Today in Jewish History

[phkrause]

11 Kislev

In 1945, the charter of Yeshiva College (later Yeshiva University) was amended by the New York State Board of Regents, making it the first American university under Jewish auspices. Through the first half of the 20th century, many American universities maintained a regional quota system, whereby spaces for Jewish students was often limited. (This was, however, better than the situation in the Middle Ages, when universities were entirely closed to Jewish students.) Yeshiva University helped alleviate that strain, and today is regarded as one of America's leading academic institutions, offering advanced degrees in rabbinics, business, medicine, law, and Jewish education.

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12 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Luria (1510-1573), known by the acronym of his name, Maharshal. His ancestry was traced back to the great Jewish commentator, Rashi, and he was a cousin of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who wrote the Ashkenazi portion of the Code of Jewish Law. Rabbi Luria himself wrote the classic book of Jewish law, Yam Shel Shlomo, and a commentary on the Talmud, Chachmat Shlomo (an abridged version appears in nearly all editions of the Talmud today). He was rabbi of the city of Brisk, and head of the famed Lublin Yeshiva, which attracted students from across Europe.

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13 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Ravina, co-editor of the Babylonian Talmud, a voluminous work that is the prime repository of Jewish law and lore. Ravina's father died when he was young, so he was educated by his mother. In 475 CE, Ravina and his teacher Rav Ashi collected and commented on the rabbinic discussions that would henceforth be known as the Babylonian Talmud. Ravina's death in 499 CE marked the end of the talmudic period.

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14 Kislev

Birth of Reuven, Jacob's first son and the first of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Genesis 29:32). Jacob had originally worked for seven years in order to marry Rachel, but at the last minute Leah appeared under the chuppah instead. On their wedding night, Reuven was conceived. Though he was first-born, he eventually lost his leadership role, due to a reputation for impetuousness.

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15 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (135 - ca. 220 CE), also known as Rabbi Judah the Prince. He was leader of the Jewish people during the period following the destruction of the Second Temple. Rabbi Yehudah developed a close friendship with the ruling Roman authorities, and was able to secure various benefits for the Jewish community. His greatest achievement was to compile the Mishnah, the Jewish legal teachings which until then had been taught orally, from teacher to student. But with persecutions and exile threatening to break down that chain of transmission, Rabbi Yehudah took the bold step of writing the Mishnah in its final form. He is credited with the wise and humble saying: "I learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most of all I learned from my students."

Also on this date, in 1987, more than 200,000 American Jews marched on Washington to demand that Soviet Jews be allowed to emigrate and practice their faith. The rally was timed to coincide with a meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Russian Jews like Natan Sharansky, Yosef Mendelovich and hundreds of others were imprisoned for the mere act of applying for an exit visa. Their plight, met with indifference by much of the Western world, spawned a massive activist effort on behalf of Soviet Jewry. In the 1970s, when the Soviet Bolshoi Ballet performed in the U.S., they were greeted by Jewish pickets demanding rights for Soviet Jews. In 1974, the U.S. Congress passed the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which linked trade with Russia to freedom of emigration for Soviet Jews. The struggle for Soviet Jewry continued throughout the 1980s, and it was not until the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991, that the gates opened to the emigration of some one million Jews.

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16 Kislev

In 1946, the 22nd World Zionist Congress met in Basle, Switzerland. In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, Zionist leaders had lost all patience with British stonewalling about the creation of a Jewish state. Thus the Zionists decided to forcibly resist British policy, and Jewish underground movements redoubled their campaign to damage British installations such as rail lines, police stations and army bases. In one night in 1946, Ben Gurion's Hagana blew up 12 critical bridges. The efforts were largely successful, and by 1947 Britain declared its intention to withdraw, thus leading to the UN Partition Plan of November 1947.

On this date in 2009, Aish HaTorah dedicated its new educational center directly across from the Western Wall. The building features an aqueduct used to bring water to the Holy Temple, and reconstructed archways from the Crusader period. The atrium is punctuated by a two-story-tall glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, entitled “Fire and Water.” On the rooftop terrace directly overlooking the Temple Mount is a 1.2-ton model of the Holy Temple. The building is also slated to house the Explorium of Jewish History.

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17 Kislev

In 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine. The Jewish area was split into three non-contiguous plots, with no consideration of security: the eastern Galilee, the coastal plain from Haifa down to Tel Aviv, and the majority being the uncultivable Negev desert. The other half of the land was to form a new Arab state. Jerusalem and its 100,000 Jews was to be completely surrounded on four sides by the Arab state, and administered as an international zone. Despite these unfavorable terms, the Jewish Agency immediately accepted the Partition Plan; the Arabs immediately rejected it. Fighting began soon after, leading to a full-scale assault in 1948 by troops from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi and Yemen.

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18 Kislev

In 1793, the French district of Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine passed an anti-Jewish law prohibiting circumcision and the wearing of beards. It also ordered the burning of books written in Hebrew. The French Revolution, born of the ideals of Enlightenment, had become the first society to emancipate the Jews, permitting them to enter the highest levels of government and finance. Yet all the talk of "equality" did not stop Voltaire from singling out the Jews as "the most abominable people in the world." The invective gained expression in the 1940s when the French Vichy regime took the initiative to round up and hand over 61,000 Jews to the Nazis.

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19 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of the Maggid of Mezrech (1710-1772), the successor of the Baal Shem Tov, who consolidated chassidic teachings into a structured, cohesive movement. Among the ideas he emphasized was the importance of clinging to God in all actions -- business, social and religious. The Maggid also taught of perfecting one's soul in order to bring about the redemption of the world. Today, tens of thousands of chassidim trace their spiritual roots back to the Maggid of Mezrech.

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20 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner (1906-1980), the brilliant dean of the Chaim Berlin yeshiva in New York, whose thousands of students formed the nucleus of American Jewish leadership in the late 20th century. Rabbi Hutner had a warm, welcoming posture toward all Jews, and two of his disciples, Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld and Rabbi Noah Weinberg, founded the first baal teshuva yeshivas. In 1970, Rabbi Hutner was on an airplane which was hijacked by Palestinian "Black September" terrorists, and was held hostage on a runway in Amman, Jordan. (After all the hostages were removed, the planes were blown up in front of TV cameras.) Rabbi Hutner's discourses on Shabbat and the holidays, influenced largely by the Maharal of Prague, are collected in the seven-volume, Pachad Yitzhak. He is buried in Jerusalem.

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21 Kislev

According to Megillat Taanit, in the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great met Shimon HaTzaddik, the High Priest of the Holy Temple. Shimon feared that Alexander would destroy Jerusalem, so went out to meet him before he arrived at the city. Upon seeing the High Priest, Alexander made the rare move of dismounting and bowing. When asked to explain his actions, Alexander said that he'd previously seen the High Priest in a dream. Alexander interpreted this vision as a good omen and thus spared Jerusalem, peacefully absorbing Israel into his growing empire. In gratitude, the Sages decreed that the Jewish firstborn of that time be named Alexander -- which remains a Jewish name to this very day.

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22 Kislev

In 1622, in an effort to attract enterprising merchants with disposable capital, King Christian IV of Denmark wrote a formal letter to the Amsterdam Jewish council, inviting Jews of Portuguese descent to settle in Denmark. King Christian promised religious freedom for the Jews -- an attractive safe haven as the Thirty Year War raged in central Europe.

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23 Kislev

In 1348, amidst the devastating Black Plague which would eventually kill 25 million Europeans, a government official in Switzerland announced that Jews (under torture) had confessed to the poisoning of wells in the Rhine Valley, as part of an international Jewish conspiracy. The report was readily accepted by nobles who resented the Jews as economic competitors and to whom they were indebted for loans. Thus began a "year of terror" which saw the destruction of most of the Jewish communities in the region, and thousands of Jews burned alive.

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24 Kislev

In 354 BCE, the prophet Chaggai encouraged the Jews to rebuild the Holy Temple -- a construction project which had begun 18 years earlier, but was halted due to political pressure. The Temple would stand for 420 years, before being destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. On this same day, Chaggai prophesied the downfall of the great Persian empire, which would ultimately lead to the salvation of the Jews. This is recorded in the biblical Book of Chaggai, chapter 2.

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25 Kislev

In 165 BCE, the Maccabees defeated the Greek army and rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Finding only one jar of pure oil, they lit the Menorah, which miraculously burned for eight days. Also on this day -- 1,100 years earlier -- Moses and the Jewish people completed construction of the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary that accompanied them during 40 years of wandering in the desert. The Tabernacle was not dedicated, however, for another three months; tradition says that the day of Kislev 25 was then "compensated" centuries later -- when the miracle of Chanukah occurred and the Temple was rededicated. Today, Jews around the world light a Chanukah menorah, to commemorate the miracle of the oil, and its message that continues to illuminate our lives today.

[Naomi]

Very interesting pkrause.

I especially like your last line, "...and its message that continues to illuminate our lives today"

Thank you for sharing.

[phkrause]

You welcome.

[phkrause]

26 Kislev

In 1763, the Touro Synagogue was dedicated in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the oldest existing synagogue in the United States, founded by Spanish Portuguese families who came from Curacao, in the West Indies. The magnificent synagogue is built of brick imported from England, and stands at an acute angle to the street -- so that the Holy Ark faces toward Jerusalem. The synagogue is named after Abraham Touro, who left money in his will for the ongoing care of the synagogue. George Washington had issued a famous letter to the congregation promising religious freedom, and in 1982 the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Touro Synagogue, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of Washington's birth.

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27 Kislev

In 1966, Shmuel Yosef (Shay) Agnon (1888-1970) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Agnon's writings deal with the conflict between traditional Jewish life and language, and the modern world. Agnon, a religious Jew, also attempted to capture the fading traditions of the European shtetl (village). Agnon was born in Ukraine, the son of an ordained rabbi. At age 20 he moved to Israel. In his speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony, Agnon spoke in Hebrew: "As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem." Today, Agnon's image is featured on the Israeli 50-shekel bills.

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28 Kislev

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chizkiyah Da Silva, commonly known as the Pri Chadash, the name of the commentary he authored on the Code of Jewish Law. He was born in Italy and at age 20 traveled to Jerusalem to further his studies. He died in 1698 at the age of 39, and is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (Two centuries later, the illustrious Ohr HaChaim asked to be buried next to him.) Till today, "Pri Chadash" is printed in the standard edition of the Code of Jewish Law and is widely studied by rabbinic scholars.

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29 Kislev

In 1914, Jews of Tel Aviv were expelled by the Turkish authorities and sent to Egypt. Just three years later, the Turks would order the remaining 9,000 Jews out of Jaffa, in advance of the British military offensive. The Jews fled north, where they suffered from disease and starvation. They were allowed to return with the British ousting of the Turks in 1917.

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30 Kislev

In 1970, nine Soviet Jews were convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a civilian airplane six months earlier. The hijackers were a group of Soviet refuseniks (one was a former military pilot) who tried to escape to the West, in order to avoid harsh Soviet discrimination against Jews. Even though the attempt was unsuccessful, and was followed immediately by crackdown on Jewish and dissident movement throughout the USSR, it drew international attention to human rights violations in the USSR and resulted in a temporary loosening of emigration restrictions. The accused were charged with high treason, punishable by the death sentence. Included in this group was Yosef Mendelevitch, who in 1981 was released and joined his family in Israel, where he became an inspiring figure in the movement for traditional Jewish values.

[Naomi]

I believe there was a song written about Mendelevitch's arrival to Israel ... I know I have the music but can't remember the group who recorded it.

I do so love Jewish history and enjoy reading your post. Thank you.

[phkrause]

I believe there was a song written about Mendelevitch's arrival to Israel ... I know I have the music but can't remember the group who recorded it.

I do so love Jewish history and enjoy reading your post. Thank you.

Yes Jewish history is beautiful and not only that its the foundation of Christianity.

[phkrause]

1 Tevet

In 355 BCE, Esther, after having won a kingdom-wide beauty pageant, was taken to King Achashverosh (Esther 2:16). Esther's presence in the king's palace enabled her to advocate on behalf of the Jews, and gain a reversal of Haman's decree to annihilate the Jewish people. This series of miraculous events is recorded in the biblical Scroll of Esther, and commemorated each year on the holiday of Purim.