eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
English Versión – Versión en ESPAÑOL aquí.
The Long Road Home
I consider myself blessed to be receiving daily e mails from people around the world that are searching for their Jewish Roots. Every day , when I turn on the computer, there is a new deluge of messages asking me to help them find their roots as well. At first, I thought this was an initial reaction to my own findings and writing of my book on the topic. The fact that I have now been able to fully document and verify 22 generations of women in an unbroken maternal lineage and prove that they were Jewish since the times of the Spanish Inquisition was nothing other than totally amazing.
As time passed however, and the e mails kept pouring in, I began to wonder if these feelings that are being evoked so rampantly in so many people, were a reaction to my own work, or a sign of the times.
With an inbox full of questions similar to : What can you tell me about the name Coronado? Please, tell me: is the name Soria a Jewish one ? Can you help me to come back to the Jewish People ? What is your opinion on the name Fernandes, Menendes, Henriques, etc? How can I do what you did? I slowly came to the realization that this movement is much bigger and more far reaching than I am and more important than most people realize. I also realized how small I was in comparison to the work that needs to be done.
One by one, they are waking up and we are bearing witness to the Ingathering of Exiles or in Hebrew Kibbutz Galuyyot. This idea has been mentioned in the Bible again and again and all referring to different circumstances in History yet the main theme is the same. Gather the dispersed of the Jewish Peoples and bring them home! The concept , which is covered several times in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, was first brought in the Torah in the book of Deuteronomy.
The Talmud talks about how this ingathering of exiles is a sign of Messianic Times . Interestingly enough however, this topic is often seen in Medieval Jewish Apocalyptic Literature. It is not a coincidence then that those people that write to me in search of answers have arisen from those very same Medieval ashes.
May we all be Blessed to witness what I am able to see daily and may we all have the strength to accept and understand those that come to us with the fervent and burning desire to return to the Jewish Nation. May their paths be brightly lit .
Genie Milgrom
