History events
588 BCE — On the secular calendar, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign. The siege lasts until July 18, 586 BCE
1630 — (12th of Shevat, 5390) In Santa Engracia (Lisbon), Simon dias Solis, a young New Christian was seen near the local church (on his way to a rendezvous with a young woman) and was arrested for allegedly stealing a silver vessel from the church. After his hands were cut off he was dragged through the streets, and then burned. The real culprit, a common (Christian) criminal, admitted to the crime one year later. As a result, Solis’s brother, a friar, fled to Amsterdam and reconverted to Judaism
1711 — (24th of Tevet, 5471) After two days, the fire that had burned its way through the Judengasse in Frankfurt came to an end. The fire claimed the lives of four and was so destructive that the Jews who had lost their homes were allowed to rent dwellings outside of the ghetto until new houses could be constructed. The 24th of Tevet became a day of communal fasting to mark the anniversary of this disaster
1840 — (10th of Shevat, 5600) A new Jewish School was opened in Riga with Rabbi Max Lienthal serving as principle. In recognition of the sentiments expressed in the sermon with which Lilienthal opened the school the emperor Nicholas presented him with a diamond ring
1866 — (28th of Shevat, 5626) In Switzerland, Jews are finally granted equal rights. It took yet another seven years for the Constitution to be changed
1872 — (5th of Shevat, 5632) In an article published in Havazelet, Jeshua Heschel Levin of Volozin becomes the first to issue a call for a truly great National Jewish Library. Havazelet was an early Hebrew language newspaper which published articles by Eliezer Ben Yehuda among other notables
1891 — (6 Shevat 5651) In Lviv, the Jewish Theatre under the direction of Jakob Ber Gimpel presented the premiere of the operetta “Rabbi Yozelman,” which was met with great success
1893 — (27th of Tevet, 5653) It was reported today from Tangiers that Mohammed Benivda, the governor in Morocco has been imprisoning Jews and subjecting them to the last before finning them. The Jews have broken no law and the governor is doing this simply as a way of making money
1898 — (21th of Tevet, 5658) It was reported today that that there was a renewal of anti-Zola demonstrations in Paris where students “paraded down the boulevard St. Michel shouting: ‘Down with Zola!’ ‘Down with the Jews!’”
1899 — (4th of Shevat, 5659) It was reported today that under a law recently passed by the Imperial Senate, Jews in Russia do not have the right name their own children as they please. Jews are only allowed to use Biblical names and they may not use a modernized form of these. The police have the power to regulate these and other rules which mean Jews may use only the Hebrew or Yiddish forms of names
1903 — (16th of Tevet, 5663) Herzl met with Lord Rothschild. Herzl shows him the correspondence with the British government and asks for three million pounds from the I. C. A. for the Jewish Eastern Company
1917 — (21 Tevet 5677) In Moscow, under the chairmanship of Rabbi Maze, the founding assembly of the Habima Theatre took place. The theatre declared its commitment to Zionism, rejected the “culture of the Galut (Exile),” and chose Hebrew as its language.
1918 — (2 Shevat 5678) In Kharkiv, the First All-Ukrainian Zionist Conference opened, along with a meeting of representatives of the HeHalutz movement — a youth organization preparing its members for aliyah (repatriation) to Eretz Israel. The resolutions stated that HeHalutz was the vanguard of the working masses emigrating to Eretz Israel to settle the land and prepare the country for the people.
1942 — (26 Tevet 5702) The Shoah. From Odesa, 1,090 Jews were deported. On the same day, five Jews were shot in the village of Nova Semenivka (Ivanivka district, Kherson region), and four Jews in Krasnoarmiisk (Donetsk region). Units of Einsatzgruppe D shot 685 Jews in Crimea during the first half of the month
1943 — (9th of Shevat, 5703) The Germans emptied the detention camp at Zaslaw and placed the Jews in trains to be sent to Belzac to be gassed. Given neither food nor water, the train remained stationary for three days. All but one of the prisoners was eventually killed. He was Emil Manaster who was able to jump from the train and found sanctuary with his sister Jaffa, with Jozef Zwonarz, a Polish engineer; The first transport of Jews from Amsterdam was sent to concentration camp Vught located in southern Holland; Seventy-seven Jews leap from a deportation train traveling east from Belgium. Most are hunted down and killed by German and Flemish SS troops
1944 — (19th of Tevet, 5704) At the Vught Concentration Camp 74 women were put in 1 cell. Ten died of the overcrowding; The Jews of Belgium were among the latest victims of the German efforts to rid smaller areas of their Jewish population. Most were sent to Birkenau
1945 — (1st of Shevat, 5705) All Jewish women at the Brodnica labor camp who were too sick or weak to be moved were shot
1948 — (4th of Shevat, 5708) A platoon of 35 volunteers — half from Palmach and half from Hish — on its way to reinforce those holding the Etzion Bloc, was ambushed and killed by 100s of armed Arabs. The Jews fought to the last man; Jewish settlers, using aircraft for the first time, beat off a heavy Arab attack on settlements at Kfar Etzion, near Hebron, today. The fight there, and others in Haifa and near Beersheba, produced one of the heaviest daily casualty lists to date, with twenty-nine killed and seventy-five wounded so far
1948 — (4 Shevat 5708) In Portsmouth, a treaty between Great Britain and Iraq was signed. Under its terms, Britain undertook to accelerate the delivery of weapons and ammunition previously ordered and to supply firearms for “50,000 police officers.»
1949 — (14 Tevet 5709) The first strike in Israel: 800 workers from the Elite and Liber chocolate factories stopped work in protest against the refusal to raise wages and improve social conditions
1953 — (28 Tevet 5713) Students and faculty of the Stalingrad Mechanical Institute, at the suggestion of the institute’s party secretary, decided to send a letter to Joseph Stalin requesting the deportation of all Jews from the European territory of the USSR
1955 — (21th of Tevet, 5715) Dmitri Shostakovich’s «From Jewish Folk Poetry» premiered in Leningrad
1957 — (13 Shevat 5717) The Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, captured during the Sinai Campaign, leaving behind the strip from Eilat to Sharm el-Sheikh and the Gaza Strip
1968 — (14th of Tevet, 5728) After leaving England, the INS Dakar arrived this morning at Gibraltar
1970 — (8th of Shevat, 5730) Israeli archaeologists reported uncovering the first evidence supporting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by military forces of the ancient Roman Empire
1982 — (20th of Tevet, 5742) German police searched for the perpetrators of a bomb attack that ripped through an Israeli restaurant in West Berlin. The blast killed a 14-month old girl and injured 25 diners. Six Palestinians belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were suspected
1988 — (25th of Tevet, 5748) Start of the first intifada which was really just another round of Arab mob violence and terror designed to drive the Jews from the land of Israel
1991 — (29th of Tevet, 5751) On the day the United Nations set as the deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, the commander of the Israeli Air Force said that the United States and Israel still have no mechanisms in place to coordinate the two nation’s military activities. And, Maj. Gen. Avihu Bin-Nun said in a news briefing, Israel has little faith that the United States will give Israel advance warning if Iraq, as it has threatened, fires missiles at Tel Aviv. «We may not have any notice, and the first notice may be when the missile hits,» the general said
1993 — (22th of Tevet, 5753) At the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, a Palestinian from Gaza stabbed four people to death including a Lebanese Arab visiting the city. Islamic Jihad took credit for the attack
1997 — (7 Shevat 5757) Israel. In accordance with the Oslo Accords, the IDF withdrew from the densely populated Arab part of Hebron.
2008 — (8 Shevat 5768) Eleven Jewish families moved into four houses in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Two houses were located in Silwan, and two on the slopes of Mount Zion in Wadi Hilweh. The houses had been purchased from Arab owners in previous years in full compliance with legal procedures and had remained uninhabited until then. All relocation arrangements were organized by the public organization Elad. As a result, the number of Jewish families in Silwan reached 60 (about 300 people).
2009 — (19th of Tevet, 5769) Today, some 25 rockets were fired on southern Israel
2013 — (4 Shevat 5773) An experimental wind turbine for electricity generation was launched at Kibbutz Moran. Thanks to its unique lightweight design, the system made it possible to reduce energy production costs by approximately 50 percent.
2016 — (5 Shevat 5776) The first section of the new Highway No. 531 was opened. Its length was 4 km and included two interchanges and six bridges for vehicular traffic and pedestrian passage. The purpose of the highway is to connect Ra’anana, Kfar Saba, and Herzliya with Tel Aviv, its surrounding areas, and the country’s central transport routes: the Trans-Israel Highway, the Coastal Highway, and the Ayalon Highway.
2021 — (2 Shevat 5781) The annual off-road rally Dakar concluded in Saudi Arabia. For the first time, two crews from Israel participated: in the truck class — driver Aviva Kadishai, navigator Izhar Armoni, and mechanic Maoz Wizelder; and in the buggy class — driver Dani Perl and navigator Charlie Gottlieb. They completed all stages of the rally but competed under the American and Belgian flags respectively, as participation required not indicating affiliation with the Jewish state.
2024 — (5 Shevat 5784) War with Gaza. Day 101. Fighting continued in the central and northern parts of the Strip, as well as in Khan Younis and Rafah.
2024 — (5 Shevat 5784) A terrorist attack in Ra’anana
2026 (26 Tevet 5786) — An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale struck the Dead Sea region. Tremors were felt in Dimona, Arad, Beersheba, and Jerusalem. The hypocenter lay at a depth of 10 km; the epicenter was located 19 km northeast of Dimona and 44 km east of Beersheba
People
1810 — (10th of Shevat, 5570) Leopold Dukes, Hungarian Jewish scholar, born
1864 — (7 Shevat 5624) Isaac Nathan, the first outstanding Australian musician, died.
1872 — Alexander Alexandrovich Glagolev was born. An Orthodox priest and head of the Department of Old Testament at the Kyiv Theological Seminary, he served as an expert during the Beilis trial as a specialist in the Talmud and the Hebrew language, refuting claims about the ritual use of blood by Jews. During pogroms, he organized self-defense units to protect Jews from Black Hundreds. He died in an NKVD prison on November 25, 1937.
1905 — L. O. Arnsham was born, a film director and screenwriter. He died on December 26, 1979.
1908 — (12 Shevat 5668) Edward Teller was born in Budapest. He later became an American physicist and one of the creators of the atomic and hydrogen bombs.
1909 — (22 Tevet 5669) Efim Moiseyevich Fomin was born in the town of Kolyshki in the Liozno district of the Vitebsk region, into the family of a blacksmith. He became a regimental commissar and one of the organizers of the defense of the Brest Fortress. He was killed on June 30, 1941.
1923 — Actor Yevgeny Vesnik was born. He died on April 10, 2009.
1971 — Inbal Perlmutter, an Israeli pop artist, singer, musician, and composer, was born. He was killed in a car accident in 1997.
2005 — (5 Shevat 5765) In Sderot, a rocket fired from Gaza killed 17-year-old Ela Abuksis. On the same day, a mortar shell tore off the hand of a seven-year-old boy from the settlement of Netzarim