History events
1269 — (18th of Tammuz, 5029) Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France, ….. needing no urging from the Church, ordered all Jews found in public without a badge (yellow or red) to be fined ten livres of silver. The badge in France was usually a circle of red or yellow material and was known as a rouelle. The original badge was actually Moslem in origin (Caliph Omar II (717-20)) who decreed that both Jews and Christians wear a distinguishing mark. The «badge» took on different shapes colors and even dress (i.e. a hat or color of a dress) depending on the country
1650 (30 Sivan 5410) — A day of mourning and fasting for the victims of Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s pogroms, declared by the central body of Jewish self‑government in Poland
1768 — (4th of Tammuz, 5528) At Uman, ….. the Haidamak Army under the command of Maksym Zalizniak slaughtered thousands of Jews in the Gonta Massacres. The slaughter came at the end of the siege of Uman in which Ivan Gonta had betrayed the Polish garrison which led to its defeat. The Polish commandment had tried to “buy the lives” of the Poles by giving up the Jews; a ploy that failed. Led by Leib Shargorodoski and Moses Menaker, the Jews put up a valiant but futile defense. The number of dead Jews which totaled more than 2,000 was inflated by the number of refugees who had sought refuge in the town
1821 (19 Sivan 5581) — The first pogrom within Russia, in Odessa. It was triggered by events in Istanbul, when the Turks attacked the Greeks and killed several people, including Patriarch Gregory. A rumour spread in Odessa that the Jews of Istanbul had also taken part in the violence and in the desecration of Gregory’s body. Odessa’s Greeks rushed to take revenge. Thanks to the decisiveness of the authorities, the pogrom was quickly suppressed
1884 — (26th of Sivan, 5644) After a rumor circulated through certain parts of the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod that a Jew had kidnapped a Christian child and taken it to a synagogue, a mob attacked the synagogue. During the riot 9 Jews were killed, six houses were wrecked and an untold number were plundered
1887 — The end of the Hovevei Zion congress. At the congress, it became known that St Petersburg had not granted permission to establish a Jewish society for the settlement of Palestine. The movement also faced contradictions between religious and secular members; local branches became less active, and financial contributions decreased
1948 — (12th of Sivan, 5708) Panama and Costa Rica recognized Israel
1919 (21 Sivan 5679) — Yishuv. The first issue of one of Israel’s oldest Hebrew‑language newspapers, Ha‑Aretz (“The Land”), was published in Jerusalem.
1939 (2 Tammuz 5699) — The first conference of the women’s organisation Mizrahi opened in Atlantic City. (Today it is the largest religious Zionist organisation in the USA.)
1942 (4 Tammuz 5702) — Shoah. The Jewish action in Lutsk (Volyn region) began
1948 (12 Sivan 5708) — War of Independence. The end of Operation Balak‑5 to deliver military aircraft to Israel (see May 20, May 6). The last 24th disassembled aircraft arrived from Czechoslovakia. Soon afterwards, the first fighter squadron, No. 101, was established. It became the foundation of the Israeli Air Force
1949 (22 Sivan 5709) — 24 tonnes of wheat purchased in the USSR arrived in Israel. It was bought by the Emergency Grain Distribution Council in Washington
1950 — (4th of Tammuz, 5710) Israel apologized to the Swedish Government today for the assassination of Count Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator for Palestine, by terrorists on Sept. 17, 1948
1956 (10 Tammuz 5716) — Foreign Minister M. Sharett resigned due to disagreement with Ben‑Gurion’s hardline international policy. The final straw was Operation Kinneret, approved by Ben‑Gurion, conducted by the IDF against the Syrians on the eastern shore of the lake. Sharett stated that it had prevented him from obtaining weapons from the Americans. As a result, G. Meir, the Minister of Labour, was appointed to replace Sharett.
1969 (3 Tammuz 5729) — War of Attrition. An Israeli attack on Green Island near the southern entrance to Suez; an air defence system was destroyed.
1972 (7 Tammuz 5732) — KGB Chairman Andropov sent a top‑secret letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU: “According to received information, an anti‑Soviet émigré initiative group has been established in Israel, advocating that the Soviet government return monetary sums to Jews who left the USSR — sums they had paid to reimburse state expenses for education. In June of this year, data on the number of émigrés who had reimbursed education expenses was sent to US President Nixon, Senator Jackson, and leaders of American Zionist organisations. According to the Jewish Agency, 1 438 émigrés had paid 7 million roubles, and they were demanding the return of this money.” The letter further informed the CPSU that anti‑Soviet émigré associations from the USSR and the “Union of Prisoners of Zion” were organising a signature campaign for an appeal to the US Senate to support Senator Jackson’s amendment. Some time later, the USSR abolished the education tax and allowed departing citizens to take with them the orders and medals they had been awarded
1984 (19 Sivan 5744) — The trial of 27 members of the Jewish underground began. The group was founded in 1980 in response to Arab terrorist actions and the government’s inability to counter them. In 1985, the group members were found guilty of planting bombs on Arab buses, blowing up the cars of three Arab mayors, killing students at a Muslim college in Hebron, and other acts. Three were sentenced to life imprisonment. Gradually, all the convicts were pardoned.
1985 (30 Sivan 5745) — Knesset member Aaron Nachmias proposed that the parliament urgently consider the problem of Jews leaving the Galilee and the threat of an Arab majority forming in the region bordering Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and Samaria. He reported that 16 thousand Jews had left the Galilee in 1984.
2002 — (9th of Tammuz, 5762) Seven people were killed and 50 injured, ….. three of them critically, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem shortly after 7:00 P.M., as people were returning home from work. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Noa Alon, 60, of Ofra; Gal Eisenman, 5, of Ma’ale Adumim; Michal Franklin, 22, of Jerusalem; Tatiana Igelski, 43, of Moldova; Hadassah Jungreis, 20, of Migdal Haemek; Gila Sara Kessler, 19, of Eli; and Shmuel Yerushalmi, 17, of Shilo
2006 (23 Sivan 5766) — The Knesset passed a law raising the minimum wage by 3.7 %, which would allow full‑time workers to earn 3 585 shekels per month.
2006 (23 Sivan 5766) — The 35th World Zionist Congress opened in Jerusalem.
2008 (16 Sivan 5768) — A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect. On December 19, Hamas announced it was ending the agreement and resumed hostilities.
2015 (2 Tammuz 5775) — Terrorist attack. Near the A‑Parsa intersection, in the area of the Dolev settlement (Binyamin District), an Arab stopped his car and shot two people with a pistol. One of them died, the other was injured.
2025 (23 Sivan 5785) — Operation “A People Like a Lion”. Day seven. In the morning, Israeli territory came under missile attack from Iran — 23 missiles. There were direct hits, including on one of the buildings of the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva. 271 injured were admitted to hospitals. At 4 p.m., another alert sounded in dozens of settlements in northern Israel, including Haifa, Afula, Akko, Krayot, the Galilee, Safed, and many others. In turn, about 20 Israeli Air Force planes attacked military infrastructure and surface‑to‑surface missile launchers in western Iran
People
1286 — (25th of Sivan, 5046) Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg ….. was imprisoned in a castle in Alsace, Lombardy. Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks (approximately 15,144,900 U.S dollars today) was raised for him (by the ROSH), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. 14 years after his death a ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam.” Reb Meir was also known by the term Maharam. His erudition and piety earned him the appellation, ‘Light of the Exile.’ Meir was a leading commentator on Rashi’s explanations of the Talmud. Such was his reputation that Ashkenazi communities in Italy, France and Germany looked to him for guidance when questions of law and/or custom arose
1771 (7 Tammuz 5531) — Rahel Levin‑Varnhagen was born in Berlin — the first Jewish woman to become a significant intellectual and political figure in Central Europe at the end of the 18th century. She was so famous that the period of cultural flourishing in Berlin — up until the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806 — was often named after her, Rahelzeit, i.e., the “Rahel Era”
1790 — (7th of Tammuz, 5550) Saul Lowenstam “a renowned Dutch rabbi and Talmudist” passed away. Born at Rzeszów in 1717 he was the son of Rabbi Areyh Leib ben Saul, the son-in-law of Rabbi Abraham Kahana and the father of Rabbi Jacob Moses Lowenstam. His writings included Binyan Ariel and a Torah Commentary, HeChatzer HaChadasha
1886 (16 Sivan 5646) — Yaakov Sapir ha‑Levi, a rabbi and traveller, died at the age of 64. In 1848, he was sent by the Jews of Palestine as an emissary to collect voluntary donations for the poor in Palestine. The trip lasted about five years; in 1854, he set out again and visited Egypt, Aden, South Arabia, India, and Australia. Everywhere, he carefully collected manuscript and printed materials, as well as historical and ethnographic data about the local Jews.
1900 (22 Sivan 5660) — Hermann Friedrich Graebe, a German engineer and Righteous Among the Nations, was born. He died on April 17, 1986.
1906 (26 Sivan 5666) — Biochemist Sir Ernst Boris Chain, Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine, was born. He died on August 12, 1979.
1940 (13 Sivan 5700) — Zalman David Levontin, one of the pioneers of Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel, died.
1942 (4 Tammuz 5702) — Tikva Mor, an actress and one of the first newsreaders on Israeli television, was born. She died on October 25, 2025.
1953 — Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a married couple accused of espionage, were executed in the Sing Sing prison by electric chair
2003 — (19th of Sivan, 5763) Avner Mordechai, 58, of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean