Jewish History

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Today in Jewish History​

• Roman Jews Granted Privileges (1402)
On the 12th of Iyar, 1402, the Jews of Rome were granted "privileges" by Pope Boniface IX. They were given legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressive officials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews as full-fledged Roman citizens.

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Jews Expelled from Berne (1427)
The Jews of Berne, Switzerland were expelled on this date in 1427. Berne had a long history of expulsions and anti-Jewish riots.

 

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Steve Guttenberg and his Judaism take center stage in the adaptation of his memoir

Playing through May 21 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 'Tales From the Guttenberg Bible' explores the actor's career, Jewish identity and much more

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Roman Jews Granted Privileges (1402)
On the 12th of Iyar, 1402, the Jews of Rome were granted "privileges" by Pope Boniface IX. They were given legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressive officials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews as full-fledged Roman citizens.

Jesus did not live to see it

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• "Second Passover" (1312 BCE)
A year after the Exodus, G-d instructed the people of Israel to bring the Passover offering on the afternoon of Nissan 14, and to eat it that evening, roasted over the fire, together with matzah and bitter herbs, as they had done on the previous year just before they left Egypt. "There were, however, certain persons who had becomeritually impure through contact with a dead body, and could not, therefore, prepare the Passover offering on that day. They approached Moses and Aaron ... and they said: '...Why should we be deprived, and not be able to present G-d's offering in its time, amongst the children of Israel?'" (Numbers 9).

In response to their plea, G-d established the 14th of Iyar as a "second Passover" (pesach sheini) for anyone who was unable to bring the offering on its appointed time in the previous month. The day thus represents the "second chance" achieved by teshuvah the power of repentance and "return." In the words of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, "The Second Passover means that it's never a 'lost case.'"

 

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Two Forgotten American Jews Who Helped Build the U.S.-Israel Alliance » Mosaic

Bringing JFK and LBJ closer to Jerusalem.

mosaicmagazine.com

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Matzah Depleted (1313 BCE)
The supply of matzah (unleavened bread) which the Jewish people brought out of Egypt--enough for 60 meals--was exhausted on the 15th of Iyar, the 30th day after the Exodus. The people complained to Moses that they have nothing to eat. G-d notified them that He will rain down "bread from heaven" to sustain them (Exodus 16; see "Today in Jewish History" for tomorrow, Iyar 16).

• Jews Expelled From Russia (1727)
A few months prior to her death, Empress Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great, expelled all Jews from Russia.

• Riots in Rostov-on-Don (1883)
Rostov-on-Don, Russia, was home to 14 Synagogues and many communal institutions. With the encouragement of local Russian officials, a wave of anti-Jewish riots (pogroms) swept the city on the 15th of Iyar of 1883.

 

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Today in Judaism

• Romans Razed Jerusalem Wall (70)
In the year 70 CE (3830 from Creation), Titus and the Roman army laid siege upon Jerusalem, greatly weakening its defenders. On the 16th of Iyar, the Romans razed the middle wall of Jerusalem. The city was later burned, its inhabitants massacred, and the Temple destroyed on the 9th of Av.

Link: Destruction of the Second Temple - Historical Background

• "Nuremberg Laws" Passed in Hungary (1939)
The Nazi Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews the rights citizenship, were passed by the government of Nazi Germany in 1935. In 1939, on the 16th of Iyar, the laws went into effect in Nazi-allied Hungary.

• Dachau Liberated (1945)
Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp and the model for the other concentration camps. During the war, 200,000 Jews were housed in Dachau. More than 30,000 were killed and tens of thousands died due to the conditions and spread of disease in the camp.

The camp was freed by the 45th Infantry Division of the U.S. Seventh Army on the 16th of Iyar, 1945. It was the second concentration camp to be liberated following the end of WWII.

The U.S. troops forced the citizens of the local community to come to the camp, observe the conditions, and help clean the facilities.

• Witold Pilecki Executed (1948)
On this day in 1948 (5708) Witold Pilecki was executed by the Communist Polish government after a show trial where he was found guilty of espionage. A leader of the Polish resistance, he volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz, where he remained from 1940 to 1943. During that time, smuggled out information on the mass killings and other atrocities that the Germans were committing. They were the first comprehensive reports of the Nazi killing machine to reach the West.

 

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‘Wonder Rabbi’ pilgrimage brings feuds, fraud and huge potential for Hungary’s Jews

As some 150,000 Orthodox Jews flock annually to Yeshaya Steiner's grave in Bodrogkeresztur, the village's future is at risk even as Budapest seeks to become a top Jewish center

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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Today in Judaism


Troyes Jews Burned at Stake (1288)
On the 20th of Iyar in 1288, thirteen Jews in Troyes, France, were burned at the stake by the Inquisition. They were accused, in a blood libel, of the supposed murder of a Christian child. The thirteen Jews were chosen from among the richer members of the community.

Jews were also killed in a blood libel in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on this date.

• Venice Jews Forbidden to Practice Law (1637)
The Jews of Venice, Italy, were forbidden to practice law or to act as advocates in the Courts of Venice on the 20th of Iyar of 1637.

• Mt. Scopus Hospital (1939)
The Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem. The hospital, designed by renowned Bauhaus architect Erich Mendelssohn, opened as a modern, 300-bed academic medical facility.

• Pregnant Women Sentenced to Death (1942)
In the ghetto of Kovno, the Nazis decreed the execution of all pregnant Jewish women.

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Frank Hanged in Prague (1946)
Karl Hermann Frank, the German Nazi official in Czechoslovakia during World War II, was hanged on this date in 1946.

Frank surrendered to the American army on May 9, 1945 and was extradited and tried in a court in Prague. Following his conviction for war crimes, Frank was sentenced to death and hanged in the courtyard of the Pankrac prison in Prague as 5,000 onlookers witnessed his death.

• Kfar Chabad Established (1949)
The Chabad-Lubavitch village in Israel, Kfar Chabad, was founded by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, on Iyar 21 of 1949. The first settlers were mostly recent immigrants from the Soviet Union, survivors of the terrors of World War II and Stalinist oppression. Kfar Chabad, which is located about five miles south of Tel Aviv and includes agricultural lands as well as numerous educational institutions, serves as the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement in the Holy Land.

 

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Scholars expound on Mount Ebal curse tablet with oldest Hebrew text

The 3,200-year-old find could prove Israelites were literate when they entered the land.

www.jns.org

 

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Shalom: Peace in Hebrew | My Jewish Learning

Shalom, or peace, along with truth and justice, is among the most hallowed Jewish values.

www.myjewishlearning.com

 

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oday in Jewish History​

• Cologne Jews Saved (1096)
During the First Crusade, the crusaders are locked out of Cologne, Germany and the local Jews are saved, following the orders of the local bishop to close the gates to the city. (see "Today in Jewish History" for Iyar 8)

In a number of local provinces, where the local bishop tried to avert the masses from harming the Jews, the Bishop would have to escape for his own safety.

• Toledo Massacre (1355)
1,200 Jews were massacred by a Christian and Muslim mob attack on the Jewish section of Toledo, Spain, on this date in 1355.

 

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Why Are There So Many Kosher Chinese Restaurants? | The Nosher

Here’s what we know: Jews eat Chinese food. North American Jews did so in the early 20th century, when Ashkenazi ...

www.myjewishlearning.com

 

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He was Germany’s most popular playwright — here’s why you may not have heard of him

Ernst Toller was renowned in his lifetime, but a tragic death and the emergence of Brecht overshadowed his legacy.

forward.com

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Idolatrous Practices Abolished (c. 135 BCE)

During Greek rule in the Land of Israel, the Greeks would hang idolatrous wreaths of roses on the doorways of the courtyards and stores, effectively rendering them forbidden for usage by the Jews. They would also write heretical statements on the foreheads of the Jews’ oxen and donkeys, so they would be forced to sell them and would not own any animals for plowing. When the Hasmoneansoverthrew Greek rule, they abolished these insidious practices, and that day was commemorated as a holiday in Talmudic times (Megilat Taanit,ch. 2).

 

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Today in Jewish History​

• Hebron Liberated (1967)
One day after Israeli forces liberated Eastern Jerusalem in the course of the Six-Day War, another of the holy cities, Hebron, was also liberated.

Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Jordan took over the control of Hebron along with the rest of the West Bank. During this time, Israelis were not allowed to enter the West Bank. The Jewish Quarter was destroyed, Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, 58 synagogues were destroyed and an animal pen was built on the ruins of the Patriarch Abraham Synagogue.

 

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Today in Judaism


Worms Jews Massacred (1096)
At the end of a week in which a group Jews took refuge in a local castle in Worms, Germany, the crusaders massacred them during their morning prayers. (see "Today in Jewish History" for Iyar 8.)

• Ezekiel Describes Assyria's Downfall (423 BCE)
In a reprimand to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Ezekiel describes the downfall of Assyria in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, some twenty years earlier. Using highly descriptive terms, Ezekiel likens Assyria to a lofty, mighty cedar tree that was chopped down.

 

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In three films, a tale of three Jewish New Yorks

Film Forum's "The City: Real and Imagined" highlights work by Joan Micklin Silver, Sergio Leone and Yiddish theater star Maurice Schwartz.

forward.com