History events
633 — (28 Kislev 4394) The Fourth Council of Toledo opened in the Visigothic Kingdom. It adopted strict measures against Jews who had been baptized but continued to practice Judaism in secret. Forced baptism of Jews was prohibited; however, Jews who had converted to Christianity after the Third Council and had returned to Judaism during the reign of King Swinthila (621–631) were required to return to the Church. By the council’s decree, Jews and “persons of Jewish origin” were forbidden from holding any offices that would give them jurisdiction over Christians.
1251 — (20 Kislev 5012) A charter issued by King Béla IV of Hungary guaranteed Jews the right to reside in Hungary. At the same time, Béla IV ennobled certain Jews
1349 — (23nd of Kislev, 5110) During the Black Death Riots 500 Jews were massacred at Nuremberg
1496 — (30 Kislev 5257) Manuel, at their demand, issued a decree, ordering all Jews in Portugal to convert to Christianity within ten months or leave the country. Seeking, for economic reasons, to retain part of the Jewish population in Portugal, the king ordered the forced baptism of children aged four to 14 (later extended to persons up to 20 years of age). However, this only accelerated the flight of Jews from the country. An order followed that the exiles could leave Portugal only through the port of Lisbon. About twenty thousand Jews, gathered in the capital awaiting ships, were on March 19, 1497, driven into one of the palaces and, after numerous but unsuccessful attempts to persuade them to voluntarily convert to Catholicism, were subjected to forced baptism. At the same time, all the remaining Jews of Portugal, including refugees from Spain, were baptized. The leaders of the community, including the last chief rabbi of Portugal, Shimon Maimi, preferred martyrdom under torture to apostasy (see Kiddush ha-Shem). Only a few (for example, Abraham Zacuto and Jacob Ibn Habib) managed to avoid baptism and leave the country
1909 — (22 Kislev 5670) The first house was laid on what would become Benjamin Street in Tel Aviv.
1912 — (25 Kislev 5673) The settlement of Ruhama was founded in the northern Negev. It was destroyed by Arabs three times before being finally re‑established as a kibbutz on March 19, 1944.
1918 — (2 Tevet 5679) The so‑called “Będzin Group” of young people, consisting of six members, arrived in Jaffa. The Będzin Group from Poland was the first to reach the Land of Israel after the end of the World War. At that time, repatriation was very difficult because peace had not yet been fully restored and civilian land and sea connections with the Middle East were almost nonexistent. The group reached the country via Constantinople.
1925 — (18 Kislev 5696) The newspaper Ha‑Yom wrote: “The new working year in the Land of Israel begins under good conditions. Recently, the influx of capitalists has increased again, and this has been followed by an increase in the number of immigrants. This is welcome for many reasons. Once more, people capable of working will come to the country. The situation on the labor market is satisfactory, despite the slowdown in construction.”
1937 — (1nd of Tevet, 5698) Тerrorist attack. The Palestine Post reported that in Jerusalem Abraham Perlman, 20, was shot dead and two young girls were wounded when they strolled together towards the King David Hotel
1938 — (12 Kislev 5699) The ship Draga, carrying a group of young people from Hungary, Austria, and Poland, anchored off the coast of Eretz Israel. That night, light signals were received from those who had come to meet them, and the illegal immigrants disembarked under cover of darkness. They were awaited there, and all newcomers quickly blended in with the residents of the Jewish settlements
1941 — (15th of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. The Nazis collected 7,000 Jews in the town courtyard at Nowogrodek, Poland. After a night in the courtyard, the Jews were selected to the left for work, or to the right for death. Five thousand of the Jews went to the right
1941 — (15 Kislev 5702) The Shoah. According to a list compiled by the commandant of the Daugavpils ghetto, 962 people remained there, compared to the 23,000 who had recently been there.
1941 — (15 Kislev 5702) The Shoah. In Gorodenka (Ivano‑Frankivsk Oblast), 2,600 Jews were shot. It is likely that on the same day, about 250 Jews were shot in Alushta (Crimea), and several dozen Jews were shot in Ponornytsia (Chernihiv Oblast). On the same day, a registration of Jews was carried out in Vinnytsia; about 5,000 were recorded. On the same day, the commandant of Sumy, Hauptmann Dallmeyer, issued an order to register the Jews. The order ended with the words: “Any Jew who fails to comply with this order will be shot.” On the same day, in Yalta (Crimea), Jews were relocated to a special area on the outskirts of the city
1947 — (22th of Kislev, 5708) War for independence. The Jewish Agency announced the call-up of all men and women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five for national service. This was part of the Yishuv’s response to the immediate increase in Arab violence following the vote to adopt the UN back partition plan.
1948 — (3th of Kislev, 5709) War for independence. First day of Operation Assaf, a campaign by the IDF to secure the western Negev by dislodging the Egyptians who had invaded the area out the outbreak of the war. The first day was a success for the IDF which captured several Egyptian positions without sustaining serious casualties
1949 — (14th of Kislev, 5710) At its meeting in Tel Aviv, the Knesset publicly declared the Jerusalem was the capital of the new Jewish state
1968 — (14 Kislev 5729) Israel. A team of doctors led by M. Levi performed the first heart transplant surgery in Israel
1974 — (21th of Kislev, 5735) Premier Yitzhak Rabin said today that Israel was prepared to Make far‐reaching territorial compromises with the Arab nations in return for peace, but he ruled out a return to the borders that existed before the 1967 war
1990 — (18th of Kislev, 5751) Responding to growing fear over a rash of Palestinian knife attacks on Jews, ….. the police broadened surveillance of Arab workers in Israel today with spot checks, searches and a new network of roadblocks along the West Bank. More than 20 Israelis have been stabbed over the last two months. Five of the victims died of their wounds and seven Arab attackers were killed. Until this fall, anxiety about knife attacks had been limited largely to Jews in the occupied territories and along the boundaries between Arab and Jewish sections of Jerusalem. But recent stabbings have also frightened Israelis in the heart of the country, in Tel Aviv, the Galilee and the southern coast. Requests for gun permits have soared, and thousands of Jews have begun carrying pistols, knives and mace
1992 — (10 Kislev 5753) The first religious service was held in the Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv after the years of Soviet rule
2001 — (20th of Kislev, 5762) A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb shortly after 7:30 AM on King David Street in Jerusalem. A number of people waiting at a nearby bus stop were lightly injured.
2005 — (4 Kislev 5766) A terrorist attack took place in Netanya near the Ha‑Sharon shopping center. Five people died and 80 were injured.
2011 — (9 Kislev 5772) The Knesset unanimously approved the tax reform initiated by the government in its second and third readings. The reform was intended to “significantly reduce the cost of living in Israel.”
2013 — (2nd of Tevet, 5774) A wet and cold winter storm hit Israel this morning, bringing welcome rain to much of the country and raising the Sea of Galilee by one centimeter in a matter of hours
People
220 — (22nd of Kislev, 3981) On the secular calendar Rabbi Judah Hanasi or Judah the Patriarch passed away. ….. Born in Eretz Israel in 138 (three years after the last rebellion against Rome) Judah, as the Nasi and head of the Sanhedrin, was both the religious and political leader of the Jewish community. His greatest claim to fame was his role as the compiler of the Mishna. The Mishna is a compilation of Oral Law which would serve as the basis for both the Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud. The Mishnah is divided into six «orders»: Zeraim — Seeds, Mo’ed — Festivals, Nashim — Women, Nezikim — Damages, Kedushim — Holy Matters, Taharot — Purity. There are a total of 63 «tractates.» It was compiled in Hebrew and intended to be memorized. It served and still serves as a code for regulation of all Jewish life. Some of his more famous sayings include: “Be as punctilious in observing a light as a weighty commandment, for your do not know their relative reward.» “Contemplate three things and you will avoid transgressions: above you (in Heaven) is an eye that sees, an ear that hears and all your deeds are faithfully recorded.” And the favorite of all those who teach, “I have learned much from teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from pupils»
1883 — (6 Kislev 5644) Mathematician James Joseph Sylvester received the news that he had been elected Professor at Oxford, thus becoming the first Jewish professor at Oxford.
1894 — Yedidia Admon, an Israeli composer, was born. He died on April 2, 1982.
1895 — (18th of Kislev, 5656) Birthdate of David-Zvi Pinkas, the native of Sopron who was active in Zionist youth groups before making Aliyah in 1925 which led him to a political career that included service in the First Knesset and as the first Minister of Transport
1897 — (10 Kislev 5658) Shmuel Galkin, a Yiddish poet, was born. In 1949, he was arrested, along with other figures of Jewish culture, but due to a heart attack, he was admitted to the prison hospital and thus avoided execution. He was released in 1955. Galkin translated poems by Pushkin, Yesenin, Blok, and Mayakovsky, as well as Shakespeare’s tragedy, into Yiddish. He died on September 21, 1960.
1897 — (10 Kislev 5658) Gershom Scholem, a philosopher, the founder of the academic study of Kabbalah, and the first professor of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was born. He died on February 21, 1982
1911 — (14th of Kislev, 5672) Birthdate of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman. ….. He worked as pianist for Polish radio in Warsaw until 1939. He was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto where continued playing while helping to smuggle weapons into the ghetto. When the rest of his family was sent to Treblinka, Szpilman escaped. Eventually he was captured by the Germans. However, thanks to Wilm Hoseneld, a Wermacht Captain who had become disillusioned with the Nazis, Szpilman survived the war. His autobiography became the source for the script of the 2002 film entitled “The Pianist.”
1925 — (18th of Kislev, 5686) Yehuda Leib Levin, oldest of the Hebrew poets in Russia, ….. known for more than half a century under his pen name ‘Jahalel,’” passed away today in Kiev. Born in Minsk in 1844, Levin studied Talmud, worked as a teacher before serving as a treasurer for local flour and sugar mills. The first collection of his poetry was published in 1871 under the title Sifte Raananim.” In 1877, “Kishron Massech” his poem “devoted to a description of the social conditions of Russian Jews” was published. In a case of Jew meets Jew, Levin translated Disraeli’s Tancred into Hebrew
1945 — Moshe Katzav, the eighth President of Israel, was born.
2005 — (4th of Kislev, 5766) Тerrorist attack. Five people were killed and 50 wounded after a suicide attack at a Netanya shopping mall. The five known dead are Eliyah Rozen, 39, of Bat Hefer, Daniel Golani, 45, of Nahariya, Haim Amram, 26, of Netanya, Keinan Tzoami, 20, of Petah Tikva and Alexandra Zarnitzki, 65, of Netanya
2006 — (14th of Kislev, 5767) Chess grandmaster David Bronstein passed away at the age of 82
2023 — (22 Kislev 5784) The war with Gaza. Day sixty. The following reservists and officers were killed: Staff Sergeant Matan Damari, 31; Staff Sergeant Ilay Eliyahu Cohen, 23; Captain Yael Gazit, 24; Staff Sergeant Gil Daniels, 34; Sergeant Yakir Yedidya Shenkolevski, 21; Captain Eitan Fish, 23; Senior Sergeant Tuval Yaakov Tzanani, 20; Yonatan Malka, 23; and Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Yochai Gur Gershberg, 52. Five servicemen were wounded. The day before, in close combat with terrorists inside a building, Senior Sergeant Reservist Ben Zussman, 22, and Sergeant Binyamin Yehoshua Nidam, 19, were killed