History events
1256 — (9th of Shevat, 5016) Berechiah De Nicole, the Chief Rabbi of Lincoln was released after having been imprisoned in London on charges related to the death of “Little Hugh of Lincoln.” The son of Rabbi Moses ben Yom Tov of London, Reb Berechiah was an English Tosafist who was considered an authority on ritual matters. “He decided that the evening prayer might be said an hour and a quarter before the legal time of night…and declared that nuts prepared by Gentiles might not be eaten by Jews.” In August, 1255, the body of gentile boy named Hugh was found in Lincoln (a town called Nicole in Norman-French). This discovery gave rise to charges of ritual murder for which all the Jews of Lincoln were seized and imprisoned in Lincoln. Berechiah reportedly some time during 1256, but the exact date and cause are unknown
1413 — (4th of Shevat, 5173) Disputation at Tortosa, Joseph Albo being one of the participants
1502 — (27th of Tevet, 5262) Birthdate of Pope Gregory VIII, famed for the creation of the Gregorian calendar, a method of tracking time has had a unique impact on Jewish historians trying to match events that occurred before 1752 (5512) on the Jewish calendar with the civil calendar
1775 — (6th of Shevat, 5535) For the second time in two months, Empress Maria Theresa banished all the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia
1843 — (6th of Shevat, 5603) The first Jewish service was held at the Wellington Hebrew Congregation in Wellington, New Zealand under the leadership of Abraham Ort
1884 — (9th of Tevet, 5644) The Hebrew Technical Institute, a vocational High School in New York City was founded on today. The school was founded after three Hebrew charity organizations formed a committee to promote technical education for the many Jewish immigrants arriving in New York at the time. The school closed in
1896 — (21th of Tevet, 5656) Herzl’s article «Die Lösung der Judenfrage» — «The Solution of the Jewish Question» appears in «The Jewish Chronicle» in London
1904 — (19th of Tevet, 5664) “Kishineff Fears Not Ended” published today described precautions being taken by Jews in Kishinev to avoid the consequences of another outbreak of violence which included leaving town, staying at home as much as possible if leaving was not an option and by being “circumspect” as “to avoid givng a pretext for misunderstanding to their Christian fellow-townsmen.”
1921 — (27th of Tevet, 5681) Publication of the first edition of the resurrected Yiddish language newspaper Der Emmes (The Truth) published by Yevsektsiya, the Jewish section of the Communist Party. An earlier version of the paper had been published in 1918 in Moscow. The paper would cease publication in 1939 when it fell victim to an anti-Yiddish campaign in the Soviet Union
1932 — (28th of Tevet, 5692) Chaim Arlosoroff, head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, wrote a letter to High Commissioner Viscount Ord Plumer proposing that the municipal region of Jerusalem should be divided into two boroughs: West Jerusalem, which was mostly Jewish and the Old City which was largely Arab. A United Municipal Council would oversee these to two sub-entities. The British rejected the proposal lest it anger the Arabs
1936 — (12th of Tevet, 5696) Speaking at a luncheon given in her honor by the Survey Associates as part of the celebration of her 75th birthday, Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold “told a large group of leaders in social work that Youth Aliyah already had brought 950 German-Jewish children to Palestine and placed them in cooperative settlement camps” where it will cost $360 per child to provide for them over the next two years
1938 — (5th of Shevat, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that Romania started re-examining the naturalization of all «foreigners» who had settled there since 1913, in order to deprive them of their citizenship. The first victims of the new policy were Jewish doctors who lost their right to practice medicine. Jewish innkeepers were declared to be «dangerous». All Jews were divided into citizens and non-citizens, and the latter became the subject of a compulsory expulsion
1939 — (16th of Tevet, 5699) Official founding of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra
1947 — (15th of Tevet, 5707) “A government source said today the Foreign Secretary Bevin and Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones had decided to recommend to the Cabinet that Palestine be divided into independent Arab and Jewish States.”
1949 — (6th of Tevet, 5709) During Israel’s War of Independence Operation Horev came to an end. At two o’clock in the afternoon, Israel accepts a ceasefire on the Egyptian front based on Egypt’s publicly announced willingness to negotiate an armistice. Egypt is left in control of Gaza, but Israel has driven the Egyptians from the Negev.
1951 — (29th of Tevet, 5711) As it starts its first post-independence tour in the United States, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) has its first performance at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C
1970 — (29th of Tevet, 5730)In response to cross canal attacks by Egyptian forces, Israeli planes begin an in-depth bombing campaign against Egyptian military bases.
1978 — (28th of Tevet, 5738)Isaiah Sheffer and “his artistic partner…put on a marathon concert of Bach “at a grimy, derelict movie theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side” that would become Symphony Space
2010 — (21th of Tevet, 5770) At least 10 mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel.
2010 — (21th of Tevet, 5770) A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written, testifying to Hebrew writing abilities as early as the 10th century BCE, the University of Haifa announced today
2011 — (2th of Shevat, 5771) Israel’s departing intelligence chief said he believes Iran will not be able to build a nuclear weapon before 2015 at the earliest, Israeli news media reported today, in a revised and surprisingly upbeat assessment of Tehran’s nuclear capabilities
2013 — (25th of Tevet, 5773) December 2012 witnessed a 400% spike in the number of terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem compared to August, according to statistics published by the Shin Bet security service today
People
*1858 — (21th of Tevet, 5618) Birthdate of Eliëzer Ben-Yehuda. Born Eliezer Yitzhak Perelman, in what is now Lithuania; Ben-Yehuda was the father of Modern Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda adopted several plans of action to accomplish his goal. The main ones were three-fold, and they can be summarized as “Hebrew in the Home,” “Hebrew in the School,” and “Words, Words, Words.” By the time he died in 1922, Ben-Yehuda had almost singled-handedly transformed a “dead Biblical language” into a modern language that embodied the spirit of Zionism and the modern Jewish world
*1895 — (11th of Tevet, 5655) Adolph Sutro began serving as the 24th mayor of San Francisco, CA making him the first Jew to be elected to this position
*1896 — (21th of Tevet, 5656) Sir Julian Goldsmid, English member of Parliament, died
*1935 — (3th of Shevat, 5695) Birthdate of Noam Sheriff, one of Israel’s most versatile and world renowned musicians who studied composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv (Paul Ben-Chaim), Berlin (Boris Blacher) and Salzburg (Igor Markevitch) and philosophy at the Jerusalem University