Sunday, June 25, 2006
David Alroy
In the twelfth century, (according to the Hebrew Wikipedia), David Alroy, who was born as Menahem Ben Shlomo Alroy, proclaimed that he was the Messiah. He founded in Khazaria a Messianic Jewish movement that intended to conquer Palestine. He used the Star of David as his emblem. Since his name is the same name as of King David and King Solomon there is a theory that this symbol started to spread not from the times of the first Jewish Temple but from the twelfth century.
Cemeteries
Yoram Bar-Gal Maoz Azaryahu from the University of Haifa published a paper about Israeli Cemeteries and Jewish Tradition where they claim that today both Sephardi and Ashkenazy Jews make frequent use of classic Jewish symbols: the Star of David and the menorah.
The Star of David is found by scientific researchers in all kinds of spooky places like cemeteries, archeological sites, ruined synagogues, archives and libraries while non-scientific info collectors like me prefer looking for these stars in the marketplace, where people use it and react to it. Nevertheless Bar-Gal and Azaryahu's paper is full of surprising data and I recommend reading it in its entirety.
Legion 1
Yesterday I traveled to Ashdod to take a break from my Star of David Project but was attacked by a legion of these emblems hanging above a cars selling agency lot.