Professions

 When investigating your Jewish ancestry, discovering what your family did to earn a living is really important. 

There are several things to bear in mind. The first is this. Israel was on the cross roads of the world, literally. Long before Christ, traders from Europe, Africa, and Asia passed through Israel, and Israelite traders traded through those three continents. The traders brought technologies back to Israel. Gold smithing, sugar cane production, distilling, silk worm raising and silk weaving, to name a few. Most doctors in most places only had access and knowledge of the herbs that grew in their location. Israelite doctors had access to herbs from Asia and Africa. And, the medical technologies that were found in those far away lands. Jewish physicians had access to medicines and technologies from India and China, indeed from around the known world.  When Israel was destroyed by the Romans, and most Jewish people fled, they took these skills with them. 

As Israelites produced silk in Israel,  It is not surprising they became silk producers in their new lands. Jews in Italy and in Spain were producing silk from 100 AD forward.  What is really wild is this. When the American colonies were formed,  Italian Jewish silk producers were brought to Georgia in the 18th century to start a silk industry in the very young America! 

Jews brought silk making to Italy(2nd century) and Georgia(18th century) are words. But what does that mean? To make silk you had have silk worms. To have silk worms you had to know how to raise silk worms. Collect the silk worm moth eggs and keep them alive. Silk worms only eat mulberry leaves so you had to know how to grow mulberry trees. And produce the kinds of leaves silk worms like to eat. Bad leaves meant the worms made bad silk. Then you had to know how to unravel the silk from the cocoon built by the silk worm. Then you had know how to dye the silk. Because each fiber, cotton, linen, etc. accepts different colors differently. Oh yes, that would meant you had to know how to make dyes. And not just dyes, but dyes silk would absorb. And then you had to know how to spin the strands of silk, pulled off the cocoon, into thread. And then you had to know how to weave those threads into the beautiful translucent fabric that silk is. That is a whole lot of knowing. Very specific knowing.  Knowledge that was passed down from father to son and mother to daughter. 

Some professions like glassmaking, gold smithing, coin making, silk weaving, and doctoring, to name a few,  were brought to Europe by the Israelites. They made their living with these skills for nearly 2000 years. So some skills, skills that came directly out of Israel, are very telling. If you family was in the one of these businesses, it tells you something. Generally speaking, Jews with this type of skill were left alone. Because the Church or Aristocracy wanted glass, and they look the other way when it came to the Jewish part. 

Life outside of Israel for Jews was no treat. Jews were considered foreigners. Outsiders. Both in Islamic and Christian lands, professions were dictated by the church/mosque and the aristocracy. What Jews were allowed to do for work varied from place to place. As an example, in Switzerland, Jews were allowed to work in the cattle and horse trading business, and anything that related like leather making, shoe making, saddle making etc. So if you know your family were horse traders in Switzerland, that is clue as to what they were. 

Authorized professions could be very specific, like charcoal production, leather tanning, apple selling, and on and on. But each aristocrat dictated what Jews could do for work. If you know where you family was from, and how they earned their living, you can gain valuable insights as to their background. 

There is a fantastic website that provides tons of information on Jewish professions. It's called the Hebrew History Foundation. It  the principal author of these fantastic fact sheets was Kurinksy. When you go to the website, you have to look at the "fact sheets" tab on the left. You will discover all kinds of professions you may never have known were Jewish occupations. 

I have made a few of the Kurinsky facts sheets available below. If you hit the first button, you will be taken to the main website. The individual buttons will take you to his fact sheets on a give professions.

Below you will find a book I wrote on my glassmaking family. They were likely glassmakers who brought the art to Europe at the time Israel was destroyed by the Romans. They kept making glass all over Europe, and ultimately, brought glassmaking to America. As in they literally were involved in opening the first glass factories in the American colonies. 

When I think about Hidden Jewish Ancestry, it makes me think about Forgotten Family Facts. My family, literally, brought the knowledge of glassmaking, which they had been carrying around Europe for 15 centuries, to America. They were the first people to make glass in America. And they had big factories. Never, ever, was I told by any member of my family that the family had been in the glass business. It's a forgotten fact. Sad because my family did such cool work when they got to America. Anyhow, have a read about one Jewish family, whose skill acquired in Israel before the birth of Christ, kept them fed and housed for 15 centuries in Europe. Really fascinating stuff. 

This is just one profession. There are many more.  In time I will add more professions to this section.  
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In my opinion, if you are going to learn about Jewish history, you are going to have to learn to read between the lines. Things are not always as they appear in conventional history books. 

This is especially true if you want to understand Jewish traders and Merchants. 

To begin with, Israelites had been trading with the greater world long before there was a Rome. I will quote myself from my book, "Healing Plants of the Bible"

"English word cinnamon derives from the Hebrew word kannamon, and the spice is mentioned in Psalms, Proverbs, Ezekiel, and Revelations. Moses, the patriarch of patriarchs,commanded the children of Israel to anoint the tabernacle, the vessels of the tabernacle, and the priests themselves with ointments made of cinnamon". 

Ok, cinnamon came from Sri Lanka, So, the Israelites were schlepping as far as Sri Lanka, and bringing back cinnamon, in the Bible times. That was a long time ago. 

 When Israel was destroyed by the Romans, they had been moving goods from here to there for a long time. After the destruction of Israel,  Jews moved east and west and north and south. And, once communities were set up in Spain and Italy and Germany, Jews moved between these communities. These communities, how ever far apart, were linked. Often through family connections. 

 It would not have been unusual for say a Jewish family in Cairo to have one daughter living in Cyprus, one daughter living in Athens, and one daughter living in Malta. Or sons living four different countries. Once the big move out of Israel happened, the moving never stopped. 

These multi-national familial connections were also trade connections. A classic example would be the diamond trade. Jews in Goa sent raw diamonds to relatives in Lisbon who in turn sent the raw diamonds to relatives in Antwerp to be cut and sold. Jews could move goods from India all the way to London, bouncing from one Jewish community to the next, along the trade routes. They had to speak many different languages to trade with people who spoke different languages. When the Christians and Muslims were at war, Jewish traders could move goods between the two worlds as they were neither Christian nor Muslim. 

And once the trading Jews delivered goods to say London, or Budapest, their relatives would sell the goods. Jews became spice sellers, rare stone sellers, rare fabric sellers.  All manner of imported items were sold to the local population through Jewish merchants. 

Jews dominated international trade because they had international connections. And then they dominated retail, if you can call it that, because traders would visit their their co-religionists and drop off the goods they had ferried from far away lands. 

For the scholars out there, I am aware this is a simplified version of history. BUT, in a nutshell, Jews worked as traders and merchants. They moved goods from place to place, often through family connections along the way. 

While its true Christians and Muslims alike, persecuted Jews. It is also true aristocrats, Christian or Muslim, like nice things. And who brought nice things to Paris or London or Fez? Traders and merchants. And who were the traders and merchants? Very often Jews.  And, as much as the Christians or Muslims may have hated the Jews, they liked the stuff they could get from them. So, there was a certain toleration of Jewish traders and merchants.

Here is a good example. The English loved wine. The Jews of Spain and Portugal, or later the Conversos of Spain and Portugal, controlled the wine trade. For 326 years, from 1292 to 1626, Jews were not allowed to live in England. Do you think there was no wine in England for 326 years? Absolutely not. There was lots of wine. And though the English may have had to look the other way, there were buying wine from a Jewish trade network. And that meant there were Jewish wine merchants living in England, at a time when Jews were not allowed to live in England. Officially there were no Jews in England during this time period. Ok, maybe no Jews who went on record as being Jews. 

One of my ancestors, John Drummond, moved from Aberdeen Scotland, to Madeira Portugal, in 1430. Why? Good question. He married Branca Afonso da Cunha, from Covilha, Castelo Branco, Portugal. His wife was of Jewish descent and his children and grandchildren all married into Jewish families. They lived in Madeira and were in the wine exporting business. Until the inquisition heated up and then they all fled to Brazil. But, John probably went to Madeira to source wine and he must have been sending the wine back to someone in London and Edinburgh, somebody probably in the family. 

And here is where you have to read between the lines. Ok, No Jews allowed did not mean No Jews. Especially when it came to rich folks getting their niceties. 

Why is this of interest to people looking to understand their Hidden Jewish Ancestry? People tend do what their father or mother did. If you relatives worked in trade, it implies their parents and grandparents probably worked in trade. Working as merchants can be a clue as to who your ancestors once were. 

In my own family, many of my relatives got off the boat, literally off the boat, and opened stores. They did not buy a farm, they opened a store. Here is a photo of the store my great great great grandfather opened when he arrived from Switzerland. He did not buy a farm, he opened a store. Repeat, he did not buy a farm, he opened a store. 

On the other side of my family, my Swiss ancestor, John Winkler, became a horse trader in Ohio. Horse trading was the most traditional Jewish business in Switzerland. His son, my grandfather Paul Winkler, opened grocery store. 

If your family were merchants or traders explore their business history.