February 20, 1957 — Eisenhower Pushes Israel on U.N. Resolutions
President Dwight Eisenhower laid out U.S. policy on the Middle East during a televised speech in 1957. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum.
In a nationally televised address, President Dwight Eisenhower discusses the Middle East situation after the October 1956 war over the Suez Canal. He emphasizes the need for Israel to abide by U.N. resolutions calling for its withdrawal from all of Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Israel has refused to complete its promised withdrawal while seeking international security guarantees and protection for sea navigation.
February 21, 1852 — Pope Protests Jewish Emancipation
Pope Pius IX was beatified in 2000 despite Jewish protests over his overt antisemitism.
Pope Pius IX writes to Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany to protest the decision to grant some degree of emancipation to the Jews of the grand duchy. “The spirit of the church, expressed in many dispositions and decrees, … has always been to keep Catholics as much as possible from having any contact with the infidels,” the pope writes. The pope builds on a long tradition of church-supported antisemitism.
February 22, 1914 — Technion Chooses Hebrew
The Technion, shown during construction, opened in Haifa in 1924 with Hebrew as its language of instruction.
The board of directors of the under-construction Technikum in Haifa decides that the language of instruction will be Hebrew, reversing an October decision to teach in German. The choice of German had sparked protests in the Yishuv, whose children are taught in Hebrew, and led Ahad Ha’am and two others to resign from the college’s board. The university changes its name from the German Technikum to the Hebrew Technion.
February 23, 1965 — “Sallah Shabbati” Is Nominated for Oscar
“Sallah Shabbati” was the first of 10 Israeli films nominated for the foreign language Oscar.
The Israeli movie industry has its first Oscar nominee when “Sallah Shabbati” receives an Academy Award nomination for best foreign language film. Although the movie does not win — the Oscar goes to Italy’s “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” — it does bring home a pair of Golden Globes, including one for star Topol. Part of a genre known as bourekas films, “Sallah” takes a playful look at Ashkenazi-Sephardi tensions.
February 24, 1942 — Soviet Sub Sinks Struma
Jewish underground forces distributed this “wanted” poster for Harold MacMichael, the British high commissioner for Palestine, after the sinking of the Struma.
A Soviet submarine sinks the refugee transport SS Struma in the Black Sea in the mistaken belief that it is an enemy ship. Only one of the 769 Jewish refugees survives. The Struma, a converted cattle transport meant to carry 100 passengers, originated in Romania and stopped at Istanbul, where the refugees were denied visas to Palestine or entry to Turkey. After 10 weeks in port, the decrepit ship was towed to sea Feb. 23.
February 25, 1928 — Tel Aviv Sees First Soccer Derby
Early Revisionist Zionism leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky poses with a British Mandate-era Maccabi Tel Aviv team. Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv hold the first match in the city’s oldest soccer rivalry, a 3-0 home victory for Maccabi. Maccabi wins the rematch on Hapoel’s home field a week later, 2-1. Maccabi Tel Aviv, founded in 1906, is the first soccer powerhouse in British Mandatory Palestine. Hapoel Tel Aviv rises as a top team in the 1930s. Both teams have remained mainstays in the top tier of Israeli soccer.
February 26, 1973 — Kissinger, Egypt’s Ismail Secretly Meet
U.S. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger socializes with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin and his wife, Leah, on Feb. 27, 1973, the day after Kissinger met with his Egyptian counterpart. By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
On the second day of secret meetings in Armonk, New York, Egyptian National Security Adviser Hafez Ismail tells his U.S. counterpart, Henry Kissinger, that Egypt is willing to negotiate directly with Israel through a U.S.-mediated, step-by-step process that trades territory for normalized relations — the type of incremental process that Kissinger leads to reach disengagement agreements after the Yom Kippur War in October.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.