February 10 In History
1163: Baldwin III, the first so-called King of Jerusalem to have been in “the Holy Land” passed away. None of these Crusader monarchs were rightful heirs to the crown worn by David, Solomon and their successors. His successors would so bungle things that 25 years later Saladin would take the city which was a boon for the Jewish people.
1258: Mongols overran Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing 10,000 citizens. This marked the beginning of the Il-khan (Mongol) Dynasty in Persia. The Dynasty lasted until 1335. With the conquest of
Baghdad
by the grandson of Genghis Khan, the Mongol dynasty replaced the Abbasids. The Mongols were for the most part tolerant of Judaism. An Arab writer reported that on the eve of the Mongolian invasion there were 36,000 Jews living in the city and that they supported 16 Synagogues. Most of the city was destroyed during the siege. It is during this period that Judeo-Persian literature flourished specifically the poetry of Shahin whose most famous work was Sefer Sharh Shain al Hatorah.
1660(28thof Shevat, 5420): Saul Levi Morteirapassed away. Born in 1596, he was a Dutch rabbi of Portuguese descent. In a Spanish poem Daniel Levi de Barrios speaks of him as being a native of Germany ("de Alemania natural"). When in 1616 Morteira escorted the body of the physician Elijah Montalto from France to Amsterdam, the Sephardic congregation Bet Ya'aḳob elected him ḥakam in succession to Moses ben Aroyo. Morteira was the founder of the congregational school Keter Torah. He taught Talmud and Jewish philosophy to the older students. He had also to preach three times a month.. Among his most distinguished pupils were Baruch Spinoza and Moses Zacuto. Morteira and Isaac da Fonseca Aboab (Manasseh ben Israel was at that time in England) were the members of the bet din which pronounced the decree of excommunication ("ḥerem") against Spinoza. Some of Morteira's pupils published Gibeat Shaul a collection of fifty sermons on the Pentateuch, selected from 500 derashot written by Morteira.
1763: The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement marking the end of the Seven Years War which those living in North America called the French and Indian War. As part of the agreement, France ceded Quebec to the British. This opened the way to Jewish settlement in Canada since French law had prohibited Jews from settling the colony. Under “the law of unintended consequences,” the war left Britain with a debt that it looked to the North American colonies to help pay off. The taxation levied on the 13 colonies was a cause of the American Revolution which helped to create the nation that has become home to one of the leading Jewish communities in our history.
1755: French author and political philosopher Charles Louis De Secondat Montesquieu, simply known as Montesquieu passed away. A product of the Age of Reason, the optimistic Montesquieu’s most famous work is De l'esprit des lois which is known in English as The Spirit of the Laws, published in 1748. Montesquieu did not just believe in religious toleration. He believed that the state had a responsibility to see to it that religious groups leave each other in peace. In the Spirit of Laws he writes, “’I cannot help remarking by the way how this nation (the Jews) has been sported with from one age to another: at one time their effects were confiscated when they were will to become Christians; and at another, if they refused to become Christians they were ordered to be burn.’” He described the Jews as a “’a mother that brought forth two daughters who have stabbed herewith a thousand wounds.’” As befitted his optimistic views, Montesquieu believed “’the Jews are at present safe; superstition will return no more, and they will no longer be exterminated on conscientious principles.’” Unfortunately, History would prove him wrong.
1779: Jews were granted right of residence in Stuttgart, Germany(As bad as all the bad things that happened to the Jewish people were, one often considers some of the good things also bad - Anon). The Jewish experience in the Germanic states was a mixed bag. Emancipation and anti-Semitism co-existed in an uneasy alliance that produced great culture but ended in the ashes of the Shoah.
1791: Birthdate of Reverend Henry Hart Milman who published History of The Jewsin 1829, which was the first work by an English clergyman that “treats Jews as an Oriental tribe.” Milman based his work on “documentary evidence” and minimized the mythological approach that was used in earlier such works. In a world where the Bible and Science were clashing, his view was upsetting to many Christians and delayed the advancement of his career.
1795: Birthdate of Dutch born French painter Ary Scheffer. Scheffer was not Jewish but one of his famous paintings “Ruth & Naomi” is based on the Book of Ruth.
1800(15th of Shevat, 5560): Tu B’Shevat
1800(15th of Shevat, 5560): Benjamin Cohen - the maternal grandfather of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands – passed away. Born in 1725, Cohen was a successful businessman, Jewish teacher and supporter of William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau, the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic.
1802: In London Isaac D’Israeli married Maria Basevi, the daughter of Anglo-Jewish merchant whose family originally came from Italy. This union produced five children the most of which was Benjamin, the future Prime Minister and Earl Beaconsfield.
1804: Birthdate of Joseph Zender, the German Jewish bibliographer who became librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in 1845.
1824: Simon Bolivar named dictator by the Congress of Peru. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Jews of Curacao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight for the independence of
Venezuela
and
Colombia
from their Spanish colonizers. Two Jewish men from Curacao distinguished themselves in Simon Bolivar’s army, while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge for him and his family.
1831: Birthdate of Dr. Isaac Rülf, a German rabbi who supplemented his income as a newspaper editor and became an early supporter of the Zionist cause.
1836: Dr. Albert Moses Levy completed his service chief surgeon in the Texas Volunteer Army that had fought against Mexico.
1840: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three years before the wedding Victoria had “knighted Moses Haim Montefiore” and a year after her marriage she made Isaac Lyon Goldsmid a baronet, making him the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. According to one source, “Prince Albert may have had a Jewish father.” According to this report, “Albert's mother was dismissed from the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha for having an affair with the Jewish chamberlain, the Baron von Mayern.”
1852: An article entitled "The Revolution in Northern Mexico" published today reported that the Mexican revolutionaries are opposed by foreign merchants in Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico. They are led by an English Jew named Charles Uhde a man with major business interests "south of the border" and who is the editor of the Brownsville Flag.
1853: Birthdate of Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt, German mineralogist. Goldschmidt made important studies of crystallography. His books The Index of Crystal Forms and The Atlas of Crystal Forms are considered classics of mineralogy.
1858: Lord John Russell's bill that would modify the oath of office so that Jews could serve in Parliament was "debated and read for a second time" in the House of Commons.
1869: Twelve years after founding The Jewish Messenger with his father and seven years after being admitted to the Bar, 27 year old Myer S. Isaacs married Marie Solomon, the daughter of New Yorker B.L. Solomon. She would pass away in 1888 leaving him with six children including I.S. Isaacs and Louis Isaacs. He would on to become a judge and President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
1874: Baron Mayer Amschelm de Rothschild, late Member of Parliament for Hythe was laid to rest this morning at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden. According to an article in the Pall Mall Gazette, “the funeral cortege consisted of a hearse drawn by four horses followed by thirty mourning coaches and a large number of private carriages.”
1876(15thof Shevat, 5636): Tu B’Shevat
1876: In Kings County, the trial of P.N. Rubenstein who is charged with the murder of Sara Alexander, was scheduled to resume this morning at 10 o’clock.
1877: It was reported from Belgrade that the Serbians have refused to discuss granting equal rights to the Jews and Armenians living in their realm. The opposition is led by merchants in Belgrade who do not want any new business competitiors.
1879: Dr. William M. Taylor will deliver a lecture on “Walter Scott” to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association who are holding a social at the Chickering Hall.
1880(28th of Shevat, 5640): Adolphe Crémieux, a French statesman and leader of the Jewish community, passed away. A lawyer and political leader he championed the rights of the less fortunate in general and the Jews in particular. Born before the first French Revolution, he came to power following the Revolution of 1830. He fought to end the death penalty for political offenses and the abolition of slavery in France’s colonies. Crémieux worked tirelessly to improve the conditions of the Jewish community. “In 1827, he advocated the repeal of the More judaico, legislation stigmatizing the Jews left over from pre-revolutionary France. He founded the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris in 1860, becoming its president four years later. In 1866 Crémieux traveled to Saint Petersburg to successfully defend Jews of Saratov who had been accused in a case of blood libel.” (This blog cannot do justice to a man, who in his time, was giant in secular and Jewish world)
http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ac/cremieux.htm
1881: “La Civilta Cattolica, an official Jesuit publication founded by Pope Pius IX and published under the direct control of the papacy, publishes an article in a 36-part series of anti-Semitic pieces. Father Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo Stefano, one of the journal's founders, argues that pogroms against the Jews are a natural consequence of Jews demanding too much liberty”
1888: In the Ukraine, Adel and Akiva Brodetsky, the beadle of the local Synagogue, gave birth to Selig Brodetsky, a “British Professor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, who served as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and was the second president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.” He passed away in 1954.
1890: Birthdate of Boris Pasternak, the Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist and poet, author of Dr. Zhivago.
1890: The Grand Lodge, No. 1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel met for a second day at Webster Hall. Among the attendees were David Keller, S.B. Hamburger, Aaron Stern, Harry Jacobs, Gabriel Marks and Benjamin Baker.
1890: It was reported today that Edward Lauterbach delivered a speech eulogizing the late Seligman Solomon, the Jewish philanthropist who was the driving the force behind the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The memorial service is an annual event held at the asylums building on Tenth Avenue.
1891: Birthdate of Lessing Julius Rosenwald, an American businessman who was the son of Julius Rosenwald of Sears & Roebuck fame.
1891: It was reported today that very few of the Jewish immigrants from Russia who have received assistance from a fund established by Baron Hirsh settle in the southern United States. Many of them settle in the West, while smaller numbers settle in the Middle Atlantic States or New England.
1891: According to the first paragraph of trust agreement signed by Baron Hirsch which was made public today, his reason for establishing a charitable fund is that he has “observed with painful interest the suffering and destitution of the Hebrews dwelling in Russia and Rumania where they are oppressed by severe laws and unfriendly neighbors, and have determined to contribute to the relief of such of my brethren in race who have emigrated or shall emigrate from these inhospitable countries to the Republic of the United States of America.”
1892: “A New Loan Commissioner” published today described the appointment of Edward Jacbos to the position of Loan Commissioner in New York by Governor Roswell P. Flower. A native of Buffalo, the 38 year old Jacobs is a lawyer who has never held office but is a member of the Tammany Society (Ed. Note – Yes the Jewish lawyer belonged to the Irish Catholic political organization) Jacobs is an active member of several Jewish charities and social organizations including the Hebrew Sanitarium, the Sons of Israel and B’nai B’rith.
1894: Meyer Markowitz remained in custody on charges that he had broken the lock off of an icebox and tried to steal the contents to feed his family. Markowitz is a tailor who has been out of work for several months due to the Depression. He had exhausted all other sources of assistances, including asking for aid from the United Hebrew Charities. The arresting officer was sympathetic to his plight but the law against theft had to be reinforced.
1895: “Charity and Pleasure” which was published today traces the history of the Purim Association which was formed in 1862 by ten young Jewish men – Moses H. Moses, Herman H. Stettheimer, A. Henry Shutz, Solomon B. Solomon, Joseph A. Levy, Louis G. Schiffer, Solomon Weill, Adolph Sanger, Lionel Davies and Myer S. Isaacs. The men decided to combine the celebration of the holiday with fundraising by hosting an annual ball that would provide funds for a growing listing of agencies that now includes Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, United Hebrew Charities, the Russian Emergency Fund and many, many more.
1895: “For Sick Poor Children” which was published today provides a history of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The organization grew out of a meeting in the Spring of 1877 at which Dr. S.N. Leo and John J. Davis decided that the children of Jewish parents would benefit from a series of outdoor excursions each summer. The first excursion took place in August of 1877 and provided a riverboat excursion for between 700 and 800 children and their mothers. These events have become part of the summer time activities for underprivileged New York youngsters thanks to the fundraising activities of Jewish leaders including Abraham Ettinger, Leonard Lewinson, Mrs. A.M. Kohn and Mrs. Julius Hart.
1896: Herzl reads Auto-Emancipation by Leon Pinsker. Leon Pinsker was a Russian born physician who became a Zionist years before Herzl had his “vision of a Jewish state. ’Auto-Emancipation was a pamphlet Pinsker published in 1882 “in which he urged the Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness.”
1897: Freedom of religion granted in Madagascar. This “liberal sounding statement” was actually the product of French imperialism. France conquered the island in 1895 and the Chamber of Deputies voted to annex it in 1896. The extension of Freedom of Religion, including securing the rights of French Jews who might settle there, was part of the law of unintended consequences. Madagascar would enter into Jewish history as the site where the Nazis offered, before World War II to deposit the Jews. This was the so-called Madagascar Plan.
1898: Birthdate of French journalist and author, Joseph Kessel
1901: Birthdate of actress and teacher of thespians, Stella Adler. Adler was part of a major theatrical family. She began her career on the Yiddish stage before making the transition to Broadway. Her fame as an actress was exceeded only by her fame as an inspiration for aspiring actors and actresses at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in
New York City
. She passed away in 1992 at the age of 91.
1903: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild, reports about the commission and asks for a meeting in
Paris
.
1903: Birthdate of Russian born composer, Matvey Isaakovich Blatner.
1911(12th of Shevat, 5671): Madame Fakima Modiano, a prominent philanthropist from Salonica, passed away.
1913: Birthdate of Charles “Charlie” Thompson a native of Brookline, MA who helped to smuggle three surplus B-17 Bombers into Israel as she prepared to fight for her independence.. The story of how he and Al Schimmer did this sounds like the stuff of a fictional spy-thriller but it really happened. These three planes were the only heavy bombers the Israelis had during the war with the invading Arab armies who were supported by modern aircraft. He was imprisoned by the U.S. for 18 months for doing this but was pardoned posthumously by President Bush in 2008
1911: At the request of the Hahambashi, the Turkish Minister of War directs his officers in every Army Corps to provide money for Jewish soldiers to buy Matzah and kosher food during the 8 days of Passover.
1914: The completion of the first English translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew by a body of Jewish scholars representing all shades and schools of Jewish thought and learning was celebrated at a dinner in the great hall of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America tonight. Jacob H. Schiff gave the main address praising the work of the translators.
1914: Birthdate of one of the world’s greatest harmonica players, Baltimore born Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler.
1914: Birthdate of Wausau, Wisconsin native Benjamin Walter Heineman, the “lawyer and corporate leader who took over railroads, created one of the nation’s first conglomerates and became a close confidant and adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson…”(As reported by Denise Grady)
1917(18th of Shevat, 5677): Raphael “Al” Hayman, the business partner of Charles Frohman with whom he established the Theatrical Syndicate, the dominate theatrical booking agency of its day passed away. Frohman, one of three Jewish brothers from Ohio who made it big in the world of New York entertainment, has died two years earlier when he was on board the RMS Lusitania.
1918: Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan passed away. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II's is famous for his refusal to allow Dr. Theodore Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to settle
Palestine
with Jewish colonists. Herzl offered to buy up and then turn over the Ottoman Debt to the Sultan's government in return for an Imperial Charter for the Colonization of Palestine by the Jewish people. Herzl probably thought that he was offering the Sultan a bargain, knowing that the Sultan's dearest wish was to rescue the empire from the indebtedness it had fallen into as a result of easy European loans. While some saw this as a form of anti-Jewish bias others contend that Abdul Hamid’s response was based on internal nationality problems that were already troubling the empire. Hamid had enough problems with indigenous groups without bringing a new nationality problem to his tottering empire.
1923: Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas. Today, Texas Tech boasts a small, but vibrant Hillel about which you can find out more by seeing http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/hilleljewishsociety/.
1925(16th of Shevat, 5685): Jacob “Jay” Pike, the brother of Lipman Pike, passed away today. Lipman was a famous baseball player. Jay played in only one major league. In 1877, he got a hit while playing in the outfield for the Brooklyn Hartfords who on that day beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
1927: Birthdate of Austrian born British novelist, story-writer and memoirist Jakov Lind author of Landscape in Concreteand Ergo.
1928: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported today the District Court of Jaffa ruled that “compulsory Sabbath observance is in contradiction with Article XV of the Palestine Mandate that states: “The mandatory shall see that complete freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship, subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals are assured to all. No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine on the ground of race, religion or language. No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief.” The District Court was overruling a decision by a Tel Aviv magistrate who had fined a Jewish shopkeeper named Altschuler for violating the city’s ordinance regarding the observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
1929: Birthdate of Jerry Goldsmith the prolific composer who wrote hundreds of film scores and television theme songs, including music for the films Patton and Basic Instinct and television's The Twilight Zone. He passed away at the age of 75 in 2004.
1929: Birthdate of Elaine Edna Kaufman, founder of owner of Elaine’s, the famed restaurant on the Upper East Side that she made into a New York landmark.
1936: With the unification of the police and the SS, the Gestapo became the supreme police agency of Nazi Germany. Gestapo Law was enacted in
Prussia
, giving them exclusive right to make arrests, and entitled to investigate all activities considered hostile to the state. The same law gave the Gestapo complete independence from the courts.
1938: The Palestine Post reported from
London
that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, made a clear reaffirmation of the British desire to proceed with the partition, as recommended by the Peel Report and the Mandates Commission of the
League of Nations
. Gore repeated that partition was the best means to establish a Jewish National Home in
Palestine
.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that a British Army sergeant was killed by an Arab terrorist near Tulkarm.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that he final allocation of 31 seats at the Jerusalem Community Council was: Labor 10, Revisionists four, Hapoel Hamizrahi and Sephardim three each, and the rest were divided between nine smaller parties. The total number of votes cast was 9,368.
1939: Pope Pious XI passed away. The Pope earned high marks from the B’nai B’rith which featured him on the cover of its monthly magazine in 1939 hailing for his stag against fascism and racism. In 1939, The Jewish National Monthly describe him as "the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where fine humanitarian statements by the Pope have been issuing regularly".
1939: Jewish converts were banned from Evangelical-Lutheran churches in Thüringen
1940(1st of Adar I, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1944 (16th of Shevat, 5704): Dr. George Bernhard, exiled editor and political economics of pre-Nazi Germany who had been living in the United States since February, 1941 passed away today at the age of 68 from the effects of pneumonia. A native of Berlin, Bernhard was part of a Jewish family that had lived in Germany for centuries. Bernhard’s enjoyed a successful business career before devoting his time to government service and the publishing industry. “Dr. Bernhard’s Pariser Tageblatt was considered the world’s first anti-Nazi daily” and “was read all over the world by German speaking Nazis” before the Nazis took control of it in 1936. Bernhard stayed one step ahead of the Nazis, publishing in Paris until it fell in 1940 and then moving on to Marseilles before had to leave Vichy France in 1941. Dr. Bernhard who had been a deputy member of the Agency for Palestine as a representative of the German Jews and was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish World Congress was a member of the staff of the Institute of Jewish Affairs from the time he arrived in the United States until his demise.
1944(16thof Shevat, 5704): Yiddish author Israel Joshua Singer brother of two other Yiddish writers, Esther Kreitman and Isaac Bashevis Singer, passed away.
1944: The first ship to break the British blockade of
Palestine
arrives in Eretz
Israel
. Worldwide publicity of "illegal" immigration of Jews to
Israel
was an important factor in
England
's ultimate decision to give up the mandate. Most of you know the story the “Exodus” which Leon Uris used as basis for novel of that name that later was a big screen
Hollywood
event. The story was based on an actual event that took place in 1947. However, it was only one a series of blockade runners seeking to bring Jews from
Europe
to
Palestine
despite the White Paper banning immigration and the military might of the British Royal Navy.
1944: Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored today for her work in helping to rehabilitate 40,000 refugee children in Israel. More than 1,000 persons attended the meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where she received the first citation and cash award given for humanitarian work with children by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, in memory of the late Henrietta Szold, founder of the organization.
1944: Birthdate of Georffrey Alderman the British historian whose works include The Jewish Community in British Politics and Modern British Jewry. He is the father of British authoress Naomi Alderman who was born in 1974.
http://naomialderman.typepad.com/
1947: Dov Rosenbaum, Eliezer Kashani and Mordecai Alkoshi were convicted by a British court of carrying firearms.
1948:The Central Committee of the Communist Party indicted Dimitri Shostakovich and other leading Soviet composers as "formalists," enemies of the people. This bogus charge and all that flowed from it caused one critic to describe 1948 as “the worst year of Dmitri Shostakovich's life;” a year in which the Stalinist government would fire him from two teaching positions, ban his works and take away his livelihood. Shostakovich, who was not Jewish, responded to all of this travail by setting eleven texts from "Jewish Folk Poetry" -- a collection of Yiddish folk poems published the year before in Russian translation -- for soprano, alto, tenor and piano. This musical work would gain fame as "From Jewish Folk Poetry." Shostakovich's orchestration of the cycle would not be heard in public until 1955, two years after Stalin’s death. [Ed. Note: Shostakovich was not Jewish and I do not now why he chose this way of thumbing his nose at Stalin at a time when the Soviet dictator’s anti-Semitism was reaching a new crescendo]
1949: Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater. How Jewish was Arthur Miller? He was Jewish enough that when Marilyn Monroe married him she converted to Judaism.
1950: Seventy-seven year old, French sociologist Marcel Mauss, the nephew of Émile Durkheim, passed away today in Paris.
http://www.aaanet.org/committees/commissions/centennial/history/092mauss.pdf
http://www.freewords.org/graeber.htm
1950: Birthdate of Mark Spitz, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist.
1950(23rd of Shevat, 5710): French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss passed away. Mauss was the nephew and intellectual heir of Émile Durkheim. His most famous work is The Gift.
1951: Birthdate of Robert "Bob" Iger, “the president and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that a strong explosion shook the Soviet Legation building in Tel Aviv, injuring three members of the staff.
Israel
expressed "horror and detestation" at this cowardly act. The owner of a Soviet bookshop in
Jerusalem
was threatened. This violence came as a wave of anti-Semitism swept across the
Soviet Union
.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Haifa Technion opened a faculty of agricultural engineering.
1966(20th of Shevat, 5726): Billy Rose composer and band leader passed away. Born William Samuel Rosenberg in New York City, he began his career as a lyricist. Two of his most famous efforts were "Me and My Shadow" and “It’s Only a Paper Moon."
1974: Birthdate of Ivri Lider, one of Israel’s most popular pop rock singer-songwriters.
1970(4th of Adar I, 5730): Just 4 months shy of his 100th birthday, Rabbi Tobias Geffen, “the Coca Cola Rabbi” passed away in Atlanta, GA.
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=169154
1977: In the Bronx Yehonathan Netanyou Lane was named in honor of the Bronx-born Israeli soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid in 1976. Netanyou was the only Israeli soldier to die in the daring rescue mission. His brother would build a political career based on the fame garnered from being Jonathan’s surviving brother
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin rejected the
US
position that the Jewish settlements in the administered areas are illegal and an obstacle to peace. He said that
Israel
offered Palestinians a local autonomy which was "more than anything they had been offered by the Arab states which ruled them in the past
Jordan
and
Egypt
."
1990(15thof Shevat, 5750): Tu B’Shevat
1990: The New York Times reported that based on a poll created by Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, and by the study's sponsor, the Israel-Diaspora Institute, a Tel Aviv-based public policy center that deals with relations between Jews in Israel and elsewhere officials of American Jewish organizations, although highly distrustful of the Palestine Liberation Organization, say that Israel should talk to the P.L.O., a national survey has found.
1991: An American official said today that Air Force F-15's had destroyed a Scud surface-to-surface missile launcher in western Iraq, but it was not the one that lobbed another projectile into Tel Aviv, Israel, wounding 26 people.
1991: During Desert Storm, the Israeli Army allowed some West Bank and Gaza Palestinians to return to their jobs in Israel today for the first time in three weeks.
1994 (29th of Shevat, 5754):Naftali Sahar a citrus grower, was killed by blows to his head. His body was found in his orchard near Kibbutz Na'an.
1995: Eli Rosenbaum has been named director of the Office of Special Investigations (
OSI
), Jo Ann Harris, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, announced today.
OSI
is the unit of the Criminal Division that identifies and takes legal action against those who participated in persecutory activities of the Nazi regime during World War II. "
1996(20th of Shevat, 5756): Seventy-five year old Haskell L. Lazere, who was executive director of the New York chapter of the American Jewish Committee from 1969 to 1989 and helped found various human rights coalitions in New York City, passed away at his home on the Upper East Side.(As reported by Wolfgang Saxon.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/13/nyregion/haskell-lazere-75-executive-who-led-jewish-committee.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
2001: Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" was presented to a crowd of 18,000 men and women at Madison Square Garden.
2001(17th of Shevat, 5761): Abraham “Abe” Beame, first Jewish Mayor of New York City passed away. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
<span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; m