Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: history

Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

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, his as yet unmarried sister, and a wife and two young sons. But that was the way of things. You got out if you could—even if you did it one at a time--and sent for the others when you’d made enough money to pay their way.

Haiman was actually the second Kopelman to leave Vashilishok. His brother Max got out first, and settled in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, some 30 miles away from Pittsburgh. That’s no doubt the reason Haiman decided to hang his hat in New Kensington, a hop, skip, and a jump from his big brother Max, only ten miles away. New Ken is a river town, situated alongside the Allegheny River, making it prime territory for someone with a hankering to become a real live American peddler.

Perhaps “hankering” is a little strong. Let’s just say the plan was this: Haim would peddle goods until he’d made enough to bring over Anna and the boys; Ellis, who would one day become my grandfather, and Nathan. It took a long while for Haiman, more scholar than businessman, to earn their fare, and Anna was getting impatient, but at last there was enough to purchase their passage.

Haiman was jubilant (or maybe not—I wasn’t there) at the thought of being reunited with his wife and two small children. But then his mother wrote that his sister Topazelda—or however it’s spelled--not that it matters, because once she came to the Goldena Medina, she became “Tillie”—was getting married, and there was nothing for her nedunya (dowry). Oy! What to do?

Do you see where this is going? Haiman sent Anna’s ticket money to his mom in Vashilishok so his sister Topazelda—or however it’s spelled—could be married in style—whatever that meant in Vashilishok.

Anna was not a happy camper, or so I’m told.

I picture her tight-lipped, and then finally, resolved: if Haiman wouldn’t buy the tickets, then by cracky—or some Yiddish approximation thereof—she would.

Unlike Haiman, Anna had a knack for business. She opened a leather findings shop, and soon had enough coinage to get herself and the boys on a boat. In fact, Anna did so well with her little business that she had gorgeous velvet suits made for the boys—their father shouldn’t be ashamed when he sees them for the first time in so long.

In actual fact, Haiman blanched when he saw the two boys in their painstakingly hand-crafted velvet suits, or so I’m told. To Haiman, the boys looked like total greeners, right off the boat. Which they were.

I wouldn’t say Haiman was ashamed—though again, I wasn’t there—but he certainly was embarrassed. Which is why, after that first tender reunion—again I wasn’t there, but I certainly hope it was tender—Haiman went out and bought the boys “fifty-cent cotton wash suits,” as my mother called them, cheap, factory-produced, washable suits. Because HEL-LO-O. That’s what normal people wore in America at the turn of the 20^th century, and not some Eastern European velvet bloomer weirdness—I am imagining lace collars here. (I pray not, but again, I wasn’t there.)

One night, Anna, who was a feminist but just didn’t know it or care, approached Haiman as he was compiling a list of items he needed to restock his wares. Anna’s hand dipped into her pocket and brought out a wad of cash (I’m calling it a wad, but who knows?). “Buy double,” she said.

But she wasn't done.

With her cool business head, Anna had saved up not only enough for the tickets and the velvet suits, but also a house. Anna took the $500 she’d put aside for this purpose, and scouted out a two-story home with a big front window. There she put Haiman’s new (doubled) inventory, and the four of them would live upstairs. Thus was born Kopelman’s, a department store.

Haiman and Anna Kopelman

To cut a long story short, the business grew, and as was the custom in those days, Haiman went back to Vashilishok to show he’d done well, to come bearing gifts and make his mother kvell. However, there was a catch. Haiman was now clean-shaven, no longer the bearded young man he’d been when he left his scholarly life in Lithuania. It wasn’t the thing to have a beard in America.

But oy! His mother. If she were to see him beardless, she’d plotz! Not to worry. Haiman had an idea. He’d go to Vashilishok, sure, but first he’d go to Palestine, and visit Anna’s family. Two of her brothers lived there in Jerusalem. One of them had many children. He’d bring everyone gifts and have a nice visit. Meanwhile, he’d be growing his beard. Natch?

Engagement photo of Anna's brother Nachum Shlomo Yanowsky and Chaya Devorah Shick, Jerusalem

Chaya Devorah and Nachum Shlomo in later years

The visit was pleasant.* His beard now suitably long, Haiman traveled on to Lithuania, gave his mother nachas, and then, instead of going straight back to America, he decided he’d take a little side trip to Egypt. There he’d see the pyramids! The Sphinx! “Haiman Kopelman, world traveler!” How cool is that?

There was just one little hitch, it was 1914, and right as Great Grandpa Haiman Kopelman arrived in Egypt, World War I broke out. Egypt was a nice place to visit, but Haiman wanted to get home and while Egypt wasn’t yet involved in the war effort, there were no passenger ships going to America.

This was a problem, not that Haiman knew anything about it. After Haiman left for his world journey, Anna discovered she was pregnant. She meant to surprise him with the news on his return. Indeed it was a surprise.

Because by the time Haiman arrived, so had Anna’s twins, the last of their progeny. It had taken nine months for him to return. Which is why they were twins of course. Nine months for Anna and nine for Haiman’s journey, so of course, two babies.

Which, I was given to understand, was some sort of family joke, though I dunno. It’s kind of strange as joke material, since only one of the twins survived. Maybe Ricky Gervais could do something with that. Or maybe I’m underestimating Haiman and Anna. Maybe when they told it, it was ROFL.

But I digress. This entire story, in fact, was a digression. The story is merely a backdrop for a prized family photo. In the photo is Great Grandpa Haiman, still with his neat little beard, on camelback. In fact, I have named this photo, “Grandpa on a camel.”

The man on the little white donkey beside him is, however, a mystery. Haiman said his fellow traveler was Professor Eliot, the president of Harvard. They spent a long time together, Haiman and Professor Eliot, stuck there as they both were by the exigencies of war. After the two separately managed to get home to America, Eliot sent my great grandpa a signed copy of a complete set of Shakespeare. I do not know who has the set or where it is. I have not seen it. I do not even know if it exists or ever did.

But I tried really hard to find out something about the mysterious Professor Eliot of Harvard. I like to imagine him in deep conversation with my Jewish great grandfather, a former yeshiva bochur from Vashilishok whose mother tongue was Yiddish, and who perhaps had a bit of an accent. (I don’t know that. I wasn’t there. It’s just how it plays out in my mind.)

My correspondence with the librarians at Harvard unfortunately yielded no useful answers as to the identity of the man on the donkey. There was no one who matched, really—there was always something that didn’t fit the picture, and those librarians really tried.

Well, who knows? Maybe “Professor Eliot, president of Harvard” lied to Haiman and had this totally other life and occupation. Maybe he was a vagrant.

No not that. His clothes are too nice. But whatever. Beggar or thief or president of Harvard, the complete set of Shakespeare was certainly a nice touch. Even if I’m not 100% sure it exists or ever did.

*More about that visit another time.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

200 years ago: The Pope forces Jews of Rome, including children, to attend Catholic sermons weekly

From the Stockport Advertiser, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, Dec 17, 1824:

The pope was the recently installed Pope Leo XII, whose papacy started in September 1823.

This edict seems to have been only for the Jews of Rome.

Wikipedia mentions this along with another edict that Leo issued against the Jews:

Laws such as that forbidding Jews to own property and allowing them only the shortest possible time in which to sell what they owned, and that requiring all Roman residents to listen to Catholic catechism commentary, led many of Rome's Jews to emigrate, to Trieste, Lombardy and Tuscany.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

It Took Only 150 Years To Revise The Reputation of General Sherman. How Long Will It Take For Israel? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

“Those people made war on us, defied and dared us to come south to their country, where they boasted they would kill us and do all manner of horrible things. We accepted their challenge, and now for them to whine and complain of the natural and necessary results is beneath contempt."
General William Tecumseh Sherman

General William Tecumseh Sherman was one of the most notable Union generals of the Civil War, famous for his "scorched earth" policy requiring destroying anything useful to the enemy. That was arguably Sherman's main claim to fame -- or infamy.

General Sherman's military career in the Civil War does seem to have some interesting parallels to the current Israel-Gaza War -- beyond the above quote about his view of the South's challenge to the North. His policy for conducting the war has been challenged over 150 years for being destructive and brutal. General Sherman was arguably responsible for committing war crimes:

Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s actions after the capture of Atlanta and his subsequent March to the Sea are sometimes seen as anticipating the pattern of total war in the twentieth century. Some have claimed that Sherman was a war criminal, authorizing plunder and looting of civilian property. But the matter is more complex than either of these charges indicate. In fact, Sherman’s actions were the culmination of a Union policy toward civilians that evolved during the course of the war.

But his reputation appears to be going through a makeover. That redemption gained steam in 2014, as reflected by this marker:

The marker was erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the Georgia Battlefields Association:

On November 15, 1864, during the Civil War, U.S. forces under Gen. William T. Sherman set out from Atlanta on the March to the Sea, a military campaign designed to destroy the Confederacy’s ability to wage war and break the will of its people to resist. After destroying Atlanta’s industrial and business (but not residential) districts, Sherman’s 62,500 men marched over 250 miles, reaching Savannah in mid-December. Contrary to popular myth, Sherman’s troops primarily destroyed only property used for waging war – railroads, train depots, factories, cotton gins, and warehouses. Abandoning their supply base, they lived off the land, destroying food they could not consume. They also liberated thousands of enslaved African Americans in their path. Sherman’s “hard hand of war” demoralized Confederates, hastening the end of slavery and the reunification of the nation.

The media covering the marker at the time picked up on this revision of Sherman's reputation. We can only wonder if the analysis offered just 9 years ago would be made today:

Historians have increasingly written that Sherman’s plan for the systematic obliteration in late 1864 of the South’s war machine, including its transportation network and factories, was destructive but not gratuitously destructive. Instead, those experts contend, the strategy was an effective and legal application of the general’s authority and the hard-edged masterstroke necessary to break the Confederacy.

In other words:

o The force used by the general was proportionate.
o It targeted military -- not civilian -- infrastructure.
o And it did not contravene the law.

This is not to deny the inevitable excesses one expects in war but focuses on the intent of Sherman and his troops.

And what about the accounts of the deliberate brutality of Sherman's troops?

[Experts] have described plenty of family accounts of cruelty as nothing more than fables that unfairly mar Sherman’s reputation.

“What is really happening is that over time, the views that are out there are being challenged by historical research,” said John F. Marszalek, a Sherman biographer and the executive director of the Mississippi-based Ulysses S. Grant Association. “The facts are coming out.”

Family accounts?

Apparently, Hamas terrorists are not the first to recognize the effectiveness of the use of civilian accounts for blackening the reputation of its enemies.

But this is not to say that Sherman's redemption is complete. The South still is bitter over what they view as the war crimes of General Sherman.

Not surprisingly, the battle over Sherman can also be found on college campuses. A professor at the University of Georgia notes that there is a change in attitude where he is teaching:

“You all the time run into college kids who don’t know which side Sherman was on — and their parents and certainly their grandparents would be aghast to know that,” he said. “It’s not just a matter of education. It’s a matter of being the blank slate that younger generations present for revision or education that older generations don’t because they’re steeped in the mythology of their ancestors.”

Has there ever been a time when university students were not blank slates for those with an agenda?

Another interesting parallel appears in Wikipedia, quoting authors who believe that Sherman's conduct of the war influenced the Democratic Party and the elections:

Sherman's success caused the collapse of the once powerful "Copperhead" faction within the Democratic Party, which had advocated immediate peace negotiations with the Confederacy. It also dealt a major blow to the popularity of the Democratic presidential candidate, George B. McClellan, whose victory in the election had until then appeared likely to many, including Lincoln himself. According to Holden-Reid, "Sherman did more than any other man apart from the president in creating [the] climate of opinion" that afforded Lincoln a comfortable victory over McClellan at the polls.

The "progressives" of that time who parallel today's "Ceasefire Now" advocates did not push for a definitive victory over the South. Similarly, McClellan's position on the war is reminiscent of Biden's position on the Israel-Gaza War and the problems that is causing him.

According to ChatGPT:

[McClellan's] platform, as adopted by the Democratic Party, called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. However, McClellan personally distanced himself from the more extreme peace elements of his party, asserting that any peace settlement must include the restoration of the Union. Despite this, his campaign was seen as an attempt to end the war through compromise rather than military victory.

But none of this helps Israel.

General William Tecumseh Sherman died in 1891. There have been over 130 years for the dust to settle, for some degree of objectivity to set in, and for a re-examination of Sherman and his actions to begin to be re-evaluated.

It will be a long time before analysis of Israel and its modern history approaches anything near objectivity.

(Hat tip: PreOccupied Territory)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The UN's history of the "Question of Palestine" omits every single Palestinian attack on Jews

The UN has a webpage where it shows a timeline on the "Question of Palestine."

It is biased as hell.

It starts with "1885 – The term 'Zionism' first coined by the Viennese writer, Nathan Birnbaum."

There is no mention of Jewish history in the region for thousands of years. No mention of Jewish kingdoms. No mention of the centrality of Eretz Israel and Jerusalem to Judaism. No mention of the Bible.

But after that, it simply ignores or whitewashes every single act of terrorism by Palestine's Arabs.

It doesn't mention the murderous Palestinian pogrom against Jews in 1929.

It says, "1936/1939 – Palestinian rebellion against the British Mandate and Jewish immigration." But not that Arabs murdered Jews, just that it was a "rebellion."

It doesn't say anything about the Arab League boycott of Jews.

It doesn't mention any Arab attacks on Jews in 1947-48. No outbreak of hostilities hours after the UN Partition resolution, no mention of the constant attacks on Jewish civilians, no mention of the Hadassah Hospital convoy massacre or the many other attacks on Jewish civilians - but it does mention Deir Yassin, and exaggerates the number of dead as "hundreds." .

The UN gets the date of Israel's independence wrong, saying it happened on May 15, 1948.

There were scores of fedayeen attacks by Palestinian Arabs against Israel in the 1950s and 60s, and hundreds of Israelis were killed. Not one incident is mentioned.

But the UN describes the 1966 As-Samu incident, where Israeli and Jordanian troops battled after a land mine killed 3 IDF soldiers, as a "massacre" of Palestinians. 15 Jordanian soldiers and three civilians were killed. It was not a massacre by any definition.

There is not one mention of Palestinian airplane hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s.

It says, "1987 – First 'Intifada' begins in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip." It doesn't mention that the intifada killed hundreds of Israelis. The many terror attacks that occurred during the Oslo process are nowhere to be found.

Similarly, it says, "Ariel Sharon’s al-Haram al-Sharif visit in September 2000 triggers the Second Palestinian Intifada."

Not a word about Palestinian suicide bombings, or bus bombings, or attacks on pizza shops and Passover seders and bar mitzvahs.

And of course no mention later about rockets from Gaza, massacring rabbis or kidnapping and murdering kids. Hamas is not mentioned as a terror group - or even militant group. In fact, the word "terror" is nowhere to be seen. Neither is "Islam," "Muslim" or "Jihad," although Jews are mentioned.

The Holocaust is not mentioned either. There is simply no information on why Jews might want to have their own homeland in the region.

There is plenty of other anti-Israel bias in wording and choice of incidents.

According to this official UN history, Palestinians have not attacked, let alone killed, a single Jew. The only aggression mentioned is from Jewish and Zionist groups.

The UN's anti-Israel bias is unmistakable even in this public document that is pretending to be objective.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

End the Lebanese and Jordanian occupation of Palestine!

I love when I tweet and the Israel haters are reduced to gibberish in response.

I had tweeted,

Proof #619 that calling Israel "apartheid" is antisemitic:

Lebanon treats Palestinians worse than Israel by every conceivable yardstick. Discrimination is enshrined in law. Yet no one accuses Lebanon of "apartheid."

The responses from modern antisemites were all along the lines of:

"Whataboutism!" (meaning, don't talk about Palestinian suffering unless it can be blamed on Israel)

"You are a liar!" (without any links or proof)

"Of course it's apartheid - everyone says so!" (appeal to authority fallacy)

But a couple of people responded with something like, "Lebanon isn't occupying Palestinian territory!"

Are they sure?

Here's a map of Palestine from 1870:

It includes large amounts of todays Lebanon as well as much of today's Jordan.

How come no Palestinian is upset at the occupation of Lebanon and Jordan of Palestine?

But, you might respond, this is a Western map. Maybe Arabs felt that Palestine before 1923 included the exact borders of the British Mandate and no more.

Well, here is a 1918 map of Palestine, labeled as such, in Arabic:

It doesn't include Lebanon but a great deal of Jordan is included in this map.

Based on this map, it sure looks like at least Jordan is occupying ancient sacred Palestinian lands!

Why aren't we seeing Palestinians demanding "Free Palestine from Jordan and (maybe) Lebanon!"

Maybe for the same reason that the PLO in 1964 didn't claim the West Bank or Gaza as being part of "Palestine."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The British didn't leave Palestine on May 15, 1948 - but on June 30

The last British soldiers did not leave Palestine until six weeks after Israel declared independence.

The British continues to control Haifa's port until June 30, when they finally left and Israel took over.

And within hours of the withdrawal, Israel introduced its new navy. (London Daily Herald, July 1 1948)

It was so small that United Press put the word "navy" in scare quotes.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

1639: The Jews of Jerusalem escape destruction when their prayers end a drought

This story was written as an appendix to "AN INFORMATION, CONCERNING The Present STATE OF THE JEWISH NATION IN EƲROPE and JƲDEA," probably written by Henry Jessey of England in 1658.

The state of the Jews at Jerusalem hath been many hundred years of late such, as that they ever lived of the supply and Contributions from their brethren abroad; because the place doth yield but little occasion for them to maintain themselves: and besides those that betake themselves thither, are either Old men or Women, only to do penitency and lay down their bones near the Sepulchers of their fore-fathers: or of younger men that for respect to the holiness of the place (as supposing God to be nearer there, and that all prayers must needs ascend that way into heaven) come thither, there to ply devotion and penitency for the sins of themselves and the whole Nation: and therefore cannot attend any trading, but all their time is taken up with praying, reading and hearing Sermons; as also with fastings and watchings and the like penitential Exercises: which intent and endeavours their Brethren abroad amongst the Nations well knowing, and with all desiring to keep (as it were) possession, or at least a footing in Jerusalem, and to shew their holiness till a full restitution come, have been ever willing to uphold them in it: and to that purpose, wherever any Synagogues of Jews are, on every Sabbath-day a Collection is made for the poor at Jerusalem; and what so is gathered, they are to send thither every year., therefore the Jews of Poland, &c. By the Turks (and especially their debts made for want of supply amongst the Citizens) being rigorously exacted, they were haled into prison, &c.

An Instance hereof is this, that in the year 5399. from the Creation, which is now nineteen years ago, there was a great drought in Jerusalem, which had put all Inhabitants to prayers, the Necessity being extream: but the worst of all was this, that an apostated Jew going out to the Turks, persuaded unto the then Bassa, the Lord Mahomet Bassa, that the sole cause that the heaven were shut up, were the Jews by reason of their disobedience unto God; whereupon an Edict was put forth, commanding all Jews, great and small, young and old, to be cast out of the Town presently.

Whereupon some eight of their Eldest were sent up to the said Bassa: which Eldest with great Expences bestowed partly on the Bassa, and partly on his Consellours, had much to do, to crave only three dayes delay: If perhaps within that time the Lord should accept of their prayers and penitency: If not, and that the Lord gave no Rain, he might do with him what he pleased.

This being so stated, it was proclaimed throughout the City, that if within three days no rain came, all the Jews should be expelled, and their goods made prize to the Turks: and whosoever should be found remaining, was to be killed.

Hence arose a doleful lamentation amongst the Jews: a continual fasting for those three nights and days was put upon all, except Babes and Women with Child or in Child-bed, who were bound only to one day and night: So they prayed and humbled themselves all that while with great Cries and Weepings, so that the voice of it was heard throughout the City; and on the Evening on the second day, they seeing no likely-hood their prayers should be heard, and judging their sins to be too great, they took a Resolution, like to Saul, rather to kill one another, one Brother the other, the Father his Children, the Husband his Wife, &c. then to suffer themselves to be polluted by the merciless Turks.

Yet one thing they would first request of the Bassa. viz. That they might all go out to the Sepulchre of the Prophet Zacharia, which was out of the Town, and whither they could not come without his consent. So one R. Emanuel Albachry was sent unto him, who hearing of their desperate Resolutions pitied them and said, Go ye and make your prayers there, if perhaps God might hear you and save you from being killed.

So on the morning of the third day early, all went forth and laid themselves down at the Sepulchre of Zacharia, and there wept bitterly. One R. Asaria made a very pathetical Sermon, and caused all the people to weep, and so did R. Meyer likewise. And at Length arose one R. Samuel, who put the people in mind of the sins of their forefathers, and against this Prophet, at whose Tomb they now were prostrated, how they arose against him, and stoned him most cruelly: how (said he,) shall we here obtain mercy at his feet, seeing our Fathers had no mercy on him? At which words the people wept bitterly, and struck their hands together, and poured out tears as water, and lift up their voices, men and women, young and old: and the Lord remembered.

These are the words of R. Samuel Ben Seth, as the next page show his surety: and he made this R. Samuel to think on the words of the Prophet Elijah on the Mount Carmel, when he said to his man go up and see, &c. and therefore commanded the people to go seven times round about the Sepulchre, at the first Circuition he ordained Psalm 24. and certain prayers to be pronounced; at the second he assigned Psalm 48. and other prayers, and so at each of the seven Circuits some peculiar Psalm and prayer till the Vespertime came. And then the people going forth saw a little Cloud on the West side of Heaven as large as the palm of a hand.

That very day it had been very hot, even as it had been Mid Summer, so that no man could have believed any rain could have fallen that day; which made that the Turks had already gathered up stones, wherewith they thought to have stone the Jews at their return into the City: But such was God's providence that even that day before Sun-setting the said Cloud grew thick, and a wind began to blow, and then came Thundering, and Lightning, and such a blessed shown of Rain, that in two or three hours all the Cisterns were brim-full; so that for the Rains sake the Jews were forced to remain that whole Night in Holes and Concavities of the Sepulchre. And when on the next morning the Women went first of all toward Jerusalem, the Turkish Women met them by the way, and Congratulated them, that God had heard their prayers; and so likewise many of the Chief Turks met with the men, and brought them some presents of fruits and Confitures; and the Bassa bestowed a suite of apparel on every one of their Rabbis.

This is an extract drawn out of an Authentique Copie, written by the said R. Samuel, and signed by all the Elders of the High-Dutch Synagoge at Jerusalem, 1657. April. 22. An other Instance of the same kind we could add of the year (as we count) 1651. and another yet since while Rab. Nathan was here; but this afore mentioned being most Considerable and most Authentical, and exactly pend, whereas the others are but received by word of mouth, we shall here desist. This being sufficient to manifest unto us, that however despised this people is by men, yet that the Lord doth yet own them and accept of their prayers, when none but he can help, when ever with a penitent and contrite heart they repent of their sins and call for mercy, as we have seen here at the Sepulchre of the Prophet Zachary.

Some say the events happened in 1651, others say 1639 which seems more in line with this narrative (5399 Hebrew year.)

The book also describes how poverty-stricken the Jews of Jerusalem were, relying on charity from Jews in Europe. It describes how Christians contributed to their welfare one year when they were punished by the Ottoman authorities for not coming up with the amount of taxes they normally were able to raise because of a war in Poland, causing controversy since the Christians were known for wanting to convert all the Jews, but the fundraiser rabbi assured Jerusalem's Jews that this was voluntary - he hadn't asked for the money - and there were no strings attached.

[S]ince the desolation, brought by war upon Poland, and the other parts, whence that supply was sent unto them, they have been in great extremity of want; insomuch, that in the year one thousand six hundred to death, and the taxes laid upon them by the Turks, being rigorously exacted, they were haled into prison, their Synagogues were shut up, their Rabbi's and Elders beaten and cruelly used. So that to find relief, because none came from Poland, Lithuania, and other parts of Europe, by the late war, and none could be had in those parts form their own, by reason of the general Pressures, which the Turks without Mercy laid upon them all, they send two of their chief Rabbi's to their Brethren in Europe, to acquaint them with their state, and to desire some help from them. The chief of the Rabbi's was called Nathan Saphira, son to the high Lord, Ruben David Tavel, a man of great learning, and skill in their Cabala, and of a very pious, holy and humble disposition, who coming with his companion from Jerusalem upon this errand, and finding at Amsterdam little relief from the Portugal Jews, became accidentally acquainted with some of our Christian friends, who pitied their Condition, and were of their own accord moved to procure some relief unto them among their other Christian friends...

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!