History events
1244 — (27th of Adar, 5004) The Pope ordered the burning of the Talmud
1316 — (14th of Adar-1, 5076) “Louis the Bavarian granted the city of Worms the privilege of levying on the Jewish community a yearly tax of 100 pounds heller in addition to the 300 pounds it had thitherto paid.”
1490 — (16th of Adar-1, 5250) In Florence, Berahiel ben Hezekiah Trabot completed “a small machzor” today
1496 — (24th of Adar, 5256) The Jews of Carinthia, Austria were expelled (and not readmitted until 1848)
1932 — (1th of Adar-1, 5692) The new turbines at the hydroelectric project created by Pinhas Rutenberg began to turn today
1936 — (15th of Adar, 5696) “Two Jews were killed and four seriously injured today in rioting in the town of Prystytyk in the District of Radom, Poland while “scores” more “were beaten or wounded and 700 Jewish families were thrown into panic.”
1937 — (26th of Adar, 5697) “The anti-Semitic ‘Prophecy’ attributed to Benjamin Franklin and distributed in Germany within the last few days by the government news service was identified on publication” in the United States today “as a document that made its appearance in 1934 and was investigated for several months by Professor Charles A. Beard” one of the leading historians in the United States who “pronounced it ‘a barefaced forgery’.”
1943 — (2th of Adar-1, 5703) In a rare case of open police resistance to the arrest and murder of Jews of Europe during WWII, 12 Dutch military policemen including 23 year old Henk Drogt refused orders to round up the remaining local Jews in Grootegast, Holland. The policemen were pressured and threatened by their commanders with incarceration at a concentration camp themselves, but steadfastly refused to carry out the orders. The group was subsequently arrested and taken to the Vught concentration camp in the Southern Netherlands. Drogt would evade capture until his arrest in August of 1943. He was executed in April of 1944. In 2010, he received the State of Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews on Monday at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
1947 — (17th of Adar, 5707) The first unauthorized immigrant ship known to have been sent to Palestine by the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation was taken into government custody today. The ship which was known variously as the SS Ben Hecht and/or the SS Abril was filled with 599 Jewish refugees including 385 men, 194 women and 20 children. All of the refugees were placed on two ferries by the British and sent immediately to displaced persons camps in Cyprus
1949 — (8th of Adar, 5709) During Operation Uvda, one unit from Alexandroni Brigade captured Ein Gedi while another unit captured Masada; “Golani forces captured Gharandal and proceeded to Ein Ghadyan (now Yotvata); two IDF units set off to take Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba
1950 — (20th of Adar, 5710) It was officially announced tonight that Turkey “has accorded full diplomatic recognition” to the state of Israel; AT&T announced today that it has created a new direct circuit between New York and Tel Aviv which will improve phone service between the major cities. Calls can only be made between 7 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon at a cost of $12 for the first three minutes
1953 — (22th of Adar, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had been divided into six administrative districts: three urban: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and three rural: the Northern, Central and South
1978 — (30th of Adar, 5738) The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has started the commercial exploitation of oil from the Alma II and III wells, situated near a-Tur in the Gulf of Suez
People
1873 — (10th of Adar, 5633) Julius Fürst, Hebrew philologist and Jewish bibliographer, died
1992 — (4th of Adar II, 5752) Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin died in Tel Aviv at age 78
2002 — (25th of Adar, 5762) Limor Ben-Shoham, 27; Nir Rahamim Borochov, 22; Danit Dagan, 25; Livnat Dvash, 28; Tali Eliyahu, 26;Uri Felix, 25; Dan Imani, 23; Natanel Kochavi, 31; Baruch Lerner-Naor, 28;Orit Ozarov and Avraham Haim Rahamim, 29 were murdered by an Arab terrorist and 54 more people were murdered at the Café Moment in Jerusalem “about 100 meters from the home of the Prime Minister
2008 — (2 Adar II, 5768): Twenty-year-old Sergeant Liran Banay, who was critically wounded last Thursday when a bomb was detonated near an IDF vehicle patrolling the Gaza security fence, died of his wounds on Sunday morning. The Givati Brigade soldier, who lost both legs as a result of Thursday’s explosion, died in Soroka Hospital in Ashkelon