History events
1391 — (12th of Elul, 5151) In Spain, anti-Semitic mobs attacked the Jews of Lerida, reportedly killing 75. Other Jews were forcibly baptized and were forced to see their synagogue turned into a church
1900 — (18th of Av, 5660) The Fourth Zionist Congress convened in London with five hundred delegates in attendance. Max Nordeau gave the opening in address which included an account of the appalling conditions faced by the Jews of Romania and a tribute to the Kaiser for his treatment of the Jews of Pomerania and East Prussia
1931 — (30th of Av, 5691) In the wake of a weeklong series of reports of “agitation” in Arab villages and threats of violence in Jerusalem, “today there was a real exodus of Jews who reside in the Arab sections” of Jerusalem
1937 — (6th of Elul, 5697) Four members of a Jewish family, including three children were “shot dead by Arabs who broke into their home in Safed
1942 — (30th of Av, 5702) United States State Department officials and the British Foreign Office decide that the Riegner Cable outlining details of the Holocaust be kept secret
1946 — (16th of Av, 5706) British authorities open detention camps on the island of Cyprus to hold Jewish refugees who have been prevented from entering Palestine due to British restrictions on immigration
1951 — (11th of Av, 5711) A Nahal group from the Ezra movement” Sha’alvim, a religious Kibbutz in central Israel…affiliated with Agudat Israel; Gonen a Nahal settlement which was civilianized in 1952 by a group of Hebrew Scouts was established today in the Upper Galilee
2020 — (23th of Av, 5780) Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a landmark accord sealed by President Trump today
People
1599 — (2th of Elul, 5359) Johannes Buxtorf II., Christian Hebraist, born
1912 — (30th of Elul, 5692) Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in Berlin. The relationship between these two had a profound effect on Kafka’s literary output as well as his personal life. One critic recently wrote that Kafka’s correspondence with Bauer “is the most useful key to Kafka’s thoughts and actions during the decisive years of his emergence as a writer.”
1936 — (25th of Av, 5696) Late tonight in Safed, “Arab terrorists” “broke in the house of Rabbi Alter Ungar who was asleep with his family” and threw a bomb that “decapitated the rabbi” and killed an eight year old girl and a six year old boy
1938 — (16th of Av, 5698) As they bicycled from Ramatayim to Petah Tikva Benjamin Babayoff and his wife were shot and killed by gunmen firing from an orange grove and their seven year old daughter who was riding on the handlebars was severely wounded