Today in Jewish History

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17 Tishrei

In 1867, Blood Libel charges triggered anti-Jewish riots in Romania. Blood libels became a common feature in Europe during the Middle Ages: if a Christian baby was found dead, Jews would be charged with having kidnapped the baby and draining its blood. Accusers claimed that blood was the chief ingredient in matzah, and thus prior to every Passover Jews required a large supply. Ironically, Jewish law prohibits the consuming of blood (kosher meat is carefully washed and salted to remove all traces of blood). Yet this didnt stop the Blood Libel accusation, which over the centuries resulted in the death and torture of thousands of Jews.

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18 Tishrei

Yahrtzeit of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), founder of the Breslov chasidic movement. Rebbe Nachman lived in Poland and the Ukraine, where he inspired thousands of Jews to greater love of God. Though he suffered the loss of his son and wife, Rebbe Nachman said: "You may fall to the lowest depths, heaven forbid, but no matter how low you have fallen, it is still forbidden to give up hope." A few of his most famous teachings are: "It's a great mitzvah to always be happy," and "All the world is a narrow bridge -- but the main thing is not to be afraid" (now a popular Hebrew song, Kol Ha-Olam Kulo). Every year on Rosh Hashana, tens of thousands of Jews travel to Uman (Ukraine) to pray at the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman.

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19 Tishrei

Tishrei 19 is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer (1720-1797), known as the Vilna Gaon ("the genius from Vilna"). He is regarded as the greatest rabbi of the past 500 years. The Vilna Gaon possessed a photographic memory: At age three he already knew the entire Bible by heart, and by age seven he knew several tractates of Talmud by heart. Legend says that by age 12 he was able to kabbalistically create a Golem (life out of formless mass). He was known to have slept only two hours per day, in six 20-minute intervals. He wrote commentaries on all the classical Jewish works -- Bible, Talmud, Code of Jewish Law, plus various Kabbalistic works. He was also a renowned expert in mathematics and astronomy. There is a statue of him and a street named after him in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Vilna Gaon set out for Israel in 1783, but for unknown reasons did not attain his goal. He inspired his disciples to make the move, however, and in 1809 a group of 70 became pioneers of modern settlement in Israel.

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20 Tishrei

In 1973, Israeli forces crossed to the western side of the Suez Canal in a decisive battle of the Yom Kippur War. A division led by Ariel Sharon had attacked a weak point in the Egyptian "seam line" between the Egyptian second Army in the north and the Egyptian third Army in the south. In some of the most brutal fighting of the war, the Israelis opened a hole in the Egyptian line and reached the Suez Canal. A small force crossed the canal and created a bridgehead on the other side. A few days later, Israeli troops trapped the Egyptian Third Army, leaving it without any means of resupply, thus effectively ending the Yom Kippur War.

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21 Tishrei

In 1946, following the Nuremberg trials, 10 Nazi war criminals were hanged. The hanging of the 10 Nazis eerily echoed the 10 sons of Haman who were hanged in the Purim story. Incredibly, this day on the Jewish calendar is Hoshana Raba, the traditional day of judgment for the nations of the world.

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22 Tishrei

In 825 BCE, King Solomon bid farewell to the Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem for a 14-day ceremony dedicating the Holy Temple (1-Kings 8:66). King David had brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, but as a warrior he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, his son Solomon did so. The Temple was the most important site in Israel -- a spiritual magnet for the Jewish nation's yearnings. The magnificent structure took seven years to build, and stood for 410 years before being destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.

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23 Tishrei

In 67 CE, Roman soldiers captured Gamla, a fortress in Israel's Golan region, and killed all its inhabitants. The ancient historian Josephus Flavius, a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, fortified Gamla as a main stronghold in 66 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff. The location of ancient Gamla was discovered in archeological excavations during the 1970s; the remains have been preserved as a national park.

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24 Tishrei

In 336 BCE, the prophets Ezra and Nechemia convened the Jewish community in Jerusalem. There, as recorded in the biblical Book of Nechemia (ch. 9), they recalled the major events of Jewish history, and pledged to uphold the ancient covenant.

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26 Tishrei

In 1973, a cease-fire resolution was passed by the U.N. Security Council to halt the Yom Kippur War. Shuttle diplomacy by Henry Kissinger compelled Israel and Egypt to accept the cease-fire. Fighting, however, would continue for another four days. In the war, Israel suffered the loss of 2,600 soldiers and 800 tanks. Four years later, Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat would visit Jerusalem and announce his readiness to forge a permanent peace deal.

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27 Tishrei

In 1927, the Israeli city of Netanya was founded on a plot of empty land. Netanya has since grown to become the fourth-largest city in Israel, with a population of 165,000. Netanya has one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in Israel, with white sands and inviting waters. Netanya was named for Nathan Straus (1848-1931), an American merchant and philanthropist. Straus was a co-owner of R.H. Macy & Co., yet he never amassed personal wealth because he was always using his money to help people. For example, in New York's winter of 1893, he gave away more than two million five-cent tickets good for coal, food or lodging. His greatest devotion, however, was to Israel. He gave more than two-thirds of his fortune and devoted the last 15 years of his life to this cause.

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28 Tishrei

In 1930, the British government issued the Passfield White Paper, a formal statement of policy in Palestine. The paper was an attempt to appease the Arabs in the aftermath of the 1929 riots: During six days of Arab rioting in Jerusalem, Gaza, Hebron and Tzfat, 135 Jews were killed and more than 300 wounded. The White Paper criticized the Jewish Agency for promoting Jewish employment opportunities, claiming that it damaged economic development of the Arab population. Further, the paper required that Jews obtain permission from the British authorities to purchase land. The result was that Jewish immigration was greatly curtailed.

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29 Tishrei

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Don Yitzhak Abravanel (1437-1508), a leader during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. After having served as treasurer to the king of Portugal, Abravanel became a minister in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In 1492, Isabella signed a decree expelling all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. In the Inquisition, an estimated 32,000 Jews were burned at the stake and another 200,000 were expelled from Spain. Rabbi Abrabanel reportedly offered Queen Isabella the astronomical sum of 600,000 crowns to revoke the edict. Abrabanel was unable to prevent the expulsion and was exiled along with his people. Most of his rabbinic writings were composed in his later years when he was free of governmental responsibilities.

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30 Tishrei

In 1958, the foundation stone was laid for Israel's Knesset building in Jerusalem. The Knesset is composed of 120 members, the same size as the Great Assembly ("Knesset HaGedola") that served as the rabbinical body during the Second Temple era. (The Great Assembly redacted the biblical books Ezekiel, Daniel and Esther, and composed many prayers such as the Amidah.) Today, the Israeli Knesset is known as a bastion of democracy in the Middle East, with women, Arabs, and other minorities represented.

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1 Cheshvan

In 1985, ground-breaking ceremonies were held for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. Two milk cans containing soil and ashes from concentration camps were symbolically buried on the site. The museum was dedicated in April 1993, with speeches by President Bill Clinton, Chaim Herzog and Elie Wiesel. The museum cost approximately $168 million to build, funded with more than 200,000 private donations. The museum attracts 2 million visitors annually.

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2 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, a 20th century Torah sage and son of the illustrious Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, who was martyred in the Holocaust. Rabbi Wasserman and his wife had no children, but together they educated tens of thousands of Jews in France, the U.S. and Israel. After Rabbi Wasserman's death, his wife died 10 days later. Rabbi Wasserman had a sixth sense about people; the story is told of him looking to purchase a used car in Los Angeles. He went to check out one particular car, and asked the owner if he could take it for a test drive. "How do I know you're not going to steal it?" the man said. Rabbi Wasserman then asked if he could use the telephone for a minute. He called the police and reported a stolen vehicle at that very address. The police arrived, confirmed that the car was indeed stolen, and arrested the man. "How did you know?" the police asked Rabbi Wasserman. "Simple," he said. "When I asked to take it for a test drive, he suspected that I'd steal it. Only a thief thinks that way!"

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3 Cheshvan

In the year 1290, the last of the 16,000 Jews expelled by King Edward I left England. King Edward had banned usury and forced Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying badge. Some Jews managed to remain in England by hiding their religious identity, but thousands were forced to leave. (Years earlier, King Henry III had forced Jews to pay half the value of their property in taxes, and ordered Jewish worship in synagogue to be held quietly so that Christians would not have to hear it.) Following the expulsion, Jews would not return to England for 350 years, when the policy was reversed by Oliver Cromwell in 1655.

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4 Cheshvan

In 1483, Tomas de Torquemada was appointed as "Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition." Jews of Spain had been forced to convert to Christianity, and the Inquisition was designed to uncover those who were continuing to practice their Judaism in secret (called Conversos or Marranos). Those who never confessed were burned at the stake; those who did confess were strangled first. Torquemada believed that as long as the Jews remained in Spain, they might influence the tens of thousands of Jews who had converted to Christianity. It was on his recommendation that the remainder of the Jewish community -- 200,000 people -- was expelled from Spain in 1492. An estimated 32,000 were burned at the stake, and Torquemada's name became a byword for cruelty and fanaticism in the service of religion. The order of expulsion was not officially voided by the government of Spain until 1968.

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5 Cheshvan

In 1975, Israel signed the Sinai disengagement pact with Egypt. The agreement called for Israel to withdraw from the Sinai passes captured in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, leaving them as a demilitarized zone monitored by American and United Nations observers. Israel had previously withdrawn from the Sinai in 1956, and would eventually withdraw permanently in 1982 following the Camp David agreement between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

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6 Cheshvan

In 1948, the first census taken by the State of Israel placed the population at 780,000 -- 91% Jewish and 9% Arab. A vigorous influx of Jews would arrive the next few years, when 750,000 Jewish refugees fled from Arab countries. Subsequently, Israel has witnessed the dramatic homecoming of Jews from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, and dozens of other lands. The population of Israel currently stands at 6.5 million, of which 18% is Arab.

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7 Cheshvan

Rabbi Meir ShapiroYahrtzeit of Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin (1887-1933), the founder and driving force behind the Daf Yomi, a program of daily Talmud study. Today, tens of thousands of Jews study the "daily daf," and every seven-and-a-half years a "siyum" (completion) of the Talmud is held with large celebrations in Madison Square Garden and other locations worldwide. Rabbi Shapiro represented the Jews in the Polish Senate, and he built the grand Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in Poland, a building which remains standing till today. Sadly, Rabbi Shapiro passed away at the young age of 46. His remains were later re-interred to a cemetery in Jerusalem.

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8 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Rabbeinu Yona of Gerona (1180-1263). Rabbeinu Yona was an outspoken critic of Maimonides' writings, particularly "Guide for the Perplexed." The governmental authorities later used this as a pretext to burn piles of Maimonides' books and copies of the Talmud. Rabbeinu Yona took this tragedy as a sign of heavenly rebuke against him; as a way to repair the damage, he undertook to write his famous work Shaarei Teshuva (Gates of Repentance), a Jewish system of introspection and self-improvement.

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9 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel (1250-1327), one of the greatest Talmudic commentators of all time. He is popularly known as the "Rosh," an acronym of his name. He lived at the time of the medieval Crusades, and in fear of being captured, fled from Germany to Spain. The classic "Shulchan Aruch" (Code of Jewish Law) gives great weight to the Rosh's opinions. He was the father of eight sons, one of whom wrote a groundbreaking work of Jewish law, "The Tur."

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10 Cheshvan

On this date in 2105 BCE (1656 from Creation), Noah and family entered the Ark. It wasn't until seven days later, however, that the intense rains began for 40 days and 40 nights. The delay was to allow a proper mourning period for Methuselah, the righteous grandfather of Noah who had just died at the age of 969 years, history's oldest human being. Noah and his family (and the animals) would remain on the Ark for over a year, until the flood waters had sufficiently subsided.

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11 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeit of the biblical Rachel, who died while giving birth to Benjamin in 1553 BCE (2208 from Creation). Rachel had previously given birth to Joseph, following years of being childless. Jacob buried her by the roadside in Bethlehem, where tradition says that centuries later she wept and prayed for the Jews as they were taken into exile. Today, Rachel's Tomb serves as a place of pilgrimage and prayer, and is regarded as Judaism third-holiest site.

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12 Cheshvan

In 1975, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring that "Zionism is racism." Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, noted the irony of the vote coming (on the English calendar) exactly 37 years after Kristallnacht. The UN Secretary General at the time was Kurt Waldheim, later accused of war crimes while serving as a Nazi officer. The "Zionism is racism" canard is easily refuted by Israel's open and democratic character -- with Arabs serving in parliament, as well as Israelis of all skin colors. Upon the airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, William Safire noted: "For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought to a country -- not in chains but in dignity, not as slaves but as citizens." The UN General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991.

Cheshvan 12 is also the yahrtzeit of Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, who was assassinated in 1995 after attending a rally promoting the Oslo peace process. Rabin served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and under his command the IDF achieved an overwhelming victory in the Six Day War. As prime minister, he played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat.