May 26 In History
1096(1st of Sivan): The Crusaders massacred the Jews of Neuss, Germany
1135: Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crowned in the Cathedral of Leon as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". At the start of his reign he curtailed “the rights and liberties which his father had granted the Jews. He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert might exercise legal authority over Christians, and he held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royal taxes.” After a few years, he adopted a more positive policy towards his Jewish subject. He restored the rights granted by his father and then granted new ones including the granting of a special fuero (charter) in 1136 that permitted the Jews of Guadalajara to outfit themselves like the Christian Knights of his kingdom. Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra (Nasi) was one of the King’s most influential advisors. After the conquest of Calatrava in 1147, the king placed Judah in command of the fortress, later making him his court chamberlain. The king held Judah ben Joseph stood in such high esteem that he granted Judah’s request to let the Jews who had fled from the Almohades to settle in Toledo. The reigns of Alfonso and his father are proof that Jews prospered, and suffered, under both Catholic and Moslem rule, depending upon the ruler and the time period.
1171: The first ritual murder accusation in Europe occurred in Blois, France. Fifty-one Jews were burned, seventeen of them women. As they were burning, they chanted the hymn 'Aleinu' (composed in Talmudic times). Rabbenu Tam declared a day of fasting and prayer in
England
,
France
and the
Rhineland
. One of those killed was Pulcinella (Puncelina), a favorite of Count Theobald, who tried to use her position to convince the count to release the Jews. The count decided to expel all the Jews left in his county but "allowed" himself to be persuaded to change his mind by a payment of 2000 pounds.
1232: Pope Gregory IX began the Inquisition in Aragon
1512: Bayezid II, the Ottoman Sultan who welcomed the Jews to his realm after the expulsion from Spain passed away. He not only sent a fleet under the command of Admiral Kemal Reis to evacuate the Jews, he sent a firman to all provinces telling the leaders to welcome the Jews. When you consider the large swath of territory he controlled (including much of southeastern Europe) this was quite gift. His Jewish subjects included Mordecai Comtino, Solomon ben Elijah Sharbit ha-Zahab, Shabbbethai ben Malkiel Cohen and poet Menahem Tamar.
1566: Birthdate of Sultan Mehmed III. During the reign of Sultan Mehmed III, Gabriel Buonaventura was appointed ambassador and established contacts with
Spain
. Solomon Eskenazi, Doctor Benveniste and Doctor Moshe Korina held positions at the palace. In 1597 Solomon Abenyaes (Marrano Name: Alvaro Mendez) prepared a treaty that was intended to ally the Ottoman Empire with England in the fight against king Philip of Spain.
1615(27th of Iyar): Abraham Samuel Bacharach, a leading Rabbi in Worms, passed away. Born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1575, he had married Eva Bacharach, the daughter of Isaac ben Simson ha-Kohen and the granddaughter of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel. She was the mother of Rabbi Moses Samson Bacharach and the grandmother of Rabbi Yair Bacharach, author of “Hawwot Yair.”
1648: As the Cossack uprising continued to gain momentum a force of Cossacks and Crimean Tatars attacked and defeated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces at the Battle of Korsun. The defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian forces followed the pattern seen at the battle at Zhovti Vody. The Poles retreated and the Cossacks continued moving westward gaining support as they went The slaughter of the Jews was about to begin in earnest.
1697: The British colony of South Carolina issued naturalization papers to Simon Valentine.
1712: The leaders of the Dutch Jewish community decided to dismiss Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi as the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam at the end of the three year term described in the letter of appointment he had been given in January of 1710. Ashkenazi vowed to fight the dismissal which apparently had been orchestrated by Aaron Polak Gokkes.
1724: Beginning of the papacy of Benedict XIII, the pope who issued “Emanavit nuper,” a Papal Bull, dealing with “the necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on a Jew.”
1753: In Zhitomir, the castle court under the influence of Bishop Solik of Kiev sentenced 33 Jews to death for the "ritual murder" of a Christian child. The entire evidence was based on the "confessions" of the innkeeper and his wife which had been made after being tortured, although they later retracted their statements. Thirteen of them were released upon converting. Many others, including the local Rabbi, were quartered alive. One couple converted on the spot and was granted a beheading.
1757(7th of Sivan): Rabbi Jacob Daniel of Ferrara author of “Eden Arukh” passed away.
1820: Birthdate of Dr. Samuel Kristeller
1848: As part of its policy to force the Jews to assimilate, the Russian government issued a decree providing for the establishment of a rabbinical committee to be attached to the Ministry of Interior.
1841(6th of Sivan, 5601): Shavuot
1854: Birthdate of Samuel Morais Hyneman a Philadelphia born lawyer who “was a member of the board of managers of Mikve Israel congregation, a member of the board of trustees the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York, and of the board of trustees of Gratz College, Philadelphia. He also served as president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association in Philadelphia, and served as an officer of The Hebrew Education Society in Philadelphia
1865(1st of Sivan, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1869: Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BU was founded by three Methodist businessmen who had been active in the abolitionist movement. “From the day of its opening, Boston University has admitted students of both sexes and every race and religion.” According to one source, BU has the second largest enrollment (by percentage) of any private university in the
United States
. According to the Hillel Foundation, which has a chapter on campus, three thousand of the school’s twenty thousand undergrads are Jewish and five hundred of the ten thousand grad students are Jewish. The school offers approximately thirty Jewish studies courses. The school offers both a major and a minor in Jewish Studies.
1871(6th of Sivan, 5631): First Day of Shavuot
1871: An article entitled “The Pentecost Festival” gives an amazingly detailed description of the Jewish festival of Shavuot.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C02E5DA173AE63BBC4E51DFB366838A669FDE
1871: The New York Times reported that “the feast of Pentecost, in Jewish parlance,” Shavuot, “or, as the German Jews call it” Shavuos, “began last evening and will be observed in all Jewish houses of prayer today.
1874: Judge P.J. Joachimsen presided over the annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites which was being held tonight at New York’s Temple Shaaray Tefillah. The Executive Committee recommended sending funds to aid the Jews of Romania and to support an agricultural school in Jaffa. (The funds for Romania reflected the concern of western Jewry for the worsening conditions of their co-religionists in that newly independent eastern European country. Funding for the school in Jaffa is one of the earliest examples of American Jewish support for what became the Zionist movement).
1876: It was reported today that at a recently adjourned meeting of delegates representing Hebrew congregations from various U.S. cities the possibility was discussed of establishing a seminary that would teach Jewish theology and the Hebrew language while preparing students to become Rabbis.
1881(27th of Iyar, 5641): Jakob Bernays a German philologist and philosophical writer passed away. The native of Hamburg German was born in 1824. His father, Isaac Bernays the first orthodox German rabbi to preach in the vernacular (German) his brother, Michael Bernays, was also a distinguished scholar. “Jakob studied from 1844 to 1848 at the University of Bonn, whose philological school, under Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl was the best in Germany. In 1853 he accepted the chair of classical philology at the newly founded Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, where he formed a close friendship with Theodor Mommsen. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for Leipzig, Bernays returned to his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. He remained at Bonn until his death.”
1881: Birthdate of Sophie Munk, who gained fame as Austrian-American therapist and write Sophie Lazarsfeld, the wife of attorney Robert Lazarsfeld and the mother of Paul Lazarsfeld.
1886: Birthdate of Asa Yoelson, better known as Al Jolson. Jolson's father was a cantor at B'nai Israel Synagogue at Fifth and Eye Street in Washington, D.C. Instead of following in his father's footsteps, Jolson ran away to New York where he began his career in show business. His greatest claim to fame was his starring role in The Jazz Singer, the first talking motion picture. Although Jolson never served in the Army (he was turned down when he tried to enlist during the Spanish American War for being too young) Jolson was an active participant in Bond Drives during subsequent wars. He also entertained the troops during World War I and
Korea
. In fact, he died after a trip to
Korea
in 1950.
1890(7th of Sivan, 5650): Second Day of Shavuot
1890(7th of Sivan, 5650): Hirschel Eliazer Kann, one of the co-founders of the Dutch banking house Lissa & Kann passed away today.
1890: “New Publications” published today included a detailed review of Jeremiah and His Times by Dr. T.K. Chenye a Professor at Oxford. He divided his work into two parts: “Judah’s Tragedy Down to the Death of Josiah” and “The Close of Judah’s Tragedy”
1890: It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler will be officiating at the upcoming confirmation services for the students at the Hebrew Free School.
1890: At a dinner held this evening by the Grand Army of the Republic in Lowell, MA, General Benjamin Butler delivered a speech in which he claimed that during the Civil War the soldiers had been paid “in depreciated currency while Jew bankers were paid in gold with interest.” During the Civil War, Lincoln had tolerated Butler as a general because he needed his political support. He was a politician, not a general as could be seen by his inept performance in the field.
1891: “Russia Home Policy” published today described the various aspects of the Czar’s anti-Semitic policies. Police are being sent throughout St. Petersburg with orders to arrest an Jews they find and ship them back to the Pale. Conditions are so bad in Kiev that even Jews who have a legal right to live there are allowing themselves to be expelled. The governor of Kiev has said “I will make Kiev too hot for the whole brood of rascals, rights or no rights.”
1892: Opposition was expressed today in the House of Representatives to an appropriation for the upcoming World’s Fair since exhibits would be open on Sunday in violation of the Christian Sabbath. No such concern was expressed for being open on Saturday.
1892: “Rome and the Hebrews” published today described the recent meeting that Jesse Seligman and Dr. O’Connell rector of the American College had with Cardinal Rampolla, Papal Secretary of State. In response to a request for protection of the Jews by the Catholic Church, Rampolla said that “the Popes…had always been the protectors of the Jews.” (Considering the behavior of the Popes following the revolts of 1848, this statement can best be described as, at best, “disingenuous”
1893: “Paulus Meyer Arrested” published today described the arrest of Paulus Meyer a Jewish convert and ex-Russian Talmudist “who asserted that he was an eye witness to a terrible massacre of Jews in Russia. He was arrested at the request of the German Supreme Tribunal at Leipzig.
1894: Emanuel Lasker became a World Champion chess player. Born in
Germany
, Lasker’s father was a cantor who feared that his son’s love of chess would take him away from his studies. Lasker won the championship when he was 26 which made him the youngest champion of his time.
1894: Theodore Seligman who is one of the executors of the will of his father, the late Jesse Seligman, filed “a statement of the condition of the estate” and “an itemized list of the bequests to the family and charitable societies in the Surrogate’s Office.
1895: “In The World Of Art” published today acknowledgement is made of the generosity of the men who arranged the East Side Art Exhibition in the auditorium of the Hebrew Institute which attracted a large throng of the less fortunate for whom this was the first opportunity to see such works.
1895: Birthdate of Professor Salo Wittmayer Baron, the author of a sweeping multivolume history of the Jews who “was undoubtedly the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century…” (As reported by Peter Steinfels)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/26/obituaries/salo-w-baron-94-scholar-of-jewish-history-dies.html?scp=2&sq=Salo+Wittmayer+Baron&st=cse&pagewanted=print
1895: Rabbi Joseph Silverman will deliver the opening prayer at today’s ceremony dedicating the new Hebrew Infant Asylum. Following remarks by New York City Mayor Strong, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and N.S. Rosenau will address the attendees. Cecilia Goldsmith is among those responsible for providing refreshments at the end of the event.
1896: Eben Israel Cemetery, the Jewish Cemetery in Cedar Rapids that served both the Orthodox Beth Jacob and Reform Temple Judah congregations opened. Max Oshman was one of the founders of the cemetery which is still in use at the start of the 21st century.
1896: Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia. Nicholas was the last of the Tsars. He was a weak man who lacked the skill to rule. He was also totally out of touch with what was going on in his country. The fact that he had three rabbis at his coronation did not mean that his views about Jews were any different from those of his predecessors. There were Pogroms both before and after the first uprising against the Tsar in 1905. The Tsar spent a great deal of money on anti-Semitic literature including mass distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He also supported the trumped up charges in the Bellis Case, the scandalous trumped charges in one of the last “Ritual Murder” of the 20th century. During his reign, the Tsar declared,” During my reign Jews in Russia will not enjoy equal rights.”
1890: The Chicago Jewish Courier has opened a drive to help defray the expenses of a newly formed Jewish military organization that is volunteering to serve in an Illinois Regiment that will probably join the fight against Spain.
1899: The Hebrew Union Veterans’ Association held its annual memorial service tonight at Temple Emanu-El. The event, which was well attended, began with the veterans marching en masse to house of worship by a drum and bugle corps.
1899: A list published today of the institutions receiving aid from the state of New York and the amount they are getting included: Sanitarium for Hebrew Children - $5,080; Hebrew Benevolent Society - $100,000; Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society - $99,500;
1903: Herzl meets the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna to ask for a territory habitable and cultivable by Europeans.
1905(21st of Iyar, 5665): French banker Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild passed away. Born in 1827, Alphonse was the son of James, the founder of the French branch of the House of Rothschild. He succeeded his father just before the Franco-Prussian War. After the French were defeated, Alphonse arranged the financing to pay for the indemnity the Germans extracted from the French as part of the peace settlement. The loan was a key to the re-emergence of
France
as a major European power. Rothschild also served as head of the French Jewish Community and was famed for his generous philanthropy. As a patron of the arts, he donated major works of art to over two hundred museums and galleries throughout
France
.
1905: A pogrom broke out in
Minsk
,
Russia
.
1908: At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia (Iran), the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom. The connection between the oil strike the quest to establish a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel is too obvious to have to explain.
1909(6th of Sivan, 5669): Shavuot
1910: Political trailblazer Belle Moskowitz wins passage of bill regulating New York dance halls
1911: In the Bronx, Gittle “Gussie” Weinstein and Yithak Asher “Isaac” Ephron gave birth to Henry Ephron. While he was a noted playwright , screenwriter and producer, his greatest claim to may be that he was the father of four daughter – Nora, Dilia, Hallie and Amy – who became famous writers in their own right.
1911: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, Jacob and Bessie Kushner gave birth to Aid Kushner, the Oak Park, Michigan, resident “who for many years…constructed models of famous synagogues from around the world including the state of Michigan as well as a model of President Truman’s home in Independence and an early British fort built at Detroit before it became part of the United States.
1912: The annual meeting of the Jewish Publication Society of America was held this evening at Keneseth Israel Temple in Philadelphia, PA. Edwin Wolfe, the president of the society, called the meeting to order. Oscar Solomon was the only member from Cedar Rapids, IA.
1914: Anglo-Jewish art dealer said today “that dispatches from New York were his first intimation that a syndicate of dealers heady by Duveens would hold a sale of the Morgan art treasures in London.” He said that in his opinion, “the story is false.”
1915: Herbert Samuel, 1stViscount Samuel, began serving as Postmaster-General under Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith.
1916: The Zion Mule Corps was disbanded after the end of the Gallipoli Campaign. The disbanding of this Jewish group did not represent a failure. The British were impressed with the bravery and diligence of the Jews and this led to the formation of a Jewish combat force in the British Army later in World War I. This was one more of the halting steps that would lead to the creation of the modern IDF.
1918: The
Georgian
Republic
declared its independence. With independence came freedom of speech, press, and organization, which improved the economic situation of the Jews of Georgia.
1920: Dr. H. Pereira Mendes resigns as Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in
New York
after 43 years.
1920: Birthdate of Jan Wiener, a Czech Jew who fought in the British air force during World War II after fleeing Nazis in Germany and Czechoslovakia.
1920(9th of Sivan, 5680): Julius J. Lyons, the son of the late Rabbi Jacques J Lyons, who had served as Director and legal counsel to the State Bank passed away at San Diego, CA. He was born in New York in 1843 and was active in several Jewish institutions including the Montefiore Home, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Technical Institute. He had gone to California a year ago to stay at the ranch of his son Edwin where he had hoped to regain his health.
1921(18th of Iyar, 5681):Lag B'Omer
1925: In Bayonne, NJ, Isaac and Lillian Goodman Cohen gave birth to Robert B. Cohen whose chain of Hudson News shops at airports, bus terminals and railroad stations across the country offered untold numbers of people a respite from the tedium of travel…(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1926: “Ten students received their degrees tonight at the first graduation exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion founded four years ago by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise as the only liberal Jewish theological seminary in New York.” Honorary degrees were conferred on Calude G. Montefiore, nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore and Chaim Nachman Bialik.
1926: Shalom Schwarzbard traveled from the
Ukraine
to
Paris
to avenge his parents' death at the hands of S. V. Petlura. He was responsible for the Ukrainian anti-Jewish riots of 1919-1920. After days of stalking, Shalom confronted Petlura, shot him and surrendered to the police. He was acquitted by the court of Assizes on all charges. The court may have been influenced by the fact that S.V. Petlura, and his followers were responsible for 493 pogroms in which 50,000 Jews lost their lives.
1928(7th of Sivan, 5688): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1931: Elections began today in forty-five countries in Europe to selected delegates for the World Zionist Congress to be held in June.
1933(1st of Sivan, 5693): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1934: In Tel Aviv, the third biennial Levant Fair comes to an end.
1935: Egyptian Chief Rabbi Haim Nahum officiated at services in the Ashkenazi Synagogue of Cairo. He was there to lead a memorial service for the Polish Jews of Egypt, who were honoring Marshal Josef Piludski. The respected Russian revolutionist and Polish nationalistic military leader had died
May 12, 19
35
, and was buried in
Lithuania
.
1935: In Tel Aviv a group of Yiddish authors sponsored a lecture in observance of the 70th birthday of Dr. Chaim Zhitlowski, social critic, political activist and author who was a “Yiddishist.” Members of Betarim, “a young military Revisionist-Zionist group” were responded violently to the fact that the lecture was conducted in Yiddish instead of Hebrew. They cut off the electricity, pelted members of the audience with stones and were so disorderly that police had to break up the meeting.
1936: For the first time ever, the Mandatory government in Palestine today mobilized Jewish settlers for self-defense as an open Arab revolt swept the country. Settlers at Rehoboth were armed and prepared to repel further assaults by Arabs after two days' of their marauding had resulted in the destruction of various “agricultural enterprises.”
1936: After a lumber yard was set on fire and nine bombs were tossed by Arab attackers in Nevei Shalom, Jewish settlers fled to Tel Aviv.
1936(5th of Sivan, 5696): Erev Shavuot; in Jerusalem, the British relaxed the curfew in the Jewish section of the city delaying its start from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. so that the Jews could gather to observe the start of the festival.
1936: British women and children were evacuated tonight from the troubled town of Nablus in an atmosphere made increasingly tense by bold Arab terrorists. They were sent to Jerusalem where it was thought they would be safe from Arab attacks.
1937: Birthdate of composer Yehuda Yannay
1938: The House Un-American Activities Committee met for the first time. HUAC would become the tool of right-wing political leaders who would use it attack “the Communist Conspiracy,” something that many of them equated with a Jewish conspiracy.
1939(8th of Sivan, 5699): Rabbi Ya'akov Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, passed away. Jacob Meir was born in
Jerusalem
in 1856 when it was part of the
Ottoman Empire
. Born to a notable merchant of the community, Mercad Meir, young Jacob grew to be a merchant who worked in Yaffa. He worked as a merchant for over ten years, then in his thirties wealthy Jew he knew talked him into going into the rabbinate. After becoming a rav he traveled to countries raising funds for those in
Jerusalem
. From the mountains of
Bokhara
to the deserts of
Tunis
and
Algeria
he collected charity funds, and in
Jerusalem
acted as civil assessor to the Bet Din. On the death in 1906 of his friend and advisor Chief Rabbi Saul Eliasher, Rav Jacob Meir, age 50, was unanimously chosen to fill his place. Soon after a dispute arose, and resigned to accept a "call" to the large Jewish community at Salonica. In years later when the Sultan of Turkey visited Salonica, he presented Meir with a gold watch emblazoned with the royal arms as a mark of esteem. In 1920 Meir was appointed by Sir Herbert (later Lord) Samuel to be head of the Spanish Jewish Community of Palestine and soon after received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire award for service to the British. Herbert Samuel was appointed as the first British High Commissioner of Palestine in 1920. He was Jewish and also a Zionist. Under his direction, thousands of Jewish immigrants settled in the land. In each of the years between 1920 and 1923, about 8,000 Jews entered
Palestine
. In 1924 the number jumped to 13,000 and the following year to more than 33,000. Sadly, many Jewish people came to
Palestine
because they could go nowhere else.
America
closed its doors to mass immigration in 1924. After he died, over 10,000 Jewish residents of
Jerusalem
, representing all sections of the population took part in his funeral. The Blue and white colors hung from half mast from the offices of all Sephardic associations and other Jewish public institutions. His body was brought to the large synagogue at the Sephardic orphanage on
Yaffa Road
. Around his coffin which stood on the stage gathered members of the Chief Rabbinical Council, other rabbis, and groups of youths in the uniforms of their organizations, acting as honor guards.
1942: Belgian Jews were required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star.
1943: Jews rioted against
Germany
in
Amsterdam
.
1944: In Bogota, Columbia, Polish refugees Rifka and Israel Joseph Lederman gave birth to David Mordechai Lederman, the doctor “who led the team of scientists that developed the first fully implantable artificial heart.” (As reported by David Hevesi)
1944: Mordechai and Yehuda Eldar arrived at Auschwitz. Mordechai Adler was slated to die in October but through a fluke received a reprieve when he was one of 50 prisoners chosen to work in “Canada,” the warehouse operation where the Nazis greedily stored the belongings of their Jewish victims. In 1947, Eldar and two of his sisters (the only surviving members of his extended family) sailed to Palestine on the SS Exodus. Sent back to Hamburg by the British, he returned to Tel Aviv in June of 1948. He joined the IDF and served for 30 years before retiring as a colonel in 1978.
1944: Birthdate of Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman representing the 9th District of Illinois.
1948: At the United Nations, the Arabs “indicated a willingness to stop the fighting on condition that the Jews would regard the proclamation of statehood as null and void and that no further Jewish immigration would be accepted. Abba Eban responds publicly; “If the Arab states want peace with
Israel
, they can have it. If they want war, they have that, too. But whether they want peace or war, they could have only with the sovereign independent state of
Israel
.”
1948: The position of Jewish forces in the Old City was beyond desperate. "There was nothing to eat; nothing to shoot with..." One hundred Haganah troopers had been killed with even more wounded as the Arab Legion pressed its attack on all sides.
1950: The United States, Great Britain and France announced a plan to regulate arms sales in the Middle East which would equalize sales between the Arab states and Israel. The three western powers also promised to see to it that the frontiers or armistice lines dividing the states would not be violated.
1950: The Israeli government announced that Aubrey S. Eban has been appointed as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. [Yes, Aubrey Eban is the man whom we know as Abba Eban.]
1952: President Harry S. Truman addressed a dinner sponsored by the Jewish National fund.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Dov Joseph, the Acting Minister of Finance, introduced in the Knesset a Bill on "Income Tax Advances for Relief Works" and described the scheme which was expected to provide 2,650,000 work days for the country's unemployed for the next six months.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the rationing of potatoes came to an end and potatoes were put on the free market sale for the first time in four years. Over 250 immigrants were expected to arrive from
Iran
.
1958(7th of Sivan, 5718): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1959(18th of Iyar, 5719): Lag B’Omer
1964: Birthdate of musician Lenny Kravitz
1964: Sylvia Rothschild’s novel “Sunshine and Salt” was released today
1967: As the crisis that would result in the Six Day War intensified, President Nasser of Egypt declared, “the battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.” While President Johnson worked to develop an international response that would open the Straits of Tiran, the
Soviet Union
let the members of the Security Council know that
Moscow
would veto any proposal that was not in accord with the wishes of
Syria
and
Egypt
.
1967: As the crisis that will lead to the Six Days War worsens, Military intelligence chief Aharon Yariv tells the Israeli cabinet that “the roots of the current situation are connected to the active Soviet regional initiative” that began “over a year ago.”
1968(28th of Iyar, 5728): Yom Yerushalayim
1969: Abdel el Rahman el Latifi, a 65-year-old Jerusalem Arab who stabbed a soldier outside the Damascus gate last year, was sentenced today to 10 years' imprisonment by the district court here. There was no apparent reason for the act, but the court rejected the defense plea of insanity.
1971: Birthdate of cartoonist Matt Stone co-creator of South Park
1973: The IDF announced a state of emergency today “and reserve troops were called up in response to a movement of Egyptian troops. The state of emergency was cancelled when it became clear that this was only an exercise. This event had a major impact on the General Staff, as it led them to believe that the Egyptian forces were not preparing for war, later that year, on Yom Kippur. After the war however, it became apparent that these frequent maneuvers carried out by the Egyptians were part of an elaborate ruse meant to induce complacency in the Israelis regarding the true intentions of Egyptian troop movements at the time the actual attack took place.”
1976: German philosopher Martin Heidegger passed away. Although considered a major force in the world of philosophy by some, Heidegger was a member of the Nazi Party and remained in Germany during the war. Strangely enough, Heidegger had several extramarital affairs, including two very important ones with Jewish women who were his students, Hannah Arendt and Elisabeth Blochmann. Apparently Arendt knew more about Nazis than she let on when she was writing about “the banality of evil.”<span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso