Nathan Straus American Jews, in the beginning dominated by the Sephardim, have maintained a connection to the Land of Israel since the mid 18th century and through America’s early years. Then when the German Jewish community became dominant in the mid 19th century, this connection continued. Another aspect that both groups had in common was slavery. Jewish participation in the slave trade was miniscule, but that didn’t mean that no Jew participated in some aspect of it. There were German Jews, as well as Sephardi Jews who had slaves. Some were hypocrites – they opposed slavery even ..read more

This posting is a continuation of the series of the Jews of medieval Spain and their connections to the ancestral homeland. In this article, we focus on the period from the latter 11th century to the latter 12th century (and a little after). Although much of Spain had been ruled by Muslims since their conquest of the area in 711, a small part of the Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Christians. In the north, there was the Christian Kingdom of Aragon, created sometime in the late 10th/early 11th century. Its two major cities was Valencia and Barcelona, capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Bef ..read more

As the war against Hamas rages on in Gaza, so has Arab terrorism continued both within and from Judea and Samaria. In response, the army is often forced to conduct raids into the various Arab settlements throughout the area and in the process, soldiers are discovering hidden weapons caches, tunnels, etc., in residential, medical, and educational areas, just as in Gaza. Among these settlements raided is the Arab settlement in the Jewish holy city of Hebron. On November 16, a group of terrorists, two of which were from Hebron and who were affiliated with Hamas, carried out a terror attack at the ..read more

Before the Hamas atrocities on October 7th, the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria were often victims of Arab terrorism and many were killed as a result. This did not stop after the events of the 7th. There are still car and knife attacks, and stones are still thrown at Israeli motorists, putting people’s lives in danger. The people of the Jewish town of Shiloh, for example, have suffered its own fair share of terrorism over the years (though not necessarily in the town itself), and some have also made the ultimate sacrifice in defending the country. One such tragedy occurred on November 4t ..read more

  Historically, there has been no greater a friend of Israel than the United States. And this was made perfectly clear with recent events when President Biden publicly stood in solidarity with Israel, as did his predecessor President Trump. The two countries had never been in a state of war, or armed conflict, and Israel has never provoked the United States to have sanctions placed on it. Even though the US has historically been plagued by anti-Semitism as with many other countries around the world, the American Jewish community has always been the largest (today, the second largest afte ..read more

  The Nabi Habeel Mosque overlooking the Zabadani Valley, illegally built on top of Abel's Tomb, banned to indigenous Syrians On a hill in Syria near the Lebanese border, located in the mountains near the settlement of al-Husseineyah west of Damascus and overlooking the Zabadani Valley and the villages of the Wadi Barada, is a religious shrine, the Nabi Habeel Mosque. It was built in 1599 by the Wali Ahmad Pasha, a Bosnian subject of the Ottoman Empire, supposedly over the burial site of Abel, of Cain and Abel fame. As a Bosnian, Ahmad Pash ..read more

King Abdullah I, courtesy, Wikipedia Have you ever wondered how “Jordan” got to be “Jordan”? Well in fact, one would have to go back only 100 years at a time when the Arabs were beginning their quest to take over the entire Middle East and North Africa at the expense of the region’s non-Arab indigenous peoples – something they hadn’t done since the 7th century. (This quest, BTW, is still going on today, although to a somewhat lesser extent.) As far as Jordan was concerned, it was Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, the son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who led the Arab takeover of t ..read more

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, 1880s, courtesy, Wikipedia For Jews, friends in the international community, whether a head of state or the common man, are few and far between. That’s not to say that Jews have no friends. In fact, contrary to what I just stated, Jews have many friends. On the other hand, this also produces a quandary. What if a world leader has maintained a very close relationship with Jews but were tyrants to other peoples, such as the leaders of the American south who also held African slaves, or Napoleon who also persecuted and expelled the Huguenots from France, or even today wh ..read more

  Pentateuch in Hebrew and Judeo Persian The Jewish community of Persia, today Iran, is probably one of the oldest Diaspora communities in the world along with, what is now, Iraq, and goes back roughly 2500 years. The history of the Jews in this country could best be summarized by stating “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. The best of times were very good and Jews excelled in the arts, commerce, and politics. The worst of times were not very good and was marked by severe persecution which included expulsions and sometimes forced conversion to Islam (the 1839 pog ..read more

  For many years, the Portuguese government did not recognize Israel and actively supported its enemies. It wasn’t until 1977, three years after the revolution toppled the dictatorial government, that relations were established, and both countries have maintained ambassadors in each other’s countries ever since – although, sometimes not in the friendliest of terms. After all, a former Portuguese prime minister is now secretary general of that shithole in New York. On the other hand, an Israeli won the Eurovision Contest when it was hosted by Portugal in 2018. So as with Britain, Israeli ..read more