Re: appendix, are Jews never farmers?

At 08:47 AM 06/01/2005 -0500, I read (I think Rich Fausette wrote it):

>Of course, you've seen my subsequent post with the link to the article
>stating Jews haven't farmed in 2 millenia, and you've seen my remark
>regarding England and the Jewish expulsion by the king after the Jews
>refused to farm and I do not understand why you link any other references
>to Jewish farming with the references in the Pentateuch which contains the
>Jewish partiarchal archetypes and their laws and I don't know why you
>would compare Adam before the fall when all things were given to him as
>opposed to the conditions for Adam and his progeny after the fall, (Cain
>and Abel came after the fall) the very conditions under which we live.
>I don't denigrate agriculture :) but I'm pretty sure given the wording in
>the texts, of the absolute prevalence of the shepherd as a symbol
>throughout the Old and New Testaments.

We should not forget that in the Middle Ages (and maybe even before that)
Jews were not allowed to own land and thus could not start farming. True,
many "local" people could not either and were thus forced to be laborers
for many generations,but, officially they were allowed to own land. Jews
were often not allowed. Add to that they were often chased from one
country to another, and thus they probably did not feel like buying
land. Furthermore, many, many Jews even now, and even if they feel like
(in the cases I know) are Canadians, feel that Palestine is their homeland
from which they were driven centuries and millennia ago. And even when
they do not want to return to that homeland.
We lived for 40 years in a Jewish neighborhood, and across from us lived a
Polish, Jewish couple who were in Auschwitz and came out alive.(actually
not very much alive) who have been to Palestine 4 or more times. (They
once came to us telling us how much they appreciated the Dutch who saved so
many Jews.) However, they considered Palestine their homeland. On one
side we had a British Jew, who grew up in England and whose father was in
the British army. He went several times to Palestine, and considered it
his Homeland. My wife's father dealt sometimes with a Jew who owned land,
and had some cattle.
Do not forget that for centuries Jews were forced to live in cities, their
homeland was occupied by all kinds of other people: Babylonians, Romans,
Turks, Brits, etc. What do you do in a city, if you are not allowed to
have land? And, then, even if your great-great parents were farmers, how
do you cultivate a wish to become a farmer? I know of only one case among
many, many descendants.

Jan de Koning
Received on Thu Jan 6 09:50:30 2005