History events
1349 — (25th of Adar-1 5109) In Strasbourg, a riot ensued in the town after corn prices fell. The Jews were accused (despite the protests of the city council) of a conspiracy. The entire Jewish population (2000) were dragged to the cemetery and burned to death. Only those who accepted Christianity were allowed to live. A new council was elected which voted that Jews could not return for 100 years and their property and possessions were divided among the burghers. Twenty years later, the Jews were readmitted
1667 — (30th of Shevat 5427) The end of the practice known as “Black Monday.” Prior to this date, the Jews of Rome had been subjected to a humiliating medieval practice of running a race in the Roman carnivals, scantily clad, amid insults and blows. This practice of «Black Monday» named for the day of the week during the Carnival Season on which it took place was not practiced after 1667.
1670 — (4th of Adar 5430) Leopold I ordered Jews to be expelled from Vienna within a few months. Although Leopold was reluctant to lose the large amount of taxes (50,000 Florins) paid by the Jews, he was persuaded to do so by his wife Margaret, the daughter of the Phillip IV Spanish Regent, and a strong follower of the Jesuits Margaret blamed the death of her firstborn on the tolerance show
1869 — (3th of Adar 5629) Members of the Tunis Alliance Israelite Universelle Committee wrote to Adolphe Cremieux, President of the AIU in Paris describing the desperate condition of Jews in Tunisia where “The Tunisian Jews, simply as Jews, are constantly exposed to stringent measurers on the part of the local authorities; they have no legal rights and are treated by the population with utmost hostility.”
1896 — (30th of Shevat 5656) Theodor Herzl published «Der Judenstaat» which outlined his vision for a Jewish State. For a complete copy of the text in English http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/herzl2.html
1902 — (7th of Adar-1 5662) Herzl and Joseph Cowen arrive in Constantinople with hopes of starting negotiations to further the project of creating a Jewish homeland in Ottoman controlled in Palestine
1947 — (24th of Shevat 5707) Foreign Minster Bevin “announced that he was referring the entire Palestine imbroglio to the United Nations.”
1949 — (15th of Shevat, 5709): The Knesset opened its first session; Russian-born English chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, 74, was elected first president of the newly restored modern state of Israel
1951 — (8th of Adar-1 5711) The door was opened for the elections for the second knesset when the government resigned today after the Knesset had rejected the Minister of Education and Culture’s proposals on the registration of schoolchildren
1986 — (5th of Adar-1 5746) Six people were wounded during the bombing of a bus in Jerusalem
People
1623 — (24th of Adar-1 5383) Moshe Zacut who is buried in the Portuguese cemetery in Altona and who may have been the father of Rabbi Moshe Zacut known as the “Remez” passed away today
1864 — (7th of Adar 5624) Birthdate of Israel Zangwill. Zangwill is a name known to few today, but in his time he was an intellectual power. Zangwill was born in London and achieved fame by writing a number of novels many on Jewish themes including Children of the Ghetto, Ghetto Tragedies and The King of Schnorrers. Zangwill first met with Herzl in 1896 and attended the First (and all successive) Zionist Congress. He supported Herzl’s Uganda plan and following its rejection, led the Territorialists out of the Zionist organization in 1905. He established the Jewish Territorialists Organization (ITO) whose object was to acquire a Jewish homeland wherever possible. Following the securing of the Balfour declaration, the ITO fell into decline and by 1925 it was officially dissolved. Zangwill supported Zionist efforts in Eretz Israel calling for a radical approach both as regards the demand for the early establishment of a Jewish State and the solution of the Arab question. He passed away in 1926