History of the Jews --- Chaim Potok

[safar]

I read this book about 10 years ago. It was given to my brother by a Jewish friend of his.

I remember it had a chapter on Jews in the Islamic empire called "Nightingales in a Sand storm". It was complimentary as it showed the powerful and influential position of Jews within the Islamic empires.

Given the recent selectively biased posting about Minorities in Arab lands I wanted to quote from that Chapter of the book which is written by a very famous Jewish historian, but unfortunately I don't have that book with me anymore.

[Theja]

Hmmm... haven't read that book yet, but will keep my eyes open when I visit a library.

A very informative and incisive history of the Jews from the time of Abraham to the 20th Century: JEWS, GOD AND HISTORY, by Max I. Dimont.

True, during the Spanish Inquisition many Jews were forced to embrace Roman Catholicism, while many others fled to Muslim countries and found refuge.

When Spain colonised South America, many Catholic (many in name) Jews migrated there. The owners of the largest Spanish Television are Jews (speaking perfect Mexican Spanish), UNIVISION channel 34. Every Saturday it has a program called SABADO GIGANTE watched by Spanish speaking people all over the world -- a guinness World Record.

(a good investment in Univision if you are a stockholder).

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

What Theja failed to mention was this fact
(She won't anyway ):
The king of Aragon (who had done his best to stop the attacks), later reminded his subjects of well established Church doctrine on the matter of forced baptisms - they don’t count.
He decreed that any Jews who accepted baptism to avoid death could return to their religion.

There were also many Jews who saw their baptism as a way to avoid the increasing number of restrictions and taxes imposed on Jews. As time passed, the converted Jews settled into their new religion, becoming just as pious as other Catholics.
They even baptized their children at birth and raised them as Catholics.
Although Christian, most still spoke, dressed, and ate like Jews, many continued to live in Jewish quarters so as to be near family members. Their presence had the effect of Christianizing Spanish Judaism. This in turn led to a steady stream of voluntary conversions to Catholicism.

Theja just wants to spread her own (Protestant) version of
"Catholic history", so please becareful of her sources.

[safar]

Chaim Potok is a very famous and profilic American writer and Jewish Rabbi. I googled around but I couldn't even find excerpts from his book.

Though I definitely recommend people reading this book especially the section on Jews through Christianity and Islam. The specific chapter on Islam is entitiled "Nightingales in a Sandstorm".

Its been a such a long time so I don't remember much but its a definitely worth a read and a great counter to hate-mongers.

[rocam]

After all, this is Morocco.com

"Moroccan Jewish memories are many centuries old, " he says. "We know it has not all been rosy. There are black pages. But the Moroccan Jewish past has nothing to do with the history of the Jews during that same period in the West. In Morocco we have seen no deportations, no Nazism, no concentration camps and no inquisition whatsoever. Rather, we have seen Jews and Muslims living together and respecting each other.”

http://www.washington-report.org/bac...1/9110022.html

[Theja]

I didn't mean to indict Catholicism here, though DV is suspicious. I was only trying to cite a reference for the migration of Jews to South America.

Initially, the Inquisition was not applied to Jews, but to those Jews who already converted to Catholicism (whether genuine or to take advantage of being Catholics in the country) called Marranos. So it was not anti-semitism at least. Later Torquemeda pressured the King and Queen to expel the Jews from Spain, which they very reluctantly did.

Interestingly, Jewish history begins in America in the year Columbus set sail hoping to land in India. Instead they landed in the Americas, and the first person to greet the Indians was a Jew named Luis de Torres, an interpreter for Columbus. Columbus thought the people might understand Hebrew or Arabic, so Torres greeted the American Indians in Hebrew and Arabic. (---- Shalom or Salam alaikum ? heheheh... ).

Torres discovered maize in America and introduced it to Europe, enriching their diet. Also they found the natives eating potato, which later revolutionized European's, and later the world's, eating preference. (Irish potato famine, remember) (Tobacco and chocolate also were discovered from there, fyi)

[_thetruth]

Originally posted by Theja
Hmmm... haven't read that book yet, but will keep my eyes open when I visit a library.

A very informative and incisive history of the Jews from the time of Abraham to the 20th Century: JEWS, GOD AND HISTORY, by Max I. Dimont.

True, during the Spanish Inquisition many Jews were forced to embrace Roman Catholicism, while many others fled to Muslim countries and found refuge.

So did the Muslims and they were forced to make their muslims children look and act like christians to avoid torture, women were burned alive ......... what a Sad history