Today, May 6, is the 152nd anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud, a momentous day in the history of civilization, of mankind's understanding of mankind, of humanity's efforts to tame itself.
This week begins the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel.
On March 13, 1938 at a board meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society it was decided that everyone who could should flee and the seat of the society
should be wherever Freud settled. At the meeting Freud said:
"After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Titus, Rabbi Jochanan ben Sakkai asked for permission to open a school at Javneh for the study of the Torah. We are going to do the same. We are after all used to persecution by our history, tradition and some of us by personal experience..."
Freud made several references to ben Sakkai whose efforts inspired to found his academy. Palestine was one place to which at the moment of the dissolution of the Vienna society, Jewish psychoanalysts might migrate.