History events
1247 — (18 Nisan 5007) In the French city of Valréas, a two-year-old girl named Meilla disappeared. Rumors spread that she was last seen on the Jewish street. She was soon found dead in a ditch. At the instigation of two Franciscan monks, several Jews were imprisoned, where they confessed under torture. The same fate then befell other Jews, who claimed that each year a city was chosen by lot where a Christian was to be killed. His blood was drained and divided among all the communities, and on Good Friday, the body was crucified in mockery of Jesus’ crucifixion. Some of the condemned were burned, while others were expelled after their property was confiscated. Jewish children were forcibly baptized.
1286 — (28 Adar II 5046) A few days before Passover, a corpse was planted in the house of Isaac Chatelain in the city of Troyes; the Franciscans and Dominicans took up the investigation of this latest blood libel. Thirteen Jews, mainly members of the Chatelain family, took the blame upon themselves to save the community. On April 24, they were burned at the stake; by order of the king, the property of the executed was confiscated. Six dirges in Hebrew and Judeo-French are dedicated to this event, which shook the Jewish world.
1475 — (18 Nisan 5235) The blood libel in Trent. Several Jews discovered the body of Simon, a shoemaker’s son who had been missing for two days, in a river near the house of Samuel, a member of the community. They immediately went to the bishop, but he refused to receive them. Meanwhile, the city’s chief magistrate came to Samuel’s house and conducted a search; finding no evidence against the owner, he nevertheless ordered the arrest of Samuel and the Jews who had found the body, including the city’s well-known physician, Tobias Kahn, whose services were used by many Christians. A medical examination of the body showed that Simon had died a violent death; after this became known, a Jewish convert, Johann of Feltre, who was at the time serving a long prison sentence for theft, testified that Jews used Christian blood for ritual purposes during Passover
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
1893 — (9 Nisan 5653) In Germany, the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith was established, intended to protect Jews from persecution; it was closed in 1938
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.”
1917 — (3 Nisan 5677) Prince G. E. Lvov, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, sent assurances to the Paris-based Alliance Israélite Universelle that Russia would respect the faiths of its citizens. On the same day, a conference of Russian Jewry was held in Petrograd, during which attempts were made to determine the future of Jews in a new Russia – without the Tsar
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
1936 — (3 Nisan 5696) According to published statistics, of the 61,541 Jews who entered Palestine in 1935, 27,291 arrived from Poland; 3,596 from Romania; 2,122 from Greece; 1,967 from Lithuania; 1,638 from the USA; 1,425 from Southwest Arabia; 1,397 from Czechoslovakia; 1,042 from Latvia; 1,021 from France; 961 from Austria; 764 from Turkey; and 7,747 from Germany
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
1942 — (8 Nisan 5702) The Shoah. The first transport of Jews from Slovakia and from the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp arrived at Auschwitz
1948 — (15 Adar II 5708) A memorandum to Stalin from the USSR Minister of State Security, V. Abakumov, stating «that the leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, being active nationalists and orienting themselves toward the Americans, are essentially conducting anti-Soviet nationalist work.»
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
1971 — (29 Adar I 5731) Riots in Tel Aviv, sparked by protests of Jews from North African (Maghreb) countries against their discrimination by Jews from Western countries. According to the protesters – residents of Tel Aviv’s poorest neighborhoods – there was a great disparity in the reception of immigrants from Africa and the USSR
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
2001 — (2 Nisan 5761) Terrorist attack. In Hebron, an Arab sniper shot and killed 10-month-old girl Shalhevet Pass, who was walking with her father.
2009 — (1 Nisan 5769) Reports emerged about the recent successful test of the «Iron Dome» missile defense system, designed to protect southern Israel from Arab Qassam and Grad rocket attacks
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.”
2017 — (28 Adar I 5777) The first Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong landed in Israel.
2025 — (26 Adar I 5785) «Israeli Cinema Day.» Throughout the day, 27 Israeli films were shown in cinemas, with tickets costing 10 shekels. «This year’s Israeli Cinema Day was dedicated to the memory of the late Ze’ev Revach, one of the greatest actors to have grown up in Israel.»
People
1820 — Gustave Cohen was born — rabbi, cantor, organizer of America’s first Jewish musical society, the «Zion Musical Society.» Died December 13, 1902.
1839 — Shlomo Zalman Lipschitz, the first Chief Rabbi of Warsaw, died at the age of 74.
1859 — Adolf Hurwitz was born — German mathematician. Died November 18, 1919.
1875 — (19 Adar II 5635) Eliezer Margolin was born in Belgorod — one of the commanders of the first regular Jewish military units in Eretz Israel at the end of and after World War I. Died June 2, 1944
1900 — Isaac M. Wise, American Reform rabbi, died
1905 — Viktor Emil Frankl was born — Austrian psychiatrist, psychologist, and philosopher. Died September 2, 1997.
1911 — Bernard Katz was born — English biophysicist, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970. Died April 20, 2003.
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»
1993 — (4 Nisan 5753) Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli ambassador to the USA and son of Ben-Zion Netanyahu (secretary to V. Jabotinsky), was elected chairman of the Likud party.
2010 — (11 Nisan 5770) Staff Sergeant Ilan Sviatkowski and Major Eliraz Peretz were killed in a clash with Arabs on the Gaza border. Two soldiers were wounded.
2019 — (19 Adar II 5779) Michel Bacos, captain of the Air France plane hijacked by terrorists to Entebbe, passed away at the age of 95. When the terrorists offered Bacos and his crew their freedom, the captain refused to abandon the hostages and remained with the Israelis when they were separated from the other passengers. The pilot was freed along with the remaining hostages as a result of «Operation Yonatan.»
2026 — (8 Nisan 5786) In a battle in Southern Lebanon, Senior Sergeant Ori Greenberg, 21, from Petah Tikva, was killed. Ori’s father, Major Amotz Greenberg, was killed in July 2014 during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. To join combat units, Ori received special permission from his mother