"Brit-Am Now"-52

                 Date:  Wed Jul 10, 2002  4:20 am

                 Contents:
                 1. Thank you
                 2. look forward to your web mailings
                 3. Vikings in America
                 4. The German Perspective
                 5. France
                 6. Bible
                 7. Assistance

                 1. Thank you
                 From: Ryno Opperman
                 Greetings Yair
                 Thank you for all your hard work in searching and finding the lost sheep of
                 Yisrael, how rightly such are called the good shepherds of Yisrael

                 2. look forward to your web mailings
                 From: Rusty
                 Subject: G-d Bless Yair

                 Man you have done a lot of work. I look forward to your web mailings
                 everyday. They are the most interesting articles I have ever read. The
                 articles have it all from religious , historical, current events, and
                 scientifical. The article about genes and names was fasinating. G-d has
                 definitly given you a great mind for information and research. Maybe you
                 don't hear this enough but G-d bless you for all your efforts. I have been
                 reading a great book and maybe some of your new comers to Brit-Am may like
                 this book for learning about Israelism. It is Biblical Literacy by Rabbi
                 Joseph Telushkin. Its great for people starting to get into the nut's and
                 bolts of Israels great religion. Rabbi Telushkin has many quotes from great
                 Rabbi's and insightful reflections about people and events in the Bible. It
                 has made me look at the Bible with far more insight then ever before. Fast
                 note. G-d bless Yair, G-d bless
 

                 3. Vikings in America
                 Extracts:
                 Geraldine Barnes, <i>Viking America: The First
                 Millenium</i>. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 2001.
                 Pp. xx, 187. $70.00. ISBN 0 85991 608 1.
                 Reviewed by Jens Ulff-Moller
                 University of Copenhagen
                 ulff@h... or ulf@h...

                 The legendary Viking expeditions to the mythical Vinland
                 around the year 1000 are, without doubt, the most exciting
                 of all the Icelandic saga literature, magnificent tales of
                 'derring-do', recounting a series of violent conflicts
                 between Norsemen and the native peoples of Northern America.
                 Historians have debated the sagas at length and with
                 passion--and, indeed, continue to do so. One burning issue
                 has been the precise intention and nature of the saga texts.
                 Do they present a historical reality or are they instead
                 mere fiction, of little or no intrinsic worth? The
                 discovery, in 1960, by Helge and Anne Ingstad, of a
                 settlement of Norse houses at L'Anse-aux-Meadows at the
                 northernmost tip of Newfoundland, confirmed a Viking
                 presence--but this location was, however, not Vinland, which
                 has never been found.

                 Geraldine Barnes, Associate Professor at the University of
                 Sydney, is a specialist of Middle English and Middle French
                 whose particular areas of interest focus on the literary
                 intentions of those who composed the Vinland sagas, and the
                 post-Medieval reception of these sagas over the past two
                 hundred years.

                 Barnes debates briefly whether the
                 Vinland expeditions qualified as a 'discovery'. As long ago
                 as 1929, Dewey in <i>Experience and Nature</i> disqualified
                 the Norse expeditions as 'discoveries' on the grounds that
                 they lacked global cultural consequences. Considered in
                 such stringent terms, only the expedition of Columbus to
                 America in 1492 would constitute a discovery, yet the
                 discovery of America has continued to be a controversial
                 issue, particularly at the centennial anniversaries of this
                 event in 1892 and 1992. In contrast to this opinion, the
                 archaeological evidence, ignored by Barnes, reveals the
                 importance of Norse influence on Eskimos in the extreme
                 Arctic who entered a proto-Iron Age, stimulated by the trade
                 in iron with the Norse. As Robert McGhee has stated, "The
                 relationship between the Norse and aboriginal North
                 Americans was clearly more enduring, complex and significant
                 than hinted by the few, brief mentions of hostile Scraelings
                 in the sagas and annals of Norse exploration" (<i>Scientific
                 American Discovering Archaeology</i>, Sept.- Oct. 2000).
                 Urs Bitterli, moreover, in <i>Cultures in Conflict</i>,
                 considers that "the history of relations between Europe and
                 Canada begins with the Viking voyages around AD1000."

                 After this, Barnes examines the more eccentric fringes of
                 Vinland literature. In <i>The Discovery of the Ancient City
                 of Norumbega</i> (1889), the archaeologically-aware Eben
                 Norton Horsford claimed to have found Vinland in Norumbega
                 county west of Boston, and erected a memorial tower in a
                 park off South Street, south of Brandeis University. In
                 contrast, the interests of J. P. MacLean, and Marie Shipley
                 were driven by an ethnic and religious bias, an aversion to
                 Viking culture and preference for things Roman, also
                 determining how they demonstrated their distaste for native
                 peoples. Likewise, Henry Wheaton's <i>History of the
                 Northmen</i> (1831) and John S. C. Abbot's <i>The History of
                 Maine</i> (1882) also condemn the behavior of the Norsemen
                 as worse than that of savages. On the other hand, Charles
                 Kingsley, <i>Works</i> (1885), favored the Vikings despite
                 their brutality, while Charles Morris in <i>The Aryan
                 Race</i> (1892) attributed their brutality to the innate
                 nature of the master race.
                 The exploration of Vinland in British literature began in
                 1819 with the publication of <i>Greenland</i> by the
                 Scottish poet, James Montgomery. This work inspired by
                 David Crantz's <i>The history of Greenland</i> (London,
                 1767), contains one episode which featured the Vinland
                 voyages. The publication of R. M. Ballantyne's <i>The
                 Norsemen in the West</i> (1872) coincided with the rise of
                 competition from the European powers, combined with the
                 first stirrings of British anxiety over colonialism.
                 Ballantyne, in fact, saw England as the legitimate heir to
                 the Viking virtues, in contrast to those he referred to as
                 "grotesque, ursine, and infantile Eskimos".

                 For the
                 centennial celebrations, Sydney Lanier wrote <i>The Psalm of
                 the West</i> (1892), followed later by Ottilie
                 Liljencrantz's <i>The Thrall of Leif the Lucky</i> (1904).
                 Barnes might have included the cartoon, <i>Hagar the
                 Horrible</i>, details of the Kensington Stone, the supposed
                 Viking settlement in the Midwest, a discussion of the
                 Vinland Map and much recent historical scholarship on
                 Vinland that raises the issue of Vinland in myth and
                 reality.
                 It may be of interest to add that, while the book was in
                 press, the following titles have been published on the
                 Vinland question.
                 Erik Ingvar Thurin, <i>The American Discovery of the Norse:
                 an Episode in Nineteenth-Century American Literature</i>
                 (1999).
                 Andrew Wawn, <i>The Vikings and the Victorians:
                 Inventing the Old Norse in Nineteenth-Century Britain </i> (2000).

                 4. The German Perspective
                 According to Brit-Am findings people of Israelite descent at one stage were
                 once numerous in Germany but left in several waves
                 beginning at early times and culminating in the early 19th century.
                 After that time people of Israelite descent remained only a relatively
                 small percent of the German population but some did remain.
                 At the end of World War II Germany needed to survive as part of the western
                 world. Germany needed to adopt a veneer of Western values
                 and to mitigate the bad impression left by the Nazi legacy. For this
                 purpose Germany had need of leaders of appropriate outlook.
                 The leaders at both the political and cultural levels had to both represent
                 Germany as a western nation and to believe in what they were representing.
                 The leaders who were chosen may well have therefore been genuine and may
                 have represented a small remnant of Israelite origin.
                 Adenauer for instance in his youth had led a movement advocating that the
                 Ruhr region leave Germany and attach itself to France.
                 The leaders in question were not necessarily reflective of German sentiment.
                 Churchill once said: "The German is either at your feet or at your throat".
                 At present the German establishment on the one hand is usually pro-Western
                 and pro-Israel. Germany has assisted Israel at several levels.
                 On the other hand the Germans are more anti-Jewish than any other western
                 people. Levels of anti-semitic sentiment are not so far behind what they
                 were in the past. German firms provide Iraq and Iran with the ability to
                 produce biological weapons and these nations have declared that they wish
                 to use these weapons against Israel.
                 The European Union, of which Germany is a dominant partner, funds the PLO
                 and provides money for terrorist attacks against Jewish people whose
                 primary "sin" is being Jewish.
                 There are elements within The European Union that would wish to take
                 control of the Land of Israel under the guise of enforcing an international
                 settlement.
                 The European Union pays the salaries of a few corrupt but prominent Israeli
                 politicians and activists who endeavor to weaken belief in God and the
                 Bible and to turn the country over to the hands of Arab Nazis.
                 Behind the scenes it appears that Germany is the pusher for the European
                 Union to take a more independent anti-American stance on the international
                 scene.
                 Germany in this has the backing of the smaller nations like Spain and even
                 Italy. Germany is able to express itself through the European Union.
                 At present Germany has problems of its own: Its population is diminishing
                 and its people appear tired and not inclined to do anything that could
                 threaten
                 their every-day comforts but you never know.

                 5. France
                 France is another story. Not only does France have a large Moslem element
                 but also the demographic constitution of the "native" French has been
                 changing drastically for some time and more work needs to be done on this.

                 6. Bible
                 We have been working through the Bible. We have now reached the Book of
                 Ezekiel and shortly will begin sending out a Brit-Am commentary on this work.
                 We have been giving an overall commentary while highlighting aspects
                 connected with the Lost Ten Tribes and their present-day identity.
                 We will continue along the same path but may also begin sending out
                 frequent Bible studies on Brit-Am themes.

                 7. Assistance
                 Please assist us to function and expand through your own efforts (telling
                 others about us, etc) and also through contributions.


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