History events
1275 — (7th of Shevat, 5035) Raymond of Penyafort, the Spanish Dominican Friar who convinced King James to order a public (and one-side)debate “between Moshe ben Nahman, a rabbi in Girona, and Paulus Christiani, a baptized Jew of Montpellier who belonged to the Dominicans” the purpose of which was to prove the superiority of Christianity and get the Jews to convert
1413 — (3th of Shevat, 5173) Disputation at Tortosa, Joseph Albo being one of the participants
1419— (9 Shevat 5179) The scribe Meir ben Shmuel completed his work on Yaakov ben Asher’s Orach Chaim (“The Path of Life”):
“I, Meir ben Shmuel, finished this book today, on Friday, the ninth of Shevat, during the reading of the portion Beshallach, in the year 179 of the sixth millennium. Be strong.”
1432 — (2th of Shevat, 5192) The Jewish aldermen and the Jewish community in Pilsen bought from the Town Council a piece of land for which they paid “12 schock of Prague coppers” in the škvrner suburb on which to establish a cemetery
1497 — (3 Shevat 5257) Decree on the expulsion of Jews from Portugal
1497 — (3th of Shevat, 5247) Jews were expelled from Graz, (Austria, Styria)
1666 — (10th of Shevat, 5426) Portuguese Marrano Abraham Senior Teixria who openly professed his Judaism after settling in Hamburg and who got King Frederick III to grant privileges to the Jews of Denmark while serving as a confidant and host for Queen Christina of Sweden passed away today
1728 — (6 Shevat 5488) Emperor Peter II of Russia issued a decree granting the request of “your humble Jewish servant Zundel Hirsch” to remain in Russia, despite the ban issued by Catherine I on April 26 (or April 20), 1727. Israel Hirsch, a native of Vilna, had received in 1715 a residence patent for Riga—traditionally closed to Jews—signed by Alexander Menshikov, “the semi-sovereign ruler.” His son Zundel settled with his family in St. Petersburg and, together with his partner Samson Solomon, became a supplier for the Imperial Mint. Zundel also engaged in timber deliveries to shipyards and traveled throughout the country
1785 — (24th of Tevet, 5545) Haym Salomon passed away in Philadelphia at the age of 44. Born in Poland in 1740, Salomon came to the United States before the outbreak of the American Revolution. He was a friend of financier Robert Morris and helped several leaders of the American Revolution. Among those whom he lent money to was James Madison, author of the Federalist Papers and President of the United States. Salomon died penniless having bankrupted himself in support of the cause of American independence
1840 — (1th of Shevat, 5600) Sultan Abdul Mejid, under pressure from the Montefiore delegation, issued a Firman against blood libels. He also unconditionally released nine survivors of the Damascus libels. Four Jews had already died
1854 — (6 Tevet 5614) Writer Herman Melville arrived in Jerusalem:
“No other place besides Palestine—especially Jerusalem—can so quickly dispel a traveler’s romantic expectations… the disappointment brings a sensation akin to pain.”
1863 — (15th of Tevet, 5623) General Grant sent several telegrams to General Halleck acknowledge the revocation of General Order 11. “By direction of the General in Chief of the Army at Washington¸ the General Order from these Head Quarters expelling Jews from this Department is hereby revoked.”
1898 — (12th of Tevet, 5658) Herzl travels to Berlin and convenes a conference of Berlin Jews. He also has two conversations with Ahmed Tewfik, the Turkish ambassador
1903 — (7th of Tevet, 5663) Herzl begins a trip that would take him to Paris and London
1908 — (3 Shevat 5668) Arthur Ruppin delivered a report to the General Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization recommending several practical measures for settling Eretz Israel, including the creation of labor settlements. Dr. Ruppin would later be called “the father of labor settlements.”
1908 — (3th of Shevat, 5668) Birthdate of composer Menahem Avidom. Born in Galicia, Avidom moved to Eretz Israel after World War I. He studied music and graduated from the American University in Beirut. He gained fame in Israel and throughout the world for his musical accomplishments before he died in 1995
1919 — (5 Shevat 5679) The first conference of the HeHalutz movement (see January 18). HeHalutz was an association of Jewish youth intending to go to Eretz Israel to live by their own labor, without exploiting the labor of others. The founding conference in Petrograd included 30 delegates from 25 localities in Russia; due to the war, no one came from Ukraine. The leader of the movement was Joseph Trumpeldor. The HeHalutz movement initiated the Third Aliyah
1930 — (6th of Tevet, 5690) “Jewish women praying at the Wailing Wall today for the life of a sick relative, were ordered by Arabs and later by British policeman to lower their voices or leave” which “was the first attempt to enforce a demand made two months ago on Chief Rabbi Kook by the Society for the Protection of the Mosque of Omar that Jews worshipping at the Wall do so quietly.”
1934 — (19th of Tevet, 5694) Hadassah announced that “the lowest infant mortality rate achieved in a Palestine health district was in Tel Aviv. “The rate was 68.03 among children under 1 year for every 1,000 live births and represented an improvement over 1931 when the rate was 72.52.” Jerusalem “had a rate of 117.30 in 1932 and 104.28 in 1931. Bethlehem…had a rate of 341.91 in 1932, the highest health district rate in the country. The infant death rate for the whole country was 153 in 1932, against 170 in 1931.”
1937 — (23th of Tevet, 5697) The Palestine Post reported that a quarry worker, Haim Katz, 29, and a policeman, Jacob Klinger, 34, were murdered in an ambush at Givat Shaul
1942 — (17 Tevet 5702) Shoah. Executions of Jews continued in Kharkiv and Bogdanovka. On the same day in Baranovka (Zhytomyr region), 594 Jews gathered from nearby villages were shot
1943 — (29th of Tevet, 5703) The Jews of Lubaczow, Poland, are killed at the Belzec death camp
1943 — (29th of Tevet, 5703) Jews hiding in Opoczno, Poland, are murdered by Germans after being coaxed out of hiding with a promise of rail transport to a neutral country. Five hundred «Jews with relatives in Palestine» came out of hiding to register. All 500 were sent to Treblinka and were gassed
1945 — (21th of Tevet, 5705) On Shabbat, Roza Robota and three other Jewish women implicated in the smuggling of explosives used in the October 7, 1944, uprising at Auschwitz are hanged in front of the entire women’s camp at Birkenau. The three women had been previously tortured in connection with the revolt at Birkenau but gave away no one. Robota’s final words were, «that vengeance would come.»
1946 — (4th of Shevat, 5706) In Zanzur, Libya Islamic instigators encouraged the local population to attack the Jewish community. Of the 150 local Jews half were murdered. The rioting spread to a number of small towns near Tripoli leaving a death toll of approximately 180 Jews and 9 synagogues destroyed. The local police and Arab soldiers often joined in the destruction and murder. This outbreak of Arab anti-Semitic violence took place two years before the creation of the state of Israel. This should put an end to claims that only source of friction between Jews and Arabs was the creation of the Jewish state
1948 — (24 Tevet 5708) War of Independence. Haganah attack on the Semiramis Hotel in Katamon, where the Arab headquarters was located (see January 3 and January 4)
1949 — (5th of Tevet, 5709) During Operation Horev, the Israeli Air Force shot down five RAF Spitfires on patrol in the area, killing two pilots and taking two prisoners. It is not clear if the Spitfires were being flown by Egyptian or British pilots
1949 — (5th of Tevet, 5709) After three days of fighting around Rafah in which its forces failed to defeat the IDF, the Egyptian government announced, that it was willing to enter armistice negotiations
1949 — (5 Tevet 5709) War of Independence. Israeli Air Force shot down five British Spitfires over Gaza.
1949 — (5 Tevet 5709) The kibbutz Rosh HaNikra was founded by demobilized Palmach fighters.
1952 — (8th of Tevet, 5712) Following the rape and murder of Leah Feistinger, Israeli forces reportedly raided Beit Jalla
1952 — (8 Tevet 5712) In the Knesset, Ben-Gurion announced the cabinet’s decision to begin official negotiations with West Germany regarding reparations
1953 — (19th of Tevet, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that according to the new and improved rationing schedule each Israeli was now able to purchase four eggs a week
1954 — (2th of Shevat, 5714) Moshe Sharett succeeded David Ben-Gurion as Prime Minister of Israel
1956 — (22 Tevet 5716) General Staff order establishing the first major paratrooper unit of the Israel Defense Forces—the 202nd Brigade. Its commander was Ariel Sharon. The brigade was fully formed on May 9 and saw its first combat on September 25 during Operation “Luvav.”
1957 — (4th of Shevat, 5717) Yeshiva Kol Ya’ackov opened in Moscow Russia
1961 — (18 Tevet 5721) The first jet Boeing 707 purchased by El Al arrived in the country
1968 — (5th of Shevat, 5728) It was reported today that during a New Year’s conversation French President Charles de Gaulle had assured Jacob Kaplan, the Grand Rabbi of France “that it was far from his intention to insult the Jews when he called them an ‘elite people, sure of itself and domineering’ during a news conference in November of 1967. Speaking at a time when France was repositioning itself following the Six Days War de Gaulle also said “that while the Jews though the centuries had ‘provoked, more precisely aroused’ antagonism in various countries, they had received great sympathy from Christians because of their sufferings.”
1987 — (5th Tevet 5747) U.S. Federal Court issued a decision in favor of Agudas Chassidei Chabad («Union of Chabad Chassidim») regarding the ownership of the priceless library of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. The ruling was based on the idea that a Rebbe is not a private individual but a communal figure synonymous with the body of Chassidim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak’s son-in-law and successor) urged that the occasion be marked with time devoted to study from Torah books («sefarim») as well as the acquisition of new Torah books
2001 — (11th of Shevat, 5761) Today Amos Oz wrote about his frustration with Palestinian behavior saying that now that Israel is offering the Palestinians a peace accord based on 1967 borders, with minor mutual amendments” “the Palestinian nation is rejecting this agreement” with its leaders now demanding a «right of return» for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled and were driven out of their homes in the 1948 war while cynically ignoring “the fate of hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews who fled and were driven out of their homes in Arab countries during the same war.”
2003 — (3th of Shevat, 5763) “Suicide Bombings Kill 23 in Tel Aviv” published today.
2009 — (10th Shevat 5769) IDF Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Day eleven.
St.-Sgt. Alexander Mashevizky, 21, a resident of Beersheba, was killed in a gun battle with Hamas operatives in northern Gaza City. Mashevizky, a member of an elite Engineering Corps unit, led the joint force, which was ambushed by Hamas gunmen while conducting ground sweeps.
2010 — (20 Tevet 5770) Terror attack. Arabs stoned a bus carrying children near the settlement of Migdal Oz. No one was injured, but the bus sustained damage.
2010 — (20 Tevet 5770) The Ministry of Defense officially announced the successful completion of a series of tests of the Iron Dome missile defense system.
2011 — (1 Shevat 5771) Border Police (MAGAV) forces arrested in the Arab village of Zbeideh (Samaria) the leader of a gang that, over three days, had cut down 2,000 citrus trees on 40 dunams. The gang sold the wood for heating in Arab villages and supplied raw material for charcoal workshops in the Palestinian Authority. The plantations belonged to farmers from Moshav Kfar Natar in the Sharon region
2018 — (19th Tevet 5778) “Data released by the IDF tonight revealed that from 99 terrorist attacks over 2017, 20 Israelis were killed, with 169 wounded. The attacks, which originated in the West Bank, are an increase on the numbers from 2016, where from 269 attacks, 17 Israelis were, with 263 injured.”
2024 — (25 Tevet 5784) War with Gaza. Day ninety-two. Special forces unit Egoz eliminated three terrorists in a school building in the village of Sukhila (near Khan Yunis). The 179th “Re’em” Brigade, with intelligence support, carried out an operation in a neighborhood of Gaza City from which IDF forces had been regularly shelled in recent days.
2025 — (6 Tevet 5785) Terror attack on Route 55 near the Arab village of Al-Funduq, between the Jewish communities of Karnei Shomron and Kedumim in Samaria. As an armored passenger bus passed through the village, Arabs exited a white vehicle and opened fire on the bus and nearby Israeli-plated cars. The bus driver was wounded when bullets pierced the windshield; despite his injuries, he continued driving to evacuate passengers from the fire zone. Two women aged 73 and 70 and a 40-year-old man were killed. Seven people were injured. Three months later, all participants in the attack were eliminated by Border Police (YAMAM), the IDF, and the Shin Bet
People
1663 — (8 Shevat 5423) Simon Luzzatto, Venetian rabbi, prominent public figure, and mathematician, died at age 80.
1666 — (10 Shevat 5426) Diego Teixeira de Sampaio died at age 85 — a Portuguese Marrano, financier to the Prince of Holstein-Gottorp, the King of Denmark, and Queen Christina of Sweden after her abdication. He returned to Judaism in 1647, helped secure free residence for Jews in Denmark, and led the Sephardic community of Hamburg. In 1658 he contributed over one-sixth of the community’s donations—660 of 3,106 marks.
1785 — (24 Tevet 5545) Haym Salomon, financier of the American Revolution, died
1803 — (12th of Tevet, 5563) Birthdate of Austrian native and French pianist and composer Henri Herz who owned his own piano factory and built a concert hall in Paris.
1850 — (22th of Tevet, 5610) Birthdate of Eduard Bernstein, a leading German social democrat whose “Jewish parents, who were active in the Reform Temple on the Johannistrasse where services were performed on Sunday.” Died February 18, 1932
1850 — (22 Tevet 5610) — M. Natanson was born — revolutionary and one of the organizers of the society “Land and Freedom.”
*1859 — (1th of Shevat, 5619) Birthdate of Odessa native Michael Zametkin, who in 1877 “fled political persecution in his homeland” and came to the United where he worked in the needle trades, became a leader in “the Jewish labor and Socialist movements while becoming a contributor to several Yiddish and Socialist newswires” including “The Jewish Daily Forward which he helped to found.”
1873 — N. Aronson — sculptor. Died September 30, 1943.
1884 — Isaac Brodsky was born — artist. Died August 14, 1939.
1887 — B. Livshits was born in Odessa — poet. Arrested in 1937, died in prison.
1893 — Oscar Strock was born — composer and author of famous tangos. Died June 22, 1975.
1896 — (20th of Tevet, 5656) Sir Julian Goldsmid, English member of Parliament, died
1902 Aryeh Altman was born — Israeli public and political figure, Knesset member (1951–1965) from Herut (Likud). Died in 1982.
1908 — (3 Shevat 5668) Menahem Avidom was born — Israeli composer. Died in 1995.
1909 — (13 Tevet 5669) Moshe Sneh was born — Israeli military, public, and political figure; headed the Haganah from 1941 to 1946; founder of the left-wing MAPAM party; active member of the Israeli Communist Party; long-time Knesset member. Died in 1972.
1921 — (26 Tevet 5681) Zeev Gur-Ariyeh was born in Germany — Mossad agent in Egypt, working under the cover name Wolfgang Lotz. Arrested on March 7, 1965, but managed to conceal that he was an Israeli spy. After the Six-Day War he returned to Israel in a prisoner exchange. Died May 13, 1993.
1921 — Haim Corfu was born — Israeli politician, Minister of Transport, and Knesset member from Likud. Died February 23, 2015.
1925 — (10 Tevet 5685) Uzi Narkis was born — IDF Central Command leader during the Six-Day War. Died in 1997.
1931 — E. L. Doctorow was born — American writer. Died July 21, 2015.
1938 — (4th of Shevat, 5698) Russian born Pinchas Friedman one of the earliest Zionist settlers and a founder of Tel Aviv passed who had made Aliyah in 1890 passed away today
1942 — (17th of Tevet, 5702) Jacob Moshe Toledano who was born in Tiberias was installed as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. In 1926 Toledano served as the head of the religious court at Tangiers, and later similar posts in Cairo and Alexandria. Toledano was escorted from Tiberias to Tel Aviv by a grand delegation
1944 — Yair Rosenblum was born — Israeli composer. Died in 1996.
1950 — (17th of Tevet, 5710) Birthdate of Moldavian native Boris Sandler, the Jewish writer whose language of choice is Yiddish
2025 — (6 Tevet 5785) War with Gaza. Day four hundred fifty-eight. In battle in the northern Gaza Strip, Major Dvir Sion Revach, 28, of Jerusalem, company commander of the 932nd Battalion of the Nahal Brigade, and Captain Eitan Israel Shiknazi, 24, of Eli, deputy company commander of the same battalion, were killed. Two soldiers of the battalion were seriously wounded. The casualties resulted from a rocket-propelled grenade attack near Beit Hanoun