When Governor of Georgia James Jackson resigned his post to serve as a US senator, the president of the Georgia Senate, David Emanuel, who was said to be Jewish, was sworn in as governor. If he was indeed Jewish, March 3, 1801, was the first time that a Jewish person served as governor of a US state.
Emanuel served the remaining eight months of Jackson's term, but did not seek re-election, opting instead to retire from politics. In 1812, Georgia named a new county in his honor: "Emanuel County."
The inaugural edition of "The Jew," the first Jewish periodical in the United States, was published in March of 1823. It was published in New York City and edited by Solomon H. Jackson.
The subtitle of the paper was “Being a defence of Judaism against all adversaries, and particularly against the insidious attacks of Israel's Advocate.” Its major aim was to combat missionaries, and specifically "Israel's Advocate," a Christian conversionist periodical published at the same time.
The periodical was issued until March 1825.
The Jews of Sana’a, Yemen, were saved from a decree plotted against them by the king’s anti-Semitic ministers, in which they were accused of killing the grand prince. Yemenite Jewry celebrated this day each year with feasting and rejoicing.
Link: Purim Yemen
The Torah reading of Parah (Numbers 19) is added to the weekly reading. Parah details the laws of the "Red Heifer" and the process by which a person rendered ritually impure by contact with a dead body was purified.
(When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, every Jew had to be in a state of ritual purity in time for the bringing of the Passover offering in the Temple. Today, though we're unable to fulfill the Temple-related rituals in practice, we fulfill them spiritually by studying their laws in the Torah. Thus, we study and read the section of Parah in preparation for the upcoming festival of Passover.)
Links: The Parah reading with commentary
The Calf's Mother
For a mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light. (Proverbs 6:23)
Every mitzvah shines its particular light into our world. And there will come a time when you will see that light with your eyes.
Except the candles that are lit for Shabbat before sunset. They shine a light you can see right now.
It may seem an ordinary light, just another flame. But there is nothing ordinary about it.
You have ignited the darkness of our world and extracted its secret:
That it too is light.