May 22, 1975 — Senators Urge Ford to Stand With Israel
By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin visits President Gerald Ford at the White House in June 1975, three weeks after the senators’ letter to the president.
Responding to President Gerald Ford’s decision to suspend economic assistance and reduce arms shipments to Israel over its attitude toward negotiations, 76 U.S. senators sign a letter opposing the Ford reassessment of policy. The senators stress the need for Israel to receive enough aid to deter attacks. Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) also amends a defense appropriations bill to be favorable to Israel.
May 23, 1420 — Archduke Orders All Austrian Jews Arrested
Albert V of Austria, later king of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia and Germany, was known as Albert the Magnanimous.
Archduke Albert V issues the Wiener Gesera (Viennese Decree), ordering all Austrian Jews to be imprisoned and their possessions to be confiscated. Albert is inspired by religious fanaticism sweeping through Austria. Poor Jews are sent down the Danube on boats. Children are taken from their parents and forcibly converted. Many Jews commit suicide. The next year, 200 to 300 Jews are burned at the stake.
May 24, 1948 — Battle for Latrun Begins
Soldiers from the Arab Legion man a gun atop the Latrun fortress in 1948.
Inexperienced Israeli soldiers, including many newly arrived Holocaust survivors, attack the Jordanian-held hilltop fortress at Latrun to relieve the siege of Jerusalem 10 miles to the east. Ordered by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, against the advice of military leaders, the attack uses outdated tactics without air support and fails. Three subsequent attacks also fail. Israel does not capture Latrun until June 1967.
May 25, 2010 — Israeli Jazz Festival Opens in NYC
Anat Cohen performs at the Newport Jazz Festival three months after the inaugural Israeli Jazz Festival in New York.
Jazz artist John Zorn hosts opening night of New York’s first Israeli Jazz Festival. The five-day festival celebrates the many Israelis who have risen to the top of the global jazz scene, including bass and oud player Omer Avital and clarinet and saxophone player Anat Cohen. According to Jazz Times, “Israel is the source of an almost miraculous outpouring of talent, a tidal surge that seemed to break over the New York scene.”
May 26, 1924 — U.S. Restricts Jewish Immigration
Fourth Aliyah pioneers milk cows at Moshav Kfar Hasidim, founded in April 1925. The Fourth Aliyah ran from 1924 to 1929, largely in response to the restrictive U.S. immigration law of 1924.
Congress passes the 1924 Immigration Act, which restricts new arrivals from any country to 2% of U.S. residents from that location in the 1890 census. The law greatly limits newcomers from Eastern and Southern Europe, from which millions of Jews emigrated from 1880 to 1920. Without the United States as a destination, Jews increasingly immigrate to Palestine, where 82,000 arrive from 1924 to 1929.
May 27, 1911 — Longtime Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek Is Born
By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0
Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek takes U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and his wife, Joan, on a tour of the city’s boundaries in September 1971.
Teddy Kollek, Jerusalem’s mayor from 1965 to 1993, is born near Budapest. His parents name him after Theodor Herzl. He moves to Palestine in 1934 to escape Nazism. He is sent to Britain in 1938 and obtains 3,000 visas for Jews in concentration camps. He helps smuggle Holocaust survivors into Palestine from 1940 to 1947. He is mentored by David Ben-Gurion and runs for mayor at his behest.
May 28, 1999 — Submarine Dakar Is Found After 3 Decades
By Dr. Avishai Teicher, PikiWiki, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The salvaged bridge and conning tower of the Dakar are on display in Haifa.
A U.S.-Israeli team discovers the Israeli submarine Dakar, which disappeared in January 1968, broken in half between Crete and Cyprus almost 9,800 feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel bought the World War II-era HMS Totem from the British and refurbished and renamed it. It was on the way from Portsmouth, England, to Haifa with 69 sailors when it sank.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
