April 30 In History
313: Licinius defeated Maximinus at the Battle of Tzirallum, thus making him the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Emperor of the Western Roman Empire was his brother-in-law, Constantine. The two in laws would clash repeatedly until Constantine defeated Licinius and eventually killed him despite the pleas of his sister to spare her husband’s life. We know that Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire with all that that would mean for the Jews of Europe. Would it have been any different if Licinius had triumphed? Who knows? Lucinius did subscribe to the policy of tolerance towards Christians but those who were writing history in the fourth and fifth century tended to create an idyllic vision of Constantine which meant painting a less than flattering portrait of Licinius. Gibbon follows the same path in his history of the Roman Empire.
711: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). For the Jews living under the Visigoth rulers of Spain, this is good news. The victory of the Moors will mark the start of what is called the Golden Age. Ironically, the Golden Age will begin to tarnish not because of Christians, but because of an invasion by another, more religiously conservative group of Moslems. (Some sources say this actually happened on April 29)
1245: Birthdate King Philip III of France, the son Louis IX (St. Louis). During Phillip’s reign, the Pope turned the attention of the Inquisition from suppressing the heresy of the Albigenses to the Jews of southern France who had converted to Christianity. The popes complained that not only were baptized Jews returning to their former faith, but that Christians also were being converted to Judaism. Pope Gregory X ruled that Jewish converts who had returned to Judaism, as well as Christians who converted to Judaism were to be treated by the Inquisitors as heretics. The instigators of such apostasies, as those who received or defended the guilty ones, were to be punished in the same way as the delinquents. When the Jews of Toulouse buried a Christian convert in their cemetery, they were brought before the Inquisition in for trial, with their rabbi, Isaac Males and having been found guilty were burned at the stake. Needless to say, Phillip did nothing to protect his subjects.
1349: The Jewish community at Radolszell, Germany, was exterminated. This appears to have been part of a wave of attacks on Jewish communities that took place during 1348 and 1349. They were in response to fears about the Black Death and a convenient way for non-Jewish nobles and others to avoid having to re-pay their Jewish creditors.
1425: Birthdate of William III of Luxembourg who” minted a silver groschen known as the Judenkopf Groschen. Its obverse portrait shows a man with a pointed beard wearing a Jewish hat, which the populace took as depicting a typical Jew.”
1492: The Edict of Expulsion for all the Jews of Spain was passed. Since professing that Jews were not under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, the Church decided to level a ritual murder accusation against them in Granada and was thus able to call for the expulsion of both Jews and Marranos from Spain. The Marranos themselves were accused of complicity in the case, and both were ordered to leave within four months. Torquemada, the director of the Inquisition (and incidentally of Jewish descent), defended this against Don Isaac Abarbanel. The edict was passed, and over fifteen thousand Jews had to flee, some to the Province of Aragon and others, like Abarbanel, to Naples. Still others found temporary sanctuary in Portugal.
1563 The Jews were expelled from France by order of Charles VI
1556: A community of Marranos at Ancona (Italy) was devastated when Pope Paul IV retracted letters of protection issued by previous Popes' for protection of the Jews, and ordered immediate proceedings to be taken by the Holy Office. The result of the findings came in the spring and early summer, when 24 men and 1 woman were burned alive in successive proceedings. Their deaths are memorialized in that city every Tisha B'av.
1659:In New Amsterdam, Cornelius Plavier mortgaged his house on Heere Street (later Broadway) at the city wall (Wall Street) the day after judgment was rendered against him in a case brought by Abraham Cohen. It is assumed that the money obtained from the mortgage was intended to satisfy the judgment. But no documents actually exist to prove that Cohen got either the money or the beaver pelts which were owed to him.
1722: “The officers of Harvard Corporation vote that Judah Monis be approved as an instructor of the Hebrew language at the College, under the condition that he convert to Christianity. One month before assuming his post at Harvard, Monis converts before a large assembly in College Hall.”
1788: In Philadelphia, the members of Congregation Mikveh Israel appealed to the non-Jews of the City of Brotherly Love. Found in the 1740’s the congregation was dealing with unforeseen debt brought on by the economic downturn that followed the American Revolution. Such prominent citizens as Benjamin Franklin, State Attorney General William Bradford and Thomas McKean one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence helped to provide the congregation with financial assistance
1789: George Washington took the oath of office making him the first elected President of the United States. As can be seen from his correspondence with various Jewish congregations Washington had a positive view of Jews. More to the point, his welcoming attitude expressed in that correspondence set the tone for the American Jewish experience and his election helped solidify the creation of the new republic which has been a haven for Jews for the last two centuries.
1793 (18th of Iyar, 5553): Lag B’Omer
1796: Birthdate of Adolphe Crémieux “a French-Jewish lawyer and statesman, and a staunch defender of the human rights of the Jews of France.”
1800 The government of Czar Paul I enacted a decree forbidding Jews from importing books in any language. This was part of series of schemes to help the Russian government control their newly acquired mass of Jews. This large population had become part of the anti-Semitic Russian Empire as a result of the three-way partition of Poland.
1803: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French in what is known as the Louisiana Territory. French law had banned Jews from settling in these lands which means the purchase opened a swath of land stretching from the banks of the Mississippi west to the Rocky Mountains to Jewish settlement including such cities as St. Louis and New Orleans.
1806:The question of the treatment of the Alsace Jews and their debtors raised in the Imperial Council today.
1812: The Territory of Orleans became the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana. The first Jews, who were Sephardim, came to Louisiana at the start of the 18th century. “In New Orleans community life began in the 1820’s with the purchase of a burial plot by a society that called itself Gates of Loving Kindness. A house of prayer, now known as the Touro Synagogue soon followed and by 1850 still another congregation existed in the city.” For more about the history of the Jews of Louisiana see “Gefilte Fish in the Land of the Kingfish: Jewish Life in Louisiana” at http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/jewsinla.html
1817(14th of Iyar, 5577): Pesach Sheni
1863: During the Civil War, today was a day that President Lincoln had designated “as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.” He requested “all the people to abstain…from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.” The Jews joined their fellow Americans in honoring the proclamation with most synagogues being described as “opened” with the Psalms normally read on religious penitential days being invoked on this national day of penitence. According to published reports, very eloquent address was delivered by Rabbi Raphall, at the Greene-street Synagogue. “He remarked that it was a curious coincidence that on this, a fast day appointed by their own religious observances, they met in compliance with the Proclamation of the President of the United States, to fast and pray. He had been in this country fourteen years. During the first ten years no public proclamation had ever directed their thoughts and feelings to humiliation and fasting. Once in every year the highest functionary in every State proclaimed a day of general thanksgiving, and with that the debt of national gratitude was supposed to be paid. But now the rulers of the nation come year after year and call upon the people to weary Heaven with fruitless professions of a penitence they did not feel, and of a humility they did not practice. These proclamations fast days, on which no one fasts, are but the repetition of those so strongly reproved by the prophet Isaiah; and, though the people dare not put his questions, "Wherefore do we fast and Thou seest it not? Afflict our souls and Thou will not notice it!" -- since in reality the people do neither -- still the answer would stand good. "Because while you profess humiliation, you persist in your arrogance and your extortions do not cease." If ever a people needed to humble itself before God -- if ever fasting and prayer, sack cloth and ashes were to be worn -- it was by the people of these United States. Like our fathers, the Israelites of old, for whom pious Nekeiniah made such fervent supplication, the people of this country are justly amenable to his confession made for Israel: "In their dominions, in all the great prosperity Thou didst bestow upon them, and throughout the large and rich land which Thou gavest unto them, they did not serve Thee, neither turned they from their evil deeds." The preacher then drew a parallel between the sins of the Israelites, which called forth the reproof of the preacher, and the past conduct of this nation, which was equally amenable to the words of the inspired prophet. What were they to say for the citizens of the United States who already and so long possess the two greatest earthly blessings, Education and Freedom, and yet make so bad a use of both? Education should be the guardian of freedom and of virtue, it was the birthright of every American, bestowed on all and withheld from none. But what principles did it actually inculcate -what virtues did it really teach? Did it inculcate respect for free institutions? Answer, ye place-hunters, ye ballot-box stuffers, ye shoulder-hitters, who reduce self-government to a disgusting farce. Did it teach patriotism? Answer, ye spoils-men, ye office-seekers and holders, who cement party lines with the cohesive force of public plunder. Did it teach common honesty? Answer, ye peculators and speculators, who fatten on the blood of the hard-worked masses, and who dignify roguery by the name of smartness. His heart ached as he spoke to them of the effects of perverted education; it would ache still more were he to direct attention to the bitter fruits of abused freedom. He need not remind them that while the best men North and South had long been driven aloof from the affairs of the country, demagogues, fanatics and a party Press had so managed matters that they found themselves in the third year of a destructive but needless sectional war, which has armed brother against brother, consigned hundreds of thousands to an untimely grave, and to ruin and devastation tens of thousands of square miles of flourishing and happy land; and what was worse than all this, while humanity weeps we must suppress our sympathy. However, our hearts may yearn for peace and brotherly love, our reason convinces us that the present is not the time to expect, or even to hope for the cessation of blood. On the contrary, though we may detest the cause and course of events, it is our duty loyally to stand by our section of the country, to maintain her quarrel and defend her rights, while we have the consolation to know that our side did not begin the fray, and that the cause of Union was the worthiest in the field.”
1863: In article published today entitled “The Rothschilds and the Union” W.W. Murphy takes issue with Harper’s Weekly depiction of the famous banking family and ask that corrections be made.
“In your paper (Harper's Weekly) of Feb. 28, you do a great injustice to the eminent firm of ROTHSCHILDS here, when you hint that they are like a certain Rabbi who held opinions that some men were born to be slaves. I know not what the other firms -- and there are many of the ROTHSCHILDS, all related -- in Europe think of Slavery, but here the firm of M.A. VON ROTHSCHILD & SON are opposed to Slavery and in favor of Union. A converted Jew, ERLANGER, has taken the rebel loan of £3,000,000, and lives in this city; and Baron ROTHSCHILD informed me that all Germany condemned this act of lending money to establish a slaveholding Government, and that so great was public opinion against it that ERLANGER & CO. dare not offer it on the Frankfort Bourse. I further know that the Jews rejoice to think that none of their sect would be guilty of lending money for the purpose above named; but it was left, they say, for apostate Jews to do it”.
1863: The Army of the Potomac (Union) which included Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman and Captain Joseph Greenhut made the openings in a clash with the Army of Northern Virginia (Rebel) under the command of Robert E. Lee which would be known as the Battle of Chancellorsville.
1864: During the Red River Campaign, Union forces including Frederick C. Salomon, scored a tactical victory in the bloody Battle of Jenkin’s Ferry
1869: Birthdate of Hungarian painter Philip de Laszlo.
1870:Leopold Karpeles who served as a Sergeant with Company E, Massachusetts Infantry was issued his Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery displayed during the Wilderness Campaign in 1864.
1870: The New York Times published a review of a unique book entitled "The Bible In India: Hindoo Origin of Hebrew and Christian Revelation" in which the author, Louis Jacolliot, attempts to prove that "the Hebrew and Christian revelations have a common origin in India among the Hindoo mythologies."
1871: The New York Times reported that a magistrate in London found a group of Jews guilty of gambling in a “public house” when they were caught playing chicken hazard and fined them accordingly. In their defense the Jews had claimed that although they had been caught playing chicken hazard they had really had gathered together to observe Passover. According to the Jewish defendants, the police must have missed seeing the blood on the doorposts or else they would have passed by and left them undisturbed. Apparently the Judge and the rest of Christian London are not aware of the custom of playing chicken hazard as part of the Passover celebration. [Editors note: If you have ever played chicken hazard or can shed some light on this please let me know. Who knows, maybe a great miscarriage of justice needs to be undone.]
1872(22ndof Nisan, 5632): 8th Day of Pesach
1872: The New York Times reported that over 3,000 barrels of Matzoths...were consumed:” in New York “during the past week and 1,000 barrels were sent throughout the country some going to Canada and” to South America.
1877: Birthdate of Alice B. Tolkas. Born into a middle class Jewish family in San Francisco, Tolkas was a writer whose claim to fame was her relationship with another Jewish literary light, Gertrude Stein.
1880: It was reported from Vienna that after a fried broke out in Grusbach, Moravia, “some malicious persons incited the mob to attack the Jews. At least one Jew has died of his wounds and another had a hand cut off.
1881: It was reported today that a mob led by a school teacher has been responsible for some of the violence aimed at the Jews living in Argenua, West Prussia.
1881: It was reported today that mobs of peasants have attacked the Jews of Elizabethgrad (Russia). The mob, which destroyed the local synagogue, was driven by its superstitious beliefs about Jewish Passover practices.
1881(1st of Iyar, 5641): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1881: “Anti-Jewish Riots In Europe” published today describes attacks on Jews in Germany and Russia. A wave of violence aimed at the Jews in Argenau, West Prussia included a mob led by a school teacher wrecking the home of the Jews. In Russia, the violence has been fueled by Christian superstitions surrounding the observance of Passover and was highlighted by the destruction of synagogue in Elizabethgrad.
1882: The New York Times reported today that Rabbi Hirsch of Sinai Congregation in Chicago had offered prayers on behalf of Kaiser Frederick William of Germany, “asking that his life…be spared.” The only problem with this entry is that the Kaiser had died in March.
1882: President Jesse Seligman presided over today’s annual meeting of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum. Currently the organization is providing service to 327 orphans, 245 of whom were born in New York City.
1882: Based on information supplied by the Times of London, it was reported today that when the American Legation at St. Petersburg intervenes on behalf of the Jews, it will be speaking for several European governments as well as the administration in Washington.
1882: It was reported today that according to The Free Press the Jews of Podolsk and Walkwoich have been subjected to renewed attacks. Additionally, some of the most notorious leaders have been released from custody despite orders from St. Petersburg calling for their prompt punishment.
1883: It was reported today that the will of the late Dr. Edward Bouverie Pusey prohibited the publication of his English translations of the “Hebrew scriptures” since he no longer felt that the corrections may not have been valid.
1883: Mark Gradginsky and his wife Adelaide were among those being held at police headquarters on charges of receiving and selling stolen goods – specifically $23,000 of lace goods taken from Muser Brothers by one of their employees. The Gradginskys who are well-known members of the Jewish community, denied knowing that the goods were stolen.
1883: It was reported today that “The Jews in Philadelphia Prior to 1800” by H. Polock Rosenbach will be published by Edward Sterne & Co. It is thought to be the first book published on the subject, but the publisher is planning on printing only 250 copies.
1885: The will of Isaac Vogel, a Jewish clothier, was filed in the Surrogate’s Court today.
1887: This afternoon in Chicago, Leopold Bloom socked William B. Andrews in the cheek causing the latter to fall to the sidewalk in front building housing the Board of Trade where the two were traders. Bystanders were not sure what caused the altercation except they heard somebody use the word “liar” and somebody use the word “Jew” before the blow was struck.
1889: Rabbi Gustave Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El is among the clergyman who helped plan today’s service that was part of the centennial commemoration of the inauguration of George Washington.
1890: It was reported today that a four member commission acting on behalf of the Imperial Council is “framing a bill to regulate the position of the Jews in Russia” which will be detrimental to their interest.
1890: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment authorized the School Board to lease the old Hebrew Orphan Asylum building on 77th Street.
1891: Pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky married Frieda Sax.
1892: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted the first annual gymnastic program featuring members of the organization.
1892: Colonel Carl Weber testified before the joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Immigration and Naturalization on the condition of those arriving at Ellis Island. Included in this was a description of those who arrived aboard the SS Masillia and were later found to be contaminated with typhus. Contrary to earlier reports the immigrants were Turkish Jews and not Russian Jews. He said that their religion had nothing to do with the illness which was cause by their extended sea voyage which took them to numerous ports before arriving in New York.
1893(14th of Iyar, 5653): Pesach Sheni
1898: The New York Timesreported that “ Tract Pesachim (Passover) the fifth volume of Dr. M.L. Rodkinson’s new English edition of the Babylonian Talmud has just been published…This tract has, so far as is known, never been translated into any modern language, although it is one of the volumes most frequently perused by students of the Talmud. There are still fifteen more volumes of the Talmu to follow; the next of which is promised with the next three months.
1898: The attorney representing Horace J. Young, who is accused of deserting his wife Clara, the daughter of Jewish businessman Julius Praeger will be allowed to examine the witnesses who claim that the couple was never legally married but that Young left her when he found out she was pregnant.
1899: Elections for officers were held at today’s annual meeting of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1899: A committee made up of a cross-section of representatives of Jewish charitable organizations in New York City met today to make arrangement for memorial services to be held in honor of the late Baroness Hirsch.
1900: Herzl has a “coincidental meeting” with Bernard Lazare in Paris. Lazare intends to go to Constantinople. Herzl asked him if he would try to win Ambassador Constans over to the Zionist cause
1901: By the end of April Herzl had read Moses Hess’ Rome and Jerusalem.
1902: Herzl completes his Palestine Novel Altneuland (Old New Land) which portrays his vision for life in the new Jewish Homeland.
1904: By the end of April Herzl made preparations to proceed to Paris and London in early May in order to arrange the financing of the Uganda expedition. He made contact with the New York financier, Jacob Schiff. Schiff declared himself ready to negotiate a loan for Russia if it proved ready to do something for the Jews.
1904: Herzl had an interview with Austrian Foreign Minister Agenor Goluchowsky, who gave evidence of an earnest interest in Zionism and advised Herzl to work in England for a Parliamentary expression of opinion in favor of Palestine. Immediately after this audience, a consultation of his doctors establishes an alarming change in the condition of his heart muscles. Herzl is ordered to Franzensbad for six weeks.
1905: Over the last 12 months, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association provided services to 166,289 through its various programs including lectures, religious services, and physical education activities. The association had an income of $39,423.21and spent $38,673.32 under the Presidency of Percival S. Menken.
1910: Birthdate of actor Al Lewis who played Grandpa on “The Munsters.”
1915: Turkish authorities prevent Jews of Smyrna from leaving the country.
1918(18th of Iyyar, 5678):Lag B'Omer
1920: In Vienna, Ilona Neumann and Robert Kronstein gave birth to Gerda Hedwig Kronstein who gained fame as Gerda Lerna , the historian who “spearheaded the creation of the first graduate program in women’s history in the United States…” (As reported by William Grimes)
1923(14th of Iyar, 5683): Pesach Sheni
1924: Birthdate of Sheldon Harnick “an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof. Harnick began his career writing words and music to comic songs in musical revues. One of these, "The Merry Minuet", was popularized by the Kingston Trio. It is in the caustic style usually associated with Tom Lehrer and is sometimes incorrectly attributed to him.”
1925: The Revisionist party (Brith HaTzionim HaRevisionistim) was founded by Zev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky.in Paris, France. Jabotinsky was an ardent Zionist. He had already made Aliyah. In 1921 he took up arms to help defend the Jewish community from attacks by armed, Arab mobs. The British arrested Jabotinsky and imprisoned him. This experience was one of the factors that led him to demand a more aggressive policy toward the British believing that only worldwide pressure would force the British to abide by the mandate. The revisionist believed that the highest priority of the Zionist movement should be in bringing greatest number of Jews to Eretz –Israel in the shortest possible time. Jabotinsky would die of a heart attack in 1940. Menachem Begin would inherit his political and spiritual mantle. As head of the Irgun, Begin waged war against the British after 1945 when it became obvious that the British were going to continue their pro-Arab, anti-Jewish policies.
1926: Birthdate of Cloris Leachman. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Leachman has enjoyed a long and distinguished film and television career. Two of her most famous films were "The Last Picture Show" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
1929: In Tel Aviv, the fourth Palestine and Near East Exhibition comes to a close.
1929: Nathan Straus presided over the opening of the Nathan and Lena Straus Health Care Center in Tel Aviv. Straus presented this modern health facility to Hadassah which will administer for the benefit of all the inhabitants – Jew, Christian and Moslem – with the only goal being to improve the quality and length of life of all citizenry.
1935: Jews were no longer allowed to display the German flag. This was quite disturbing to the thousands of Jews who had fought for the Kaiser in World War I
1936: The Flying Camel spreads its wings on the shores of the Mediterranean as the emblem of the Levant Fair opening today in Tel Aviv.
1936(7th of Iyar, 5696): August Lederer, an Austrian industrialist and patron of the arts who was best known for his connection with Gustav Klimt passed away.
1940: The Lodz Ghetto was officially sealed. The Jews were resettled in the Lodz Ghetto in an action replete with brutality, looting, abuse, and murder. As they were led to the ghetto, snipers on rooftops opened fire on them to frighten them and expedite their departure. They fled to the ghetto in panic. When The Lodz Ghetto approximately 164,000 Jews from Lodz were packed into its four square kilometers, of which only two and a half square kilometers were built. The congestion in the area that comprised the ghetto was seven times greater than it had been before the war. The ghetto area was carved into three sectors by two main streets that linked neighborhoods outside the ghetto. Wretched conditions including congestion, hunger, cold, and poor sanitation led immediately to mass mortality.
1941: Having installed the Ustasha movement as the government of occupied Croatia, the Nazis watched as on this date their willing puppet enacted a new definition of the term "Jew." This enabled the Croat government to enact the Nazi inspired plan for the treatment of the Jews. At the same, this definition caused some dissension in the ranks of the anti-Semites since it created a loophole designed to protect the Jewish wives of some of the non-Jewish Ustasha leaders.
1942: Today the Germans ordered the Jews of Pinsk to move into the ghetto by 4:00 p.m. on May 1. More than 20,000 persons were packed into the ghetto, a cramped area in a slum quarter
1942(13th of Iyar, 5702): Twelve hundred Jews were killed in Diatlovo, Belorussia. The Jews offered armed resistance, but it was futile.
1943: During a trip to Palestine, Archbishop Spellman visits Haifa and Tel Aviv where he has lunch with Brig. Gen. R.W. Crawford, head of the United States Service Command.
1943: By the end of the month of April Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto began to falter as bunkers were broached by German troops. Artillery bombardment of the ghetto had foiled Jewish strategy of engaging Germans in costly hand-to-hand combat.
1943: The German government established Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews. The camp was located in northwest Germany. Approximately 40,000 perished there from a variety of forms of inhumane treatment. Anne Frank died there in March, 1945, a month before the camp was liberated by the allies.
1943: At Dj. Arada, Tunisia, Lance-Corporal John Patrick Kenneally accompanied by a sergeant, charged the enemy forming up for assault, inflicting many casualties. Even when wounded he refused to give up, but hopped from one fire position to another, carrying his gun in one hand and supporting himself on a comrade with the other. He was awarded the VC for bravery for this action. This was a repeat performance for Kenneally who showed similar bravery on April 28.
1943: Birthdate of Ze'ev Boim, a native of Jerusalem who moved from teaching to a career in politics that including servings as the Mayor of Kiryat Gat for 13 years and a member of the Knesset. (As reported by Jonathan Lis)
1943(25th of Nisan, 5703): According to reports, 2,000 Jews being deported to Sobibor attacked their guards. All of the deportees fell victim to hand grenades and machine gun fire.
1943:A New York Times article published today titled "Hopeful Hint Ends Bermuda Sessions" stated that recommendations which were not capable of being accomplished under war conditions and which would most likely delay the war effort of the United Nations were rejected. [Editor’s Note:The title is a strange one since the conference offered no hope whatsoever to the Jews of Europe.]
1944: Two thousand Jews were deported from Topolya, Hungry to Birkenaus. This is the second deportation from Hungry to Birkenau. Once again the Nazis have the Jews write postcards to their family back home telling them not to worry.
1945: In Berlin, Hitler murdered Eva Braun and then committed suicide in his bunker. The bodies are then carried outside and cremated. Years later, the Soviet government released a report stating that their troops had recovered the charred remains and brought them back for verification. What finally happened to the bodies is still in dispute although they no longer exist.
1945: The Red Army liberated 23,000 Jews and non-Jews from Ravensbruck. One of the oldest of the camps, it was opened in 1939 just north of Berlin. It was primarily a camp for women. In the last two years of its existence 90,000 were killed there. The camp was noted for its medical experiments in which the inmates were used for experimental purposes. As the retreating Nazis were forced to shut down the gas chambers in Poland, they built one at Ravenbruck that opened in early 1945. This puts the lie to the idea that the Final Solution was not an integral part of the Nazi program from start to finish.
1945: Concentration camp München-Allag was liberated.
1946(29th of Nisan, 5706):Seven Jews were murdered by anti-Semitic Poles at Nowy Targ, Poland, very near to where five Jews were killed on April 21
1949(1st of Iyar, 5709): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1950: A compromise was reached today among competing factions of the trade union movement in Israel that will allow tomorrow’s May Day celebrations to go on as planned. Histadrut had threatened to cancel the festivities unless the “pro-Soviet minority” agreed to march without banners carrying proclamations that would be offensive to “the western democracies.”
1952(5th of Iyar, 5712): Yom HaAtzma'ut
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in its First of May Day proclamation, the Histadrut Executive will announce that all Palestine Arab workers wishing to do so, will henceforth be admitted to the Histadrut's Trade Unions, as of May 1, 1953.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that a gang of Bedouin terrorists mined a bridge on the Nitzana-Beersheba road and opened fire when an army truck was passing by. Nobody was hurt, but the bridge was damaged.
1955: Birthdate of Menachem Mazuz who served as Israeli Attorney General from 2004 to 2010.
1961(14th of Iyar, 5721): Pesach Sheni
1961(14th of Iyar, 5721): Seventy-three year old Israeli political leader Peretz Naftali passed away today.
1963: Founding of Haifa University
1970(24th of Nisan, 5730): Jacques (Jacob) Presser passed away. Born in 1899, he was a Dutch historian, writer and poet best known for his book “Ashes in the wind: The destruction of the Dutch Jews” on the history of the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands during World War II. Yet he also made a significant contribution to Dutch historical scholarship, as well as to European historical scholarship.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that despite Israeli protests and the U.S. Congress pressure, the U.S. President Jimmy Carter reiterated that the joint sale of U.S. jets to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia was in Israel's best interests. He refused, however, to say what his Administration will do if the Congress will veto any part of this three-country package.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, left for Washington on his second successive visit to U.S. and President Carter, in an apparent attempt to resolve the problem of the stalled Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that there were mixed feelings in Israel about the prospects of the third pullback in South Lebanon, moving to the line west, from about six to ten kilometers, from the Israeli border. There was a growing uncertainty whether the UNIFIL, which was filling the gap, would protect Israel from further terrorist activities.
1979: Paul Massing, author of Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study Of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany passed away today
1982: An Israeli Cabinet official who received a suspended prison sentence last week for larceny and breach of trust resigned from the Cabinet today. The official, Aharon Abuhazira, Minister of Labor, Welfare and Immigrants Absorption, submitted his letter of resignation to the Prime Minister's office after the Central Committee of his party, Tami, authorized it
1983: “King Hussein of Jordan said today that the United States was partly responsible for the collapse of his talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization on President Reagan's peace plan.”
1985(9th of Iyar, 5745): Mickey Katz passed away. Born in 1909, Katz was comedian and musician who specialized in Yiddish humor. In his day he was known as what they called "a novelty band leader" i.e. a Jewish Spike Jones. Katz is also known for being the father of Joel Grey and the grandfather of Jennifer Gray.
1986: The city of Houston declared today Albert Moses Levy Memorial Day, in honor of Jews who participated in the fight for Texas
1986: In Savannah, Georgia, Mary and Ronald S. Agron gave birth to actress Dianna Elise Agron who went to Hebrew School and celebrated her Bat Mitzvah before pursuing her show biz career.
1987: Thomas Friedman reports that an Islamic revival is quickly gaining ground in the most unlikely of places – Israel. “From Israeli Arab villages in the northern Galilee, to the turbulent Palestinian universities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to the teeming refugee districts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, an Islamic revival is taking place among Moslems living under Israeli control. The revival was inspired in part by the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But it is also a home-grown movement of Palestinian Moslems seeking strength to confront Israel by returning to their classic Islamic identities that once brought them grandeur… What this means for the already intractable Arab-Israeli conflict, said Eli Rekhess, a Tel Aviv University expert on Israeli Arabs, is that future 'coexistence will be that much more difficult and the lines of differences between the two communities that much sharper.’''
1989:Several thousand people, many of them Holocaust survivors and their families, gathered in midtown Manhattan to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in which Polish Jews fought the Nazis in 1943.
1996(11th of Iyar, 5756): David Op