History events
1180 — (24th of Shevat, 4940) France, Phillip August seized all of the Jews living on his estates and imprisoned them. He freed them in exchange for a ransom of fifteen hundred silver marks
1567 — (9th of Shevat, 5327) Pope Pius V issued “Cum nos nuper,” a bull that forbids Jews from owning real estate
1657 — (15th of Shevat, 5417) Thanks to the influence of Abraham Teixeira de Mattos who had lent Frederick III “to fight his wars”, the Danish monarch permitted “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion” “to travel everywhere within the kingdom and to trade and traffic within the limit of the law
1805 — (19th of Shevat, 5565) Wolf Breidenbach succeeded in having the “Leibzoll” abolished in Raisbon and Darmstadt. The Liebzoll was a “toll which Jews had to pay on entering towns where they did not dwell or had no special privileges.”
1898 — (25th of Tevet, 5658) It was reported today that in Nantes, the shops belonging to the Jews have been stoned as violence sparked by the Dreyfus Affair and anti-Semitism sweep the country; A series of violent anti-Jewish demonstrations took place this evening in Algiers
1912 — (29th of Tevet, 5672) In New York City publication of the first issue of the Yiddish weekly Die Yiddische Wochenschrift
1919 — (18th of Shevat, 5679) At today’s final session of the First Jewish Labor Congress which has been meeting at the Yorkville Casino, “the delegates, representing 500,000 members of organized labor throughout the country, adopted a resolution favoring a free republic in Palestine where the Jews will have no more right than any other people until, by immigration or otherwise, they become the majority.”
1921 — (10th of Shevat, 5681) It was reported today that the Jewish National Council of Lithuania has “decided to facilitate the return to that country of Lithuanian Jews living in America who desire to come back
1924 — (13th of Shevat, 5684) While visiting New York, Dr. Osias Thon, chief rabbi of Cracow and a member of the World Zionist Organization, said today that “I am most hopeful for Jews in Poland and for Poland as a nation.” Despite the continued manifestation of long standing national friction and “internal discords” Thon expressed the hope “that the time is not too far distant when the leading Polish statesmen will recognize the justice of our demands and there will be a Polish-Jewish peace founded on the basis of full rights for the Jews of Poland.
1927 — (16th of Shevat, 5687) A drought ending rainstorm fell on the Beersheba-Hebron region of Palestine today
1937 — (7th of Shevat, 5697) In Berlin, the Central National Health Office issued a new appeal to all Germans to boycott Jewish physicians in order “to prevent any slackening in the anti-Jewish boycott
1938 — (17th of Shevat, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that Jewish truck drivers repelled an Arab attack on the Palestine Potash convoy, which was on its way to the Dead Sea, 10 km. east of Jerusalem. One driver was severely wounded, but the convoy finally reached its destination. The Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline was again set on fire
1941 — (20th of Tevet, 5701) Six thousand Jews were killed in Bucharest riots
1942 — (1th of Shevat, 5702) “An escaped inmate from the Chelmno extermination camp, Jacob Grojanowski, reached the Warsaw Ghetto, where he gave detailed information about the camp to the Oneg Shabbat group,” “which became known as the Grojanowski Report that was smuggled out of the ghetto through the channels of the Polish underground, reached London and was published by June
1945 — (5th of Shevat, 5705) The Death Marches began for the surviving Jews and Poles who were evacuated from Labor Camps and Concentration Camps. Those who were too weak to march were shot by the thousands. As they marched through the severity of winter to new locations, tens of thousands more were shot for any infraction: “ the camp at Fürstengrube was evacuated in the face of the advancing Red Army and prisoners who were fit enough to move were, initially, marched to a railhead at Gleiwitz” while “many of those who were not fit were shot by SS guards led by SS-Oberscharführer Max Schmidt”
1949 — (18th of Tevet, 5709) Cuba recognized Israel
1991 — (4th of Shevat, 5751) Iraq launched a second missile attack against Tel Aviv this morning, military officials said. The Israeli authorities said the missiles carried conventional explosives, like the missiles that hit Tel Aviv and Haifa early yesterday. The Mayor of Tel Aviv was reported on radio and television to have said that two missiles landed in the city in the latest attack and that a few people were slightly wounded.
1993 — (26th of Tevet, 5753) Israel recognized PLO as no longer criminal
1997 — (11th of Shevat, 5757) Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli controlled West Bank city.
2002 — (6th of Shevat, 5762) Following a terrorist attack two days ago that killed 6 and wounded “more than 30” Israelis who were attending a family celebration in Hadera, today, after clearing away occupants and onlookers, “Israeli troops blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station
2006 — (19th of Tevet, 5766) A bomber blew himself up near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv at around 3:45 P.M. this afternoon. Thirty-one people were injured or wounded. The bomber came from the town of Nablus. Islamic Jihad took credit for the terrorist attack. Some Israeli leaders said there was evidence that Iran had been involved in planning or financing the attack
2011 — (14th of Shevat, 5771) As violence continues to erupt across Tunisia it was reported today that Roger Bismuth and Khlifa Atoun, the leaders of the Tunisian Jewish community have left the country
People
1803 — (25th of Tevet, 5563) Marcus Herz, physician and philosopher, died
1848 — (14th of Shevat, 5608) Isaac D’Israeli, English litterateur and father of the Earl of Beaconsfield, died
1923 — (2th of Shevat, 5683) Birthdate of Markus Wolf the German born son of Jewish writer and physician Friedrich Wolf who was regarded as one the “great spymasters of the Cold War” for his leadership in Stasi
1982 — (24th of Tevet, 5742) Leopold Trepper, famed World War II spy, passed away in Israel at the age of 77. Born in Poland in 1904, Trepper supported the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. A committed Communist, Trepper moved to Palestine after World War I, where he worked against British occupation until he was expelled in 1928. With the outbreak of World War II, Trepper organized the Red Orchestra, one of the of most storied and successful spy networks in occupied Europe. The Red Orchestra operated in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. One of its greatest accomplishments was tapping the phone lines of the German military intelligence units in occupied France. The Nazis broke the Red Orchestra in 1942 and Trepper hid in Paris until liberation in 1944. Trepper made his way to Moscow where Stalin had him arrested. He was finally freed from a Russian prison in 1955. Trepper worked with the Jewish community in Poland before finally getting permission to move to Israel. You can read more about this Jewish James Bond in his autobiography, The Great Game