History events
1565 — (15th of Adar, 5325) In Mantua, Italy first printing of Menorat ha-Ma’or by Rabbi Isaac Aboab
1879 — (23th of Shevat 5639) It was reported today that out of the 40,000 people living in Krakow, 12,000 of them are Jews most of whom are “Orthodox or Rabbinical
1896 — (2th of Adar, 5656) “Synagogue Members In A Fight” published today described fight that broke between supporters of Solomon Bentowski and Heyman Solomon during the business meeting of synagogue that met at 112 Clinton Street in New York. The police were called but no arrests were made
1902 — (9th of Adar-1, 5662) In a letter to the Sultan, Herzl summarizes his negotiations. The Sultan’s decision is unfavorable
1917 — (24th of Shevat, 5677) After 425 years, dedication of the first synagogue to open in Madrid
1936 — (23th of Shevat, 5696) It was reported today that “during 1935 more than 61,000 Jews entered Palestine” and that “if normal conditions should prevail the Jewish National Home could receive at least another 500,000 Jews within the next ten years.”
1938 — (15th of Adar-1, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that the total number of Jewish immigrants in 1937 was 12,475, compared to 31,671 a year earlier. Of these, 3,648 immigrants came from Poland, 3,601 from Germany and the rest from other countries. This painful and unjustified reduction was directly attributed to the new British and Palestine governments’ immigration policy
1948 — (6th of Adar-1, 5708) The Arabs began their first organized attack, on Tirat Tzvi. Tirat Tzvi (Zevi’s Castle) was a Kibbutz founded in 1937 near the Jordanian border. It was named in memory of Rabbi Zevi Hirsh Klaischer who urged his fellow Jews to form a national movement following the failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe. In 1862, he published a book combining the themes of agriculture and spiritual re-awakening in what was then called Palestine. He had hoped to move to Mikveh Israel but at the age of eighty felt himself too old and he died in Germany, one of the first religious champions of what was to become the Zionist dream. The attack in 1948 took place between the vote to partition Palestine and the actual British departure from the Mandate Territory. In other words, Arab military forces were on the attack determined to wipe out as many of the Jewish kibbutzim as possible thus destroying the Jewish state before it was even born. The attack on Tirat Tzvi failed thanks to the bravery of the outnumbered defenders
1948 — (6th of Adar-1, 5708) The U.N. Palestine Commission which “was never permitted by the Arabs or the British to go to Palestine to implement the” U.N.’s resolution partitioning Palestine “reported to the Security Council” today that “Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberation effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.”
1953 — (1th of Adar, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that from the establishment of the state in May 1948 to the end of 1952, 707,576 immigrants arrived, including 124,225 from Iraq, 121,536 from Romania, 106,727 from Poland, 62,565 from North Africa and 48,447 from Yemen and Aden. The immigrants hailed from 69 countries; that Israel had sent anti-typhoid vaccine to flood victims in Holland
1978 — (9th of Adar-1, 5738) The Jerusalem Post reported that two persons were killed and 46 injured when an Arab threw a bomb at a bus passing through Rehov Tzefania in Jerusalem
1985 — (25th of Shevat, 5745) The founding of Hezbollah, another Arab/Moslem terror group dedicated, in part, to the destruction of the state of Israel
1987 — (17th of Shevat, 5747) The Demjanjuk trial opened in Jerusalem. Ivan Demjanjuk, a former Ukrainian SS volunteer, was accused of overseeing the gas chambers in Treblinka. His cruelty had earned him the name «Ivan the Terrible.» Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986, was found guilty and condemned to death. The verdict was appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court. After 3 years of deliberation they ruled that there wasn’t enough sufficient proof that Demjanjuk and Ivan the Terrible were one and the same person. This was mainly due to the lack of first person witnesses and the length of time that had elapsed made definite identification impossible. In September 1993 he was released and returned to the United States. He was later stripped of his citizenship for falsifying his documents when he entered the United States
1992 — (12th of Adar-1, 5752) An Israeli helicopter strike killed the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Abbas al-Musawi. According to western officials, al-Musawi was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks including the 1983 terror attack in Beirut that killed 300 U.S. and French soldiers.
2002 — (4th of Adar, 5762) Three teenagers from Ginot Shomron – Rachel Thaler, Keren Shatsky and Nehemia Amar – were murdered by terrorist from the PFLP in front of a pizza parlor at the Karnei Shomron Mall on a Saturday night
2005 — (7th of Adar-1, 5765) By a vote of 59 to 40 with 5 abstentions, the Knesset “finalized and approved” Sharon’s plan for withdrawal from Gaza after having rejected “a proposed amendment to submit the plan to a referendum.”
2007 — (28th of Shevat, 5767) Sheik Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch gave a sermon in Jerusalem’s Wadi Joz neighborhood in which he “urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to save Al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the end occupation.” Salah, who denies any Jewish historical claim to Jerusalem or the existence of a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount included these words, “We are not those who ate bread dipped in children’s blood.”
2010 — (2th of Adar, 5770) Four hundred cadets graduated from the IDF Infantry Officers Training Course today and will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant. 7% of them are young women, 25% are religious, 5% are from kibbutzim, 61% are from cities. The highest number of awards for excellence went to the Golani Brigade
People
1616 — (8th of Adar, 5376) Elias Felice Montalto passed away. Montalto had converted to Christianity but later returned to Judaism. A physician and author who had lived in Venice, Montalto was living in Paris and serving as the private physician to Queen Maria de Medici at the time of his death. The queen had him embalmed and sent to the Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk near Amsterdam