OCTOBER 9 In History
768: Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Charlemagne treated to his Jewish subjects well, even if it meant parting from the doctrine of the Church. For example, he extended the rights previously granted to the Jews of Narbonne by his father. Jews “mingled freely at the Frankish court in defiance of canon law…Disputes between Jews were resolved in Jewish courts.” The increased protection and freedom offered to the Jews by Charlemagne resulted in increased commercial and financial activity, especially trade with the Islamic world.
1184: Judah ben Elijah Hadassi a Karaite Jewish scholar who lived in Constantinople began working on Eshkol ha-Kofter, “a treatise on the Ten Commandments.”
1238: In Spain, King James I of Aragon founded the Kingdom of Valencia. In 1263, James I presided over the disputation between Nachmanides and a convert to Christianity named Paul Christian.
1264: The army of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile conquered the Spanish city of Jerez that had been held by the Moors since 711. The Jewish community of Jerez, complete with a separate Juderia or Jewish quarter had existed since the time of the Moors. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the city had two synagogues with Don Yucaff and his son Don Todros each living in one of the “houses of the rabbis” Among those Jews to whom the king gave houses and/or lands were “Don Yehuda Mosca who made translations from Arabic into Spanish for the king; the "almoxarife" Don Mayr, or rather Mür de Malhea, and his son Çag (Isaac); Çimha (Simḥah) Xtaruçi, whose father lost his life and the whole of his large fortune during the rebellion of the city; Don Vellocid (Vellecid), "ballestero del rey a caballo"; Solomon Ballestero; and Axucuri Ballestero—the last three being in the king's army.” [Editors Note – As can be seen from this entry, the image of the Spanish Jews flourishing under the Moors and suffering under the Christians is not an accurate one.]
1334: Casmir the Great (Poland) renewed the Charter of Boleslav, granting Jews the freedom of residence in all areas of the kingdom. This document was instrumental in encouraging Jews to begin to flee Germany and move east. King Kazimierz showed how favorably disposed towards Jews he was when he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Boleslaus V. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. He invited Jews who were being persecuted elsewhere to settle in Poland, protecting them as 'people of the king'
1547: Christening of the Don Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. According to some sources, Cervantes mother, Lenor de Cortinas was a descendant of Conversos, Jews who chose Christianity over death or despoliation of their wealth.
1635: Colonial American Separatist Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for preaching that civil government had no right to interfere in religious affairs. (Williams was seeking to establish freedom of worship through the separation of church and state.) Rhode Island would provide the model for the rest of the United States on this issue. In addition to which, William's policy would Rhode Island an attractive place for Jews to settle during the colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): Yom Kippur
1666(10th of Tishrei, 5427): In Hamburg, Germany, blessings were offered in honor of Sabbatia Zvi during Yom Kippur. The Hamburg community was unaware of the fact the self-proclaimed Messiah had converted to Islam in September of 1666.
1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In 1805, Moses Simons became the first Jew to attend Yale. Seventeen years later, Judah P. Benjamin attended Yale Law School, making him the school’s second Jewish student. Benjamin left without graduating. According to recent records 1,200 of Yale’s 5,300 undergraduate students are Jewish while 200 of the 1,200 graduate students are Jewish. The school offers 45 Jewish courses and a minor in Jewish studies but no major. This is a vast improvement over the situation for Jews at Yale as late as the 1960’s when administrators, faculty and alumnae sought to limit Jewish enrollment at the Ivy League school through quotas and other forms of social pressure. You have to wonder if these people knew that Elihu Yale’s Jewish mistress, after whom the school was named, had born him a son. Would the Yalies have accepted Yale’s son?
1771: Count Jan Klemens Branicki, the Polish nobleman who proclaimed the Jews of Bialystok to be subject to bylaw and other local laws on an equal footing with the other townsmen, passed awayl
1780(10th of Tishrei, 5541): Yom Kippur
1794(15th of Tishrei, 5555): Sukkoth
1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
1797(19th of Tishrei, 5558): The Vilna Gaon passed away. There is no way that we can do justice to this Giant of Judaism. We urge you all to consult the numerous books, websites and other sources that can give you some sense of the importance of this sage who was such an expert in matters of Torah, Talmud and Halachah that even the descendants of those to whom he stood in opposition recognize his merit
1840: Birthdate of British painter Simeon Solomon. [There is no way to do justice to this complex man’s life and work in this small space. Among other sites, look at http://simeonsolomon.com/default.aspx
1843(15th of Tishrei, 5604): Sukkoth
1845: The Sephardic Synagogue of Kingston, Jamaica celebrated taking possession of a new Sefer Torah." The service was conducted by the Isaac Lopes, who served as the congregation’s rabbi.
1848: In Lübeck, laws were adopted that “abolished all the disabilities” of the Jews thus making them true citizens of the city
1856: An article entitled “A God-Send For The Express” published today reported that “the German organ of the Buchanneers in Philadelphia accuses Fremont of being a Hebrew by birth and having been educated in the Mosaic faith besides being born in Alsace. As the Express must by this time be tired of calling Col Freemont a Jesuit, it will be delighted of an opportunity to accuse him of being a descendant of Abraham.” Fremont is John C. Fremont, a native of Virginia, an Episcopalian, military hero and explorer known as the Great Pathfinder. He was also the Republican Party’s first Presidential nominee.
1857: In New York, the Recorder heard a second day of testimony in the case where Nathan Levin, a recently arrived Jewish immigrant from Hungary, had accused Israel Steinhardt, a fellow Hungarian co-religionist of stealing 940 pounds in Bank of England notes. A witness named Francois Guilland testified that he and Steinhardt had sailed on the same ship in September and that he had seen Steinhardt holding several of the bank notes that Levins claim Steinhardt had stolen from him just two days ago in New York. Two other witnesses testified that Levins had not the bank notes in his possession when they met with him just before the theft. It would appear Levins’ accusation that his fellow Jew had violated the 7th commandment was false and that Levins was attempting a swindle. The Recorder is holding the case over until tomorrow at which time a decision will be made as to which Jew is trying to cheat which Jew.
1858: An article entitled "Chronology of Comets" published today reported that "Josephus the historian includes the appearance of a comet among the miracles which announced the destruction of Jerusalem and the ruin of its temple." In 1208, "the Jews of the West" thought that a very bright comet that appeared for two weeks foretold the coming of the coming of the Messiah.
1859: Birthdate of Colonel Alfred Dreyfus.
1862(15th of Tishrei, 5623): Sukkoth
1862: During the American Civil War, as the Jews on both sides observed Sukkoth, JEB Stuart’s Confederate Cavalry humiliated Union General George McClellan by riding around the Army of the Potomac completely unscathed.
1864(9th of Tishrei, 5625): Yom Kippur
1864: As Sherman’s victorious Union Army completed the occupation of Atlanta during the Civil War, one wonders if the Jewish soldiers serving under him joined the Jews of Atlanta in observing Yom Kippur.
1886: The Uptown Gossip column published today attributed the low attendance rate at theatres in New York yesterday to the fact that the Jews were observing the “fast of Yom Kippur.” “Jewish people are the most liberal patrons of the theaters, and any fast day which they observe makes a very marked difference in the receipts of theatre’s treasury.”
1866: The Law Reports column published today described in detail the breach of contract case brought by a young Jewess named Nanna Solomon against Jewish tailor named Bernard Brown. According to the evidence presented, there was no dispute over the fact that the two were engaged to married and that there had been ample public ceremonies to celebrate the event. There is no dispute that the marriage did not take place. Miss Solomon claimed that the Brown did not marry here because of interference from her mother. Brown implied that Miss Solomon had been seeing other men and was not the stellar character she had presented herself to be. In the end, the jury found for the plaintiff but awarded her only five hundred dollars in damages when she had sought $10,000.
1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Yom Kippur
1867(10th of Tishrei, 5628): Abraham Mapu “one of the first, and finest, of the novelists to write in Hebrew” passed away. “Heavily influenced by a wide range of sources--the Bible, the Romantic Novelists, and renewed pride in ancient Jewish history--his works recall the finest works of writers such as Flaubert and other great romantic novelists. His first novel, Ahavat Ziyyon (The Love of Zion), published in 1853, won immediate acclaim. Its sixteen editions attest to its continued popularity. (As reported by Toby Press)
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10385-mapu-abraham
1875(10th of Tishrei, 5636): Yom Kippur
1876(21st of Tishrei, 5637): Hoshana Rabah
1876: The New York Times featured a review of “Daniel Deronda” by George Elliot. George Elliot was the penname of Mary Anne Evans. This was her last novel and it featured a sympathetic portrayal of Jewish characters and was sympathetic to the concepts of Zionism.
1877: Charles Stein, who is described the most dangerous confidence man of our times, was arrested in St. Louis, MO. [It can’t always be about Nobel Prize Winners]
1879(22nd of Tishrei, 5640): Shemini Atzeret
1880: “Persecution of the Jews of Morocco” published today relies on information that originally appeared in the Petit Marseillais and the Pall Mall Gazette, to describe the brutal murder of a Jew named Bendahan's by the Moslem governor of Estifa. Bendahan’s crime was that he had taken a Moslem women into his home during the recent famine and provided her with food and shelter. When the governor heard of this he summoned the Jew and him beaten to death. Apparently, any relationship between a Moslem and a Jew was unacceptable even if was only intended to save a life.
1881: Birthdate of Victor Klemperer, a businessman, journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specializing in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life, successively, in the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and in the German Democratic Republic were published in 1995. He passed away in 1960.
1881: It was reported that the Minister of Justice in Hungary has introduced a bill in the lower house of the Diet that would legalize marriages between Jews and Christians.
1881: It was reported today that the Russian government “intends to all Jews to acquire land in places where there is no fear of collision between them” and the non-Jewish locals.
1881: “The Wander Jew in Hull, 1769” recounts the history of this anti-Semitic tale which reinforced the view of the Jew as an evil villain who has walked the earth since the days of the Crucifixion
1881: “Old York,” published today provides a brief history of this ancient English castle and city, including the time when it was “the scene of a gruesome tragedy” when a group of “landless knights” and “broken men” penned up the Jews in the castle with the intent to “plunder” and “murder them.” However, most of the Jews, their intended victims, “with desperate courage, forestalled them by burning their property and killing their families and themselves.
1882: It was reported today that G.P. Putnam’s Sons will be publishing Fundamental Questions Relating to the Hebrew Scriptures, a liberal view of the subject by Edson L. Clarke.
1886(10th of Tishrei, 5647): Yom Kippur
1886: “Big Hebrew Fair” published today described efforts to host a fundraiser this December that provides funds for the establishment of a “Jewish Cooper Institute.” The project has the support of the city’s temples and synagogues as well as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1887: “Levitcal Names” published today contends that there is strong evidence of an Egyptian connection between the Levites – the leading tribe of the Exodus – and those who enslaved them. The names of Moses, Miriam and Pinhcas, Aaron’s grandson, have an Egyptian etymology . The mother of Pinchas was the daughter of Putiel, a name with an Egyptian rather than Hebrew etymology. Finally, Aaron’s ability to address Pharaoh would indicate a knowledge of the Egyptian language that would be more consistent with an educated Egyptian than a wandering Semitic nomad.
1888: As the London police investigated the murder of Catharine Eddowes, The Evening News reported that Jacob Levy, the son of butcher from Aldgate, was “obstinate” when questioned, refusing “to give the slightest information “ leaving “one to inter that he knows something but…is afraid to be called” during the inquest.
1892: Construction began on a building that would be called the Frances Jacobs Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Frances Jacobs, known as Colorado's "Mother of Charity," devoted her life to community service. She is the only woman included among the sixteen Colorado pioneers depicted through stained glass portraits in the state's Capital Rotunda. Born in Kentucky and raised in Cincinnati, Jacobs moved with her husband to Colorado in 1863; they settled in Denver in 1870. Jacobs quickly became involved in Denver's Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Jewish issues were especially important to Jacobs. Soon after moving to Colorado with her husband in 1874, she became president of the Hebrew Benevolent Ladies Society (today known as Jewish Family Service of Colorado). By 1872, she was president of the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society and in 1874 helped found the nonsectarian Denver Ladies' Relief Society. She pushed for the creation of Denver's first kindergarten and helped organize Denver's Charity Organization Society, a forerunner to the United Way, in 1877. Jacobs also pushed the Denver Jewish community to attend to the care of the many Jewish tuberculosis sufferers who came to Denver. At that time, the only known treatment for tuberculosis was clean air and sunshine; since Denver had both of these resources in abundance; it became a popular destination for infected immigrants from the industrial Northeast. When these immigrants arrived in Denver, they found no facilities available to treat or even shelter them, and the community ignored their plight. Jacobs did her best to help those who were ill on an individual basis, but worked to convince the Jewish community to help, leading to the construction of the hospital, whose motto became "None may enter who can pay, and none can pay who enter". Jacobs died, at the age of 49, weeks after the hospital's cornerstone had been laid. The hospital's trustees voted to name the hospital after her. Today the institution is known as the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and is the only medical and research center in the United States devoted entirely to respiratory, allergic, and immune system diseases. Jacobs died, at the age of 49, weeks after the hospital's cornerstone had been laid. The hospital's trustees voted to name the hospital after her. Today the institution is known as the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and is the only medical and research center in the United States devoted entirely to respiratory, allergic, and immune system diseases.
1898(23rd of Tishrei, 5659):Simchat Torah
1898: Herzl has another audience with Grossherzog Friedrich of Baden. On the same day Herzl is received by Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow and Reich’s Chancellor Hohenlohe.
1911: Birthdate of Joe Rosenthal. In 1945, at the age of 33, Rosenthal snapped the most famous of all World War II photos – The Raising of the American Flag on Iwo Jima.
1911: Birthdate of Jacob L. Trobe, the son of an Orthodox rabbi, who as a representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was among the first relief workers to enter the concentration camps.
1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); Simchat Torah
1917(23rd of Tishrei, 5678); After enduring three days of torture at the hands of the Ottoman authorities Sarah Aaronsohn committed suicide rather than betray her comrades. Aaronsohn was a member of Nili, a Jewish spy ring working for the British in Palestine. Aaronsohn had been born in Palestine in 1890 and was motivated to work for the British when she the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. She was buried in the cemetery in Zichron Yaakov. There are those who make an annual pilgrimage to her grave on the anniversary of her death so the memory of this brave young Jewess will always be part of the heritage of the Jewish people.
1919: The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Chicago White in the World Series that would become known as the Black Sox Scandal. According to many “experts” Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish born gambler of unsavory reputation, supplied the money to bribe selected members of the White Sox. Abe Attell, a former boxer known as “The Little Hebrew,” was Rothstein’s bagman. According to information left on this blog “Attell was Jewish, but he grew up in an Irish neighborhood. Because of that, he often found himself involved in fights, and according to him, he would get involved in as many as 10 bouts each day as a kid. Attell's father abandoned his family when Attell was 13, and Attell had to sell newspapers to support his family. He used to sell them on the streets and corners, and while selling newspapers, he got a chance to witness the fight between Solly Smith and George Dixon for the world's Featherweight championship. With that, Attell and two of his brothers were convinced that maybe they had a future in boxing.”
1922: Birthdate of Fyvush Finkel. A veteran of the Yiddish Theatre, Finkel won an emmy for his role as a lawyer in the television hit “Picket Fences.”
1923: Birthdate of Israeli, poet, novelist, journalist and filmmaker, Haim Gouri. A sabra. Gouri worked with Jewish refugees in Hungary after WW II and fought with the Palmach in the Negev during the War for Independence before pursuing his literary career. He has won the Bialik, Israel and Uri Zvi Grinberg awards.
1925(21st of Tishrei, 5686): Hoshana Rabah
1926: Max Derfiner, a pioneer silk manufacturer who arrived in New York from Tel Aviv last week continued to tout the possibilities for developing the silk industry in Palestine. Derfiner who already expressed his belief that in ten years Tel Aviv can become a “second Lyon” said today that one of his keys to success was his ability “to concentrate in one plant all the processes of silk manufacturing…which in France, Switzerland or America would be performed in separate establishments.” Derfiner also said that the Zionists had “developed the ‘Made in Palestine’ label into a commercial asset...” In Jewish homes through the world the name Palestine had a business value as well as a sentimental appeal.
1930: As Dr. Drummond Shiels, British Under-Secretary for Dominions, left his hotel today an angry crowd shouted “Away with Parliament which does do justice to Jews,” “Shame to the British Government” and “Remember Hebron, Safed and Motza,” a reference to the 1929 sites of bloody Arab attacks on defenseless Jews. The crowd sang Hatikvah as Shiels sped away under the protection of the local police. “The demonstration was caused by a report from London that Shiels had promised an Arab delegation that a Parliament for Palestine” would be established. Creation of such an institution was part of a plan to circumvent the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine and guarantee that Jews would always be a minority in Eretz Israel.
1930: An article entitled “Sir John Monash” published one day after his stated that “It is not an exaggeration to say that Sir John Monash…was one of the ablest soldiers that the British colonies sent to the World War.” Monash was known for his ability to train troops as could be seen from his work with the Third Australian Division. A brave soldier, he was an able tactician and strategist who played a key role in the great assault that broke the Hindenburg Line which forced the Germans to sue for peace. It was said of him “that he would command a division better than a brigade and corps better than a division.” [Nowhere in the article that traced Monash rise to prominence was it mentioned that he was Jewish.]
1936(23rd of Tishrei, 5697): Simchat Torah
1939: Himmler declared that 550,000 Jews living in Polish provinces should be relocated
1940: Adina Gerstel and Rabbi Louis Wefel were married today. Werfel would gain fame for his role as a chaplain during WW II who was known as the flying Rabbi. Unfortunately, his would be cut short when he died when his aircraft crashed in 1943 while he was bring the joy of Chanukah to U.S. troops fighting in North Africa.
1941: The Nazis murdered 3,726 Jews including 717 children in the Poligon barracks near Swieciany, Lithuania.
1941: A recruiting rally was held in Tel Aviv as part of a campaign to get another 5,000 Jews from Palestine to enlist in the British Army. Currently there are approximately 10,000 Jews from Palestine serving in the British Army and RAF throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. The leading Jewish institutions sponsoring the campaign have adopted the slogan “Jews are fighting with the Allies for victory.”
1941: Parades of Jewish veterans of World War I were greeted by cheering throngs in Haifa and Tel Aviv. The parades were the climax of week’s long effort to recruit more Jewish recruits for the British military. Jewish leaders encouraged every man who can be spared to “enroll under the Union Jack” to “help in the fight against Adolf Hitler.”
1941: Hans Frank told the ministers of the General Government in Cracow; "As far as Jews are concerned . . . I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with one way or another."
1941: The Nazi-allied government led by Marshal Ion Antonescu began deporting Jews to camps located in Transnistria, an occupied area in the former Soviet Union.
1941: Two months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt approved what became known as the Manhattan Project, America’s unprecedented effort to build an atomic bomb. The number of Jews involved in this decision including Einstein is surpassed only by the number of Jewish scientist involved in the effort.
1942: Anne Frank, who was hiding with her family in an Amsterdam warehouse, wrote in her diary: “The British radio speaks of their (the Jews) being gassed.”
1942: In Brussels, Belgium, five of six leading members of the Belgian Jewish community are released from incarceration following the intervention of Cardinal Joseph-Ernst van Roey and Belgium's Queen Elizabeth.
1942: Thousands of Jews from Miedzyrzec, Poland, are deported to the Treblinka death camp.
1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Yom Kippur
1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): On Yom Kippur, over 1,000 men and women at Birkenau, deemed too sick to work, were gassed to death. At Plaszow, 50 Jews were murdered. Ironically, 600 Jews were permitted to pray in Sobibor
1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): Hundreds of Jews were deported from Trieste and shipped to Auschwitz.
1943(10th of Tishrei, 5704): In Anconcia, a Catholic priest, Don Bernadino, warned the local Rabbi, Elio Toaff, of the impending deportation of the Jewish population. The Jews went into hiding, most of them being sheltered by Christian families. Only ten Jews would be caught and deported and one of them survived the war.
1944(22nd of Tishrei, 5705): Shemini Atzeret
1944: At Birkenau, on Simchat Torah, 650 boys involved with the Birkenau revolt were locked in the barracks together. Most of them would be tortured and then killed on October 20.
1944: Mordechai Adler (who became Mordechai Eldar) “celebrated his 15th birthday at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1944: Mordechai Eldar cheated death today. Having been “selected” at Auschwitz and having already stripped naked, for some unknown reason German officers had Eldar and 49 others step outside, put on shoes and uniforms, and sent them to work in Canada, the facility where the Germans had prisoners sort and store all the possessions of those who arrived at the Death Camp.
1944: The SS arrests three Jewish women at the Auschwitz munitions factory for complicity in the smuggling of explosives used in the uprising of October 6-7
1945: Tonight, "security at the Atlit Detention Center near Haifa - a camp for 'illegal' Jewish immigrants in Mandatory Palestine - was breached; 200 detainees mainly Holocaust survivors and recent arrivals from Europe, wre released in a daring operation launched by the Palmach."
1945: After his trial in Paris, Pierre Laval, head of the Vichy Government is executed by firing squad. General Petain was the titular head of the Vichy Government. Laval really ran the show. Vichy was the name of the French collaborationist government that worked with the Nazis during World War II. Vichy’s supporters included France’s own, home-grown anti-Semites. The Vichy government was so eager to ingratiate itself with the New German Order, that it was rounding up Jews and turning them over to the Nazis before the Nazis asked them to do so.
1945: Loy Henderson, the head of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs at the United States State Department who was an Arabist opposed to the creation of Jewish state in Palestine sent Secretary of State James Byrnes “a memo regarding what he called ‘urgent problems relating to the Palestine.’”
1946: An announcement was made today that “Israel Aron Friedman, a member of the board of directors of General Mercantile Corporation of Palestine, Ltd., has arrived in New York from Tel Aviv. “The corporation is concerned with the procurement of raw materials and machinery for the basic Jewish industries of Palestine.”
1946: Birthdate of Gustin L. Reichbach, the Columbia University protest leader who went to a career in the law and as a distinguished jurist. (As reported by Jim Dwyer)
1947: “The Jewish Agency…called upon…Jewish veterans of the North African and Italian campaigns” now living in Palestine “to form the nucleus of a Jewish army that would be ready for a ‘life or death showdown’ with Arab forces. Mrs. Gold Meyerson, head of the Agency’s political department told veterans assembled at Tel Aviv that salvation for Palestine Jews rested not at Lake Success but ‘right here. If the Arab leaders have their way, we must either give up the link between the Jews and Palestine or die in a last-ditch struggle…We are not looking for trouble, but we are ready for it.’”
1947: President Truman learned that the Arab League Executive had requested its member nations to dispatch troops to the Palestine border as part of a plan to invade the Mandate Territory. Truman responded by instructing Secretary of State Marshall to support the planned partition of Palestine.
1948: During the War for Independence, Egypt launched a major attack in the Negev. This
attack constitutes a major violation of the UN brokered truce. This Egyptian offensive along with other violations will lead to a major Israeli military effort later in the month of October.
1951: Birthdate of actor Robert Wuhl who played the title role in the HBO hit “Arli$$.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that since 1948, Youth Aliyah had absorbed more than 5,000 young people from Morocco. Their parents were given a choice of three types of educational institutions: Orthodox, traditional (keeping of Sabbath, festivals and Kashrut), and non-religious.
1956: Arab terrorists cross the border, murdering two Israeli workers at Even Yehuda and cutting off the victims’ ears.
1958: Pope Pius XII passed away 19 years after being elevated to the Papacy. The Pope’s role in the Holocaust has been too well documented to need to be covered here.
1963: Birthdate of journalist Daniel Pearl who was brutally murdered by Moslem terrorists on February 21, 2002.
1967(5th of Tishrei, 5728): French author Andre Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, passed away at the age of 82.
1973: On the third day of the Yom Kippur war a pessimistic Moshe Dayan addresses a group of journalist leading them to believe that Israeli forces are in such precarious shape that they will have to surrender most of the Sinai to the advancing Egyptians and make a stand in the eastern edge of the peninsula. Prime Minister Golda Meir is so alarmed by Dayan’s emotional about-face that she refuses to let him address the nation on television in the evening. Israeli news broadcasts reported for the first time that the Egyptian attack had driven Israeli forces from the east bank of the Suez Canal. While Syrian artillery was able to shell villages in the Jezreel Valley, Israeli planes had attacked installations in around Damascus. Inadvertently, one of the attacks had hit the Soviet Cultural Center in the Syrian capital. In a television later in the evening an Israeli general pointed out that the Soviets had been arms into the Arab states for the past six years creating a military imbalance of striking proportion. He also said that Israeli forces would not cease operation action until the Arab states learned that they could not violate a truce with impunity without paying a high price.
1973: During a meeting of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Dayan voiced confidence in the Israeli forces' ability to overcome Syria and asked permission to bomb targets in Damascus. "There's an order: No retreat on the Golan," he said. "Fighting to the death and not moving ... What I'm suggesting and asking for approval of [is] bombings inside the city." Prime Minister Meir asked whether he meant within the city itself, and Dayan confirmed this. He said the IDF can't muster a column to march on Damascus even as a decoy, but bombing in and around the city could "break the Syrians" - though he conceded, "You can't say the population wouldn't be hurt."Why would it necessarily break them?" Meir asked. "Would a bombing here break us?” General Elazar replied: "A heavy bombing here, on Reading and Ramat Aviv, would seriously disrupt things."
1973: Aharon Sagi, Harel Gilutz and Yosef Ye'ari made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down.
1973: Lt. Col. Yossi Ben Hanan who had cut short his honeymoon in Nepal at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, “took command of a scratch force of Israeli tanks that had been put together by Shmuel Askarov, one of the survivors of the decimated 188th Armored Brigade. Leading his command in a desperate battle against overwhelming numbers of Syrian T-62s, Ben Hanan restored the tactical situation but at the cost of most of his command and his own Centurion tank. Blown out of the turret when his tank was hit by a Sagger anti-tank missile, Ben Hanan lay wounded on the battlefield until he was rescued from behind enemy lines by Yonatan Netanyahu, a legendary member of the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal.” A Sabra, born in 1945, Hanan was a second generation military leader. He father, Michael Ben Hanan had been a Haganah commander in Jerusalem
1973: As of today those parts of the Golan that were the responsibility of the Golani Brigade were back under Israeli control, and the Syrians had been pushed back over the Purple Line. The Purple Line was the name given to the cease fire line drawn between Israel and Syria after the 1967 war.
1973: Birthdate of Erin Daniels. Born Erin Cohen the Vassar College grad is known for her career as a television actress.
1974: Oskar Schindler, the Schindler in “Schindler’s List” passed away.
1980: A bomb planted in a motorcycle saddlebag outside the Copernic Street synagogue in a wealthy eastern Paris neighborhood exploded on a Friday night, killing three Frenchmen and Aliza Shagrir, 42, and wounding 22 others. Shagrir, an Israeli cinematographer, was walking past the synagogue with her 15-year-old son, Haggai, who would eventual go to work at the Foreign Ministry. Aliza Shagrir was the wife of Micha Shagrir a well-known television, film and documentary producer who lives in Jerusalem and who established the Aliza Shagrir Fund prize for outstanding documentaries in her name. Eventually, Hassan Diab a Lebanese native living in Canada would be charged with crime.
1981: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas T. Johnson ruled in favor of Mel Mermelstein, finding that he had provided sufficient evidence to prove his claim that Jews were gassed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The Court issued a judgment requiring the Institute for Historical Review (IHR) to pay Mermelstein $50,000, plus $40,000 for personal suffering, and to write a public apology to Mermelstein.
1986: Senator Claiborne Pell (D- R.I.) enter into the Congressional Record an article, "Navy Rabbi To Join Iceland Team: Russian immigrant's grandson picked to lead staff services," published in the Providence Journal that described the role played in by Rabbi Arnold Resnick, a U.S. Navy Chaplain in leading Yom Kippur services in Greenland during the planning meetings for the latest Soviet-American summit
1987: Claire Boothe Luce passed away. Most people remember her as the wife of Henry Luce, the man who created the Time-Life publishing empire. Others remember her as a Republican Party political figure and ambassador. But Mrs. Luce considered herself first and foremost a playwright, a role that brought her great success before World War II. In 1939, she wrote Margin for Error, a comedy about a policeman assigned to protect the German consul in New York. The Consul is a Nazi. The police officer is an American Jew. The play was considered the first successful anti-Nazi play to reach Broadway.
1988: Active polio viruses have been discovered in sewage and a water purification plant in four more Israeli cities, bringing the total number of infected areas to nine, Israel Radio said today.
1989: Penthouse Magazine's Hebrew edition hits the newsstands
1990: Saddam Hussein threatens to hit Israel with a new missile.
1993(24th of Tishrei, 5754): On Shabbat, “Dror Forer and Aran Bachar were murdered by terrorists in Wadi Kelt in the Judean Desert. The Popular Front and the Islamic Jihad 'Al-Aqsa Squads' each publicly claimed responsibility.”
1994(4th of Cheshvan): Holocaust survivor, successful businessman and founder of the NYC Marathon, Fred Lebow, passed away.
1994: Corey Pavin won the Tokai Classic. The golf tournament was Japanese; the golfer was Jewish.
1995(15th of Tishrei, 5756): Sukkoth
2000(10th of Tishrei, 5761): Yom Kippur
2003: The Israeli Gesher Theater starts its tour of Moscow. The Moscow critics have already called the tour the biggest event of the theater season. The Gesher Theater was founded in 1990 in Tel Aviv by Russian immigrants.
2004: The first National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust was held in Romania. October 9 was chosen as a date for this event because it marks the beginning of Romanian deportations of Jews to Transnistria, in 1942.
2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765): On Shabbat Jews begin the cycle of Torah readings with Bereshit.
2004(24th of Tishrei, 5765: Philosopher Jacques Derrida passes away at the age of 74
2005: The Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, participated in the laying of a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial in Iasi and the inauguration of The Centre for Hebrew Studies. During the inaugural National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust, the National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania was also opened.
2005: The Histadrut labor federation renews the strike against the Religious Councils. Funerals will be performed only at night and there will be no registration of marriages or Kashrut supervision in restaurants, hotels and catering halls.
2005: Despite threats from suicide bombers and other terrorists, Israelis work to develop a fruitful society and create an air of normalcy. For example, Haaretz reported that Israel’s 2 – 1 victory over Faroe Islands in a World Cup soccer qualifier in the Ramat Gan stadium means Israel still has a chance of qualifying for the World Cup in Germany 2006. Israel will not know if it will qualify for the automatic birth or if it has to play a European team to get to the match in Germany until later in the week. The Israeli coach had said earlier that if the announcement if made on Thursday which is Yom Kippur, he will have to wait until Thursday night to find out the fate of his team.
2005: Bishop Von Galen, the German bishop known as the "Lion of Muenster" for his courageous anti-Nazi sermons during World War II took a step on the road to sainthood when he was beatified in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Nazis deported 37 priests to concentration camps 10 of whom perished in von Galen's place as punishment for the homilies, according to a brief biography by Reinhard Lettmann. However von Galen was not arrested. The Nazis were worried that if von Galen were arrested and killed, Muenster's residents would be angered and "written off as lost during the duration of the war," Lettmann wrote. Von Galen helped a Protestant pastor to hide a Jewish boy in an institute belonging to the bishop's office and took responsibility for the youth, who after the war was reunited with his mother, according to testimony carried by Vatican Radio.
2005(6th of Tishrei, 5766): Comedian Louis Nye passed away.
2005: The New York Times reviewed The Pagoda in the Garden: a Novel in Three Parts by Wendy Lesser.
2005: The Times of Londonreviewed We Are at War: The Remarkable Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times by Simon Garfield
2006: A ceremony took place for setting the keystone of the National Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest. The ceremony was attended by the President, Foreign Minister Affairs Minister and Culture Minister, as well as representatives of the Romanian and international Jewish community. A commemoration march also took place through Bucharest in order to remember the Roma victims of the Holocaust and to demand greater recognition by the government of Roma Holocaust victims.
2006: Haaretz reported that Holocaust survivor groups here have joined the recommendation of the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, to award the Nobel Peace Prize to 96-year-old Irena Sandler. Sandler, who was a member of the Polish underground group Zegota that was dedicated to saving Jews, was recognized by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in 1965 for smuggling numerous Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. The children received false papers and were either adopted by Christian families or sent to convents. Sandler, however, recorded the real names of 2,500 children on lists that were placed in glass jars and buried, with the hope that the youngsters would eventually be returned to their families. The Gestapo arrested Sandler in October 1943. Despite being tortured, she refused to reveal the children's identity, and was sentenced to death by a Nazi court. The underground group freed her, and she lived in hiding under an assumed identity until the end of the war.
2007: A special preview screening of The Counterfeiters takes place as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival. “The Counterfeiters is based on the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936.”
2008(10th of Tishrei, 5769): Yom Kippur
2008: At Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. during a late afternoon break between Musaf and Mincha, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher and Emily Yoffe of Slate lead a learning session that opens with the study of a classic text on the use of speech in public followed by a discussion of the ethical dilemmas of reporting and the spiritual importance of truth-telling.
2008: In Acre, both Jews and Arabs clashed with police in various parts of the ethnically divided city, leading to 10 arrests. In total, at least eight people were slightly injured in the successive nights of violence.
2009: Michael Chabon, author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, discusses his first book of nonfiction, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
2009: Scott Turow, the bestselling author of the legal thrillers Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof, presents a lecture, "Confessions of a Death Penalty Agnostic," drawn from his book "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty," at the Fairfax County Government in Fairfax, Va..
2009: Kol Shira will be performing at Java House in downtown Iowa City Kol Shira is an all women sextet known for its eclectic fusion performances of International Jewish music, including songs from Russia, Cuba, Eastern Europe, Iraq, Yemen, France, Spain, Middle East, Italy, Romania, Algeria and more. The group features vocals, flute, guitar, piano, bass, cello and hand-held percussion. Jim Musser, music reviewer for the Iowa City Press Citizen, described Kol Shira as “remarkable” and “exquisite.” At the end of 2004, Musser ranked their CD as one of the top six independent releases from the Eastern Iowa area.
2009 (21 Tishrei, 5770): Hoshanah Rabbah
2009: While Friday prayers ended without incident at the al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, Palestinian rioters clashed with police in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya, Ras el-Amud and Sur Baher this afternoon.
2009(21st of Tishrei, 5770): “Stuart M. Kaminsky, a film scholar-turned-detective novelist who was widely known for his prodigious output, complex characters, and rich evocations of time and place, including Hollywood in its Golden Age, died today at the age of 75.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/arts/14kaminsky.html
2009 (21st Tishrei, 5770): Richard W. Sonnenfeldt, who fled Nazi Germany as a teenager, became the chief interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and interrogated some of the most notorious Nazi leaders of