“This Day in Jewish History”

  It amazes me how our history can be so tied to the history of this country, indeed the world! I thought I’d use this opportunity to give you an idea of what I’m talking about with some random events that occurred on October 14th. I may in fact make this an “occasional” topic in My (Occasional) Word! Column.

✇  In 1837 Succot was celebrated for the first time during the presidency of Martin Van Buren.

✇  In 1881 there were 120 Jews who arrived in New York having escaped Russia’s anti-Semitic empire. This was the first arrival in a wave that would bring thousands of our ancestors to these shores until the First World War searching for freedom. Because employment wouldn’t be easy to achieve, they were sent to other US communities including Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans and Wilmington, North Carolina.

✇  In 1882 it was reported that “a singular set of lunatics in England” are trying to prove that there are no such things as Anglo-Saxons. Rather they say that all Brits belong to the tribe of Manasseh, Americans to the tribe of Ephraim, and the Irish belong to the other lost tribes of Israel.

✇  This would be the 130th birthday of President Dwight Eisenhower. It is said that when General Eisenhower was in the Philippines, he regularly played bridge and poker with three Jewish brothers from Cincinnati who had opened a cigar factory in Manila.

✇  Your governor in 1919, Westmorland Davis, urged Virginia citizens “irrespective of race or creed to contribute liberally” to the Jewish relief campaign.”

✇  October 14, 1941 was the birthday of Art Shamsky who played Major League Baseball for seven seasons and managed the Modi’in Miracle of the Israel Baseball League in 2007.

Honestly, won’t it be easier to fall asleep tonight knowing all of these facts? And these were just a few of the moments in Jewish history going back to 680 CE when Wamba the Visigoth King of Hispania ordered the expulsion of Jews.