Click here for printable pdf - Makom Israel

Sir Paul Rycaut, 1666And now all the cities of Turkey, where the Jews inhabited, were full of the expectationof the Messiah; no trade or course of gain was followed. Every one imagined that dailyprovisions, riches, honors, and government were to descend upon him by someunknown and miraculous manner. An example of which is most observable in theJews at Thessalonica, who now full of assurance that the restoration of their kingdomand the accomplishment of the times for the coming of the Messiah was at hand...applied themselves immediately to fastings... All business was laid aside; none workedor opened shop, unless to clear his warehouse of merchandise at any price. Whoeverhad superfluity in household stuff sold it for what he could...(excerpt of a full account of Sabbetai Zevi’s story, found in J. R. Marcus, The Jew in theMedieval World)Abraham Geiger, 1863Hear this today, O my people, and do not be faint-hearted, even though all yourwishes have still not been fulfilled, though strife still prevails today and your just hopesstill meet with opposition... When another fifty years hence, another generation isassembled here, may they mark this day as a celebration of brotherly conciliation, thebrotherhood of all peoples, a celebration under this banner: One God, accepted andhumbly worshipped by all; one human race, united in love; one great and mightyGerman Fatherland!(Geiger was a leader of the early Reform movement in Germany)Arbeiter Freind #1, 1885...in short, we want a fundamental change in the present condition of tyranny andinjustice, in which one is a millionaire, while others are penniless, in which thecapitalists and other robbers don’t lift a finger and live in luxury, while the workerslabor day and night, losing health and often life, ultimately dying of hunger. Thisterrible condition cannot and must not continue; it must be changed and eliminatedin order to clear a way for a new and just society which socialism holds up before usand teaches about. We are convinced that only socialism can lead us to freedom, onlyit puts into our hands good and proper means for the redemption of the workers andof the whole people.(A Jewish socialist newsletter in Lithuania)147 Ksharim