Why Do We Consider the Germans NOT to be Israelites? (24 April, 2013, Iyar 14, 5773)
An alternate treatment of this subject matter may be see at: Germany is not Israelite!
We received the two letters below. They complain about us leaving Germany out of the list of the Lost Ten Tribes nations. Every now and again we receive complaints of this nature. It is nearly always Americans of Germans who complain. Germans from Germany usually would not want to be considered Israelites in any shape or form. One of the letters below however may have been from Germany.
In short, the Angles and Saxons were an alliance of different groups that came in part from Germany and in part from elsewhere. Those that came from Germany were not Germans and left Germany. There were however Israelites who remained in Germany and these mostly left in the Great Migrations and Exodus from Germany in the 1700s and 1800s. This phenomenon has been remarked upon by others and is one of the subjects of our researches.
Here are the letters:
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(1) Dagmar Brenne
Re: Germany & the Lost Tribes of Israel
I certainly agree, that Ya'ir's is a very biased and unfortunate view. The religion called British Israel is even more incongruous in its bigotry, as it is most plain and obvious that both US and UK, called Anglo Saxons are to the greatest part originating from the Saxons and Friesians from Germany.
Truth is being sacrificed to accommodate the prevailing prejudices against Germany. Such things cannot stand as a truly scholarly effort.
Dagmar
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(2) Menachem Mevashir
Subject: Germany & the Lost Tribes of Israel
Dear Ya'ir,
I came across your site and wondered at why you exclude Germany from your list of nations descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel?
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesGermany.html
Are you relying for this on the teaching of the Vilna Ga'on about Germany as Germamia mentioned in Tractate Megillah?
It doesn't seem plausible to me for the following reasons:
1. Germany traditionally was the heart of the Holy Roman Empire of Catholic Christendom.
2. Germany was the most favorable of all nations to Jews in the Diaspora.
3. German ingenuity in arts, sciences, medicine, engineering, philosophy, and music is legendary. These are all attributes of the blessings to Joseph.
4. I once saw a website that documents militarism of Western nations, and the US and UK came out on top by a very large margin as the nations most embroiled in war and the most ruthless. Germany is falsely perceived as a war mongering nation when the Anglo-Americans take that award. And unlike Germany, the Anglos pick on weak nations for their wars.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
Menachem Mevashir
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Brit-Am Replies:
(1) In answer to Dagmar Brenne,
In ancient times different tribes existed in Germany. Not all of them were of the same origins. The peoples later known as Saxons and Frisians were not the same as they who had been there previously but had been known by the same names. This distinction has been confirmed by numerous German historians and researchers.
(2) In answer to Menachem Mevashir,
1. The Holy Roman Empire was indeed in large part a German entity. It was also in some ways a continuation of the Roman Empire. It was not Israelite in character. It harked back to Rome, the enemy of Israel.
In England on the other hand, even though they were also Christian, monarchs such as Richard-1, and Elizabeth-1 referred to England as Israel. So did Cromwell who ruled England.
2. Germany was never favorable towards Jews. There were periods when the situation was better than it had been but it was always bad. The Germans on the whole were always anti-Jewish even before the Holocaust. They were quite brutal and sadistic. This is even before we consider the Holocaust and all its implications. Some of my own ancestors on my mother's side were Jews in Germany. I am certain that some of them at times felt an appreciation for Germany and that there were favorable exceptions.
Nevertheless if all we have to go on is history and historical anecdotes then the Germans do not come out in a favorable light.
3. You said, "German ingenuity in arts, sciences, medicine, engineering, philosophy, and music is legendary."
This is true to a degree but it is often very regimentalized.
There is nothing Israelite about it.
4. Anglo Militarism. It is true that at some stage or other most peoples of the world have been invaded by Britain. See, Britain may have invaded 90 per cent of the world, but we're not hated everywhere by Colin Freeman. Nevertheless the British Rule was mostly benign and beneficial. Their invasion and coinquest of other nations was usually a response to provocations or issues that forced them to act. It was as if Divine Providece FORCED them to become great. A similar judgment in its own way is applicable to the USA. Germany on the other hand glorified militarism and brute force.
Esau (Edom) had been blessed in a similar way to Jacob.
Genesis 27:
38 And Esau said to his father, 'Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me also, O my father! And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
'Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.
40 By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
And it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck.'
The Germans were not known for their humanity.
We also have Ephraimite Criteria
These help us determine which nations are of Israelite origin and which not.
The criteria include:
(1. Blessings: Economic and Physical Blessings as promised to Israel in Scripture.
(2. Indications of Scripture: Biblical Evidence predicting whereto the Lost Ten Tribes would go, what type of religion and government they would have, etc.
(3. Groundwork: Historical, Archaeological, and Related Proofs showing paths of migration. See Jeremiah 31:21. Dolmens showing Pathway of Migration Jeremiah 31:21
(4. Judah: Affinity with the Jews. : This entails proven feelings of kinship and sympathy with the Jews and a Relative Lack of Anti-Semitism when compared with others. This holds true even though Prophecy (Isaiah 11:13) also indicates that a certain degree of tension would always exist almost to the end between "Ephraim" and Judah.
(5. Originality: Innovation and Intellect: A minimal degree of national Intellectual Wisdom and Honesty, cf. Deuteronomy 4:6.
(6. Bravery: Proven Military Prowess in the past at least and at present in potential, see Deuteronomy 33:29.
(7. Empathy: The Doing of Social Justice.
(8. Israelite Self-Identification
(9. Family Connection: The identified group should have proven "ethnic" links to at least one of the other identified groups so that the proofs of one may be applied to the other.
(10. Tribal Affiliation.
Some of these criteria are pertinent to Germany and some are not. Those that are may be explained by the Esau/Edomite element amongst the Germans.
We have discussed the Edom/Esau compontent in Germany on our web-sites and in detail in our work, Ephraim.
Let us examine each of the criteria and see how the Germans conform to them.
(1. Blessings: Germany has been blessed materially. These blessings however may be explained by those given to Esau.
Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above (Genesis 27:39).
(2. Indications of Scripture: Biblical Evidence predicting whereto the Lost Ten Tribes would go, what type of religion and government they would have, etc.
Germany does not fit most of these. Germany is not at the ends of the earth, not in islands, nor coastland peninsulas. German rulership has tended to emphasize autocracy and absolutness. German military and foreign strategy does not look for "gates" but rather emphasizes domination by force and the exercise of localized focused brutality. The Germans seem to have always placed much value on the authority of man and the elevation of human understanding nullifying that of the Bible.
True, Germany is to the north of the Land of Israel and it is in a salubrious region. This however applies to many other areas and is not enough in itself.
(3. Groundwork. Israelites were in Germany in Ancient Times but mostly left. Archaeological remains are therefore no so pertinent since we may show that they pertained to Israelites who were once there but left afterwards.
(4. Judah: Affinity with the Jews. Germans failed in this area.
(5. Originality: Innovation and Intellect. Germans have this quality to some degree. Since they killed or drove out all their Jews however the German scores on originality have gone way down. Germans Jews gave more to German science than the Germans themselves did. Even part of what the native Germans achieved was due to their Jewish colleagues and the influence of Jewish scientists. John Hulley wrote a book discussing this issue.
(6. Bravery: Proven Military Prowess. The Germans had this but it was also a characteristic of Esau, By your sword you shall live (Genesis 27:40).
(7. Empathy: The Doing of Social Justice. The Germans had this in a way. The Germans do look after themselves. It can however be applied in an unjust manner. Those who are better acquainted with the subject are invited to write us on the issue.
(8. Israelite Self-Identification. This seems to have been lacking with the Germans. On the contrary they seem to have always preferred to depict themselves as the diametric opposite of Israelites.
(9. Family Connection. This is disputed. At all events its the majority that determine these issues or qualitatively important groups that exert a determinative influence.
(10. Tribal Affiliation. The Germans are not affiliated to any Israelite Tribal groups.