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like he shares some characteristics with his famous descendant:
Quoting from Whometemse's link
<Abraham Leipniker Löwy came to Úsov in 1716. Both his father and grandfather used to serve as Chief Rabbis in Timiºoara (now Rumania). Abraham Leipniker was elected as the chairman of the Jewish community in Úsov in 1751. He became well known for his fights for the religious rights of his congregation. Abraham was a leader of deputations to several courts, including deputations to the Imperial court in Vienna, where he succeeded thanks to his diplomatic skills. He recorded his achievements and philosophy in the writings titled: M’GILATH S’DARIM - An Unwritten Chapter in the History of the Jews of Moravia. As he mentioned in his writings, during the services on the Eighth Day of Holy Convocation, Jews of Úsov, in the recognition of his merit, used to sing the commemorative hymns, which he composed. >
--------- Quoting more from the "Introduction to his "M'Gilath S'Darim" Is it pushing things to note his use of a rhetorical sentence. He sounds like an interesting guy.
<One day, when I was in the company of some friends and acquaintances, they expressed the hope that I might write the history of our trials and triumphs. “For”, they urged from all sides, “who else is there gifted with such a vivid recollection of the events of that story? Who else is there to give expression on paper to what had actually occurred in life?”
“Having lived through three worlds, as it were: the World fully established, the same utterly destroyed, and the World renewed; and, moreover, having been the chief agent in bringing about our deliverance from the ban on our religion, you, Abraham, the son of Rabbi Mordecai, are pre-eminently able to record our vicissitudes for future generations. And seeing that old men, living witnesses of these events, have only a faint recollection of them, how can the story be expected to reach the ears of our children otherwise than as a vague legend, mutilated by time, unless it be put on record?“ So I wrote down the history in easy language to be understood by all. I call it M’gilath S’darim, meaning The Narrative Arranged, for it is written according to the order of the events, and divided into paragraphs. And if you substitute the letter “t” for “d” in S’darim, as is allowable in the Hebrew tongue, and read M’gilath S’tarim, it means The Narrative of the Destruction.
I also append, at the end of this M’gilath, some verses composed by me, recounting the events in a concise form in fifty lines. And the Úsov Community declared and affirmed their resolve to chant these verses in their two Houses of Worship once a year on the festival of Sh’mini A’zereth. For on that day we received the glad tidings, the Royal Decree, giving us permission to exercise our faith and to build the Houses of Worship.>
I would imagine it must have been really very special for Kerry and his siblings to get all this information on the side of family they knew little of. I wonder how much Kerry's dad knew of this - it was his mother's family and if she knew much of this mentioning it to her son who was a diplomat would seem a natural - unless she didn't want to explain the whole religion thing.
Kerry really has incredible sets of ancestors on both sides.
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