November 15, 2002
Contents:
1. Quote on the Jews from Mark Twain
2. Quotes from Sir Winston Churchill
3. Aristocratic Descendants of David:
Question regarding Makir Thierry
David
1. Quote on the Jews from Mark Twain
Mark Twain
..."If statistics are right, the Jews
constitute but one percent of the
human race. It suggests a nebulous
dim puff of stardust lost in the
blaze of the Milky way. properly, the
Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he
is heard of, has always been heard
of. He is as prominent on the planet as
any other people, and his commercial
importance is extravagantly out of
proportion to the smallness of his
bulk. His contributions to the
world's list of great names in literature,
science, art, music, finance,
medicine, and abstruse learning are
also away out of proportion to the weakness
of his numbers. He has made a marvelous
fight in this world, in all the
ages; and had done it with his hands
tied behind him. He could be vain of
himself, and be excused for it. The
Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the
Roman followed, and made a vast noise,
and they are gone. Other peoples have
sprung up and held their torch high
for a time, but it burned out, and
they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.
The Jew saw them all, beat them
all, and is now what he always was,
exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities
of age, no weakening of his parts,
no slowing of his energies, no dulling
of his alert and aggressive mind. All
things are mortal but the Jew; all
other forces pass, but he remains.
What is the secret of his immortality?"
Mark Twain
2. Quotes from Sir Winston Churchill:
"Still, if you will not fight for the
right when you can easily win
without bloodshed, if you will not
fight when your victory will be sure and not
so costly, you may come to the moment
when you will have to fight with all
the odds against you and only a precarious
chance for survival. There may
be a worse case. You may have to fight
when there is no chance of victory,
because it is better to perish than
to live as slaves."
"Man will occasionally stumble over
the truth, but most times he will
pick himself up and carry on."
"History will be kind to me for I intend
to write it."
3. Question on "Bnei Menasseh of Burma
Question
At 20:58 14/11/2002 -0500, Zvi
wrote:
><PRE> DEAR Yair,
in light of recent events regarding the BNAI Menashe,
>what is the position of BRIT-AM,
regarding their status as one of the lost
>tribes of ISRAEL.
Shalom, ZVI
>
Answer:
BNAI Menashe are a Burmese type people
who live in the border regions
between India and Burma. Some of them
claim to be descended from "Manasseh".
Our impression is that this is a recent
claim and not proven or even backed
up with any real evidence that could
support their case.
We would be prepared to consider any
evidence whatsoever that could be
put forward on their behalf.
We have not seen any. We have seen
statements based on undocumented
"facts" that if true would justify
further examination.
Even so, they and their supporters
do help bring attention to the Lost
Ten Tribes question in general and
this is positive.
We have nothing against them as people
and decided a long time ago not
to get involved in their case
one way or another.
The organization "Amishav" of Rabbi
Eliyahu Avichail has taken an
interest in them and helps sponsor
them. Several hundred have converted to
Judaism and settled in Israel. Those
who come to Israel have been specially
chosen in advance. They are mostly
young and the males are often skilled. Some
of the girls have married Americans
and the marriages seem to have been
successful.
On the whole they keep to themselves.
There appear to have been a few
minor problems of alcoholism,
and assimilation difficulties but,
as far as we know, no serious
complaints have been made against them.
A few learn in Rabbinical Colleges
(Yeshivot) and some are studious.
Brit-Am emphasizes evidence from Biblical
and Rabbinical sources
supplemented by historical and related
studies together with a frequent
instinctive recognition by the people concerned of kinship.
The problem, from the Jewish point
of view, is that the people we
identify are usually members of other
religions with no desire to convert
to Judaism. On the contrary, in
some cases, they wish to convert Jews
to their own creeds.
Nevertheless, the Brit-Am identifications
are true ones and therefore
the ensuing conflicts of faith
must be either dealt with or left for
time and/or the Messianic Era to
solve.
The very act of making the identifications
and confirming them both to
"Judah" and to "Joseph" is what can
be done at the moment
and what we understand to be a need
of the process of Redemption that
must be met.
This is an obligation that we are fulfilling
or at least trying to.
3. Aristocratic Descendants of David: Question regarding Makir Thierry David
Dear Mr Davidy,
I have been reading your writings for
a few months now, and I am
impressed by your work. I have known
about the Israelite identity of the British
and kindred peoples from my childhood,
since my great grandparents were
very involved in British Israel prophecy,
and British Israel teaching was a
part of my early spiritual life. That
was on my father's side of our family.
My mother's side of our family, however,
had never known this truth,
even though they were ever devout Christian
people.
My father's family are English, Welsh,
and Jewish form Normandy. My
mother's family are English and Scottish,
Cree/Blackfoot, French
Canadian, and Bessarabian German. My
mother's Quebecois forebears came to Canada
in the early seventeenth century, and
our English and Scottish ancestors
came to Canada with the Hudson's Bay
Company in the eighteenth century and
married women from the Cree and Blackfoot
nations. My grandfather's
family came from Bessarabia, and were
Saxon Germans from Mecklenburg and
Saxony.
My mother's ancestors were some of
the first explorers and pioneers to
come to Canada, and their names are
dotted all across the map of our
Dominion.
These people all formed a sort of clique
here in Canada, especially in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and into
this family many old French
Canadian families married.
Thus my grandmother's grandmother was
a woman of French Canadian and
Scottish/Blackfoot ancestry named Jane
Lambert, whose father was
Jacques Lambert from Quebec. These
Lamberts are all descended from a man named
Jacques David dit Pontiffe. (The "dit"
in old French Canada indicated
the use of a familiar patronymic to
distinguish one family of the same name
from another, and in French "pontiffe"
or "pontif" means priest or
bishop.) His father was Blaise-Didier
David, who had been born at Rouen,
Normandy.
The Davids were all royal notaries
for the French government in Quebec
and back in France. The David desend
uninterrupted back to Julien de St
Etienne David of Rouen who was baptised
after the edict of Duke Philip Augustus
of Normandy expelled all the Jews from
Normandy unless they had been
baptised.
From what I understand, the David
family of Rouen, who were the royal
notaries for the province of Normandy,
were originally a Jewish family
descended from Makir Thierry (Theodoric)
David, the son of Hannini
David
who was born at Pembaditha in Babylon
and was the Exilarch of the
Babylonian Jews. According to this
story, Thierry David, who was called
Makir, and is known variously as Theodoric
or Dietrich David, came to
Narbonne in southern France during
the reign of Charlemagne, and that
many of his descendants settled in
Normandy, all bearing the surname David.
Now, my question to you is this, Do
you think that there is any truth
to this? and, if there is any truth
to this, 1) What is the evidence that
this family is descended from Thierry
David? and 2) would descent from
Thierry David mean that there is a
literal descent from King David through
Jehoiachin?
I taught history for many years, and
I always want firm evidence, and I
have not been able to find any firm
evidence in regard to this matter,
and I was wondering if you could help
me in this, or let me know what you
think about this.
Finally, as an aside not completely
unrelated, my father's family on
his mother's side are Howards from
Lancashire who are descended from the
Norfolk Howards. Evidently, the Howards
also descend from Thierry David
through the royal houses of Navarre
and Aquitaine. This I learned not
too long ago as I was attempting to
research the David claim to descent
from the Thierry David called the Makir.
If you could be of any help to me in
this matter, I would be sincerely
grateful. With thanks for your time,
and with prayers for God's blessing upon
you, I am
Yours very truly,
Robert D. Redmile.
Answer:
Shalom.
(a) In General:
Good to hear from you. I assume you
have already made contact with
Athol Bloomer
<atholb13@hotmail.com> who has done
much work on the family trees of Makir
and related genealogical research.
Arthur J. ZUCKERMAN, ("A Jewish
Princedom in Feudal France, 768 900".
New York 1972) was the first researcher
to seriously show the connections of King David,
Makir, and some western aristocracies.
I believe in Zuckerman's research.
There was a Jewish descendant of
King David who settled in southern
France and whose family played an important role in
history and intermarried
with the nobility of western Europe.
I was once commissioned by a sponsor
to independently research this subject.
I did not manage to go into the subject
very deeply nor obtain really clear cut answers
but from the little I saw the eventual
offshoots of the family of Makir
(direct descendant of David) were far
wider than even Zuckerman had
indicated.
The work of Zuckerman also dealt with
the Goths in southern France and indirectly helped
confirm our conclusion
that the Goths and related peoples were part of the Lost Ten Tribes of
Israel.
(b) Specific:
You asked:
<<Now, my question to you is
this, Do you think that there is any truth
to this? and, if there is any truth
to this, 1) What is the evidence that
this family is descended from Thierry
David? and 2) would descent from
Thierry David mean that there is a
literal descent from King David through Jehoiachin?>>
Answer: You asked what was the truth
concerning:
(1) "Thierry David, who was called
Makir, and is known variously as
Theodoric or Dietrich David, came to
Narbonne in southern France during
the reign of Charlemagne, and that
many of his descendants settled in
Normandy, all bearing the surname David."
"1) What is the evidence that this
family is descended from Thierry David?"
It is a long time since I read Zuckerman's
book and then did my own
research on the matter and my notes
are not with me. Any connection
with the ruling families of Provence
or Flanders raises the possibility of
descent from Makir. Such connections
did exist in Normandy. It also
depends on whether either the male
or female lines concern you or just the male
ones.
You also asked:
(2) Would descent from Thierry David
mean that there is a literal
descent from King David through Jehoiachin?
(2) Would descent from Thierry David
mean that there is a literal
descent from King David through Jehoiachin?
Answer: If by Thierry David you mean
Makir, Yes. Zuckerman's sources are reliable.