This Day in History – 28 Tishrei/October 22

4176/415, Rabban Gamliel Hanasi (the fourth) was removed from his post by the Romans, thereby ending the last vestiges of Jewish self-government after the churban.

In 4946/1185, Saladin, with his Moslem army, captured Yerushalayim from the Crusaders and allowed Jews to return to the city after an absence of 88 years.

In 5127/1366, King Frederick III of Sicily forbade decorating the outsides of shuls.

Yahrtzeiten

5303/1542, Harav Avraham Kara, zt”l, Rav of Prague

5394/1633, Harav Efraim Zalman, the Tevuos Shor, zt”l

5763/2002, Harav Avraham Eiger, the Lubliner Rebbe, zt”l

Harav Avraham Eiger was born into a home of Torah luminaries. His father was Reb Shlomo Eliezer, a direct descendant of the famed Rav Akiva Eiger, zt”l. Reb Avraham was born on Erev Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5674/1914, three months after the petirah of his great-grandfather, Harav Avraham Eiger of Lublin, zt”l, the Shevet Yehudah, after whom he was named. His older twin brother was named Reb Leibele after the Lubliner Rebbe, the Toras Emes, zt”l.

Before the outbreak of World War II, his grandfather, Reb Ezriel Meir, commanded him and his cousin to flee quickly from Poland, telling them that if he had the strength he, too, would try to escape. In the course of their wanderings, they miraculously escaped to Shanghai.

During Pesach in Shanghai, the other survivors noticed that he subsisted on a handful of potatoes.

After the war Reb Avraham traveled to France, where he married Rebbetzin Sima, a”h, the daughter of Reb Dovid Anilowitz of Mondzhov, z”l. (Rebbetzin Sima passed away on 7 Tishrei 5738/1977. The Lubliner Rebbe later married his second Rebbetzin, tbl”c, the daughter of Reb Yosef Ozer Yanovsky of Lodz, z”l.

In 1949, Reb Avraham went to Eretz Yisrael, settling in Yerushalayim. At that time there was a Lubliner shtiebel in Tel Aviv, and the Chassidim begged him to move to their city and don the mantle of Rebbe. Reb Avraham sought the counsel of Gedolim. The Gedolim, including the Beis Yisrael, the Belzer Rebbe, the Chazon Ish, the Tchebiner Rav and others, persuaded him to assume the position.

So the Lubliner Rebbe moved to Tel Aviv, where he stood at the helm of his beis medrash on Ha-Aliyah Street. In 5715/1955, the Lubliner Rebbe relocated to Bnei Brak.

Oct. 22

In 1797, French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet over Paris.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy revealed the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped there.

In 1979, the U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.