It was on this day in the year 163 B.C. that Antiochus V (not to be confused with Antiochus the IV of Hanukkah fame), granted freedom of religion and political autonomy to the Jews living in the land of Israel. This was to cancel the decrees of his father, who had outlawed circumcision, the study […]

It was on this day in the year 1979 that Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the peace treaty between their countries. Since that time, Israel has enjoyed three decades of relative peace with Egypt. We say, “relative peace,” because Egypt has always represented oppression for Israel and the travail by […]

It was on this day in the year 1940 that the Nazis issued an order barring Jewish physicians from treating Ayrans and Aryan physicians from treating Jews, thus accentuating the separation between the two peoples. The Nazi provocation for this was their hatred of the Jews and the belief that the Jewish race was inferior […]

It was on this day in the year 561 B.C. that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon and the conqueror of Jerusalem, died. Years before, Nebuchadnezzar had been told by the prophet Daniel that he, and by extension Babylon, was represented in a dream by a head of gold, described for us in Daniel chapter 2. In […]

It was on this day that two prominent events are believed to have occurred. The first is the dedication of the second Temple in 516 B.C; the second is the beginning of the consecration period for Aaron and his sons as they entered the priesthood. The latter is recorded in the book of Leviticus 8:33-35: […]

It was on this day in the year 1790 that the first advertisement, offering private Hebrew instruction in an American publication, appeared in The Pennsylvania Packet, placed there by Abraham Cohen. In those days, there were no organized Hebrew schools and so the private tutor was the primary way for most Jewish youngsters to learn […]

According to tradition, it was on this day that Moses was circumcised in Egypt. His circumcision would have occurred in a very troubling time for Hebrew parents who saw the birth of a male child, considering that Pharaoh had ordered their deaths. Later, Moses would be hidden in a basket and placed upon the Nile, […]