Ted Cruz and His Israel Position

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

The question that begs asking is how strong would Ted Cruz be in supporting Israel in a time of crisis?  What has his record been as that of a US Senator and as a man?

His whole name is Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, and he is an American politician and the junior US Senator from Texas since 2012. He's a Baptist.   Now he's a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the USA in 2016.  He's only 45 years old,  and has been a Senator for 3 years since 2013, having been born December 22, 1970, but in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Foothills General Hospital. His parents had been living in Calgary for 3 years and were working in the oil business as owners of a data processing firm for oil drilling.  They were both mathematicians and computer programmers.  When Ted was 4 years old, his father left his mother and moved to Texas.  Later that year they reconciled and relocated in Houston.

 How can he run for president when the requirements are that he must be a native USA citizen first?  The answer is that his mother was a USA citizen.  She is Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson Cruz nee Darragh, a lady of 3/4 Irish and 1/4 Italian heritage who had married Rafael Bienvenido Cruz.  She originally was from Wilmington, Delaware.  "The only requirements of a president is that he must be 35 years old,  a resident "within the United States" for 14 years, and a "natural born Citizen," a term not defined in the Constitution.  He left Calgary at age 4 and has lived in the USA ever since, but didn't realize he still held Canadian citizenship even though he had left the country.  So he held dual citizenhip: USA and Canada because he was born there.  Evidently his parents had ignored this fact.  He has renounced his citizenship and has received this from Canada:  
"This is to certify that the person named above has formally renounced Canadian citizenshp and pursuant to the Citizenship Act will cease to be a citizen on" May 14, 2014, " the letter read.

His mother also attended college and has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Rice University in Houston, Texas in the 1950s where she met Rafael.

Rafael was born and raised in Cuba and his father was from the Canary Islands in Spain.  Ted's father left Cuba in 1957 after being tortured  and imprisoned in Cuba.  He immigrated to the USA to attend the University of Texas in 1957  in Austin and stayed using  political asylum which he received after his 4 year student visa had expired.  Then he started a small business in the oil and gas industry.  After moving to Canada,  Rafael then earned Canadian citizenship in 1973, then returned to the USA  and became a naturalized US citizen in 2005.    Then they divorced in 1997.  Today Ted's father is a pastor in Dallas.

Since Ted was hoping he would win over the Evangelicals, it may be that he is familiar with Pastor John Hagee, the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational evangelical church with an active membership of over 19,000 people in San Antonio, Texas.  Pastor Hagee is a very strong supporter of Israel and has written the book, "IN DEFENSE OF ISRAEL", the Bible's  mandate for supporting the Jewish State.  Hagee had made friends with Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg and learned about the Jewish history with his help.

Ted  married Heidi  in 2001 and they have 2 daughters, Caroline and Catherine.  He has attended  Princeton for his undergraduate BA degree where he became an award-winning debater, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1992 and then attended Harvard Law School in 1995 and is a lawyer from Texas.  He became the Solicitor General for the State of Texas.  He's done things like having defended the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms and defended the 10 Commandments monument at the Texas State Capitol, and also the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Ted says he's been a tireless fighter for liberty his entire life because his family knows what it is like to lose it.

He's been against Obama's work, like Obamacare, and works against giving  amnesty to illegal immigrants.  Ted is for the 1st and 2nd Amendments and our Bill of rights.  He's promised to tell the truth, yet his competitors charge him with telling lies.

Ted arrived in Washington 4 years ago, and has been Israel's most avid defender in the Senate.  In July 2014, Cruz used his authority as a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to get the administration to end the ban on US flights to Israel's Ben-Gurion airport!  This was during Operation Protective Edge.  Ted said he would put a hold on all State Department appointments until the administration justified the flight ban, which evidently they couldn't, so they restored the flights after 36 hours.  

Cruz has led the opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran.  He brought activists by the thousands to the Capitol to be in a rally he organized calling for Congress to vote down the deal.  He invited Donald Trump to join him at the rally, which he did, and his participation ensured that the event was covered by the press.

He feels, as he stated in an interview,  that America's alliance with Israel is in our national security interest with sharing the same democratic values.  Israel is an important ally in a very troubled region of the world.  The military assistance the USA provides Israel with gives security benefits to America.  He believes that the the single greatest national security threat facing America is the threat of a nuclear Iran, so he has that in common with Netanyahu's thoughts.

Ted has publicly called for John Kerry's resignation as secretary of state and is the 2nd time he has done this.  The 1st time he called for it, John had suggested that Israel could become an apartheid state, which is slander.  Terrorists say this.  Recently John accused Israel of terrorism, which is a blatant lie.  Ted tells the difference between Palestinian terrorist antics murdering innocent women and children in response to the relentless incitement from Hamas and the PA. He explained that there's a QUALITATIVE difference between that and the IDF defending the safety and security of Israel.  John Kerry didn't see that difference with his suggestion that they are morally equivalent.  This is wrong, harmful and deeply offensive.

If Ted were president, he would not dictate the terms of a peace settlement like Kerry has been doing.  When Israel chooses to negotiate (not now as the situation is not the time) and reach a settlement with the PA, it is Israel's  right to do this, and he could help provide a fair forum for negotiations.  He said it is not the role of the American government to attempt to lecture the Israeli people or dictate terms of peace.  He knows that no one has a greater incentive to seek peace than the people of Israel who have lived with the daily threat of rocket attacks or knifings or terrorist bombs.  He knows the history of the Palestinians turning down every reasonable offer of peace, and America should stand with Israel.

The USA should reconsider funding the PA and has been giving them about $550 million annually.  Taxpayers are giving money to a government in unity with terrorists and makes no sense.  We should not be funding people who want to kill us.  This is in direct contrary to the USA national interests.

Obama-Clinton-Kerry foreign policy is deeply misguided in asking Israel to stop building beyond the 1949 armistice lines or that it is causing terrorism.  The USA can't dictate where Israelis should live, and if they choose to live in Judea and Samaria is not reason for terrorism or murder.  This is false moral equivalency.
                                                                         

Thomas Sowell has endorsed Ted Cruz.  

Thomas Sowell, born in 1930 in North Carolina,  grew up in Harlem, New York ; a Conservative intellectual and economist  and has endorsed Ted Cruz for president.  He's afraid that Hillary will beat Trump if Trump is the lead contender of the Republicans.   

Has Cruz been lying about his support for Israel?  His actions in Congress for this brief 3 or 4 year period shows he is not lying.  He believes that Israel is deserving of the USA support.  I don't know about his Christianity allowing  political lying to gain favor in the polls, but I know that evangelicals as a rule are very supportive  of Israel thanks to Pastor Hagee.  

"January 21, Pastor Mike Bickle, another evangelical preacher who has used the same Hitler hunting the Jews were under during the Holocaust, endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz's bid for the White House." and evidently Cruz was happy with his endorsement.   I must mention that before Pastor Hagee had run into Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, he had been much like Bickle.  Bickle today has denounced Gays and Jewish people.  Oy, Cruz.  You need votes, and are accepting them from questionable people with Bickle, unless you are planning on handing him over to your wife for some re-education.  
Update on Bickle: http://forward.com/opinion/333993/why-ted-cruzs-preacher-sidekick-is-no-friend-of-the-jews-or-israel/  bad news for Jews-wants us to accept Jesus.  For Cruz, evidently is taking all the endorsements he can get no matter what.  

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Ted-Cruz-A-fresh-approach-to-American-foreign-policy-and-US-Israel-relations-429752
http://www.biography.com/people/ted-cruz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz
https://www.tedcruz.org/about/
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/article/2013/may/09/ted-cruz-eligible-under-constitution-become-presid/
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-13/ted-cruz-has-a-real-birther-problem
http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/16/thomas-sowell-endorses-sen-ted-cruz/
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/11/3748743/ted-cruz-defends-endorsement-from-pastor-who-believes-hitler-was-hunter-sent-by-god/
http://www.jta.org/2016/02/11/news-opinion/politics/cruz-campaign-stands-behind-pastor-accused-of-intolerance-toward-jews

2,000 years of Jewish Judges on Abortion

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

Right now the USA is in a conundrum because out of 9 Supreme Court Judges,  from 2010 Court:
one has died, and Scalia was a conservative in the mix of 4 liberals and 5 conservatives.  Right now they are left with 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats.  Obama wants to appoint another quickly of his choosing since the issue of abortion is on the table.  They are:

to right): Back row (left Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, and Elena Kagan. 

Front row (left to right): Clarence Thomas,  Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts,  Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 
                                                                                                                Appointed year
Antonin Scalia was appointed by  Reagan. Republican      1986  Recently died at 79. 
Anthony Kennedy b: 1936 .......................... Reagan                            1988-80 years old
Clarence Thomas b: 1948........................... Bush, father                     1991-68 years
Ruth Bader Ginsburg b: 1933......................Clinton, Democrat           1993-83 years
Stephen G. Breyer b: 1938..........................Clinton                               1994-78 years
John G. Roberts b:1955..............................Bush, Republican, son     2005-61 years
Samuel A. Alito b: 1950............................... Bush                                 2006-66 years
Sonia Sotomayor b: 1954............................Obama, Democrat          2009-62 years
Elana Kagan b: 1960....................................Obama                             2010-56 years

Why is it that our federal government is deciding on a question of morality?  Death is in the picture.
In today's modern world, females can opt to take birth control pills or apparati.  When does abortion come into their life as a decision to make?  Why isn't the female allowed to make decisions for her own body and life?  If a female feels she must have an abortion and it is against the law to do so, she will find a way.  There have always been abortionists who have gone against the law and have performed them, to the detriment of the female, of course in many situations, for there is no way to make sure it is done professionally and safely.
                                                                       

Rashi, (1040-1105) from Troyes, France, famous codifier of the law, comparable to
constitutional lawyer, only on religion, descendant of King David.    

This question of abortion has been in the Jewish culture for probably over 2,000 years and the decisions are not the same as the Catholic church, but they came about with the wisest of judges who discussed the issue.  They had some basic laws to consider their decision, our moral laws.

                                               Basic Law
Rabbis made these decisions in their writing of the Mishnah in (Oholot 7:6).  It was concluded not later than the end of the 2nd century CE:  Also, the Bablonian Talmud in Sanhedrin 72b speaks of abortion further.  The commentator, Rashi, also adds information.  Mishnah was finished in about 220 CE.  by Rabbi  Judah Ha-Nasi of the Palestinian (Judah) Jews.  B. Talmud was finished in about same period, but a Talmud includes the Mishnah.  

It all stems from the 6th Commandments of Moses.    of Thou Shalt Not Kill.  It says in our Tanach that this takes faith in G-d.  Someone with belief in G-d as the Creator and Sustainer of human life will not commit murder.  Hopefully, today people see the reasoning for not killing (murdering), but it is still happening in our communities.   
                                                                
1. It is not permitted to murder one person in order to save the life of another.
2. It is permitted to kill a potential murderer if this is the only way in which the life of his intended victim can be saved.  A potential murderer is called a rodef, translated as a pursuer, one who pursues another in order to kill him.
3. A fetus is not considered as a literal person.  Destroying a fetus is not considered as an act of murder.  Therefore, its destruction is not an act of homicide.
                             
                                                     Why Abort?
 Codifiers were divided on what would be weighty reasons for terminating a pregnancy.

1. Agreed:  None would permit abortion for economic reasons or where the child is simply unwanted.
2. When the birth of a child would cause the mother to lose her sanity.
3. Permit it if child would be born seriously deformed or as an imbecile such as thalidomide babies.
4. Pregnancy is the result of rape, especially if woman is already married.
5. To save the life of the mother in which case is extremely rare.

                                               Judicial Reasoning

1.  If a woman finds it is extremely hard to give birth to her child and there is great danger to her life, the child must be destroyed in her womb since the life of the mother has priority over the life of the child.  BUT, if most of the child has already emerged from the womb in giving birth, it must not be harmed, since the claim of one life cannot override the claim of another life.

2. Because once the greater part of the child has emerged from the womb, it is considered as if the child had been born and the child is then a person according to Jewish law.  The life of the mother must not be saved by destroying that of her child.

3.  While the child is still in the womb, it is not a person in law.  Then this is not an act of murder.  One cannot compare this killing done to save the mother's life to the case of murdering one person in order to save the life of another.  It's more like comparing "destroy" with that of "murder"  There is this legal difference.

4.  The Talmud asked the Mishnah why it made a distinction between the fetus and the child when the greater part had emerged?  The answer is that the child upon emerging is a person, called a nefesh., but he is not a rodef.  It is the child which threatens the life of the mother and the law is that a rodef must be killed in order to save the life of his intended victim, and this applies even if the rodef is a minor and so not responsible for his actions.

5. The Talmud stated that the mother is not being "pursued" by the child but by "Heaven."  This means it is the result of natural causes and so the child's life can't be made forfeit on the grounds that he is a rodef.

6. Rashi, the famous commentator, said that the question of rodef can be disregarded since it is all due to natural causes.  The principal applies that it is forbidden to murder one person in order to save the life of another so that once the child has become a nefesh, when the greater part has emerged, it is forbidden to destroy him even to save the mother's life.
   BUT, a fetus is not a person (nefesh), and its destruction is not an act of murder.  The fetus then must be destroyed if this is the ONLY way in which the mother's life can be saved.

Update:  9:56am; Permissive rulings for abortions before the 40th day, and in some instances up to 3 months, are found in certain dire instances.  Opinion have ranged from stricter views of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Isaac Unterman, to liberal views of Yehiel Yaacov Weinberg, rabbinic scholar and halakhic authority.

Today's Americans, not Jewish scholars, but 9 Judges of the Supreme Court,  must decide whether or not an abortion is permitted to be considered to be a homicide or not.  If it is, then no abortion would ever be permitted.  Evidently Catholicism does not allow it but considers life to start at conception, if one listens to the 17 various  Republicans who had thrown their hat into the ring of presidential hopefuls.

All the Jewish codifiers agreed that where the life of the mother is at stake, an abortion is not only permitted, but must be performed.

Isn't this decision stepping on the toes of religious rights?  Either the Catholic view will be followed or the Protestant one will, they most likely are varied on this..  A woman makes the decision to have some romance and then if found pregnant from it all-without protection-her decision is not her own?  This will only lead to abortion mills, as some women have always done.   On the other hand, if abortion is legal, women will not be as careful about using protection as they can always run to the hospital to have an abortion-most likely free under liberal health laws.  Abortions will be the accepted thing.  Is this the gift of the future for women?  This morality finding itself in the garbage pile?  Choosing a judge under today's circumstance takes much thought, as they will provide answers for more than abortion for us all.  Do they leave the "beholding to the president that appointed them" at the door, or do they think of just the problem before them to judge and how to they come to a decision?  What skills to they bring to the table to decide?  Who will be as acceptable as Judge Scalia was?

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Justices_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Book:  What does Judaism say about...?  by Louis Jacobs, and his reference was from Birth Control in Jewish Law, by David M. Feldman, New York, 1968, part 5, pp 251-294.
To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin

Russian Takeover of Ukraine: 2014

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

Fareed Zakaria of CNN spoke about the Ukraine takeover of Russia and NATO not being strong enough to prevent one  this Sunday morning.  It's something that the 484,129 Jews that were living there in 1989 didn't see coming.  "Nobody thought it would be a real war, a real invasion, a real occupation.  In the 21st century, it is very strange to conceive of it.  People tend to more easily believe in good and not bad."

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, sent "heavily armed militias into eastern Ukraine in early 2014" and said that they had no connection to Moscow.  Well, who did they have connection with, then?  This was never answered by him, and the international community didn't believe him and shouldn't.  He lied.

About 8,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands have fled to become refugees.  For Jews, this is like reliving the horrors of the Holocaust 75 years ago.
                                                                           

Putin is trying to regain land once belonging to Russia before WWI.  It was Catherine II who decreed that Jews were to live in the Pale of Settlement and not Russia proper.  Starting with Catherine I, the situation for Jews was bad.  She ruled from 1725 to 1727 and decreed in May 1727 that all Jews were to leave "Little Russia"  and that The Pale included the Ukraine. "Little Russia had with time,  developed into a political and geographical term in the Russian language referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the twentieth century."   The 2nd Catherine ruled from 1762 to 1796 and her Jewish policy was marked by a  mixture of liberalism and coercion.  They were allowed to register in the merchant and urban classes in 1780, but permission was restricted to White Russia in 1786, which was the start of the Pale of Settlement.  She wound up preventing the extension of Jewish settlement and in 1795, kept Jewish residence in only the rural areas.  The Pale of Settlement was made up of 25 provinces of Czarist Russia in the countries of Poland, Lithuania, White Russia (Belorussia) , Ukraine, Bessarabia (formerly Romanian, now in Moldavian and Ukrainian Republics ) and Crimea, the only places Jews were given permission to have permanent residence.

Terrible massacres of Jews took place in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Chmielnicki massacres and the Haidamak uprising-massacres.  To be remembered is that the Ukraine has been the scene of pogroms in 1905 and from 1918 to 1920, the end of WWI.  The Soviets did promote Jewish settlement in the 1920s in the Ukraine with American Jewish funding.  By 1930 there were 90,000 Jewish farmers there.  Half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived in Ukraine before WWII.  Under Nazi rule, Jews who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians in 1941 and 1942. Babi Yar was a most terrible event for Jews.  This is the name of a ravine outside of Kiev where tens of thousands of Jews were killed in September 1941.  The Ukrainians didn't bother to put up a memorial for the Jews until the 1980s.   By 1989, Jews had returned and numbered 484,129.
                                                                       

According to the UN, at least 250,000 IDPs (internally displaced Ukrainians have fled and flooded Kiev, the capital,  in the last 18 months.  More have looked for sanctuary in other major towns in central and western Ukraine, among them being probably thousands of Jews.  Back in July of 2013, Kiev's population was 2,847,200 and was the 8th largest city in Europe.  Now the population is up to at least 3 million and the cost of living is much higher than in cities people were driven from in the Russian occupation.
                                                                           

Donetsk, 5th largest city in Ukraine in 2001 with about 2 million living in metropolitan area,
and a population of 953,217 in the city itself.  

One Jewish grandmother is an English speaker,  relating her circumstance,  came from Donetsk, an industrial town in eastern Ukraine. She saw the town airport bombed and her daughter's home was bombed.   She has a PhD in Literature and her husband was an ear, nose and throat doctor in a major hospital.  A steady stream of self-sufficient Jews have had to give up their security in the past 18 months to head for Kiev, leaving bombed out homes of their past years.  Everyone, including Jews, have become refugees fleeing from a far superior, well-armed advancing force, fleeing with only the clothes on their backs from violent militias.  They've had to leave behind them their possessions, missing relatives and old friends.  Her son in law attended a meeting in Donetsk supporting Ukrainian independence and was attacked by Russian separatists wielding clubs.  It was his father in law who had to perform emergency surgery on him that saved his life after the attack.

This Jewish grandmother who had lived in Moscow during procuring her PhD saw up close the invaders from Russia, and they were not native Ukrainians.  Natives of Donetsk, Ukraine speak Surzhyk, a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian.  The invaders, she said, were speaking pure Russian.

They can't afford to live in Kiev since 2015 when Ukraine's currency, the Hryvnia collapsed. There are people who only have less than 2,400 Hryvnia a month to live on which is $110 in dollars.  It has declined from this figure already and as of Valentine's Day 2016, is worth  $91.7782 a month.  Some poor Jewish people in Kiev are living on only 700 Hryvnia a month which right now is only worth $26.7686.  Paul Alster, author,  had stopped at a cafe in Kiev and he and his 2 friends had had 3 cups of coffee with a few biscuits which cost over 200 Hryvnia! That would be $7.65.    Right now one Hryvnia = 0.038 dollar or 38 cents.

Incidently, Kiev  was founded in the 8th century, most likely by the Khazars, who were Jewish merchants who had visited the town in the 9th and 10th century.  Their country, Khazaria,  ended with a Russian takeover.  Peter the Great had allowed Jews to trade in Kiev from 1708, so in 1827, Kiev was decided to NOT be a part of the Pale of Settlement.   By 1857, Kiev  had become one of the largest Russian communities.

The Ukrainians have a horrible history of anti-Semitism.  The Holocaust only played up on what feelings were already shared with the Nazis.  Now they are experiencing just a tad of what Jews of 1941 experienced, along with today's Jews.  No one should have to go through such a horrible trial.  This is what Russia does in an occupation, so different from Israel's brief occupation of Judea and Samaria and Gaza.  The Russian occupation is much more like the Roman occupation of Judah, coming there in 63 BCE and fighting Bar Kokhba in 132-135 CE and stringing up thousands of Jews on crosses till death.  
                                                                             

Fareed Zarakia came out with the report on February 12, 2016, that a deal had been announced on Thursday to end the fighting in Ukraine and will face the same obstacle the previous such agreement has faced:  How to ensure that Russia will abide by it is the problem.  Frustrated by Russia’s continued support for Ukrainian separatists, Western statesmen have begun discussing military assistance for the Ukrainians.   Fareed said that Obama must take the lead from the front to bring this about.   He must show strength and skill.  The European Union has been ambivalent towards helping for years.  

Resource: The Jerusalem Report, February 8, 2016, Nightmare in Donetsk by Paul Alster-Kiev, a magazine
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=700&From=UAH&To=USD
Fareed Zakaria, February 14, 2016 Sunday morning TV show
http://fareedzakaria.com/tag/ukraine/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-on-ukraine-obama-must-lead-from-the-front/2014/03/13/10b9359a-aaea-11e3-af5f-4c56b834c4bf_story.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Russia
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/08/jewish-life-in-poltava-ukraine.html

How Jewish Was the Khazar-Russian Connection and What Happened to Them

Nadene Goldfoot                                      

   

The Khazars were a Turkish or Finnish tribe which settled in the lower Volga region.  They built their capital in Itil on the Volga delta.  The Russians called them White Ugrians.  Hungarians in that period were called Black Ugrians.
                                                                             

By the 8th to 10th centuries, the Khazar state was at its peak of having power in the area.  It extended west as far as Kiev which is the capital of the Ukraine, founded in the 8th century, possibly by the Khazars.  It was not a strictly religious center, such as cities in Lithuania.    Its royal house intermarried with that of Byzantium.  By  the 8th century, a powerful judaizing movement had happened among the Khazars.  From approximately  786-809, their king, Bulan and 4,000 of his nobles accepted Judaism which was  encouraged by Prince Obadiah, a successor of Bulan who was the next king. The people were choosing between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the king chose Judaism.  

Most Khazars practiced a shamanist-Tari religion. In the late eighth to early ninth century (but perhaps as late as 861), the Khazar ruling elite converted to Judaism.  His subjects were free to choose or not.  Obadiah had the religious zeal to convert.  So many more Khazar shamanists converted to Judaism than otherwise would have been the case. Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. 
                                                                         

Khazarian on horse

From this fact, Judah Ha-Levi  (1075-1141) (A Spanish Hebrew poet and religious philosopher born in Toledo, Spain and lived in several towns in Christian and Moslem Spain, mainly in Cordova, wrote his Kuzari., which presented the merits of Judaism and  which was of great influence among Jewish readers and is regarded as one of the classics of Judaism. He was a physician by profession, and lived a life of affluence and honor.  In his old age, his meditations led him to leave Spain and settle in Palestine, which was the time during the 2nd Crusade.  He died in Alexandria, Egypt when trying to reach his destination.  

 Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-970) a Spanish statesman, not a Jew, also a physician by profession, served at the courts of the caliphs.  His linguistic ability and  adroitness in negotiation made him useful in diplomatic relations.  He supported Jewish culture and scholars and used his high political office to defend Jewish communities and was widely regarded as the protector and spokesman of Jewry.   He wrote a letter to the king of the Khazars, King Joseph, expressing his joy at their independent Jewish kingdom.  He believed that the Khazars belonged to the Lost Ten Tribes, and started corresponding with their last king, Joseph in 950. Joseph's reply reached him in 944, stating that Joseph's ancestor, King Bulan, was circumcised and officially converted to Judaism, and drove out sorcerers and idolaters from the kingdom and trusted G-d alone.  King Obadiah, a successor of Bulan, invited Jewish sages from many lands to come to Khazaria in order to expain the meaning of the Torah, Talmud, Mishnah, and prayers.  

Another document was found in the Cairo genizah and it gives a romantic account of the origin of Judaism among the Khazars.  

The truth is that only the king with a good proportion of the nobility and some of his people became converted.  The Jewish element in the country constituted a minority at all times.   What we do know is that Khazaria became a refuge for persecuted Jews, so Kazaria was a haven for them, and they would mix in with the converted newbies to Judaism.  Some historians have said that the Khazars adopted Judaism as a conscious political decision designed to help preserve the political independence of Khazaria from the Christian and Muslim empires surrounding them.  They could hold the balance of power between the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Caliphate this way.  
                                                                   

What went on in this part of the world was that there were separate judicial systems for the members of the many different faiths.  The Khazars' power was broken by the Russian archduke Yaroslav in 1083. 

The remnants of the Khazars on the Volga disappeared in the Tatar invasion of 1237.  Kiev's Jewish community was destroyed by the Tatars in 1240.  

Italian merchants in Crimea referred to "Gazaria" (Khazarians)  until the 15th century. 
                                                                            

Descendants of the Khazarians probably survived among the Crimea Karaites, the Krimchaks, and other Jews of Eastern European origin.  Many of us could be carrying some segments of the original converted Khazarians along with other segments of Jewish origin DNA as well, but there is no scientific way to find out, even with DNA.   
                                                                     

"Eastern European Jews have significant Eastern Mediterranean elements which manifest themselves in close relationships with Kurdish, Armenian, Palestinian Arab, Lebanese, Syrian, and Anatolian Turkish peoples. This is why the Y-DNA haplogroups J and E, which are typical of the Middle East, are so common among them. Jewish lineages from this region of the world derive from both the Levant and the Anatolia-Armenia region."  The Armenians (mainly Christians) in Turkey suffered a genocide in 1915.  From 1915 to 1918, the Turkish government deported, enslaved, tortured, and killed 1.5-2 million Armenians in an effort to ethnically and religiously cleanse the Turkish nation.

 All existing studies fail to compare modern Jewish populations' DNA to ancient Judean DNA and medieval Khazarian DNA. There is no evidence from genome-wide data of a Khazar origin for Ashkenazi Jews.  This finding is from Doron M. Behar of Rambam Health Care Campus, Israel, Mait Metspalu and Bayazit Yunusbayev of Estonian Biocentre, Evolutionary Biology Group, Estonia, Yael Baran and Naama M. Kopelman of Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and several other scientists in their published study.  

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jews of Khazaria, 2nd Edition, by Kevin Alan Brook
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Khazars.aspx
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/abstracts.html
 http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/study-finds-no-evidence-of-khazar-origin-for-ashkenazi-jews/2014/02/23/
http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-1915-armenian-genocide-history-causes.html

Brazil's attitude Towards Jews and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                           
The beaches of Fernando de Noronha are promoted for tourism and recreational diving in Brazil.  The archipelago of Fernando de Noronha in 2005 had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of R$22,802,000 and a per capita income of R$10,001. Based on the written record, Fernando de Noronha island was discovered on August 10, 1503, by a Portuguese expedition, organized and financed by a private commercial consortium headed by the Lisbon merchant Fernão de Loronha.   Marranos had moved to Lisbon, Portugal from Spain.  

The Spanish Inquisition had a great affect on South America's populating the land by Europeans. It was created by the Catholic Church and its function was to punish Jews for heresy.  The Catholic Church held forced conversions, and if the Jews were caught practicing their Judaism, were considered heratics and killed.  As our generation has created fantastic modes of travel, the Inquisition generation had created the most cruel of apparati to punish people to the death.  Thomas de Torquemada was the inquisitor-general in 1483.  His role in this was spelled out from the Papal Bull of 1478.  Portugal was where the Inquisition started their cruelty practices.  Spain was not forgotten. They managed to stamp out the native Judaizers almost entirely by the end of the 16th century.

 As for Brazil, one of the first Brazilian pioneers in 1503 was Fernando de Loronha/ Noronha, thought to be a hidden Jew called a Marrano in those days.  "The history of Brazil starts with indigenous people in Brazil.   Europeans arrived in Brazil at the opening of the 16th century.

The first European to colonize Brazil was Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 22, 1500 under the sponsorship of Kingdom of Portugal. From the 16th to the early 19th century, Brazil was a colony and a part of the Portuguese Empire.

We don't use this word, Marranos" today, but instead they are called Anusim.  Marranos is Spanish for "swine," pigs which are not eaten by Jews.  The term was used in Spain and Portugal for the descendants of baptized Jews suspected of secretly following their Judaism.  Jews there felt they had to hide their religion after the 1391 massacres and the Dominican campaign led by Vicente Ferrer at the beginning of the 15th century.  The Inquisition was introduced into Spain in 1480 and began a horrid campaign of repression, which continued unremittingly after the expulsion of Jews from their country of Catholicism in 1492-yes, the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Today we see most Anusim reuniting with their Jewish heritage and turning out to be avid Jews relishing the freedom of being able to practice their faith openly.

Forced conversions in Portugal began in 1497, which converted almost the whole population of Jews living there as most had moved to Portugal from Spain after living through their horrors.  What the Inquisition did was create Jews into titular but insincere Christians.  The Inquisition came to Portugal's Jews in 1540.  Portuguese immigrants were the objects of persecution in Spain down to the close of the 18th century.

Fugative Marranos escaped overseas to Italy, North Africa and many emmigrated to Turkey where they joined up with other Jews who had moved their earlier.   They even hunted Marranos down in Mexico.

Later on, there were Marrano immigrants from Portugal that came to Brazil.  Those that were deported by the Inquitisition started up the sugar and tobacco industries and developed rice and cotton plantations.

The Inquistition heads in Spain got wind of where these hidden Jews had moved to, like Brazil, and made inquisitional "visitations" which means  head-hunting those who had escaped punishment in 1591 to 1595 which in 1618, finally led many Marranos to leave for other safer countries.

Though Jews have been living in Brazil, the country hasn't really changed their attitude. In 1933, German Jews had escaped persecution and moved there.  Many moved there after WWII.  By 1990 the Jewish population was 150,000 of which 20% were Sephardim.  Their occupations were that of merchants, manufacturers, factory and property owners as well as professional workers.  55,000 lived in Rio de Janeiro, 75,000 in Sao Paolo, 15,000 in Porto Alegre, and others were scattered into smaller communities.

Update 2/12/16: "Brazil's Reaction to the racial laws of the Nazis-

Jews did not have the needed Baptismal certificates in order to get into South American countries from Germany in 1939.  

In 1939, the newly elected Pope Pius XII appointed several prominent Jewish scholars to posts at the Vatican after they had been dismissed from Italian universities under Fascist leader Benito Mussolini's racial laws.  Pius later engineered an agreement —formally approved on June 23, 1939 —with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas to issue 3,000 visas to "non-Aryan Catholics."

However, over the next eighteen months Brazil's Conselho de Imigração e Colonização (CIC) continued to tighten the restrictions on their issuance—including requiring a baptismal certificate dated before 1933, a substantial monetary transfer to the Banco do Brasil, and approval by the Brazilian Propaganda Office in Berlin—culminating in the cancellation of the program fourteen months later, after fewer than 1,000 visas had been issued, amid suspicions of "improper conduct" (i.e. continuing to practice Judaism) among those who had received visas."

                                                  

Egon Albrecht was a German Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II.^[ Albrecht was born in Curitiba, Brazil.^[
After the Holocaust, Brazil granted asylum to thousands of Nazi war criminals.  1,500 to 2,000 Nazis had escaped to Brazil, only one of other South American countries that took Nazis in after WWII.  

Last December, Brazil refused to accept Dani Dayan, Israel’s candidate for ambassador to Brazil, because he lives in, and works on behalf of, Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.   And just last week, Brazil opened an embassy for the PA, with a structure that resembles the Dome of the Rock. The not-so-veiled message is that Brazil supports the Palestinian goal of separating the Temple Mount from its Jewish and Biblical origins.

"Until recently Catholicism was overwhelmingly dominant. Rapid change in the 21st century has led to a growth in secularism (no religious affiliation). Just as dramatic is the sudden rise of evangelical Protestantism to over 22% of the population. The 2010 census indicates that fewer than 65% of Brazilians consider themselves Catholic, down from 90% in 1970. The decline is associated with falling birth rates to one of Latin America’s lowest at 1.83 children per woman, which is below replacement levels. It has led Cardinal Cláudio Hummes to comment, "We wonder with anxiety: how long will Brazil remain a Catholic country?"
                                                                     
Now people are afraid to go to Brazil for fear of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, one of the transmitters of the Zika virus, for Brazil is the first country to be invaded by this mosquito.  Already, states in the USA have found it.  The virus causes "mental retardation and other intellectual deficits in the newborn." "Since it was first discovered in Uganda in 1947, Zika virus was known mostly as a short-lived and mild illness. In 2015, that all changed. An outbreak in Brazil is suspected of causing cases of a serious birth defect, microcephaly, and a potentially crippling disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome." 200 million people are at risk on the globe for they live in the environment condusive to mosquitos' presence.  

'The 2016 Olympics are scheduled for Aug. 5-21 in Brazil, where the Zika virus is spreading rapidly. Speaking at a news conference in advance of the U.S. team's tournament opener against Costa Rica, coach Jill Ellis said there have been "constant conversations behind the scenes" about the virus. Hope Solo, who is on the USA soccer team, is thinking of cancelling out because of this virus."                            
                                                                             
Another way Brazil will be hurt is during Carnival time in Rio de Janeiro.  Although Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other Catholic countries, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival capital of the world. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, it is also a benchmark against which every other carnival is compared and one of the most interesting artistic events on the globe. Almost everyone has heard of Rio Carnaval. Foreign visitors to it alone number around 500,000 every year.  

Rio Carnival is a wild 5-day celebration, 40 days before Easter. 
It officially starts on Friday and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures.  Good Friday is on the 25th of March this year and Easter is on the 27th, a Sunday.  Fat Tueday, it's beginning is on the 22nd of March and the next day-Lent-is also Purim, the Jewish holiday of celebration and parades and costumes commemorating the freeing of Jews from the clutches of Haman who had the extermination  day of all Jews in the Persian kingdom already in the plans.   This historical episode was written about before 330 BCE.  

Carnival Time is almost here.  Are many going to attend?  As of February 10th, the USA has had 52 reported Zika virus-caused flu cases due to traveling.  Brazil has amended their report and now say "that just 270 were confirmed as microcephaly (baby born with smaller odd shaped head-mentally impaired) that appears to be linked to Zika or other infectious diseases, according to the latest ministry bulletin."

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61096/is-zika-divine-retribution-for-brazils-actions-against-israel-jewish-world/#WPxSq8VoLXsT1S9o.99
Resource: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61096/is-zika-divine-retribution-for-brazils-actions-against-israel-jewish-world/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=7260fd0f2e-BIN_morning_2_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-7260fd0f2e-83518689#fwurxUuArLXRG57j.97
Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/61096/is-zika-divine-retribution-for-brazils-actions-against-israel-jewish-world/#WPxSq8VoLXsT1S9o.99
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Brazil
http://6abc.com/sports/hope-solo-may-skip-olympics-in-brazil-due-to-concern-over-zika-virus/1194985/
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/10/466127813/zika-virus-what-happened-when
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why-the-united-states-is-vulnerable-to-spread-of-zika-virus/2016/01/26/a8c6a9b4-c440-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Brazilian
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117093/Secret-files-reveal-9-000-Nazi-war-criminals-fled-South-America-WWII.html
http://krwg.org/post/fractured-faiths-spanish-judaism-inquisition-and-new-world-identities
Update: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII_and_the_Holocaust