Every month has a certain significance, but in terms of Jewish and Israeli history, October anniversaries have special meaning up to the present day.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister was born in October 1886. In October of the same year, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor, and on its pedestal bears lines by Jewish poet and author Emma Lazarus.
In October 1914, Jonas Salk, the Jewish physician who developed a vaccine against polio, was born in New York City.
In October 1917 there was the battle of Beersheba which led to the Balfour Declaration a few days later.
In October 1927, the first full-length talkie feature film The Jazz Singer opened in New York with Jewish singer and actor Al Jolson in the starring role.
In October 1938, Hitler's occupation of Sudetenland was the prelude to the Second World War in which six million Jews were murdered.
A year later, in October 1939, Albert Einstein warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the theories which Einstein had developed, could lead to the creation of an atomic bomb by scientists in Nazi Germany. His suggestion that America develop its own bomb led to the secret Manhattan Project.
In October 1940, German troops invaded Romania, seized strategic oil fields, and killed or incarcerated many Jews..
In October 1943, the Island of Corsica became the first French territory in Europe to be free from Nazi control after Free French Troops liberated the city of Bastia.
The Nuremberg War Trials, presided over by an International War Crimes Tribunal, began in October 1945, and a year later, in October 1946, twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death, and others to long prison terms.
Many Jews escaping antisemitism and Nazism found sanctuary in China, which in October 1949 became the People's Republic of China.
October 1949, was also the month and year of the birth of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was destined to become the first Israeli prime minister who was born after the founding of the state.
In October 1990, East and West Germany were reunited, and relations between Germany and Israel were strengthened.
October 1973
The Yom Kippur War began and ended in October 1973
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who was the first Arab leader to make peace with Israel and who together with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1978, was assassinated in October 1981.
In October 1986, Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Italian luxury passenger ship Achille Lauro and threatened to blow it up unless Israel freed 50 Palestinian prisoners. Of the 440 passengers on board, they killed an elderly wheelchair-bound American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer.
In October 1996, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat made his first public visit to Israel for talks with President Ezer Weizman at the latter's private residence.
In October 2011, Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants was returned to Israel after five years in captivity. The price exacted by Hamas for his release was in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Another Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman who was abducted by Hamas terrorists in 1994, was killed in a failed rescue operation in October of that year.
An exchange deal is virtually impossible under the present circumstances.
In October 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, and war was declared.
The Jerusalem Post's 50 Influential Jews and 25 Young Visionaries event which had been meticulously planned for this week, was postponed, as was a historic celebration of Taiwan's Independence Day which was scheduled to be held in Jerusalem for the first time this week, having previously been held in Tel Aviv. In making the announcement, Abby Lee, the Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, included Taiwan's condemnation of the attack by Hamas, stating that the Taiwanese people and its government stand with the State of Israel.
China celebrated its Independence Day before the outbreak of the war. Other countries with which Israel has diplomatic ties, that are celebrating independence or national unity in October include Cyprus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, South Korea, Austria, Spain, the Czech Republic, Zambia, and Tiurkiye. Not all of them have large-scale receptions, but more than half of them do. It remains to be seen whether these will also be postponed.
The Yom Kippur War, 50 years ago, lasted for 19 days. Hopefully, this war will come to an end much sooner.