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31 December 2024

VIEW FROM THE HILLTOP: Pollard Ready to Wage War on Jewry!

 Pollard Ready to Wage War on Jewry!

Sanctifies the State; Decrees "All must serve..."


We imagined that our last installment on the bogus one would be our last.

Alas, there must be another…


Jonathan Pollard continues to reveal his true colors to the Jewish world, this time via an interview with the Jerusalem Post. [2 articles follows below]


If their reporting is accurate, Pollard intends to run for a Knesset seat in the next election. Why? Because he believes that’s the way a leader (which he considers himself to be) brings his goals to fruition.

And what are his goals?

Here’s the bogus one in his own words —

“My goal is to unite those in the ideological right who love Israel and want to contribute to the state. National service, whether in the IDF or another framework, is a critical issue for me. Everyone, without exception, must serve the state in some way.

If you 1) love Israel, and 2) want to contribute to the state, then Pollard’s your man. His goal is to get everyone to “serve the state” — without exception!

Why?

Because the state is meant to be served!

Or is the state meant to serve its citizens?

I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten.

Oh! — and weren’t Jews meant to serve G-d, and only G-d?

Hmm…

By the way, since when is “serving the state” a Jewish value?

Like what? — Like China?

Cuba?

North Korea?

Now, get a load of this —

He emphasized his stance that those who do not serve should not have the right to vote, adding: “You can pray and study Torah, but you cannot refuse to contribute to the state.”

Hold on a second, he’s going to let us pray and study Torah?

That option is open to us?

But service to the state is not optional?

That’s a must?

And if we don’t…?

Then we can’t vote!?

He thinks we care!

He actually believes we care about voting!

Sorry, Jonny-boy. We’ve been residents in the Land of Israel for nearly 25 years and we’ve never once cast a ballot.

So good luck with your threats.

Real Jews don’t waste time voting in Israeli elections.

And they couldn’t give a rat’s bucket if you deny them that right.


In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not Americans, Jon-Jon.

And we serve only Hashem, Master of Legions.

You remember Him, don’tcha…?

The Guy who freed you from jail…?

Maybe try a run for the 26th district of NY. You know, Buffalo and thereabouts.Dean Maughvet

savethehilltopyouth@substack.com


* * * * * *

Of all news sites, Pollard chose the JPost:


Former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard considers running for Knesset

Former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard wants to offer an alternative to Naftali Bennet and Benjamin Netanyahu when the next Knesset elections occur.


Jonathan Pollard, the American-Israeli who served 30 years in a US prison for espionage on behalf of Israel, is actively exploring a potential entry into Israeli politics when the next elections for the Knesset occur.


In recent weeks, Pollard has reportedly been holding meetings with various political figures, including current ministers, Knesset members, and emerging candidates. Among those he has met are Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Ofer Winter, a polarizing figure in Israeli politics, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.


Pollard has expressed a desire to become a voice for right-wing ideological voters who feel alienated by the current direction of Likud and seek an alternative to former prime minister Naftali Bennett. His target audience includes both religious and non-religious voters who do not identify with sectoral parties like the Religious Zionist Party.


Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-835199


ALSO READ:


“…Jonathan Pollard wants to enter the Knesset, send Gazan Arabs to Ireland (2/24)


Jonathan Pollard is eyeing the Knesset alongside Itamar Ben-Gvir. He calls to annex Gaza, send Gazans to Ireland, and rename the IDF.


We grew up writing letters to Washington for his release. It’s therefore somewhat surreal to be sitting across the table from Jonathan Pollard in Jerusalem, where he is gearing up to run in the next national election – whenever it might take place.


“Look, you are either part of the solution or part of the problem,” he says matter of factly. “You cannot just sit on the sidelines and criticize. If you believe in what you are saying, you must participate.” Pollard has been eyeing the Knesset ever since he landed back in the country with his late wife Esther four years ago. He had spent 30 years in prison in the US, seven of them in solitary, accused of spying for Israel against America. He then lived under house arrest and other restrictions in New York from 2015 until 2020.


Whether you agree with him and his politics or not, he’s become a local celebrity. If he runs, he would want to be on Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit list. He says Ben-Gvir has an undeserved bad reputation.


“He’s never been allowed to realize some of his projects,” Pollard states. “He says some pretty wild things sometimes,” Pollard admits. “He’s a man of high emotion. But I trust him. I believe his heart is in the right place.” Pollard was offered to run with Ben-Gvir in the last election – in fact, for about 24 hours the country thought he was going to – but ultimately, in the shadow of the loss of his wife, who had died only months before the election, Pollard says his head just wasn’t in the right place.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also offered him a top slot in the 2021 election when Netanyahu failed to take the crown, but he decided against running then, too.


“A friend of mine had called me and said, ‘Be aware, do not get involved because Bibi is not going to win,’” and he would have burned a lot of bridges, Pollard recalls. He knew that if he joined the prime minister back then and they lost, he might never be able to run again – so he didn’t. 


But Pollard has long had close ties with Netanyahu – who stood on the tarmac when Pollard landed in Israel in the winter of 2020, amid the pandemic. 


“The landing was hysterical,” Pollard says, shaking his head. “Bibi had promised [former US president Donald] Trump in writing: no publicity. I should have known better, but I saw all the cameramen when we were coming in for the landing. I turned to Esther, aleha hashalom [may she rest in peace], and said, ‘What do I say?’ She leaned back and said, ‘I’m retired. This is on you.’”


Next thing he knew, the co-pilot – mindful of COVID restrictions – ran down the plane’s stairs and instructed Netanyahu to grab the luggage. He then put his hands on the prime minister and demanded, “Do you speak English?” 


Pollard recalls the prime minister was laughing – the co-pilot had mistaken him for an airport employee.


“Bibi thought this was the most hysterical thing you ever heard,” Pollard says.


A new love blossoms

We’re sitting at the Waldorf Hotel’s dairy restaurant, King’s Court. Pollard is a regular here, and the staff all come by to shake his hand. They nod in admiration and repeatedly check in to ensure everything is okay. 


The restaurant off the lobby is beautiful, well lit, and modern with plush seating we sink into on a dark, rainy Jerusalem evening. It’s also quite fitting for Pollard: In 1935, the British government leased the building to serve as office space. The Peel Commission, established in 1936 to investigate the unrest in Mandatory Palestine, held its sessions in the former Palace Hotel’s large hall. 


Various testimonies, including those of the high commissioner and his secretary, were given behind closed doors. Jewish community leaders who wanted to know what was being said sought the help of the hotel engineer, and microphones were installed inside the electric light fixtures above the meeting table. A hidden recording device recorded the discussions onto reels, which were transferred daily to representatives of the national institutions.


Over bites of salad – each of us, including Pollard’s new wife, Rivkah, tried a different salad variety, and all were tasty – we talk about everything from Pollard’s roots to prison stories to the books he read when confined to a cell. We learn that his grandfather was a dairy farmer on New York’s Hudson who, during Prohibition, stocked up on barrels of whiskey rolled down the river. Pollard grew up in Texas.


Pollard has a hearty but modest laugh, and his long white beard shakes like Santa Claus with a “ho-ho-ho” when he gets excited. He loves whiskey and wine, and especially wine grown in the State of Israel. 


But mostly, he loves two women: his late wife and his new one. 


He met Rivkah, a single mother originally from Birmingham, UK, at the Malha Mall when he was shopping with Esther. Rivkah was trying to get a book written about her father, and they started talking. The conversation lasted about an hour, and Esther just stood there smiling. When they parted, Esther asked Pollard: “Do you like her?”


“I am an old, married guy, and I know a trap when I hear one,” Pollard says. “So I said, ‘Why do you ask? That’s kind of inappropriate.’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m not gonna make it, and I want you to be happy.’”


Esther was dying of breast cancer, and not too long later, when she went into the hospital that one last time, she kept telling Pollard he had to marry Rivkah.


“It was tough to hear this because I didn’t want to lose her. And I suddenly realized, you know, I could try to save eight million Jews, but I couldn’t save one,” Pollard ruefully says.


But six months later, he took Esther up on her offer and reached out to Rivkah. 


“I was scared because it had been a while since I dated. And I was thinking, ‘She is a beautiful woman; there’s no way she’s gonna look at this old goat.’ I invited her to lunch at Piccolino,” Pollard remembers. “After we exchanged pleasantries, I just said, ‘Do you want to get married?’ And she looked at me, and I saw she thought about it. And she said, ‘Yes. What would you like for lunch?’”


Pollard admits that he was madly in love with Esther for 40 years, and it was hard to contemplate loving somebody else. “It was almost like betrayal,” he says. “But by pushing our shidduch, she gave me the freedom to love and marry again. She got me out of prison with God’s help. She brought me home, and the last thing she did was give me my wife. 


“She is very much alive with us.”


Pollard’s post-prison pursuits

Today, Pollard is focused on building four early-stage start-ups he imagined in prison. They deal with seawater, synthetic protein, renewable energy, and energy storage. Right now, they are all self-financed. He’s also helping raise Rivkah’s seven children.


“There’s nothing in prison that ever scared me half as much as having to deal with four Israeli girls, 11, 14, 16, and 18,” Pollard says fondly as he takes a bite of his fruit salad, and Rivkah bats her red eyelashes. “I admit that I’m a coward regarding the 11-year-old. All she has to do is look like she’s going to cry, and whatever she wants is fine.”


Pollard is working on these companies because he believes Israel is vulnerable to dependence on offshore natural gas and food imports. 


“I feel we have to develop small modular reactors that can be buried, hardened, and dispersed so that we develop a system of microgrids around the country, and the grid is basically a backup,” says Pollard. He also talks about a plan for low-enriched uranium, which he states is the future. 


Pollard also admits that he is “extraordinarily depressed” over what happened on Oct. 7, primarily because it was so avoidable.


“From the moment I got here, I never talked about judicial reform. I talked about military reform because it was my impression - and unfortunately, it’s been borne out - that the military was incapable of thinking offensively. And we now know what the consequences are.”


He says the IDF should be renamed the “Israeli Army” and change its mentality. He also believes Israel will need to annex Gaza if it wants residents to return to the South. 


“I say we move the resident Arab population out [of Gaza],” Pollard maintains. “I don’t care where they go. My preference is for Ireland. I think the Irish deserve it.” Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett has even donned a keffiyeh, he notes.


There’s just enough time for some prison stories that make Stephen King’s Shawshank seem like a cakewalk, best not published in a family magazine. Pollard shares how he got through his days in a small cell, where he rigged up a radio (though it was against the rules) and read stacks of books; Esther also regularly sent him news clippings. The top three books that made the biggest impact on him: The Time Traveler’s WifeThe Dovekeepers; and As a Driven Leaf.


“I saw the best and the worst,” Pollard affirms.


Source:  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-788364

Rabbi Weissman: Dine in a shrine... And other recent tidbits

Do you want to dine in a shrine to hostages? 
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The Sephardic House in Jerusalem has the perfect ambience to meet your needs.


Bring Them Home Now reminds me of Black Lives Matter.

This is a real email. I have to admit I got quite a laugh from the the last word just thrown in there.

I'm having trouble understanding the fake news narrative. Why would Houthi rebels, who are over 2000 kilometers from Tel Aviv, who don't have a firm grip on their own land, and whose resources are surely limited, agree to fire rockets at Israel so they could get bombed to smithereens? What's in it for them according to the fake news narrative? Just curious.

Mazal Tov to the Dati Leumi community. Charedi blood has been spilled. Your situation has not improved. How much more Charedi blood do you want?

Just curious. 

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The Underground Railroad of Portuguese Jews

 

Defying the Inquisition, converso Jews of Portugal were conducted to safety through a secret escape network.

When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain exiled the Spanish Jews in 1492, King John II of the neighboring Portugal saw an opportunity for profit. At the time, Portugal was waging a military campaign against Muslims in Africa, and King John II was struggling to finance the campaign. Though the king’s advisory council had initially objected to admitting Spanish Jews into Portugal, King John II convinced them by arguing that by charging Jews money in exchange for a temporary stay in Portugal they could cover their military expenses without overburdening the local Ltaxpayers1.

A contemporary Italian Jew wrote2:

One hundred and twenty thousand [Spanish Jews] went to Portugal, according to a compact which a prominent man, Don Vidal bar Benveniste del Cavalleria, had made with the King of Portugal, and they paid one ducat for every soul, and the fourth part of all the merchandise they had carried thither; and he allowed them to stay in his country six months.

Other sources say that the Jews were allowed to stay for eight months once they paid the demanded amount, charged at five customs stations the king had set up especially for the exiled Jews. The possession of a receipt from these customs entitled the Jews to enter Portugal3.

The children – other sources mention that there were 2,000 of them – were torn away from their parents’ arms, forcibly baptized, and shipped off to the crocodile-infested island of Sao Tome off the west coast of Africa. Most of them perished.

Tajador judeo-Spanish s.XIV. Plate (vessel) for cutting and serving meat 
at the table. Milartino, Wikimedia Commons

Decree of Expulsion

But King Manuel’s benevolence was short-lived. To strengthen his rule, he married Princess Isabella of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. A precondition to the marriage was extending the expulsion decree to Portugal. In 1496, King Manuel issued an expulsion decree, giving the Portuguese Jews ten months to either convert to Christianity or leave the country.

Even before the designated date of departure, the king, like his predecessor, decreed that those Jewish families who refuse to convert should have their children forcibly taken away, baptized, and handed over to Christian institutions. Many parents succumbed to the pressure and converted to Christianity in order to keep their children.

Those who clung to their faith gathered at the port of Lisbon, as it was declared the only permitted point of departure from Portugal. They waited in vain for ships to show up and take them away from their persecutors.

Professor H. V. Livermore wrote6:

[T]hey were told that they should have left before, and must now consider themselves the king’s slaves. Every attempt was made to convert the twenty thousand Jews who were assembled in Lisbon by threats, promises and forcible conversion. The handful who resisted this treatment, including the king’s mathematician and astrologer Abraao Zacuto, and a doctor, Abraao Saba, were at last allowed to depart. The rest, on conversion, were promised protection.

Thus, thousands of Jews remained in Portugal as conversos, outwardly Christian but practicing Judaism in secret.

Having achieved his goal of converting the Jews of Portugal, King Manuel was now afraid that his “new Christians” would want to leave Portugal in order to return to their religion. Not wanting to lose so many productive and tax-paying subjects, he issued an order to close the borders to them. Professor Livermore wrote7, “No ex-Jew was allowed to leave the country without a special permit, which was only granted for commercial purposes and provided that his wife and children remain in Portugal.”

Stuck in Portugal, the conversos maintained their Judaism as best they could while the government looked the other way. A new threat appeared on the horizon in 1536, when the Office of Inquisition was officially established in Portugal.

Fully aware of the Inquisition’s activities in Spain, the Portuguese conversos understood the danger they were about to face. They began devising desperate plans for leaving Portugal.

Burning of Crypto-Jews in Lisbon, Portugal in 1497, 
Museum of Portuguese Jewish History

The Escape Network

Conversos who had managed to make their way to Antwerp and London extended help to their brethren who remained in Portugal. Professor Aron Di Leone Leoni wrote8, “A complex rescue organization was set up to plan and finance the flight of conversos from the Iberian Peninsula to London and Antwerp, where some of them found shelter while others continued their journey to Italy and the Levant.”

Historian Simon Schama offers a dramatic description of the escape9:

Always it began in darkness, in the hours between midnight and dawn, when the last dockside patrols had ended… Like small night animals emerging from burrows, whispering cloaked figures would come to the quays on the Tagus River carrying only what they needed for the two-week voyage to Antwerp: a cooking pot, a mattress, hard biscuits, a little oil, a chest of clothes.

The route, writes Schama, was10:

a transcontinental highway of escape: a chain of ships, river ferries, lodgings, wagons, drivers and riders extending from the Portuguese Atlantic coast to the English ports, then on across the Channel to Flanders, down through France and the Rhineland, over the Alpine passes, into the Po Valley. If they then eluded the guards posted in Lombardy expressly to detect, arrest, and deal violently with them, they might be able to reach the safety of Ferrara. Some might stop there; others move on through the Apennines to Pesaro and Ancona, then over the Adriatic to Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), and finally into the realm of Suleyman the Magnificent where they would at last be free…

The escape was fraught with danger at every step. Professor Schama explains11:

Even at the Tagus dockside some were betrayed and dragged away. To evade the police on the city wharves, many of the fugitives loaded themselves and their belongings into small boats further upstream, and were rowed, as quietly as could be managed, towards the Flanders-bound ships moored at the mouth of the river.

Those who managed to leave Portugal encountered people knowns as “the Conductors,” who led them to homes that served as waystations, where the escapees could rest and recharge before embarking on the next leg of their journey.

In Flanders, the Conductors gave the refugees food and lodging and even invited them to a secret synagogue, with a strict warning to keep quiet and avoid anything that would attract attention.

Once rested, the refugees continued their journey on covered wagons. The Conductors provided them with detailed instructions about their route and the next waystation, where, if all went well, they would meet their next Conductor and have another chance to rest.

Not everyone managed to complete the journey. Some unfortunates were intercepted by the Inquisition. It was the Inquisition that preserved a copy of the Conductors’ instructions that were confiscated from the refugees. From this copy we know about one of the escape routes.

The instructions directed the refugees to travel from Antwerp south to Cologne, Germany. In Cologne, they were to find the Inn of the Vier Escara, where they would meet their Conductor, Pero Tonnellero. Pero would assist them in obtaining boats, which they take upriver along the Rhine River to Maintz. In Maintz, they were to find the inn with the sign of the fish and meet their next Conductor, who would help them acquire wagons for the land route southeast along the Swiss lakes to the Alps. The next Conductor would hire muleteers and horse handlers who would take them across the Alps, over the snowy summits, and down into the Po Valley.

Not everyone survived the harsh weather and the steep ascents and descents of the Alpine crossings. Those who did had to be careful to avoid the roadblocks posted at the descents from the mountain passes for the sole purpose of catching runaway “new Christians.”

If caught, the unfortunate refugees would be robbed of all of their possessions and tortured in order to force them to reveal the identities of the Conductors. Anyone found guilty of abetting their escape would be sentenced to death.

Professor Schama concludes12:

The fact that we know all this from the Inquisition archives means that many failed to reach Ferrara or the Adriatic. The miracle, one wrought by the Antwerp Rescuers, is that many did survive and moved on towards the Adriatic ships.

Muleteers at the Gotthard Pass, crossing the Alps. Upload by Adrian Michael, 
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rescuers

Due to the secret nature of the operation, not much is known about the rescuers’ identities. Only some of their names are preserved by history.

Among the main organizers and financiers of the escape network was Diogo Mendes, a Spanish-born converso and the older brother of Francisco Mendes, the husband of the famous philanthropist Dona Gracia Nasi. Diogo and his partner, GianCarlo Affaitati, owned a successful pepper and spice trading business. Their tax payments served as a reliable source of revenue for the king, who in return turned a blind eye to Diogo’s “Judaizing” activities.

Dona Gracia Nasi

In 1532, under the pressure of the Inquisition, the king agreed to a search of Diogo’s house. A Hebrew book of Psalms was discovered and Diogo was arrested. Among the charges was abetting the escape of conversos to the Ottoman Empire. Fortunately for Diogo, the royal family did not want to lose their source of revenue. They agreed to release Diogo in exchange for 50,000 gold ducats.

Another known rescuer was the one-eyed rabbi merchant Antonio de la Ronha. He was also arrested and subsequently released in 1532. After his release, he escaped from Antwerp to London, where he continued assisting the Portuguese refugees.

In London, de la Ronha worked together with Cristoforo Fernandez. When Antwerp became too dangerous a destination, Fernandez would go to the English ports to meet the refugees and warn them against continuing on to Antwerp. Instead, the rescuers provided shelter for the refugees in London.

In 1540, one of the Conductors, Gaspar Lopes, a relative of Diogo, was caught by the Inquisition. Under torture, he divulged sensitive information about the escape network. Again, the royal need for money saved the leaders of the network from arrest and worse.

A torture chamber of the Spanish Inquisition with suspected heretics having their feet burned or being suspended with a rope from a pulley while scribes note down confessions. Engraving by B. Picart, 1722. Wikimedia Commons

Sincere Commitment to Judaism

As shown above, the kings and rulers of the time were more often motivated by financial rather than religious considerations. Even solid evidence of “Judaizing” could be dismissed for a large enough payment. In fact, writes Professor Leoni13:

The accusations of heresy and apostasy were often used as a pretext for imprisonment of some rich merchant who would eventually be released on payment of a large sum. The prosecution of heresy was turned into a financial tool for the benefit of the Emperor.

In contrast, the conversos demonstrated their sincere commitment to Judaism. Tremendous self-sacrifice was required from both the rescuers and the rescued at every step of the escape network. Too many conversos lost their lives in the process. Professor Leoni continues14:

I am convinced that only a strong leaning towards Judaism could have swayed so many people to adopt such a risky and otherwise unimaginable step, as a flight from the remote regions of Portugal to London and Antwerp and the subsequent hazardous caminho (journey) from there to Ferrara using secondary routes and hidden path through the Alps.

Both the refugees and their rescuers, who, writes Professor Leoni15, “dedicated a large part of their resources to help their persecuted brethren” deserve our respect and appreciation.

  1. H. V. Livermore. A History of Portugal. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947. Page 216.
  2. Jacob R. Marcus. The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook. Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati 1999. Page 61.
  3. H. V. Livermore. A History of Portugal. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947. Page 216.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Jacob R. Marcus. The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook. Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati 1999. Page 61.
  6. H. V. Livermore. A History of Portugal. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947. Page 224.
  7. Ibid., page 225.
  8. Aron Di Leone Leoni. The Hebrew Portuguese Nations in Antwerp and London at the Time of Charles V And Henry VIII: New Documents and Interpretations. Ktav Publishers, 2005. Pages xi-xii.
  9. Simon Schama. Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492-1900. Vintage/Penguin Random House UK, 2017. Page 29.
  10. Ibid., pages 30-31.
  11. Ibid., page 31.
  12. Ibid., pages 33-34.
  13. Aron Di Leone Leoni. The Hebrew Portuguese Nations in Antwerp and London at the Time of Charles V And Henry VIII: New Documents and Interpretations. Ktav Publishers, 2005. Pages xii-xiii.
  14. Ibid., page xiii.
  15. Ibid., page xiv.

Article and screenshots from https://aish.com/the-underground-railroad-of-portuguese-jews/

The author

Yehudis Litvak is an author of Jewish-themed historical fiction and a regular contributor to various Jewish publications. She especially enjoys exploring Jewish thought through the medium of fiction. She recently moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel with her husband and children..



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