THE REIGN OF ABDUL HAMID II OVER THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, 1880s, courtesy, Wikipedia

For Jews, friends in the international community, whether a head of state or the common man, are few and far between. That’s not to say that Jews have no friends. In fact, contrary to what I just stated, Jews have many friends. On the other hand, this also produces a quandary. What if a world leader has maintained a very close relationship with Jews but were tyrants to other peoples, such as the leaders of the American south who also held African slaves, or Napoleon who also persecuted and expelled the Huguenots from France, or even today when there are many friendly heads of state with atrocious human rights records. For this posting, I have decided to focus on the Ottoman Empire’s last sultan Abdul Hamid II who reigned from 1876 to 1918, a period of profound change and turmoil within the empire. He was known to love, admire, and protect Jews, and in the constitution of 1876 proclaimed the equality of all Ottomans subjects before the law. In the national assembly of 1877 three of the deputies were Jews, and they also held two seats in the senate, two in the council of state, and even the position of secretary of the council. In 1883, when a fire devastated the Jewish quarter at Haskeui, in Constantinople, the sultan subscribed £T1,000 for the relief of those who had been left homeless, and placed certain barracks at their disposal. Since 1887, Jews would serve as American ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire, beginning with Oscar Straus who was later succeeded by Solomon Hirsch. Upon Hirsch’s appointment, the grand vizier in his address of welcome said, "I cannot conceal the satisfaction it gives me to see that for a second time your country has called a son of Israel to this eminent position. We have learned to know and esteem your coreligionists in our country, which they serve with distinction." The fact that the masses of Jews, especially in the large cities, lived in poverty in cramped, dirty quarters, were due not to the legal discriminations against them, but to the general economic condition of the country and to the poverty and ignorance caused by the despotic rule of centuries. Indeed, all classes of society were affected. In addition, the anti-Semitic blood libel accusations often originated from certain segments of society. Hardly an interval of more than two or three years went by when such an accusation was not made such as the serious outbreak that occurred in Izmir in 1903. But the Ottoman government was always quick to punish the guilty.

As Abdul Hamid was protecting Jews from harm, in the 1890s, he fomented massacres against the Armenian community, the indigenous people of the southwestern Caucasus and, what is today, northeastern Turkey. Known historically as the Hamidian massacres, these killings culminated in 1915 with the Armenian genocide, not to mention the attempted genocide of the Assyrian Christians, the indigenous people of Mesopotamia before it became the Arab-occupied country of Iraq. Throughout all this, the Ottoman forces were often aided by many of the Kurdish tribes who would participate in the massacres. (The Kurds were the indigenous people of what is now northern Iraq, western Iran, and southeastern Turkey.) So how are Jews to react to such a close friend as this? This article will not attempt to answer that question, maybe because that question could be a separate posting of its own. The reader is certainly invited to comment below.

Upon his accession to the Ottoman throne, Abdul Hamid invited his former teacher, the prominent Sufi Sheikh Muhammad Zufir al-Madani, to Constantinople. Al-Madani came from Libya, from the lands of the indigenous Berbers in Arab-occupied North Africa. Early in his reign, Abdul Hamid had to contend with rebellions in the Balkans, and a war with Russia (1877-78) in which the empire was defeated. On the other hand, this was also a period of expansion in the Land of Israel. Beginning in 1878, Jewish agriculture in the ancestral Jewish homeland entered into a period of expansion beginning with the founding of Petah Tikvah, approximately 11 miles east of Jaffa, which became known as the mother of modern Jewish settlement. At the same time, new, mainly Jewish, neighborhoods were established around Jerusalem. By 1881, several hundred Jews from Yemen established their own Jerusalem neighborhood of Kfar Hashiloah, or Silwan to the Arabs. They were followed the next year by the arrival of Russian Jews, in a wave known as the First Aliyah, who made their way to Jaffa and then established the farming community of Rishon l’Tzion to the south of the city on lands purchased by the Montefiore Fund. The activities of the French Jewish educational society Alliance Israelite Universelle were also a major factor in improving the lot of the Jews, not just in Israel, but throughout the empire. But even though Abdul Hamid’s administration was very friendly, he did not look favorably on Jews coming to settle in Israel. There were enough nationalist rebellions in the empire already. A largely Jewish region, he felt, would just add to that. So a law was enacted where a Jew could not stay in Israel for more than three months. This law was ultimately challenged later in the year when the diplomatic offices of the United States were invoked in obtaining permission for a group of Russian Jews to settle there.

Rebellions continued however. In Arab-occupied Egypt, Abdul Hamid mishandled relations with Urabi Pasha, Arab rebel leader who led a revolt against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha in 1882. During the revolt, Egypt’s indigenous Copts were divided: their close affiliation with Europeans angered many Arabs and sometimes made them a target, but the deep rivalry between Coptic and Syrian Christians, the indigenous people of Syria, led many to align themselves with other “Egyptian” rebels. The Coptic Patriarch Cyril V, lent his support to the revolt when it was at its peak, but later claimed that he was pressured into doing so. ʻUrabi and other leaders of the revolt acknowledged the Copts as potential allies and worked to prevent any targeting of them by nationalist Arab Muslims, but they were not always successful. Urabi was victorious in the rebellion and he became “prime minister” of Egypt under Tewfik but was soon overthrown by the British which gained de facto control over the country even though it was technically still part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon, other North African territories were lost. Over time the hostile diplomatic attitudes shown from Britain and also France caused Abdul Hamid to gravitate towards their national rival, Germany. This produced an interesting international situation. Turkey, Germany, Britain, France, and the United States were all friendly to Jews at the time. However, the latter three supported Jewish settlement in Israel while the former two did not. Matters came to a head in 1888. The Lubrowsky brothers, two naturalized American citizens, were expelled from Safed in accordance with the three-month law. Letters of protest were sent not only from the government of the United States, but also from Great Britain, and France. In spite of US protests, no permanent settlement of the question was ever arrived at. But the Turks did announce that the restriction applied only to Jews arriving in Palestine “in numbers”. It would take many years afterwards before the law was abandoned.

The ʿAmmiyya, a revolt in 1889–90 among the Druze of the Arab-occupied Djebel Druze region of southern Syria, and other Syrians, mainly Arab settlers, against the excesses of the local “Syrian” sheikhs, led to capitulation to the rebels' demands, as well as concessions to Belgian and French companies to provide Beirut and Damascus with a railroad between them, to be built partly on ancient Phoenician Maronite lands.

In 1897, war broke out with Greece and the empire emerged victorious. However, in the following year, an Anglo-Egyptian Arab joint task force took over Sudan, the ancient lands of the Nubians, long considered part of Ottoman Egypt. From that point and until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Britain maintained a strong military presence in both Egypt and Sudan, as well as in strategically located Cyprus. In 1898, the Ottoman-German alliance culminated with the state visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II. When he visited Israel, he became host to a deputation of Zionists, with Dr. Theodor Herzl at its head. The Kaiser politely turned down Herzl’s request for support and so Herzl appealed directly to the Sultan. Using the metaphor of Androcles, he offered to pay down a substantial portion of the Ottoman debt (150 million pounds sterling in gold) in exchange for a charter allowing the Zionists to settle in Palestine. But even with this offer, he was unsuccessful. In 1899 a significant German desire, the construction of a Berlin-Baghdad railway, to be built partly on ancient Assyrian and Syrian Christian lands, was granted. Beginning in 1904, there were disturbances in Mesopotamia and Yemen. In 1908, the Hejaz Railway was inaugurated. Two years later, construction began on the Berlin-Baghdad Railway.

With the growing power of the British and French in North Africa, war with Italy in 1911, and wars in the Balkan territories the following year, Abdul Hamid grew increasingly pan-Islamic. He issued a call to Muslims in Europe to unite into one polity. This threatened several European countries, namely Russia with its large Tatar and Kurdish populations, and France through its new colony of largely Muslim Morocco. With the outbreak of the world war, Britain formally annexed those territories in which it already had a presence, in response to Ottoman participation on the side of Germany and the Central Powers. The outbreak of the war spelt the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire and the reign of Abdul Hamid II who remained loyal to his German friends and allies throughout. At the very end of his reign in 1918, as the empire was losing the war, he provided funds to start construction on the strategically important Constantinople-Baghdad Railway and the Constantinople-Medina Railway, making the trip to Mecca for the Hajj more efficient. After he was deposed, the construction of both railways was accelerated and completed by the Young Turks.

JEWS OF MEDIEVAL SPAIN DURING THE TIME OF ABD AL RAHMAN III

Jewish Quarter, Cordoba

One of the many talking points that anti-Semites like to use is that Jews had it so much better under Muslim rule than under Christian rule. It’s one of their core arguments against the ancestral Jewish homeland (as if one has anything to do with the other). So I thought it would be a good idea to examine this talking point. The fact is, yes and no. Generally speaking, Jews were treated much better by Muslims – generally speaking. But being treated better does not mean being treated like kings. It simply means that if 1000 Jews were massacred in Europe, 999 Jews would be massacred in Islamic lands. It depended on the region which determined how well Jews were treated. In Yemen for example, Jews were usually treated like filth. In medieval Spain, Jews were treated very well. And this is what I decided this article would focus on today – medieval Spain, and specifically the period of the Caliph Abd al Rahman III who ruled in Cordoba in the 10^th century. (Other aspects of Muslim rule over Jews will be talked about in later posts.) This period in Spanish history was a glory period for the Jews. All subjects under Abd el Rahman were treated equally under the law and this brought in a period of a cultural renaissance. Jews achieved high positions in government and also excelled in science and medicine, the arts, literature, philosophy, scholarship. And no one personified this better than Hasdai ibn Shaprut. He became physician to the Caliph, but also was very influential in government and was well respected internationally as a talented diplomat and politician. He encouraged Hebrew poetry and of the study of Hebrew grammar among his coreligionists by the purchase of Hebrew books, which he imported from the East, and by supporting Jewish scholars whom he gathered about him. Among them, Rabbi Moshe ben Hanoch, great halakhist and rabbinical figure; and Menahem ben Saruq of Tortosa, the protégé of Isaac, Hasdai's father. Also prominent at this time was Dunash ben Labrat who was born in Morocco, had studied in the great yeshivot in Babylonia, then returned to Morocco, later, being invited by Hasdai to make his dwelling place in Cordoba.

With the guidance of Hasdai, Hebrew literature flourished and with it, a strong sense of a personal connection to the Land of Israel. In fact, Dunash himself had lived in Israel (Gaza specifically) for a period before moving on to Babylonia. Much of the Hebrew poetry of the time had a very deep religious and Biblical connection to Israel and even Hasdai himself was proud of that connection. He mentioned so in his letter, written in Hebrew, to Joseph, the king of Khazaria, a Jewish kingdom in Eastern Europe: “I, Hasdai, son of Isaac, son of Ezra, belonging to the exiled Jews of Jerusalem in Spain, a servant of my lord the King, bow to the earth before him and prostrate myself towards the abode of your Majesty from a distant land. I rejoice in your tranquility and magnificence and stretch forth my hands to God in heaven that He may prolong your reign in Israel. …I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs who bring gifts about our brethren the Israelites [notice, he never says “Jews” – ed.], the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have languished in bondage and have found no rest. .. I pray for the health of my lord the King, of his family, and of his house, and that his throne may be established forever. Let his days and his sons’ days be prolonged in the midst of Israel!”

Hasdai retained his high position under Abd al Rahman's son and successor, al-Hakam II, who even surpassed his father in his love for science and culture. 

THE PERSIAN JEWISH/ISRAEL CONNECTION

 

Pentateuch in Hebrew and Judeo Persian

The Jewish community of Persia, today Iran, is probably one of the oldest Diaspora communities in the world along with, what is now, Iraq, and goes back roughly 2500 years. The history of the Jews in this country could best be summarized by stating “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. The best of times were very good and Jews excelled in the arts, commerce, and politics. The worst of times were not very good and was marked by severe persecution which included expulsions and sometimes forced conversion to Islam (the 1839 pogroms in Mashhad). When the Pahlavis came to power in the 20^th century, the situation for the Jews was very favorable. Then came the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the new government has vowed, and is vowing, to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jews in it. In addition, the Jewish community in Iran has often been intimidated to take a vocal anti-Israel stance. Tens of thousands have since emigrated, most, never returning.

It is mentioned in the Bible, in II Kings, that in the ninth year of the reign of Hosea, king of Judah (722 B.C.), the King of Assyria took Israel captive and "placed" some of the Jews whom he deported "in the cities of the Medes” (today’s Kurds)—an event which may have a possible bearing in connection with certain likenesses between the Zoroastrianism and Judaism (see postings in this blog on Assyria and Kurdistan). In the ensuing centuries, the Assyrians were overthrown by the Babylonians who were, in turn, overthrown by the Persians under King Cyrus who was highly thought of in Jewish history. The taking of Babylon in 539BCE by Cyrus inaugurated a new era in Jewish history. Jews in his empire were given an immense amount of freedom, and this freedom also extended to his decree that permitted the Jews to return to Judea and rebuild their homeland. (The fact that only a few tens of thousands willingly went back to Judea has no bearing on him.) During the reign of Ahashverash, the story of Purim took place where Jews were allowed, through the urging of Esther, the wife of Ahashverash, to defend themselves from an attempted annihilation at the hands of their enemies under the evil Haman. Since that time, the Jews in Persia (including Babylonia) had very close ties to the Jews in the ancestral homeland. Jewish life within the empire itself reached a high point in the 5^th century when King Yazdagird I married a Jew and became the mother of his successor, Bahram V.  

In the 7 century, the Arabs began to invade foreign lands in the Middle East and North Africa, including Persia. All lands that were invaded became “Arab” countries. But Persia was an exception. The Persians had no love for the Arabs and resisted becoming “Arabized”. However, they did adopt Islam and Persian life was influenced by sharia law ever since. This involved relegating Jews to subservient dhimmi status. This, along with Christian discrimination, led many Jews to seek some relief through mystical/religious observance, leading to some individuals to proclaim themselves the “messiah” of the Jews who would lead them back to the ancestral homeland. Among the most well-known of such individuals was one, historically referred to as the Prophet of Khuzistan. His anger was directed mainly at the Christians and he led his following in the destruction of numerous churches in Khuzestan province and the surrounding areas, but ultimately, he didn’t succeed in leading a return to the Land of Israel and he died an unknown. Another of these “messiahs” went by the name Abu Isa, a Jew of Isphahan. In the 8^th century, he led a rebellion against the caliph of Persia in order to bring freedom to the Jews and lead them back to Israel. He, too, was unsuccessful, and his rebellion was crushed.

For many centuries, Persian, as well as Babylonian Jews, often settled in Israel, messiah or no messiah. Some also visited, or went back and forth between the two countries. Rabbis often corresponded with those in Jerusalem on controversial matters of Jewish law. In the 15^th century, there was a notable increase in the number of Persian Jews coming to settle in Israel. Correspondingly, Halukkah activity between the two countries also increased and many Palestinian emissaries would visit the Jewish communities of Persia to raise funds for the poor in Israel. Among these emissaries was Rabbi Moshe Alsheikh who went at the end of the 16^th century. In the mid 17^th century, as the study of kabbalah increased and with it, the concerted search for the location of the Lost Tribes of Israel, the emissaries who went to the east, did so with that objective. The most well-known was Rabbi Baruch Gad who went to Persia for the express purpose of finding the Lost Tribes. Through his efforts, contact was made with the community known as the B’nai Moshe who were thought to be one of them. Unfortunately, nothing more is known of them other than they seem to be a very powerful force in Persian society. Other emissaries who established close contact with the Jews of Persia, especially the rabbis, were Jacob Eliashar in the 18^th century and Abraham ibn Ephraim in the 1890s. Since the beginning of the 19^th century, Aliyah from Persia increased slightly. The vast majority who came were poor, but even so, many among them were merchants and rabbis. One was even a physician – Eliahu Mizrahi. In 1839, some of the Jews of Mashhad, who were forced to become Muslim, and known thereafter as Jadid al Islam, a status similar to that of the anusim from Spain and Portugal, had settled in Israel where most had returned to Judaism.

In the mid-19^th century, Persia established a diplomatic mission in Israel and, as with the European missions, the local Jews were very much involved with Persian political affairs. Yitzhak Maman had acted as Persian consular agent as had Yosef Moyal in the 1870s and Avraham Ajami c. 1900.

Since the beginning of the Zionist movement, Persia Jews became very active in the Jewish renaissance in Israel although they didn’t necessarily refer to themselves as “Zionists”: 1886 The Jerusalem neighborhood of Shkhunat Pahim was founded by Persian Jews. 1895 Mula Haim Eleazar came to Israel. He was a prominent hazzan and was active in the local Persian Jewish culture. 1900 The Ohave Tzion society was established for the welfare of the Persian community. 1902 Agaian Yaacov Hacohen and Mashiah Levi were active in raising the necessary funding for the establishment of a Persian synagogue and Talmud Torah. 1917 Toward the end of the First World War, there was another Aliyah of the descendants of the Jadid al Islam. C. 1918 The General Committee of the Persian Community in Jerusalem, and the association of Persian Youth were established. 1920 Aliyah of entire Jewish community of Barsheh. 1925 Reza Shah outlaws Zionist activity. Jews were prohibited from going to British Mandatory Palestine but some secretly do. 1941 Abdication of Reza Shah. 1943 Mohammad Reza Shah, his successor, establishes a friendly policy towards Jews and allows a group of Polish Jewish orphaned children from the Holocaust to transit through his country on their way to Palestine.

Since independence, many Persian Jews became prominent in Israeli society: Menashe Amir has been a Persian-language broadcaster for Kol Israel since the late 50s; Amnon Netzer was likewise a broadcaster since the late 50s, journalist and activist in the Persian community; Moshe Katzav was former President of Israel, a strong supporter of ethnically cleansing the Jews from Gaza, later convicted of rape; Rita is one of the top singers in Israel today, singing in both Hebrew and Persian. She is also very popular in Iran itself in defiance of the ruling ayatollahs; Shaul Mofaz is a retired Israeli military officer and politician serving in various Knesset posts.

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.