February 17 In History
1411: Musa Celebi became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign the small Jewish community of Manisa grew in size and wealth after it had been conquered by the Ottomans..
1537: “Pope Paul III” issued “a call for a general council to deal with the Reformation.” This is the same pontiff who issued “Licet Judaei” a bull that spoke against the blood libel.
1732: Birthdate of English dramatist Richard Cumberland who “The Jew” a comedy about a Jewish moneylender that was first produced at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in May of 1794. Unlike earlier English portrayals of Jewish moneylenders, in this case, Sheva the moneylender is the benevolent hero.
1772: First partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria. The multi-parted partition of Poland would mean the demise of the Polish nation until after World War I. Much to the disappointment of the Russians, they acquired a large Jewish population as a result of the partition; a Jewish population that the Russians did not want.
1776: Publication of the first volume of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives, and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a race of fanatics whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but of human kind.
- Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)
1801: An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives. Thomas Jefferson was the fist President to appoint a Jew to a Federal post. In 1801 he named Reuben Etting of
Baltimore
as U.S. Marshall for
Maryland
. More importantly from a Jewish perspective was the fact that
Jefferson
was a strong defender of the concept of separation of church and state.
1809: Miami University is chartered by the State of Ohio. According to recent figures a thousand of the school’s 15,000 undergrads are Jewish and 100 of its 1,000 grad students are Jewish. The school offers approximately 20 Jewish Studies courses and a Major in Jewish Studies. The school hosts a robust Hillel Chapter offering a wide variety of programs including a weekly Friday night Shabbat services and dinner.
1835: Birthdate of Nachman Kohen Krochmal, a Jewish Austrian philosopher, theologian, and historian.
1852(27th of Shevat, 5612): Five days before his 40thbirthday, Hebrew Poet Micha Joseph Levenson passed away.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=iw&u=http://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/00164.php&prev=/search%3Fq%3DMicah%2BJoseph%2BLebensohn%26hl%3Den%26tbo%3Dd%26biw%3D909%26bih%3D635&sa=X&ei=7eIeUfrZBIu89gTf3YH4Cw&ved=0CEYQ7gEwBA
1853: A Hungarian tailor makes an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Emperor Franz Josef. Jews are erroneously thought to have colluded with Italian dissidents in the attempt.
1856: Heinrich Heine passed away. The famed poet was born to a Jewish family but converted to Christianity in 1825 seeing it as the only way to fully enter German and European society. Reportedly Heine saw his conversion as matter of practical convenience saying that “As Henry IV said, '
Paris
is worth a mass'; I say, '
Berlin
is worth the sermon.'" Heine remained ambivalent about his decision for the rest of his life. When the Nazis decided to burn books by Jewish authors, they included the works of Heine. Heine has prophetically written, “Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people."
1863: Birthdate of British political leader David Lloyd George. Lloyd George was the Prime Minster of Great Britain during the last half of World War I. His resolve helped to bring victory to the Allies. For Jews, Lloyd George will be remembered as the Prime Minister whose government issued the famous Balfour Declaration. Unlike some of his wartime contemporaries, Lloyd George remained a loyal supporter to both the letter and the spirit of the Balfour Declaration after the Great War when it was no longer fashionable to keep the promises made to the Jewish people.
1866: A correspondent for the New York Times arrived in Kai-fun-fee, the capital of Honan where he has gone in search of the remnants of an ancient community of Chinese Jews.
1870: In Milwaukee, WI, Temple Emanu-E which had been formed in 1869 was formally incorporated, making I the city’s second oldest congregation. E.M.V. Brown was the first Rabbi to serve the congregation.
1871: The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Jews fought in the armies of the victorious Prussians and the vanquished French. More importantly, the humiliating defeat in 1871 led to World War I which in turn led to World War II and the Shoah.
1872: It was reported today that of the $528,742.47 that New York City gave to sectarian charitable institutions in 1869 and 1870, Hebrew institutions received $14,404.49 as compared to the $412,082.56 that went to Roman Catholic Institions.
1874(30th of Shevat, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1874: Benjamin Disraeli finished serving as leader of the Loyal Opposition as he prepared to assume the role of Prime Minister.
1875: The Israelite General Benevolent Society gave its 9th annual ball at the Turn Hall tonight. The affair was a fundraiser to raise money for destitute and poor Jewish families.
1878: It was reported today that after four years, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of New York City has 900 members.
!878: It was reported today that the Gemeindebund ("Union of Judæo-German Congregations") has been reorganized to better protect the Jewish communities in Germany
1878: It was reported today that more than one third of the Jews living in Amsterdam are paupers. These 13,000 individuals are supported by the Jewish community and the government. The Congregational Council spent 130,214 florins in 1877 to support a variety of community officials and institutions including a Chief Rabbi, Chief Cantor, free religious schools for 1,800 boys and 600 girls, a rabbinical college, an orphan asylum and a hospital and lunatic asylum “considered the best in the country.”
1880: “Historic Balds,” a comic look at the lack of hair among men through the ages printed today, not that based on the story of Elisha “baldness seems to have been considered a disgrace in remote ages…” On the other hand, the stories of Samson and Absalom would indicate that flowing locks are not a guarantee of good fortune or divine approval.
1880: After having been charged with arson, Jacob Naftal, a Jewish clothing merchant, went on trial today for his role in starting a fire at Red Bank, NY which destroyed 9 buildings. The 9 buildings, which included a store owned by the defendant, were in the town’s business district. The trial is expected to last for several days.
1881: Rabbi E.M. Meyer Rafael of Brooklyn provided his version of the conflict between Raphael Joseffy and Matthew Arbuckle who were supposed to be participating in an upcoming concert to provide funds for his Brooklyn synagogue. According to Meyer, Arbuckle, one of the leading coronet players had agreed to charge a reduced price for his performance and the Joseffy, one of the leading pianists, had agreed to play for free. However, when Joseffy’s secretary found out the Arbuckle was performing, the secretary said Joseffy would not perform if a coronet was being played. Joseffy expressed no opinion about Arbuckle. The objection would have been the same if it had been another coronet player. The dispute could derail this benefit event.
1882: The description of the conditions of the Jews in Kiev and its surrounding area provided by Russian speaking Protestant Englishman who had visited the area were published today. According to him the homes of the Jews had been “completely wrecked…with the…doors and windows…torn from their hinges. At least 2,000 Jews – men, women and children – were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. During one 48 hour period of carnage, “numerous defenseless young women were completely at the mercy of the mob…” The authorities did nothing to prevent the violence and expressed sympathy for the attackers. When some of the attackers were put on trial, “the government prosecutor expressed sympathy with the motives” of the attackers. The light sentences showed that the populace supported the attacks and the violence. In some of the small towns outside of Kiev, the soldiers who were ordered to protect the Jews actually joined the rioters.
1882: Hamilton Disston wrote a letter from Jacksonville, FL to Mayor King of Philadelphia offering a free 40 acre tract of land owned by Okeechobee Land and Improvement Company of Florida to each of the 50 Jewish families fleeing Russian persecution that are on a boat bound for the City of Brotherly Love.
1882: It was reported today that at Kiev, Odessa, Elizabethgrad and other Russian cities “more than 250 women were outraged by Jewbaiters during the disturbances [“Outraged” is a euphemism for rape and “disturbances is a euphemism for Pogrom.]
1882: It was reported today that petroleum was poured on a Jew’s head in Odessa and that he was then set on fire.
1882: It was reported that at Kiev, General Dreutlen refused to protect the Jews because it was not worth risking the lives of his soldiers to do so.
1882: It was reported today that F.D. Moccatta has contributed £ 1,000 to the relief fund for the Jews of Russia. He has also to contribute 1 per cent of any sum collected within the next two years in an amount not to exceed £ 1,000,000. [F.D. Moccatta is Frederick David Mocatta]
1888: Birthdate of Otto Stern, 1943 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1890: It was reported that the funds raised by the concert and reception hosted by the Seligman Solomon Society would go to the Seligman Solomon Prize Fund for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The society which is was founded three years ago is made up of those who had lived at the asylum and the late Seligman Solomon was one of its leading patrons.
1890: United States Commissioner John A. Shields continued to hear testimony regarding the Sixth National Bank case, which if true, would mean that Siegmund T. Meyer and his sons Philip and Arthur, “raided” the financial institution.
1891(9th of Adar I, 5651): In Leadville, CO, Abe Oliner passed away just two months short of his sixth birthday. Abe came to Leadville in 1885 with his father Isaac, age 30, mother Gilla, age 25, brother Jacob, age 4 and sister Fannie, age 2.
1894(18th of Adar I, 5654): Sixty-three year old Albert S. Rosenbaum, a retired tobacco merchant and hotel proprietor passed away today in New York. A native of Cassel, Germany he came to the United States when he was 18 and settled in California where he made his fortune investing in San Francisco real estate. He moved to New York to better manage his tobacco interest.
1895: “Heine’s Pension” published today described Heinrich Heine’s life in France beginning with “his exile in Paris in 1831.” (Heine was the German literary figure who converted, a decision that he later came to regret but never rectified.)
1895: In St. Louis, Russian, Austrian, Polish, Hungarian and Scandinavian Jews who had become naturalized citizens of the United States form the Progressive Order of the West, a fraternal and benevolent organization. The Progressive Order's objectives were to familiarize members with the laws, customs, and institutions of this country; to create a fund to be used for charitable purposes, and to provide for the payment of death benefits to the families of members. In 1898, 7 lodges were in existence in
St. Louis
and steps were being taken to extend the order to other cities.
1895: It is reported today that the Government in Germany has taken the side of the striking tailors and seamstresses. (Considering the reactionary nature of the German ruling class this would seem rather strange except that the owners are described as being “mostly Jews.”)
1896: It was reported today that Baron von Leonrod, the Bavarian Minister of Justice has said that it would be impossible to refund the 80,000 marks that Louis Stern of New York had left as bail even though he had received a pardon from the Prince Regent.
1897: It was reported today that Professor Felix Adler is one of the speakers scheduled to address the upcoming conference on improving housing conditions in New York City.
1897: “Large Gift to Orphans” published today described the offer of Emanuel Lehman to provide “$100,00 for the endowment of an industrial and provident fund for the benefit of graduates” who have been under the care of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society.
1897: As Emanuel Lehman celebrated his 70th birthday it was reported today that “every charitable association” in New York City “in which Lehman is interested received a handsome check from him…with an explanatory note that it was a birthday present.
1897: “Work of the United Hebrew Charities” published today showed that during January 114 people had received money to be used for transportation to other parts of the United States or Europe. During January, the UHC provided 53 free burials and provided medical assistance to 394 people including medicine and visits to the doctor. Finally the UHC provided clothing, shoes, furniture, lodgings, meals and cash to 5,422 applicants.
1898: Judge Meyer S. Isaacs will deliver a lecture entitled “The Old Guard” tonight at Temple Israel sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1903: Herzl meets Dr. Abdullah Djevdet Bey whose poetry he reviewed in the Neue Freie Presse. Djevdet offers his help in gaining support for the Zionists in Turkey. Leopold Greenberg reports from Egypt that it will be impossible to obtain a Charter that will support Jewish colonization.
1904: Birthdate of political scientist and historian Hans J. Morgenthau. Born and educated in
Germany
, Morgenthau came to the
United States
in the 1930’s. He gained fame as director of the Center for the Study of American Foreign and Military Policy while teaching at the
University
of
Chicago
. Morgenthau was a realist and opposed the Vietnam War “because the risks of military participation outweighed any benefits.” He was a leader in the fight to improve the conditions of Soviet Jewry and he spoke out against the PLO as a terrorist organization. He passed away in 1980.
1910: Birthdate of American cinema actor Marc Lawrence. Born Max Goldsmith,
Lawrence
gained fame as a character actor. He was a friend and acting contemporary of John Garfield. Like
Garfield
,
Lawrence
ran into trouble during the McCarthy Period. Unlike
Garfield
,
Lawrence
survived professionally and personally. He passed away in 2005.
1911: Birthdate of Oskar Koplowitz, a native of Silesia, who as Oskar Seidlin became a noted American “literary scholar, poet and” an author of detective novels and books for children.
1913: The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century. William Zorach, Max Weber, Elie Nadelman, Maurice Becket and Abraham Walkowitz were among the Jewish artists invited to display their work.
1916: A musical co-authored by Sigmund Romberg premiered in
New York City
.
1918:Jacob H. Schiff, head of the special committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee that arranged the plan whereby the workers of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union will forego the holiday on Washington's Birthday and give their day's earnings to the Jewish war sufferers announced that almost no factory organized by the ILGU would be open and that many owners would be paying time and half or double time.
1918: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise announced that the Palestine Restoration Fund now totals more than $800,000 of which $250,000 was collected in New York.
1918: Saul J. Cohen, editor The Maccabean, the official Zionist journal received a cable from Israel Zangwill, founder of the Jewish Territorial Organization, saying that he has altered his position following the issuance of the Balfour Declaration and “now looks toward Palestine as the land of the Jews.”
1920: Birthdate of Bella Levy
1921:After having been informed by the New York World that “the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which he has been reprinting with anti-Semitic commentary in his own newspaper the Dearborn Independent, are a forgery” Ford said he did not care replying "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. Indeed they do."
1925: In York, PA, Dorothy and Joseph Rosenmiller gave birth to Joseph Lewis Rosenmiller, Jr. “who earned a fortune building a chain of radio stations and then donated tens of millions to promote causes that he felt traditional philanthropies largely ignored, like voting rights and the empowerment of domestic workers…” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)
1925, Florence Prag Kahn won a special election, becoming the fifth woman and first Jewish woman to serve in the United States Congress.
1925: Harold Ross and Jane Grant found The New Yorker magazine. Numerous Jewish writers and artists have contributed to the sophisticated journal. These include two cartoonists – Jules Feifer and Roz Chast as well as such authors as Dorothy Park and S.J. Pearlman.
1929: Birthdate of the author Chaim Potok. A graduate of
Yeshiva
University
, Potok was ordained as a Conservative Rabbi after studying at The Jewish Theological Society. He earned a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. He decided to become a writer after reading Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisitedin 1945. He was fourteen years old, and all he had read were magazines and pulp fiction. He wanted to read a serious adult book, and he chose Brideshead Revisited at random from the public library. He later said about reading it, "I found myself inside a world the merest existence of which I had known nothing about. I lived more deeply inside the world in that book than I lived inside my own world." Potok’s work draws on his own life’s experiences – Judaism (The Chosen, The Promise,) and a stint as an Army Chaplain serving in the Far East (The Book of Lights) – as well as the conflicts he faced including becoming an artist despite family and cultural opposition (My Name Is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev). His success stems from many factors. One is that he opened doors to worlds that people did not know existed i.e. Chasidic Judaism and the Orient. The second is that he dealt with larger issues such as how a minority culture copes with a majority culture, how to temper brilliance with humanity, and the challenge of effective parenting in changing world, to name but a few.
1932: Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s musical "Face the Music" premiered in New York.
1933: The first edition of Newsweek makes its appearance. In 1961, America’s “perennially #2 newsweekly” will be purchased by Katherine Graham’s Washington Post Co.
1935(14th of Adar I, 5695): Purim Katan
1936: S. N. (Samuel] Nathaniel) Behrman's "End of Summer" premiered in
New York
.
1937:Bronislaw Huberman, the violinist and founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, received a rousing tribute at a concert here tonight with the Concertgebouw, under the auspices of the Society for Art for All.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Austria had capitulated to the German ultimatum and appointed pro-Nazis to the cabinet, marking the effective end of the country's independence.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that there was a major, festive ceremony when the District Commissioner, Mr. Keith Roach, opened Kalia, the first hotel and health resort on the
Dead Sea
, with the keys handed to him by Major T.C. Tuloch, Chairman of the Kalia Health Resort Company.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Mohammed el-Rab, a Palestinian Arab, was executed at the Acre prison, one week after his arrest and an immediate Military Court trial, for possession of a loaded automatic gun and ammunition.
1940: Birthdate of Dennis Gamsy a South African cricketer who played in two Tests in 1970.
1943(10th of Adar II, 5703): Fifty-three year old Victor Atler, the Jewish socialist who was a leader of the Bund was executed today on charges of spying for Hitler. The execution was carried out with Stalin’s approval.
1943: Dutch churches protested against Seyss-Inquart’s persecution of Jews. The Austrian born Seyss-Inquart became Reich Commissioner of the
Netherlands
in May, 1940.The Dutch churches were protesting against "the forced sterilization of Jewish partners in mixed-marriages. For once, the Germans relented and ended this one form of inhumanity. At the end of the war Seyss-Inquart was arrested and charged with war crimes in
Nuremberg
. At his trial it was pointed out that of the 140,000 Dutch Jews, only 8,000 survived in hiding and only 5,450 came home from camps in
Poland
and
Czechoslovakia
. Seyss-Inquart was found guilty and hanged on
16th October, 1946
.
1945:Nicholas George Winton, the Englishman who organized “the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport” “was promoted to war substantive flying officer” in the RAF. Winton, who was later knighted, was not Jewish. He was a decent human being who, unlike so many others, did the right thing during “the long, dark European Night.”
1946:Birthdate of Steve Grossman the Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts and the former President of Grossman Marketing Group, a family-owned marketing company based in Somerville, Massachusetts. From 1992 to 1997, he was the chair of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and from 1997 to 1999 he was the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Grossman received his Bachelor's from Princeton University, and his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He is married to Barbara Wallace Grossman, a Professor of Theater at Tufts University, and they have three children.
1948: In the aftermath of today's coup in which the ruler of Yemen was assassinated, "the Jews were accused of murdering two young Muslim girls and throwing their bodies down a well." This Arab-world version of the blood libel led to the leaders of Yemen's Jewish community being beaten and imprisoned while a mob looted and robbed those living in the Jewish Quarter.
1949: Chaim Weizmann was sworn in as the first president of Israel. The election took place in
Jerusalem
, a city that had been under siege by the Arabs and almost lost to the invading enemy. The election of a President of the state of
Israel
was one of the first items of business for the Knesset which was holding its first meeting in
Jerusalem
. Weizmann was elected by a vote of 83 to 15. In
Israel
, the President is a figurehead. The Prime Minister holds the political power. The election of Weizmann was recognition for his long, untiring decades of service to the Zionist cause. One of his proudest accomplishments was getting the British Government of adopt the Balfour Declaration which gave international recognition and approval to the creation of a Jewish homeland in
Palestine
. The President of Israel is called "Nasi" a term which means ruler or prince. In the early centuries of the Diaspora it had been a honorific title applied to the heads of various Talmudic academies and Jewish communities. To give you some idea of the esteem in which Weitzman was held, he was the first person to be called a Nasi in almost 1500 years.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in a statement read to the Knesset, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stressed that the recent bombing of the Soviet Legation in Tel Aviv was no justification for a rupture of diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union
. The Soviet action was the culmination of "a campaign of defamatory propaganda against the State of Israel, the Zionist Movement and World Jewry which had been proceeding for a long time."
Holland
agreed to represent Israeli interests in
Moscow
.
1957: The Suez Canal re-opens marking the end of the Suez Crisis that had started in October of 1956.
1958: Time published “Historical Notes: Diary of Anne Frank – The End”
The diary of 15-year-old Anne Frank ended abruptly when the Nazis broke into her family's hiding place in Amsterdam. What happened next? Of the last days of one of the world's best-known modern heroines, little was known except that she had died, like millions of other Jews, in a German concentration camp. To fill out the chronicle of her short life, West German Publisher S. Fischer last year assigned Author Ernst Schnabel to search the German and Dutch archives and interview survivors of the camps who might have known her. In Paris Le Figaro Littéraire printed excerpts from Schnabel's findings, to be published as a book in the U.S. this fall. Anne, her sister Margot, and her father and mother were first taken to Westerbork prison in The Netherlands, then shipped by cattle car to Auschwitz. Recalls a woman fellow prisoner: "The doors of the cars were opened violently, and the first thing we saw at Auschwitz was the garish light of the searchlights trained on the cars . . . The voice of a loudspeaker dominated all others; it bellowed: 'Women to the left, men to the right!' I saw them go away: Mr. Van Daan, Mr. Dussel, Peter, Mr. Frank." The men never saw the women again. The women were told that trucks were ready to take the small children and the sick to the prison. But those who fought their way into the trucks never reached the camp; they vanished from-the face of the earth. At Auschwitz, Anne's long hair was clipped and her eyes seemed to grow larger and larger as she grew thinner. Her gaiety disappeared but not her indomitable spirit. The women were divided into groups of five and, though the youngest of her group, Anne became its leader, partly because she was efficient at scrounging necessities. When during cold weather she and the others were reduced to sackcloth smocks, Anne found somewhere a supply of men's long underwear. She even magically produced a cup of coffee for an exhausted prisoner. Most of the adults tried to armor themselves against reality: "Who bothered to look at the flames billowing up from the crematory? When, suddenly, an order came to barricade the neighboring block, who was disturbed? We well knew that they were being readied for the gas chamber, but we were too well-trained to worry about it. We no longer heard anything, saw anything." But Anne Frank did, right up to the end. Said a survivor: "I can still see her standing by the door, watching a group of naked young gypsy girls being shoved along to the crematory. Anne watched them, weeping. And she also wept when we filed past Hungarian children waiting, twelve hours naked under the rain, for their turn to enter the gas chamber. Anne cried: 'Look at their eyes!' She wept when most of us had no tears left." On Oct. 30, 1944, there was a selection of the youngest and strongest to be sent to the concentration camp at Belsen. Single file, the undressed women were ordered into a hall where, seated behind the glare of a searchlight, a doctor chose this one for Belsen, that one for the gas chamber. "Anne's face remained unchanged, even in the cruel light of the projector. She took Margot's arm and they came forward. I can see them now, stripped naked. Anne turned her serene face toward us; then they were led away. It was impossible to see what happened behind the light, and Mrs. Frank cried: 'The children! My God! My God!' " In the hell of Belsen, Anne and Margot Frank lasted scarcely five months. They both became ill. Margot was in a coma for several days and was found, fallen from her bunk, dead. Anne was so sick that no one told her of Margot's fate. Says a fellow prisoner who watched: "Several days later she died peacefully, in the certitude that death was not a calamity."
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,862914,00.html
1959: Birthdate of Arhey Deir, the Moroccan born Israeli political leader of Shas.
1962(13th of Adar I, 5722): Conductor Bruno Walter passed away.
1963: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan which is credited with sparking the modern feminist movement is published.
1969(29th of Shevat, 5729): Levi Eshkol, third Prime Minister of Israel, died suddenly. In one of the great ironies of history, it was the mild-mannered Eshkol and not any of his more flamboyant contemporaries who led the Israeli government during the June, 1967 War that resulted in the re-unification of Jerusalem.
1969: Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister. Goldie Mabovitch (who later Hebraized
her name to Golda Meir) was a Russian immigrant living in Milwaukee. In 1918 she wanted to join the Jewish Legion, a British unit organized to fight the Turks in World War I. Mrs. Meir made Aliyah and eventually became a major political figure in the Zionist Community and later in the state of
Israel
. Her description of being in
Moscow
for Simchat Torah after the creation of the state of
Israel
is a moving story. She served as Foreign Minister and following the death of Levi Eshkol became Prime Minister. She lead the country through the trying days of the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath. By the time Anwar Sadat made his memorable trip to
Israel
, Mrs. Meir was no longer in the government. When the two adversaries met she is reported to have said, "Long after we have forgiven you for killing our sons, we will be working to forgive you for turning our sons into killers." This modern Devorah took no pleasure in being involved in so many military adventures.
1970(11th of Adar I, 5730): Shmuel Yosef or S.Y. Agnon (Hebrew: שמואל יוסף עגנון; born Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes) passed away. Agnon was the first Hebrew author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He won the prize in 1966. Since this is beyond my area of expertise, included find this canned summary. “Shmuel Yosef Agnon was born in Galicia in 1888. He immigrated to
Jaffa
in 1908, but spent 1913 through 1924 in
Germany
. In 1924 he returned to
Jerusalem
, where he lived until his death in 1970. A prolific novelist and short-story writer from an early age, Agnon received numerous literary awards, including the Israel Prize on two occasions. Called "a man of unquestionable genius" and "one of the great storytellers of our time," S.Y. Agnon is among the most effusively praised and widely translated Hebrew authors. His unique style and language have influenced the writing of subsequent generations of Hebrew authors. Much of his writing attempts to recapture the lives and traditions of a former time, but his stories are never a simple act of preservation. Agnon's tales deal with the most important psychological and philosophical problems of his generation. "Via realistic and surrealistic modes," writes the New York Times, "Agnon has transmuted in his many words the tensions inherent in modern man's loss of innocence, and his spiritual turmoil when removed from home, homeland and faith." An observant Jew throughout most of his life, he was able to capture "the hopelessness and spiritual desolation" of a world standing on the threshold of a new age. Extolled for his "peculiar tenderness and beauty," for his "comic mastery" and for the "richness and depth" of his writing, it is S.Y. Agnon's contribution to the renewal of the language that has been seminal for all subsequent Hebrew writing.” Some of his works that have been translated into English include A Book That Was Los : And Other Stories.; A dwelling place of my people : sixteen stories of the Chassidim; A Guest for the Night; Gollancz, A Simple Story; Agnon's Aleph Bet Poems; The Bridal Canopy;Days of Awe : A Treasury of Jewish Wisdom for Reflection, Repentance, and Renewal on the High Holy Days;In the Heart of the Seas : A Story of a Journey to the Land of Israel.; Present at Sinai : The Giving of the Law : Commentaries Selected by S.Y. Agnon; Shira; Twenty-one stories.
1972: President Richard Nixon begins his historic trip to China. This major diplomatic breakthrough was orchestrated by White House advisor Henry Kissinger who would become the first Jewish Secretary of State.
1977: In New York City, the first Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy comes to a close. The two day meeting led to the founding of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
1981: In “Yiddish Book Collection Grows in New England,” Michael Knight described the work of the Yiddish Book Exchange.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/17/arts/yiddish-book-collection-grows-in-new-england.html?pagewanted=print
1981: Birthdate of Joseph Gordon-Levittan American actor best known for his role as Tommy Solomon on “3rd Rock from the Sun.”
1982(24th of Shevat, 5742): Lee [Israel] Strasberg, father of method acting passed away at the age of 80. Strasberg also enjoyed a career as an actor with one of his most roles coming at the end of his life when he played the “Meyer Lansky” figure in The Godfather Part II
1987:Aulcie Perry Jr., a former basketball player who had become an Israeli citizen and was hailed as a sports champion in Israel, went on trial today on charges of conspiracy to import heroin, importation of heroin and possession of heroin with intent to distribute. The 6-foot-10-inch Perry, who holds a dual citizenship, joined the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team in Israel in 1977 and helped bring it a European Cup championship that year and in 1979. He remained on the team until 1984. Perry's cousin, Kenneth Johnson, 29, who was charged with Perry, pleaded guilty earlier this month and is awaiting sentencing.
1988: The United States announced that it is planning to change ambassadors to Israel next summer. According to State Department officials, William A. Brown, currently ambassador to Thailand, will replace Thomas R. Pickering, who has served in Tel Aviv since 1985. Mr. Pickering is scheduled to return to Washington to become Under Secretary of State for management. The State Department also plans to replace Morris Draper, the Consul General in Jerusalem, with Philip C. Wilcox Jr., a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who deals with Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. The Consul General in Jerusalem has something approaching ambassadorial status. He reports directly to the State Department, not to the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv, a situation that reflects Washington's refusal to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
1988:A dozen Israeli playwrights, poets and other intellectuals made an urgent appeal to the Government tonight to ''talk peace with the Palestinians.'' Amos Oz, the Israeli novelist, started and ended his address to the group with the words, ''What was, will not be again.'' Seventy New York writers, artists and performers sent a telegram expressing their support to the Israeli Playwrights' Association, a gesture welcomed by Israelis here who feel support from abroad can put effective pressure on the Government. Among the signers were Erica Jong, Allen Ginsburg, Grace Paley, Gloria Steinem, E. L. Doctorow, Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer and Susan Sontag.
1988: The violence in the occupied territories continued today, as Israeli soldiers shot and killed one Palestinian and wounded at least three others while dispersing riots in the West Bank village of Shuyukh, near Hebron, an army spokesman said. <sp