Intellectual Selig Brodetsky DiesCIE+
Shortly after assuming the Presidency of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Selig Brodetsky suffered a major heart attack.
Soviet Embassy Bombed in Tel AvivCIE+
The Soviet Embassy in Tel Aviv is bombed, injuring one diplomat and the wives of two others, in an attack blamed on the Kingdom of Israel terrorist group. The Israeli government apologies, but the Soviets break off diplomatic relations.
Eliahu Elath Becomes Israel’s First Ambassador to U.K.CIE+
Eliahu Elath presents his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II and becomes Israel’s first Ambassador to the United Kingdom (officially called the Ambassador to the Court of St. James).
Israel Accepts German ReparationsCIE+
January 9, 1952 The Knesset ends three days of debate by voting 61-50 to accept more than $800 million in Holocaust reparations from the Western German government over 14 years. The decision sparks protests and…
U.S. Envoy Conveys Britain’s Fear of Communism in IsraelCIE+
In a cable to the State Department, US Chargé d’affaires Julius Holmes recounts British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin’s concerns that “within five years, Israel may be a Communist state.”
El Al Is FoundedCIE+
El Al, Israel’s national airline, is officially incorporated about seven weeks after a repainted military plane used the name while bringing Chaim Weizmann home for Switzerland.
Soviet Union Recognizes IsraelCIE+
May 17, 1948 The Soviet Union officially recognizes the State of Israel three days after Israel declared independence and the United States immediately offered de facto recognition of the new state’s provisional government. The Soviet…
Creech Jones Announces End of MandateCIE+
A two-day debate on the future of Britain’s presence in Palestine begins in the British House of Commons. Eventually it is decided to terminate the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
Gromyko Addresses the United NationsCIE+
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko proposes a unitary state for Palestine, but vows to support partition if it is deemed the only workable solution.
Rabbi Abba Silver Addresses U.N. General AssemblyCIE+
In an address on behalf of the Jewish Agency, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver calls upon the United Nations to honor the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Lehi Teenager DisappearsCIE+
May 6, 1947 Alexander Rubowitz, 16, is abducted in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem while on a mission for Lohamei HaHerut b’Yisrael (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), known by the acronym Lehi or as…
Britain Seeks Special U.N. Panel on PalestineCIE+
April 2, 1947 The British government notifies the United Nations of its intent to bring the question of Palestine’s future before the next U.N. General Assembly. The United Kingdom also requests a special General Assembly…
Britain to Seek U.N. Help on PalestineCIE+
The British respond to rising violence in Mandatory Palestine by asking the United Nations to figure out what to do.
White Paper Didn’t Halt Land Sales, Report FindsCIE+
A Land Transfer Committee report reveals that Arabs in Palestine willingly continued to sell land to Zionists in the early 1940s despite the British legal prohibition on doing so.
Jewish Resistance Blows Up Rails Across PalestineCIE+
November 1, 1945 The newly formed Jewish Resistance Movement sets off explosions at more than 150 sites along the railway system of British Mandatory Palestine and blows up three British gunboats in the Jaffa and…
Harrison Report Confirms Deplorable Conditions of DP CampsCIE+
The Harrison Report, an inquiry into the conditions of displaced persons camps in occupied Germany, reveals that many of the rumors of poor treatment of Jews are indeed true and that “we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we do not exterminate them.”
Bergen-Belsen Is LiberatedCIE+
April 15, 1945 The British 11th Armored Division liberates the Nazis’ Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany, discovering 60,000 starving prisoners, most of them seriously ill, and 13,000 unburied corpses. They are the remnants of…
Nazis Kill Palmach Paratrooper Haviva ReikCIE+
November 20, 1944 Haviva Reik and two other paratroopers from British Mandatory Palestine are among about 40 Jewish fighters executed by the Nazis after the suppression of an uprising in Slovakia. Reik, who was born…
Harold MacMichael Ends Term as High Commissioner of PalestineCIE+
Rattled by numerous attempts on his life, and fearing for the safety of his family, MacMichael steps down in August 1944.
Bermuda Conference Concludes Saving European Jews Is Not Feasible
A joint communiqué is issued, and it is clear that no widespread action to rescue Jews will be forthcoming. This bolsters the Zionist argument for a Jewish homeland.
Russian Sub Sinks Refugee Ship StrumaCIE+
After being mistaken as an enemy ship, the SS Struma, carrying nearly 800 Jewish refugees hoping to immigrate into Palestine, including 70 children, is sunk by a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.
Nazi Plan for “Final Solution” Is Drafted at Wannsee ConferenceCIE+
Nazis draw up a plan for the “Final Solution” of European Jewry in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee.
Munich Olympic Massacre Victim Yossef Romano Is BornCIE+
Weightlifter Yossef Romano, one of the eleven Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is born in Benghazi, Libya.
Mufti of Jerusalem Rejects Majority-Arab StateCIE+
The Mufti has enormous power in his hands, yet he chooses non-engagement with the British, who controlled Palestine.
