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Jewish Community News

February 2004

This Month in Jewish History: February

by Alexis Rubin

King bans benediction; society promotes secular culture; Zionist assumes ceremonial post

Castile, Spain, February 25, 1336

During the Middle Ages, some Jewish apostates slandered Judaism's practices and writings in order to prove their religious sincerity to Christian Church and secular leaders. One such man, Alfonso of Valladolid, told King Alfonso XI of Castile that Jews viciously insulted Christians when they recited one of the Eighteen Benedictions of the weekday Amidah prayer.

The king ordered Alfonso to hold a public disputation with local rabbis concerning the supposed anti-Christian nature of the 12th Benediction, Birkat Ha-Minim. The rabbis explained that Birkat Ha-Minim ("benediction concerning heretics") did beseech the Lord to condemn "slanderers," "wickedness," and "evil doers," but the prayer was nearly 1,500 years old. It referred to the oppressive occupation of Judea by the Hellenic-Syrians and the terms "slanderers," and "evil doers" referred to those occupiers and the Jewish heretics who collaborated with them. The king ignored their explanations and ruled against the rabbis.

On February 25, 1336, Alfonso XI banned the Birkat Ha-Minim prayer, charging that it was an affront to all true Catholics. Since such charges frequently led to book burning or other violent action against them, Jewish communities in Castile and elsewhere removed the "offending" phrases. Only in modern times has the Birkat Ha-Minim reappeared in prayer books – with some changes: "slander" and "evil" have replaced the more specific terms "slanderers" and "evil doers." To this day, however, many Reform synagogues continue to omit this benediction.

St. Petersburg, Russia, February 8, 1864

Jewish hopes for a better life in Russia soared following the coronation of Alexander II. The czar ended the conscription of Jewish children, allowed Jews to enter Russian universities, and eliminated or eased most of the old social and religious discrimination. Grateful for Alexander's reforms, many Jews immersed themselves in Russian cultural and intellectual pursuits. This new intelligentsia also called on all the country's Jews to learn to read and write Russian as the first step to becoming one with "the Great Russian people."

On February 8, 1864, the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews, headquartered in St. Petersburg, published its program to modernize Russian Jewry. "In accordance with the request of the [Russian] Deputy Minister of Education," they announced, "we shall endeavor… to teach the Jews to read the Russian language… [for] the aim of our Society is to care for the masses of our people and their educational needs…"

The society's hoped-for acculturation died with the assassination of Alexander II. His son, Alexander III, blaming his father's murder on the Jews, reinstated all the old anti-Jewish discrimination. The wide-spread "pogroms" that followed made clear that czarist Russia would never embrace Jews as equals.

Jerusalem, Israel, February 17, 1949

Upon Theodore Herzl's death in 1904, Chaim Weizmann, a Russian-born chemist and naturalized British citizen, assumed the reins of Zionist leadership. When his invention of a new explosive helped Great Britain sustain its war effort against Germany, he used his prestige to encourage British support for Zionism. He believed that Britain would prove to be the Jewish Homeland's greatest champion, and, in 1917, his efforts encouraged His Majesty's Government to issue the Balfour Declaration. When Arab riots led Britain to abandon its pro-Jewish policy during the 1930s and 1940s, Zionist support for Weizmann's leadership slowly disintegrated.

Following World War II, Weizmann traveled to New York City to continue urging support for Zionism. When the State of Israel was proclaimed, he wrote to Harry Truman, convincing the U.S. President to officially recognize the Jewish State. In acknowledgement of Weizmann's past leadership, the newly-formed government in Tel Aviv appointed him president of the State of Israel. To his disappointment, however, the position proved to be strictly ceremonial.

On February 17, 1949, Chaim Weizmann was sworn in as Israel's first president. The man who had carried Herzl's Zionist dream to fruition held the honorary post until his death in 1952.

Alexis Rubin is a Jewish history teacher, writer, researcher and syndicated columnist. Her articles, essays and book reviews have appeared in historical journals, Jewish women's magazines and community newspapers in the U.S. and in Canada.

This Month in Jewish History