History events
1668 — (25th of Shevat, 5428) Pope Clement IX canceled the humiliating forced races known as the Palio. During the Plaio near naked Jews were forced to run through the streets of Rome during carnival time. In return for the revocation the Jews of Rome had to pay a special cancellation tax of 200 ducats. This tax was paid for almost 200 years
1721 — (11th of Shevat, 5481) A fire broke out in the Judengasse at Frankfort which destroyed over a hundred homes. Christian looters took advantage of the situation and it took the intervention of Emperor Charles VI for the Jews to be compensated for their losses. The fire gave Jews a chance to legally live outside of the Ghetto for 8 years. By 1729, they had all been forced back into their narrow confines
1790 — (13th of Shevat, 5550) The French National Assembly granted full and equal citizenship to the Portuguese and Avignonese Jews. The Jews of Alsace would have to wait until 1791 to be granted these same rights. France was the first European country to pass such liberal legislation
1808 (28 Tevet 5568, or 27 January) — Jérôme Napoléon granted full civil rights to the Jews of Westphalia
1835 (28 Tevet 5595) — Jews in the Belarusian town of Velezh were cleared of the blood libel. On 1 April and 26 August, a synagogue was opened and arrested individuals were released—thanks to Admiral Mordvinov’s intervention
1897 — (25th of Shevat, 5657) “Oldest Benefit Society” published today provides a brief history of the early Jewish community in New York and the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society which was organized in 1826 when there approximately 300 Jewish families living in the city most of whom “lived below Canal Street and east of the Bowery.”
1902 (20 Shvat 5662) — In Vilnius, the second trial of butcher D. Blondes began. He was accused of wounding his maid, Grudzinska, “with a sharp cutting knife on her neck and left arm… to obtain blood for matzah.” At the first trial (December 1900), Blondes was found guilty of inflicting wounds “without intent to kill” and sentenced to one year and four months in prison. After he appealed, the second trial (lasting five days, with prominent Russian professors testifying as experts) found him innocent
1902 — (20th of Shevat, 5662) Herzl authorized Leopold Kessler’s leadership of the expedition to El Arish where he and others including Dr. Selig Soskin an agricultural expert, Dr. Hillel Joffee and Colonel Albert Goldsmid would consider the possibility of this area of the Sinai Peninsula as a possible site for Jewish colonization
1918 — (15th of Shevat, 5678) In Jerusalem, the cornerstone is laid for Hebrew University
1937 — (16th of Shevat, 5697) Jewish students attempting to enter Warsaw University grounds today were turned back Fascist pickets and those “who insisted on entering were pushed out and beaten.”
1942 (10 Shvat 5702) — The Shoah. Einsatzkommando 12 shot at least 500 Jews in Huliaipole (Zaporizhzhia Oblast). Probably on the same day, a local German “self‑defence” unit executed about 600 Odessa Jews near the village of Yashtrebivove (Voznesensk District, Mykolaiv Oblast)
1949 — (27th of Tevet, 5709) Israel was recognized (diplomatically) by Australia, Belgium, Chile, Great Britain, Holland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand
1949 (27 Tevet 5709) — Pravda published the article “On an Anti‑Patriotic Group of Theatre Critics,” launching the campaign against cosmopolitanism
1953 (12 Shvat 5713) — The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset approved significant increases in customs duties on several goods, including food packages sent to Israelis by relatives abroad. This was expected to cover part of the budget deficit
1979 — (29th of Tevet, 5739) Two were killed and thirty-four more were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in a Netanya market
1991 — (13th of Shevat, 5751) Iraq fired another missile with a conventional warhead at Tel Aviv tonight, the seventh attack in 12 days. But this time the army said the Scud was defective and disintegrated as it fell back to earth. No one was hurt, and there was no property damage. The missile had fallen apart even before any Patriot air-defense missiles could be fired at it
2003 (25 Shvat 5763) — Elections for the 16th Knesset took place under the third revision of the Basic Law: The Government, which repealed the direct election of the prime minister (introduced in 1996). Thanks to Ariel Sharon’s immense personal popularity, Likud won 38 seats. The Israeli Labour Party’s representation shrank to 17 seats.
2010 (13 Shvat 5770) — 236 Israelis returned from Haiti after providing aid to the island following a devastating earthquake.
2015 (8 Shvat 5775) — Three anti‑tank missiles were fired from Lebanon at IDF patrol jeeps along the border. Senior Sergeant Dor Nini (20), from Moshav Shutlim, and Captain Yohai Kalangel (25), from Ar Gilo, were killed. Seven people were wounded.
2024 (18 Shvat 5784) — Gaza War, Day 114. The 98th Division continued its advance in Khan Yunis. The IAF launched several missiles at the Musa Arafat Tower in the An‑Nasr area, struck targets in Sheikh Radwan (Gaza City), and in Tal al‑Hawa (western Gaza). Navy boats shelled the coast south of Gaza City. Early‑warning sirens sounded in southern Ashkelon’s industrial zone and in the kibbutzim of Karmia, Yad Mordechai, and Netiv ha‑Asara
People
1167 — (6th of Adar, 4927) Poet and philosopher Abraham Ibn Ezra, hero of the golden age of Spain, passed away. There is some disagreement about when this sage actually passed away. Some say he passed away in 1164. Others say that he passed away on January 23. Although specificity as to the date of his death may not be possible, there is no doubt about his greatness
1573 — (24th of Shevat, 5333) Lippold, master of the Brandenburg mint, executed
1594 — (17th of Shevat, 5354) Seventy-nine year old Elia Levita who was “also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Eliahu Bakhur («Eliahu the Bachelor») and “was a Renaissance-period Hebrew grammarian, poet and one of the first writers in the Yiddish language” passed away today in Venice
1788 — Rabbi Chaim Palachi was born in Turkey and authored 72 books in Hebrew and Ladino on all aspects of Jewish life. He died on February 10, 1868.
1808 — Theodor Benfey, German philologist and founder of comparative literary studies, was born. He died on 26 June 1886
1809 — (11th of Shevat, 5569) Theodor Benfey, German Sanskritist and philologist, born
1862 — Hannah Bachman Einstein, American social activist and prominent philanthropist who advocated for children’s rights, was born. She died on 28 November 1929.
1887 — Artur Rubinstein, composer and piano virtuoso, was born. He died on 20 December 1982.
1911 (28 Tevet 5671) — The Shoah. Johan van Hulst, Righteous Among the Nations, was born. During the war, he headed the Pedagogical Academy in Amsterdam, adjacent to a building where Nazis held Jewish children before deporting them to concentration camps. Van Hulst hid the children in the academy and, with help from the Resistance, smuggled them to safety. He saved several hundred children. He died on 22 March 2018.
1934 — A. E. Kontorovich, scientist and director of the Institute of Geology of Oil and Gas at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was born. He died on 24 October 2023.
1959 — Y. Sprinzak, Speaker of the Knesset, died at age 74.
2008 (21 Shvat 5768) — Yosef Nahimas, former Inspector‑General of the Police, died at age 96