41st Issue: Santa Muerte and Jewish Parachutists
If you don’t know Santa Muerte, you are about to. Her full name is Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte . She is a folk saint in Mexican Catholicism. She is the personification of death and is invoked by healing or protection. She is very popular despite the fact that the Catholic Church will not recognize her.
Santa Muerte is a female skeleton wearing a long robe and usually holding a globe (representing “Death’s vast power and dominion over the earth”) and a scythe (representing either “the cutting of negative energies or influences” or “hope and prosperity”). It seems like she’s a very fluid figure who can be used to represent different things depending on the person who is invoking her. She is prayed to at individual homes and private locations as the Catholic Church doesn’t like her, but she has an estimated 10 to 20 million followers across North and Central America.
Santa Muerte has many other names. Here’s a few:
Santa Muerte can grant many favors. She can perform miracles, and is invoked often by “those exposed to the dangers of working at night, such as taxi drivers, bar owners, police, soldiers, and prostitutes”. She is believed to protect against violence and death. People who are excluded from the mainstream are drawn to her. Santa Muerte is seen by some also as one who protects LGBT communities in Mexico. She is invoked during same-sex marriage ceremonies in Mexico – the Church of Santa Muerte does this when performing marriages for gay couples.
Santa Muerte also is associated with crime in the press. She is popular in prisons with shrines dedicated to her found in many prisoners’ cells. They have also been found in drug houses, with cartel bosses invoking her for their own purposes as well. The Vatican calls the worship of Santa Muerte a “cult” and compares it to devil-worship.
On a completely unrelated topic, I learned about the Jewish Parachutists in Mandate Palestine during World War II. I didn’t want to get embroiled into the complex history of Palestine and Israel so I just focused on learning about what the parachutists did exactly. They were two hundred and fifty Jewish male and female volunteers who joined the British army and offered to parachute into occupied Europe to resist the Germans and help rescue Allied personnel who were stuck there.
Thirty two of the hundreds who volunteered actually parachuted into Europe. Most of the people who volunteered were from the countries they went into, because they had inside knowledge. Some went into Hungary, some into Italy, some into Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, France and Austria. The Germans were able to capture twelve of them, but the rest were able to evade them.
One of the parachutists was called Enzo Sereni. He was born in Rome, and his father was the King of Italy’s doctor. Enzo got a PhD in philosophy and then migrated to Mandate Palestine is 1927. He was an enthusiastic socialist, and a pacifist. He supported Jewish-Arab coexistence and integration of both cultures into society. During World War II, as part of the British Army, he spread anti-fascist propaganda in Egypt and then did the same in Iraq. As a parachutist, he went to Northern Italy, as he was most familiar with it, but was captured right away and sent to Dachau, where he was killed.
Another parachutist was Haviva Reik. Haviva was from Slovakia, and in 1939 she moved to Mandate Palestine. She joined the British Army as a parachutist, and went to Slovakia. At the time, there was an uprising going on against the Axis-installed government. The socialist and communist parties were leading the uprising, and wanted Slovakia to be detached from the Axis powers.
There were three labor camps in Slovakia, each with their own armed underground Jewish groups. They contacted the leaders of the uprising, and all of them began to coordinate together as one movement. They tried to time it so that they fought at the same time as the Soviet Army and Allied forces made their way into Slovakia, but the Soviet Army held back. Regardless, they kept fighting enough that the Nazis took notice, occupying Slovakia to end this uprising.
It was this environment that Haviva came into. She and three male parachutists worked with the Jewish resistance, helping organize, mediating disputes, and assisting in any way that she could. She helped organize soup kitchens and refugee centers, and helped Jews escape to Hungary and then to Palestine. She also helped rescue allied airmen who had been shot down. She didn’t do any of this alone, working with Jewish resistance groups who were already active at the time. Unfortunately, the Nazis were after them, and Haviva escaped with the other parachutists as well as about forty other Jews and built a camp in the mountains. The Nazis took over the camp and captured Haviva and the others. Haviva was killed almost immediately. Of other three parachutists who were with her, one was shot with her, another was taken to a concentration camp and killed, and the last one escaped and continued fighting, living to see the end of the war and moving back to Palestine.
Happy New Year, and again, thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for things you'd like to know more about and I'll cover them in future newsletters.
Santa Muerte is a female skeleton wearing a long robe and usually holding a globe (representing “Death’s vast power and dominion over the earth”) and a scythe (representing either “the cutting of negative energies or influences” or “hope and prosperity”). It seems like she’s a very fluid figure who can be used to represent different things depending on the person who is invoking her. She is prayed to at individual homes and private locations as the Catholic Church doesn’t like her, but she has an estimated 10 to 20 million followers across North and Central America.
Santa Muerte has many other names. Here’s a few:
- The Skinny Lady (la Flaquita)
- The Bony Lady (la Huesuda)
- The White Girl (la Niña Blanca)
- The Powerful Lady (la Dama Poderosa)
- The Godmother (la Madrina)
- The Lady of Shadows (Señora de las Sombras)
- The White Lady (Señora Blanca)
- The Black Lady (Señora Negra)
- Beautiful Lady Sebastian (Doña Bella Sebastiana)
Santa Muerte can grant many favors. She can perform miracles, and is invoked often by “those exposed to the dangers of working at night, such as taxi drivers, bar owners, police, soldiers, and prostitutes”. She is believed to protect against violence and death. People who are excluded from the mainstream are drawn to her. Santa Muerte is seen by some also as one who protects LGBT communities in Mexico. She is invoked during same-sex marriage ceremonies in Mexico – the Church of Santa Muerte does this when performing marriages for gay couples.
Santa Muerte also is associated with crime in the press. She is popular in prisons with shrines dedicated to her found in many prisoners’ cells. They have also been found in drug houses, with cartel bosses invoking her for their own purposes as well. The Vatican calls the worship of Santa Muerte a “cult” and compares it to devil-worship.
On a completely unrelated topic, I learned about the Jewish Parachutists in Mandate Palestine during World War II. I didn’t want to get embroiled into the complex history of Palestine and Israel so I just focused on learning about what the parachutists did exactly. They were two hundred and fifty Jewish male and female volunteers who joined the British army and offered to parachute into occupied Europe to resist the Germans and help rescue Allied personnel who were stuck there.
Thirty two of the hundreds who volunteered actually parachuted into Europe. Most of the people who volunteered were from the countries they went into, because they had inside knowledge. Some went into Hungary, some into Italy, some into Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, France and Austria. The Germans were able to capture twelve of them, but the rest were able to evade them.
One of the parachutists was called Enzo Sereni. He was born in Rome, and his father was the King of Italy’s doctor. Enzo got a PhD in philosophy and then migrated to Mandate Palestine is 1927. He was an enthusiastic socialist, and a pacifist. He supported Jewish-Arab coexistence and integration of both cultures into society. During World War II, as part of the British Army, he spread anti-fascist propaganda in Egypt and then did the same in Iraq. As a parachutist, he went to Northern Italy, as he was most familiar with it, but was captured right away and sent to Dachau, where he was killed.
Another parachutist was Haviva Reik. Haviva was from Slovakia, and in 1939 she moved to Mandate Palestine. She joined the British Army as a parachutist, and went to Slovakia. At the time, there was an uprising going on against the Axis-installed government. The socialist and communist parties were leading the uprising, and wanted Slovakia to be detached from the Axis powers.
There were three labor camps in Slovakia, each with their own armed underground Jewish groups. They contacted the leaders of the uprising, and all of them began to coordinate together as one movement. They tried to time it so that they fought at the same time as the Soviet Army and Allied forces made their way into Slovakia, but the Soviet Army held back. Regardless, they kept fighting enough that the Nazis took notice, occupying Slovakia to end this uprising.
It was this environment that Haviva came into. She and three male parachutists worked with the Jewish resistance, helping organize, mediating disputes, and assisting in any way that she could. She helped organize soup kitchens and refugee centers, and helped Jews escape to Hungary and then to Palestine. She also helped rescue allied airmen who had been shot down. She didn’t do any of this alone, working with Jewish resistance groups who were already active at the time. Unfortunately, the Nazis were after them, and Haviva escaped with the other parachutists as well as about forty other Jews and built a camp in the mountains. The Nazis took over the camp and captured Haviva and the others. Haviva was killed almost immediately. Of other three parachutists who were with her, one was shot with her, another was taken to a concentration camp and killed, and the last one escaped and continued fighting, living to see the end of the war and moving back to Palestine.
Happy New Year, and again, thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for things you'd like to know more about and I'll cover them in future newsletters.
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