History events
1641 — (5th of Adar, 5401) Sara Copia Sullam, the daughter of a prominent Venetian family passed away. She was a truly unique figure for her time since she was not only a prolific poetess but a religious philosopher who wrote “The Manifesto of Sara Copia Sulam” in which she refuted accusations that she had denied the immortality of the soul
1655 — (18th of Adar-1, 5415) The twenty-three Sephardic Jews who arrived in the fall seeking sanctuary from the Inquisition are officially admitted into New Amsterdam over Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s objections
1870 — (14th of Adar-1, 5630) Founding of Mikveh Yisrael home of the first Jewish agricultural school in Palestine. The Hebrew name Mikveh Yisrael means Hope of Israel. It was one of the earliest attempts to connect a return to Promised Land with the literal re-building of the land through the agrarian life
1883 — (8th of Adar-1, 5643) Founding of Congregation Oheb Sholom in Goldsboro, NC which holds services on Friday evening and Saturday morning, operates a religious school, owns a cemetery and whose members included Henry Weil, S.S. Spier, Joseph Isaac, Joseph Schwab, Edward Lehman and Samuel Cohn
1891 — (7th of Adar-1, 5651) Representatives of Jewish organizations from throughout the United States met in Philadelphia, PA today where they formed the Jewish Alliance of America. The goal of the Alliance is to alleviate the suffering among Russian Jews by helping them to establish and maintain “farm colonies” in the American West
1900 — (16th of Adar-1, 5660) Herzl is received by Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. Herzl writes a memorandum about the Jewish Colonial Bank. The subscriptions to the Bank are prohibited in Austria and Herzl wants to prevent that little people will lose their money
1903 — (18th of Shevat, 5663) Herzl sends a new proposal to the Sultan: Colonization in the Sanjak of Acre in return for a guaranteed annual payment of 100.000 Turkish pounds. In a move that would place him at odds with the “Territorialists” Herzl is already thinking about Jewish colonization in Africa but is willing to make this one last attempt to deal with the rulers of the Ottoman Empire
1943 — (10th of Adar I, 5703) Four hundred fifty of the Jews remaining in the ghetto at Drohobych were taken out of the ghetto to Bronica Forest where they were murdered
1945 — (2th of Adar, 5705) Launch of the HMS Sanguine, the British submarine which was sold to the Israeli Navy in 1958 and later renamed “Rahav.”
1968 — (16th of Shevat, 5728) A group of 26 Jewish lawyers, doctors and scientists in Vilnius (Vilna) addressed a letter to the Central Committee of Lithuania’s Communist Party describing the widespread discrimination against the Jewish people and demanding the right to immigrate to Israel
2010 — (1th of Adar, 5770) Israeli archaeologists said today that they’ve discovered an unusually shaped 1,400-year-old wine press that was exceptionally large and advanced for its time. The octagonal press measures 21 feet by 54 feet (6.5 by 16.5 meters) and was discovered in southern Israel, about 40 kilometers south of both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
People
1780 — (9th of Adar-1, 5440) Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, born
2015 — (26th of Shevat, 5775) Copenhagen Jewish community guard Dan Uzan was murdered early this morning following an attack on synagogue where a bat mitzvah celebration was taking place