Sephardi Beauty Who Sings As Well: Yasmin Levy

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

Yasmin Levy -Turkish Jew b: December 23, 1975

Yasmin Levy  יסמין לוי‎  is a superstar from Israel.  She is a singer and songwriter who is Sephardim with a father from Izmir, Turkey.  Yasmin was born in Jerusalem. 

 Her father, Yitzhak "Isaac" Levy (1919-1977) was a composer and Hazzan (Cantor) in the synagogue.  He was also a pioneer researcher into the long and rich history of the Ladino music and culture of Spanish Jewry and its diaspora, being the editor of the Ladino language magazine, Aki Yerushalyim.  Ladino is the language of the Sephardim, a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish.  They were not Yiddish speakers of the Ashkenazi which was a mixture of Hebrew and German.  
                                                                         

Me, the flamenco dancer in 1949 in Oregon who studied with Therese Stopper, had no idea it was connected to our Jewish roots.  It just reached my heart, and I'm Ashkenazi!  

Spanish music is my favorite.  When I was around 13 years old I took up Spanish dancing after having studied tap, ballet and toe dancing.  I did the classical and flamenco dancing.  After dancing to this music, nothing else matches its intensity and rhythm.  It's in my heart forever.  
                                                                           

2008 Yasmin Levy, vocalist of Judeo-Spanish music: yasminlevy.net

                                                                                  

Ofra Haza (November 19, 1957-February 23, 2000, Israeli singer from Yemen, messo-soprano

Yasmin has a distinctive and emotive style, just as Ofra Haza did with her music reflecting Yemen.  Yasmin had a debut album called Romance & Yasmin in 2000, which earned her a nomination as "Best Newcomer" for the Roots BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards 2005.  She then followed that up in 2005 with her 2nd album called "La Juderia" (Spanish:  The Jewish Quarter).  
                                                                            

Yasmin singing La Alegria (Happiness)

In 2006 she was nominated again, then in the category of "Culture Crossing."  Levy's work earned her the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation Award for promoting cross-cultural dialogue between musicians from 3 cultures.  In her own words, she said, "I am proud to combine the 2 cutures of Ladino and flamaenco, while mixing in Middle Eastern influences.  I am embarking on a 500 year old musical journey, taking Ladino to Andalusia and mixing it with flamenco, the style that still bears the musical memories of the old Moorish and Jewish-Spanish world with the sound of the Arab world.  In a way, it is a "Musical reconciliation" of history.  

I have a  Pashtun friend in Pakistan about the same age as Yasmin.  I saw the picture of Yasmin and didn't know who she was.  My Pashtun friend identified her for me, so her music has reached very far.  He also has a positive feeling for Israel, maybe to her credit.  Music does jump across barriers.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYgcBo802ro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPOpcAp_qnU  La Alegria by Yasmin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cshqbi871Gc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdcusOXh_f8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P64JVWSXbts  
Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasmin_Levy#Biography

Returning Judeans in c 539 BCE Short on Priestly Families

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

According to genetics and DNA testing, Abram, later called Abraham, must have had the J1 haplogroup and this would have been carried by all his sons and their sons, and their sons, etc.  The Cohen gene today is J1 and is found in about 40% of all Jewish men.  It's named for Aaron, brother of Moses, who was the first Cohen or priest selected by his brother, Moses.  This is proven since many actual Cohens serving in the synagogue who claim Cohen heritage have tested and are in fact, J1s.  My own 1st cousin's 3rd cousin on his mother's side is such a man.  It's exciting to find this being proven by science tests.
                                                                   

Abraham ready to sacrifice his son by Sarah, Isaac, stopped, and learned-no more human sacrifices

Many Arabs also carry the J1 Cohen gene with a slight variation from the Jewish line, and this is because Abraham did have a son by his wife's Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar.  It was Ishmael who had left his father's house and returned to his mother's people with her.  Again, science is proving our history true. Isaac carried on his father's belief in one G-d.
                                                                             

Aaron, brother of Moses -1st Cohen  c 1400-1271  BCE

The return of the Jews after being gone for at least 45 years  from the Babylonian Exile in 539 BCE was short on priestly families as only 4 such families returned. That had amounted to at least 2 generations of people.   "The current Cohens descended from a small number (4 families) of paternal ancestors. In the summary of their findings the authors concluded that " Our estimates of the coalescence time also lend support to the hypothesis that the extended CMH represents a unique founding lineage of the ancient Hebrews that has been paternally inherited along with the Jewish priesthood."  Building the 2nd Temple went on from 538-515 BCE.  
                                                    

The Priests (Cohens) had special duties.  They were
 " 973 children of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, Later, his descendant could have been  Jeshua ben Damna, a high priest from 61-63 CE appointed by Herod Agrippa II and later displaced by Joshua ben Gamla who struggled with him.  Toward the end of the siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE he fled to the Romans with other members of the priestly families.  
1,052 children of Immer, 
1,247 children of Pashhur, 
1,017 children of Harim." 
Total:  4,289 family members of the priesthood, unknown number of males, possibly half or 2, 144.  
They were the chosen ones to mediate between man and G-d.  In the beginning, Moses had the first-born son of every Israelite family serve as priest.  The position included considerable power.

After the Babylonian Exile high priests were: 

• Joshua, son of Jehozadak, ca. 515-490 BC, after the restoration of the Temple
• Ezra, son of Seraiah, ca. unknown, sometime after Joshua's term (disputed)
• Joiakim, son of Joshua, ca. 490-470 BC
• Eliashib, son of Joiakim, ca. 470-433 BC
• Joiada, son of Eliashib, ca. 433-410 BC {A son married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite for which he was driven out of the Temple by Nehemiah}
• Johanan, son of Joiada, ca. 410-371 BC
• Jaddua, son of Johanan, ca. 371-320 BC, during the reign of Alexander the Great. Some have identified him as Simeon the Just.

                                                                             

 The Levites were assigned specific duties connected with the transport and assembly of the parts of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Returning from Babylonia were:
    74 children of Jeshua and Kadmiel of the children of Hodaviah,  
 128 singers were the children of Asaph, 
 139 were the children of gatekeepers, the children of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita and Shobai. 

After the Exodus concluded from 40 years of marching, the Golden Calf incident put the kabash on this arrangement.  The tribe of Levi was chosen by Moses to take over this responsibility.  Moses and Aaron were of the Levites.  It was an inherited position.  Moses didn't leave descendants and had chosen Aaron to be the first priest, and he left plenty of descendants.  They were also responsible for sacrifices, hygienic purity, and teaching about the Mosaic Law.  They did receive 48 towns with their environs throughout the country , as well as a tithe of the agricultural produce.  In practice, it wasn't happening as planned on parchment.  Some towns had been captured long after the conquest of Canaan or not at all, and collecting the tithes may not have been easy.
                                                                         

In other societies, priests had political domination, such as in Egypt.  Moses fixed that situation by depriving the Levites of having any land of their own like the other 11 tribes.  Their livilihood came from contributions of 1/10 of the Levites'  tithe and a portion of the sacrifices offered.

They had to follow strict rules about not touching a dead body and choosing a wife.  While working in worshipping, they were to wear certain clothing.  Special cities were assigned to them in the lands of the various tribes.  These laws were all decided on before they entered Canaan, and changed when the tribes settled in their land.

Local shrines were established besides having the Tabernacle and these were often served by the Levites.  King David reorganized the priesthood and levites about the future Temple in Jerusalem and arranged 24 watches of priests and the same amount of watches of levites, singers and gatekeepers.  When the kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah after Solomon's death, this may have changed.

Ezekiel replaced the non-Jewish NETHINIM with the Levites but was unable to execute his plan.  In the law-halakhah,  the levite is regarded as 2nd  to the priest in  reading from the Torah and has the privilege of laving the priest's hands before the priest blesses the people.

When Jeroboam I of Israel at the cities Dan and Bethel, priests not of the tribe of Levi were permitted to serve and continued after Josiah destroyed the high places of Samaria, but not as acting priests.
                                                                           

When the 1st Temple was built, changes took place in the mode of service.  The high priest didn't have to go into battle with the Ark and stopped giving oracles through the Urim and Thummim.

Until the Hasmonean Period, the high priest came from the family of Zadok and had a deputy helper.  Ordinary priests were just teachers.

From the time of Hezekiah and especially Josiah, all worship was centered in the Jerusalem Temple which made the priesthood a strong organization.  The high priests were loyal to King David and his dynasty.

When the 43,000 Judeans returned from Babylonia, only 4 priestly families had returned.  In this 2nd Temple times, the priests exceeded the levites and received part of the levitical tithes which contributed to their wealth which became well known.

From the time of Jehemiah, the high priest was regarded as the head of the community if the regular leader was absent.  In the early Hellenistic Period, he collected the taxes and gave them to the king.  This contact with rulers led to assimilation among large sections of the priesthood.  Some managed to keep their religious zeal and from them came the Hasmoneans who renewed national spirit.

The wealthy and powerful priestly families joing the aristocratic SADDUCEE party, while others left to join the ESSENES who stayed away from the Temple service.
                                                                           

King Herod

Under King Herod, the high priest, Phinehas ben Havta, was again elected by the Sanhedrin, as laid down by the rabbis.  The first Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron.  He and his descendants were promised the priesthood and the Zadokites traced their ancestry to him. He stabbed Zimri and his girlfriend, the head of a clan in the tribe of Simeon as he had consorted with a Midianite woman.  His act is accredited with stopping a plague upon the Israelites for committing harlotry with Midianite women.   He received a holding on Mt. Ephraim and was still officiating at the time of the campaign of the tribes against Benjamin.

Update: 7/21/15 Chicks and eggs became commerical 2300 years ago in Judah, 200 years before the idea had occurred in Europe.  http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Chickens-first-commercialized-in-Israel-2300-years-ago-researchers-say-409671.  That was in the 4th century BCE in the Hellenistic period.  At least we know that they may have created our famous Chicken soup then.

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia on Priests, Levites
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/07/43000-judean-returnees-from-babylonia.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/demographics-of-jews-in-israel-and.html
***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Priests_of_Israel

Fareed Zakaria's Sunday GPS in Not Understanding How Religion Makes a Difference Between China and Iran

                                                                           

On the left are the Sunnis such as IS and most Arab nations and on right is Shia Iran who is supporting all the terrorists except IS who they are fighting against.  

Fareed Zakaria spoke about Iran today saying that in order to sell the agreement, Kerry  just made out it was just an agreement on nuclear issues, and was quite bla·sé about it, I thought. However, Israel is calling it the "historic mistake for the world."  Fareed commented  that after all, Nixon had made a deal with problematic China and that turned out all right.  Evidently Kerry thinks the same thing will happen with Iran.                                                                   

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran from 2005-2013  His hatred of Israel is from his religion.  Under the auspices and direction of the Ayatollah, he said, "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury."  What he believed: , "Prior to the United Nations even being formed, Palestine was a country. But the right of the Palestinian people were trampled, and unfortunately, international organizations contributed to those rights being trampled."  This is a false belief.  There never was a country of Palestine. and "The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of the war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land.  Also, he said, "We have a relationship with Syria, an old relationship. We also have good relations with the people of Syria, with all segments of the population. This is the situation as well in Iraq and other countries."  Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, who said that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world."

                                                                           

Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran, just wants that $100 billion coming in Kerry agreement 

What Fareed and his GPS program  doesn't want to admit is that Iran is more about religion and China didn't practice any to speak of.  China didn't threaten one individual country saying that they would destroy it as Iran has about Israel.  The country of Iran is really led by an Ayatollah which is " is a high-ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. Twelvers are a little different from Sunnis.  "Twelver refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam,Muhammad al-Mahdi, lives in occultation and will reappear as the promised Mahdi. (like the Messiah).  

Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to the theology of Twelvers, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who not only rule over the community in justice, but also are able to keep and interpret sharia and the esoteric meaning of the Quran. The words and deeds (Sunnah) of Muhammad and the Imams are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result, Muhammad and the Imams must be free from error and sin, known as Ismah or infallibility, and must be chosen by divine decree, or nass, through Muhammad.      

1st Ayatollah who ousted the Shah of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeni-(Sept. 24, 1902-June 3, 1989)  Ayatollah In the West, the title is commonly associated with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. He wants to destroy Israel, wipe it out of the map.  

Twelvers make majorities in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain; a plurality in Lebanon; and significant minorities in Kuwait, India, ^]Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.  Smaller minorities also exist in Oman, Yemen, Egypt, and Uzbekistan."

                                                                     

Ayatollah Khamenei wants to destroy Israel

So what directs their goals is the end of the world with the coming of the Mahdi.  What Iran wants , they say to the West, is to be restored to their normal status and not be the pariah of the world. I suggest then that they stop funding all the terrorists and make friends with Israel!  

The panel seemed to be confused since Iran is going after IS which is something we all think is a good thing, except here, we shouldn't be relying on Iran to do this.  How then, can they go after Iran for wanting to destroy Israel, they are thinking.  Stephens on the panel thought that we need to back our friends, such as Israel.  Vali Nasr was another panel member, is Iranian born and son of a religious scholar.   Vali is an author and "is a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board and served as senior advisor to the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, between 2009 and 2011. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Fareed said,  "Iran and the United States do have some overlapping interests in Afghanistan, for example, where we both, you know, don't like the Taliban. In Iraq, Syria, where we both don't like ISIS." Vali replied with "Well, absolutely. I think if you look at what is Iran's major headache in the region is ISIS and it's the sort of Sunni surge that they're seeing in Syria and Iraq. And that's what's going to preoccupy them." 
They neglected to add that Iran is backing Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  Those are direct terrorists against Israel.  

 The USA John Kerry-Obama plan rests on an IF, if you ask me.  IF Iran changes in the future and IF the Moshiach comes and changes them.  There is no  indication they will change since they are ruled by an Ayatollah, which is a religious ruler, and the next one is thought to be someone even more of an ultra hard-liner than the present one.

Robin Wright was a guest on the show.  They brought out that Iran wants to talk about other issues, now.  I'm sure that since they think they've been successful with this deal, they will now go after Israel with the West.  The panel agreed that the dominating states in the Middle East today are not the Arabs but are Iran, Turkey and Israel.  Iran feels they are surrounded by Sunnis and doesn't like it.  You can bet that the Sunnis don't like the idea of Iran having nuclear power, either.  What they are talking about is arming themselves with the same things now.  Nuclear power is wanted by the whole Middle East because of this deal with Iran.

Resource: CNN Sunday at 7am and 10am, Fareed Zakaria's GPS program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuli
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mahmoud_ahmadinejad.html
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1507/19/fzgps.01.html
http://www.cfr.org/iran/state-sponsors-iran/p9362

Meeting the Amaleks and Midianites on the Exodus

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

603,550 people were on the march, the Exodus,  moving away from Egypt and heading for Canaan, 394.6 miles away. By today's standards, it could be traveled on Route 40 by car in 7 hours 39 minutes.  Instead, it took this many people on foot or by camel or donkeys 40 years.

 This is as if the whole city of Portland, Oregon USA (609,456 in 2013)  were on the march from Portland, Oregon to the boarder of Idaho, Ontario, Oregon. That distance is 375 miles and on I-84E that can be traveled in 5 hours 50 minutes.

The difference between a family and moving a large city on foot is quite large with this happening all of  when Moses, the leader, was already 80 years old which was back in the year 1,311 BCE or 3,326 years ago.  Back then, Moses was using G-d as his Garmin and Ipad, getting directions  constantly.
                                                                                                                                           

Moses took this route from Rameses in Egypt to Canaan

Going through Midian by the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba and Moab  near the Dead Sea was a huge problem. The map above shows 17 stop-overs that were not as cozy as any motels.
                                                                             

 They had to make little 3 sided booth-like structures or Sukkahs that the Israelites built out of wood and boughs  for the protected they needed on their 40-year journey in the desert.  For a roof they used the leafy boughs or even straw if they found that.

Not long on the Exodus at Rephidim, Amalek came and battled Israel.  They've been Israel's eternal enemies.  Balaam had made a prophecy about them that though they were first among the nations they would be destroyed completely (Numbers).  They were a nomadic people and had killed off the weak and weary Israelites. Their presence was a standing threat to the peace of the country.  Joshua led the Israelites in defeating them later.     It was there at Rephidim that they had no water to drink and attacked Moses verbally about it.  The history here is explained that they needed to learn to trust in G-d by prayer when faced with deprivation.
                                                                       

 Israel had settled in the Shittim (plains)  of Moab and the men were confronted with harlots (prostitutes)  and many could not resist these women as they participated in sexual orgies with them. They could not resist such temptation!  These gals had invited the men to feasts they had for their many gods and they wined and dined the men and then got them to bow down to their idols.  The men became attached to the idol, Baal-Peor with their practice of orgies, and G-d was not happy at all with them.  Baal Peor was the local Canaanite deity, worshipped with sexual orgies on Mt. Peor in Moab.  This cult only attracted the Israelites temporarily as Moses put a final stop to this attraction.

Moses got the message.  It wasn't good.   He was told to order 1,000 men from each of the 12 tribes to form a legion of 12,000.  Phineas, son of Elazar the Kohen was to be the leader of them.  They went against the Midianites and killed every male and their kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba and Balaam, son of Beor.
                                                             

Midian was a Beduin tribe related to Abraham.  They traveled with camel caravans of incense from Gilead to Egypt, and later to other countries.  They had been closely connected with the Israelites.  Moses himself had fled from the Pharaoh to Midian and married the daughter of Jethro.  During this Exodus period, the princes of Midian cooperated with Moab against Israel.  The Israelite commanders  took the women and their young children and all their cattle and flocks and wealth as spoils of war.  They burned their cities.

Moses was still angry  with his commanders because it was the females of Midian who followed Balaam's word to betray Israelites.  Balaam had finally experienced true prophecy from G-d in telling Balak, King of Moab,  what the future held.  He was one who at first tried to curse the Israelites.  Then he told Balak to entice Jewish men to debauchery because he knew that sexual morality was the foundation of Jewish holiness and that G-d did not tolerate immorality.   The officers had allowed their troops to spare the women and they had been known to have participated in the orgies.   Moses  ordered the women to be killed as well and teen-aged boys, and spare the young children to keep for themselves.  This was the retribution that had been promised against the Midianites because of their responsibility for the Israelites' immorality and idolatry that had been introduced to them by Balaam to Balak,  who asked for curses on the Israelites in the first place in order to bring them down.
                                                                             

Jacob and his 4 wives and 12 children with Leah on the left with her 6 sons; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isssachar and Zebulun  and 1 daughter, Dinah; Rachel with Benjamin and Jacob being Joseph is already in Egypt as a young man, and then the former handmaidens-Zilpah (Leah's servant)  with Gad and Asher and Bilhah (Rachel's servant)  with Dan and Naphtali,  with 2 boys each.  

In the first census of the Israelite population on the march, there were 74,600 of the tribe of Judah, the largest tribe in both census.   By the 2nd census they had increased by 1,900 people to the total of 76,500.  In contrast, the tribe of  Simeon had started with 59,300 and lost 37,100 people, bringing them to the total of only 22,200, making them the smallest of the 12 tribes.  After they arrived in Canaan, they received territory within the lot of Judah in 2 distinct places in the Negev but was of minor importance.  When Hezekiah was king of Judah (720-692 BCE) , they took possession of the Arab areas of Seir. Some settled in the mountains of Ephraim.

Resource: Tanakh, Stone Edition, chart 11 in appendix B.
 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41/4159000.html

43,000 Judean Returnees From Babylonia and Who They Were: A Genealogy Treasure

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BCE), King of Babylonia,  had conquered all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier including Judah and in 597 BCE had captured Jerusalem and exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon.  8 years later, Mattaniah, son of King Josiah, who took on the name, Zedekiah, , when Nebuchadnezzar picked him to replace Jehoiachin who had been exiled.   Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) , had rebelled and Judah was again invaded in 586 BCE  and the Temple this time was destroyed as well as other cities of Judah.  Again, many of the population were exiled.  The remainder of the people tried to perpetuate a subject state under Gedaliah, who was a member of the former royal house, but it ended with his assassination in 582 BCE by Ishmael ben Nethaniah and his followers who were planning a revolt against Babylon in connection with a neighboring power.  Gedaliah's supporters then fled to Egypt.  .
                                                     

Cyrus II of Persia (today's Iran)

Cyrus of Persia II overran the Babylonian Empire, which included Israel and  Judah, and pursued an enlightened policy towards his subject people.  The great King Cyrus of Persia signed his royal edict saying that the Jews were to return to Judah and 43,000 accepted the offer.  " The Babylonian exile ended after 70 years with Cyrus' declaration that the exiled Jews would be allowed to return to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple in Yehud Medinata, an autonomous province of the Achaemenid Empire."  Due to the king's kindness and generosity, he told them to rebuild their Temple. He died in 529 BCE.   It must have been very disappointing to Ezra that many had opted to remain in Persia.
                                                                       

Ezra reading to crowd from Torah

Ezra, a member of the priestly family of Zadok and former scribe for the Persian government,  and
                                                                             

Nehemiah governing and directing the men

Nehemiah  who will become the governor of Judah and had served as the cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes I, were leaders of the people who returned to Judah.  They were members of  the Anshel Knesses HaGedolah, The Men of the Great Assembly, which was a council of 120 men, many who were prophets, which functioned over several generations and helped to rejuvenate the nation again.  The biggest hurdle they had to fight in those days was the idoltary that their people had picked up by living in a foreign nation.  People seemed to have a craving for it.
                                                                       

2nd Temple with Ezra reading from the 5 Books of Moses

The 2nd Temple was rebuilt from 538 to 515 BCE or 349 BCE from another source  after being destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar.  It had been done by the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin and the Cohens and Levites with all the others.  Service in the Temple was performed by the Priests, Levites, and certain Nethinim.
                                                                           

   

It had been Nebuchadnezzer earlier who had stolen everything out of the 1st Temple and had placed them in his temple for his gods, and Cyrus gave them all back for the 2nd Temple;  Mithredath, the treasurer of King Cyrus,  counted them from his inventory and gave them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah.  They had returned 30 golden utensils, 1,000 silver utensils, 29 slaughtering knives, 30 golden bowls, 410 secondary silver bowls and 1,000 other vessels of gold and silver, 5,400 vessals of gold and silver totaled.
                                                                     

The families that returned, and it wasn't easy to leave the opulence of Babylon for a wasted landscape that had lost the best of the inhabitants, were the dignitaries:   Zerubbabel,  Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordechai-bilshan, Mispar-bigvai, Rehum and Baanah.    It was Zerubbabel and Ezra that led them back to Judah.  

Then tribes came.  The 2,172 children of Parosh, 372 children of Shephatiah, 775 children of Arah, the 2,812 children of the Governor of Moab who were descended from King David or from his general and nephew, Joab.  Both David and Joab were descendants of the Moabite princess Ruth, so their surname was GovernorofMoab; 1,254 children of Elam, 945 children of Zattu, 760 children of Zaccai, 642 children of Bani, 623 children of Bebai, 1,222 children of Azgad, 666 children of Adonikam, 2,056 children of Bigvai, 454 children of Adin, the children of Ater, 98 of Hekah, 323 children of Bezai, 112 children of Orah, 223 children of Hashun, 95 children of Gibbar.

Then they came by city, possibly having lost track of their tribe.  Bethlehem had 123, Netophah had 56, Anathoth had 128, Azmaveth had 42, Kiriath-Arim, Chephirah and Beeroth had 743, Ramah and Geba had 621, Michmas had 122, Bethel and Ai had 223, Nebo had 52, Magbish had 156, Elam  had 1,254, Harim had 320, Lod, Hadid and Ono had 725,  Jericho had 345, Senaah had 3,630.   Notice that some of these towns have become Arab populated towns today.  (Ai was an ancient town north of Jerusalem in the vicinity of Bethel, known in the days of Abraham.  The city was destroyed by Joshua and was later rebuilt. and was inhabited at the time of the return from Babylon.)  

The people who we figure had the J1 haplogroup or Cohens, descended from Aaron, brother of Moses,  were listed separately:  The 973 children of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, 1,052 children of Immer, 1,247 children of Pashhur, 1,017 children of Harim.

Then the Levites were listed.  74 children of Jeshua and Kadmiel of the children of Hodaviah,  The 128 singers were the children of Asaph,  The rest of 139 were the children of gatekeepers, the children of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita and Shobai.

392  Nethinim ( Hebrew: הַנְּתִינִים‎, "the given ones") was the name given to the Temple assistants in ancient Jerusalem.  They were originally conquered Canaanites who were said to have been allotted by David to the Levites for menial service in the Temple.  After they had returned with the others, they were given a special quarter of Jerusalem.  They had accepted Ezra's covenant but were still debarred from the Jewish community.  They maintained their identity down in the amoraic times.  The Amora were the Jewish scholars in Judah and Babylonia in the 3rd to 6th centuries.  He would have been a lecturer explaining Judaism, the Mishnah and use.) All the Nethinim  and the children of Solomon's slaves were listed such as the children of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth, Keros, Siaha, Padon,  Lebanah, Hagabah, Akkub, Hagab, Salmai, Hanan, Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah, Besai, Asnah, Meunim, Nephusim, Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur, Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha, Barkos, Sisera, Tamah, Neziah,  and the children of Hatipha.  Solomon's slaves were the children of Sotai, Hassophereth, Peruda, Jaalah, Darkon, Giddel, Shephatiah, Hattil, Pocherethhazzebaim and Ami.  

Those of dubious descent were people who came out of Telmelah, Telharsha, Cherub, Addan and Immer.  They were not even sure they had come from Israel or not.  652 were the children of Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda.

There were Kohanim who could not find their genealogical records who had taken wives from the daughters of Barzillai of Giliad so they were disqualified from the priesthood.  Barzillai had been a wealthy Gileadite who supplied King David and his army during Absalom's rebellion.  After its suppression, David had invited him to his court at Jerusalem, But Barzillai refused on account of his age and sent his son, Chimham, in his stead. Gilead was the region of Transjordania, settled by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the other tribe of Manasseh.  After King Solomon's reign, Gilead was part of the northern kingdom and in 732 BCE, was captured by Assyria, its inhabitant being sent into exile.  Its boundaries were not stable and the area has not been precisely determined.   That's how important it was to keep records up to date and marry into the right families!
                                                                       

Nehemiah guiding the builders of the 2nd Temple

 The descendants of the Gibeonites had been assigned menial tasks such as woodcutting and water drawing for the Temple.  They were permitted to live among the Jews but not to intermarry with them. Gibeon was an ancient priestly city north of Jerusalem in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.  Before the Israelite conquest, the city had been occupied by Hivites who tricked Joshua into making a  treaty with them.  When their duplicity was discovered, they were condemned to be slaves of the sanctuary and were the ancestors of the Nethinim.  Hattirshatha told them that they shouldn't eat the most holy offerings until there would arise a Kohen to ask about the Urim and the Turnim.

The entire group numbered 42,360, besides their male and female slaves, of which there were 7,337.  They also had 200 male and female singers.

They returned with 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

When they reached their destination and arrived at the former site of the 1st Temple, some of the heads of the families made contributions to establish it on its foundation.  They gave according to their means to the work fund.  They gave 61,000 darkemons of gold, 5,000 manehs of silver and 100 priestly tunics.  The Kohanim, Levites, the singers, gatekeepers and Nethinim and some of the other people settled in their cities.

The descendants of the exiles in Babylonia had continued to love their national and religious ideas so tried to renew Jewish life after 539 BCE when then had returned.  The Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus as a Divine agent.  Their intellectual and spiritual life was extraordinarily rich.  It was there that most of the canonical prophets carried on their activity, great parts of the Bible were composed and the essential traditions of Judaism were developed and preserved.   They were able to live in a relative political obscurity during this period.

In my state of Oregon, USA, the closest cities with a population of 43,000 are Aloha with 49,425 and Lake Oswego with 37,999 as of 2014.  The returnees would fit somewhere between to make up a nice small city of 2014.
                                                                       

Romans 70 CE carrying away temple treasure 

From there they multiplied into the population that saw the downfall of the 2nd Temple, destroyed by the invading Romans in 70 CE.  They are the ones who stole all the silver and gold out of the temple once again, just like Nebuchadnezzar had done.

Resource: Tanakh (Bible), the Stone Edition,   Ezra, 1:1-44;  II chron. 36:22-3  You have to be into genealogy to appreciate this treasure of information.  What behooves me is that some people think our history has been nothing but nonsense, tales without merit, and here we sit with the Tanakh so full of genealogy in many sections.  People who bothered to keep records such as this, a religion whose genealogy was part of the importance of it, an  amazing resource.  Here we are today with science of genetics and yet how many have discarded this history?
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1827-artaxerxes-i
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Update:7/22/15  Not 45 years of living in exile but 70 years...from Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora