Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Jewish Family

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Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all… For there was a time when we also were deficient in understanding, obstinate, deluded, the slaves of various cravings and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.

And thanks to God, that you were servants of sin, and—were obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were delivered up; Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family” by Laura Arnold Leibman. Courtesy image But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; Then you will answer: We were slaves of the king of Egypt, but the LORD used his great power and set us free.then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Dr. Leibman took 10 years to write and research this book, which started with two separate but interconnected impulses. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? For we also were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. I have a real heart for unifying people behind this one man that we see as the Son of God. I think, in the divisive times we’re living in, we need to be aligned in Christ,” Roumie said.

For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist. The siblings’ lives stayed intimately intertwined. Isaac married one of Joshua Moses’ sisters, Lavinia, and he and Moses became business partners. Then, a typical 19th-century tragedy shattered the family: Sarah died of complications from childbirth, leaving behind nine children. Soon after, Isaac, too, lost his wife following childbirth, as well as one of his two children. His surviving son, despite being married by an Episcopalian minister, would retain his family’s devotion. But both Isaac and Sarah’s descendants would face economic adversity – making for a tale, Leibman suggests, of “rags to riches, and riches to rags, all within two generations.” This is a really remarkable and very detailed book. It delves into so much of what I was completely ignorant. Viewed through the lens of today it seems amazing to me that Jews who have suffered so much stigma and persecution treated other human beings similarly. Soberingly, Jews of colour both in the US and in the UK are still far too often treated with suspicion which is unacceptable. Isaac Lopez Brandon (1793-1829) and Sarah Brandon Moses (1798-1829) were born into slavery. Their father was Abraham Rodrigues Brandon, a Sephardic Jewish Barbadian merchant whom Leibman describes as the richest Jew on the island. Their mother, (Sarah) Esther Lopez-Gill, enslaved by the Lopez family, was herself the product of an interracial union. (There are echoes here of the Hemings family saga, with its similar generational patterns and racial ambiguities.)