May 1, 1943 — Bermuda Conference Is No Help for Jews
Delegates meet in Bermuda in April 1943. Harold Dodds, Princeton University’s president, led the Americans, and Richard Law, an undersecretary in the Foreign Office, headed the British.
A communiqué issued after a 12-day refugee conference held in Bermuda by Britain and the United States fails to announce any specific steps to help Jews facing extermination by the Nazis. The meeting of Allied countries was a response to public pressure to do something, but Bermuda was chosen to minimize press coverage and keep Jewish organizations away. Britain does not lift its ban on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
May 2, 1921 — Rioters Kill Writer Brenner
This drawing of Yosef Haim Brenner is the work of actor Chaim Topol.
Writer Yosef Haim Brenner, a pioneer of modern Hebrew literature and a founder of the Histadrut labor federation, is among six people killed on the second day of rioting between Arabs and Jews in and around Jaffa. Born in Ukraine in 1881, Brenner became a Hebrew teacher and published his first book in 1900. Unlike another pioneer of modern Hebrew, Ahad Ha’am, Brenner advocated Jewish salvation through labor and the abandonment of tradition.
May 3, 1898 — Golda Meir is Born
By Moshe Pridan, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0
Golda Meir, shown in 1956, came out of retirement in 1969 to serve as prime minister after Levi Eshkol died.
Israel’s only female prime minister, Golda Meir, is born Golda Mabovitch in Kyiv, Ukraine. She and her family immigrate to the United States in 1906 and settle in Milwaukee, where she marries Morris Myerson. They move to Palestine in 1921. She becomes active in labor politics. Her Israeli government posts include ambassador to the Soviet Union, labor minister and foreign minister. She serves as prime minister from 1969 to 1974.
May 4, 1947 — Irgun Blasts Prisoners out of Acre
A British wanted poster provides details on the Jews who escaped from the Acre prison May 4, 1947.
The Irgun breaks 30 of its men and 11 Lehi members out of the British prison at Acre (Akko). The escape uses explosives smuggled into the prison and attached to the southern fortress wall. But six of the 41 freed prisoners are killed, and eight are recaptured. Three members of the attack team are killed. Five other raiders are captured; three of them are executed. In the confusion, 182 Arab prisoners also escape.
May 5, 1959 — Museum Marks First Official Yom HaShoah
By Dr. Avishai Teicher, PikiWiki Israel, CC BY 2.5
The Ghetto Fighters’ House at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot is the world’s first Holocaust museum.
Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot (the Ghetto Fighters) in the western Galilee welcomes 2,500 people to commemorate the first official Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). Founded by Holocaust survivors and resistance fighters, the kibbutz in 1949 opened the world’s first Holocaust museum, the Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, commonly known as the Ghetto Fighters’ House.
May 6, 1947 — Lehi Teenager Disappears
By Avi Deror, own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A memorial on Ussishkin Street in Jerusalem marks the spot where Alexander Rubowitz was abducted.
Alexander Rubowitz, 16, a member of the youth wing of the underground group Lehi (the Stern Gang), is chased, caught and forced into a car in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood while on a propaganda distribution mission. He is never seen again. Physical evidence and witnesses indicate that the abductor is British officer Roy Farran, who is believed to have beaten Rubowitz to death in a vain effort to force him to identify fellow Lehi members.
May 7, 1953 — Histadrut Admits Arabs
By Zoltan Kluger, National Photo Collection of Israel
Mordechai Namir, the general secretary of the Histadrut in 1953, believed in Arab-Jewish labor solidarity.
The Histadrut trade union, launched in 1920 to represent Jewish workers in Palestine and covering 75% of Israeli labor by 1953, opens its membership to the state’s Arab citizens. The move is seen as an important step in fully integrating Arabs into the young state and represents the maturation of the Histadrut beyond its original purpose to represent Jewish workers, including protecting them against cheaper Arab labor.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
