History events
-1313 (1 Adar 2448 BCE) — The Plague of Locusts. Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and a strong east wind brought vast swarms of locusts that covered the land and devoured whatever had survived the hail.
1349 (12 Adar I 5109) — In Freiberg, Germany, a pogrom and mass killings of Jews accused of spreading the plague.
1475 (22 Shvat 5235) — A ownership note on one of the surviving copies of Responsa by Solomon ben Adret dates to this day. It supports the hypothesis that Jewish printing began before 1475
1876 — (4th of Shevat 5636) It was reported today that a Jewish synagogue has been opened in Toronto, Canada
1892 — (1th of Shevat 5652) The SS Massilia arrived in New York with “250 Russian Jews among her steerage passengers.” After having been expelled from Russia they sailed to Palestine where the Ottoman authorities issued orders banning them from landing at Jaffa. A Jewish society then paid for their passage to America
1899 — (19th of Shevat 5659) “The Jews in Palestine” published today provides a summary of the report submitted in December of 1898 by U.S. Consul General B. Bie Randal in which he said that “960 families, numbering 5,000 souls inhabit 22 Jewish colonies in Palestine which have been founded and subsidized by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, representing the Alliance Israelite Universelle..”
1919 (29 Shvat 5769) — The “Commission of Ten” adopted the so‑called Smuts Memorandum, which included Eretz‑Israel among the mandated territories under the Balfour Declaration. Mandated territories were former German and Turkish colonies placed under the control of the Entente powers after World War I
1920 — (10th of Shevat 5680) In Giessen, medical students “unanimously demand” “the expulsion of all Jews” from the local university
1930 — (1th of Shevat 5690) Simcha Hinkas, a Jewish policeman, went on trial in Tel Aviv. He is accused of leading a crowd of Jews who reportedly killed five adults and wounded two children in an Arab family on August 25, 1929 during the Arab Uprising. According to the government, while Hinkas was on duty at a crossroad on Herzl Street during the Arab riots he saw a truck filled with Jews fired on by Arabs who killed four and wounded five. Hinkas allegedly went back to his barracks, got his rifle and led a Jewish mob in an attack on an Arab house. A government witness identified the bullets in the dead Arabs as having come from a government issued rifle, but could not tie them to the gun belonging to Hinkas. Two Arabs later identified Hinkas from a group of 13 Constables, but other Arabs identified different Constables. Alfred Riggs, assistant superintendent of the police “declared that Hinkas was one of the mildest and best of the police” but, “for reasons of his own,” the British police official seemed certain that the Jewish policeman was guilty
1933 (3 Shvat 5693) — The Shoah. The Nazis came to power in Germany; Adolf Hitler was appointed head of the German government
1933 — (3th of Shevat 5693) Youth Aliyah opens its offices in Berlin. The previous year Recha Freier, a rabbi’s wife decided it would be a good idea to send young people from Germany to Kibbutzim. She founded the Juedische Jugendhilfe organization to help facilitate the work. That same year it became a department of the World Zionist Organization under Henrietta Szold. Five thousand adolescents were rescued before the war and another 15,000 after the war
1938 — (28th of Shevat 5698) The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish constable, Mordechai Schwartz, who was charged with the premeditated murder of Police Constable Mustapha Khoury, was sentenced to death. The court refused to accept evidence that the previous murder by Arabs of two Jews in Karkur had influenced Schwartz to an immediate act of reprisal. Schwartz continued to claim his innocence
1939 (10 Shvat 5699) — The Shoah. Speaking in the Reichstag, Hitler declared: “…the result of the war will not be the Bolshevization of the world and… the triumph of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”
1942 (12 Shvat 5702) — The Shoah. Probably in an anti‑tank ditch near the village of Mayfeld (Kolay District, Crimea), Sonderkommando 10b shot 1,300 Jews gathered from the Kolay and partly Telman districts of Crimea
1943 — (24th of Shevat, 5703) In Letychiv, Ukraine, German Gestapo commences mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp were ordered to undress and were shot with machine-gun into a ravine. Some 7,000 Jews were murdered in Letychiv
1944 — (5th of Shevat 5704) Seven hundred Jews are deported from Milan, Italy, to Auschwitz
1953 — (14th of Shevat 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported from Bonn that the West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, assured Israel that his country would pay the first installment of 47 million marks of the German-Israeli Reparation Agreement within the next two months; that IDF patrols had beaten back two attacks by Jordanian marauders at two points along the armistice lines, inflicting heavy casualties. Jordan falsely claimed that a number of Israeli soldiers were killed in both encounters. Both sides complained to the UN Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission; that traces of copper were found near Jenin
1978 (22 Shvat 5738) — In Israel, 12 families arrived in Netzer Hazani from Kfar Darom. Thus, Netzer Hazani became the pioneer of renewed Jewish settlement in Gaza.
1990 (4 Shvat 5750) — The Knesset approved a law establishing a second, commercial television channel.
2001 (6 Shvat 5761) — The first mortar attack on Jewish settlements in Gaza: Arabs shelled Kibbutz Netzarim.
2005 (20 Shvat 5765) — In Israel, a mass demonstration in Jerusalem against the Disengagement Plan—unilateral concessions to Arabs via evacuation of Gaza and Northern Samaria settlements.
2007 (11 Shvat 5767) — A suicide attack in Eilat—the first such crime in that city. An Arab from Gaza, who had presumably crossed via Sinai, detonated himself in a small bakery. Three people were killed.
2008 (23 Shvat 5768) — Snow in Jerusalem. The municipality closed kindergartens and schools. At 7:00 a.m., public transport was not operating. One hundred snow‑clearing vehicles worked on the streets. On the night of 30 January, reinforced teams of social workers patrolled the streets searching for homeless people, for whom the municipality had prepared shelter.
2008 (23 Shvat 5768) — Retired judge Eliyahu Winograd presented the main findings of the commission he headed, which investigated the conduct of Israel’s political and military leadership during the Second Lebanon War.
2011 (25 Shvat 5771) — IDF Engineering Corps began constructing a separation barrier along the Israeli‑Egyptian border to prevent illegal migrants from entering Israel.
2013 (19 Shvat 5773) — IAF aircraft bombed a military research centre in Jamraya, near Damascus. It served as a base for transferring Russian air‑defence missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
2014 (29 Shvat 5774) — A ceremonial opening of a viewing platform offering a panoramic view of reservoirs along the Nahal Besor in the Eshkol Regional Council area of the Negev.
2018 (14 Shvat 5778) — A ceremony inaugurating the Nab Elias Bypass Road. The route connected Israeli communities—Tzofim, Alfei Menashe, Ma’ale Shomron, Kfarnei Shomron, Nofim, Yakir, Immanuel, and Kedumim—with Kfar Saba and Herzliya, merging into Highway No. 55.
2024 (20 Shvat 5784) — Gaza War, Day 116. Fighting across the Gaza Strip. Soldiers from the 98th Division, 162nd Armoured Division (Ha‑Plada), and the Shu’aley Marmor, Paratroopers, Nahal, Givati, 7th, 14th, and 401st Brigades participated
People
1167 (1 Adar I 4927) — Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, an outstanding Bible commentator, philosopher, astronomer, poet, and scholar of the Torah language, died at age 75
1817 — (13th of Shevat 5577) Rabbi Yom Tov Netel, author of Tehor Ra’ayonim passed away
1873 (2 S hvat 5633) — Jacob Isaac Altaras, a merchant from Marseille known for his plan to relocate some Russian Jews to Algeria for agricultural work, died at age 87.
1883 (21 Shvat 5643) — Joseph Hirsch (Tzvi) Karlebach, German Orthodox rabbi, natural scientist, and researcher of German Jewish history, was born in Lübeck. He was murdered on 26 March 1942 in Latvia.
1886 (24 Shvat 5646) — Israel Shochat, one of the pioneers of the Second Aliyah, public figure, leader of the Zionist labour movement, and founder and head of Ha‑Shomer, was born near Grodno. He died in 1961 in Tel Aviv.
1894 (24 Shvat 5654) — Boris III, Tsar of Bulgaria, was born. He actively opposed Nazi plans to deport Bulgarian Jews to death camps; thanks to his actions, most Bulgarian Jews survived. He died on 23 August 1943.
1894 (23 Shvat 5654) — Yitzhak Meir Levin, public figure and Minister of Social Welfare in Israel’s first government, leader of Agudat Israel, was born. He died on 7 August 1971.
1900 — (30th of Shevat 5660) Birthdate of Russian composer Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky
1909 — Yosef Shlomo Burg, Israeli political and state figure, was born. He held ministerial posts in Israeli governments from 1949 to 1988. He died on 15 October 1999.
1938 (8 Shvat 5698) — M. Bar‑Zoar, Israeli writer and historian, was born.
1945 (16 Shvat 5705) — Meir Dagan (Huberman), long‑time head of Mossad, was born in Kherson.
1958 (9 Shvat 5718) — I. Be’eri, the first head of Israeli military intelligence, died
2024 — (20 Shevat 5784) The Gaza War. Day 116. Major Netzer Simchi, 30, Captain Gavriel Shani, 28, and Warrant Officer Yuval Nir, 43, were killed. Four seriously wounded
2025 — (1 Shevat 5785) As a result of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, 21-year-old Agam Berger, 29-year-old Arbel Yehud, and 80-year-old Gadi Mozes, as well as five Thai citizens, were released.
2025 — (1 Shevat 5785) During a counterterrorism operation near Jenin, Staff Sergeant Liam Hazi, 20, from Rosh Ha’ayin, was killed in action. Six soldiers were wounded