October 3, 2018 — Chancellor Merkel Visits Israel
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting with German and Israeli businessmen during her Israel visit Oct. 3, 2018. By Kobi Gideon, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Jerusalem for the first time in more than four years to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing U.S.-Europe tensions over Iran. Merkel is trying to salvage the 2015 agreement that eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for a rollback of its nuclear program; Netanyahu has long denounced the deal. The visit highlights Israel’s strong ties to Germany, Israel’s No. 2 trading party.
October 4, 1992 — El Al 747 Crashes
An apartment complex in Bijlmermeer is damaged after being struck by an El Al cargo plane Oct. 4, 1992. By Jos Wiersema.
El Al Flight 1862, a 747 carrying cargo from New York to Tel Aviv, crashes into an apartment complex in Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, 16 minutes after taking off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where the plane had stopped for a crew change. The jumbo jet is trying to return to the airport for an emergency landing after a mechanical failure causes an engine to break off. The crash kills four people on the plane and 43 on the ground.
October 5, 1898 — Painter Nachum Gutman Is Born
Nachum Gutman won prizes for art and for children’s literature. Dan Hadani Collection, National Library of Israel.
Painter Nachum Gutman is born in what is now Moldova. At 7, he moves with his family to Ottoman Palestine. Gutman paves the way for a new generation of Israeli artists, writers, painters and sculptors. He pioneers a style that moves away from European influences, and he rejects the lessons of his Bezalel teachers for being too European-centered. He also is a writer and wins the Israel Prize for his contribution to children’s literature.
October 6, 1914 — Jewish Aid Reaches Palestine
This telegram from Henry Morgenthau on Aug. 31, 1914, inspired American Jews, led by Jacob Schiff and Louis Marshall, to raise $50,000 for Jews in Palestine.
Gold worth $50,000, raised in two days by American Jewish leaders in response to a plea from Henry Morgenthau, arrives in Jaffa on the USS North Carolina to help the Jewish community in Palestine. Morgenthau, the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, had visited Palestine and sent philanthropist Jacob Schiff a telegram Aug. 31 about his concerns that World War I would cut off European support for the community.
October 7, 2009 — Crystallographer Yonath Wins Nobel
Ada Yonath, shown during a visit to Brazil in 2011, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. By Renato Araujo, Agencia Brasil, CC BY 3.0 BR, via Wikimedia Commons.
Crystallographer Ada Yonath, 70, a native of Jerusalem and part of the chemistry faculty at the Weizmann Institute, is awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz for studies on the structure and function of the ribosome. Yonath is the first Middle Eastern woman to win a science Nobel. She is the first woman anywhere since 1964 and the fourth overall to win the chemistry prize.
October 8, 1576 — Sultan Ousts Jews From Safed
Ottoman Sultan Murad III hoped to spur economic development in Cyprus by forcing Jews from Safed to move there.
Ottoman Sultan Murad III orders 1,000 “rich and prosperous” Jewish residents of Safed to be moved to the city of Famagusta in Cyprus in the hope that they will spur economic development on the island. An additional 500 Jewish families from Safed are forced to move to Cyprus a year later. The Ottomans commonly use the policy of surgun (expulsion) to transfer groups within the empire for strategic purposes.
October 9, 1917 — Spy Sarah Aaronsohn Dies After Capture
Sarah Aaronsohn killed herself with a revolver hidden in her Zichron Yaakov home when she was allowed to gather some personal items before being transferred to a prison in Nazareth.
Sarah Aaronsohn, a leader of the Nili spy network feeding information from Palestine to the British, dies eight days after being captured by Turkish authorities and four days after shooting herself in the head to avoid further torture and interrogation. She had been warned in Egypt during a visit to her brother Aaron, who formed the spy network, not to return home to Zichron Yaakov, but she ignored the warning to protect fellow spies.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
