This Day in History – 16 Teves/January 7

In 5399/1639, Turkish Sultan Morad IV, with the help of the Jews, conquered the city of Baghdad for the second time from the Persians. Because of that event, this date was celebrated as “Purim Baghdad.” In the Baghdad kehillah, Tachanun was not recited.

In 5542/1782, Emperor Joseph II of Austria issued an Edict of Toleration which repealed most restrictions on Jews that had been imposed by the Church. Unfortunately, it also led to assimilation.

5762/2001, Harav Chaim Kreiswirth, Rav of Antwerp

Harav Chaim was born in the town of Voinitch in 5679/1919. His father was Harav Avraham Yosef, a descendant of many esteemed Rabbanim.

His father sent him to learn in the town of Tarnow, and he learned there diligently. His bar mitzvah was held in the Belzer shtiebel in Tarnow, where Harav Aharon of Belz put on his tefillin for the first time.

In 5694/1933–4, he was accepted to Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. There he developed a close relationship with the famed Rosh Yeshivah Harav Shimon Horowitz of Zhelichov. At 17 he moved to Cracow, and at 18 he was delivering a daily shiur at the Tchechoiv-Sanz beis medrash; he became known as the “Iluy of Cracow.”

Subsequently he transferred to Warsaw and was accepted as Rosh Yeshivah in the yeshivah of the Piaseczna Rebbe, zt”l. At the outbreak of World War II, he fled to Kovno, Lithuania. He married the daughter of Harav Avraham Grodzenski, Hy”d, the Mashgiach of the Slabodka yeshivah. Soon afterwards they were forced to flee to Vilna and miraculously survived.

In 5701/1941, Harav Chaim reached the shores of Eretz Yisrael, where he was able to devote himself to learning. In 5707/1947, he accepted a position as Rosh Yeshivah in Chicago, Illinois. There, he attracted huge numbers of talmidim, who went on to become marbitzei Torah throughout the world.

In 5713/1953, Harav Kreiswirth became Rav of Antwerp, a position he held for 50 years. He became the acknowledged Mara d’Asra, rebuilding the once-thriving community that had been decimated by the Holocaust. Over the years, Harav Kreiswirth strengthened the basis of Yiddishkeit in his city, supervising kashrus and mikvaos. The effects of his work were felt all over Europe.

Twenty years before he was niftar he fell victim to a malignant disease. It was at this time that he decided to dedicate himself wholly to chessed, offering relief to orphans and widows, the poor and the downtrodden, and he traveled far and wide for this purpose.

Harav Chaim Kreisworth is buried on Har Hamenuchos.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Jan. 7

In 1789, America held its first presidential election as voters chose electors who, a month later, selected George Washington to be the nation’s first chief executive.

In 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Company of London announced that the telegraphed letters “CQD” would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced with “SOS”).

In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

In 1942, the Japanese siege of Bataan began during World War II. (The fall of Bataan three months later was followed by the notorious Death March.)

In 1963, the U.S. Post Office raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 4 to 5 cents.

In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.