Menachem Av 28, 5453 (1893):
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (the Netziv), author, leader of Lithuanian Jewry, and head of the Volozhin Yeshiva, where 10,000 students studied during his tenure. He joined the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement, urging Orthodox Jews to support settlement in Israel. In 1892, the Russian government closed his yeshiva, and despite his great desire to go to Israel, he felt that his place was with his community. His health rapidly deteriorated, and he died shortly after.
Menachem Av 29, 2448 (1312 BCE):
Moses carved the second Tablets of the Law in preparation for his third ascent to Mount Sinai on the following morning (Exodus 34:4). They were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, along with the first broken set, symbolizing the ability of every person to make amends and rebuild anew.
August 24, 1929:
Sixty-seven Jewish men, women, and children were slaughtered, and scores were wounded, raped, and maimed by their Arab neighbors in the city of Hebron during three days of rioting. Jewish homes were pillaged, synagogues were desecrated, and a Jewish hospital, which had provided treatment for Arabs, was attacked and ransacked. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron, which had lived in relative peace for hundreds of years, was not revived until the city was recaptured in the 1967 Six Day War.
August 25, 1918:
Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969), great popularizer of Gustav Mahler, host of the groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts, and composer of classical and popular works, such as On The Town and West Side Story.
Aug. 26, 1827:
Czar Nicholas I of Russia issued the Cantonist Decrees. Jewish communities had to supply four “recruits” for every 1,000 people, who were forcibly conscripted at age 18 for 25 years. By the time the decree ended in 1856, more than 60,000 Jews had been torn away from their families, half of whom converted to Christianity.
Elul 3, 5695 (1935):
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Talmudist, philosopher, prolific author, first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of pre-state Israel, and founding father of the Religious Zionist movement. He developed warm relations with the secular pioneers who were building Israel and maintained that the modern return to Zion was “the beginning of the redemption, and the harbinger of the coming of the Messiah.”
Aug. 28, 1903:
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination, was first published in a Saint Petersburg daily newspaper. Despite having been exposed as fraudulent, it has been translated into multiple languages and was disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. Described as “probably the most influential work of antisemitism ever written,” it remains widely available in numerous languages, and continues to be presented as genuine.
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