Jewish Thessaloniki: "Madre de Israel's" unsung requiem

In a forgotten part of Thessaloniki's rich history lies the fundamentalrole the Jews played in giving the city the importance of the "Jerusalem ofthe Balkans"

ALEX PENMANN

The Modiano Market is one of the places that keeps its Jewish name in rememberance

Byzantine metropolis

Thessaloniki (Salonica), capital of Macedonia and Greece's second city, was founded shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. It reached its apogee in Byzantine times, becoming second only to Constantinople. Salonican brothers Cyril and Methodius christened the Slavs and devised them an alphabet. Salonican architects dotted Bulgaria and Serbia with fine churches. Splendid stone-and-brick churches, lost amid a concrete mass of post-war apartments, massive walls and a fort testify to Byzantine glory. Falling to the Turks in 1430, Thessaloniki was savagely plundered, its population slain, its churches converted to mosques. Mosques and bedestens remind us of the five centuries of Ottoman occupation. Yet hardly anything remains of a community that once shaped Salonica more than any other: the Jews. For 420 years, Thessaloniki was predominantly Jewish and Spanish-speaking. Strolling the city, however, it's as if the Jews never existed.

Sephardic Queen

Jews have always been part of Thessaloniki's uninterrupted urban life. Paul addressed its Hellenised Jews in his Epistles; passing through, he preached in the Synagogue. Benjamin of Tudela, a Spanish rabbi who travelled extensively through Southern Europe and Byzantium in the 1170s, mentions a 500-strong Jewish community. Those Jews are called Romaniots, from "Romania," the name Byzantine Greeks used for their state. Few Romaniots survive today in Greece and Turkey, remnants of the most ancient Jewish communities in Europe.

Jews were tolerated in "Romania"; Ashkenazim and Italian Jews fled to Thessaloniki. Yet the tide making it a Jewish metropolis came from Spain, shortly after the Ottoman conquest. In 1492, the Catholic kings Ferdinand and Isabel marked the unification of Spain by expelling all their Jewish subjects who wouldn't convert. About 100,000 left Spain in one of history's most massive Jewish migrations. They became known as Sephardim, from S'farad, Spain's Hebrew name. Sultan Beyazid invited them to settle in his vast realm. This was a gesture dipped in symbolism. The Ottomans, invoking Rome and Constantinople's claims to World Rule, were stretching a helping hand to those Catholicism rejected. The invitation later extended to Spain's Muslims and to Jews expelled from Sicily, Provence, Naples and Portugal.

Symbolism aside, the invitation served practical aims: Turks, nomadic warriors themselves, relied on others to administer and farm their vast empire and develop commerce. The Sephardim were experts in anything from trade to manufacture, farming to printing. They settled in all major ports and commercial centres of the Levant; 20,000 came to Thessaloniki. Thanks to them, Ottoman Jewry became the Diaspora's largest community and Thessaloniki the only city with a Jewish majority of 60 percent. Jews returned their protection with gratitude and loyalty while bringing over many innovations, from the printing press to irrigation systems.

Many newcomers carried their home keys, hoping exile would be temporary. (Some Salonican families still keep keys to some home in Toledo, Tarragona or Cordoba.) They were never to return. Instead, they turned Salonica to a mini Spain-in-exile. They stuck to their tongue, an old form of Castilian mixed with Catalan, Italian and Portuguese and known as Judeo "Espanyol." Each community was grouped around a synagogue, named after their land of origin: Castillia, Aragon, Calabria, Evora, Otranto... Their scriptures were written in Ladino, a medieval Castilian written with Hebrew letters. Thessaloniki's quarters were also given Sephardic names: Rogos, Pulia, Aguda. The Sephardim brought Spanish music and cuisine; they founded Talmudic schools renowned all over the Diaspora. Unsurprisingly, Thessaloniki acquired the name "Madre de Israel" Foreign travellers often baptised it "Jerusalem of the Balkans." A bewildered Spaniard, in a speech before the Athenaeum of Madrid in 1916, spoke of "Spaniards without a country" and of a "Barcelona of the East"

Jews and Greeks: conflicts of interest

The interior of the Ehal, Monasterioton Synagogue

The Sephardim were the only nation invited over, voluntarily settling in the Ottoman realm. Unlike Balkan Christians, they were never subject to forced conversions or "child tax," a notorious practice whereby Christian families were occasionally obliged to hand over a male child as "tax" to the authorities, to be raised as a Muslim. Oppression and humiliation nourished Christian hatred for the Turks; Jews, on the other hand, felt unending gratitude for their saviours from the Inquisition. While the Christians' constant aspiration was the destruction of the Ottoman state, Jews identified with it and its interests to the very end.

Jews and Greeks were commercial rivals. In Thessaloniki the case was settled. The Jews had the advantage of their language skills, ties with and knowledge of the West. As their loyalty to the state was unquestioned, the Porte entrusted them the manufacture of uniforms for the Janissary corps. Soon, Thessaloniki became one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of cloth in the Levant, while remaining the Ottomans' main European port. Manufacture and exports of cloth, as well as the port, remained in Jewish hands. Jews made Thessaloniki the economic centre of the Balkans.

Greeks, about half of the population before the Sephardim tide, dropped to less than a quarter. Next to a Jewish 60 percent, Greeks felt a minority in the city they regarded as theirs. Jews, on the other hand, saw "Salonik" as a Jewish city under the Sultan. They weren't a minority and didn't act like one; quite unlike Diaspora Jews, anxious to keep a low profile, they developed an assertive behaviour. Comfortable behind their numbers and economic pre-eminence, they regarded themselves Salonica's masters. They hardly ever bothered to visit Jerusalem, under the same Sultan's realm. To them the New Jerusalem, the Madre de Israel, was Salonica.

Greeks return

In a hotel lobby in Pera, Istanbul, I discuss the fate of Salonican Jewry with visiting Rena Molho, herself Sephardi and the community's most acclaimed historian. "Salonican Jews didn't want Greek rule. It wasn't about fearing Greek anti-Semitism. Jews had had a fairly good deal under Byzantine rule; they knew no organised anti-Semitism existed among Greeks. The reason they preferred Ottoman rule was purely economic: the feared annexation to Greece would deprive Salonica of its Balkan hinterland, turning it to a border town. Borders would hamper economic activity. One must not forget that Salonican Jews earned their livelihood from manufacturing products they sold to the markets in the Balkans and abroad. The Empire's end would mean loss of markets and the end of capitulations, hence loss of tax privileges. More than half of Salonica's Jews were living in dire poverty, relying on communal assistance," she explains. "Maintaining opportunities was crucial"

The city's richest and most cultured were Sephardic. Some of their seashore villas, in an exuberant eclecticism, still survive along Vas Olgas Avenue, once a tree-lined boulevard along Thessaloniki's most affluent suburb. Villa Allatini now houses the Prefecture. Villa Bianca of the Fernandez family and Villa Mordokh serve as galleries. Many studied abroad, in Italy and France, producing celebrated architects and doctors. Yet comfort was a privilege of the few. Much against modern stereotypes on Jewish affluence, travellers mention downtown Jewish quarters as stinking, squalid and miserable.

As the Balkan states allied against the Turks, the Empire's end was imminent. Salonica's Jews campaigned to have Thessaloniki proclaimed "an international city" guaranteed by the Great Powers, against claims by the Balkan states. Internationalisation was seen as the only way to guarantee the Jews' economic position. Greek resentment was expected. Jews would be termed "conspirators" and "foreigners" for decades.

Greeks liberated Salonica on 27 October 1912, during the first Balkan War. Lootings of some Jewish shops by Greek mobs, much condemned in the European press, took place. Yet trouble ended there. "The Greek state adopted a markedly pro-Jewish policy, in order to calm Jewish anxieties and win over Salonica's majority. Foreign powers like Austria, Italy and France started offering passports to Jewish merchants, in an effort to gain indirect influence. The Greeks adopted cautious and pro-Jewish policies," Molho explains. Overall, the transition to Greek rule was very smooth. The Ottoman Zabita (gendarmerie) continued to police the city alongside the new Greek police while the city's Muslim mayor remained in office and the Sabbath a public holiday.

Unhappy end: fire and genocide

Former Jewish properties in the rebuilt fire zones

Greek Thessaloniki retained a Jewish majority until 1922. It was a pluralistic community and favoured a policy of assimilation. "For the first time and due to pro-Jewish policies, the Jews experienced a feeling of citizenship and belonging," Molho stresses. Socialists were the second important group. In this industrial city, Sephardi Avraam Benaroya had founded the "Federacion," a socialist workers' organisation joining mostly Jews. The Federacion would form the nucleus of the Greek Communist Party (KKE). Right wing Greeks would for decades brand communism as a Jewish product, even though the majority of Salonican Jews were conservative. In the absence of anti-Semitism, Zionism remained marginal. "Which Palestine are you talking about? Palestine's here," the saying went.

The first calamity befell the community in 1917 while the city was inundated by allied troops fighting in the First Balkan War. A fire devastated downtown, wiping out the Jewish quarters and Synagogues. Jews lost their homes, their shrines, their records, the priceless Torah scrolls and artefacts their ancestors had carried from Spain. "Accusations that the Greek state was behind the fire are unsubstantiated. The strict legislation on rebuilding proves the calamity was an accident," Molho is categorical. "The fire nevertheless provided an excellent opportunity to the authorities to rebuild on a Hellenic ideal," she continues. The Ottoman town and its Jewish core disappeared, replaced by a modern city centre filled with wide boulevards and grand public buildings in a neo-Byzantine eclecticism. This was the largest urban planning project ever undertaken in Greece. As most of downtown was reserved for public buildings, it lost its Jewish character.

The arrival of 100,000 Greek refugees after the Asia Minor disaster made Greeks a majority in town for the first time since 1430. Tension grew between the newcomers and the Jews. The interwar years were marked by a religiously inspired anti-Semitism, culminating in an attack on one of the city's Jewish slums, Campbell, in 1931. Jews fought bravely in the ranks of the Greek army during the Second World War. Yet this did not prevent tragedy: the Germans entered Thessaloniki in 1941, and two years later the 500-year old Sephardic community would end in the crematoria of Germany, Austria and Poland. The city's synagogues were desecrated and the 500,000 tombs of its Jewish cemetery, Europe's largest, bulldozed.

"Entre Mosotros"

Rozy Shaltiel wears the Star of David

Only about 2,000 Jews, an amazing medley of ethnic backgrounds, live in today's Thessaloniki. Each household has spine-chilling stories of suffering, death and courage to narrate. At the community's old people's home, we chat in Spanish with Director Victoria Benuziyo, and my friend Rozy Shaltiel. They are of the last few to be fluent in Judeo Esanyol, a living museum of medieval Spanish. "We speak singing," Victoria alludes to the marked Italian influence on their accent. If I didn't speak Italian and Catalan, I'd have difficulty understanding her. "It was easy for the Nazis to spot who was Jewish and who wasn't. They could tell by the accent," they explain. Victoria was a baby when the Germans arrived. She knows nothing of her father, perished in one of the concentration camps. She hid with a Christian family in Athens. "They changed my name to its Greek version Niki. Every morning before my adopted father went to work, he'd wait for me to come to the doorstep and wish him farewell, 'the Virgin be with you'." Victoria's mother survived and took her to Thessaloniki after the war. Separating from her adopted family was a nightmare. Rozy and her parents survived Bergen Belsen.

"We grew up in a vacuum. No grandmothers, no aunts, no elderly survived the camps. Their traditions, their stories perished with them," Victoria explains. "I'm not religious. But I'm a Jewess to the bone. For me Judaism is a culture, an identity." Her aunt Matica Lizzi with her five children fled to Athens and survived the war selling cigarettes on the streets, hiding some gold for safety. "Every day she'd say, 'The day I'll see our flag raised on the Acropolis, I will distribute my gold to the poor.' Which she did." Rozy's aunt Stella was dating a Christian boy when she was deported to Auschwitz. She survived and had to renounce her faith to marry him (civil marriage wasn't available at the time). "I can only pray in Judeo-Spanish," Rozy confides. "I go to churches and light a candle to my uncle's memory. My prayer goes, En Gan Eden que estes theio Giorgo (may you be in the Garden of Eden, uncle Giorgo)" The two women put some of the blame for anti-Semitism on Jews' aloofness. "One of the typical phrases of Thessaloniki Jews was 'No favles, stamos entre mosotros? (Don't speak; are we among ourselves?). It's a pity people didn't know much about us," they say. Things are different today. "Most young students who come to learn Judeo-Espanyol are Christian. This is indicative," Victoria, who teaches, argues. Books are printed on the cuisine of the Sephardim; CDs with their music sell well.

The community has deep grievances. The campus of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, built on the site of the former Jewish cemetery, which was "ravaged during the war," was donated by the community to the state. Not even one plaque commemorates the fact that auditoria and courtyards stand where once thousands of graves were. "Clara Hirsch donated the Hirsch hospital to the state, on the condition that its name be preserved. Yet the state renamed it Haghia Sophia," laments Rena Molho. Official guides to the city downplay the role Jews played in its history. The names of buildings survive: the Modiano market, the Villa Allatini, the Gatenyo-Florentin and Stein mansions. But do young Salonicans know they were built by, or for, Jews? "It is a myth that the Greeks simply assisted the Jews during the war," Rena says. "Although there's no proof, we're almost convinced it was Greek quislings who asked the Germans to destroy the cemetery. For decades, the municipal authorities wanted to use it as building space. No other Jewish cemetery was destroyed in occupied Europe. And it was Greek Christians, not Germans, who guarded the Jews in the forced labour camps in 1942, where thousands died. " "When we returned from the camp, we found squatters in our house. 'So many died, was it you who had to survive?" they told us. We had to go to court to claim it back," an elderly Salonican says.

Thessaloniki has a complex story, full of shadows and sorrow. "It's such a burden to know we're struggling against time to preserve some memories, but that when we ourselves pass away it will all be erased," Victoria says. "We holocaust survivors are destined to witness the death of Judeo-Espanyol, the death of Jewish Salonica"

Chanukah: Fanatisism, racism and anti-Hellenism displayed by the Jews

The Miracle of Chanukah


History for the Israelites was, and still is, the revelation of God's will in controlling the world on their behalf. Natural disasters for the sake of God's care for His chosen people never evoked ethical questioning, argues Ariella Atzmon.


What is Chanukah?

When the royal Hasmonean family overpowered and was victorious over the Greeks, they searched and found only a single cruse of pure oil… enough to light the menorah for a single day.

A miracle occurred, and they lit the menorah with this oil for eight days (Based on the teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe).

An alternative prayer

O mighty stronghold of my salvation

to praise You is a delight

Here I am to beseech

Reveal your almighty immense power

Perform the Chanukah oil miracle

Once again

For the sake of all humanity

and bring the global energy crisis

to an end

December: long, dark, chilly nights are cheerfully brightened by the many flashes of lights that shine through the curtained windows. Walking the streets of London at this time of the year, we come across glowing Christmas trees beside the flickering Chanukah candle lights. What do these lights stand for? How do these two kinds of lights affect our emotions? Which associations, reflections, and thoughts are triggered by these lights?

To get closer to an answer we just have to add a soundtrack to the sight of these lights. While listening to Christmas carols, we are enveloped by a pastoral atmosphere and the sweetness of spiritual tranquility meaning 'Love', 'Care' and 'Beauty'. However, when listening to Chanukah songs, suddenly we are captured by shrill cries of triumphalism. It is the vociferous praise to God for creating miracles to rescue his 'treasured ones' from 'wicked nations'. We can trace the violent terminology in hymnal phrases: eg. 'slaughter', 'obliterating the names of those who blaspheme the Israelites', and calls for God to 'avenge' ….

Hence, Chanukah is about God's miracle (the cruse of pure oil), and the triumph of Judaism over Hellenism. The celebration of Chanukah is a tale of war and the victory of the sons of light over the forces of darkness[1].

The Chanukah rite starts with the kindling of lights and blessing the Menorah (Chanukah lamp) with words of praise:

"Blessed are You, Lord our God, king of the universe,

Who performed miracles for our forefathers, in those days,

At this time"

Just after kindling the lights it is customary to sing two hymns. The first repeats the above prayer to 'commemorate God's saving acts, miracles and wonders', and the second hymn is Maoz Tzur (see below), which each Jew, secular or orthodox, atheist or a believer, knows by heart. Yet most of them never pay attention to the message carried by these Aramaic (ancient Hebrew) words. The essence of Chanukah as the representation of Jewish history is contained in these few lines:

And there we will bring a thanksgiving offering

When You will have prepared the slaughter

For the blaspheming foe

Then I shall complete with a song of hymn

The dedication of the Altar

Since Chanukah is mainly about God's miracles, it might be worthwhile to reflect upon the nuances which the term ‘miracle’ includes, and what they imply about the breach between Hellenism and Hebraism.[2]

The Greek mind was engaged in intellectual apprehension of the harmony of the cosmos, and in the laws and order of nature, where every separate entity is a part of a whole. The Greeks saw the divine power as manifested in the cosmic law whose existence should and could be grasped by reason. In the Hellenic tradition, the gods did not create the cosmos. On the contrary, they just represented the highest order produced by the cosmos. Crucially the Gods cannot violate natural Law: they themselves are bound to observe and to supervise the Law, and to act in harmony with the cosmos.

If Hellenism stands for philosophical thought, science and art, Judaism presents us with unquestioned righteousness and unconditional observance.

In Jewish thought, the world belongs to God; and He upholds it by His power. God sustains human life and man owes him obedience. In the Hebrew monotheist religion, the transcendent, almighty jealous God never tolerated other gods than Himself. And so Hellenistic polytheism confronted the Jews with their worst enemy.

According to the Old Testament, the world should be viewed as being beyond man's control. Even history is not the study of the past as a means of discovering laws that govern past events. According to Bultmann[3] regarding the conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism, in the Hebraic tradition, history is narrated to serve as an account for God's favor and punishment. Thus, in the Old Testament politics is not the center of interest, it is rather God's purpose and His inscribed moral demands that are.

Since the Jewish God is a tribal God who creates miracles for his people, Judaism views the world as a sphere where God rules by history, and the best of God can be revealed in the history of His people. Genesis should be seen as the first chapter of history and this historical saga develops through Noah, his three sons, up to the Israelites' development as a nation.

History for the Israelites was, and still is, the revelation of God's will in controlling the world on their behalf. Natural disasters for the sake of God's care for His chosen people never evoked ethical questioning in the course of Jewish thought. According to Jewish tradition, Individual human beings do not think of themselves as particular instances of the universal. They were never encouraged to think of themselves in the wider context of the harmonious unity of the whole cosmos. There is no possibility of wrestling with problems of suffering and misery, personal or national; all these questions should come under God's omnipotence and His unfathomable wisdom.

According to the Old Testament, man who was created in the image of God, should not be interpreted in the light of the world, but the world should be interpreted in the light of man. Since the world is created for man's sake, he should not attempt to assimilate and harmonize himself into it. Despite this anthropocentric Jewish attitude, God's rule is 'observantly' established. Being completely subservient to God's everlasting dominance makes people cautious about their conduct themselves towards God's authority. This awareness is rewarded "Keep in mind that the reward of the righteous for preserving the Torah is reserved for the hereafter" We can find parallels to this style of 'bookkeeping accountancy' in all other offshoots of Jewish monotheism.

Hebrew monotheism did not originate in theoretical reflection. According to the story of Genesis, God created the world out of 'chaos'. In the beginning was the word, and, by speaking, God differentiated between light and darkness. The same almighty God who created the universe can also destroy it, and perform miracles. God's revelation of Himself is not seen in the natural course of 'natural' history, but in unusual and terrifying occurrences, such as floods, storms, earthquakes, stopping the sun from moving, and drowning Pharaoh's troops in the Nile. Any attempt to reason with God is doomed to failure. Human beings are totally dependent on God's will. It is observance and faith, and not ethics, resulting in limitless gratitude to God that may be awarded.

The same line of reasoning is revealed also in the Jewish understanding of the word 'miracle'. God's miracles are meant to shake the universe, to upset the Laws of nature, and to undermine the harmony of the cosmos.

'Miracle' might be defined as 'an event which can not be attributed to human or natural agency, but to supernatural agency'. A miracle should be seen as an act which demonstrates control over nature, and which aims to serve as evidence for omnipotent divine intervention. God creates miracles to save the Israelites from His and their polytheist enemies. In fact, almost all Jewish festivities are historical reminders of miracles and victories involving God's aid.

Here we come back to the festivity of Chanukah, which epitomizes the breach between Judaic monotheism vs. polytheist Hellenism in the understanding of God's role in history. The main theme of Chanukah is the miracle that happened after the Hasmonean victory over the Greeks. Hence, after the liberation of Israel from Hellenic dominance, and the reclaiming of the holy temple as the lighthouse of God, they searched and found only a single cruse of pure oil which was enough to light the Menorah for a single day. And then by breaking and violating the most basic law of nature regarding the conservation of energy, a miracle occurred; they lit the Menorah with this oil which lasted for eight days (what a miraculous solution this could be for solving our present-day global energy crisis….)

The most famous liturgical poem (Piyyut) of Chanukah, the Maoz Tzur, recalls events of divine intervention in chronological order.

It starts with the 'Passover' miracle where

"Pharaoh's army and all his offspring

Went down like a stone into the deep”

It goes on with Purim where God

"To sever the towering cypress

Sought the Aggagite, son of Hammedatha

But it became a stumbling block to him

And his arrogance was stilled

The head of the Benjaminite You lifted

And the enemy, his name you obliterated

His numerous progeny –his possessions-

On the gallows You hanged”

And ends with the miracle of cruse oil,

Greeks gathered against me

then in Hasmonean days.

They Breached the walls of my towers

and they defiled all the oils;

And from the one remnant of the flasks

A miracle was wrought for the roses

Men of insight – eight days

Established for song and Jubilation

Chanukah is established as eight days of festivity praise and thanksgiving to God. Hellenism, which was viewed by the Jews as a "noxious blend of hedonism and philosophy" was overcome by the Maccabees who were empowered by God's spirit. In other words, Chanukah is giving thanks to God for rekindling the torch of Israel as a light unto the nations.

We can see that the idea of the miracle in Judaism is an essential part of the Judaic tradition regarding the special role of the 'chosen people' as the 'holy nation'. With the loyalty to God that illuminates the way for the "supra-rational" "supra-egotistical essence of the Jewish soul, they confronted the whole Hellenistic tradition of rational thinking.

Jewish history is not interwoven with stories of political narration and achievement; it is rather the product of a covenant of mutual obligations. It is marked by disasters and by gifts which are the sign of God's will. The faith in their magic power supplies the Jewish people with a belief in a kind of supra-natural power. An interesting and very compelling point is that even those who rashly define themselves as 'Jewish atheists' or 'secular Jews', by the substitution of Judaic observance with Jewish rites (such as chanting Chanukah hymns) they safeguard the eternity of the Jewish race.[4] In the off chance that God will show-up by performing one more miracle for his people, it is always worthwhile to stay around!

Since time immemorial, Jews have had confidence in a divine agency that will overturn the order of nature (SEDER OLAM) resulting in their being rescued from the wicked nations. This trust in the tribal/national God is common both to believers and to secular Jews. Otherwise why do secular and atheist Jews keep insisting on proclaiming their Jewishness?

This trust in the mystic, eternal, mutual covenant between God and his people results in a pattern of arrogance, so to speak, that helps to maintain the stereotype attached to Jewish people. The fact that 'miracles and wonders' and 'saving acts, are likely to be manifested in concrete terms, if not by God, then by his holy people should be seen as a major threat to the whole world. It is the old warning of the 'writing on the wall' that might make a comeback from Babylon (Iraq) and on to Persia (Iran).

Maoz Tzur (A Chanukah Hymn-written in the 13th century)

O mighty stronghold of my salvation,

To praise You is a delight

Restore my house of Prayer

And there we will bring a thanksgiving offering

When You will have prepared the slaughter

For the blaspheming foe

Then I shall complete with a song of hymn

the dedication of the Altar

my soul had been sated with troubles,

my strength has been consumed with grief.

They had embittered my life with hardship,

With the calf-like kingdom's bondage

But with his great power

He brought forth the treasures ones

Pharaoh's army and all his offspring

Went down like a stone into the deep

To sever the towering cypress

Sought the Aggagite, son of Hammedatha

But it became a stumbling block to him

And his arrogance was stilled

The head of the Benjaminite You lifted

And the enemy, his name you obliterated

His numerous progeny – his possessions

On the gallows You hanged

Greeks gathered against me

then in Hasmonean days.

They Breached the walls of my towers

and they defiled all the oils;

And from the one remnant of the flasks

A miracle was wrought for the roses

Men of insight – eight days

Established for song and Jubilation

Bare Your holy arm

And hasten the End for salvation –

Avenge the vengeance of your servant's blood

From the wicked nation.

For the triumph is too long delayed for us,

And there is no end to days of evil,

Repel the Red One in the nethermost shadow

And establish for us the seven shepherds

Notes:

[1] In this case the Hasmonean family against Edom, Asshur, Mohave, the whole pagan world including the Greeks as the sons of darkness.

2 http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2007/08/ariella-atzmon-athens-or-jerusalem.html

[3] (1956) Bultmann Rudolf., Primitive Christianity, The Fontana Library, pp. 40-51

[4] http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2007/11/gilad-atzmon-politics-of-anti-semitism.html

Dr. Ariella Atzmon is a Senior Lecturer in the Schools of Education and Law, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

© Copyright by Ariella Atzmon