History events
1034 — (12nd of Shevat, 4794) According to Yahia of Antiochia the port of’ Akko fell dry for an hour and there was a Tsunami at Jaffa
1278 — (2nd of Shevat, 5038) Rabbi Isaac Males was burned at the stake by order of the Inquisition. A Jew who had converted to Christianity returned to Judaism. When he died, he was buried in a Jewish cemetery by the Rabbi
1559 — (25th of Tevet, 5319) The first critical edition of Hovot ha-Levavot by Rabbi Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquada was published in Mantua, Italy
1840 — (28th of Tevet, 5600) The first edition of Der Orient, “a German weekly founded by Julius Furst” was published today in Leipsic
1882 — (13th of Tevet, 5642) Members of the Baruch family of Alexandria Egypt were released from jail and exonerated from ritual murder charges in the Fornaraki affair
1920 — (13th of Tevet, 5680) French forces stationed at a fort near Metulla retreated northward after being attacked by Bedouins. With the defeat and retreat of the French army, the 120 members of the settlement of Metulla, all of whom were Jewish, fled to Sidon where they boarded a ship to Haifa. Metulla was the northern most Jewish town in Eretz Israel having been settled in 1896. Since it was close to the border with Lebanon, which was under French control at the time, the retreat of French military forces would have left the Jews to the “tender mercies” of local, armed Arabs.
1943 — (27th of Tevet, 5703) Young members of the Jewish Fighting Organization are rounded up in Czestochowa, Poland. Its leader, Mendel Fiszlewicz, uses a hidden pistol to wound the German commander of the Aktion. Fiszlewicz and 25 other men are immediately shot, and 300 women and children from the group are deported to the Treblinka death camp and gassed.
1943 — (27th of Tevet, 5703) The SS administrative office instructs all concentration-camp commandants to send human hair taken from Jewish women to the firm of Alex Zink, Filzfabrik AG at Roth, Germany, near Nuremberg, for processing
1950 — (15th of Tevet, 5710) “Israel’s Knesset gave the government a 62 to 28 vote of confidence on foreign policy tonight” which effectively gives approval to “peace negotiations with Jordan that would provide for recognition of Jordan’s sovereignty over the Arab-held part of Jerusalem and eastern Palestine.”
1956 — (20th of Tevet, 5716) Announcement appeared today in the Seattle Times: “The first new Jewish congregation in Seattle in more than a generation will be launched with a service Friday evening…”
1974 — (10th of Tevet, 5734) “Twenty-eight Jews from Vilnius” sent a “letter to the Supreme Soviet” demanding passage of a “law guaranteeing the right unhindered emigration.”
1985 — (11th of Tevet, 5745) As of today, since November 20, 1984, 6,500 Ethiopian Jews have secretly made their way to Israel as part of Operation Moses
1999 — (16th of Tevet, 5759) “Gunmen opened fire this morning on a van transporting Jewish settlers in Hebron, wounding two Israeli women as two dozen bullets riddled the vehicle.”
2002 — (20th of Tevet, 5762) The Israeli Army said today that it had seized a ship carrying 50 tons of rockets, mines, antitank missiles and other munitions meant for Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, even as the Bush administration’s envoy met with Mr. Arafat in the hope of strengthening his declared cease-fire with Israel.
2011 — (28th of Tevet, 5771) Israeli greenhouses on a farm near Ashkelon sustained damage from a terrorist rocket fired from Gaza today, and the Air Force responded by bombing a Hamas training base
People
*1729 — (4th of Shevat, 5489) Hebrew poet Meir Bacharach, the brother of Michael Bacharach passed away at Presburg
*1786 — (5th of Shevat, 5546) Moses Mendelssohn, philosopher and religious reformer, died
*1797 — (6th of Tevet, 5557) Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer, born
*1804 — (20th of Tevet, 5564) In the Netherlands, Meyer Samuel Issacs and Rebbec Samuels Isaac gave birth to Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs, the husband of Jane Symmons who was “a professor of Hebrew in London before coming to the United States where he led Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, founded Congregation Shaaray Tefila and was the first rabbi to deliver sermons in English while also being a strong abolitionist. Date of death — May 19, 1878
*1855 — (14th of Tevet, 5515) Birthdate of Edward S. Rothschild, the native of Louisville who “is believed to have built the first sizable office building in San Francisco after the…earthquake” and who served as President of two New York banks – the Public National Bank and the Chelsea Exchange Bank formerly known as “The Bank of the Theatre
*1858 — (18th of Tevet, 5618) Birthdate of Victor Léon the Jewish Austrian-Hungarian librettist best known for his work on the romantic operetta “The Merry Widow. Date of death — February 3, 1940
*1878 — (29th of Tevet, 5638) Birthdate of Zvi Nishri, the native of Russia who made Aliyah in 1903 and became one of the “founding fathers” of modern physical education programs in Israel. Date of death — July 22, 1973
*1880 — (20th of Tevet, 5640) Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as the Avir Yaakov and Abu Hasira,” a leading Moroccan Rabbi” passed away today in Egypt while on his way to Palestine