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| The Bab's 200th birthday was celebrated in Haifa, Israel. |
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
More than 16000 Israelis receive the "healing message" of Baha'u'llah in just 2 days.
President of Israel visits the World Centre to honor "the Bab", receives the "healing message" of Baha'u'llah!
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| During his visit to the Baha’i World Centre, President of Israel Reuven Rivlin joined Jewish Baha'i Dr. David Rutstein, Secretary-General of the Baha’i International Community, on a visit to the Shrine of the Bab and a walk through the surrounding gardens. |
On Sunday, President of Israel Reuven Rivlin came to Haifa to honor the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Bab.
The visit follows a recent reception for local leaders and a special two-evening opening of the Shrine of the Bab and the terraces on Mt. Carmel, which saw more than 16,000 visitors walk through the Baha’i gardens, with many entering the Shrine, in a stirring display of joy, reverence, and social harmony. A brief film about the Bab was shown at the bicentenary reception.
The visit follows a recent reception for local leaders and a special two-evening opening of the Shrine of the Bab and the terraces on Mt. Carmel, which saw more than 16,000 visitors walk through the Baha’i gardens, with many entering the Shrine, in a stirring display of joy, reverence, and social harmony. A brief film about the Bab was shown at the bicentenary reception.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Dr. David Rutstein is a Baha'i of Jewish background
Last week the outgoing Baha’i Secretary-General, Dr. Joshua Lincoln, took leave of his many friends, colleagues, and co-religionists in Israel and welcomed the new incoming protégé, Dr. David Rutstein, at a sparkling reception at Jerusalem’s lovely David Citadel Hotel. The guests included what appeared to be the crème de la crème of Israel’s religious, cultural, political and business society. Mingling with the guests were several volunteers from the world Baha’i centers in Haifa and Acre, who chatted with the visitors, explaining the faith and answering questions of the curious. The delicious buffet dinner, accompanied by a range of colorful fruit drinks, was the background for a friendly “shalom” to the two gentlemen. A musical interlude added to the pleasure, while brief welcome and farewell speeches rounded out the reception.
Dr. David Rutstein, MD, MPH
Founder, and President of the SolHEALTH Board of Directors. As a senior health executive, public health expert and clinician, he has created and led innovative clinical, administrative, management, emergency response and executive level teams and organizations during a 35 year career. Prior to founding SolHEALTH, Dr. Rutstein was the Vice President for Medical Affairs for United Family Healthcare in China. A retired United States Public Health Service Rear Admiral, he served as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States until 2011.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Udo Schaefer was a Baha'i of Jewish heritage.
Udo Schaefer (born October 19, 1926 in Heidelberg , Germany) was a lawyer and one of the most important contemporary theologians of the Baha'i Faith. Schaefer came from a family of musicians. In 1948 he converted to the Baha'i Faith.
On Friday, August 30 2019 Dr. Udo Schaefer passed away at the age of 92. He will be in our thoughts and prayers.
http://www.udoschaefer.com
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Farzam Ehsani is a Baha'i of Jewish background.
By Nicholas Levenstein
As it turns out Ehsani is of Persian origin and born in my adopted city … in Los Angeles where we may beat out Tehran for number of Iranians. Farzam Ehsani’s (“FA”) resume reads as total establishment: he attended the University of California system’s best school, UC Berkeley and his profession credentials are include consulting stints at Deloitte Consulting and McKinsey & Co. before becoming a corporate officer at Johannesburg’s Rand Merchant Bank.
If you imagined FA as a soulless, corporate android, you would be wrong. From one of the most financially money-crazed years,1999, in one of the most money-crazed places, San Francisco, CA, FA’s first stop was at the Baha’i world center in Haifa, Israel. At the Baha’i center he worked as a gardener planting seedlings and extracting earth worms. During college years at Berkeley FA wrote speeches during a summer internship in the country of his upbringing, Kenya, for Klaus Topfer, a German Federal Minister and, at the time, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
As it turns out Ehsani is of Persian origin and born in my adopted city … in Los Angeles where we may beat out Tehran for number of Iranians. Farzam Ehsani’s (“FA”) resume reads as total establishment: he attended the University of California system’s best school, UC Berkeley and his profession credentials are include consulting stints at Deloitte Consulting and McKinsey & Co. before becoming a corporate officer at Johannesburg’s Rand Merchant Bank.
If you imagined FA as a soulless, corporate android, you would be wrong. From one of the most financially money-crazed years,1999, in one of the most money-crazed places, San Francisco, CA, FA’s first stop was at the Baha’i world center in Haifa, Israel. At the Baha’i center he worked as a gardener planting seedlings and extracting earth worms. During college years at Berkeley FA wrote speeches during a summer internship in the country of his upbringing, Kenya, for Klaus Topfer, a German Federal Minister and, at the time, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
https://bitcoininvestors.com/td_d_slug_38/
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Aghdas Javid is a Baha'i of Jewish Background
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| Aghdas Javid from Hamadan, Iran is a Baha'i from Jewish background |
Aghdas Javid: Baha’i. Teacher. Grandmother. Immigrant. Born July 16, 1924, in Hamadan, Iran; died Sept. 28, 2018, in Hamilton, of complications after a fall; aged 94.
By Brian Cameron, Anne Pearson and Kim Ness
When Aghdas Javid arrived in Canada with her physician husband, Mirza, in 1966, there were few other Iranian immigrants around. She was determined to integrate her family and contribute to her new community. It wasn’t easy – her English was accented, her skin was darker, her Baha’i religion barely known in Canada. But almost immediately she started classes for children and young mothers, taught Persian cooking and was invited to speak to local organizations. She began inviting people to her home for a Baha’i fireside, a weekly tradition that continued uninterrupted for more than 50 years.
During her childhood, Aghdas was encouraged to study and learned English. Her father also instilled in her a lifelong love of gardening. In Canada, she tended her flowers while elegantly wearing an emerald green ring, often giving a rose to a departing visitor, so that no one would leave her home empty-handed. Her home was known for delicious Persian food embellished with her homegrown herbs.
In Iran, Aghdas had taught village women to read and she continued to lead creative ideas for the promotion of women and children’s education in her Canadian community. In 1990 she was awarded Hamilton’s World Citizenship Award for community service with the UN Association and for helping to establish the Children’s International Learning Centre. She took on every project with passion and an unwillingness to take no for an answer. Sometimes when she was leading a project, Aghdas would ask one person to take on a task and then ask two others to do the same thing to ensure it got done. She had little patience for mediocrity.
Aghdas was also hard to say no to when she invited you to her Baha’i fireside talks on subjects ranging from the nature of the soul to social justice and community development. She always insisted on having a good speaker who allowed for questions and conversation. If the speaker was not inspiring enough, the tea and sweets were brought out early. Every July she hosted a garden party for all who shared that birthday month and in late February there was an annual community tea party to celebrate the Baha’i holiday of hospitality and fellowship.
Aghdas knew she was fortunate to have left Iran before the 1979 revolution, which had led to the deaths of many of her friends. Her contacts with Canadian journalists and politicians were instrumental in the Canadian government’s resolutions to the continuing persecution of Baha’is in Iran. Aghdas said that being in Canada, she felt “freed from a cage.” In 2001, she was one of 19 Canadian representatives to travel to Haifa, Israel, for the opening of the Baha’i Garden Terraces on Mount Carmel.
Aghdas and Mirza raised three daughters, Sussan, Ladan and Jasmine, and she was widowed in 1999. As Aghdas developed physical frailties she would sometimes complain that “being old sucks!”, but her spirit was undiminished. She joined a local aqua-fit class, lived independently and insisted on driving her own car until her final illness. Mama Aghdas took joy in her five grandchildren and great-grandson and would give them wet kisses in the pool. A new great-granddaughter bears her name. Her legacy remains in the many lives she touched with her enthusiastic energy and indefatigable spirit.
Brian Cameron, Anne Pearson and Kim Ness are friends of Aghdas Javid.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Baha'is have been warmly pro-Israel.
Baha'is have been warmly pro-Israel. They subscribe to the prophecies of the Bible and see in many Biblical verses predictions of the rise of their own faith. Thy believe that restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem precede the inevitable day of Final Judgment. They note that establishment of the State of Israel did not take place in the Muslim era nor in the Christian era, but in what they call the Baha'i period of history. When their pilgrims come here this year to mark their 100th anniversary they will at the same time, and in all sincerity, also join in celebrating Israel's twentieth year.
Baha'i schools and other establishements will be erected on Mount Carmel that will serve the Cause of God.
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| Sarah Farmer Inn, Green Acre Baha'i School, United States |
The outstanding contribution made to the Haifa landscape by the Baha'is, the shrines and gardens on the Carmel slopes, were begun many years ago and steadily developed by Shoghi Effendi with the advice of Mr. W. Weltsch , the architect.
The gardens are only part of the large area which the Baha'i community owns, and on which it is planned to erect schools and other establishments to extend from the crest of Mount Carmel down to the German Colony.
http://www.jpress.nli.org.il/Olive/APA/NLI/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=PLS%2F1939%2F12%2F28&id=Ar00200&sk=5E2F482C
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Jailed in Turkey for teaching the Baha'i Faith.
By Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari
My beloved dad was jailed in Turkey for teaching the Bahá'i Faith, he was eventually freed with the condition that he would leave the country, which he did, and eventually the government after years of court trials recognized the Bahá'i Faith as an independent religion, and not a sect of Islam. My father also suffered 2 years in Iranian prisons, jailed for being an outspoken Bahá'i, just after the Islamic revolution. He eventually was able to escape the country and join me and my family in Spain, where I had pioneered to 9 years before the revolution. Dad lived in Spain and quickly learned the language, now he continued teaching his beloved Faith in Spanish. Some years later we left Spain to again pioneer to Paraguay. Eventually I left Paraguay for USA, leaving my old man behind, for he would not come with me. My father spoke very good German - among other languages - so he lived in a retirement home full of elderly Germans in San Lorenzo outside of the capital Asuncion. Every day he would go to the park, sit next to Paraguayans on a bench, he would hand them a Bahá'i pamphlet and ask them kindly to read it to him, and explain what the pamphlet said. This practice caused hundreds to accept and embrace the Cause of God. Years later when my darling wife and I went to visit him so many greeted us with a loud and clear Alláh'u'Abhá, and told us that señor Shokrollah Badiian had been their Bahá'i Teacher.
My beloved dad was jailed in Turkey for teaching the Bahá'i Faith, he was eventually freed with the condition that he would leave the country, which he did, and eventually the government after years of court trials recognized the Bahá'i Faith as an independent religion, and not a sect of Islam. My father also suffered 2 years in Iranian prisons, jailed for being an outspoken Bahá'i, just after the Islamic revolution. He eventually was able to escape the country and join me and my family in Spain, where I had pioneered to 9 years before the revolution. Dad lived in Spain and quickly learned the language, now he continued teaching his beloved Faith in Spanish. Some years later we left Spain to again pioneer to Paraguay. Eventually I left Paraguay for USA, leaving my old man behind, for he would not come with me. My father spoke very good German - among other languages - so he lived in a retirement home full of elderly Germans in San Lorenzo outside of the capital Asuncion. Every day he would go to the park, sit next to Paraguayans on a bench, he would hand them a Bahá'i pamphlet and ask them kindly to read it to him, and explain what the pamphlet said. This practice caused hundreds to accept and embrace the Cause of God. Years later when my darling wife and I went to visit him so many greeted us with a loud and clear Alláh'u'Abhá, and told us that señor Shokrollah Badiian had been their Bahá'i Teacher.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
I am the One Who conversed with God on Mount Sinai
The Blessed Beauty of Abhá: Bahá'u'lláh was most loving and generous towards my ancestor Hakim Haroon, to the point that He blessed him by revealing the Tablet of "Hakim" in his honor. In that Tablet The Glory of God: Bahá'u'lláh referred to Hakim Haroon as "My true brother". Saying : "For I am the One Who conversed with God - through the Burning Bush - on Mount Sinai - You Haroon = Aron are my brother" In that Holy Tablet Bahá'u'lláh also revealed: "O Hakim, from the moment you prostrated yourself before The Primal Point (The beloved Báb) and embraced His Cause all your descendants shall be the steadfast servants of this Most Great Cause of God" And so it is.
Baha'u'llah welcomed him with an embrace...
By Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari
When in 1846 Hakim Haroon my beloved ancestor was in the presence of the
beloved Báb in the home of Manuchehr Khan, Gorji Mo'tamad al-Dawle a
government official in Qajar Iran The Governor of Isfahan, he was in his
mid to late forties. That made him about 20 years older than the twin
Manifestations of God: The beloved Báb & The Blessed Beauty of Abhá:
Bahá'u'lláh. Hakim Haroon raised his 16 children, all his grandkids
& their kids in the Cause of God, stayed firm in the Covenant to
his last breath, and at a very old age in 1892 just before the Ascension
of The Blessed Beauty of Abhá: Bahá'u'lláh, he was on his deathbed in
coma for days, in the town of Kashan, Iran, with all his entire family
of now hundreds at his bedside, prayerful and in tears. When suddenly
to everyone's great astonishment and delight he regained consciousness,
setup in his bed, bowed his head out of respect and in loud voice
greated "Alláh'u'Abhá": The family were all beyond themselves, as he
asked them all to be quiet and respectful and say Alláh'u'Abha. But to
whom they asked. Do you not see The "Rab'u'l-Jnud" "ربلجنود" = The Lord
of Hosts = Bahá'u'lláh in the Jewish tradition" is here to receive me
and take me with Him? So they all quietened down only saying
Alláh'u'Abhá, as he passed away looking happy with a smile on his face..
Years later some of his sons were on pilgrimage at the Bahá'i World
Center, in the presence of the beloved Master Abdu'l-Bahá, sitting
quietly, when Abdu'l-Bahá said: you gentlemen have a question you have
been wanting to ask for years. They respectfully smiled and one said:
"beloved Master, you know our question" The beloved Master said : "Yes,
we were all in the presence of The Blessed Beauty as He was revealing a
Tablet, when suddenly He stopped and said: "At this very moment My
beloved brother Haroon in Kashan Iran, is ready to ascend to The Abhá
Kingdom, we must go to welcome him" Bahá'u'lláh left the room, we all
say quietly, a minute or two later He appeared and said: "We welcomed
him with an embrace and he is now in his due high abode in the Concourse
on High"
Jewish Baha'i Pioneer established the Baha'i Faith in Edrine, Turkey
By Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari
Pioneering must be for the love of God and The Blessed Beauty of Abhá: Bahá'u'lláh. When this humble servant of His Servants was a young child, my beloved parents in obedience to the wishes of the beloved Guardian of the Bahá'i Faith and only for the love of Bahá'u'lláh, uprooted them selves and our family pioneered to Edirne, Turkey. In Tehran, Iran, we were living very comfortably. My father had a very lucrative business, a factory with many employees. Yet mom & dad left their loving families, old parents, siblings, and much more all behind, and bravely, trusting and only relying on the help, the guidance and the confirmations of the armies of angles of the Concourse on High, detached from all else but Him Whom God hath made Manifest took their young children and pioneered to a small desolate faraway town Edirne where they knew no one, did not speak the language, and had never been there before. That was a leap of faith and absolute courage. Edirne is very cold and snowy in winters, we had no proper heating or running hot water, there was not a hosítal let alone a supermarket there, life in general was not easy. in those days Turks did not like Iranians much. In a word: it took much courage, prayers and sacrifice to live there and put up with so many difficulties. The mission the Guardian had given my parents, the goals he had set for them, which they had accepted with all their heart were not easy. Yet they never backed down, they proceed with firm feet, adamantly, till absolute success and final victory. And so that is why in some of his letters to my dad, often hand delivered by some of the beloved Hands of the Cause, the beloved guardian would kindly mention say things as such to my father: "You are my true brother and coworker" .."Your services and sacrifices for This Most Great Cause of God shall only be rewarded in the Abhá Kingdom.." The merit of a true pioneer such as you, is no less than that of a martyr.."
Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari is a Baha'i of Jewish background
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| Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari (A Jewish Baha'i Pioneer, originally from Isfahan, Iran) |
I am of Jewish ancestors, so one could say I have 100 % pure Jewish blood in me, but of course I am a Baha'i thank God, Baha'u'llah and my ancestor (The first Jew to accept the Babi Faith in the very beginning 1846, when His Holiness the Primal Point went to Esphahan.) He was a Jew who had accepted Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrian faith and was looking for the Qaim. The moment he met the Bab - in the home of Manuchehr khan, the Governor of Esphahan - he recognized the Bab as The Promised Qaim and accepted / embraced the Babi Faith. Later he was in the presence of The Blessed Beauty many times, in Iran and in Baghdad and received a Tablet in his honer from the blessed hands of Baha'u'llah. The Beloved Master Abdu'l-Baha has written much about my great, great, great grandfather: Hakim Haroon (meaning Doctor Aron) of whom I am a 6th generation on my dad's part and a 7th generation on my mom's side Babi and Baha'i ...Our family story is long and I think quite interesting I would gladly tell any one on Skype. God be with you all.
First Jewish gentleman who met the Bab.
By Mehrdad Badiian Eghrari (Jewish Baha'i Pioneer, originally from Isfahan, Iran)
My beloved great- grandfather Mr. Eliahu was of Jewish origin, yet he was a grand-child of the first Jewish gentleman : Hakim Haroon who met His Holiness The beloved Báb in 1846 in Esfahan immediately becoming a believer and a follower of the Báb. Later when The Blessed Beauty of Abhá: Bahá'u'lláh declared His Faith & Mission in the garden of Ridvan Baghdad in 1863 on the 9th day of Ridván, my ancestor Hakim Haroon was present as a believer & a follower of Him Whom God made Manifest. That makes me a 7th generation Báb'i & Bahá'i.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Perhaps Israel would be the first non-Baha'i state to adopt the Baha'i Faith as it's State Religion.
In answer to those who raise objections to this vision of a worldwide commonwealth inspired by a Divine Revelation, fearing for the freedom of minority groups or of the individual under such a system, we can explain the Bahá’í principle of upholding the rights of minorities and fostering their interests. We can also point to the fact that no person is ever compelled to accept the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and moreover, unlike the situation in certain other religions, each person has complete freedom to withdraw from the Faith if he decides that he no longer believes in its Founder or accepts His Teachings. In light of these facts alone it is evident that the growth of the Bahá’í communities to the size where a non-Bahá’í state would adopt the Faith as the State Religion, let alone to the point at which the State would accept the Law of God as its own law and the National House of Justice as its legislature, must be a supremely voluntary and democratic process.
https://bahai-library.com/uhj_messages_1986_2001
https://bahai-library.com/uhj_messages_1986_2001
Friday, March 22, 2019
Joy Stevenson was a Baha'i of Jewish background
Marion "Joy" Stevenson (March 17, 1919 - April 25, 2016) was a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre for ten years from May 19, 1988 to 1998. She served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, and as a Continental Counsellor for Australasia - appointed in 1983 - and an Auxiliary Board member in Australasia. She passed away in Queanbeyan, Australia on 25 April 2016. When she died the Universal House of Justice requested that Baha'i communities around the world convene "commemorative gatherings in her honour." In 1985 she was a Trustee of the Continental Fund and one of nineteen Continental Counselors for Asia.
Collis Featherstone was a Baha'i of Jewish heritage
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| Collis Featherstone (5th May, 1913 - 29th September, 1990) |
By Mariette Leong (nee Featherstone and fourth daughter)
My parents became Baha’is in late 1944 after hearing the message from Bertha Dobbins, who later became the pioneer and Knight of Baha’u’llah to the New Hebrides – now Vanuatu. Bertha and husband Joe, together with Mother Dunn (Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn) deepened my parents in the Faith. They embraced the Faith immediately and actively supported the activities. It was only a few months after becoming a Baha’i, that my father wrote to Shoghi Effendi seeking his advice on certain matters, and this was the first of many communications with the Guardian over the years.
In 1949 my father was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, then in 1954 Mother Dunn appointed him as her Auxiliary Board Member together with Thelma Perks. They represented Mother Dunn on many occasions, both locally and overseas as Mother Dunn was already in her 80’s and too frail to travel.
In October1957 the Guardian appointed my father a Hand of the Cause of God together with seven others. This was the last contingent of Hands to be appointed and brought the total number of Hands at that time to 27 members.
My father did everything he could to make Shoghi Effendi, and later the Universal House of Justice happy. His responsibility of being a Hand of the Cause was enormous. He travelled constantly, meeting with National Spiritual Assemblies, Auxiliary Board Members, Baha’i communities, Heads of State, and Parliamentarians. He attended National Conventions, Summer Schools, he visited villages, he met with their Chiefs. He stayed in posh hotels and he stayed in village huts. He rode in limousines, trucks, cars, boats, canoes, motor bikes and he walked up and down mountains. He ate all kinds of food. One time he came to stay with Ho-San and I in Malaysia when we were living there. He was passing through on his way to another Baha’i Community. He was very tired and worn out from travelling and he was hungry. I asked him what would he like to eat. And he said “Have you got some toast and vegemite?” (He was missing his Aussie food!)
At the last count, throughout the 36 years of Collis Featherstone’s international travels as an Auxiliary Board Member and later as a Hand of the Cause, he made 529 visits to 108 countries outside of Australia.
Collis Featherstone was a leader. He inspired and he enthused the friends. He was warm and joyful and the love of Baha’u’llah shone through. He was detached from the material world and very much in tune with the spiritual realm. He loved the Baha’i Faith. He loved Shoghi Effendi and he loved the Universal House of Justice. He loved to talk about the Covenant, and the Will and Testament of Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha. He loved quoting from the “Gleanings” and he always knew from which page the quote was. He encouraged many friends to keep records of their Baha’i activities and events for posterity. He always said that the early communities were making history, and that these stories should be kept so that future generations could read about the early development of the Faith.
My father was a wonderful family man who loved his family dearly, and his children loved him back. There were five children and it was a busy household. He was a tool maker, and he had the initiative to go into partnership with an engineering business which he eventually bought over and managed on his own. But between the business and a very busy Baha’i life, there was not a lot of time left for recreational activities. My mother was his best friend, his secretary and help mate in every sense of the word. One of the Baha’i friends asked him what was the hardest thing about being a Hand of the Cause. He replied, “I can’t retire”. And he never did. He passed away during his travels while serving Baha’u’llah. May God bless him. To this day I miss him dearly and long for his hugs on the other side when I arrive.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Meeting of Baha'is of Jewish background in Haifa, Israel
Late Dr. Daryush Maani, Giti M. Mithaq, Faraz Maani in Haifa
Friday, March 15, 2019
Benjamin Levy (Ben Levy) was a Baha'i of Jewish background
http://bahai-library.com/levy_pilgrims_1953
Just as the Jews have crucified Christ - they suffered 2000 years of persecution - so also will the Moslems suffer a similar fate. The Jews rejected Christ - the Moslems Bahá'u'lláh and His Cause.
In buying the land of Mt. Carmel we accepted the provision that we cannot sell produce from the land (must give to poor and needy), cannot build, sell or rent. Only Bahá'ís pay no taxes on land (for religious purposes) in Israel - no other religious communities will accept these conditions - not the Muhammadans, the Christians, not even the Jews.
Ali Soleimani is a Baha'i of Jewish background
Ali Soleimani is a fourth year sociology major with a minor in Persian studies. He was born and raised in Santa Clarita, California. Within UC Davis, he is involved in APIQ (Asian & Pacific Islander Queers), and he is also the cultural director for ISCAO (Iranian Student Cultural & Æsthetic Organization). He wanted to work at the CCC because he has a deep passion for community organizing and social justice, and he wanted to make ME/SA more inclusive and diverse. A fun fact about Ali is that he knows four languages!
https://ccc.ucdavis.edu/people/ali-soleimani
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
'Homeland and Holocaust' by Jewish Baha'i scholar Robert Stockman
Secularization of western European society did not solve the "Jewish Question"; anti- Semitism continued. The French Jews, who regarded France as the most secular and tolerant society in the world, were profoundly shocked in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was wrongly accused of espionage. Dreyfus was sent to prison on the Devil's Island in the South Atlantic, and when evidence of the guilt of another officer surfaced the army refused to admit its mistake. French society was torn into two parties for over a decade, and one party was openly anti-Semitic in its literature. Anti- Jewish riots broke out in most major French cities. In Algiers—capital of the French colony of Algeria—the entire Jewish quarter was sacked. In the rest of Europe anti-Semitism was encouraged as well, and openly anti-Semitic politicians began to be elected to legislative positions. It became clear that anti-Semitism would not die simply because society had abandoned much of its religious trappings
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), a Jewish journalist who was allowed to cover the Dreyfus trial, took up his pen and wrote The Jewish State, the book that launched the modern Zionist movement. Herzl worked tirelessly to promote Zionism, dying young as a result. Eastern European Jews embraced it with particular enthusiasm, for persecution there was growing and citizenship in a secular state was not a reasonable expectation. In western Europe Zionist congresses debated the idea of setting up a Jewish homeland in Palestine and began courting contacts with diplomats. When World War One converted Palestine from an Ottoman Turkish province to a British protectorate and British policy came to favor establishment of a "Jewish home" in Palestine, the political conditions for migration to Palestine were set.
Palestine in 1917 had at most a hundred thousand Jews, out of a total population of 600,000. Many were refugees from pogroms in Eastern Europe; some were religious scholars who were totally uninterested in a Jewish state. The British did not allow unlimited immigration and Zionism at first had little momentum, and thus few potential immigrants. All land had to be purchased from the Arabs, who charged as much as the market would bear. As more Jews came to Palestine the price of land spiraled upward. Eastern European Jews who voluntarily migrated to Palestine were often secularist and Marxist; they founded the kibbutzim, which remain among the world's few successful socialist experiments.
By the end of the 1920s the Jewish population of Palestine had risen to a mere 160,000, and anti-Jewish violence promulgated by angry Arabs became a more serious problem. Jews began to organize military units to defend themselves, units that were broken up by the British. In the 1930s, with the rise of Naziism in central Europe, immigration to Palestine rose sharply; in 1935 alone 64,000 Jews arrived. Arab resistance grew and the British began to face the breakdown of the mandate. Arab and Jewish states, increasingly became inevitable.
The deterioration of the safety of Jews throughout most of Europe accelerated the process. In the Russian Empire tens of thousands of Jews were killed in early the 1920s, for they were heavily involved in the Russian Revolution as Marxists. Under Stalin, who was fiercely anti-Semitic, Marxist Jews suffered terribly and the religion was virtually banned. But the spread of Naziism represented far more serious a threat. In some ways systematic anti- Semitism in Germany was surprising, for violence against Jews had ceased a century earlier and Jews were thoroughly integrated into German science, literature, and philosophy. Germany was winning half of the Nobel Prizes being awarded; and a third to a half of the German Nobels were being won by Jews. But the lost of the First World War was a terrible blow to German pride and needed an explanation; blaming the loss on the Jews was persuasive to many. The collapse of the German economy in the early 1930s required a scapegoat and pushed the country to desperation. It elected a demagogue in one of the first national elections it had ever held. Hitler had an obsession against Jews and as a result Naziism bolstered its nationalist theories of racial superiority of the Germans with arguments of Jewish genetic inferiority and conspiracy theories of Jewish dominance of the German economy. Even before Germany began military action it began to crack down on its Jewish population. Two hundred thousand Jews fled Germany for France, Holland, and countries beyond Europe.
Creation of a powerful German military machine and its use to conquer France, Poland, and much of the Balkans and the western Soviet Union brought much of European Jewry under German authority. Nazi-occupied Poland alone had 3.3 million Jews, and Hitler could do anything with them he pleased. Labor camps where Jews and other non-Germans were reduced to slave labor were built, then concentration camps. When the Soviet Union was invaded the Jewish populations of occupied Soviet cities were rounded up and shot in the hundreds of thousands. While some two and a half million Soviet Jews fled the German armies, a million and a half remained behind, and most were killed.
In 1941 the first gas chambers were constructed. Ironically, as the tide clearly turned against Germany, Hitler and his generals put a higher priority on the "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem than on prosecuting the war. Trains carrying Polish, German, and other Jews to death camps were given priority over military trains carrying soldiers and supplies to the front. Ninety percent of Poland's Jews were gassed, shot, or worked to death. At Auschwitz alone over two million human beings were gassed and incinerated. The war saw the cold-blooded killing of six million Jews, almost two thirds of the total in Europe.
The horror produced two results of lasting significance. One was the Nuremberg trials and the creation of international law against genocide. The second was awareness of the need to create a Jewish state. Not only were Jews convinced it was essential, but international sympathy made Jewish migration to Palestine easier. The result was an explosion of the Jewish population of Palestine. When the British sought to prevent Jewish immigration a campaign of terrorism—coordinated by young men like Menachem Begin—forced them to reverse their policy. The Czech government agreed to sell arms to the Jewish agency (the coordinating agency of Jews in Palestine), which began importing weapons via a clandestine airfield. When the British surrendered their mandate in 1948 to independent Jewish and Arab states, Israel was prepared to defend itself against Arab invasion. The Jewish question was replaced by the Arab question, for hundreds of thousands fled the land that became Israel. But the Jews reestablished their own sovereign state, for the first time in over two thousand years.
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), a Jewish journalist who was allowed to cover the Dreyfus trial, took up his pen and wrote The Jewish State, the book that launched the modern Zionist movement. Herzl worked tirelessly to promote Zionism, dying young as a result. Eastern European Jews embraced it with particular enthusiasm, for persecution there was growing and citizenship in a secular state was not a reasonable expectation. In western Europe Zionist congresses debated the idea of setting up a Jewish homeland in Palestine and began courting contacts with diplomats. When World War One converted Palestine from an Ottoman Turkish province to a British protectorate and British policy came to favor establishment of a "Jewish home" in Palestine, the political conditions for migration to Palestine were set.
Palestine in 1917 had at most a hundred thousand Jews, out of a total population of 600,000. Many were refugees from pogroms in Eastern Europe; some were religious scholars who were totally uninterested in a Jewish state. The British did not allow unlimited immigration and Zionism at first had little momentum, and thus few potential immigrants. All land had to be purchased from the Arabs, who charged as much as the market would bear. As more Jews came to Palestine the price of land spiraled upward. Eastern European Jews who voluntarily migrated to Palestine were often secularist and Marxist; they founded the kibbutzim, which remain among the world's few successful socialist experiments.
By the end of the 1920s the Jewish population of Palestine had risen to a mere 160,000, and anti-Jewish violence promulgated by angry Arabs became a more serious problem. Jews began to organize military units to defend themselves, units that were broken up by the British. In the 1930s, with the rise of Naziism in central Europe, immigration to Palestine rose sharply; in 1935 alone 64,000 Jews arrived. Arab resistance grew and the British began to face the breakdown of the mandate. Arab and Jewish states, increasingly became inevitable.
The deterioration of the safety of Jews throughout most of Europe accelerated the process. In the Russian Empire tens of thousands of Jews were killed in early the 1920s, for they were heavily involved in the Russian Revolution as Marxists. Under Stalin, who was fiercely anti-Semitic, Marxist Jews suffered terribly and the religion was virtually banned. But the spread of Naziism represented far more serious a threat. In some ways systematic anti- Semitism in Germany was surprising, for violence against Jews had ceased a century earlier and Jews were thoroughly integrated into German science, literature, and philosophy. Germany was winning half of the Nobel Prizes being awarded; and a third to a half of the German Nobels were being won by Jews. But the lost of the First World War was a terrible blow to German pride and needed an explanation; blaming the loss on the Jews was persuasive to many. The collapse of the German economy in the early 1930s required a scapegoat and pushed the country to desperation. It elected a demagogue in one of the first national elections it had ever held. Hitler had an obsession against Jews and as a result Naziism bolstered its nationalist theories of racial superiority of the Germans with arguments of Jewish genetic inferiority and conspiracy theories of Jewish dominance of the German economy. Even before Germany began military action it began to crack down on its Jewish population. Two hundred thousand Jews fled Germany for France, Holland, and countries beyond Europe.
Creation of a powerful German military machine and its use to conquer France, Poland, and much of the Balkans and the western Soviet Union brought much of European Jewry under German authority. Nazi-occupied Poland alone had 3.3 million Jews, and Hitler could do anything with them he pleased. Labor camps where Jews and other non-Germans were reduced to slave labor were built, then concentration camps. When the Soviet Union was invaded the Jewish populations of occupied Soviet cities were rounded up and shot in the hundreds of thousands. While some two and a half million Soviet Jews fled the German armies, a million and a half remained behind, and most were killed.
In 1941 the first gas chambers were constructed. Ironically, as the tide clearly turned against Germany, Hitler and his generals put a higher priority on the "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem than on prosecuting the war. Trains carrying Polish, German, and other Jews to death camps were given priority over military trains carrying soldiers and supplies to the front. Ninety percent of Poland's Jews were gassed, shot, or worked to death. At Auschwitz alone over two million human beings were gassed and incinerated. The war saw the cold-blooded killing of six million Jews, almost two thirds of the total in Europe.
The horror produced two results of lasting significance. One was the Nuremberg trials and the creation of international law against genocide. The second was awareness of the need to create a Jewish state. Not only were Jews convinced it was essential, but international sympathy made Jewish migration to Palestine easier. The result was an explosion of the Jewish population of Palestine. When the British sought to prevent Jewish immigration a campaign of terrorism—coordinated by young men like Menachem Begin—forced them to reverse their policy. The Czech government agreed to sell arms to the Jewish agency (the coordinating agency of Jews in Palestine), which began importing weapons via a clandestine airfield. When the British surrendered their mandate in 1948 to independent Jewish and Arab states, Israel was prepared to defend itself against Arab invasion. The Jewish question was replaced by the Arab question, for hundreds of thousands fled the land that became Israel. But the Jews reestablished their own sovereign state, for the first time in over two thousand years.
God has forgiven the Jews in this Dispensation and that they will return to their homeland.http://bahai-library.com/compilation_holocaust_greater_plan
You should certainly endeavour to establish further contacts with your Jewish fellow-citizens, as their spiritual destiny is assuredly bright. The age-long sufferings and tribulations which the Jews all over the world have so cruelly experienced will be terminated during the Bahá'í era, as they will be gradually led to embrace the Faith, which, indeed, constitutes the only means of salvation to their race.
Robert Stockman is a Baha'i scholar of Jewish heritage
Robert Stockman (born October 6, 1953) is a scholar specializing in Bahá'í studies who has been called "the foremost historian of the Bahá’í Faith in America." He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University (B.A., 1975) and a doctorate in religious studies from Harvard University (Th.D., 1990).
He was introduced to the Bahá'í Faith while an undergraduate student and converted at the age of twenty, on October 16, 1973. He has been an active Bahá'í since his conversion, and in 1979 participated in mass teachings in rural central Florida.
During his studies for his master's degree in geology, he developed an interest in the history of the Bahá'í community in Rhode Island which led to his researching the biography of Thornton Chase. This endeavor led to the publication of Baha'i Faith in America: Origins 1892–1900 followed by Baha'i Faith in America, The: Early Expansion, 1900–1912 Volume 2 before the ultimate publishing of Thornton Chase: First American Baha'i. Starting in 1989, he has worked for the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, based in Wilmette, Illinois, in various capacities. He is married to Mana Derakhshani.
Subsequent to earning his doctorate from Harvard Divinity School, Stockman began teaching at the DePaul University in Chicago prior to proceeding to his current position as a lecturer at Indiana University South Bend, where he teaches religious studies. He serves as director of the Wilmette Institute. He has served on the boards of the Bahá'í Encyclopedia project, the Association for Bahá'í Studies, and World Order magazine. He has lectured on Bahá'í topics across the world and is a frequent contributor to Bahá'í panels at the American Academy of Religion.
He was introduced to the Bahá'í Faith while an undergraduate student and converted at the age of twenty, on October 16, 1973. He has been an active Bahá'í since his conversion, and in 1979 participated in mass teachings in rural central Florida.
During his studies for his master's degree in geology, he developed an interest in the history of the Bahá'í community in Rhode Island which led to his researching the biography of Thornton Chase. This endeavor led to the publication of Baha'i Faith in America: Origins 1892–1900 followed by Baha'i Faith in America, The: Early Expansion, 1900–1912 Volume 2 before the ultimate publishing of Thornton Chase: First American Baha'i. Starting in 1989, he has worked for the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, based in Wilmette, Illinois, in various capacities. He is married to Mana Derakhshani.
Subsequent to earning his doctorate from Harvard Divinity School, Stockman began teaching at the DePaul University in Chicago prior to proceeding to his current position as a lecturer at Indiana University South Bend, where he teaches religious studies. He serves as director of the Wilmette Institute. He has served on the boards of the Bahá'í Encyclopedia project, the Association for Bahá'í Studies, and World Order magazine. He has lectured on Bahá'í topics across the world and is a frequent contributor to Bahá'í panels at the American Academy of Religion.
Research Documents by Robert Stockman
These affluent Jewish families quickly converted to the Baha'i Faith and served it when it was a Child.
 |
In the early part of the twentieth century, as millennial expectations swept through a fast-changing world, there were many in the United States who sought spiritual awakening. On any given night in the country’s most vibrant cities, rooms were filled to capacity with spiritual seekers gathered to listen to gurus, teachers, and charlatans holding court on biblical prophecy, the End Times, and a myriad other religious subjects. Among the inquisitive souls attending such meetings in Washington D.C. was the young Pauline Hannen, the first in her family to investigate what was at the time a little-known religion of the East called the Bahá’í Faith. Pauline was enthralled by what she heard, and she quickly immersed herself in study of the new Faith and shared all that she learned with her sisters, Fanny and Alma Knobloch, and her mother Amalie. Her husband, Joseph Hannen, soon embraced the Faith as well, and the Hannens and Knoblochs became active members of the small but growing American Bahá’í community. Their embrace of the Cause came at significant personal sacrifice as it meant breaking with the social mores and status quo of Washington society as they strove to put the Faith’s social teachings into practice. They were privileged, however, to visit and correspond with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá personally and were intimately involved in serving Him throughout His visit to North America. Clearly aware of the significance of the times in which they lived, the families documented their correspondence and activities meticulously and left extensive written records of their lives.
KNOBLOCH MEMORIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Email Date: Thursday, June 29, 2000 1:24 PM
Email Date: Thursday, June 29, 2000 1:24 PM
Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i’s of Washington, DC
Subject: Knobloch Family Memorial
"You are invited to a unique event that will pay tribute to a distinguished Baha'i family of Washington DC, the Knobloch family.
Pauline Knobloch was the first of the family to become a Baha'i (in 1903), followed by her mother Amalie and her sisters Fanny and Alma. Pauline's husband, the saintly Joseph Hannen, took notes of all Abdu’l-Bahá talks in Washington. It was through this devoted couple that Louis Gregory became a Baha'i, studying with them each week in their modest home.
Fanny was the first Baha'i teacher to go to South Africa, where she stayed for three years developing the first Baha'i settlements. She returned to the US because of ill health but later, at age 68, returned to South Africa. She lived her life out at the home of Carl Hannen in Wilmette.
Alma Knobloch went to Germany in 1907 to implant the Baha'i Faith there. Abdu’l-Bahá instructed her to remain as long as she could and she was there through the horrors of the first world war and beyond.
This family is buried in a family plot at Prospect Hill cemetery just north of Rhode Island Avenue and North Capitol Street in Washington, and about 20 of the descendants are flying in to hold a commemorative ceremony there on July 8th at 11 am. You are all invited to attend, and to come for a light lunch at the Baha'i Center to meet the descendants of this outstanding family.
Please join us on this occasion.
Sincerely,
The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i’s of Washington, DC
Margit Warburg is a Jewish but she loves the Baha'i Faith and the Baha'is
Margit Warburg is a Jewish academic scholar, she has written extensively on the Baha'i Faith and the human rights of Baha'is in the Middle East. May the Blessed Beauty reward her for her wonderful work and may the favors of the Blessed Beauty, Baha’u’llah, encompass her, and may the lights of the Sun of Reality be her illumination.
More can be read here:
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Anthony Azizi is a Baha'i of Jewish Heritage
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| Anthony Azizi with Maziar Jobrani |
https://www.mcall.com/entertainment/arts/mc-anthony-azizi-oslo-broadway-20170408-story.html
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Joyce Shales was a Baha'i of Jewish Heritage
Joyce Shales is Tlingit, and has Haida and Jewish ancestry as well, and grew up in the southeastern Alaskan town of Sitka. She declared as a Baha’i in 1964, around the age of twenty, while living in Fairbanks, Alaska.
She has taught in many areas of the world including Greenland. She and her family live in the tiny Eskimo village of Shish-maref, where she is working on a master's degree in sociology from the University of Alaska.
On Pilgrimage, while sharing her story during her time together about her mother’s great-grandmother, who was born to a Haida mother and a German Jewish father. Recalling a childhood fascination that she had with “the holy land” in Israel, even before she learned about this Jewish relative, Shales noted that subsequent trips that she made to “the holy land” as a Baha’i were especially touching on account of this connection. Speaking about her first trip to Israel in 1968, she recalled: “I got down and kissed the ground when I went there. I felt like I came home. Must be my ancestors, my genes, my DNA. the one that kissed that ground.”
She has taught in many areas of the world including Greenland. She and her family live in the tiny Eskimo village of Shish-maref, where she is working on a master's degree in sociology from the University of Alaska.
On Pilgrimage, while sharing her story during her time together about her mother’s great-grandmother, who was born to a Haida mother and a German Jewish father. Recalling a childhood fascination that she had with “the holy land” in Israel, even before she learned about this Jewish relative, Shales noted that subsequent trips that she made to “the holy land” as a Baha’i were especially touching on account of this connection. Speaking about her first trip to Israel in 1968, she recalled: “I got down and kissed the ground when I went there. I felt like I came home. Must be my ancestors, my genes, my DNA. the one that kissed that ground.”
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Judaism and the Baha'i Faith : Warwick Leaflets
Judaism, one of the oldest of the world religions, is based on a series of Messengers and Prophets Who have revealed God's will over many centuries. Jews see it as their duty to follow God's laws to the best of their understanding and in return, God promises to guard and guide them.
Bahá'ís believe that this guidance has continued through the ages and that the latest of the Messengers is Bahá'u'lláh. He was born in Persia (now Iran) in 1817. Bahá'ís believe Him to have been the Promised One of all religions.
Bahá'ís believe that this guidance has continued through the ages and that the latest of the Messengers is Bahá'u'lláh. He was born in Persia (now Iran) in 1817. Bahá'ís believe Him to have been the Promised One of all religions.
Read full article here:
William Henry (Harry) Randall was a Baha'i of Jewish background
Immediately after my plane touched down in Boston, my host whisked me away in her car with a promise that I would love our destination.
We did not head towards the recognised highlights of the city such as the historic Boston Common or Harvard University or the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
We drove instead to the historic suburb of Medford and arrived at a cemetery where, amidst the golden autumn leaves, was the simple grey slate headstone of William Henry (Harry) Randall (1863-1929).
To the outer world Harry Randall was a multi-millionaire Boston businessman who later lost his fortune.
To the Baha’i community Harry Randall is a true hero of the Faith, one loved by Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi.
In fact, he achieved such a station that, after Harry’s death, Shoghi Effendi named him one of the 19 Disciples of Abdu’l-Baha, a “Herald of the Covenant”.1
Harry was known as an outstanding public speaker, a generous donor, a true scholar of the Faith — he read and studied the Kitab-i-Iqan more than 20 times – and a person with an astounding memory, one he had developed through practice.
He had worked his way up from office boy to become president of four shipping companies. One of his partners was the billionaire John D. Rockefeller. Even before Harry had reached the pinnacle of his wealth, he had a large home with six servants, limousines, and enough money to do what he willed.
Harry was a tall man, with reddish hair and freckles, a great sense of humour and interests ranging from music to sports to gourmet cheese to stamp collecting. Around others of lesser intellectual ability and career accomplishment he could seem somewhat daunting.
But one day in 1911 the phone rang in his affluent home and his life changed forever. To please the neighbour who called, he accepted her invitation and attended a Baha’i meeting. His interest developed with the help of a former Harvard classmate, Harlan Ober, who was already a Baha’i. Mr Ober discovered that Harry had already worked out for himself an understanding of the Baha’i teaching of progressive revelation.2
In May 1912, Abdu’l-Baha arrived in Boston, and Harry rather reluctantly agreed to meet Him. The effect of the Master upon this intuitive soul was like a slow-burning spiritual explosion.
At his first one-on-one meeting, the Master remained silent for a long time with His eyes closed. Harry, not used to being kept waiting, experienced an uncomfortable prickling sensation as he became more and more angry. Eventually, he conquered his impatience and the prickling went away. Abdu’l-Baha opened His eyes and among the words He spoke to Harry were:
“Great is the power of the intellect but it is dead without love”.3
As Harry said later in a talk, love seemed to radiate from the very words the Master spoke. “Abdul-Baha was what he talked about,” he said. The Master visited Harry’s home in Medford where his impact on Harry’s wife, Ruth, was profound and she too became a Baha’i.
So deeply did Harry learn the lesson of humility and love from Abdu’l-Baha that in later years, he would withdraw from any discussion when there was bitter disagreement and although he was the target of vicious personal attacks and business treachery, he never sought retribution of any sort.
In August 1913, more than a year after first meeting Abdu’l-Baha, Harry became a Baha’i at the Green Acre property in Maine, praying in the very room where the Master had stayed. Harry Randall was to have a connection with that beautiful riverside property for the rest of his life.
In 1919, with his wife, Ruth, and daughter Margaret (later Bahiyyih Randall-Winckler), Harry went on pilgrimage and spent much time with Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi, asking questions and seeking guidance about his service as a Baha’i. The extensive pilgrim notes he took, now available to posterity, were attested as correct by the future Guardian.4
The guidance he received was important for the future development of Baha’i administration and teaching in North America. After he returned he continued service on Baha’i Temple Unity, the precursor to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada,
He proved a superb organiser, an expert in the raising and stewardship of donations, and he was an extremely generous donor himself. As chairman of the national teaching committee, he played a leading role in spreading the faith in the United States, and he personally funded much of the Baha’i literature, such as the first volume of Abdu’l-Baha’s talks in America and the books and other materials that Martha Root took with her on her overseas teaching trips.
During his pilgrimage, Harry also received guidance on his connection with Green Acre. As the years moved on, that proved vital. The property was to come under the control of the Baha’i community and remain there, despite troublesome, unjust attacks. In fact without the business and personal skills of Harry, and his great generosity, it could easily have been lost to the faith forever.
It was while the Randalls were on that pilgrimage that his wife, Ruth, offered on behalf of the couple to fund a Western Pilgrim House, a proposal accepted by Abdu’l-Baha. They were to provide a significant portion of the money for this building, which many years later was to serve as the meeting place of the Universal House of Justice and later of the International Teaching Centre until their permanent seats were established on Mt Carmel.
Harry Randall’s personal supplication to Abdu’l-Baha near the conclusion of his pilgrimage was poignant: “I ask for an understanding heart and pure purpose to serve Thee.” The Master assured him that he would be assisted and confirmed. He called Harry “my spiritual associate…my participator and co-sharer”.5
He said to Harry:
“Many I love, some I have confidence in, but I both love you and have confidence in you.”6
After Harry returned to Boston, his partners tried to persuade them to join in a venture that would make them all far richer than they already had but their proposal bordered on illegality. Harry said he did not want to be involved. The partners then asked him to greatly reduce his activity in the “Oriental cult” because they did not want their business to be associated with it.
Harry showed his integrity and removed himself from the businesses, a huge step because he was moving away from a guaranteed fortune and from his 38-year role in the shipping industry.
Eventually he invested all his savings into a business venture that involved a factory too expensive to insure. One day it burnt to the ground. His manager came to him and confessed that he had set it alight on orders from a business rival.
Harry had lost his fortune. He now had to learn to live frugally, and to accept the generosity of others. He not only maintained his service to the faith but increased it.
His loving, spiritual character shone even more brightly, to the extent that Martha Root was to say: “Harry was great in prosperity, but even greater in adversity.”
After suffering arteriosclerosis and a stroke, Harry died when only 65-years-old.
The gravesite of Harry Randall (left) Shoghi Effendi, who had become close to him during the 1919 pilgrimage, said he was grief-stricken on hearing the news of his “highly distinguished” co-worker. He asked for a “good portrait of dear Harry” for his personal study.7
There are many physical “memorials” to the great Harry Randall: the Western Pilgrim house, the Temple at Wilmette to which he contributed so generously, and “The Harry Randall Guest House” which opened at Green Acre in September 2010. But there is another memorial that is also fitting for the person who Abdu’l-Baha said had “eliminated his self in His Holiness, Baha’u’llah”.
Located not far from the place where the Master visited Harry in his Medford house, it is that simple, elegant grey headstone set in a golden carpet created by the fallen leaves on the green lawn.
We did not head towards the recognised highlights of the city such as the historic Boston Common or Harvard University or the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
We drove instead to the historic suburb of Medford and arrived at a cemetery where, amidst the golden autumn leaves, was the simple grey slate headstone of William Henry (Harry) Randall (1863-1929).
To the outer world Harry Randall was a multi-millionaire Boston businessman who later lost his fortune.
To the Baha’i community Harry Randall is a true hero of the Faith, one loved by Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi.
In fact, he achieved such a station that, after Harry’s death, Shoghi Effendi named him one of the 19 Disciples of Abdu’l-Baha, a “Herald of the Covenant”.1
Harry was known as an outstanding public speaker, a generous donor, a true scholar of the Faith — he read and studied the Kitab-i-Iqan more than 20 times – and a person with an astounding memory, one he had developed through practice.
He had worked his way up from office boy to become president of four shipping companies. One of his partners was the billionaire John D. Rockefeller. Even before Harry had reached the pinnacle of his wealth, he had a large home with six servants, limousines, and enough money to do what he willed.
Harry was a tall man, with reddish hair and freckles, a great sense of humour and interests ranging from music to sports to gourmet cheese to stamp collecting. Around others of lesser intellectual ability and career accomplishment he could seem somewhat daunting.
But one day in 1911 the phone rang in his affluent home and his life changed forever. To please the neighbour who called, he accepted her invitation and attended a Baha’i meeting. His interest developed with the help of a former Harvard classmate, Harlan Ober, who was already a Baha’i. Mr Ober discovered that Harry had already worked out for himself an understanding of the Baha’i teaching of progressive revelation.2
In May 1912, Abdu’l-Baha arrived in Boston, and Harry rather reluctantly agreed to meet Him. The effect of the Master upon this intuitive soul was like a slow-burning spiritual explosion.
At his first one-on-one meeting, the Master remained silent for a long time with His eyes closed. Harry, not used to being kept waiting, experienced an uncomfortable prickling sensation as he became more and more angry. Eventually, he conquered his impatience and the prickling went away. Abdu’l-Baha opened His eyes and among the words He spoke to Harry were:
“Great is the power of the intellect but it is dead without love”.3
As Harry said later in a talk, love seemed to radiate from the very words the Master spoke. “Abdul-Baha was what he talked about,” he said. The Master visited Harry’s home in Medford where his impact on Harry’s wife, Ruth, was profound and she too became a Baha’i.
So deeply did Harry learn the lesson of humility and love from Abdu’l-Baha that in later years, he would withdraw from any discussion when there was bitter disagreement and although he was the target of vicious personal attacks and business treachery, he never sought retribution of any sort.
In August 1913, more than a year after first meeting Abdu’l-Baha, Harry became a Baha’i at the Green Acre property in Maine, praying in the very room where the Master had stayed. Harry Randall was to have a connection with that beautiful riverside property for the rest of his life.
In 1919, with his wife, Ruth, and daughter Margaret (later Bahiyyih Randall-Winckler), Harry went on pilgrimage and spent much time with Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi, asking questions and seeking guidance about his service as a Baha’i. The extensive pilgrim notes he took, now available to posterity, were attested as correct by the future Guardian.4
The guidance he received was important for the future development of Baha’i administration and teaching in North America. After he returned he continued service on Baha’i Temple Unity, the precursor to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada,
He proved a superb organiser, an expert in the raising and stewardship of donations, and he was an extremely generous donor himself. As chairman of the national teaching committee, he played a leading role in spreading the faith in the United States, and he personally funded much of the Baha’i literature, such as the first volume of Abdu’l-Baha’s talks in America and the books and other materials that Martha Root took with her on her overseas teaching trips.
During his pilgrimage, Harry also received guidance on his connection with Green Acre. As the years moved on, that proved vital. The property was to come under the control of the Baha’i community and remain there, despite troublesome, unjust attacks. In fact without the business and personal skills of Harry, and his great generosity, it could easily have been lost to the faith forever.
It was while the Randalls were on that pilgrimage that his wife, Ruth, offered on behalf of the couple to fund a Western Pilgrim House, a proposal accepted by Abdu’l-Baha. They were to provide a significant portion of the money for this building, which many years later was to serve as the meeting place of the Universal House of Justice and later of the International Teaching Centre until their permanent seats were established on Mt Carmel.
Harry Randall’s personal supplication to Abdu’l-Baha near the conclusion of his pilgrimage was poignant: “I ask for an understanding heart and pure purpose to serve Thee.” The Master assured him that he would be assisted and confirmed. He called Harry “my spiritual associate…my participator and co-sharer”.5
He said to Harry:
“Many I love, some I have confidence in, but I both love you and have confidence in you.”6
After Harry returned to Boston, his partners tried to persuade them to join in a venture that would make them all far richer than they already had but their proposal bordered on illegality. Harry said he did not want to be involved. The partners then asked him to greatly reduce his activity in the “Oriental cult” because they did not want their business to be associated with it.
Harry showed his integrity and removed himself from the businesses, a huge step because he was moving away from a guaranteed fortune and from his 38-year role in the shipping industry.
Eventually he invested all his savings into a business venture that involved a factory too expensive to insure. One day it burnt to the ground. His manager came to him and confessed that he had set it alight on orders from a business rival.
Harry had lost his fortune. He now had to learn to live frugally, and to accept the generosity of others. He not only maintained his service to the faith but increased it.
His loving, spiritual character shone even more brightly, to the extent that Martha Root was to say: “Harry was great in prosperity, but even greater in adversity.”
After suffering arteriosclerosis and a stroke, Harry died when only 65-years-old.
The gravesite of Harry Randall (left) Shoghi Effendi, who had become close to him during the 1919 pilgrimage, said he was grief-stricken on hearing the news of his “highly distinguished” co-worker. He asked for a “good portrait of dear Harry” for his personal study.7
There are many physical “memorials” to the great Harry Randall: the Western Pilgrim house, the Temple at Wilmette to which he contributed so generously, and “The Harry Randall Guest House” which opened at Green Acre in September 2010. But there is another memorial that is also fitting for the person who Abdu’l-Baha said had “eliminated his self in His Holiness, Baha’u’llah”.
Located not far from the place where the Master visited Harry in his Medford house, it is that simple, elegant grey headstone set in a golden carpet created by the fallen leaves on the green lawn.
Mysterious Forces of Civilization (Secret of Divine Civilization) was compiled by Jewish Baha'i Johanna Dawud.
Mysterious Forces of Civilization (Secret of Divine Civilization)
by Abdu'l-Bahá compiled by Johanna Dawud.
Baha'i Publishing Society, 1918
original written in Persian.
first written or published 1875
Can be read online here:
https://bahai-library.com/abdulbaha_mysterious_forces_civilization
by Abdu'l-Bahá compiled by Johanna Dawud.
Baha'i Publishing Society, 1918
original written in Persian.
first written or published 1875
Can be read online here:
https://bahai-library.com/abdulbaha_mysterious_forces_civilization
"You will make him a Baha'i also."
The greetings of several Jewish friends in America were presented and a delighted expression came over ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's face as He said: "See the Power of God, how He has united the Jew with you, such as Mírzá Lutfulláh here. In London, also, there is Yohanna Dawud. He is very good. He was a Jew. He is very good."
Mr. Latimer: "I remember some years ago Yohanna Dawud coming to our meeting in Paris. He spoke almost like an orthodox Christian, quoting the New Testament continually."
‘Abdu'l-Bahá: "Those of the Jews who become believers have much love for Christ. To the Jews we explain the reality of Christ. There was an English lady at ‘Akká. She was a missionary. She was very much against us. She was very prejudiced, that is, she had the utmost enmity. Whenever she would see a European or an American here she would commence to slander. She did this thinking perhaps she would convert them. One day there was a Jew with me, who had become a Bahá'í. We went to a shop. She was there also. Her colour flushed from excessive anger. I told her, ‘Dost thou know how much I love thee?' She said: ‘No.' I said: ‘As much as thou hatest me, just that much do I love thee. But if thou wishest to know how much that is, see how much hatred you have for me.' When I said this she laughed. I said: ‘Thou hast no right to hate me for this man was a Jew and I made him believe in Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. I made him believe in the Heavenly Father. If you want to know, ask him.'
"She asked him: ‘Were you a Jew?' He said: ‘Yes.' ‘Are you a Christian? Do you believe in Christ?' ‘Yes.' Then I said: ‘Ask him, what are your reasons? What proofs have you that Christ is the Spirit of God, the Word of God? I taught him these. Ask him.' She asked. He began to give his proofs, first asking: ‘Do you want intellectual proofs or from the Book?' He proved the reality of Christ from the Old Testament. Then she asked for intellectual proofs. He gave her those also. She looked up and said: ‘In the name of God, this is very good. He has a very good faith, but thou wilt not let him remain a Christian. You speak to him of Bahá'u'lláh. If you do not speak of Bahá'u'lláh it is very good, but you will not leave him alone. You will make him a Bahá'í also."'
Mr. Latimer: "I remember some years ago Yohanna Dawud coming to our meeting in Paris. He spoke almost like an orthodox Christian, quoting the New Testament continually."
‘Abdu'l-Bahá: "Those of the Jews who become believers have much love for Christ. To the Jews we explain the reality of Christ. There was an English lady at ‘Akká. She was a missionary. She was very much against us. She was very prejudiced, that is, she had the utmost enmity. Whenever she would see a European or an American here she would commence to slander. She did this thinking perhaps she would convert them. One day there was a Jew with me, who had become a Bahá'í. We went to a shop. She was there also. Her colour flushed from excessive anger. I told her, ‘Dost thou know how much I love thee?' She said: ‘No.' I said: ‘As much as thou hatest me, just that much do I love thee. But if thou wishest to know how much that is, see how much hatred you have for me.' When I said this she laughed. I said: ‘Thou hast no right to hate me for this man was a Jew and I made him believe in Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. I made him believe in the Heavenly Father. If you want to know, ask him.'
"She asked him: ‘Were you a Jew?' He said: ‘Yes.' ‘Are you a Christian? Do you believe in Christ?' ‘Yes.' Then I said: ‘Ask him, what are your reasons? What proofs have you that Christ is the Spirit of God, the Word of God? I taught him these. Ask him.' She asked. He began to give his proofs, first asking: ‘Do you want intellectual proofs or from the Book?' He proved the reality of Christ from the Old Testament. Then she asked for intellectual proofs. He gave her those also. She looked up and said: ‘In the name of God, this is very good. He has a very good faith, but thou wilt not let him remain a Christian. You speak to him of Bahá'u'lláh. If you do not speak of Bahá'u'lláh it is very good, but you will not leave him alone. You will make him a Bahá'í also."'
‘Henceforth I am no longer a Jew.’
A message to the Jews
Luncheon (21 November 1919)
Luncheon (21 November 1919)
Shortly after breakfast, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá suddenly appeared in the doorway. He had heard that Dr Esslemont, having had a relapse, was confined to his bed, and in tender solicitude had come to see him. With words of cheer He left him, saying that as He had suffered a great deal at Haifa, the Doctor was receiving a similar bounty by suffering a little. Gladly would we all have been sick for the blessing of a similar visit.
When He returned for lunch, the Master was in radiant spirits, recounting to us several amazing stories bringing out the humility and greatness of Christ.
Mr Latimer spoke of the attraction of a number of Rabbis to the Cause and that the Message had been given in a number of Synagogues, but apparently their interest had waned.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Its influence still remains and it will flame up. All of you, your major work is service and giving the Message.”
The Master gave a vivid reproduction of his talk to the Jews, in substance:
“In one of the American cities I was invited by the Jews to speak. As they had strong enmity, it was now the time to prove the validity of Christ. The Jewish Rabbi came to me and protested that I had spoken in churches, so why not speak in a Synagogue. I told him: ‘Maybe you will find my talk against your ideas. If so will you stamp and whistle?’ He assured me they would make no disturbance. I replied: ‘You may do whatever you like at the end of the service, but do not disturb me until I finish speaking.’
“Then I spoke extensively on their history. After preparing them in detail with their own history, I told them that Christ did not appear when they were in manifest glory. Had they followed Christ they would have become the beloved of all regions. But they did not follow Christ, except some of the members who were very poor. Some were fishermen. The Jews did not follow, but Christ established His Cause and the lowly ones became great, such as Peter, John, Paul and so on. See to what glory they have attained, and how they are worshipped. And, being Jews, they have glorified you. But you have denied them and brought shame upon yourselves. The fishermen did not act in this way. If you had followed in their footsteps you would have attained eternal glory.
“O ye Jews, ye believe that Christ was the enemy of Moses. That He has destroyed his edifice, abrogated his law and changed his regulations. If that is the case we shall leave Christ also, because Christ has admitted He is a man of God, a prophet of God, the Bible is a divine book and the Mosaic law is divine. For Him to believe He is a prophet and is divine and at the same time be his enemy, this cannot be so.
“We should investigate the truth. Refer to history. You have striven for eleven hundred years. Have you caused the name of Moses to reach Constantinople? If you mention the name there, they say they have never heard of it. The Bible had not reached Damascus. But Christ spread the Bible all over the world and had it translated two hundred times. Can you find a single home in America without a Bible? Who did this? Had Christ not come, the name of Moses would not have reached America. Christ has proven that the Jews are the chosen of God. Only Christ has proved that Daniel, Solomon, Moses, Jeremiah, etc., were all Prophets of God.
“Is this the conduct of an enemy or a friend? You must be just. Consider to what an extent Christ has promulgated the teachings of Moses. Ask the people in America who is Moses. They will say: ‘He is a man of God, the Torah is the book of God, his law is the divine law.’ Ask them: ‘Who is Aaron?’ They will answer: ‘A Prophet.’ So also with Solomon, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, all of these. Does this hurt Christ, this confession? No. And if you will say Christ is a Prophet of God there will be no more conflict. What harm can there be in it? For two thousand years you have been killed and dispersed only because of these two words. Had ye admitted Christ was a Prophet of God none of these things would have happened.
When I had finished one Jew got up in the audience and said: ‘Henceforth I am no longer a Jew.’”
https://bahai-library.com/latimer_light_world
Monday, January 14, 2019
Hands of the Cause of God Dorothy Baker was a Jewel from the Jewish Treasure
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| Hands of the Cause of God Dorothy Baker and Ali-Akbar Furutan |
Dorothy Beecher Baker, a grandniece of the famous author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was born in Newark, New Jersey, on the 21st of December, 1898. Her grandmother, Betty Beecher (known to the Baha'is as Mother Beecher), embraced the Baha'i Faith early in this century; later her parents also accepted the Cause of Baha'u'llah.
In 1912, when she was a young girl, Dorothy's grandmother took her to visit 'Abdu'l-Baha. The Master called Mrs. Beecher on the following day and said, "I called you to say that your grand-daughter is My own daughter. You must train her for Me." Indeed, 'Abdu'l Baha sensed the virtues and capacities in Dorothy, who was to become one of the outstanding teachers and Baha'i administrators of the Western Hemisphere.
(Baha'i News, January 1974, Page 14)
Khalil Arjomand was a Baha'i of Jewish Background
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| Khalil Arjomand |
ARJOMAND, Ḵalil (Khalil Ardjomande; b. Tehran, 1910; d. Tehran, 22 October 1944), mechanical and electrical engineer, professor at the University of Tehran, inventor, and industrialist (FIGURE 1). Arjomand is known for numerous inventions, for founding the ARJ Factory and single-handedly leading it to become a dominant source of technological innovation and modernization in Iran, for his humanitarian actions, and for his role in inspiring a generation of modern Iranian engineers.
Family background, education, and the European years. Arjomand was the son of Raḥim Arjomand and Qodsiya Monajjem. He was named after his paternal grandfather who was, like his maternal grandfather, a respected physician. His father was at one time Acting Minister (kafil) of the Post and Telegraph Ministry and, during the negotiation of the Iran-Soviet Union commercial treaty in 1922-23, in Moscow, he was a member of the Persian delegation headed by Sayyed Ḥasan Taqizāda (Taqizāda, p. 90). Arjomand was educated at Tarbiat (Baha'i) School until 1922 and graduated from Ṯerwat (later renamed Irānšahr) High School in 1929.
More can be read here:
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arjomand-kalil-1910-1944
A newly converted Jewish Baha'i was persecuted by both the Jewish and the Muslim communities.
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| Persian Jews |
The fire of persecution could be ignited in the capital and provinces of Iran by the slightest spark of the most insignificant event. Muzaffar Shah’s promise to Mrs. Getsinger was fulfilled.
It happened (circa 1905) that a very well-known and learned man from the Jewish community of Hamadan, Haji Mihdi Arjumand, embraced the Faith of Baha’u’llah. Inspired by the Word of God, he was articulate and full of his convictions, and began to propagate the Cause amongst both Jews and Muslims. This proved to be a terrible blow to the prestige of the ecclesiastical leaders of both religions. This new convert was well versed in the Qur’an as well as the Old and New Testaments, and this seemed incredible to the Muslims. “A Jew proving to us the advent of our own Promised One!” was the lamentable cry of every adherent of the Islamic religion in that region. So, the Jewish and Muslim ‘ulamas lodged a grave complaint against the new intruder.
The governor, venal and corrupt, saw in the vindictiveness of the Jews and Muslims an opportunity to extort large sums of money from the defenseless Baha’is. He used the charges as a basis for their arrest. The governor’s agents immediately seized Haji Mihdi Arjumand and several other outstanding believers and carried them to the seat of the governor where they were cast into prison, chained, and detained without recourse to the courts. He then demanded large sums of money for their release.
The Bahais in Hamadan, encouraged by the reports of the King's willingness to intervene in such cases and by his reputation for justice, cabled the Shah to protest the falsity of the charges and the extortion by the governor. To their great joy and satisfaction the King immediately ordered the governor to free the prisoners and to see to their well-being. Alarmed at this royal intervention, the governor hastened to release the Baha’is and to make such restitution as would quell any possible retribution from the Court.
The other incident took place in Tehran and the account is as follows:
https://bahai.works/Baha%27i_News/Issue_514/Text
Please check above link for complete story.