History events
1784 — (16th of Tevet, 5544) Louis XVI of France abolished the poll-tax on Jews in Alsace-Lorraine. This tariff, the same as for market animals was paid by Jews who wished to enter certain cities. The poll tax had been instituted in many countries in Europe, dating back as far as the Roman Emperor Domitian (93CE) though it was only adopted in Europe in the 14th century
1791 — (5th of Shevat, 5551) King Leopold II of Hungary approved the bill passed by the Diet protecting the rights of the Jews
1845 — (2th of Shevat, 5605) In what was the first mention in print of the St. Louis Jewish community, Rabbi Isaac Lesser published a letter in today’s issue of the Occident and American Jewish Advocate that described attempts to form a United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis which made it the first synagogue to be established west of the Mississippi
1892 — (10th of Tevet, 5652) It was reported today that London has become so cosmopolitan that “a Russian Jew…dressed in his native garb is hardly noticed…”
1904 — (22th of Tevet, 5664) Savannah’s Mickve Israel joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
1909 — (17th of Tevet, 5669) “A dispatch to the Times of London from Helsingfors (Helsinki) says the committee which is drafting the Finnish laws has just agreed on a draft of laws concerning the right of Jews who have acquired Finnish citizenship and as to trade rights for Jews who do not desire to become Finnish citizens
1915 — (24th of Tevet, 5675) With the approval of the censor, the Novoe Vremya wrote today that “When the victorious” Russian “armies return from the theatre of the war, they will publicly proclaim that the Jew was their enemy at the front”
1943 — (4th of Shevat, 5703) In the Generalgouvernement, several thousand Jews who had left forest hiding places on November 10, 1942, after a Nazi promise of safe passage, are betrayed. Most are transported to Treblinka and gassed. The rest of them are sent to labor camps at nearby Sandomierz and Skarzysko Kamienna; Four hundred Jews who resist their German overseers at the Kopernik camp in Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland, are burned alive in their barracks
1945 — (25th of Tevet, 5705) Today, while appearing before Cairo’s supreme military court, two Palestinian Jewish youths, who are generally believed to belong to a right-wing terrorist organization with which a great majority of Zionism vigorously dissociates itself, confessed to the premeditated murder last of Lord Moyne on November 6, 1944. The accused were identified as Eliahu Bet-Tsouri a 23-year-old surveyor from Tel Aviv and Eliahu Hakim from Haifa. In court today, the prosecutor demanded that the death sentence be imposed on the two accused
1947 — (18th of Tevet, 5707) As part of their on-going program to deny Jews the right to enter Eretz Israel, the British took two ships of «illegal» immigrants to Cyprus
1948 — (28th of Tevet, 5708) The British released casualty figures for the last six weeks (covering the two weeks before the Partition vote and the month since Partition was adopted) showing 1069 Arabs, 769 Jews and 123 British casualties. The percentages are disproportionate given the large number of Arabs; The Arab Liberation Army, based in Syria invaded Eretz Israel.
1961 — (22th of Tevet, 5721) Today “the Egoz, a Mossad-leased ship carrying Jews attempting to emigrate undercover, sank off the northern coast of Morocco.”
1996 — (18th of Tevet, 5756) Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for further assurances from Arafat et al that there would be no return to violence
2000 — (3th of Shevat, 5760) One hundred thousand Israelis packed Rabin Square tonight to protest a withdrawal from the Golan Heights that would be part of any peace agreement with Syria
2003 — (7th of Shevat, 5763) Israel’s Supreme Court “reinstated the candidacy of Azmi Bishara and Ahmad Tibi, two Arab members of the Israeli Parliament who had been struck from the ballot by the country’s election on grounds that they had made statements that demonstrated a fundamental opposition to the character and existence of the Jewish state.”
2009 — (14th of Tevet, 5769) Vandals struck four Chicago-area synagogues early this morning, shattering glass doors and windows with bricks and rocks and spray-painting anti-Israel graffiti
2015 — (19th of Tevet, 5775) “Tens of thousands of Israelis made their way to the Golan Heights, the Galilee, Gush Etzion and even the Carmel Mountain this morning to enjoy the accumulating snowfall of the last few days.”
People
*1654 — (2th of Shevat, 5414) In Venice, Phineas Nieto and his wife gave birth to David Nieto, the father of Isaac Nieto. (see entry below for details about his life)
*1710 — (20th of Shevat, 5470) Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi received a letter of appointment to the chief rabbinate of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam. In addition to free residence, the office carried with it a yearly salary of 2,500 Dutch guild
*1728 — (10th of Shevat, 5488), 5488) Seventy-four year Rabbi David Nieto passed away in London on his birthday.
*1783 — (7th of Shevat, 5543) Birthdate of Danish surgeon Ludwig Lewin Jacobson the native of Copenhagen who refused to convert to Christianity in order to be named a professor at the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Ludwig Lewin, was the surgeon who treated casualties during the British bombardment of Copenhagen, who served as a surgeon with the French army to improve his medical skills and who “invented several appliances which proved of great benefit to the surgical profession” which led to the the Académie des Sciences awardig him one of the Monthyon prizes and being created a knight of the Dannebrog passed away today without abandoning the faith of his fathers, which he had done so, would have led to more opportunities and honors
*1847 — (22th of Tevet, 5607) In Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Moses and Clara (née Niederhofheim) Schiff gave birth to. Jakob Heinrich Schiff, who gained fame as Jacob Henry Schiff, the New York City financier and philanthropist
*1894 — (3th of Shevat, 5654) Birthdate of Uri Zvi Greenberg. Born in Poland to a Chasidic family, Greenberg gained fame as a poet who wrote in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Originally a favorite of the Labor Zionists, Greenberg became a supporter of Jabotinsky. During the thirties, he was one of those who warned the Jews of the dangers presented by Hitler and the Nazis. While he was able to escape his family perished. He was a right-wing member of the Knesset. While his political views were viewed as extreme, his value as a poet was unquestioned. In 1957 he was honored with the Israel Prize. Greenberg’s belief that the Covenant with Abraham, later renewed with the Jews at Sinai, is the basis of Jewish being” infused both his art and his politics. He passed away in 1981
*1899 — (28th of Tevet, 5659) Dr. Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine, an orthodox Jewish Russian scientist from the Pasteur Institute, established the Haffkine Institute which is located in Mumbai, India
*1920 — (19th of Tevet, 5680) Birthdate of Max Patkin known as “the Clown Prince of Baseball.” Patkin, who passed away in 1999, is honored with a place in the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame