OCTOBER 16 In History
912: Abd-ar-Rahman III began his reign as Emir of Cordoba. The Emir appointed Hasdai ibn Shaprut to serve as his physician. Their relationship developed to the extent that the Jewish physician became the confidant and advisor to the Muslim ruler.
1384: Jadwiga, the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary is crowned King of Poland. In 1385, she married Wladislaus II which meant that Lithuania was united with the kingdom of Poland. Now the rights enjoyed by Polish Jews would be extended to Lithuanian Jews.
1655(Tishrei, 5416): Joseph Solomon Delmedigo a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist passed away. Born in Candia, Crete in 1591 he moved to Padua, Italy, throughout most Europe and north Africa, and finally died in Prague. Yet in his lifetime wherever he sojourned he earned his living as a physician and or teacher. His only known works are Elim (Palms), dealing with mathematics, astronomy, the natural sciences, and metaphysics, as well as some letters and essays. He followed the lectures by Galileo Galilei, during the academic year 1609-1610. Elim (1629, published by Menasseh ben Israel, Amsterdam) is written in Hebrew, in response to 12 general and 70 specific religious and scientific questions sent to Delmedigo by a Karaite Jew, Zerach ben Natan from Troki (Lithuania). The format of the book is taken from the number of fountains and palm trees at Elim in the Sinai Peninsula, as given in Numbers, xxxiii, 9: since there are 12 fountains and 70 palm trees at Elim, Delmedigo divided his book into twelve major problems and seventy minor problems. The subjects discussed include astronomy, physics, mathematics, medicine, and music theory. In the area of music, Delmedigo discusses the physics of music including string resonance, intervals and their proportions, consonance and dissonance.
1649: The American colony of Maine passed legislation granting religious freedom to all its citizens, on condition that those of contrary religious persuasions behave acceptably. This early evidence of religious tolerance demonstrates why Jews would flourish in the land that would become the United States.
1655(15thof Tishrei, 5416): Sukkoth
1655(15thof Tishrei, 5416): Sixty-four year old Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, passed away. A native of Crete, he was known for his work as a philosopher, mathematician, physician and the author of Elim (Palms) a wide ranging tome on numerous scientific subjects.
1752: Birthdate of Johann G. Eichhorn, German Old Testament scholar. Eichhorn was a pioneer in "higher criticism," which evaluated Scripture through literary analysis and historical evidence, rather than by the unquestioned authority of systematized religious tradition.
1794(22ndof Tishrei, 5555): Shemini Atzeret
1810(18th of Tishrei, 5571): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1810: (18th Tishrei), 5571 Nachman of Breslov also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Nachman from Uman, or simply as Rebbe Nachman (in local Yiddish reb Nokhmen Broslever) passed away. “Born in 1772, he was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic dynasty.Born at a time when the influence of his great-grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov, was waning, Rebbe Nachman breathed new life into the Chasidic movement by combining the esoteric secrets of Judaism (the Kabbalah) with in-depth Torah scholarship. He attracted thousands of followers during his lifetime, and after his death, his followers continued to regard him as their Rebbe and did not appoint any successor. Rebbe Nachman's teachings continue to attract and inspire Jews the world over.” Some of his most famous quotes are:
· "It is a great mitzvah to be happy always."
· "If you believe that it is possible to break, believe it is also possible to fix."
· "And know that a person needs to traverse a very, very narrow bridge, but the fundamental and most important principle is to have no hesitation or fear at all…" (This saying has been set to music in Hebrew as the song Kol Ha-Olam Kulo
For more information about Rebbe Nachman see the attached or go to http://www.breslov.org/
1812: Birthdate of Lazarus W. Powell, the Kentucky Senator who sought to have Congress condemn General Grant for issuing General Order No.11. Powell was animated more by his anti-war views than he was by affection for the Jews.
1835(23rdof Tishrei, 5596): Four-month Ada Isaacs Menken, can celebrate her first Simchat Torah
1841: Founding of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Today Queen’s University offers “Jewish Studies courses that may be taken as electives by any student, or as part of a Minor in Jewish Studies. The Minor can be the main focus of a three-year BA or a secondary focus in a 4-year Honours BA.” The University is also home to Queen's University Hillel, the Jewish Student Union.
1841(1st of Cheshvan, 5602): Rosh Chodesh
1841: In Germany, on a Shabbat that was also Rosh Chodesh Chesvan, Issac Bernays, the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg condemned the newly issued Prayerbook for the Israelites and the rabbis who had authored it. This was part of dispute that had been taking place at The Hamburg Temple among the orthodox members and the reformers who were led by Gabriel Riessler. It was part of larger dispute that was rocking German Jewry as it dealt with issues of Reform, Orthodoxy, and coping with modernity. (If this sounds familiar, it is since we continue to deal with these issues in the 21st century. Considering the rancor and ill will that was created, some would say that the German experience in the 19th century is primer for how not to deal with these issues.)
1843(22nd of Tishrei, 5604): Jews observe Shemini Atzeret on the same day that Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard was published.
1845(15th of Tishrei, 5606): Jews in Texas observe Sukkoth for the first time as citizens of the United States since the citizens of what had been the Lone Star Republic approved the new constitution and the statute of annexation three days before. Today, Houston, Dallas and Austin are home to three of the most vibrant Jewish communities in the United States.
1851: “The News by the Mails” column published today reported that “The New York correspondent of The Republic replies to the animadversions of certain parties here, in relation to his former statement that there were no Jews on Wall Street. The letter-writer substantiates his assertion by citing names, etc; and states that the fact was mentioned in order to prove that the Jewish people have no natural aptitude for the brokerage business, and are only driven into the money-dealing business by the disabilitities which shut them out of other honorable employment.
1854: Birthdate of Oscar Wilde, the Anglo-Irish author who is remembered as much for his sexual orientation as for his literary works. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde presents us with a Jewish theatre manager named Isaacs. The depiction of the character can only be described as anti-Semitic. One critic attributes Wilde’s creation of the character to a dispute he was having with the author George Eliot. Since Eliot had created a sympathetic Jewish figure in one of her works, Wilde felt compelled to do just the opposite.
1861:A. Eger, the Secretary of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco wrote to I.J. Benjamin that the congregation has “set aside the sum of $250 in order to assist you in your…journey to the Orient. (“I. J. Benjamin was a nineteenth-century Moldavian Jewish world traveler. His primary goal, his mission, was to be a "living link" between all the Jews in the world, "a maggid [traveling preacher] on a world wide circuit." He wrote Three Years in America, in German, for readers in Europe, most of whom had never been to the New World and would be very curious about it. He wrote it largely to raise money to fund his travels. As reported by Gabriel Steinfeld)
1862(22nd of Tishrei, 5623): As Jews observe Shemini Atzeret, Major General Ulysses S. Grant is given command of the Department of Tennessee
1869: The President of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, CA, sent a letter to Israel J. Benjamin, also known as “Benjamin the Traveler" who was spending time in the city that informing him that the congregation had voted to give him $250 to help defray the costs of his travels
1860: “Rarely has the ‘opening lecture of the season’ been attended by so large and fashionable an audience as that which assembled at Clinton Hall this evening to greet R.J. De Cordova the popular humorist, and to listen to his new poem entitled a ‘Photograph of Broadway.’ The poem was one of Mr. De Cordova’s best efforts, and can hardly fail of having what the theatrical men term a successful run. All the salient points of the great New-York thoroughfare, -- its crowd of vehicles, and pedestrians, its churches, its theatres, its hotels, its mock-auction shops, its marble stores, its policemen, its dandies, its gamblers and its beggars, -- were hit off in a style at once humorous and sarcastic, that kept the audience in a constant roar of laughter.” Mr. De Cordova was a well-known Sephardic humorist, speaker and sometime investor who was quite popular with New York audiences – Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
1867(17th of Tishrei, 5628): Sukkoth Chol Hamoed
1867(17th of Tishrei, 5628): Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport passed away. Born in 1790, at Lemberg, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria, “he was a Galician rabbi and Jewish scholar.” “After various experiences in business, Rapoport became successively rabbi of Tarnopol (1837) and of Prague (1840). He was one of the founders of the new Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. His chief work was the first part of an (unfinished) encyclopaedia (Ereklz Millin, 1852). Equally notable were his biographies of Saadia Gaon, Nathan (author of the Arukh), Hai Gaon, Eleazar Kalir and others.Thrown upon his own resources about 1817, Rapoport became cashier of the meat-tax farmers. He had already given evidence of marked critical ability, though his writings previously published were of a light character—poems and translations. His critical talent, however, soon revealed itself. In 1824 he wrote an article for Bikkure ha-'Ittim on the independent Jewish tribes of Arabia and Abyssinia. Though this article gained him some recognition, a more permanent impression was made by his work on Saadia Gaon and his times (published in the same journal in 1829), the first of a series of biographical works on the medieval Jewish sages. Because of this work he received recognition in the scholarly world and gained many enthusiastic friends, especially S. D. Luzzatto. After the fashion in rabbinic circles, Rapoport was known by an acronym "Shir", formed by the initial letters of his Hebrew name Shelomo Yehuda Rapoport. Solomon Judah Löb Rapoport notes that according to the Masoretes there are ten vowel sounds. He suggests that the passage in the Sefer Yetzirah, which discusses the manipulation of letters in the creation of the world, can be better understood if the Sefirot refer to vowel sounds. He posits that the word sefirah in this case is related to the Hebrew word sippur ("to retell"). His position is based on his belief that most Kabbalistic works written after Sefer Yetzirah (including the Zohar) are forgeries.”
1869: Solomon Bibo arrived in New York from his native Prussia. This was the first leg of a journey that would take him to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he would join his brothers Nathan and Simon. Yes, Jews played an active role in life of what we now call “the Old West.”
1869: Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women. Gertrude Himmelfarb, the wife of Irving Kristol and mother of Bill Kristol, may have been one of the most famous Jews to have studied Girton College which she attended on a fellowship after World War II. Today, Griton is home to one of the UK’s Judaica collections and its Theology and Religious Studies program includes course work on the Old Testament; World Religions including a separate paper on Judaism (separate papers on Indian religions, Islam and Judaism) and Jewish and Christian Responses to the Holocaust.
1870:”The New Jewish Ritual” published today described the changes being instituted by Raphael Lewin, the rabbi at Temple Israel in Brooklyn.
1871(1st of Cheshvan, 5632): Six days after the Great Chicago Fire came to an end Jews in the Windy City observed Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth
1872: An article published today entitled “Succoth- The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles” reported that “last evening witnessed the commencement of the Jewish feast of Succoth, or Tabernacles, which continues for eight days.” The article goes on to report that the first two and last two days are full holidays while the intermediate days are called Chol Hamoed and “are of no special import. The article continues with a description of the Thanksgiving aspect of the festival as well as the “extemporized booth” in which “the pious Israelite, surrounded by his family, takes his meals” in this “season of joy and thankfulness…”
1874: It was reported from Vienna today that the Italian Consul at Bucharest has refused to open negotiations for commercial treaty between Italy and Romania as long as the Jews of that country are not fully emancipated.
1874(5th of Cheshvan, 5635): Seventy-nine year old German rabbi and early supporter of Zionism Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, passed away.http://zionism-israel.com/bio/kalischer_biography.htm
1874: It was reported today that Mr. Peixotto, the American Consul at Bucharest has refused to enter into negotiations with the government of Romania as long as the Jews of that country are denied their civil rights.
1874 (5th of Cheshvan, 5605): Rabbi Zevi Hersh Kalisher passed away. Born in 1795 in the Polish town of Lissa that had just become part of Germany, Kalisher was unique because he was an Orthodox Rabbi who believed that Jews develop a practical program for returning to Eretz Israel instead of just waiting for the coming of the Messiah. In 1860, he published Derishat Tziyyon , his blueprint for the return to the Holy Land. Almost forty years before the advent of Herzl and Zionism he called for a systematic purchase of land, the development of agriculture, the development of a self-defense force and the need to develop viable businesses to replace the charitable institutions that traditionally supported the Jews in Palestine. The Reform opposed Kalisher because of the nationalist content of the proposal. The Orthodox saw it as a form of blasphemy. One of the practical results of his work was the establishment of Mikveh Israel, a school located near Jaffa, designed to teach the new generation of pioneers the scientific agricultural skills that would enable them to reclaim the land.
1881(23rd of Tishrei, 5642): Three days after Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had what is believed to be the first modern conversation in Hebrew, Jews observed Simchat Torah
1883(15th of Tishrei, 5644): Four month old Franz Kafka joined the rest of Jewry in observing Sukkoth
1886: Birthdate of David Ben-Gurion. To describe him as one of the earliest Zionist leaders, founding father of Israel, and its first Prime Minister would not even begin to do justice to this gigantic figure. Ben-Gurion was no saint and it is easy to criticize him. But he was a committed socialist. He truly believed in the brotherhood of man. At the same time, he was committed to the Zionist movement and worked to create a “new” Jew in a Jewish homeland. Ben-Gurion was a realist and a gambler. Despite a great deal of criticism, he was willing to accept the 1947 Partition Plan even though it an Jewish state without Jerusalem. At the same time, he was bold enough to declare the independence of the Jewish state in May of 1948 when most of the “smart” leaders of the world told him to wait. The modern state of Israel might have come into existence without Ben-Gurion, but it is hard to imagine how it would have happened. I urge you to read more about the truly remarkable, complex leader. He passed away on December 1, 1973.
1887: It was reported today that the property belonging to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York City is valued at $75,000 for tax purposes. But the building is tax exempt because it owned by a non-profit religious organization.
1892: Saul Solomon passed away in Cape Town. A native of St. Helena, he settled in South Africa where he became a leader of the Liberal Party. He was known as the “Cape Disraeli” because, like his English predecessor, he converted but retained a public affection for his former co-religionists.
1899: Israel Zangwill's play "Children of the Ghetto," premiers at the Herald Square Theatre in New York. The play was based on a novel of the same name published in 1892 that describes the life of a Jewish family living in London in the last decade of the 19th century.
1902(15thof Tishrei, 5663): On the same day that the fist “Youthful Offenders Institution” opened in Borstal, Kent, UK, Jews observed Sukkoth
1906: Birthdate of León Klimovsky the Argentine dentist who gained fame as a film director.
1913(15thof Tishrei, 5674): Sukkoth
1913: In New York, Governor William Sulzer, who had been defended by William Marshall, was convicted on three articles of impeachment. Sulzer was replaced by his Lieutenant Governor, Martin Glynn, the author of the 1919 article “The Crucifixion of the Jews Must Stop!”
1917: President Woodrow Wilson sends word to Lloyd George that he approves of the issuance of the Balfour Declaration.
1923: Birthdate of “Walter Zacharius, who rode the passion-swollen wave of romance fiction in the early 1980s to build the Kensington Publishing Corporation into a leading purveyor of bodice-rippers and other romance genres.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1923: Tonight at the Hotel Commodore the American Jewish Congress adopted a resolution prepared by the Committee On Palestine, assisted by Israel Zangwill, carrying out Mr. Zangwill's suggestion for a resolution insisting that the British Government fulfill its mandate under the League of Nations for the “upbuilding “of a Jewish national home in Palestine.
1933: The Associated Press reported that the German citizen who had assaulted a New Yorker named Dr. Daniel Mulvhill “because he had failed to ‘salute a Nazi detachment’” was being held at an unnamed concentration camp. (This seemingly harsh punishment may have been an attempt to ingratiate the new Nazi regime with the West while it went about its various nefarious activities including re-armament in violation of the Versailles Treaty)
1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered. According to “unconfirmed reports from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement. Officials have not been able to determine who was supposed to be getting the weaponry.
1939: Kraków, one of the most important Jewish communities since the 1300s, is designated the capital of the Generalgouvernement.
1939: “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” a three act comedy created by those Jewish stalwarts of the Broadway Theatre , George S. Kaufman, premiered at the Music Box in New York
1940: Warsaw Ghetto established. (In note of historic irony, six years later to the day, those convicted at the first Nuremberg Trial were hung)
1941: The Germans murdered 4,500 Jews outside of Lubny, Urkaine (USSR). Unknown Nazi photographers left a photo of a mother and her children just before the atrocity and a photo of a group of Jews awaiting their fate.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/october/06.asp
1941: In response to Hitler's plea that all Jews must leave Germany, the first of twenty trains left Germany for the East. Jews from Luxemburg and Vienna were part of the deportation. Within the next month 19,827 Jews from the Reich would be sent to Lodz.
1941: The German Army advanced to within 60 miles (96 K) of Moscow. One not need romanticize life in Stalin’s Russia to recognize the courage of the Soviet Army. Stalin decided to remain in Moscow and take personal command of the battle. As bad as the Holocaust was, it would have been even worse if the Soviets had not held on. At the same time many revered the Soviet Army because it liberated so many of the camps as it later moved west towards Berlin.
1941(25th of Tishrei, 5702): Three days after the German murder of 15,000 Jewish residents of Dnepropetrtovsk, Ukraine, an additional 5000 Jews are executed in the town.
1941: The first SS deportation train of Western Jews travels to ghettos at Lódz, Lublin, and Warsaw, Poland.
1941(25th of Tishrei, 5702): Twenty trains carrying nearly 20,000 Jews travel from Germany, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, and Austria to the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto. The shipments will come to an end in the first week of November.
1942: The Nazis arrest more than 1000 Jews in Rome and deport them to Auschwitz.
1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker compliments the Holy See for its "perfect even-handedness" in treating Germany and the Allies. When Weizsäcker asks what Pope Pius XII will do if the German government persists in its present Jewish policy in Italy, Vatican Secretary of State Maglione replies that "the Holy See would not want to be put in the position of having to utter a word of disapproval." The Pope is being "cautious so as not to give the German people the impression that [he] has done or has wished to do even the smallest thing against Germany during this terrible time.”
1943: Germans looking for Jews in Rome conduct house-to-house searches. About 1000 Jews are briefly held at Rome's Collegio Militare and then deported to Auschwitz. 477 Jews are sheltered in the Vatican, and another 4238 find sanctuary in convents and monasteries throughout Rome. Nevertheless, by this date more than 8300 Italian Jews have been deported to Auschwitz.
1943: In Rome, Germans searched through streets and homes for Jews. Of the 1,015 Jews taken on that morning only 16 would survive the war. Within two months, another 7,345 Jews would be found and deported from Northern Italy
1943: Two days after a violent Jewish revolt at the Sobibór death camp, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the camp destroyed.
1944: Following the coup led by the Arrow Cross, the Germans and their Hungarian allies resume resumed their attacks on the Jews of Budapest. Jews were again dragged from their homes and into the streets. Then for the next 10 days, all Jews are forbidden to leave their homes.
1944: Germans and members of the Fascist Nyilas group prohibit Jews in Budapest, Hungary, from leaving their homes. Many Jewish slave laborers are killed by Nyilas members on a bridge linking Buda with Pest.
1944: In Rome, the roundup of the Jewish population began. “SS troops surrounded the Lungotevere, the former ghetto area, where some 4,000 of the city’s 12,000 Jews still lived.” The SS selected 1,000 men, women and children for immediate shipment to Auschwitz. This was only the beginning of a march to the Death Camps that took place in the city of the Pope.
1945: During the presentation of the Army-Navy “E” Award (a commendation for outstanding production during WW II) at Los Alamos, NM, Robert Oppenheimer delivered his “farewell speech” as director of the project that led to the development of the Atomic Bomb.
1946: Ten Nazi leaders were hanged as war criminals after the Nuremberg trials. This chart shows the fate of those tried at Nuremberg.
Name
--Count--
Sentence
Notes
1
2
3
4
Martin Bormann
I
º
G
G
Death
In absentia
Karl Dönitz
I
G
G
º
10 years
Initiator of the U-boat campaign and Hitler's designated successor
Hans Frank
I
º
G
G
Death
Expressed repentance
Wilhelm Frick
I
G
G
G
Death
Hans Fritzsche
I
I
I
º
Acquitted
Tried in place of Joseph Goebbels
Walter Funk
I
G
G
G
Life Imprisonment
Released due to ill health on May 16, 1957
Hermann Göring
G
G
G
G
Death
Commander of Luftwaffe. Committed suicide the night before his execution.
Rudolf Hess
G
G
I
I
Life Imprisonment
Hitler's deputy, flew to England in 1941
Alfred Jodl
G
G
G
G
Death
Posthumously acquitted of all charges in 1953<span st