This month in Jewish history: Nobel and Noble

Birth of Joseph, son of the patriarch Jacob and his beloved wife Rachel, and progenitor of one of the Twelve Tribes. This is also the traditional date of his death (2309). His tomb in Shechem was a place of pilgrimage and prayer until it was destroyed by Arab mobs in the Second Intifada.

Yahrzeit of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He led the Chabad movement from 1950 until his death, greatly expanding its activities and founding a worldwide network of institutions dedicated to bringing Judaism to Jews no matter where they might be found.

Birthdays of two more Nobel laureates: Sir Ernst Chain (1906), who was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine for finding a method to purify penicillin and to produce it in mass quantities, thereby starting the “antibiotic revolution” that has completely changed the face of modern medicine; and Aage Bohr (1922), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975. He and his father, Niels, are one of the four pairs of fathers and sons who have both won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Ezekiel received his first prophecy (Ezekiel 1:2). The book that bears his name is related to the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the First Temple and is filled with symbolism and visions. He is believed to be buried in Iraq.

The Altalena ship reached the coast of Tel Aviv, carrying more than 800 new immigrants and weapons. The Irgun claimed they had an agreement that 20% of the arms on board would be used by its members to defend Jerusalem.

Former prime minister David Ben-Gurion refused to accept what he considered an ultimatum and ordered the ship to be fired upon, killing 18 and wounding 10. The incident almost caused a civil war and was only averted by an impassioned speech made by former prime minister Menachem Begin on the radio that night, not to take up arms against fellow Jews.

Birthday of Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer, whose career in Hollywood spanned over five decades. Brilliant and versatile, he won Academy Awards as producer, director, and screenwriter. Wilder directed 14 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances and was recognized with the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1986, the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988, and the National Medal of Arts in 1993.

King William III knighted the financier Solomon de Medina – the first Jew to be thus honored, and the last for another 137 years.

Birthday of Jan Karski, Polish resistance fighter and activist who was recognized by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations” for reporting Nazi atrocities and the extermination of European Jewry to the Western Allies. “He who does not condemn, acquiesces.”

After rebelling against Babylonian rule, King Zedekiah was captured trying to escape through a tunnel leading out of the city during Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:4-5). He was forced to witness the slaughter of his sons, and then his eyes were gouged out and he was taken into captivity by the Babylonians.

Judith Haspel, a 17-year-old Vienna native who held every Austrian woman’s middle- and long-distance freestyle record in 1935, wrote a letter to the Austrian Swimming Association protesting Hitler and refusing to represent Austria in the 1936 Summer Olympics, stating, “I refuse to enter a contest in a land which so shamefully persecutes my people.”

Israel adopted a Basic Law to protect all holy places: “The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places.”

Israel annexed the Old City of Jerusalem and reunited it with new Jerusalem.

Some 20,000-25,000 British security forces of the Mandatory government raided the Jewish Agency, searched for arms in 27 Jewish settlements, arrested 2,718 people, and killed four Jews in what came to be known as the “Black Sabbath.”

Yahrzeit of Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, Torah scholar and mystic known by the title of his biblical commentary, Ohr Ha’Chaim. He was born in Morocco and earned his livelihood as a silversmith. Many stories are told of his holiness and miracles. Eventually, he moved to Italy and then spent his final few years in Israel. His grave, located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, is a popular place of pilgrimage and prayer.

Birthday of Estée Lauder (Josephine Esther Mentzer), named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential business people of the century for building her cosmetics company into the world’s largest family-owned beauty business.

Beginning of the three-week period of semi-mourning for the destruction of the temples, leading up to the ninth of Av. The fast also commemorates five tragic events that occurred on this date (see dustandstars.substack.com for details).

Birthday of Franz Kafka, Czech author who captured modern man’s anxiety-ridden alienation in an incomprehensible, hostile, and indifferent world. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (The Metamorphosis).

The Knesset passed the Law of Return, granting every Jew the absolute right to settle in Israel. The Citizenship Law, enacted in conjunction with the Law of Return, automatically entitles every Jewish immigrant to Israeli citizenship.

The Evian Conference convened in France to discuss the possible solutions to the Jewish refugee problem against the backdrop of increasing Nazi persecution. The delegates from all 33 countries opposed receiving Jews, thereby sealing their fate at the hands of the Nazis. The German government responded that it was “astounding” that foreign countries criticized Germany for its treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when “the opportunity offer[ed].”

Yahrzeit of the “Maid of Ludomir,” who experienced a vision and began to deliver erudite Torah discourses from her room to hassidim sitting on the other side – the only independent female “rebbe” in the history of the hassidic movement.

The Spanish cabinet approved a bill that granted religious freedom to Spain’s Jews as well as to other religious minorities. Since 1492, it had been officially forbidden to practice Judaism in Spain.

After the first-ever organized protest of American Jewry took place throughout major cities to protest the Damascus blood libel, US president Martin Van Buren applied pressure on Syria, and eventually the remaining survivors were released.

Egyptian commandos crossed the Suez Canal in dinghies and mounted an attack on the Israeli position on the East Bank, killing seven, wounding five, and taking others prisoners. This marked the official beginning of the War of Attrition, during which thousands were killed and injured on both sides until the ceasefire of August 1970.

The gates of the Jewish ghetto of Venice, Italy, were torn down.

Birthday of Samuel Ruben, American inventor who held over 200 patents and made lasting contributions to electrochemistry and solid-state technology, including the founding of the Duracell battery.