Originally posted by Deirwha
Honestly, I don't know whether to be inspired or terrified by this conversation. I too participate in similar conversations off line (albeit not with the certainty or cultural/historical references/assertions I see here).So I don't exactly want to dump a gallon of cold water on this conversation.
However, I think it is incumbent on those of us who inquire to remember the history through which the ethnicity, Jew, has suffered, as well as the impacts of convergent evolution and the adoption of fatherless children into a generous culture. I am of a double mine about the inquiries even as I participate in them. And I do, for I have for a time suspected my father's family may have lived generations among the hidden Jews of England, although there are certainly alternative explanations for my family's customs and my genetic haplogroup is close but not there. But I am conscious these inquiries revive dark historical memories imprinted over a 1000 years of horror. It is not just the Nazi's. Though singularly efficient, they were not even the inventors of the infamous yellow star.
It all began promisingly enough in Europe with the religious tolerance of the early middle ages Kingdoms of Navarre and Catalan. Along with Galicia, Navarre's neighbor in northern Spain, Spain and in particular Northern Spain at one time is estimated to have held a half million Jews. Incidentally, Galicia is the suggested launching point for the Gaels on their journey to Ireland.
During that long stretch of history, 711 AD to 900 AD among Europe's greatest centers of learning were Jewish Centers in these kingdoms. Many of the sons of Europe's elite attended and converted to Judaism. There had been a Jewish presence in Spain at least since the Roman Empire and canon and near canon literature suggested Judea founded a trading center with Tyre in a legendary place called Tarshish some where in Hispania along the coast. The Jews of Spain enjoyed relative favor among the Basque rulers and were close down to the conflict with the Moors when some Jewish men sided with the Moors. The Goths did not feel the same. Eventually their policies toward the Jews won out.
Then the terror began. Ethnically Jewish people were sent away from what may have been their homeland by that time for nearly 2,000 years. Non ethnically Jewish converts (don't ask me how they knew the difference) were given a different choice- reconvert or burn. This period saw the introduction of the yellow star in Spain.
Many of these "convert" Jews and some whose family lines may well have originated in Judea did not accept the alternatives. They pretended to convert to Catholicism but instead practiced Judaism at home, at considerable personal risk. This practice spread throughout France and England also. In England they came as the invitees of William the Conqueror who valued their service doing financial management that was forbidden gentiles. After King Stephen had a blow out with a local person things got tough in Britain too for a couple generations, after which kind of a don't ask, don't tell policy developed ... except of course when the Inquisition was in town.
This is a dark and painful history that gave thousands of Europeans a set of grim choices that challenged their faiths, their ethics, their identities. A whole secret world developed, the world of Crypto Judaism that still exists in parts of the world.
In light of this history, which is conventional, verified, and not in the least "edge of the envelope" or "unconventional," the conversation here triggers ambivalence as do my own inquiries into these sensitive areas. I thought I would mention it because how else would you all know.
However, I think it is incumbent on those of us who inquire to remember the history through which the ethnicity, Jew, has suffered, as well as the impacts of convergent evolution and the adoption of fatherless children into a generous culture. I am of a double mine about the inquiries even as I participate in them. And I do, for I have for a time suspected my father's family may have lived generations among the hidden Jews of England, although there are certainly alternative explanations for my family's customs and my genetic haplogroup is close but not there. But I am conscious these inquiries revive dark historical memories imprinted over a 1000 years of horror. It is not just the Nazi's. Though singularly efficient, they were not even the inventors of the infamous yellow star.
It all began promisingly enough in Europe with the religious tolerance of the early middle ages Kingdoms of Navarre and Catalan. Along with Galicia, Navarre's neighbor in northern Spain, Spain and in particular Northern Spain at one time is estimated to have held a half million Jews. Incidentally, Galicia is the suggested launching point for the Gaels on their journey to Ireland.
During that long stretch of history, 711 AD to 900 AD among Europe's greatest centers of learning were Jewish Centers in these kingdoms. Many of the sons of Europe's elite attended and converted to Judaism. There had been a Jewish presence in Spain at least since the Roman Empire and canon and near canon literature suggested Judea founded a trading center with Tyre in a legendary place called Tarshish some where in Hispania along the coast. The Jews of Spain enjoyed relative favor among the Basque rulers and were close down to the conflict with the Moors when some Jewish men sided with the Moors. The Goths did not feel the same. Eventually their policies toward the Jews won out.
Then the terror began. Ethnically Jewish people were sent away from what may have been their homeland by that time for nearly 2,000 years. Non ethnically Jewish converts (don't ask me how they knew the difference) were given a different choice- reconvert or burn. This period saw the introduction of the yellow star in Spain.
Many of these "convert" Jews and some whose family lines may well have originated in Judea did not accept the alternatives. They pretended to convert to Catholicism but instead practiced Judaism at home, at considerable personal risk. This practice spread throughout France and England also. In England they came as the invitees of William the Conqueror who valued their service doing financial management that was forbidden gentiles. After King Stephen had a blow out with a local person things got tough in Britain too for a couple generations, after which kind of a don't ask, don't tell policy developed ... except of course when the Inquisition was in town.
This is a dark and painful history that gave thousands of Europeans a set of grim choices that challenged their faiths, their ethics, their identities. A whole secret world developed, the world of Crypto Judaism that still exists in parts of the world.
In light of this history, which is conventional, verified, and not in the least "edge of the envelope" or "unconventional," the conversation here triggers ambivalence as do my own inquiries into these sensitive areas. I thought I would mention it because how else would you all know.
READ THE STORY OF THE IRISH RCE BY MCMANUS
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