This Day, October 7, In Jewish History

OCTOBER 7 In Jewish History

3761 BCE: According to some Jewish traditionalists, this corresponds to the date on which God created the World. This marks the start of the epoch of the Modern Hebrew calendar.

1272: Pope Gregory X (590-604) condemned the ritual murder libels. In addition, since Jews could not bear witness against Christians, he refused to accept testimony by a Christian against a Jew unless it was confirmed by another Jew.

1555: Hundreds of Jews in Cracow were killed during Hakafot, the ritual trouping of the Torah connected with Simchat Torah.

1868: Founding of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. Today at Cornell, there are approximately 3,500 Jewish undergrads among the 13,500 undergraduate population and another 500 Jewish students among its 5,000 Jewish graduate students. In other words, Jews account for about 25% of the school’s population. The school offers a major and minor in Jewish Studies as well as a full panoply of social and cultural on campus designed to meet the needs of Jewish students.

1870: During the Franco-Prussian War, Leon Gambetta escaped from Paris by balloon. This was the only way that Gambetta could reach Tours where he was active in organizing further military opposition to the Prussians. Gambetta was instrumental in the formation of the French Third Republic. His father was Jewish. His mother was not.

1879: Birthdate of Leon Trotsky. Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein to wealthy Jewish farmers in the Ukraine, Bronstein became a revolutionary committed to the overthrown of the Czar. After spending time in Siberia, he joined forces with Lenin. After the Bolshevik Revolution created the Red Army which defeated both the foreign armies that invaded the Soviet Union and the White Forces during the bloody civil war that followed. Trotsky would lose out to Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin’s death. Trotsky would be hacked to death by one of Stalin’s agents in 1940 while living in Mexico. Anti-Semites would use Trotsky’s Jewish origins as one source of proof that Communism was part of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The joke among Jews was the Trostkys make the revolutions and the Bronsteins suffer the consequences.

1885: Birthdate of Neils Bohr. The Danish born physicist is the Father of Quantum Theory and winter of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

1888: Birthdate of movie director Robert Z. Leonard.

1889: Driven by the effective and fervent lobbying efforts of activist Annie Nathan Meyer, Barnard College opened it doors. Although a number of northern elite women's colleges had opened during the 1870s, numerous cities, including New York, had little to offer young women of scholarly inclinations. At age 18, Meyer, who was largely self-educated, organized a reading circle and enrolled in the newly established extension program for women at Columbia College. Meyer married shortly before her 20th birthday in 1887 and soon began working to establish an affiliate women's college to Columbia. Meyer published a powerful letter to the Nation magazine and circulated a petition throughout the city to win the college's trustees over to her effort. Meyer achieved funding and support from the trustees on April 1 1889, leased quarters for the school, and began accepting applicants. Barnard became the first women's college in New York to offer the rigorous course work equivalent to that of male liberal arts colleges. Annie Nathan Meyer continued her work with Barnard throughout her life, becoming a member of the first board of trustees and remaining active in trustee affairs for the ensuing six decades.

1897: The Bund (Jewish Workers Party) held its first conference in Russia. It was the first Jewish Socialist party in Eastern Europe. At first decidedly anti-Zionist and pro-Yiddishist, it was organized as a union of Russian Jewish socialist groups. The bund exerted a great influence on Jews in Europe and America. Interestingly enough, the Bund held its first meeting during the same year in which the Zionists held their first Congress.
1898: Birthdate of Alfred Wallenstein, conductor of the Chicago Symphony from 1922 to 1929.

1903: German Born mathematician Rudoph Ottos Sigismund Lispchitz passed away. Born in 1832, Lispschitz was a professor at the University of Bonn for almost forty years and the man who developed the mathematical paradigm known as the Lipschitz Continuity.

1912: Lionel de Rothschild M.P. married Mlle. Marie Louise Beer in Paris this afternoon. Mlle. Beer is the daughter of French banker Edmond Beer and her sister married Baron Robert de Rothschild.

1916: Birthdate of economist Walt Whitman Rostow. He and his brother Gene were architects of American policy under the Kennedy and Johnson administration.

1918: “A call for a final military effort on the battle field was published in the Vossiche Zeitung. Written by the Jewish industrialist Walther Rathenau, its aim was to give Germany the strongest possible position from which to negotiate a peace of equality rather than of defeat. ‘It is peace we want, not war --- but not a peace of surrender.’”

1918: Birthdate of Marcus Klingberg. Born in Poland, Klingberg took refuge from the Nazis in the Soviet Union where he graduated from Medical School. After serving doctor with the Red Army during World War II, he moved to Israel in 1948. Eventually he would rise to a ranking position at the Israel Institute for Biological Research. In 1983 he was unmasked as leading agent for the Soviet Union.

1919: Birthdate of Sir Zelman Cowen 19th Governor-General of Australia and active leader of the Melbourne Jewish Community.

1935: A memorial service for Jacob H. Schiff, Jewish philanthropist, was held yesterday in the original building of Congregation Ohab Zedek, 18 West 116th Street, the cornerstone of which was laid by Mr. Schiff in 1906. A tribute by Morris Engelman, chairman of the congregation, embodied a plea for the establishment of a Schiff Memorial Fund to aid Jewish social, educational and religious institutions throughout the world.

1937: The Jerusalem Post reported that Bronislaw Huberman, the famous Jewish violinist and the founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, was passenger on the Royal Dutch (KLM) plane which crashed in Sumatra. He escaped without serious injury.

1937: The Jerusalem Post reported that French troops stopped clashes between Arabs and Turks at Antioch.

1939: Birthdate of chemist Sir Harold Kroto, who co-discovered fullerene. Born Harold Krotoschiner, Kroto shared in the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Kroto’s father was Jewish and he was raised as a Jew.

1938: Germany decreed that passports of Jews were to be marked with a J.

1939: Hitler appointed Himmler head of the R.K.F.D.V., an organization responsible for the deportation of Poles and Jews from Polish provinces.

1939: Birthdate of Joseph Shenker who was the only child of George and Isabel Schwartz Shenker. His father, an immigrant from Russia, owned a shoulder-pad factory; his mother was a bookkeeper.After graduating from Hunter College in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Dr. Shenker received his master’s degree in economics there in 1963. He received his doctorate in higher education administration from Columbia in 1969. By then he was an assistant to Albert H. Bowker, the chancellor of the City University at the time. At the age of 29, Dr. Shenker became the youngest president of a college in the City University of New York system and one of the youngest in the nation, when he was appointed interim president of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn in 1969. The next year, The New York Times described how he had tried to enter a building at Kingsborough where students were registering for a new term but was stopped by a security guard who thought he was a student trying to cut in line. It took a few phone calls to verify that the young man with sideburns was, in fact, the college’s acting president. Within a year, Dr. Shenker was named president of La Guardia, a newly created two-year college in an old factory in Long Island City, Queens. Under his guidance, La Guardia became the only college in the city to require its full-time students to hold jobs that blended with courses in their fields of interest. The policy, which gave students college credit for the jobs, is still in effect. In his 18 years at La Guardia, Dr. Shenker saw the school’s enrollment grow to 16,000 full- and part-time students from 500; started a program for deaf adults; and opened an on-campus high school for students identified as potential dropouts. From 1988 until 1995, Dr. Shenker was president of the Bank Street College of Education in New York. In 1995, he became provost of C. W. Post. In his 13 years there, undergraduate enrollment rose to 5,400 from 4,450, spurred in part by an infusion of foreign students. Dr. Shenker oversaw more than $84 million in construction on campus. In August of 2008 La Guardia renamed its main campus building Joseph Shenker Hall. Dr. Shenker passed away in September of 2008.

1940: German troops move into Romania bringing with them the horrors of the Holocaust. As can be seen from negotiations surrounding the 19th century Treaty of Berlin, anti-Semitism was an established part of the Romanian landscape. The Romanians, led by the infamous Iron Cross killed tens of thousands of their Jewish neighbors. Estimates as to the actual number killed range from 280,000 to 380,000.

1940: The Vichy Government “swept away the Cremieux Decree of 1870; a law that granted French citizenship to the Jews of Algeria. This act of anti-Semitism would echo i the world of 21st American politics when Virginia Republican Senator George Allen found out for the first time that his was an Algerian Jew; a refugee from the Holocaust who had never told her son of his Jewish ancestry for fear that some day the United States would turn on its Jewish citizens in the same that France had during World War II.

1941: At Rowne, Volhunia, the SS and local militia took over 17,000 Jews taken from their homes, marched them to open pits, and slaughtered them.

1943: German convoys deported Jews from Morocco to the concentration camps of Europe.

1943: Lithuanian Jewish partisans destroyed fifty telegraph poles.

1943: One thousand Jews are deported from Paris to their deaths at Auschwitz.

1943: In an official report, the German chief of police in Poland recommends that Poles who aid Jews should be dealt with without benefit of trial.

1943: In a Yom Kippur radio message to Jewish service men Vice President Henry A. Wallace, said that "the names of those who have served in this war will be honored whether they belong to the so-called blue-bloods from Boston or Negroes from South Carolina…' We are not Jews or Gentiles, Whites or Blacks,' but people of the United States.”

1944: While the furnaces belched forth Jewish ashes, a group of Jewish members of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando revolted. They killed a number of their masters, destroyed one gas chamber/crematorium complex, damaged another, and - more than any other nation - stopped the slaughter of innocent Jews. One of the key participants in this little-known revolt was Rosa Robota, a young Jewish prisoner, who arranged to obtain the explosives, stored them, and turned them over to the Underground. Young Rosa and three other women prisoners were hanged for their complicity in this revolt a few days before the Germans abandoned the camp. She received the highest award from the Polish government, and is honored with a sculpture in Yad VaShem.

1944: The Sonderkommandos at Birkenau chose to revolt instead of being selected to be "sent away." Chaim Neuhof was the first to strike an SS guard. Then the rest of the Crematorium IV men surged forward with pick and axes against their guards despite the arrival of multiple machine gun units. After setting fire to the Crematorium, the SS machine-gunned all the men. Despite this Crematorium II Sonderkommandos and Russian prisoners followed their lead and joined in the fight. Many men from Crematorium III and V broke out through the fences. Almost all were caught and executed.

1948: Neutral Zone around Government House in Jerusalem transferred to United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) protection.

1951: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented his new government to the Knesset. The long drawn out process convinces Ben-Gurion that Israel needs to move from the multi-party system to a two-party system like the British use. But even Ben-Gurion cannot bring about this change. To this day, Israeli politics continue to chaotic due to its multiplicity of parties and shifting political alliances.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dov Shilansky tried to sabotage the reparations agreement with Germany by an attempt to bomb one of the Foreign Ministry buildings in Jerusalem's Hakirya. Emotions on this topic ran high on this topic. Many Jews felt that accepting money would some how be a sign of forgiving the Germans. Others felt that it was “blood money” and it was tainted. Ultimately, a realistic view would prevail and Israel would use the money in a variety of ways designed to help the infant state survive.

1955: Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco

1956: The Israeli Cabinet expresses support for Ben Gurion’s decision to exercise restraint and not mount reprisal raids against Arab terrorists.

1973: One hundred tanks arrive on Israel’s border with Syria. General Hofi, the Israeli commander on the Northern Front had requested the tanks before the fighting started. This means that General Hofi has 170 tanks to use against 1,400 Syrian tanks. To understand the immensity of the threat faced by the Israelis, consider the following, in World War II the Nazis used 1400 tanks to invade the Soviet Union along a 1,000 mile front. The Syrians had 1,400 tanks to use along a forty mile front.

1973: Caught by surprise and badly out numbered, Israeli troops cling to front in the Sinai. In twenty four hours the Israeli force of 290 tanks had been reduced by two thirds. Dyan visited the Sinai front and called for a withdrawal to the Sinai passes, which he thought would be a better line of defense. General Sharon arrived with a reinforcing division and wanted to advance to the east bank of the Canal. As the generals debated, the soldiers on the ground were fighting a series of bloody holding actions. Egyptian hand held missiles were negating the edge that the Air Force and armored units had previously given the IDF.

1981: Novelist Albert Cohen passed away. Cohen is a study in the multi-nationalism of Jewish identity. Born in Greece in 1895, Cohen wrote his novels in French, and became a Swiss Citizen in 1919.

1981: Egypt's parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat. Much to the consternation of those who plotted Sadat’s murder, Mubarak continued to honor the peace agreement with Israel.

1985: Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard. “Four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said within Egypt. The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. When refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers shot one wheelchair-bound passenger – an American named Leon Klinghoffer – because he was Jewish, and threw his body overboard. The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner.

1988: Health Ministry officials began vaccinating all people under the age of 40 in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The vaccination was in response to concerns about a possible outbreak of polio.

1990: Israel begins handing out gas masks to its citizens as Sadam Hussein threatens to fire Scuds armed with chemical weapons on the Jewish state. In the Gulf War, Hussein will fire Scuds, but none of them will contain chemical weapons. At the request of the Bush Administration, the Israelis refrained from retaliating against the Iraqis. This is the first time that an Israeli government has entrusted security to another nation.

1996: In a speech in the Knesset, Shimon Peres appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the Hebron agreement.

2001: The New York Times reviewed Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood by Naomi Wolf.

2003: Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper, Canadian tax-lawyer, media magnate and leader of the Canadian Jewish community passed away.

2005: Sarah Levy-Tanai, founder of the Inbal dance troupe and one of the country's most important choreographers was laid to rest. She had passed away at the age of 95.

2005: The legendary Israeli basketball guard Doron Sheffer announced his retirement. The Israeli native had played on championship teams at the University of Connecticut. He was the first Israeli to be chosen in the N.B.A. draft. Sheffer passed up a chance to play with the Los Angeles Clippers and returned to Israel where he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem. He led Hapoel Jerusalem to its first European title when it defeated Real Madrid in the ULEB Cup final.

2007: The Jewish Museum of Florida presents an exhibition styled “The Art Of Rabbi Shoni Labowitz.” The artworks are inspired by the beauty and details of life, nature, women, spirituality and ritual. After a distinguished career as a rabbi, publisher and author, Shoni Labowitz is return to her lifelong dream of being an artist. The exhibit is an extension of her spirituality, evident in her style and subject matter. She says: “Whether it is feeling the bristles of the brush against the canvas, stroking color into shapes or feeling the clay beneath her hands, it is all a form of connecting with the spirituality in all things.

2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section included reviews of The Israel Lobby And U.S.Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt and The Deadliest Lies The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control by Abraham H. Foxman.

2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Judaism including Exit Ghost by Phillip Roth, The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever in which David M. Friedman examines the Lone Eagle’s love affair with eugenics that help explain some of his views about Hitler, the Jews and World II, You Can Lead a Politician to Water but You Can’t Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics by Kinky Friedman and The Journal Of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982, Edited by Greg Johnson. Oates “discovered late in life her own family's Jewish history: Her grandmother, who immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, kept her religion hidden for fear of persecution. So the question arises: Can Oates' writing be characterized as distinctively Jewish?”