Ambassador Herman Bernstein
Chapter Three
Ambassador Herman Bernstein
And the False Messiah
In the 1930s the American Ambassador to Albania was a Jew, Herman Bernstein. Ambassador Bernstein took an interest in Jewish history and did some exploring to find traces of early Jewish life in Albania. He was especially interested in finding information about Sabbatai Zvi, the False Messiah. He knew that old records indicate Zvi had been in the town of Ulqin, but he was not able to find Zvi’s tomb or traces of Jewish life in that town.
But Ambassador Bernstein did find evidence of a large Jewish community in Albania in the 15th and 16th centuries. He quotes from a German document published in 1611, “…many of these places are inhabited by Jews who had gone to Albania from Ancona (Italy) during the period of Pope Paul IV, who intensified the inquisition.”
Ambassador Bernstein wrote that the Patriarch of the Albanian Orthodox Church told him that in a section of Elbasan known even today as the Jewish Quarter, a Star of David can be seen on the upper part of a building. The concrete Star was subsequently removed from the building and the pieces can now be seen in the small museum in -Elbasan.
The Ambassador conducted his own research in the Elbasan archives and found a record of a Turkish judge (1730s) trying Jewish merchants for violating Turkish law.(1)
Bernstein prophesied that Albania may soon again offer asylum to the new Jewish wanderers who find closed doors elsewhere.(2) This prediction was made in 1936.(3)
The False Messiah.
In the middle of the 17th century a soothsayer born in Ismir, Turkey, known as “Sabbatai Zvi”(4) proclaimed he was the Messiah and convinced thousands of Jews to sell their belongings and go with him to the promised land. (5)
Jewish mysticism would seem far away from the Albanian scene, but there was a connection when the Turkish Sultan had to contend with Sabbatai Zvi. In Turkey, Zvi boasted that his army of followers would conquer Istanbul.
The Ottoman Empire was at its peak when the Sultan first had Zvi arrested for creating unrest in the Empire. The Sultan offered Zvi a choice between death or conversion to Islam, Zvi elected conversion.
When he converted, Nathan of Gaza, a famous Jewish traveler of that period, rationalized, “it was to penetrate into the depth of realm of evil in order to free the sparks imprisoned there.” Several thousand of Zvi’s followers also converted to Islam and two decades later other Jews converted to a Jewish-Moslem sect called “Donmeh.” However, the majority of his followers remained Jews.
The Grand Vizir, in the year 1647, banished Zvi to Ulqin, a city on the Dalmatian coast. This was in spite of the fact Zvi had converted to Islam and had taken the name Aziz Mehmed Effendi.
At some point Zvi must have left Ulqin because in 1673 the Sultan exiled him to Albania a second time. This time he stayed in Albania and lived out his last days in Berat, dying in 1676. All that is known for sure about his tomb is that it was buried on the side of the river Osum, in central Albania.
His assumed burial place, near Berat, is treated as a holy place for all religions, and an annual fair is held on the site. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia says Zvi’s followers established themselves in Berat, and stayed for 30 years with a Salonika rabbi as the head of the community.
Zvi’s assumed tomb became a shrine for an Islamic sect known as “Bektashi.” Until 1965 it was common for Bektashi Moslems to make pilgrimages to this tomb.
In a remote village, in southern Albania, there is evidence of Jewish life dating from 500 years ago. It’s possible Sabbatai Zvi spent his exile there, and it’s possible that the people of the village of Ftera are descendants of his followers.
In 1956 an Israeli researcher found a letter written by Zvi, about six weeks before his death, asking the Jews of Berat to send him a prayer book for the high Jewish holidays. The letter is on exhibit at the Museum of Jerusalem. This is the only letter of Zvi ever found and it may be the only letter he ever wrote. According to an Israeli historian, the letter was found among pages of a book which belonged to a sect of his disciples living in Salonika, who publicly practiced the Islamic religion but actually practiced an illegal heretic form of Judaism.
Sabbatai Zvi had the distinction of being the most famous non-Albanian Jew to live in Albania, but he was not the only one. 250 years later, hundreds, if not thousands, of non-Albanian Jews would seek sanctuary in Albania.(6)
Footnotes:
1. In a travel book, published in 1934 (Albanian journey, Bernard Newman, Pitman & Sons, London,) the writer refers to Spanish speaking Jewish merchants in Tirana. They probably were speaking Ladino. This has to be the exception that proves the rule. Few Albanian Jews know Ladino, a lang uage spoken mostly in Turkey and Greece. The vast majority of Albanian Jews were living in Vlora and not Tirana at this time.
2. According to Edward Mantus, Bernstein had made arrangements with King Zog to have Jews from Austria and Germany settle in Albania. Letter to Editor, Jewish Chronicle, June 8, 1973.
3. See, Bernstein, Herman “Jews in Albania,” Jewish Daily Bulletin, A pril 17 and 18, 1934.
4. Xre is no fixed way to spell his name.
5. Albanian Catholic Bulletin 1994, vol. XV, p.154.
6. Jacob Frank, a Sabbatai follower, claimed to be the reincarnation of Zvi. His followers were the Frankists. He was outcast from Judaism and responded by converting into the Roman Catholic church. This was the only time in history that a Jewish group claimed the blood libel was true.
Note: The Encyclopedia Judaica devotes 14 pages to Sabbatai and Sabbataism.