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The Fifth Kingdom is an ambitious novel. It is a gripping account of a man and his time. The man was not an ordinary individual, but none other than Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), the iconic Renaissance man of Jewry, diplomat, courtier, scholar, author, visionary, and not least, zealous protector of his fellow Jews. And the time was not an ordinary time, but the turbulent era that witnessed the tumultuous transition of the Iberian Peninsula from its Reconquista to the Christianization of its vast colonial empires. Against the backdrop of Castile, Aragon, Portugal and the Italian peninsula and with remarkable historical fidelity, Jane Frances Amler has provided a sensitive evocation of Abravanel and his family. Of particular note are her reconstructions of the inner lives of her characters, their thoughts and feelings, their fears and dreams, their triumphs and their failures, their passions and their hopes. The work of a skillful writer and perceptive thinker, this novel will reward the reader with historical knowledge and human understanding. Dr. Martin A. Cohen, professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, NYC
As a young boy in seventeenth-century Portugal, Juan Pereira lived a Christian life with his mother and father, but he often wondered why he was not a choir boy like most of his friends. One fateful night, he discovers the truth: he is of Jewish descent, and his real name is not Juan but Benjamin. That same night, the secret hiding place of the Jews is discovered by the Inquisition, and Benjamin loses his mother and father to martyrdom. Forced to flee Portugal, Benjamin finds solace in the guidance of Senor Rodriguez, his parents' trusted friend. They search for a safe place for Jews to live, far from the raging fires of persecution. It is in the midst of this search that Benjamin encounters Rachel da Sousa, and they fall in love. Forced to leave Europe to freely live as Jews, the couple takes to the high seas and heads for the New World. The high seas are dangerous, and the new world isn't much safer. With the help of Samuel, an African slave in search of his lost brother, and Adario, a Huron Native American, Benjamin and Rachel find hope in a free future, but nothing goes as planned. Soon separated, the lovers must find a way to reunite and finally discover a place to call home.
The untold story of the founding father’s likely Jewish birth and upbringing—and its revolutionary consequences for understanding him and the nation he fought to create In The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding father to arrive at a startling conclusion: Hamilton, in all likelihood, was born and raised Jewish. For more than two centuries, his youth in the Caribbean has remained shrouded in mystery. Hamilton himself wanted it that way, and most biographers have simply assumed he had a Christian boyhood. With a detective’s persistence and a historian’s rigor, Porwancher upends that assumption and revolution...
New York Jews, so visible and integral to the culture, economy and politics of America's greatest city, has eluded the grasp of historians for decades. Surprisingly, no comprehensive history of New York Jews has ever been written. City of Promises: The History of the Jews in New York, a three volume set of original research, pioneers a path-breaking interpretation of a Jewish urban community at once the largest in Jewish history and most important in the modern world.
Haven of Liberty chronicles the arrival of the first Jews to New York in 1654 and highlights the role of republicanism in shaping their identity and institutions. Rock follows the Jews of NewYork through the Dutch and British colonial eras, the American Revolution and early republic, and the antebellum years, ending with a path-breaking account of their outlook and behavior during the Civil War. Overcoming significant barriers, these courageous men and women laid the foundations for one of the world’s foremost Jewish cities.
A Travel Guide to the Jewish Caribbean and South America is a tremendous work encompassing history, culture, and modern travel to some of the most important sites in these places. This is a practical, anecdotal, and adventurous journey including kosher restaurants, cafes, synagogues, and museums, plus cultural and heritage sites. Though many understand American Jewish history as beginning with the East European mass immigration of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jews in the Americas planted roots as early as 1654, when twenty-three Jews fleeing the Inquisition arrived in New Amsterdam. While the European roots of American Jews are often explored, less discussed are the still-vibrant Jewish communities throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Explored here are the oldest surviving synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, Mikve Israel in Curaçao; the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean, in Puerto Rico; the three synagogues in Havana, Cuba; the Israeli cafe in Cuzco, Peru, near the historic Inca site, Machu Picchu; and other Jewish sites from Buenos Aires to Mexico City. Also included are general travel information and tips.
his books). Separating fact from fiction, Davidson sheds new light on crucial junctures in Columbus's life: the original contract given him to seek islands in the west, the claimed influence of Marco Polo on Columbus, the supposed sinking of the Santa Maria, and the role played by Jews in connection with the first voyage. At once a retelling of Columbus's life and a critique of other versions, Columbus Then and Now will be of value to Columbists, Latin American scholars,
Thoroughly revised and updated in this second edition, this clear and thoughtful text offers a geographical analysis of the history of U.S. immigration patterns and the development of selected ethnic minority groups. The book focuses especially on their origin, diffusion, socioeconomic characteristics, and settlement patterns within the United States. The book sets the context with opening chapters that discuss migration theory and the history of U.S. migration from 1607 to the present, including major U.S. immigration legislation, and provide a background for the time of entry, volume, and spatial distribution of various groups. Case-study chapters then analyze each of those groups, including Native Americans and those of African, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, Jewish, Japanese, Chinese, and Indochinese origin. The final section of the book explores rural and urban ethnic enclaves, focusing especially on immigrant groups of European heritage and their impacts on the cultural landscape of the United States.
Stone begins with the founding of the nation and continues to the American Revolution and the Civil War to modern time to show that America's prophetic destiny is found in parallel end-times stories, Hebrew patterns, and prophetic dates.