THE PORTUGUESE JEWISH/ISRAEL CONNECTION

 

For many years, the Portuguese government did not recognize Israel and actively supported its enemies. It wasn’t until 1977, three years after the revolution toppled the dictatorial government, that relations were established, and both countries have maintained ambassadors in each other’s countries ever since – although, sometimes not in the friendliest of terms. After all, a former Portuguese prime minister is now secretary general of that shithole in New York. On the other hand, an Israeli won the Eurovision Contest when it was hosted by Portugal in 2018. So as with Britain, Israeli relations with Portugal was love/hate. But in all fairness, that country did blame Hamas for starting the present war. However, all sympathies stopped there as it would often lean toward that shithole in New York in condemning Israel for its defensive military actions. 

But the focus of today’s posting is not Portugal per se, or that shithole, but the Portuguese Jewish community in Israel, mainly because it’s my blog and I feel like it. I differentiate here between Portuguese and Spanish Jews. Even though many Jewish (and Christian) diarists would often write about the “Spanish and Portuguese Congregation”, the fact is Spain is not Portugal and Portugal is not Spain. They’re two totally different languages, cultures and histories. Portugal’s Jewish connection to the ancestral homeland runs long and deep, especially since that country has had an anti-Semitism problem since the Middle Ages. However, as it is Jewish custom to overcome, Portuguese Jews overcame and would make their mark in Portugal before the expulsion in 1496, and in Israel (and throughout the Ottoman Empire) since the 15^th century.

There was definitely a documented Jewish community in what is now Portugal since the 5^th century. They came from throughout the Roman Empire, including the Roman province of Palestina. Portuguese Jews began to settle in Israel in the 15^th century, even before the expulsion. In the middle of the century, the system of Halukkah was formalized. Eventually, the Ashkenazim became more dependent on it than the non-Ashkenazim, including the Portuguese. After the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and its conquest of Israel (1516), many Jewish refugees from Portugal settled there and throughout the empire. In 1560, Dona  Gracia  Mendes and  her  nephew Don  Joseph  Nasi, wealthy former Portguese anusim (Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity) were very influential in the Turkish court. That year, they applied to the authorities  for  permission  to resettle Jewish refugees from various Diaspora communities in Tiberias. This project succeeded only to an extent. Some Jews did come, but in the end, it ended in failure and for a variety of reasons, not least of which, was intense opposition from the local Arabs who were themselves immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Since then however, slowly but surely, some anusim from Portugal as well as descendants of Portuguese Jewish refugees, did settle in Israel and a sizable community was established. In Jewish terms, they were very close, culturally, to the much larger Spanish Jewish community. They also became prominent in the Halukkah system, both in Israel and in the Diaspora. For example, the North-American Relief Society for the Indigent Jews of Jerusalem, was headed by Portuguese and German Jews. In around 1800, Jews were legally allowed to reside in Portugal again, and Halukkah and Aliyah activity once again reach that country. In 1841 Moshe Amzalag came from Portugal and settled in Jerusalem. He was considered a wealthy man and was a member of a very prominent family in Palestinian Jewish society. Aharon Levi ben Susan came that same year and settled in Jaffa. He was also a wealthy man and did much good for the Jewish community. Nowadays, the Jewish community in Portugal is small and struggling as is any Aliyah from there as well. However, Portuguese Jews do come from time to time and probably the most well-known is Porto-born journalist Henrique Cymerman who has worked for a variety of Israeli papers including Maariv. He is presently president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry between Israel and the Gulf countries.    

THE BRITISH JEWISH/ISRAEL CONNECTION

                                     

Britain’s relationship with Israel since 1948 could best be described as love/hate. Indeed, when the current war between Israel and the “Palestinians” broke out, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stood fully in support of Israel – with conditions. Typical of previous British governments, in times of conflict, it stood by Israel, as long as it “played by the rules”, a formula reserved only for the Jewish state. But at least the government sympathized with Israel a little bit. The British media (as with the rest of the news media in Europe) proved themselves to be very hostile – a European tradition that dates back over 2000 years. It would be no stretch of the imagination to say that news venues like the BBC or Sky News were very instrumental in stoking the current flames of violent anti-Semitism presently taking place in Britain, simply by reporting the usual lies and slanders on their newscasts. London has become an unsafe place for Jews and it is expected that there will be a rise in British Aliyah after the conclusion of the current war, if not sooner. But anti-Semitism or no anti-Semitism, the British Jewish connection to Israel is nothing new.

Since Israeli independence in 1948, many thousands of British Jews have returned to their to their ancestral homeland and made new lives for themselves there. Whether they actually stayed is a different story. But for those who did, they made their mark on Israeli society with not a few of them presently fighting in the IDF.

These connections, like that from most other Diaspora communities, occurred over many centuries (when Jews were allowed to live in England, that is). In the case of the British Jewish community, it may be said to indirectly begin with the rule of Herod Archelaus over Judea in the first years of the Common Era, and the genesis of the Jewish community in France. In the year 6 CE, he and his entourage left Judea and they settled in, what is now, the south of France. Whether this was a banishment or voluntary is not entirely clear. Herod Antipas, ruler of the Galilee, left and went to Lugdunum, today Lyons, in the year 39. This alone didn’t necessarily establish a “Jewish community” in France, but most assuredly, other Jews followed them and by the 4^th century, Jews had settled throughout that country, and a French Jewish community was definitely established. It wasn’t until 1066, when William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, conquered England and with him was a company of Jewish merchants from Rouen who established a community there, and thus, the English Jewish community was established. Eventually, a connection was made to the Land of Israel. In 1211, for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the incessant persecution of King John, a convoy of rabbis joined with some of their French counterparts, and made their way to Israel. This was not only the first immigration from England, but was one of the largest such Aliyah at that time. The English section was led by Yosef ben Baruch of Colchester and Meir of Angelterre.

In 1290, the Jews were expelled from England and weren’t allowed to live there until the 17^th century. Only a small handful made their way to Israel. Most of the rest settled in other parts of Europe where many were likewise expelled in later years. In 1656, due to the influence of Rabbi Menashe ben Yisrael of Amsterdam, Jews were allowed to re-settle in England. They remained there ever since and if they did leave, it was usually voluntary. Later, some Jews did make Aliyah, being influenced mainly by the stream of Halukkah emissaries from Israel who often visited England, on their fund-raising missions. Among the first of these emissaries was Rabbi Natan Spira who not only influenced many Jews, but also some Christians. At this time, many evangelical Christians in England, actively worked, and advocated, for the return of the Jews to their ancestral homeland. Sometimes, this belief was so strong, that ironically, it was actually Christians, rather than Jews, who would take on the messianic mantle in order to lead the Jews back to the Land of Israel. Such was the case with Col. Richard Brothers at the end of the 18^th century. In the 1870s and 1880s, Laurence Oliphant, a Christian student of Kabbalah, visited Israel and advocated for a Jewish Return. He was one of those who offered assistance to the first Zionist pioneers.

After the Napoleonic invasion in 1799, English Christians increased their activity to pursue the Jewish return to Israel. Since the 1820s, this would often take the form of missionary activity, eventually consolidated into the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. This activity went alongside other missionary activity from the United States, Germany, France, and Poland, and often, represented by converted Jews such as Michael Solomon Alexander, Polish born Jewish convert to the Anglican Church and first official representative of the London missionaries. Ironically, this increased the interest of British Jews to the Homeland as the rabbis and other Jewish leaders, were keen to preventing any damage done by the missionaries. One such individual was not a rabbi, but a merchant and banker – Sir Moses Montefiore. From 1827-1875, he made a total of seven trips to Israel, but forestalling the missionaries was not his only activity. Indeed, he would seek ways to improve the life of the Jews in Israel with building and agricultural projects. Such projects were often under his supervision even when he wasn’t in the country. Aside from Montefiore, other British Jews also visited Israel such as, then novelist, Benjamin Disraeli, who was thereafter inspired to keep a close interest in Jewish affairs in Israel. By the mid-19^th century, London became a center, in the Western European Diaspora, of Halukkah activity, under the supervision of the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth Nathan Marcus Adler. In 1864, the Evelina de Rothschild School was established, named after a member of the London Rothschilds. Zerach Barnett, a London taylor, was one of the founders of Petah Tikva in 1878. The next year, the yeshiva Gedalia was established by Haim Guedalla, the nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore.

In 1838, the first British consulate was established in the Land of Israel, and among its duties, was to assist the English missionaries; and in fact, in 1845, under the consular leadership of James Finn, Christ Church was established in order to entice the Jews to convert. But on the other hand, the other duty of the consulate was to afford protection to the Jews from the constant persecution of the local Arabs and Turks. And in fact, thousands of Jews in Israel obtained British passports and the accompanying citizenship. Nobody would dare abuse a British citizen. Jews from prominent local families, were often appointed as British consular officials - Moses Abraham Finzi, Abraham Finzi, Haim Amazalag and his son Yosef, who had helped the first Zionist settlers acquire plots of land. Yosef Antebi was his assistant.

The following is a brief summary of British, and British Jewish activity since the beginning of the Zionist era: 1883 visit of Major Albert Goldsmid, active in the Hovevei Tzion and later leader of the British Zionist movement, close associate of Theodor Herzl; Jacob Nathanson, philanthropist from Plymouth, and Levi Solomon from London, often gave to Jewish upbuilding in Israel; 1897 pilgrimage of the Ancient Order of Maccabbees which included the lawyer Herbert Bentwich and author Israel Zangwill; 1902 British Jews such as Albert Goldsmid and Leopold Kessler figure prominently in the unsuccessful plan to establish a Jewish “colony” in el Arish in the Sinai; 1911 Murray Rosenberg of the English Zionist Federation, filmed the first ever Zionist film, “First Film of Palestine”; the modern village of Karkur was established by British pioneer and Zionist leader David Harris; 1915 NILI was established as a Palestinian Jewish spy network on behalf of the British army during World War I; 1916 Zion Mule Corps established. Jews begin to enlist in Jewish units attached to the British army; 1917 Jewish Legion established, they helped the British liberate the Land of Israel from Turkish rule; issuing of the Balfour Declaration recognizing the historic attachment of the Jews to their ancestral homeland; 1917-1922 British authorities assume Mandatory rule over Israel; immigration of members of the Legion including Thomas Cousin of Glasgow who became paymaster to the Mandatory Police, Julius Jacobs and Victor Levy who were civil servants in the Mandatory government, Leonard Jacques Stein – military governor of Safed; 1919 British authorities help to form the Zionist Commission led by Chaim Weizmann, a naturalized British citizen and prominent scientist. Other British members were Sir Leon Simon, James de Rothschild, Joseph Cowen, Edwin Samuel, David Eder, and Norman Bentwich son of Herbert Bentwich; 1920 Harry Sacher becomes a prominent lawyer defending Jewish rights; 1920-1925 Sir Herbert Samuel becomes first High Commissioner of Palestine; 1922 Frederick Kisch, British military hero, becomes a leader in the Zionist movement; 1924 microbiologist Saul Adler becomes Director of the Dept. of Parasitology at Hadassah Hospital;1925 British Jews, led by British Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz, help to establish Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Leon Roth is HU professor of philosophy; 1926 visit of Sir Rufus Isaacs who was president of Palestine Electric Corp.; 1929 visit of industrialist Alfred Mond who greatly assisted in the Jewish upbuilding of the Homeland; Sir Israel Gollancz established the British School of Archeology; 1934 Rebecca Sieff established the Daniel Sieff Institute for scientific research, named in memory of her son. It later became the Weizmann Institute of Science; 1935 British olim establish a support organization for other British olim – heHalutz b’Anglia; 1936 actress Judith Beilin becomes a prominent radio personality; Sidney Seal, though not Jewish, was married to a Jew, and became a famous pianist on radio in Jewish, and sometimes British programs; Harriet Cohen, visiting pianist, often performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Orde Wingate, a non-Jewish soldier, helped train the Haganah during the Arab riots of the 30s and at the beginning of World War II; Isaac Halevy Herzog, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland became Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, his son Chaim served with distinction in the Haganah; Robert Briscoe became a prominent Zionist activist in Ireland and an ally of Jabotinsky, he later became mayor of Dublin; 1941 British Jews establish the village of Bet Haemek. 1943 British Jews help establish the village of Kfar Blum; 1946 British Jews help established the village of Amiad.

Since independence: London-born Tamar Eshel was a prominent Israeli diplomat and politician; Shuli Natan, also born in London, is a famous Israeli singer, probably most famous for her performance of “Yereushalayim Shel Zahav”; David Landau was a prolific journalist, having worked for the Jerusalem Post, then Haaretz, and also Israel correspondent for The Economist; David Horovitz is a prolific journalist having worked for the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Report, eventually, he co-founded the Times of Israel; Jonathan Spyer is an analyst, writer, and journalist of Middle Eastern affairs and director of research at the Middle East Forum; Jeremy Issacharoff is an Israeli diplomat who also served as Israeli ambassador to Germany; Daniel Sperber, born in Wales, is an academic and is professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan University.

TOMB OF AARON

Tomb of Aaron, Mount Hor, courtesy, Wikipedia

On a clear day, if you look to the east into the East Bank from the Negev village of Paran on the Israeli side of the border, you can see in the distance, a white dome-shaped structure on a mountaintop. For thousands of years, this was considered to be the burial site of Aaron, the first High Priest of Israel. In 2019, this site made the news headlines in Israel and “Jordan”. Since around 1920 and continuing to this day, there have been numerous efforts on the part of the local Muslim Waqf, sometimes enthusiastically aided by the Zionists, to prohibit Jewish prayers at Jewish holy sites on both sides of the Jordan River, thereby erasing any Jewish connection to the ancestral homeland. As described in an article in the Times of Israel, the site was closed by “Jordan’s” Ministry of Awqaf Islamic Affairs and Antiquities after the “illegal entry” of the Jews (Israelis) to the site without knowledge of the ministry. The decision to close the site was made after Israeli tourists were filmed praying there. The Awqaf ministry strongly condemned the entry of the Jews and began an investigation to find out what happened and who was responsible for allowing them entry, according to the official Jordan News Agency. It went without saying that anti-Semitism on the part of the “Jordanian” officials was a major factor in their decision to close the site. “There is a Zionist scheme to claim ownership of any part of our Arab homeland, especially in archaeological sites,” said “Jordan’s” Tourism Minister Maha al-Khatib. “They want to convince the world that any place they went through even for two nights in the old days is their right, but we are not allowed to mention the history of our existence.”

Tour guide Roni Ayalon, who was with the group, described being subjected to humiliating treatment by “Jordanian” authorities – strip searches (both men and women), confiscation of religious symbols, etc.

“If there was this kind of humiliation of an Arab on our side who wanted to enter Jerusalem and they would dare to tell him to take off his shirt or confiscate his Koran, there would be a world war,” Ayalon said. “All the Arabs would jump up. But they can do whatever they want to us.”

A week later, through negotiations with Zionist authorities, the site was re-opened to tourists including Israelis, as long as they “follow the rules” and not pray there or anywhere else in the “country”, even in their hotel rooms.

According to the Biblical text, Aaron was the elder son of Amram and Yocheved of the tribe of Levi his great-grandfather; Moses, the other son, was three years younger, and Miriam, their sister, several years older (Ex. 2:4). During the slavery period of the Children of Israel in Egypt, while Moses was raised in the Egyptian royal court, and was later exiled to Midian, Aaron and his sister remained with their kinsmen. Here, Aaron gained a name for eloquent and persuasive speech; so that when the time came for the demand upon Pharaoh to release Israel from captivity, Aaron became his brother's nabi, or spokesman, to his own people (Ex. 4:16) and, after their unwillingness to hear, to Pharaoh himself (Ex. 7:9). At the command of Moses he stretched out his rod achieving victory over the rods of the Egyptian magicians, which it swallowed after all of their rods turned into serpents (Ex. 7:9). Later, Aaron stretched out his rod again in order to bring on the first of three plagues (Ex. 7:19, 8:1, 12). In the infliction of the remaining plagues he appears to have acted merely as the attendant of Moses, whose outstretched rod drew the divine wrath upon Pharaoh and his subjects (Ex. 9:23, 10:13, 22). Eventually, the Israelites were freed from their bondage. At the battle with Amalek he is chosen with Hur to support the hand of Moses that held the "rod of God" (Ex. 17:9). When the revelation was given to Moses at Sinai, he headed the elders of Israel who accompanied Moses on the way to the summit. Joshua, however, was admitted with Moses to the very presence of the Lord, while Aaron and Hur remained below to look after the people (Ex. 24:9-14). At the time when the tribe of Levi was set apart for the priestly service, Aaron was anointed and consecrated to the priesthood, arrayed in the robes of his office, and instructed in its manifold duties (Ex. 28 and 29). It was during the prolonged absence of Moses at Sinai that Aaron yielded to the clamors of the people, led by rebel leader Korah, who was also his first cousin, and helped to make a golden calf as a visible image of the divinity who had delivered them from Egypt (Ex. 32:1-6). As punishment, the Lord smote the calf worshippers by opening up the earth and swallowing up the guilty. At the intercession of Moses, Aaron was saved (Deut. 9:20; Ex. 32:35), although it was to Aaron's tribe of Levi that the work of punitive vengeance was committed (Ex. 32:26). Afterwards, the validity of the exclusive priesthood of the family of Aaron was attested. While all the Levites (and only Levites) were to be devoted to sacred services, the special charge of the sanctuary and the altar was committed to the Aaronites alone (Num. 18:1-7). Aaron, like Moses, was not permitted to enter Canaan.

Of the death of Aaron we have two accounts. The principal one gives a detailed statement to the effect that, soon after the above incident, Aaron, with his son Eleazar, and Moses, ascended Mount Hor. There Moses stripped him (Aaron) of his priestly garments, and transferred them to Eleazar. Aaron died on the summit of the mountain, and the people mourned for him thirty days (Num. 20:22-29; 33:38, 39). The other account is found in Deut. 10:6, where Moses is reported as saying that Aaron died at Mosera and was buried there. Mosera is not on Mount Hor, since the itinerary in Num. 33:31-37 records seven stages between the two points. The seeming contradiction was later explained by the rabbis in the following manner: Aaron's death on Mount Hor was marked by the defeat of the people in a war with the king of Arad, in consequence of which the Israelites fled, marching seven stations backward to Mosera, where they performed the rites of mourning for Aaron; wherefore it is said: "There [at Mosera] died Aaron." Centuries later, under the influence of the priesthood which shaped the destinies of the Israelites, having come under Persian rule in the 5^th century BCE, a different ideal of the priest was formed, and the prevailing tendency was to place Aaron on a footing equal to that of Moses.  

With the passage of time, the exact location of the Biblical sites, including Mount Hor, and Aaron’s tomb in particular, faded from the memory of the people. Before the advent of archaeology, Jewish and gentile scholars would often try to pinpoint the various Biblical locations according to their interpretations of what was written the sacred texts. Since the first century CE historical sources, mainly that of the Jewish historian Josephus, mention Aaron’s Tomb as being near Petra in the mountains of Edom, today in southwestern “Jordan”. For centuries, and every year on the first day of the Hebrew month of Av, the anniversary of Aaron’s death, Jewish pilgrims have gone to pray there. In the Byzantine period (4^th-6^th cs.) a chapel was built at the site, which was later turned into a mosque in the 14^th century. The site was rediscovered by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812, and was first visited by two Englishman, Irby and Mangles, six years later. Today, Mount Hor and Aaron’s Tomb is usually associated with the mountain near Petra in “Jordan”. The local Arab settlers in the area call it “Jabal Hārūn” (Aaron's Mountain).

GAZA'S IGNORED HISTORY

On  25 November, synagogues from all over the world will be participating in a mass Kaddish to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries as well as to honor their burial places. But for this year, we should also remember another Jewish community that was also destroyed. As the war against Hamas rages on, it is important that the mass Kaddish should also include the former Jewish community of Gaza which was ethnically cleansed in 1929 during the Arab pogroms that took place that year throughout Mandatory Palestine.  The following brief history of Gaza  is found here.