December 8

History events
1941 — (18th of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. The Nazis brought 700 Jews to Chelmo for final experiment of the new method of killing. In groups of 80, the Jews were driven around the woods in a special van, gassed to death by the fumes of the exhaust. A thousand Jews a day for the next four days go through the same test; Four thousand Jews of Novogrudok, Belorussia, are killed
1942 — (29th of Kislev, 5703) Нolocaust. The German SS organized the last deportation of Ternopil Jews to death camp in Belzec, when 1,400 Jews were sent there
1948 — (6th of Kislev, 5709) Jordan annexes “Arabic Palestine.” The Kingdom of Trans-Jordan (Across the Jordan) will drop the “Trans” prefix in recognition of its holdings on both sides of the Jordan River.
1949 — (17th of Kislev, 5710) Burma recognizes the state of Israel
1952 — (20th of Kislev, 5713) Yitzchak ben Zvi was elected the second President of Israel succeeding Chaim Weitzman, who had died in office
1987 — (17th of Kislev, 5748) Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intifada
2012 — (24th of Kislev, 5773) Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed today never to recognize Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory

People
1522 — (19th of Kislev, 5283) David Reubeni left Khaibar today and went to Nubia in northern Sudan, where he claimed to be a descendant of Muhammad. When he spoke to audiences of Jews, he told of large Jewish kingdoms in the east, possibly referring to the Jewish community at Cochin. The Portuguese had just conquered Goa
1612 — (14th of Kislev, 5373) Printer Isaac Prostitz (Isaac ben R. Aaron) passed away today
1885 — (30th of Kislev, 5646) Birthdate of Joseph Sprinzak who served as Chairman of the Knesset for the first ten years of its existence (1949-1959)
1941 — (18th of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. As the Riga Ghetto was being liquidated 81-year-old Jewish historian Simon Dubnow was murdered in Riga because he was too old and sick to travel to Rumbula where he would have been massacred with other Jews
1978 — (8th of Kislev, 5739) Eighty-year-old Golda Meir, passed away
1997 — (9th of Kislev, 5758) Eighty-seven-year-old Leon Poliakov, a historian of anti-Semitism