Nov. 21, 1984:
The first group out of a total of 8,000 Ethiopian Jews was covertly flown to Israel via Brussels from refugee camps in Sudan during a civil war that caused a famine. Operation Moses, which comprised a total of 28 covert airlifts on Boeing 707s lent by a Jewish Belgian airline owner, was completed on January 5, 1985.
Kislev 2, 5723 (1962):
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Aharon Kotler, prominent Talmudist, Orthodox leader, and founder of Bet Midrash Govoha of Lakewood, New Jersey, which has since grown into the largest institution of its kind in America, with over 5,000 advanced-level students. Rabbi Kotler led various efforts to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, such as persuading Henry Morgenthau Jr., US Treasury secretary, to risk his political career to save Jews.
Nov. 23, 1956:
A proclamation was signed and read aloud in mosques throughout Egypt declaring that “all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state.” Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country with only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, after being forced to sign a declaration “donating” their property to the Egyptian government.
Nov. 24, 1632:
Birthday of Baruch Spinoza, 17th-century Dutch rationalist philosopher of Portuguese origin and founder of modern biblical criticism. Advocating a more secular humanist approach to religion, he was excommunicated from the Jewish community. Today, he is considered one of Western civilization’s most important philosophers.
Nov. 25, 1940:
The British resolved to deport to Mauritius 1,771 “illegal” immigrants aboard the French steamer Patria, slated to depart from Haifa. To head off the move, members of the Hagana attempted to disable the ship. Unfortunately, the explosive charge was too large or the hull too weak, and the ship sank in the port of Haifa, drowning 257 people.
Nov. 26, 1949:
Birthday of Shlomo Artzi, one of Israel’s most famous singers for more than 30 years.
“Imagine a beautiful world,
Less sad than what it is now.
And we walk there with sunshine in our pockets,
And above the rooftops, the stars,
And time moves with no fear.”
– “Teta’aru Lachem”
Kislev 7, 3758 (4 BCE):
Yahrzeit of King Herod the Great, king of Judea under the protection of Rome from 37 BCE until his death. Despite the fact that he built extensively (such as the fortress of Masada, the port of Caesarea, and expanding the Second Holy Temple) and developed trade with other countries, his cruel reign led to the anniversary of this date being proclaimed a holiday (Megillat Ta’anit 9).
Nov. 28, 1908:
Birthday of Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist who has been called the “father of modern anthropology” primarily for his development of the theory of structuralism – “the search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of human activity.” Lévi-Strauss contended that the “savage” mind had the same structures as the “civilized” mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere.
Nov. 29, 1947:
The UN voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions in favor of the establishment of the State of Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people. The following day, the War of Independence began, as Arabs attacked a bus near Lod, killing five of its passengers, and the Jewish commercial quarter near the Old City of Jerusalem.
Nov. 30:
Refugee Day was established by the Knesset in 2014 to honor the experiences of almost a million Jews who were exiled from Arab countries after the establishment of the State of Israel, losing their homes, communities, possessions, and livelihoods. These refugees had to relocate and rebuild their lives from scratch without any international aid or support.
Dec. 1, 1909:
The first kibbutz (farming commune), Degania Alef, was founded in pre-state Israel by members of the Bilu movement. The poet Rachel, the “prophet of labor” A.D. Gordon, and paramilitary commander Joseph Trumpeldor all worked at Degania. The second child born there was the Israeli general and politician Moshe Dayan.
Dec. 2, 1906:
Birthday of Peter Goldmark, Hungarian-American engineer who developed the first commercial color television system, which used a rotating three-color disk. He also developed the 33 1/3 LP phonograph that greatly increased the playing time of records, as well as a scanning system used by the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1966 to transmit photographs to Earth from the moon.
Kislev 13, 4260 (499 C.E.):
Yahrzeit of Ravina II, co-editor (with his teacher, Rav Ashi) of the Babylonian Talmud, the prime repository of Jewish law and lore. His death marked the end of the Amoraic era and the beginning of the Saboraic era.
Dec. 4, 1961:
The World Council of Churches called upon its 198 member denominations, which collectively represent over 500 million people in more than 110 countries, to “resist every form of antisemitism.”
Kislev 15, 3981 (220 CE):
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (the “Prince”), leader of the Jewish people during the period following the destruction of the Second Temple, known for his wealth and humility. With persecutions and exile threatening to break the chain of transmission, Rabbi Yehuda gathered, recorded, edited, and organized the Oral Law in writing for the first time, in the form of the Mishna.
“I learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most of all I learned from my students,” he said.
Dec. 6, 1987:
On the eve of a summit between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, 250,000 people marched in Washington to support the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate.
Dec. 7, 1941:
Transports set out for the first extermination camp, Chelmno in Poland, which began its program of mass murder using poison gas the following day. Of the six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, more than three million were in concentration camps over the next three-plus years.
Kislev 18, 4998 (1237):
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam, the only son of Maimonides, who succeeded his father as the leader of the Jewish community in Fostat (old Cairo), Egypt, at the age of 19. He wrote many responsa and commentaries explaining and defending his father’s writings.
Dec. 9, 1868:
Birthday of Fritz Haber, German physical chemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1918 for his discovery of a method to inexpensively produce ammonia, which is vital for agricultural fertilizers, explosives, and many industrial uses. Undoubtedly, millions of people are alive today because Haber’s discovery helped dramatically boost agricultural production.
Dec. 10, 1891:
Birthday of Nelly Sachs, German-born novelist, poet, and playwright. Beginning her literary career at age 50, she often wrote on Jewish themes and the experience of grief and persecution. She received the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature “for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength.”
Kislev 21, 3448 (313 BCE):
Shimon HaTzaddik, the last of the “Men of the Great Assembly,” who rebuilt the Holy Temple and revitalized Judaism under Ezra. Garbed in the vestments of the high priest, he went forth to greet Alexander the Great, who was marching on Jerusalem at the head of his army. Alexander dismounted his horse and bowed respectfully; to his men, he explained that he often had visions of a similar-looking man leading him into battle. (Talmud, Yoma 69a). He spared Jerusalem, peacefully absorbing Israel into his growing empire. In gratitude, the sages decreed that the Jewish firstborn of that time be named Alexander, which remains a Jewish name to this day.
Dec. 12, 1920:
The Histadrut labor federation was founded in pre-state Israel by Berl Katznelson, who combined various labor groups to form a federation. Today, the Histadrut it has more than 800,000 members.
Dec. 13, 1797:
Birthday of Heinrich Heine, born into a Jewish family, author of the Book of Songs, poems frequently set to music, which, by the middle of the 19th century, were popularly considered to be “old folk songs of the German people.” Although he was baptized in 1825 (which he regretted for the rest of his life), his great popularity and facility with the German language enraged many antisemites.
Dec. 14, 1981:
The Knesset voted to annex the Golan Heights, extending Israeli law to the area.
Kislev 25, 3622 (139 BCE):
After the Maccabees defeated the vastly more numerous and powerful armies of Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV, who had tried to forcefully uproot the beliefs and practices of Judaism from the people of Israel, they repaired, cleansed, and rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
When the Maccabees sought to light the Temple’s menorah (candelabra), they found only one small cruse of ritually pure olive oil. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new, pure oil could be obtained. In commemoration of that event, the sages instituted the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, on which lights are kindled nightly to recall and publicize the miracle and its message, which continue to illuminate our lives today.
Dec. 16, 1968:
The order of expulsion of the Jews issued in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella was officially rescinded by the government of Spain. In addition, the first synagogue newly constructed in Spain in 600 years was dedicated in Madrid.
Dec. 17, 1942:
The UN-predecessor issued its only condemnation of Germany’s role in the Holocaust. By contrast, from 2015 to 2024, there were 174 UN resolutions against Israel!
Dec. 18, 1946:
Birthday of Steven Spielberg, director of some 34 feature films thus far, such as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List (for both of which he won the Best Director Oscar); Jurassic Park; E.T.; Jaws; Star Wars; and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Dec. 19, 1852:
Birthday of Albert Michelson (Jewish father), the first American to win a Nobel Prize in Physics (1907), awarded for his experiment that determined the speed of light, made on an interferometer that he developed and is still used today for measuring the wavelengths of spectra.
Dec. 20, 1919:
The SS Ruslan (“Israel’s Mayflower”) reached Jaffa from Russia with 671 doctors, artists, and academics aboard. This marked the beginning of the Third Aliyah, which lasted four years, during which time more than 40,000 Jews immigrated to pre-state Israel.
While new history unfolds daily, catch up on the old. The above is a highly abridged monthly version of Dust & Stars – Today in Jewish History. To receive the complete newsletter:
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