top

January 1: The Jewish Agency assigns the battalion commanders of the Jewish Settlement Police.

February 7: The St. James Conference opens in London.

March: The Defense Committee of Jewish Settlements is set up. It is comprised of representatives of the Haganah, the police and the Jewish Agency.

April: The illegal immigration operations intensify.

May: In reaction to the White Paper the Jewish Agency declares: "The need of the Jewish People for a Home was never more acute and its denial at this time is particularly sharp." The White Paper is denounced as illegal as it contradicts the terms of the Mandate, which can only be changed with the agreement of the Council of the League of Nations.

May 28: The "Atrato", a ship under the command of the Haganah, is captured by the British navy, after having completed seven voyages during six months and bringing more than 2.400 illegal immigrants to Palestine.

August 16: The 21st Zionist Congress convenes in Geneva, Switzerland. The Congress is primarily concerned with the fight against the policy of the White Paper. The shadow of World War Two falls on all the debates. The Zionist Executive is reelected in its existing form.
In his opening address, Weizmann states:
"In this solemn hour, I am reluctantly compelled to say that the British government has gone back on its promises. It is not easy for me - above all for me - to have to say it ... and international obligation to the Jews in regard to a sacred land, undertaken before the whole civilized world, cannot be unilaterally destroyed ... the British government has taken on itself to try to bring to a standstill the great historic process of the return of Israel and the rebuilding of Palestine, which began long before the country came under British rule ... the Government may itself be the victim of an illusion, the illusion that you can counter force by further force, directed not against the aggressors but against the victims. ... We must and shall defend our lives, our rights, our work, with all the strength at our disposal. ... Whatever my happen today, tomorrow, or in the near future, the work our pioneers have achieved will live and grow, and remain a permanent source of strength and courage to this and future generations."
His closing address, delivered after the Congress had heard the news of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Russia and Germany was prophetic:
"There is darkness around us ... if, as I hope, we are spared in life and our work continues, who knows - perhaps a new light will shine upon us from the thick, bleak gloom ... the remnant shall work on, fight on, live on until the dawn of better days. Towards that dawn, I greet you. May we meet again in peace."

August 22: The Betar ship "Parita" with 856 passengers on board and ten days later the "Tiger Hill" belonging to the Haganah, with 1,417 passengers, reach the Tel Aviv sea shore. Many of the immigrants succeed in escaping detection in the crowd of thousands which come to help them, others are arrested. These are the last two ships bearing illegal immigrants to arrive before the outbreak of the war.

By the outbreak of World War II, 21,630 people have reached Palestine as "illegal" immigrants.

September 3: The Zionist leadership greets the outbreak of war with unequivocal declaration of allegiance to Britain. The Jewish Agency announces: "At this fateful moment, the Jewish community has a threefold concern: the protection of the Jewish homeland, the welfare of the Jewish people, and the victory of the British Empire. ... The war which has now been forced upon Great Britain by Nazi Germany is our war, and all the assistance that we shall be able and permitted to give to the British Army and to the British people we shall render wholeheartedly."

September 6: The Jewish Agency and the Vaad HaLeumi organize a registration of volunteers for the defense of the homeland. 85,000 Jewish men and 50,000 women between the ages of 18 and 50 volunteer.

September 12: Jewish Agency chairman David Ben Gurion defines the position of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement after the outbreak of the war. He coins the famous phrase: "We must assist the British in their war as if there was no White Paper, and oppose the White Paper as if there was no war." It is in this spirit that the Jewish Agency suggests that a Jewish force is prepared to serve in the war as part of the British army, but for reasons of British Middle East policy the suggestion is rejected. The right of Jews to take part in the war against Nazi Germany is the subject of a prolonged struggle carried on by the Jewish Agency.

Following the 1929 expansion, the Jewish Agency has much more funds at its disposal for immigration. By 1939, 1,070,000 Arabs and 460,000 Jews live in Palestine. The Arabs decline from more than 82% of the population in 1931 to less than 70% in 1939. Arab fears of an eventual Jewish majority sharpen. As Ben Gurion states openly: "There is a fundamental conflict. We and they want the same thing. We both want Palestine. ... Were I an Arab ... I would rise up against immigration liable sometime in the future to hand the country ... over to Jewish rule. What Arab cannot do his math and understand that immigration at the rate of 60,000 a year means a Jewish state in all Palestine?"

During 1939, 17 new settlements are established. The interwar years also see a major increase in Jewish land ownership. During the 1920s the Yishuv acquired some 533,000 dunams; in the 1930s, another 300,000 dunams.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive: David Ben Gurion.

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Eliezer Kaplan.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department: Henrietta Szold.

Chairman of the Immigration Department: Eliahu Dobkin and Moshe Shapira.

January 1: Establishment of the Jewish Settlement Police. Groups of watchmen are posted to areas all over the country and organized in district battalions, each of which was commanded by a British police officer and a battalion commander assigned by the Jewish Agency.

May 1: Palestine statement of policy by the British government.

May 9: The Hadassah Hospital opens on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.

May 17: A new British White Paper is published. Mass demonstrations against the White Paper are held in the Yishuv on the following day.

May 21: The British arrest the Etzel leadership, including Commander David Raziel. In the months between the publication of the White Paper and the outbreak of the war, Etzel carries out a number of attacks against British government installations and against Arab civilians.

May 23: On the eve of the Shavuot holiday, seven new settlements are established simultaneously. In all, twelve new settlements are established in May, expressing the faith that even in the grim new circumstances, settlement was one of the essential means of fighting for the Zionist aim.

May 26: Death of Rabbi Ya'akov Meir, Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine.

June: The Haganah establishes special squads aimed at retaliation against Arab marauders.

June 8: Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission.

June 27: Rabbi Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel is appointed Sefardi chief rabbi of Palestine.

July 30: Elections for the 21st Zionist Congress. Mapai obtains two third of the seats, the General Zionists 11%, the religious 10%.

August 2: Etzel sabotages the Mandatory radio station in Jerusalem. Two people are killed.

August 9: The Haganah sinks a British coast guard craft which hunts illegal ships.

August 16: The British announce that illegals who are caught will be imprisoned in the Atlit detention camp. This marks a further stage in the British war against illegal immigration.

September 6: The Haganah sets up a national headquarters. Ya'akov Dori is appointed first Commander in Chief.

October 5: 54 instructors and cadets participating in a Haganah trainings course for company commanders in Yavniel are arrested carrying arms and sentenced to imprisonment. One of them is sentenced to life imprisonment.

November 18: 38 participants in an Etzel officers course at Mishmar HaYarden are arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.

December: A new daily, "Yediot Aharanot" appears in two editions: afternoon and evening. It will become Israel's most popular newspaper.

Nazi Germany and World War II in 1939.

January: German Jews are required to carry identification cards.

March: Max Brod, Czech author, settles in Palestine and becomes a drama advisor to the Habimah theater.

May: More than 900 German Jewish refugees arrive at Cuba aboard the German passenger ship "St. Louis" and are refused entry. The U.S. also refuses entry and the refugees return to Europe where they are admitted to England, Belgium, Holland and France.

Hungary adopts the "Second Jewish Law".
In 1938 the "First Jewish Law is presented to the Parliament; it restricted the number of Jews in liberal professions, in the administration, and in commercial and industrial enterprises to 20%. The term "Jew" included not only members of the Jewish religion, but also those who became apostates after 1919 or had been born of Jewish parents after that date.
In 1939 the "Second Jewish Law" is passed; it extends the term "Jew" on a racial basis and comes to include some 100,000 Christians (apostates or their children) and also reduces the number of Jews in economic activity, fixing it at 5 %; the political rights of Jews are also restricted. As a result of these laws, the sources of livlihood of 250,000 Hungarian Jews are closed for them.

July: The Nazis create the "Reichsvereinigung", a compulsory organization of all Jews in Nazi Germany. It replaces all existing Jewish communal organization and is supervised by the security police.

September: Reinhard Heydrich holds a conference in Berlin of his Einsatzgruppen chiefs.

After the beginning of World War II, the Nazis maintain a policy of permitting mass emigration of Jews from the Reich until the end of 1941. 71.500 Jews manage to flee.

From September to November, 250.000 Polish Jews flee eastward.

190.000 Austrian Jews succeed to emigrate, 66.000 remain at the outbreak of the war.

October: Germany starts to deport Austrian and Czech Jews to Poland.

Hans Frank is appointed governor of the German-occupied Polish territories under the "Generalgouvernement". He is responsible for the persecution and plundering of the Polish population and the extermination of the Jews. The first ghetto, Piotrkow, is established.

Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944), historian of the Warsaw Ghetto, establishes an underground archive and historical institute.

November: The Germans begin with the expulsion of 40.000 Jews from western Poland into the Generalgouvernement.

The Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland are required to wear Star of David identification badges.

Every Jewish community in the Generalgouvernement has to form a Jewish council (Judenrat). The Germans intend to issue orders through these councils which will be responsible for their obedience.

December: Radomsko, the second ghetto is established.

A boat carrying more than 1.000 refugees leaves the harbor of Bratislava. The Kladovo Transport is on the way to Palestine.

The American Association of Jewish Education is founded to promote raising instructional and professional service standards in Jewish education.

Danny Kaye (1913-1987), U. S. comedian and actor, puts on "The Straw Hat Revue". The show makes it to the Broadway and launches his career in comedy and music.

Harold Arlen (1905-1986), the son of a cantor, composes the musical score for the movie "The Wizard of Oz".

Cecil Roth is appointed reader in Jewish studies at Oxford. He will write the standard history of the Jews of England and of Italy. He is an expert in Jewish art and will edit a "History of Jewish Art" and facsimile editions of Haggadot. He is the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Judaica.

Sigmund Freud writes his last book "Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion" - "Moses and Monotheism".

Umberto Cassuto (1883-1951) becomes professor of Bible at the Hebrew University. He leaves Rome because Italian racial laws make it impossible for him to remain in Italy. His son Nathan will be murdered by the Nazis in 1945.