Posted on 10/03/2006 6:40:08 AM PDT by Alouette
They are coming from all over the world to claim their royal heritage.
First, on October 19, they will meet in New York City at the inaugural dinner of the Davidic Dynasty organization. Then, in May, a mass reunion is planned for Jerusalem.
They say they are descendants of King David. They have the oral family traditions, rabbinic texts and historical research to back up their claims. And the way Jewish genealogy is thriving, their ranks may swell in the coming years.
Davidic Dynasty, a project of the Eshet Chayil Foundation, has compiled a partial list of David's purported descendants. Their get-together, to be held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, will honor Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis - both of whom are believed to be descended from David.
Other illustrious Jewish figures down the centuries who traced their ancestry back to David include Hillel, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, Yochanan Hasandler and Yosef Karo. More contemporary leaders include the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and former president Chaim Herzog.
And nowadays, it's easier than ever to comb back through Jewish family roots and, who knows, maybe identify your own eminent ancestor.
A generation ago, most people relied on their oldest living relatives to learn about their family's history. The revolution was fuelled by the fall of Communism, and the new records that became available, allied to the proliferation of home computers.
In January, the International Institute for Jewish Genealogy opened at the Jewish National and University Library at the Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus. The institute's director, Dr. Neville Y. Lamdan, and several colleagues had wanted to open such an institute for years, but it had to wait until he stepped down as ambassador to the Vatican. "We came back to the idea with a great deal of energy and with a lot of intensive work," Lamdan said. "The group nominated me to be the director and that's how I find myself involved and over my head."
Now Lamdan plans to advance Jewish genealogy so it can be taught at the university level.
"People were groping around feeling that somehow [Jewish genealogy] should be institutionalized. But what sort of institution? What would it do? The answer: engage in research and, if possible, teaching at a university level," Lamdan said.
The institute has three research projects under way, including two in conjunction with foreign universities.
The Sephardic DNA and Migration project, which the institute is performing in cooperation with the Universities of Haifa, Arizona and New York, uses DNA to tracks the male members of a family back to pre-expulsion Spain.
The institute's second project is called Rebuilding Destroyed Communities. Researchers are trying to reconstruct what community life was like in three towns in Poland and Lithuania before the Holocaust.
The Jacobi Indexing project, finally, is being carried out by Dr. Chanan Rapapport. Paul Jacobi, an eminent genealogist, left the National and University Library some 400 genealogical studies which he had done, mainly on rabbinical lineages in Germany. Most of the studies require additional research.
Rapapport shares Lamdan's desire to raise genealogy to an academic level. "It's a combination between... developing curricula and teaching aids for university level and doing research which is beyond the horizon of the individual hobbyists," Rapapport said in a phone interview. "Research that interests many, many families, not just one family."
Lamdan said he was looking ahead to new challenges.
"More and more source material which contains sources for Jewish genealogy is being uncovered," he said, and can be filmed and reproduced digitally.
"There are also other archives in certain countries, including in the Muslim world, where we know there is material. Hopefully we can negotiate access."
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
I always knew there had to be someone documenting David's line or else how would they know the Messiah? We think that Jesus is the Messiah and we have his total lineage listed in the Bible....glad to know that someone has gone from Jesus to now.
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
My mother's father was named Jacobi -- H was a butcher in the Bronx and passed away shortly after WWII. I guess that means I have relatives in VERY high places.
H = He
I often wonder how Jews can trace their lineage (not all, but many) because so many have gone underground due to persecution, pogroms, etc. The one sensible thing they always have done though is to confer Judaism through the mother since we KNOW who the mom is, but the dad, now that's another story altogether.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. also
2006israelwar or WOT
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Those that went underground- so to speak- in time frequently lost their Jewish heritage in total.
The completeness of Jewish genealogy of some families- and that's not even counting the Cohanim and Levities- who never renounced the faith or assimilated could very well surprise you.
I am sure that you would appreciate that lines of Davidic descent would be preserved down by a family. If you search, even online, you will see that in any discussion of Davidic descent some of the very same few families are prominent.
That's 'only' in Christ...Outside of Christ, there's tons of real Jews...And they're God's chosen people...And they will get the promise that God promised them...
If you think you have taken Israel's place, you then must agree that you are no longer male/female...Or both...
Outside of Christ, there is no salvation (John 14:6). Once one becomes a Christian, they do not stop being who they are. The point is that we are all join-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Also, Galatians 3:29 says "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise".
We are all kin to King David through Noah aren't we? . . and even further back, through Adam?
David was long, long, long after Noah....
Fascinating.
Thanks.
Yep, but if one allows that we were all either in the loins of Noah on the ark, or in the loins of his sons on the ark, then we all came out of Noah through his sons and daughters-in-law. Of course, they came originally from Adam's loins. - That's our whole problem, thus necessitating the second Adam, Christ, who - in the flesh - was also in the loins of Noah at least in part, until he was begotten of the Lord in order to provide the perfect blood sacrifice straight from God that the flesh and blood of Adam could not ever provide.
"We think that Jesus is the Messiah and we have his total lineage listed in the Bible....glad to know that someone has gone from Jesus to now."
That's the Christian view. Jews look at things quite a bit differently. Needless to say, Jews don't accept Jesus (if such a person actual lived - and there is some doubt - but for the purposes of this response I'll assume that the historical Jesus was a real flesh and blood person) as the Moshiach/Messiah, and there's a very good set of reasons why, summarized at the following website:
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/handbook/s_messiah.html
As specifically relates to Jesus' genealogy, the New Testament claims that Jesus did not have a physical father. The Jewish Scriptures, however, clearly state that a person's genealogy and tribal membership is transmitted exclusively through one's physical father (Numbers 1:18, Jeremiah 33:17). Therefore, according to the Christian scriptures, Jesus cannot possibly be a descendent of the tribe of Judah nor of King David and King Solomon.
If, on the other hand, one wished to use Joseph's genealogy, Jesus still wouldn't "make the cut" because the Christian scriptures claim that Joseph was a descendent of King Jeconiah, who in the Hebrew Bible was cursed to never have a descendent "sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah" (Jeremiah 22:30). Joseph's genealogy, even if it were transmittable to Jesus, would only serve to further disqualify Jesus as the Messiah.
Even if one could trace one's genealogy through one's mother, there would be the additional problem that Luke 3:31 lists Mary as a descendent of David through Nathan, Solomon's brother, and not through Solomon himself as required according to the prophesy in I Chronicles 22:10 of the Jewish Bible.
So, now you know one of the many reasons that Jews don't believe in Jesus as Moshiach/Messiah.
That being said, there are, as the article pointed out, many families which have documentation to trace back their family history along their paternal line to some of the kings mentioned by the prophets, and thereby to King Solomon and King David. THAT is what the Davidic Dynasty organization is all about.
Boy...you sure don't believe one of your best Jewish writers and historians, JOSEPHUS, who wrote all about Jesus!! Nice try, saying he might not have lived....you are either being a tad dense or stupid.
Boy is that taking it out of context! The point was that Christ is inclusive, not that Christianity has made Israel inconclusive.
Amazing...
The lines of Judah are easy to trace, it is Israel that has lost its way. But when God drove them from the land he promised "I will sift you through the Nations like grain through a sieve, but not a grain of you shall fall to the ground".
The DNA tests from the found 1/2 tribe of Menassah will prove to be a breakthough. It was announced that they have some of the Semitic gene sets. Some, because obviously the Ishmael line is missing...
Soon a gene test for the blood lines of ISRAEL not Judah!
Those of the nation of Israel that obey the Gospel of Christ are included in the body of Christ. Those that do not are not included. It is as simple as that.
I don't know that I look at it that way.
I imagine trace DNA of ancient Israel would be found in many populations.
I just see this as a group of people who want to be considered Jews and think of themselves as Jews. So welcome.
On the other hand, such things as Davidic descent I take much more personally. Even if just as political proof to the righteousness of Zionism and refutation to certain anti Semitic claims. And it's a kick.
Indeed it is a kick, but DNA is not a trace issue, it is digital. It is either on, or off. To me the return of Israel is more of a miracle than the recognition of the family line of David, it is the recognition of the family line of Abraham. David we have with us, but as far as the world is concerned, the rest of Abrahams line has been dead and gone since BC, (or BCE if you are so bent).
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