November 2 In History
1285: King Peter III of Aragon passed away. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Pedro III “protected the Jews from the hatred of the clergy, who destroyed their vineyards and disturbed their graves, and though he took especially severe measures against the Bishop of Castellnou, who favored these outrages yet he did this more in his own interest than from any humanitarian motive. He was one of the kings of Aragon who placed the Jews under contribution and exacted enormous taxes from them. They supported him in his wars against Africa, Sicily, and France with voluntary subsidies. When, in 1283, he was threatened with invasion by France, he made the Jews of Faca and Gerona and their districts bear half the expense of improving the towers and fortifications; and a year later the Jews of his state had to raise 130,000 sueldos in taxes at the shortest notice. When he wished to marry his daughter to King Diniz of Portugal, he found that the sum of 185,000 sueldos of the promised dowry was lacking; thereupon he imposed a tax for that amount on the Jews. As soon as he did not require money from the Jews he ceased to be gracious to them. In 1278 he threatened them with the loss of all their privileges if these were not submitted to him for confirmation within a month. When, in 1283, the Jews of Catalonia asked the Cortes of Barcelona for recognition as vassals of the barons in whose cities or territories they lived or had acquired property, Pedro opposed this request. He even declared that in the future no Jew might come to court or act as "bayle" or tax-collector or hold any office whatsoever entailing any jurisdiction over Christians. An oath was to be taken by them in a specially prescribed form; and they were not to be permitted to slaughter in the public slaughter-houses or within the cities they inhabited.”
1327: King James II of Aragon, who employed a Jew as his secretary and interpreter, passed away. James levied a special tax on the Jews to support his war against Sicily but for some reason he exempted the Jews of Monzon from the tax. James followed in the footsteps of his predecessors and allowed the Jews of Montpelier to practice medicine with “the proviso that the Jewish physicians must pass the regular examinations before exercising their profession.”
1648: Twelve thousand Jews were massacred by Chmielnicki's forces. The revolt of the Ukrainians against their Polish masters was a disaster for the Jews of Poland. When the slaughter ended, the Jewish community had lost the position and prosperity it had gained over the previous three centuries. As Poland, which had been a haven for Jews fleeing persecution in Germany and Spain, descended into chaos Jews would seek refugee in the Messianic phenomenon of Sabbatai Z’ Vie and the Chassidism of the Baal Shem Tov.
1780: A court of inquiry met at West Point, NY and exonerated Colonel David Franks of any involvement in Benedict Arnold’s plot to betray the United States and surrender West Point to the British
1781: During the reign of King Joseph II of Austria an ordinance was adopted that Jews were to be "considered 'fellow-men' and all excesses against them were to be avoided.
1793: Birthdate of Louis Jacques Begin the native of Liege who served as a surgeon in Napoleon’s campaigns against Germany and Russia.
1831: The formal establishment of the congregation that came to be called The Great Synagogue (known in Hebrew as Beth Yisrael - "House of Israel") took place today in Sydney, Australia.
1840: Birthdate of Mark Antokolski, the Wilno native who gained famed as a sculptor. Among his early works were "Jewish Tailor", "Nathan The Wise", "Inquisition's Attack against Jews" and "The Talmudic Debate".
1844: Birthdate of Mehmed V, the Sultan who was on the throne when the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers, Germany and Austria. The Sultan was really a figurehead and real power rested in the hands of the “Three Pashas.” Therefore, he cannot be held responsible for the hostile treatment of the Jews living in Palestine. At the same, during his reign, Jews served in responsible positions in the government and in the military.
1856: As reported in The News of the World, in Italy the Pope "commands” people to turn in known heretics-including Jews. He desires them to denounce family, friends, and associates if appropriate to the "Holy Inquisition." The Pope requests the "names of every one of whom they know."
1864(3rd of Cheshvan, 5625): Antony Mayer de Worms passed away in London.
1865: Birthdate of Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States. During his presidency, Harding signed into law an extremely restrictive immigration bill that had previously been vetoed by Woodrow Wilson that used a quota system that all but put an end to the immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe. On the other hand, he signed a Joint Resolution passed by Congress that spoke of “favoring the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people.”
1872: It was reported in New York today that the Jews of Romania will not be immigrating en masse to the United States. Such a plan had been considered by some as a way of relieving the miserable conditions under which these people live.
1876: Birthdate of Daniel Joseph Jaffé, the younger son of Martin Jaffé. A civil engineer, he constructed waterworks in China and Jaffe Road in Hong Kong was named in his honor.
1876: Birthdate of Charles Joseph Singer, the son of Simeon Singer. The London native was a physician by training who gained fame as medical historian.
1879: It was reported today that some Romans still do not like Jews. When a Jewish funeral procession passed a saloon, some of the patrons jeered and then assaulted the mourners. The police had to be called so that the procession could continue. When the mourners were returning, they were again attacked and the police had to be called out to prevent a riot.
1879: David Einhorn, the German born rabbi who became one of the first leaders of the Reform Movement in the United states pass away today just eight days before his 70th birthday.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9505E1D71F3FE63BBC4B53DFB7678382669FDE
1881: “The specifications for a building to occupied by the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum were filed in the Bureau of Inspection of Buildings” in New York City today.
1881: Rabbis in Washington, DC has joined with ministers of other denominations in soliciting funds to building a hospital in memory of President James Garfield
1881: It was reported today that in Germany, the “Jews…have instituted proceedings against Dr. Adolf Stoecker” for his role “in stirring up the people against the Jews.
1881: It was reported today that the Public Prosecutor in Berlin has instituted legal proceedings against Ernst Henrici, “the notorious ‘Jew baiter’”.
1882: “The Jews and Cromwell” published today recounts the efforts of Oliver Cromwell to convince the Council of State to readmit Jews to the British Isles. Although he failed to win over the Council, The Protector found a way to open the realm to a trickle of Jews who became the cornerstone of the modern Anglo-Jewish community.
1883: Five Jews from Neustettin went on trial today in Koslin, Hungary on charges that they intentionally burned down a synagogue to collect the insurance money.
1883: Based on the date on the manuscript, today is when Emma Lazarus’ famous sonnet, "The New Colossus," was either completed or presented to others. She wrote the poem for an art auction "In Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund." The Statue of Liberty, designed by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was erected on
October 28, 18
86. It was given to the people of the United States by France in recognition of the friendship between the two nations established during the American Revolution. While France provided the statue itself, American fundraising efforts paid for the pedestal. In 1903, sixteen years after Lazarus's death, "The New Colossus" was engraved on a plaque and placed in the pedestal as a memorial. In the 1880s when anti-Semitism was sweeping through Eastern Europe and pogroms were a common occurrence, there was a massive Jewish flight to America. During this time, Lazarus, already a well-known poet, visited Russian refugees and helped at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She became a spokesperson and advocate for the Jewish community and responded with some of her most powerful works. Lazarus's famous lines in "The New Colossus," "Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," caught the national imagination and continue to inspire the way Americans think about freedom and exile. The poem captures what the Statue of Liberty came to mean to the millions of people who migrated to the United States seeking freedom, and to those who continue to come to this day. Cited frequently, including at the 2004 Republican National Convention, the "The New Colossus" continues to symbolize America's promise of opportunity and freedom to the "huddled masses" of every land
1884: Fifty-six year old Isaac Honig, was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery on Long Island following a funeral that had been held at the home of brother Henry Honig. A native of Mayence, he came to the United States in 1850 and became a successful realtor. He was an active supporter of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society and Mount Sinai Hospital.
1884: It was reported today that the Russians have found a new way to torment its Jewish population. In Pultowa, it has been proposed to change the designation of every place in which there is no town hall into villages” since, under the law, Jews can be expelled from villages but not from towns.
1884: It was reported that the French Minister to Morocco has threatened to take action if attacks on Jewish citizens of France living in the North African country do not come to half. French Jews in Fez “have been scourged for refusing to walk barefooted in the streets.
1886: “Fourteenth-Street Theatre” published today reviewed the “Caught in a Corner” by W. J. Shaw which centers around “Isaac Greenwald” a Jewish broker “who bets, matches coins, plays tennis makes love and upsets the plans of villainous speculators with equal facility.” H.B. Curtis, who is known for playing Jewish comedic roles, stars in the role of Greenwald.
1886: It was reported today that the Jews, who usually vote Republican had voted for Abraham Hewitt, the Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York instead of Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican candidate. Roosevelt actually placed third, with second place going to Henry George, the reform candidate who had established his own following among working class and immigrant Jews.
1887: “The Senatorial Fight” published today examines the qualifications of the candidates seeking to be elected to the New York State Senate. Assemblyman Jacob A. Cantor is the Democratic candidate for the Tenth Senatorial District, a district that contains one fifth of the voters of New York City. Cantor, who is Jewish, is described as an effective reformer whose election would serve the city well.
1889: North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states. Jews came to the Dakotas before the territories were divided into what would become two states. Nathan Dorfman, the grandfather of the editor of “This Day… in Jewish History” moved from Chicago and tried his hand at homesteading in the Dakotas. He lasted for one winter before returning to the windy city. According to family lore, Nathan and his brother Jake survived on a large supply of soda crackers. Nathan left the land with Jake who supposedly enjoyed a small financial success when oil was found on the land. “Many of the Jews who came to North Dakota were lured by the promise of free land. Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a banker and philanthropist, believed that Jewish immigrants entering the United States should leave East Coast cities for the vast interior, where they would disperse and assimilate into American society. He set up a fund to encourage such migration.” Free land, wouldn't that have sounded like the American dream?" asked Dianne Siegel, whose great-grandfather ventured to North Dakota thanks to the de Hirsch fund. Other Jews came as merchants or peddlers, sensing opportunity in the territory, which gained statehood in 1889. "There was a Jewish merchant in just about every town along the railroad," recalled Myer Shark, who grew up in Devils Lake, N.D. Shark's father came to North Dakota in 1909 and opened a men's clothing store. But Jews who settled the Great Plains didn't have an easy road. Hal Ettinger, an architect in Lawrence, Kan., said his great-grandparents, Simon and Sophie Ettinger, arrived in North Dakota via Chicago and St. Paul, Minn., where Simon had been a peddler. With six children in tow, the family moved into a 12-by-14-foot shack where they homesteaded a 170-acre property with livestock and crops. Simon died a year after being issued his land permit, and Sophie moved to Chicago with the children, selling the property for $10. "Why a German or Russian immigrant coming to the U.S. could possibly think they could make it in North Dakota or the Dakota territories is unbelievable," Ettinger said. "I guess it's some indication of how bad they had it" in the Old World. The Jews who arrived on the plains had little inkling of what lay ahead. Jews had not been allowed to own land in Russia, and had little knowledge of how to farm. Crop failures, harsh winters and prairie fires made harvesting difficult, and life on the frontier did not include modern conveniences like plumbing and heating systems. Additionally, accounts show that Jews weren't always greeted hospitably. In 1885, 25 North Dakota farmers petitioned to have a Jewish colony removed from a village called New Jerusalem. Shark felt the prejudice. "Early in my childhood I learned I was different than the other kids," he said. Shark said that a man in the community once tried to block his mother from moving into his neighborhood, saying, "I don't like the idea of a Jew building a home in that area." Still, Jews lived -- and lived Jewishly -- in North Dakota. Siegel said that her family kept kosher, and that the state's lone rabbi would come to town for major ceremonies. Shark recalled that "the district judge would not set a term of court until he checked with one of the Jewish residents to find out when High Holidays were" -- even though the judge wasn't Jewish himself.”
1891(1st of Cheshvan, 5652):Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1891(1st of Cheshvan, 5652):Julia (Lewenthal) Cantor, the wife of American lawyer and political leader, Jacob Aaron Cantor, passed away.
1895: Birthdate of Judith Epstein, the Worcester, MA born Hadassah leader.
1898: Theodore Herzl was part of a delegation of Jews who met with Kaiser Wilhelm II in Jerusalem. Herzl’s meeting with the Kaiser was part of his plan to rebuild the Jewish national home by gaining the support of leading political leaders. The Kaiser had his own agenda in the East. A settlement of German Jews in the Middle East would have provided him with leverage in dealing with the English in Egypt. But the Kaiser was afraid to give Herzl too much support lest he offend the Turks who ruled the ancient Jewish homeland. In the end, Herzl accomplished much less with this meeting than he thought he had.
1898: In an action that would presage the famed reforesting project of the JNF complete with Tree Certificates, Zionist leaders Herzl and Wolffsohn plant trees in Motza near Jerusalem. One is a cedar and the other is a date-palm.
1899: The Boers begin their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, “Jews fought on both sides during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). Some of the most notable fights during the three years' Boer war — such as the Gun Hill incident before the Siege of Ladysmith — involved Jewish soldiers like Major Karri Davies. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought on the British side and the London Spectator counted that 125 were killed. Around 300 Jews served among the Boers during the second Boer War and were known as Boerjode: those who had citizenship rights were conscripted along with other burghers ("citizens"), but there were also a number of volunteers. Jews fought under the Boers' Vierkleur ("four colored") flag in many of the major battles and engagements and during the guerilla phase of the war, and a dozen are known to have died. Around 80 were captured and held in British POW camps in South Africa. Some were sent as far afield as St. Helena, Bermuda, and Ceylon to where they had been exiled by the British. Some Jews were among the Bittereinders ("Bitter Enders") who fought on long after the Boer cause was clearly lost.”
1902: Birthdate of Isaak Semyonovich Brook, Russian pioneer in the field of computer technology. In 1939, the 37-year old Doctor of Technical Sciences, presented a paper at a session of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, in which he described a mechanical integrator capable of solving differential equations up to the sixth order. The integrator was built under Brook's supervision at the Electric Systems Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences Power Engineering Institute. Brook's report aroused great interest because there were no other such machines in the Soviet Union at that time. Only the US and Great Britain had one model each.
1911: Russian Premier Kokovtzoff has heeded the appeal of the 1,500 Jews who have settled in Ekaterinoslaff since 1882 to modify the original order of expulsion. Under the revised order issued by the provincial governor today, only those Jews who have settled in the province since 1906 will be expelled.
1914: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire. With this declaration of war, the Ottomans regarded the Jews of Palestine, a large number of whom were from Russia, as an enemies of the state and treated them accordingly.
1914: A protest was held in Sophia, Bulgaria by the Jewish community, against ritual murder accusations in a case associated with memorial services for soldiers who fell in war.
1915: Michael Sidney Luft, a minor movie producer who would gain fame as the husband of Judy Garland, was born to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Germany and Russia.
1916: Turkish military leader Djemal Pasha orders barricades erected to prevent Jews from praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
1916: Dr. Henry W. (Pinchas HaLevi) Schneeberger, the Rabbi at Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Baltimore, MD passed away. On the afternoon of his death The Baltimore newspapers that afternoon ran a photograph of Dr. Schneeberger with a caption above it saying, ‘Grand Old Man’ Dies after Long Illness, Beloved Rabbi Dead.’”
1917: Arthur Balfour, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, sent Lord Rothschild a letter declaring the government's sympathy and support for the Zionist cause. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this document helped to supply the legal and international political underpinnings for the nascent Zionist movement. Almost thirty years to the day of the sending of this letter, the UN would vote to create a Jewish state in Palestine.
Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild:
I have much pleasure in conveying to youon behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours,
Arthur James Balfour
1917: Winston Churchill who was Minister of Munitions wrote Sir Frederic Nathan the Jewish explosives expert asking why his ministry was collecting 25,000 tons of horse chestnuts. Nathan explained to Churchill that the horse chestnuts were part of Dr. Chaim Weitzman’s experiments to create large quantities of acetone which was need to make cordite the smokeless powder used as the propellant in making ammunition.
1920: Warren G Harding elected President on his 55th birthday. Warren Harding was the first President to sign a Joint Congressional Resolution endorsing the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national Jewish home for the Jewish people. The resolution was signed
September 22, 19
22.
1921: The Arabs rioted in Jerusalem on the fourth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Four Jews were killed and 20 were injured.
1921: Graduation ceremonies for the first class of nurses to complete the three year program at the Hadassah nursing school are postponed due to Arab riots.
1924(5th of Cheshvan, 5685): Zionist leader Dr. Menachem Mandel Scheinkin was killed today in a street car district in Chicago. Dr. Scheinkin was born in Balta Bessarabia 54 years ago. He was a rabbi in the small town before moving to Palestine thirty years ago. He worked to development the Jewish settlements founded by the late Baron Rothschild and was one of the founders of Tel Aviv.
1927: In the Bronx, Emanuel and Anna Frank Cohen give birth to Morris Leo Cohen, a “book lover who shunned the practice of law because it was too contentious and became one of the nation’s most influential legal librarians, bringing both the Harvard and Yale law libraries into the digital age.”
1929: Birthdate of Harold Faberman, founder and Artistic Director of the Conductors Institute at Bard College. Harold Farberman was born on New York City's Lower East Side. Coming from a family of musicians (his father was the drummer in a famous 1920s klezmer band led by Schleomke Beckerman; his brother was also a drummer), it was inevitable that he would pursue music as a career. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music on scholarship in 1951, Farberman became the youngest member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) when he joined its percussion section.
1930: In an article entitled “Fair Play to the Jews”, Churchill attacked the Passfield White Paper that contended Britain’s’ obligations to the Jews and Arabs under the Mandate were equal. Churchill contended that the British owed a debt to the Jewish people as embodied in the words and spirit of the Balfour Declaration. To say otherwise was a betrayal of British honor.
1932: Birthdate of physicist Melvin Schwartz.
1936: It was reported today that most of the newspapers in Vienna have expressed “great satisfaction “ that Otto Lowei, a professor at Austria’s Graz University was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The clerical newspapers are the exception to the rule, which may be because Lowei is Jewish. The Clerical Reichspost gave the story four and a half lines and the Weltblatt hid the story in the Personal News Column.
1936: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis Powers.
1937: Republican Stanley M. Isaacs was elected Manhattan Borough President.
1937:” I'd Rather Be Right,” a musical with a book by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers premiered on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre The story produced by this Jewish quartet, is a Depression-era political satire set in New York City, about Washington politics and political figures, such as President Franklin Roosevelt. The plot centers on Peggy Jones and her boyfriend, who needs a raise in order for them to get married. The President steps in and solves their dilemma. It starred George M. Cohan as Franklin Roosevelt. (Some people mistakenly thought that Cohan’s name was a form of the name Cohen and that he was Jewish.)
1933: On the 16th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, “the Syrian newspaper al-Ayyam expressed support for the measures being implemented by the French authorities to protect the Jews Quarter of Damascus from Muslim attacks.”
1938: Birthdate of musician Jay Black of “Jay and the Americans.”
1941: The Nazis deported more than 15,000 Serbian Jews to a concentration camp at Sajmiste, Yugoslavia. They are later killed in mobile gassing units disguised as Red Cross vans.
1941: The Germans begin the construction of an extermination center at Belzec, Poland.
1941 A Jewish ghetto at Grodno, Belorussia, is established.
1941 A Nazi-sanctioned concentration camp opens at Hadjerat-M'Guil, North Africa.
1942: On the 25th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Churchill sent a telegram to Weizmann and a message to the Jewish Chronicle recognizing the special suffering being endured by the Jewish people and reiterating his continued support of Zionism
1942(22nd of Cheshvan, 5703):The Nazis begin deportations in the Bialystok region. Reportedly, 3,000 to 6,000 Jews were deported from Siemiatzycze. Hundreds were shot while trying to revolt against the round up. The resistance was led by Herschl Shabbes. Hundreds of Jews managed to escape from the actions. Some Poles helped the Jews hide while others didn't. Those who were caught assisting a Jew were shot. When the train of Siemiatzycze Jews reached the Treblinka station, one car was heard singing "Hatikvah'. Some of the people were stripped naked in near freezing temperatures, taken to the fields and shot dead. All the rest but 152 of the 3,200 were gassed. As part of the Action in the Bialystok region, hundreds of small towns would be raided, their Jews rounded up for deportation. The total of captured Jews was estimated to be above 100,000. There were too many to be processed immediately. Interim camps were then set up. Eventually most of them would be transported to Treblinka over the next several weeks and months.
1942(22nd of Cheshvan, 5703):In the Lithuanian town of Marcinkance, 370 Jews who refuse to board trains for deportation bolt for the ghetto boundaries. In the mêlée that follows, 360 Jews and many guards are killed. Between deaths and successful escapes, not one Jew is left to board the trains
1942(22nd of Cheshvan, 5703): In Zolochev, Ukraine, the chairman of the Jewish Council is murdered by Germans after refusing to sign a paper saying that the liquidation of the ghetto was necessitated by the spread of a typhus epidemic. The poet S. J. Imber, the nephew of the author of Hatikvah is among the 2500 Zolochev Jews deported to Belzec.
1942: More than 100,000 Jews remaining in the towns and villages in the Bialystok region of Poland are arrested and deported to holding camps at Zambrów, Volkovysk, Kelbasin, and Bogusze before being sent to the Auschwitz and Treblinka death camps.
1942: Wolfram Sievers, head of Germany's Ancestral Heritage Society, requests skeletons of 150 Jews. SS chief Heinrich Himmler approves a plan to establish a collection of Jewish skeletons and skulls at the Strasbourg Anatomical Institute in France, near the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
1942: The Nazis shipped the Jews of Rujenoy were shipped to Treblinka. Among them was the family of Yitzhak Shamir, who according to the future Prime Minister of Israel, were not able to leave for Palestine when that opportunity was still a possibility “because they could not afford the £1,000 fee demanded by the British.”
1943: Nazis liquidated Riga ghetto sending the remaining 1,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto to Birkenau.
1943(4th of Cheshvan, 5704): The Germans commenced operation "Harvest Festival" - the destruction of the survivors of the Warsaw ghetto uprising who were held captive since April. Within a few days 50,000 Jews would be shot in ditches at Majdanek. At Trawniki, all the Jews were machine-gunned down. Of the 500,000 Warsaw Jews driven away from the ghetto and placed in camps between July 1942 and May 1943 only about three hundred survived. Some of the survivors would form a Kibbutz in Israel memorializing the brave stand of their fallen comrades.
1943: Stanley Isaacs, a political ally of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was elected to the New York City Council.
1944: Orders were sent from Berlin to suspend killing of Jews at Auschwitz. This was not a humanitarian act.
1945: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Egypt.
1945: While responding to parliamentary questions, British Foreign Minister Bevin of the newly installed Labor Government made the observation that “if the Jews, with all their suffering, want to get too much at the head of the queue, you have the danger of another anti-Semitic reaction through it all.” While Britain has had its Philo-Semites, anti-Semitism is a common currency whether it be the genteel kind of the Conservatives or the more uncouth variety found among some members of Labor at this time. Bevin’s statement was an indication that he and Prime Minister Attlee were about to turn against the promises of the Balfour Declaration and continue o enforce the White Paper adopted as British policy in 1939.
1948: President Harry S. Truman surprised the experts, narrowly winning re-election over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. Truman’s upset victory was due in part to heavy support among Jewish voters in critical states with large electoral votes such as New York. Truman’s liberal social policies such as support for federal school lunches and health insurance for the elderly were popular among Jewish voters. Most Jews will remember and revere Truman as the man who supported the creation of the state of Israel. Despite opposition from most of the leaders in his administration, including George C. Marshall whom Truman revered, the man from Missouri ensured the United States was the first nation to recognize the re-born Jewish state.
1948: On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the Israeli military cancelled the blackout in West Jerusalem. “’The city blazed with lights and its citizens crowded the streets and cafes to taste the future they had fought for.’”
1948: Marcus Sieff sends a letter to Winston Churchill stating that “many Israeli leaders were anxious to see ties with Britain renewed, but that British policy in the United Nations Assembly with regard to Israel and the Arab States prevents any such rapprochement.”
1949: Weizmann Institute of Science dedicated in Rehovot.
1951(3rd of Cheshvan, 5712): Ninety year old Martha Bernays, the widow of Sigmund Freud, passed away today.
1955: Birthdate of Bob Tufts, the major league pitcher who went to Princeton before going into professional baseball and got an MBA at Columbia after he left the game.
1955: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, has been designated by the Government as the central agency for the distribution of surplus American food in Israel.
1956: Israel captured Gaza, Sheham and El Arish (the Egyptian capital of the northern Sinai) during the war with Egypt.
1956: Much to everybody’s surprise Israeli tanks came to within ten miles of the Suez Canal. The IDF captured sixty armored cars and forty modern tanks from the retreating Egyptians. These weapons were part of the large mass of modern weapons that the Soviets had supplied Nasser in exchange for Arab support and much of the future Egyptian cotton crop. The weapons were much better than anything the IDF had and would be incorporated into the arsenal of the Israeli military forces.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign, the specter of a wider war opened when the Syrian embassy in Washington informed the United States government that Syria had ‘decided to implement immediately’ the joint Egyptian-Syrian defense pact.
1956: The governors of Gaza City and the Gaza strip surrender to the Israelis.
1956: U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld informed Israel that the General Assembly had passed a cease fire resolution.
1959(1st of Cheshvan, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1959: During the Congressional investigations of the “Quiz Show Scandals,” Charles Van Dorn admits that he had received answers in advance when he appeared on the hit quiz show, “Twenty-One.” Van Dorn was part of a famous family of WASP intellectuals. “Twenty-One” was the creation of two Jews named Jack Berry and Dan Enright. Herbert Stempl, a Jew from Brooklyn, was the contestant who “took a dive” so that Van Dorn could win.
1961: “The fifth Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion’s Mapai part forming the tenth government” today.
1961: Eliyahu Sasson began serving as the Minister of Postal Services in Israel.
1961: Eliyahu Sasson began serving as the Minister of Communications.
1961: Dr Giora Yoseftal began serving as Israel’s first Minister of Housing and Construction.
1961: Elections confirm the predominance of the Labor movement. Mapia remained the largest party with forty-two seats. But this was still 19 short of the sixty one seats needed for a majority which meant that Ben Gurion would have to form another coalition government.
1964: King Saud of Saudi Arabia is deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal. Saud was on the throne during the 1956 Suez war and stopped exporting oil to Britain and France due to the Suez Crisis. At the same time, he was an opponent of Nasser’s imperial dreams and provided aide to the royalist forces in Yemen. As king, Faisal continued the close alliance with the United States begun by his father, and relied on the U.S. heavily for arming and training his armed forces. Faisal was also anti-Communist. He refused any political ties with the Soviet Union and other Communist bloc countries, professing to see a complete incompatibility between Communism and Islam, and associating Communism with Zionism, which he also criticized sharply. He also engaged in a propaganda and media war with Egypt's pan-Arabist president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and engaged in a proxy war with Egypt in Yemen that lasted until 1967 (see Yemeni Civil War). Faisal never explicitly repudiated pan-Arabism, however, and continued to call for inter-Arab solidarity in broad terms. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, launched by Faisal withdrew Saudi oil from world markets, in protest over Western support for Israel during the conflict. This action quadrupled the price of oil and was the primary force behind the 1973 energy crisis. It was to be the defining act of Faisal's career, and gained him lasting prestige among many Arabs and Muslims worldwide. The new oil revenue allowed Faisal to greatly increase the aid and subsidies begun following the 1967 Arab-Israeli to Egypt, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1966: Birthdate of actor David Schwimmer best known for his role as Ross on the television hit Friends. Schwimmer demonstrated the fact that he does have some range as an actor when he played a miss-fit officer in the World War II series, Band of Brothers.
1970: Bella Abzug was elected to the United States House of Representatives on a proudly feminist, anti-war, environmentalist platform.
1973: "Barbra Streisand ...and Other Musical Instruments" airs on CBS TV
1975: The impact of the publication of Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape was reflected in four different articles published in the Washington Post
1976: Jimmy Carter elected President of the United States. While many would be critical of Carter for what were then considered pro-Palestinian policies, he will be remembered as the man who brokered the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. (At the time of his election, nobody could have predicted the kind of statements he would make about Israel in the twilight of his years)
1976: In Israel, found of the Democratic Movement for Change known as DASH.
1984: A Brooklyn synagogue two blocks from one that was virtually destroyed in an arson fire two days agi was the target of an arson attempt this evening. The latest fire was set in the doorway of Congregation and Talmud Torah Tifereth Israel, at 2025 64th Street in the Bensonhurst section. A passer-by spotted the small fire at 6:35 P.M. and put out the flames, the police said. The Fire Department said that a flammable liquid had apparently been splashed on the door. The fire caused little damage. The earlier fire occurred at the Mapleton Park Hebrew Institute, which houses a synagogue and a yeshiva, at 2022 66th Street.
1988: Yitzchak Shamir led Likud to victory in the Israeli election.
1991(25th of Cheshvan, 5752): Movie Producer Irwin Allen, best known for The Poseidon Adventure, passed away.
1991(25th of Cheshvan, 5752): Eighty-one year old Yosef Aharon Almogi passed away in Haifa. Born in the Polish part of the Russian Empire, he made Aliyah in 1930 and served in the British Army during World War II. During his political career he served in the Knesset and held various cabinet posts.
1993: Ehud Olmert defeats Teddy Kollek, ending Kollek’s twenty-eight tenure as Jerusalem’s mayor.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The World of Benjamin Cardozo: Personal Values and the Judicial Process by Richard Polenberg, Paris in the Fifties by Stanley Karnow, Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for Her Mother's History by Helen Epstein, Strangers to the Tribe: Portraits of Interfaith Marriage by Gabrielle Glaser, Roadkill by Kinky Freeman, My Vast Fortune by Andrew Tobias, The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat by Susan Fromberg and Memoirs by Sir George Solti.
2001(16th of Cheshvan, 5762): Elazar Menachem Man Shach passed away. Born and educated in Lithuania, he was a leading Haredi Rabbi in Bnei Baraik
2001(16th of Cheshvan, 5762): Rabbi Morton M. Applebaum passed away at age 90 in Boca Raton. "He was Rabbi of Temple Israel from 1953 to 1979, and continued as Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel until his death.Rabbi Morton M. Applebaum was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He received his B.A. degree at the University of Toronto, and was graduated from and ordained by the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1940, where he also obtained his Master of Hebrew Letters degree, and his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1965. Upon ordination, Rabbi Applebaum was called to serve as rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, in Lansing, Michigan, and also as Counselor of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Extension at Michigan State College. In 1943 he was invited to become spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Flint, Michigan, and served there until his call to Temple Israel of Akron, Ohio, in July, 1953, his congregation for over 46 years. He had contributed articles to national and international Anglo-Jewish periodicals, lectured in many American colleges, and addressed numerous church and service club audiences. In 1959 he authored the book What Everyone Should Know About Judaism, which was the result of many of the questions that had been asked of him by Christians and Jews about Judaism. During his term in Akron he started the children's interfaith service, a men's exchange program with St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and an annual Christian clergy institute on Judaism. He served as a member of several major boards of Reform Judaism in America. From 1979 to 2001 he served as our Rabbi Emeritus. The Applebaum Chapel is named for him. His son, Bruce had preceded him in death, and a Temple Israel tribute fund for supporting youth programming was established by the congregation in his son's honor. A Temple Israel tribute fund for supporting Scholarship has established by the congregation in Rabbi Applebaum's honor."
2001: Radio Liberty reported that fifty gravestones in a Jewish cemetery were desecrated in Baku, Azerbaijan. The head of the Religious Community of Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan, Semyon Ikhilov, was quoted by Radio Liberty as saying that this is not the first time such an attack has taken place. The government of Azerbaijan has recently warned of the threat of rising Islamic extremism to Jewish and minority Christian groups and has closed some mosques associated with radical Islamic tendencies.
2002:Matan Vilnai completed his term Minister of Culture and Sport.
2002: Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer completed his term as Minister of Defense.
2003: The New York Timesbook section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy, Autumn of the Moguls: My Misadventures With the Titans, Poseurs, and Money Guys Who Mastered and Messed Up Big Media by Michael Wolff and George Gershwin: A New Biography by William G. Hyland
2005: German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer praised the decision of The United Nations General Assembly to unanimously approve a proposal to set January 27 as the "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust." The decision was made at the end of a special General Assembly session that began at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, November 1.
January 27, 19
45 is the day the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated. Fischer reminded the world that for the German people the Holocaust will forever be a dark time in their history demanding special treatment.
2005: As further evidence of the changing face of Conservative Judaism in Israel three new female rabbis and one male who were ordained on at the Masorati/Conservative movement's Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, with religious backgrounds ranging from Orthodox to secular and a variety of cultural heritages, including Moroccan and French.
2006: The Helicon Association's Sha'ar Poetry Festival opens at the Hebrew-Arabic Theater Complex in Jaffa. The Tel Aviv festival's artistic director is the poet Amir Or. The Sha'ar Festival of Poetry will also be hosting 12 poets from abroad and many local artists. The festival opens at Helicon House in Tel Aviv with a lecture by poet Admiel Kosman on sex and gender in Talmudic texts.
2007: Richard Pratt, the Polish born Jewish Australian businessman and the Visy group received a A$36 million fine, representing both the largest fine in Australian history and an estimated 0.75% of the Pratt fortune] Federal Court judge Justice Heerey said Mr Pratt and his senior executives were knowingly concerned in the cartel, which involved price fixing and market sharing
2007: Physician Oliver Sacks discusses and signs Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
2007: Friday evening, four mortar shells were fired at an Israeli community north of Gaza. All landed in open territory, and no wounded or damage were reported. This was the second such attack from Gaza in the least two days.
2008: Saul Steinberg: Illuminations, a travelling exhibition, which displays original Steinberg works came to a close at Kunsthaus Zürich
2008: James Galway, “the man with the golden flute," gives a concert at Tel Aviv's Performing Arts Center.
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Road To Rescue: The Untold Story of Schindler’s List by Mietek Pemper with Viktoria Hertling, assisted by Marie Elisabeth Müller; translated by David Dollenmayer and Searching for Schindler: A Memoir by Thomas Keneally
2008: The Washington Post book section reviewed Chagall: A Biography <span s