Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on August 21, 2015

Modal Trigger View Thumbnails Brenda Turtle posted this photo of herself in a bikini a no-no in the Orthodox world.

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Grumpy Cat is predictably cranky, piglets play, protests continue in St. Louis and more.

A panda plays, drugs go up in flames, evil spirits are shunned and more.

Hindu gods come down to Earth, a primate Pacquiao grins and bears it and more.

Tiger cubs debut, Indonesia celebrates its Independence Day, a baby aardvark cuddles with its mother and more.

Nina Dobrev, Sarah Hyland, Lea Micheleand more rock the blue carpet at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.

Pandas cool off, the flag rises over the American embassy in Cuba, wildfires rage in California and more.

The Perseid meteor shower lights up the skies, critters canoodle and cuddle, explosions rock China and more.

It girls Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid and Lady Gagas bulldog star in the best of the new seasons campaigns

World Elephant Day delivers trunks and trunks of cuteness, explosions rock China, mine waste colors Colorado water and more.

A panda takes a nap, fires burn in the northwest, food fights get extra sweet in Spain and more.

Three little pigs set up shop in Prospect Park, balloons take flight in England and more.

Cats work the catwalk, Japan commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and more.

Hiroshima after the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bomband how the city rebuilt itself.

A panda takes a dip, Hiroshima marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing and more.

A primate poses for a selfie, wildfires spread in California, critters try to beat the heat and more.

A canine catches waves, a rainbow breaks over Beijing and more.

God must not have liked what she was posting.

Ex-Hasidic Jew Brenda Turtle has been getting a rise out of the Orthodox community for nearly two years by posting racy photos of herself on Facebook and Twitter.

So when Turtle, 23, whose real name is Brenda Rosenberg, was injured in a car accident on the Belle Harbor side of the Marine Parkway Bridge last week, some in the ultra-conservative community said it was divine intervention.

Brenda Turtles photos and actions have drawn the ire of the Orthodox community.Photo: Facebook

This is a message from heaven for her to stop making perverse acts, the Hebrew-language news site Kikar Hashabat quoted one unnamed learned scholar as saying.

We believe there was the hand of God, reads World of the Orthodox blog. No wonder she was punished.

Are you finally going to listen to that [voice from heaven] and get back on the good side of Hashem? asked Twitter user @YankyChiller, using the Hebrew word for God.

Some of Turtles photos show the saucy Satmar stunner draped in nothing but a tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl. Others show her bare leg wrapped in tefillin, the leather straps and boxes used by devout Jews to keep the literal word of God.

Other images show the tattooed Brooklyn bombshell with a lit cigarette dangling from her fingers, sipping on a brew while wearing nothing but a bikini a no-no in the Orthodox world, where women are expected to dress with utmost modesty.

I dont need permission, make my own decisions, thats my prerogative! a posting on Turtles Twitter account @Willitzideikis declared on July 11.

Brenda Turtles sexy pics with Jewish garments have irked Brooklyns Hasidim.Photo: Facebook

Among the dizzying array of Turtles scantily garbed selfies are gender-bending snaps of her dressed as a man in a traditional fur hat. There are also dance videos, including one of her appearing to twerk a far cry from the traditional hora circle dance.

I dont do anything illegal or crazy. Its just that I was [observant] and now Im not, so whatever I do ... is considered bad. singing on a video is legal ... posting bikini pictures is legal. Kissing a guy is legal. Smoking a cigarette is legal, reads an Oct. 14 Facebook post. Sex is normal to discuss, doesnt mean I fk every guy on planet ... chill out people and let live.

The brassy Brooklynite has built a legion of fans, whose numbers on Facebook have swelled to nearly 5,000 and on Twitter to nearly 1,500.

Shes become like a celebrity, said one source in the Orthodox community. No rabbi has a fan base of daily followers like her!

But her critics believe she is causing thousands of Orthodox Jews to sin by lusting over her photos.

Many said Brenda Turtles recent accident was divine retribution for her actions.Photo: Facebook

They say God acted as the bible says, measure for measure thats why her car accident is a good thing, they are celebrating, explained the source.

He said hes disgusted by the hypocrisy of her critics, who use fake names to view her posts on Facebook which is forbidden by the ultra-Orthodox, who shun aspects of modern life.

Turtle is recovering from her injuries, which are not life-threatening, police sources said. She did not respond to questions.

She believes in God and is a good person, said a friend.

She likes to entertain people, this is her passion. Sometimes she overdoes it.

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Posted By richards on August 21, 2015

Where do the Ashkenazi Jews come from? The Thirteenth Tribe

The Khazar Empire and its Heritage

By Arthur Koestler

This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in A.D. 740 converted to Judaism. Khazaria, a conglomerate of Aryan Turkic tribes, was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Han, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the craddle of Western (Ashkenazim) Jewry... The Khazars' sway extended from the Black sea to the Caspian, from the Caucasus to the Volga, and they were instrumental in stopping the Muslim onslaught against Byzantium, the eastern jaw of the gigantic pincer movement that in the West swept across northern Africa and into Spain. Thereafter the Khazars found themselves in a precarious position between the two major world powers: the Eastern Roman Empire in Byzantium and the triumphant followers of Mohammed. As Arthur Koestler points out, the Khazars were the Third World of their day, and they chose a surprising method of resisting both the Western pressure to become Christian and the Eastern to adopt Islam. Rejecting both, they converted to Judaism. The second part of Mr. Koestler's book deals with the Khazar migration to Polish and Lithuanian territories, caused by the Mongol onslaught, and their impact on the racial composition and social heritage of modern Jewry. He produces a large body of meticulously detailed research in support of a theory that sounds all the more convincing for the restraint with which it is advanced. Mr. Koestler concludes: "The evidence presented in the previous chapters adds up to a strong case in favour of those modern historians - whether Austrian, Israeli or Polish - who, independently from each other, have argued that the bulk of modern Jewry is not of Palestinian, but of Caucasian origin. The mainstream of Jewish migrations did not flow from the Mediterranean across France and Germany to the east and then back again. The stream moved in a consistently westerly direction, from the Caucasus through the Ukraine into Poland and thence into Central Europe. When that unprecedented mass settlement in Poland came into being, there were simply not enough Jews around in the west to account for it, while in the east a whole nation was on the move to new frontiers" ( page 179, page 180). "The Jews of our times fall into two main divisions: Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The Sephardim are descendants of the Jews who since antiquity had lived in Spain (in Hebrew Sepharad) until they were expelled at the end of the fifteenth century and settled in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and to a lesser extent in Western Europe. They spoke a Spanish-Hebrew dialect, Ladino, and preserved their own traditions and religious rites. In the 1960s, the number of Sephardim was estimated at 500,000. The Ashkenazim, at the same period, numbered about eleven million. Thus, in common parlance, Jew is practically synonymous with Ashkenazi Jew." ( page 181). In Mr. Koestler's own words, "The story of the Khazar Empire, as it slowly emerges from the past, begins to look like the most cruel hoax which history has ever perpetrated."

The history of the Ashkenazi Jews was widely known and appreciated in the former Soviet Union. Ashkenazi militants traced the area where the Turkic Khazars originated before their migration to Southern Russia to Birobidjan, an Eastern Siberian area as big as Switzerland bordered by the Amur river, by China and Mongolia. Around 1928 they started building settlements with the Soviet government's help and in 1934 the Autonomous Republic (Okrug) of Birobidjan Yevrei came into being with official languages of Yiddish and Russian. It is still there as an Autonomous Republic to this day, offering the only historically legitimate settlement area for Ashkenazi Jews willing to exercise their "right to return"...

Mr. Koestler was an Ashkenazi Jew and took pride in his Khazar ancestry. He was also a very talented and successful writer who published over 25 novels and essays. His most successful book, Darkness at Noon, was translated in thirty-three languages. As expected, The Thirteenth Tribe caused a stir when published in 1976, since it demolishes ancient racial and ethnic dogmas...At the height of the controversy in 1983, the lifeless bodies of Arthur Koestler and his wife were found in their London home. Despite significant inconsistencies, the police ruled their death a suicide...Another Mossad "suicide"!

I - RISE

V - EXODUS

APPENDIX I - A NOTE ON SPELLING

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The Thirteenth Tribe

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MARIETTA, Ga. - Down past the Big Chicken, the 56-foot-high, steel-beaked beacon of extra crispy that may be this town's most prized landmark, the wedge of dirt hard by Interstate 75 is notable only for its lack of notability. Stopping here, Rabbi Steven Lebow leaves the engine running and car door open.

Nearly ever since the South Florida native came to this Atlanta suburb three decades ago, this spot - or, more specifically, the tale of murder and vengeance that has stained its ground and local history for 100 years - has weighed on him.

AP/PBS

But with transportation crews readying to build over the place where Marietta's leading citizens lynched a Jewish factory superintendent named Leo Frank a century ago, Lebow talks only of what's worth preserving.

"There's nothing to see here," Lebow says. "That's why we need to be the memory."

As this community prepares to revisit that tale, though, there are reminders that it remains unsettled as well as unsettling.

In 1913, Frank was convicted of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan, who worked in his Atlanta factory. The case, charged with race, religion, sex and class, exploded in a national media frenzy. When Georgia's governor commuted Frank's death sentence, citizens took matters in their own hands.

The case established the Anti-Defamation League as the country's most outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism. It also fueled the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.

Until ADL lawyers pressed officials to posthumously pardon Frank in the 1980s, the case was hushed in Atlanta's synagogues, the homes of Old Marietta, and among Phagan's descendants.

Though granted, the pardon was less than conclusive. Now, in a summer that has seen Southerners wrangle with the best-known symbol of the region's embattled past, Lebow and others want to re-open a chapter some would prefer to let be.

But their effort to right history, as they see it, has renewed charges that, in doing so, they are unfairly trying to rewrite it.

In this Friday, July 31, 2015, photo, Rabbi Steven Lebow poses for a portrait looking at the site where Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank was lynched by the town's citizens a century ago, after the governor commuted his death sentence following Frank's conviction for murdering 13-year-old worker Mary Phagan, in Marietta, Ga.

AP Photo/David Goldman

___

Soon after Dan Cox turned a Civil War-era hotel into the Marietta Museum of History, he knocked on the door of a 96-year-old resident, who regaled him with stories until Cox asked about Leo Frank.

"You could see the iron curtain fall," Cox recalls. "I said, 'Why won't you tell me?' But she said, 'We were told not to talk about it,' and they never did."

Even so, actors and academics, reporters and playwrights have repeatedly delved into the story.

Frank, raised in New York, ran a factory in industrializing Atlanta. In 1913, Phagan, her hair in bows, stopped to collect her pay.

That night, a watchman found her bloodied body in the basement. Police arrested several men before settling on Frank, who proclaimed his innocence. His conviction rested on the testimony of a custodian, Jim Conley, a rare case of a black man's word used against a white defendant.

Frank's lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that a climate of anti-Semitism had resulted in an unfair trial. The court upheld the verdict, 7-2. In 1915, Gov. John Slaton commuted Frank's sentence to life. A furious crowd hanged the politician in effigy.

Months later, a group of Marietta men took Frank from prison. On Aug. 17, they hanged him outside town. Nobody was ever charged.

"The Frank case was like a lightning strike," says Steve Oney, who wrote "And the Dead Shall Rise," a 2002 book on the case. "Everything in the South stood briefly in relief and then it was dark again."

Substantial evidence points to Frank's innocence, Oney says, but "there are imponderables that are always going to be imponderables."

And so the century-old case stays alive.

The ADL is marking the anniversary with a push for Georgia to pass a hate-crime law. In nearby Kennesaw, the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is opening a Frank exhibit. A musical about the case, "Parade," is being re-staged in Atlanta. The Georgia Historical Society is bringing Oney to Marietta to talk about the case.

And on August 16, Lebow will lead a memorial service at which he and some current and former Georgia Supreme Court justices plan to call on state lawmakers to declare Frank's exoneration.

"This is a story that won't go away," says Cox, 76. He leads the way through exhibits detailing Cobb County's past - Cherokees banished on the Trail of Tears, Confederates and their Unionist neighbors. The only nod to the Frank case is a single placard and an old historical marker.

"I don't want to minimize the event," Cox says. "But it needs to be put away, like the flag, in its proper place."

___

When Roy Barnes came home after losing re-election as Georgia's governor, a fascination with the Frank case followed him.

Barnes, 67 and raised on a Cobb County farm, recalls the hush around Frank's name and how, as a legislator, he borrowed books on the case from the state library to pass time when debate dragged. Among details that surfaced: The lynching party included Cicero Dobbs - grandfather of Barnes' wife, Marie. Other lynchers included a judge, a former mayor turned state prosecutor, a leading lawyer, and the scion of one of Marietta's wealthiest families. They're all long gone, with many descendants who acknowledge what happened.

But Barnes says some people tell him that, while they agree Frank didn't get a fair trial, he was still guilty.

Barnes is certain that's wrong. But the Frank story needs to be studied to remind people of the dangers of mob rule "so that we never let that happen again."

Reminded that he lost the governorship in no small part because he pushed to eliminate the Confederate battle flag from the state banner, Barnes paraphrases the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

"You know, the arc of history does bend toward justice," Barnes says. "And for Leo Frank, justice hasn't been given yet."

In this Friday, July 31, 2015, photo, Rabbi Steven Lebow points to an original newspaper front page on the Leo Frank story from a century ago in his office at Temple Kol Emeth in Marietta, Ga.

AP Photo/David Goldman

___

Just off a gravel road in North Georgia's hills, Mary Phagan Kean opens a room filled with family photos and files detailing the life and death of a 13-year-old girl a century ago.

"She's my history. History is what makes you who you are," she says.

Phagan Kean was 13 herself when a teacher asked if she was related to the girl murdered at the National Pencil Co.

Her father confirmed she was the victim's great niece, sparking years of research that produced a book and confirmed Phagan Kean's certainty of Frank's guilt.

When the ADL sought Frank's exoneration, Phagan Kean's protest saw the pardon limited. When a historic marker was proposed for Phagan's grave, she asked for wording making clear the pardon was based on the state's failure to protect him, "not Frank's innocence."

That marker, now retired to the Marietta museum, was replaced by one Lebow lobbied for, noting only that Frank was pardoned. Phagan Kean bought the empty plot just below Phagan's a few years ago. If Lebow and others keep pushing, she says, she'll erect her own marker, reminding visitors of the verdict.

"They're swaying the truth their way," says Phagan Kean, a retired teacher who acknowledges anti-Semitism played a role, but only in the lynching.

She and Lebow voice frustration over each other's repeated insistence.

Phagan Kean, noting she's long dismissed inquiries from white supremacists seeking to publicize the case, says she acts as her namesake's voice because "there's nobody to protect her but me."

And Lebow, noting that time has taught Jews the danger of forgetting the past, recalls hearing about the case at a Kiwanis meeting years ago and realizing he had, by accident, become Leo Frank's rabbi.

"We've got to be the memory of this guy," he says, "because no one else wants to be."

2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Leo Frank case: A century after Jewish man's lynching ...

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Posted By admin on August 21, 2015

One hundred years ago today, on August 17, 1915, Leo Frank was kidnapped from prison in Milledgeville, Georgia by the Knights of Mary Phagan, a revitalized Ku Klux Klan group of prominent men from Cobb County, Georgia, where Frank was transported to nearly 170 miles away, and lynched.

Thousands of African-Americans were lynched throughout the south in the early 20thcentury without any sort of reprimand to those that committed these atrocities, often-authoritative leaders of their own communities. The case of Leo Frank was no different in that regard, yet the circumstances of Franks infamous murder and imprisonment were rife with anti-semitism, class warfare, sensationalism, and hysteria, which engulfed early 20thcentury America.

Born in Texas, raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Leo Frank received his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, subsequently managing his uncles pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, quickly assimilating into the souths largest Jewish community.

On April 27, 1913, a night watchman discovered the lifeless body of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in the basement of Franks pencil factory. Phagan was one of the many child laborers from rural areas whoworked in the industries of Atlanta for low wages under deplorable conditions while elite business leaders reaped enormous profits. Conditions in Atlanta at the time were perfect for the injustices that were to occur regarding Leo Frank. Resentment overthe exploitation of children workers was at a boiling point; the police force of Atlanta was under pressure from criticism abouta high unsolved murder rate; the prosecutor, Hugh M. Dorsey, was eager to make a name for himself; and local newspapers capitalized to rally support against the wealthy northerner Jew who ruthlessly tainted the innocence and honor of a southern belle.

The nearly unanimous consensus of contemporary researchers is that Frank was wrongfully convicted.Leo Frank was a classic scaoegoat.The case came at a time when traditional agrarian Georgia was being threatened by the forces modernity represented by Atlanta. thechanges inflicted on the south by industrialization helped incite the atmosphere of hysteria,Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis University, told the Observer in a phone interview. Even compared to standards of the day, the forensic evidence was completely botched, leaving Franks guilty verdict relying solely on the testimony of John Conley. Conley, an African-American janitor at the factory, represents a racial paradox that makes the case of Leo Frank even more of an anomaly. Conley was the first known African-American to testify against a white man in the southern United States. Franks defense lawyers pandered to racist sentiments in refuting Conleys testimony to no avail, as popular demand called for the persecution of Leo Frank to pay for the sins of the elite northerners, sentiments crystallized in the 1915 filmBirth of a Nation, and by the ripples of Southern resentment from defeat in the civil war. After a highly publicized and controversial case, Leo Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging on August 25, 1913.

Southerners rejoiced at the decision, exhilarated by the defeat of an icon of oppression. The conviction sparked outrage amongst northerners and prominent Jews across the country. New York Times Publisher Adolph Ochs used the case as a driving force in his crusade to fight anti-Semitism. An advocacy group for Frank became the Anti-Defamation League that continues combating anti-Semitism and for civil rights today. After failed appeals in the Georgia and U.S. Supreme Courts, Frank entered a plea to the Georgia State Prison Commission that his sentence be commuted to life in prison. Georgia Governor John Slaton granted the plea, much to the dismay of the public. Slaton had to call in the National Guard to protect his own home.

Georgia Congressman and future Senator advocated for Franks Lynching, writing in The JeffersonianandWatsons Magazine, This country has nothing to fear from its rural communities. Lynch law is a good sign; it shows that a sense of justice lives among the people. Watsons calls were heeded by the Knights of Mary Phagan, a resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan in reaction to the banner of northern oppression epitomized by the Leo Frank case. The organization consisted of community leaders from victim Mary Phagans native rural town, Marietta, Georgia. They cut off the phone lines of Franks prison, overpowered the complacent prison guards, dragged Frank back to Marietta, Georgia and hung him to death, glorifying their victory with postcards and souvenirs of the event to dole out to spectators and fans of Leo Franks demise.

In 1986, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned Frank on grounds of the states failures to protect him, without making a judgment on his guilt or innocence. The decision, in part, was affected by the confession of Alonzo Mann on his death bed, an office worker at the pencil factory, who came forward with testimony that he had seen Jim Conley carrying the body of Mary Phagan by himself. The revelation received national news attention and reaffirmed belief that Frank had been innocent.

The case of Leo Frank was much more than just a seemingly wrong conviction of a factory manager. It was a public relations and ideological battle between northernand southern states, between rural and urban values, between competing disempowered groups. Beyond all this, it is a story that starkly reveals how impassioned hysteria, impervious to logic or reasoning, canlead to normal, law-abiding citizens committing atrocious acts of violence.

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One of Nature's best kept secrets, 400 meters below Sea Level, Dead Sea Israel is the lowest place on Earth. It is nestled among the rough Mountains terrene of the Judean Desert; it is an oasis of beauty, relaxation, calmness and excitement.

The Dead Sea is nature's ultimate spa combined with the excitement of a modern vacation destination. Dead Sea Israel offers a vacation you will never forget. If you're travelling alone, with a loved one or bringing the whole family, you are sure to find the perfect attraction for everyone. Visit ancient archeological sites, experience the extreme desert with walking tracks and Jeep tours, enjoy a sunset with breathtaking landscape, take a day off in one of many luxury spas and of course swim, float and enjoy the Dead Sea itself.

ThisGuide brings you all the information you need to in order to plan a trip of a lifetime. With an interactive map to guide you to all the history, attractions, adventure and experiences the Dead Sea has to offer. With our guide you will experience this region to the fullest!

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The Dead Sea (Yam Hamelakh -- "The Salt Sea") is the lowest place on earth, roughly 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level.

It is 34 miles (55 km.) long and varies between 11 miles (18 km.) and 2 miles (3 km.) in width.

The Sea is 1,400 feet (430 m.) deep.

This unique sea is fed by the Jordan River. There is no outflow; and the exceptionally high rate of evaporation (high temperatures, low humidity) produces large quantities of raw chemicals. These are extracted and exported throughout the world for use in medicine, agriculture and industry.

The Dead Sea is actually shrinking. The southern end is now fed by a canal maintained by the Dead Sea Works, a company that converts the Sea's raw materials, particularly phosphates, into commercial products.

Visitors can float effortlessly on the waters of the Dead Sea due to its concentration of minerals, which is the highest in the world. The air is extremely dry, and temperatures are high throughout the year (max. 86 [30 C]) during winter, and 104 [40 C]) during summer) making the Dead Sea a destination for visitors 365 days a year.

Floating is a novelty that makes visiting the Dead Sea a kick, but most visitors come for the therapeutic value of the mud and salt water. People with skin disorders such as psoriasis and ailments such as arthritis have found relief from treatments using the Sea's natural resources. Oh, and if you have an open cut or sore, be forewarned, the salt water stings.

Archaeological ruins are scattered in the area. Many historical fugitives, such as David, Jesus, Jewish zealots and Christian monks, found peace and refuge around the Dead Sea. The area is best known, however, for being the site of the biblical towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. South of the Sea, on the way to Eilat, is a rock salt formation that tourists are told is Lot's wife. According to the Torah, Lot's wife ignored G-d's admonition not to look back at the cities he was destroying as they left and was turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).

Incidentally, all the fun near the Dead Sea is not confined to the mud and water!

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Contemporary Examples

While some may see a cynical feintfloat in the Dead Sea and watch the Jewish vote pour in!

Dead Sea turtles and oil-covered fish are among the first casualties washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion.

The Kidron Valley wends its way from the eastern side of the Old City, through the Judean Desert, to the Dead Sea.

Their writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, were discovered after the war: a rich trove of sacred literature.

Rand Paul's recent Israel visit included a dip in the Dead Sea.

Historical Examples

Mr. Forbes, poor Hands's assistant, is away on the shores of the Dead Sea, but we have sent for him by the camel garrison post.

A frog winked his eye at me, and then jumped into the Dead Sea.

Ten months later, he again visited the Dead Sea, and added largely to his observations.

The course of the torrents was therefore from the south, towards the Dead Sea.

At last the river flows through a wide, sandy plain into the Dead Sea.

British Dictionary definitions for Dead Sea Expand

a lake between Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank, now 420 m (1378 ft) below sea level; originally 390 m (1285 ft): the lowest lake in the world, with no outlet and very high salinity; outline, esp at the southern end, reduced considerably in recent years. Area: originally about 950 sq km (365 sq miles); by 2003 about 625 sq km (240 sq miles)

Word Origin and History for Dead Sea Expand

mid-13c., from dead (adj.) + sea; its water is 26 percent salt (as opposed to 3 or 4 percent in most oceans) and supports practically no life. In the Bible it was the "Salt Sea" (Hebrew yam hammelah), also "Sea of the Plain" and "East Sea." In Arabic it is al-bahr al-mayyit "Dead Sea." The ancient Greeks knew it as he Thalassa asphaltites "the Asphaltite Sea." Latin Mare Mortum, Greek he nekra thalassa (both "The Dead Sea") referred to the sea at the northern boundaries of Europe, the Arctic Ocean.

Dead Sea in Culture Expand

Salt lake on the border between Israel and Jordan.

Dead Sea in the Bible Expand

the name given by Greek writers of the second century to that inland sea called in Scripture the "salt sea" (Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:12), the "sea of the plain" (Deut. 3:17), the "east sea" (Ezek. 47:18; Joel 2:20), and simply "the sea" (Ezek. 47:8). The Arabs call it Bahr Lut, i.e., the Sea of Lot. It lies about 16 miles in a straight line to the east of Jerusalem. Its surface is 1,292 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. It covers an area of about 300 square miles. Its depth varies from 1,310 to 11 feet. From various phenomena that have been observed, its bottom appears to be still subsiding. It is about 53 miles long, and of an average breadth of 10 miles. It has no outlet, the great heat of that region causing such rapid evaporation that its average depth, notwithstanding the rivers that run into it (see JORDAN T0002112), is maintained with little variation. The Jordan alone discharges into it no less than six million tons of water every twenty-four hours. The waters of the Dead Sea contain 24.6 per cent. of mineral salts, about seven times as much as in ordinary sea-water; thus they are unusually buoyant. Chloride of magnesium is most abundant; next to that chloride of sodium (common salt). But terraces of alluvial deposits in the deep valley of the Jordan show that formerly one great lake extended from the Waters of Merom to the foot of the watershed in the Arabah. The waters were then about 1,400 feet above the present level of the Dead Sea, or slightly above that of the Mediterranean, and at that time were much less salt. Nothing living can exist in this sea. "The fish carried down by the Jordan at once die, nor can even mussels or corals live in it; but it is a fable that no bird can fly over it, or that there are no living creatures on its banks. Dr. Tristram found on the shores three kinds of kingfishers, gulls, ducks, and grebes, which he says live on the fish which enter the sea in shoals, and presently die. He collected one hundred and eighteen species of birds, some new to science, on the shores, or swimming or flying over the waters. The cane-brakes which fringe it at some parts are the homes of about forty species of mammalia, several of them animals unknown in England; and innumerable tropical or semi-tropical plants perfume the atmosphere wherever fresh water can reach. The climate is perfect and most delicious, and indeed there is perhaps no place in the world where a sanatorium could be established with so much prospect of benefit as at Ain Jidi (Engedi).", Geikie's Hours, etc.

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Israel/Jordan/West Bank

Bathers by the shore of the Dead Sea ( Tom Callinan / Seetheholyland.net)

The Dead Sea, which shimmers like a blue mirror under all-day sunshine, is one of the most unusual bodies of water in the world.

It is set in the lowest dry land on earth, so it has no outlet. It is so loaded with minerals that no fish can live in it. It is so dense that bathers can lie back on its surface and read a newspaper.

The Dead Sea is located about 25km east of Jerusalem, along the border between Israel and Jordan. About half of it is actually in Jordanian territory.

The ancient Hebrews called this body of water the Sea of Salt. Other ancient names include the Sea of Solitude, the Sea of Arabah and the Asphalt Sea. The Crusaders called it the Sea of Satan.

The Dead Seas therapeutic qualities attracted Herod the Great. Its minerals and sticky black mud provided balms for Egyptian mummies and cosmetics for Cleopatra.

Now its health resorts treat psoriasis and arthritis, its skin-care products are marketed worldwide, and its industrial evaporation pans harvest potash and other minerals.

Pillar of salt, on Jordanian side of Dead Sea, known as Lots Wife ( Visitjordan.com)

The region has many biblical connections. Here, though their locations are unknown, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God with sulphur and fire and Lots wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the destruction (Genesis 19:24-26). Among the salt encrustations around the sea is an unusual column at the southern end called Lots Wife (though it is 20 metres high).

On the eastern side, the highest peak visible is Mount Nebo, where Moses glimpsed the Promised Land. Further south stands the fortress of Machaerus, where Herod Antipas imprisoned and then executed John the Baptist.

On the western side, from north to south, are Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found; Ein Gedi, where David hid from King Saul in a cave (and cut off a corner of the kings cloak when he entered the cave to relieve himself); and Herod the Greats fortress of Masada.

Afloat in the Dead Sea (David Niblack)

The Dead Sea is 67km long, 18km across at its widest point, and 420 metres below sea level.

Because it has no exit, water is lost only through evaporation, which leaves behind the minerals. The Dead Sea is nearly 10 times as salty as the open seas. The high concentration of minerals (predominantly magnesium chloride) provides the buoyancy that keeps bathers suspended as well as a bitter taste.

A low promontory of land called el-Lisan (the tongue) projects across the sea from the east, dividing the southern third from the northern section.

At one time the Dead Sea covered four times as much land as it did in 2006, when its surface was falling by up to a metre a year.

Much of the water that once flowed into the Dead Sea is being diverted for drinking water and agriculture purposes, so there is not enough to offset the high evaporation rate.

Rescue proposals to prevent the sea drying up have included canals to bring water from the Mediterranean Sea or the Red Sea.

If the Dead Sea becomes rejuvenated with fresh water, this could fulfil a prophecy in Ezekiel 47:8-10, that it will become fresh . . . and there will be very many fish.

In December 2013, representatives of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority agreed on a long-term desalination project in which brine would be piped about 180 kilometres from Aqaba, Jordan, to replenish the Dead Sea.

Related sites:

Qumran

Masada

In Scripture:

God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 19:24-26

Prophesy that the Dead Sea will become fresh: Ezekiel 47:8-10

References

External links

Link:
Dead Sea See The Holy Land

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