JEWISH HISTORY Bananas: 5 Surprising Jewish Facts

THE SHOCKING CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PURIM HOLIDAY AND NAZI WAR CRIMINALS
written by Phil Schneider March 16, 2022 2375 views

The Purim holiday is not a Jewish holiday that originates in the Bible. It is a holiday that began around 2200 years ago, when the Jewish people were largely in the exile. The story of Purim took place in the Persian Empire, the dominant Empire of the time. It is a riveting story of one seeming coincidence after another. But, an essential message of the Bible is the Hidden Hand of God in history.
Purimfest 1946
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXTHkoP9nKs&t=2s

The enemies of the Jewish people come in many different forms over history. The Amalekite form is the form that attempts to literally wipe out the entire Jewish people. This is a rare form. In the time of Moses, there was a battle against Amalek. In the time of Saul, Amalek was also battled. But Amalek continued on and on for generations. In the Persian Empire, Haman, a descendant of Amalek attempted to wipe out the entire Jewish people and was given the power to do so.

Through an amazing string of coincidences, not only was Haman unable to realize his heinous goals, but Haman himself was deposed and wiped out. But there are some even more amazing aspects to the story. Haman had 10 sons and they were also killed. Following their death, Queen Esther, the heroine of the story of Purim is given the chance to request one additional request by King Ahasverosh. Part of her request is to hang the already killed sons of Haman. This is of course, a very strange demand.

But the connection to 20th century events is unbelievable. This was a mystery for centuries. Today, it has been revealed.

Purim, Haman and the Nazis - An Incredible Link | Jewish Wisdom | J-TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzaJZ0bGe0s
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Watch Ollie deliver an incredible monologue on a link between the evil tyrant in the Purim story, Haman, and the Nazis. In the monologue Ollie looks at a fascinating comparison between the ten sons of Haman hung on the gallows, and the hanging of te
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzaJZ0bGe0s

Chag Purim Sameach!
Our team at Vision for Israel wishes you a very happy Purim! May this be a joyous time full of holy celebration, good food, and reflection for you and your family.

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Jewish History  Biographies In Brief
15 Facts About Queen Esther
By Menachem Posner

1. She Was the Queen of Persia
Esther was a Jewish woman who lived in Persia during the period following the destruction of the First Holy Temple, when many Jews had been taken as slaves to Babylonia, which was subsequently overtaken by Persia. She was married to King Achashverosh, whom some identify as Artaxerxes (ארתחששתא),1 king of Persia.

Read: How Could Esther Marry a Non-Jewish King?

2. Her Story Is Told in the Book of Esther
Of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, two are named for women: Ruth and Esther. The Book of Esther contains 10 chapters, in which we uncover the riveting story of Esther.


Read: Who Wrote the Book of Esther?

3. She Saved the Jews From Annihilation
Under the influence of his advisor Haman, Achashverosh decreed that all Jews in his expansive empire (which covered pretty much the entire known world) would be slaughtered in a single day. Placing herself in grave danger, Esther petitioned the King to reverse the legislation.

Read: Who Was Queen Esther?

4. Esther Was Not Her Hebrew Name
Esther is identified as “Hadassah, who is Esther.”2 Hadassah is Hebrew for “myrtle,” so that is simple enough. But what is Esther? Turns out it is a Persian name, related to the “morning star.” In Hebrew, it is related to the root word for “hidden,” as G‑d’s intervention was hidden throughout the entire turn of events. On the surface, all one sees is a dramatic tale of palace intrigue, but behind the scenes every development was intimately guided by His hand.


Read: Are Esther and Mordechai Named for Persian Gods?

5. Traditions Vary About Her Looks
Based on the name Hadassah, some rabbis teach that Esther’s skin had a greenish tone, like the color of a myrtle.3 But others count her among the four most beautiful women in the world, along with Sarah (the first matriarch), Rahab (who sheltered Joshua’s spies in Jericho), and Abigail (wise wife of King David).4

In fact, this is also reflected in the Persian name Esther, which means “morning star,” since she was as beautiful as the heavenly orbs.5

Read: Was Queen Esther Really Green?

6. She Was a Double Orphan
Esther was raised in the home of her relative Mordechai, who took her in after her mother and father both passed away.

Mordechai was the wise and learned leader of the Jewish nation at that time, and he continued to look out for her even after she was taken to the palace.

Contrary to popular belief, Mordechai was Esther’s first cousin, not her uncle.

Read: 9 Common Purim Myths and Misconceptions

7. She Was of Royal Lineage
Esther was the daughter of Avichayil, son of Kish, a descendant of King Saul, whose father also bore the name Kish.


Read: A History of the Hebrew Monarchy

8. She Kept Her Judaism Hidden
After Achashverosh deposed his first queen, Vashti, he was advised to collect beautiful women from throughout his empire. He spent a night with each woman before trying out the next “contestant.”

Esther had no interest in becoming queen, but when she was taken to the harem she had no choice. Upon the advice of Mordechai, she kept her Judaism (and her royal roots) a secret, even after the king chose her to be queen.

In order to maintain a Jewish life, she had seven maids, each of whom served her on a different day of the week. Thus, the Shabbat maid would not notice that the queen acted any differently on that day.

To keep kosher, she subsisted on seeds and other food that is inherently kosher. We commemorate this by eating poppy-filled pastries (hamantaschen) on Purim.6

Read: Is It OK to Hide Being Jewish?

9. Esther Was Middle-Aged
While Esther is commonly depicted as a young maiden, tradition tells us that she was between the ages of 40 and 80 at the time she was taken to the palace!7

10. She Risked Her Life to Save the People
Upon hearing from Mordechai that the king planned to kill the Jews, she consented to approach him unbidden (a breach of palace protocol, which could have cost her her life), after Mordechai assured her that he and the Jewish people would fast and pray for three days. She too, fasted, together with her maids.

Miraculously, the king extended his golden scepter to her, indicating that her visit was acceptable to him.

11. She Hosted Two Parties
After the king showed her favor, Esther invited him and Haman to a private drinking party. At that party, she invited them both to yet another party. During that second party, Esther finally told the king that she was Jewish and that Haman was scheming to kill her people.

Incensed, the king had Haman killed, and issued new decrees allowing the Jews to defend themselves.

Read: Why Did Esther Hold Two Parties?

12. She Is Commemorated on the Fast of Esther
The day before Purim is a fast day, known as Taanit Esther (“Fast of Esther”).8 This is one of two Jewish fasts bearing the name of an individual—the other being the Tzom Gedaliah (“Fast of Gedaliah”) mourning the murder of Gedaliah, last governor of post-First-Temple Judea.


Read: Why Is it Called the Fast of Esther?

13. She Was a Prophetess
The Talmud lists seven prophetesses, Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and … Esther!

When we read that “Esther donned her royal [garb],”9 the sages explain that to mean that she enwrapped herself in Divine inspiration.10

Read: The Seven Prophetesses of Judaism

14. Her Son Was Cyrus
Even after life returned to normal to the Jews of the empire, Esther remained tragically imprisoned, married to an idolatrous king. The Midrash11 states that King Darius was the son of Esther. According to the Talmud, Darius is the same as Cyrus, the king who allowed the Second Holy Temple to be built in Jerusalem.12

Read: 9 Little-Known Facts About the Holy Temple

15. She Was a Reincarnation of Eve and Yael
Through feeding her husband the forbidden fruit, Eve introduced death into the world. When the Jews ate at King Achashverosh’s (non-kosher) party, they brought death upon themselves. Esther rectified this when she called for a three-day fast.

Her soul also belonged to Yael, the brave woman who killed the enemy general Sisera. They both accomplished their victory by serving food to their enemies (Yael gave the exhausted general milk, and Esher invited Haman to party with her and the king) and then neutralizing them.13

MORE https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5427040/jewish/15-Facts-About-Queen-Esther.htm#utm_medium=email&utm_source=1_chabad.org_magazine_en&utm_campaign=en&utm_content=content

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITaNozQjqNA&t=13s

The silent film which predicted the rise of antisemitism

CATEGORY: JEWISH PEOPLE
The Jewish People are an ancient people.

A Nation with a Homeland, language, and unique customs.

But, the Jewish people did not come into existence like any other.

Nor do they exist like any other people.

A Chosen Nation
God chose to build them up from Abraham and Sarah, then Issac and Rebecca, and then from Jacob and his four wives.

From their family, he built up a nation – in Egypt.

There, in Egypt, God formed a nation and delivered them from servitude and bondage through miracle after miracle.

He took the Jewish people to the Promised Land through the desert.

In the desert, God declared the Jewish people as His Chosen People and met with the entire Jewish Nation – young and old – on Mt. Sinai.

On that mountain, God “married” his young nation and gave them the Bible and the Covenant.

In the ensuing years, God led His people to the Promised Land – and the rest is history…

The inspiration that exists today to God’s Chosen Nation stems from the ancient beginnings of Jewish History in Egypt, the Wilderness and Mt. Sinai.

Anti-Semitism
1920S SILENT FILM PREDICTED THE RISE OF ANTISEMITISM
written by Leah Rosenberg
You can’t argue the fact that there has been a rise in antisemitism even today still. And this film predicted it before WWII.
Predicting the Rise of Antisemitism
This silent film was based off of a novel by Jewish-Austrian writer Hugo Bettauer. He wanted to combat what was happening in Vienna post World War I – the growing intolerance towards Jews. The novel and subsequent adaptation of it into a film was warning of the dangers of intolerance and hatred. The film was released in 1924. And what happened? Just one year later, Hugo Bettauer was murdered – by none other than a Nazi. Bettauer tried warning about the rise of antisemitism. Not enough people listened.
What is so terrifying is how relevant this video still is today. The world has not learned the lesson. The hatred has not stopped. Even after the murder of 6 million innocent Jewish men, women, and children, there are still those in the world who hate with a deep passion. There are still those in the world who side with Hitler and want to murder more Jews.

It has been almost 100 years since the release of this film. Where is the world holding today regarding its hatred of Jews? Sadly, it is still on the rise. Antisemitism has not disappeared and is continuing to grow.

It is eerie that a film from so long ago predicted so much of what has happened and what is continuing to happen. How many people took the film seriously back then? And what about now?

https://www.aish.com/jw/s/The-Jewish-History-of-Afghanistan.html?
The Jewish History of Afghanistan
by Aaron Feigenbaumprint article
The Jewish History of Afghanistan
A long lost chapter of Jews in the Diaspora.

Afghanistan is the last place you’d expect to find any trace of a Jewish past, especially given the Islamization of most of the country over the past two decades by the ruthless Taliban. Yet, up until the assassination of King Nadir Shah in 1933, the country had been remarkably tolerant towards Jews for over a thousand years. Major Afghan cities such as Herat and Kabul were once safe-havens for Jews fleeing persecution in other lands. The Jews of Afghanistan once numbered in the thousands and enjoyed peace and prosperity.

A letter in Judeo-Persian dealing with financial and family matters (National Library of Israel)A letter in Judeo-Persian dealing with financial and family matters (National Library of Israel)
Today there is only one Jew left who still calls Afghanistan home.

The recorded story of the Afghan Jews starts in the 900‘s C.E., two centuries after the country was converted to Islam. This is not because Jews did not live there before that time, but rather that all records which might have proven the existence of a pre-Islamic Jewish community in Afghanistan have been lost. However, there are some Afghan tribes such as the Durrani, Yussafzai, and, most notably, the Pashtun who claim to be one of the Ten Lost Tribes. In the case of the Pashtun, now Afghanistan’s majority ethnic group, one of their tribal legends states that a group called the “Bani Israel” settled near the modern town of Herat and later converted to Islam after their leader met with Mohammed.

Jewish Virtual Library states that some Pashtuns have Jewish sounding names such as Asheri and Naftali, and they practice Jewish customs such as marrying under a chuppah and circumcising their sons eight days after birth. Adding further fuel to the fire, the sensationalist media even published a report a few years ago claiming that the members of the Taliban may be descended from Jews. An Israeli government-funded DNA test found no link at all between Jews and Pashtuns.


Some reports mention Persian Jews fleeing the invading Muslims in the 7th and 8th centuries, but actual records attesting to a Jewish presence in Afghanistan date back to the 10th century C.E. These records, found recently in northern Afghan caves, are written in Judeo-Persian and are collectively referred to as the “Afghan Genizah” (a reference to the hugely important Cairo Genizah collection of Jewish documents found over a century ago). The documents show evidence of Jewish commercial activity on the Afghan part of the Silk Road, a vast ancient trade route that stretched from China to the Mediterranean Sea. They also include personal letters, financial records, and rabbinic and Biblical commentary.

At its height in the 1000‘s and 1100‘s, the Jewish population of Afghanistan is estimated to have reached between 40,000 and 80,000 members. Many of them traded in leather and karakul (sheep pelt) and often traveled long distances between Afghanistan, Iran, India, and Central Asia. Oftentimes these trips were dangerous, taking the Jewish merchants along narrow mountain passes in the eastern part of the country where Hebrew and Aramaic prayers can be seen carved in rocks.

Mashiach Gul and Daniel Gul president of Afghan Jewish community in Palestine, 1917
(Israel National Photo Collection)
The Jewish population was decimated by the Mongol invasion of 1222. There was a brief revival in the 1500‘s when Jews once again became prominent in trade between Afghanistan, India, and the Persian Gulf region. However, the trade routes began to decline and most Afghan Jews became impoverished.

In 1839, Muslim authorities were forcibly converting Jews in Persia which resulted in thousands of Persian Jews fleeing to Afghanistan. This brought the Jewish population back up to its former glory of 40,000. The northwestern city of Herat, now the country’s third-largest city became the heart of this new Jewish community. Today there are only four shuls standing in the city, two of which were converted to mosques, one of which is now a school, and the last of which, the Yu Aw shul, became an Islamic cultural center. The former Yu Aw shul still has Hebrew inscriptions on its walls and the remnants of a mikvah are still present. A nearby Jewish cemetery is owned by Arif Mosaee, an Afghan Jew whose family is buried there.

Starting in the late 1800‘s, the situation for Afghan Jews became progressively worse. The Muslim authorities enacted harsh anti-Jewish measures in 1870 triggering a mass emigration to neighboring countries. Pogroms were carried out in the major Jewish centers of Maimana and Herat, and Jews were forced to pay high taxes and serve in the armed forces.

In 1927 the Jewish population had dwindled down to 5,000. The Jews had a brief revival under the rule of King Nadir Shah (1929-33) who reversed many of the decades-old anti-Jewish decrees and gave Jews equal rights as citizens. Disaster struck when the king was assassinated and Nazi propaganda filtered into the country causing more pogroms and the ghettoization of Jews in Herat and Kabul. Harsh economic laws drove many Jews out of the country in the 1930‘s and those who remained were restricted to the cities of Herat, Kabul, and Balkh.

The vast majority of the Jewish population left Afghanistan in the 1960‘s. Most went to Israel while some went to New York and Europe. Today over 1,000 Afghan Jews and their children live in Queens, New York. Sara Aharon’s “From Kabul to Queens” tells the history of Afghan Jewry and struggles of acclimating to U.S. culture.

Jewish life in Afghanistan was similar to that of Persia yet retained some unique customs. Like many other Jewish communities in different parts of the world, the Afghan Jewish community borrowed some customs from its neighbors. Some of these customs included taking off one’s shoes before entering a shul. Community leaders required women to wear a blue burqa (full body cover) in public while Muslim women would wear a white burqa. The design of Afghan shuls was influenced by the architecture of local mosques.



Today there is only one Jew left in Afghanistan. His name is Zablon Simintov and he lives in Kabul. His story has made the rounds in the international media and it is at once tragic and inspiring. Simintov, born in Turkmenistan, lives in the capital city of Kabul on the top floor of Afghanistan’s last functioning shul on Flower Street. He rents out the bottom floor to several businesses including his own, the Balkh Bastan cafe. He used to deal in carpets and antiquities until government officials confiscated his merchandise.

Simintov’s family have all emigrated to Israel and he lives alone in the shul. The shul’s Torah scroll was stolen years ago by the Taliban and the shul is in disrepair. Simintov gets along quite well with his neighbors, all of whom who treat him respectfully.

When asked why he doesn’t want to move to Israel, Simintov responded “Go to Israel? What business do I have there? I won’t let Jewish history die in Afghanistan.”

(Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, Afghanistan Today, The Guardian, Reuters, Jewish Journal, CBS News, Haaretz, “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places” by Ken Blady)

JEWISH HISTORY
Bananas: 5 Surprising Jewish Facts
Apr 13, 2019  |  by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Bananas-5-Surprising-Jewish-Facts.html?s=mm
Bananas: 5 Surprising Jewish Facts
In celebration of World Banana Day, discover the Jewish connection to this delicious fruit.

April is a busy month for Jews, as we prepare for the Jewish holiday of Passover. It’s easy to overlook another holiday on the calendar this season: World Banana Day held the third Wednesday of every April. This year, it’s April 17, 2019.

It’s worth taking a break from our Passover cooking and cleaning to contemplate what it takes to grow and market these delicious fruits. The modern banana industry has some surprising Jewish connections. Here are five Jewish facts about this delicious fruit.

Discovering Bananas
A native plant to India, bananas started becoming popular in the Middle East and Europe during the Middle Ages as Arab traders brought this novel fruit to new markets further west. A tenth-century Arab traveler and geographer known as al-Muqadasi recorded eating bananas in Jerusalem, along with other fruits such as raisins, oranges and apples. Other accounts record Jews eating bananas elsewhere in the land of Israel during the Middle Ages. From about the 17th century on, there are records of farmers growing the crop in the region.

Medieval Jews embraced the exotic fruit, but had a key question – are bananas a fruit at all? This matters because Jews traditionally make one blessing thanking God for creating borei pri ha’etz, the fruits of the tree, and a different blessing thanking God for making borei pri ha’adamah, or the fruits of the grounds, over vegetables and herbs. Bananas grow in a palm-like plant and are actually a herb, producing up to hundreds of bananas from a single plant. Unlike fruit trees, banana trees don’t last long: about eight years.

In the 1500s in the Israeli city of Safed, Rabbi Joseph Karo explained that since bananas are not a fruit, the adamah blessing, not the blessing for fruit, should be said over bananas. Reflecting the fact that Arab traders were largely responsible for spreading bananas’ popularity, Rabbi Karo called them by their Arabic name, muzish.

“Sam the Banana Man”

Samuel Zmuri was a Jewish teenager from Kishinev in Russia when he bought a steerage ticket to New York City. Arriving in the US, he stowed away on a freight train to Selma, Alabama, where he worked various odd jobs – including unloading bananas from ships arriving from Central America, where banana production was fast becoming a major industry.

Samuel Zemurray

Samuel, who by then had changed his name to Zemurray, started buying up the overly-ripe bananas that would ordinarily be thrown away and selling them to grocers. Soon Zemurray was being called “Sam the Banana Man”. In 1903 he started his own company and two years later started running his own shipping line, bringing bananas to the US from Honduras. In 1906, he leased 5,000 acres of banana crops and became a major importer of bananas to the United States. He eventually became a controlling shareholder in United Fruit Company, then the world’s largest fruit company. Under his leadership, bananas’ popularity soared, becoming a staple in many American households.

Zemurray was a committed philanthropist. He sponsored 22,000 Latin American farmers to be independent producers selling to United Fruit, and endowed many universities and hospitals, including an agricultural college in Honduras and New Orlean’s first hospital for Black women.

Saving Holocaust Survivors
Samuel Zemurray was a passionate Zionist and a personal friend of Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel. In the years after World War II, tens of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors longed to sail to the land of Israel and start new lives in the Jewish homeland. Britain, which ruled the area, enforced a strict policy of not allowing Jewish refugees to enter. Many Jews tried to enter the land of Israel illegally, only to be captured and imprisoned once more by the British in prison camps on the island of Cyprus, in Greece.

In 1947, the secret Jewish defense force the Haganah (the forerunner of today’s Israel Defense Force) approached Zemurray with a top secret plan: would he finance the purchase of a ship on which Jewish partisans could smuggle Holocaust survivors to the land of Israel? Zemurray agreed, using a front firm called the Weston Trading Company to disguise the deal.

The ship Zemurray bought was a 20-year-old steamer called the USS President Warfield. Attacked by a German submarine in 1942, it had been decommissioned; when Zemurray bought it, it was on its way to a junkyard. Instead, the Haganah brought the ship to the French port of Marseilles and loaded it with 4,553 passengers: Holocaust survivors desperate to enter the land of Israel. As the ship slowly made its way to the port of Haifa during the summer of 1947, the crew renamed the ship the Exodus and unfurled a large blue and white flag, declaring that the land of Israel was their final destination.

The Exodus

A host of British ships including destroyers accompanied the Exodus, and when they neared the coast of Israel, the British shot at the ship and sent a convoy of armed soldiers to board the ship and subdue its passengers and crew. In the fighting that broke out, three Holocaust survivors died and many were wounded. British ships towed the Exodus into the harbor, with plans to send the broken, desperate passengers back to France.

Instead, the passengers and crew of the Exodus staged a hunger strike. For 24 days, in the brutal Mediterranean sun, the world watched as thousands of Holocaust survivors – men, women and children – and members of the Haganah weakened from lack of food. Eventually, British soldiers forced the Exodus’ passengers back to Europe, where they were forced by soldiers wielding tear gas and clubs into new prisons: displaced person camps in Germany. A few months later, in August 1947, in part due to the stirring example of the single-minded determination of the Exodus’ passengers to reach the land of Israel, the United Nations voted to create a Jewish state in a portion of the Biblical land of Israel. Few were aware of Samuel Zemurray’s role in this historic event. A modest, self-effacing man, he shunned the limelight. When he passed away in 1961, some friends were shocked to discover that Zemurray the banana magnate had been behind the historic Exodus journey years before.

Saving banana crops around the world
Jewish farmers began to grow bananas in Israel in the 1930s, first in the north near the Kinneret, (Sea of Galilee), and later throughout the country. Though they are a warm-weather crop, Israel’s burning hot summers can be too much for banana plants. Israeli farmers realized they could compensate by erecting canvas roofs to block bananas from the sun during the hottest summer months. They also conducted pioneering research in banana plant irrigation, fertilization and cross-breeding. Today, Israel produces about 45,000 tonnes of bananas each year, supplying about 20% of all bananas consumed in the West.

Growing bananas in Israel

Israeli banana growers saved banana crops world-wide a few years ago. The greatest threat to banana crops is a pathogen called nematodes, commonly known s roundworms. After years of losing banana harvests to this pest, Israeli scientists developed a banana plant that’s resistant to nematodes in the early 2000s. Now, Israeli-developed strains of hardier banana plants are grown around the world, producing hardy bananas and dramatically boosting yields.

Embraced by Jewish Chefs
Bananas have long been embraced by some Jewish communities. Jewish chefs in Persia and Afghanistan pass down traditional recipes for charoset, the sweet paste eaten at the Passover Seder, that incorporate bananas as key ingredients. In Yemen, Jews used to mash bananas with honey as a folk recipe for some illnesses.

Ashkenazi Jewish cooks began embracing bananas in the 20th century in North America and Europe, along with their non-Jewish counterparts, as bananas became more commercially available and popular. One 19th century Jewish cookbook aimed at recent Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe explained that the soft creamy inside, not the tough outer peel of a banana, was meant to be eaten.

Today, Israel is the world’s top market of fresh bananas per capita, eating a whopping 30 kilos each year per person. Though some South American and East Asian nations consume more bananas in the form of banana flours and drinks, “As far as eating a plain banana goes, Israel is definitely a world leader in consumption, particularly among children,” explains Yuval Levy, a banana expert at the Zemach agricultural research station in Israel.