יום חמישי י"ח באדר ב תשפ"ד 28/03/2024
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  • The Mission Continues

    As in the past so it remains today - we were and still are under the selfsame commitment to adhere to the directions of the Gedolei Yisrael, who stand guard against breaches of purity threatening our camp. When we were required to ask – we asked. When we were instructed to depart – we left. The moment we are summoned back to raise the flag, every other consideration is pushed to the side and we answer: We are ready!

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בראי היום

  • Harav Yisrael Friedman zy”a, the Rebbe of Husyatin

    מוטי, ויקיפדיה העברית

    The ancestral chain of Harav Yisrael Friedman, the founder of the Husyatin chassidic court, originates with the holy Baal Shem Tov. The Husyatin chassidus has its roots in Galicia and eventually came to Tel Aviv, during the turbulent years between the two World Wars.

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Place

  • Maccabi'im Gravesite

    In honour of Chanukah, we will discuss a fascinating, ongoing investigation attempting to establish the place of burial of Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol and his family.

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In I got It!

Where is Edgardo?

Edgardo, a Jewish Boy Lost to the Jewish Nation

N. Lieberman 03/08/2009 10:00

The kidnapping of children and their subsequent forced baptism isn’t merely a thing of the past, but in fact occurred as recently as the end of the 19th century, in Italy.

On the 24th of January, 1858 (9th Shevat 5618), a young boy by the name of Edgardo Mortara (1851/5611 - 1940/5700) was kidnapped by officers of the Pope, who claimed that the child was really a Christian. He was the sixth son of a Jewish merchant in Bologna, Italy, which was at that time part of the Pope’s province.

When Edgardo was two years old he was seriously ill, and was baptized by the Christian domestic servant without the knowledge of his family. The servant believed that by baptizing the boy he’ll save his life. When the boy reached the age of six, he was kidnapped from his family by officers of the Vatican, who claimed that he was a Christian.

The Church supported the act, claiming that in the event of danger to life it is permitted to baptize a child even against the will of his parents.

The kidnapping aroused fury amongst the Jews of Europe, as well as amongst the liberal class of Europe and America, who protested vehemently against the Church. All efforts of the family to bring him back home were in vain, and even the lobbying of Moses Montefiore, who travelled to Rome in 1895/5619 for the express purpose of obtaining the boy’s release, were rejected by Pope Pius IX.

Several world leaders also expressed their involvement in the saga of Edgardo – amongst them Napoleon the Third (France); Caesar Franz Joseph the First of the Austro-Hungarian empire; and U.S. President Julius S. Grant, who sent his request to the Pope to free Edgardo but wasn’t granted a response.

Only in the year 1879/5639 at the age of 28, was Edgardo allowed to renew contact with his family.

In 1940/5700 Edgardo Mortara died in a Belgian monastery, after acting as a missionary in Germany and New York, and received the title ‘Pope’s Missionary’.