DoubleTapper: Today in Jewish History

Today in Jewish History

597 BCE: The first conquest of Jerusalem by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar occurred. In the Bible, the event is recorded in 2 Kings 24:1ff. and in 2 Chronicles 36:5-8. It is also implied in the early chapters of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

1743: The New-York Weekly Journal reported that a Jewish funeral procession in New York was attacked by a mob. According to "one learned Christian" witness to it, the mob had, "insulted the dead in such a vile manner that to mention all would shock a human ear."

1900: Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, in his never ending quest to have the rich and powerful support the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel, had a luncheon with Eulenburg-Hertefeld, the German ambassador in Vienna.

1917: Provisional government of Russia voided many anti-Jewish laws and restrictions. This was the so-called Kerensky Government which replaced the Czar. Unfortunately, Kerensky and the forces of democracy were overthrown by Lenin and his Bolsheviks.

1935: Fourteen Jewish American athletes and their manager David White set sail on the SS Conte di Savola. The athletes will participate in the Maccabiah, the Jewish Olympics, scheduled to open in April in Tel Aviv, Palestine. Due to unexpected financial difficulties, it was not known until the last minute if the team would be able to go to Palestine. Thirty teams were expected to compete in the games up from the twenty-five teams that competed in the inaugural Jewish Olympics held in Tel Aviv, Palestine in 1932.

1936: Jews in Palestine protested the worsening conditions under which the Jews of Poland were living. Polish Jews were dealing with everything from a government threat to end Kosher slaughtering to actual Pogroms. The Jewish National Council of Palestine conducted a mass protest meeting and the Jews of Tel Aviv, Palestine shuttered their shops for one day.

1942: The first 1,600 Jews were deported from Lublin to Belzec. Another 10,000 would follow the next week

1943(9th of Adar II, 5703): An SS officer was killed by a Jew named Kotnowski at Lvov. In reprisal, the Germans hung 11 Jewish policemen from the balconies overlooking the main street of the Ghetto. Also over 1,000 Jews were taken away and shot.

1947: The British announce plans to end Martial Law in Tel Aviv, Palestine and adjacent areas effective tomorrow.

1947: An explosion ripped through press room and tourist information center in the Jerusalem, Palestine in the offices of the Jewish agency. While some said the attack was the work of “Jewish terrorists” and highlighted the split between Yishuv and militant extremists, the Irgun denied responsibility and said the attack may have been the work of the British.

DoubleTapper: Today in Jewish History