"Brit-Am Now"- 445
Contents:
1. William Rasmussen: Tribal Distribution in the USA
2. Some Israelites in Germany?
3. Brit-Am Comment: on Germany and other non-Israelite areas of the world:
4. Increased traffic on Brit-Am website.
5. Genetic Resistance to HIV, a Viking trait?
6. Genetically-engineered foodstuffs
7. Finland Subsidizes Quislings in Israel

1. William Rasmussen: Tribal Distribution in the USA
From: William Rasmussen <brasshalom@yahoo.com>
Subject: Shalom and b'richot to you from Bill Rasmussen in Minnesota
Shalom Yair:
I was fascinated by your insight on the tribe of Dan from the Judges 18
commentary.  As you have taught, the tribes who left Israel, ultimately
ended up in Europe in the same geographic pattern as their tribal
assignments in Israel.  With that in mind, I took a map of Israel, enlarged
it and then placed it over the United States.

It is no secret that Minnesota and Wisconsin have high concentrations of
Norwegians, Northern Germans, Swedes and Danes.  Minnesota has perhaps the
highest concentration of Danes.  If Minnesota represents the Northern
tribal area of Dan, with Naphtali nearby, you have along with the tribe of
Asher, the three tribes mentioned in Numbers 2:25-31 which was encamped to
the North.

Following the map of Israel to the South, the land area belonging to Reuben
almost exactly lies where Louisiana is.  Louisiana of course, has a rich,
French heritage, fitting the connection to Reuben in France.  The New
Orleans Saints' professional football team has a fleur de lis as the symbol
of that team.  Grouped with Reuben to the south were Simeon and
Gad.  Simeon has been known through Jewish history for its poverty.  This
may explain why the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and
adjacent
areas have had the highest poverty throughout American history.

The tribes assigned to the east were Judah, Issachar and Zevulon.  It is no
secret that the highest concentrations of Jewish people in America are in
the east, notably New York.  Issachar was famous for his wisdom in
discerning times and for its scholars.  America's highest educational
centers are in the east such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, West Point and
Annapolis.  Zevulon is notable in the east due to his naval
skills.  America's greatest shipyards are in the east, many of them in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The tribes assigned to the west were Ephraim, Manasseh and
Benjamin.  Ephraim and Manasseh both would be found in high concentrations
in California, fulfilling the words of Jacob who said that Ephraim would be
the fullness of the nations.  No one could dispute that California is the
melting pot of the world, with virtually every people group on the face of
the earth found there.  Additionally, the prosperity of California would
fulfill the blessings to both Ephraim and Manasseh.  The Stone Edition
Chumash in its commentary of Numbers 2, notes that Benjamin was added with
Ephraim and Manasseh to strenghten them due to the harsh elements of the
sea that come to Israel's west coast.  The Midrash notes that G-d's
presence was at the western side of both the Tabernacle and the Temple, in
the boundary of Benjamin.  The symbol of Benjamin is the wolf, which is
found in its greatest numbers in the western United States.

It stands to reason that the tribes of Israel would settle in basically the
same patterns found in both Eretz Yisrael and later through migration, in
Europe.  While this is only a cursory examination of the tribal settlements
in America, I believe that further examination of colors that was present
on the banners of the tribes would show that those colors would be
predominant in their corresponding geographical areas.  Additionally, the
blessings of Jacob and later Moses might also be found where the tribes
settled.  At the very least, all of this is food for thought.  Shalom, Bill
Rasmussen

2. Some Israelites in Germany?
From: "A. Stefani W."
Subject: remnant in Germany

http://www.ensignmessage.com/judahremnant.html
At the outset I will clarify something. I am not teaching you that all
Germans are Judah, definitely not. Neither am I suggesting for one moment
that Germany is an Israelite nation in the sense that Britain, Norway or
Denmark or Holland would be classified. But I do hope to demonstrate to you
that a sizeable number, now greatly reduced, of Judah came through Germany
when the Tribes passed through that region on their way to the Isles North
and West of Palestine.
.............
The teaching began to come to the fore that modern Germany was Assyria.
That teaching did not just come to the fore in World War II, it completely
took over in British Israel circles. All our preachers were preaching that
Germany is Assyria. No less a preacher than our own A. J. Ferris wrote at
least two books, "Germany's Doom Foretold", and "When Russia Bombs Germany"
which outline this belief. The teaching that Germany is Assyria has been
perpetuated to this day by the various branches, splits or splinters of
what was the Armstrong World Wide Church of God.

In this study, we are going to look at a part of Germany, at Judah, and the
Royal links. We are going to look at the heraldry, and, more importantly,
the spiritual links, the westward migrations of Judah, and the poison that
finally destroyed and ruined Germany.
Andrea W.
Surrey GB

3. Brit-Am Comment: on Germany and other non-Israelite areas of the world:
The above opinion and the source references are worth considering but
should be treated with some reservation.
We have discussed the migration of Israelites from Germany to North America
in our book "Joseph"
and may return to this subject in even more detail at a later date.
Everyone who is interested in  this issue should read the relevant chapter
in Joseph. The Israelite Destiny of America
by Yair Davidi.
In general we hold:
Many Israelites were once in Germany but moved out in stages, some
only  relatively recently.
There were also quite a few Jews from Judah who assimilated amongst the
Germans but most of these also moved out.
That people of German origin who are pulled towards Brit-Am type beliefs
also wish to
emphasize the possibility of  many Germans belonging or of having once
belonged to Israel is natural
(and the same holds for other basically non-Israelite areas of  the world)
BUT when (and if) such claims are accompanied  by wrong opinions concerning
the
line of  the Jews of Judah then we reject them.
We also strongly suspect all those who reject the Jews of Judah.
In my opinion such thinkers are probably not of  Israelite origin.

  4. Increased traffic on Brit-Am website.
Nearly 105,000 hits for September on Brit-Am website
up from 65,543 in July

5. Genetic Resistance to HIV, a Viking trait?
http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/5/arch.html#anchor182814
Genetics
Did the Vikings Spread HIV Resistance?

The chemokine receptor CCR5 is one of two receptors on macrophages, an
immune cell, used by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) early in the
establishment of an infection. Individuals with two mutant copies of this
receptor (homozygotes) have proven to have high, but not absolute,
resistances to infection, while those with one copy (heterozygotes) have a
delayed progression of AIDS.

A 32-basepair mutation in the CCR5 gene called allele 32 has attracted the
attention of researchers because of its high prevalence in the European
population. Approximately 10% of all Europeans are believed to have at
least one copy of this mutation. This mutation is nearly absent in
individuals of Asian, Oceanic, Native American or African decent (except
African-Americans).

Mutation frequencies among Europeans point toward a Scandinavian origin.
There is a statistically significant decreasing north to south cline in the
frequency of this mutation. Highest frequencies were found in Helsinki
Finland (15.8%), Iceland (14.7%), and Umea Sweden (14.2%). The mean
Scandinavian frequency was 13.4% vs. 8.18% for all populations studied.

Areas where Vikings or Normans settled had a higher than average frequency:
Northern France (Brest 13.5%, Paris 12.9%, Nancy 11.1%, Lille 10.8%, and
Reims 8.7%), Copenhagen Denmark (12.3%), Moscow Russia (12.2%), Vilnius
Lituania (11.4%), Britain (11.1%), Mulheim Germany (10.6%), and Oslo Norway
(10.5%). The gradient is remarkable even within France, where the southern
cities of Nice and Ajaccio turned in frequencies of 5.2% and 0.9%
respectively. All other sites in Europe have a lower than 10% frequency.
Surprisingly, Ireland had only a 4.5% frequency. Non-European border
countries had a dramatically lower frequency: Turkey 6.3%, Greeks in Cypus
2.8%, Daghestan 6.3%, and Morocco 1.5%.

Studies such as this one are always subject to sampling error and the
numbers of individuals tested is not constant in all sites. In all, 7328
individuals from fifteen western European countries, plus Cyprus, Turkey,
Daghestan, and Morocco were tested. The number tested per site ranged from
1002 in Cyprus to 44 in Ireland. The combined number of individuals per
country where cities were listed individually is France 1836, Italy 910,
and Spain 437. In France, "Basques, French, and Spanish Catalans, and
Brittons from the region of Brest were selected by ethnicity and family
history; in all other populations concerned sampling concerned individuals
born in the corresponding geographical regions" (p. 934). All major
"ethano-linguistic" groups (Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Romanic, and Slavic)
in Europe were represented in the overall sample. Of the 7328 individuals
tested there were 1023 heterozygotes and 76 homozygotes for the mutation.

Other disease mutations hypothesized to have originated in northern Europe
include alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, Cystic Fibrosis-CF508, and
hyperchromatosis - C282Y. Lucote hypothesizes that there was a Northern
European "gene center" that was disseminated during historic times. He
hypothesizes that the Vikings were the disseminators of at least the 32  allele of CCR5.

Source: Gérard Lucotte. (2001) "Distribution of the CCR5 Gene 32-Basepair
Deletion in Western Europe. A Hypothesis About the Possible Dispersion of
the Mutation by the Vikings in Historical Times." Human Immunology 62:933-936.

6. Genetically-engineered foodstuffs
Someone asked me a question as to whether the Bible permits the genetical
engineering of food. I  gave an answer which was not very adequate.
This is not our field and we do not usually answer questions of this nature.
Even so, we did stumble across the following web site that discusses the issue
and for those interested is worth looking at:
www.biotech-info.net%2Fjewish_law.html

7. Finland Subsidizes Quislings in Israel
The Israeli Quisling organization "Peace Now" has allocated
17 thousand US dollars towards the payment of agents amongst
the Jewish settlers in  Yehudah and Shomron (Judah and Samaria).
The task of these " agents" is to sow discord and defeatism
and to encourage willingness to accept compensation and move out.
The source of this money comes from the Government of Finland.
(Makor Rishon, no.367, 27.8.04 p.10).

The task of  'Ephraim" (the Lost Ten Tribes in general) according to
Isaiah (11:12-14) should be to assist Judah to expell the Palestinians
but here we see that (due to our sins and those of others?) there is a
tendency for the opposite to happen. They are working towards the expulsion of the Jews from Judah.
What can you do?
You can become a better person through learning the Bible and doing what you can.
Even little steps at the beginning can be very important. You are
potentially more important than you realize.
You can also help Brit-Am. In many cases we have had a proven positive influence.
This may not sound like an all-encompassing solution but it is a step in
the right direction.
Our message is for the good of all Israel.
We can reach out to others with the Brit-Am message quite effectively and
at a relatively low price if you enable us to do so.

"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)