May 23 In History
1052: Birthdate of Philip I, King of France who passed away in 1108. Philip’s life overlapped that of Rashi (1040-1105). In his day, Philip certainly was more powerful than the wine merchant of Troyes. But how many people study Philip today and how many Rashi read. Philip was the king during the First Crusade. However, he was not allowed to participate because Pope Urban II had excommunicated him. This may account, to some extent, why the Jews of France did not suffer in the same as did their Germanic co-religionist during what turned out to be the start of one of the deadliest periods of Jewish history.
1275: King Edward I of England ordered the cessation of persecution of Jews of Bordeaux, France. This was at a time when English kings still had holdings in France and dreams of sitting on the French throne. This is the same Edward who will eventually banish the Jews from England after draining them of all of their wealth.
1420: Albert V (Austria) accused a rich Jew, Israel of Enns, of purchasing a wafer in order to desecrate it. All the Jews in the territory were jailed, dispossessed of their property, separated from their families and then subjected to attempts at forced conversion.
1420: At the behest of the Church, Duke Albrecht ordered the forcible conversion of the Jews of Austria. Those that had not converted or escaped or been sent off in the boats were burned at the stake on March 12, 1421, and their beautiful synagogue destroyed.
1421: Those Jews still remaining in Austria were imprisoned and/or expelled.
1423: Benedict XIII, the Avignon-based "antipope" known for his relentless persecution of the Jews died today.
1498: Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk who was a violent opponent of the comparatively philo-Semitic Pope Alexander VI was convicted as a heretic and burned at the stake on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
1510: Emperor Maximilian of
Germany
rescinded a previously issued order to burn all Hebrew books.
1524: Ismail I, Shah of Persia and founder of the Safavid dynasty passed away. Conditions for the Jews of Persia declined under the Safavids when they adopted Shia Islam as the state religion. “Shi'ism assigns importance to the issues of ritual purity ― tahara. Non-Muslims, including Jews, are deemed to be ritually unclean ― najis. Any physical contact would require Shi'as to undertake ritual purification before doing regular prayers. Thus, Persian rulers, and the general populace, sought to limit physical contact between Muslims and Jews. Jews were excluded from public baths used by Muslims. They were forbidden to go outside during rain or snow, as an "impurity" could be washed from them upon a Muslim.”
1533: The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. As a condition to their marriage, Henry’s father promised Catherine’s Spanish parents that Jews would never be allowed to settle in England. When Henry decided to divorce Catherine he claimed that the marriage had taken place in violation of biblical law. He sought the support of Italian rabbis in making this claim. The Rabbis did not support the English monarch, probably figuring that there was no reason to antagonize the Pope (who was a lot closer) than a distant English monarch.
1536: In
Portugal
, Pope Paul
III
acting upon the petition of King John
III
, issued a Bull providing for the establishment of the inquisition based on the Spanish archetype. It lasted until September 1774 with the last auto da fe held in October 1765.
1552: Sebastian Munster, the first Christian to publish a complete edition of the Bible in Hebrew passed away.
1555: Paul IV began his Papacy during which he issued Dudum postquam, the papal bull that expanded a 10-ducat tax on Jewish synagogues to help finance catechumen houses in Rome
1568: Netherlands declared independence from Spain. Protestant Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War. The conflict combined politics and religion as Protestant Dutchmen rebelled against Catholic Spain. Holland had provided a haven for Sepharidic Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition. A community of Portuguese merchants had settled in Amsterdam prior to the outbreak of hostilities. The Protestant clergy were not exactly thrilled about the Jews settling in the country and it took several decades for the Jews of Holland to gain full acceptance.
1572 (18 Iyar 5332): On Lag B’Omer Moses Isserles, also known as the Rama passed away Born sometime between 1520 and 1525, he was the son of Israel Isserles, “ a wealthy leader of the Cracow community who, in 1553, received royal dispensation to build a synagogue in memory of his wife which is known as the Ream Synagogue.” Moses Isserles served as Rosh (Head of the) Yeshiva in
Krakow
. His main work was called Mappah Hashulchan ("The Tablecloth") which adapted Caro’s Shulchan Aruch to the needs and customs of Ashkenazi Jewry, It was called the “The Tablecloth” because it “covered” the Shulchan Aruch which is translated as “the prepared table.” In other words he covered Caro’s Sephardic Table with an Ashkenazic Tablecloth. An earlier work, Darke Moshe Hakatzar (The Ways of Moses Abridged) was written in response to Caro’s comprehensive book on Jewish law called Beit Yoseph.He was known as well for the almost 100 Responsa he published. Isserles tried to strengthen the stature of many customs, elevating them almost to the level of Halachah (Jewish Law). On the other hand he was very lenient when it came to cases of stress or financial loss.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111847/jewish/Rabbi-Moshe-Isserles-The-Remo.htm
1578: The Ottoman Sultan rescinded the order to deport the wealthy Jews of Safed to the island of Cyprus. He did this because the Jews of Safed were said to be paying taxes which were used to help maintain the Dome of the Rock.
1618: In
Prague
, an assembly of Protestants threw three Catholic officials out of the window after they had found them guilty of violating a law concerning religious expression. This event precipitated the Thirty Years War, so called because it lasted from 1618 to 1648. Much of the war was fought in the Germanic principalities. During the war Jews suffered at the hands of both sides with pogroms taking place in
Frankfort
,
Worms
and
Jena
.
1633: The French government issues an edict allowing only Catholics to settle in Canada. The target of the ban was the Huguenots but it applied to the Jews as well. Jews would not be able to settle in Canada until after the British were victorious in what Americans call the French-Indian War
1637(28th of Iyar): Seven Jews, including Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac, were murdered today in Cracow.
1708(4th of Sivan): Rabbi Solomon ben David de Oliveria, author of “Ez Hayyim” passed away today.
1749(7th of Sivan, 5509): Second Day of Shavuot
1749(7th of Sivan, 5509): Abraham ben Abraham, who had been a Polish noble named Count Valentine Potocki before he converted to Judaism, was burned at the stake because he had renounced Catholicism and becoming a practicing Jew.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12317-potocki-pototzki-count-valentine-abraham-b-abraham
1773: Distinctions between Old Christians and New Christians were banned in Portugal. It was said this was because of a huge bribe from the Jews, but either way, this ban became law.
1788: South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to John Locke who wrote South Carolina’s original constitution Jews, along with heathens and dissenters were guaranteed “freedom of conscience.” Jews began voting in the colony’s elections in 1702. By 1750, there were enough Jews in the colony to warrant the building of the first synagogue in Charleston “which called itself “Beth Elohim” (House of God). Francis Salvador was the most prominent Jewish leader when the Revolution began in 1775. In 1790, South Carolina enacted legislation that was intended to abolish religious discrimination.
1825(6thof Sivan, 5585): First Day of Shavuot
1846: In Fürth, Bavaria, Joel and Babette (Elsasser) Krakauer gave birth to Adolph Krakauer who came to New York in 1865 and then to Texas where became a successful merchant and leading businessman in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas before his death in 1914.
1848: Birthdate of Otto Lilienthal German born aviation pioneer. He died in 1896 after one of his gliders failed to work properly.
1851: Richard Lalor Sheil an Irish writer, orator, and Member of Parliament passed away. Jews should remember Sheil as a supporter of measures to allow Jews to sit as members of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Following the Rothschild’s election to the House of Commons Sheil delivered a speech entitled “On Disabilities of the Jews” that began included these words in the opening paragraph, “A British subject ought in every regard to be considered a British citizen; and inasmuch as the professors of the most ancient religion in the world, which, as far as it goes, we not only admit to be true, but hold to be the foundation of our own, are bound to the performance of every duty which attaches to a British subject, to a full fruition of every right which belongs to a British citizen, they have, I think, an irrefragable title. A Jew born in England can not transfer his allegiance from his sovereign and his country; if he were to enter the service of a foreign power engaged in hostilities with England and were taken in arms he would be accounted a traitor. Is a Jew an Englishman for no other purposes than those of condemnation? I am not aware of a single obligation to which other Englishmen are liable from which a Jew is exempt; and if his religion confers on him no sort of immunity it ought not to affect him with any kind of disqualification.”
1859: Two Polish Jews, Philip Moses and Samuel Preiss filed a complaint today claiming that a tailor name William Meyer had attacked Preiss and stolen his watch while Preiss was in his store. The two plaintiffs gave such contradictory stories that it led the Judge to believe that Meyer was actually the victim of blackmail attempt. He charged Moses and Preiss with attempted blackmail and filing a false police report. The two complaining witnesses are now defendants and since they could make bail they are awaiting trial in the city jail. [So all of our ancestors weren’t Kohanim or psalmists, so what?]
1863: Ferdinand Lasalle formed the General German Workers ’Association (ADAV), Germany’s first labor party today. He also began serving as its President, a position he would hold until his death in August of 1863.
1870: The annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites was held this evening at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City. The report of the Executive Committee included a comprehensive look at conditions of Jews in a various communities. The committee reported that the Governor of Syria had agreed to allow the purchase of land for a Jewish agricultural school. Construction will begin as soon as the government at Constantinople gives its approval. Romanian Jews, including those living in Bucharest, Vacco and Salatz have been the victims of violent attacks. Jews continued to suffer in Russia and they continue to subject to laws prohibiting them from living near the frontier. Halevy has not begun his trip to China where he is to gain information on the condition of the Jews living there. At its recent meeting in Paris, the Universal Alliance reported that it had 12,000 members around the world. The committee urged that other states adopt laws similar to the one in New York that allows Jews who observe the Sabbath to work on Sunday, despite the existence of “Blue Laws.” The committee urged the Jewish population to support Maimonides College. The committee credited “the good sense of the American public” that organizations attempting to Christianitize the U.S. Constitution had meant with little success.
1871: An Imperial Ukase (proclamation) has been issued order the Jews of Poland to change their appearance by doing away with their long black coats and trimming their beards and side-curls.
1873: Birthdate of Rabbi Leo Baeck. His most famous work was The Essence of Judaism. He believed in ethical monotheism as part of the core of Judaism. Unlike contemporary rationalists, he also acknowledged that the mystery of God was also essential to Jewish belief. He saw the need for the experiencing God at the emotional level. This experience would lead to the ethical behavior. Also, Baeck saw the need for ritual as an affirmation of the concept of people hood. Baeck chose not to leave
Germany
. He was imprisoned at Terezienstadt. His faith survived the experience. He passed away in 1956.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/baeck.html
1874(7th of Sivan, 5634): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1875: “An Interesting Jewish Ceremony” published today described the conversion ceremony of Henrietta Held at which Rabbi Marx Cohn officiated.
1875: “Michel Levy: The Life of a Great French Publisher” published today described the shock in Paris at the death of this 54 year old literary leader and provided a detailed account of his life and accomplishments.
1877: In Paterson, NJ, Judge Barkalow will begin to hear evidence in divorce case involving Moses Fananholz (or Tananholz) originally from Chicago and his wife the former Rachel Blumenthal from Montreal. The wife claims that her husband only married her for her money; that she that the ceremony was only for a betrothal under Jewish custom and not a marriage ceremony; and that since she was under the age of 18 (the age of consent) when the ceremony was performed the marriage was illegal.
1879: An article published today entitled “Proposed Hebrew Convention” described the preparations that are being made for the upcoming meeting in New York of delegates representing the “various branches of he Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Agenda items will include a report on charitable activities and a report on the activities at the college the Union controls which trains young men to serve as rabbis. One major topic of discussion will be the proposed to change Jewish Sabbath services from Saturday to Sunday.
1879(1st of Sivan, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1886: Birthdate of Moshe David Drabkin known as David Remez the native of Belarus who made Aliyah in 1913 with his wife Liba. At the end of his long, rich career he was one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948 and served as cabinet minister in Ben-Gurion’s first two governments.
1887: Oscar S. Straus, the new United States Minister to Turkey and his family arrived in Constantinople today. They had been expected ten days earlier but were delayed when their daughter became ill in Vienna.
1890: It was reported today Mrs. Charles Peterson claims an unnamed Jewish peddler had pitched her nine month old daughter into a tub of water. The mother claims she “was absent at the time” and has not offered a basis for the claim.
1890: All of the children of the late Herman Frohman “applied for and secured from the Court of Common Please a writ de lunatic” which will force their mother, Mary Frohman, to answer charges that she is “a lunatic.” This is part of a dispute over the estate of the deceased Jewish butcher.
1891: A fire broke early today at tenement house at 38 Ludlow Street which is home to 18 Jewish families.
1892: “A resolution of sympathy for the Jews of Russia was introduced and passed” at today’s session of a conference of Methodist leaders being held in Omaha, Nebraska. “The resolution declared that it was the sense of the conference that the Jews in Russia were being unmercifully persecuted” and that “it was the hope of the conference that Russian Jews would soon enjoy the same rights as other people.”
1893: It was reported today there are only two Jewish murderers imprisoned at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Sixty year old Adolph Reich is serving a life sentence for having killed his wife. He had been sentenced to death, but the Governor commuted his sentence. Charles Lovitz was found guilty of murder in the second degree after having shot his wife.
1894: On the second day of the First American Conference of Hebrew and Christian Workers for Israel, Reverend James Adler delivered a talk on “Dry Bones” which included a recitation of his problems in trying to convert Jews.
1894: “Congress of Liberal Religionists” published today described meetings being held at Temple Sinia in Chicago, Illinois that include representatives of Reform Movement and other denominations such as the Unitarians and the Ethical Cultural Movement with the hope “of securing closer cooperation between the denominations of liberal religious societies.” The congress is an outgrowth of the Parliament of Religions which was held in Chicago during the World’s Fair.
1895: It was reported today that Max Casten, alias “Jew Sam” has been arrested in St. Louis, MO, on charges of stealing $2,500 worth of diamonds
1898: Martin Beir, the Rochester fire insurance agent, was in New York on business today
1898: “Patriotism of the Jews” published today included a declaration by Rabbi Rudolph Grossman that the United States war with Spain “was of Divine ordering” and that Spain’s kingdom in the western hemisphere is “finished
1898: It was reported today that there one thousand Jewish officers in the Austro-Hungary Army, that one further of the officers in the French Army are Jews and that there were 10,000 Jews in the Union Army.
1899: Charles Latimer who has been accused of being one of the men who attacked Leopold Levy is being held by police. Levy has died of from the wounds that Latimer and his unknown compatriots inflicted on the 49 year old salesman.
1900: Birthdate of Franz Leopold Neumann “a German-Jewish left-wing political activist and labor lawyer, who …is considered to be among the founders of modern political science in the Federal Republic of Germany.”
1900: Herzl seeks support at a meeting with Ernest von Koerber, Austrian political leader who served as Prime Minister from 1900 to 1904.
1903: Following the Kishinev Pogrom Wenzel von Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior “rebuffed a Jewish delegation that asked for a condemnation of the massacre and relaxation of anti-Jewish rules.”
1903: Herzl writes to Wenzel von Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior and to Konstantin Pobiedonostzev asking them to arrange an audience with the Czar. Herzl also turned to Bertha von Suttner and asks for her assistance in this matter. Von Sutter was an Austrian writer, pacifist and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
1907: “Apology to Mrs. Frank” published today described events surrounding the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel’s refusal of service to Mrs. Bertha Rayner Franks and her two nieces because they were Jewish and the subsequent apology by Josiah White & Sons, the Atlantic City hotel’s owner.
1908: Birthdate of architect Max Abramovitz. Two of his most famous designs were
Lincoln
Center
and the UN building.
1909(3rd of Sivan, 5669): Elias Solomon, an Australian politician, passed away. Born in 1839, in London, England, he migrated to Australia as a child. He had no formal education, but in 1868 became a clerk and auctioneer in Fremantle in Western Australia. In 1877 he was elected to the Fremantle City Council. In 1892, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly as the member for South Fremantle, where he remained until 1901. In that year, he transferred to federal politics, winning the Australian House of Representatives seat of Fremantle for the Free Trade Party. He was defeated by Labor's William Carpenter in 1903.
1910: Birthdate of bandleader Artie Shaw. Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in
New York
, he became a popular "big band" bandleader whose hits included "Come'on my House".
1911: Dedication ceremony of the New York Public Library. Over the next century, the library would provide countless generations of Jews a variety of cultural and educational opportunities. The library’s “Dorot Jewish Division is one of the great collections of Judaica in the world and the most accessible for both scholarly and personal use. While the collection offers commentary on all aspects of Jewish life it also includes Hebrew and Yiddish-language texts on general subjects.”
1912(7th of Sivan, 5672): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1912: Tonight, at a meeting of the American Immigration and Distribution League at the Hotel Manhattan, Montefiore G. Kahn, Acting Secretary of the organization, announced that he would give the league 13,000 acres of farming and clay lands in New Jersey, valued by the donor at more than $2,600,000. The land was to be parceled out free to deserving immigrants who desire to become farmers.
1914: Birthdate of actor and critic Leo Lerman, author and editor for style setting magazines including Mademoiselle, Vogue and Vanity Fair.
1922: Premier of "Abie's Irish Rose." This was the first of over 2,500 performances seen by an estimated fifty million attendees.
1925: Birthdate of Dr. Joshua Lederberg “an American molecular biologist who is known for his work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. He was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in 1958 for his research in genetic structure and function in microorganisms. The other half of that year's prize was shared by Edward Lawrie Tatum and George Wells Beadle. In addition to his contributions to biology, Lederberg did extensive research in artificial intelligence. This included work in the NASA experimental programs seeking life on Mars and the chemistry expert system Dendral. Lederberg’s parents had moved to the United States from Palestine in 1924. His father was an Orthodox Rabbi. Fortunately for the world of science when Lederberg was Bar Mitzvahed in 1938 he received a copy of Bodansky's” Introduction to Physiological Chemistry,” a book that he said had a tremendous impact on his scientific development.
1926: Birthdate of Amos Degani, the Tel Aviv native whose political career included serving as an MK from 1957 to 1969.
1926: The United Jewish Campaign in New York is scheduled to come to an end today.
1927: Birthdate of Dieter Hildebrandt, the German non-Jew who directed the Academy Award nominated documentary “The Yellow Star – The Persecution of the Jews in Europe 1933-45.”
1929: Birthdate of Marvin J. Chomsky who won Emmy Awards for his direction “Holocaust” in `978 and “Inside the Third Reich” in 1982.
1929: In Palestine, the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel HaTzair, the two major labor parties sign an agreement that will merge the two parties into one. The merger is slated to take place on July 25.
1933: The all-Jewish Platoon of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps was expanded to an all-Jewish company under the command of Captain Noel S. Jacobs. While the unit’s chaplain was Rabbi Mendel Brown, the leader of the Sephardic community, most of the members were Russian Jews
1934: The Palestine Jewish National Assembly orchestrated a general strike against the immigration ban that was scheduled to last from noon until 7 p.m. this evening. During the strike, fifty Jewish strikers in Tel Aviv were wounded in clashes with the police. Twenty of the wounded were described as being in serious condition.
1935:Joseph "Yosky" Toblinsky participated in the hijacking of a truck while driving through Sullivan County today escaping with $8,000 worth of pharmaceutical drugs. He also kidnapped the driver and his assistant. Born in 1879, Toblinsky “was a New York City racketeer who, as head of an independent gang on East Side Manhattan, was involved in extortion and poisoning horses with the Yiddish Black Hand during the early 1900s. He was… sent to Sing Sing Prison for cruelty to animals in 1902.”
1937: Birthdate of Jerome Rosenberg who would hold the dubious distinction of being the longest serving prisoner in New York State when he died.
1938: As Arab violence continued unabated, The Palestine Post reported that Yitzhak Yitzhaki, 55, was attacked and stabbed to death by two Arabs near the Beit Vegan quarter of Jerusalem. Ezekiel Muncik, 25, a supernumerary constable from Kfar Yona was shot and killed during one of the Arab attacks on Hanita. Another young settler, Abraham Katz was severely wounded only one hour later and it was impossible to Ctake him to hospital. A police sergeant, injured in an earlier attack, died of his wounds in the
Haifa
hospital. Two Arabs were injured by a bomb explosion in Tiberias.
1939: Following the adoption of the infamous MacDonald White Paper which all but put an end to Jewish immigration in Palestine, Winston Churchill, who was still a political outcast, spoke in favor of Jewish immigration telling the House of Commons, "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population. Now are being asked to decree that all this is to come to an end. We are now asked to submit, and this is what rankles most with me, to an agitation which fed with foreign money and ceaselessly inflamed by Nazi and by Fascist propaganda." (According to Martin Gilbert, Churchill was right. "Between 1922 and 1939 more Arabs had entered Palestine than Jews." Many of these immigrants were drawn to Palestine by the improving economic conditions which were often a product of Jewish settlement. Ironically, these Moslems who came from a variety of North African and Middle Eastern countries would be counted among the "Palestinian refugees" that are with us to this date.)
1939: During a debate on the Peel Commission’s White Paper, Winston Churchill defends the Balfour Declaration and criticizes Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for betraying the Zionists and turning his back on a document he had so ardently supported twenty years before. “They (the Jewish settlers) have fulfilled his (Chamberlain) hopes. How can he find it in his heart to strike them this mortal blow?” Upon hearing of the speech, Weizmann telegraphed Churchill” “Your magnificent speech may yet destroy this policy. Words fail me to express thanks.”
1939: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Long, criticized the McDonald White Paper in a speech in the House of Lords.
1939: In Palestine, on the eve of the Shavuot holiday, seven new settlements are established simultaneously. In all, twelve new settlements are established in May, expressing the faith that even in the grim new circumstances of the White Paper, settlement was one of the essential means of fighting for the Zionist aim.
1940: Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay the anti-Semitic, pro-fascist Member of Parliament was arrested and lodged in Brixton Prison on an order under Defence Regulation 18B
1940: As French forces flee from the attacking German Army, Margaret and Hans Rey returned to Paris from Normandy.
1940: Frustrated by "illegal" immigration into
Palestine
, British High Commissioner for Palestine Sir Harold MacMichael insists that
Hungary
accept the return of two Jews who had left
Hungary
and settled in
Palestine
in 1934 on tourist visas. The Hungarian government replies that there are an "excessive" number of Jews in their country and the government's aim is "that as many as possible should be encouraged to emigrate."
1940: Lord Lloyd, the Secretary of State for Colonies express his opposition to Prime Minister Churchill’s plan to arm the Jews of Palestine so that he could bring the 20,000 British troops stationed in Palestine home to defend against a possible German invasion. Lloyd feared the reaction of the Arabs to what Churchill saw as a way of providing for self-defense while meeting the Nazi menace.
1941: Birthdate of Zalman King Lefkowitz who as Zalman King gained fame as “a filmmaker who mixed artistic aspiration, a professed empathy for female sexuality and gauzy photography to bring soft-core pornography to cable television — particularly with his Showtime series “Red Shoe Diaries” in the 1990s…´(As reported by Douglas Martin)
1942(7th of Sivan, 5702): Second Day of Shavuot
1942: The Nazis deported the Jews from Stopkov, Slovakia, including the Findling family today and sent them to Auschwitz
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/08.asp
1943: Nazi Aktionen kill thousands of Ukrainian Jews at Przemyslany and
Lvov
.
1944(1st of Sivan, 5704): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1944: In New York, Rabbi Samuel Belkin was inaugurated as President of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshiva College. An honorary degree of Doctor of Law was conferred upon Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone and an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Rabbi Isaac Rubinstein, former Chief Rabi of Vilna and a twenty six year member of the Sejm (the Polish Senate.)
1944: In Peekskill, NY, June and David Polis gave birth to Susan Polis who gained fame as Susan Polis Schultz an American poet, producer of greeting cards and the mother of Colorado Congressman Jared Polis.
1945: Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler committed suicide.
1945: Two weeks after the German surrender, Chaim Weizmann writes to Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealing for an end to the White Paper and restrictions on Jewish immigration to Eretz
Israel
. The appeal would fall on deaf ears.
1946: A mob of rioting Poles attacked Zypora Frank and her family today which was Zypora’s birthday. According to Mrs. Frank, ''They threw stones, they were yelling, 'You take our coal and give us the Jews,' and somebody threw a grenade.'' Two people were killed, one right next to the 11-year-old girl, spattering her birthday dress with blood. Following another pogrom in July, Mrs. Frank’s parents would decide to send their children to Palestine. They were sure that the Poles would finish what the Germans had begun.
1947: The British intercepted a three-masted Italian schooner today off the shore of Palestine containing 1,457 Jews who were trying to enter the country. The Jews, most of whom were Polish, Russian or Hungarian, had been on the ship for over two weeks. They had named the vessel Mordei Hagetaoth (Ghetto Fighters) and placed a sign on the deck, written in English proclaiming “From the ruins of the ghetto to our own country – our only refuge – Open the gates.
1948: The only advance of the Arab Legion beyond the
Old
City
walls into "Jewish Jerusalem" was halted in front of Notre Dame. The commander of the Arab Legion, Sir John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha), considered that battle to be the worst defeat suffered by the legion throughout the war.
1948: The settlement of Allonei Abba was established by Holocaust survivors from
Czechoslovakia
,
Romania
and
Germany
. Even as the war with the Arabs was heating up, Jewish settlements were being started. When you consider the conditions in
Israel
at the time, this hast to make the Jews “the eternal optimists” in the truest sense of the term. The name of the settlement came from two Hebrew words. Allonei is a form of the Hebrew word Allon, meaning Oak which served as a reminder of the Tabor Oaks that grew nearby. Abba was the first name of Abba Berdichev. Berdichev had parachuted into
Czechoslovakia
in 1943 with orders to assist British clandestine forces and aid Jews trapped in Hitler’s death trap. Like so many of the others sent on such missions, Abba Berdichev was captured and killed.
1948: Egyptian forces began its attack on the Jewish settlement of Negba with an artillery barrage. The Egyptian force consisted of 2,000 well armed troops as well as support from the Egyptians Air Force. The Jewish force at Negba consisted of 70 soldiers from the Haganah and 75 members of the settlement. They lacked artillery, air cover and pretty much anything else that a modern might need. Negba had to be held to keep the Egyptians from reaching Tel Aviv.<span style="mso-spacer