Grandpa on a Camel: A Family Story (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: Family stories vary according to the teller and also change over time. This story is based on memories my mother shared with me. I have likely embellished it greatly with my imagination. Any inaccuracies belong solely to me. It was hard for Haiman Kopelman, my great grandfather, to leave Vashilishok. He was not only leaving the city he called home, but his widowed mother,...

Read More

Memo to Abbas: Jews are Not Descended from Khazars; Here’s Proof (Judean Rose)

"Battle Scene," Folio from a Zafarnama (Book of Victories) of Sharaf al-Din 'Ali YazdiJews aren’t really Jews, according to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, but Khazars, a nomadic Turkic people. These “Khazar Jews” Abbas claims, have no connection to the Land of Israel, just an invented history and a false narrative of religious rights to the Land of Israel. This, of course, is...

Read More

My Ancestor Played Dead in a Coffin to Make Aliyah (Judean Rose)

The story goes that my two times great grandfather, Mordechai Shmuel Yanovsky, entered Yaffa port playing dead in a coffin, his wife, my two times great grandmother, Taibe Leah, playing the part of the grieving widow. According to my now 96-year-old 2nd cousin one time removed, who is Israeli through and through, our ancestor came into the Holy Land in a coffin because the...

Read More