History events
-423 BCE — (5 Tevet 3339) The prophet Ezekiel learned of the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Since then, the Talmud recommends making the 5th of Tevet a day of public fast
217 — (15 Kislev 3978) Rabbi Judah HaNasi died at the age of 85 — leader of the Jewish community in Roman-occupied Judea after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Judah’s principal work was the systematization of the Oral Law. This effort culminated in the compilation of the Mishnah, with the material arranged into various tractates, which were grouped into six thematic divisions.
499 — (13 Kislev 4260) Ravina II (Ravina bar Rav Huna), a Babylonian rabbi, died. In 474 he became head of the academy (Yeshiva) in Sura during a period of persecution of Jews in Babylonia. Ravina made an important contribution to the final editing of the Babylonian Talmud. Ravina II and Rav Ashi were the ones who completed the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud. With the death of Ravina II, the era of the Amoraim ends and the era of the Savoraim begins
500 — (24nd of Kislev, 4261) This is the traditional date of the closing of the Talmudic era and the beginning of the Saboraic era. Saboraim is “the title applied to the principals and scholars of the Babylonian academies in the period immediately following that of the Amoraim. The Saboraic Era lasted for approximately 200 years
1909 — (18nd of Kislev, 5670) The first Kibbutz, Degania, was established in pre-state Israel
1918 — (27 Kislev 5679) At a meeting of the leaders of England and France, Lloyd George and Clemenceau, the borders of Eretz Yisrael were defined as «from Dan to Beersheba,» meaning the land on both banks of the Jordan — the territory occupied by Jews during the First Temple period.
1920 — (20 Kislev 5681) Jewish organizations in the United States published an «Appeal to Fellow Citizens» titled «The Protocols, Bolshevism and the Jews,» in which another attempt was made to explain that the accusations leveled against Jews were false and baseless.
1932 — (2 Kislev 5693) The first issue of the English-language daily newspaper The Palestine Post was published in Jerusalem.
1938 — (8nd of Kislev, 5699) The British Cabinet allows 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children into Britain in an action called the Kindertransport
1939 — (19 Kislev 5700) The Shoah. Jews over the age of 10 in fascist-occupied Poland were ordered to wear white armbands with a star.
1940 — (1 Kislev 5701) The ship Darien II sailed from Romania to the Land of Israel with refugees. When it approached Haifa in March, all its passengers were sent to the Atlit camp
1940 — (1nd of Kislev, 5701) Нolocaust. Inside the Warsaw (Poland) Ghetto, Polish-Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum begins work on a secret diary of ghetto life
1941 — (11nd of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. During the murder of 5000 Jews at Novogrudok, Belorussia, 200 Jews resist and kill 20 Nazis before being gunned down; The German established a ghetto in Losice forcing all the Jews from surrounding areas to move there
1941 — (11nd of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. The Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, published in Rome under strict Vatican supervision, reminds Catholics that the Jews are supposedly those primarily responsible for murdering God and that the Jews repeat this crime by means of ritual murder «in every generation.»
1941 — (11 Kislev 5702) The Shoah. In the newspaper Tevija, the main Latvian wartime paper, journalist J. Martinsons wrote in an article «The Struggle Against Jewry»: «Finally the time has come when almost all the peoples of Europe have learned to recognize their common enemy — the Jew. Almost all the peoples of Europe have begun the war against this enemy, and for us Latvians, that hour has arrived.»
1941 — (11 Kislev 5702) The Shoah. The «Jewish action» began in Kerch (Crimea); more than 800 Jews were shot that day. The Jewish Council in Lvov issued food ration cards for December for 106,000 people
1942 — (22 Kislev 5703) The Shoah. The Jewish Council in Lvov issued 24,000 food ration cards to the city’s Jews for December
1943 — (4nd of Kislev, 5704) Нolocaust. Mussolini ordered the arrest of all Jews living on the national territory
1945 — (26nd of Kislev, 5706) Anti-Semitic Poles murder 11 Jews in the town of Kosow-Lacki, Poland, which is located less than six miles from the site of the Treblinka extermination camp
1947 — (18 Kislev 5708) The Alexandroni Brigade was formed, which took an active part in the War of Independence
1948 — (29nd of Cheshvan, 5709) The Arab Congress names Abdullah of Trans Jordan, King of Palestine. ….. Abdullah earned this title because the Jordanian Army (known as the Arab Legion) had successfully crossed the Jordan River and seized what is now called the West Bank and the eastern section of Jerusalem. Under the partition plan, the area of the West Bank should have been part of an Arab State. Apparently the Arabs saw things differently since they awarded it to Abdullah as “spoil” for his part in the war against the Jewish state. Since it now held land on both sides of the Jordan, Trans-Jordan would officially change its name to Jordan. Please note, there was no attempt to create an independent Palestinian state on this land for the almost twenty years it was occupied by the Jordanian Army
1948 — (29 Cheshvan 5708) Israeli newspapers reported a wave of antisemitism in Yemen
1949 — (10 Kislev 5710) GOSET — the State Jewish Theater — was closed in the USSR. A commission of the Party Central Committee stated in a report on GOSET: «The theater’s repertoire is extremely unsatisfactory in terms of ideological and artistic quality and is limited to the narrow framework of national themes.»
1950 — (22nd of Kislev, 5711) Ten boxes containing thousands of documents describing life in the Warsaw Ghetto collected by Oyneg Shabbos which was part of what we call the Ringelblum Archive, name in honor of historian Emanuel Ringelbum who gave a whole new depth of meaning to the Biblical command “Zachor… Remember let you forget” was unearthed today
1954 — (6 Kislev 5715) The country’s central bank — the Bank of Israel — began operations. Its first governor was D. Horowitz.
1959 — (30 Cheshvan 5720) The stench from the polluted Yarkon River forced hundreds of residents of the Tel Aviv neighborhoods «Shikun Vatikun» and «Adar Yosef» to leave their apartments. Urgent attempts to clean the river failed, and residents lived away from their homes for several days.
1966 — (18 Kislev 5727) Israel. Military administration in Arab-populated localities was abolished.
1973 — (6 Kislev 5734) Ben-Gurion died at the age of 87.
1977 — (21 Kislev 5738) The settlement of Beit Horon was founded in Samaria
1984 — (7nd of Kislev, 5745) Three people were injured when grenade throwing terrorists attacked a bus in Jerusalem
2001 — (16 Kislev 5762) A terrorist attack on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. Two terrorists from the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, one after another, detonated bombs they were carrying on their bodies. When a crowd rushed to help the first victims, a third explosion occurred: it was a pre-parked car packed with explosives. Killed: Asaf Avitan (15), Golan Turjeman (15), Adam Weinstein (14), Yisrael-Yaakov Danino (17), Ido Cohen (17), Yossi El-Ezra (18), Nir Hefzadi (19), Moshe Yedid-Levi (19), Gai Waknin (19), Yoni Kurganov (20), Michael-Moshe Dagan (21). 188 people were wounded.
2009 — (14 Kislev 5770) The UN celebrated the annual «International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.» This day has been observed since 1977
2011 — (5nd of Kislev, 5772) After about three months of operation Jerusalem’s light rail is scheduled to begin charging passengers today
2021 — (27 Kislev 5782) It was announced that YAMAM would become the principal counterterrorism unit and would be responsible for hostage rescue. This put an end to the dispute over who is responsible for counterterrorist operations — the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit («Sayeret Matkal») of the Intelligence Directorate, or YAMAM (a MAGAV special unit, the police’s counterterrorist unit).
2023 — (18 Kislev 5784) The Gaza War. Day fifty-six. The settlement of Holit was shelled from Gaza. Rocket launches from the sector were recorded; rockets fell in open areas. The IDF resumed military operations in Gaza after a seven-day ceasefire. The north of the country was periodically shelled from Lebanon
People
1573 — (7nd of Tevet, 5334) This date marks the death of Solomon Luria who was born in 1510 at Brest-Litovsk. ….. Luria is known as the «Rashal» or the Maharshal. A contemporary of Salomon Shakna, he represented an opposing view in Talmudic study, believing in plain but lucid methods. He was also the author of the Yam Shel Shlomo (Sea of Solomon), a commentary on several volumes of the Talmud, and Chokmat Shlomo (Wisdom of Solomon) in which he corrected many faulty readings in the Talmud, Rashi and the Tosophot
1652 — (11nd of Tevet, 5413) Manuel Fernando de Villa Real, Portuguese Jewish statesman, executed by the Inquisition at Lisbon
1804 — (28 Kislev 5565) The French and Jewish public and political figure Léopold Javal was born in Mulhouse, France. In 1830, Javal went to Algeria with a commercial project, but on the ground he volunteered for the army corps sent to bring Algeria fully under French control; he displayed exceptional bravery and became one of the first French Jewish officers. Returning to France, he inherited his father’s firm in 1835 and tripled its capital within ten years, investing in the first omnibus line in Paris, the construction of urban sewers, mines in Provence, and so on. From 1847, Javal also intensively engaged in land management and agriculture, seeking to create a model farm. From 1857 until his death, Javal was a member of the French parliament and was in opposition to Napoleon III. He also took part in Jewish public life and represented Alsatian Jews in the Paris Jewish Council. Léopold Javal died in Paris on March 28, 1872.
1843 — (8 Kislev 5604) Leopold Löwenstein was born — rabbi, historian, writer. Died on December 16, 1923.
1849 — (16 Kislev 5610) Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld was born — chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Jerusalem from 1910 to 1920. Died on February 26, 1932
1935 — (5nd of Kislev, 5696) Birthdate of Woody Allen
1942 — (22nd of Kislev, 5703) Partisan leader Hirsch Kaplinski, survivor of an August 1942 massacre of Jews at Diatlovo, Belorussia, is killed in combat during a German attack on the Lipiczany Forest
1945 — G. Khazanov was born — performing artist
1966 — (18nd of Kislev, 5727) Yad Vashem officially recognized Père Marie-Benoît as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping thousands of Jews to reach Switzerland and Spain from the South of France and continuing his work after escaping to Rome where he was pursued by the Gestapo
1973 — (6th of Kislev, 5734) David Ben-Gurion, First Prime Minister of Israel, passed away
1993 — (17th of Kislev, 5754) Тerrorist attack. Shalva Ozana, age 23, and Yitzhak Weinstock, age 19, were shot to death by terrorists from a moving vehicle, while parked on the side of the road to Ramallah because of engine trouble. Weinstock died of his wounds the following morning
2001 — (28th of Kislev, 5755) Тerrorist attack. ….. Eleven people including Assaf Avitan, 15; Michael Moshe Dahan, 21; Ya’akov Danino, 17; Yosef El-Ezra, 18; Sgt. Nir Haftzadi, 19; Yuri (Yoni) Korganov, 20; Golan Turgeman, 15; Guy Vaknin, 19; Adam Weinstein, 14; and Moshe Yedid-Levy, 19 were killed and about 180 injured when explosive devices were detonated by two suicide bombers close to 11:30 P.M. Saturday night on Ben Yehuda Street, the pedestrian mall in the center of Jerusalem. A car bomb exploded nearby 20 minutes later. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack