by Jimmie Moglia for The Saker Blog

Scratching the surface of things is akin to scratching a lottery ticket. The results are routinely disappointing, sometimes unexpected, sometimes exceptional.

I recently attended an online conference, held by an Italian researcher named Mario Biglino. Mr. Biglino has dedicated many years to producing a new translation of the Bible. His effort centered on verifying and correcting official translations of the Bible from the Hebrew and/or Aramaic. With particular attention to original words whose meaning, or case, or number have been modified, in his view, to fit a particular pre-conceived theological or pseudo-theological scheme.

I briefly relate here what I have understood. There is no implication or even hint that I have any specific knowledge on the matter.

A typical example is the word ‘elohim,’ whose number is plural, whereas in the official home-Bible versions, the term is translated as if its number were singular.

In turn, through such change-of-number there derives the name ‘Yahveh.’ But according to a more accurate translation, the term ‘elohim’ is plural. Or rather, there were a number of ‘Elohim’ who fought among themselves – and quite brutally – for the possession of sundry chunks of Middle Eastern land – Yahveh being one of the Elohim. The saga of the internicine wars is varied and prolonged, and during the contests – that abound in the Bible – the prevailing Elohim often imposed the wholesale murder of women and children of the losing party.

The matter has stirred debates among lexicologists and theologians – though, in support of his translation, Mr. Biglino has found agreement even among the high echelons of Jewish academia.

It does not help that, as I have learned, the biblical Hebrew language did not have vowels. To alleviate the difficulty and to ensure some conformity of understanding, Jewish lexicologists added sundry dots and dashes below the consonants, in the way of vowels. This happened possibly around the 3rd-5th century AD, approximately when the Talmud was written.

But this is not what I would like to entertain or bore my twenty-five readers with. The above is intended as a background on the explorer, and as an introduction to another subject that also interested him, more historically verifiable but no less curious. Namely how the number of 6,000,000 among the Jews, victims or expected victims, appears in various occasions, publications and newspapers, as far back as the 19th century, up to 1200 AD and even to the year 135AD, as we will see next.

Mr. Biglino says that he began this research out of curiosity – though he says he was reprimanded by unmentioned sources, for cultivating an ‘unhealthy curiosity.’ Given that curiosity is the mother of knowledge, I fail to see unhealthiness in exploring this generally unknown chapter of historical statistics.

For we probably agree that there is no state more contrary to the dignity of common sense than that in which the understanding lies useless, and every opinion is received from external impulse.

In the instance, as you will see, the ‘external impulse’ is actually a fact, indispensable to form an opinion. And though it may be redundant to say it, the matter has nothing to do with ‘sensationalism’ of the type peddled by tabloids, ever ready to surprise the unawareness of the thoughtless.

The material is authentic and verifiable in the archives of the various publications involved.

Let’s start with,

“The Chicago Tribune,” July 19, 1921. Here are three titles:

Title A. 6,000,000 Jews in Bread Lines” Straus Writes – by Nathan Straus.

Title B, with Picture and Description “Nathan Straus, noted philanthropist and merchant, who pleads for the relief of destitute Jewish people in Eastern Europe”

Title C, (Straus) Begs America Save 6,000,000 in Russia. – Subtitle “Massacre Threatens All Jews as Soviet Power Wanes, Declares Kreinin, Coming Here for Aid.”

Beginning of Article:
Copyright 1921, by the Chicago Tribune Co.

BERLIN, July 19. – Russia’s 6,000,000 Jews are facing extermination by massacre. As famine is spreading, the counter-revolutionary movement is gaining and the Soviet’s control is waning. This statement is borne out by official documents presented to the Berlin Government, which show that numerous pogroms are raging in all parts of Russia….

The New York Times

published: October 31, 1911
Copyright © the New York Times

title: CHURCHES IN PLEA TO CZAR FOR JUSTICE

Creeds Unite In An Effort To End Religious Persecution In Russia
SEND RESOLUTIONS TO TAFT

Also Ask That Treaty Be Canceled Because Russia Has Not Accepted Our Passports

“The Resolutions.”

The resolutions passed were:

  1. The 6,000,000 Jews of Russia are singled out for systematic oppression and for persecution by due process of law.
  2. They are confined within congested districts at times ruinous to health.
  3. Education is prohibited to all but a few, resulting necessarily in the increase of illiteracy.
  4. They are restricted in occupations, reducing many to starvation.

… the list of grievances continues

The New York Times

published: May 9, 1920

Copyright © the New York Times

title: JEWISH CAMPAIGN EXTENDED A WEEK

Judge Rosalsky Announces That Efforts To Get Full $7,500,000 Will Continue

Full Quota Is Imperative To Succor 6,000,000 (Jews) Facing Starvation And Disease

… the need today is more pressing than ever because to farming and distress in some of the stricken district has been added the dread specter of typhus, and to abandon the sufferers now or to apply half measures in succoring then would mean that some 6,000,000 men women and children will be exposed to the menace of an awful death…

The Jewish Chronicle, April 7, 1939

Title: “Dictators Make Headlines… You Make the Eternal Story of Jewish Survival”

Subtitle: Not in Hitler’s Hands, in Yours…The Fate Of 6,000,000 European Jews –

United Jewish Fund Drive Gives You Chance To Help Suffering Millions –

by Maxine Hirsch Bader

The Palm Beach Post – Tuesday Morning June 25, 1940

DOOM OF EUROPEAN JEWS IS SEEN IF HITLER WINS.

NEW YORK. JUNE 24. – AP –

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, administrative committee chairman of the World Jewish Congress, said today that if the Nazis should achieve final victory, 6,000,000 Jews in Europe are doomed to destruction.”

“Their only hope for future existence is in the ability of Great Britain to resist the Nazi conquest.” Declared Dr. Goldmann, who arrived here Friday from Geneva. He issued a statement calling upon United States Jewry to take leadership in mobilizing Jews in North and South America for an organized defense program.

Address by Rabbi Wise at a Convention of Jewish Charities in Chicago. The clipping of the article does not include the date – estimated end of 1800, early 1900 (Rabby Wise died in 1927).

“The day would never come when I will care less for Zion, when there will be anyone who will strive more for the glorious ideals of Zionism. Two great conventions of Jews are being held tonight….(in Chicago)

There are 6,000,000 living, bleeding, suffering arguments in favor of Zionism. They do not to beg but ask for that which is higher than all material things. They seek to have satisfied the unquenchable thirst after the ideal. They ask to become once again the messengers of right, justice, and humanity.

… Of Israel and Zion one thing is true. They can conquer. God is our leader, and with the general of the heavenly hosts to lead, who we say that we go not to victory?

The New York Times

published: May 9, 1920

Copyright © the New York Times

HOOVER PLEA NETS $1,6000,000 FOR JEWS

Tells Of Typhus Menace At Launching Of New York Campaign For War Sufferers

3,000,000 CHILDREN IN NEED

Louis Marshall And Judge Elkus Picture Plight Of Stricken People – Large Contributions Made

… The menace of typhus was the note struck by all the speakers. Mr. Marshall declared that typhus menaced 6,000,000 Jews in Europe.

The Jewish Criterion
October 13, 1939

…. The coming world war would be the annihilation of the 6,000,000 Jews in East and Central Europe

For the next entry I could not source the newspaper, only the clipping of the article available. Estimate of the date: 1905-1910

title: DR. PAUL NATHAN’S VIEW OF RUSSIAN MASSACRE [Dr. Paul Nathan died in 1927] Startling reports of the condition and future of Russia’s 6,000,000 Jews were made on March 12 in Berlin to the annual meeting of the central Jewish relief league of Germany by Dr. Paul Nathan, a well-known Berlin publicist, who has returned from an extensive trip through Russia as the special emissary of Jewish philanthropists in England, America, and Germany, to arrange for distribution of the relief fund of $1,500,000 raised after the massacres last Autumn…

The American Jewish Year Book #5672

September 23, 1911, to September 11, 1912

The position of our coreligionists in Russia grows increasingly deplorable, and recent advice from the country indicate that there is little likelihood of any relief being afforded…. The situation is of the greatest. It may be doubted whether Jewry has ever confronted a greater crisis since the overthrow of the Jewish state by the Roman Empire. Not even the horrible persecutions of the times of the Crusades, or the expulsion from Spain and Portugal affected so large a mass of our coreligionists. Russia has since 1890 adopted is difficult to plan to expel or exterminate 6,000,000 of its people for no other reason them that they refused to become members of the Greek church, but preferred to remain Jews….

THEY WHO KNOCK AT OUR GATES
A Complete Gospel Of Immigration –
by Mary Antin

printed 1914 – Houghton Mifflin Company

“those who think that with the Spanish Inquisition Jewish Martha Dom came to an end are asked to remember that the Kishinieff fair is only eight years behind us, and that Bielostock has been heard from since Kishinieff, and Mohileff since Bielostock. And more terrible than the recurrent pogrom, which packs and burns and tortures a few hundreds now and then, is it continues bloodless martyrdom of the 6,000,000 Jews in Russia through the operation of the anti-Semitic laws of this country…

TURTLE MOUNTAIN STAR, ROLLA, N. DAKOTA

title: Jews Are Fighting For A Homeland – October 6, 1918

Drawing of a man operating a horse drawn device, seemingly spreading seeds with a gun on his shoulder.

Script: ready at any moment to defend the strip which she is trying to convert to fertility is the Jewish settler of the Jesrcel Valley

“Five or 6,000,000 Jews, uprooted by dictatorships and tossed about by economic storms, may have to depend upon the development of the Holy Land, on the British mandate, as a solution of their difficulty. But they face the hostility of the Arabs living there, whose economic and religious interests conflict with theirs.

THE OPEN COURT – A Monthly Magazine

Devoted To The Science Of Religion, The Religion Of Science, And The Extension Of The Religious Parliament Idea

Vol. XI (no. 5) – May 1897

Chicago – The Open Court Publishing Company.

…. National fanaticism, indeed, was not extinguished; but it burned itself completely out in the vigorous insurrection led by Bar-Cocheba, the pseudo-Messiah, in which nearly 6,000,000 Jews lost their lives, with the famous Rabbi Akiba. One of the pseudo-Messiah’s most ardent adherents (135 AD). Titus, to annihilate forever all hopes of the restoration of the Jewish kingdom, accomplished his plan by establishing a new city on the side of Jerusalem, when she called Aelia Capitolina…

Furthermore, in a Jewish publication dated Nov 6, 1900, reference is made to a prophecy based on the ‘Sefer ha-Zohar’ a Cabalistic Bible written around 1200 AD. Where it is said that 6,000,000 Jews must die before (presumably) the others will be allowed to return to Israel. And the same Cabalistic word containing the prophecy of the 6,000,000 victims, also predicts that the Jews will return to Israel in 1948.

And, in a Jewish magazine, shown by Mr. Biglino, Netaniahou told Putin that Iran plans to kill 6,000,000 Jews in their pending or imminent war against Israel.

Why should the above be of interest? – you may ask. I suggest two reasons, one historical, one current. For, as the world knows well, the limelight has not yet been turned off from the mysterious episode of a well-healed, well-known and well-connected pervert, who committed suicide while he couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t have been allowed to do so.

As for the historical reason(s), the Encyclopedia Judaica of 1954 printed that “several hundred-thousand” Jews had died in concentration camps, in World War 2, due to terrible conditions, famine and disease.

As a reminder, everyone knows that Americans with Japanese ancestry or Japanese appearance were interned into concentration camps, during World War 2. And though they did not suffer the consequences of carpet-bombing applied to the whole of Germany by the Allies, it is reasonable to suspect and expect that many died in the camps, during their internment.

But in the case under scrutiny, in 1972, in New York, the victims jumped from several hundred thousands to 6,000,000. Lest anyone suspect that raising the issue implies disrespect for the dead, I believe it should be the position of anyone and all to bewail and condemn even the death of one innocent victim.

In the instance, however, the issue is mathematics and history, rather than crime. When Columbus undertook the voyage of conquest in the Americas, it is estimated that Mexico had 20-million inhabitants – after the arrival of the Christians they were reduced to 2-million. In North America the natives were reduced from an estimated 80-million to 10-million

In other words, the effect of the genocide, resulting from the European invasion, was a radical reduction in numbers of the autochthonous populations. But with the ethnic group in question, the number of the affected population remains the same, before and after wars, persecutions or starvation. Which entails either a miraculous power of almost instant mass regeneration, anytime and anywhere, or a mathematical oddity of such scope as to be rated a conspiracy.

Hence the second and current reason why the recurring number of 6,000,000 may be of more than a historically-curious note.

It goes without saying that the universe is under the perpetual superintendence of uncontrollable forces. Philosophers and theologians have not yet satisfactorily resolved the issue. The doctrine of the enslaved will is at the core of the Protestant ideology. Luther struggled against evil and failed. Hence he rationalized his failure by claiming that there was no struggle. “I have often attempted to become good,” he said in 1524, “however the more I struggle, the less I succeed. Behold then, what free will is.”

With much necessary simplification, Calvin expanded on the idea, by providing a theological foundation for neo-liberal capitalism. The rich is by implication blessed by God – while the same God socks it to the poor. Interesting conclusion, for it follows that man is but a robot whose software, at least at present, is proprietary and in the hands of God.

But let’s for the moment set aside the thorny paradox. Wealth, as we know, is inextricably linked with greed and power. And through a quasi-alchemic combination, the evil produced by wealth and greed is proportional to power.

As a rule and as we know, political power pays deference to the idealized individual, the unsubstantial puppet, shown as a shadow on the walls of Plato’s cave. The greater the respect for the inexistent idealized puppet, the greater the contempt for the actual non-idealized flesh-and-bones individuals, meaning the people at large.

This everyone knows, but there are endless variations of the political pantomime – therefore it is easy to be drawn into following the detail, while losing sight of the whole.

As a rule, power can resist anything but temptation, and furthermore the power of evil is sadistic. It vicariously enjoys fooling the flesh-and-bones individuals in the Platonic cave, for each deception is a victory, and the bigger the deception the greater the victory.

On its side, evil can count on the lovers of secrecy. For it is natural that ‘secrets’ have intrinsic appeal. Check the secret formulas, the secret recipes, the secret remedies etc. Partly because to know a secret implies some distinction compared to those who don’t. Partly because secrecy partakes of the unexplained and, by extended inference, of the mysterious, the miraculous and the metaphysic. Consequently, it is natural and fertile ground for fanciful speculatists, and for the plentiful and wackiest theories invented by those who, by explaining the unexplained, pamper to their own vanity. All this is grist to the mill for evil, as the wackier is the theory the more easily it can be ridiculed as a ‘conspiracy theory.’

Conspiracy theory is a kind of quasi-theological term that defines heresy against the official doctrine. A doctrine that is itself a totally artificial construct. The new anti-conspiracy centers, censoring alleged “fake news” were established to prepare the ‘Revolution of Silence,’ while acting as disguised tribunals of inquisition. They simply indict him who gives a different interpretation to daily scriptures.

Nevertheless – at least it is pleasing to think so – there are limits to power’s implied presumption of gullibility, applied to the inhabitants of the Platonic cave, deceived by the shadows.

9/11, the Iraq War and now Epstein’s suicide qualify as master-examples of the theory applied to practice. There are more, but if these are not enough and do not stir the ‘distracted multitude who like not in their judgment but their eyes’… – stir them to quit watching the puppet show and ask for a reckoning, I don’t know what will.

For those who have been pushing for all the recent Middle Eastern wars and keep pushing for a war against Iran, may not be overly concerned about a global conflagration. Evil knows no limit, especially when the soldiers of evil know in advance that they will save their ass.

Or maybe we should trust chance. For chance is a subtle and insidious power that, at times, disrupts very elaborate, evil and lugubrious plans.

As for the business of the 6,000,000, it is now legally dangerous just to raise related questions in some European countries. Elsewhere it is not as yet illegal. Still, let the reader draw his own conclusions, in a low tone of voice.