24 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934). A member of the Rothschild banking dynasty, he preferred to pursue artistic interests, acquiring an important collection of drawings and engravings that he bequeathed to the Louvre. In 1882, Rothschild became a leading proponent of the Zionist movement, buying land throughout Israel and subsidizing Jewish settlements. He financed the first new Jewish town, Rishon Letzion ("the first of Zion"), as well as Zichron Yaakov, Caesarea and some 30 other settlements. He also established Israel's wine industry when he helped Russian Jews flee pogroms in the 1880s and plant vineyards in Israel. In 1954, Rothschild's remains were re-interred to Israel. To honor his memory, his son paid for the construction of the Knesset building in Jerusalem.

PKRAUSE

WELL thank you for this history

dgrimm60

You welcome dgrimm

pk

PKRAUSE

SO he started over 30 settlements
plus planting all those vineyards

that is something

dgrimm60

Pretty interesting, I didn't know he'd done that. Just thought that he was a big money bags kind of guy and just kept it all to himself, but he did a lot of good for his home.

pk

PKRAUSE

YES he did more than I also thought

dgrimm60

25 Cheshvan

In 109 BCE, the Hasmoneans (led by John Hyrcanus, a nephew of Judah the Maccabee) conquered Samaria, the capital city of the Samarian sect. This conquest was significant because it ended some 800 years of Samarian influence in Israel. The Samarians were a schismatic movement, comprised largely of non-Jews who practiced some Jewish traditions. The conquest may have further polarized the Jews into two distinct parties: 1) the Pharisees ("separated ones") because they sought to retain the separation of Jewish culture from the Greek influences of Hellenization, and 2) the Sadducees, Jews who embraced Greek culture.

pk

PKRAUSE

thanks again for the history lesson


dgrimm60

Cheshvan 26

In 1938, Father Coughlin broadcast an anti-Semitic diatribe on American radio. Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest from Michigan, and one of history's first evangelists to preach via the mass media. At its peak in the early 1930s, his radio show had a listening audience estimated at one-third of the nation. Yet Coughlin's broadcasts became increasingly anti-Semitic, expressing sympathy for Hitler and promoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was only a few weeks after Kristallnacht, when synagogues across Germany were burned, that Coughlin caused a scandal by broadcasting a diatribe in which he blamed the Jewish victims.

pk

PKRAUSE

that is some sad history there


dgrimm60