Dogged Flight: A fable told by Canaan dog Keren

When Limi has a run-in with her two most recent passengers, it triggers a series of unexpected events that may hold the key to finding her beloved and uncovering the secrets behind his disappearance. Theatrical trailer trailer gallery. R for disturbing images and descriptions of war-time atrocities, including rape.

Told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners' letters and diaries. But will their collaboration work, or will it go spectacularly wrong? Guangdong yin xiang chu ban she, Razor Digital Entertainment, c In ancient China Golden Lotus is raped, married to a man she does not love, and when she finds love is beheaded for it.

In modern China Lotus is raped by the prefect of her school in Shanghai and sent to work camp. She escapes to decadent Hong Kong by marrying a rich man. She finds herself drawn both to her husband's chauffeur and to a sadomasochistic relationship with a debauched designer. She dies in a fiery car wreck at the end. A contemporary reworking of a 12th century Chinese novel. R for violence and language. The boss, Xiong, swears to find every traitor and make him or her pay with their lives. Agents are turning up dead, and Zilong's days are numbered.

Desperate to protect his family and his life, Chen must risk everything to protect the Special Identity he never wanted before it's too late. Through the story of defense attorney Dagmar Buresova, who defended Palach's legacy in a doomed lawsuit, the film examines the transformations taking place in Czechoslovak society.

He becomes involved in a plot to blow up a German ammunition train, but when the plan backfires, he is forced to commit the ultimate act of courage. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, c Closed captioned in English. A reserve army group comes into town and she falls in love with a pianist, who after swearing eternal love leaves for his home. Marek Najbrt biography theatrical trailer short film: His wife Hana's newest film has just catapulted her into fame. As the Nazis come to power, Hana's Jewish heritage precipitates her fall from stardom.

To protect her, Emil collaborates with the new Nazi-controlled radio station. As Emil starts to enjoy this new respect, his loyalty to his wife begins to falter. The assassination of the Third Reich Deputy Protector, and a chance encounter brings their marriage to a crisis, possibly sealing Hana's fate. Anamorphic widescreen format 2. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, c R for language, sexual content and brief violence. R for some language and a scene of sexuality. Desperate to save an orphanage from closing, he returns to Denmark to meet Jorgen, a wealthy businessman and potential benefactor.

What appears to be nothing more than a friendly gesture to attend a wedding sets in motion an increasingly devastating series of surprises, revelations, and confessions that will forever change their lives. Koch Lorber Films, c Upon his arrival he begins to have visions of the woman he loved before he lost his memory, and sets out on a journey to remember his past.

Before long, Babette has convinced them to try something other than boiled codfish and ale bread--a gourmet French meal! Her feast scandalizes the elders, except for the visiting General. Just who is this strangely talented Babette, who has terrified this pious town with the prospect of losing their souls for enjoying too much earthly pleasure?

Includes original theatrical trailer. Best foreign language film. Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu and Dinesen's story. G for mild frightening scenes, violence, usage of alcohol and smoking. The Criterion Collection, Birgitte Nyborg becomes Prime Minister of Denmark through a political fluke and has to learn the ways of power, quickly. She's an altruistic public servant in an old boys club and must master the art of the deal overnight, manage her image and perform the impossible juggling act of maintaining a family life.

Birgitte has been Denmark's Prime Minister for two years - years that have taken their toll on her private life. She must now balance her role as PM with that of divorced single mother of two. Episodes -- disc 2. Episodes -- disc 3. Police from both countries are called to the scene, and what looks like one murder turns out to be two. It's a spectacular double murder: It's also just the beginning of a wave of violence the likes of which no one has ever seen before.

Onboard are five Swedish and Danish youths, chained below deck, unconscious. Investigating the incident is Scandinavia's oddest couple: Swedish detective Saga Noren, hampered by primitive social skills, and Martin Rohde from Denmark, still reeling from the death of his son. Theirs is a friendship from having been through hell together on the job. Two months prior to this event, Helge's daughter committed suicide. Her twin brother, Christian, makes a birthday toast that brings a barrage of family secrets out into the open. Nielsen, Rumle Hammerich and Louise Fredberg. R for sexual content including a graphic image, violence and language.

Just as things are starting to go his way, his life is shattered when an untruthful remark throws his small community into a collective state of hysteria. As the lie spreads, Lucas is forced to fight a lonely fight for his life and dignity. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, R for violent and disturbing content some involving preteens, and for language. Unfortunately, loneliness, frailty, and sorrow lie in wait. Being the only female in the area, she causes quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together.

When Dinesen realizes what happened, he decides to venture into enemy territory to find them. They live scattered to the four winds until Veronika dies and they gather to wind up the estate. Just before she dies, Veronika leaves the manor to her daughter Signe, who was given up for adoption. Signe lives with her partner in a quiet residential area in the local town R for brief sexuality, nudity and some language.

Palm Pictures, [] -- Title from container. Nielsen music, Thomas Knak. PG for some sensuality and brief language. Magnolia Home Entertainment, []. R for language and some war related images. During a routine mission, soldiers are caught in heavy crossfire. Commander Claus makes a decision to save his men, which has grave consequences for him, and his family back home". But when she falls in love with older boy and non-believer Teis, Sara is forced to choose between the desire she feels and the faith that forbids it. In a family torn apart by sin and salvation, can a teenage girl discover the courage to change her life forever?

Did he do this of his own free will, or has his personality been altered by the tumor lurking in his brain? As the teacher assists an attorney in providing a legal defense, recent neuroscience forces her to rethink who her husband really is. CFP Video, , c Earthy, sexy, romantic, filled with laughter and warmth, it's a joyous celebration of simple pleasures and enduring passions. First Look Home Entertainment [S. Antonia's family legacy filmographies trailers interactive menus scene selections. Koerts music, Jeannot Sanavia.

R a strong sex scene and some graphic nudity. Ada, Marjorie, and Esther become fast friends during the long flight taking them to their waiting husbands. Upon arrival, they part ways to start their new lives, but their paths continue to cross with chance meetings resulting in adultery, betrayal, and near tragedy leading up to a reunion 50 years later. Artsploitation Films, [];"" -- DVD 5. A police inspector is assigned a case where a mother and father have been bound and beaten, and their young son is missing.

As he investigates, the troubled cop uncovers other similar cases including a repressed episode from his own childhood. Grim and wholly engrossing, The Treatment is a dark, disturbing thriller with an edge --Container. Deleted scenes premiere featurette trailer. Koerts music, Fons Merkies. R for brief sexuality and a scene of violence. The sisters' lives take very different turns until they meet again 40 years after WWII.

An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller. Icarus Films, [] -- DVD.

Previews - Discount Comic Book Service

An older Estonian man cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the s-era war in Georgia. Cinema Guild, [] -- DVD widescreen 1. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating at the seashore, suddenly swing round and come back full force when one afternoon Elly suddenly vanishes.

Miramax Home Entertainment Burbank, Calif. In order to stay out of trouble, the two come up with a plan to share Ali's shoes, but they must keep it a secret from their parents. As the narrative dynamically shifts from woman to woman, their stories culminate with tremendous potency, transforming a shared sense of dispair and injustice into one of kinship and even hope. Close-up long shot follow-up documentary , 44 min. A walk with Kiarostami documentary film , 32 min. Close-up , 98 min.

With the wedding swiftly approaching Mohammad's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that is so clear to his son. New Yorker Video, Audio commentary by critic Godfrey Cheshire theatrical trailer. Once held hostage by the endless restraints of the family that fashioned the carpet, she reveals that the secret Month after month, season after season, he had followed her family from afar, always present, always waiting, howling to her songs of love--longing for her to run away with him.

A joyful mash up of genre, archetype, and iconography, its prolific influences span spaghetti westerns, graphic novels, horror films and the Iranian New Wave. In an act of vengeance, a young man, randomly kills two police officers. He escapes to the forest, where he is arrested by two other officers. The three men are surrounded by trees, the woods.

They are lost in a maze, a desolate landscape, where the boundaries between the hunter and the hunted are difficult to perceive. New Yorker Video, [], c Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Moshen Makhmalbaf ". The set also includes a bonus CD-ROM with discussion guides and background information for each film. Marzieh, a terminally ill actress, wearily relates her desperate quest for political asylum through a series of interviews with an unsympathetic government official.

Beginning with details of her doomed relationship with an Iranian-born Australian and their plan to relocate to Adelaide, she recounts her struggle to work as an actress under Iran's current regime, her hope for a future ultimately dashed by the devastating discovery of her illness, and her need to escape the only home she has ever known. Set against the backdrop of Tehran's thriving arts culture, and framed through a series of artful and dramatic flashback sequences, poet-turned-filmmaker Granaz Moussavi boldly registers the trials of a modern woman struggling to flourish in Iran's contemporary political climate.

Interview with director Jafa Panahi. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi, Golnaz Farmani. PG for language throughout and some thematic elements. According to Islamic custom, women are not permitted to watch or participate. The ambitious girls who manage to sneak into the arenas are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes these young men and women adversaires, but duty can't overcome their shared dreams, their mutual attraction, and ultimately their overriding sense of national pride and humanity.

A conversation with writer-director Asghar Farhadi. PG for mature thematic elements and a brief bloody images. PG for mature thematic material. Kino Lorber, [] -- DVD widescreen. Booklet essay by filmmaker and scholar Jamsheed Akrami Trailer. Each man, woman, and child candidly expresses his or her own view of the world while being interviewed by the curious and gracious driver.

Matters are made worse when twelve-year-old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother Madi needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. The family must go to any length to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor to get them to work. She becomes close with fellow worker Anne only to face danger again when told she must return to Iran.

First Run Features, This movie has been banned in Iran. She reluctantly accepts the job and resents the man at first, but gradually grows to admire him for his positive outlook and his continued help to those seeking prayers and counsel. Two completely different lives are unexpectedly intertwined in this heartwarming tales of personal redemption. It features tender performances Film Movement, [] -- DVD, 5. Injury time 15 min. While Kenneth is anxious to dive head first into the drug-centered existence that ensnared him in the first place, Dave and Kenneth's erstwhile girlfriend, Sylvie, have adopted clean lifestyles.

She has her own tattoo shop and he plays the banjo in a bluegrass band. They bond over their shared enthusiasm for American music and culture, and dive headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on and off stage- but when an unexpected tragedy hits their new family, everything they know and love is tested. An intensely moving portrait of a relationship from beginning to end, propelled by a soundtrack of foot-stomping bluegrass, The Broken Circle Breakdown is a romantic drama of the highest order. Interview with director Felix Van Groeningen.

The owner of the bank wants to keep the heist under wraps, but police inspector Paul Gerardi catches wind of the affair and throws himself into the investigation. The boxes contain the holders' most intimate secrets, the compromising documents, and photos that no one should ever see and that literally could bring down the nation.

Gerardi must quickly find out what their agenda is and who is behind the heist. On this Friday family politics and fights disrupt a birthday party. Widescreen version 16x9 New York, NY: Wellspring Media, [], c When her young son is killed in an accident, her mother brings her a replacement , a boy she kidnapped off the street. Doppelganger Releasing, [] -- DVD widescreen 2. Feature commentary by director Fabrice Du Welz shooting Alleluia featurette cut scenes interviews with cast and crew A wonderful love short film by Fabrice Du Welz.

First Run Features, [? Seeking retribution, the villagers mistakenly attribute the outbreak to Western doctors who work in the mountains. Two women -- the fiance of a villager killed in the accident and the wife of a doctor murdered in the riot -- are brought together in this haunting yet ravishingly beautiful film about our divided yet inextricably intertwined world. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, [], c She decides to step into the lives of others around her to help them out.

French theatrical trailer U. PG for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and for brief language. Great cast clicks in Brigitte's best-known vehicle --L. Film Movement, [] -- DVD fullscreen 4: Paramount Home Entertainment, []. An initially reluctant Manouchian and his team must resort to guerilla tactics and radical measures in the name of liberty. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS general, eventually reaches Berlin.

Criterion Collection, [] -- DVD, region 1, widescreen 1. New high-definition digital transfer of the restoration, supervised by director of photography Pierre Lhomme and Studio Canal. Paxton -- Melville on Melville: New, restored high-definition digital transfer original theatrical trailer and teaser essays by film critic Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of man.

But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Donald Richie on Balthazar [ video interview with film scholar Donald Richie 14 min. Robert Bresson [ episode of the French television series Pour le paisir, devoted to the film. PG for some strong language and brief sexuality. Precisely because Jessica doesn't know how celebrated these people are, her guileless and completely unintimidated engagement in their lives has a transforming effect on them and ultimately her.

Reuniting with his sister Juliette and his brother Jeremie, they have to re-build their relationship and trust as a family again. Includes featurettes, biography, filmography, theatrical trailer, booklet, and more. He decides to return to the piano, practicing Bachs' Toccata in E Minor for an important audition that could be a life-changing event. Loosely based on Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Home Vision distributed by Public Media Inc.

Tells the fable of the kindly beast and the self-sacrificing beauty whose love releases the prince in him. Contains such visual displays as tears that become real diamonds and walls that grow arms to light Beauty's path through the castle of the Beast. Cinema Guild, [] -- DVD 1. Strand Releasing, [] -- DVD widescreen. When circumstances bring Damien's mother Marianne to invite Thomas to live with them, the young men are forced to coexist and work through their emerging attraction and complicated desires.

Parental guidance recommended for younger viewers. The timeless tale of Belle and Sebastian tells the story of how Sebastian tamed Belle the extraordinary adventures of a resourceful, adorable boy during the Second World War. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, [? A collection of rare behind-the-scenes photos Edgardo Cozarinsky's renowned minute documentary Jean Cocteau: Autoportrait d'un Inconnu Autobiography of an unknown a transcript of Cocteau's lecture given at a screening of film, and a essay on the film by Cocteau a Cocteau bibliofilmography. NC for explicit sexual content.

This intimate epic sensitively renders the erotic abandon of youth. Trailer and TV spot. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, She retreats from the world around her, but is soon reluctantly drawn into an ever-widening web of lies and passion as the dark, secret life of her husband begins to unravel. The Princess must employ all her cunning to outwit her husband and escape a potentially unpleasant fate.

She concludes that her dad is doing a terrible job and decides to rewrite the world, which leaves God angry, powerless and adamant to get his power back. Film Movement, [] -- DVD, widescreen, stereo and 5. Her estranged parents are too caught up in their own drama to pay her much attention. Enter Sarah, a confident and charismatic new transfer student who brings with her an alluring air of boldness and danger. The two form an instant connection, and through shared secrets, love interests and holiday getaways their relationship deepens to levels of unspoken intimacy. Weblinks running audio commentary with film critic David Sterritt interactive menus scene access.

As passion for one another intensifies, Phillipe slowly discovers that Senta is shrouded in mystery. When one day she asks Phillipe to perform a terrible deed as proof of his love for her, Phillipe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. Original theatrical trailer biographies photo gallery. When eight-year-old Elsa moves in next door, she adopts Julien as her grandpa. When Julien travels to the Alps on an expedition, he discovers an uninvited guest - Elsa!

MGM Home Entertainment, c MGM Home Entertainment [distributor]: Camille was also the sister of the Christian mystic poet Paul Claudel, the last of her family to pay her regular visits. Inspired by the correspondence between Paul and Camille, the movie focuses on Camille 's struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy in a crowd of schizophrenics. Suffering from bouts of paranoia, she focuses on her art and her family as pillars of sanity, until those too begin to crumble.

R for sexual content, language and drug use. A whirlwind of ruthless ambition, power struggles, greed and deception ensues as Tourneuil's brutal ascent is jeopardized by a hostile takeover attempt from a large American hedge fund led by Dittmar Rigule, erotic distractions from international supermodel Nassim, and adversaries with an agenda for destruction.

Interviews with cast and crew. One of the twentieth century's most wanted fugitives, Carlos was committed to violent left-wing activism throughout the seventies and eighties, orchestrating bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings in Europe and the Middle East. Criterion Collection Chatsworth, CA: Distributed by Image Entertainment, []. One of the ladies, Marie, meets Manda, who is a carpenter by trade.

Marie's man Roland is a jealous sort and does not like the idea of Marie and Manda becoming friendly, and Leca himself has his eye on Marie. What follows is a story of love, death, friendship and jealousy during the Belle Epoque. Both cerebrally and emotionally engaging, reminds us that love itself is an enigma. Wellspring Media, , c Unexpectedly, the two men become friends. Koch Lorber Films, Interview with Gilbert Melki Theatrical trailer.

MGM Home Entertainment [distributor], , c Soon the sights, sounds and smells sweep her back to her childhood and memories of the people who populated her youth. Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, [? Dismayed by the repressive administration, he works to positively transform the students' lives through music.

Then he meets Clara. She's beautiful, generous, and has an air of freedom about her that causes Antoine to immediately fall for her. Their romance develops quickly, seemingly a perfect love affair between soulmates, but when life deals them an unforeseen blow, their relationship faces a test it may not survive. Armed with the best intentions, they brace themselves to not let discouragement stop them from trying to give the best education to their students.

Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom, a microcosm of contemporary France. As amusing and inspiring as the teenaged students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often takes the students by surprise.

But his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods. PG for sexual content and smoking. Through Baron Balsan she is introduced into French society and given the opportunity to design her own style of hats. Though her career takes off, her personal life becomes more complicated when she falls in love with Balsan's former best friend Arthur Capel.

She interprets his distance as a sign of intellectual seduction. The love triangle that develops reveals the complexity and imperfection of the three characters. The suspicion threatens to destroy his life and marriage. When he's ratted out after an assassination attempt on a prominent politician, Clement and his long-suffering wife Anne flee Paris to the country home of his childhood friend, Paul. While Clement embodies reactionary machismo, with his sudden outbursts of brutality, Paul is an easy-going, gentle pacifist.

As affection blossoms between Paul and Anne, tensions soar and will eventually explode. Alarmed at first, but willing to humor him, she takes him to Isabella's and is startled to find out he knows her apartment intimately. It turns out that Isabella's son drowned two years earlier.

Is Camille the reincarnation of Isabella's dead son? Distributed by Koch Lorber Films, c Making of featurette original theatrical trailer. Kite, and Luc Sante. French dialogue English subtitles. Subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine.

This set includes all of Vigo's titles. PG for brief strong language and some sexual content. He gathers together his former musicians and a young solo violin virtuoso to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. If they all overcome the hardships ahead, this very special concert will be a triumph. Drafthouse Films, [] -- DVD widescreen 2. Making-of featurette deleted scenes. R for strong violence, drug content and language. Pierre Michel, a young magistrate with a wife and children, has just been transferred to help in the crack-down on organized crime.

He decides to take on French Connection, a Mafia-run operation that exports heroin the world over. Paying heed to no one's warnings, he leads a one-man campaign against Mafia kingpin Gaetan Zampa, the most untouchable godfather of them all. But Pierre Michel will soon understand that to get results, he will have to change his methods. There the wife and producer engage in an affair, and she decides to leave her husband. However, something quite unexpected happens. After a daring escape, Dantes flees to the island of Monte Cristo, where he finds a colossal treasure bequeathed to him by a dying fellow inmate.

Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and devises a plan of vengeance upon all those who betrayed him. Salomon Sally Sorowitsch is the king of counterfeiters. He lives a life of cards, booze, and women. Suddenly his luck runs dry when he is arrested by Superintendent Friedrich Herzog. He is immediately thrown into the Mauthausen concentration camp. There, Salomon exhibits exceptional skills and is soon transferred to the upgraded camp of Sachsenhausen. Upon his arrival, he once again comes face to face with Herzog, who is there on a secret mission. Hand-picked for his unique skill, Salomon and a group of professionals are forced to produce fake foreign currency under the program Operation Berhard.

The team, which also includes detainee Adolf Burger, is given luxury barracks for their assistance. Salomon attempts to weaken the economy of Germany's opponents. But, Adolf refuses to use his skills for Nazi profit and would like to do something to stop the operation. Now faced with a moral dilemma, Salomon must decide whether his actions are ultimately the right ones. German Film Awards, Interview with Bernard Tavernier alternate ending U. Through these seeming opposites, Chabrol conjures a piercing, darkly comic character study that questions notions of good and evil, love and jealousy, and success in the modern world.

Rue Daguerre in 21 min. T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais. After studying the different stores and what they sell, and interviewing the owners about their childhoods and marriages, the film concludes with a series of static daguerreotypes, in the style of pioneer photographer Louis Daguerre. With little success, his carefree sibling and doting father try to cheer him up with women, wine, and home-cooked meals. When, in the midnight hour, Paul is forced to entertain one of his brother's desperate girlfriends, he begins to realize that while things never go according to plan, family and the pursuit of love are always worth the fight.

Warner Home Video, c Distributed by Zeitgeist Video, c Directors' commentary [Optional audio track] Derrida interviews 37 min. Deleted scenes [with filmmaker commentary] 14 min. His writings on language, rhetoric, and philosophy interrogate and challenge the formulations of certain basic precepts of Western metaphysics, such as presence, truth, the position of the subject and nature of identity.

Politically active and deeply committed to social justice, he devoted his life work to rethinking positions of racism, power, and oppression using his sharp and surprising analytical skills to address the ways in which they overtly and covertly operate. One of the most cited and influential contemporary intellectual figures, the film illuminates the paradox of Derrida, a person who was at once both extremely private and extremely public. The rural congregation rejects him immediately. Through his country diary entries, the suffering young man relays a crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and God.

R restricted under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian for some language. G not recommended for young children. Beautifully melding the everyday, pressure-filled components of fashion with an elegant reverence for the history of Dior, Tcheng's colorful homage is nothing short of magical. Criterion Collection, [] -- DVD. PG for nudity, sexual content, and some language. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.

Though they are unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond. Columbia TriStar Home Video, c R for some sexual content.

The Myths of Zionism

The house is isolated and the phone lines have been found to be cut. Eight women are his potential murderers. Each is a suspect and each has a motive. Only one is guilty. Special Edition Double-Disc Set. R for violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity, and language CHV rating: Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business.

When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game--a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control. Interview with the directors. R for brief language. When his girlfriend finds out, she goes into shock. While she recovers in the hospital, he tries to get their son back and redeem himself. Criterion Collection, [] -- DVD, region 1, full screen 1.

The siblings are inseparable, living in the same room, fighting, playing secret games, and rarely leaving the house. Brugsh that says there is no Hebrew derivation for the names Moses, Aaron or Miriam but they do contain Egyptian roots. Birthdate of Austrian-born English psychoanalyst and child psychologist Melanie Klein. Klein developed methods of play technique and play therapy in analyzing and treating child patients.

She passed away in Authorities concluded that Morris Eising, German-Jewish immigrant who had been found dead in his rooming house had died by his own hand. Apparently he was despondent over the loss of his job which meant he could not send money back to his wife in Bavaria. Born in , he learned his craft in his native Germany before coming to the United States in After the funeral, Dr. Silverman will officiate at the burial in the Salem Field Cemetery. Yes, this mindless anti-Semitic attack took place in the supposedly civilized confines Prague.

The anti-Semitic outburst that consumed Paris during the Dreyfus affair was really not such an aberration after all. Citizens are required to return their census papers in London. While most citizens are required to return their census papers today in London, the Jews have been given an extension and do not have to return them until tomorrow since today is the second day of Passover and the English respect the need to observe the holiday.

Rabbi Aaron Wise passed away. Born in Hungary in , Wise was educated in the Talmudic schools of Hungary, including the seminary at Eisenstadt, where he studied under Dr. Later he attended the universities of Leipzig and Halle, receiving his doctorate at the latter institution. He assisted Bernard Fischer in revising the Buxtorf lexicon, and was for several years a director of schools in his native town. He was for a time identified with the Haredi party in Hungary, acting as secretary to the organization Shomere ha-Datt, and editing a Judaeo-German weekly in its support.

Wise was the author of Beth Aharon, a religious school handbook; and he compiled a prayer-book for the use of his congregation. He was for some time editor of the Jewish Herald of New York, and of the Boston Hebrew Observer; and he contributed to the yearbooks of the Jewish Ministers' Association of America, as well as to other periodical publications. He was one of the founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the first vice-president of its advisory board of ministers. Colonel Goldsmid asks Herzl to stay away from the Zionist Congress in order to prevent a split in the ranks of the Hovevei Zion.

They were known as the "Protestrabbiner" - "Protest Rabbis". Liebe Blond and her four children who had arrived in the United States were put on a ship bound for Europe after authorities refused to let her husband who has been working here see her or listen to his entreaties to let them stay in the United States. It was reported today that when Baron Hirsch passed away he left a fortune estimated at million dollars, most of which was tied to railroad companies.

Both before and after his death, Hirsch had given large sums to the poor including 10 million dollars for the Jewish Colonization Association of the United States. Birthdate of movie producer Irving Thalberg. Thalberg was an early pioneer in the film industry. His brief career he died of pneumonia at the age of 37 left such a mark on the world of cinema that a year after his death the Academy of Motion Picture Artists created a special award in his name that is given annually at the Oscar Presentations.

Thalberg was the inspirations for F. Birthdate of Charles A. Sachs who played a key role in planning to save and retrieve works of art in World War II. Birthdate of Sol C Siegel. As part of negotiations to secure land for a Jewish homeland, Carton de Wiart talked to a lawyer with the Egyptian government who recommends that the concession should be in the form of a lease, not a freehold. Herzl demands a year lease. The meal was served on dishes that were brand new having been brought straight from the storeroom. All of the utensils used in the kitchen were also brand new and the meal was prepared under the supervision of the Jewish immigrants.

The meal included chicken soup, roast goose, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, black tea, oranges and, of course, Matzah and ground horseradish. Alice Weinberg, the twelve year old daughter of Max Weinberg was reported missing by her father. The family called off its Passover celebration so it could search for Alice. Michla Shilotzdky passed away this morning at the age of The cause of death was pneumonia. Esther Davis, years old; Mrs.

Churchill visits Tel Aviv where he delivers a speech praising what the Jews have accomplished in the last twelve years since the city was first founded. In spite of generations of prophets and reformers, Jewish ritual with all its shrilly "orthodox" punctilio has lived with few radical changes.

In Cleveland, Ohio, some months ago, Rabbi Solomon Goldman, spiritual head of the local "Jewish Center," proposed to rid his congregation of some bits of orthodoxy. In particular, he decided that men and women might sit in the same pews. Here was reform indeed! Not since Solomon built his great temple had the thoroughly orthodox Jewess sat with the thoroughly orthodox Jew at worship. She had been relegated to one side of the temple, or to the gallery, or to a seat in the rear behind a curtain.

It was custom not merely Jewish, but Pan-Asiatic. Muhammadan women do not squat with men folk in the pit of the Mosque. And even in the new Christian Churches in China, Japan and elsewhere, women have always, until very recently, sat in a special section railed or curtained off for them. Now Rabbi Goldman of Cleveland has changed all this in his congregation.

Katz, one of Rabbi Goldman's flock, cited him to appear before the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America to answer for his ecclesiastical liberality. Rabbi Goldman refused to appear. In this, he was supported by his congregation. When the week ended, it was still the turn of the Jewish Fundamentalists to move. It should be noted that departure from Jewish orthodoxy is not equivalent to becoming a Reformed Jew. The latter class, whose most prominent leader is Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, disregards many customs from which Rabbi Goldman is not likely to depart, among which are: Blessing - At each service, men are called up before the congregation to say a blessing before and after portions of the Torah, which is read— on all Sabbaths and holidays.

In congregations where Jewish customs are meticulously observed, this privilege is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Music - No instrumentation is permitted. Weird half-shouted chants, led by a slippered cantor, are the only melodies. Costume - Both men and women must wear hats. The enthusiastically orthodox wear skullcaps, shawls.

Men also wear the talis, a fringed scarf, draped over the shoulders. While serving in the final year of her term as President of Hadassah Irma Levy Lindheim the American women's Zionist organization, declared that the administration of the ZOA was "not an effective instrument for the achievement of world Zionist aims for the up-building of Palestine. Although Lindheim was careful to note that she spoke as an individual and that Hadassah had no quarrel with the World Zionist Organization led by Chaim Weizmann, she came under attack for her comments from both ZOA leadership and other Hadassah members.

During her presidency, Hadassah was in frequent conflict with the Zionist Organization of America ZOA , which wanted to control and dispense the funds raised from the Hadassah membership. The Hadassah-ZOA conflict had roots dating back to , when Hadassah founded in first joined the umbrella organization, giving up some of its organizational authority.

Seven members of the Hadassah board had been expelled in when the organization's Central Committee refused to raise money for the ZOA fund Keren Hayesod. Despite Hadassah's loss of autonomy, the organization's membership steadily increased even as general ZOA membership declined. Birthdate of American Jewish author Carl Solomon. It was reported today that Hadassah has acquired a portrait of Nathan Straus painted by Eward Salzan which will be hung in the Straus Health Center currently under construction in Tel Aviv.

Birthdate of Gene Selznick, the native of Los Angeles who helped to make volleyball the popular sport in southern California. A citrus tree was planted on the acre plot purchased in under the direction of Mrs. For the next two years, the women workers lived in Ness Ziona and came to Ayanot every day to cultivate the soil. In , Ada Maiomon and ten girls would being living on a cowshed on the property. Of Tel Aviv, the central bank of the cooperatives in Palestine, declared the tenth annual dividend of 4 per cent on its common stock. After being open for only two weeks, the Belzac Concentration Camp has processed 15, Jews most of whom were from the Liviv Ghetto.

The British had declined to press charges against the crew. Nine women tried to escape from Ravenbruck. They were caught and executed. Leon Blum was born in Paris, France, on April 9, The son of Jewish parents, he studied law at the Sorbonne. He became active in politics as result of the Dreyfus Affair.

Blum became a leader of the Socialist Part. He was part of a group of left-wing parties in France known as the Popular Front that opposed Hitler in the 's. Blum lost his post before the outbreak of the war over the issue of the Spanish Civil War. After the Germans invaded France, Blum was arrested by the Petain Government which tried him along with other officials of the Third Republic on charges of betraying France. He was found guilty in and held by the Germans until Blum briefly returned to public life after the war http: From Poet to Premier by Richard Stokes http: Neve Shalom, a new synagogue, was dedicated in Istanbul,.

The building holds more than 1, people, and the , Lira it cost to be built was raised by the Jewish community of Galata, Pera, and Chichli. Albert Einstein announced his revised unified field theory. Birthdate of Paul Reiser. Israeli Arabs hold their first Land Day which was public held a protest strike against the expropriation of lands in the Galilee "for purposes of security and settlement.

Five Israeli Arabs were killed by security forces during mass protests in Nazareth, Israel. Cohen, could go to Israel to promote peace. Three weeks later, while giving a speech in Jerusalem, Rabbi Cohen was approached by a young Israeli Arab, Farhat Agbaria, who shared his dream. Together they founded Interns for Peace. Yakov Kreizberg made one of his first public appearances as conductor today, when he led an orchestra at the Marble Collegiate Church in a performance of Haydn's Symphony no. The two terrorists who attacked Yitzhak Rothenberg, age 70, of Petah Tikva with axes yesterday were arrested today.

At least 23 Israeli and Palestinian Arabs are injured in clashes with Israeli security forces during an annual day of protests. Constantine Danilov, 23, of Or Akiva was shot and killed in Baka al-Garbiyeh, during an exchange of fire with two Palestinians trying to cross into Israel to carry out a suicide attack. Three Israelis were killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car after nightfall at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, located west of Nablus.

The vehicle blew up around 9: Security forces sealed roads in the area immediately in the wake of the attack. A new group linked to Fatah, the party headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility for the attack. The three Israeli casualties had apparently picked up the suicide bomber, who was likely dressed as an observant Jew, as he was hitchhiking on the road. He then exploded in their car. It is not clear if the terrorist got in the car at the entrance to Kedumim or rode with the Israeli victims to Kedumim from another location.

A rescue service official said medics could not approach the car, because it was still on fire nearly an hour after the blast.

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The blast scattered pieces of the car across a wide area. Rafaela Segal, who lives in Kedumim, said she heard the blast from her house, from where she can see the gas station. The smoke has reached my windows," she told Israel Radio more than an hour after the blast. There are currently scores of terrorist alerts concerning attacks against Israelis in the works," said Baker. An IDF soldier and two Palestinians were killed in addition to the bomber. Although the piece of parchment has been in his possession for several days, apparently it is still a source of great excitement for him.

This parchment was cut by an officer in the German air force, the Luftwaffe, during World War II, from a Torah scroll; he used it as a cover for his officer's ID document. Now it has come into the hands of the rabbi of Migdal Ha'emek, head of the Migdal Ohr youth village and an Israel Prize laureate. Dotan had returned from a ceremony in honor of the 25th anniversary of the twin cities pact between the regional council and the Hanover district in Germany. Dotan said that at the conclusion of a festive evening, a member of the Hanover district council approached him and asked to speak to him.

According to Dotan, Herzig junior gave him the ID document and asked him to find a holy man in the Lower Galilee and give it to him. He says that Rabbi Grossman symbolizes all that is good in Judaism, and will make proper use of the item. Rabbi Grossman turns over the piece of parchment and reads from the text. The parchment is from the book of Deuteronomy, from the weekly portion "Ki Tavo. And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the heaven for multitude" Deuteronomy 28, The rabbi is convinced that this is a "supreme message, with personal supervision.

After 60 years, this notebook arrives in Israel, wrapped in these words of reproof, and is calling on us 'to awaken. In recent days, Rabbi Grossman has shown the notebook to young people whom he met in the city, and according to him, it is causing a great deal of excitement. You can see here the embodiment of evil, how after the destruction of a synagogue, this man had the daring to enter and to cut from the Torah scroll, only because he thought that the parchment was a suitable way to preserve his document.

Sporting a large neon sign in the front, the building was designed in the s "MIMO" style Miami Modern which is common to much of the northern precincts of the Miami-area beaches. The neon sign makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the video for "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees. For several years, Wolfie's featured a sign that read "The only thing that needs to come dressed is our chickens!

That restaurant closed in Cohen also founded a third Jewish deli, Pumpernik's, at 67th Street and Collins Avenue, which also closed. One of the great joys of my childhood was eating at Wolfie's and Pumperniks - escpecially the latter. Reuven Rivlin was chosen to serve as the Speaker of the Knesset when he got 90 out of the possible votes. As reported by Raphael Ahren http: A Chabad house in Budapest was stoned during a Passover Seder. The home of Rabbi Shmuel Raskin was stoned twice during the seder on tonight, according to Israel Radio.

Police came after the first incident, and the second incident reportedly took place after the police left. The incident comes amid an election campaign in Hungary some have described as worrisome due to the expected rise of the far-right Jobbik party. No suspects were reported arrested in the attack. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed carrying out the dawn strike, saying it targeted Palestinians who had launched a short-range rocket across the border yesterday.

No one was hurt in that attack, which followed a surge in fighting around Gaza this month. One World One People, an exhibit of the works of renowned photographer Arnold Newman, is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee. In Jewish History http: Are you the publisher?

Claim or contact us about this channel. Embed this content in your HTML. Channel Catalog Subsection Catalog. Articles on this Page showing articles to of A collection of Jewish history and current Jewish events, in date format, updated daily in this Jewish history blog. Contact us about this article. Bernhard Bernhard, a benefactor to many Jewish charities including the Hebrew Benevolent Association, passed away today at his home on East 62 nd Street in New York leaving behind two children.

Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade. Thanks to the incitement by one monk, the town of Wurburg was demolished during the massacres of Jews living along the Rhine River. As had happened during the First Crusade, the Christian warriors decided to slaughter the Infidels in their midst as they moved to free the Holy Land from the Infidels. The growing class of Christian merchants benefited from the violence since the destruction of the Jewish community destroyed their Jewish competitors.

All Christians did not engage in this anti-Semitic behavior. Bernard himself tried to protect the Jewish population. His message of Crusade was heard. His message concerning the Jews was not. Massacre of the Jews of Mayence in Germany. During a popular uprising in France known as The Revolt of the Maillotins, Jews in France were murdered and their property plundered for next three or four days. The regent exercising royal power for the youthful Charles VI was unable to save the Jews or gain them indemnification for their loss.

Jews, unlike conversos and Marranos, were not subject to the Inquisition. So, the Church leveled a ritual murder accusation against them in Granada and was thus was able to call for the expulsion of both Jews as well as Marranos from Spain. The Marranos themselves were accused of complicity in the case so both groups were ordered to leave within four months.

Torquemada, the director of the Inquisition and incidentally of Jewish descent , defended this against Don Isaac Abarbanel. The edict was passed, and over fifteen thousand Jews had to flee - some to the Province of Aragon and others, like Abarbanel, to Naples. Still others found temporary sanctuary in Portugal. Henry II succeeded his father as King of France on his 28 th birthday. Birthdate of Rene Descartes, the French mathematician and philosopher who was one of the two main sources from which Spinoza derived his view of the world.

In an attempt to explain the drop off in the production of vanilla, Commander Beekman of Essequibo and Pomeroon wrote the following letter to his superiors in Amsterdam today. I have not heard of any this whole year. Little is found here. Most of it is found in Pomeroon, whither this Jew frequently traveled, and he sometimes used to make me a present of a little. In navigating along the river, I have sometimes seen some on the trees and picked with my own hands, and it was prepared by the Jew I shall do my best to obtain for the company as much as shall be feasible, but I am afraid it will spoil, since I do not know how to prepare it.

The Jews of Prague were exiled. The royal free towns, except the mining-towns, were opened to the Jews, who were allowed to settle at leisure throughout the country. The regulatio decreed that the legal documents of the Jews should no longer be composed in Hebrew, or in Yiddish, but in Latin, German, and Hungarian, the languages used in the country at the time, and which the young Jews were required to learn within two years. By 81, Jews would be living in Hungary. The Hungarian Jewish community would grow large and prosper but would all but perish in the Holocaust.

Lorenzo Bertran was subjected to an auto-da-fe "act of faith," in reality the public ceremony when the sentence of the Inquisition was read and carried out in Seville. Supposedly he was the last person to be punished for attempting to lead others to Judaism in Spain. It was not the end of the auto-da-fe; a ceremony that was reported to have taken place in Mexico in isolated instance in the early 19th century. Abolition of the Portuguese Inquisition. The Inquisition was established in meaning it lasted for years. The Jews of Belarus or White Russia were denied the right to wear any distinctive garments that would mark them as different from the rest of the citizenry.

The Court now rendered the following judgment, declaring the devise and bequest of the Monticello estate, and the acres adjoining, to the people of the United States void, and that said portions of the estate descended to and vested in the heirs at law and next of kin of the testator; also that the Jews' Hospital of New-York are entitled to have their bequest. The building, which was erected in , was occupied by a Presbyterian congregation until last November, when it was sold to its present occupants.

No reason was given for the decision of the insurance companies. Alexander II of Russia was assassinated, and with him his half-hearted liberalism. He was succeeded by Alexander III who, devoted to medievalism, urged the return to Russian civilization. The most influential person during his reign was Pobestonostov, his financier and procurator of the Holy Synod, who earned the title "the Second Torquemada. The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated. The papers of Sir Moses were left to his Secretary, Dr.

Lowe, for arrangement and publication, but Dr. Lowe died upon completing the work and son of Sir Moses, now a resident of this country, then carried it forward. It was reported today that 69 nine year old Mark Samuel, a former resident of Toronto, has passed away in London. He was a supporter of efforts to settle Russian Jews in the Northwest Terriotories.

The SS Massilia, the steamship which had previously brought several Jews from Russia who were infected with typhus is scheduled to arrive in New York today. Health authorities will be paying close attention to the passengers since they are similar to the ones brought here before. Ta'anit Bechorot 14th of Nisan, Alexander Levi passed away. Levi was one of the earliest settlers and earliest Jewish settlers of Dubuque, Iowa.

A group of Boston Jews belonging to Adath Israel petitioned Judge Ely for the return of wine and brandy which the Judge had previously ruled had been wrongfully seized by the police. Passover begins tonight and the Jews need the wine for the Seder. Those who have accepted the reform ritual, among them a large number of the Jews in America, continue the celebration only seven days, the first and last days of that period being alone regarded as of special significance and celebrated as holy days.

They came to Palestine to seek refuge from Russian persecution. Sisterhood, a Jewish organization headed by Rebecca Kohut, the wife of the late Dr. Funeral services for the late Louis Israel, the owner of one of the largest livery stables in Brooklyn, will take place at Temple Beth Elohim today. Massachusetts Congressman introduced the following resolution in the House of Representatives: Rumania barred Jews from professional and agricultural schools 15 th of Nisan, This festival was instituted to celebrate the deliverance of the children of Israel from their long bondage in the land of Egypt, and, lasting for eight days, is a season of peculiar observances.

Dorothy Levitt, the first English woman ever to compete in a motor race drove from the Adelpi Hotel in Liverpool, to Coventry and then on to the De-Dion showroom in Great Marlborough Street in London, retracing the mile trip she had made the day before. The Patriotic League of America, an organization dedicated to helping Jewish young men pursue careers in the army and navy has invited service men stationed in and near New York City to be its guests at Seders for the first two nights of Passover at the Tuxedo Hall in New York.

It was reported that Leopold Plaut, President of the United Hebrew Charities has issued a circular asking that the families of deceased Jews donate the money normally spent for flowers at a funeral to his organization. The organization will send acknowledgements to the donor and the family of the deceased, acknowledging the gift without mentioning the amount. Albert Einstein lectured in New York on his new theory of relativity. Birthdate of Lionel Davidson 14th of Nisan, Shabbat HaGadol and Erev Pesach Birthdate of Shoshana Damari http: The town of Afula was founded in the Jezreel Valley.

Unfortunately, the town never lived up to the original expectations with the settlers in the Jezreel Valley preferring to go to Haifa for rest and relaxation. The hospital at Afula did prove to be of lasting importance. Afula is a friendly crossroads town with numerous small stores selling what the locals claim to be the "best pistachio nuts in the world. Jacob Adler, who had suffered a stroke in and had been in declining health ever since, suddenly collapsed today. Real birthdate of Jacob Lateiner, Cuban born American pianist.

His father would not get around to registering his birth until May of which has led to confusion about when he was really born. Birthdate of Ilya Piastetski-Shapiro, famed math theorist who clashed with Soviet authorities. He passed away at the age of 79 on February 21, in Tel Aviv. Hebrew novelist Samuel I. Agnon was awarded the Bialik Prize in Hebrew Literature.

The Bialik Prize was established in memory of the dean of Hebrew literature, Chaim Nachman Bialik and is considered the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. Agnon is considered by sum to be a worthy candidate for the Nobel Prize. The Italian liner Roma arrived in Haifa carrying 1, passengers, which is believed to the largest number of people ever brought to Palestine on one ship. Most of the passengers are believed to be headed for Tel Aviv, site of the upcoming Maccabiad.

The police reportedly were responding to threats of violent outbursts by the Arab populace. Birthdate of poet, playwright and novelist Marge Piercy. Piercy grew up in the racially divided city of Detroit, where her Jewishness made her the target of bullies. One grandparent was Yiddish-speaking and Orthodox; another was a union organizer murdered for his activism. These influences, together with grief over relatives murdered in the Holocaust, aroused Piercy's political activism.

They also strengthened her commitment to remaining involved with issues and matters of Jewish importance. The Palestine Post reported from Glasgow that the International Labor Party conference deplored the bloodshed in Palestine by terrorists and called upon Jews to resist all attempts by Arab reactionary elements, sometimes supported by the British authorities. The first regulation made by the High Commissioner under the New Palestine Orders allowed the authorities to seize and retain accommodation and food, as they thought fit for the execution of their duty.

According to reports published in the New York Times , Dr. Birthdate of Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank. After 7, Jews arrived from Vienna, a decree was issued to establish a ghetto at Kielce. In the western Ukraine, the Gestapo organized the first deportation of 5, Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzac death camp.

It was one of the biggest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the camp. Birthdate of radio personality Michael Savage Six thousand Jews from Eastern Galicia were deported to Belzec and gassed to death. This was the deadline the Germans gave Spain to repatriate any Spanish nationals of the Jewish "race. This is yet another example of how it was Jews who helped to create what some call "the American myth.

Crematorium II at Auschwitz begins operation It was announced that every Jew in Hungary would be required to wear a yellow badge as of April 5. The deportation of Jews from Slovakia comes to an end. In all, German and Slovak authorities deported about 70, Jews from Slovakia; about 65, of them were murdered or died in concentration camps. Yiddish author and translator Leon Kobrin passed away http: There were somewhere between and Jews living in Newfoundland at this time.

John's of Israel Perlin from the United States. He was instrumental in founding the first synagogue in Newfoundland, the Hebrew Congregation of Newfoundland, in The census of reported Jews living in Newfoundland. The census of showed that that number had grown to Birthdate of Ehud Banai, an Israeli singer and songwriter. First Day of Pesach As tensions grew between Jordan and Israel due to the attacks by terrorists based in Jordan, the British cabinet discussed military options for responding to a possible strike by Israel into Jordan.

The US Navy formed an atomic submarine division. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had become the ninth nation to ratify the agreement to eliminate trade barriers on the import of educational, scientific or cultural materials, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

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Forty tons of Jerusalem stone, hewn from the Castel quarry, went into the building of the UN headquarters in New York as Israel's contribution to the project. The stone was sufficient for sq. Israel purchased 40, tons of wheat from South Africa. The number of Israeli unemployed as of this date was 16, Five terrorists were arrested by Kenya: Israel announced that they would soon be tried in camera, by a military court.

With Israel reeling from its worst wave of Arab violence in years, including the shooting deaths of two policemen this morning, the Government indefinitely closed the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip today.

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Yosef Zandani, age 28, of Bnei Ayish, was found killed in his apartment near Gedera. Near the body was a leaflet of the DFLP "Red Star", explaining that the murder was carried out in revenge for the shooting of one of its members by an Israeli citizen. The Israeli acted in self-defense 4th of Nisan, The Church and the Jews: Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Carlos Yerushalmi, 52, of Karkur, died the next day of wounds sustained in the attack. National Security Advisor Dr.

At the Jewish Museum in New York, a distinguished panel of speakers, including exhibition co-curators Emily Bilski and Emily Braun, as well as Whitney Museum curator Elizabeth Sussman and Union College professor Brenda Wineapple, consider the contributions of women such as Gertrude Stein, Margherita Sarfatti, and Florine Stettheimer to literature and the visual arts from the late 18th century through the s.

Jews and Germans in Occupied Germany during which she will discuss the story of the "close encounters" in Allied occupied Germany between Jewish survivors of the Nazi Final Solution who found themselves on "cursed German soil" after the German surrender, and the defeated Germans with whom they continually interacted. Ninety-six year old movie director Jules Dassin the son of Russian immigrants who began his career as a Yiddish actor and was a victim of the infamous Hollywood Blacklist, passed away today.

As reported by Dennis Hevesi http: Ruth Fredman Cernea, 74, a cultural anthropologist who wrote on topics that included the Jews of Myanmar and the annual mock debate at the University of Chicago on the respective merits of Jewish holiday foods such as latkes and hamantaschen, died today of pancreatic cancer. Danny Ayalon began serving as Deputy Foreign Minister.

Gideon Sa'ar was appointed Minister of Education Steven Zilberman died while serving his country. His parents, Anna and Boris, did not want their son to be forced into military service in their native land. Eisenhower following a mission supporting operations in Afghanistan when the plane experienced a malfunction. Zilberman ordered his crew mates to eject before going down with the plane into the North Arabian Sea. As reported by Duff Wilson http: Levin, of blessed memory who was Bar Mitzvahed on Shabbat Hagadol Yehosuha and Karl Marx: President Shimon Peres today congratulated Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder of the Tamar natural gas field which was first put into use Saturday, for pumping the gas into Israel four years after the deposit was first discovered — adding, however, that the pumping should not have begun on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest.

April 1 BCE: This was the period of the Crusades when followers of Islam and Christians from Europe jockeyed for control of Eretz Israel and Jerusalem. Birthdate of Otto Von Bismarck. A Prussian, he served as Chancellor from to making Germany into a united modern nation. His record concerning the Jews was mixed, He was Chancellor in when emancipation legislation was enacted removing limitations on civil rights based on religion.

His personal physician was Jewish and there were Jewish department heads in the government. In his earlier years, Bismarck had been opposed to Jews as government ministers. Ben-Gurion did not particularly believe in this Bible story, or for that matter any other. It did not matter whether the belief was true or not. Making sense of this strange belief system, symptomatic in general of the peculiarities inherent in Zionist ideology, will form the basis of the first half of this chapter.

We will then consider something even more surprising: Zionists are great archaeologists. On many occasions, false and over-excited announcements of its discovery have been proclaimed, only to collapse in the face of intense scientific scrutiny. In other words, the taken-for-granted framework for understanding how to make sense of archaeological discovery was itself the problem. To put it bluntly, the Old Testament stories, far from providing guidelines for archaeological discovery, were proving to be obstacles.

The chapter concludes by looking at how archaeologists are coming to terms with what amounts to an intellectual revolution in thinking about ancient Palestine, and how they have found themselves inadvertently challenging the Zionist myth at the core of modern Israeli identity. There were already a few established Zionist agricultural settlements in Palestine, which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire discussed in Chapter 5. At the time there were about 55, Jews in Palestine out of a total of , inhabitants. Ben-Gurion was soon to discover that, although these settlements were built on land which had been purchased from absentee Arab landlords, an understandably resentful peasantry which had been subsequently evicted often returned to make armed incursions.

As early as we find Ben-Gurion, gun in hand, ready to defend an agricultural settlement in the Galilee Teveth Ben-Gurion made his mark on Zionist politics in Palestine almost immediately. He was at the founding conference of the Poale Zion the Palestine Social Democratic Hebrew Workers Party; its politics are discussed in Chapter 6 , and in and he was elected to its central committee Teveth Poale Zion would go on to become the decisive force in Zionist politics for most of the twentieth century, and Ben-Gurion was to become its most charismatic and successful leader.

It provides an unparalleled insight into Zionist myth-making. Ben-Gurion explains it himself very well: It is not important whether the story is a true record of an event or not. What is of importance is that this is what the Jews believed as far back as the period of the First Temple. In short, Yizhar tries to square the circle between myth and truth: Myth is no less a truth than history, but it is an additional truth, a different truth, a truth that resides alongside the truth; a non objective human truth, but a truth that makes its way to the historical truth.

Wistrich and Ohana It is true that by persuading people to act, and if necessary to act violently, in response to myth, historical fact can be created. Intense belief in the myth made it a truth, or at least as good as a truth. The catalyst was the so-called Lavon Affair. At first sight this may seem preposterous. After all, Ben-Gurion denied the centrality of religion as an integrating force in modern Jewish nationalism Keren However, with Ben-Gurion, nothing was that straightforward.

He argued that there were three components to modern Jewish nationalism: According to both Judaism and Christianity, God will send His representative, an intermediary, the Messiah, to earth in order to transform human society and redeem it of its sins. Hence the redemption of mankind is to be preceded by the redemption of the Jewish people, restored to their own land Keren One cannot but admire the sheer gall of the man.

Ben-Gurion had usurped Christianity as well as Judaism. The Jewish people resettled in the ancient land, after 2, years, will be a sort of national collective Christ, providing a light unto all other nations of the world. According to Ben-Gurion, the thousands of Israeli soldiers involved in the battle of the Sinai desert between Egypt and Israel were likely to have been inspired by memories of how their Jewish ancestors had been led to Mount Sinai by Moses who had received the Ten Commandments from God: Prophetic statements were incorporated into the political language, and his biblical heroes, even when they disagreed with God, pointed ominously to his contemporary attitudes.

Ben-Gurion had hijacked the spiritual concept of Zion, Buber argued, which should have no place in nationalist power politics: Zion implies a memory, a demand, a mission. At one point Buber explicitly accused Ben-Gurion of blasphemy. Ben-Gurion could not dismiss Buber as a religious obscurantist. First, Buber was highly respected by believers and non-believers alike; second, Buber was keenly aware of the dilemmas facing Jewish politics in modern Palestine.

By insisting that a Jewish State of the type that Ben-Gurion was defending was unacceptable to the teachings of a true Judaism, Buber was also making a statement about his humanistic brand of Judaic ethics. This was a humanist ethics incompatible with the oppression of another people. Buber and several other Jewish humanists argued for a bi-national state Said For Buber it had the particular merit of unambiguously separating state politics from religion.

This actually made Buber a more modern political thinker than Ben-Gurion, who deliberately cultivated the ambiguous mixing of Judaism and state politics. Buber was a more modern political thinker and he certainly had a much more universalist vision. This became clear when the two men fell out over the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi and member of the SS, deeply implicated in the Holocaust and captured in Argentina by Israeli agents in , and tried in Israel in Buber had wanted Eichmann tried at an international tribunal because his crimes were crimes against the human race as a whole.

Ben-Gurion insisted that the trial should be held in Israel as a way, as Hannah Arendt observed , of bolstering the legitimacy of the Jewish State. Leibowitz was not afraid to use strong language. This idea had been conveniently rooted in Zionist mythology from the time of the earliest settlements in the late nineteenth century. The early Zionists apparently believed that between the time of the destruction of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70 CE and the new Zionist settlement, the land had become a crust under which noxious gases accumulated!

These myths are the subjects of chapters of this book. As we noted at the beginning of this chapter, he had firsthand experience of those early Zionist settlements, which had been purchased from absentee Arab landlords. He even had to arm himself to defend one settlement from the furious, evicted and hence ruined Arab peasantry, who had been working the land for generations.

Local and foreign journalists, military and civilian officials, writers, artists, members of his family and other dignitaries arrived carrying pocket Bibles in their hands. The Jerusalem Post reported the event under the headline: Serious Bible critics had been making this point for years, but Ben-Gurion claimed that the source of inspiration for this insight was the War of Independence and the settlement patterns of modern Israel Keren It is tempting to conclude that he was cynically catching up with what would slowly emerge as the scholarly consensus.

Biblical scholars were unimpressed. His most effective critic turned out to be a right-wing Bible scholar, Israel Eldad. Eldad accused Ben-Gurion of media sensationalism and misuse of political power. Hypotheses ought to be thoroughly investigated rather than be presented to the public.

To the statesman engaged in symbolic politics, the medium might be as important as the message. To the scholar, any but the most important forum to express the message might lead to distortion. The scholar works alone, nourished by peer review, and is confined to a relatively small audience.

The statesman speaks to large crowds, unable to listen with the necessary scepticism and who take his authority for granted. This was obviously detrimental to any evaluation of knowledge Keren Eldad distinguished three approaches to the subject. Second, there is the scientist, who has exactly the opposite approach. Third, there is the interpreter who studies the Bible not for its own sake but as a means of deriving contemporary, or universal, lessons. In the end science and religion were incompatible.

Within Zionism, the tension between the two becomes unbearable when Jewish history is subjected to the rules of evidence-based argument and scholarship; that is, when there is proper adherence to the standards of scientific inquiry. Readers with any familiarity with the Bible may recall that the land of the time had another name, Canaan. After all, the Bible stories carry images so powerful that even the most sceptical assume there must be at least grains of historical authenticity. Is this not one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most famous, single acts of courage that has been passed down to us from the ancient world?

Nevertheless, modern Zionism has shown increasing difficulty defending the biblical David as a credible historical personality and, at the same time, absorbing the implications of serious biblical analysis and archaeological research. In the s a prominent Israeli politician, Abba Eban, with a reputation as an outstanding Bible scholar, presented a television documentary, Heritage, Civilisation and the Jews.

The series, which was accompanied by a best-selling, beautifully illustrated coffeetable book, purported to show the history of the Jews from biblical times to the present day. What was interesting about the series were the concessions that Eban repeatedly had to make to serious critical Bible scholarship and archaeological discoveries, which undermined his Zionist beliefs about the Bible.

This was starkly revealed when he came to the David and Goliath fable. It is of an exquisitely decorated vessel with the unambiguous caption: How did he know, at least in theology and ethics, that the Israelites were superior to the Philistines? The answer is that he does not. This is what Bible critics call an example of redaction. To use a concept much favoured by Bible critics, the stories may well be apocryphal; in other words, inventions.

In any case, as Eban was compelled to make clear, the Bible itself raises many difficulties about the religious and historical life of David and Solomon. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want … though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: The problem is even greater with Solomon. Solomon developed the most spectacular empire, specialising in pagan marriages of convenience. As Eban tells us: His ships built and manned in large part by the Phoenicians, sailed to Arabia, East Africa, and India … bringing back gold and ivory, sandalwood and precious stones, even peacocks and monkeys for the Royal Court … the Queen of Sheba came overland from southern Arabia with camels that bore spices and very much gold I Kings Eban ties himself up in knots as he tries to reconcile the biblical claim with the pagan temple-building programme which typified the period.

Eban asks to what extent these architectural borrowings should be taken as evidence of a deeper bond between the religions of the Canaanites and Phoenicians and the religion of Israel. His answer is very important because, although he does not say so, it reflects the struggle between science and religion within Israeli archaeology, which was developing at the time he was writing his book and which has since reached crisis proportions: The differences in religious belief should be plain enough … and there were also significant divergences in religious practice.

Israel was … forbidden to worship its deity in the form of an image, and human sacrifice, cult prostitution, and orgiastic fertility rites were likewise excluded. The Temple sacrifice was the centre of state religion in the age of Solomon and remained so as long as the Temple remained in Jerusalem.

But we must now turn to a much bigger problem, which goes to the very heart of Zionist interpretation of the Bible. The Old Testament is full of holy words which provide spiritual guidance for the Jewish people as a religious people. These are, of course, written words, with hugely sophisticated meaning, providing a profound system of theology and ethics, which continue to inspire millions of people in the modern world. Yet we have still to uncover any trace of written words from the period of the United Monarchy of David and Solomon, Ancient Israel, just under 3, years ago.

And that is the problem. Ancient Israel is portrayed as an advanced form of civilisation, but where are its words? They reflect nothing less than the implosion of Israeli archaeology. The implication is that the failure to discover literary activity at this time suggests that there was no state formation, centralised cult or monarchy. After decades of excavation, using details from the Bible to search for the remains of these buildings, a scholarly consensus is slowly and very reluctantly emerging amongst the archaeologists of modern Israel, that the buildings never existed, or rather there are the remains of buildings but they cannot be dated to the period of Solomon: Jerusalem has been excavated time and again … fieldwork … failed to provide significant evidence for tenth century occupation the period of David and Solomon.

Not only was any sign of monumental architecture missing, but so were even simple pottery sherds … The most optimistic assessment of this negative evidence is that tenth century Jerusalem was rather limited in extent, perhaps not more than a typical hill country village. Finkelstein and Silberman His endurance made him and fellow captives famous. McCarthy read the Bible twice during his captivity, not least because it was the only book his militant Islamic prison guards would allow the hostages.

McCarthy became so fascinated that he decided to make a television documentary about it: Now his producers must have panicked at its radical content because the six half-hour transmissions were given a midnight slot with minimum publicity and hardly anyone watched them. Look at it — it was made as a lie by the false pen of scribes.

Actually, it is possible that Jeremiah may have been a very honest witness in the tiny city-state of Judah about which more in a moment , at the time when some books of the Bible were possibly taking written form. He described it as nothing less than a scientific revolution. It is a process well known to all research scientists familiar with the dynamic of scientific breakthrough: A crisis stage is reached when the theories within the framework of the general thesis are unable to solve an increasingly large number of anomalies.

The explanations become ponderous and inelegant, and the pieces do not lock together … This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: Asherah is identified as another Canaanite deity. She was a fertility goddess and the recognized consort of the chief god El and later of Baal. Many small figurines representing her have been found at early Canaanite sites. The statuettes, with their large breasts and welldefined sexual organs, are closely related to those found at the slightly later Israelite sites.

It is a relationship that has led scholars to suggest that Israelite fertility figurines may represent Asherah too. At some point after the biblical fiction known as the United Monarchy of David and Solomon, perhaps about two centuries later, very roughly — BCE, a historical entity called Israel did emerge, though in its first incarnation it was distinctively pagan, with a pagan god, Jehovah, and goddess, Asherah.

Furthermore, Jerusalem was not its spiritual centre. In the late s, the archaeologist Bill Dever discovered Asherah, in inscription form, written in ancient Hebrew, when he was carrying out excavations at Khirbet el-Kom near Hebron. On the wall of a late Iron Age tomb, dating from the mid- to late eighth century BCE, he discovered a bold drawing of what appeared to be a hand together with an inscription that ran: It was too controversial. But then in the s a second site was found by Israeli archaeologists — also in the eighth century in Sinai. And you have the same expression: The inscription, written in ink on an old storage jar, was accompanied by a drawing of two curious figures, one apparently male, the other female, and both crowned.

And it seems likely that the small tribal kingdoms of David and Solomon, if they existed at all, worshipped polytheistic pagan gods. Herzog reports that the Israeli public are trying to ignore the findings despite the fact that they have been known for decades. These symbolic elements constitute such a critical component of the construction of Israeli identity that any attempt to call their veracity into question encounters hostility or silence … The blow to the mythical foundations of the Israeli identity is apparently too threatening, and it is more convenient to turn a blind eye.

Less well known is the explosively bitter religious feud between Judaea and Samaria, or rather to use their biblical names, Judah and Israel. It is a feud in which Judah, or Judaea, its Roman name, became the ultimate victor. In the next chapter we will explore the damaging implications of this for modern Zionist claims on Palestine when we look at the Jewish Diaspora in the Roman Empire.

But we should not leave this chapter before we have paid our unqualified respects to the great Jewish Bible writers of ancient times. The Bible is most certainly not a mandate for modern Jewish chauvinist claims on the land of Palestine, but, with Finkelstein and Silberman, we can most certainly agree that it is a sacred scripture of unparalleled literary and spiritual genius … an epic saga woven together from an astonishingly rich collection of historical writings, memories, legends, folk tales, anecdotes, royal propaganda,9 prophecy and ancient poetry … the literary masterpiece would undergo further editing and elaboration so that it would become a spiritual anchor … for communities all over the world.

Now Vital is indeed a very serious and readable historian. There are many objections to this approach. The existence of flourishing Jewish communities at this time, an ancient Jewish Diaspora, throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, not least in Rome itself, is simply ignored, written out of history.

Did they believe that they were already in Exile? This chapter will attempt to develop these objections, but first we need to understand something about the historical background to Jewish history 2, years ago. All modern historians are dependent on him, even though he is notoriously unreliable, but providing Josephus is interpreted with considerable caution, he can provide unique and illuminating insight into the period. He was fluent in Greek, the language of the Roman educated classes.

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He respected the wider culture and politics of the Roman Empire. He was certainly proud of his Jewish heritage, but he saw it coexisting with the Roman Empire. Josephus was part of the Jewish landowning aristocracy in Jerusalem who had been heavily cultivated by the leaders of the Roman Empire.

Rome ruled Judaea through this Jerusalem Jewish leadership. Though concentrated in Judaea, and in particular at the Temple site in Jerusalem, the Jewish religion was well known throughout the Roman Empire, because so many Jews lived in different parts of it. In fact, a tremendous tradition of pilgrimage had developed, as Jews from all over the Mediterranean and beyond travelled to the Temple at Jerusalem to pay their respects.

The great religious Jewish festivals were especially popular, and vast crowds from faraway places would gather there Goodman Judaism had evolved in Judaea or Judah, see Chapter 1 and Babylonia more than 2, years ago. How this occurred is certainly beyond the scope of this book. Then all the Jews together greeted Alexander with one voice and surrounded him.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 11; cited Modrzejewski Modrzejewski claims that Josephus is recording an event of immense significance, even if only symbolically. According to John Barclay, who has made an exhaustive study of Jews in the ancient Mediterranean Diaspora in this period, this was particularly true in Egypt when it became part of the Alexandrian Greek Empire.

Jews were recruited in considerable numbers as soldiers and government officials. Many also came as slaves or as economic migrants Barclay In return, Alexander and his successors in Egypt, known as Ptolemaic, agreed to respect and protect Jewish law Modrzejewski There is some evidence that Alexander was following a precedent already established by the Persian Empire, where there was also a smaller Jewish Diaspora. This was to tolerate Jewish religious independence based on the Temple at Jerusalem in return for Jewish services. There are intriguing documents from a much earlier Judaean colony in Elephantine in Egypt, servicing the Persian Empire, dating from the period of Persian control Modrzejewski These precedents seem to have fixed a familiar pattern for relationships between the Jews and the rulers of ancient empires, even stretching forward to the medieval states, 1, years later.

When Rome took control of the disintegrating Ptolemaic Greek Empire, and certainly by the first century of the common era, the majority of Jews were living outside Judaea Barclay No doubt there were many illustrious families. But our sources are very limited and dependent for their survival after 2, years upon accidents of history, like the dry sands of the Egyptian desert which sometimes stored papyri documents, or in this case Christian fascination with this Greek Jewish philosopher.

He was one of the richest men in the city, giving a gift to the Temple at Jerusalem of massive gold and silver plate for its nine gates. Tiberius Julius Alexander was a nephew of Philo. Appointed by the Emperor Claudius as procurator of Judaea, he later helped put down the Jewish revolt in Jerusalem.

Josephus tells us that Tiberius had abandoned the customs of his forefathers Modrzejewski It would be foolish to draw general conclusions from a single family, perhaps, especially this one. But one characteristic does stand out. Though a highly assimilated family, two of its leading members remained firmly committed to Judaism. The third made a clean break with the religion. Yet even with Roman patronage, he swore his continuing commitment to his Jewish faith.

There were high levels of assimilation across Jewish society in Egypt. In most cases they served in military units of mixed ethnicity. Many Jews had been involved in the cleruch system, the mechanism for imposing Roman rule in the countryside. Along with migrant mercenary soldiers from other parts of the Empire, they were given plots of land and hence evolved into small landowners tied by gratitude and obligation to the imperial bureaucracy Tcherikover and Fuks Was assimilation, then, only with imperial Greek, and later Roman, society rather than with native Egyptians?

Yet we should be wary of dogmatic generalisations. There was, in addition, a poor Jewish peasantry in Egypt. We hear of a shepherd, Pasos the Jew, who worked on the estate of a non-Jew. We find another Jew tending the flock for an Egyptian temple of Pan Barclay We also have artisans, builders, weavers, donkey owners, boatmen, sometimes working for non-Jews Barclay Some sense of assimilation with native Egyptian society is reflected in the writings of one Jewish author, Artapanus, albeit in Greek, sympathetic to Egyptian religious cults Barclay But we can only guess at attitudes to assimilation.

However Philo leaves us in no doubt about where, in his view, Jews should call their homeland. There is a darker side to this, of course. Philo recognises the inevitable importance that people attach to their homeland: This does not mean, however, that his expression of that commitment should be read in terms which marginalize his local allegiances … Pearce Our sources are far more limited. As one among many immigrant minorities in Rome, Jews were subject to the cultural and social snobbery of the Roman elite, even though exceptional Jewish individuals were known in the imperial court.

With their hands clean of the wars in Judaea and the Diaspora Revolt of — C. Yet Barclay writes of violence elsewhere in the Diaspora. It is impossible to judge its levels of intensity or its impact on local Jewish rootedness. It was sometimes connected to the way imperial rulers played off the different religious cults and ethnic groups against the other. Undoubtedly, Jews were subjected to particular animosity if they were seen to be enforcing unpopular imperial policies like the cleruch system in Egypt.

And in general terms, Jews, known for their self-conscious religious differences, their one invisible god, circumcision, dietary laws and Sabbath worship, could easily attract hostility. He is usually our only source and we should be cautious, because he has also left us a very tantalising alternative picture. And in Antioch, an ancient city in the same region, Judaism was attracting the many ethnic Greeks Barclay New Testament sources make the same claims; in Caesarea, Judaism was spreading even amongst the military, according to Cornelius Acts Josephus was quite confident that Judaism was ultimately irresistible: The masses have for a long time shown great eagerness for our piety … there is not one city, Greek or barbarian … which the custom of the 7th day, which we keep free of work, has not infiltrated, and where the fasts, and burning of lamps, and where many of our prohibitions with respect to meats are not observed … … without the alluring bait of sensual pleasure, but only because of its intrinsic merit, the Law has proven so effective.

But, at the very least, he is surely reflecting the self-confidence of a community immensely proud of its religiosity. The rest, as they say, is history, a hostile history to the Jews, certainly, but still a testimony to the dynamism and creativity of the Diaspora Jewish community in the first century CE. Samaria, Galilee and Judaea. Each needs to be considered separately. Samaria exposes one of the deepest fault-lines for Zionism. To this day, there is a unique Samaritarian Jewish identity, with no affiliation to modern Israel or to modern Judaism as it is understood in the West.

One historian, Coggins, has rightly pondered the significance of the three Samaritan candidates who took part in the elections to the inaugural Palestinian legislative council on the Palestinian West Bank in The Samaritans insisted they were Jewish but in the first century they were at daggers drawn with Judaea. Instead, they worshipped on their own mountain, Mt. The difficulty here is that there are no surviving documentary references from Samaria.

Most of the documentation is Jewish, in the Jerusalem Temple sense, and is very hostile. Millar has summarised what little we know about the Samaritans: How they saw themselves is expressed most vividly by two Greek inscriptions from [the Greek island of] Delos [which indicate the existence of a Samaritan diaspora].

The real history, size and settlement patterns of the Samaritan community in Samaria itself are all extraordinarily little known. In evidence from this period we encounter them only from the outside, for instance in the description in St. Not long after this … dramatic date, Pontius Pilate was to send a detachment of troops to massacre a crowd of Samaritans who had gathered at a village near Mt. Gerizim, in the hope of being shown sacred vessels deposited there by Moses, according to Josephus. Three decades later, in the early stages of the Jewish revolt, a large number of Samaritans again gathered on their holy mountain, and in the summer of 67 C.

This makes a very telling point. The question of recognising its national authority has no meaning outside this religious framework. Galilee poses perhaps even more serious problems. His forensic capacity to extract real history from such deeply propagandist and flawed sources as the Gospels, rabbinic Jewish religious writings like the Talmud and Josephus has produced astonishing results. He reveals a rough-andready peasant Judaism, in the first century CE, as much at odds with Jerusalem as with Rome. This local and regional awareness also reflected the economic geography.

Galilee was extraordinarily fertile, its olive oil, for example, was exported all over the Mediterranean. Temple leaders in Jerusalem detested the Galileans. She claims the situation was close to total anarchy Rajak Rajak is very revealing about Galilean loyalties to their Jerusalem commander: Josephus tells us … about brigands that he could not disarm, and whom he therefore bound to himself as mercenaries … finds himself the aspirant leader of something like a band of wild men, swollen with homeless peasants and angry villagers … Rajak What they and the Judaeans were fighting for is the question we must now try to answer.

That it was a war for Jewish liberation is not in doubt; whether it serves as a legitimate model for a modern Jewish nationalist movement like Zionism most certainly does raise doubts. Let us begin with the extraordinary revolutionary family dynasty of Judas of Galilee. Born at the beginning of the first century CE, Judas led opposition to co-operation with the Roman census, which was a means of avoiding paying taxation. Forty years later two of his sons, Jacob and Simon, were crucified for revolutionary agitation.

A surviving son, Menahem, later became one of the revolutionary leaders in Jerusalem. A nephew of Menahem, Eleazar, was the legendary captain at Masada, where a few hundred Jews, after holding out against the Romans following the fall of Jerusalem, finally committed mass suicide. It may be objected that our only source concerning this family dynasty is Josephus and hence the history is unreliable. But the Zionists are more than happy to use Josephus when it suits them. The dispassionate scholar, Martin Goodman, has written what is arguably the most brilliant recent account of the Jewish Revolt, The Ruling Class of Judaea, The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome 66—70, by skilfully disentangling Josephus the propagandist from Josephus the real historian.

The Jewish revolt against Rome was a peasant war against the very wealthy Jewish ruling class in Jerusalem, as well as being a war against the rule of Rome. What Judas is said to have proposed was not just that subjection to Rome was evil but that acceptance of any human master was wrong since Jews should be ruled by God alone … The effect of this ideology was anarchy and revolution. The most compelling motive for any Jew to join in violent struggle was a belief that the messianic age was not just a future hope … but a present actuality. Once the messiah had arrived and the last battles, so graphically imagined in the Qumran War Scroll,10 were ready to commence … [you] had no choice but to participate.

The Josephus expert, Rajak, whilst considering the messianic emphasis overstated Brigandage was, of course, the enemy of the settled and propertied throughout the ancient world; even Rome could not always keep it at bay in the empire … Bandits are an extreme case. What … Josephus scarcely recognizes … is that most of the rebels had grievances of a different order from those of his own class, and some of them at least were driven by a vision — perhaps indistinct, and occasionally Messianic, but for all that not devoid of practical content — a better society ….

Peasant banditry and brigandage, as forms of primitive social and political protest against injustice and inequality, have a long and honourable history throughout the ancient and medieval worlds. The Zealots were the most important, organised revolutionary group in the revolt, briefly taking power in Jerusalem. There seems some historical continuity with Judas of Galilee, at least according to Vermes. They recruited bandits to strengthen their power base in Jerusalem Goodman When they seized the Temple they selected the new high priest by lottery, thereby avoiding candidates from the traditional ruling-class families.

The high priest chosen was a village stonemason, probably the first high priest from such lowly origins. This seems to have a ring of truth, if only because Josephus is so furious about it, dismissing him as a boor and ignoramous Rajak Coins are invaluable because they are the best evidence available, separately from Josephus, about the general aims of the revolt.

But here also Rajak urges caution in treating the slogans as exclusively religiously inspired: Theologically minded commentators on Josephus, and they are the majority, have read this eschatologically, as referring to the conditions that will arise at the End of Days. Yet even … such circles … allow that the kind of freedom of which they dreamt … must have had a prominent component of practical liberation of the oppressed.