Today in Jewish History

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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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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.

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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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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.

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Tevet 3

 

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.

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Tevet 2

 

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.

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Tevet 4 

 

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!"

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Tevet 5 

 

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.

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Tevet 6 

 

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.

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Tevet 7

 

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.

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Tevet 8 

 

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.

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Tevet 9 

 

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.

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Tevet 10 

 

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.

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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.

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Tevet 12 

 

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.

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Tevet 13

 

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.

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Tevet 14

 

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.

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Tevet 15

 

In 1963, Israel's first desalinating water facility opened in Eilat. Israel is inherently poor in water bodies -- about 90% of the land area is dryland, and 60% of the country is covered by the Negev desert. Desalination is a process of producing water from salty and/or contaminated water. Today, Israel's national water company, Mekorot, operates 29 desalination plants, mainly in the south of the country.

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Tevet 16

 

In 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant was instructed to revoke Order No. 11, which had called for the expulsion of all Jews from Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. During the Civil War, smugglers were illegally selling southern cotton to the northern textile factories. Grant, commander of U.S. Army forces, believed that Jews were primarily behind this illegal cotton trade, and he decided to expel all Jews from southern territory. Grant wrote: "No Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point... The [region] must be purged of them." Based on Grant's orders, Jews were expelled from their homes, including 20 families from the town of Paducah alone. Some Jews were denied rail transportation and had to flee northward on foot. Those who did not cooperate were thrown into prison. Jewish community leaders immediately arranged a meeting at the White House with President Lincoln, who cancelled the expulsion order. Grant, who would later become U.S. president, never offered any explanation or apology and Grant deliberately omitted the episode from his autobiography. He did, however, show some "remorse" by appointing many Jews to public office, speaking out against anti-Semitism in Europe, and becoming the first president to visit the land of Israel.

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Tevet 17

 

In 1728, Congregation Shearith Israel purchased a plot of land in lower Manhattan, site of the first structure ever designed and built as a synagogue in continental North America. At the time, New York had the only Jewish community in the country; it would be some two decades later before organized Jewish settlement began in Philadelphia, Lancaster and Charleston. Shearith Israel was the only Jewish congregation in New York City from 1654 until 1825, having been founded by Brazilian Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin. Governor Peter Stuyvesant, known for his anti-Semitic views, had initially denied Jews the right to worship in a public gathering; these Jews fought for their rights and won permission. Today, Shearith Israel occupies a grand structure at 70th Street and Central Park West.

 

ps:if I'm not mistaken, this building is in what's called Chinatown today and its a Chinese church now

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Tevet 18

 

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dinov (1783-1841), author of the chassidic work, B'nei Yissachar. A brilliant scholar, kabbalist, and leader of Polish Jewry, Rabbi Shapiro worked vigorously to strengthen the Jewish community in light of the assimilationist trends brought about by the Enlightenment.

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Tevet 19

 

In 1901, the Jewish National Fund was founded for the purpose of purchasing settlement land in Israel. JNF had the idea of placing a collection box in every Jewish home, and by the 1920s about one million of the famous "Blue Boxes" were in Jewish homes throughout the world. Besides purchasing land throughout Israel, JNF expanded into afforestation, water projects, agricultural innovation, roadworks, schools, and immigrant services. JNF operates under the principle that the Land of Israel belongs to the entire Jewish people; based on this, the Israeli Knesset later adopted a law stating that JNF lands cannot be sold, but only leased for periods of 49 years at a time. Over the past century, JNF has planted over 220 million trees throughout Israel -- the only nation in the world to end the 20th century with more trees than it had at the beginning.

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Tevet 20

 

Yahrtzeit of Maimonides (1135-1204), also known as the Rambam (an acronym for his name, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon). Maimonides was born in Spain, but was forced to flee due to a radical Muslim regime that gave the Jews a choice of accepting Mohammed or leaving. Maimonides finally settled in Cairo, where in addition to leading the Jewish community, he was a top physician who served in the royal court of the Sultan of Egypt. Maimonides' magnum opus is Mishneh Torah, a comprehensive 14-volume code of Jewish law which has since been the subject of more than 300 commentaries. Maimonides' great philosophical treatise, Guide for the Perplexed, explains Jewish theology in light of Aristotelian philosophy and science. A popular saying is that "from Moses [of the Torah] to Moses [Maimonides], there has never been one like Moses." Maimonides is recognized today as the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher. He is buried in Tiberias, Israel.

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Tevet 21

 

In 1485, the first printed edition of Rabbi Yosef Albo's Ikkarim was published -- an exposition on the Jewish fundamentals of faith. Israel Nathan Soncino had founded the first Hebrew printing house in Soncino, Italy 24 years after Gutenberg brought movable type to the world's attention. Soncino's first publication was a volume of the Talmud, and over the next 70 years more than 130 Hebrew books were printed by the Soncino family. In 1988, an Italian postage stamp was issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the printing of the Soncino Bible.

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Tevet 22

 

In 1798, mobs attempted to torch the Jewish ghetto of Rome, but rains put out the fire. The day was then designated as a holiday by Roman Jews. The Roman Ghetto had been in existence since 1555, when the Pope segregated the Jews in a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. The Jews were also subjected to various restrictions and degradations, including having to attend compulsory Catholic sermons on Shabbat. During Rome's annual carnival, scantily-clad Jews were forced to race along the main street, while the crowd mocked them, threw trash, and rained heavy blows. (The event often proved fatal.) Hygienic conditions inside the ghetto were terrible, and there was constant flooding from the nearby Tiber River. Outside the ghetto, Jews were required to wear identifying yellow clothing. When Napoleonic forces occupied Rome, the ghetto was legally abolished in 1808, and the city of Rome tore down the ghetto walls in 1888.