Many important events in Jewish history took place in September. On a sad note, World War II began. And on a happier note, World War II ended. Jews arrived in New York, and the communities they began have not stopped growing. Here are some historical highlights.
September 1st
1919
Rabbi Abraham I. Kook arrived in Palestine to assume his role as Chief Rabbi. Exactly 16 years later, on Sept 1, 1935, Rabbi Kook passed away at the age of 69.
1935
Dr. Chaim Weizmann, noted scientist and internationally famous Zionist leader, became president of the World Zionist Organization.
1938
Mussolini canceled civil rights of Italian Jews and expelled all foreign-born Jews.
1939
World War II began with the German attack on Poland. Three thousand Jewish civilians died in the bombing of Warsaw. German troops entered Danzig, trapping more than 5,000 Jews. Out of the 3,351,000 Jews in Poland, 2,042,000 came under Nazi rule. 1,309,000 came under Soviet rule, due to the Soviet invasion of Poland from the East. Nazis had begun their blitz from the north, south and west. Within two days the British and French declared war on Germany.
1942
New York Congressman Emanuel Celler submitted legislation to allow French Jews about to be deported to their deaths to immigrate to the United States. The bill was killed by the House Committee on Immigration.
1943
Jews at the Sobibór death camp attacked SS guards with stones and bottles. All attackers were killed.
1944
Prime Minister Winston Churchill created a Jewish Brigade of Palestinian Jews in the British Army.
September 2nd
1940
German occupation authorities in Luxembourg introduced the Nuremberg Laws. All Jewish businesses were seized.
1943
One thousand Jews were deported from Paris to Auschwitz. Ten thousand Polish Jews were sent to Auschwitz. During the next 48 hours, 3,500 Jews were deported from Poland to Auschwitz.
1945
World War II officially ended as Japan signed the terms of surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri.
September 4th
1781
Los Angeles, California, was founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion) by 44 Spanish settlers. Los Angeles would become part of Mexico and eventually part of the US after the Mexican-American War.
One of the first Jews to settle in Los Angeles was a tailor named Jacob Frankfort who arrived in 1841 after fleeing from New Mexico. More Jews arrived in 1849 and the Sephardic community traces its roots back to the 1850’s. It is estimated that there were approximately 400 Jews living in California in 1880. From such humble beginnings has sprung one of the largest and most vibrant Jewish communities in the US.
1941
Resistance members based in Ukraine, assassinated a German commander. Another group blew up a large store of German arms.
1942
Young Jewish fighters took on the Gestapo in an act of desperate resistance in Lachwa, Poland. One thousand Jews died, while 600 escaped into the surrounding woods. Of these an estimated 100 survived the war.
September 5th
1978
Sadat, Begin and Carter began the peace conference at Camp David.
September 6th
1942
More than 1,000 Polish Jews were killed by Nazis in the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto.
September 7th
1654
A group of 23 Sephardic Jews from Recife, Brazil arrived in New Amsterdam (New York). They became the pioneers of the American Jewish community.
Their unofficial leader was Asser Levy. Governor Peter Stuyvesant did not want the Jews to remain. Eventually they were allowed to stay with the stipulations that the poor among them “shall not become a burden to the community, but be supported by their own nation.” This statement would find fulfillment in a variety of Jewish immigrant aid societies and other such philanthropic endeavors. We still take care of each other.
1918
Jewish New Year services were held in San Sebastian, Spain for the first time in 400 years. Thirty worshippers attended.
1822
Brazil declared its independence from Portugal which triggered an influx of Jewish settlers from Morocco.
September 8th
1267
Nachmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) arrived in Jerusalem, after being forced to flee his native Spain and established a synagogue, helping to renew Jerusalem’s Jewish community. The synagogue he established is still functional. It was restored following the liberation of the Old City during the Six-Day War.
1947
The refugee ship, Exodus, which had left France with the intent of taking its passengers to the British mandate for Palestine was sent to Hamburg, Germany. Jewish passengers were put ashore by force. The bravery of the Exodus passengers and crew may well have hastened the end of British rule there, as a result of the international attention and anti-British feeling which this generated.
September 9th
1910
Morocco’s first Jewish newspaper was published. El Desperter, was written in Ladino.
1965
The most famous Jewish baseball player, Sandy Koufax, pitched a perfect game in which the Dodgers beat the Cubs 1 to 0.
September 10th
1522
Rabbi Yosef Caro completed his famous commentary on the Arba Turim, Yaakov Ben Asher’s comprehensive Halachic code. He started writing Beit Yosef in Turkey, and continued for the next 20 years, during which time he relocated to Safed. It took another 10 years for the writings to be published.
September 11th
1194
Nachmanides (Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) was born on this day in Spain.
1922
The British mandate in Palestine officially began.
1942
Ninety thousand Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were sent to their deaths.
1999
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Shanghai government permitted the Jewish community to use Ohel Rachel for 24 hours. This was the first time a Jewish service was held there since 1952. Approximately 120 people attended evening and morning services.
September 12th
1654
Jews celebrated their first Rosh Hashanah in New Amsterdam, just five days after their arrival. They held their service in secret. These were Sephardic Jews who had escaped the Inquisition. Over time, they built a cemetery, gained the right to serve in the militia and participated in the development of the Dutch colony.
1931
The first organized attack by Nazi storm troopers against Jews took place in Berlin.
September 13th
1942
Forty rabbis were killed by the Nazis in the ghetto of Lodz.
1993
Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the PLO, shook hands on the White House lawn, sealing the first agreement between Jews and Palestinians to end their conflict and share the Holy Land along the River Jordan that they both called home.
September 14th
1930
First baseman Hank Greenberg made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.
1948
The Supreme Court of Israel was established. It is unique in that its rulings can intervene in the military operations of the Israeli Defence Force.
September 15th
1776
American Jews celebrated their first Rosh Hashanah following the signing of the Declaration of Independence
1849
The first synagogue in South Africa, Tikvat Yisrael, was dedicated in Capetown.
1935
The anti-Semitic Nuremberg racial laws were passed by the Nazis.
2005
Israel’s two chief rabbis met with Pope Benedict XVI to urge him to support the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism.
September 16th
1917
US soldiers and sailors began their furloughs so they could participate in the observance of Rosh Hashanah.
September 17th
1394
The Jews were expelled from France by order of King Charles VI. The order was signed on Yom Kippur and was used as an excuse for plundering Jewish homes.
September 18th
1880
Religious freedom was granted to the Jews of Morocco. The Moroccan Jewish community was an ancient one. The Rambam lived in Fez after leaving in Spain. A large part of the Moroccan Jewish community would leave for Israel after the creation of the state.
1978
The Camp David Accords were signed between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin and US President Jimmy Carter. The accords were based on the principal of total withdrawal for total peace including diplomatic ties, open borders, and trade relations. The agreement led to the formal peace treaty.
September 19th
1870
The Italian Army laid siege to Rome, which became the capital of a newly unified Italian nation. Italy soon became one of the best places for Jews to live.
1934
Hank Greenberg chose not to play on Yom Kippur, despite the Tigers’ competition with the New York Yankees for the pennant.
September 20th
1701
Bevis Marks Synagogue was established. Situated in London, just off the ancient thoroughfare of Bevis Marks, it is Britain’s oldest synagogue that is still in use.
1944
After a long battle by Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Sharret (Israel’s 2nd prime minister), the British agreed to the establishment of a Jewish Army to fight alongside British troops. It was called the Jewish Brigade. Over 5,000 men from pre-state Israel enlisted.
September 21st
1348
The Jews of Switzerland were charged with perpetuation of the Black Death epidemic. Jews were tortured until they “confessed” to having poisoned wells. Many Swiss Jews were burned to death. Of course the Black Death was really the Bubonic Plague, but it was convenient to blame the Jews.
1553
The Talmud was confiscated and publicly burned in Rome under the auspices of Cardinal Caraffa, later to be Pope Paul IV. The Cardinal chose this day specifically because it was Rosh Hashanah, thus the Jews would feel the grief more strongly. Soon, Talmud burning would spread to other parts of Italy.
1973
Henry Kissenger became the first Jewish Secretary of State.
September 22nd
1909
Jews were forced out of Yemen to avoid being forced to convert to Islam.
1942
The Jewish ghetto in Czestochowa, Poland, was liquidated; 40,000 residents were transported to the Treblinka death camp.
1964
Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway. It would run for 3,242 performances.
September 23rd
1776
Yom Kippur—American Jews fasted for the first time as citizens of the newly independent US.
1911
Rosh Hashanah—Arabs attacked Jewish worshipers in Jerusalem at the Western Wall. Approximately 60 worshipers were injured.
September 24th
1995
Israel and the PLO agreed to sign a pact at the White House ending nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities.
2007
Swastikas were discovered on exterior staircases at two synagogues in Brooklyn Heights.
September 25th
1943
The Chief Rabbi of Athens, Ilia Barzilai, escaped from the city disguised as a peasant. He reached Thessaly where he saved 600 Jews by smuggling them across the Aegean to Turkey. The smuggled boats and money came from the Jewish Labor Federation in Palestine.
September 26th
1919
The Hahambashi of Turkey met with the Shah of Persia, who attributed the progress of civilization to the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools.
September 27th
1791
Jews were granted full rights and declared citizens of France.
1920
For the first time since 1492, the Spanish government formally recognized the Jewish community.
September 28th
1867
Toronto became the capital of Canada. At this time Toronto had a Jewish population of about 200. The Jewish community has grown to over 150,000 and is one of the two leading centers for Jewish life in Canada.
1939
The SS selected the eve of Sukkot to forcibly deport more than 8,000 Jews from Pultusk, Poland.
September 29th
1941
The first day of the two day German killing spree at Kiev, the single most concentrated massacre of World War II.
September 30th
1909
Both Sephardic and Ashkenazi rabbis in Jerusalem pledged to work hand in hand in the interest of the entire Jewish community. Together they founded a relief committee to benefit Jewish families whose heads were called to military service.
1946
Twenty-two top Nazi leaders were found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg.
