Portal:Judaism/History Article/2
Holocaust to save the Hungarian-Jewish community from deportation to the concentration camp at
Auschwitz. He is remembered in particular for his negotiations with the German
Schutzstaffel (SS) officer,
Adolf Eichmann
Brand was a member in the 1940s of the Hungarian
Nazi-occupied Europe
escape to the relative safety of Hungary, before the German invasion of that country on 19 March 1944. Shortly after the invasion, Brand was summoned to a meeting with Eichmann, who asked Brand to help broker a deal between the SS and the United States or Britain, in which the Nazis would release up to one million Jews in exchange for 10,000 trucks for the Eastern front, and large quantities of soap, tea and coffee.
In the end, nothing came of the proposal. Historians believe the Germans intended it to serve as a cover for high-ranking Nazi officers, including Heinrich Himmler, to negotiate a peace deal with the Western Allies that would exclude the Soviet Union, and perhaps Adolf Hitler himself. Whatever its purpose, the proposal was thwarted by the Jewish Agency for Israel and a suspicious British government. (Read more...)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/3
Rudolf Vrba was Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Canada. In April 1944, Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler became the second and third of only five Jews to escape successfully from the German death camp at Auschwitz and pass information to the Allies about the mass murder that was taking place there. The 32 pages of information that the men dictated to horrified Jewish officials in Slovakia became known as the Vrba–Wetzler report. It is regarded as one of the most important documents of the 20th century, because it was the first detailed information about the death camp to reach the Allies that they accepted as credible. Although the report's release to the public was controversially delayed until after the mass transport of 437,000 Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz had begun on May 15, 1944, it is nevertheless credited with having saved many lives. Yehuda Bauer, Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has called Vrba "one of the Heroes of the Holocaust". (Read more...)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/4
The Hurva Synagogue is a historic
Judah he-Hasid, it was destroyed by Muslims a few years later in 1721. The plot lay in ruins for over 140 years and became known as the Ruin, or
Hurva. In 1864, the
Perushim rebuilt the synagogue, and although officially named the
Beis Yaakov Synagogue, it retained its name as the Hurva. It became Jerusalem's main
Ashkenazic synagogue, until it too was deliberately destroyed by the
Arab Legion, hours after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces during the
1948 Arab–Israeli War.
After Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, a number of plans were submitted for the design of a new building. After years of deliberation and indecision, a commemorative arch was erected instead at the site in 1977, itself becoming a prominent landmark of the Jewish Quarter. The plan to rebuild the synagogue in its 19th-century style received approval by the Israeli Government in 2000, and the newly rebuilt synagogue was dedicated on March 15, 2010. (
Read more...
)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/5
The ritual murder of a
Christian boy who disappeared in February of that year. Initially the libel garnered support from the
consuls of several
European countries, including the
United Kingdom,
France, the
Austrian Empire, although later several supported the Jewish community. The
Ottoman governor of Rhodes broke with the long tradition of the Ottoman governments (which had previously denied the factual basis of the
blood libel
The Jewish community of Rhodes appealed for help from the Jewish community in
)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/6
The
1898
.
The first large group of Jews to settle in Puerto Rico were European
Miami, Florida
, with a sizable portion choosing to establish themselves on the neighboring island because of the cultural and historic ties between the two islands.
Puerto Rican Jews have made many contributions in multiple fields, including business and commerce, education, and entertainment. Puerto Rico has the largest and richest Jewish community in the Caribbean, with over 3,000 Jewish inhabitants. It is also the only Caribbean island in which all three major Jewish denominations—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—are represented. (Read more...)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/9
East Bay. Its early members included
Gertrude Stein and
Judah Leon Magnes, who studied at Temple Sinai's Sabbath school, and
Ray Frank, who taught them. Originally traditional, under the leadership of
Rabbi Marcus Friedlander (1893–1915) Temple Sinai reformed its beliefs and practices. By 1914, it had become a
Classical Reform congregation. That year the current sanctuary was built, a
Beaux-Arts structure designed by
G. Albert Lansburgh which is the oldest
synagogue in Oakland. The congregation weathered four major financial crises by 1934. It has since been led by just three rabbis, William Stern (1934–1965), Samuel Broude (1966–1989), and Steven Chester (1989–present). In 2006 Temple Sinai embarked on a $15 million capital campaign to construct an entirely new synagogue campus adjacent to its current sanctuary.
Groundbreaking took place in October 2007, and by late 2009 the congregation had raised almost $12 million towards the construction. As of 2010
[update], the Temple Sinai had nearly 1,000 member families. The rabbis were Steven Chester, Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, and Andrea Berlin, and the
hazzan was Ilene Keys. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/10
bar mitzvah there in 1913, and long-time
Goldman Sachs head
Sidney Weinberg was married there in 1920. Membership peaked in the 1920s, but with the onset of the
Great Depression declined steadily, and by the 1970s the congregation could no longer afford to heat the sanctuary. Membership has recovered since that low point; the congregation renovated its school/community center in 2004, and in 2008 embarked on a million-dollar capital campaign to renovate the sanctuary. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/11
Civil Rights era. In 1976 the congregation constructed its current building, closer to where most members lived. Wax retired in 1978, and was succeeded by Harry Danziger, who brought traditional practices back to the congregation. He retired in 2000, and was succeeded by Micah Greenstein. As of 2010
[update], Temple Israel has almost 1,600 member families. Greenstein is the senior rabbi, and the cantor is John Kaplan. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/12
Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1861 as a more liberal breakaway from
Congregation Baith Israel, in its first 65 years it attempted four mergers with other congregations, including three with Baith Israel, all of which failed. The congregation completed its current
Classical Revival synagogue building in 1910 and its "Jewish Deco" (
Romanesque Revival and
Art Deco) Temple House in 1929. The congregation went through difficult times during the
Great Depression, and the bank almost foreclosed on its buildings in 1946. Membership dropped significantly in the 1930s because of the Depression, and again in the 1970s as a result of demographic shifts. Programs for young children helped draw Jewish families back into the neighborhood and revitalize the membership. By 2006 Beth Elohim had over 1000 members, and, as of 2008, it was the largest Reform congregation in Brooklyn, the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/14
.
In April 1970, when Bruno Kreisky became the Austrian chancellor, Wiesenthal told the press that four cabinet appointees had been members of the Nazi Party. Kreisky called Wiesenthal a "Jewish Nazi" and likened his organisation to the Mafia. He later accused him of collaborating with the Nazis. In 1986, Wiesenthal was involved in the case of Kurt Waldheim, whose Nazi past was revealed in the lead-up to the 1986 Austrian presidential elections, although Wiesenthal had previously cleared him of any wrongdoing.
With a reputation as a storyteller, Wiesenthal wrote several memoirs that contain tales that are only loosely based on actual events. He died in Vienna on 20 September 2005, and was buried in Herzliya. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles is named in his honor. (Read more...)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/15
The Simon Maccabeus during this struggle. The exact location of the Acra, critical to understanding Hellenistic Jerusalem, remains a matter of ongoing discussion. Historians and archaeologists have proposed various sites around Jerusalem, relying mainly on conclusions drawn from literary evidence. This approach began to change in the light of excavations which commenced in the late 1960s. New discoveries have prompted reassessments of the ancient literary sources, Jerusalem's geography and previously discovered artifacts. Yoram Tsafrir has interpreted a masonry joint in the southeastern corner of the
Temple Mount platform as a clue to the Acra's possible position. During
Benjamin Mazar's 1968 and 1978 excavations adjacent to the south wall of the Mount, features were uncovered which may have been connected with the Acra, including barrack-like rooms and a huge
cistern. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/16
African-American Jews; this estimate was based on a 1990 survey conducted by the Council of Jewish Federations. The exact number of Black Hebrews within that surveyed group remains unspecified. (
Read more...
Portal:Judaism/History Article/17
tourist-driven
.
Bethlehem, which may be the same as the Biblical
Samuel. It was from the well of Bethlehem that they brought him water when he was hiding in the cave of
Adullam.
Between 132 and 135 the city was reoccupied by the Romans after its capture during the
Mamluks in 1250, the city's walls were demolished, and were subsequently rebuilt during the rule of the
Ottoman Empire. The British wrested control of the city from the Ottomans during World War I and it was to be included in an
international zone under the 1947
Partition Plan. The city was annexed by
Jordan in
1948, and occupied by
Israel in
1967. Since 1995, Bethlehem has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority. (
Read more...)
Portal:Judaism/History Article/18
Hill and Wang. Fifty years later it is regarded as one of the bedrocks of
Holocaust literature. It is the first book in a trilogy—
Night,
Dawn,
Day—marking Wiesel's transition from darkness to light, according to the Jewish tradition of beginning a new day at nightfall. "In
Night," he said, "I wanted to show the end, the finality of the event. Everything came to an end—man, history, literature, religion, God. There was nothing left. And yet we begin again with night." (
Read more...
.jpg)
