This Day, July 20, In Jewish History

July 20 In Jewish History

1263: Pablo Christiani, a converted Jew, and Raymond of Penaforte, compelled King James of Aragon to force a debate between him and Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides). The Jews were afraid that no matter what the outcome they would lose, so they pleaded with Nachmanides to withdraw. The King ordered him to continue. Although the outcome was preset (the Christians "won"), the King was so impressed that he rewarded Nachmanides with a present of 300 maravedis. Pablo was given permission to continue these debates throughout Aragon with the Jews having to pay his expenses. Two years later Nachmanides was convicted for publishing his side of the debate. Although he was not severely punished by the King, he decided to leave Spain for good and settled in Eretz-Israel.

1402: During the Ottoman-Timurid Wars, Timur led the forces of the Timurid Empire to victory over the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara. This defeat could not have been a source of joy for the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. Bayezid had proven to be a friend of the Jewish people. “In 1394 Sultan Bayezid invited the French Jews who were molested by King Charles VI, to settle in the Ottoman Empire. They established communities in Edirne and the Balkans. The French Kings had the habit of inviting the Jews to establish commerce and borrowing money from them. However often, when payment was due, they expelled them; only to re-invite them when they needed further financing.” Bayezid died a year after the defeat.

1775: At the request of the Continental Congress, Jews fasted and prayed for the success of the colonies against the British, and to be spared from the "agony of war."

1808: Napoleon decreed that all Jews of the French Empire must adopt family names.

1829: Birthdate of Thomas Rowe one of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era who designed the Great Synagogue in Sydney

1847: Birthdate of painter and graphic artist Max Liebermann. "Liebermann was one of the leading German impressionist painters." He painted in the manner of the Dutch impressionists rather than the French impressionists. This meant "he often painted people at their everyday tasks and explored the effect of changing sunlight on colors and shadows." When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they included his works in their first showing of "degenerate art." He died in 1935 having been stripped of all his honors and ordered not to paint. Eight years later his was wife committed suicide. I must admit a prejudice. I like his works. There are a number of web sites available where you can judge for yourself.

1869: “The Innocents Abroad” Mark Twain’s travelogue describing his visit to Europe and the Holy Land (including what is now the state of Israel) is published. For more about the famed American humorists attitude towards Jews see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/twain.html

1871: British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada. In 1858, the first large body of Jews arrived in British Columbia along with others seeking their fortunes in the Fraser River Gold Rush. By 1863, there were enough Jews living in Victoria, B.C. to establish Congregation Emanu-El, now Canada's longest serving synagogue. Ten years after B.C. joined the confederation, the Jewish community would receive its next influx of settlers as refugees from Russian anti-Semitism settled in the Canadian West.

1876: Birthdate of German mathematician Otto Blumenthal. Blumenthal converted at the age of 18. He may have believed that he would find the path to academic success a lot smoother as a Protestant. In the end, it did not save him from the Nazis. Blumenthal died in concentration camp in 1944.

1890: Birthdate of Theda Bara. Born Theodosia Burr Goodman in a wealthy suburb of Cincinnati, Bara’s mother was Swiss and her father was a Jewish tailor. She was known as a "vamp" and one of the first "sex symbols" of the silver screen. She passed away in 1955.

1896: Herzl meets with the Association des Etudiants Israëlites Russes.

1903: Herzl writes to Leopold Greenberg (“an English Zionist and future editor of the Jewish Chronicle”) in London to do whatever possible to revive the Sinai enterprise. This is a reference to offers by the British Foreign Office to allow Jews from Eastern Europe to settle in a part of the Sinai Peninsula known as the Brook of Egypt. Another, better known of these schemes, was the offer to allow Jews to settle in Uganda as a temporary Jewish homeland. These desperate proposals came against a backdrop of Pogroms in Russia and a general worsening of conditions for Jews in Eastern Europe. While Zionists in German, Austria and Britain were willing to consider such alternatives, the Zionists of eastern Europe rejected them out of hand. Those living in the greatest physical saw the spiritual danger in accepting anything less than Eretz Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. In the man time Herzl wrote desperately, "We must indeed take East Africa, or at least the Charter, but we must not deceive ourselves as to the fact that all the non-English Jews are against East Africa. I shall have to use a great deal of patience for it, whereas El Arish is popular." Herzl also prepares steps to approach Portugal for a Charter for Mozambique, Belgium for a territory in the Congo and Italy for a section of Tripoli.

1908: In a letter to the New York Times, William Maude provides commentary on the antiquity of an ancient copy of the Book of Joshua obtained by Dr. Moses Gaster in Samaria.

1920: Birthdate of Lev Aronin. Born in the Soviet Union, he became International Chess Master in 1950.

1924: Birthdate of Ann Gilbert. Born Chana Zylberstajn, in Szydlowiec, Poland, to Josek and Laja Zylberstajn. Ann was a Holocaust survivor. She spent over four years in concentration camps and was liberated in April 1945. She married Fred Gilbert (Felek Gebotszrajber) on Jan. 2, 1946, in Scwabisch Hall, Germany. Ann was a consummate homemaker, an accomplished seamstress, and devoted to her family. She and Fred lived in Cedar Rapids from 1949 to 1986, where she was an active member of Temple Judah and in the community. She was a lifetime member of Hadassah. From 1986 to 2003, Ann and Fred lived in Los Angeles, where she was a much sought after seamstress to film and motion picture stars. Ann and Fred were also very active in the survivor community. They were regular speakers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center-Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She and Fred lectured frequently about their experiences. In 2003, she and Fred returned to Cedar Rapids to be near to Lena. Ann remained a constant source of inspiration until she passed away in 2008 at the age of 84.

1930: Maxim Litvinov is named the Soviet Union's Commissar of Foreign Affairs. Born Meir Henoch Mojszewicz Wallach-Finkelstein in 1876, into a wealthy Jewish banking family in Białystok in Congress Poland, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. The party was an illegal organization, and it was customary to use pseudonyms. He changed his name to Maxim Litvinov, but was also known as Papasha and Maximovich. Over the years, his politics become more radical in response to the increasingly repressive policies of the Russian government. He joined the Bolsheviks where he became a confidante of Lenin. Litvinov carried out a variety of diplomatic missions for the Soviets after the Russian Revolution. As Foreign Minister, Litvinov was a key participant that led to recognition of the Soviet government by the United States in 1933. Litivinov sought to create an anti-fascist alliance with western powers during the 1930’s. When the British and French caved in at Munich, Stalin decided to work on developing relations with Hitler’s government. To that end, he removed Litvinov since it would not due to have a Jew negotiating with the Nazi government. After the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Litvinov was sent to Washington to negotiate a Lend-Lease that would provide the arms the Soviets needed to meet the Nazi onslaught.

1933: Cardinal Pacelli issued a concordant known as the Hitler Concordant. Hitler described it as” unrestricted acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican." Cardinal Pacelli later became Pope Pious XII. In its spirit all teaching priests were to greet their students with "Heil Hitler, praised be Jesus Christ."

1933: In Germany, two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.

1933: In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism. This may be seen as part of campanion piece to a rally held in March, 1933 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The demonstration in London was certainly not representative of British public opinon or policy. Many of the movers and shakers in Great Britain were impressed with the cleansing effect that the Nazis were bringing to Germany, marking them as pro-German, anti-Semitic or both.

1934: The Court of Appeal today quashed the death sentence passed by the District Court on Abraham Stavsky on June 8 for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, prominent labor leader and member of the Jewish Agency Executive of Palestine. The Appeal Court found that the evidence was insufficient. Thousands of supporters of Stavsky, who dodged a date with the hangman, reportedly danced in the streets of Jerusalem as they celebrated a victory for the Revisionist faction of the Zionist movement.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that since according to the 1935 Official Palestinian Report on Migration certain professions became overcrowded, the government had restricted the admission to the country of all those belonging to the medical, legal and engineering professions. [Editor’s note: This seemingly innocuous ruling came at a time when educated Jews were trying to leave Germany.] Arab snipers shot at British soldiers patrolling the Nablus road in Jerusalem. Lengths of railway track were found removed near Tulkarm. Arab hawkers asked for police protection in order to be able to sell their wares. They complained that the general strike brought them ruin, starvation and death. Several more prominent members of the Arab "National Guard" were interned at Sarafand

1939: British policy on Palestine--particularly the latest decision to cut off legal immigration for six months, beginning Oct. 1--came under heavy fire in the House of Commons tonight. The opposition Laborites contended that the decision to suspend immigration was proof of failure of the government's new policy.

1939: Birthdate of Judy Chicago. For over four decades Chicago has been a leading educator, artist and shaper of the feminist movement. One of her most famous works is the multi-media history of women in Western Civilization entitled “The Dinner Party.”

1941: A Jewish ghetto at Minsk, Belorussia, is established.

1942: The first detachment of the U.S. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC’s) begins basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Among this group of volunteers are twelve Jewish women: Ruth Ginns, Beatrice Berg, Carolyne Casper and Jean Korn from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kathryne Goldfluss, Rose Ross and Joan Strongin from New York, New York; Bee Rosenberg and Ruth Spivak from Chicago, Illinois; Rita Fink and Isabel Bayley of Buffalo, New York; and Elizabeth Morgenstern of Seattle, Washington.

1942: The Jews of Kleck tried to revolt as the Germans circled their town. Only a few hundred escaped. The 1,000 remaining Jews were shot dead.

1942: The Germans murder 1000 Jews at Kleck, Belorussia; 400 flee into forests. Two from the latter group, Moshe Fish and Leva Gilchik (from nearby Kopyl), will form a partisan group.

1942: The Jews from Kowale Panskie, Poland are deported, to the Chelmno death camp.

1943: Five hundred slave laborers are murdered at Czestochowa, Poland.

1943: Over two thousand Jews are deported from Holland to Sobibór.

1943: Two Jews escape from Sobibór

1944: The most famous plot to kill Hitler failed. This event has been romanticized by various revisionists. The plotters realized that they could not win the war. They thought that with Hitler gone, they could at least negotiate a peace treaty with the West. The plotters were not only incompetent, they were delusional as well. [For more about people who really worked to opposed Hitler see the recently publish “Red Orchestra.”]

1946: Arthur Greiser, former Gauleiter of the Warthegau region in Poland, is hanged at Poznan, Poland, after being convicted of war crimes.

1949: Israel's 19 month War of Independence ended. The government of Syria signed the last of four armistices, which marked the end of open warfare. The cessation of hostilities did not bring peace since the Arab states refused to come to grips with the reality of the existence of Israel.

1950: Harry Gold, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs. Gold’s Jewish pedigree provided fodder for anti-Semites who sought to make being Jewish and being Communist (or disloyal to America) one and the same thing.

1950: In Israel, doctors employed by the Health Ministry will go on strike today unless their demands for increased pay are met.

1951: Abdullah Ibn Hussein Jordan's King was assassinated in Jerusalem. He was attending Friday prayers at a mosque when he was killed by those who were afraid he was negotiating with Israel. His grandson, Hussein, became the next King of Jordan. The assassination influenced the young king

1954: United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn was the chief counsel of the Senate Committee that McCarthy used to conduct his investigations that smeared people, ruined lives and unearthed no “Communist conspiracy among those he paraded before the television lights. All of those right wing anti-Semites seemed to lose sight of fact that McCarthy’s chief henchman was one of those “New York Jews.”

1960: The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.

1962: Pope John XXIII sent invitations to all 'separated Christian churches and communities,' asking each to send delegate-observers to the upcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council in Rome. Vatican II would result in an improvement in the relationship between the Jewish Community and the Roman Catholic Church. Of course, there are those that would that anything would have to be an improvement over Pope John’s predecessor, Pope Pious, the Pope of the Holocaust.

1965: Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court. Fortas was a close friend of Johnson’s; one of the few people who could speak frankly with Johnson. Fortas was “nominally” Jewish and he warned Johnson that the American Jewish Community would not see him as the right person to hold what, since the days of Brandeis, had become “the Jewish chair” on the High Court.

1969: Israeli commandos successfully complete their attack on Green Island completely destroying the island fortress. The press hails the attack as an Israeli Navronne, after the fictional island in the movie “The Guns of Navronne.” But the casualties were not fiction. Not only were they real, they were higher than expected. The Israelis learned from the mission and went on to improve the functionality of their units.

1971: Syria and Jordan’s armies exchange fire over the common frontier. This would prove to be prelude to a Syrian attempt to seize Jordan, part of Syrian President Assad’s goal to create a Greater Syria. In one of those strange twists, Israel moved tanks towards the area of conflict which Washington’s way of letting the Syrians know that they should back off and leave Jordan alone.

1973: Palestinian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.

1976: Today marked the start of what would become the Good Fence Policy along the border with Lebanon. The hope was that the medical treatment of Lebanese citizens in Israel and the beginning of trade between South Lebanon and Israel would start a new era of relations between the two countries. Like so many other peace initiatives this one died at the hand of terrorism.

1980: The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is another reason that Israel tends not to trust the UN. In 1947, as part of the partition vote, the UN said Jerusalem would be governed by an international body. When the Jordanians attacked Jerusalem and expelled the Jewish population from the Old City, the UN did nothing. During the 19 year occupation of the city by the Jordanians Jews, of whatever nationality, were kept out of the city. The UN did nothing. But now that the Israelis controlled the whole city and it was open to Christians, Moslems and Jews, the UN acted to support the Arab view of the City of David.

1981: The administration of newly elected Republican President Ronald Reagan suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel.

1983; The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon. The Israelis had gone into Lebanon because the PLO occupied the southern half of the country and was using it as base to attack Israel. The government of Lebanon either could not or would not remove the PLO so Israel was forced to act or accept the fact that Arafat’s terrorists would have permanent base on Israel’s northern border.

1994: Israel’s Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli official to do so.

1997: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast by Patrick McGilligan and Inventing Memory: A Novel of Mothers and Daughters by Erica Jong.

2003: At the Lincoln Center Festival, Israel’s Gesher Theatre gives its opening performance of its adaptation of “The Slave. The troupe has been invited to mark the Centennial of Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer's birth by performing two plays based on his novels at the prestigious festival. Founded in 1991 in Jaffa, Gesher is one of the only bi-lingual theaters in the world performing with the same cast in Hebrew and in Russian alternately. Gesher means bridge in Hebrew, and the theater has done its part to bridge the Russian and Israeli cultures. While the Gesher has helped Russian speakers integrate themselves into Israeli society, it has also influenced other Israeli theaters to move away from a method-acting style and to follow Gesher’s founder and artistic director Yvgeny Arye’s lead in his use of music in his productions. “The Slave” is a sensual love story about two people of different faiths caught in a maelstrom of prejudice and xenophobia. It tells the story of a yeshiva student who escapes a brutal pogrom in 17th century Poland only to be caught and enslaved on a Polish peasant farm. Wanda, his master's daughter, falls in love with him. Later, when fellow Jews ransom him from slavery, he returns to his own people to discover that life without Wanda is meaningless. He returns for Wanda and takes her to a small Jewish village where they live as husband and wife. Wanda changes her name to Sarah and pretends to be mute to disguise her Christian identity. The couple finds that life among Jews is not much easier than life among the Poles. The play deals with issues of anti-Semitism and xenophobia but it is also a story of faith in human nature. In 2003, Gesher's version of “The Slave” swept five prizes at the Israeli Theater Academy Awards, including best play, best director and best leading actress.

2003: Jewish Women International's first-ever international conference on domestic violence in the Jewish community held its first meeting in Baltimore. Among its approximately 450 attendees, the three-day conference included Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Orthodox rabbis; social workers; artists; activists; and abuse survivors. "Every point of view — orthodox and secular, lay and professional, survivor and service provider, medical and spiritual, gay and straight — was shared and respected among this incredibly diverse group," commented JWI Executive Director Loribeth Weinstein. Nearly one hundred speakers addressed the conference in 44 workshops, on topics from finding funding for programming to a rabbi's role in combating domestic violence. The conference's principle goal was a "Call to Action," aimed at galvanizing the movement against domestic violence through a statement of principles and a call for personal commitments to fight violence in individual communities. In addition JWI announced "the launching of initiatives to help young women spot the danger signs of brewing domestic abuse, and to help rabbis better respond to the problem." According to Orthodox Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb the conference marked a major change in the way the Jewish community dealt with domestic abuse: "Until 10 years ago domestic abuse was nowhere on the Jewish agenda. We acted as if it didn't exist, yet it was prevalent. This conference is a recognition of our past ignorance and indifference." Organizers hoped that attendees would take the strategies and insights learned in Baltimore back to their home communities, where they could continue to educate still more professionals and lay people to confront family violence. Baltimore has been an important location in the growth of a Jewish effort to combat domestic abuse. Rebbetzin Hanna Weinberg has been called the "Harriet Tubman" of the Jewish domestic violence movement. Starting with a battered women's telephone hotline out of her home thirty years ago, she has been instrumental in organizing support services ranging from shelters to kosher food to financial, legal, and career advice in Jewish communities around the country. CHANA (Counseling Helpline and Aid Network for Abused Women), a project of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore has also provided an inspirational model of how a Jewish community can address the problem of domestic abuse.

2004 (2nd of Av, 5764): Temple Judah mourned the loss of Rabbi Ed Chesman who passed away unexpectedly while vacationing with family in Florida.

2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war: Maj. Benjy Hillman, 27; St.-Sgt. Rafenael Muscal, 21, of Mazkeret Batya; St.-Sgt. Nadav Baeloha, 21, of Karmiel; St.-Sgt. Liran Sa'adiya, 21, of Kiryat Shmona; St.-Sgt. Yonatan (Sergei) Vlasyuk, 21, of Kibbutz Lahav; Maj. Ran Kochva, 37, of Beit Hananya.

2007: Under the direction of Lauren Reece, The Footlighters ACT II performs "The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa. Making this a Jewish as well as community even, Rabbi Portman of Agudas Achim in Iowa City will conduct an outdoor Shabbat Eve services on the grounds of what was Herbert Hoover’s boyhood home. While Jews preferred FDR to Hoover in 1932, it must never be forgotten that Hoover was responsible for putting Justice Cardozo on the Supreme Court when anti-Semitism was on the rise during the Great Depression.

2008: Fast the 17th Day of Tammuz, 5768

2008: The Washington Post book section features a review of Debra Winger’s memoir, Undiscovered.

2008: The Sunday New York Times book section features a review of Rapture Ready in which Jewish author Daniel Radosh explores Christian pop culture.

2009: At the 18th Maccabiah Games, the basketball competition continues as Brazil plays Germany, the USA plays Argentina, France plays Mexico and the hometown Israelis tip off against Canada.