May 2006
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Volume 2006 MayWhen the world around us seems to go topsy turvy, we tend to blame one side or another. So that we understand one another, and be sympathetic, it is necessary to know the deep seated causes for resentment. The present day Leaders of Israel seem oblivious of the past tragedies - and seem to see things with colored glasses with short term benefits. The history that you will read below will show how the ordinary Jew became a target of powerful people due to misguided decisions of their leaders. Present day people do not want to look back at the past because it is too depressing. One forgets that both Palestinians and the Jews are the children of Abraham, and the Jews seem to reserve the promises only to one branch of his descendants, who were born to Jacob. Perhaps one day they will realize that all this has been a family feud. Origins of Modern IsraelSummary10. Modern Period - 1500-1700 AD Roman TimesThe inscription found at Caesarea Maritima, which refers to Pontius Pilate, is one of the most important discoveries made in the archeological work of the last two decades.
Precisely because it's the first piece of hard evidence of the existence of Pontius Pilate. But this is the first piece of direct evidence from an archaeological source which actually gives us his name and tells us he was there as Governor. The city of Caesarea Maritima was actually the Governor's residence. This was the capital city, from the perspective of the Roman political administration. Herod the Great ruled from 37 BC.. to 4 BC. Under his kingship post-Biblical Israel really rose to its political and material heights in the early days of the Roman Empire. At his death, his kingdom, was subdivided among three of his sons. One son, Herod Antipas, took the northern territories of the Galilee and those on the east side of the Jordan River. Another son, Phillip, took the areas to the east of the Sea of Galilee The third son, Archelaeus, took the major portion. But Archelaeus, in contrast to his two half-brothers, didn't fare as well as his father, as within ten years, he was removed by the Romans and replaced with military Procurators, or Prefects, posted there by the Roman administration to oversee the political activities of the state. Pontius Pilate, is one of these first round of governors posted to the province of Judea The Temple in Jerusalem
By building the Temple and refurbishing it, he not only increased enormously the religious prestige of Judaism. but also created a space that could accommodate an enormous number of pilgrims. Judea at the time of the beginning of the Christian EraHerod who got his position, just as in the 20th century the British empire would bestow thrones to whose who would be willing to work with them, contributed by his accomplishments as a builder of the Temple. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at. Qumran give us glimpses of the times. Josephus, a Jewish historian, actually mentions of rebels like Judas the Galilean and The Egyptian. From the time from Herod, to the time of the first revolt. a kind of increasing sense of political unrest, is fueled by religious ideas and expectations. Jewish WarThe siege of Jerusalem is a sad story. Josephus (AD 37-10) tells us about some of its events in gruesome details Josephus describes walking around the walls of Jerusalem and pleading with people on the inside to give up rather then go through the suffering and agony that would come from a long protracted siege. Josephus also tells us that there's a lot of infighting going on in the city among the different rebel factions who occupy different parts of Jerusalem. The loss of life must have been catastrophic to the Jewish population as a whole. For two years then Jerusalem was under siege. Starvation, disease, murder were the order of the day. In the final analysis, by the month of August in the year 70, the fate of Jerusalem was a foregone conclusion. The Roman armies were amassed, ready to break through. Everyone knew it. It was just a matter of when but they were going to fight to the death, and many of them did die. So on that fateful morning when they broke through, Josephus describes the events of them breaking through the walls. The Roman soldiers running through the streets. Going into every house. Killing everyone they find. It's a pretty awful slaughter and we have lots of evidence of it now between the artifacts that one finds of the first revolt that are scattered throughout this layer of the archaeological record. Arrowheads, spears, other kinds of indications of pretty serious hand-to-hand combat in all parts of the city. The lower city of Jerusalem remains to this day largely uninhabited but in Jesus' day in up to the time of the first revolt that was the most populous part of the city. But in the first revolt in those final hours of the battle it was burned to the ground. All that remains of Herod's great Temple today is the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Modern people who have been watching CNN could easily imagine the pictures they have seen of American soldiers breaking down Arab doors with their weapons. Not very different from the Romans. Both have justified their actions even though 2000 years apart which only goes to show that humans have not changed all the intervening years.) The psychological impact of the destruction of Jerusalem is really very important to Jewish history. People from the southern region of Palestine and especially the city of Jerusalem itself were forced to leave just as the refugees modern times. Titus handed the fields around to his soldiers. Meanwhile the Christian community had fled to Pella in Paraea, east of the Jordan (southeast of Jenin), before the beginning of the siege. The Christians were still almost entirely converts from Judaism. Second Jewish Revolt The Second Jewish Revolt against Rome or the Bar Kochba revolt was named after a rebel leader who was really the central figure of this new political period. Bar Kochba. is a kind of messianic title. Bar Kochba means "son of the star." The Emperor Publius AElius Hadrian (76 AD - 138 AD) put down this rebellion, after a siege that lasted a year, in 135. As a result of this last war the whole neighborhood of the city became a desert. On the ruins of Jerusalem a new Roman city was built, called Ælia Capitolina and a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was built on Mount Moria. By the beginning of the first century AD, Jewish communities (both traditions) had spread from Judea throughout the Mediterranean, with especially strong enclaves in Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Both Julius Caesar (62 BC - 14 AD) and Augustus (A. D. 14-37), sponsored legislation that offered Jews protection to worship as they chose. Jews who were living outside of Judea in this period, were required to be ethnically pure communities They were required to maintain the Mosaic Law of circumcision, avoidance of intermarriage and food laws. Early followers of Jesus ChristAfter the death of Jesus, word of his teachings was taken by his followers to Jewish communities outside Palestine, as far as India, where Thomas the Apostle had met the Jewish community in the South of India. It is quite possible these early Jewish settlements were trading posts. Paul and other apostles went to the north, into Antioch and other regions in the Roman empire where Jews had settled for trade. As non-Jews showed interest, it was decided by the Apostolic council, to admit them and not to enforce circumcision and food laws on them. Many other Jewish customs were adopted in worship and prayer rituals. This sowed the seeds of misunderstanding and conflict among the Jews and Christians. Looking at the events in plain human perspective they have wondered how a Movement with twelve uneducated men could expand so fast. Perhaps they do not understand supernatural dimension in human history. Jewish Life after Emperor ConstantineConstantine the Great (306-337). A vision had assured him that he should conquer in the sign of the Christ, and his warriors carried Christ's monogram on their shields, though the majority of them were pagans. out of gratitude to the God of the Christians the victor immediately gave convincing proof; and Christian worship was henceforth tolerated throughout the empire The Apostle's Creed was formulated at this time. The position of Jews at this time.Under Caracalla (211-217), the Jews received the rights of citizenship; and under his successors the various disabilities by which they had been affected were gradually removed. Even such rabid persecutors of the Christians as Decius (249-251), Valerian (253-260), and Diocletian (284-305) left the Jews unmolested. In Babylonia, the Jewish communities and schools were flourishing under the princes of the Captivity, and except for a short space of time immediately after the conquest of the Parthians by the neo-Persians, and during the ephemeral rule of Odenathus at Palmyra, they enjoyed quiet and independence. The conversion of Constantine, opened a new era in the history of the Jews. The equality of rights to which the previous emperors had admitted them was gradually restricted by the head of the State. Under Constantine (306-337), the restrictions were few in number, and due to his interest in the welfare of his Christian subjects and in the promotion of the true religion. He made conversion from Christianity to Judaism a punishable offence; the Jews were prohibited from circumcising their Christian slaves; but never deprived them of their citizenship, Under Gratian, Theodosius I, and Arcadius, the Jews enjoyed the protection of the Throne; but under Theodosius II (402-450), emboldened by their long immunity from persecution, they manifested a spirit of intolerance in various parts of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Patriarchate of the West, then held by Gamaliel VI, came to an end (425). In the West the Jews fared decidedly better during the fifth century They of course suffered many evils during the invasions of the northern barbarians who flooded the Western Empire after its permanent separation in 395 from the Eastern Empire of Constantinople. The Jews gradually became prominent in commerce, The Vandals left them free to exercise their religion. They were justly treated in Italy, by the kings of the Ostrogoths, and by the Roman pontiffs; in Gaul, by the early Merovingians generally; and in Spain, by the Visigoths down 589 AD. Recared the new king, resolved at once to enforce old laws against the Jews and in fact added to them first the injunction that the Jews should release the slaves in their possession, and next, that they should choose between baptism and banishment. Thus the laws against the Jews both in Spain and in France reached gradually a degree of severity unknown even to such Eastern persecutors of Judaism . The Islamic Ascendancy (628-1038)In the East The Jews had built important trade settlements in Arabia, After Mohammed's death (A.D. 632), the first Caliph tolerated the Jewish communities but this toleration ceased under Omar, the second successor. Omar's so-called "Covenant" (640) imposed restrictions upon Jews in the whole Islamic world, but these restrictions do not seem to have been carried out during his lifetime. In return for the valuable assistance of the Babylonian Jews in Omar's campaigns against Persia, this caliph granted them several privileges. Under Islam's fourth caliph, Ali (656-661), the Jewish community of Babylonia became more fully organized and assumed the appearance of an independent state, in which the Talmudic schools flourished again. For them, the heads of the Babylonian schools were the representatives of the ideal times of the Talmud. The farther the dominion of the Ommiads (661-750) was extended, the more adherents were gained for the Jewish Babylonian chiefs. The great liberty which the Jews enjoyed under Islam's rule allowed them to cultivate neo-Hebraic poetry and to begin their Massoretic labours (see Massora). In the WestSpainMeantime, their fellow-Jews were less fortunate in Spain, where most rulers of the seventh century enacted severe laws against Judaism. Out of political considerations the Jews were forbidden from owning lands and houses, to repair to or trade with North Africa, and even to transact business with Christians. Numerous Jews joined the Muslin army, and crossed from Africa into Andalusia, defeating Roderick (July, 711). Spain thus was gradually conquered; and in 720, the Saracens occupied Septimania, north of the Pyrenees, a dependency of the Gothic Kingdom. Shifting loyalties did not endear the Jewish community in the European world In Muslim Spain, the Jews, to whose help the conquerors largely owed their victories, obtained their liberty. In fact, it was now given to the Jews at large to enjoy a long period of nearly unbroken peace and security, while creating permanent antagonism among the white residents of the region. The Kingdom of the KhazarsApart from the persecutions started in 720 by the Caliph of Damascus, Omar II, and in 723 by the Byzantine emperor, Leo III, they prospered everywhere till about the middle of the ninth century. It was during this period that the great Kingdom of the Khazars, which was situated west of the Caspian Sea, and had caused the Persians to tremble, embraced Judaism (c. 745); its rulers remained exclusively Jewish above two centuries and a half. FranceIn France, the Jewish population was not submitted to any serious restrictions under either Pepin (752-768) or Charlemagne (764-814), while under Louis I (814-840) it even enjoyed special favors and privileges, the king having for his confidential adviser his Jewish physician name Zedekiah, and actively protecting Jewish interests against powerful opponents. Under the Fatimid dynasty of caliphs (909-1171), whose rule extended over North Africa, Egypt, and Syria, the Jews were worse off still. About the middle of the tenth century, the Jewish Kingdom of the Khazars was destroyed by the Russians. Charles the Bald (840-877) protected them effectively, it is true, but his weak Carolingian successors and the early Capetians lacked sufficient authority for doing so. ItalyIn Italy, as early as 855, Louis II ordered the banishment of all Italian Jews, and his order failed to have the intended effect only because of the distracted condition of the realm at the time. GermanyIn Germany, where "Jew" was synonymous with "merchant", the emperors were long satisfied with exacting a special tax from their Jewish subjects; but finally Henry II (1002-1024) expelled from Mainz the Jews who refused to be baptized, and it is probable that his decree was applied to other communities. Spain (Navarre, Castile, and Leon) also persecuted the Jews, although towards the end of the tenth century, its rulers placed them in many respects on an equality with the rest of the population. During this period, an Arabic translation of the Mishna was made in Spain by Ibn-Abitur, and the first commentaries on the Talmud were composed at Mainz by Gershom ben Juda (died. 1028). Middle AgesEra of the Crusades (1023-1300)In many respects, Islamic Spain owed a great deal to its Jewish population; yet, in 1066, the Jews were expelled from the Kingdom of Granada. In many ways, too, the young kingdoms of Christian Spain were indebted to their Jewish inhabitants. These, however, were but passing storms; for Alfonso VI (1071-1109) soon freely used Jews in his diplomatic and military operations, while in the Islamic States distinct from Granada, Jewish culture reached the zenith of its splendor. The era of Jewish persecutions really began with the First Crusade (1096-1099). In May-July, 1096, the crusading bands took their pent up anger- the reasons must have been financial - on the Jews and there were bloody scenes against the Jews of Trier, Worms, Mainz, Cologne, and other Rhenish towns, and repeated them as they went along in the cities on the Main and the Danube, even as far as Hungary, bishops and princes being mostly on the side of the victims, but proving, for various reasons, powerless to protect them effectively. It is easy to understand that the Holy Land which the Crusaders were going lo liberate, did not have the same meaning for the Jews who had lost it in the first place. vide http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm Then came the Second Crusade (1147-1149) with its atrocities against the Jews by the unorganized fighters with misinformed ideas, (like modern day Al Qaeda Jihadists) in Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and Strasburg, despite the protestations of St. Bernard and of Pope Eugenius III, and the efforts of the German prelates and the Emperor Conrad III in their behalf; and with its most deplorable result, namely the greater enslavement of the German Jews to the Crown. Period of PeaceThe next fifty years were, on the whole, for the Jewish race a period of peace and prosperity; in Spain, where Juda Ibn-Ezra was steward of the palace to Alfonso VIII; in Mesopotamia, where Mohammed Almuktafi revived the dignity of exilarch; in the Two Sicilies, where the Jews had equal rights with the rest of the population; in Italy, where Pope Alexander II was favourable to them, and the Third Lateran Council (1179) passed decrees protecting their religious liberty; in England and its French provinces, where the Jews were very flourishing under Henry Plantagenet (c. 1189); in France itself, where under the kind rule of Louis VI and Louis VII (1108-1180) they greatly prospered in every direction. And yet, in some of these countries there was a deep-seated hatred of the Jewish race and its religion which manifested itself in 1171 when the Jews of Blois were burned on the charge of having used Christian blood of a murdered boy in their Passover ritual, and it allowed Philip Augustus in the year of his accession (1180) to decree the confiscation of all the unmovable goods of his Jewish subjects and their banishment from his domains. Even in those days, the kings depended on faulty 'intelligence' and went to great lengths to antagonize their subjects. This feeling showed itself particularly on the occasion of the Third Crusade (1189-1192). The Jews were massacred on the day of the coronation of Richard I (3 Sept, 1189) and soon afterwards in several English towns (1190). The Jews appealed to Innocent III to curb the violence of the crusaders; and in answer, the pontiff issued a Constitution which rigorously forbade mob violence and forced baptism, but which apparently had little or no effect on the unruly mobs During wars, rumors are spread, and people are inflamed against parties, whom vested interests have an axe to grind. This has happened throughout history, in every war, and in every country. Unfortunately the victims who suffer are innocent people and have nothing to do. The real culprits hide and go scot-free. The year 1204, in which closed the Fourth Crusade, marked the beginning of still heavier misfortunes for the Jews. Writing to the bishops of France and of Germany the latter pontiff says: Certain of the clergy, and princes, nobles and great lords of your cities and dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property, and appropriating it themselves They falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy. In their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to the Jews. And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions without any formal accusation, without confession, and without legal trial and conviction, contrary to the privileges granted to them by the Apostolic See. They oppress the Jews by starvation, imprisonment, and by tortures and sufferings; they afflict them with all kinds of punishments, and sometimes even condemn them to death, so the Jews, although living under Christian princes, are in a worse plight than were their ancestors in the land of the Pharaohs. They are driven to leave in despair the land in which their fathers have dwelt since the memory of man. Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed,--we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations. St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Francis was the product of these times, and he was a gift of God to the mislead Europeans, and helped them in the path of peace and understanding St. Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274) This was another Catholic Dominican saint, who made a great difference in the understanding of the Catholic Faith through is stupendous writings. He brought in Reason to bear on faith, and gave a clear direction to the followers of Christ In 1254, nearly all the French Jews were banished by St. Louis from the king's domains. Between 1257 and 1266, Alfonso X of Castile compiled a code of laws which contained several clauses against the Jews and countenanced the blood accusation (i.e. Jews were having the blood of Christ on their heads) which had been contradicted by Innocent IV. During the last years of Henry III (died. 1272), the Jews of England fared worse and worse. About this time, The root cause was economic dependency on the Jews, who were money lenders and bankers. The Crusaders might have borrowed heavily from the Jews for their expeditions. Pope Gregory X issued a Bull ordaining that no injury be inflicted upon their persons or their property (1273); but the popular hatred against them on the charge of usury, use of Christian blood at their Passover, etc., could not be restrained; and the thirteenth century which had witnessed their persecution in all parts of Christendom, except Austria, Portugal, and Italy, closed with their total expulsion from England in 1200, under Edward I, and their carnage in Germany in 1283 and 1298. During the same period, public disputations had been resorted to but with little success for the conversion of the Jews. Last Part of the Middle Ages (1300-1500)At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Jewish rabbis were divided concerning the value of the sacred book of the Cabbalists (KABALA), which Moses of Leon had recently published. A still deeper division prevailed among them with regard to the cultivation of Aristotle's philosophy and the humanistic sciences and literature, and it resulted in 1305 in a public ban on the part of several Jewish leaders against the study of science. Philip IV plundered and expelled all the French Jews, some of whom traveled as far as Palestine to enjoy there freedom under the rule of the Mamluke sultan, Nasir Mohammed (died. 1341), while most remained on the border of France, thinking that the royal avarice which had caused their banishment would bring about their early return. Meantime, their coreligionists of Castile narrowly escaped the carrying out of stringent measures against their own rights and privileges (1313). The banished French Jews were actually recalled in 1315 by Louis X, and admitted for twelve years. But as early as 1320, there arose a bloody persecution of some 40,000 who pretended to be on their way to the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher. In 1321, the Jews were accused by the lepers of having poisoned the wells and rivers, whereupon a new persecution ensued. The same year, owing to intrigues against them, the Jews of Rome, then very flourishing in society and literature, would have been expelled from Roman territory by John XXII who resided in Avignon, had it not been for the timely intervention of Robert of Anjou, Vicar-General of the Papal States. In Castile, where the Jews possessed great influence with Alfonso XI (1312-1350), the various plans against them actually failed, and the king showed himself favourable to them till the day of his death. Their enemies were more successful in Navarre on the occasion of the war of independence which this province waged against France. As the Jews were apparently in the way of the secession, they were subjected to a violent persecution during the course of the war (1328), and to oppressive measures after Navarre had become a separate kingdom. In Germany, they fared still worse during the riots and the civil wars under Louis IV (1314-1347). For two consecutive years (1336, 1337), the peasants wearing a piece of leather wound around arm, inflicted untold sufferings upon the Jewish inhabitants of Alsace and the Rhineland as far as Swabia. In 1337,also, on the charge of having profaned a consecrated Host, the Jews of Bavaria were subjected to a slaughter which soon extended to those of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, although Benedict XII had issued a Bull promising an inquiry into the matter. Besides, Louis IV, who always treated his Jewish subjects as mere slaves, subjected them (c. 1342) to a new and most onerous poll-tax. Greater Jewish massacres occurred in 1348-1349 while the fearful scourge, known as the "Black Death", desolated Europe. The report that the Jews had caused the scourge by poisoning the wells used by Christians, spread rapidly and was believed in most towns of Central Europe, despite the Bulls issued by Clement VI in July and September, 1348, declaring their falsity. Despite the fact, too, that the same pontiff had solemnly ordered that Jews be not forced into baptism, that their Sabbaths, festivals, synagogues, and cemeteries be respected, that no new exactions be imposed on them, they were plundered and murdered in many countries of Central and Northern Europe. As before the period of persecution was followed by a period of calm and peace. Pope Boniface IX had protested, but in vain, against outrages and slaughters (1389); and it is only in his states, in Italy, and in Portugal, that the Jewish race had any measure of peace during these years of carnage. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Jews enjoyed some manner of respite in nearly all the countries where they had been allowed to stay or whither they had fled from persecuting France and Spain. Martin V (1419),made a declaration on behalf of the Jews: "Whereas the Jews are made to the image of God, and a remnant of them will one day be saved, and whereas they have besought our protection: following in the footsteps of our predecessors we command that they be not molested in their synagogues; that their laws, rights, and customs be not assailed; that they be not baptized by force, constrained to observe Christian festivals, nor to wear any new badges, and they be not hindered in their business relations with Christians." But then began new persecutions against the Jewish population of Central Europe. In their distress, the Austrian and the German Jews appealed to the same pontiff who, in 1420, also raised his voice in their favour, and who, in 1422, confirmed the ancient privileges of their race. Nevertheless, the Jews of Cologne were expelled in 1426, and those of several towns of southern Germany burned on the old blood accusation (1431). Many Jews fled to the neighboring states of the Slavs and Tatars, which were just coming into existence, and found refuge and protection on the lower Volga and on the northern shores of the Black Sea in the realm of the Khazars. While the Eastern Roman empire was prolonging its existence during frequent wars with neighbors who were ever growing stronger, the Western Roman Empire fell prey to the barbarians. With the exception of the restrictive laws of the first Christian emperors, which still remained in force, the Jews were not troubled on account of their faith. Modern Period (1500-1700)These expulsions of the Jews gave rise in the sixteenth century to the important division of the European Jews into "Sephardim" (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) and "Ashkenazim" (German and Polish Jews), thus called from two Biblical words connected by medieval rabbis with Spain and Germany respectively. Wherever they settled, the Sephardim preserved their peculiar ritual and also their native refinement of dictions, manners, dress, etc., which stood in striking contrast with those of the Ashkenazim and secured for them an influence which the latter did not exercise despite their closer acquaintance with the Talmud and greater faithfulness to ancestral virtues and traditions. Thus were formed two deep currents of Judaism requiring to be treated separately during the modern period of Jewish history. In Italy, the Sephardim found a refuge chiefly in Rome, Naples, Florence, and Ferrara, where they were soon rejoined by numerous Maranos of Spain and Portugal who again professed Judaism. In Naples, they enjoyed the high protection of Samuel Abrabanel, a wealthy Jew who apparently administered the finances of the viceroy, Don Pedro of Toledo. In Ferrara and Florence, The early Roman pontiffs of the sixteenth century had Jewish physicians and were favourable to the Jews and the Maranos of their states. Time soon came, however, when the Sephardic Jews of Italy fared differently. As early as 1532, the accusation of child murder nearly entailed the extermination of the Jews of Rome. In 1555, Paul IV revived the ancient canons against the Jews which forbade them the practice of medicine, the pursuit of high commerce, and the ownership of real estate. He also consigned them to a Ghetto, and compelled them to wear a Jew badge. In 1569, Pius IV expelled all the Jews from the Papal States, except Rome and Ancona. Sixtus V (1585-1590) recalled them; but, soon after him, Clement VIII (1592-1605) banished them again partially, at the very moment when the Maranos of Italy lost their last place of refuge in Ferrara. Similar misfortunes befell the Jewish race in other states of Italy as the Spanish domination extended there: Naples banished the Jews in 1541; Genoa, in 1550; Milan, in 1597. Henceforward, most Sephardic fugitives simply passed through Italy when on their way to the Turkish Empire. During the whole present period, Turkey was, in fact, a haven of rest for the Sephardim. Bajazet II (d. 1512) and his immediate successors fully realized the services which the Jewish exiles could render to the new Mohammedan empire of Constantinople, and hence welcomed them in their states. Under Selim II (1566-1574), the Marano Joseph Nassi, become Duke of Naxos and the virtual ruler of Turkey, used his immense power and wealth for the benefit of his coreligionists, at home and abroad. After Nassi's death, his influence passed partially to Ashkenazi, and also to the Jewess Esther Kiera who played a most important role under the Sultans Amurath III, Mohammed III, and Achmet I. During the remainder of the period, the Jews of Turkey were generally prosperous under the guidance of their rabbis. Recent Times (since 1700)In dealing with this last period, it will be convenient to narrate briefly the events relative, first to the Jews of the Old world, and next to those of the New. Jews of the Old WorldThe internal condition of the Jews in the Old World during the first half of the eighteenth century was that of a general demoralization. Scandinavian CountriesIn Sweden, they were allowed (1718) to enter the kingdom under unfavourable conditions; Denmark enfranchised the Jews in 1849, whereas Sweden and Norway still subject them to certain disabilities. France, new restrictions were imposed on their settlements (1718) Germany: At Metz and Bordeaux; in Prussia, the laws of Frederick William I (1714, 1730) breathed a spirit of great intolerance against them; Italy At Naples, the concessions made to the Jews by Charles III, in 1740, were soon revoked; Rome, the last Italian place where the Jews were emancipated, elected a Jew, Ernesto Nathan, for its mayor, 10 October, 1908. Austria: In Austria, charges that they were in league with the country's enemies during the War of the Austrian Succession were readily believed, led to bloody riots against them, well-nigh entailed (1745) under Maria Theresa their perpetual expulsion from Bohemia and Moravia, and caused the Jews of Prague to be placed under the most severe restrictions; In 1867, the Jews of Austria were emancipated, and in 1895, those of Hungary obtained, moreover, that Judaism be considered as "a legally recognized religion". Russia: In Russia, Catherine I (1727) took active measures against the Ukraine Jews and banished the Jewish population from Russia. Anna Ivanova (1739) decreed their expulsion from Little Russia, and Elizabeth (1741-1762) harshly enforced anti-Jewish measures; and finally, in Russia where lives nearly one-half of the total Jewish population of the globe. The liberty of trade and commerce granted to them by Alexander I (1801-1825) was replaced, under Nicholas I (1825-1855), by a legislation calculated to diminish their number, to deprive them of their religious and national character, and to render them morally and commercially harmless to Christians. Alexander II (1855-1881)was very favourable to the Jews; but the reaction against them under Alexander III (1881-1894) was of the most intolerant kind. From the promulgation of the Ignatiev law of 1882, the most restrictive measures have been piled up against the Jews, and since 1891 they have been applied with such severity that Russian Jews have emigrated in hundreds of thousands, mostly to the United States. Under the present emperor, Nicholas II, new restrictions have been devised; riots against the Jews occurred in 1896, 1897, 1899, and culminated in the massacres of Kishinev, Homel, etc., from 1903 to 1906, helped in various ways by Russian officials and soldiers; during the year 1909, the persecution took the form of orders of expulsion, and the trials prescribed by the Duma against the organizers and perpetrators of the massacres of some years ago are apparently a farce. England: In England, the Jews were simply tolerated as aliens, and a naturalization act, which was passed by both Houses and ratified by George II (1753), was actually repealed (1754) owing to the nation's opposition to it. Gradually, however, a number of circumstances lessened this spirit of hostility against the Jews. In England, it was not before 1858 that Parliament was freely opened to the Jews by the suppression of the clause "On the true faith of a Christian" from the oath of office, and not before 1870, that all restrictions for every position (except that of sovereign) in the British Empire were abolished. In northern Germany, the various states allowed civil liberty to their Jewish population in 1848, and after 1870, all restrictions disappeared, although since that time, owing to anti-Semitism, minor disabilities have been publicly enacted or quietly enforced in some parts of the Empire. Switzerland: In Switzerland, after a long and bitter struggle, the Federal Constitution of 1874 granted to the Jews full liberty. In Italy, the Jewish disabilities, revived on the fall of Napoleon I, and the application of which occasioned in 1858 the celebrated Mortara Case, have all been gradually abolished. Spain and Portugal have not yet recognized officially their small Jewish population. The Danubian Provinces of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro, have, in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, allowed civil and religious liberty to their Jewish settlers, Rumania: in defiance of the same treaty, has refused it and carried out persecutions which have entailed a very large emigration of Rumanian Jews. Turkey: Turkish Jews were granted citizenship in 1839; yet, in various parts of the Turkish Empire, there repeatedly occur accusations of ritual and child-murder, which inflame the populace and lead to anti-Jewish riots. Palestine - In Palestine, their number was rapidly increasing (78,000) despite the sultan's restrictions (1888, 1895) concerning the accession of Jewish immigrants in numbers; and agricultural colonies (kibbutz) are established in various parts of the land. Morocco: In Fez and chiefly in Morocco, Jews have still much to fear from the fanaticism of Mohammedans. Persia (Iran): In Persia, they are at times oppressed, despite the ruler's general goodwill towards them. Their fate has been, and still is, deplorable Jews of the New WorldSouth America,: Jews at an early date settled in South America, exiled from Spain and Portugal, or taking part in the Dutch and English commercial enterprises in the New World. Brazil was their main centre. Those found there in the sixteenth century were Maranos who had been sent in company with convicts. They acquired wealth and became very numerous at the beginning of the seventeenth century. They helped the Dutch in wresting Brazil from Portugal (1624), and were joined in 1642 by many Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam. At the end of the Dutch rule over Brazil (1654), most Jewish settlers returned to Holland; some emigrated to French settlements -- Guadalupe, Martinique, and Cayenne; others took refuge in Curacao, a Dutch possession; and finally, a small band reached New Amsterdam (New York). After a very few years, those who had settled on the French islands were compelled to turn to friendly Dutch possessions, and to other places of refuge, notably to Surinam (then belonging to England) where they became increasingly prosperous. The other early settlements of Jews in Mexico, Peru, and the West Indies do not require more than a passing mention. North America: Of much greater importance were those effected chiefly by Sephardim in North America. There were Jews in New Amsterdam as early as 1652; others came from Brazil in 1654. As these were not received in a friendly manner by the governor, Peter Stuyvesant, some of them betook themselves to the Colony of Rhode Island, where they were reinforced in the course of time by contingents from Curacao (1690) and from Lisbon (1755). The condition of those who had remained at New Amsterdam was, on the whole, fair, for they sere sustained by the Dutch home Government; and it remained substantially so after 1664, at which date the British captured New Amsterdam and changed its name to New York. At the end of the seventeenth century there were some Jews in Maryland. The next places of settlement were Pennsylvania (with a large percentage of Ashkenazim), Georgia, and the Carolinas. During the War of the American Revolution, the Jews generally took the colonial side; some fought bravely for it; and Haydn Solomon aided the Continental Congress with his money. Following the Declaration of Independence (July, 1776) most of the states of the Union placed all citizens upon an equality, the only notable exception Maryland, in which state all disabilities were removed only in 1826. During the nineteenth century, the Jews spread over all the United States and recently into their possessions, after the Spanish American War (1898), in which some 2000 Jewish soldiers took part. Important congregations have also grown up in the larger cities of Canada, where the Jews possess full civil rights since 1831. From 1830 to 1870, the immigration into the United States came largely from the Rhine Provinces, South Germany, and Hungary. Since 1882, the riots and persecutions in Russia have let to an immense emigration, a small portion of which was directed by Baron von Hirsch to the Argentine Republic, or went to Canada, but the great bulk of which came to the United States. To these have been added numerous Jews from Galicia and Rumania. The total Jewish immigration to the United States through the three chief ports of entry (New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore) from 1882 to 30 June 1909, was 1,397,423, out of which upwards of 54,000 reached the country between 1 July, 1908, and 30 June, 1909. In consequence, the United States have the third largest Jewish population in the world, the latest estimates being 5,215,805 for Russia, 2,084,591 for Austria-Hungary, and 1,777,185 for the United States. For the immigrants who, for the most part, have settled in large business centres, day and night schools to teach them English, together with trade schools to enable them to earn a livelihood, have been organized or enlarged. For those whom it has been possible to divert elsewhere, agricultural colonies have been attempted in several states, but have been little successful. In nearly every other line (educational, philanthropic, literary, financial, etc.) the development of Jewish activity during the last twenty-five years has been both rapid and successful. Differently from the Jews of Jamaica and Canada those of the United States are altogether independent of the jurisdiction of any European authority. The Jewish statistics in the table below are taken from the "American Jewish Year Book" for the year 5670 (16 September, 1909, to 3 October, 1910). United States -- 1,777,185 ZionismAt the first Zionist conference which was convened in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, and lead by Theodor Herzl, a tenacious, Austrian Jew, the 197 Jewish delegates passed the following resolution: "Zionism seeks to secure a publicly recognized, legally secured home in Palestine for the Jewish people." These Jews formed an organization called the World Zionist Organization, later just called the Jewish Agency or Jewish Committee Herzl attempted to gain a charter from the Sultan of Turkey for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire. To this end he met in 1898 with the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, in Istanbul and Palestine, as well as the Sultan, but these meetings did not bear fruit. European (Ashkenazi) Jews took the lead in organized Zionism for many years. However, Sephardic (Spanish) Jews and Jews in Arab lands maintained a closer practical tie with the holy land and with the Hebrew language than did Ashkenazi Jews and also influenced and participated in the Zionist movement from its inception. The Zionist movement did not give up efforts to find a political solution. The political Zionism and practical settlement approaches were merged into "Synthetic Zionism" advocated by Chaim Weizmann . The efforts ultimately bore fruit in the Balfour Declaration, a promise by Britain to further efforts for a Jewish national home in Palestine. and in the League of Nations Mandate, which give international sanction to the Jewish national home. Weizmann became head of the Zionist organization and later was the first President of Israel. The modern-day cup holders of the erstwhile and defunct Roman Empire, who through the last 20 centuries showed their love-hate relationship to the Jews, abandoned and persecuted them when they felt threatened and embraced them when it suited their financial interests, gloated that they finally they had kicked the ball in the Ottoman compound. Present day woes are apparent, and the Western Media portray events as if shedding crocodile tears, blissfully glossing over what their forefathers had done. ConclusionThe Europeans have moved away from the moral path set by the Church for centuries, and have replaced by new prophets of Modernism like Voltaire and Rousseau. The spirit of Rationalism was another contributory force for introducing Europeans to secular ideals. The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution too paved the way for the loss of the influence of the Church on State Governments. Their neo-pagan ideas do not seem to have a root, and could be very well portending the end of an era, to be replanted by a new civilization, of which they have no clue. The writing is on the wall, and Islam is on the horizon waiting to replace their old world culture. What if, the Europeans embrace it, the way they embraced Christianity? Whereas the Popes had championed the cause of the Jews before, they now had to depend on cynical States and human rights organizations, who are grounded in no other principle, than their own national pragmatic self interest and perceived notions of right and wrong.. Many decisions taken, out of feelings of isolation and subsequent re-actions to get out of it, have left after effects. All the foregoing is the result of decisions taken by the various rulers from the time of the Roman Empire in 70 AD till the present day, in the name of national interest (of self-preservation), did inflict pain on innocent people- In the above documentation, we see how deeply it has affected so many Jews who had nothing to do with the past. If this clarity were in the minds of all, it would be wonderful. But the fact is not everyone has time, inclination or Justice on their minds. To solve one problem, they create a new one. To settle the Jews in their homeland which they had lost 2000 years ago, an experiment was attempted without any precedent in world history. The big powers did not think of the consequences to the people who would be dispossessed, but did everything, and continue to do so, openly, for their own national interest. Dispossessed people eventually get empowered, as belligerent nations become weak by constant financial bleeding, and the great patrons become whimpering rag-dolls, and those who ride piggy-back fall from their high horses. Machiavelli was a political scientist who laid the ground for modern politicians. Perhaps, the ancient tribal societies had the right answer, when they considered earth as a transient abode, and truly belonged to the Great Spirit, who has loaned it to human beings. Thus owning of a 'piece of land' is a foreign concept to them. All our ills start from this concept. Even the tribal people of India believe that the Great Spirit owns the land. There is a story among Arabs, that in the end you need only a 2' x 6' piece of land to be buried, and that too is not permanent. The sad historical epitaph to our story is nothing is permanent and all our fight for this piece of land is a futile exercise, as sooner or later it will be snatched from the hands of the descendants of the present generation. We just tend to perpetuate the past mistakes. Each time a different group becomes the victim of another stronger group, and the vicious circle continues, as the roulette spins out of control not knowing where each one will stand once the disc stops moving !. The present day political woes are a result of solutions which the power brokers thought would bring for them permanent answers. People get informed by the media who are themselves ill-informed, and many a time, are guided by 'experts' with vested interests. Jumping to conclusions just relying on their words results in visuals you see on your TV screens: rampaging mobs looting and burning everything they find in their path. Glib politicians make self-serving pronouncements, as it they hold the ultimate trump card, but subsequent history betrays them. That is why, impartial observers should spend some time in research, and find the elusive truth - which we see in glimpses in the writings of various authors. In the final analysis, we can only help ourselves to find a shelter for ourselves and our children, in this 'earth quake' prone world. Today 'terrorism' is used for actions of one type of people. Do you not see that in the past the very same people who say that they are fighting terrorism have resorted to it just a few decades ago, and in fact through past centuries? Where are the native American tribes gone from whom the powerful immigrants snatched away their land by cheating and robbing and creating wars and winning them, justifying their new acquisitions. Do they think it will be theirs in the end, or will be snatched away by some one more powerful than them? When will we stop pontificating and learn from history which is begging to repeat past tragedies once again? The Wars of the Jews, Book 6 (403) So the Romans being now become masters of the wars, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning; for when they had gotten upon the last was, without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. (404) But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city, with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook, without mercy, and set fire to the houses wither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; (405) and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out without touching anything. (406) But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. (407) And truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the fire greatly prevail in the night, and as all was burning, came that eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem; (408) a city that had been liable to so many miseries during the siege, that, had it always enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly have been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men as were the occasions of this its overthrow. 1. (409) Now, when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants, in their mad conduct, had relinquished; (410) for when he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones. and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following:- (411) "We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers!" (412) At which time he had many such discourses to his friends; he also let such go free as had been bound by the tyrants, and were left in the prisons. (413) To conclude, when he entirely demolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its wars, he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been taken by him. 2. (414) And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest alive. (415) But, together with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm; but for those that were in their flourishing age, and who might be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple, and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women; (416) over which Caesar set one of his freed men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends; which last was to determine every one's fate, according to his merits. (417) So this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who were impeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; (418) and as for the rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces, as a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon their theaters, by the sword and by the wild beasts; but those that were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. (419) Now during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there perished, for want of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not taste any food, through the hatred their guards bore to them; and others would not take in any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance. 3. (420) Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand, as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, (421) the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation [with the citizens of Jerusalem], but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the very first, occasioned so great a traitness among them that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly. Novatian was a schismatic of the third century, and founder of the sect of the Novatians; he was a Roman priest, and made himself antipope. His name is given as Novatus (Noouatos, Eusebius; Nauatos, Socrates) by Greek writers, and also in the verses of Damasus and Prudentius, on account of the metre The regular designation in the third century for Christians who relapsed into heathenism, especially for those who during the persecutions displayed weakness in the face of torture, and denied the Faith by sacrificing to the heathen gods or by any other acts. Many of the lapsi, indeed the majority of the very numerous cases in the great persecutions after the middle of the third century, certainly did not return to paganism out of conviction: they simply had not the courage to confess the Faith steadfastly when threatened with temporal losses and severe punishments (banishments, forced labor [smudged in my version]... death), and their sole desire was to preserve themselves from persecution by an external act of apostasy, and to save their property, freedom, and life. The obligation of confessing the Christian Faith under all circumstances and avoiding every act of denial was firmly established in the Church from Apostolic times. The First Epistle of St. Peter exhorts the believers to remain steadfast under the visitations of affliction (i, 6, 7; iv, 16, 17). In his letter to Trajan, Pliny writes that those who are truly Christians will not offer any heathen sacrifices or utter any revilings against Christ. Nevertheless we learn both from "The Shepherd" of Hermas, and from the accounts of the persecutions and martyrdoms, that individual Christians after the second century showed weakness, and fell away from the Faith. The aim of the civil proceedings against Christians, as laid down in Trajan's rescript to Pliny, was to lead them to apostasy. Those Christians were acquitted who declared that they wished to be so no longer and performed acts of pagan religious worship, but the steadfast were punished. In the "Martyrdom of St. Polycarp" (c. iv; ed. Funk, "Patres Apostolici", 2nd ed., I, 319), we read of a Prhygian, Quintus, who at first voluntarily avowed the Christian Faith, but showed weakness at the sight of wild beasts in the amphitheatre, and allowed the proconsul to persuade him to offer sacrifice. The letter of the Christians of Lyons, concerning the persecution of the Church there in 177, tells us likewise of ten brethren who showed weakness and apostatized. Kept, however, in confinement and stimulated by the example and the kind treatment they received from the Christians who had remained steadfast, several of them repented their apostasy, and in a second trial, in which the renegades were to have been acquitted, they faithfully confessed Christ and gained the martyrs' crown (Eusebius, "Hist. Eccl.", V, ii). Bishops to be put to Death at Amasia of Pontus Demolition of Churches, and Butchery of the Bishops To St. Athanasius, may be attributed a preponderant influence in the formulation of the 'symbol' (or Creed) of the First Ecumenical Council, of which the following is a literal translation
Canons promulgated at his Council Canon 1: On the admission, or support, or expulsion of clerics mutilated by choice or by violence. Canon 2: Rules to be observed for ordination, the avoidance of undue haste, the deposition of those guilty of a grave fault. Canon 3: All members of the clergy are forbidden to dwell with any woman, except a mother, sister, or aunt. Canon 4: Concerning Episcopal elections. Canon 5: Concerning the excommunicate. Canon 6: Concerning patriarchs and their jurisdiction. Canon 7: confirms the right of the bishops of Jerusalem to enjoy certain honors. Canon 8: concerns the Novatians. Canon 9: Certain sins known after ordination involve invalidation. Canon 10: Lapsi who have been ordained knowingly or surreptitiously must be excluded as soon as their irregularity is known. Canon 11: Penance to be imposed on apostates of the persecution of Licinius. Canon 12: Penance to be imposed on those who upheld Licinius in his war on the Christians. Canon 13: Indulgence to be granted to excommunicated persons in danger of death. Canon 14: Penance to be imposed on catechumens who had weakened under persecution. Canon 15: Bishops, priests, and deacons are not to pass from one church to another. Canon 16: All clerics are forbidden to leave their church. Formal prohibition for bishops to ordain for their diocese a cleric belonging to another diocese. Canon 17: Clerics are forbidden to lend at interest. Canon 18: recalls to deacons their subordinate position with regard to priests. Canon 19: Rules to be observed with regard to adherents of Paul of Samosata who wished to return to the Church. Canon 20: On Sundays and during the Paschal season prayers should be said standing This goes to show, that by adopting Christianity as the State Religion, great care was taken to declare what was accepted and what was not. At the same time it was also decided in the Emperor's council how to deal with other subjects, who did not accept the State Religion.
French writer, satirist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Voltaire is remembered as a crusader against tyranny and bigotry. Compared to Rousseau's (1712-1778) rebelliousness and idealism, Voltaire's world view was more skeptical. His great contemporary thinker Voltaire disliked, but both of their ideas influenced deeply the French Revolution. In 1761 Voltaire wrote to Rousseau: "One feels like crawling on all fours after reading your work."
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau was born on June 28,
1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. His mother died shortly after his birth. When
Rousseau was 10 his father fled from Geneva to avoid imprisonment for a minor
offense, leaving young Jean-Jacques to be raised by an aunt and uncle. Rousseau
left Geneva at 16, wandering from place to place, finally moving to Paris in
1742. He earned his living during this period, working as everything from
footman to assistant to an ambassador. The starting point of the French Revolution was the convocation of the States General by Louis XVI. They comprised three orders, nobility, clergy, and the third estate, the last named being permitted to have as many members as the two other orders together. When the Estates assembled 5 May, 1789, the Third Estate demanded that the verification of powers should be made in common by the three orders, the object being that the Estates should form but one assembly in which the distinction between the "orders" should disappear and where every member was to have a vote. Scarcely a fourth of the clergy advocated this reform, but from the opening of the Estates it was evident that the desired individual voting which would give the members of the Third Estate, the advocates of reform, an effectual preponderance. . Read More The German school of theological Rationalism formed a part of the more general movement of the eighteenth-century "Enlightenment". It may be said to owe its immediate origin to the philosophical system of Christian Wolff (1679-1754), which was a modification, with Aristotelean features, of that of Leibniz, especially characterized by its spiritualism, determinism, and dogmatism. This philosophy and its method exerted a profound influence upon contemporaneous German religious thought, providing it with a rationalistic point of view in theology and exegesis. German philosophy in the eighteenth century was, as a whole, tributary to Leibniz, whose "Théodicée" was written principally against the Rationalism of Bayle: it was
In 313 AD Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan accepting Christianity. Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 321 AD promulgated this Creed which is part of the liturgy of the Mass in Catholic Church. It became the official religion of the Roman Empire at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. An official Christian Creed, called The Apostles' Creed, was promulgated by the end of the 2nd century AD, and |
