January 16

History events
1232 — (23th of Shevat, 4992) In London, The Domus Conversorum known in English as the House of the Converts was founded by order of Henry III to provide a home and free maintenance for Jews converted to Christianity
1600 — (10th of Shevat, 5360) The 400 Jews of Verona completed their synagogue after their move into the ghetto
1852 — (24th of Tevet, 5612) Mt. Sinai Hospital, known as Jews Hospital, was founded in New York City
1884 — (18th of Tevet, 5644) The orthodox synagogue in St. Apern Straße was dedicated in Cologne
1890 — (24th of Tevet, 5650) It was reported that the past five years the Jewish immigrants arriving in New York included, 18,535 in 1885; 27,348 in 1886; 25, 788 in 1887; 29,602 in 1888 and 23, 674 in 1889
1903 — (17th of Tevet, 5663) Herzl ate lunch with Lord Rothschild and had a meeting with Sir Thomas Sanderson, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in Downing Street. Herzl submits the itinerary of the Commission and the membership. Sanderson recommends Sir Benjamin Baker, builder of the Aswan Dam, as irrigation engineer. Herzl is concerned about each and every detail
1906 — (19th of Tevet, 5666) Bezalel, The Academy of Arts and Design, was founded in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz. Born in 1867, Schatz was a painter and court sculptor to King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. He died in 1932. The school was named after biblical artisan Bezalel, son of Uri, who was one of the main architects of the Tabernacle. It has well over 1000 students and offers degrees in art, architecture, and design
1935 — (12th of Shevat, 5695) Leaders of the Jewish National Fund announced that it had raise $20,000 which represents 40% of the goal of $50,000 needed to buy additional land in Palestine “as perpetual national property.”
1937 — (4th of Shevat, 5697) In Jerusalem, George Mansour, the secretary of the Arab Labor Federation testified before the Royal Commission that “there was no employment for Arab workers because of the government’s policy which, he alleged, favored the Jews.”
1938 — (14th of Shevat, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that a government trade school had opened in Haifa
1942 — (27th of Tevet, 5702) The Nazis begin “resettling” the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto to the Chelmno Extermination Camp
1945 — (2th of Shevat, 5705) Three years after the “resettlement” of the Jews from Lodz began, the Soviets liberate the town and find 870 Jews still alive
1948 — (5th of Shevat, 5708) Thirty-five members of the Haganah set out to bring supplies to the besieged four Kibbutzim known as the Etzion Bloc. Located the Hebron hills, the four Kibbutzim were defended by thirty armed fighters. They had already fought off one attack by hundreds of Arabs who were so confident of victory that they had brought bags to cart off the loot. Due to the lack of equipment, which was quite common among the Jewish forces, the thirty five set off without a radio. According to information gathered later, the column was given inaccurate directions by a local Arab who then alerted those who were besieging the Etzion Bloc. The Arabs fell upon the Haganah column and killed all of them. Their bodies were found and brought into the Bloc whose defenders now realized that they were completely on their own
1953 — (29th of Tevet, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported Soviet Jewry’s fears that a major anti-Jewish policy statement was being prepared and would soon be announced in Moscow. Four knowledgeable Jewish Communist leaders fled from East Germany in anticipation of the oncoming persecution. The Israeli government stopped the distribution of the Communist daily Kol Ha’am to soldiers and warned that unless the newspaper stopped «naming the poor Jewish doctors in the Soviet Union as murderers and spies, it will be closed as endangering public security.» The Histadrut Executive, by 27 votes to one, banned Communist members from participation in any trade-union activities
1958 — (24th of Tevet, 5718) One of Israel’s fondest dreams was fulfilled today with the opening of a new highway linking Elath and Beersheba
1968 — (15th of Tevet, 5728) At midnight, the INS Dakar set sail from Gibraltar. After submerging, the Israeli submarine was supposed to sail across the Mediterranean to Israel
2008 — (9th of Shevat, 5768) A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem’s City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said today
2009 — (20th of Tevet, 5769) Two Grad rockets fired from Gaza hit Kiryat Gat this afternoon, wounding three people and causing heavy damage
2011 — (11th of Shevat, 5771) There were a number of attacks against Jewish institutions in Montreal sometime between yesterday evening and this morning, local media reported today. Vandals reportedly smashed the windows of three synagogues, a Jewish day school, and a Jewish daycare center in the Côte-St-Luc and Hampstead neighborhoods

People
*1711 — (7th of Shevat, 5471) Johann Jacob Raabe, translator of the Mishnah, born
*1756 — (14th of Shevat, 5516) Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk (Yaakov Yehoshua ben Tzvi Hirsch) passed away today at Offenbach
*1974 — (22th of Tevet, 5734) “Mark Lutsker, a 25-year-old mathematics student, expelled in 1972 from Voronezh University for wanting to emigrate to Israel, was arrested today at Kiev OVIR when enquiring about his emigration permit, sentenced to two years imprisonment for alleged evasion of military service and sent to camp near Kutaisi, Georgia.”
*1976 — (14th of Tevet, 5736) Lidiya Nisanova of Derbent who had tried to make Aliyah in 1975 went on trial in the Soviet Union on charges of “speculation” and after having been found guilty was sentenced to 18 months in prison