Generations of the Kahana

By Kahana

From some of the comments I have received regarding my articles, there seems to be a misguided belief by many that the ancestry of today’s Jews has somehow been wiped clean as a result of the Nazis destroying Jewish records throughout Europe. This in many ways is a fallacy since for the majority of the Jewish population the records weren’t kept in the first place. Contrary to the Nazi propagandists, only a small percentage of Jewish families were of a socially high status, industrial magnates, or prominent in state politics that they maintained family historical records. Peasants, as most of the European Jews were, had no reason to keep records that had absolutely nothing of value to offer the future. This attitude was actually encouraged by the Rabbis who felt glorification of one’s past was tantamount to arrogance and false pride and only the House of Davidhad the right to lord itself over others. Larger cities did keep records of the Kohenim or priestly derived families and these were usually kept in the synagogues and as a result they were destroyed during the war. Amazingly, in spite of telling the common people that glorification of one’s ancestors was not desirable, there was a major effort by the rabbis in Europe to try and prove that they were descendants from the House of David. So what does that tell you about their motivations? Amongst Karaites, recording the family lineage was a sacred trust. All part of the historical justification of Karaism in the first place. And as you can see on my website http://legendsofthekahana.webs.com, the memorization of ten generations was necessary for the Ascent Ceremony. And since in most cases the Nazis overlooked Karaite communities leaving their historical records alone, it meant that anything written was preserved. In my family we have the good fortune of having a very complete genealogical records available. So to those that wish to argue with me about the impossibility of knowing my ancestors, I’d like to present them to you. With the hope even that some of you that read the record may possibly identify links to your own family if you have Jewish ancestry. As you will read, many of the branches have been lost to us but there is a chance you may know of some descendants that existed. But I’ll start from a more recent time point, that being from my ancestor Yaakov Kahana in the sixteenth century. His story is the ‘stuff of legends’ and I can proudly look back upon his life and say that what he did determined the direction of my family for the next four hundred years. So that being the case, I will begin there as I provide you with the Generations of the Kahana.

Kahana Chronicles

And in the year 1589, Yaakov Kahana, died in the city of Prague and his body was buried in a strange place by the Emperor and to this day we do not know where he was laid to rest. His wife Raisa Shakna remained in Brody with their two children, a son Yusef and a daughter Tanit. And Yusef held possession of the letter given on behalf of his father by the Emperor Rudolph II which granted the family rights and privileges which were to honour Yaakov for what he did in Prague during the years 1588 and 1589 which is described in the bookShadows of Trinity, http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ShadowsOfTrinity.html and he hid the letter away until such time that his family needed to call in the favour from the Emperor. But Yusef grew in the ways of his grandfather on his mother’s side, Rabbi Israel ben Shakna, and he forgot the ways of his father for Yaakov was not there to guide him in the Karaite beliefs, since he was only a youth when Yaakov died. And Yusef Kahana married Reisel Heller, the daughter of a rabbi and they had a son, Aryeh Lieb Kahana, and he in turn begat Shalom Shakhna Kahana, who begat two sons, Jacob Kahana and Abraham Kahana. And Jacob had three sons, one named after his father and was also called Shalom Shakhna Kahana, and Joseph Kahana of Heller, and lastly Zeev Wolf Kahana, and they were rabbis in their day forgetting the ways of the family. And this son Shalom Shakhna Kahana had a son Abraham Aryeh Lieb Kahana, who in turn had a son Solomon Zalmon Kahana and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And those are the generations of Shalom Shakhnah Kahana the son of Jacob Kahana the Elder.
And the other son Joseph Kahana of Heller had many sons, and they were Mordecai Kahana, whom in turn had his own son Judah Kahana, whom begat Daniel Kahana, whom begat Mordechai Kahana, whom begat Judah Kahana and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son named Daniel Kahana, whom begat Mordecai Kahana, whom had a daughter Esther that married Judah Greenfeld and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son Haim and that is all we know of his line. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son, Abraham Lieb Kahana and he had three sons, David Heller-Kahana, Joseph Dov Heller-Kahana, and Hirsch Heller-Kahana and that is all we know of this line. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son Judah Kahana and he in turn had many sons, Jakob-Jokel, Zeev Wolf, Leibish, Nachman, Simeon Hirsch, Jehiel, Joseph Mordecai and a daughter Nissel. And there were no sons of Jakob-Jokel Kahana, and that is the last of his line that we know of. Zeev Wolf Kahana had a son that went by the name Nechemye Kahn and took for his wife Dvoyra, and begat Berisch Kahn whom also married a woman named Dvoyra and they in turn begat many children, Rikele, Nehemiah, Fradel, Henry, and Naftali. And Henry Kahn married Lottie Berkovics and they in turn had many children, Devorah, Gordon, Benjamin, Louis Avram-Leib, Annie, Esther and Joseph and that is the last we know of this line. And Naftali went by the surname Kahan and he married Estera Weiner and they begat Benjamin, Henry, Pepi, Gussie and Jennie and that is the last we know of this line. And Judah’s son Leibish had two sons, and these were Isaac whom married a daughter of the Panet family, and they had a son Arie Leibish, and that is all we know of the descendants of that line, and Berel (Dov) who married Sarah Taube Dortort and they had children, Fanny, Deborah, Simon, Louis, Regina and another daughter whose name has been lost. And Deborah married Sam Lieb Kalish and they had children, Rose, David and Helen. And Simon had children named Victor, Szeren and Louis. And Louis married Paula Klein and had children Laura, Adolph, Ernest, Harold, Sarah, Jesse and William. And Regina married Yehoshua Mordechai Dortort and they had children Arie-Louis, Sara Taube and Chaim Fishel. And the daughter whose name has been lost married a man surnamed Burger and they had two daughters, Sara and Ella and that is the last we know of the descendants of this line. And Judah’s son Nachman had a son Joseph Leib and two daughters, Malka and another whose name has been lost. And Joseph Lieb married Hantcha Panet and they had a daughter Frida Rivka. And Malka married Samuel Fruchter and they had a son Judah Arie. And the daughter whose name has been lost married Jacob Rosenberg and they had as son, Judah Abraham. And Judah’s son Jehiel had five children, Katriel, Haim Joseph Dov, Moses, Mordechai Arie, and Judah Jacob. And Haim Joseph Dov went by the surname Kahana-Heller and his children were Katreil, Moses Nachman, and two other daughters whose names have been lost. And Jehiel’s son Moses had a son Zvi Hisch Kahana-Heller. And Jehiel’s son Mordechai Arie married Tirza Fish and they had a son Yehuda Menachem Kahana and two daughters. And Yehuda Menachem Kahana married Frida Rivka Kahana, the daughter of Joseph Lieb Kahana and Hantcha Panet. And Jehiel’s son Judah Jacob had a son Samuel Zanwil Kahana and this is the last we know of the descendants of Jehiel.

And Judah’s son Joseph Mordecai Kahana-Heller had a son Jehiel Zevi and a daughter Channah Yente. And Jehiel Zevi had four children, Hayyim Aryeh Kahana, Joseph Mordecai Kahana, Jacob Gedaliah Kahana and Shraga Feiwish. And Hayyim Aryeh had a son Nahman who married Batyafa and that is the last we know of the descendants of Judah Kahana Son of Joseph Kahana of Heller. And those are the generations of Joseph Kahana Heller the son of Jacob Kahana the Elder.

And Zeev Wolf Kahana the third son of Jacob Kahana the Elder, had two sons, Judah Lieb Kahana and Abraham Aryeh Kahana. And Judah Lieb had sons Samuel Zanvil, Kalonymus and Aryeh Lieb Kahana. And Samuel Zanvil had two children, Nissel and Simcha Israel Kahana. And Simcha Israel had a son Samuel Zanvil. And Kalonymus had a son also named Samuel Zanvil. And Aryeh Lieb had a son named Nathan Zanvil haCohen Kahana. And that is all that is known of the decendants of Judah Lieb Kahana.

And Abraham Aryeh Kahana, the son of Zeev Wolf had sons Itzhok Kahana, Jacob Kahana, Joseph Kahana and Aharon Mordecai Kahana. And Itzhok Kahana married Rachel and they had a son Mordecai that was also called Mortche-Lieb Kahana and later in life he adopted the surname Goldenthal and he was married to Hanah Leah Belzar. And the children of Mordecai and Hanah Leah are well chronicled in the books of the Goldenthals of New York and there is no need to describe their generations here.

And Abraham’s son Jacob had sons Joseph Lieb Kahana and Itshak Kahana. And Joseph Lieb Kahana married Reizl and they had a son David surnamed Goldenthal whom married Mollie. And David and Mollie’s children were Joseph, Bernard and Mary. And Joseph married Anna and Bernard married Annie Kantrowitz and Marie married a man surnamed Newman. And the children of Bernard and Annie are well chronicled in the books of the Goldenthals of Connecticutt and there is no need to describe their generations here. Of the children of Joseph and Anna we have no knowledge of their descendants. And Itshak Kahana married Sura Ryvka and they had children Zelman, Moses Samuel Gershon, and Kalonymus and all were surnamed Goldenthal. And of the children of Zelman and Kalonymus we have no record but Moses Samuel Gershon married Sara Meir and they had two children Baruch Mordecai Goldenthal and Leya Goldenthal. And of the descendants of Baruch Mordecia and his sister Leya we have no record.

And Abraham’s son Aharon Mordecai Kahana had a son Zanvil Kahana who in turn had a daughter Sara and that is all that is known of the descendants of Aharon Mordecai Kahana.

And Abraham’s son Joseph had sons Julius and Jakob and a third son Nathan Hirsch who were all originally surnamed Kahana. And Julius adopted the surname Goldenthal after his brother Jakob obtained it for all the family and had three sons named Israel, Saloman and Joseph Lieb Goldenthal. And Israel had a son Iosif and a daughter whose name has been forgotten. And Iosif had a son Alexander and a daughter Rakhil. And Alexander married Carolyn Klarsfeld and they had a son William and daughter Edith. And William married Simone Grere and they had a son Henry Alexander Goldenthal and a daughter Mariamne. And Henry Alexander married Nawal El Hachem and that is all that is known of the decendants of Iosif. And the daughter of Israel whose name has been forgotten married a man surnamed Halperin who had deserted the Russian army and needed to be hid away. They married and he in turn adopted the surname Goldenthal but in actuality his descendants are Halperin and there are many in this family living in Israel that go by the surname Goldenthal today.

And Saloman the Son of Julius had three daughters, Katharina, Bertha and Rosa and the descendants of these daughters has been lost to us.

And Joseph Lieb had a grandson Bruno Goldenthal but the name of the father of Bruno has been forgotten and these are the all the descendants of Julius Goldenthal.

And Julius’s brother Nathan Hirsch married Marie and they had three daughters, Sara (Chaje), Tobi, and Rebekah Goldenthal. And Sara married Abraham Virtman and their children were Samuel, Esther and Mihaley. And Tobi married Ignatz Klein and their children were Emmanuel, Leni, Marie and Rebekah. And Rebekah married Solomon Neuman and they had a daughter Marie. And these are all the descendants of Nathan Hirsch Goldenthal.

And the third brother of Julius and Nathan Hirsch was Jakob Kahana who was the first to obtain the surname Goldenthal when it was granted to him by Oswald Von Goldenthal, a German aristocrat who was the burgermeister of the town of Goldenthal. Now the stories of Jakob Goldenthal are well known not only because of what I have written but also what is recorded in the Royal Archives of Austria. It was Jakob that found the letter from the Emperor Rudolph of Austria that had been given to his ancestor Yusef Kahana on behalf of his father Yaakov Kahana and used the promises of the past Emperor to request favours from Franz Joseph the Emperor of his time. It was this letter that obtained a place in the University of Leipzig for Jakob Goldenthal though he had no formal education, and it was this letter that obtained him the position of Principal for the Jewish districts in the Ukraine. And it was this letter that obtained for him the position of Professor at the University of Vienna. And it was this letter by which he became private tutor for the Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her children only to live in the shadow of innuendo afterwards. But there were many good things that Jakob Goldenthal did that overshadowed those that accused him of doing evil to the community and to those that were involved in his life. And Jakob had three wives the first whom he left in Romania while he travelled and lived elsewhere in the Ukraine and Europe. And this wife whose name has been lost to us had a son David and a second son named Haim Moses. And David married Reyzyl whom was also called Rosa and they had a son Simon Zeev HaCohen Goldenthal and two daughters, Etlya and Sura. And Sura married Nakhman Rapoport and that is all that is known of her descendants. And Simon Zeev married Sara Zelda Fraida his cousin the daughter of Haim Moses and she had a sister Clara. And their children were Morris, Max, Emma, Bessie, Clara and Zvi Hirsch that was called Harry. And Harry married Sophie Herscovitz and they had many children of whom are my aunts and uncles. And their son Joseph was my father and that is the line of my tradition.

And Jakob’s took a younger wife Anna Goldenblum who was also known as Johanna and whom he married in Vienna. And together they had a daughter Sidonia who married Armin Reisman and they in turn had a daughter Irene.

And Jakob’s last wife was Rosa and the children of this marriage are unknown to us and their descendants may have perished in the Holocaust.

And the story of Jakob Goldenthal is yet to be written as part of the Kahana Chronicles for there are many things he did in his lifetime that also are worthy of remembering.

Kahana Genealogy

From some of the comments I have received regarding my articles, there seems to be a misguided belief by many that the ancestry of today’s Jews has somehow been wiped clean as a result of the Nazis destroying Jewish records throughout Europe. This in many ways is a fallacy since for the majority of the Jewish population the records weren’t kept in the first place. Contrary to the Nazi propagandists, only a small percentage of Jewish families were of a socially high status, industrial magnates, or prominent in state politics that they maintained family historical records. Peasants, as most of the European Jews were, had no reason to keep records that had absolutely nothing of value to offer the future. This attitude was actually encouraged by the Rabbis who felt glorification of one’s past was tantamount to arrogance and false pride and only the House of David had the right to lord itself over others. Larger cities did keep records of the Kohenim or priestly derived families and these were usually kept in the synagogues and as a result they were destroyed during the war. Amazingly, in spite of telling the common people that glorification of one’s ancestors was not desirable, there was a major effort by the rabbis in Europe to try and prove that they were descendants from the House of David. So what does that tell you about their motivations? Amongst Karaites, recording the family lineage was a sacred trust. All part of the historical justification of Karaism in the first place. And as you can see on my website Legends of the Kahana, the memorization of ten generations was necessary for the Ascent Ceremony. And since in most cases the Nazis overlooked Karaite communities leaving their historical records alone, it meant that anything written was preserved. In my family we have the good fortune of having a very complete genealogical records available. So to those that wish to argue with me about the impossibility of knowing my ancestors, I’d like to present them to you. With the hope even that some of you that read the record may possibly identify links to your own family if you have Jewish ancestry. As you will read, many of the branches have been lost to us but there is a chance you may know of some descendants that existed. But I’ll start from a more recent time point, that being from my ancestor Yaakov Kahana in the sixteenth century. His story is the ‘stuff of legends’ and I can proudly look back upon his life and say that what he did determined the direction of my family for the next four hundred years. So that being the case, I will begin there as I provide you with the Generations of the Kahana.

Kahana Chronicles

And in the year 1589, Yaakov Kahana, died in the city of Prague and his body was buried in a strange place by the Emperor and to this day we do not know where he was laid to rest. His wife Raisa Shakna remained in Brody with their two children, a son Yusef and a daughter Tanit. And Yusef held possession of the letter given on behalf of his father by the Emperor Rudolph II which granted the family rights and privileges which were to honour Yaakov for what he did in Prague during the years 1588 and 1589 which is described in the book Shadows of Trinity, and he hid the letter away until such time that his family needed to call in the favour from the Emperor. But Yusef grew in the ways of his grandfather on his mother’s side, Rabbi Israel ben Shakna, and he forgot the ways of his father for Yaakov was not there to guide him in the Karaite beliefs, since he was only a youth when Yaakov died. And Yusef Kahana married Reisel Heller, the daughter of a rabbi and they had a son, Aryeh Lieb Kahana, and he in turn begat Shalom Shakhna Kahana, who begat two sons, Jacob Kahana and Abraham Kahana. And Jacob had three sons, one named after his father and was also called Shalom Shakhna Kahana, and Joseph Kahana of Heller, and lastly Zeev Wolf Kahana, and they were rabbis in their day forgetting the ways of the family. And this son Shalom Shakhna Kahana had a son Abraham Aryeh Lieb Kahana, who in turn had a son Solomon Zalmon Kahana and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And those are the generations of Shalom Shakhnah Kahana the son of Jacob Kahana the Elder.

And the other son Joseph Kahana of Heller had many sons, and they were Mordecai Kahana, whom in turn had his own son Judah Kahana, whom begat Daniel Kahana, whom begat Mordechai Kahana, whom begat Judah Kahana and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son named Daniel Kahana, whom begat Mordecai Kahana, whom had a daughter Esther that married Judah Greenfeld and that is the last we know of the descendants of that son. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son Haim and that is all we know of his line. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son, Abraham Lieb Kahana and he had three sons, David Heller-Kahana, Joseph Dov Heller-Kahana, and Hirsch Heller-Kahana and that is all we know of this line. And Joseph Kahana of Heller had another son Judah Kahana and he in turn had many sons, Jakob-Jokel, Zeev Wolf, Leibish, Nachman, Simeon Hirsch, Jehiel, Joseph Mordecai and a daughter Nissel. And there were no sons of Jakob-Jokel Kahana, and that is the last of his line that we know of. Zeev Wolf Kahana had a son that went by the name Nechemye Kahn and took for his wife Dvoyra, and begat Berisch Kahn whom also married a woman named Dvoyra and they in turn begat many children, Rikele, Nehemiah, Fradel, Henry, and Naftali. And Henry Kahn married Lottie Berkovics and they in turn had many children, Devorah, Gordon, Benjamin, Louis Avram-Leib, Annie, Esther and Joseph and that is the last we know of this line. And Naftali went by the surname Kahan and he married Estera Weiner and they begat Benjamin, Henry, Pepi, Gussie and Jennie and that is the last we know of this line. And Judah’s son Leibish had two sons, and these were Isaac whom married a daughter of the Panet family, and they had a son Arie Leibish, and that is all we know of the descendants of that line, and Berel (Dov) who married Sarah Taube Dortort and they had children, Fanny, Deborah, Simon, Louis, Regina and another daughter whose name has been lost. And Deborah married Sam Lieb Kalish and they had children, Rose, David and Helen. And Simon had children named Victor, Szeren and Louis. And Louis married Paula Klein and had children Laura, Adolph, Ernest, Harold, Sarah, Jesse and William. And Regina married Yehoshua Mordechai Dortort and they had children Arie-Louis, Sara Taube and Chaim Fishel. And the daughter whose name has been lost married a man surnamed Burger and they had two daughters, Sara and Ella and that is the last we know of the descendants of this line. And Judah’s son Nachman had a son Joseph Leib and two daughters, Malka and another whose name has been lost. And Joseph Lieb married Hantcha Panet and they had a daughter Frida Rivka. And Malka married Samuel Fruchter and they had a son Judah Arie. And the daughter whose name has been lost married Jacob Rosenberg and they had as son, Judah Abraham. And Judah’s son Jehiel had five children, Katriel, Haim Joseph Dov, Moses, Mordechai Arie, and Judah Jacob. And Haim Joseph Dov went by the surname Kahana-Heller and his children were Katreil, Moses Nachman, and two other daughters whose names have been lost. And Jehiel’s son Moses had a son Zvi Hisch Kahana-Heller. And Jehiel’s son Mordechai Arie married Tirza Fish and they had a son Yehuda Menachem Kahana and two daughters. And Yehuda Menachem Kahana married Frida Rivka Kahana, the daughter of Joseph Lieb Kahana and Hantcha Panet. And Jehiel’s son Judah Jacob had a son Samuel Zanwil Kahana and this is the last we know of the descendants of Jehiel.

And Judah’s son Joseph Mordecai Kahana-Heller had a son Jehiel Zevi and a daughter Channah Yente. And Jehiel Zevi had four children, Hayyim Aryeh Kahana, Joseph Mordecai Kahana, Jacob Gedaliah Kahana and Shraga Feiwish. And Hayyim Aryeh had a son Nahman who married Batyafa and that is the last we know of the descendants of Judah Kahana Son of Joseph Kahana of Heller. And those are the generations of Joseph Kahana Heller the son of Jacob Kahana the Elder.

And Zeev Wolf Kahana the third son of Jacob Kahana the Elder, had two sons, Judah Lieb Kahana and Abraham Aryeh Kahana. And Judah Lieb had sons Samuel Zanvil, Kalonymus and Aryeh Lieb Kahana. And Judah Lieb had two children, Nissel and Simcha Israel Kahana. And Simcha Israel had a son Samuel Zanvil. And Kalonymus had a son also named Samuel Zanvil. And Aryeh Lieb had has son named Nathan Zanvil haCohen Kahana. And that is all that is known of the decendants of Judah Lieb Kahana.

And Abraham Aryeh Kahana, the son of Zeev Wolf had sons Itzhok Kahana, Jacob Kahana, Joseph Kahana and Aharon Mordecai Kahana. And Itzhok Kahana married Rachel and they had a son Mordecai that was also called Mortche-Lieb Kahana and later in life he adopted the surname Goldenthal and he was married to Hanah Leah Belzar. And the children of Mordecai and Hanah Leah are well chronicled in the books of the Goldenthals of New York and there is no need to describe their generations here.

And Abraham’s son Jacob had sons Joseph Lieb Kahana and Itshak Kahana. And Joseph Lieb Kahana married Reizl and they had a son David surnamed Goldenthal whom married Mollie. And David and Mollie’s children were Joseph, Bernard and Mary. And Joseph married Anna and Bernard married Annie Kantrowitz and Marie married a man surnamed Newman. And the children of Bernard and Annie are well chronicled in the books of the Goldenthals of Connecticutt and there is no need to describe their generations here. Of the children of Joseph and Anna we have no knowledge of their descendants. And Abraham’s son Itshak Kahana married Sura Ryvka and they had children Zelman, Moses Samuel Gershon, and Kalonymus and all were surnamed Goldenthal. And of the children of Zelman and Kalonymus we have no record but Moses Samuel Gershon married Sara Meir and they had two children Baruch Mordecai Goldenthal and Leya Goldenthal. And of the descendants of Baruch Mordecia and his sister Leya we have no record.

And Abraham’s son Aharon Mordecai Kahana had a son Zanvil Kahana who in turn had a daughter Sara and that is all that is known of the descendants of Aharon Mordecai Kahana.

And Abraham’s son Joseph had sons Julius and Jakob and a third son Nathan Hirsch who were all originally surnamed Kahana. And Julius adopted the surname Goldenthal after his brother Jakob obtained it for all the family and had three sons named Israel, Saloman and Joseph Lieb Goldenthal. And Israel had a son Iosif and a daughter whose name has been forgotten. And Iosif had a son Alexander and a daughter Rakhil. And Alexander married Carolyn Klarsfeld and they had a son William and daughter Edith. And William married Simone Grere and they had a son Henry Alexander Goldenthal and a daughter Mariamne. And Henry Alexander married Nawal El Hachem and that is all that is known of the decendants of Iosif. And the daughter of Israel whose name has been forgotten married a man surnamed Halperin who had deserted the Russian army and needed to be hid away. They married and he in turn adopted the surname Goldenthal but in actuality his descendants are Halperin and there are many in this family living in Israel that go by the surname Goldenthal today.

And Saloman the Son of Julius had three daughters, Katharina, Bertha and Rosa and the descendants of these daughters has been lost to us.

And Joseph Lieb had a grandson Bruno Goldenthal but the name of the father of Bruno has been forgotten and these are the all the descendants of Julius Goldenthal.

And Julius’s brother Nathan Hirsch married Marie and they had three daughters, Sara (Chaje), Tobi, and Rebekah Goldenthal. And Sara married Abraham Virtman and their children were Samuel, Esther and Mihaley. And Tobi married Ignatz Klein and their children were Emmanuel, Leni, Marie and Rebekah. And Rebekah married Solomon Neuman and they had a daughter Marie. And these are all the descendants of Nathan Hirsch Goldenthal.

And the third brother of Julius and Nathan Hirsch was Jakob Kahana who was the first to obtain the surname Goldenthal when it was granted to him by Oswald Von Goldenthal, a German aristocrat who was the burgermeister of the town of Goldenthal. Now the stories of Jakob Goldenthal are well known not only because of what I have written but also what is recorded in the Royal Archives of Austria. It was Jakob that found the letter from the Emperor Rudolph of Austria that had been given to his ancestor Yusef Kahana on behalf of his father Yaakov Kahana and used the promises of the past Emperor to request favours from Franz Joseph the Emperor of his time. It was this letter that obtained a place in the University of Leipzig for Jakob Goldenthal though he had no formal education, and it was this letter that obtained him the position of Principal for the Jewish districts in the Ukraine. And it was this letter that obtained for him the position of Professor at the University of Vienna. And it was this letter by which he became private tutor for the Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her children only to live in the shadow of innuendo afterwards. But there were many good things that Jakob Goldenthal did that overshadowed those that accused him of doing evil to the community and to those that were involved in his life. And Jakob had three wives the first whom he left in Romania while he travelled and lived elsewhere in the Ukraine and Europe. And this wife whose name has been lost to us had a son David and a second son named Haim Moses. And David married Reyzyl whom was also called Rosa and they had a son Simon Zeev HaCohen Goldenthal and two daughters, Etlya and Sura. And Sura married Nakhman Rapoport and that is all that is known of her descendants. And Simon Zeev married Sara Zelda Fraida his cousin the daughter of Haim Moses and she had a sister Clara. And their children were Morris, Max, Emma, Bessie, Clara and Zvi Hirsch that was called Harry. And Harry married Sophie Herscovitz and they had many children of whom are my aunts and uncles. And their son Joseph was my father and that is the line of my tradition.

And Jakob’s took a younger wife Anna Goldenblum who was also known as Johanna and whom he married in Vienna. And together they had a daughter Sidonia who married Armin Reisman and they in turn had a daughter Irene.

And Jakob’s last wife was Rosa and the children of this marriage are unknown to us and their descendants may have perished in the Holocaust.

And the story of Jakob Goldenthal is yet to be written as part of the Kahana Chronicles for there are many things he did in his lifetime that also are worthy of remembering.

The Kahana Code

This blog is intended for two purposes; one, to introduce my family to my third great grandfather whom they have not had the opportunity to know since he died in 1867 and secondly to demonstrate to those that have been following the Kahana Chronicles just how the stories are preserved and passed through the generation even though the direct line of communication can at times be broken.
Cryptic paintings, Latin verse, hidden societies, anagrams, and a concealed hereditary bloodline; No, I'm not writing about the Da Vinci Code. Call it the Kahana Code perhaps, but unlike Dan Brown's novel, I'm not writing fiction, or speculation for that matter. The stories revolve around events that actually occurred and what better way to demonstrate that the legends have a basis in historical fact than to cite ancestors that have in their own way tried to preserve the stories through a code. If you think about the Da Vinci Code, and I presume most people have either read the book or seen the movie, then you will recall that the goal was to preserve a hereditary line by ensuring there were enough clues sprinkled through paintings and books to lead a trail to the heir. Well, we have the good fortune of having a pictorial and written record in the family for that purpose as well. The picture below is the coverplates of the Clavis Talmudica and its here that I will begin my tale of mystery and suspense and where you can help in resolving some of the vacuoles that still persist in my attempts to decipher my ancestor's message. Because somewhere, in this world are other families that would have been involved in the transmission of these hidden messages and their ancestors like mine would have been aware of his purpose and intent. It would be very narrow minded of me to think that he had done so only with the sole purpose of hoping one of his descendants would find the riddle, although considering his own personal history it is a possibility. Jakob Goldenthal had to be writing to a known audience, members of a society for which he was preserving the secrets. Just whom those members of his brotherhood may have been is yet to be discovered.



As the story goes, our third-great grandfather Jakob Goldenthal discovered a set of books and papers that had been hidden in his home which subsequently turned his world 180 degrees and set him upon an amazing journey. Why his father or grandfather never bothered to destroy those papers is still unknown but the possibility that they were hidden away by Shalom Shakna Kahana in a place that no one bothered to look into until Jakob two hundred years later is not unreasonable. In all likelihood, Jakob was living in the same home in Brody in whihc his ancestors had lived. In that paperwork he uncovered a story concerning the involvement our ancestor Yakov (Kova) in the 16th century who was involved in resolving the mystery behind the Golem of Prague as described in Shadows of Trinity. He would have learned of his ancestor Yakov's (notice that they bore the same name and the giving of names starting with J or A is very repetative in the family) ability to decipher signs and riddles, a trait that he too possessed. And most of all, he learned of his Karaite heritage and the plea from an ancestor long gone not to abandon that heritage.

Of course detractors would say that it's only a story and that there's no way of proving these events one hundred and forty years after Jakob Goldenthal's death. Well you can probably guess that I wouldn't be writing this article unless I believed there was a way to prove it. Not unlike the Da Vinci Code, there always has been a trail of bread crumbs. And that is where the GLEEM theory(http://hubpages.com/hub/GLEEM) becomes involved or Genetically Linked Enzyme Enhanced Memories. Whether you're willing to admit it or not, ancestors and descendants tend to think alike. As much as you may refuse to beleive it you often start acting very much like your father or mother. We are imprinted with behaviours and that's a fact. Having recognized that, members in the family would create puzzles with the knowledge that others that think in similar patterns would ultimately be able to decipher and resolve the challenge years or generations later. Not unlike the Kabbalah Wheel in Shadows of Trinity where Yakov has to understand how to translate the various languages and symbols, Jacob would have a similar ability. The ability to see signs and images where no one else can see them. Jakob Goldentha would have known that he could find ways to tranfer the stories he had uncovered to the future through the use of hidden clues. The same way that Yakov (Kova) was comfortable in speaking German, Hebrew, understanding Latin, and a smattering of other languages, he knew this knack would be transmitted down the genetic lines. And it was Jakob over two hundred years later also being fluent in a number of languages; German, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and a smattering of French and English that provided me with the first clue. Because like them, I also am familiar with the same languages and that is too much of a coincidence. It was the first indication that something more was at work.




The coverplate in the figure above is Jakob Goldenthal's. He was an avid researcher a writer and scientist, traits which I obviously inherited as well. Working outside the religious sphere from which he was practically excommunicated and finding safety in the more secular university environment, Jacob would combine languagues into a single book making a smooth transition back and forth. Since most people wouldn't be able to make the transition as easily as he could, it provided him a vehicle in which to conceal his clues.

The Latin side of the coverpage appears to be quite straight forward. The title Clavis Talmudica translates as "Key (as in Index) to the Talmud" by author Rabbi Nissim Ben Jacob Cairovanensi a name that was pretty safe and would not raise any alarm bells. His page announces Rabbi Nissim was both the author and writer. But that is not the message that is recorded on the left side of the cover page written in Hebrew. I don't expect you all to be fluent in either Latin or Hebrew and I'm certainly not so bear with me as I translate for you.

It is important to recognise that Jakob toys with us, inserting and deleting words as he pleases. The Latin side with its title of The Talmud Key indicating an index is different from that of the Hebrew words. There it translates as The Book Of the Key to My Lock on the Talmud. The insertion of MANULI for those reading the Hebrew is interesting for two reasons. One that it doesn't appear in the Latin Verse and secondly because it is possessive and therefore claims it as being His Lock. Since it was supposed to be Rabbi Nissim's book, how or why would Jakob suggest that the interpretations belonged to him? The answer is quite simple. It was obvious that Jakob was intending to include information that was his own creation.

So from the onset Jakob has you questioning whether this is a commentary on Rabbi Nissim's commentary of the Talmud or is this actually going to be a commentary straight from Jakob Goldenthal? The Hebrew coverplate uses a reference to "our colleagues" in the context of a brotherhood when he uses the word SHEHAVARU when alluding to who's Talmud it actually was. A strange use of the word and even more bizarre when he follows with the words MORANU and RAVENU. When used in this context they imply Our Teacher and Our Master. Definitely not the terms one would use prior to Nissim's name who's influence on the Talmud as I mentioned was only as an indexer and therefore hardly worthy of such titles of honour. And honour it was as Jakob purposely uses the word KAVOD saying Nissim was the Son of Honour. This is followed again by the words Our Teacher and Our Master Jacob Zets'l. Now Zets'l is a purposely contracted word and unfortunately I am unable to unlock the contraction as yet but I'm working on it. But most definitely it has nothing to do with Nissim's father who was referred to as Jacob the Gaon. And because my ancestor purposely used the noun for honour he was not implying that he was the son of the honourable Jacob Zets'l it is clear that he's talking about something completely unrealted to these two rabbis. So if not a reference to father and son, then who was Jakob Goldenthal referring to. The reference to Moranu and Ravenu are almost always used when referring to Moses. As the Lawgiver, he had earned these supreme titles. And as Karaites strictly adhering to the laws as handed down by Moses and implemented through his brother Aaron's decendants as high priests, then it is no coincidence that the two men adorning Jakob's coverplate are none other than Moes and Aaron. In this context it is no suprise that the Hebrew words for intercessor and recorder are used whereas on the Latin coverplate Jakob uses author and writer. Had he actually been writing about Rabbi Nissim he would have used the word MEHABAR to identify him as author not the word for intecessor. For as we know, Moses did not author the Old Testament he merely acted as intecessor as God described what to write to him and the council of 70 elders wrote it down under the direction of Aaron.

By why use Rabbi Nissim as the pretext for writing a commentary? The reasoning was actually quite shrewd on Jakob's part. Rabbi Nissim Ben Jacob lived between the years 990-1062, but the fact that he was from Kairouan (in Tunisia) North Africa was normally not part of his title. He was usually referred to as Gaon indicating that he was the head of the religious schools there. To exclude that from his title could be considered a minor insult but Jakob does not appear to have any concern for the absence of his proper title. Nissim is best known today for his Talmudic commentary HaMafteach, which Jakob Goldenthal uses as the main title on the Hebrew coverplate. The book is actually an index to obscure references and to the secondary compilation of oral traditions known as the Tosefta. Not a book that would be at the top of the best seller's list. In fact obscurity was the best way to descibe it and Jakob's decision to highlight it as a book he wanted to comment on makes no sense at all. Being an index, it was hardly the type of book that one would expect someone else to write another index on how to actually use it. That would be similar to someone writing a major univerity paper on how to use an index at the back of a book. Let's give Jakob a little more credit than that! So that in itself is the first clue that Jakob was using this particular Rabbi to point out something completely different. Perhaps it was that Rabbi Nissim also wrote other works, one of which was a polemic in which he made a stinging attack in disputing Karaism which he viewed as controverting religion, philosophy, politics, and scientific matters. Who better than an enemy of the Karaites to use as the delivery boy for your own message. Jakob would have no regrets in using an enemy of his brethren for such a purpose. Nissim also had written a collection of tales, entitled Sefer Ma'asiyyot ha-Hakhamim which contained about sixty tales, based upon the oral traditions. Again, using this medieval story teller as the vehicle to tell your own story has some ironic humour that I can see appealing to my ancestor. So, it is possible that referring to the author as the Kairouan rather than alluding to his title of Gaon as supreme teacher intentional.

One has to remember that it was up to Jakob Goldenthal to decide exactly what wording would be used on these cover plates. The same way he would have instructed the artist as to what to draw and include in the artwork. The same principles as I am involved with today with my publishers for my novels. I have final say on the style and artwork for my books and therefore in that regard, ultimate control. So if I was Jakob and placed on my Latin coverplate standard references to the Vienna library as would be expected of me as a Professor of the University of Vienna, then it would be assumed that I would make similar references on the Hebrew coverplate. But as the one making the ultimate decisions as to what to write, and if I think I've been clever enough to conceal my intentions well enough to pass the light scrutiny my book would receive by those fluent in Latin but perhaps not so well skilled in Hebrew then I might see an opportunity to play out my hand. It was a gamble, and Jakob wrote something totally unexpected which to date has escaped the critics. Instead of the library reference he wrote VEHOSAFTI ELION HAGHOIT KARATIM BESAM BE-AR YAKOV. Roughly translated this reads And The Additional Leaflet on The Holy days of the Karaites There at the Well of Jacob. Rabbi Nissim wrote no such tractate. The mere mention of Karaites on the same front page as mentioning the Talmud would be considered bizarre since they are diametrically opposed. And to further layer this unusual statement by a reference to the well of Jacob is only more mystifying. It is said that Jacob dug the well (Gen 48:12) near Shechem roughly at the base of Mount Gerzim. It is an area with an abundance of springs so the need for a well at all has always been bewildering. But the use of water in the Middle East has always been governed by very strict laws and the digging of a well there may have been one of the conditions Jacob had to meet in order to purchase the land. As there was always a danger of strife between rival herdsmen, the patriarch would have achieved a peace by digging this well and also established his independance from the other chieftains by having his own water supply. Is Jacob Goldenthal alluding to himself that somehow he would attain peace between the rival factions of Karaiate and Rabbinical Jew. By then Karaites were diminished to a point of insignificance. Was he thinking a revival of the sect? Did he have some plans in motion? It's possible because following the reference on the well he writes in Hebrew, ANI JAKOB GOLDENTHAL or I am Jakob Goldenthal as if he and the well were somehow the same. Contrast this to the Latin Coverplate where he refers to himself as the Editor and provider of the introduction then lists all his educational degrees following his name. He does no such thing on the Hebrew coverplate.

So how aware would Jakob have been regarding the events in Shadows of Trinity? Considering the letters from his ancestor Yakov Kahana would have contained some details of the events then he would have known most of the story. As I mentioned, he had full editorial powers over the artwork that would be included in his book. As Shadows of Trinity and Blood Royale were both stories that contained strong references to clandestine events in France, the role of the Kahana family pivotal in both these stories and the fact that the members of the family were far more than academics but warriors that fought to the death for the survival of their people, then it would be hard to believe that Jakob would not find an opportunity to communicate his knowledge of these events. The Kahana as I frequently remind people is from the line of descendants from Aaron via the House of Phiabi. Yakov knew this, Jakob knew this and I know this. On that basis it was obvious that I should look at the portrait of Aaron in the coverplate picture to find any hidden clues if they existed. As I had suspected, my ancestor did not leave me looking too long as there are several.

1. The most obvious indication is the design in the platform beneath Aaron's feet. It would have been normal to include something in reference to Aaron's role as high priest. A menorah, shewbread table, the ark or something from the Temple. If you look closely at the design there are two items. An Arabic styled scimitar or sword and an urn turned on its side. The sword which would be out of context with Aaron but not the Kahana is patently obvious, but the urn I still have to think about. I don't have an answer for that yet.

2. The crescent moon of the mitre on Aaron's head for those not familiar with the high priest's headdress is completely atypical of the conical mitre in white and blue that has been traditionally associated with the biblical description. If you want to see what the actual high priest clothing looked like then I suggest you go to my website at http://www.legendsofthekahana.webs.com and take a look at my son's ascent pictures where he is wearing the priestly garments. For Jakob to approve a diagram so obviously erroneous meant it had to be right for a completely different reason. A reference to the family's origins around the Black Sea possibly where the Muslim crescent would have been the dominant symbol.

3. But then altering the priests wardrobe was something Jakob was blatant about. The biblical description refers to stripes on the ephod that were gold, red and purple. Again see the pictures on my website. Jakob would have known this. If one looks closely at the diagram they will see that he had the robe covered in Fleur de Lis. The French references are pretty obvious. The only time the Fleur de Lis were used as Jewish symbols were by the Hasmonean family. So now we have a double reference. Not only to the French history I alluded to earlier but also the combined entity of Priest-Kings which not only the Hasmoneans were but also the Kahana.

4. But there is another item on the ephod that is a mystery. Just to the right of the incence burner is what appears to be a patch in the shape of a heraldic shield. It is covered with tiny squares. There is no reference to anything like this in the bible. The only pockets on the ephod were underneath the breastplate to hold the ummim and thummim. What is it and what does it mean? Right now your guess is as good as mine. I might suggest that it is Jakob Goldenthal's personal stance. The fact that he had adopted Oswald von Goldenthal's heraldic emblem and that as Kahana he saw himself wearing the garments in a time period almost two thousand years earlier he combined the two. Mere speculation but my best guess at this time.

So in conclusion I will say this. Though my third great grandfather has been gone and buried for almost one hundred and fifty years, it think if we listen and look long enough we can still hear his voice.

Of Witches, Werewolves, Vampires, Angels and Demons

You have to love the wisdom that emanates from the mouths of your children. Their ability to state what's on their minds without the hesitency that we all gain as adults is sometimes brutal but overwhelmingly honest. It's a trait we all seem to lose as we become part of the adult working force and enter society with all its restrictions and political correctness. And what have we actually created with our acts of hypocrisy and social obligations; A mess to put it quite frankly. A world that is spinning out of control because somewhere along the way it lost what we once called morality. The overriding sense of wrong and right that was engraved in stone. You knew there would be a punishment for every improper deed you did and that was often enough to keep you walking the straight and narrow. Now there is no discipline, no sense of fairplay, and definitely no morality.
So when my daughter asks me why I choose to write of historical events because in her mind real author's know that success lies in writing books devoted to the celebration of the antihero, dipped heavily into the ether of demons and the supernatural, then I better have a good answer since so much of their lives are wrapped up in the hoodoo voodoo of this new age. Whether your child considers themselves Emo or Goth determines whether they just hate society or wish to watch it burn in Hell. We can shake our heads all we want but the truth of the matter is that it's our fault that they're immsersed in those attitudes. Why? Because we took their heroes away. We had to obliterate the masked man in the white suit that always defeated his nemesis in the black hat and Snidely Whiplash styled moustache. Someone said that it gave children the wrong impression that colour determined good or bad and that could result in racism. And just like that they were gone! Then we had to remove God from religion so as not to suggest that the God of one religion was superior to that of another. Perhaps if we had thought about it more thoroughly we would have recognised that the solution was not to toss out God from religion but to remove religion from God. Whether one believes in the physical forces of the universe, the God of the Bible, the Force from Star Wars, it's all God. God didn't have to be removed from schools and public services. What had to be removed was the false sense of superiority that one believer held over another. But that's all a discussion for another day. The fact is the youth of today want to believe in a world created by the likes of a Stephanie Meyer. They want to emulate the world that author's of this alternative reality have fashioned, where the supernatural meshes intricately with that of humanity. Where darkness is inseparable from the light because in their own minds there is no longer a distinction. Death and life have become confused and meaningless with the preservation of life no longer paramount nor sacred.
So to be asked why I don't expend my efforts to write about the witches, werewolves, vampires, angels and demons that now haunt their everyday existence, I took great pleasure in replying that I do. The only difference is that I relate these attributes of horror to real people, that did cause terrible suffering and by which the people had to bear the repurcussions of the evil manifest in these human forms. There were witches in my newly finished novel Zutra. They were women of power that exerted magical forces over the men in their lives, twisting them until they performed like marionettes on chainlink strings. Oh, and there were werewolves too. Men that could change their form on any given day, masking the deceit and visciousness of their own personna until they tore the hearts from the innocent. Zutra's father died on the cross because he failed to see the werewolves that existed amongst those he thought were his friends. And of course their were Vampires, none so much as the Lady Avital that sucked the life blood from both of her husbands, father and son, until they were too weak to resist her alluring charms. But in spite of the evil that flourished, there were still angels that would not succumb to the evil that pervaded their world. Men and women who could rise above the wickednss that men do and would willingly risk their own lives in order to stem the evil tide. Zutra was such a man. Patricius longed to be such a man. And the Princess Ti-Ping was definitely such a woman. As for demons, they are always in disguise. They're the ones not happy until they destroyed everything about them even if they have to sacrifice the world and all they hold dear to do so. You will find many demons existed in the world in which Zutra lived. He had no choice but to become a demon slayer.
So you see, much to my daughter's surprise, I do write about this dark Gothic world they wish to envelop themselves within. But in my stories there still remains that fine line between Good and Evil. I still have my heroes in white hats or shining armour. Because it is not about the colour. It was never about the colour. It was always about doing what was right. And if my words can re-establish the belief that this world did have, does have, and will have heroes, then perhaps we can save it from ourselves!

Zutra is Searching for an Agent

So what's next you ask in the Kahana Chronicles series. Well, next is book 5. Wait you say, the last one to be published was book 8 and now you're following with book 5. What's going on?
Welcome to New Math. The actual reason is that I never know what compulsion or story-line is going to pop into my head at any given time. Book 1 actually will at some time in the future but not yet. All I can say is that Zutra was screaming to get out and it's one hell of a story. And you probably never even heard his name before even though he changed the world. Following his death there was a virtual pact between the Byzantines, the Sassanids and I'm afraid to say it, even the Rabbis to ensure that his story never was repeated. The name Zutra was synonymous with freedom. It was a call sung loudly by the 400 that were one of the most feared military units with their dervish style of fighting. And to the two women that shared his life it infused one with love and the other with hatred.
The success of Zutra and his renegade Byzantine general Patricius were an embarassment to them all as he forged his own kingdom along side the Tigris River, a kingdom that remained free for 7 years only to brought down by the betrayal of his father-in-law, Reb Hanina and the other rabbis that had dedicated their live to stipping the power away from the Exilarch. This is the story of one man that took on the world and for a few short years actually defeated it. There are no punches pulled in the telling of this story. What he did and what was done to him are all historically accurate. And those that still were responsible for his death and the death of his father, the extermination of a kingdom, and the extinguishing of freedom are not going to be happy about it.

Below is a brief synopsis of the characters that played such an important role in this insurrection and its subsequent demise. Let's hope that Zutra can find an agent bold enough to represent it because they will find themselves under attack from several oganisations that still would like to see these events remain buried!

Mar Zutra Kahana, was born around 480 in Mahoza, which today would be located in Iraq. He was the hereditary Exilarch, indicating that he was the rightful king in exile and both a royal descendant of King David and a priestly descendant of Aaron. In 496 when he was sixteen years old, he watched as his father Huna was crucified by the Persians and in 498 he lead a revolt in which he won the freedom of the people he ruled over for seven years.

Julius Flavius Patricius was born around 445, the son of Aspar, the Consul of the Byzantine Empire, becoming Caesar under the Emperor Leo in 470 and considered next in line for the throne. In love with Leo’s daughter Ariadne but married to her sister Leontia, Patricius had to flee for his life in 471 when his family was accused of treason and Leo had his father and brother slain by what is commonly referred to as the Revolt of the Palace Eunuchs. For twenty-five years he became a soldier of fortune in the orient until one fateful day in 497 when he escorted the daughter of the Emperor Hsiang of China to the city of Mahoza.

Princess Ti-Ping, the young and beautiful daughter of the reigning Chinese Emperor of Northern Wei who was offered to the young Exilarch when he assumed his throne in order to forge an alliance between the eastern and western worlds. Though initially a marriage of diplomacy as the Empire of Northern Wei was constantly under attack, what resulted was a passionate and genuine love that became a modern tale of star-crossed lovers and the bane of Great Shah's existence as he attempted to regain the Persian throne.

The Lady Avital, betrothed to Zutra as a young girl but married instead to Zutra’s widowed father at the insistance of the leaders of the religious community, she bore the old Exilarch a son, and soon after became responsible for the death of Zutra's father. Unable to accept her marriage to his father, Zutra forced the Lady Avital, now a widow into a marriage as his second wife, only to find that doing so, he took the mechanism to his own demise into his bed chambers.

Ariadne, Empress of Byzantium, who had been engaged to Patricius son of Aspar only to have the engagement broken by her father the Emperor Leo and her hand in marriage given to Zeno, a man she hated and despised, while her betrothed was then married to her younger sister Leontia. As the real power behind the throne, she not only plotted against her husband but once he was dead, she used her power and influence to name the next emperor, whom she married thereby retaining her influence and power over the Empire. Twenty-five years later, she finds herself torn between the love she still bears for the only man she ever truly loved or to hold on to the throne as the most powerful woman in the world.

This is their story; this is my family's story.

Sins of my Fathers

When I was young, my maternal grandmother who raised me was somehow aware of a particular one of my ancestor’s indiscretions on my father’s side. Whether she knew of these events because of stories she heard from her parents, or whether it was from information she gleaned from my father’s side of the family when those two sides were still talking with one another I can’t say for certain but she knew nonetheless. I can’t say that there was any fondness for my paternal family by my grandmother after my father exited from my life when I was nine months old, and she certainly didn’t hold back any opinions on the matter. She would tell me how they were all a notorious bunch of Galitzianos, from a family that had once had power and recognition only to lose it all and were now nothing more than wandering gypsies bereft of all they once had. Womaniser and gamblers that still believed they were something special even though they had been stripped of everything. It would be easy to attribute this rant of hers to being typical of the animosity that arises from a family split except for some of the references she had used which were actually reinforcing the concept that they had been far more in the past than they were in the present. The clincher though was a statement that she once iterated that the downfall of my paternal family came from the selfish actions of one of the ancestors long ago. That one man had brought about their demise in her eyes through his own selfishness. She raised it as a warning for me, as a warning against false pride and lack of humility. A caution against following in my ancestor’s footsteps.
I later discovered that this man she spoke of was none other than my third great grandfather. He had risen well above his humble origins of Brody Galicia, eventually rubbing elbows with Emperor’s and Queens. Being awarded gold medals in both London and Paris, and rewarded handsomely by the Emperor Franz Josef to stations well beyond his level of academia. You see, Jakob had never gone to what they referred to back then as the Gymnasia. It didn’t mean the health centre as it does now, but in fact was a reference to high school. Jakob had no formal education, yet he was able to enter directly into a university and years later was appointed a professor at the University of Vienna. Not a bad achievement for someone without their high school certificate. Lately I’ve been finding myself dwelling upon the events in my third great-grandfather Jakob’s life to a considerable extent and my grandmother’s comment on his being selfish.
The decisions he made when examined from an antagonistic viewpoint could all be considered selfish. But when one takes into consideration the motivations that drove him to his choice selection then it is possible to gain a different perspective.
Turning his back on his destiny after the finding of the documents past down from his ancestor in the 16th century was a natural outcome of living a lie. The concealment of his past which was in direct conflict with the future planned for him meant that a decision had to be made one way or the other. He chose to preserve the ways of the past; the ways of his ancestors. Is it selfish to deny others the right to determine your future?
Taking the funds provided to him by the community in Brody which he used to pursue a doctorate in Middle Eastern languages and literature instead of enrolling in the Rabbinical School in Leipzig as the money had been intended might also be viewed as selfish. I know when the arrest warrant was issued by the Brody community they were thinking far worse than merely selfish, such as criminal, contemptible and far worse, but then wouldn’t one consider all the money that Jakob returned in the future to the children of not only Brody, but in Germany and Austria to fund their education (although only of a secular nature) through the benevolence donations of the Golden Thaler a fair return on the community’s investment? Shouldn’t one be allowed to compensate for their ‘criminal’ actions and gain forgiveness?
The irreparable rift between Jakob and his father was originated by his father’s actions of disowning his son. It was an age when such action by a parent meant that a man’s honour was at stake to challenge the action. A vow was a vow no matter how much it may have been regretted in the future. But even so, Jakob warmly welcomed his brother Julius when he arrived in Vienna, not only providing for him but obtaining for him a position in the university archives as well. Even though Julius had been bound by his father’s vow as well to never again communicate with Jakob whom was to be considered dead, it did not stop Jakob from extending a helping hand to one that had previously turned his back on him. That can hardly be categorised as selfish, can it?
And when the Emperor Franz Josef appointed Jakob as the personal tutor to his young and impressionable empress, Elisabeth, was it Jakob’s fault that they should be drawn together to such an extent that the Emperor’s mother had to question as to whom really fathered the Princess Sophia when she was born? I’ve seen many portraits of the young Elisabeth and I know exactly what my third great-grandfather felt each time he was in her presence. If such an attraction did occur, was it selfish to let it develop or was it merely the natural course of romance?
The retribution against Jakob for what may have been considered his final indiscretion in the previous paragraph did lead to the family being stripped of much of its honours. But those honours were only obtained through Jakob in the first place. They were his to lose if he so desired in a matter of speaking. I’m currently working on Jakob’s life story in the 9th Book of the Kahana Chronicles and exactly how he will be presented I cannot even tell you at this point. The writing takes on a life of its own.
So on reflection of the true meaning of selfishness, I am led to question does it truly exist or is it merely the perspective from which we view the actions. If we accuse an individual of such behaviour could it be only because we lust for what they have obtained and therefore to view selfishness is only possible if we in turn possess jealousy? Are we truly able to say that if we found ourselves in similar circumstances we would behave in an entirely different manner? In life there are so many questions but so few answers.

Incredible Journey:
Since the first book of the Kahana series has been published (Blood Royale) the question has been frequently asked, where do these ideas come from. The answer to that question is dealt with numerous times in conversations with John Pearce that narrate most of the stories. The tales themselves were passed down, inherited, encoded and for lack of a better word, 'infused.'
For those that have seen the family tree unrolled, it is an impressive sight. Two meters in height and almost five meters fully laid flat in length, it contains close to 50,000 names. With that many names, there's going to be alot of history to write about.
But the problem with history as we're taught it today is that it's viewed under a glass dome as if it's complete, finished; nothing more to learn about it. Sadly, that is far from the truth and most teachers can't comprehend that history is a living, breathing entity that we've only scratched the surface of. For every story of a Tacitus, Herodotus from ancient times or a Gibbons to give it a more modern spin, there are squirrled away somewhere a hundred or so other documents on the same subject, providing a vantage point from a completely different perspective. You have to remember, anything of a differing opinion was publicly burnt well into the eighteenth century. Thousands upon thousands of books, manuscripts and letters with differing opinions. But no matter how hard you try to eradicate those other truths, as the Nag Hamadi findings, the Dead Sea Scolls, the hidden manuscripts of Nostradamus, etc., have shown us, somewhere, someplace, are the original manuscripts just waiting to be discovered.
In that sense we are all on this voyage of discovery. How far that voyage will take us is yet to be determined. And the consequences of those future discoveries will be both amazing and world-defining.
As a young boy, my third great grandfather found a set of books that had been hidden away by his own father and a few generations that preceded him. They were a collection of books considered heretical, and a letter of introduction to the Hapsburg Royal family that was passed down from Emperor Rudolf II of the sixteenth century. A letter which he used to gain entry to the academic world by attending the University of Leipzig and then later to become of service to the Emperor Franz Josef, the decendant of that same Hapsburg family. As for the heretical books he had discovered, they were also from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Passed down by his ancestor of the time to remind him that in spite of living in a Jewish world under the influence of the Rabbis, he in turn was a Karaite and that he must never forget that. The revelation turned him into an outlaw, with an arrest warrant issued by his own hometown should he ever return. He made a decision of conscience, a decision of truth, and as he went forward in his life, becoming a professor at the University of Vienna, I doubt very much he regretted his decision.
Now oddly, I still come across the same prejudices of erroneous Rabbinical teaching that Karaites aren't Jews, Karaites don't exist, or that Karaites were the cause of all the social ills and problems that affected mainstream Jewish society. It's my turn to pick up the guantlet where my third great grandfather left off. To expose the histories that have been buried, to rewrite what currently exists in order to nullify the misconceptions. SHADOWS OF TRINITY is the first to have a major public release to do so. And as they celebrate the events of the 400th anniversary of the Maharal's death in Prague this year, let them answer the questions raised in the book regarding this highly esteemed individual. "If you create a monster to kill, does that not make you a monster in turn?" Once you've read the book, you'll have to answer that question for yourself.