Who Was Judah Touro? The Sephardic Diaspora pt. 6 Dr. Henry Abramson

Brief lecture on the life and work of Judah Touro, an important 19th-century American philanthropist for whom, together with his father Isaac, Touro College was named.

[@mikeainsworth9861]

Thank you for this lecture. As a citizen of New Orleans, I recognize every day the importance of Judah Touro and that of other Jewish philanthropists to the life of my city. One can not properly understand Christianity without gaining at least an elementary understanding of Judaism and the devotion of the historic Jesus to its beliefs. As a Gentile, I've found your many lectures to be of great value and appreciate your making these talks available to the public.

[@mattikarosenthal3298]

I visited the Touro synagogue, and it was one of my most enjoyable tours of the East Coast. And since my children are 1/4 Mexican American, by way of Spain, I was thrilled to see the last names ending with Zetas in the cemetery, Lopez, and Rodriguez. I work with the B’nai Anusim, may Hashem grant them the opportunity to settle the Negev, as it is prophesied in the Torah, in the book of OVADIAS. Amazingly, even though they have a Lopez grandfather, Senor Lopez must’ve been Ashkenazy, since they were only 0.3 native American, 46% Ashkenazy, and the total rest, Sephardi dissent because my parents are Sephardi, and there has been no intermarriage since the beginning of time in their families. And my parents are Greek Jews, my father’s family is originally from Toledo, and then settled in Greece with all the other refugees from Spain. That’s why I love the DNA tests, because I am almost 20% North African, and 1% Ashkenazy, so how did that even get in there

[@suesandlin-plaehn3565]

Wonderful information

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

I'm glad that you enjoyed it! Thank you for being a Public Subscriber!

[@woowwow7839]

Thank you so much for this lecture. This man was a Great man. This is very moving!! And i love your jokes🤣 Hashem bless you and all your family. 😊

[@woowwow7839]

Henry Abramson : thank you so much 😊

[@richsenyor6641]

would love to see you cover a modern sephardi family, like the safras for example.

[@aromero385]

Nowadays, you can find many Brazilians living around Providence, R.I. This a fact, I imagine is connected with those early Brazilians who stayed there.

[@aromero385]

He was a good man.

[@PC-lu3zf]

Reason he looks unhappy is in those early photos the exposure time was so long its hard to hold a smile that long.

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Well, that's interesting. I imagine that applied to a lot of early photos!

[@abrahamsteppel9100]

Was their a jewish community at that time in new Orleans, it would have made it harder to find a spouse.

[@HenryAbramsonPhD]

Small community

[@PC-lu3zf]

I am related to one of the Da Costas, an Isaac Da Costa.

[@williamcohen3772]

What book do you refer to?

[@EricSunshine87]

mamash fascinating

[@EricSunshine87]

Also, I'm 3/4 of the way through your text on the Aish Kodesh and it really has helped put the Rebbe's text into a more precise and nuanced context.

[@jorgemtds]

TOURO (in Portuguese) translates to the English BULL.

[@wesleyclayswank6732]

You mentioned the Jews of Kaifeng. Do you know if there is any truth to the Chinese Surname equivalencies often given for the Kaifeng Jews? To explain a little bit of what I mean it is helpful to know that unlike at Ellis Island or other Western Ports of Naturalization one had to earn their place and family name in Chinese society. This was done by either buying or earning it through examination. There is a claim that many of the Chinese officials or Mandarins of the periods of Jewish migration from Persia into China, along the Silk Road, were themselves in fact Jewish. And either by nepotism or family loyalty many of these Jewish Mandarins refused to give to test that would have granted Barbarians (from the Chinese perspective) a Chinese surname. At least until they had helped to naturalize all the men in their families. Now the claim I was most interested in was this. Li (李) was said to have been taken up by the Levites, Gao (various Characters) was adopted by the Priests. There were also surnames such as Jin and Shi (金 and 石, 史) which seemed to be equivalents of Gold and Stone and to a lessor extent for Shi a Chinese Homophone for Messanger, Charity Collectors possibly. I know a few people from Kaifeng and from what I was able to gather the Jews who have made it back to Jerusalem from the Chinese Galut have had to go through conversion to be accepted by the Rabbis due to their degree of intermarriage. Its a bit far off from the Sephardic track of investigation but might yeild some interesting information when you get arround to it. I'm interested in determining what can be proved from a historical point of view. I had also read that they maintained a Haggadah where the leader of the feast covered his face with a veil like Moses, I have spent some time in connection with Chinese hill tribes who do claim a less direct kinship with us, but was unable to determine if this custom was more of a thing connected to their own Shammanism (which I have strong suspicions may be more related to some traditions of Kabbalah and in specific to some of the traditions I have heard about Enoch and Sampson and the Nazerites than is generally thought) or if it is just as foreign as one would generally think? In China we were called Youtairen (simply Jews) or (I forget the Chinese at this point) "pluckers of the sinews" because of our Kosher Slaughter practices. Which as a side note Ghenghis Khan is recorded as having killed some Jews who somehow made their way into Mongolian society due to some disagreement over proper schekting. In this same incident he is said to have killed some Mongol Muslims. In general Baimaohui and Lanmaohui refer to the white hatted Muslims who mixed with Chinese enough to become considered one of the 56 recognized Chinese Tribes along with their blue hatted Assimilated Jewish Cousins. In China the synagogue and mosque, which were both called (Qingzhen si) "Temple of Purity and Truth", the name dated to the 13th century. I was wondering if this name might have any root in the Urim V'Tummim of Aaron? Well if nothing else this long history may explain we have such an affinity for Chinese Food. Perhaps there was some mixing of these Jews with those of Eastern Europe?

[@woowwow7839]

Wes Swank : Very interesting comment! I am bit surprised because i learnt "Li" family name was actually the pear (fruit) ! I agree with the family names : Gao, Jin (this family made Alya, i saw the documentary too ^^) yes Kaifeng Jews and more generally Chinese Jews came from Persia (modern day Iran) and they were merchants (like Uzbek Jews : the Bukarian Jews" ... the former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit MOUSSAIEFF, an Israeli-born of Bukarian Jewish background is descendant of a tailor who had woven the robe of Genghis Khan!) So it was no surprise that tailors from Iran / Uzbekistan / China migrated ... Also the Kaifeng synagogue ceased to do services in 1860 ... and of course Kaifeng Jews got married to Chinese women ... therr were out of Jewish women ... and of course once the synagogue is closed it becomes harder to convert people... The 5 Chinese Jewish who made Alya prooved they were descendants from these last Kaifeng Jews ! This is a miracle !!! The same for these Chinese Jewish men too !

[@wesleyclayswank6732]

The Jewish community in Kaifeng has a woman who is their spokesman. Her name is Guo Yan and her email address is [e-mail] in case this is helpful. She does speak quite a bit of English. Her Skype is yisrael-kaifeng and telephone number is [phone].

[@tapasyatyaga4041]

You the deep intellectual man discuss Chinese Jew. I read too that many Chinese Jew have last name Ai [艾]. Do you agree? They come to China in Tang Dai. [唐朝]. They do the marry with the Chinese. Then have no distinguish of the race feature.

[@antoniobettencourt6287]

It should not be pronouced "turo" but "touro", the "ou" it's pronouced like "o" in English.

[@GazilionPT]

TOW-roo

[@tapasyatyaga4041]

Ha! Ha!..Dr. Abrahamson have the high brain power but say he not pronouncing word right...just like me. He have the humble way like the wise gurus

[@davidsavage6324]

great lecture did he die a virgin without engaging in any level of fornication or did he live as an uncelibate bachelor?

[@motorhead6763]

David Savage why u ask? lol

[@davidsavage6324]

+motorhead I'm fascinated by the topic of celibacy in a Jewish context. its rare but not unheard of. like Book of Daniel says Daniel was a eunuch; but it doesn't say what kind of eunuch; homosexual, celibate or castrated. I always kind of assume he was a celibate but you never know. just curious about this great mans unconventional love life; I guess I'm fascinated, in general, with all things unconventional.

[@gabehessenthaler6820]

That's a very good question.