History events
1481 — “Seventeen Marranos perished at the stake on the Quemadero (place of burning) in Seville, Spain followed by enough other similar killings that by the end of November, “300 had perished at the stake” while another 79 were spared but sentenced to life imprisonment
1488 — The orders for expulsion from Milan “came after a heated trial beginning today in which Vicenzo, a Jew who had converted to Christianity accused 38 Jews of interesting anti-Christian statements in several Jewish texts, including the Talmud and the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides
1671 — (15th of Nisan 5431) In Amsterdam, the Great Synagogue was consecrated on the first day of Pesach
1902 — The Rumanian government prohibited Jews from engaging in handicrafts or trade
1904 — Funk and Wagnalls published the sixth volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia, a compendium of knowledge that will eventually consist of twelve volumes. The volume includes articles ranging from “God” to “Istria.”
1936 — According to reports published today of the 61,541 Jews who entered Palestine in 1935, 27,291 came from Poland; 3,596 came from Rumania; 2,122 came from Greece, 1,967 from Lithuania; 1,638 from the United States; 1,425 from Southwestern Arabia; 1,397 from Czechoslovakia; 1,042 from Latvia; 1, 021 from France; 961 from Austria, 764 from Turkey and 7,747 from Germany
1936 — In Poland, a synagogue was damaged at Wilno as anti-Semitic disorders gripped the country; the Jewish community’s offices in the town of Nowysacz were bombed today
1942 — The Second Dünamünde Action, part of a murderous assault designed “to execute Jews who had recently been deported to Latvia from Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia” conducted by the Nazis and their Latvian collaborators began today in the Biķernieki forest, near Riga
1952 — The Jerusalem Post reported that the anti-reparations demonstration in Tel Aviv, organized by the Herut political party, lasted two hours and passed off quietly after a week of general tension
1979 — Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty at the White House; Nineteen people were injured today during a terrorist bombing in a market at Lod
2015 — In Turkey, the Grand Synagogue of Edrine which had first been used Erev Pesach, 1909 and which was abandoned in 1983 “after most of the Jewish community left the city, emigrating to Israel, Europe, or North America” was re-opened under the leadership of Rabbi David Azuz who oversaw the “celebration and a Shacharit, morning prayer service, attended by a large number of Jews including Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, leader of the Jewish Community in Turkey, Rav Naftali Haleva, deputy to Hakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi) Ishak Haleva, Bülent Arınç, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, and some other Turkish high officials.”
People
1900 — Isaac M. Wise, American Reform rabbi, died
1913 — In Budapest, Jewish mathematics teachers Anna and Lajos Erdős (formerly Engländer) gave birth to mathematician Paul Erdos who was one of the century’s greatest mathematicians
1923 — (9th of Nisan, 5683) Actress Sarah Bernhardt passed away. She was born in Paris as Henriette Rosine Bernard, the eldest surviving illegitimate daughter of Judith van Hard, a Dutch Jewish courtesan known as «Youle»