In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.” So begins Christopher Columbus’s diary. The expulsion that Columbus refers to was so cataclysmic an event that ever since, the date 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community, some 200,000 people, were expelled from Spain. [writes Jacob Telushkin: Jewish Virtual Library]

Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.

The Jews’ expulsion had been the pet project of the Spanish Inquisition, headed by Father Tomas de Torquemada. Torquemada believed that as long as the Jews remained in Spain, they would influence the tens of thousands of recent Jewish converts to Christianity to continue practicing Judaism. Ferdinand and Isabella rejected Torquemada’s demand that the Jews be expelled until January 1492, when the Spanish Army defeated Muslim forces in Granada, thereby restoring the whole of Spain to Christian rule. With their most important project, the country’s unification, accomplished, the king and queen concluded that the Jews were expendable. On March 30, they issued the expulsion decree, the order to take effect in precisely four months. The short time span was a great boon to the rest of Spain, as the Jews were forced to liquidate their homes and businesses at absurdly low prices. Throughout those frantic months, Dominican priests actively encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity and thereby gain salvation both in this world and the next.

The most fortunate of the expelled Jews succeeded in escaping to Turkey. Sultan Bajazet welcomed them warmly. “How can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king,” he was fond of asking, “the same Ferdinand who impoverished his own land and enriched ours?” Among the most unfortunate refugees were those who fled to neighboring Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel of Portugal concluded an agreement to marry Isabella, the daughter of Spain’s monarchs. As a condition of the marriage, the Spanish royal family insisted that Portugal expel her Jews. King Manuel agreed, although he was reluctant to lose his affluent and accomplished Jewish community.

In the end, only eight Portuguese Jews were actually expelled; tens of thousands of others were forcibly converted to Christianity on pain of death. The chief rabbi, Simon Maimi, was one of those who refused to convert. He was kept buried in earth up to his neck for seven days until he died. In the final analysis, all of these events took place because of the relentless will of one man, Tomas de Torquemada.

The Spanish Jews who ended up in Turkey, North Africa, Italy, and elsewhere throughout Europe and the Arab world, were known as Sephardim — Sefarad being the Hebrew name for Spain. After the expulsion, the Sephardim imposed an informal ban forbidding Jews from ever again living in Spain. Specifically because their earlier sojourn in that country had been so happy, the Jews regarded the expulsion as a terrible betrayal, and have remembered it ever since with particular bitterness. Of the dozens of expulsions directed against Jews throughout their history, the one from Spain remains the most infamous.

Prayer: Lord, how we lament the suffering of the Jewish people, the treatment of Jews and Jewish Christians by the Church and the Crown, and the expulsion of 1492. Yet we see your hand of Providence yet again scattering our people, sending them into the New World, and to places where they would be free to live, learn and let their lights shine. Only you know the times and seasons of our lives, both as individuals and as peoples. Lord, have mercy upon Israel and all nations. In Yeshua’s name, and for his glory, we pray. Amen.

http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.572443&catNum=572443&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrNhMKFDPuk

http://www.allmusic.com/album/endechar-lament-for-spain-mw0001998745

29 July 2013 Right of Return to Portugal Five Centuries After Inquisition #otdimjh

The Portuguese government on Thursday 29 January 2015 approved modifications to a law that regulates nationality rights to the descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from the Iberian nation five centuries ago, local media reported.

“I would not say that it is a historical reparation, because I believe that in this regard there is no possibility of repairing what has been done. I would say that it is the granting of a right,” Portuguese RPT news quoted Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz as saying at the conclusion of a cabinet meeting.

Portugal’s law on naturalizing descendants of Sephardic Jews was passed by parliament on July 29^th 2013.

“We expect the law to be effective by mid-February or the beginning of March 2015,” said the president of Lisbon’s Jewish community Oulman Carp.

According to the legislation, “the government will give nationality … to Sephardic Jews of Portuguese ancestry who belong to a tradition of a Portuguese-descended Sephardic community, based on objective prerequisites proving a connection to Portugal through names, language and ancestry.”

Oulman Carp said it also will apply to non-Jewish descendants of Sephardim, Oulman Carp said.

Existing legislation on the naturalization of Sephardim has not been applied because it still does not contain regulations for bureaucrats, which may be published along with the final letter of the law.

The authors described the legislation as an act of atonement for the expulsion of Portuguese Jewry in 1536 during the Portuguese Inquisition. Similar legislation is underway in Spain, where it awaits a final vote in Congress. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Iberia from 1492 on because of Church-led persecution.

In both countries, legislators and government officials said Jewish communities would be consulted and perhaps made partially in charge of screening applicants. The Jewish community of Lisbon, where the vast majority of Portugal’s 800 Jews live, has rejected applications because the final letter of the law has not yet been published, Oulman Carp said.

Reflection and Prayer: This symbolic gesture cannot begin to redress the injustices, persecution and destruction of life and property that took place hundreds of years ago, nor can original wrongs be righted by an apology. Yet it is an important gesture nevertheless, showing a real desire for reconciliation and restoration of relationships. As such it should be welcomed and affirmed, in the hope that others would follow such an example, and Jewish people feel welcome again in countries that so often persecuted and expelled them.

Oseh shalom b’imromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu, v’al kol Yisrael, v’al kol hagoyim, v’imru Amen. May he who makes peace in the heavens also make peace among us and among all Israel and the nations, and say ye, Amen.

http://world.time.com/2013/09/04/jews-win-a-right-of-return-to-portugal-five-centuries-after-inqusition/

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Portugal-okays-law-of-return-for-Sephardic-Jews-389431

http://www.timesofisrael.com/portugal-becomes-2nd-country-after-israel-with-a-jewish-law-of-return/

Jews Win a Right of Return to Portugal Five Centuries After Inquisition

By John Krich / Lisbon

In a remote Wales town, artist Judy Rodrigues sees a chance to complete a search for belonging traced through the ancient synagogues of London and Amsterdam. In Israel, retiree Sara Cassuto Sachs wonders if stumbling on her maiden name as a tourist in the Portuguese city of Tomar can lead to the convenience of an E.U. passport. In Istanbul, the Portuguese Consul has been flooded with calls from a long-standing Sephardic community nervous about the strengthening Islamist influence in Turkish politics and eager to reconnect with a country whose language still infuses their prayers.

Portugal may not be the land of the Second Coming. But it very well could become the second country of choice for some Jews seeking to live in an ancestral homeland. The July 29 promulgation of a new law grants automatic Portuguese nationality to descendants of the estimated 400,000 “judeus” expelled, killed or forced to convert during the dark days of the 16th century Inquisition. “For those who may keep the key to the house of their ancestors,” declares the bill’s co-sponsor and Socialist Party heavyweight Maria de Belem Roseira, “this law tells them their homeland is still there.”

Formally established in 1536, the Portuguese Inquisition saw show trials, executions, mass killings and the forced separation of children shipped off to Portugal’s colonies. While more Jews remained as “new Christians” in Portugal than in Spain, most fled to what is now modern day Morocco, Turkey, the Netherlands, and turned up in Venice’s ghetto as well as among the first European settlers of New York City. There are estimated to be only 600 Jews in Portugal today, not counting ex-pats, compared with some 400,000 at the time of the Inquisition.

Call it apology or reparation, the new act is “trying to erase a black mark on our nation, something terrible and unfair,” says Christian Democrat member of parliament Joao Rebelo. “Nothing else could win unanimous support from all parties. It’s making history in a good way.”

As with all high-minded impulses, the difficulty may be getting down to the details. (A similar ruling, announced with less public fanfare late last year by Spain’s Ministry of Justice, has become mired in controversy – slowed by long waits, onerous regulations like renouncing other citizenship and what Rebelo describes as “a large Muslim lobby we don’t have in Portugal.”) Despite the stirring rhetoric, Portuguese lawmakers admit it may take another year to establish procedures for implementing the edict and exact criteria for approval of applications. Between Inquistion records and synagogue membership here and overseas, many of the common names the exiled Portuguese Jews adapted can be traced and verified.

“The Rabbis of our three approved communities should have the say,” argues Jose Oulman Carp, President of Lisbon’s 300-member “Israelite” Community. “They would know best who are Jews, who has Iberian rather than Eastern European origins, though the problem comes when trying to determine if families originated here or in Spain.” Where many fled across borders and the majority hid their identity with “new Christian” names, M.P. Rebelo points out, “There were no Facebook pages back then to help us keep track.” And Lisbon’s current main Rabbi Eliezer Shai Di Martino insists, “Everything will of course be done in accord with civil authority,” adding, “While mostly symbolic, I hope this may eventually add life to our small community.”

In fact, the single-sentence amendment to Portugal’s code does not even specify that applicants have to be practicing Jews, know much about Portugal, have clean criminal records. They won’t even have to reside in the country to gain citizenship — a provision that proponents like Roseira, a staunch human rights advocate, cite to refute suspicions, as voiced by Rabbi di Martino and others, that managers of an economy in austerity may hold the “old idea that all Jews are rich.” As Roseira points out, “laws already exist to grant citizenship to those investing a half-million Euros. Our only motive was to reassert this country’s tradition of tolerance for the mixing of cultures and races.”

Still, admits Esther Mucznik, grand-daughter of a Lisbon Rabbi, “While celebrating, it’s hard not to feel some bitterness. It’s like the duck they killed before is laying the golden egg.”

More likely, the law’s enactment comes as the fruition of a four-decade resurgence of appreciation for Portugal’s Jewish past since the overthrow of staunchly Catholic, Nazi-sympathizing dictator Antonio Salazar. Anti-fascist heroes like Aristides Sousa Mendes, Portugal’s so-called “Schindler”, have been officially rehabilitated. Sephardic life, customs, even food have become common subjects for scholarship here and in Brazil, spurred in part by the popularity of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, a historical novel by American Richard Zimler, who has found success in Portugal through Jewish themes.

While Carp hopes the new law will lead to resumption of direct flights between Lisbon and Tel Aviv, that will be spurred by commercial initiatives like the Rede das Judarias — a “network of Jewish sites” that has already enlisted 22 towns and cities to research and renovate their former synagogues, ritual baths, Jewish quarters or draw up blueprints for local museums. These include Belmonte, where Jews carried on in secret for five hundred years. And tiny Trancoso, a town where buried carvings of hundreds of Jewish symbols were recently found, has just opened its ambitious Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation, as well as its first temple since the late 15th century. To network creator Jorge Patrao, a non-Jewish official in Portugal’s isolated Serra da Estrela mountain province, his brainchild won’t just “spur income in places where tourism was based mostly on snow,” but help to “reclaim so much of our region’s historic identity.”

The same can be said for Portugal’s uncompromising embrace of its exiled children. Given the Nazis’ mass extermination of Sephardic communities, author Zimler notes, “it’s too bad the gesture comes eighty years too late.” But, says lawmaker Roseira, “we can only set things right for our time, see the past with our own eyes.”

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Portugal-okays-law-of-return-for-Sephardic-Jews-389431

Portugal becomes 2nd country, after Israel, with a Jewish law of return

500 years after the expulsion of its community, Lisbon’s new legislation corrects a moral wrong, albeit with some ‘economic considerations as well’

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ July 12, 2013, 8:16 pm 143

http://www.timesofisrael.com/portugal-becomes-2nd-country-after-israel-with-a-jewish-law-of-return/

JTA — Until 2009, right-wing Portuguese politician Jose Ribeiro e Castro didn’t have much interest in the expulsion of his country’s

Jewish community in the 16th century. That changed once Ribeiro e Castro opened a Facebook account.

Online, the 60-year-old lawmaker and journalist connected to several Sephardic Jews, descendants of a once robust Jewish community numbering in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom were forced into exile in 1536 during the Portuguese Inquisition. Eventually the encounters morphed into a commitment to rectify a historic injustice.

For Ribeiro e Castro, correcting the injustice meant spearheading a bill to naturalize the Jewish descendants of expelled Jews, a measure that unanimously passed the Portuguese parliament in April and went on the books last week, making Portugal the only country besides Israel with a Jewish law of return.

“The law is a commendable initiative,” said Nuno Wahnon Martins, the Lisbon-born director of European affairs for B’nai B’rith International. “It has economic considerations as well, which do not subtract from parliament’s worthy decision.”

King John III, who requested the inquisition in Portugal (photo credit: Wikipedia commons)

Portugal’s initiative comes as countries across Europe continue to invest millions to develop Jewish heritage sites — an effort they say is rooted in their belated recognition of the continent’s vibrant Jewish history, but often is also an acknowledged attempt to attract tourist dollars at a time of economic stagnation.

Last year, Spain announced a similar repatriation plan to Portugal’s, though the effort has yet to advance

Last year, Spain announced a similar repatriation plan to Portugal’s, though the effort has yet to advance. And the country boasts a network of nearly two dozen cities and towns, known as Red de Juderias, aimed at preserving Spain’s Jewish cultural history in an effort to attract tourists.

Later this month, Portugal will open a $1.5 million learning center in Trancoso, a town once home to many Jews. The prime minister is slated to attend the July 19 opening of the center, which will be aimed at the area’s anusim, descendants of Jews forcibly converted during the Inquisition.

“The tourism drive and the repatriation effort in Portugal and Spain are connected on several levels,” said Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit that runs outreach programs for anusim and will operate the Trancoso center. “The Sephardic Diaspora can be viewed as a large pool with the potential to benefit Spain and Portugal’s economies, provided that pool can be drawn to visit, settle and invest.”

Ribeiro e Castro, a soft-spoken man who tends to gesticulate vibrantly when discussing politics, insists he has no ulterior motives for promoting the legislation.

‘The tourism drive and the repatriation effort in Portugal and Spain are connected on several levels’

“For me, this is purely a historical and emotional goal,” he said. “These efforts got stuck in Spain had remained stuck also in Portugal for a long time, until we move them along.”

According to Ribeiro e Castro, his involvement in the project began as an experiment. In 2010, he encouraged several of his Jewish Facebook friends to apply for Portuguese citizenship, “just to see what happens.”

At first, Portugal’s powerful Socialist Party was none too thrilled about inviting descendants of Portuguese Jews to return. But the Socialists eventually came around, submitting their own bill to naturalize Sephardic Jews that ultimately was incorporated into Ribeiro e Castro’s amendment to the Law on Nationality.

The new legislation says “the government will give nationality … to Sephardic Jews of Portuguese ancestry who belong to a tradition of a Portuguese-descended Sephardic community, based on objective prerequisites proving a connection to Portugal through names, language and ancestry.”

The law names Ladino, the Spanish-based Jewish dialect spoken by some 100,000 people worldwide, as a viable “linguistic connection.”

Whatever his motivation, focusing international attention on the Catholic Church’s dark history is a bold choice for Ribeiro e Castro, a Catholic himself and former director of the Church-affiliated TVI network. He attributes his decision to an old high school buddy who taught him about Sephardic traditions in Portugal, and to his father, who served as Portugal’s colonial governor in Angola in the 1970s.

‘My father was an admirer of what he called “small history,” minor developments with a huge impact. Naturalizing the Sephardim could be that’

“My father was an admirer of what he called ‘small history,’ minor developments with a huge impact,” Ribeiro e Castro said. “Naturalizing the Sephardim could be that.”

For the law to have any impact, bureaucrats in Lisbon first need to address a host of complications. The Portuguese Bar Association already has warned that the law could compromise the constitutional principle of equality before the law.

And then there are practical issues.

“Differentiating between Jews whose families were exiled [from] Spain and those who fled Portugal is very difficult,” said Jose Oulman Carp, president of Lisbon’s Jewish community. “Clearly the Jewish communities [of Portugal] will need to be consulted on the screening process and we can provide some input, but the distinction is nearly impossible in many cases.”

But whatever the end result, merely the effort to lure back Portuguese Jews constitutes, in Freund’s mind, an ironic twist of history.

“Five centuries ago, the expulsion happened partly because the Iberian rulers wanted the Jews’ assets,” Freund said. “Now we see efforts to welcome back the Jews partly for the same reason.”

“I repent of ever having recorded one single song and ever having performed one concert if my music, and more importantly — my life — has not provoked you into godly jealousy, or to sell out more completely to Jesus!”

“The only music minister to whom the Lord will say, ‘Well done, thy good and faithful servant,’ is the one whose life proves what their lyrics are saying…And to whom music is the least important part of their life. Glorifying the only Worthy One has to be a minister’s most important goal!” 

Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 – July 28, 1982) was an American contemporary Christian music pianist, singer and songwriter originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same. Often considered controversial for his frequently confrontational lyrics and spoken messages, he wrote some notable songs alone and with his wife, Melody Green, including “Your Love Broke Through”, “You Put This Love in My Heart”, and “Asleep in the Light”. Green is also known for numerous popular modern hymns, including “O Lord, You’re Beautiful” and “There Is a Redeemer”, written by his wife, Melody.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for this radical, prophetic and creative Jewish believer in Yeshua, and the lives changed through his music, ministry and mission. Help us to follow his example and be truly dedicated and committed to knowing and serving you. In Yeshua’s name, Amen.

There Is A Redeemer lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

There is a redeemer,

Jesus, God’s own Son,

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,

Holy One,

Jesus my redeemer,

Name above all names,

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,

Hope for sinners slain.

Thank you oh my father,

For giving us Your Son,

And sending Your Spirit,

‘Til the work on Earth is done.

When I stand in Glory,

I will see His face,

And there I’ll serve my King forever,

In that Holy Place.

Thank you oh my Father,

For giving us Your Son,

And sending Your Spirit,

‘Til the work on Earth is done.

More Keith Green lyrics

• Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful
• Create In Me A Clean Heart
• Make My Life A Prayer To You
• Here I Am, Send Me
• Song To My Parents
• So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt
• I Want To Be More Like Jesus
• My Eyes Are Dry
• Altar Call
• Asleep In The Light

http://www.keithgreen.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Green

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6I9dLO63YlA

From the Official Website

Keith was born in New York near Brooklyn. His mom had been a singer with the Big Bands, his dad a schoolteacher. Before he was two his mom said Keith had perfect pitch as he sang his baby songs. A year later his family moved to CA and settled into the newly developed orchards of the San Fernando Valley, just a short drive to Hollywood, which would play a significant role in Keith’s future.

Keith’s parents made sure he learned how to play guitar and piano at a young age. He liked piano best, but got bored playing the long classical pieces. So instead of learning to read sheet music, he’d memorize each piece, then pretend to be site reading when his teacher was there. But his grandfather, who started Jaguar Records, the first rock and roll label, taught Keith how to play chords on the piano… and was he end of classical music for him. From that moment on Keith began writing and singing his own songs. He was only 6 years old at the time.

When he was 11 Keith signed a recording contract with Decca Records, singing his own songs. Although his pictures were in the Teen Magazines and his single had some minor success, the industry didn’t know how market with such a young artist. Keith was very disappointed and at 14, felt like a total failure, a ‘has been’ which was very difficult for someone who had been groomed all his life to be a pop star.

Keith was 15 the first time he ran away from home. He started a journal that very day and for years as he looked for musical adventure and spiritual truth, the wrote his journey down. Keith had a Jewish background, but he grew up reading the New Testament. He called it “a confusing combination” that left him deeply unsatisfied. His journey led him to drugs, eastern mysticism, and free love.

When Keith was 19 he met a fellow seeker/musician named Melody. They were inseparable and got married a year later — now he had a partner as his spiritual quest continued. Then when he had nearly given up hope, Keith found the truth he had been looking for. He now was 21 and never looked back.

Keith had grown up reading about Jesus in the bible, but was confused when he figured out he was Jewish, a fact his family had hidden from him. But now what once confused him made sense as Keith proudly told the world, “I’m a Jewish Christian.” As soon as Keith opened his heart to Jesus, he and Melody opened their home. Anyone with a need, or who wanted to kick drugs, or get off the street, was welcome. Of course, they always heard plenty about Jesus at what fondly became known as “The Greenhouse.”

Not only did Keith’s life take a radical turn, but by then he was a highly skilled musician and songwriter, and so all of his songs changed too. His quest for stardom had ended. And now his songs reflected the absolute thrill of finding Jesus and seeing his own life radically changed. Keith’s spiritual intensity not only took him beyond most people’s comfort zones, but it constantly drove him even beyond his own places of content.

Somewhat reluctantly, Keith was thrust into a “John the Baptist” type ministry — calling believers to wake up, repent, and live a life that looked like what they said they believed. Keith felt he would have met Jesus sooner if not for Christians who led double lives. He made audiences squirm by saying, “If you praise and worship Jesus with your mouth, and your life does not praise and worship him, there’s something wrong!”

The radical commitment Keith preached was also the kind of faith he wanted his own life to display. About Jesus Keith said, “Loving Him is to be our cause. He can take care of a lot of other causes without us, but He can’t make us love Him with all our heart. That’s the work we must do. Anything else is an imitation.”

Keith’s songs were often birthed during his own spiritual struggles. When he pointed his finger at hypocrisy, he knew he had four fingers pointing back at himself. He penned honest and vulnerable lyrics—but left room for God to convict the rest of us too. He knew the journey to heaven often twists through rocky valleys, and saw no value in portraying his journey as otherwise.

With Keith’s honesty, he would have chafed against a glossed-over reading of his own life. After all, Keith was in the spotlight as he grew in Jesus. So when he made mistakes, he would talk about them to portray his life honestly. He believed we miss something essential when we overlook the frailty and humanity of others as well as ourselves. He knew he was far from perfect, but he passionately hungered and thirsted after righteousness.

Keith was constantly praying, asking the Holy Spirit to, “Please change my heart, and convict me of my sin.” And when he was convicted, he took action. If he needed to repent, he repented. If he needed to phone someone to ask forgiveness, he made the call.

Keith’s views on many subjects were often controversial -– especially when it came to charging for his ministry. With his albums at the top of industry charts. Keith decided to give his albums away for whatever people could afford, even for free. Keith’s heart was to make sure those who could not afford to buy his music could get it. Since Keith and Melody felt their songs were musical ministry messages and they did not want anyone left out due to lack of funds. At last count at least 15 years ago over 200,000 albums were sent into prisions and to the poor, without charge.

The same issue arose with Keith’s concerts, which he felt were nights of ministry. After a few years of trying different ways of funding his concerts there was just one idea that gave him peace. He decided his concerts would be free so anyone who wanted could come. The ministry would rent a hall or stadium and Keith took one offering for LDM to help cover the expenses. He and Melody did not receive any of the offerings because they were able to support themselves with their music royalties.

Doing free concerts along with Keith’s new album policy were moves that sent shockwaves through the Christian music industry, causing, some record labels, bookstores, or other artists to question his motives. Some thought he wanted to undercut the system and make others look bad. But that wasn’t his heart at all and in the end it was understood he was just following his convictions.

The Lord had taken Keith from concerts of 20 or less — to stadiums of 12,000 people. At his concerts Keith always gave an altar call and led thousands upon thousands to the Lord, and just as many firmly recommitted their lives fully to serve the Lord.

Keith began to appear on many television and radio programs. He talked about his walk with God and played a song or two. But his heart was to please the Lord. His childhood dream of becoming a super star had been cleansed from his heart years before with something better – being a servant of God.

Keith said, ”I only want to build God’s Kingdom and see it increase, not my own. If someone writes a great poem no one praises the pencil they used, they praise the one who created the poem. Well, I’m just a pencil in the hands of the Lord. Don’t praise me, praise Him!”

For Keith, meeting Jesus was one thing. Becoming more like Him was another. He struggled with the same things we all do – developing self discipline, deadlines, bad attitudes, selfishness, and ministry issues screaming for attention. He was also trying to disciple the 70 new believers who had come to be part of LDM, which by now had moved to East Texas. Besides all this, Keith still had music to write, articles to finish, and a growing family and wife to take care of.

After striving for years to measure up to God’s holiness, at times even questioning his own salvation, Keith came into a deeper understanding of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross — both to forgive his sins, and to clothe him in His righteousness. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest.

It wasn’t that Keith became less concerned with purity and holiness. But now he was more motivated by love and less by fear in His pursuit of Jesus. He learned so much more about God’s grace and the importance of pausing simply to behold His glory and enjoy His presence. That is perhaps, what Keith loved most.

In 1982 Keith and Melody took a trip to Europe, including Greece and the UK, and their hearts were stirred.. especially when they visited the ministry in the Red Light district of Amsterdam, the open drug use, and the lack of thriving churches where ever they went. Kith asked every leader what we could do, they all said, “Please tell people we need them to come help us.”

KGPhotos-40

So Keith decided that at his 1982 Fall Tour he would challenge the Christians in America to get out of their comfort zones, and into the the world to reach the hurting.. So in the last few months of his life, with his heart turned back to winning souls, LDM booked large arenas for the Fall Tour, Melody wrote some missions songs, and YWAM founder Loren Cunningham was going to come to talk about the needs in the world, and give an missions altar call.

Keith’s heart had fully turned back to those who probably wouldn’t show up at a concert or a church. Keith wanted to go back out into the streets and into the prisons the way he and Melody did as new believers. He wanted to go to the mission fields of the nations, and into secular clubs to reach people with his music. However, it was not to be.

On July 28, 1982, there was a small plane crash and Keith went home to be with Jesus. The crash also took the life of his three-year-old son Josiah, and his two year old daughter, Bethany. Melody was home with their one year old, Rebekah, and was also six weeks pregnant with their fourth child, Rachel. Keith was only 28 years old.

Although Keith is now with Jesus, his life and ministry is still making a huge impact around the world. His songs and passionate delivery are still changing lives. His writings are translated into many languages. Keith once said, “When I die I just want to be remembered as a Christian.” It’s safe to say he reached his goal, and perhaps, a bit more.

Keith Green was simply a man of conviction. When his convictions led him to an eternally worthy object in the person of Jesus he sold all that he had—ambitions, possessions, and dreams—to possess His love. In so doing he became a man of devotion. He also became a man remembered, and still missed, by millions around the world.

Turbato corde is a papal bull issued by Clement IV. The bull was addressed to Dominican and Franciscan Friars on the issue of the arising of acts of heresy amongst the mixed Jewish and Christian peoples, expressing the then pope’s dissatisfaction and disagreement with there being some Jewish persons attempting to convert Christians to Judaism. The bull was issued during 1267. As part of the address the then pope indicated the friars might be made into inquisitors for the purposes of dealing with suspected acts of heresy. People of the Christian faith and belief who had converted to Judaism were, according to the decree, to be thought of and treated as heretics.

Dilectis filiis fratribus Predicatorum et Minorum ordinum inquisitoribus heretice pravitatis auctoritate sedis apostolice deputatis, aut in posterum deputandis, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Turbato corde audivimus et narramus quod quamplurimi Christiani veritatem Catholicae fidei abnegantes se ad ritum Judaicum damnabiliter transtulerunt; quod tanto magis reprobum fore dignoscitur, quanto ex nomen hoc Christi sanctissimum quadam familiari hostilitate securius blasphematur. Cum autem huic pesti damnabili, que, sicut accepimus, non sine subversione predicte fidei nimis excrescit, congruis et festinis deceat remediis obviari: universitati vestre per apostolica scripta mandamus, quatenus infra terminos vobis ad inquirendum contra hereticos auctoritate sedis apostolice designatos super premissis tam per Christianos, quam etiam per Judeos inquisita diligenter et solicite veritate, contra Christianos, quos talia inveneritis commississe tamquam contra hereticos procedatis: Judeos autem, qui Christianos utriusque sexus ad eorum ritum execrabile hactenus induxerunt; aut inveneritis de cetero inducentes pena debita puniatis; contradictores per censuram ecclesiasticam, appellatione postposita, compescendo, invocato ad hoc, si opus fuerit, auxilio brachii secularis. Datum Viterbi, VI kal. augusti, anno tertio. http://www.cn-telma.fr/relmin/extrait268771/

To the beloved sons and brothers of the Orders of Preachers and Minors, now and in the future deputised by the authority of the Apostolic See to the Inquisition of heretical depravity, salvation and apostolic blessing. 

With a heart disturbed we have learned and we report that several Christians, renouncing the truth of the Catholic faith, have culpably transferred to the Jewish rite. This is, indeed, all the more deplorable because, therefore, the blessed name of Christ is blasphemed familiarly with some hostility. Since we must overcome with appropriate measures and quickly this detestable plague, which as we have learned, grows not without subversion of that faith, we order by apostolic letters to you all, after investigating the truth with faith and promptness, among Christians and even among Jews, to proceed, within the limits given by the Apostolic See, to investigate the heretics against Christians find you guilty of this sin as if they were heretics; and even punish with appropriate penalties Jews who have already induced the Christians of both sexes into their execrable rite or are in the process of doing so; by forcing opponents by ecclesiastical censure, without appeal, and involving if necessary, using the secular power. Given at Viterbo, the sixth day of the calends of July, the third year.

Prayer: The history of the Inquisition gives ample reason why Jewish people find it difficult to consider the claims of Yeshua, and we can learn from history in order not to repeat it. How long, O Lord, how long?

http://www.cn-telma.fr/relmin/extrait268771/

Editions

• Browe, Die Judenmission im Mittelalter und die Päpste, (Rome 1942), p. 258
• Grayzel, The church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, (Detroit-New York 1989), pp. 102-104, n. 26
• Ripoll, Bullarium Ordinis FF. PraedicatorumI, (Roma 1729), p. 489, n. 73
• H. Sbaralea,Bullarium Franciscanum III (Roma 1765), p. 126

Traductions

• Cohen, The Friars and the Jews. The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism, (Ithaca 1984), pp. 48-49
• Grayzel, “Popes, Jews, and the inquisition from ‘Sicut’ to ‘Turbato’”, Essays on the Occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Dropsie University, A.I. Katsh, L. Nemoy (dir.), (Philadelphia 1979), p. 15
• Synan, The popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages, (New York 1965), p. 118
• Tartakoff, Between Christian and Jew.Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon 1250-1391, (Philadelphia 2012), p. 27.

Etudes

• Browe, Die Judenmission im Mittelalter und die Päpste, Roma 1942.
• Cohen, The Friars and the Jews. The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism, (Ithaca 1984).
• Cohen, The Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jews in Medieval Christianity, (Berkeley-Los Angeles 1999).
• Dal Col, L’inquisizione in Italia dal XII al XXI secolo, (Milano 2006).
• Grayzel, “Popes, Jews, and the inquisition from ‘Sicut’ to ‘Turbato’”, Essays on the Occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary of the Dropsie University, A.I. Katsh, L. Nemoy (dir.), (Philadelphia 1979), pp. 173-188 [= Id., The church and the Jews in the XIIIth CenturyII, (Detroit-New York 1989), pp. 1-45].
• Quaglioni, “‘Christianis infesti’, una mitologia giuridica dell’età intermedia: l’Ebreo come ‘nemico interno’”, Quaderni fiorentini per la storia del pensiero giuridico moderno38 (2009), 201-24.
• Shatzmiller, “L’inquisition et les Juifs de Provence au XIIIe siècle”, Provence Historique93-94 (1973), pp. 327-328.
• Stow, “Ebrei, età medievale”, Dizionario storico dell’Inquisizione II, A. Prosperi (dir.), (Pisa 2010), pp. 521-523.

The Germans invaded and occupied the Netherlands May 10, 1940. On July 11,  1942, a telegram was sent to the Nazi leadership in Holland from ten religious denominations protesting the mistreatment and deportation of the Jews. The Nazis responded by promising that no Jews who had been baptized before 1941 would be deported. This was a surprise because the telegram has been about the abuse of human rights, not special treatment for Christian Jews. On July 20, 1942, the Interdenominational Consultation and the Dutch Catholic bishops headed by Archbishop Jan de Jong, wrote a pastoral letter that was read in all their churches on the following Sunday, July 26. The Catholic letter included the text of the telegram; some Christian churches deleted the telegram as a conciliatory gesture. [Book review]

Retribution was swift and terrible. More than 400 Catholic Jews were picked up and of these 113 were murdered at Auschwitz.

For the first time Edith Stein and Companions on the Way to Auschwitz offers biographies of 23 of those arrested as well as a list of 83 of those arrested and killed. These persons were arrested Aug. 2, transferred to Amersfoort camp Aug. 4, sent to Auschwitz Aug. 7 and gassed Aug. 9. Sept. 30, 1942 is the last possible date that anyone in this transport could have survived.

The first biography is that of Edith Stein, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and now a canonized saint and her sister, Rosa, a member of the Third Order of Carmel. This is the most extensive chapter because Edith Stein’s writing and career was well documented by herself and others.

Throughout the next twelve chapters the author introduces the reader to a whole new universe of Jewish people who became Catholics, including entire families. Austrian born Ludwig Lob and his wife Johanna van Gelder were baptized Catholic during their engagement. They had six children and died before the Nazi occupation. Five of their children became religious. Their lay sibling was arrested in late August and was sent to Buchenwald. He died in February 1945, shortly before liberation; his brothers and sisters perished in Auschwitz.

The individual stories are fascinating, but the most intriguing is Dominican Sr. Judith Mendez de Costa. Her parents were both of Portuguese-Jewish descent. She became a Catholic at the age of 28 and then entered the Dominicans where she worked as a nurse. After her arrest, she was released because of her Portuguese heritage. It is due to her that this book chronicling that fateful week between Aug. 2 and Aug. 9, 1942, could be documented. Between August 1942 and February 1944 when she was re-arrested she wrote the recollections and letters that support much of the narrative in the book. The picture we get of Sr. Judith is one of joy and courage. According to records, she was gassed in Aushwitz July 7, 1944 (though the exact date is not certain).

The Foreword to Edith Stein and Companions on the Way to Auschwitz,is by Ralph McInerny of Notre Dame who says, “Fr. Hamans has put us in his debt for having taken on the enormous task of making [the martyred Catholic Jews] flesh and blood persons….” . His foreword is the only place in the book that deals with the criticism of Pope Pius XII for not speaking out. What happened to the Catholic Jews of the Netherlands, he writes, “is eloquent witness of what could result from public condemnation of the Nazis.” He refers to the Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide who credits “…the leadership of Pius XII with saving the lives of some 860,000 Jews.”

After this comes the introduction and first chapter, titled “Murder of Catholic Jews.” These, while necessary and seek to set the context for events that led up to the Aug. 2 round up… The details of the telegram of protest and the pastoral letter are essential, but the sequence not as clear as one would hope. It was necessary to return continually to previous pages to keep track of the narrative. I would have to make a chart to see if all the numbers correlated.

The chapters vary in length, depending on how much information was available or could be traced. I found all the stories compelling and heartbreaking. Many photos accompany the text. The translator has added several notes, mostly to clarify geography as many of the Catholic Jews in the book fled to the Netherlands for safety. The appendix is a longer listing of Catholic Jews murdered in response to the pastoral letter of July 26, although incomplete. This list of those from Amsterdam has never been recovered.

Such events as this roundup of Catholic Jews are not only tragic, but testify to the significant number of Jewish people who had become Catholics, as continues today. May the Church have the grace and love to welcome Jewish people, and protect them from all prejudice, discrimination and anti-semitism. In Yeshua’s name, Amen.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/catholic-jews-and-holocaust

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_de_Jong

One of the most fascinating Jewish “converts” to Christianity in the Early Modern Period was Moses ben Aaron ha-Kohen of Cracow (1670–1716), who received the name Johannes Christianus Jacobi when he was baptized by Johannes Friedrich Heunisch on July 25, 1696 in Schweinfurt, Germany. The manuscripts of his Hebrew works, written in the early part of the eighteenth century during his tenure as Hebrew tutor at Uppsala University in Sweden, indicate, moreover, that he adopted the new surname Kemper. The story of Kemper’s spiritual odyssey and the intricacies of his attempt to prove the truth of his new faith on the basis of kabbalistic, and especially zoharic, sources have been studied by a number of scholars.

Johan Christian Jacob Kemper (1670–1716), formerly Moshe ben Aharon of Kraków, was a PolishSabbatean Jew who converted from Judaism to Lutheran Christianity. His conversion was motivated by his studies in Kabbalah and his disappointment following the failure of a prophecy spread by the Polish Sabbatean prophet Tzadok of Gordno, which predicted that Sabbatai Zevi would return in the year 1695/6. It is unclear whether he continued to observe Jewish practices after his conversion. [Wikipedia entry]

In March 1701 he was employed as a teacher of Rabbinic Hebrew at Uppsala University in Sweden,until his death in 1716. Some scholars believe that he was Emanuel Swedenborg’s Hebrew tutor.

During his time at Uppsala, he wrote his three-volume work on the Zohar entitled Matteh Moshe (The Staff of Moses), (1711). In it, he attempted to show that the Zohar contained the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

This belief also drove him to make a literal Hebrew translation of the Gospel of Matthew from Syriac (1703). He also wrote Me’irat ‘Enayim (The Enlightenment of the Eyes), (1704) a Christian Cabala commentary on Matthew, which emphasized the unity of the Old and New Testaments and used elements from the Sabbatean and non-Sabbatean Kabbalistic traditions to derive Christian beliefs and meanings from traditional Jewish beliefs and practices.

In his commentary on polemical treatment of Christianity in rabbinical literature he was one of the first Lutherans to comment on the connection between the form of the name “Joshua” used for Jesus in the Talmud, Yeshu instead of the normal Yeshua used for other figures, and connected the dropping of the final ayin with the ancient curse yimakh shemo[‘may his name be blotted out’].

After his death, Kemper’s student Andreas Norrelius (1679–1749) translated the commentary into Latin as Illuminatio oculorum (The Light of the Eyes),(1749).

Reflection and Prayer: While few today are aware of Kemper’s work, his magnificent attempt to use kabbalistic exegesis to demonstrate the truth of Yeshua as Messiah is an important example of a trend that is still popular today. Not many would accept his presuppositions or hermeneutical methods, but he captures in his own life and faith one particular expression of what it means to be Jewish and believe in Yeshua.

Thank you Lord for this man of faith, who by his background, imagination and interpretation of the Scriptures straddles the two antithetical traditions and demonstrates, in his own time and context, rich competence in both. Help us similarly to study your Word and community it effectively, we pray. In Yeshua’s name, Amen.

Elliot R. Wolfson, “Messianism in the Christian Kabbalah of Johann Kemper,” in Millenarianism and Messianism in the Early Modern European Culture: Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World, ed. Matt D. Goldish and Richard H. Popkin (Dordrecht and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), 139–187.

download here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Kemper

http://pibbethel.no-ip.org/biblioteca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Maria-Diemling-and-Giuseppe-Veltri-The-Jewish-Body_Corporeality-Society-and-Identity-in-the-Renaissance-and-Early-Modern-Period.pdf

• Eskhult, Josef (ed.),Andreas Norrelius’ Latin translation of Johan Kemper’s Hebrew commentary on Matthew: edited with introduction and philological commentary by Josef Eskhult Uppsala,2007.ISBN 978-91-554-7050-0
• Goldish, M. Kottman, K.A. Popkin, R.H. Force, J.E. Laursen, J.C. (eds.),Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture: From Savonarola to the Abbé Grégoire. Springer, 2001. ISBN 0-7923-6850-9
• Maciejko, P. “Mosheh Ben Aharon Ha-Kohen of Krakow,” in Hundert, G.D. (ed.),The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe,. Yale, 2008. ISBN 0-300-11903-8
• Shifra, A. “Another Glance at Sabbatianism, Conversion, and Hebraism in Seventeenth Century Europe: Scrutinizing the Character of Johan Kempper (sic) of Uppsala, or Moshe Son of Aharon of Krakow,” in Elior, R. (ed.),The Sabbatian Movement and Its Aftermath: Messianism, Sabbatianism and Frankism,(Hebrew), Hebrew University. Jerusalem.
• Wolfson, E. “Messianism in the Christian Kabbalah of Johann Kemper,” inMillenarianism and Messianism in the Early Modern European Culture: Jewish Messianism in the Early Modern World, 139-187. Edited by M. D. Goldish and R. H. Popkin. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001
• Wolfson, E. “Angelic Embodiment and the Feminine Representation of Jesus: Reconstructing Carnality in the Christian Kabbalah of Johann Kemper,” inThe “Jewish Body” in the Early Modern Period, 395-426′. Edited by M. Diemling and G. Veltri. Leiden: Brill, 2008

Hans Joachim Schoeps, “Rabbi Johan Kemper in Uppsala,” Särtryck ur Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrift (1945): 146–177;

idem, Barocke Juden, Christen, Judenchristen (Bern and Munich: Francke, 1965), 60–67, translated into English by G.F. Dole, “Philosemitism in the Seventeenth Century,” Studia Swedenborgiana 7 (1990): 10–17;

idem, Philosemitismus im Barock: religions- und geistesgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1952), 92–133;

idem, “Philosemitism in the Baroque Period,” Jewish Quarterly Review n.s. 47 (1956–1957): 139–144, esp. 143;

Shifra Asulin, “Another Glance at Sabbatianism, Conversion, and Hebraism in Seventeenth-Century Europe: Scrutinizing the Character of Johan Kemper of Uppsala, or Moshe Son of Aharon of Krakow,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 17 (2001): 423–470 (Hebrew).

On the probable relationship of Kemper and Swedenborg, see Marsha K. Schuchard, “Emanuel Swedenborg: Deciphering the Codes of a Celestial and Terrestrial Intelligencer,” in Rending the Veil: Concealment and Secrecy in the History of Religions, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (New York and London: Seven Bridges Press, 1999), 181–182; idem, Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision (London: Century, 2006), 64–65.

 Bernstein gives a brief summary:

Pieritz, G. Wildon, born at Klecko in Posen, in 1808, baptized 1835, laboured as a missionary of the L.J.S. in the forties of the nineteenth century at Jerusalem, in Damascus, and subsequently settled at Oxford, where he was engaged in teaching. He was a learned and spiritually-minded man, as his articles in the “Hebrew Christian Witness, 1874-5,” testify.[415] He was the author of “The Gospels from the Rabbinical Point of View,” London and Oxford, 1873.

More details are given here:

The history of George Wilden Pieritz is an interesting story because he started his early life in the Jewish faith and later converted [sic] to Christianity.

The tombstone inscription reads:

Rev George Wildon PIERITZ MA

In early life a Jewish Rabbi

baptized 1834

[Ord]ained a priest in the church of England 1847

[ ] some time a missionary both in Jerusalem

and in India

[Di]ed at Pitney Som July 24 1884

aged 76

George Wilden Pieritz was born in 1809 in Prussia into the Jewish faith. He was a made a Rabbi at the age of 18 years and was a keen student of Hebrew. In 1834, when he was aged 25 years he converted to Christianity. His baptism was sponsored by the King of Prussia and the historian Neander. Once established as a Christian he became a very committed missionary.

In 1837 Father Pieritz went to Jerusalem, actively participating as a layman in the work of the ‘London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews’ and helping to establish the first Protestant church in the Holy Land. In 1840 he went to Damascus for four months ‘to intercede with the consuls on behalf of the persecuted Jews’ (their persecution had followed on the ‘Blood Accusation’ that they had been involved in the murder of a Capuchin monk) and ‘he made a full report on the circumstances’. In 1841 he went to Bucharest for a few months exploring the possibility of the Society working with the Jewish community there. (Gidney, pp 180, 181, 229, 254)

He came to England in 1840, studied at Cambridge and was ordained in 1846. After this he served as a curate in Stanningly for two years. He married his wife Sarah, (born in 1817 in Rochester) in 1846. Following their marriage they went to India where Father Pieritz was a missionary for four years from 1847 to 1851. Their daughter Ann L Pieritz was born in India in 1851.

When the family returned to England in 1851 Father Pieritz taught pupils at Cambridge until he was ‘presented to the living of Hardwicke’ in 1865. He came to Cowley St John in 1870 and taught Hebrew. The Parish magazine notes that he gave a talk on Christian mission at the Cowley St John Girls School in the spring 1871. The 1881 census records him living at 33 Iffley Road with his wife Sarah and daughter Ann.

During the vacations he would often provide relief cover for vicars in other parishes. In fact he died on July 24 1884 aged 76 years of heart failure whilst away in Pitney in Somerset providing cover for the local vicar. (See obituary Cowley St John Parish Magazine, August 1884).

Ann Pieritz, his daughter, was an active member of the community and organised the St Agnes Guild. In January 1885 she was presented with a clock as a token of gratitude for all the organizing she had contributed. In January 1886, when she was seriously ill, she spent some time in St John’s Hospital and died soon after

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the life of George Pieritz, whose ministry in UK, Israel, Bucharest and India was faithful and diligent. Help us to walk diligently before you in all our ways. In Yeshua’s name we pray. Amen.

http://www.ssmjchurchyard.org.uk/pieritz_family.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_affair

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pieritz-1

Sir Leon Levison presided at this historic moment in the history of the Hebrew Christian Alliance, as storm clouds loomed over the Jewish people in Europe, Messianic Congregations (known as Hebrew Christian Churches) were being formed, and a Hebrew Christian Colony and and immigration to Israel was encouraged.

The meetings discussed:

A. Abraham’s Vineyard Hebrew Christian Colony in Palestine

B. The formation of Hebrew Christian Church  – including Articles of Faith, Constitution and Liturgy for Ordination of Elders and Deacons:

The aims of the Commission on the Hebrew Christian Church were:

“1. To make a survey of the numbers of Hebrew Christians in the World, their locations and if possible their Denominational connections.

2. To report on the desirability and practicability of the suggested Hebrew Christian Religious Body.

3. To draw up a Constitution for the said suggested Hebrew Christian Religious Body.

4. To indicate the Doctrines of the said suggested Hebrew Christian Religious Body.
5. To determine the relation of the said Body to the Universal Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. To determine its relationship to the Jewish people.” (Report of First Meeting, p. 2)

C. Rising Anti-Semitism in Europe

D. Telegram to the King thanking him for attending the 1^st International Conference in 1925 

E. Proposed Hebrew Christian Alliance colony in Poland

Reflection and Prayer: The flowering of the Hebrew Christian movement in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries was decimated by the Shoah, and here in the 1934 meetings the present problems outweighed the concern for the future possibilities of the State of Israel and the modern Messianic movement. Who knows the future of Israel today, or of the modern Messianic movement, barely 3 generations old?

Master of all worlds

Not because of our righteousness

Do we lay our pleas before you

But because of Your great compassion.

Who are we? What are our lives?

What is our lovingkindness? What is our righteousness?

What is our salvation? What is our strength?

What is our might? What shall we say before You,

LORD our God and God of our ancestors?

Are not all the mighty like nothing before you,

the men of renown as if they had never been,

the wise as if they knew nothing,

and the understanding as if they lacked intelligence?

[from the Sacks Siddur p36]

Passing over the Plot? The Life and Work of Hugh Schonfield (1901-1988) Richard Harvey* (Mishkan 35-57)

Joseph of Tiberias (c. 285 – c. 356) was a Jewish believer in Jesus. He is also known as Count Joseph and is venerated as Saint Joseph of Palestine. His memorial day is 22 July.

The main source about his life is a book by Epiphanius, the Panarion, which in chapter 30 retells the stories Epiphanius heard from Joseph during their encounter in Scythopolis around the year 355. According to Epiphanius, Joseph was a contemporary of Emperor Constantine, a Rabbinical scholar, member of the Sanhedrin and a disciple of Hillel II. Following his conversion, Emperor Constantine gave him the rank of count (comes), appointed him as supervisor of the churches in Palestine and gave him permission to build churches in the Galilee. Specifically, Joseph wished to build churches in Jewish towns which didn’t yet have a Christian community. One of the churches attributed to him was the first Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish at Heptapegon, erected around AD 350.[1] Despite his high position, he opposed the Arian policies of Constantine’s successors, and got married after his first wife died in order to evade Arian pressure to become a bishop for that sect.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for this Messianic Jewish saint, the churches he is described as building, and the story of his life. Help us to walk the path of faith that you have set before us. In Yeshua’s name we pray. Amen.

Abstract of Goranson’s Phd on Joseph of Tiberias – full thesis here

Joseph of Tiberias.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1654-apostasy-and-apostates-from-judaism

An apostate, Joseph by name, a former member of the Sanhedrin of Tiberias, raised to the dignity of a comes by Constantine the emperor, in reward for his Apostasy, is described by Epiphanius in his “Panarium,” xxx. 4-11 (ed. Dindorf, pp. 93-105). He claimed, while an envoy of the Sanhedrin, to have been cast into the river by the Jews of Cilicia for having been caught reading New Testament books, and to have escaped drowning only by a miracle. He must have done much harm to the Jews of Palestine, since the emperor had, in the year 336, to issue, on the one hand, a decree prohibiting Christian converts from insulting the patriarchs, destroying the synagogues, and disturbing the worship of the Jews; and, on the other hand, a decree protecting the Apostates against the wrath of the Jews (Cassel, in Ersch and Gruber, “Allg. Encyklopädie,” iv. 23 and 49, note 59; Grätz, “Gesch. der Juden,” iv. 335, 485). The very fact that he built the first churches in Galilee at Tiberias, Sepphoris, Nazareth, and Capernaum—towns richly populated by Jews and soon afterward the centers of a Jewish revolt against Rome—justifies Grätz in assuming that the dignity of comes conferred upon Joseph covered a multitude of sins committed against his former coreligionists in those critical times. The rabbinical sources allude only to the fact that Christian Rome, in accordance with Deut. xiii. 6—”the son of thy mother shall entice thee”—said to the Jews, “Come to us and we will make you dukes, governors, and generals” (Pesiḳ. R. 15a, 21 [ed. Friedmann], pp. 71b, 106b]). A decree of the emperor Theodosius shows that up to 380 the patriarchs exercised the right of excommunicating those that had espoused the Christian religion; which right, disputed by the Christian Church, was recognized by the emperor as a matter of internal synagogue discipline (Graetz, “History of the Jews,” ii. 612, iv. 385).

Epifanio da Salamina

Panarion adversus omnes haereses (315-403)

Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, was the first to bring news of a church in Nazareth, remembering Joseph of Tiberias’ attempt to build a church in the village of Nazareth. Joseph was a Jew baptized during Constantine’s time. The bishop recounts having been a guest in Count Joseph of Tiberias’ villa in 355 in Scitopoli, nowadays Beit She’an, and of having learnt from him how Christianity officially penetrated Galilee, which had been a Jewish stronghold until then.
Joseph, “apostle” of the Patriarch Judas Ha-Nasi, had decided to convert to Christianity after reading the New Testament and having had contacts with some bishops. Honored by Emperor Constantine’s friendship who had dignified him as a “companion,” he requested his permission to erect some churches in Galilee, especially in Tiberias, Diocesarea (Sefforis), Nazareth, Cana and Cafarnaum.
The emperor not only gave permission, but also ordered the tax authorities to provide him with all necessary means. According to Epiphanius’ report, Count Joseph, was able to inaugurate churches in Tiberias, in Diocaesarea and other cities despite the Jewish community’s reaction. With regard to Nazareth, in the story it appears in the list of churches that Count Joseph wanted to build, although its construction is not mentioned. However, he was probably able to carry out the work.
Epiphanius points out the presence of small Christian communities in Galilee. In this regard, he retrieves Hegesippus’ and Julius Africanus’ second century texts, which mention early Christians in Galilee, humble peasants called to account for their descent from Jesus’ family before the emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) and during Decius’ persecution (249-251 AD). A man named Conon was martyred in Phrygia under Decius’ persecution, who made the following statement before the court: “I’m from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, I am related to Christ whom I worship like my ancestors did.”

« The good emperor (Constantine) made (Joseph) a count and added that he could ask of him whatever he wanted. Joseph asked for nothing but to receive this great gift from the emperor, that he be permitted by means of imperial edict to erect churches to Christ in the villages of the Jews. Indeed, no one had ever been able to build churches there, because neither Greek nor Samaritan nor Christian was found in their midst. This (rule) indeed they have that no other race may be next to them. This is true especially in Tiberias, in Diocesarea also known as Sefforis, in Nazareth and in Cafarnaum. … He only built a small church in the Adrianeion in Tiberias, but he completely fulfilled his building wishes in Diocesarea and some other cities. »

Donato Baldi, Enchiridion Locorum Sanctorum, Jerusalem ,1935, pp. 2-3

http://catholicsaints.info/saint-joseph-of-palestine/

Jewish layman who was attached to the biblical school of Tiberius, and served as assistant to the famous Rabbi Hillel. Secretly a Christian believer, Hillel was baptized on his deathbed, and entrusted his holy books to Joseph. As head of the synagogue in Tarsus, his congregation caught Joseph reading the gospels; they beat him and threw him in the Cydnus River. He then publicly converted.

Friend and counselor to emperor Constantine the Great, who appointed him to the high position of comes. Built churches in Galilee, Tiberias, Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethsan, and Diocaesarea, and evangelized throughout the Holy Land. Fought Arianism, and moved to Scytholopolis where he hid priests from their persecution. Financial patron of SaintEusebius of Vercielli and Saint Epiphanius; Epiphanius wrote Joseph’s biography.

His guardianship of holy writings and holy men led to his association with guardians in general.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Tiberias

http://caspari.com/new/images/stories/archives/Mishkan/mishkan02.pdf

• Ray Pritz, “Joseph of Tiberias — The Legend of a 4th Century Jewish Christian” Mishkan2 (1985)

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/Joseph_of_Tiberias.pdf

http://www.nazareth-en.custodia.org/default.asp?id=5952

http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2005/2005-0

Let me make clear that we should not eschew theory. Jacobs makes some important contributions. For example, he cautions us against assuming that the vitality of Judaism necessarily entailed the vitality of Christian-Jewish relations (pp.205-206). In addition, some readings are quite insightful. On pp. 48-50 there is an excellent interpretation of the Joseph of Tiberias story in Epiphanius: the liminality of Joseph as convert appears in combination with a connection between Joseph’s knowledge and his defeat of the Jews. Here, the postcolonial reading of the Joseph story as a folktale highlights its ideology of powerful dominance of the other through knowledge. Similarly, when Jacobs identifies the structure of the inventio story — knowledgeable Jew who conceals Christian secrets retrieved by imperial hand through trickery or force (p. 190) — the colonialist thinking becomes clear.

Andrew S. Jacobs, Remains of the Jews: The Holy Land and Christian Empire in Late Antiquity.   Stanford:  Stanford University Press, 2004.  Pp. 264.  ISBN 0-8047-4705-9.  $55.00.   
Reviewed by Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati (matthew.kraus@uc.edu)
Word count: 2378 words

9-03.html

Paul Julius, baron von Reuter, original name Israel Beer Josaphat   (born July 21, 1816, Kassel, Electorate of Hesse [Germany]—died Feb. 25, 1899, Nice, France), German-born founder of one of the first news agencies, which still bears his name. Of Jewish parentage, his father was a rabbi, Samuel Levi Josaphat.

As a clerk in his uncle’s bank in Göttingen, Ger., Reuter made the acquaintance of the eminent mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was at that time experimenting with the electric telegraph that was to become important in news dissemination.

In October 1845, Josaphat moved to England, where he at first called himself Joseph Josaphat. Within a few weeks he converted to Christianity and, at his baptism on November 16, 1845, took the name Paul Julius Reuter during a ceremony at St. George’s German Lutheran Chapel in London. Seven days later, Reuter married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus at the same church.

In the early 1840s he joined a small publishing concern in Berlin. After publishing a number of political pamphlets that aroused the hostility of the authorities, he moved to Paris in 1848, a year of revolution throughout Europe. He began translating extracts from articles and commercial news and sending them to papers in Germany. In 1850 he set up a carrier-pigeon service between Aachen and Brussels, the terminal points of the German and the French-Belgian telegraph lines.

Moving to England, Reuter opened a telegraph office near the London stock exchange. At first his business was confined mostly to commercial telegrams, but, with daily newspapers flourishing, he persuaded several publishers to subscribe to his service. His first spectacular success came in 1859 when he transmitted to London the text of a speech by Napoleon III foreshadowing the Austro-French Piedmontese war in Italy.

The spread of undersea cables helped Reuter extend his service to other continents. After several years of competition, Reuter and two rival services, Havas of France and Wolff of Germany, agreed on a geographic division of territory, leaving Havas and Wolff their respective countries, parts of Europe, and South America. The three agencies held a virtual monopoly on world press services for many years.

Reuter was created a baron by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1871 and later was given the privileges of this rank in England. He retired as managing director of Reuters in 1878. He is buried in the Christian section of West Norwood Cemetery.

Reflection: It is not for us to judge the motives that led Paul Reuter to become a Christian, or assess the depth and sincerity of his personal faith, but as for many, the path to social and business advancement was limited for Jews in the 19th century. His exploits and the communications industry he helped to found make a fascinating story of one who, born a Jew from rabbinic parentage, became a Christian and make his mark on the world in which he lived, and left a lasting legacy.

REUTER, PAUL JULIUS, FREIHERR VON (1816–1899), originally Israel Beer Josaphat (also called Josephsthal), German banker, bookseller, news entrepreneur and founder of the Reuters Ltd. news agency. Born in Kassel, Germany, as the third son of the Provisional Rabbi Samuel Levi Josaphat (died 1829), the 13-year-old Israel Beer was sent to his uncle in Goettingen where he was trained in a local banking house. At Goettingen University, he made the acquaintance of the famous mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), who was experimenting in electrotelegraphy. In 1845, after having settled in Berlin, he converted to Protestantism, assumed the name Paul Julius Reuter, and married Ida, the daughter of Friedrich Martin Freiherr von Magnus (1796–1869), a Berlin banker.

Reuter

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707889.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY3PLJEmWi4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters#History

http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Julius-Freiherr-von-Reuter

Books

Julius Reuter and His Son Herbert Reuter, Reuters News Pictures Service, 1999.

“Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron (Freiherr) von,” Britannica.com,http://britanica.co..b/article/9/0,5716,64949+1,00.html (November 24, 2000).

“Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron von,” Microsoft Encarta On line Encyclopedia 2000,http://encarta.msn.com (November 17, 2000). □