The Blue Moon and the Month of flowers: Don Bosco and 2026

"These things shall inexorably come to pass, all in succession.

"Things follow too slowly upon each other, but the great Queen of Heaven is at hand; the Lord's power is Hers. Like mist She shall scatter Her enemies. She shall vest the Venerable Old Man [Pope] with all his former garments.

"There shall yet come a violent hurricane. Iniquity is at an end, sin shall cease, and before two full moons shall have shone in the month of flowers, the rainbow of peace shall appear on the earth.

"The great Minister shall see the Bride of his King clothed in glory.

"Throughout the world a sun so bright shall shine as was never seen since the flames of the Cenacle until today, nor shall it be seen again until the end of time."Prophecy of St John Bosco in 1870.

This prophecy speaks of a future two moons in one month which is what is known as a blue moon. This year (2018) we had two blue moons in January and March with no new moon in February. The next time we have this will be in 2037. Some people have speculated that the month of flowers is in March others think that the month of flowers refers to May. I personally think May is the likely candidate for the month of flowers.

The next blue moon that occurs in May is in 2026. It would seem that this month of a blue moons is preceded by a rainbow of peace. Thus it seems to be alluding to the fact that the great hurricane or tribulation and chastisement will be completed before May 2026. The prophecy in the first part speaks of the problems of France and then the rise of the man who will become the Great Monarch and of the Venerable Old Man of Rome (Lazio) who will anoint him as the New Holy Roman Emperor. 

If the seven years of tribulation ends before May 2026 then the first year of the tribulation may be in 2019. Thus if the tribulation year starts with the Jewish festival of Rosh ha Shanah (Jewish New Year) then it may start on the 9th of September 2018. If it begins on the religious new year of Nisan 1 then it will begin on April 6 2019.

Don Bosco states that the war will begin in the south and peace will come from the north. He then moves on to discuss the fate of France and Paris and then Rome. It is after these things that the warrior Prince will arise and become allied with the Pope. The prophecy also alludes to the imprisonment of the Pope. This prophecy also alludes to the Rabbis (Chair of Moses) leading their Jewish flock into better spiritual pastures due to the tribulations occurring with the Catholic bishops (shepherds) and flocks.

"War will come from the south, peace from the north.

"The laws of France no longer recognize the Creator. The Creator will reveal Himself by visiting her three times with the scourge of His wrath. The first time He will destroy her pride by defeat, pillage, and destruction of crops, cattle, and men. On His second visit the great whore of Babylon, which the faithful grievingly call Europe's brothel, shall lose her leader and fall prey to chaos.

"Paris! Paris! Instead of fortifying yourself with the Lord's name, you surround yourself with houses of ill repute. You yourself shall destroy them; your idol, the Pantheon, will be razed to the ground, so that it may truthfully be said that 'iniquity has lied to itself.' [Ps. 26,12] Your enemies will plunge you into anguish, famine, terror, and the contempt for My law, says the Lord.

"On My third visit, you shall fall under the foreign yoke. From afar your enemies will see your palaces in flames, your home in ruins, soaked in the blood of your heroes who are no more.

"But behold, a great warrior from the north appears, a banner in his right hand, his arm bearing this inscription: 'Irresistible is the hand of the Lord.' At that moment the Venerable Old Man of Rome went forward to meet him, wielding a flaming torch. The banner then grew larger and its blackness became white as snow; in its center stood out the name of the Almighty in golden letters.

"The warrior and his followers bowed profoundly to the Venerable Old Man and joined hands with him.

"Now the voice of Heaven is addressed to the Shepherd of Shepherds.  You are in solemn conference with your co-workers but the enemy of good never stands idle. He cunningly plots and sets all his wiles against you. He will sow discord among your helpers and will rear enemies among My sons. The powers of the world shall vomit fire. They would love to smother My words in the throats of the guardians of My law, but they shall not succeed. They shall do much harm, but only to themselves. Hurry! If knots cannot be untied, sever them. Do not halt in the face of difficulties, but go forth until the hydra of error has been beheaded. At this blow earth and hell shall tremble, but he world will be saved and the faithful shall exult. Gather around you only two co-workers, yet wherever you go, carry on the task entrusted to you and bring it to completion. Days go by swiftly and your years are reaching their appointed number, but the great Queen shall always assist you, and, as in the past, She shall always be magnum et singulare in Ecclesia praesidium [the powerful, prodigious defense of the Church].

"But you, O Italy, land of blessings, who has plunged you into desolation? Not your enemies, but your own friends. Do you not hear your children begging for the bread of faith, unable to find one to break it for them? What shall I do? I shall strike the shepherds and scatter the sheep so that those who sit upon the chair of Moses may seek better pastures and their flock may gently listen and be fed. 

"But My hand shall be heavy upon both flock and shepherds. Famine, plague, and war shall cause mothers to mourn the blood of their sons and husbands shed on foreign soil. 

"What shall befall you, ungrateful, effeminate, proud Rome? You have reached a point when you seek and admire nought in your sovereign but luxury, forgetting that both your glory and his lies on Golgotha. Now he is old, frail, defenseless, and dispossessed. Nevertheless, though captive, his words cause the whole world to tremble.

"O Rome! Four times shall I come to you! The first time I shall smite your regions and its people. The second time I shall bring slaughter and destruction to your very gates. Should not that make you open your eyes? A third time shall I come, and I will demolish your defenses and defenders. At My Father's command, terror, dismay, and desolation will reign.

"My wise followers flee, but My law is still trod underfoot. Therefore, I shall come a fourth time. Woe to you if My law again shall go unheeded. There shall be defections among both learned and ignorant. Your blood and that of your children shall wipe out your transgressions. 

"War, plague, and famine are the scourges to smite human pride and malice. Where are your magnificent villas and palaces, you people of wealth? They have become the litter of squares and streets!

"And you priests, why are you not prostrate between the vestibule and the altar, weeping and praying that the scourge may cease? Why do you not take up the shield of faith and preach My Word from the rooftops, in the houses, streets, and squares, and even in inaccessible places? Do you not know that this is the terrible two-edged sword which smites My enemies and placates the wrath of God and man?"

Does this prophecy allude to the three wars that will hit France and Italy? The first one referring to World War One and the second to World War Two and the third to World War Three in which France is invaded by the Muslims. It would seem the visitations of Rome also refer to the Three World Wars but Rome has a fourth visitation. The third occurs in the first part of the tribulation period and the fourth in the second period of the tribulation.

It is only after the destruction of Paris by fire in the third visitation  that the Great Monarch will take leadership. It is interesting that Don Bosco refers to the Pope as having a flaming torch. The Jewish term for a Pope is Apifyor which is connected to the concept of one who leads with a flaming torch.

A Jewish sub-Kingdom in Medieval Scotland: DF105 y-dna

Many of us have read the fascinating book “When Scotland Was Jewish” which reveals some of the hidden Jewish history of Scotland over the last 800 years. In past blogs I have also written much about this hidden Jewish History of Scotland over the last two thousand years or more. I have discussed the role of the real life dark haired Jewish beauty Rebecca or Rae who Sir Walter Scott’s Jewish Rebecca draws on while set in an early period of Scottish and English history. 

This real life Rebecca was the illegitimate Jewish half-sister of Lady Margaret of Flanders. Margaret of Flanders was the wife of the heir to the Scottish throne Prince Alexander MacAlexander and her half-sister Rebecca was his mistress and the mother of his illegitimate children. After the young death of Prince Alexander, Rebecca (or Rae) married firstly Uilleam Earl of Sutherland and then secondly Angus I Mor ( b.1235 d.1296) the 3rd Lord of the Isles (r.1256-1296) as his second wife. Her son by Prince Alexander was Isaac MacRae (also known as MacRath) whose Gaelic name was Iain Alisdair and the English version was John Alexander. He was also known as MacRath Amuligane. Rebecca’s daughter Mariota married Angus I's son Alexander by his first wife Juliana. Rebecca’s other daughter Isobel or Yochabel Alexander married firstly Edward the Bruce High King of Ireland and then Sir John the 3rd Laird of Lamont.


Rebecca was also known as Reine or Reyna which means Queen. Her mother Yochabed or Yochabel was the Flemish Jewish Reyna or Queen who was the Jewish mistress of Count Gui de Dampierre of Flanders. Some of the anti-Jewish Christians referred to these Jewish Queens as Jezebels and Isabella was a popular name of females of this dynasty. Rebecca or Rae was the first Scottish Reine or Reyna and her daughter Isabella (Yochabel) was the second. Thus these Dark Jewish Queens were sometimes married to the Dark Kings but were a separate institution within the Jewish community of Scotland. The third Dark Reine or Rae was Mary Isabella Lamont the granddaughter of Rebecca. 

There was also another lineage known as the Fair or White Jewish Queens Malcah Bahira who descended from the red and blonde haired fair skinned Khazar Princesses who came to Scotland in the 11th century. The word used for them was a wordplay or pun on the Hebrew word Bahir for fair and the name of the Khazar state of Bihar in Hungary (Transylvania). These blonde or Fair Queens descended from Princess Adiva a daughter of King Alfred the Great of England and Wessex. She married the Khazar King Menachem who was also known as Menumarot as the Ruler of Bihar.

The Scottish Gaelic version of Rebecca is Beathag or Bethoc. Rebecca as Beathag de Gui in translation became reversed as Giles de Burgh and it is most probable that Rebecca married as the third wife to James Stewart the 5th High Steward of Scotland (d.1309). Others have incorrectly identified his wife as Egidia a daughter of Walter de Bourgh. Rebecca was the mother of Walter Stewart the 6th High Steward of Scotland (b.1297 d.1326). It is believed that Rebecca outlived her son Walter (Vidal or Chaim). James Stewart's mother Lady Jean of the Isles was a Jewish Princess of the Isles the daughter of Prince or Lord James (Jacob) of the Isles (descended from the Khazar Scottish Jewish King Shlomo (Somerled/Sorley/ Solomon) of the Isles) and his wife also a Scottish Jewish Khazar Princess Ragnhild (Rachel) of the Isles. Thus Rebecca was the grandmother of the crypto-Jewish Catholic King Robert II Stewart of Scotland. 

Like the Rebecca recounted in the Ivanhoe story of Sir Walter Scott, the real life Rebecca left Scotland with one of her daughters for Granada sometime after the death of her husband James in 1309. Her daughter Lady Alice (Ailis) Stewart (she took the Muslim name of A'isha) married a Muslim prince Ismail who would become the Sultan of Granada. Rebecca's grandson by Ismail was Yusuf I (also known as Abu-I-Hayyay) of Granada b.1318. Like Scott's Rebecca it is possible that Rebecca left Scotland due to accusations of witchcraft as she was known like her grandson Yusuf of Granada to have prophetic and healing powers. Nasr the crypto-Jewish Muslim Sultan of Granada (d.1322) married Rebecca around 1310 and built her the Torre de la Reine. It later became known as the Torre Abu-I-Hayyay before once again having a name change in the reign of Charles V and being known by a variant of its original name - Peinador de la Reina. Her daughter Miriam (Mariam) by Nasr left Granada after the death of her father and lived in Portugal where she took the name Maria Anes and married the Commander  or Governor of Santarem - Soeiro Mendes Petite. One of her daughters called Constance married Pedro the illegitimate son of King Peter III (Pedro) the Great of Aragon and his Jewish mistress Inez. Another daughter Maria married Estavao Perez Coelho a troubadour. The Catholic Princess Isabella of Portugal the wife of Charles V was descended on her direct maternal line from Maria and thus from Rebecca (Rae or Reine) the Dark Jewish Queen of Scots.

In a past post I speculated that the name of Amuligane or Molegan came from the Hebrew haMelekh haKatan which means “the Little King”, however it could also be haMelekh haKohen which means the Priest King or from HaMelekh Khaghan. Another possibility is HaMelekh haKeheh which means the Dark King. Hakeheh means the dark one. This title of the Dark King may have referred to the dark hair and skin of Isaac that he had inherited from his mother. This is the reason that this family were associated with the name Dubh (dark or black in Gaelic) or Duncan (a dark or brown warrior) and Maurice (meaning dark skinned or swarthy in Latin). Some of the anti-Semites of the time used this name in alluding to the Jewish king as the offspring of the dark one or Satan. 

The title Amuligane developed into the surnames Milliken and Mulligan and other variants. The emblem of this Royal Family was the Red Rampant Lion of the House of David representing the Royal Lion of Judah. This was used to demonstrate their descent from Alexander II and Alexander III Kings of Scotland who first used this emblem in its present form as the Royal Scottish Standard and thus claiming Royal Davidic descent from both David I of Scots and King David of Israel. King David I of Scotland would seem to have been the first Scottish King to use the emblem of the Rampant Lion. He was perceived by many Jews as a Messianic Davidic figure and through St Margaret he was of Royal Khazar Jewish ancestry. The Milliken coat of arms has three rampant lions which are red but originally the three were different colours of red, blue and black (sable). The Red Rampant Lion represented the Royal House of the Khazar Jews and the Scottish Kings of the House of Atholl-Dunkeld, the Blue Rampant Lion represented the Lion of Judah and the House of David and the Black Rampant Lion the Counts of Flanders and the Royal House of the Rhadanite Jews.

After the death of Prince Alexander, Rebecca fled north to her relatives in Moray and then married the Lord of the Isles. These relatives like Rebecca were descended from the Khazar Royal Kings called Khagan which had in Flanders been adapted to Kohen. Rebecca belonged to the Flemish branch of the Khazar Royal line. I have written in other blogs about the arrival of the Khazar Royal Warriors to Scotland so I will not repeat that now. Isaac was soon given lands in the area of Dumfries and Galloway and had a certain protection as the step-son of the Lord of the Isles. He later became allied with Robert the Bruce through his marriage to Robert's sister Lady Margaret Bruce.

Rebecca who was also known as haMalcah haKehah (the Dark Queen) was considered the leader or Queen of the Jews of Scotland and the Isles. Malca Kehah was the origin of the MacKay name and her son Isaac is also known as Iye Mor MacKay in the MacKay genealogies. Isaac I's son Daniel MacIsaac was also known as Donald MacKaheh or MacKay. Daniel married the MacHeth or McEth heiress. Rebecca was the true 1st Chieftain[ess] of MacKay. Rebecca’s father Count Gui de Dampierre was known as Guy de Cahan in the Scottish genealogies. Some of her descendants also took the name of MacGui (MacGhie) or MacGee. Mary MacGee married into the MacDevitt family and their son John took the MacGee (MacKee) surname and was the ancestor of the ZZ36 y-dna haplogroup. Gui's original Jewish name was Gershon. His mistress and the mother of Rebecca was a descendant of Rabbi Isaac of Dampierre (b.1120). However his name of Gui was connected to his nickname in Hebrew of Keheh (Dark one). Gui's coat of arms was a sable or dark rampant Lion which he wore on his surcoat. Rebecca’s son Angus II Og MacDonald, by her husband Angus I, became the 5th Lord of the Isles after the death of his half-brother Alexander II Og MacDonald in 1299.

Rebecca’s son Isaac was revered as being a Jew who was also the son of the last male heir of the older Scottish Dynasty of Dunkeld-Atholl. He was perceived as a Jewish sub or under King over those Jews who still practiced Judaism in quiet and private ways in Scotland, even those of Jewish origin who were members of the Catholic Church revered Isaac as a kind of mystical Davidic priest-king. He became the second Earl of Sutherland under the name of Uilleam or William on the death of his mother's relative Uilleam (Gilleoin) or William de Moravia the first Earl of Sutherland when he was a small child. The names of Isaac and William had first been connected when Isaac Kalonymus became known as Isaac Gellone and then Gellone became associated with William (Guillaume/ Guilelmus) in 8th century Septimania. Isaac's uncle Nathan Kalonymus (Gellone) was also called Guillaume de Gellone or William of Orange. The first Earl of Sutherland may have been Rebecca's first husband who she married in 1283-4 after the death of Prince Alexander. It was after Uilleam's death in 1286 that she married Angus Mor MacDonald Lord of the Isles. 
 
Isaac I MacRae (b.1282 d.1314) was succeeded in 1314 as Scots King of the Jews (or the Dark King) by his son Keheh I MacIsaac (or Kahan I) whose Gaelic name was Angus Dubh Alisdair (also known as Maurice MacRae or MacRath). In 1320 he succeeded his half-uncle Angus II as Angus III MacAlexander the 6th Lord of the Isles (r.1320-1330). Angus may have been the the Earl of Sutherland from 1314 under the name of Uilleam or William (Gillanders). He has been often confused by historians with his half-uncle of the same name of Angus. His wife was known as Agnes MacDonald Cahan and she was the daughter of Alexander II MacDonald and Lady Mariota Alexander of the Isles (the daughter of Rebecca). Keheh I (Angus) had a brother Gershon MacIsaac who was also known as Gilbert de Insula who was granted lands in Menstrie in 1330. Another brother Chanan MacIsaac was known as Kenneth de Moravia the 4th Earl of Sutherland. His nephew Chanan MacKeheh was also called Kenneth (Kenzie) the 1st Mackenzie Lord of Kintail. He was the Mackenzie ancestor of the R1b M222 DF104 ZZ55 y-dna haplogroup.

Keheh I MacIsaac was succeeded as the Scots Jewish King by his son Isaac II Pharez MacKeheh (b.1320 d.1387) who was also known as Iain Alisdair or John Alexander as well as John MacRath or MacRae. His half-cousin John MacDonald of Islay the son of Angus II Og macDonald had succeeded his father as Lord of the Isles in 1330. On his half-cousin’s death he married his widow Amy Ruiari (MacRory) and became the 8th Lord of the Isles as John II MacAlexander (MacAlisdair) in 1345. He married a second time to Princess Margaret Stewart the daughter of King Robert II Stewart. Robert II’s wife Elizabeth Mure, the mother of Princess Margaret, was a maternal granddaughter of Isaac I and his wife Lady Margaret Bruce (who may have quietly embraced Judaism on her marriage to Isaac I). It is most likely Isaac II (aka John Alexander Lord of the Isles) who was the founder and ancestor of R1b M222 DF105 y-dna.

Isaac II as John II Alexander Lord of the Isles continued his cousin's support of Robert Stewart. In 1366 when King David II tried to raise a tax for his ransom, John rebelled and held out the longest. In a Treaty in 1369 John was reconciled to King David. King Robert II however decided to divide and conquer by granting certain parts of the Kingdom of the Isles to be inherited by the step-children of John (the children of his first wife Amie by his cousin John I McDonald) and the rest to John's own children by Princess Margaret Stewart. He was succeeded as Lord of the Isles by his son Donald.

Around this time there seemed to be an increase of the rate of mutations in the y-dna with the advent of the Little Ice Age due to cataclysmic events in the southern and possibly western hemispheres around 1320 and then again in 1530 and 1605 thus deepening the effects of the Little Ice Age. Isaac II was succeeded as Scots King of the Jews by his son Keheh II Mac Isaac who was also known as Hugh Alexander (Aodh Alisdair) as well as Dubh or Duncan McRae as well as Maurice MacRath. Keheh II as his name suggests was dark haired and olive skinned and his wife Lady Margaret McKay was blonde with fair skin and was known as Mariota Fionna (Margaret the Fair). Margaret was the Fair or White Jewish Queen (Malcah Bahira / Banrigh Fionn/ Rigain Fionn). Two of their sons Angus (Keheh) and Gilbert (Gershon) had the dark looks of their father and were known as MacDubh. Two of the sons Christopher (Chaim) and John (Isaac III MacKeheh) had the fair looks of their mother and were known as MacFinlay.

Keheh II (Kahan II) was the founder and ancestor of R1b M222 FGC4133 y-dna. Hugh or Keheh II had been chosen to succeed his father as his older brothers embraced the Catholic Church. His younger brother Marcus (aka Moses) also remained a Jew and some of his descendants were also known as Amuligane as the Dark Jewish King. Marcus married the Jewess Amy McDonald who was a maternal great granddaughter of Rebecca through the Campbell and Lamont families. Keheh II's brother Donald was the 9th Lord of the Isles and the founder of R1b M222 S588 y-dna. He was succeeded by his brother Alexander III MacAlexander Lord of the Isles who married Lady Mary Lennox and his son Alexander the 1st Baron of Menstrie was the ancestor of R1b M222 A259 and A260 y-dna and his other son John MacAlexander was the ancestor of R1b M222 DF85 y-dna.

It would seem that the descendants of Gershon MacKeheh (Gilbert Grierson) and Isaac III MacKeheh claimed the Amuligane or HaMelekh HaKeheh position or title and from about 1500 it started to be used as a surname by some descendants of both brothers. It would seem that Isaac III Keheh was succeeded as Amuligane by his son Keheh III MacIsaac (Cuthbert MacRath Amuligane)[b.1410 d.1462] who was succeeded by the grandson of Gilbert Grierson called Gershon I MacVedast (Gilbert Grierson Amuligane) [b.1443 d.1472]. Gershon I was succeeded by Keheh IV MacGershon (Cuthbert Amuligane) [b.1450 d.1485] a grandson of Keheh III. He was succeeded byTam I MacGershom (Thomas Amuligane son of William Grierson) [b.1449 d.1495]. He was succeeded by Pharez I MacPharez (Fergus Amuligane) [b.1475 d.1538] of Blackmyre. Pharez's I's grandfather was John MacRath (Isaac Pharez) who was the son of  Marcus (Moses) MacRath who was the son of Isaac II MacKeheh Amuligane (aka John Alexander Lord of the Isles). Pharez I was succeeded by his son Isaac IV MacPharez (John MacRath Amuligane) [b.1496 d.1547] and he was succeeded by his brother-in-law Keheh V MacReuben (Cuthbert Grierson Amuligane son of Robert Grierson) and his son William Amuligane was probably the last of the Jewish kinglets and the name just became a surname after his time. However they may have continued as secret Jewish Kings or the Amuligane until around the early 17th century

Isaac IV's relative Abraham MacPharez (aka Alexander Frew) b.1510 a great-grandson of Isaac Pharez MacMoses (aka John Fergus MacRath) became the ancestor of the Farew or Frew family of Ayrshire (Kilwinning). Abraham's grandfather may have moved from the Blackmyre region of Nithsdale to Perth in the north and from there the Frew family branched out to Kilwinning and Kilsyth and the area Gargunnock and the Fords of Frew which was named after this family. However it may not have been Nithsdale that the Frew's moved from but further north of Perth from the Glen Tilt area that they moved to Perth while the MacRath/Amuligane branch moved to Blackmyre. Isaac IV's son Isaac MacIsaac (John Mullikine) was the belonged to Z44996 y-dna. His grandson Chanan (Kenneth Mullikine) was the ancestor of A822 Y-dna.
 

The fourth Dark Jewish Rae or Reine (Queen) was Helena Campbell (b.1348) the daughter of Lady Mary Isabella Lamont (b.1318 d.1364). The fifth Queen was Lady Amy McDonald of Islay the daughter of Helena Campbell. Amy was the wife of Marcus (Moses) MacRath whose brother was the Amuligane or Dark Jewish King. Amy's daughter Isabella MacRath married Isaac III MacKeheh.

The mysterious figures of Rae (Rebecca), the MacIsaac family and the Amuliganes reveal a rich hidden Jewish history of Scotland. When I was younger I often heard of the Scots being referred to as the Jews of the North.  Cecil Roth in his writings sought to explain this Jewish input into Scotland by suggesting that many children from English Jewish families had their children taken off them in the Medieval period and sent North to the border region of Scotland and England. However it was the input from the Khazars (MacDonald) Kings or Lords of the Isles (of R1a y-dna) and the Flemish Jews of Flanders that were the major source of hidden Jews in Scotland. It was the MacDonald Clan that was the overarching shield of these various Jewish families and then the MacKay (Ikey Mo) Clan that had its origin within this MacDonald Clan among some of the descendants of Rebecca and Isaac.

It is also important to note that these Flemish Jews that are the ancestors of Rebecca's parents are not only those of Khazar ancestry who most likely enter Flanders from the Khazar kingdoms of the Isles and Moray (Moravia) in northern Scotland but of their intermarriage with the Rhadanite Jews of Flanders and France which may have a link to the Rhodan and Synklar Jews of Calalus who also arrived in Western Europe in the 10th century. This is a further area of study and research that will reveal more of the hidden Davidic, Jewish and Jewish Catholic history of Europe and the world which was hidden or obscured firstly by Gentile Catholics and Christians as well as Rabbinic Jews and later by the modernists in academia and science.

Among certain groups there are those that argue vigorously for certain ancestry for their families or nationalities. The reality is that those today who are Scottish or Irish and their more recent descendants in other countries are not purely Norwegian, Gaelic, Norman, Pictish, English, Flemish, French or Jewish but they are descended from all these groups no matter what origin the direct y-dna or the direct mt-dna reveals. It is not just those with the y-dna R1b M222 DF105 and mt-dna J1b1a1 that descend from Rebecca and her sons and daughters but those of many different haplogroups that they intermarried with so that today probably most Scottish people and probably most Irish and English people descend from Rebecca in some manner. This does not mean all these people are Jewish but it does mean they have some ancestors that were Jewish. Some of Rebecca's descendants very quickly became Catholics but these Catholics still retained their Jewish halakhic identity for 10 generations if it was on a direct maternal lineage after leaving the Jewish community. Others maintained in family and hidden groups their Jewish identity until at least the 17th or 18th century before assimilating into the Christian population.

see

New Subclades of R1b M222+ ydna: The Scottish Sons of Isaac (DF104)

Guy de Dampierre and the mystery of Rebecca: A Scottish Tale

 

Regime of Assimilation and Guilt:A Hebrew Catholic Reflection

Nazis arresting Dutch Jews

Since researching the West branch of my mother's family tree who had remained in the Netherlands as orthodox Jews and their almost total destruction in the death camps of Poland I have gained a greater appreciation for the horror of many Jews when family members become baptised. For them being baptised is an abandonment of the Jewish people by the genocide of assimilation. Thus I have developed a kind of survivor's guilt. That my mother's branch went to England and mostly assimilated with very few maintaining any Jewish connection after a few generations is true. No doubt if the Nazi's had conquered Britain and her Empire then my assimilated branch would have also been exterminated as were the many assimilated of Jewish ancestry and Jewish Christians in the Nazi ruled lands.

This assimilation process has always been over the last 1500 years the greatest reason that Jews have resisted attempts at evangelisation which led to their people being converted into Gentiles and lost to the Jewish Community. Father Elias Friedman the founder of the Association of Hebrew Catholics called this the regime of assimilation. This I think is one of the greatest crosses that Jews in the Church bear in regards to their double identity. This has intensified in the light of the Shoah and the genocide of whole extended families. Thus Father Elias saw the necessity of a Jewish community that would be judicially approved and Jewish identity officially recorded and passed on in the Church. 

Even with the advent of Vatican II and a much more positive climate towards Jews many Hebrew Catholics or Catholic Jews have still to struggle against the desire of many to assimilate them and get them to abandon their Jewish inheritance with its customs and practices. Jewish experience has demonstrated that it is Torah and mitzvot that have preserved Jewish identity over the last 2000 years. To abandon Jewish Torah observances and mitzvot always leads to assimilation within a few generations. However 40 years ago Father Elias was reluctant to propose this and leaves this to further discussion and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is a challenge for both Jews and Gentiles in the Church in a time where assimilation doesn't just mean into a Church based society but into secular society and its values which are becoming increasingly hostile to religious values and morals whether Jewish or Christian.

Many Catholics are sad that their children and grandchildren are being assimilated into this post-Christian modern secular culture. Could this also be due to Catholic devotional practices being abandoned in the home and in the Catholic schools as well as in many parishes and dioceses?  Thus devotional practices and observances may be the necessary ingredient that preserves both Jewish and Catholic identity. Thus donning Tefillin or praying the Rosary are more than just devotional practices but a way to connect with God and to aid in the preservation of religious identity.

The best way to alleviate this guilt may be for Hebrew Catholics to work towards a non-assimilation model and a permanent established community for Jews in the Church as Father Elias proposed. Will this new appreciation for Jews in the Church who live a Jewish way of spirituality fulfill Romans 11 and bring riches to the Gentiles by a revival of Catholic devotional life and practices that will then bless the whole world? 

When I became a Catholic and joined the Association of Hebrew Catholics over 30 years ago I was one of the few voices advocating openly for the acceptance of Torah observant Hebrew Catholics.  However since then I have seen a shift in thinking and many more people supporting and open to this among Hebrew Catholics. What I found lacking in Father Elias' "Jewish Identity" I had found previously in Father Lev Gillet's "Communion in the Messiah". I had read it first and it in a sense allowed me to see that becoming a Catholic would not mean an abandonment of all that was best in Judaism and the hope of working towards an "Hasidic Jewish branch of the Catholic Church". I think that Messianic Rabbi Mark Kinzer's book on Nostra Aetate is another of these privotal books on the path to the Ingrafting.

For now we bear the inner conflict of seeming to our fellow Jews to have abandoned them while knowing that this is not really the case if we can build this Jewish space in the Church where we can live out fully our Jewish and Catholic election or vocation as an Israelite collective. The AHC began this journey 40 years ago to create an opening for that Jewish space in the Church and while there is still a long way to go much has been achieved in that time to prepare for the coming generation or generations that will lead us into the Jewish space and place in the Body of the Messiah Yeshua. 

Father Elias saw the rise of Messianic Jews as one of the signs of the times and I think the ideas of Mark Kinzer are a fruit of this sign and will play a part in this mystery of Israel. The life and example of Cardinal Lustiger of Paris was also privotal as was the interview Cardinal (then Archbishop) Burke gave to David Moss the President of the AHC in regards to Jewish observances. The recent Helsinki consultations on Jews in the Church is also an important step as is the informal dialogue between the Catholic Church and Messianic Jews that was established with the approval of Pope John Paul II in 2000. Of course the dialogue between Jews and Catholics and the magisterial documents beginning with Nostra Aetate have also been crucial and greater knowledge and acceptance of them is needed to flow into the consciousness of the wider membership of the Church.

Synklar Diamond Lords of Calalus and the Location of the Ruins of Rhoda

In a past blog about 10 years ago in 2008 I first wrote about the Roman Jewish Kingdom of Calalus in North America connected with the Tucson Arizona artifacts as written about by Professor Cyclone Covey. I also wrote about their connection with the Septimanian Jewish Kingdom and the Welsh and Spanish royalty. I also linked them to the mystery of the Tuatha de Danaan.
 
The Manannan or Danaan people of the Tribe of Zebulon were also known as the Frisians (R1b U106 L48). Around 650-700 AD they had left their Kingdom in Calalus and settled on the Isle of Man as well as another group in France in the area of La Mans (Maine) and in the area of Frisia as well as their homeland of Frisland or Lochlann Island. Some of the Frisians had embraced Judaism and Catholicism while others remained or re-embraced paganism and others held to elements of all three. However the Frisians in the north were mainly pagans. The term Manannan (Manaan/ Manaanan, Maine and other variants) refers to the Western Lands (America) and can be confusing as it is a name used for the Frisians as well as for the British or Welsh inhabitants of Calalus.
 
Old English and Old Frisian are very closely related languages descending from the Zebulonite languages of which Old German, Old Yiddish and Old Dutch are also branches. The Basque language however was the language that developed in Calalus among the Rhodans drawing on the Aquitainian, Ladino and Welsh languages with also some input from the Tolteca (Ogham) language of America as well as Latin and Hebrew. Thus the Mananaans (Manaans) spoke Anglo-Frisian and the British Calalusians a version of Cymric (Welsh) and the Rhodans Old Basque-Aquitainian. The original Zebulonite language found in Western Europe developed from a mix of the Hebrew-Aramaic of northern Israel mixed with the Atlantean language (Old Greco-Hebrew Language). Old Western Yiddish in fact may be the language of the Synklar Jews of Calalus who settled in Germany and Poland from the 10th century and mixed with the Aramaic speaking Jews of Ashkenaz. This Synklar Yiddish influenced Middle High German. The Western Yiddish language would spread east and mix with the Slavic based Jewish language to create Eastern Yiddish. These Synklar Jews who joined the Ashkenazi Jewish communities belonged to both the Manaan R1b U106 and Rhodan R1b U152 and R1b DF27 haplogroups. Sadly these Jews suffered the greatest loss of numbers during the Holocaust.
 
As the Western Zebulonites didn't receive their U106 marker until about 580 BC they had in the time of the Northern Atlantis kingdom belonged to R1b P297 y-dna as part of the Sons of Leah. The R1b P297 Israelites including the Zebulonites may have received the M269 marker as a result of the cataclysmic destruction of Atlantis in 968 BC. It was during the time of the Atlantean Empire and after that the tall blonde haired blue eyed Zebulonites known as Danaan settled in the Americas. They encountered there the red-bronze skinned Rhodanim or Toltecas (probably C haplogroup) and the white skinned red haired descendants of Manasseh (R1 M173*) from which the name Manaanan or Manaan was given as a name for America.
 
The name of Tarshishim in Jewish tradition of a group of angels was taken from the blonde haired, white skinned and blue eyed Zebulonites descended from Helon. In the south Atlantean language and Mycenean Greek they were known as the Akero (messengers) and in the north Atlantean language of the Helonites it became Agelo and in West German as Eadgil or Engel. The mysterious blonde-haired white skinned Chachapoyas of Peru are descendants of the Chauci who were one of the groups of West German Zebulonites closely related to the Frisian and Angles. The Chauci disappeared from Europe in the 3rd century moving to the Americas. In the first three centuries AD the Frisians, Angles and Chauci lived in the area of the Elbe River. They were known as the Elben or Elven people. The Saxons moved into the former areas of the Chauci. The Saxons or Sacae were originally from the Tribe of Issachar. It would seem that the Angles, Frisians and Chauci came from Calalus (Calchi) to the River Elbe in Europe after Calalus and Mexico was conquered from the Olmecs and Toltecs by the Romans in 100 BC. It would seem that these tribes allied with the Romans to build the so-called Teotihuacan civilisation after their defeat of the Olmecs (Ogres). The so-called Zapotec culture is that of the Danaan or Frisians who were known also as the Be'ena Za'a (Cloud People) before the coming of the Romans and their oppression by the Olmecs. Before moving south and establishing the Zapotec culture around 600 BC they (Angles, Frisians and Chauci) came from Calalus from Atzlan (area of Colorado and Utah- an island in an ancient Lake), Colhuacan at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and Chicomoztoc at the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico.




In 775 AD under King Nehemiah Theodoric (Theodore) of Septimania (Narbonne) Jewish Rule was reestablished in Calalus and a branch of the Manaan or Frisian Royal House returned to Calalus. Around 820 AD a grandson of Elidyr II of the Manaan was given the rulership of the area north of Arizona. This Prince or Lord was Cadrod Synklar (Siksika which means blackfoot in the Indian language) and he and his Manaan and Rhodan warriors ruled over a kingdom known as the Kingdom or Confederacy of the Blackfoot or Blackfeet. This Confederacy or Lordship acknowledged the overlordship of the Davidic Throne of the Rhodan Kingdom of Calalus. Cadrod married the daughter of King Israel I Guriad ha Makhiri (Magnarvm) of Rhoda and Calalus. Cadrod and Atala's son was called Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu in Welsh) who succeeded him as the Synklar Ruler of Northern Calalus.

 The centre of this northern kingdom or Lordship was in the area of the Blackfoot Ranges and the Blackfoot River north of Arizona. This Lordship extended eastward over the Great Plains of America. While the Ruling class of the Manaan were Jewish and Jewish Christians the vast bulk of the natives under their rule were called Pagani or Pagans by the Synklar (Siksika) which became Pikanu or Peiganu. The Synklar Rulers were also known as the Lords of the Diamond Mines around Lake Kelsey (which was the original Diamond Lake). The so-called Fremont culture represents the heart land of this northern Siksika or Synklar kingdom which is south of the Blackfoot mountain ranges.
 
This Judeo-Christian settlement in North America was ruled over by a Jewish Davidic King and a Jewish Sanhedrin of elders. The round buildings called Kivas were the Jewish-Christian chapels or synagogues that were first built as Adoration chapels during the Arthurian period of Calalus' history. Larger Kiva's were built for community Eucharistic worship after the King and the leading citizens of Rhoda embraced a Jewish-style Catholicism around 800 AD.
 
One branch of the Synklar Lords became the Sinclair Lords of Rosslin (R1b U106 Z30) in Scotland and another branch known as the Finck (Diamond) Lords (R1b U106 Z331) went into Germany. The noble Finck von Finckenstein family may be one branch of this second family. Some of them joined the Ashkenazi Jewish community. Both these branches descend from Ithick (Idigg) the Diamond Lord of Calalus [born 925] who left America with his son Iddon (Yahalom Adon) who married Lady Papia of Normandy a daughter of Richard I the Fearless Duke of Normandy and his wife Lady Gunnor of Denmark. Another branch of this family may have been the founded by Aymon (Hamon) a grandson of Ithick who became the Viscount de Dinan or Dinant of Brittany and of the aristocratic family of Dinham in Devon in England. Another branch went to Ulster and became the O'Diamain family.
 
Iddig was the son of Lord Llywarch (the Horse leader) of the Synklar who in turn was the son of Lord Llofan of the Synklar the son of Ciman the Blackfoot. Lord Idigg had a son called Meurig or Mauger the Elder who was known in German as Markwart von Eppenstein or Elfenstein. This word came from the use of the terms of Elfen or Elven stone for the diamonds or jewels which came from Calalus. It was also known as Finkel stone. The Manaan who were usually tall and blonde were associated with the term Elf or Elven. One branch of this family were the Dukes of Carinthia and another branch became the Finck von Fickenstein family while other members used the name Finck, Finkelstein and Epstein. Finckenstein Palace in Poland and the name of the River and nearby fortress of Elblag or Elbling was named for these Elven Lords. Eppenstein Castle in Austria was originally the Elfenstein Castle. Also the area of Elfenstein in the Harz mountains of Germany was a settlement of the Elven Manaan.
 
Some researchers believe that the ruins of Rhoda the capital and royal city of Calalus was those at Tumamoc Hill overlooking Tucson and there is also the ruins of a fortress further south about 16 miles on Black Mountain (Arizona). In fact I hold that the capital city includes the ruins of Tumamoc Hill and Black Mountain but that the heart of the city is in the Tucson Mountains and the huge Limestone blocks found in the Tucson Mountains from the Chaos Mountain on the north east (not far from the Silver Bell Rd where the Tucson artifacts of Calalus were found) to the Bren and Cat mountains on the east and south are the remnant of the Limestone blocks that made up the walls of this great city. Thus the low Tucson Mountains may be the ruins of the great city of Rhoda.
 
It is also possible that the mountains of Santa Catalina, Rincon and Santa Rita along with the Tucson mountains all hide the ruins of the Rhodan Capital and hide a huge city complex surrounded by the four so-called mountain ranges. However the latter Limestone Rhodan capital may only be found in the Tucson Mountains and the bigger complex having been built and destroyed in earlier times of American history. In these earlier periods a long time before 100 BC and the establishment of Roman Calalus Arizona had a different landscape with large freshwater lakes and vegetation.
 
The dating methodologies used by archeologists and anthropologists are notoriously inaccurate and the dating of the periods is in need of revision. The so-called Pueblo I period is most likely the time of the Arthurian period in Calalus history around 520-700 AD. The Pueblo II period is that of the first phase of the Septimanian Roman Jewish period from 775-860 AD and the second phase of the Septimanian Roman Jewish period Pueblo III 860-1000. The so-called Basketmaker III era was most likely the period of Roman Calalus from 100 BC- 400 AD. Pueblo IV period is the period after the exodus of the bulk of the white population to Europe and any remnants mainly intermarried with the native American Indians. However there were still small groups of white tribes that moved elsewhere in the Americas. One group are the Mandans of the Alabama and Georgia areas and those that moved to the Appalachian Mountains and later became known as the Melungeons. Others went south into South America.
 
It may be that Tolkien's Middle-Earth may allude to the peoples of Calalus. The area of the Anasazi being that of the Hobbits who were British or Welsh settlers that were mostly under 5 ft 4. The Mogollon area of the Frisians or Manaan represents the Elves who are tall and blonde. The Synklar or Fremont area represents Rohan and Hohokam and Patayan represent Arnor and Gondor. The Dwarves represent the miners of the Calalus settlements. The Orks in Tolkien represent the Toltecas or Olmecs who invaded Calalus from Mexico. The Wizards represent the Romano-Jewish Catholic Bishops and Abbots of Calalus. Gandalf represents Quetzalcoatl.
 
It would seem that the Welsh settlers were not in favour of the evangelisation of the pagan peoples as they hadn't been in Britain. They were traditional enemies with the pagan Frisian Kingdom to their south. However the newly converted Jewish Catholics were keen on evangelisation. However this came to a head in the reign of Israel III in 880 AD who gave the Toltecas (pagan American Indians) their independence and he was banished and Israel IV took the Throne. After the defeat by the Indians of the Calalus kingdoms most returned to Europe but a remnant moved to the area of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia where the Rhodan, Welsh and Frisian remnants eventually united into one allied people and in the 12th century their settlement was reinforced by the Welsh under Prince Madoc of Wales. Both the Choctaws and the Comanche tells of these tall white giants (the Frisians) who they encountered and fought with and killed them in the area of Tennessee. It would seem some of those of the white remnant from the Synklar confederacy moved west to the Great Lakes area into western Canada and where they were visited and resettled on the islands of the northern Atlantic by Henry Sinclair the Earl of the Northern Isles in the 14th century.
 
It is also interesting that it is into this area in the south west of the USA that the crypto-Jewish Spanish settlers moved into during the time of Spanish expansion from Mexico. Many of these crypto-Jewish settlers may have been partly descended from the Rhodans who had returned to Europe and settled in northern Spain around 1000 AD and joined in the fight to free Spain of Muslim rule. Among these returnees to Europe were those who entered the noble and royal classes as Catholics who maintained Jewish customs and practices in the secrecy of their homes and families and those who joined the religious Jewish community. Due to the rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism these Jewish origins were hidden by both the Catholic and Jewish communities. 

Tucson Mountains seen from Tumamoc Hill

Lot King of Lochlann (490 - ) 

son of Cadlew King of Lochlann

/

Prince Gwalchafed (Gaheris/ Gareth) of Lochlann and Lothian (515 - )
son of Lot King of Lochlann and Princess Anna of Britain daughter of Huna Mar Exilarch and British King by his wife Lady Abiane Gwenllian of Mahoza and Gewisse

/

Eadgils King of Mrygings in Sweden (534 - )
son of Prince Gwalchafed (Gaheris/ Gareth) of Lochlann and Lothian

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Llywarch Hen Calchfynydd (Llywarch the Graceful) King of Calalus (553 - )
son of Eadgils King of Mrygings in Sweden

/

Dwgywg King of Calalus (573 - )
son of Llywarch Hen Calchfynydd (Llywarch the Graceful) King of Calalus and Lady Morgana Le Fey daughter of Cadrod Calchfynydd (Gideon of Rhoda/ Elidyr/Elisedd) King of Calalus by his wife Princess Wynne of Gwynedd

/

Gwyar (Gwair) King of Calalus (593 - )
son of Dwgywg King of Calalus

/

Tegid King of Calalus (612 - )

son of Gwyar King of Calalus and Lady Morgana daughter of Arthur of Dal Riata King of Gwent and Lady Lionor

/

Alcun King of Calalus (635 - 663)
son of Tegid King of Calalus

/

Sannde (Sandef/ Eagils ?) Frisian King of the Radbads (Rhodans) and Manaan (Man) aka Last King of Arthurian Calalus and Ruler of the Frisians (655 - )
son of Alcun King of Calalus and Princess Anna the daughter of Cadwallon King of Gwynedd by his wife Princess Alcfrith of Mercia

/

Elidyr of Rhodan Mananaan (Eadgils) Frisian King of the Radbads aka Radbad I of Frisia (673 - 719)
son of Sannde (Sandef/ Eagils ?) Frisian King of the Radbads (Rhodans) and Manaan (Man) aka Last King of Arthurian Calalus and Ruler of the Frisians 

/

Enkel Frisian King of the Radbads (700 - )
son of Elidyr of Rhodan Mananaan (Eadgils) Frisian King of the Radbads aka Radbad I of Frisia and Lady Celenion daughter of  Abu Aharon (Garin) of Babylon by his wife Imma Bilhah Bat Heman (aka Mabile Ermenjart)

/

Elidyr II of the Manaan (730 - )

son of Enkel Frisian King and Lady Bilhah of Aquitaine daughter of Rabbi Ahunai of Palestine and Aquitaine (aka Hernaut de Beauland by his wife Lady Dode (Ita) of Aquitaine

/

Gwriad of the Manaan (755 - )
son of Elidyr II of the Manaan

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Cadrod Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) Ruler of Northern Calalus (795 - )
son of Gwriad of the Manaan and Lady Mynan of Calalus daughter of Prince Yspwys II of Calalus

/

Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu) Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) (830 - )
son of Cadrod Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) Ruler of Northern Calalus and Princess Atala of Rhoda and Calalus daughter of Israel I Guriat King of Calalus by his wife Princess Atala (Ethyl) of Gwynedd and Bernicia

/

Lord LLofan Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika) (860 - )
son of Ciman the Black Foot (Droed Ddu) Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika)

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Lord Llywarch Sinclair (Synklar) (890 - )
son of Lord LLofan Sinclair (Synklar or Siksika)

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Lord Iddig (Ithick) Sinclair the Diamond Lord (925 - )
son of Lord Llywarch Synklar
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Lord Iddon Sinclair the Diamond Lord [Yahalom Adon] (955 - ) brother of Meurig (Mauger/ Markwart) von Eppenstein (Elfenstein/ Finkelstein)
son of Lord Iddig (Ithick) Sinclair and Lady Kerwita daughter of  Marchudd Lord of Rhos

/

Meurig (Mauger) of Sinclair (986 - 1040)
son of Lord Iddon Sinclair the Diamond Lord and Lady Papia of Normandy daughter of Richard I of Normandy by his wife Lady Gunnora of Denmark

/

Walderne Earl of StClair (1001 - 1047)
son of Meurig (Mauger) of Sinclair and Lady Germaine of Corbeil

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William "the Seemly" Sinclair of Rosslin 1st Lord of Rosslin (1028 - 1078)
son of Walderne Earl of StClair and Lady Helena le Bon the daughter of Richard II Duke of Normandy by his wife Lady Judith of Brittany

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Henry Sinclair of Roslin 1st Baron of Roslin The Crusader (1065 - 1110)

 

 see

King Arthur and the Comet

Calalus: A Jewish Catholic State in Early Medieval America

Donning the Garments of Edom: A Hebrew Catholic Insight

The other day I was doing Eucharistic Adoration when I received an insight connected with the concept found in the Jewish mystical writings and traditions about donning or wearing the garments of Edom. There is a tradition that the skin garments donned by Adam and Eve after the fall, when they were no longer clothed in the light of the Divine Will, were from the skin of the bull unicorn which Adam and Eve sacrificed. 

These skins were taken by Noah in the Ark and eventually were donned by Nimrod which gave him great skill in hunting. They eventually came into the possession of Esau who was also known as Edom and it was these garments or skins that Jacob donned in order to deceive his father Isaac. Besides this more literal account the Zohar and other writings refer to the garments of Edom (which are also seen as the garments of Adam) with a more mystical and spiritual interpretation. Jacob Frank described his conversion and that of his followers who received baptism as those from Jacob (the Jewish people) who donned the garments of Edom (Rome).

This understanding was connected to the journey of returning to the garments of Adam. In order to return to the universal dimension of faith a Jew needed to don the garments of Edom which would then eventually be transformed into the garments of Adam. There were three different garments of Adam and Eve. The skin garments of the bull unicorn which represented reparation and sacrifice, the fig leaf garments (of the tree of knowledge) representing vulnerable nakedness and the garment of the light of the Divine Will and the return to original innocence. In order to restore all mankind back to living in the light of the Divine Will then both Jews and Gentiles must embrace baptism and the donning of the garments of spiritual Esau or Edom (the Holy Roman Catholic Church). 

The angel that Jacob wrestled with was called in this mystical tradition the Archangel of Edom or Esau. It was seen as part of the process of restoring the lost sparks of the Divine Will to its source after the breaking of the vessels.

For the last seven years I have embraced the vocation and calling of a consecrated brother or monacelli (little monk) and have donned the outward garments of a Catholic habit. One part of me has always felt conflicted as I no longer dressed like a religious Jew and my observance while still there in many respects has had to be modified and changed. 

As I sat in the Divine Presence I realised that while my vocation as both a Jew and a Catholic has led to the outward donning of the garments of Edom while in my heart I will always be Jacob and retain my Jewish identity though in a more veiled or hidden manner than other Jewish Catholics who will be called to live out their vocation in a more openly Jewish manner. I do this in order to don the garments of Adam and make reparation for all and unite (devekut) all in the life of the Divine Will. Just as the garments of Judah/Jacob have a deep interior meaning so do the garments of Edom/Adam.

At this time of salvation history there is much interior conflict and confusion for those trying to be true to their double calling as a Jew and as a Catholic but one embraces the way of sacrifice and the cross, offering for all and on behalf of all in union with the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Messiah.This is to live Torah at the level of Atzilut. Some others may have to continue to outwardly don the outward garments of Jacob while in their hearts they don secretly the garments of Edom which are the baptismal garments of grace.

In the 18th century 60,000 religious Jews decided to publicly don the garments of Edom while a much larger number retained the garments of orthodox and Hasidic Judaism while in the secret of their hearts and among fellow believers they embraced the Messiah and only mystically and interiorly embraced the garments of Edom. Those 60,000 were slandered and misunderstood and their message distorted and twisted by all sides forcing them into an ever deeper silence and hiddeness so that they became a leaven that disappeared into the larger body of Edom which was transformed in many hidden ways through the 1st and 2nd Vatican Councils and many Eucharistic, liturgical and Marian renewal movements.

West Family and the Holocaust: The Suffering of a Dutch Jewish Family

 My fourth cousin Jozef West and his wife Roossie Tof who both died in Sobibor



My grandmother's paternal grandmother was an English Jewess called Matilda West who came to Australia from England in 1875 with her husband James Lewis and children. Her parents Simeon Levi West and Mary Ann Payne had arrived in New South Wales in 1869 as well as her brother Simeon Levi West (Uncle Levi) who served as a crypto-Jewish Rabbi or Hazzan like his father.

The older Simeon Levi West had been trained as a crypto-Jewish Rabbi or Hazzan (worship leader) by his maternal great uncle Thomas West who had been trained as a rabbi in Amsterdam. Simeon's father Reuben West was born in Amsterdam in 1764 and he married his English relative Elizabeth West of Sulby the daughter of Joseph West the gamekeeper of Sulby Hall in Welford for the Payne family. Reuben's brothers Levi and Nathan of Amsterdam married the sisters of Elizabeth West. Reuben moved to England to train as a gamekeeper with his relative and future father-in-law Joseph West (b.1740) son of Reuben West of England (b.1720).

Reuben West of England had a brother Solomon West (b.1724) who settled in Amsterdam who was the father of Nathan (b.1760 Amsterdam), Reuben (b.1764 Amsterdam) and Levi (b.1771 Amsterdam) as well as Isaiah, Moses, Simeon and Sarah. Their mother was Susanna Solomon of London whose Solomon family had come originally from Amsterdam. I had known that Nathan West had a son Salomon Nathan West who was born in 1785 in Amsterdam. I had also known that the crypto -Jewish English branch of the West family had often sent certain sons to the Netherlands to stay with their West relatives in order to train as rabbis. However I had never traced until recently the descendants of the West branch who remained as open Jews in the Netherlands.

Recently I discovered these descendants and was shocked to find that so many of them had died in the Nazi Holocaust. I was shocked to read of my West relatives being gassed in Sobibor and Auschwitz as well as dying in other camps. As my family in Australia had been untouched by the Holocaust I was surprised at the depth and sadness of my reaction to finding out that I had numerous third and fourth cousins who had died in the Holocaust. It became much more personal to me in a manner that is hard to describe even though I had never known these cousins of mine.

The first of my relatives I discovered was Jozef West of Wildervank who with his wife and Saartje West one of his daughters died in Sobibor on May 7 1943. I then noticed that their other daughter Roosjen West had died November 7 1942 at Auschwitz. Jozef was a butcher in Wildervank as was his cousin Salomon West. Josef was nicknamed 'Black West' and his cousin 'Red West' (Salomon had red hair). During the Second World War, Jozef West went into hiding in Drenthe.  However he was not happy with it. During a walk he was picked up by the Landwacht and then sent east to Sobibor with his family to the gas chambers.

I then went on to find more and more with the majority of them being killed at Auschwitz. Whole branches of my West family exterminated. I also felt great shame as at one stage of my life when I was a teenager I had been influenced by anti-semites and had actually believed that the Holocaust was a hoax or at least exaggerated. I sincerely apologize to all my martyred cousins and to all those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. I was shocked to learn on Jewishgen that "As a percentage, Dutch Jews probably perished at a higher rate than any other West European country."

Then I found  that Jozef West's brother Benjamin West with his wife and two children Salomon and Sophia West died in Auschwitz in 1943. I was almost relieved to see that another of Jozef and Benjamin West's brothers Nathan had died in 1939 but was saddened when I saw that his son Salomon West had died in Auschwitz and that his son David and daughter Roosien West had died in Sobibor. I was pleased to see that they also had a sister Saar West who died in Tel Aviv in 1993. Jozef's sister Rachel West also died in 1942 in Auschwitz and her husband Jacob Nijveen died in Konigshutte a Nazi work camp in 1942. They were all the descendants of Salomon West (b.1854).

Then I discovered that Salomon had a brother Jozef West (b.1856) whose sons Helman, Levie Jozef, Mozes and Lazarus West and their sister Hillechiene West all died in Auschwitz as well as their brother Nathan Salomon West who died in Central Europe in 1944. Salomon also had a brother Mozes West (b.1859 Wildervank) a Jewish merchant who had four children that died in Auschwitz in 1942. And so it went on moving from branch to branch of these descendants of my ancestral uncle Salomon Nathan West (b.1785). Many of them lived in the villages of Veendam and Wildervank. 

The villages of Veendam and Wildervank had a large number of Jewish residents until 1942. Common family names were: Cohen, Van Delft, Valk and West. Our West family intermarried with these other Jewish families who also died in the Shoah (Holocaust). There was a synagogue for the Jewish community in Veendam. The first Jewish inhabitants in this area arrived about 1700, and the first synagogue was built in 1745. By 1880 there were about 645 Jews living in Veendam, Wildervank and nearby villages. When World War II broke out, there were a total of 215 Jewish residents in Veendam and Wildervank. Only 5 Jews from Veendam and Wildvank survived the death camps.

Another branch of the West family descended from Salomon Nathan West (b.1785) was that of his son Joseph Salomon West of Wildevank (b.1815 Wildervank d.1888 Wildervank) who was a Jewish butcher or Shochet. Joseph's son Nathan West settled in Winschoten about 20 kilometres from Wildervank where he was a shochet and cattle dealer as was his son Jozeph West of Winschoten. Jozeph West of Winschoten's mother Anna Stoppelman was murdered in Sobibor in 1943 and his sister Heika was gassed in Auschwitz in 1943 and Jozeph and his wife and 12 year old daughter Josephina West were gassed in Auschwitz in 1942 and his son Nathan West was killed in 1944. The older Nathan West of Winschoten's sisters Mrs Roosien Beem, Mrs Mozina van Stedum and Mrs Betje de Lange descendants also were murdered in the concentration camps. Winschoten had a Jewish population in 1942 of around 500 and only about 20 of them survived the Holocaust.

 Levie van West who died in Mauthausen in 1942

It has made me wonder if I have other cousins descended from the Levie and Leon family of Holland from whom my grandmother also descends on her direct maternal line that were likewise exterminated. I have also not researched thoroughly other branches of the West family in the Netherlands such as those known as "van West" who descend from Reuben's brother Levi West (b.1771). Levi (or Levie) had at least two sons born in Amsterdam Salomon and Abraham van West. One of his descendants from his son Abraham Levie van West was Jacob van West (son of Levie Abraham van West) whose son Barend van West (b.1882) with Barend's wife Sara Segal and their six daughters in 1942 were gassed in Auschwitz and his grandson Levie van West (Barend's son) died in Mauthausen Nazi camp. Many others of the Jewish van West family were also to die in the Nazi death camps.

I also discovered another branch of the West family in the Netherlands using the van West surname who had become Frankist or Catholic Jews. One would hope that by the time of the Holocaust others would have forgotten their Jewish origins and they may have been spared the gas chambers. The Nazi's also sent all those Jews who were Catholics or Catholics of recent Jewish ancestry to the death camps. Such was the fate of St Edith Stein and 1,000 other Catholic Jews from Holland who were gassed together on August 9 1942 at Auschwitz. The very next day on August 10 1942 my 50 year old Dutch 4th cousin Jozef West son of Mozes West was gassed in Auschwitz. Of the 107,000 Jews transported from the Netherlands only 5,000 survived the Holocaust.