July 11, 1920— WIZO Is Founded in London
Rebecca Sieff speaks at the opening session of the eighth WIZO conference in Tel Aviv in 1934. By Zoltan Kluger, National Photo Collection of Israel.
Rebecca Sieff, Vera Weizmann and Edith Eder found the Women’s International Zionist Organization at a London conference attended by representatives from England, Palestine, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and South Africa. They are inspired to improve the lives of pioneering Jewish women after a tour of Palestine in 1919. WIZO aims to provide child care, housing, schooling, home economics education and other services.
July 12, 1938— Weizmann Protests Britain’s Pro-Arab Stance
Malcolm MacDonald represented a British government policy of showing increasing favor toward Arabs. By Bassano Ltd., British National Portrait Gallery, public domain.
Chaim Weizmann complains to Malcolm MacDonald, the British secretary of state for dominion affairs, about the government’s shift from support for Zionism to a pro-Arab policy in the year since the Peel Commission called for partition. “The British government will have to ask themselves whether they are going to rely on backward Arab populations … or whether they would rather rely on a progressive Jewish population,” Weizmann writes.
July 13, 1978— Peace Deal Is Urgent, Sadat Says
Anwar Sadat (left) and Ezer Weizman, who had a crucial meeting about peace in July 1978, embrace in Haifa in April 1979. By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Seven months after his historic visit to Jerusalem, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat invites Israeli Foreign Minister Ezer Weizman to a meeting in Austria to press the importance of reaching a bilateral peace agreement. Sadat emphasizes the need for Israel to withdraw from Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank, and Weizman urges the Egyptian leader to negotiate directly with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
July 14, 1958— Coup Ousts Iraqi King
A crowd gathers in Amman, Jordan, for the latest news about the military coup in neighboring Iraq on July 14, 1958. U.S. Library of Congress.
Iraqi army officers overthrow and kill King Faisal. King Hussein of Jordan, Faisal’s cousin, condemns the coup leaders. The United Arab Republic, the new Egypt-Syria union, quickly signs a defense pact with the new Iraqi government, and Israel faces the danger of being surrounded by a multinational entity under Gamal Abdel Nasser. Iraqis celebrate the coup, but Western powers worry about oil and regional upheaval.
July 15, 1965— Rabin Warns Neighbors Not to Divert Jordan
The Banias or Hermon River is one of three tributaries feeding the Jordan River. Israel captured it with the Golan Heights in 1967. Boris Carmi, Meitar Collection, National Library of Israel, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin warns Lebanon and Syria they will face consequences if they move forward with an Arab League-backed effort to divert the sources of the Jordan River. Rabin has twice ordered tanks to bombard the border area of Syria to destroy earth-moving equipment involved in the construction of a canal that would shift the Hasbani River away from the Jordan to the Banias and then to the Yarmouk.
July 16, 1926— Industrialist Stef Wertheimer Is Born
Stef Wertheimer, who becomes one of Israel’s wealthiest citizens with a net worth of $5 billion, is born in Kippenheim, Germany. He immigrates to Palestine with his family in 1937. He serves with the British Royal Air Force during World War II and gains expertise with tools and machinery as an optical technician. In 1952 he founds Iscar Metalworking, which grows into a multinational business bought out by Berkshire Hathaway.
July 17, 1888— Nobel-Winning Author S.Y. Agnon Is Born
S.Y. Agnon (center, seated) and President Zalman Shazar (left) visit David Ben-Gurion at his Sde Boker home for the former prime minister’s 80th birthday party in 1966. By Moshe Pridan, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Shmuel Yosef “Shai” Agnon, Israel’s first Nobel laureate, is born in Buczacz, Galicia, now part of Ukraine. He makes aliyah in 1907, lives in Germany from 1913 to 1924, then returns to Jerusalem. Although his early writing is in Yiddish, most of his books are in Hebrew. He is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1966 for a body of work known for commemorating the lost shtetl life of Eastern Europe.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
