September 24

History events
416 — (16th of Tishrei, 4177) Roman emperors Honorius and Theodosius II order that any Jews who have joined the Christian church to avoid punishments for crimes must be allowed to return to Judaism because, in the long run, Christianity will be better off without them.
1038 — (23th of Tishrei, 4799) Jews in Granada celebrate a special Purim commemoration after the capture of the Muslim leader Ibn Abbas who was brought to Granada, killed, and beheaded by a rival (and Jewish tolerant) Muslim faction
1491 — (20th of Tishrei, 5252) In an example of the Blood Libel, Benito Gracia, a Converso was accused today of taking part in the mutilation and murder of Christian child in what would lead to the creation of the legend of “The Holy Child of La Guardia.”
1876 — (6th of Tishrei, 5637) Based on information that first appeared in the London Jewish Herald, it was reported today that for the past four or five years Jews have been returning to Palestine in unprecedented numbers. The Jewish population of Jerusalem has doubled in the past ten years. Most of the immigrants have come from Russia
1882 — (11th of Tishrei, 5643) It was reported today that 17,693,643 Catholics living in Austria make up 92% of the population. There are 1,005,394 Jews living in the country
1928 — (10th of Tishrei, 5689) On Yom Kippur the Jerusalem police ….. interfered with the worshipers who resisted the removal of a screen separating the men and women. Jews at their Yom Kippur prayers at the Western Wall placed chairs and customary screens between the men and women present. Jerusalem commissioner Edward Keith-Roach, while visiting the Muslim religious court overlooking the prayer area, pointed out the screen, precipitating emotional protests and demands from the assembled sheiks that it be removed. Unless it was taken down, they said, they would not be responsible for what happened. This was described as violating the Ottoman status quo that forbade Jews from making any construction in the Western Wall area, though such screens had been put up from time to time. The British issued an ultimatum for its removal. When police officers in riot gear were then sent in, a scuffle took place with worshippers and the screen in question was destroyed. The intervention drew censure later from senior officials who judged that excessive force had been exercised without good reason. Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem exploited the incident by distributing leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque. One consequence was that Jewish worshippers frequently were subjected to beatings and stoning
1941 — (3th of Tishrei, 5702) Two thousand women and children were taken from the Wolkowysk Ghetto and murdered. Wolkowysk was located in southeastern Lithuania
1945 — (17th of Tishrei, 5706) Five months after the Nazis had surrendered a pogrom took play at Topoľčany, ….. Czechoslovakia, known as the Topoľčany Pogrom in which at least 48 Jewswere “injured.” “There were about 3,200 Jews living in Topoľčany before World War II, of which 550 survived the Holocaust and returned to the town after the war ended. Anti-Semitism was widespread at that time due to both Slovak state official policy and also the strong economic position of Jews, which contrasted with a lack of basic commodities among the majority population. According to the protocol of county police boss Zidor, rumors began to spread in the town two days before the pogrom that Jews are about to overtake a local church school. The school was run by Catholic nuns at that time. Also, there were rumors that Jews had already created a separate classroom for Jewish children, in which they desecrated a crucifix. Further, according to rumors, the Jews were said to had overtaken a school in the nearby village of Bojná, run by Catholic monks. Local women wanted to protest against the rumored actions, but local authorities refused them. A pack of people, mostly women, then entered the school. Coincidentally, a Jewish doctor was at the time vaccinating children against smallpox in one of the school’s classrooms. Some of the vaccinated children cried, which gave base for a new rumor to spread among the angry crowd: a Jewish doctor poisons Slovak children! People then attacked and beat the doctor. As new rumors spread to the streets, many more Jews were beaten both in the streets and in their homes. Jewish property was plundered in the process.”
1948 — (20th of Elul, 5708) Operation Velvetta, a secret mission designed to deliver Supermarine Spitfires purchased from Czechoslovakia to Israel began today with a flight of 60 aircraft from Czechoslovakia to an abandoned Luftwaffe airbase at Nikšić , Yugoslavia
1950 — (13th of Tishrei, 5711) A series of meetings focused on the economy which the Israeli government ….. had begun on September 1 came to an end without any official announcements or public policy changes. The meeting had focused on the failure of the program imposed in August that centered around rationing clothes and shoes. The three smaller parties making up the four-party coalition government were highly critical of Supply Minister Bernard Joseph who had overseen what they see as they failed rationing program. The Mapai Party, the largest member of the coalition seemed to clinging to it socialist policies and pedigree. No decision was made on proposals to move a little more towards a free-market economy; proposals that “included relaxation of controls for imports and trade in foreign exchange.”

People
1761 — (25th of Elul, 5521) Birthdate of Dutch journalist, translator and author Moses ben Zaddik Belifante
1762 — (7th of Tishrei, 5523) Moses Sofer, rabbinical author, born
1894 — (23th of Elul, 5654) While on her trip to that would make her the first woman to bicycle around the world, Annie Londonerry, the Latvian born daughter of Levi and Beatrice Cohen, arrived in Chicago today having lost twenty pounds and “the desire to continue
1896 — (17th of Tishrei, 5657) Birthdate of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s most famous novel was The Great Gatsby
1952 — (5th of Tishrei, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that Barbara Propper, 22, a member of Sde Boker, was shot and killed while tending a herd of goats some 300 meters from the kibbutz. Infiltrators from Jordan fired at Jerusalem Corridor settlers in an attempt to steal irrigation pipes and cattle
1993 — (9th of Tishrei, 5754) Yigal Vaknin was stabbed to death by terrorists in an orchard near the trailer home where he lived near the village of Basra. A squad of the Hamas’ Iz a-Din al Kassam claimed responsibility for the attack