History events
-1273 BCE — (5th of Nisan, 2488) Joshua sent two spies, Pinchas and Caleb, to gather precise information about how the Canaanites viewed the rumors of the impending danger of their land being captured. The emissaries came to the city of Jericho, where they spent the night at the house of Rahab, who kept a lodging for wayfarers within the city’s fortress wall. When news of their arrival reached the king, he immediately sent messengers to Rahab demanding that she hand over the strangers. But Rahab hid the spies on the roof of her dwelling, and when the king’s messengers arrived, she told them that the men had left the city after dark; she did not know where they went. «Quickly pursue them,» she urged them earnestly, «and you will surely overtake them.» The messengers hastily departed toward the fords of the Jordan. Then Rahab went up to the men hidden on the roof and said to them: «I know that the Lord has given you this land, for dread of you has fallen on us, and all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any of us because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal kindly with my father’s house; and give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.»
-349 BCE — (12th of Nisan, 3412) Ezra set out from the River Ahava for the Land of Israel. This was part of the return from the Babylonian exile, which led to the construction of the Second Temple and the regular public reading of the Torah.
-515 — (3th of Adar, 3246) According to Ezra VI, 15, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius, the Second Temple was completed today. (15 And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.)
418 — (16th of Adar-1, 4178) Jews were excluded from holding public office in the Roman Empire
1616 — (2nd of Nisan, 5376) Jews, accompanied by a detachment of government troops, with the sound of trumpets and drums, solemnly entered Frankfurt am Main. By decree of Emperor Matthias, the initiator of their expulsion in 1614, the leader of the local artisans, Fettmilch, was quartered; parts of his body were displayed in different parts of the city. The house of the pogrom instigator was demolished, and a pillory with a poem in German and Latin describing Fettmilch’s execution was erected in its place. Declaring the Frankfurt Jews under his protection, the emperor permanently forbade the municipality from expelling those who had lived in Frankfurt am Main for more than three years, charged the city authorities with ensuring the community’s safety, and ordered them to pay the Jews 175,000 gold coins as compensation. In memory of the events of 1614–16, the leaders of the Frankfurt Jewish community established an annual Purim, celebrated on the 20th of Adar.
1785 — (28th of Adar I, 5545) Empress Catherine II of Russia, by a personal decree, ordered the removal of the word «Zhid» (Jew) from usage, replacing it with «Yevrey» (Hebrew/Jew).
1910 — (29th of Adar I, 5670) A Jewish Community Center was established in Montreal.
1923 — (22nd of Adar I, 5683) The Anglo-French treaty came into force, which, contrary to the 1920 law on the British Mandate for the Land of Israel, severed part of the Golan Heights, the water sources of the Litani, and the lands adjacent to the river from it, in exchange for the entire territory of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)
1933 — (12th of Adar, 5693) Victor Klemperer writes in his diary “Hitler elected as Chancellor. What I had called terror was only a mild prelude. . . . It is amazing how everything collapses . . . prohibitions and acts of violence. And with it, on streets and radio, unrestrained propaganda. On Saturday I heard a piece of Hitler’s speech in Konsigsberg. I understood only a few words. But the tone! The unctuous roaring bark, the bark, really, of a clergyman. . . . How long will I be able to retain my professorship?”
1941 — (11th of Adar I, 5701) Holocaust. The Lublin ghetto was officially established, its population reaching 34,000 people.
1942 — (21st of Adar I, 5702) Holocaust. In the village of Marjanowka (Berezovsky district), about 800 Jews from Odessa were shot
1943 — (3th of Adar-1, 5703) Bulgaria refused to release 48,000 of its Jews to the Germans. More than 1,000 Jews in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Emanuel Zisman, the future Israeli ambassador to Bulgaria, his mother and his sister “were taken from their homes concentrated in the Jewish quarter, near to the school. But during the day the public pressure was so strong that the tsar of Bulgaria, Boris III, decided to cancel the deportation. It was a long day but a very, very happy night.”
1944 — (15th of Adar I, 5704) The official opening of a municipal park in Tel Aviv
1948 — (29th of Adar-1, 5708) A “company of the 1st Battalion commanded by Assaf Simchoni acted against an Arab gang which had settled in Kafr Kanna, on the Tiberias-Nazareth road. Information had been received that the village had become a center for gangs headed by a certain ‘Ibrahim’ that had carried out many attacks in the Lower Galilee and the Zevulun Valley. Among these was a gang that had previously been active in Shefaram, but had moved to Kafr Kanna. Born in 1922, Simchoni would rose to the rank of Major-General in the IDF. In 1956, he “commanded the Sinai Campaign and was killed in an airplane accident at the end of the war.”
1948 — (29th of Adar I, 5708) War of Independence. The Haganah General Staff adopted «Plan Dalet,» which provided for actions against the Arabs when the British troops left the Land of Israel and establishing control over the entire territory of the Jewish state. It considered the possibility of a confrontation with the regular armies of Arab countries and Arab partisans. It emphasized the need to transition from defending individual settlements to defending large territories and defined the tasks for each brigade: Golani, Alexandroni, Kiryati, Givati, Etzioni
1949 — (8th of Adar-1, 5709) The conquest of the southern Negev and Um Rashrash (Eilat) in March 1949 ended the War of Independence 1949: In Israel, the Provisional Government gave way to the first Cabinet of the new State. Moshe Sharett completed his term as Foreign Minister for the Provisional Government which had been in power since the creation of the state in May of 1948, Moshe Sharett begins serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Israel’s first elected government. Haim-Moshe Shapira replaced Yitzhak Gruenbaum as Internal Affairs Minister. Aharon Zisling completed his service as Israel’s first Minister of Agriculture.
1952 — (13th of Adar-1, 5712) The Jerusalem Post reported the cabinet’s decision that wages earned by Arabs in the employ of the state, municipalities and other public institutions, and the prices paid for Arab produce would be equal to those paid to the Jews. Mr. Palmon, the prime minister’s adviser on Arab affairs, stated that among Israeli Arabs the collection of income tax was practically nonexistent. They paid only a negligible property tax. The cabinet had also approved the Pensions and Rehabilitation of the Victims of the War of Independence bill
1957 — (7th of Adar II, 5717) Israel simplified the complex process of registering Jewishness, which required documents confirming matrilineal descent
1970 — (2th of Adar-1, 5730) The Knesset passed a precise definition of who can be considered a Jew and who has the right to immigrate under the Law of Return; the amendment stated that a Jew is one who is born to a Jewish mother and has not converted to another religion, as well as a person who has converted to Judaism; simultaneously, the amendment stipulated that the non-Jewish spouse, children, and grandchildren of a Jew who arrived in the country under the Law of Return have the same civil status and enjoy the same rights and benefits as other immigrants. The Knesset’s decision was a reaction to the «Shalit case»: Benjamin Shalit – a Jew living in Israel married to a non-Jewish woman, informed an Interior Ministry official that his children were Jewish by nationality. After the official refused to register his children as Jews, Shalit appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that a Jewish father has the right to register his children as Jewish, even if their mother is not Jewish
1998 — (12th of Adar, 5758) The new building of the Jewish Museum of Greece was inaugurated today
2002 — (26th of Adar, 5762) Israeli helicopters destroyed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office in Gaza City, hours after 11 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing in a cafe across the street from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s residence in Jerusalem
2022 — (7th of Adar I, 5782) The Knesset passed the Citizenship Law. The law was approved for one year as an administrative order and prevented the family reunification of Arabs within Israel’s territory. The main difference between this version of the bill and the previous one was the so-called «purpose clause.» For the first time, the justification for this law included not only a security argument but also a demographic one: the need to preserve a Jewish majority in the State of Israel.
2024 — (30th of Adar I, 5784) The National Holocaust Museum opened in Amsterdam.
2024 — (30th of Adar I, 5784) War with Gaza. Day one hundred and fifty-six. A 6.5 km-long road, dividing the Gaza Strip into its northern and southern parts, reached the seashore. Built by the IDF and named «Netzarim Corridor,» it intersected one of Gaza’s two main north-south roads, Salah al-Din Street, and created a strategically important central junction. It also connected to the Ar-Rashid Road, which runs along the coast. The new three-lane road (one lane for heavy tanks and armored vehicles, another for lighter vehicles, and a third for faster movement) was designed to facilitate military raids north of Gaza City and south into the central area of the Strip
People
1749 — (2nd of Nisan, 5509) Lorenzo Da Ponte was born – an Italian librettist and translator. He wrote librettos for operas by Salieri and Mozart (including «The Marriage of Figaro» and «Don Giovanni»). Born into a Jewish family, his original name was Emanuele Conegliano. His mother died when he was a child, and his father, after marrying a Christian, decided to baptize the children.
1863 — (19th of Adar I, 5623) Leib Tovyash was born in Bessarabia – a publicist and lexicographer. He wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew. Died in Vienna on May 27, 1933.
1867 — (3rd of Adar II, 5627) Lillian Wald was born – an American nurse and social worker, founder of the Visiting Nurse Service. Died in 1940
1870 — (7th of Adar-1, 5630) Ignaz Moscheles, German composer, died
1870 — (7th of Adar II, 5630) Esther Rachel Kamińska was born – a theater and film actress. Died in 1925 in Warsaw
1875 — (3rd of Adar II, 5635) Alexander Goldenweiser was born – a pianist, composer, founder of one of the largest piano schools, professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Died on November 26, 1961.
1925 — (14th of Adar I, 5685) Mordechai Alkakhy was born in Petah Tikva – an Irgun fighter, executed by the British on April 16, 1947, along with three comrades: Eliezer Kashani, Yehiel Dresner, and Dov Gruner.
1939 — (19th of Adar I, 5699) Irina Press was born – Honored Master of Sports, twice Olympic champion. Died on February 22, 2004.
2003 — (6th of Adar II, 5763) IDF Staff Sergeant T. Ron fell in Hebron.
2024 — (30th of Adar I, 5784) War with Gaza. Day one hundred and fifty-six. Reservist Sergeant Major Michael Gal, 29, from Jerusalem, fell