The Very Core of the Israelites or Jewish People Part I

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

 Israelite boy babies to die at Egyptian Pharaoh's command but Moses was saved by his barren daughter

Moses facing a burning bush which spoke to him, In the biblical story, the burning bush that appeared to Moses was likely a thorn bush, potentially a bramble or acacia, and it was notable for burning without being consumed. The Hebrew word used to describe the bush is "seneh," which can refer to thorny bushes. The miraculous sight of the bush engulfed in flames but not destroyed captivated Moses and drew him closer. 

In the beginning (estimate of 1579 BCE, or 1445 BCE or 480 years before Solomon's 1st Temple was built, about 4,000 years ago, Moses, at the  age of 80, took an "extended family" of 400 years of generations originating with Abraham and Sarah with other unlucky people of unknown lands also taken as the Egyptian slaves out of Egypt and brought them to Canaan after 40 years of traveling, their original home before a drought had taken over the land.  Evidently, Moses was one of the family members who had been rescued from death by a princess of Egypt and raised from infancy on.  Moses had been educated with all other princes for a position as either pharaoh or assistant to the pharaoh. They called taking 603,550 people who numbered only 601,730 at their destination, the Exodus.   

When they returned to Canaan, they had an elder or leader of each family grouping, called the judges who kept them on an even keel. Joshua had taken over Moses's position as leader and he was a judge.                                          

    Samson with Delilah, a Philistine from the Valley of Sorek who betrayed him.  The Valley of Sorek is in the Shephelah region, west of Jerusalem, bordering Philistia and the tribal territory of Dan says the Jewish Virtual Library. 

The Book of Judges lists twelve individuals who led the Israelites after the death of Joshua, known as the Judges. These leaders, in chronological order, are: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, then (Ammonite rule)Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson, son of Manoah of the tribe of Dan, a Nazirite with long hair who had fought the Philistines. In addition to these, Eli and Samuel are also considered judges in 1 Samuel. 

• Ammonites:

  A separate group, often depicted as hostile to the Israelites, particularly during the period of the Judges. They were known for their conflicts with the Israelites, including disputes over territory and raids into Israelite lands. The Ammonites are mentioned as forbidding the Israelites from passing through their land during the Exodus and later allying with Moab to attack Israel. The Ammonites also occupied lands east of the Jordan River and encroached into Israelite territory. 

Samuel selected Saul  (c 1060-1010 BCE) as the people's first king being they felt they wanted one so that they were like  the other countries who also had kings. A city would have a king, as there were few countries in those days.  

Samuel also selected David ( (1010 BCE-970 BCE) as the 2nd king when Saul was killed in battle.  The Book of Chronicles lists his sons with his various wives and concubines. In Hebron, David had six sons: Amnon, by Ahinoam; Daniel, by Abigail; Absalom, by Maachah; Adonijah, by Haggith; Shephatiah, by Abital; and Ithream, by Eglah (1 Chronicles 3:1–3). 

     By Bathsheba, his sons were Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. 

     David's sons born in Jerusalem of his other wives included Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama and Eliada (2 Samuel 5:14–16).

      Jerimoth, who is not mentioned in any of the genealogies, is mentioned as another of his sons in 2 Chronicles 2 11:18. His daughter Tamar, by Maachah, is raped by her half-brother Amnon/Aminon (eldest son of David by Ahinoam the Jezreeelite. David fails to bring Amnon to justice for his violation of Tamar, because he is his firstborn and he loves him, and so Absalom (her full brother) kills Amnon to avenge her.  

Before David died, his son, Solomon took the throne (961-920 BCE) .  This was done by his mother, Bath-sheba and the prophet, Nathan.  Solomon consolidated his position,  then got rid of his elder brother, Adonijah (4th son of David)  who wanted to marry Abishag, David's concubine, but Solomon regarded this as an act of rebellion  so had himkilled.   Eventually Solomon built the Temple in  Jerusalem. 

When Solomon died, Israel became divided over Solomon's taxeHis son, Rehoboam (933-917 BCE)  inherited the throne, but Israelites also followed  Jeroboam (933-912 BCE) from the tribeof Ephraim, the superintendent of forced labor during Solomon'sreign in building the Temple.  He was popular as he led the revolt. Rehoboam and he had met about the taxes, but Rehoboadecided to keep it and continue with the Temple.   

• Traditional Claims: Many Jewish families, particularly those from the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, possess oral traditions and genealogical records that trace their lineage back to King David.
• Exilarchs and Rabbinic Figures: Certain lineages, like those descended from the Exilarchs (who held leadership positions in Babylonian Jewry) or notable rabbinic figures like Rashi, are often cited as potentially having Davidic lineage.
• Genetic Research: Recent DNA studies have aimed to understand patterns within Jewish populations and their connections to various groups. For instance, the Cohanim (J1), who are considered descendants of Aaron, have a documented genetic signature. However, as of now, no specific DNA marker has been conclusively identified to definitively prove descent from King David.
• The Limitations of Historical Records: While some genealogical records exist, the significant time elapsed since King David's reign (approximately 3,000 years) makes it challenging to definitively verify an unbroken paternal lineage with the same certainty as more recent genealogical research.  Christians have created a family tree for Jesus including kingDavid with people on it completely unknown to Jewish genealogists.  

Resource:

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David 

Jewish Virtual Library

Demographics of France's Religions Today and Affect on Jewish Population

Nadene Recent Goldfoot                                                      

Recent Jewish 21 year old Victim in Supermarket January 2015 Friday attack of Jews  in France, one of 4 Jewish victims

"The number of immigrants from France to Israel  rose from 4,000 in 2014 to 5,100 in same period in 2015. This is due to the overt anti-Semitic attacks on Jews there.  France continues to be home to the world's third largest Jewish community, between 500,000 and 600,000 people, but has shown an increasingly negative trend, including the largest emigration loss to Israel in 2014.  Jewish population has been 0.6% in France.  France is made up of 64, 982, 894 people in 2015 .

Jews were living in France before 70 CE .  Jewish communities were there in the days of the Roman Empire.  They were out of favor when the Christian Church Councils took steps to enforce the conventional anti-Jewish codes of the day.

700s:  Jews were under protection of Charlemagne and his house, Jewish merchants settled for purposes of trade, established new communities up the Rhone Valley and into Champagne
800s:  Southern France was main center of international traders, the Radanites (Jewish merchants in 9th century traveled between S. France and China; spoke Arabic Persian, Roman, languages of the Franks, Andalusians, and Slavs.)
1000s-1100s:  Jewish communities of N. France were the most densely settled in Europe-if not the world.
                                                                     

RASHI  1040-1105 in Troyes, France

 The Talmud and the seat of Rabbi Rashi and Tosaphists were created here.
Jews then excluded from trade and handicrafts and driven into moneylending.  -their economic standby.
                         

1096  Crusades against Jews
1306   Jews were expulsed from France.
1420  Annihilation of the Jewish community in Toulouse, France
1939-1945  The Holocaust:  murder of 6 million Jews by German Nazis and  their European collaborators

These people believe in the following:

1. Catholic  64.5%  France's state religion
2. None      25.5%
3. Islam         8%
4. Other         0.75%
5. Buddasim  0.625%  or 5/8 of a %.
6. Judaism     0.625% .

The Parisian music hall, Bataclan Theater,  had been owned by a Jewish family for decades  and had just been sold 2 months ago, possible reason it was just attacked, though the band had played in Tel Aviv previously.  So many attacks on Jews have happened that many have already made aliyah to Israel.   The new  attack on France is expected to bring about more aliyah from French Jews.      
                      

1894-1906 The Dreyfus Affair:  Captain Alfred Dreyfus, Jewish soldier of France, accused wrongly of having sold secret documents to Germany and was condemned to life imprisonment caused by invalid documents not presented to court and anti-Semitism.  Imprisoned on Devil's Island off coast of French Guiana.  Pardoned in 1899.  Case got to Herzl who developed Zionism.  Dreyfus retired as lieutenant-colonel.   

                                                                                                       

Jakob "James" Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868)  German-French banker and the original founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family, "fifth son and youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812). A family of financiers and philanthropists.  He was active in the French railroad development.  

                   

Born as Rosine, Sarah Bernhardt 1844-1923  born in Paris to a Jewish woman, making her Jewish even though her father was unknown.  She became a  Jewish actress, educated as a Catholic.  

 Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and then became an  early film actress. She was referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known", and is regarded as one of the finest actors all time. She kept on acting until she died, even though she had to have a leg amputated in 1915.  

This beautiful woman "was  the daughter of Julie Bernardt, Jewish (1821, Amsterdam – 1876, Paris) and an unknown father. Julie was one of six children of an itinerant Jewish spectacle merchant, "vision specialist"  Moritz Baruch Bernardt, and Sara Hirsch (later known as Janetta Hartog; c. 1797–1829). The actresses father had been labeled as a petty criminal in France, possibly another expression of the day's anti-Semitism.  What did he do?  Steal bread?  Knowing the mood of the country gives me pause to wonder about such an accusation.  

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4669430,00.html
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mayer_de_Rothschild
facts about Israel-division of information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30708237
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-owners-recently-sold-pariss-bataclan-theater-where-is-killed-dozens/

History of Jews in England: Acceptance and Rejection

                                                                       

             Typical Jewish family in England celebrating Chanukah

Nadene Goldfoot
William I, a Norman,  conquered England in 1066 and discovered that there were no Jews living there. Normandy was a part of Northern France, but originally the people were from Scandinavia.   He knew that it was Jews in France who were the financiers.  In those days, Christians didn’t want to be in finances and thought it was beneath them, so that was about the only  business left for the Jews as they were not allowed to own land.  He invited Jews from Rouen, a city in NW France,  to come into England  an take on the job.  Jews then remained in London near the royal family who were fairly tolerant. They also settled in York, Bristol, Canterbury, etc.  They traded, lent money to the baronage and advanced money to those who were a part of the Crown.

William II, his son, (1056 - 2 August 1100),  organized a disputation between a Jew and a Christian and seemed to try to promote a real discussion about the two religions.

By 1144 Jews were accused of a ritual murder in Norwich.  This was the 1st blood libel from Christians.  The accusers were trying to say that murder of a child named William  was a part of the Jewish religion as they wanted the blood for Passover and other rituals. . These jealous people knew nothing about Judaism except that they didn’t believe in Jesus as being “G-d, and from what they had learned in their “New Testament.”   One thing that Jews don’t eat is blood, which makes this accusation so very stupid.  Part of the laws of kashrut is eating parts of beef that do not have main veins in them, and then salting and washing the meat to get rid of any trace of blood.  This means that only the tougher parts of a kosher animal is allowed for food being it doesn’t have any blood in it. I repeat:  Jews do not eat, use or touch blood.  It is regarded in the Bible as the seat of life or even as life itself.  The prohibition of its consumption is one of the laws and is repeated several times.

In 1189-90, the time of the 3rd Crusade, there were riots all over the country with much bloodshed, especially in London and York.  The Jews’ business bonds were burned.  This brought about the exploitation of Jewish resources by heavy taxation on them during the reigns of John in 1199-1216 and Henry III from 1216 to 1277.

In  this 13th Century, Christians were also trying to convert Jews and steal their money.  In 1232, Henry III created the House of the Converts to lodge and hire converted Jews and even sent preachers into the synagogues to proselytize.  Another ritual murder accusation happened in 1255 of Hugh of Lincoln and more occurred from 1263-5 during the Barons’ Wars.  No proofs were ever produced, but confessions came through torture.

Medieval English Jewry numbers never was more than about 5,000.

 From 1290 to about 1655.  Jews were not even allowed to live in England.  King Edward I had expelled them.  that's when many Jews went to live in Poland.

 Jews from Spain and Portugal were fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition and tried to get into England around 1509 when Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, but Henry expelled any that arrived then.  He only tolerated Jews coming into England when it was convenient to have them-when he needed money.

 In 1655, Manasseh Ben Israel negotiated with Oliver Cromwell for the re-admission of Jews. He agreed as long as they worshipped in private.  Charles II became king and took over the monarchy in 1660 and confirmed this in writing.

By the 19th century, Jews were tolerated more, probably due to the Jewish philanthropists like Sir Moses Montefiore.  From 1829 on, we see that Lionel de Rothchild was admitted to parliament in 1858.  In 1881 the Jewish community took in Russian Jewish refugees from pogroms.  Jewish communities developed in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, etc.  Then German Jews arrived from 1933-1939 which brought on an anti-Semitic movement.  Jews in Great Britain in 1990 were estimated at about 330,000 including N. Ireland, and about 300,000 today.  Many have become secular Jews.  .

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II_of_England
http://historyonthenet.com/Normans/whowere.htm
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
www.jewishideasdaily.com/4538/features/the-queens-jewry/?print by Ben Elton 7/23/2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England

https://dbs.bh.org.il/search?q=England&gclid=CjwKCAjwiaX8BRBZEiwAQQxGx1OX8ujNCKe5GUWVZvzLeS2j2kj1xh0CHLVXWX4h5Rfc_fOi8F51jhoCdHIQAvD_BwE

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/uk/uk-anti-semitism-intl/index.html

How Khazarian Jews Got to Hungary

Nadene Goldfoot
Back to the 8th Century, which would be sometime in the 700's CE, Hungarians were made up of nomadic tribes who lived in the neighborhood of a Turkish tribe, the Khazars who were led by their King Bulan.  The Royal House of this new empire of Khazaria had recently converted to Judaism.  A small group joined up with the Hungarian tribes in the conquest of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin towards the end of the 9th Century.

Today the R1a1 haplogroup is found to be in many Ashkenazi Levites traced back to the 8th and 9th Centuries.  R1a1 NRYs are found in high frequency and one could say they came from Khazaria to say this was a European origin. This is only a reasonable possibility of origin.  "It is not possible to use genetic information to pinpoint the exact origin of any putative founder from the currently available data sets".

After a few centuries had gone by, several groups of Jews arrived from other European countries.  Ashkenazi Jews came from Russian and Polish territories while Sefardic Jews arrived from countries of the Balkans.  At times Hungarian kings welcomed Jews and offered them privileges like Saint Stephen, but other restricted the rights of Jews like Andrew 2nd, with his Golden charta.

The Turks occupied Hungary for a period and Jews lived in villages and in the Castle of Buda defending it.  During the Turks occupation Jews had peaceful conditions.  Synagogues were untouched as the Turks had respect for the Jewish religion in those days because of the shared common roots with the Muslim belief.

Finally emancipation came to the Jews at the end of the 18th century with the Habsburg emperor Joseph issued his decree that every religion was equal and gave approval of Jews settling in the suburb of Pest.  The 19th century was called the Reform period.  In 1827 there were 5276 Jews but in 1848 the Jewish population grew to more than 10,000 living in Pest.

The Dohany Temple was built by  Joseph Hild, design by Frigyes Feszl, and Ludwig Forster,  who built cathedrals.  They said, "The Dohany Temple is the most beautiful catholic synagogue in the world.  It is the largest Jewish prayer house of Europe and 2nd largest one in the world after the New York Temple Emmanuel.  it was open on September 6, 1859.

Theodor Herzl, the journalist and one who recognized the need for a state for the Jews, was born here in Pest in 1860 and who died in 1904, known as the father of Zionism.  His parents spoke German and were assimilated Jews originally from Zimony, Serbia which was then part of the Austria-Hungary Empire.

Hungary had been an ally with Germany and was not militarily occupied.  Things changed in March 1944 when Hitler then occupied the country.  Adolf Eichmann headed the Gestapo and entered Hungary with the military troops.  They deported the whole Jewish population of the countryside to Auschwitz in a 3 month period  Pest became the last  ghetto of 162 buildings behind the synagogue for Jews of Hungary  in December 1944.  The Soviet Army liberated the survivors on January 18, 1945 but the 2 months of winter was so harsh that 10,000 Jews froze to death or died from starvation, illness and bloodshed.  They were buried in what had been the garden of the temple.

Before the 2nd World War 750,000 Jews lived in Hungary of which 200,000 were living in Budapest.  At the end of the war 600,000 Jews were killed of which 90% had come from the Hungarian countryside.  The synagogue was hit 27 times.

 However, in 1990, restoration started which finally took almost 10 million dollars to finish.  By September 5, 1996, the temple was again inaugurated.  There are anywhere from 7,000 to 17,000 Jews living in Hungary today.  There is anti-Semitism existing which makes being Jewish unpleasant.

Resource:  The Dohany Street Synagogue by Robert Frohlich and Dr. Alfred Schoner
http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/vp-351-komoroczy.htm  Study on Jews in Hungary Today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts-cohen-levite.html