This Day, July 8, In Jewish History

July 8 In Jewish History

1099: In a move reminisent of Joshua at Jericho, during the First Crusade 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as the Muslim defenders look on. This seemingly desparate move is part of the preparations for the final successful Crusader assault that will take place on July 15 following which the Moslem and Jewish citizenry would be slaughtered by those who claim to fight in the name of the man who said “love thine enemies.”

1654: According to some sources, Jacob Barsimon left Holland aboard the Peartree for New Amsterdam. He was the first Jewish resident of New Amsterdam (New York). Other sources claim that the Peartree and Barsimon did not set sail until July 17 and did not arrive until August 22, 1654. Regardless of which dating one accepts, the origin of the Jewish Community is dated from September 7, 1653 when 23 Sephardic Jewish refugees from Recife (Brazil) arrived in New Amsterdam aboard the French ship, St. Charles.

1776: The Liberty Bell was rung to summon citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. The Liberty Bell takes its name from the inscription taken from Leviticus 25:10 that states, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

1805: Rothschild writes the Landgrave seking the status of “Protected Jew” in Kassel so that he could business there while still living in Frankfurt. The request was rejected. The need for such a request was symptomatice of the crazy quilt of regulations desiged to limit the business opportunities for Jews.

1807: Rothschild wrote to his son Nathan telling him that that Czar Alexander and Napoleon had met at Tilsit. He espressed the hope that peace would prevail. In the end, his hopes proved to be unfounded.

1838: A band of Druze attacked the Jewish community of Tzfat. This incident is a far cry from the relations today between the Druze and the Jews. Founded in the early 11th century, the Druze faith was initially based on the doctrines of Shi’a Islam. As with other such groups who deviated from Islam, the Druze have been at odds with the dominant Moslem populations in the countries where they live – Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. There is a Druze community in Israel and Druze soldiers have served with honor and distinction in the IDF

1836: Birthdate of British statesman Joseph Chamberlain. Regrettably, Joseph Chamberlain’s greatest claim to fame was the fact that he was the father of Neville Chamberlain, the great appeaser of the Hitler period. Jews should remember him as a British political leader who was sympathetic to Herzl and his cause. In 1903, Chamberlain was one of those who worked to offer Uganda as a colony which European Jews could settle.

1873: Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) was launched in Cincinnati under the leadership of Dr. Isaac Meyer Wise.

1885: Birthdate of Ernst Bloch. Bloch was a German Marxist. He fled Germany during the 1930’s. When he returned he went to live in East (Communist) Germany. He broke with Communists and defected to West Germany in 1960. Bloch had opposed Herzl and Zionism in the 1960’s he became an outspoken advocate of Israel’s right to exist. He passed away in 1977.

1893: Birthdate of Fritz Perls father of Gestalt therapy. He developed his therapy during the 1940’s. It should not be confused with Gestalt Psychology developed during the 19th century.

1899: Birthdate of lawyer and public servant, David Lilienthal. A lawyer by profession, Lilienthal's twin passions were improving the human condition and converting natural resources. He was able to further both of these when he became the first Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933. This major power producing and flood control project was the most important thing to improve the lot of a mass of Southerners since the end of the Civil War. Lilienthal later served as the first chair of the Atomic Energy Commission. He passed away in 1981.

1902: Herzl visits Lord James in his quest to gain great power support for a Jewish home in Palestine.

1903: Herzl writes to Polish author Pauline Korvin-Piatrovska and asks her to intervene for him with the Russians. In the mean time, Wenzel von Plehve, the Russian Minister of the Interior and an anti-Semite calls for the suppression of the Zionist Organization in Russia

1910: The Queen of Holland appoints Joseph Carasso, Inspector of the Bank of Salonica, to be Consul for Netherlands at Salonica.

1933: Birthdate of comedian and actor Marty Feldman. One of his most memorable films was "Young Frankenstein."

1935: Birthdate of Steve Lawrence. Born Sidney Leibowitz, Lawrence teamed with his wife Edyie Gorme as a popular song and dance team. They were regulars on television variety shows in the 1950’s including Steve Allen and The Tonight Show.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, in his personal, special radio broadcast, condemned all recent crime and violence. Eliahu Said was shot dead on his way to his small tile factory on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. A bomb was thrown at the Neveh Shalom police station. One British officer, a soldier and six policemen were injured in an Arab-set ambush between Tulkarm and Nablus.

1940: David Benvenisti, Sephardic representative of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council, passed away the age of 48. Benvenisti was born in Turkey and had made aliyah from Egypt over 20 years prior. Thousands attended the funeral of this modest man who dedicated his life to public service.

1941: The Ponary Executions begin. Hundreds of Jews were taken to the resort of Ponary, stripped of all belongings, marched to the edge of a fire pit and then shot into the pit. Ponary was near Vilna, Lithuania. Over 100,000 Jews were murdered there and buried in pits. In 1943, the SS dug up the pits and burned the bodies in an attempt to hide their crime.

1941: Jews in the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) are forced to wear a distinguishing Jewish badge. Within months the Germans and local antisemites will murder most of the Baltic countries' Jewish population of one-quarter million.

1941: Hundreds of Jews are killed at Noua Sulita, Romania

1942: The head of the Judenrate in Warsaw, Adam Czerniakow, diary entry reflected his understanding of the impending doom facing the Jewish People.

1942: Seven thousand Lvov, Ukraine, Jews are murdered at the labor and extermination camp called Janówska (Ukraine)

1942: Jewish partisan Vitka Kempner and two others leave the Jewish ghetto at Vilna, Lithuania, carrying a land mine with which they hope to disable a German military train on tracks five miles to the southeast.

1944: Between July 8 and July 13, Red Army troops and Jewish partisans kill about 8000 German soldiers at Vilna. The Soviet forces were commanded by Colonel General I.D. Cherniakhovsky, reportedly the youngest of the leading Russian generals. When “asked if he was a Jew, Cherniakhovsky said, ‘My parents were.’”

1944: In France, Marianne Cohn was killed along with five non-Jewish resistance fighters who were trying to escort a group of Jewish children to safety.

1944: There was a temporary halt to the deportation of the Hungarian Jews. By now some 437,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported. Another 170,000 still remained. Adolph Eichmann had other plans for them.

1947: Dr Chaim Weizmann appeared before the United Nations Special committee on Palestine. In answering the question as to why the Jewish home had to be in Eretz-Israel, Weizmann. He attributed the responsibility to Moses, “who acted from divine inspiration. He might have brought us to the United States, and instead of the Jordan we might have had the Mississippi. It would have been an easier task. He he chose to stop here. We are an ancient people with an old history, and you cannot deny your history and begin afresh.

1948: During the War of Independence, Egyptian artillery opened fire on Kfar Darom. This was followed by an attack led by an armored column and infantry. When the Egyptians entered the settlement they found that the Jews had already decamped. Goliath had beaten David, but it was a pyrrhic victory, since the defenders had upset the Egyptian timetable for taking Tel Aviv. This military action took place during what was supposed to be a four week cease fire between the Arabs and the Israelis.

1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett made his first official visit to Nazareth. The State of Israel, Sharett told some 5,000 Arabs at an outdoor assembly, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic, considered Nazareth a valuable trust. He blamed the Arab states for failing to negotiate a final peace with Israel.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that for the sixth successive month this year, Israel's exports exceeded the official target by 20 percent. Israel's foreign currency reserves increased by $11m., reaching $1,034m., a sign of the positive trend in Israel's trade.. A facsimile edition of the Aleppo Codex - the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible - was unveiled to the press in Jerusalem. The Aleppo-Codex was written in Palestine in the early tenth century. It is the earliest known Hebrew manuscript comprising the full text of the Tanach. The Codex was taken to Egypt in the eleventh century and then to the Syrian city of Aleppo (hence its name) in the fourteenth century. The Codex was moved to its final, permanent home in Jerusalem in 1958.

1986: Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as President of Austria despite controversy over his service in the Nazi Army during World War II. Waldheim had already served as Secretary-General of the U.N. His Nazi past increased a growing antipathy among some Jews for the international body.

2003: Wikipedia, the informational website, introduced its Hebrew language version.

2006: Andy Ram became the first Israeli to win a grand slam tennis title when he partnered Russia's Vera Zvonareva to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles crown.

2007: The Sunday New York Times book he section featured a review of More Sex Is Safer Sex:The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics by Steven E. Landsburg, the Jewish economics professor who also wrote “Why Jews Don’t Farm” and The Last Novel by David Markson which In rhythm and tonality, if not in content, hints at the incantations of the Kaddish.

2007: TheMarker newspaper won the Platinum Award for the most effective advertising or marketing campaign at the 2007 Effie Awards in Israel. TheMarker won the advertising "Oscar" for its campaign marketing the business daily as the strongest financial brand in Israel. The Effie Awards is an annual competition that recognizes the year's best advertisements and marketing campaigns, and is held in over 34 countries around the world. The Effie was awarded to Guy Rolnik, the deputy publisher of Haaretz and the founder and editor of TheMarker. TheMarker, which merged with Haaretz in 2000, was originally founded as a Web site focusing on business and financial news that was updated in real time. TheMarker describes itself as the number one business Web site in Israel, as well as the country’s leading business magazine and daily business newspaper.

2008: In Israel, an International Conference on the Dead Scrolls comes to an end.