Jewish American History month is coming to a close (President Bush first signed in May as a month to honor American Jews). Today, the month is shared with Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders. At a Starbucks the other day, there were signs everywhere celebrating AANAPI month; no mention of Jews.

This entire month in particular I was thinking of a variety of Jews whom I admire. Jews, both present and past, worldwide, and throughout the ages. The brave soldiers of the IDF of course is a given. Below, is just a sample:

• The Maccabees: Today, Chanukkah has devolved into a ‘festival of lights’ without much mention of the 25 year battle against both the Hellenized Jews in Judea and the Syrian-Greek mercenaries of the Seleucid Empire army. They fought the foreigners to militarily protect the Judean domain, and fought their fellow highly assimilated Jews who were fully submitting to the Greeks. Without the Maccabees, there would have been a slim chance that Jews as a distinct race would have survived.
• Simon Bar Kokhba & the Jews of the Bar Kokhba Revolts ‘Third Roman-Jewish War’ (131 – 136 AD) – At this point in history, the Jews in Judea were Roman subjects, with the Romans being somewhat fair to Jews – the Jewish faith could be practiced, local decisions were left to Jewish governors, and Jews were able to hold private property. Rebellion began when the Romans turned on their promises and attempted to build a new city on top of the sieged and sacked Jerusalem from 70 AD. The Romans were to name that city Aelia Capitolina. To add to the insult, the Second Temple was going to be rebuilt as a Roman temple to their goddess, Jupiter.

Simon Bar Kokhba and his rebels attacked the Romans from strategic areas within the Judean Hills, as they knew the territory better than the occupiers. So strong was their resolve, that at the height of fighting, the Judean army swelled to 400,000 Jews; Jews were returning from the Diaspora to help the rebels secure Judea and drive out the Romans. The Romans found the Judeans such a formidable force that they had to send in reinforcements from throughout the Roman empire – as close as Egypt and as far as England. Though the revolts ended in defeat for the Jews, and the renaming of Judea to Palestina, the Greek name for Judea and also a nod to the Greek-Cretan Philistines, who had settled in Gaza, the Kokhba revolts are a testament to Jewish strength. It cost the Romans more money and men to defeat us than any other group. Many of the rebels left Judea and moved to the Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula to join Jews who had left Judea earlier, than to live under occupation.

Excellent article on the revolts: https://www.thecollector.com/bar-kokhba-revolt-war/

• Benjamin of Tudela: In his short 43 years, Benjamin of Tudela traveled the world looking for ‘lost’ Jewish communities, and he certainly found many – he found the Habbani tribe/clan in Yemen (many Jews left Israel to the Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula after 586 BC, later joined by numerous Bar Kokhba rebels; Yemen was and is the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula and Jews were invited there by the philosemitic Himyarite Empire), Bukharian Jews, Jews in Saudi Arabia, in villages all over Israel from Tzfat to Haifa, and even visited the Cochin Jews in India, who had arrived in India from Judea as merchants during the time of King Solomon. His accounts of Medieval Jewry is the most detailed of any. Benjamin of Tudela also wrote of the Jews of Baghdad and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, many of whom he discovered were and are genetic Jews. They arrived in Afghanistan as part of the Assyrian Exile in 722 BC. He was also the first explorer to reach the frontiers of China.
• The Sephardic Jews who invited the Muslim Moors to invade Sepharad (Spain & Portugal) after the First Inquisition. Sephardic Jews were highly persecuted from the 4th – 6th century, and then lived under virulent anti-Jew laws from the 6th – 8th century. The Jews there had had enough. And it was the close Jewish-Berber (the Moors were Berbers) relations that translated into the Moorish invasion. Not only did some Berber Jews (Berbers were one of the few groups in history to intermarry with Jews; Druze being the other other; albeit briefly. Berbers put a stop to that once they accepted Islam), help lead the Moor armies into Sepharad, but once the Moors conquered towns, the administration was turned over to the Jews. Jews also served in high ranking capacities under the Moors, including Samuel ibn Naghrillah, who not only served as the Vizier to the Prime Minster of Granada, but also led the army of Granada under Moorish leadership. The later Moorish rulers began to discriminate against Jews, but for quite a while, Jews were able to exact revenge against the Christians and were held in high esteem by the Moors.
• The Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean – Speaking of the Inquisition, (though the second and most well known one, beginning in the 15th century), quite a few Jews became pirates to pillage Spanish and Portuguese ships of gold and other treasures across the high seas. The most famous of Jewish pirates was Moses Cohen Henriques, who helped steal what would today be $1 billion from a Spanish ship.

For some other famous Jewish pirates: https://www.jpost.com/magazine/jewish-pirates-of-the-caribbean-447397

• Chaim Weizmann – Personally, I believe that Herzl was completely overrated, and that Mr. Weizmann is not given enough credit with helping to politically liberate Israel. Chaim Weizmann not only led negotiations in Israel’s favor at the San Remo Accords at the League of Nations in both 1920 and 1922, but signed the famous Faisal-Weizmann agreement with Emir Faisal in 1918. The 1918 document, to this day, proves that Arabs originally did not want one inch of Palestine, a colonizer term for Israel from 136 AD – 1948. He also was party to the very successful 1920 San Remo Accords which upheld that Gaza, all of Judea & Samaria, and what became Jordan, were all part of the Jewish homeland based on historical maps and Judean rights. Though in 1922, Churchill, as Foreign Secretary, stole 78% of the Jewish homeland to create Transjordan, an Arab occupier state in the Jewish homeland, Mr. Weizmann ensured that Gaza and Judea & Samaria remained. He was also integral with strengthening numerous Jewish institutions in pre-liberation Israel. He should have been the first Prime Minister and not Ben-Gurion, who, through his orders of firing on an Irgun ship carrying badly needed weapons, killed 19 Jews in the Altalena
• The Lehi, established in 1940 by Avraham Stern – Without this more ‘extreme’ resistance group, the liberation of Israel would have taken far longer than the nearly 20 years of armed struggle that occurred. Though the Haganah is the most famous of the resistance groups, they did not wish to engage in ‘terrorist’ actions and did not accept the Lehi; though it was those very actions like blowing up the King David hotel, assassinating British occupier soldiers and Generals in Israel, in Cairo, and even in London, that drove the British away.

*November 6, 1944 – Lord Moyne, who was responsible for implementing the 1939 White Paper and forcibly sending boats of Jewish refugees back to certain death by the Nazis, was executed in Cairo by two Lehi members, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet – Zuri.* – www.tbtnisrael.com

To read more: https://tbtnisrael.com/lehi/

• Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (The Rebbe) – As a non-Hasidic Jew, I cannot do justice in this description of one of the greatest Jewish leaders of the 20th century. Even before my Mother joined her local Chabad community, and in turn, I came to know Chabad), I knew about the great chesed of the Rebbe, and his Jewish army of shluchim which lifted up and continues to enrich the Jewish community worldwide. However, until the genocide on Oct. 7th, I was not aware of the strong Zionism of the Rebbe. Of course, I saw firsthand the Zionism of the Chabad community. It was with Chabad’s JLI trip to Israel that I was able to visit Judea & Samaria. No other Jewish organized trip I had been on ventured across the invisible antisemitic ‘Green Line.’

I was sent numerous past videos of the Rebbe speaking of the need for Jewish strength, for Israel to be strong, the dangers of giving away land for ‘peace’ and for Israel to go the distance in defending its people.

• The Abuhatzeira Dynasty/Family – This Moroccan-Jewish Mizrahi family, of which the scion, the great Baba Sali, is the most famous, was well known for miracle work and kabbalah expertise. Baba Sali was completely unknown to me until October when I began to see numerous videos online from the Moroccan-Jewish community summoning his spirit. He was a beloved leader of Moroccan Jews, and did not leave for Israel until the majority of Jews in Morocco left after the post-1948 expulsion.

The article below provides great information about his life and work:

https://hevratpinto.org/tzadikim_eng/015_rabbi_israel_abouhassira_baba_sali.html

• Gad Saad – A renowned professor and thinker, this Lebanese Jew is strongly cautioning the world not just against Islamism, but Islam itself. His videos are well-worth watching and break down the political correctness and sugar-coating, and instead he explains with precise clarity why the West has already fallen, why Israel is an existential threat to Islam, and what Israel needs to do to protect itself.
• All 22 Kings and Queens of the Hasmonean Dynasty – It is shocking to me that the Hasmoneans (after the successful Maccabee victory against the Seleucids and the Hellenized Jews, the Hasmonean dynasty emerged), are not more well known amongst Jews today. Too often, Jews are perceived as merely victims throughout history, and Jews ourselves do much to perpetrate that myth. Well, the Hasmoneans embodied the true Judean spirit of being a tribal, territorial people. Under the Hasmoneans, Jews went from living in the Hill Country (Judea & Samaria) of Caanan, among numerous Semitic tribes, from which Jews literally emerged from, to expanding with great capacity outward from Judea & Samaria.

It was the Idumean Jewish (Idumeans were one of three Semitic tribes that the Judeans conquered) King, AntipaterII (father of King Herod), who expanded Israel greatly to what would become in modern times Transjordan (thanks to the British theft of 78% of the Jewish homeland in 1922), north to the Galilee, and west towards Egypt. Hasmonean King Jannaeus (Hasmonean Kings were allowed to have both Hebrew and Greek names), worked with Queen Cleopatra III of Egypt to go against her own son, in order to re-secure Gaza for the Jews in 100 BC. It took an entire year and fierce military battle; Queen Cleopatra III sent in her army, led by 2 Jewish Generals. The first time Gaza fell to Jews was under military leadership of the Maccabees in 145 BC. After 100 BC, the Hasmoneans made Gaza part of the Kingdom of Judah. The Hasmonean Queens were all powerful in their own right as well.

Amichai Chikli – The current Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. He is one of the few Israeli politicians who is publicly saying that Gaza needs to be fully reclaimed, as does Judea & Samaria. Hoping he will be Prime Minister sooner than later.

The female units of Caracal Battalion of the IDF – On Oct. 7th, a 12 women tank crew led by Lt. Colonel Or Ben-Yehuda killed nearly 100 Hamas terrorists after a 4 hour battle. Another all female unit, also under the command of Lt. Colonel Ben-Yehuda, bravely fought the subhuman rats who attacked the nearby Kibbutz Holit. Hamas attacked the army bases in the South of Israel. It was mostly 1,000 Gazan civilians who brutally murdered Jews in the kibbutzim. Islamic Jihad also joined in as well as members of the Palestinian Authority, reports are now coming to light.

Am Israel Chai!