970 BCE. 

The Bible recounts that Joshua assigned to Benjamin the territory between that of Ephraim to the north and Judah to the south, with the Jordan River as the eastern border, and included many historically important cities, such as Bethel, Gibeah, and encroached on the northern hills of Jerusalem. (Joshua 18:11–28)

According to rabbinical sources, only those towns and villages on the northernmost and southernmost territorial boundary lines, or purlieu, are named in the land allocation, although, in actuality, all unnamed towns and villages in between these boundaries would still belong to the tribe of Benjamin.  The Babylonian Talmud names three of these cities, all of which were formerly enclosed by a wall, and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin: Lydda (Lod), Ono (Kafr 'Ana), and Gei Ha-ḥarashim. Marking what is now one of the southernmost butts and bounds of Benjamin's territory is "the spring of the waters of Nephtoah" (Josh. 18:15), a place identified as Kefar Lifta (كفر لفتا), and situated on the left-hand side of the road as one enters Jerusalem. It is now an abandoned Arab village. The word Lifta is merely a corruption of the Hebrew name Nephtoah, and where a natural spring by that name still abounds.

Although Jerusalem was in the territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28), it remained under the independent control of the Jebusites. Judges 1:21 points to the city being within the territory of Benjamin, while Joshua 15:63 implies that the city was within the territory of Judah. In any event, Jerusalem remained an independent Jebusite city until it was finally conquered by David in c. 11th century BC and made into the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel.

 After the breakup of the United Monarchy when Solomon died in 920 BCE, Jerusalem continued as the capital of the southern Kingdom of Judah.

The ownership of Bethel is also ambiguous. Though Joshua allocated Bethel to Benjamin, by the time of the prophetess Deborah, Bethel is described as being in the land of the Tribe of Ephraim (Judges 4:5). Then, some twenty years after the breakup of the United Monarchy, Abijah, the second king of Kingdom of Judah, defeated Jeroboam of Israel and took back the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages. Ephron is believed to be the Ophrah that was also allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua.

 On one occasion, it was almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes (Judg. 19-21).  "The children of Benjamin heard that the Children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.  The children of Israel said, "Tell us;  how did this outrage happen?"  The Levite man, the husband of the murdered woman, answered and said, "I arrived with my concubine at Gibeah of Benjamin, to spend the night.  The inhabitants of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house against me all night.  They proposed to kill me, and they tormented my concubine so that she died. He performed an atrocity I shall not repeat here: but you can read about it later yourselves.  Legally in that period, there had been no capital offense committed.  The concubine was not a married woman and her death was unintended.  The nation, however, was appalled at the unprecedented atrocity.  They wished to exercise the right to act extralegally in an emergency situation.  The Benjamites refused to cooperate, for several reasons; (1) the crime committed, heinous though it was, was not a capital offense;  (2) the other tribes were acting high-handedly, without consulting Benjamin;  and (3) the responsibility to take action lay exclusively in the hands of the high court of the tribe of Benjamin.  All parties acted wrongly, and G-d allowed them to suffer heavy casualties as a result.  The tribes should not have gone to war before consulting Benjamin, and Benjamin should not have turned a blind eye to the atrocity.  (This decision was from Rambam).  

                                                

Descendants of Benjamin include Ehud, one of the judges who saved Israel from the oppression of Eglon, king of Moab (Judg.3). ; Saul, Israel’s first king; and Queen Esther.

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(Genesis)

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jacobs-prophecies.html

OTTOMAN EMPIRE TAKES ON POLAND AND LITHUANIA and Got To Meet Russia

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST
The Ottoman Empire lived for 400 years. It was a state and caliphate that controlled much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I.

The Turks of the Ottoman Empire teamed up with Germany and lost the 1st WORLD War (1914-1918), losing all this land to the Western forces, the Allies. The Middle East and Eastern Europe went to the United Kingdom, France, Italy and USA.  The Axis were the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Germany. 

Did we know this history?  Polish–Ottoman War (1672–1676) was a conflict between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, as a precursor of the Great Turkish War. It ended in 1676 with the Treaty of Żurawno and the Commonwealth ceding control of most of its Ukraine territories to the Empire. Ottoman forces, numbering 80,000 men and led by Grand Vizier Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed and Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV, invaded Polish Ukraine in August 1672. 

So the lands occupied by Jews were invaded by the Muslims of eastern Europe.  Russia would later keep Jews out of Russia proper; allowing them to live in the Pale of Settlement.   The Pale of Settlement was a western region of Imperial Russia with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish residency, permanent or temporary, was mostly forbidden. This was under the decree of Catherine the Great. 
                                                            

                                                                 

Lazdijai, Lithuania was the birthplace of my paternal grandmother, Zlata Hattie Jermulowske b: January 11, 1886 when it was on the border between Poland and  Lithuania, at that time a part of Lithuania, she said.  Zlata immigrated to the states in 1900 at about age 14.  She came  speaking only Yiddish and had had no education.  She ended up in Council, Idaho, a mining town in the mountains of Idaho where her half-sisters and brothers had found a spot for them.  Zlata worked in a nearby mining town of Cuprum, serving food and washing dishes.  She married at 19 to  34 yr old Nathan Abraham Goldfus.  


Lithuania was established by Sigismund II Augustus in 1570 and granted Magdeburg Rights by Sigismund III Vasa in 1587.

Lithuania was mostly in the Russian side (purple). 

Large numbers of Lithuanians had emigrated to the United States in 1867–1868 after a famine in Lithuania. Between 1868 and 1914, approximately 635,000 people, almost 20 percent of the population, left Lithuania. Lithuanian cities and towns were growing under the Russian rule, but the country remained underdeveloped by the European standards and job opportunities were limited; many Lithuanians left also for the industrial centers of the Russian Empire, such as Riga and Saint Petersburg. Many of Lithuania's cities were dominated by non-Lithuanian-speaking Jews and Poles.

Partitions of Poland, (1772, 1793, 1795), three territorial divisions of Poland, perpetrated by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, by which Poland’s size was progressively reduced until, after the final partition, the state of Poland ceased to exist.

Lazdijai (Lazdey) in Yiddish is located in the SW part of Lithuania with several big lakes nearby at the junction of roads leading to Mariamol and Alite and was established in 1570 by King Zigmunt.  It was part of the Polish Lithuanian kingdom up to 1795; then became part Russian and part Prussian.  From 1807-1813 it belonged to the Great Dukedom of WArsaw and was part of the Bialystok district.  In 1827 the population was 1988 living in 272 houses.  By 1887 about 1500 Jews had been affected by fires.  

Jews lived in Lazdijai by end of 16th century (since late 1500s.)  In 1879 200 houses were destroyed by fire and owners became homeless.  In 1886 another fire consumed  250 Jewish houses;  in 1888 another 70 houses.  

Those territorial divisions were altered in 1807, when the emperor Napoleon of France created the duchy of Warsaw out of the central provinces of Prussian Poland, and in 1815, when the Congress of Vienna created the Congress Kingdom of Poland. However, the main result of the partitions—i.e., the elimination of the sovereign state of Poland—was in effect until after World War I, when the Polish republic was finally restored (November 11, 1918).
                                                                   

Where  is Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania/Poland?  Lazdijai (pronunciation (help·info) Polish: Łoździeje) is a small town in Lithuania located about 7 km (4.3 mi) east of the border with Poland.  

 Lithuania and Poland formed a Commonwealth in 1569. Initially, it was successful in deterring enemies. However, the political union led to gradual Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility as Lithuanians of the time regarded Polish culture to be superior.

By the 17th century, Poland-Lithuania was weakened due to a unique yet hard-to-manage political system of "Noble democracy" where a consensus was a prerequisite for any important decision. The Commonwealth lost a series of wars that wiped out its great power position. In the late 18th century (1772-1795) the country was completely partitioned and annexed by Prussia, Austria, and Russia with the main Lithuanian lands falling under the Russian rule.

The Russians banned Lithuanian language and suppressed Catholic religion. There were two unsuccessful revolts to restore Poland-Lithuania (1831 and 1863) but eventually the National Revival established a goal for Lithuania independent of both Russia and Poland. The restoration of statehood for Lithuania finally became possible after both the crumbling Russian Empire and the Germans surrendered in World War 1(1914-1918).

The last and most tenacious of the Polish uprisings of the mid-19th century erupted in the Russian-occupied sector in January 1863 (see January Uprising). Following Russia's disastrous defeat in the Crimean War, the government of Tsar Alexander II enacted a series of liberal reforms, including liberation of the serfs throughout the empire. The high-handed imposition of land reforms in Poland aroused hostility among the conservative landed nobility on the one hand, and a group of young radical intellectuals influenced by Karl Marx and the Russian liberal Alexander Herzen, on the other.

 Repeating the pattern of 1830–31, the open revolt of the January Insurrection by Congress Poland failed to win foreign backing. Although its socially progressive program could not mobilize the peasants, the rebellion persisted stubbornly for fifteen months. 

After finally crushing the insurgency in August 1864, Russia abolished the Congress Poland altogether and revoked the separate status of the Polish lands, incorporating them directly as the Western Region of the Russian Empire. The region was placed under the dictatorial rule of Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky, who became known as the Hangman of Vilnius. All Polish citizens were assimilated into the empire. When Russia officially emancipated the Polish serfs in early 1864, an act that constituted the most important event in history of nineteenth-century Poland, it removed a major rallying point from the agenda of potential Polish revolutionaries.

On November 3, 1941, 1,535 Jews were murdered in Lazdijai, including 485 men, 511 women and 539 children The perpetrators were members of the Rollkommando Hamann, local policemen and Lithuanian nationalists.

In 1990 Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, and new check points between the borders Poland and Lithuania were established and Lazdijai became the center that oversees and continues to regulate these operations. It is the birthplace of Lithuanian politician and producer Arūnas Valinskas and of Russian-American composer and violinist Joseph Achron.

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazdijai
Book:  PRESERVING OUR LITVAK HERITAGE by Josef Rosin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lithuania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_(1795%E2%80%931918)

Center of Jewish Learning: Vilna, Lithuania

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

Today's Vilna, Lithuania reminds me so much of our own Portland, Oregon.
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. With 542 932 inhabitants (2011), it is the largest city in the country. It lies at the mouth of the Vilnia in the Neris River in a wooded area just 40 km from the Belarusian border removed.

Jews were able to settle in Vilna, Lithuania at the end of the 15th  century.  By 1527 they were banished by Sigismund I because burghers insisted upon it.  Burghers were "citizens of a town or city, typically a member of the wealthy bourgeoisie."  

Some returned anyway after a spell, only to become victims of a riot in 1592.  This is more commonly known as a pogrom.  The next year, Jews were formally allowed to settle, acquire houses and then they practiced the only job they were allowed; lending money.  

Finally, in 1633, permission was granted to trade in precious stones, meat and livestock and to become craftsmen.  There was another anti-Jewish riot in 1635, a pogrom.  
                                                                   

Cossack on duty (portrayal of 16th-17th century), painting by Józef Brandt

In this same year of 1635, those Jews who had not fled were massacred by the Cossack army, another vicious pogrom.    

Then came the famine of 1709 that lasted through 1710.   4,000 Jews were among the victims of this famine.  
                                                                   

   
It was from the 18th century that Vilna became a center of rabbinical study and was called the Lithuanian Jerusalem.  It's best known scholar was Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, universally known as the VILNA GAON (1720-1797.  Many Haskalah leaders also lived there.  

A gaon was an intellectual leader of his people.  Sometimes, it even meant that they had considerable temporal power during the Babylonian Jewish community in the post-talmudic period from the 6th to 11th centuries.  Usually they were head of their academies, ancient institutions.

This was at the time of the use of the printing press.  Around the late 1430s, a German man named Johann Gutenberg  invented it.  A Hebrew press lasting over several generations belonged to the family of Romm in Vilna.It was Baruch ben Joseph Romm who died in 1841 who established it in Grodno 1789 but brought it to Vilna.    They printed an edition of the Talmud which became standard, called the Vilna Shass.  Family members kept it going and was active until after the outbreak of WWII.  They had printed the magnificent Babylonian Talmud of 1892.  

Vilna was a Zionist center and also the birthplace of the BUND.  This was a political party called the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland , and Russia.  It was the Jewish Socialist Party, founded in 1897, coming out of Russia from the end of the 1880s. 

WWI brought famine to the Jews under German rule and from a pogrom at the hands of the Polish troops in 1919. 

 YIVO was headquartered there from 1925 to 1941.  This was an institute founded in Vilna in 1925 for the scientific study of Jewish life throughout the world but with particular emphasis on the eastern European Jewry and its Yiddish-speaking heir on all continents.  By 1939, they had branches in 30 countries.  

At the end of the 19th century, the Jewish population of Vilna was 140,000.  The 2nd WW by 1941 saw it fall to 65,000 besides taking in 15,000 refugees from Poland.  The Germans created 2 ghettos in Vilna and 30,000 Jews were killed there by the end of 1941.  The 12,000 left were augmented in 1943 by transports from White Russian rural districts.  Deportation of taking Jews to extermination camps began in August 1943 but with some resistance.  When the Russians entered Vilna in 1944, they found 600 Jews hiding in the sewers.  Jews came to Vilna from other areas after the war.  

In 1988, Vilna's population reached 13,000.  By contrast, in 2011, Portland, Oregon's Jewish population reached 47,500.  It had doubled from 25,000.  Still, we Jews are only 2% of our USA's total population.  In the world population, Jews are less than 1% of the population.  
"There are about 14 million Jews in the world as of 2010; 6.2 million in Asia (including Israel), 5.5 million in America, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. Out of the world's population of seven billion, the Jews are about 0.2%."
                                                            

My grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus, lived in Telsiai, Lithuania.  That 184 miles from Vilna.  Lazdijai, in Suwalki, Lithuania, was on the southwestern border with Poland and Poland took that town in another of their wars.  Our grandmother, Zlata Jermulowski was from there.  Lazdijai is only 79 miles from Vilna by flight.  

I've traced his Goldfus line back to 1730 in Telsiai, Lithuania finding Ionas (Jonah) Goldfus. 
Lazdey was established by King Zigmunt II August in 1570.  Until 1795 it was part of the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom.  

Telz was one of the oldest towns in Lithuania.  mentioned by Crusaders in 1320.  The latter half of the 15th century brought in merchants and artisans to a royal estate established there.  


Reference:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks
Book: Preserving Our Litvak Heritage-history of 31 Jewish communitites in Lithuania by Josef Rosin, Joel Alpert, editor, published by JewishGen,inc.