Today in Jewish History

[phkrause]

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, headed the first yeshivas catering to baal teshuvas. 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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[phkrause]

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.

[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.

[phkrause]

2 Tevet

On this date in 1947, the Arab Legion surrounded Jerusalem and isolated its 100,000 Jews from the rest of the Israeli population. By March 1948 the city was under full siege, and in May, Jordan invaded and occupied east Jerusalem, dividing the city for the first time in its history, and driving thousands of Jews into exile. The Arabs proceeded to destroy all 58 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, and used Jewish gravestones on the Mount of Olives to build roads and latrines. The Western Wall would be off-limits to Jews (in spite of the cease-fire agreement granting freedom of access to holy places), restored again with Israel's victory in the 1967 war.

[phkrause]

3 Tevet

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz (1902-1979), dean of the famous Mir Yeshiva for more than 40 years, who was known for his boundless love of God and humanity. When World War II broke out, Rabbi Shmulevitz and his students miraculously obtained transit visas, issued at great risk by Mr. and Mrs. Sugihara of the Japanese Consulate. They travelled out of war-torn Lithuania, via the trans-Siberian railroad, to a safe haven in Shanghai, China. After the war, Rabbi Shmulevitz reestablished the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which has since grown to a student body of 5,000. His ethical discourses, many of which have been published in English, are considered classics.

[phkrause]

4 Tevet

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Joshua Isaac Shapira, a leader of 19th century European Jewry known by the nickname Reb Eisele Charif. The story is told that when his daughter was ready to get married, Reb Eisel sought out the top yeshiva student. He entered the study hall and announced: "I have a very difficult question on a passage in the Talmud. Whoever can supply the correct answer will have my daughter's hand in marriage." Soon a long line formed, and one by one the students tried to provide the answer. And one by one, Reb Eisel explained how the answers were incorrect. This went on for days, but when no one came up with the correct answer, Reb Eisel packed up and left. He had just reached the edge of the city, when he heard a voice shouting after him: "Reb Eisel, Reb Eisel!" He turned around to see a young man running in his direction. The student explained: "I know I wasn't able to satisfy the condition for marriage, but just for my own sake, could you please tell me the correct answer?" "Aha!" shouted Reb Eisel. "If you have such a desire to know the truth, then you will be my son-in-law!"

[phkrause]

5 Tevet

In 422 BCE, the prophet Ezekiel heard the news of Jerusalem's conquest by a foreign power, as recorded in the biblical Book of Ezekiel (33:21). In Jewish law, a period of mourning (for example, upon the death of a loved one) can begin upon "hearing" the bad news. Some Talmudic commentators thus recommended that the 5th of Tevet be instituted as a public fast day.

[phkrause]

6 Tevet

In 1949, six British RAF warplanes enforcing a UN ceasefire were shot down by Israeli forces over the Israel-Egypt border. Throughout the 1948 War of Independence, Israel was terribly outnumbered in manpower and weapons -- initially the army did not have a single cannon or tank, and its air force consisted of nine obsolete planes. The United States had imposed an arms embargo on the region, forcing the Israelis to smuggle weapons, mainly from Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, the British provided large quantities of weapons to Arab forces: Jordan's Arab Legion was armed, trained and led by British officers.

[phkrause]

7 Tevet

In 468 CE, Rabbi Amemar, Rabbi Mesharsheya and Rabbi Huna, the heads of Babylonian Jewry, were arrested and executed 11 days later. The Jewish community of Babylon had existed for 900 years, ever since Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Israel, destroyed the Holy Temple, and exiled the Jews to Babylon. Seventy years later, when the Jews were permitted to return to Israel, a large percentage remained in Babylon -- and this eventually became the center of Jewish rabbinic authority. Things began to worsen in the 5th century, when the Persian priests, fighting against encroaching Christian missionaries, unleashed anti-Christian persecutions which caught the Jews of Babylonia in its wake. Eventually the situation improved, and Babylon remained as the center of Jewish life for another 500 years.

[phkrause]

8 Tevet

This date marks the completion of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible in the third century BCE -- the oldest Bible translation. The Septuagint derives its name from the Latin word for ' seventy,' alluding to the 72 Jewish scholars drafted by Egyptian King Ptolemy to translate the Bible for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria. The project was viewed tragically by the rabbis, as it promised to drain Jewish vitality and increase the ability of non-Jewish sects to proselytize the Jews. Legend says that the rabbis tried to disrupt the project: Although the translators were kept in separate chambers, they all produced identical versions of the text -- including 15 intentional "mistranslations." On the positive side, the Septuagint opened up the Bible to the masses -- helping to spread Jewish ideals of monotheism, peace and justice, which became the basic moral standards of the civilized world.

[phkrause]

9 Tevet

Yahrtzeit of Ezra, the leader of the Jewish people at the time of their return from Babylonian exile and the building of the Second Temple. Ezra was the founder of the Great Assembly, a body of 120 prophets and sages who established important matters like the standard text found in Jewish prayer books today. He was an outspoken critic of assimilation, particularly of the masses of Jews who preferred to stay in Babylonia rather than return to Israel. His life and times are recorded in the biblical Book of Ezra. He died in the 4th century BCE.

[phkrause]

10 Tevet

In 424 BCE, Babylonia King Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem. Actually, there was little damage on that first day and no Jews were killed, yet it began a chain of disasters which ended with the destruction of the Holy Temple. The 10th of Tevet is still observed today by Jews as a public fast day, as mentioned by the prophet Zechariah (8:19). One year after Nebuchadnezzar's siege, on this date in 423 BCE, Jeremiah purchased a field and prophesized that "Houses, fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land" (Jeremiah 32:15). This gave hope to generations of Jews for a return to the Holy Land -- a prophecy that we have seen fulfilled in modern times.

[phkrause]

Tevet 11

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln pledged to amend a federal law granting only Christian clergy the right to serve as military chaplains. During the Civil War (in which 6,500 Jews served for the North, and another 2,000 for the South), a religious Jew named Michael Allen had been elected as the non-denominational chaplain of his army regiment. When Allen's Jewishness became "publicized," rather than subject his family to the humiliating ordeal of his dismissal, Allen resigned, citing poor health. The regiment then elected Rabbi Arnold Fischel as its chaplain, in order to test the constitutionality of the "Christian-only" law. Much lobbying ensued, including Fischel traveling to Washington to meet with Lincoln. Six months later, the law was amended to permit Jewish clergy to become military chaplains. It is regarded historically as the first case of American Jews successfully challenging federal legislation.

[phkrause]

12 Tevet

In 1936, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performed its inaugural concert, consisting of 75 Jewish musicians from major European orchestras who had made aliyah. The opening concert (of the "Palestine Orchestra," as it was then known) was conducted by the great Arturo Toscanini, who had escaped the rise of fascism in his native Italy. Said Toscanini: "I am doing this for humanity." The IPO has earned a reputation as one of the pre-eminent orchestras in the world: over the decades it has featured Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Yehuda Menuhin and Itzhak Perlman. One profound moment came in 1991 when Zubin Mehta conducted the orchestra during a Scud missile attack.

[phkrause]

13 Tevet

In 1944, Simon Wiesenthal barely escaped death at the Janwska concentration camp. Wiesenthal had been imprisoned in a total of 12 concentration camps, and at the time of his liberation from Mauthausen in May 1945, his six-foot frame weighed just 99 pounds. Nearly all of Wiesenthal's close relatives were murdered by the Nazis, and after the war he worked for the U.S. Army gathering documentation for Nazi war crimes trials. Wiesenthal continued this work privately, and became known as the "Nazi hunter" whose research led to capture of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina, and dozens of other war criminals including Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer responsible for the arrest of Anne Frank. Wiesenthal said: "When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it." The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which operates the Museums of Tolerance, is named in his honor. In 1981, the Center's film, "Genocide," won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Wiesenthal died at age 96 in Vienna and was buried in Herzliya, Israel.

[phkrause]

14 Tevet

Yahrtzeit of Pinchas Rutenberg (1879-1942), founder of the Israel Electric Corporation. A Russian Jewish immigrant, Rutenberg was a visionary and pioneer, whose efforts to bring electricity to Israel is regarded as a crucial factor in building a strong modern economy. Rutenberg's flagship project was a hydroelectric plant on the Jordan River in 1931, which he built after gaining Winston Churchill's political backing and Baron Edmond de Rothschild's financial support. In 1948, the plant was destroyed by the Arab Legion.