October 20

In October 1905, pogroms against Jews broke out in many parts of Russia. Civil authorities themselves, with the help of the army, local police forces and petty criminals, organized punitive measures against the Jewish population. For three days straight, Jewish homes and businesses were vandalized and destroyed.
In Aleksandrovsk, seven Jewish residents were stabbed in the throat, and forty-six were seriously wounded. In Mariupol, twenty-two people were killed. In Jusovka, twelve men were slaughtered and a hundred were wounded or cruelly mutilated. Many other Russian districts had similar death tolls. The most barbaric violence took place in Bogopol, Golta, Olviopol, and Tomsk. The term pogrom, which means "destruction" or "devastion," was coined by Russian-speaking peoples in the tzarist era to describe attacks on Jews organized by Christians under the pretext of avenging the crucifixion of Jesus.

A READING 

To loot the old Jew's shop conveniently, the soldiers tied him to nails stuck in the wall. His wife and child waited for him in a safe place. He was cold. His pain made him sing a psalm.
But the soldiers, humiliated by the fervor of his half-closed eyes and trembling voice, wanted to torture him and give him a slow death, so as to defeat in his flesh the dreamer's pure spirit...
They burned his hair, pierced his white hands: one of their leaders went close to hear him gasp his last breaths, and his whip lashed the dying man's eyes.
But he thought of those who depart without fear for Eden, for Zion, for the holy mountain, praying to Adonai with humble and upright hearts.

(Henri Marx)

THE CHURCHES REMEMBER...

WESTERN CATHOLICS:
Irene of Portugal (6th cent.), virgin and martyr (Spanish-Mozarabic calendar)

COPTS AND ETHIOPIANS (10 bàbah/teqemt):
Sergius (d. ca. 300), companion of Bacchus, martyr (Coptic Church)

LUTHERANS:
Karl Segebrock and Ewald Ovir (d. 1896), missionaries and witnesses to the point of bloodshed in East Africa

MARONITES:
Challita (Artemius; d. 362), martyr

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS AND GREEK CATHOLICS:
Artemius, megalomartyr
Joseph the Priest (d. 1762; Georgian Church)