History events
1066 — (9 Tevet 4827) Joseph ibn Nagrela, son of Samuel ibn Nagrela, was murdered in Granada during the Granada Massacre. ….. He had served as vizier to Badis, ruler of the Berbers. There had been constant tension between the Berbers and the Arab population. Joseph attempted to ease the conflict between the two camps and prevent excesses against the local Arabs. His enemies included Abu Ishak, Berber advisor to the prince, who accused him of trying to cede the city to a neighboring prince. Badis ordered Joseph killed and crucified. In the ensuing massacre of the Jewish population, 1,500 families were killed, including Joseph’s wife and son. A few years later, Jews were readmitted to Granada and reassumed high offices
1768 — (20th of Tevet, 5529) Today, the Jews in Montreal formed Shearith Israel, the earliest Jewish congregation in Canada
1937 — (26th of Tevet, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that the Jewish settlement of Atarot and police patrols at Tulkarm and on the Nablus-Jenin road came under heavy Arab fire, but there were no reports of casualties
1942 — (22th of Tevet, 5703) Pope Pius XII told an American representative that he regarded the atrocity stories about Jews as exaggerations «for the purposes of propaganda.»
1947 — (17th of Tevet, 5708) War for independence. ….. Forty Jewish workers were killed by Arabs at the Haifa refineries; A bus carrying hospital workers to Mount Scopus came under attack at the same place where Jewish doctors had been attacked the day before. Fourteen of the Hadassah Hospital workers were wounded; Arab gun men attacked a group of Jews as they began to bury ten of their murdered co-religionists at the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives
1948 — (28th of Kislev, 5709) War for independence. During Operation Horev, the Harel brigade moved further west into the Sinai Peninsula; Israeli armor and infantry captured the airfield south of El Arish and moved to capture the town itself; The British government took an active role on the side of the Arabs in the Israel War for Independence. The British issued an ultimatum to Israel that unless it withdrew from the Sinai it would employ force to force the Israelis to leave
1952 — (12th of Tevet, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that the Women’s Labor Bill, which banned women from dangerous employment and offered special maternity privileges, passed the first reading in the Knesset.
1957 — (7th of Tevet, 5718) The Israeli government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned
2009 — (13th of Tevet, 5770) Statistics. ….. Israel’s population stands at 7.5 million, according to figures released today by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Published ahead of the Gregorian New Year 2010, Israel’s population has continued to grow at a steady rate of 1.8 percent over the past seven years, with 160,000 new babies born since last January 1 and some 14,500 new immigrants arriving over the past year; Today, the Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, released a report which showed that 566 rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza in 2009; most were fired in January, during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. By comparison, 2,048 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza in 2008
2010 — (23th of Tevet, 5771) The Shin Ben (Israel Security Agency) reported today that there was a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks targeting Israelis in 2010. There were 798 recorded terrorist attacks in 2010 at the time the report was written, compared to 1,354 in 2009
2012 — (17th of Tevet, 5773) Israel’s population stands at 7,981,000 citizens, an increase of nearly 2 percent, according to an annual end of the year tally from the Central Bureau of Statistics, released on today
People
1596 — (9th of Tevet, 5357) Menachem Rapoport (Menachem Abraham ben Jacob Ha-Kohen) passed away. Known as Rappa, this Italian rabbi witnessed “the burning of the Talmud pursuant to the papal bull of 1553” and was the author of several works including “Zofnat Pa’neach”
1874 — (22th of Tevet, 5675) Ludwig Dessoir, German actor, died