History events
-1274 (4 Elul 2487) — The Children of Israel set out again. After bypassing Edom and then Moab from the south, by the end of the month they reached the border of the Amorite king Sihon, on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. Moses once more sent envoys with a request to allow the Jews to pass through to Canaan, but Sihon came out to meet the Israelites with his army. This time, God delivered the enemy into the hands of Israel: in the ensuing battle, the Israelites won a victory and, pursuing the foe, captured the Amorites’ capital, Heshbon, and their entire country
1490 (30 Av 5250) — In Hijar, a city in the Kingdom of Aragon, the Pentateuch was printed in the printing house of Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansi, with a translation into Aramaic and Rashi’s commentaries
1592 — (19th of Elul, 5352) Papal edict forbids Jews to admit Christians into synagogue
1665 — (16th of Elul, 5425) The small colony of Surinam recently occupied by the English gave full rights to the Jews (mostly Spanish and Portuguese refugees) to practice Judaism and run their own affairs. This remarkably liberal charter was transferred over to the Dutch when they conquered the colony. They used it as a means of encouraging the Jews to remain
1762 — (28th of Av, 5522) The Council of 4 Countries (semi-autonomous congress of Polish Jewry) met for the last time. It functioned for almost 200 years before the Polish government ordered its dissolution
1787 (3 Elul 5547) — Jews in Budapest were permitted to conduct religious ceremonies at home and without a rabbi, in an effort to promote the assimilation of Jews and reduce the influence of the rabbinate on their lives. After the Turkish occupation, Hungary had to be rebuilt from ruins, and Jewish settlers poured into the country from Moravia, Bohemia, and later from Galicia. Their number rose from 20 000 in 1769 to 80 000 by 1787. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II issued the Toleration Decree, which allowed Jews to settle in any cities and open their own schools. Hungarian Jews could trade freely and even own land
1790 (7 Elul 5550) — On this date, a welcoming address was signed by the warden of the Touro Synagogue in Newport and the head of the local Masonic Lodge to U.S. President George Washington, expressing loyalty. In response came Washington’s famous Letter to the Jewish Community of Newport, which became a manifesto of religious tolerance in the United States
1895 — (27th of Av, 5655) Based on information that first appeared in The London Daily News it was reported today that there are 571, 300 people living in Warsaw of whom 190,300 are Jews
1898 — (29th of Av, 5658) The first conference of Russian Zionists is held secretly in Warsaw
1902 — (14th of Av, 5662) It was reported today “that the Jews of New York number over 600,00 or 16.5 percent of the total population where 500,000 reside on Manhattan Island” which means they make up 27 percent of the population
1919 (21 Av 5679) — Another pogrom in Bratslav. A gang led by chieftain Tyutyunnik burst into the town. Nine people were killed. In total, from May 1919 to March 1920, Bratslav endured 14 pogroms. Hundreds of Jews were murdered, 1 200 were left without means of subsistence, 600 children became orphans, and 300 houses were destroyed by the bandits
1929 — (11th of Av, 5689): Following yesterday’s attack on Jews at the Wailing Wall, Arabs attack Jews in Jerusalem on Shabbat. A young Sephardic Jew named Abraham Mizrachi was mortally wounded when he was stabbed at the Maccabi grounds near Mea Shearim, in the Bukharan Quarter
1933 — (25th of Av, 5693) In Tel Aviv, The British High Commissioner and other officials participate in the laying of the cornerstone for the Levant Fair which is to be held here in 1934
1936 — (29th of Av, 5696) Two Jewish nurses were killed today by Arab snipers in Jaffa; Haya Freud, a lookout on the water tower at Ramath Hakovesh was killed by an Arab during a night raid; Gershon Mosteioff, a student at the Hebrew University who was acting as a volunteer watchman at Kiryath Anavim was among the thirteen Jews wounded by Arab attackers today.
1938 (20 Av 5698) — The moshav Beit Yehoshua was founded using the “Wall and Tower” method
1938 — (20th of Av, 5698) In Berlin, the Reich Minister of the Interior signed Reichsgesetz Part I, the second decree on the law concerning the change of first and last names that included the requirement that male Jews adopt the middle name of “Israel” and that the female Jews adopt the middle name of “Sara”
1938 — (20th of Av, 5698) Arab violence continued to spread and grow more virulent. ….. Early this morning, the body of Meyer Gutwird a 21 year old rabbinical student “who used to devote virtually of his time to religious studies and was often seen early in the morning at the Wailing Wall reading a holy” was found in Jerusalem. Gutwird had been stoned to death and then beaten with an iron rod. A bomb was thrown at a taxicab in Jaffa and Judah Mosseri, a Yemenite Jew, was wounded in both legs when shots were on the border between Jaffa and Tel Aviv
1941 (24 Av 5701) — The Shoah. The 314th Police Battalion executed 25 Jews in the Kovel region (Volyn Oblast). Probably on the same day, Sonderkommando 4a executed 266 Jews in Zhytomyr.
1942 (4 Elul 5702) — The Propaganda and Agitation Department under the Central Committee of the All‑Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) compiled a memorandum titled “On the Selection and Promotion of Personnel in the Arts”, which stated that “non‑Russian people (mainly Jews)” had ended up in leadership positions at various cultural and art institutions in the USSR. Jewish surnames were listed, and it was claimed that “as a result, in many institutions of Russian art, Russian people found themselves in the national minority”
1942 — (24th of Av, 5701) The Nazis gassed 341 French-Jewish children from the ages of two to ten, as well as 323 girls up to the age of 16, at Auschwitz
1943 — (16th of Av, 5703) Some 1200 children are taken from the Jewish ghetto at Bialystok, Poland, to Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, and later to Auschwitz, where they will be killed
1948 (12 Av 5708) — The first exercises of the Israel Defense Forces were held during the official opening of the airfield in Ekron, involving various branches of the armed forces: infantry (the Givati Brigade), military transport aviation, and combat aircraft. The manoeuvres were called “5708 – Tashah”.
1948 (12 Av 5708) — The official opening of the operational base of the Israeli Air Force at Tel Nof.
2005 (12 Av 5765) — Lena Bosinova, a resident of the Kedumim settlement, committed an act of self‑immolation near Netivot in protest against the forced deportation of Jews from Gush Katif as part of the “Disengagement” plan.
2006 (23 Av 5766) — Second Lebanon War. Day 37. Lebanese military forces, acting under UN Resolution 1701, pledged not to allow Hezbollah militants to operate against Israel from areas that would come under their control. At the same time, the Lebanese military stated that they did not intend to enter into confrontation with their “brothers from Hezbollah”.
2023 (30 Av 5783) — In Petah Tikva, a solemn ceremony was held to open the red line of the Tel Aviv Metro Tram — the first tram line in the Gush Dan region
People
1655 — (24th of Av, 5415) In a patent dated today, Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, and his two sons were granted citizenship as English subjects. This made them the first naturalized English Jews
1865 (25 Av 5625) (or 19 August, 27 Av) — Micha Yosef Berdichevsky, a writer and thinker, was born. He died on 18 November 1921.
1879 — Samuel Goldwyn, an American film producer, was born. He died on 31 January 1974.
1900 — Ziona Tager, an Israeli artist, was born. She died on 16 June 1988
1911 — (23th of Av, 5671) Birthdate of Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik Jewish Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. He passed away in 1995
1915 — (7th of Elul, 5675) Leo Frank was lynched after having been wrongfully convicted of raping 12 year old in Georgia. ….. Frank, the manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, was accused of raping and murdering an employee, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan. Frank was convicted, despite evidence incriminating a janitor at the factory, Jim Conley. The prosecution claimed that Conley only helped Frank dispose of the body, in return for $200. After the trial, further evidence came to light calling Frank’s guilt into question. The governor commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, but Frank was then lynched. Frank’s trial was sensationalized in the media, which promoted fantastic stories about orgies and rape at the factory. Populist politician and publisher Tom Watson skillfully manipulated the story in order to inflame public opinion, and succeeded in using it to build support for the creation of a new Ku Klux Klan, the original organization having been dormant since Reconstruction due to federal action; a second Klan was founded in 1915 by a group calling itself the Knights of Mary Phagan. Frank’s lynching turned the spotlight on anti-Semitism in the United States and led to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League
2024 (13 Av 5784) — War in Gaza. Day 316. Senior Reserve Warrant Officer Mordechai Yosef Ben Sha’am, 34 years old, and Reserve Major Yotam Peled were killed