A nice chicken I encountered in the margins of a Haggadah, the ‘Ashkenazi Haggadah,’ with commentaries attributed to Eleazar Ben Judah of Worms, c. 1430.
Foussedoire, Representative of the People in the Departments of Haut- and Bas-Rhin(1794)
André Foussedoire, a Montagnard deputy en mission, published this address on 19 August 1794. He had been sent on a mission to Alsace in the spring of 1794, in the course of which he implemented a number of (seemingly, rather unpopular) measures. In this address, he attacks the violent prejudice against Jews among citizens of Haut- and Bas-Rhin.
Citizens,
It is with the emphasis of profound indignation that I have to complain about the humiliations that one exercises in these Departments against men that malevolence or ineptitude always endeavour to classify under the denomination Jews. One renews, every day, every moment, these reproaches of agiotage, of usury, of superstition against them, which most of them have ceased to deserve, since the national will, based on natural equity, has returned them to the dignity of their being, & has granted them the glorious title French Citizens.
It has equally been assured to me, that one has gone as far as to say, in the sessions of Popular Societies, that these individuals were all scoundrels [and] crooks; that, within a few days, [and] by decree of the National Convention, they had to be chased from the Republic, & that their debtors were exempted from keeping any commitment towards them; that, in accordance with an order of the Department, contrary to all principles, they have, for a long time, constantly endured a miscarriage of justice; that, in a public auction, an Administrative Commissioner, trampling under foot both the law & his duties, opposed himself to a supposed Jew having a possession, which had fallen to him in the course of bids.
That a tribunal has a tribunal has passed against one of them, who, in truth, was convicted of the offence that he had been warned of, an almost barbarous judgement, whose utterance contains expressions [that are] as hateful as [they are] impolitic, assertions [that are] equally false & counter-revolutionary, & in order to place the last stroke on this rapidly sketched picture, that one has taken indecency as far as to exhume the corpse of one of these men, who, desiring the law, had been deposed in a cemetery.
No doubt, Citizens, these outrageous injustices & these reprehensible excesses sully only a few thoughtless functionaries, [who are] unworthy of your confidence, and a few individuals [who are] blinded by their prejudice or their ignorance; but it is no less urgent to publish them & to take the repressive measures that humanity and justice require under these circumstances.
Citizens, may public censorship be exerted over all those who, irrespective of principles, offend their brothers through hatred or through prejudice; & as for me, when using the authority that I have been entrusted with, I will not forget [to do] anything in order to enforce the law which equally protects all Frenchmen.
Firsty, thank you for reading this, and I hope you’ll get through it and give us the honor of a donation, firstly, and a reblog, secondly. Maybe even a note to any friends you have outside of tumblr!
If you don’t care about the history, skip to the bold at the end!
This is Temple Emanu-El, in Helena, Montana. At the time it was built, it was the only synagogue between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon. It was built with the hard work of the Jewish community that had come west to seek their fortune and stability, having heard that people were more willing to do business with Jews in the West, a place where social strictures were slightly relaxed. This turned out to be true, and the community thrived.
This picture resolves small on tumblr, but you can see the love and care they put into it. It’s modeled after the great synagogues of Europe, with heavy stonework, onion domes, and intricate stained glass. The president of the congregation cried at its opening and dedication.
As the years went on, the West became more settled, and for a series of socio-political reasons of which my History of the American West major ass is well aware but are ultimately unimportant to the issue at hand, Jewish communities left much of the interior west for metropolitan areas. By the 1930s, the Jewish community was so small that they could not justify the large and lavish worship center.
They sold it to the city for one dollar.
The promise made to them was that it would be used for the public good. The state readied the former temple for its new function as offices for Social and Rehabilitation Services, sandblasting of the Hebrew inscription, “Gate to the Eternal,” above the entry and removing the star-studded, painted domes.. The copper was stripped from the building and likely reused to re-clad the State Capitol’s dome at about the same time.
That lasted all of 40 years, when the State of Montana decided to let it sit idle and decay, so they could justify the sale of the building, sold for a pittance to the public good, to the Helena Catholic Diocese for $83,000 (this is an opinion of mine, though it is not an uneducated one, and I do firmly believe it. I do not, however, represent that they allowed it to fall into disrepair to justify the sale as objective fact.)
This is the building now
In a twist of fate, the diocese can no longer afford to maintain the building. They are selling it, and the Jewish community of Helena is trying to buy it.
The Montana Jewish Project is being far far far nicer and more politic about this than I would be, but in fairness, they actually how to get Nice Goyim to donate, and I don’t, so. The Diocese is spinning this as selling the building for much less than its worth, which may be true, but if you bought it for $83,000, that would be $280,000 now.
They are selling it for $925,000. And we have to have 70% of the purchase price by February 28th. Easy terms, right?
Here’s where you come in! If the idea of Montana’s Jews getting back the building that was sold to the Diocese in spite of the original agreement appeals to you, you can and should donate to their capital campaign. They even have an option for your donation where if we don’t get Emanu-El back, your money will be returned to you instead of being used for other MJP protects and repairs.
This place won’t just be used for the Jewish community, though I think that would be enough. They want it to be used as a museum and center for the community as well, to teach about Jewish life in Montana, with Jewish cooking classes, and social programs, and teaching non-Jews about Jewish customs and culture.
“The first occurrence of plague in the recorded history of the Middle East was known as the “Plague of Justinian”, named after the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I. It made its way to the Land of Israel from Egypt around 541-542 AD. The results were documented in detail by the emperor’s court historian.
A thousand years later, the residents of the land were still dealing with fairly frequent outbreaks. Throughout the 16th century, plague spread across different parts of the Middle East. The common wisdom in Jerusalem of the period spoke of a new wave of pestilence hitting the city every six or seven years. In the writings of the sages of the holy city of Safed (Zfat), in the northern Land of Israel, we find evidence that these rabbis sought to fight off the plague with the help of special amulets, among other things.
We found the amulet below in a copy of the book Shaar HaYichudim (“The Gate of Unifications”) by the famous Safed Kabbalist Hayyim ben Joseph Vital. The Hebrew title appearing at the top reads “This amulet is for plague from the holy ARI…” (The holy ARI was Rabbi Isaac Luria, Vital’s teacher). The charm in fact consists of two different amulets joined together, one on top and one below. The image here is taken from a later printing of the book which includes various commentaries on the writings of Vital and Luria, but the amulet, or similar versions of it, appear in earlier printings as well. This edition was published in 1855 in the city of Lemberg, today’s Lviv, in western Ukraine. Isaac Luria perished during an outbreak of plague in the year 1572, when he was only 38 years old.”
Purim is coming - and it’s International (Working) Women’s Day too! ✊ So I thought I would share some images of Esther as a working woman - a scribe! - in tribute to the many women who continue to mentor and inspire me. These images are from illustrated megillot from Italy, Germany, and Holland, ca. 1650-1750: the earliest images, to my knowledge, of female scribes in Hebrew manuscripts (although I’d be happy to be corrected!).
@darkhei-noam thank you for turning this BBC-based WTF moment into some neat exploration of sforim history I’m so delighted
My pleasure! I only need the slightest suggestion to derail my whole day into another side research project on Jewish book history and I’m off to the races. Interestingly, this ended up connected to something I had actually previously researched — this Mishnah translation was done by Willem Surenhuis, who relied on two other earlier translations (one in Latin, and another in Spanish), done by two Sephardi brothers, Jacob and Isaac Abendana. I had written a research paper on Isaac Abendana and his role as a Hebrew scholar vis-a-vis Christian Hebraists, so I had already run into this! Another link is that Abendana was connected with the Orientalist Edward Pococke, who in 1655 edited the first book in Hebrew characters printed in Oxford — Maimonides’ Judeo-Arabic commentary on the Mishnah, Porta Mosis.
A Medieval Gay Brawl in the Synagogue On Yom Kippur
Sometimes the finds of the Genizah are so incredible that you have difficulty believing that it’s really there, that you are really peering through this window into the lives of medieval Jews around the Mediterranean. This story caught my attention in a footnote of Goitein’s and I thought I would post it for Yom Kippur… It’s not really magic-related, except that I think there’s a certain magic in recovering and reclaiming the past.
The fragment shown here, T-S 8J22.25 in Cambridge, is a letter from a Jewish pilgrim named Hasan ben Mu’ammal, who had gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the High Holidays, Tishrei 4813 = September 1052 CE. He reports that a certain Daniel had wished to see him but he was unable to, because of “the altercation” that had happened in synagogue. Apparently, on Yom Kippur, many pilgrims had gathered from around the Mediterranean, and “a man from Tiberias and a man from [Tyre] became involved in love, and the Tiberian began fondling [?] the Tyrian in the sight of everyone… and the people from Tiberias and those from Tyre began to fight with one another and went out to […] and they brought the chief of the police to the synagogue and […] until the people calmed down.” Hasan goes on to report that Daniel had told him that “such is the behaviour of these people every day,” and concludes the letter with best wishes to the recipients (his brother Abu Nasr and family). A wild ride from start to finish. Goitein drily observes that the letter indicates that homosexuality was regarded as a “vice rather than a deadly crime… [and] it did not form the object of great social concern.”
Shana tova — welcome to 5777! May all who are fasting have a meaningful, enriching, and affirming day… and hopefully a peaceful one too!
A classic post! This source is now available with a full translation and commentary in my book, A Rainbow Thread. Shana tova, and may all who are observing Yom Kippur have a meaningful holiday!
While learning Hilchos Tisha b'Av with my chavrusa I mentioned to him how one could clearly see the Yad Hashem in the destruction of Yerushalayim by the Roman army.
Today I lend my chavrusa a copy of sefer Yosifon (Josephus) since he wanted to read up on the history himself (aside from what we know from Chazal). Josephus describes indept the struggles, battles and strategies of both sides. But instead of telling you to read Sefer Yosifon; since tumblr is tumblr, I present to my followers a playlist of an amazing 4-part (of which only 3 parts are uploaded) documentary on the siege of Jerusalem.
Watch and be amazed at the ingenuity, courage and -unfortunately- Sinas Chinam (baseless hatred for eachother) of the Jewish defenders, and wonder at the many times Titus was almost killed at the hands of the Jews, or how the Roman army was at the brink of defeat/desertion/mutiny/etc and how at the last moment things always turned in favor of Titus haRasha, causing the ultimate destruction of the Beis Hamikdash (holy Temple) and the start of our long bitter exile.
But, as the Chasam Sofer says quoting Chazal, at the same time Hashem “shed His anger on wood and stones, so we could survive” thereby saving the Jewish People from total destruction. And so, there’s an aspect of joy on Tisha b'Av: since Hashem saved our lives by destroying the Beis Hamikdash.
the new canadian miniseries “Little Bird” sounds fascinating. has anyone else heard about it?
an older jewish woman named golda adopts a 5 year old native girl, thinking she’s an orphan and has no home. she raises her as a jew and names her esther. when esther is in her 20s, she finds out that she does in fact have family, and that she had been forcibly taken from them by the canadian government as one of the scoop children in the 60s. esther now wants to reconnect with her native heritage and family, while struggling with the judaism she was raised in.
golda has to come to terms with her own complicity in removing a native child from her family and culture. she’s a holocaust survivor: she knows more than most exactly what that means. how can she reconcile her own history of experiencing racial oppression and discrimination with her complicity in the oppression of inidigenous canadian people?
it was created by two jewish women, one of whom is also indigenous, and is being directed by two indigenous women.
The Emigrants by Victor Hageman, 1910. oil on canvas.
Painted on a monumental scale, The Emigrants depicts three generations of one family gathered at the point of exile, their emotive expressions capturing the trauma of forced migration. In 1928 Hageman exhibited this work in Antwerp under the title ‘Jewish Family’, while an inscription on the reverse of the canvas reading ‘Descendants Israelites’ specifically references Jewish exile.
My loves, it is with a heavy heart that I announce Nigel Farrage is once again saying some meaningless garbage.
I know, I know. You are not surprised, but I am afraid I have to respond to this douche canoe’s latest idiocy – in this case the following tweet:
For those not up to speed with this particular flavour of British idiocy – at the moment the Archbishop of York, Nigel ‘Why don’t I have a chin? Let’s blame the EU’ Farage, and now Prime Minister Theresa May are all shocked and offended that Cadbury’s promoted an ‘Egg Hunt’ for the National Trust rather than a specific ‘Easter Egg Hunt’.
I know.
All of this is, of course nonsense, and ordinarily I try to ignore Farage as much as possible, being as my well-being is perched on a knife’s edge in today’s political hell scape. However, Farage just referred to England as having a ‘Judeo-Christian’ culture, and I cannot stand for it.
Leaving aside the issue that Jews don’t, you know, celebrate Easter, because they are Jewish, the idea that we here in the UK somehow celebrate the ‘Judeo’ in Judeo-Christian is offensive, given the hundreds upon hundreds of years of bloody repression of Jews in England.
Backing right the fuck up, it should be obvious that medieval society was not particularly kind to Jews. (If you are out of touch about this, check out Moore’s, The Formation of a Persecuting Society.) Because medieval Europe was largely Christian (except Spain, which was balling), Jews generally had a terrible time. They were restricted from pursing most trades, and as a result largely ended up in the financial sector. Christians, you see, were prevented from lending money at interest because that constituted the sin of usury. Jews did not have the same religious prohibition and made the best of their place in a super stringent society by lending money. This probably led to the stereotypical bigoted idea of Jews as terrible money grubbers that we are all still dealing with.
Jews were so hated that they usually had to be under royal or imperial protection. People resented them because something something the death of Christ (which the Romans were totally off the hook for, obvs), and also because they now owed the Jews money.
English people, like most Europeans, were pretty big dicks to the Jews. First off, and for your information Mr. Farage, there were no Jews in England until after the Norman conquest. (Remember? When the French people took over? Because England is a part of Europe? YOU GIT.) William the Conqueror invited a group of Jews from Rouen to settle in England in 1070, though he wouldn’t let them own land. Because LOL.
By the twelfth century the Jews in London were granted a series of concessions by Henry I that meant they were treated a little bit more like people. They were allowed to buy and sell property, be tried by their peers, and swear on the Torah instead of the Bible. They were also allowed the right of movement around England – and I quote – ‘as if they were the king’s own property’ (Sicut res proproae nostrae). (I know. I know.)
So Jews were totally allowed to be people in England. You know, people who were royal property, but stuff got kind of bad after that. King Stephen decided to be a total dick and burn down a Jewish man’s house in Oxford because he wasn’t paying towards the king’s expenses. (Stay classy Stephen!) Then in 1144 there was the death of (soon to be saint) William of Norwich. William had been an apprentice tanner. William showed up dead. The good people of Norwich decided that William had been killed by Jews because sure, why not. Obviously Jews had killed him as a part of a ritual murder that re-enacted a mass because blood libel is definitely a thing. Thomas of Monmouth wrote a crazy-ass hagiography about it and everything. After this, any time there was an unsolved murder of a child, everyone in England blamed it on any Jew that could be found. This included Harold of Gloucester (d. 1168), Robert of Bury (d. 1181), and Little Hugh of Lincoln (d. 1255). All the boys were sainted. People were increasingly giant dicks to Jews.
Stuff got really bad under Richard the Lionheart. At his coronation a number of high ranking Jewish people showed up to do homage at Westmister, and they got kicked the fuck out of the coronation banquet and then attacked by a crowd outside. A rumor then started spreading that the king had ordered the London Jews to be massacred, and a good old fashioned mob went into the Old Jewry pretty much killing anyone they could get their hands on. The super friendly Judeo-Christian culture that Mr. Farage is celebrating then kicked off a series of violent attacks against various groups of Jews in Lynn, Stamford Fair, Colchester, Thetford, Ospringe, and Bury St Edmunds with dozens of people ending up dead. The Jews of Lincoln only survived an attempted massacre by taking refuge in the castle.
One of the worst incidents was, of course, the Pogrom (or Massacre) of York where on March 16 and 17 1190 a bunch of soldiers preparing to leave on the Third Crusade decided it would be classy and good to try to force the local Jews to convert. The Jews hid in the castle, but couldn’t escape the mob outside. Most of those inside decided to take their own lives, with the fathers of most families killing their wives, children, and themselves, and then setting fire to the keep. All the survivors were killed by the enraged bystanders. A Judeo-Christian culture – ladies and gentlemen!
During Richard the Lionheart’s absence the Jews that no one had managed to kill were generally harassed by William de Longchamp, and when Richard got his ass captured in the holy land, the Jews were told that they had to contribute 5,000 marks towards the king’s ransom. That is more than three times more than the city of London was supposed to contribute. Cute.
Eventually English kings found ways to make money that didn’t involve shaking down the Jews, and at that point the Church was putting more and more pressure on kings not to allow Jews to lend money to Christians. So at this point Edward I was just like, ‘Sod it, let’s just kick all the Jews out of the country.’ On July 18 1290 it was decreed that all Jews should be expelled by All Saints Day that year, with somewhere between 4,000 and 16,000 Jews forced to leave. I mean – what an amazing cultural exchange we had here! Wow!
Jews were eventually allowed back in the country in 1655 when members of the Dutch Jewish community directly approached Oliver Cromwell. Don’t be fooled by this though. Cromwell was, as many important historians have noted, a total Puritan douche nozzle. He thought Jews should be let back in because – in terms of Christian apocalyptic theory – Jews are necessary at the End Times because they first have to be swayed by and worship Antichrist, and then convert to Christianity. Then the world can end. Isn’t that nice? What a great spirit of cultural cooperation! Anyway, Cromwell’s Puritan ass wouldn’t have eaten chocolate egg one on Easter because that would be fun, and as we all know, God hates fun.
My point here is that none of this points to a ‘Judeo-Christian culture’ like Farage wants you to believe in. He’s just using the phrase to exclude Muslims from British society, even though they are here to stay, fam.
Why anyone wants to choose Easter Eggs as the hill to die on is a mystery to me, and the entire ‘controversy’ is a manufactured tempest in a tea cup. My major point is that you shouldn’t trust racists when they tell you about the ‘culture’ of anywhere. They don’t know a damn thing about culture or history.
