| Avram ben Mordecai | ||||||||||||||||||
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Avram ben Mordecai was born in AD 51, the son of Tamar and Mordecai ben Enoch. Like his father, he was a scribe and Pharisee, and a devout Jew. In April of the year AD 70, during the Passover feast in Jerusalem, they were besieged as the Roman legions of Titus' took command of the city. In August the Romans finally broke the defense and burned the Holy Temple. Avram and his father fled into the wilderness and made his way to the last natural fortress of Masada.
Two years later, Avram fell in love with Deborah, and they married. But their happiness was overshadowed by the Romans, who were laying siege to Masada. In April of 73, the Romans and their slaves completed a huge ramp over which they made heavy siege equipment to the walls of Masada, and they finally broke through. The nearly 1,000 residents of Masada committed suicide. Avram ben Mordecai killed his beloved Deborah and his father, was then cut his throat.
Avram awoke from his death shortly afterwards - he had become an immortal. A Roman and immortal, Marcus Constantine, the deputy commander of the 10th Roman legion realized another of his kind was about. He took Avram with him, and explained what he had become and the rules of immortality. They left Judea, and they became friends. In the following centuries, Avram traveled the whole world, but he always remained faithful to his people and often spent time among Jews.
In 1096, had to watch helplessly the massacre of the Jewish refugees at the residence of the archbishop of Mainz. In the middle of the 15th Century, Avram was stoned to death in Rome on the feast of Pesach by people fearful and ignorant of Jewish practices.
Beginning of the twentieth century, Avram spent several decades in Warsaw, and he remained there even when the Germans annexed Poland. Avram joined the underground and fought against the systematic murder of the Jewish population of Poland. Like all underground fighters, he got a nickname: Tadzhik, the Hebrew term for a 'holy man with mystical powers. "
On 18 January 1943, he arrived at the rescue of some Jews from a German truck, and met the Immortal Duncan MacLeod. MacLeod was in Warsaw to bring a rabbi out of the country, but he promised to come back and help.
MacLeod returned to Avram's surprise, and actually joined the underground fighters. They were in numerous joint operations and became good friends. In mid-April, the Germans began to evacuate the ghetto. The Jewish fighters gave desperate battle, but after three weeks the ghetto was destroyed and almost all the inhabitants were deported or perished in the flames.
In May, Avram and MacLeod decided to flee with some survivors of the ghetto. MacLeod led the people out of a sewer from Warsaw, but Avram would not go with them as long as there were Jews in Warsaw. Avram died in the fighting in April 1943.
After the war, Avram went to Palestine and participated actively in the creation of Israel. Since the days of Roman occupation, he had only returned twice to Jerusalem, once at the time of the Byzantines, and once under the Ottoman Empire. But he had not felt welcome in his old home.
In the 1940s, Avram smuggled refugees into eratz-Israel, for which he was wanted by the British. He fought in Israeli War of Independence, and then joined the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, after Independence.
Between 1963 and 1965, Avram took part in the excavations of the fortress of Masada. In early 1996, he sent his mentor, Constantine, a fragment of the Torah that had been found during excavations at Masada. He donated it for an exhibition in Paris.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Avram had changed; the idea that Israel could some day fall again he could not bear. When peace talks loomed, he thought of nothing but sabotaging them. He shot up a mosque in Hebron. Four days later, in Tel Aviv, he blew up a bus. It did not matter which side suffered, he just wanted to stir up hatred.
He then flew to Paris, where he worked in the security detail of the Israeli delegation. There he met Duncan MacLeod again, but the joy of reunion was marred for Avram, when he learned that MacLeod was friends with a Palestinian delegate. Avram gained the impression that even Constantine would betray him, and he challenged him in his paranoia. His mentor, defeated him and made him swear to stop his personal war. Avram swore, but then treacherously killed Constantine.
Three days later, Avram prepared before the finale: He placed a bomb in the room where the negotiations would take place. MacLeod challenged him and beat him, but let him live to see him defuse the bomb. Avram decided he had to bring this fight to the end. On the morning of the 16th April, just before sunrise, he went to the barge and fought again against MacLeod. He lost his head and quickening to the Highlander.