History events
388 — (12th of Av, 4148) The synagogue located on the Euphrates in Callinicum was looted and burned by Church officials.
1146 (21 Av 4906) — The Cistercian monk Rudolf (also recorded as Radulf or Raulf in some sources) arrived in Cologne, travelling through Germany and preaching that the Second Crusade should begin with the baptism or extermination of Jews. The Bishop of Cologne, Arnold, placed the Volkenburg Castle at the Jews’ disposal; there, they armed themselves and defended against the Crusaders. Unable to reach the Jews who had taken refuge in the castles, bands of Crusaders killed or forced to convert any Jew who left the shelter. In memory of their suffering during the Second Crusade, the Jews of Cologne established the 23rd of Nissan as a day of fasting
1641 (5 Elul 5401) — The King of Denmark officially granted Ashkenazi Jews the privilege to have a cemetery and a synagogue in Altona, thereby laying the foundation for the existence of a Jewish community. (Altona was founded in 1535 as a fishing village in the County of Holstein‑Pinneberg. During the Thirty Years’ War, in 1640, it came under the rule of the Danish Crown. Until 1864, it was one of the most important port cities of the Danish Crown, its southernmost continental possession and the largest city in Schleswig‑Holstein by population. It developed as a competitor to the Hanseatic city of Hamburg in overseas trade.)
1797 — (9th of Av, 5557) Two Jews elected to the National Assembly of Holland
1826 — (27th of Tammuz, 5586) Last auto da fé at which a Jew was burned held at Valencia
1883 (27 Tammuz 5643) — Judges unanimously decided to release the arrested Jews accused of murdering a 14‑year‑old resident of the Hungarian town of Tiszaeszlár for the purpose of using her blood in rituals. The favourable outcome of the Tiszaeszlár Affair for the Jews sparked an outburst of indignation; pogroms took place in Budapest, Pressburg (now Bratislava), and many other towns and settlements in Hungary (including Slovakia and Transylvania, which were part of Hungary at the time).
1890 (15 Av 5650) — A moshav was founded by a group of immigrants from Poland on land purchased on 27 February 1890 by I. Khankin; it later grew into the city of Rehovot.
1919 (5 Av 5679) — Pogrom in Tulchyn
1936 — (13th of Av, 5696) The report of the Peel Commission was discussed today in Geneva, ….. home of the League of Nations. Poland, Romania and other East European countries, debating the Peel Report on the proposed partition of Palestine, demanded that Great Britain continue to fulfill her obligations under the Mandate. The Arab leadership argued that the rights of the people of Palestine could not be contested and that any partition scheme was contrary to Articles 20 and 31 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. In a contradiction of facts the Arabs did not deny the rights of the Jewish minority in Palestine, and were even prepared to furnish guarantees in this respect, but they unanimously opposed the country’s partition and demanded immediate, total independence. But part of the rights of the Jewish community under the terms of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate was to a Jewish Homeland, not citizenship in an Arab country. In South Africa General J.C. Smuts, vice premier and minister of justice, expressed his grave misgivings about the partition scheme in general, and the smallness of the proposed Jewish state in particular. A total rejection of the partition was also the subject of letters written by Colonel J.C. Wedgwood, MP (Member of Parliament), and addressed to the British and world press
1938 — (4th of Av, 5698) In Austria, ….. on rent day” another of the Nuremberg Laws went into effect under which it is sufficient for a single ‘Aryan’ in a block of flats to object to Jewish tenants for the Jews to receive notices ordering them to vacate the premises – a move which is expected to lead to Jews being able to only live in flats where all of the other residents of the building are Jewish; Virtually all Jewish-owned cafes on Vienna’s famous Ring Boulevard were ordered today to close their doors” while all other cafes were ordered to post signs saying “Jews Not Wanted.”
1941 (8 Av 5701) — The Shoah. The Jews of Vilnius were ordered to collect about two million rubles. One and a half million rubles, 16.5 kg of gold, and 189 watches were collected.
1941 (8 Av 5701) — The Shoah. In Starokonstantinov, a unit of the 1st Motorized Infantry Brigade of the SS shot 439 Jews. In Olyka (Volyn Oblast), 720 Jews were killed; in Vinnytsia, 25 Jews; in Kodyma (Odesa Oblast), 97 Jews. The evacuation of Jews from Khotyn (Chernivtsi Oblast) to the east began, and 500 people were killed along the way. It is likely that on this day, a unit of the SS Division Wiking killed several hundred Jews in Tarashcha (Kyiv Oblast).
1941 (8 Av 5701) — The Shoah. In Chișinău, the Nazis selected 450 young Jewish men and 200 Jewish women, allegedly for deportation to work, and shot them the same day. On the same day, Reichsführer SS Himmler issued the following secret order to the commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the SS, Magill, operating in the Pripyat Marshes region of Belarus: “All Jews must be shot. Jewish women must be driven into the marshes.”
1942 (18 Av 5702) — In Vishnivets (Ternopil Oblast), 2 500 Jews were shot. The Jewish Council in Lviv issued 76 thousand food ration cards to the city’s Jews for the month of August.
1943 — (29th of Tammuz, 5703) In Poland the final liquidation of the Bendzin Ghetto began today as the first batch of what would total 8,000 prisoners were deported today. When the Nazis began their final liquidation of Bendzin Ghetto they are met with unexpected “armed resistance in several bunkers” led by young Jews that “hampered” the Germans forcing them to spend two weeks on this latest venture in murderous cruelty
1946 — (4th of Av, 5706) In Miskol, Hungry industrial workers stage a pogrom. Two Jews are lynched. This is an example of the post-war anti-Semitic violence that led approximately 4,000 Jews to leave Hungary for Palestine during the next two years
1948 (25 Tammuz 5708) — The Bucharest Jewish State Theatre was established.
1948 (25 Tammuz 5708) — The song Samson’s Foxes was born: composer Mordechai Zaira visited the fighters of the Samson’s Foxes commando unit in Jaladiya. Uri Avnery recalls how they played the harmonica and the lyrics came together in rhyme, giving birth to several verses, which he wrote down in pencil on a scrap of paper… Mordechai, inspired by the evening, composed the music, and Shoshana Damari performed the song.
1949 (6 Av 5709) — Following a competitive selection process, the Pepsi‑Cola Company decided to build three factories in Israel: in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. However, after the announcement of the Arab economic boycott, it abandoned these plans, and the drink only became available in the country in 1992.
1950 (18 Av 5710) — Israel. A general strike of small and medium‑sized merchants, protesting the rationing policy.
1952 (10 Av 5712) — The Israeli consulate in the USA set restrictions on packages sent to Israel. A clothing package must contain only gifts for personal use, with a value not exceeding 11 dollars, and a food package must not weigh more than 10 kg and must include no more than six types of food items
1954 — (2th of Av, 5714) A group of ten raiders under the command of Meir Har-Zion returned from a raid conducted near Jenin where they “attacked two policemen and took one of them prisoner.”
1960 (8 Av 5720) — The Jewish National Fund and the Government of Israel signed an agreement establishing the State Land Administration.
1961 (19 Av 5721) — Israel and the Netherlands signed a contract for the supply of 80 000 Uzi submachine guns to the Netherlands.
1970 (28 Tammuz 5730) — Right‑wing parties left Golda Meir’s cabinet in protest against the government’s acceptance of a peace plan for resolving the conflict with the Arabs, according to which Israel was to withdraw to “Secure Boundaries” under personal security guarantees from President Johnson.
1971 (10 Av 5731) — Israel. The first squadron of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) was established.
1983 — (22 Av 5743) The settlement of Ma’ale Levona was founded between Jerusalem and Shechem
2014 (5 Av 5774) — The ground segment of the “Red Line” of the future metro‑tram system in Gush Dan began operations.
2017 (9 Av 5777) — Two satellites were launched into space:
«Venus», for monitoring agricultural lands and the environment. The customers were the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and the French Space Agency;
OPTSAT 3000, for surveillance and reconnaissance. It was commissioned by the Italian Ministry of Defence.
Both satellites were designed and manufactured by the Israeli Aerospace Industries Consortium.
2022 (4 Av 5782) — In Israel, the “Derech Shava” public transport fare reform came into effect, aimed at simplifying the fare structure and making it uniform across the country.
2024 (26 Tammuz 5784) — After the massacre of 7 October, Zikim Beach reopened. The beach is located just 3 km north of the Gaza Strip. Over nine months, local authorities carried out a reconstruction of the beach, including the construction of a bomb shelter with an area of 60 sq. m.
People
1298 — (22th of Av, 5058) Mordecai ben Hillel killed during the massacre of Jews at Nuremberg
1626 (19 Av 5386) — Shabbetai Tzvi, a false messiah, was born in Izmir. He died in 1676.
1831 (22 Av 5591) — Lev Nikolaevich Nevakhovich (Yehuda Leib ben Noach), a writer and author of the first Russian work in defence of Jews in Russia, died at the age of 55.
1865 (9 Av 5625) — Felix de Menashe, leader of the Jewish community in Egypt and one of the first Zionists in North Africa, was born. He died on 20 July 1943. In Kfar Saba, there is one of the largest and oldest parks in the country, Menashe Park, named so because in 1936, its territory of 218 dunams was acquired by Baron Felix de Menashe.
1869 (24 Av 5629) — M. Hilquit, leader of American socialists and chief theoretician of the Socialist Party of America in the first third of the 20th century, was born. He died on 7 October 1933.
1890 — Levin Kipnis, an Israeli children’s writer and poet, was born. He died in 1990.
1911 — Avraham Yehoshua Belov, a publicist and translator, was born. He died in 2000.
1924 — Georges Charpak, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1992), was born. He died on 29 September 2010
1926 — (21st of Av, 5686) Israel Zangwill passed away. The Russian born, Anglo-Jewish author, Zionist and champion of social justice is best known for two of his works — a novel entitled Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People a highly successful play entitled The Melting Pot. Among those who saw and enjoyed this was President Theodore Roosevelt
1932 — Meir Kahane, an American and Israeli public, political, and religious figure, was born. He was assassinated on 5 November 1990.
1933 — (9th of Av, 5693) Fritz Rosenfelder, leader and founder of the sports club at Saanstaat, Wurtenberg, commits suicide because he was expelled from the club; in a final letter to his former club colleagues, he wrote: «I am leaving with no hatred. My only wish is that Germany should be restored to reason . . . How more beautifully could I have given my life for my Fatherland.»
1935 — V. Slavkin, a playwright, was born. He died on 16 March 2014.
1944 — (12th of Av, 5704) Anne Frank writes the last entry in her diary
1970 — Elon Lindenstrauss, an Israeli mathematician, was born. In 2010, he was awarded the Fields Medal
2006 — (7th of Av, 5766) Skirmishes with Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta al-Shaab left three soldiers, including an officer, of a Paratrooper Brigade unit dead and at least another 25 wounded. The names of the fallen have been released: St.-Sgt. Yehunatan Einhorn, 22, of Moshav Gimzo; First Sergeant Michael Levine, 21, of Jerusalem; and Lieutenant Ilan Gabbai, 22, of Kiryat Tivon
2014 — (5th of Av, 5774) Major Benaya Sarel, 26, from Kiryat Arba ….. and St.-Sgt. Liel Gidoni, 20, from Jerusalem both serving with the Givati Brigade were killed today after the cease fire had begun. At the same time 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba was kidnapped. On August 2, Hadar was declared to have died in today’s attack as well. (In life they were loved and admired. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.). Twenty-four year old Lt. Eitan Fund “rushed into a tunnel to try and stop the kidnapping of Hadar Goldin who in fact had already been killed by the terrorist – an act of heroism for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal