October 4, 2003 — Suicide Bomber Strikes Haifa Restaurant
A suicide bombing kills 17 Jews and four Arabs and injures 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The beachfront restaurant, co-owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, is known as a symbol of coexistence. Hanadi Jaradat, 28, detonates her explosive belt in the middle of Maxim, and metal fragments spray around the restaurant. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the attack, the sixth female suicide bombing of the Second Intifada.
October 5, 1941 — Justice Louis Brandeis Dies
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the high court, dies at 84 in Washington. His embrace of Zionism made its support more acceptable among American Jews. Through his friendship with President Woodrow Wilson, he helped secure U.S. support for the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate. Brandeis visited Palestine in 1919 and inspired the creation of the Palestine Economic Corp.
October 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur War Begins
More than 70,000 Egyptian infantrymen and 1,000 tanks cross the Suez Canal on bridges erected overnight as Syria attacks Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War. Egyptian artillery and warplanes bombard Israeli positions in the desert, and troops breach the Bar-Lev Line and secure a bridgehead. Syria follows an artillery bombardment by sending 40,000 men and two armored divisions into the Golan.
October 7, 1985 — Achille Lauro is Hijacked
Members of the Palestinian Liberation Front seize the Achille Lauro off the Egyptian coast four days into an 11-day cruise out of Genoa, Italy, with 748 passengers. The terrorists gather the passengers on deck and fatally shoot wheelchair-bound American Jew Leon Klinghoffer. They abandon a plan to attack Israeli soldiers during a scheduled port call in Ashdod and instead surrender Oct. 10 at Port Said, Egypt.
October 8, 1989 — Israeli Idol Hagit Yaso is Born
Singer Hagit Yaso, a winner of Israel’s version of “American Idol,” is born in Sderot to parents who escaped an Ethiopian village by walking four months through the desert to Sudan before flying to Israel. She sings in a military band during her army service. She wins a spot on “Kochav Nolad,” Israel’s “American Idol,” in 2011 and wins songs in Hebrew, English, Amharic and Moroccan Arabic.
October 9, 1994 — Hamas Abducts Israeli Soldier
Hamas terrorists abduct soldier Nachshon Wachsman in central Israel by offering him a ride while they’re wearing kippot and playing Hasidic music. A video shows Wachsman, who has U.S. citizenship, with his hands and feet bound. Hamas seeks the release of Sheik Ahmed Yassin and 200 other Palestinians by Oct. 14. Israel attempts a rescue, but Wachsman and the leader of the rescue team, Capt. Nir Poraz, are killed.
October 10, 1961 — Bones of Moshe Hess are Brought to Israel
Moshe Hess is reburied in the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery beside other founders of socialist Zionism. Hess was born in Bonn in 1812, died in Paris in 1875 and was buried in Cologne. He was a friend to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and helped them develop Communist theory. The rise in antisemitism across Europe led him back to his Jewish roots. His “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question” may have inspired Theodor Herzl.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.