History events
1289 — (12 Shvat 5049)
Jechiel ben Jekuthiel Anav completed the transcription of Zeraim and Moed — sections of the so-called Leiden Jerusalem Talmud. The Leiden Jerusalem Talmud (also known simply as the Leiden Talmud) is a medieval copy of the Jerusalem Talmud. It is the world’s oldest complete manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud, and the only surviving complete one (not printed). It received its name from Leiden University, where it has been kept since the nineteenth century.
1533 — (9 Shvat 5293)
Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire sent an order to his viceroy, Pedro of Toledo, commanding the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom of Naples. Within six months not a single Jew was to remain on Neapolitan territory, under penalty of being handed over as a slave to whoever apprehended him. Yet Don Samuel Abravanel, son of Don Isaac Abravanel, succeeded in having the decree revoked. On 30 November 1535, an agreement was concluded between Charles and the Jews, allowing them to stay in the country upon payment of ten thousand ducats… In 1540 Charles V Habsburg issued a new edict of expulsion
1826 — (26nd of Теvet, 5586) Maryland put into effect the «Jew Bill», which allowed Jews to hold public office if they believed in Reward and Punishment in the Hereafter
1837 — (28 Tevet 5597)
On a report of the Russian Committee of Ministers summarizing the state of the question regarding the resettlement of Jews to Siberia, Tsar Nicholas I wrote the resolution: “Suspend the resettlement of Jews to Siberia.”
1877 — (20nd of Теvet, 5637) The Supreme Court of Massachusetts upheld a lower court decision that Jews must observe the laws of the state regulating the observance of the Sabbath. The case grew out of an attempt to keep a store open on Sunday
1881 — (24nd of Shevat, 5641) The price of l’Union Générale stock began an eleven day crash, which the anti-Semites would later blame on a conspiracy of Jewish bankers
1883 — (26nd of Теvet, 5643) Today, the American Israelite published a letter from the “24 Russian Jewish families that had established the Jewish community of Beersheba in Kansas” to “Moritz Loth, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregation” expressing their appreciation for the financial and material support provided for them
1894 — (27nd of Теvet, 5644) It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities had spent over $171,000 in aiding the needy. Due to the economic downturn in 1893, the organization had spent $200,000 through November of 1893
1895 — (9nd of Теvet, 5655) Alfred Dreyfus was publicly degraded and sent to Devil’s Island. Later, evidence was produced which proved that Major Esterhazy and Colonel Henry, Dreyfus’ chief accusers, had forged the evidence. Yet, a new trial was not begun until 1899. The Dreyfus Affair brought on a torrent of anti-Semitism that spawned the modern Zionist movement. It tore at the fabric of French society and for decades later, there was still a political divide between those who supported Dreyfus and those who wanted to believe that he was a traitor
1898 — (11nd of Теvet, 5658) Herzl’s «The New Ghetto» was finally produced in the Carl-Theater in Vienna. The play was also performed in Berlin and Prague
1902 — (26nd of Теvet, 5662) Two thousand Jews attended “a mass meeting of Zionist at the Medinah Temple Theatre” where many of them express their support for “the plan as determined at the Basle conference” the idea of which is “to create a legally assured home for the Jews and a refuge for Jews who could not be assimilated by the people among whom they had come to live.”
1919 — (4nd of Shevat, 579) The National Socialist Party (Nazi) formed as German Farmers Party. Hitler was not one of the party founders
1919 — (4 Shvat 5679) Russian Civil War. A pogrom took place in the colony of Trudolyubovka, in the Alexandrovsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province
1930 — (5 Tevet 5690) The founding date of MAPAI, the Israeli Workers’ Party.
1931 — (16 Tevet 5691) The Third Assembly of the Va’ad Leumi — the national council of Jewish representatives in Palestine — began its work. Its term ended on 1 August 1944. Seventy-one delegates from twelve parties participated. The chairman was Pinhas Rutenberg
1937 — (22nd of Теvet, 5697) In the Beit She’an Valley, members of the Sadeh group from the Mikveh Israel agricultural school and immigrants from Austria, Germany and Poland Kibbutz HaSadeah, which was later re-named Sde Naum in honor of Zionist leader and author Nahum Sokolov
1938 — (3 Shvat 5698) Shoah. Germany enacted a law requiring Jewish men to add the name “Israel” and Jewish women the name “Sara” to their given names
1938 — (3rd of Shevat, 5698) Three passengers were wounded this evening when at 7 p.m. twenty shots were fired at a Jewish-owned bus traveling from Jerusalem to the suburb of Beit Vegan.” Fifty-eight year old Laredo, TX banker Benjamin Mortimer Alexander, the son of Samuel and Rossa Aaron Alexander and husband of Jessie Lee Hellman Alexander passed away today after which he was buried in the “Jewish section” of the Laredo City Cemetery
1939 — (14nd of Теvet, 5699) Germany declared Karaite Jews exempt from enforcement of the Nuremberg Laws
1940 — (24nd of Теvet, 5700) Jews were forbidden by the General Gouvernment be in the streets between 9:00PM and 5:00AM
1942 — (16 Tevet 5702) Shoah. Executions of Jews continued in Kharkov and Bogdanovka. On the same day, three Jews were hanged in Uman (Cherkasy region)
1943 — (28nd of Теvet, 5703) In an orgy of killing that would last for the next two days the Nazis murdered thousands of Jews at Lvov, Ukraine
1945 — (20nd of Теvet, 5705) In “American Boy’s Find Tel Aviv Like a Home Town” published today Anne O’Hare McCormick described conditions in Palestine’s major metropolis. According to her, “40% of the Jewish population of Palestine lives in Tel Aviv.” She describes Tel Aviv “as being one of the world’s youngest cities” and as being “better planned and more modernistic that the Florida boom towns it resembles.” This very cosmopolitan city is suffering from a housing shortage brought on by an influx of refugees from Europe and North Africa
1948 — (23nd of Теvet, 5708) As the siege of Jerusalem continues, the Haganah launches an attack against Katamon, a suburb from which Arab gunmen have been firing non-stop into adjacent Jewish neighborhoods
1949 — (4nd of Теvet, 5709) As the War of Independence winds down, Israeli forces struggle to dislodge the Egyptians from Gaza. A sandstorm hinders and IDF column attacking the town of Rafa. At the same time the storm provides cover for an Egyptian armored column that launched a counter-attack aimed at keeping the Israelis from Rafa
1968 — (4nd of Теvet, 5728) “Informed Jewish sources said today that Jacob Kaplan, the Chief Rabbi of France told President de Gaulle of his concern over the fact that” his statement calling the Jews “an elite people, people, sure of itself and domineering” “had been used by ‘real’ anti-Semites as an instrument against Jews.”
1978 — (26nd of Теvet, 5738) The Jerusalem Post reported that at Aswan US President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declared jointly that any Middle East peace settlement required the recognition of the «legitimate rights of the Palestinians and their participation in deciding their own future.» In Jerusalem Premier Menachem Begin declared his firm opposition to this self-determination principle
1996 — (13nd of Теvet, 5756) Yahya Ayyash, chief bomb maker for Hamas, was killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone
2003 — (2nd of Shevat, 5763) In the deadliest attack against Israel in 10 months a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up just seconds apart today in the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood of Tel Aviv, an area crowded with foreign laborers, killing 23 other people and injuring 100 more
2008 — (27nd of Теvet, 5768) The Israeli Army wound up a large-scale, three-day operation in the northern West Bank city of Nablus
2009 — (9 Tevet 5769) Four soldiers were killed in friendly-fire incidents that took place during fighting on Monday night. Three soldiers were killed when a tank mistakenly opened fire on a home in Saja’iya occupied by officers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade. Another tank accidentally fired on a home in al-Atatra, killing an officer in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroop Brigade. The soldiers were Cpl. Yousef Moadi, 19, who lived recently in Haifa, but was originally from the Druse village of Yirka; Maj. Dagan Wertman, 32, from Ma’aleh Michmash in the Binyamin region; St.-Sgt. Nitai Stern, 21, from Jerusalem; and Capt. Yonatan Netanel, 27, from Kedumim
2018 — (18nd of Теvet, 5778) “Israelis awoke to a morning of harsh weather conditions today as heavy rains and furious storms lashed the country from north to south, inflicting floods on various areas and causing trees to come crashing down on parked cars in Tel Aviv.”
2023 — (12nd of Теvet, 5783) Based on action taken yesterday by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the Knesset is scheduled to deal with a number of bills designed to reform Israel’s judicial system including one that would allow the legislature to override Supreme Court ruling
2024 — (24 Tevet 5784)
War with Gaza. Day Ninety-One. Fighting continued in the area of the al-Bureij camp and the city of Khan Yunis, where several militant groups and firing positions were eliminated; more than one hundred terrorist targets were struck, including military headquarters and arms depots.
2025 — (5 Tevet 5785)
At the Tel Ha-Shomer base induction center, recruitment began for the new infantry brigade Hashmonaim — the IDF’s first ultra-Orthodox brigade
People
1796 — (24nd of Теvet, 5556) Joseph Salvador, Jewish historian, born
1874 — J. Erlanger was born — an American scientist and physiologist, one of the founders of electrophysiology. He died in 1965
1882 — (5 Shvat 5641) Dorothy Levitt was born — the first female racing driver. Her first motoring competition took place in April 1903. Seven subsequent years of successful racing made her a star. She soon became known as the fastest girl in the world. She set the first recorded world speed record on water (19.3 km/h), and in 1905 completed the longest automobile journey ever undertaken by a woman — from London to Liverpool and back. In July of the same year she set the first women’s land-speed record, which she surpassed a year later. She died on 17 May 1922
1883 —Feodosia Ilyinichna Drabkina was born (party pseudonyms: Natasha, Marianna), a revolutionary. She died on 10 January 1957
1884 — (7nd of Теvet, 5644) Edward Lasker, German statesman, died
1886 —Mark Reiner was born — an Israeli scientist and laureate of the Israel Prize in exact sciences. He died in 1976.
1890 — (13 Tevet 5650) Sarah Aaronsohn was born in the settlement of Zikhron Ya’akov — a heroine of NILI.
1906 — (8 Tevet 5666) Avraham Stavsky was born — a leader of the illegal immigration movement before the establishment of the State. He was accused of the murder of Arlosoroff in 1933, convicted, and later acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of evidence.
1923 — (17nd of Теvet, 5683) Birthdate of Israel Prize-winning author and translator Aharon Amir. Amir, who was born in Lithuania, grew up in Tel Aviv and was a member of both the Irgun and the Lehi. He was one of the founders of the Canaanite movement, which saw geographical location rather than religious affiliation as the defining element of Hebrew or Israeli culture. He studied Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem but translated works of literature mainly from English and French. Authors whose work he rendered into Hebrew include Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, and Charles de Gaulle. Amir won the Tchernichovsky Prize for translation in 1951 and the Israel Prize for translation in 2003. He passed away on February 28, 2008 at the age of 85
1961 — (17 Tevet 5721) In Tel Aviv, at the age of 75, Yehuda Magidovitch — an Israeli architect — passed away