Naming children after Alexander the Great

Question: What is the source of the legend that during the Second Temple era the Jews promised Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.E.) that they would name their children after him?

Answer: The earliest source for this legend that I could locate is the work Sefer Yosipon. According to Encyclopedia Judaica [2007 ed., v.11, p.461-462] Sefer Yosipon (also known as Josippon) is an anonymous history of the Second Temple era that was composed in Hebrew during the 10th century in southern Italy. During the Middle Ages the work was mistakenly ascribed to the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius (c.37 – after 100 C.E.) and became known as Yosipon (a Jewish-Greek form of Josephus). In the scholarly edition of Sefer Yosipon edited by David Flusser [Yerushalayim, Mosad Byalik, 1978-1980] the story is found in v.1, p.56-57, lines 37-45. Alexander is visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. After proclaiming his belief in the God of the Jews, Alexander asks the Jewish High Priest to create a memorial for Alexander in the Temple. Alexander will donate gold which will be crafted into a statue in his likeness. The statue will remain in the Temple to honor Alexander. The High Priest replied that it was forbidden to maintain a statue in the Temple but that Alexander’s memory would not be forgotten. All the priestly children born that year in Judea and Jerusalem would be named Alexander. Eventually, these children would serve in the Temple, thereby providing a memorial for Alexander. Flusser comments (ibid., p.56, note to line 41) that a similar story was recorded by the German poet Rudolf von Ems (c.1200-1254) in his work Alexanderroman. In von Ems’ version no mention is made of Alexander requesting a statue. Out of gratitude to Alexander’s kindness to them, the Jews spontaneously make the offer that henceforth one member of the Levitical house will always bear the name Alexander. Flusser thinks it likely that in recording their slightly different versions of the legend, both Yosipon and von Ems were drawing on a shared source that is at present lost to us.

Jews in Sports

In honor of the World Series –

Question:
Would you suggest a few books that discuss Jewish participation in sports, especially in the United States?

Answer:
Here are some books that might interest you:

Gurock, Jeffrey S.
Judaism's encounter with American sports.
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2005
GV709.6 .G87 2005 [CIRC]

Mendelsohn, Ezra.
Jews and the sporting life.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008
GV709.6 .J47 2008 [CIRC]

Ribalow, Harold Uriel.
The Jew in American sports.
New York : Hippocrene Books, 1985
GV697.A1 R5 1985 [CIRC]

Riess, Steven A.
Sports and the American Jew.
Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 1997
GV709.6 .S76 1997 [CIRC]

Siegman, Joseph.
Jewish sports legends : the international Jewish sports Hall of Fame.
Washington : Brassey's, c1997
OVR GV697.A1 S4797 1997 [CIRC]

Silverman, B. P. Robert Stephen.
The 100 greatest Jews in sports : ranked according to achievement.
Lanham, Md. ; Oxford : Scarecrow Press, 2003
GV697.A1 S522 2003 [CIRC]

Wechsler, Bob.
Day by day in Jewish sports history.
Jersey City, NJ : KTAV ; [New York] : in association with the American Jewish Historical Society, c2008
GV709.6 .W43 2008 [CIRC]

Jewish Emigration from Europe to South Africa

Question:
In the period of large Jewish emigration from Europe, from the late 1800s until Word War II, how many of Europe’s Jews chose to emigrate to the continent of Africa?

Answer:
According to The Penguin Atlas of Diasporas [New York : Viking ; Penguin Group, 1995 – p.60] 23,00 Jews emigrated from Europe to Africa (specifically South Africa) between 1881 and 1900. Between 1901 and 1914 an additional 20,00 emigrated. From 1915 to 1930 the amount dropped to 15,00 and between 1931 and 1939 the amount fell even further, to 10,00. Altogether this adds up to 68,000 Jews emigrating from Europe to Africa between 1881 and 1939. By way of contrast, in that same time period 2,575,000 Jews emigrated from Europe to the United States of America [ibid.].

How did European Jewish emigrants get to their port of embarkation?

Question: What route would Jews emigrating from Europe to America in the early 1900s have taken in order to arrive at their ports of embarkation?

Answer: According to Lloyd P. Gartner in his article “Jewish Migrants en Route from Europe to North America: Traditions and Realities” (Jewish History [Haifa University Press], vol.1 no.2 – Fall 1986, p.52):

The emigration routes before 1914 took the emigrant to a junction on the railroad network, such as Kiev, Warsaw, or Brody. From there he travelled to a depot city in mid-continent, usually Vienna, Berlin or Breslau, and thence to a port city. The main ports of embarkation for emigration from Eastern Europe were Hamburg and Bremen. Of special importance was the emigrant traffic through England which usually brought migrants from Hamburg across the North Sea to Grimsby, Harwich, or London. They then crossed to Liverpool for the voyage to America. The journey from a Continental port to America via England cost less than did the direct route for those emigrants who circumvented the high, fixed prices of the North Atlantic Shipping Ring by purchasing trans-Atlantic tickets in England under an assumed name.