December 25 In History
0337(14th of Tevet, 4098): Earliest possible date on which Christmas was reported to have been celebrated on December 25th.
800: Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome. Charlemagne supported most of the policies and edicts Pope Gregory the Great and Pope Stephen IV. However, he ignored their edicts concerning Jews. For the most part, Jews were allowed to participate in the economic and social life of the Empire within the limits of Medieval Society. The Jews of Narbonne (France) supported Charlemagne’s father Pepin in his war with the Moslems and Charlemagne remembered this. Unfortunately, Charlemagne’s policies toward the Jews died with him in 814.
1000: At the start of the 11th century, Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary. In this case, Christian means Roman Catholic. Religious belief aside, Stephen used Catholicism as an instrument of national unification as he established his rule over pagans and those of his subjects who sought support from the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) Empire. Based on archeological evidence Jews had probably been living in what was now Hungary since the third century. The first written mention of Jews living in Hungary is found in a letter from the end of 10th century written by the famous Sephard, Hasdai ibn Shaprut. There were enough Jews living in Hungary by the end of the 11th century that at the council of Szabolcs, the Church prohibited marriages between Jews and Christians, work on Christian festivals, and the purchase of slaves. At the same time, the Hungarian King Kolman took measures to protect Hungarian Jews from Crusaders passing through the kingdom.
1066: Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England. There is no record of a Jewish community in England before Norman conquests. A group of Jews arrived from Rouen (France) in London at the start of William’s reign. There is no record as to why William allowed this and his immediate successors followed policies that were inimical to Jewish interests.
1100: Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity. This is one of those events loaded with subtle irony. This coronation was the culmination of the First Crusade, during which the Christian warriors drove the Jews from the City of David. In other words, if Jesus had been alive for Baldwin’s coronation, he wouldn’t have been able to attend the event. Please note, Baldwin and his successors were not laying claim to the throne of King David
1312: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Judenburg and Furstenfeld, Austria
1369: King Frederick III of Sicily issued a decree requiring all Jews to wear a special identification badge.
1480: Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martin, both Dominican friars arrived in Seville. Seville’s population included a significant number of New Christians, who enjoyed the comparative quite of the city. That ended with the arrival of the friars who brought the Inquisition with them.
. 1599: Portuguese settlers establish the village of Natal in Brazil. At this time, the only Jews living in Brazil were New Christians or Conversos. Dutch forces would occupy Natal from1633 to 1654, a period during which Jewish communities flourished under the religious toleration brought from Holland.
1808: In the seemingly never ending intrigue swirling around the German prince and his Jewish financier, sixteen year old Jacob Rothschild, son of A.M. Rothschild arrived in Prague with a chest full of papers belonging to Wilhelm, the exiled Landgrave.
1834(23rd of Kislev, 5595):David Friedländer, a German Jewish banker, writer and communal leader passed away.
1853(24th of Kislev, 5614): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1856: Evidence continued to be presented today in The Huntington Trial a case being heard before Judge Capron which had recessed on the previous Saturday “because one of the jurors was a Jew and had conscientious scruples about working on his Sabbath…” despite the fact that the case has to be completed by December 31. The eleven Christian jurors did not request a postponement because today is Christmas.
1860: An article published today entitled “Suicide of A Patient At The Jew’s Hospital: reported that “Elias Kemp, an old man, who, for nearly a year past, has been an inmate of the Jews' Hospital, No. 140 West Twenty-eighth-street, under treatment for spinal disease, died today in consequence of a razor-wound in his throat, which he had inflicted last Sunday with the object of taking his life. The fact that his disease had recently assumed unfavorable symptoms, and the physician had pronounced him incurable, led him to commit the act. Coroner O'Keefe held an inquest upon the body. Deceased was a native of Poland.
1863: Birthdate of Regina Margareten. She came to the U.S. as a young bride in 1883. With her husband and her parents, she helped to open a grocery store on New York's Lower East Side. The first year in New York, the family members baked Passover matzo for themselves. The second year, they made enough to sell in the store, and the matzo business soon became the family's sole occupation. After Regina's husband died in 1923, she was formally named treasurer of Horowitz Brothers & Margareten Company and became one of the company's directors. She held these positions for the rest of her life. Margareten also acted as the company's quality control department, tasting every batch of matzo. By 1932, Horowitz Brothers & Margareten Company was using 45 thousand barrels of flour and grossing over one million dollars per year.In addition to her work at the business, Margareten was the matriarch of an extended family of over 400 members. Her obituary, which described her as the "matriarch of the kosher food industry," also reported that she was a member of over 100 charitable organizations. Throughout her life, she played an important role in the family business, working in her office daily until two weeks before her death in 1959 at age 96
1866: Birthdate ofAvraham Mordechai Alter also known as the Imrei Emes after the works he authored. He was the third Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 until his death in 1948. He was one of the founders of the Agudas Israel in Poland and was influential in establishing a network of Jewish schools there. It is claimed that at one stage he led over 200,000 Hasidim.
1870(1st of Tevet, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1872(25thof Kislev, 5633): As President Grant basks in the glow of his recent re-election, the Jews observe Chanukah.
1876: In Krakai, Lithuania, Nechemiah and Judith Schlesinger gave birth to Benjamin Schlesinger who served as the editor of the Daily Forward and President of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
1878: Birthdate of Joseph Michael Schenck, the native of Russia who came to the United State ins 1893 where he became a major figure in the American motion picture industry
1879: It was reported today that a group of Rabbis and prominent laymen have formed an association to promote a stricter observance of the Sabbath, which for the Jews falls on Saturday. It is predicted that the association will not find much success among the eighty to ninety thousand Jews living in New York since strict observance of the Sabbath would cost them two day’s worth of business since they would still be bound by the general populace’s Sunday observance. Failure because of business considerations is not unique to Jews since attempts to have Christians return to the observance of the Sabbath in the spirit of the Puritans failed for this very reason.
1880: The Young Men’s Hebrew Union will be held this evening at 607 Fulton Street.
1880: It was reported today that “many Jews residing in Berlin” are “avoiding appearing in public…and many Jewish families are preparing to emigrate to Belgium, France and England.
1881: At today’s “annual meeting of the patrons and members of Mount Sinai Hospital” “ the following officers were re-elected: President – Hyman Blum; Vice President – Isaac Wallach; Treasurer- S.M. Schafer.”
1881: Anti-Jewish riots began in Poland. In Warsaw twelve Jews were killed, many others were wounded and some women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.
1881: It was reported today by a recent visitor to North Africa that 25,000 Jews dominate the coastal trade in Tunisia and Algeria.
1882: “Jewish Antiquities” published today reviews Henrietta Lee Palmer’s Home Life In The Bible “which provides extensive information respecting the domestic life of the ancient Jews, the construction of their dwellings, their furniture, dress and ornaments” and much, much more.
http://books.google.com/books?id=XYUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
1882: “Doing Good” published today decried the attempts of Salmi Morse, a Jewish theatrical producer, to produce The Passion Play. According to the article only Jew bent on making money would seek to produce a playing that insults “the decent part of the community” and blasphemes “all that Christians hold sacred.
1884: It was reported today that while the Russian government battles against Nihilism which “is more dangerous than ever, the persecution of the Jews is as fierce as it was a few years ago when the European press boiled with indignation at the anti-Semitic outrages which disgraced Russia.” (In terms of cause and effect, this is an example of the cause whose effect could be seen in the teeming masses of the Lower East Side)
1885: Alois Feigelstock , a Jewish businessman who took his life in a fit of temporary insanity brought on by his grief over the death of his daughter will be buried in Cyprus Hills Cemetery.
1885: It was reported today that the recently completed census in Germany contained some “curious facts” in its responses as can be seen by one where the head of the family described himself as a Jew, described his wife as a Catholic and described his children as being “brought up in the evangelical faith.” (And you thought the American Jewish community in the 21st century had strange familial arrangements)
1886: Birthdate of Franz Rosenzweig. Born in Germany, Rosenzweig was “an existential philosopher.” According to one description of The Star of Redemption, his seminal philosophic work Rosenzweig “sees the world as consisting of three elements – man , the universe and God, which enter a relationship through revealing themselves to one another. The three points form a triangle, which intersect with a second triangle of creation, revelation and redemption. Their relations become historical forces” which in one case is Judaism – hence the star. Revelation, which is a continuing process of good, leads to redemption. Man helps to bring the universe to redemption by converting his love for God into his love for his fellow man. Rosenzweig pioneered the construction of a Jewish-Christian relation without polemic, which became the basis for postwar interfaith dialogue.” In his personal life, Rosenzweig fought crippling paralysis with the assistance of his wife. He passed away in 1929. According to a poll conducted by Commentary Magazine in 1965, Rosenzweig was “the most influential modern Jewish thinker.” Quotes from Rosenzwewig: “Jewish prayer means praying in Hebrew.” (This from a man who translated the entire Bible into German) “We owe our survival to a book – the only book of antiquity that is still in living use as a scroll.” “Asked, ‘What does Judaism think about Jesus?” he answered ‘It doesn’t.’”
1887(10thof Tevet, 5648): Asara B’Tevet
1887: At Temple Beth-El in New York City, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler delivered a lecture entitled “Charity – Religious not Sectarian.”
1887: President Hyman Blum presided over Mount Sinai Hospital’s annual meeting which held at the medical facility on the corner of Lexington and 65thStreet.
1887: It was reported today that a trial is being held behind “closed doors” in St. Petersburg where 8 Nihilists are facing charges that they tried to murder the Czar during his recent visit to the Don Cossack Country. The group’s leader has been identified as a Jew named Boris Orshis.
1887: Based on information that first appeared in the Toronto Globe, it was reported today that an Orthodox Jew living in Canada has warned his English co-religionists against worshipping Reform which he described as “Organ; pews; Christian choir; hats off; microscopic Prayer Book; abolition of the use of Hebrew; pork and oysters; Chanukah Christmas; intermarriage; the Sunday Sabbath; no God; no Judaism.”
1891(24thof Kislev, 5652): In the evening, Kindle the first light of Chanukah
1894: The annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association was held this morning in the schoolrooms of the Temple Emanuel at Fifth Avenue and Forty-Third Street. Julia Richman was chosen to serve as a member of the board of directors for the upcoming year. During the meeting Ms Richman presented the report of the Discipline Committee. It showed that 3,283 children between the ages of eight and fourteen years were enrolled as of November 30. Children are required to attend public schools as a condition to participating in the afternoon classes devoted to religious subjects and instruction in Hebrew. The Association offers a total of sixty one classes.
1895: Birthdate of Abraham "Abe" Landau the chief henchman for New York gangster Dutch Schultz. Landau was Schultz's most trusted employee, often given tasks that required coolness and cunning rather than gunfire and brutality. According to some sources, “It is very likely that he never actually killed anyone during his gang years.”
1895: On this date, Herzl wrote in his diary “I was just lighting the Christmas tree for my children when Rabbi MoritzGüdemann arrived. He seemed upset by the "Christian" custom. Well, I will not let myself be pressured! But I don't mind if they call it the Chanukah tree - or the winter solstice.” Guidemann was the Chief Rabbi in Vienna who believed in Jewish nationalism but considered the Jewish religion as an integral part of Jewish identity. As far back as 1871, however, he had strongly protested against the proposal of the Jewish community of Vienna to strike from the prayer-book all passages referring to the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and had even gone so far as to threaten to resign from the board of trustees if his protest should remain unheeded. But in 1897, when Herzl’s Zionist movement was in its infancy, he wrote against the tendencies of Zionism to lay more stress on the national than on the religious character of Judaism, for which he was severely attacked by the friends of the Zionist movement. When you consider the complexity of his views, you can understand his consternation at seeing Herzl lighting a Christmas tree.
1898: Herzl publishes his article "Französische Zustände" - "French States of Affairs" about the Dreyfus Affair.
1902(25thof Kislev, 5663): Chanukah
1906: Birthdate of Clark M Clifford. Clifford is best known as the ultimate Washington lobbyist and Mr. Fix-it and as the US Secretary of Defense who changed Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam War policy. But Clifford said that his proudest moment was the role he played in the United States recognition of Israel. In 1948, Clifford was a White House aide to Harry Truman. He supported Truman in this decision despite the advice from the “striped pants boys” at the State Department that this was not a wise thing to do.
1913: In San Francisco, CA, Hattie and Edward Morris gave birth to Alvin Morris, the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who gained fame as Tony Martin who was successful as a singer and film start.
1915: Birthdate of Alfred M. Lilienthal “an American Jew, who was a prominent critic of Zionism and the state of Israel.”
1916(30th of Kislev, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1916: Birthdate of Allen Adler, the son of Yiddish theatre manager Adolph J. Adler, the grandson of Yiddish theatre great Jacob Adler and Sonya Adler and the nephew of Luther and Stella Adler. A veteran of World War II, Adler co-authored the 1956 film “Forbidden Planet” and in 1957 “Mach One,” his science-fiction novel was published. Adler fell victim to the infamous Red Scare and was blacklisted. He passed away in January of 1964.
1917: Mass celebration in Washington D.C. marking the British taking Jerusalem from the Turks during World War I. Jewish units of the British Army took part in the fighting.
1917: The observance of Christmas Mass by British forces in Jerusalem and Bethlehem is punctuated by “desultory Turkish artillery fired from the north and the east.”
1917(10thof Tevet, 5678) Asara B’Tevet
1924: Birthdate of Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone. Born Jewish, Serling converted for the sake of domestic tranquility
1925: Birthdate of Geula Cohen, the Tel Aviv native who belonged to Irgun and Lehi and who was elected to the Knesset for the first time in 1973.
1925(8th of Tevet, 5686): Karl Abraham passed away. Born in 1877, Abraham was the German psychoanalyst who studied the role of childhood sexual trauma in relation to the symptoms of mental illness. He was initiated into psychoanalysis by Carl Gustav Jung (1904). He first met Freud in 1907, and subsequently became one of his most reliable collaborators. Covering a wide range, Abraham's papers include work on depression, mania, autoerotism, repressed hate, as well as others on applied psychoanalysis that include papers on the Day of Atonement and a major one (1909) in which he connected myths with dreams and viewed both as wish-fulfillment fantasies. Abraham founded the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society (1910). He made pioneering efforts in the psychoanalytic treatment of manic- depressive psychosis.
1930(5th of Tevet, 5691): Eugene Goldstein passed away. Born in 1850, Goldstein was the German physicist who discovered and named canal rays (1886) which emerge through holes in the anodes of low-pressure electrical discharge tubes (later shown to be positively charged particles). Earlier, he coined the term "cathode ray" (1876) emitted from a cathode. He was the first to see that they could cast a shadow, and were emitted at right angles to the surface. He also investigated the wavelengths of light emitted by metals and oxides when canal rays impinge on them. When the Berlin Urania, opened in 1889 it had five scientific departments and a "science theatre", it was Goldstein who had recommended the "hall of physics in which the visitor could experiment on his own". Students of his that continued his work included Wien and Stark.
1935: Birthdate of author and feminine activist Anne Roiphe. Born Anne Roth, she is best known for writing Up the Sandbox.
1940(25thof Kislev, 5701): Chanukah
1940: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "Pal Joey" premiered in New York.
1940: The British government; suspended the quota for legal immigration to Palestine for three months. The Zionists saw this as punishment for illegal immigration activities in general and specifically, the events surrounding the Patria. There is a positive correlation between the British attitude towards Jewish immigration during and after World War II and the violent activity of the Irgun.
1941: During World War II, the Battle of Hong Kong ends as the forces of British Empire were defeated by those from the Empire of the Rising Sun thus beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong. Jews had begun settling in Hong Kong when the British took control in 1842. However most Jewish merchants preferred mainland communities such as Shanghai. During the 1930’s as the Japanese forces took control of more of mainland China, these same Jewish businessmen and many Jews who had found fled the Nazis, moved to Hong Kong. No matter how distasteful Japanese rule might have been, for the Jews, it was better than having fallen into the hands of the Nazis. Of course, this does not in any way provide expatiation for the treatment of the Chinese population at the hands of their harsh Japanese occupiers.
1942 (17th of Tevet, 5703): Nazi forces in Cracow capture and murder Aharon Liebeskind leader along with Heshek Bauminger, of the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). Bauminger will be captured and killed in March of 1943.
1943: Trucks carrying naked Jewish women make regular trips to the gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Any woman who leaps from a truck is immediately shot down.
1943(28thof Kislev, 5704): Shabbat Shel Chanukah
1943: The U.S. government sent a telegram informing Adina Werfel that, while returning from conducting a Hanukah service for American soldiers in Casablanca, the small plane carrying her husband, Rabbi Louis Werfel (the “flying rabbi”) had crashed into the Algerian mountains due to limited visibility caused by bad weather. Werfel was an Orthodox Rabbi serving as Chaplain with the United States Army Air Force.
1944: In an Upper Silesia Labor Camp, the Nazis selected 60 Jews to be shot because they no longer were able to work.
1945: Birthdate of Evelyn "Eve" Pollard (Evelyn, Lady Lloyd), OBE an English author, journalist and a former editor of several tabloids.
1946(2nd of Tevet, 5707): 8th& final day of Chanukah
1947: Two British soldiers were killed and at least three more were wounded tonight when gunmen from the Stern Gang \fired on a group of Tommies who were celebrating Christmas in a Tel Aviv cafe.
1947: In Brooklyn, NY, Loa Schleifer and Morris W. Wasserstein gave birth to Bruce Wasserstein, t”he Wall Street investment banker who helped pioneer the hostile takeover in the 1980s and reshaped the mergers and acquisitions business into a high art…” (As reported by Sorkin and de la Merced
1948: After passing through Jewish and Arab checkpoints, Christian pilgrims are allowed to enter Bethlehem.
1949: Israel and Jordan ease armistice restrictions so pilgrims can attend Christmas services in Bethlehem. Most people in Holy Land are UN personnel and diplomats, because Jordan prohibits other pilgrims from returning directly to Israel.
1950: Birthdate of Yehuda Poliker “an Israeli singer, songwriter, musician, and painter. Poliker's father, Jacko, tells the story of his escape from Auschwitz in the 1988 film "Because of That War" (Biglal Hamilhamah Hahi), which features music by his son. The film includes interviews with Yehuda Poliker and Ya'akov Gilad, whose Polish Jewish parents also survived Auschwitz.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Hapoel Hamizrahi and Mizrahi finally resolved to join the Mapai-General Zionists-Progressives government coalition.
1952: The town of Hatzor is founded in the Galilee, developing from the Ma'abarah located there. The immigrants came from the camp in Rosh Pinah where the living conditions were described as “poor.”
1952: The French press was highly critical of Lebanon, which had turned down the Israeli offer to enter the Lebanese territorial waters in order to save the French liner S.S. Champollion, which sank in a heavy storm, having split on reefs off Sidon on the Lebanese coast. All but 26 of the 328 passengers and crew lost their lives, mostly while trying to swim the 200 meters separating them from the shore. According to the French press all passengers, crew and the ship could have been saved, had Lebanon accepted the prompt Israeli assistance offer.
1955(10th of Tevet, 5716): Asara B'Tevet
1961(18th of Tevet, 5722): Otto Loewi passed away. Born in 1873, Loewi was the German-born American physician and pharmacologist who shared the 1936 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with Sir Henry Dale) "for their discoveries relating to the chemical transmission of nerve impulses." Sadly, just two years later he was a victim of Nazi persecution, imprisoned for being Jewish. As ransom for his life, he was forced to hand over his possessions, including his Nobel Prize money, and Loewi escaped to England. From there he moved to America in 1940. His research showed that it was the release of a certain chemical (the transmitter) acetylcholine that enabled the transmission of nerve impulses. Loewi also investigated action of drugs able to blockade or assist nerve impulse transmission.
1969: The French discover that the berths that had been holding five embargoed Israeli missile boats are empty. The absence of any announcement about the embargo's termination prompted media inquiries, which failed to elicit convincing explanations. "Where are they?" asked a banner headline in a local newspaper. “The boats were indeed on the run. Battered by towering waves as they crossed the Bay of Biscay, they dropped anchor in a Portuguese cove alongside an Israeli freighter fitted out as a refueling ship, one of several support vessels deployed along the 5,150-km. escape route. When the boats entered the Mediterranean, British maritime monitors on Gibraltar signaled "What ship?" A Lloyd's helicopter circled the silent vessels but saw no identity numbers or flags. The British monitors, guessing the boats' destination from the media reports, flashed "bon voyage" in salute to Nelsonian flair. Stung by Israel's audacity, French defense minister Michel Debre called for the air force to interdict the vessels which had been spotted off the North African coast racing east. Prime minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas refused. Near Crete, IAF Phantoms roared low overhead protectively and waggled their wings. The boats would sail into Haifa harbor on New Year's Eve, 1970, to cheers for a bravado display of high-stakes hutzpa. For Israel's navy, however, the flight from Cherbourg was no lighthearted caper but a matter of life or death - its own. These missile boats were part of decade long development project designed to give Israel a naval capability that would help the Jewish state meet the nautical threat posed by its Arab neighbors who were being supplied by their Soviet and East Bloc patrons.
1977: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat met in Ismailia, Egypt. During negotiations, Sadat tells Begin that there can be no separate peace between Israel and Egypt. To gain peace with Egypt, Israel must agree to the pre-1967 boundaries and recognize the right to Palestinian self-determination. Rather than lose momentum or stop the negotiations, Begin and Sadat established several working committees to examine different aspects of the peace process.
1977(15th of Tevet, 5738): Comedian Charlie Chaplin died at age 88.
1978(25thof Kislev, 5739): Chanukah
1983: In an article entitled “Israel’s Founding Father,” James Feron reviewed Ben-Gurion: Prophet of Fire by Dan Kurzman.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/25/books/israel-s-founding-father.html
1984(1stof Tevet, 5745): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1985: A small bomb concealed in a loaf of bread was found at a bus stop near Tel Aviv University today, the police said. A passer-by discovered the suspicious-looking loaf and informed explosives experts, a police spokesman said. The device was safely dismantled. No arrests were reported.
1987: Three Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated a short distance into Israel from Jordan tonight and were captured alive by Israeli troops after a shootout.
1988: In an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper published, Egyptian President Mubarak was quoted as saying he would go to Israel if the visit would help achieve peace. Prime Minister Shamir has said he would welcome a visit by Mr. Mubarak.
1989: During the American invasion of Panama the United States Embassy in Panama recanted its previous report that Mike Harari, a 62-year-old retired agent of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad was an American ''prisoner of war.''
1990: Hadash lost one of its four seats in the Knesset when Charlie Biton broke away to establish Black Panthers as an independent faction
1994: Thirteen Israeli soldiers and civilians were wounded when a Hamas sponsored suicide bomber tired to board their bus at the entrance to the city, but was foiled they managed to close the door. The terrorist succeeded in blowing himself up.
1994: A Palestinian suicide bomber carrying a pack of explosives blew himself up here near a bus full of Israeli soldiers today, wounding 13 people and killing himself.
1994:Shimshon Moshe’s kiosk was torn apart by a blast from a suicide bomber standing at a bus stop, across from Jerusalem International Convention Center. The bomb exploded prematurely, wounding 13 and killing the suicide bomber. Moshe survived the attack and rebuilt his kiosk, which did a brisk business selling sandwiches, drinks, and snacks to travelers heading out of the city. Tipping his hat to fate, he ironically renamed his kiosk “Pitzutz Shel Kiosk” or “Blast of a Kiosk.” Seventeen years later, Moshe’s kiosk would again be the center of a bus bombing in Jerusalem.
1995(2nd of Tevet, 5756): 8th Day of Chanukah
1995(2nd of Tevet, 5756): Emmanuel Levinas passed away. Born in Lithuania in 1906, Levinas was a Talmudic scholar who was one of the major philosophic minds of the twentieth century. His work was greatly influenced by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig.
1995: The Israeli Government approved sweeping changes today requiring the country's powerful banks to sell substantial parts of their assets, a Treasury spokesman said. The move has far-reaching implications for the concentration of economic power in Israel as well as for the planned privatization of the banking sector.
1997: Jerry Seinfeld announced that this is the final season of his TV show.
2000: BBC Radio 4 boradcast an adaptation of “The Man Who Came To Dinner” the dramatic creation of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman (Yes, the Jews provided the entertainment for Englishmen on Christmas)
2001(10th of Tevet, 5762): Asara B'Tevet
2001(10th of Tevet, 5762): Fity-year old “Mari Kajiwara, an American modern dancer of stunning quality who mesmerized audiences as a leading member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Ohad Naharin Dance Company and the Batsheva Dance Company of Israel, passed away in Tel Aviv (As reported by Anna Kisselgoff)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/arts/mari-kajiwara-50-dancer-known-for-pure-modern-style.html
2003(30th of Kislev, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2004: According to reports published in today’s The Cedar Rapids Gazette the Israel Museum has announced that "an ivory pomegranate long touted by scholars as the only relic from Solomon's Temple is a forgery..." The collector alleged to have been involved in this forgery was the same person who claimed to have found a burial chest containing the bones of James the brother of Jesus. The pomegranate is actually about 3,500 years old and comes from the Bronze Age that pre-dated the time of the Temple. But the inscription tying it to the Temple was of more recent origins.
2004: For the first time since the latest wave of Arab violence, a Palestinian leader attended Christmas observances in Bethlehem. As a sign of possibly improving relations, 15,000 tourists were in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. This was the largest turnout since the latest wave of terror began in 2000.
2005: At Eilat, fourth and final day of the Red Sea Classical Festival.
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