Today in Jewish History

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Cheshvan 15

Yahrtzeit of Matityahu, the leader of the Maccabees in their fight against the Syrian-Greeks, as recorded in the Chanukah story. Matityahu bravely resisted the attempts to spread secular-Hellenist culture throughout the Land of Israel, and with his five sons, started an uprising. The revolt continued after Matityahu's death in 139 BCE, and successfully concluded with the rededication of the Holy Temple and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.

Cheshvan 15 is also the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (1878-1953), known by the appellation "Chazon Ish." A brilliant scholar, he moved from Vilna to Israel in 1933, where he was regarded as the worldwide authority on all matters relating to Jewish law and life.

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16 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Elazar M. Shach (1900-2001), dean of the famed Ponevitch Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. People came from far and wide to hear his talmudic discourses and spiritual guidance; he also served as advisor of the Degel HaTorah political party. Over 100,000 people attended his funeral.

Cheshvan 16 is also the night of Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass") in 1938, when Nazis destroyed almost all of the 1,600 synagogues in Germany, as well as thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. Similar violence was carried out in Austria. Kristallnacht ushered in a new phase of anti-Semitic decrees, and was for many the first major warning sign of what would become the Holocaust.

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17 Cheshvan

On this date in 1919, a New York Times headline declared "Einstein Theory Triumphs." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German-born physicist whose theory of relativity revolutionized the scientific approach to time, space, matter, energy and gravity. Einstein claimed that his defining moment came at age five when his father showed him a compass, and young Albert was intrigued by the mysterious, invisible force acting upon it. Einstein succeeded in explaining principles of cosmology and physics that had baffled scientists for decades. From 1914 to 1933, he conducted physics research in Berlin, and it was during this time that he made his most groundbreaking discoveries and was awarded a Nobel Prize. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein renounced his German citizenship and fled to the United States, where he accepted a position in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1939, Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt urging the study of nuclear fission for military purposes, fearing that the Nazis would be first to develop atomic weapons. After the war, however, Einstein lobbied for nuclear disarmament, saying that: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Einstein was instrumental in founding Brandeis University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, to which Einstein bequeathed his estate. In 1952 he turned down an offer to become President of the State of Israel. Einstein has been called one of the most influential figures in history, and Time magazine named him "Person of the Century."

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18 Cheshvan

In 1938, Nazi leader Hermann Goering announced that in order to "solve the problem of the Jews," the African island of Madagascar was being considered as a giant ghetto for 4 million European Jews. The plan was seriously considered by Hitler in May 1940, in his discussions with Mussolini and Nazi officials. Hitler's idea was that the Jews would play the role of hostages, as a way to prevent the United States from entering the war. The Madagascar Plan was cancelled due to a British blockade. One year later, it was decided that the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" would mean extermination.

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19 Cheshvan

In 1785, the earliest known Yiddish letter from America was sent from Philadelphia to London. Yiddish is a colloquial mixture of German and Hebrew, and came to be the spoken language of much of European Jewry. Following the influx of Jewish immigrants to America, Yiddish was a language increasingly heard on the streets of New York, and in 1925 New York alone had seven daily newspapers printed in Yiddish. According to the U.S. census of 1940, 1.75 million Jews spoke Yiddish at home. Today, Yiddish words like chutzpah, klutz, schmaltz and schlep have crept into mainstream English usage.

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20 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Hannah Szenes (1921-1944), a young Israeli woman who volunteered to parachute behind Nazi lines on behalf of the British Army. She spent three months in Yugoslavia working with partisan resistance fighters, but was caught when she attempted to cross the border into Hungary. She was tortured for several months, but refused to divulge any information. Szenes became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice, an image strengthened by the stirring set of poems she left behind. She was executed by firing squad in Budapest, and her remains were later brought to Israel.

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21 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra (1480-1573), known by the acronym of his name, Radbaz. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Egypt and later moved to Israel. He taught Jewish mysticism to the Arizal (Isaac Luria) who went on to become the founder of modern Kabbalah. The Radbaz issued many important decisions in Jewish law, including the assertion that the Ethiopian community was certainly Jewish -- a decision that gained practical application in the 20th century with the airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

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22 Cheshvan

The deportation of Budapest Jews was resumed on this date in 1944. During this time, 20,000 Budapest Jews were shot by the banks of the Danube by Hungarian forces. Another 70,000 Jews were forced on a death march to Austria, of which the majority were either shot or died of starvation and exposure. Raoul Wallenberg was involved in saving some of Hungary's Jews. Out of 750,000 Jews that lived in Hungary before the war, only 30 percent survived.

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23 Cheshvan

In 164 BCE, following the victory of the Maccabees, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was purified and rededicated. The stones of the Temple's altar which had been defiled by the Greeks were removed and placed in a storage chamber on the Temple Mount. In Talmudic times, this day was celebrated as a holiday.

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24 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934). A member of the Rothschild banking dynasty, he preferred to pursue artistic interests, acquiring an important collection of drawings and engravings that he bequeathed to the Louvre. In 1882, Rothschild became a leading proponent of the Zionist movement, buying land throughout Israel and subsidizing Jewish settlements. He financed the first new Jewish town, Rishon Letzion ("the first of Zion"), as well as Zichron Yaakov, Caesarea and some 30 other settlements. He also established Israel's wine industry when he helped Russian Jews flee pogroms in the 1880s and plant vineyards in Israel. In 1954, Rothschild's remains were re-interred to Israel. To honor his memory, his son paid for the construction of the Knesset building in Jerusalem.

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25 Cheshvan

In 109 BCE, the Hasmoneans (led by John Hyrcanus, a nephew of Judah the Maccabee) conquered Samaria, the capital city of the Samarian sect. This conquest was significant because it ended some 800 years of Samarian influence in Israel. The Samarians were a schismatic movement, comprised largely of non-Jews who practiced some Jewish traditions. The conquest may have further polarized the Jews into two distinct parties: 1) the Pharisees ("separated ones") because they sought to retain the separation of Jewish culture from the Greek influences of Hellenization, and 2) the Sadducees, Jews who embraced Greek culture.

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26 Cheshvan

In 1938, Father Coughlin broadcast an anti-Semitic diatribe on American radio. Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest from Michigan, and one of history's first evangelists to preach via the mass media. At its peak in the early 1930s, his radio show had a listening audience estimated at one-third of the nation. Yet Coughlin's broadcasts became increasingly anti-Semitic, expressing sympathy for Hitler and promoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was only a few weeks after Kristallnacht, when synagogues across Germany were burned, that Coughlin caused a scandal by broadcasting a diatribe in which he blamed the Jewish victims.

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27 Cheshvan

In 2104 BCE (1657 from Creation), as the Flood waters finally subsided, Noah, his family and the animals left the Ark. On this day, God commanded them to repopulate and resettle the earth.

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28 Cheshvan

On this date in 1949, the Jewish population of Israel reached one million. Over the years, waves of aliyah from Arab countries, Russia and Ethiopia -- combined with higher-than-average birthrates -- has pushed the Jewish population of Israel to 5 million. It is estimated that an additional one million Israelis live outside the country.

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29 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Israel Bak (1797-1874), a pioneer of book printing in modern Israel. In the 16th century, six books had been printed in the northern town of Tzfat. It would be 245 years until another Hebrew book was published in the Holy Land, when Bak moved from the Ukraine to Israel. He established a Hebrew press in Tzfat and published a Siddur and the Book of Leviticus with commentaries. An earthquake destroyed his print shop in 1837, and a Druze revolt the following year destroyed his press once again. Bak then moved to Jerusalem in 1841 where he established the first Hebrew press ever in the holy city.

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1 Kislev

In 1757, volumes of the Talmud were burned in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Russia. The instigators were followers of Jacob Frank, a Jewish merchant who claimed to be the messiah and successor of the false messiah, Shabbatai Tzvi. Frank's followers broke away from Judaism and created a new religion known as the Frankists, a quasi-Jewish, quasi-Christian religion. The local bishop held a debate between the rabbis and the Frankists; when the bishop decided that the rabbis lost the debate, he ordered them to pay a fine and to burn all copies of the Talmud in the district.

In 2008, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg were among 200 people killed when terrorists attacked Mumbai, India. The Holtzbergs selflessly ran the Chabad house, a beacon of hope and kindness in a city filled with poverty and despair.

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2 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1892-1962), a prominent Torah sage in Lithuania, and later in America. Rabbi Kotler studied under the famed Alter of Slabodka, and was the son-in-law of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. Rabbi Kotler led various efforts to rescue Jews from the Holocaust; he was instrumental in persuading Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Treasury Secretary, to risk his political career in order to help save Jews. In 1943, Rabbi Kotler founded a yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey, which has since grown into the largest institution of its kind in America with over 5,000 advanced-level students.

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3 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), the American poet whose words are engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

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4 Kislev

In 346 BCE, a delegation of Babylonian Jews arrived in Jerusalem to ask the prophet Zechariah if the fast of Tisha B'Av should be discontinued (Zechariah ch. 7). Tisha B'Av is a commemoration of the destruction of the Temple, and at the time, the Second Temple had just been constructed. The answer, as recorded in the Talmud, is that if Israel remains under foreign control, then the fast remains -- even if the Temple is built. But if the Temple is built and Israel is self-governed, then the fast turns into a day of celebration. In this case, since the Second Temple was eventually destroyed (also on Tisha B'Av, 420 years later), it is commemorated till today as a Jewish national day of mourning.

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5 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Shmuel Edels (1555-1631), a renowned Talmudic commentator, who is known by the acronym Maharsha. He was born in Krakow, Poland, and his masterful commentary, encompassing Jewish law, philosophy and ethics, is printed in all standard editions of the Talmud.

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6 Kislev

In 1958, Jerusalem inaugurated a new water reservoir, thus assuring the holy city of an adequate water supply for the first time in its 3,000-year history. Jerusalem's shortage of water was long its weakness in time of military siege. Back in the days of King David, a tunnel had been dug from the Old City to a neighboring valley, to channel water inside the Old City Walls. In modern times, the problem was exacerbated in 1948 when the Arab blockade of Jerusalem left its residents without a water supply.

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7 Kislev

In 440 BCE, 18 years prior to the destruction of the First Temple, King Yehoyakim burned a scroll containing the biblical Book of Lamentations, as recorded in the Book of Jeremiah (ch. 36). The idea of a Jewish king taking such an un-Jewish approach was viewed by the community as a great tragedy, and this date was proclaimed as a fast day. The prophet Jeremiah later re-wrote the scroll.

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8 Kislev

In 1974, the United Nations passed a resolution granting observer status to the PLO. This was the first recognition of the PLO by a major political body, and was seen by many as opening the door to eventual Palestinian statehood. The UN decision came nine days after Yasser Arafat addressed the UN plenary in New York. In the speech, with a gun holster strapped to his hip, Arafat compared himself to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. By 1980, the PLO has been recognized by European nations, and by Israel in 1994.

This date also marks the death of Golda Meir (1898-1978), former Prime Minister of Israel. Born in Kiev, Russia, she was subjected to brutal pogroms and moved with her family to Milwaukee at age eight. It was 10 years later, while organizing an American protest march against these Russian pogroms, that Meir decided to make aliyah. Meir became involved in politics at age 24 and was among the signers of Israel's Declaration of Independence. Meir became Israel's first Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and served as Prime Minister during the tense time of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. She once said: "Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

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9 Kislev

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

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10 Kislev

In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem. Sadat was the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, after receiving an invitation from Menachem Begin. Sadat had orchestrated the Egyptian attack on Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but after suffering defeat became resigned to the existence of the State of Israel. Much of the Arab world was outraged by Sadat's visit and his change of strategy. One year later, Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Peace Agreement, for which they received the Nobel Peace Prize. As part of the deal, Israel withdrew from the Sinai peninsula in phases, returning the entire area to Egypt by 1983.