The Jewish calendar is full of anniversaries, but so is the regular calendar.
Every week marks the anniversary of events that helped shape Jewish history, whether that’s a Nobel Prize-winning discovery, a pivotal Supreme Court decision, the birth of an iconic artist, the founding of a community, or a moment that changed the course of the Jewish people.
Welcome to Unpacked’s latest series, “This Week in Jewish History.” Each week, we’ll take a look back at the stories worth remembering and why they still matter today.
Check out previous editions here.
Britain tightens restrictions on Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine (October 20, 1930)
Most Jewish history nerds are probably familiar with the British White Paper of 1939, which sharply restricted Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine on the eve of World War II. But it wasn’t the first time the British placed limits on Jewish immigration — or faced accusations of walking back the promises of the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
To understand what happened, it’s worth going back a little further. In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Lord Rothschild, a prominent British Jewish leader, expressing his government’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The declaration also stipulated that this must not prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities or the rights and political status of Jews elsewhere.
Britain’s subsequent Mandate for Palestine explicitly required it to facilitate Jewish immigration while protecting the rights and position of other communities.
But in August 1929, a wave of anti-Jewish violence swept through the Mandate. Most notoriously, Arab attackers massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, devastating the city’s centuries-old Jewish community. Other Arab residents sheltered their Jewish neighbors, saving hundreds of lives.
In response to the unrest, the British appointed the Shaw Commission, followed by an investigation into immigration, land settlement and development. On October 20, 1930, they issued the Passfield White Paper.
Britain had already tied Jewish immigration to Palestine’s economic capacity in 1922. The new policy called for tighter controls, emphasizing that Arab unemployment, as well as Jewish unemployment, must count when deciding how many immigrants the country could absorb. It also called for restrictions on further Jewish land purchases to protect Arab farmers.
The White Paper did not reject the idea of a Jewish national home outright. But it insisted that Britain’s obligations to Jews and Arabs were equally important — and Zionist leaders saw its proposed restrictions as a betrayal of Britain’s promises.
The Yishuv, or the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, was outraged. Following intense Zionist lobbying, particularly by Chaim Weizmann, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald substantially softened the policy in a February 1931 letter reaffirming support for Jewish immigration and settlement.
This, in turn, outraged Palestinian Arabs, who dubbed MacDonald’s reversal the “Black Letter.” Britain had tried to satisfy competing demands. Instead, it had given both communities more reason to distrust it.
Jewish history is a story of both tragedy and triumph. This week is no exception.
Yom Kippur War ends (October 24–25, 1973)
Before the October 7 attacks, the Yom Kippur War stood as Israel’s defining surprise attack. On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched coordinated assaults on Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, territories Israel had captured in 1967. The attack came on Yom Kippur, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, catching Israel dangerously unprepared.
Just six years earlier, Israel had been riding high from its stunning victory in the Six-Day War. But that confidence helped Israeli leaders underestimate the threat, even as warning signs mounted. Within days, the country was fighting to recover from devastating losses on two fronts.
The war raged for nearly three weeks, killing roughly 2,700 Israeli soldiers and thousands of Egyptian and Syrian troops. Behind those numbers were families and communities left to live with the losses long after the fighting stopped.
Ultimately, Israel turned the tide, pushing Syrian forces back and crossing the Suez Canal into Egypt. But the military recovery could not erase the shock of the war’s opening days.
An initial U.N.-backed ceasefire took effect on October 22, but fighting continued. Further U.N. action and pressure from the United States and Soviet Union helped bring the major fighting to a halt by October 24–25. The guns did not fall silent everywhere, however. Clashes continued afterward, and disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria followed in 1974.
The war also helped open an unexpected path toward peace. Years of negotiations eventually led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, making Egypt the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
Israel’s peace with Egypt hasn’t exactly been a warm one. But the two countries have not fought another war against each other since 1973 — a profound change for neighbors that had repeatedly met on the battlefield.
