History events
-1312 BCE — (1 Iyar 2449) Moses received the command to conduct a census of the children of Israel by their tribes once again. On that same day, Moses and Aaron summoned the leaders of the tribes and began the counting, which was completed on May 4, 1312 BCE
-537 — (1st of Iyar, 3223) According to the Book of Ezra, the foundation of the Second Temple was laid on this date
73 — (21th of Nisan, 3833) According to some calculations this is the day that Masada fell to the Romans after several months of siege, ending this Jewish Revolt against Rome
1158 — (20th of Nisan, 4818) In Genoa, the name of a Jewish trader, Jusuphus Judeos, appeared for the first time on an official deed drawn up “from the public notary Giovanni Scriba
1753 — (12th of Nisan, 5513) “The Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753” “a bill which permitted “Jewish immigrants to England to become naturalized citizens with receiving the Sacrament of the Lord”s Supper” and had been introduced by George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax” was passed today by the House of Lords
1855 — (28th of Nisan, 5615) In St. Louis, over 400 hundred people attended that cornerstone laying ceremony for the first synagogue constructed in St. Louis and the first synagogue built west of the Mississippi
1871 — (25th of Nisan, 5631) All civic limitations imposed on Jews of the German Empire were lifted. It was thought that this would bring medieval anti-Semitism to a conclusion
1897 — (14 Nisan 5657) A pogrom occurred in the town of Kantakuzenka in the Kherson province of Russia, lasting for two days, during which local residents ransacked shops and apartments belonging to Jews
1916 — (13th of Nisan, 5676) France and Britain divided up the Middle East in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. France was assured of Syria and the Mosul, with English gaining control of Northern Arabia and Central Mesopotamia. Pre-state Israel was divided with France controlling the Galilee, Britain the Haifa area and the rest of the region to be under some sort of undefined international control
1922 — (18th of Nisan, 5682) Po’al ha-Mizrachi, the religious Zionist labor movement, founded. Unlike many other Orthodox, the followers of Mizrachi were ardent Zionist from the earliest days. They played a vital role in the creation of Jewish Palestine under the mandate and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948
1936 — (24 Nisan 5696) Two commanders of the Irgun arrived at a barrack near Yarkon, where two Arabs were residing, and shot one of them
1941 — (19th of Nisan, 3701) German troops and local Muslims looted and destroyed the main synagogue in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
1942 — (29 Nisan 5702) The Holocaust. The Jewish residential area in Vinnytsia was liquidated: approximately 5,000 Jews were shot, and about 150 craftsmen were placed in a prisoner-of-war camp. Approximately 500 Jews were transported from Ivano-Frankivsk to the Janowska camp in Lviv. A ghetto was established in Kovel (Volyn region), housing 15,000 individuals
1944 — (23th of Nisan, 3704) The Parczew partisans, fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II “participated in the take over the city of Parczew today
1944 — (23 Nisan 5704) The Holocaust. The Budapest ghetto was created—approximately two thousand houses marked with yellow stars. A curfew was imposed on June 25, and Jews began living as prisoners. From here, over a hundred thousand Jews were deported and later exterminated
1947 — (26th of Nisan, 5707) The execution by the British of four Irgun fighters at the Acre fortress. Among them was Dov Gruner, who had been captured wounded during an attack on a police station in Ramat Gan. The other three—Eliezer Kashani, Yehi’el Dresner, and Mordechai Alchahi—were caught while attempting to administer a flogging to British sergeants and officers after a young Irgun member had been sentenced to flogging by a court
1948 — (7th of Nisan, 5708) А platoon of Palmach soldiers made its way into the city of Safed where the Jewish quarter was under siege from a large Arab force. The appearance of this small but tough group of Israeli fighters stiffened the spirit of the besieged population. With the sanction of the local rabbis, the largely Orthodox population worked to improve the defenses of the Jewish quarter even though the work would interfere with preparations for Pesach. The Palmach arrived just in the nick of time, since the departing British forces turned over the keys to their police fortress and other fortified positions to the Arab military forces; The Harel Brigade, a unit of the Palmach began a relief operation designed to provide relief for besieged Jerusalem
1948 — (7 Nisan 5708) The War of Independence. A battle between a Haganah unit and Druze forces marked the beginning of their subsequent neutrality, followed by recognition of Israel and service in the Defense Army. The fight lasted four days
1950 — (29th of Nisan, 5710) A four story building in Jaffa collapsed killing twelve and injuring thirty. Most of the dead were newly arrived immigrants. The cause of the collapse is still under investigation but it is thought to have been the result of the removal of one of the building’s pillars to make room for carpentry equipment being installed in a shop on the ground floor
1951 — (10th of Nisan, 5711) The Beh Sabagahs arrived at the airport at Baghdad where they were greeted by mobs yelling “Rot in Hell” and then were abused by guards before they could board a plane for Israel
1953 — (1st of Iyar, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that army engineers had completed a new road, bringing Wadi Ramon within 212 km. of Tel Aviv. The last stage comprised a steep descent of 250 meters along 4.5 km. of the literally vertical wall of the Makhtesh
1953 — (1 Iyar 5713) Israel. The Ministry of Transport established speed limits: 45 km/h in cities and 70 km/h on international highways
1957 — (15 Nisan 5717) A terrorist attack. Arabs infiltrated from Jordan and killed two guards at the kibbutz Mesilot
1978 — (9th of Nisan, 5738) The Jerusalem Post reported that the number of those making Aliya in March, 1978, increased by 35 percent in comparison with that of March, 1977. The majority of the 1,988 new immigrants who arrived in March came from the Soviet Union
1981 — (12 Nisan 5741) An airborne balloon over kibbutz Manara at the Lebanese border was shot down, carrying two terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israel; they were neutralized
1988 — (29 Nisan 5748) Abu Jihad, one of the leaders of the PLO, was eliminated in Tunisia. An unknown group of 30 individuals stormed the house around 2 AM, overpowered the guards, and shot Abu Jihad. In the morning, three cars used by the group were found on the seashore. Israel did not assume responsibility for the operation
2001 — (23th of Nisan, 5761) The first rocket attack on the city of Sderot. In response to mounting violence, Israel launched “air, sea and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip” today
2005 — (7 Nisan 5765) A memorial was opened in Budapest dedicated to Hungarian Jews who perished in the Holocaust, «Shoes on the Danube Promenade,» a sculpture by Gyula Pauer
People
1203 — (3st of Iyar, 4963) Menahem ben Jacob, poet and teacher at Worms, died
1669 — (15th of Nisan, 5429) Rabbi Jonah Teomim of Metz, France, author of Kikayon de-Yonah passed away
1729 — (17th of Nisan, 5489) Seventeenth and 18th century “German rabbi and Talmudic author” Jacob Eliezer Braunschweig passed away today
1886 — E. Tellman was born—a revolutionary. He was killed on August 18, 1944.
1889 — Charlie Chaplin was born—a film artist. He passed away on December 25, 1977.
1900 — In Belarus, Polly Adler was born—a famous madam in New York. She opened her house at the age of 20 and was friends with and protected by gangsters Dutch Schultz and Charles «Lucky» Luciano. When arrested, she did not betray anyone. She left the business in 1944 and published a bestselling memoir in 1953. She died on July 11, 1962.
1905 — (11 Nisan 5665) Fritz Philips was born—the president of Philips. In 1943, the Philips company opened a factory in the German concentration camp Vught, near Eindhoven. The factory produced Philishave radios and electric shavers, providing work for Jewish inmates and postponing their deportation to the death camp Auschwitz, thereby saving their lives. In 1996, Israel awarded Fritz Philips the «Yad Vashem» medal as one of the «Righteous Among the Nations.» Philips passed away on December 5, 2005.
1914 — M. Gallai was born—test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and writer. He died on July 14, 1998.
1931 — (29th of Nisan, 5691) Rachel Bluwstein Sela passed away at the age of 40
1935 — (13 Nisan 5695) Leib Moiseevich Evzerov, a rabbi, preacher, and activist of the Hovevei Zion movement, passed away in Tel Aviv at the age of 81.
1938 — (15 Nisan 5698) In defense of the settlement of Hanita in western Galilee, members of the Haifa branch of the Haganah D. Ben-Gaon, A. Danieli, and I. Rotblat lost their lives.
1968 — (18 Nisan 5728) Ben-Gurion refused to accept the Israel Prize, stating: «I do not deserve a prize for fulfilling my duty to my homeland.»
2007 — At Virginia Tech, a professor, Liviu Librescu, was killed by a gunman. He saved the lives of his students by barricading the classroom door with his body against the armed intruder.
2008 — (11 Nisan 5768) A unit of the «Givati» brigade was ambushed in the Gaza Strip; Sergeant David Papyan, 21, from Jaffa, Sergeant Minchaash al-Binat, 20, from the Bedouin settlement of Kuseife in the Negev, and Sergeant Matan Uvdati, 19, from the settlement of Patish in the Western Negev were killed