History events
1716 — (10th of Av, 5476) A decree banishing Jews from Brussels was issued today; but it was not enforced: a gift to the crown overcame all difficulties. A similar decree issued forty years later had the same result.
1917 — (5th of Av, 5577) A draft of what would become the Balfour Declaration was submitted to Lord Balfour
1939 — (2th of Av, 5699) The entire Jewish community of Palestine, regardless of political persuasion, participated in a general strike aimed at protesting Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald’s announcement that Jewish immigration would be banned for the next six month
1940 — (12th of Tammuz, 5700) Chiune Sugihara a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania began issuing life-saving visas to Polish and Lithuanian Jews in violation of instructions from his superiors.
1944 — (27th of Tammuz, 5704) The Jews living on the island of Rhodes were ordered to assemble for what would become a transport of Hungary. The community dated back to 1492, the time of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain
1947 — (1th of Av, 5707) The British seized the SS Exodus carrying 4000 «illegal» immigrants. Its defiance of the British navy and its ultimate return to Germany formed one of the most dramatic episodes in post-war Jewish history. This episode gained additional fame because it provided the core for the famous novel and film Exodus.
1948 — (11th of Tammuz, 5708) War of Independence. ….. On the final day of Operation Dekel, Israeli forces take the villages Sh’ab and Al-Birwa; As part of Operating Death to the Invader, Israeli continued their offensive in the Negev attacking Egyptian invaders at Hatta and Karatiyya. After initial Israeli success, the Egyptians counter-attacked with tanks. An Israeli soldier named Ron Feller risked his life in a successful effort to destroy two of the tanks using a hand held anti-tank weapon for which he had only two rounds. He received the Hero of Israel Citation for his bravery; A fourth and final attack by Israelis on the fortress of Latrun failed. Latrun would remain in the hands of Jordan’s Arab Legion until 1967; During the War of Independence, after ten days of fighting (July 8- July 18), a second truce went into effect; As of today, the entire lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the Sea of Galilee was under Israeli control; Today, “at 17:30, on the last day of the summer offensive, Modi Alon led Syd Antin and Rudy Augarten who was flying his first combat mission in Israel, from Herzliya in three S-199s to attack an Egyptian armored column at Bir Asluj, west of Beersheva” “where they dropped their bombs and made three strafing runs; Modi Alon scored his third aerial victory today when he shot down a Royal Egyptian Air Force Spit fired piloted by Wing Commander Said Afifi al-Janzuri. The Spitfire had been the backbone of the RAF during the Blitz in 1940. Alon had served in the RAF during the war but had flown the American made P-51.
1951 — (14th of Tammuz, 5711) The Jerusalem Post reported that while the Knesset voted for equal rights for women, the word ba’al (the word for husband which literally means also a master) was replaced with ish (man, meaning husband as well).
1969 — (3th of Av, 5729) During the War of Attrition, “Egyptian commandos attacked Israelis military installations in the Sinai
1994 — (10th of Av, 5754) In Buenos Aires a car bomb exploded outside the building housing the AMIA, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA) building killing 85 people and wounding more than 200 others in what remains the most deadly anti-Semitic incident anywhere since World War II and came two years after 29 people died in a similar attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina
2012 — (28th of Tammuz, 5772) Seven people were killed and 32 injured when a bomb exploded on an Israeli tourist bus at the airport of the Bulgarian city of Burgas today
People
1283 — (22th of Tammuz, 5043) German Talmudist Judah ben Asher began his journey that would end in Toledo, Spain
1800 — (25th of Tammuz, 5560) Birthdate of Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto. Born at Amsterdam, this eldest son of Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto gained fame as an American “physician, scholar, author, and philanthropist
1836 — (4th of Av, 5596) Nathan Rothschild, founder of the London banking-house, died
1892 — (23th of Tammuz, 5652) In his quest to create an anti-cholera vaccine, Dr. Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian born Jew, risked his own life by testing his vaccine for the first time on himself
1894 — (14th of Tammuz, 5654) Birthdate of Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel
1933 — (24th of Tammuz, 5693) Birthdate of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko who broke with the standard Soviet narrative about the Holocaust when “in1961 he wrote what would become perhaps his most famous poem, Babiyy Yar
1970 — (14th of Tammuz, 5730) Shmuel Hetz was killed when his F-4E Phantom II was shot down during the War of Attrition, Menahem Eini was taken prisoner when his F-4E Phantom II was shot down during the War of Attrition
2002 — (9th of Av, 5762) Twenty-one year old Yocheved Ben-Hanan of Emmanuel died today of wounds she suffered when a terrorist attacked Dan bus #189