The Jewish Footprint in the Holy Land: Our Ancient Past
There is, perhaps, no other country that so definitively and incontrovertibly demonstrates the link between its land and its people than Israel. While other peoples such as the Phoenicians, lived in the Holy Land before the Jews, they are long extinct. Today only the Jews have a unique, G-d-given claim to the land. Thousands upon thousands of archaeological sites, inscriptions, and documents have been found attesting to an unbroken history of Jewish habitation dating back over 2,000 years. Walls, fortresses, Synagogues-shuls, coins and royal seals are just a few types of evidence of our connection with the Holy Land. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you can find evidence of the Jewish past almost everywhere you go in Israel. What’s more is that amazing new discoveries are made every year, making Israeli archaeology one of the most dynamic and fascinating fields of historical research. In a time where an alarming number of voices deny the legitimacy of the Jewish presence in Israel, archaeological and historical evidence are all the more important in providing evidence of our rightful claim. This article will highlight some of the important pieces of evidence in presenting our case.
- Coins from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt
- Buriel site of Hillel Hazaken
- An ancient Gezer calendar in the city of Tel Gezer. This is one of the oldest surviving Hebrew texts, written in ‘paleo-Hebrew’ which was the norm before the Babylonian exile
- The Stele of Mesha, King of Moab, which recorded his victories against the Kingdom of Israel
- Vintage Hebrew seals on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem
- A half shekel which has the words Jerusalem the Holy, circa 66-70 CE
- Cave of Machpelah
- Tomb of Avrohom Avinu
- Birkat Kohanim at the Western Wall
- Western Wall tunnel oposite the Kodesh Hakadoshim
- The Qumran caves
- One of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Gamla: Don’t think that Masada was the only site of Jewish resistance against the Romans! Gamla (meaning camel) nestles dramatically on a steep hill in the Golan Heights and is known as the Masada of the North. Jewish settlement there dates back to the 3rd century B.C.E. Excavations have revealed that Gamla’s Shul is one of the oldest in the world. Archaeologists have also found a mikvah and thousands of Herodian coins. The small town was less than 20 years old when it stood against the tyrant Vespasian in the Great Jewish Revolt. Despite the community’s bravery, having forced the Romans into retreat several times, they were eventually overwhelmed in 67 C.E. and, according to Josephus, the 9,000 inhabitants committed suicide by throwing themselves down the cliff-side. You can learn more about Gamla’s history by visiting the Golan Antiquities Museum in nearby Katzrin.
- Gamla, otherwise known as the Masada of the north
- Remenants of the ancient village an synagogue in Katzrin
Beit Alfa National Park: This 6th century C.E. shul located near Kibbutz Hefzibah is best known for its richly detailed floor mosaics. One of the mosaics depicts the binding of Yitzchak while another depicts a shul scene and objects such as a lulav, esrog, and shofar. The third mosaic is a Hebraized Greco-Roman Zodiac wheel, demonstrating the cultural influence of the West on ancient Jewish culture.
- A mosaic of the Mazal of each month
- A mosaic depicting the Akeida
- The Ashkenazi Ari Shul where it’s said the Ari Hakadosh would Daven on Erev Shabbos
- The Arizal’s Mikvah
- Tomb of the Rashbi
Tiberias: The Rambam’s tomb is not only one of Israel’s most important religious sites, but it’s also the most dramatic claim to fame for the beautiful lakeside city of Tiberias. The tomb’s walkway has seven pillars on each side inscribed with names of the 14 chapters of the Rambam’s seminal work, the Mishneh Torah. A stream flows along the sides, an allusion to his father Maimon whose name is derived from mayim. Also buried within the complex is Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz, the 16th century Kabbalist who authored the Shnei Luchos HaBris which had a significant impact on the development of Hasidism. The Tanna Yochanan ben Zakai is buried right next to the Rambam.
Tiberias is also home to the tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, the legendary miracle worker and renowned Tanna. On his yahrzeit 14 Iyar (also the date of Pesach Sheni), thousands flock to his tomb near the Tiberias hot springs to pray for success and good health. The hot springs are famous in their own right, having cured Shimon Bar Yochai of a foot ailment. And Tiberias also has the honor of serving as the final resting place for Rabbi Akiva. Tradition states that his body was miraculously transported to Tiberias along with his students that had died in a plague. His tomb has been a place of pilgrimage since at least the early Middle Ages and it is a custom to pray there for rain during times of drought. The Arizal was just one of the many luminaries to have visited this site. You can also visit the tomb of Rabbi Akiva’s wife, Rachel.
- Tomb of Rabbi Akiva
- Tomb of his wife Rochel of whom he said “your learning and my learning, belongs to her”
King David’s Tomb: According to a millennium-old tradition, King David’s tomb is located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. This claim is controversial as the original tomb was most likely destroyed during the Bar Kochba Revolt and its location has been lost. Despite its questionable authenticity, the Tomb of David has attracted worshipers for centuries. Jews come far and wide to his grave and say Tehillim, the Psalms remaining one of King David’s most endearing accomplishments. On his yahrzeit on erev Shavuos, it is customary to pray and study Torah all night at his tomb.
Tzidkiyahu’s Cave: Located beneath the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, this cave bears witness to one of the most tragic events in Israel’s history. It is here in this melekeh limestone quarry that Tzidkiyahu, the last king of Yehuda (Southern Israel), was forced to witness the murder of his sons and had his eyes gouged out after being deposed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (2 Kings 25:1-6). A legend about the cave holds that it was the source of the rock used to construct the First Temple.
Tomb of Shmuel HaNavi: The cave below the former Crusader fortress of Nebi Samwil in the hills of West Jerusalem is the burial place of Shmuel HaNavi. The Crusaders had found Shmuel’s remains in the coastal town of Ramla and relocated them here. Shmuel’s traditional burial place is Mitzpah where he was chosen to lead the Bnei Yisrael. Nebi Samwil is one of two possible locations for Mitzpah, the other being Tell-en-Nasbeh, located 8 miles north of Jerusalem.
(Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, Israel Ministry of Tourism, Jerusalem Post)
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Gaza’s Forgotten Jewish Past
Considering recent headlines, it’s hard to imagine that the Gaza Strip, a coastal region of modern Israel plagued by conflict and Islamic extremism, was not always the Jewish no-man’s land that it is today. In fact, Jews had a significant presence and rich culture in Gaza that dates to Biblical times. Gazan Jews out-lasted many empires throughout the centuries until they were evicted in the Disengagement of 2005 under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This article will outline the course of Gaza’s Jewish history, providing a glimpse into one of the most under-appreciated and politically relevant chapters of our past.
Gaza (called Azza in Hebrew) is first mentioned in the Tanakh by name as one of the five main Philistine cities. The Philistines (also called Kaftorim in the Tanakh) had conquered the land from the Avvites (Devarim 2:23) who had made Gaza an important administrative center. Gaza is best known in the Tanakh as the place where Shimshon performed his heroic feats of strength and where he was later betrayed and killed. Gaza was given to the Israelites and added to the territory of the tribe of Yehuda (see Yehoshua 15:47, Shoftim 1:18 and 2 Melakhim 18:5-8). While the political borders of Gaza have changed since Biblical times, many argue that most, if not all, of modern-day Gaza is indeed part of Biblical Israel.
In fact, the renowned authority Rabbi Yaakov Emden wrote “Gaza and its environs are absolutely considered part of the Land of Israel, without a doubt. There is no doubt that it is a mitzvah to live there, as in any part of the Land of Israel.” (Mor U’ketziyah) As for the Philistines, most scholars argue that they are long extinct as a people and thus bear no relation to the modern-day Palestinians.
After David’s defeat of Goliath and the subsequent downfall of the Philistines, Gaza entered a long period of political turmoil. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Ptolemean Greeks all laid claim to Gaza. Notably, Gaza City was the only city that resisted Alexander the Great’s army.
Though the land was awarded to the Children of Israel in the time of Yehoshua ben Nun, Gaza didn’t come into the possession of the Jews until centuries later in 145 B.C.E. during the Hasmonean civil war. The conquest of Gaza came at the hands of Judah HaMaccabi’s brother King Yochanan the Hasmonean 22 years after Judah and his warriors claimed victory over the Greek pagan king Antiochus Epiphanies.
After the Roman invasion, Emperor Augustus gave the town to the infamous King Herod. However, the Roman governor Gabinius made Gaza an exclusively Roman city in 61 C.E. and expelled the Jews. Jewish forces briefly held the town in the great revolt of 67-70 C.E. but were finally defeated by Rome.
The later defeat of Bar Kokhba’s Second Jewish Revolt in 135 C.E. left the Jewish population in ruins with many sent to the Gazan slave markets (the Tanakh mentions slavery in Gaza in Amos 1:6-7).
In the 4th century, Jews returned to Gaza and made it a thriving commercial port and point of entry for Jews coming to the Holy Land.
Later in 635 C.E., the Romans (now called the Byzantines) were defeated by the conquering Arab army and the region was added to the Islamic empire. Gaza was held by the Crusaders in the early 12th century until it fell once again to the Muslims at the hands of Saladin. The Jewish community declined until the Ottoman empire took over Gaza, along with the rest of Eretz Yisrael.
During the Ottoman period, several notable Jewish figures made Gaza their home. For example, we have Rabbi Yisrael Najara who served as Gaza’s Chief Rabbi and chief of the city’s beis din. He also wrote many beautiful poems and hymns including the famous Zemiros Yisrael and Kah Ribbon Olam which are now key parts of our tefillos. Another important Gazan was the Moroccan-born Rabbi Avraham Azulai, a famous Kabbalistic author who wrote Chesed le-Avraham.
The Jews of Gaza suffered another brief setback when the French, with the help of the local Arab population, invaded in 1799 and set about persecuting the Jewish community.
All went well after that until August 1929 when Arab riots killed an estimated 135 Jews. As a result the British administration expelled the small Jewish population from Gaza both for their “protection” and to appease Arab sentiments. Despite British wishes though, a few Jews returned and established Kfar Darom, the first modern settlement, in 1946.
This settlement didn’t last very long as Egyptian forces conquered Gaza City and the newly created Gaza Strip during the War of Independence in 1948. The Egyptian occupation was made official as stipulated in the 1949 Armistice Agreement and many Arabs from the rest of Israel moved to Gaza during this period. Egyptian rule in Gaza lasted until the Six-Day War of 1967 when it was liberated by Israeli forces.
The settlement movement began with the re-establishment of Kfar Darom in 1970 and expanded greatly over the next three decades. Before the 2005 Disengagement, there were a total of 21 Gazan settlements including the huge 17-settlement bloc of Gush Katif on the southern coast. The Oslo Accords of 1993 preceded the Disengagement with Israel handing over control of some parts of Gaza to the PLO.
- Neve Dekalim pre disengagement
- The inhabitants of Kfar Darom being forcibly removed
Some of this physical evidence includes a mosaic depicting David written in Hebrew found on the shore of Gaza’s harbor in 1965 by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority. Another notable discovery attesting to the Jews’ millennia-old presence in Gaza is an ancient shul, excavated by an Israeli archaeologist in 1967, that dates back to the 6th century C.E. Ironically, researchers also found a Talmudic-era relief on a pillar of the Great Mosque of Gaza depicting a shofar, menorah, and lulav. Tradition states that this mosque was the original site of the pagan Philistine temple which Shimshon destroyed. In addition to the numerous verses in the Tanakh, these and other archaeological finds provide proof of a Jewish presence in Gaza dating back to at least 1500 B.C.E.
(Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, Jewish Encyclopedia, Victor Sharpe writing for American Thinker, Gary Fitleberg writing for Israel National News)
World War One and the Jews
ByWorld War I is commonly thought of in terms of its epic battles: Verdun, Gallipoli, Somme and so forth. But while the war shook the world to its core in a hitherto unprecedented bloodbath, the Jews of Europe took an especially hard blow – one that would set the scene for the horrors of World War II.
After the outbreak of WWI in 1914, many young Jewish men volunteered for military service in their respective countries, especially in anti-Semitic strongholds such as Germany and Russia, in hopes of proving their loyalty. Many more Jews were conscripted as European countries adopted a total war footing. Ironically, German Jews fought and died in greater numbers than any other ethnic or religious group in Germany. According to historian Brian Rygg: “About 10,000 [Jews] volunteered for duty, and over 100,000 out of a total German-Jewish population of 550,000 served during World War One. Some 78% saw front-line duty, 12,000 died in battle, over 30,000 received decorations, and 19,000 were promoted. Approximately 2,000 Jews became military officers and 1,200 became medical officers.” (Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers, pg. 72)
Despite these sacrifices, anti-Semites within the German military command began to suspect Jewish soldiers of disloyalty. Thus, in October 1916, the German High Command instituted the Judenzählung or “Jewish census” to “prove” that Jewish soldiers were routinely shying away from front-line duty. Of course, the results proved just the opposite. 78% of Jewish soldiers served on the frontlines, a far higher percentage than that of the general population. Sadly though, the census results were never released to the general public. As the tide of war turned against Germany, anti-Semitism ramped up as many German politicians and military figures were quick to blame their own failures on the Jews’ alleged “stab in the back.”
The Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent fears of a Jewish-Bolshevik plot, in addition to the economic collapse immediately after the war’s end and the harsh terms of the treaty of Versailles, all contributed to the perfect storm that allowed the Nazis to eventually grab hold of Germany’s reigns and plunge Europe into chaos once again. Yet, even in Nazi Germany the legacy of the Jewish soldiers of WWI lived on. Hugo Gutmann, a German Jew who was Hitler’s commanding officer in the war and who personally awarded him the Iron Cross, serves as an ironic testament to this legacy. Despite their murderous anti-Semitism, the Nazis had just enough decency to guarantee Guttmann’s pension throughout WWII. In another strange turn of events, the Nazis also honored one Hermann Bendheim who was profiled in a recent issue of Haaretz. Bendheim was a Jewish-German soldier who served in France and who was given a badge of honor by Nazi representatives in Jerusalem in 1935. Ironically, Bendheim would later join a unit dedicated to protecting then-Palestine from a potential German invasion in WWII.
Yet, while German Jewry’s contributions towards the German war effort are one of the most noteworthy aspects of WWI’s Jewish history, especially in light of Germany’s treatment of its Jews in WWII, of even greater note are the profound and tumultuous changes undergone in and shortly after the war by Eastern European Jewry. They experienced anti-Semitism, pogroms, battle casualties, hunger, and population displacement to an unprecedented degree. While anti-Semitism in Germany was not at all insignificant, the level of persecution and hardship Jews faced in Russia and Russian-occupied lands was on a much larger scale.
As in Germany, young Russian-Jewish men believed they could earn the respect of their non-Jewish peers by fighting in the Great War to defend the Russian Motherland. Over 600,000 of them served in the Russian army, 80,000 of whom served on the frontlines and about 100,000 of whom were killed. Unlike in Germany where Jews were afforded at least some measure of dignity, the Russian media and politico-military establishment harbored a profound distrust of Russian Jews that manifested itself as early as August 1914 when the authorities intercepted a German message urging Jews to overthrow the Russian government. Furthermore, the German Foreign Ministry employed Jewish leaders to spread anti-Russian propaganda. Zionist leader Max Bodenheimer was particularly outspoken in his support of the German regime and established a Committee for Liberating the Russian Jews whose goal was to create a German-dominated buffer state between Russia and Germany in which Jews would be safe. While this initial support for Germany on the part of Jews would prove to be short-lived, many Jews nevertheless saw a German-controlled Eastern Europe as preferable to the barbarism of Russian anti-Semitism. Indeed, some prayed for Germany to liberate Eastern Europe.
Jewish civilians bore the brunt of Czar Nicholas II’s wartime policies. The czarist regime expelled some half a million Jews from the areas of Lithuania and Latvia on suspicion of collaboration with the enemy. Tens of thousands of Jews were displaced by Russian and German troops in other areas such as Galicia and Bucovina bringing the total number of refugees to around 600,000. Some fled to Central Europe, especially Vienna, and others to Warsaw, Vilna, and the Russian interior. The Pale of Settlement which had defined Jewish political life since 1791 had effectively ceased to be.
Jewish life in Eastern Europe was almost totally shattered. Not only did Jewish refugees face economic loss, hunger, and disease, but the war also marked the beginning of the end for the shtetl. To deal with this humanitarian and spiritual crisis, Jews organized their own relief committees, some of which were ironically funded by the Russian government. While the refugee crisis was greatest in German-occupied lands of Eastern Europe, the German authorities did allow the Jews to organize themselves politically, a move which led some to naively believe that the Germans would grant Jews autonomy in these lands.
All hopes of favorable treatment by the Germans, much less the czarists, evaporated in the Russian Revolution of 1917. While Jews in Russia suddenly found themselves enjoying unprecedented freedoms, the German government, its puppet leaders in Eastern Europe, and pro-czarist forces all suspected the Jews of orchestrating the revolution and treated Jews in their territories as potential Bolshevik spies.
The Russian Civil War of 1918-1921 wreaked further havoc upon the battered Jewish population of Eastern Europe. Throughout the war, both the czarists and Bolsheviks committed pogroms, mostly in Ukraine, which resulted in the murder of another 50,000 Jews. Jews flocked in droves to the Bolshevik party given that Bolshevik pogroms were statistically less deadly than czarist ones, and that many Jews saw them as infinitely better than the reviled czarist regime.
In addition to Bolshevism, Zionism too received a major boost in WWI. As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the British saw their opportunity to advance their interests in the Middle East by taking control of Palestine. British policymakers saw an alliance with the Zionists as a way of maintaining a foothold in Palestine and encouraging America’s Jewish community to pressure the U.S. to enter the war, something the British badly needed in 1917 as they were stuck in a stalemate with the Germans. Thus, in November 1917, at the behest of future Israeli president Chaim Weizmann, the British government issued the famous Balfour Declaration which supported the Jewish people’s right to a “national home in Palestine.” Just five weeks later, General Allenby captured Jerusalem from the Ottomans and all of Palestine came under British rule less than a year later. Additionally, the legendary Zionist figures Vladimir Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor first came to prominence in WWI with their establishment of the Jewish Legion, a militia affiliated with the British Army and which fought with the British against the Ottomans in Palestine. The Jewish Legion would eventually serve as the basis for the IDF.
As we mark the hundredth anniversary of one of the most cataclysmic events in human history, we should remember that World War One was also one of the most traumatic events for the Jews. Entire communities were displaced, hundreds were killed, and traditional life was destroyed in most of Europe. After the war, Jews left Europe in droves heading for America, Palestine and elsewhere. While WWI has been overshadowed by the far greater horrors of WWII, we as Jews have a responsibility to ensure that those lost in WWI aren’t forgotten and to recognize that WWI affected the course of Jewish history up to this day.
(Sources: YIVO Encyclopedia, Jewish Virtual Library, Haaretz)
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The Jews of Iraq: Fallen Glory
“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept…” – Tehilim 137:1
With the recent takeover of large portions of Iraq by the ISIS terrorist army and the possibility that Iraq will no longer exist as a nation, it’s worth stepping back and marveling at the millenia of incredibly rich and beautiful Jewish history that was all but lost within the span of less than a century. Indeed, it almost defies the imagination to think that Iraq, a country now plagued by violence and sectarianism, has a Jewish history stretching back to Biblical times.
The history starts in 722 B.C.E. when a large portion of Jews in northern Israel were exiled to Babylonia by the invading Assyrian army. The Babylonian exile officially started in 586 B.C.E. at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar II and his destruction of the First Temple. Some 50 years later the Persians took over Babylonia and King Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland. In subsequent centuries, Babylonia would be conquered first by the Greeks under Alexander the Great and then the Persians again (known at that time as the Parthian Empire).
After the destruction of the Second Temple, Babylonia became the epicenter of Jewish life and learning. It was in the Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita that what we now know as the Babylonian Talmud was compiled. Like Yavneh in Eretz Yisrael, Sura and Pumbedita became guiding lights to the Jewish nation and helped found Rabbinic Judaism.
Babylonia is also important to ancient Jewish history in that it contains a number of burial sites of Jewish prophets. For example, the tomb of Ezekiel is believed to be located in Al-Kifl. Nahum is buried in the shul in Alqosh and Ezra is buried in the town of Al-Uzair on the shore of the Euphrates river.
In 661, the Muslim Arab empire conquered Babylonia from the Sassanid Persians and treated the Jews as dhimmis or “people of the book.” In practical terms, this meant that Jews would have to pay a poll/protection tax or jizya in exchange for religious autonomy and the right to be exempted from military service. Except for relatively brief periods of persecution, Jewish life in Muslim imperial Iraq was stable and anti-Semitism never reached the levels seen in medieval Europe. As the traveler Rabbi Pethahiah of Regensburg wrote on his trip to Iraq in the late 1100‘s, “… Babylonia is an entirely different world, their occupation consisting of Torah study and the fear of heaven, even the Ishmaelites are trustworthy … in Babylon there are 30 synagogues in addition to that of Daniel …” (Sibbuv Rabbi Petahyah (1905), 8, 24).
All this would change with the Mongol invasion of 1258 when Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike faced widespread destruction of their communities. While at first it appeared that the Mongols, having appointed several Jews to high positions, might treat the Jewish community fairly, they soon proved to be have little regard for Jewish property or life or anyone else’s for that matter.
After the Ottoman Turks conquered Baghdad in 1534, life began to improve for Iraqi Jews. The Ottoman authorities instituted a moderate poll tax and allowed for a great deal of religious freedom. Except for occasional outbreaks of discrimination on the part of anti-Semitic leaders, Iraqi Jews enjoyed an enormous degree of stability from 1534 to the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution in 1917.
Life got even better under British occupation (1917-1921). The UK granted Iraqi Jews full and equal rights, and Jews were crucial to the British colonial enterprise in Iraq with many helping to develop the judicial and postal systems. Britain’s favorable policies towards the Jews continued under the British-appointed King Faisal whose reign lasted from 1921 to the independence of Iraq in 1932. One of the most prominent figures of this time was the Jew Sassoon Eskell who would become Iraq’s first finance minister. A thriving Zionist underground began to emerge and, along with it, an Arab anti-Zionist reaction.
With the death of King Faisal and the establishment of Iraq as a sovereign state, the situation for Iraqi Jews began to spiral downwards. Nazi propaganda filtered into the country via the German ambassador F. Grobba and calls for violence against Jews increased. These calls weren’t put into action until the Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936. The reaction to the revolt in Iraq was immediately felt as a four-week campaign of terror began leaving three Jews dead and several wounded. A public statement by the head of the Baghdad Jewish community affirming his support of the Palestinian cause didn’t do much to alleviate the dire situation.
In 1941, the pro-Nazi sympathizer Rashid Ali took over in a coup and his government went to war with British troops stationed in Iraq to rid the country of British influence. Ali’s forces were beaten back by the British and he was removed on May 29 after only two months in power. On Shavuos (June 1), Ali’s supporters perpetrated one of the most traumatic events in the history of the modern Jewish Middle East. In what’s known as the Farhud scores of civilians and soldiers began a pogrom in Baghdad that resulted in the murder of 180 Jews, the looting of hundreds of businesses and homes, and scores wounded. The bloodbath was stopped on June 2nd by the deaths of hundreds of rioters at the hands of forces loyal to the pro-British Regent Abdullah.
According to many scholars, this event marks a turning point for Iraq’s Jews as the impetus to emigrate was now clear. Yet, the mass emigration that was expected didn’t happen until the great Jewish exodus from Arab lands of 1948-1951.
After the end of WWII, Zionism was outlawed and restrictions were imposed on the Jewish community such as on travel and property usage. Many Jewish civil servants were removed from office and anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist propaganda was broadcast by official state media.
The Iraqi Parliament passed a bill in 1950 allowing Jews to leave so long as they renounce their citizenship, sell their home, and take no more than a certain amount of cash and valuables with them. 120,000 Jews were air-lifted from Iraq to Israel in the period of 1949-1951 as part of Operation Ezra & Nehemiah.
The Jews who stayed in Iraq soon found themselves in another dire predicament. The Parliament changed its mind and banned Jewish emigration in 1952 leaving Jews once again hostages in their own country. After the rise of the Ba’ath party in 1963 and the Six Day War of 1967, Jews were placed under even more severe restrictions culminating in the Soviet-style anti-Semitic purges of 1968 in which 11 Jews were publicly hung for “spying.” Some Jews were allowed to leave in the 1970‘s, but the state-sponsored terror against them continued into Saddam Hussein’s rule.
A New York Times article from November 2013 reports only 5 Jews, all too old to emigrate, that remain in the country.This is sharply down from the 150,000 Jews living in Iraq in 1948. The once mighty Jewish civilization that produced the Talmud and contributed so much to every government that ruled Iraq is now effectively gone from that country. Yet, even in the violence and chaos of contemporary Iraq there are still traces of that legacy which remain.
A PBS report from a few months ago shows a trove of almost 3,000 priceless Jewish texts, including an 18th century Talmud and Torah scroll, that were discovered in the flooded basement of Saddam’s intelligence headquarters at the start of the war. There’s a profound Jewish lesson to be learned in that: The more our persecutors try to bury our past and identity in the basement, the stronger the Jewish people become. The history of the Iraqi Jews, perhaps more than that of any other national Jewish group, has profoundly impacted Judaism and shaped the course of Jewish history as a whole. Their single greatest contribution, the Babylonian Talmud, is their legacy to the world and one that remains with us to this day.
(Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, New York Times, PBS, A Nostalgic Trip into the History of the Jews of Iraq by Rizq and Ghanimah)
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The Crimean Jews: A Complicated History
Crimea, a region of eastern Europe with a complex history and diverse set of peoples, has long been warred over by empires and is now the subject of the sibling rivalry between Ukraine and Russia. The Jews of Crimea have stood witness to these disputes for centuries and, indeed, have suffered through their own internal divisions.
Beginning in the 1st century C.E., the history of the Crimean Jews is as complicated as it is rich and beautiful. Inscriptions tell us that the first Jews in Crimea were descended from Babylonian and Assyrian settlers, as well as ex-soldiers from Bar Kokhba’s army.
Between the 600‘s and 900‘s the legendary Khazar kingdom made Crimea their base of operations. The Khazars (Kuzarim in Hebrew) were a Turkic people famous for having been converted to Judaism by Rabbi Judah HaLevi, author of the Kuzari. In the Middle Ages, the region came to be known as “Gazaria.”
The Khazars were ousted from power in Crimea by another Turkic tribe, the Tatars. Tatar rule gave economic and political advantages to Crimean Jews since it opened up both the trade routes and diplomatic channels to Muscovy (the precursor to the Russian Empire). In fact, the Muscovite representative in Crimea in the late 1400‘s was himself Jewish and certain areas of Crimea underwent a sort of Jewish renaissance. However, this period of resurgence was not to last.
The Ottomans stepped in and made Tatar Crimea a dependant state which caused economic decline and mass emigration. We also see around the late 1400‘s and early 1500‘s a clear split within the Jewish community between Karaites (those who reject the Talmud) and Krimchaks (mainstream Crimean Jews). The Karaites rose to prominence under Ottoman-Tatar rulership. As part of the Ottoman empire, they had to pay the jizya (poll-tax) levied on non-Muslims, but otherwise enjoyed few other restrictions or discrimination.
However, they, along with their Krimchak neighbors, suffered greatly in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the mid-1600’s, the previously benevolent Tatar rulers betrayed both communities in order to forge an alliance with the notoriously bloodthirsty and anti-Semitic Cossack leader Chmielnicki. The Russian Empire conquered Crimea in the 1700‘s and added most of it to the Pale of Settlement, the area that defined where Jews in Russia were allowed to live, in 1791.
In 1853, the Karaites successfully lobbied the Russian government for an exemption from the draconian czarist legislation. This act once and for all isolated the Karaites from the Krimchaks though the two communities remained in close proximity to each other.
Curiously, despite the restrictions placed on Krimchaks, the Russian government starting with Czarina Catherine the Great encouraged Jews of all backgrounds to settle in the region. Tens of thousands of Jews responded to this call and Crimea became a sort of Jewish homeland in the 1800‘s. In fact, many Zionists would perfect their agricultural techniques before moving to the real homeland. Similarly to what Stalin did in the far east in 1934, the Soviet Union briefly considered the idea to establish a Jewish Autonomous Region in Crimea in 1923 but decided against the proposal. Many Krimchaks had already emigrated due to the civil war of 1917-1922 as well as periodic famines.
As was the case in so many other parts of Europe, WWII devastated the Crimean Jewish community. The Nazis spared the Karaites since they did not believe them to be racially Jewish, but a significant portion of the Krimchak community was wiped out. After the Red Army had pushed the Germans out in 1944, Jews returned in droves to their former homes and the community was slowly rebuilt.
Stalinist rule restricted the Krymchaks’ use of Hebrew. Schools and yeshivas were shut down and many Krymchaks were forced to work in collective farms and factories.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many Karaites and Krymchaks emigrated to Israel, the U.S., and elsewhere. The Jewish population of Crimea is currently about 15,000 which includes about 800 Karaites. In the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea this year, the Jewish community is once again divided. Some such as Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, support Putin’s actions as necessary to defend against anti-Semitism on the part of the new Ukrainian government. But many others see Putin as using the Jews as a pawn to legitimize his actions. While there have been a few anti-Semitic incidents in recent weeks, the situation is for the most part stable and life is continuing as before. It’s important to remember that the Jewish community of Crimea has endured much harsher tests than this latest one. With G-d’s help it will stay united and strong.
(Adapted from The Jewish Virtual Library and Haaretz)
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