November 9: Burning Synagogues

The synagogue in Jerusalem built by followers of Judah HeHasid, who led 1,000 Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem in 1700, was burned down on this date in 1720 by Arabs who had financed its construction. Between 1697 and 1700, Judah HeHasid (Judah the Pious) had traveled among Jewish communities throughout Poland, gathering families to make pilgrimage to Palestine; of the 1,000 souls who accompanied him, about a third died from the hardships of the journey. They arrived heavily in debt to the Turkish authorities of the Ottoman Empire, and went deeper into debt to build their synagogue. After it was burned down by angry creditors, the Ottoman rulers of Palestine banned Ashkenazim from residing in Jerusalem. . . . This is also the date on which the Nazis inaugurated their infamous, two-day national pogrom, Kristallnacht, in 1938, in which 1,668 German and Austrian synagogues were ransacked, with 267 set on fire (95 in Vienna alone). For two personal accounts of Kristallnacht, click here. More than 700 Jewish-owned businesses were also attacked, and 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.

“Mob law ruled throughout the afternoon and evening and hordes of hooligans indulged in an orgy of destruction. . . . Racial hatred and hysteria seemed to have taken complete hold of otherwise decent people. I saw fashionably dressed women clapping their hands and screaming with glee, while respectable middle-class mothers held up their babies to see the ‘fun.’ ” —Hugh Carleton Greene, Daily Telegraph