History events
66 CE — (29 Iyar 3826) «At nine o’clock in the morning, the governor Gessius Florus received representatives of the city government of Caesarea and informed them of the emperor’s decision regarding the electoral law, according to which the Jews lost authority over the official capital of the country. At ten o’clock, the government herald proclaimed the edict from the speaker’s platform in the great forum.» (L. Feuchtwanger, «The Jewish War») A historical event. Josephus Flavius in his «The Jewish War» writes: «Meanwhile, the Hellenists of Caesarea obtained from Nero that he declared them masters of the city, and they brought a document containing this decision. This marked the beginning of the war in the twelfth year of Nero’s reign, the seventeenth year of Agrippa’s rule, in the month of Artemision.» Artemision in the Macedonian calendar corresponds to «our» May
1096 — (17th of Iyar, 4856) Massacre of the Jews of Worms by Crusaders
1267 — (15th of Iyar, 5027) A church council in Vienna decided on a special headgear for Jews – in the shape of a cone (Pileum Cornutum). Such a distinguishing mark was soon extended to Jews in other cities of Silesia, Poland, and Austria
1393 — (29th of Iyar, 5153) The Jews of Sicily were forbidden to display any funeral decorations in public
1540 — (6th of Sivan, 5300) Paul III issued “Licet Judaei,” a papal bull clearing the Jews Of the charge that they practiced blood rituals
1728 — (15 Sivan 5488) The bodies of the head of the Lviv yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Reizer, and his brother Yehoshua were burned at the stake on charges of assisting a convert to Christianity, Jan Filipowicz, to return to Judaism. The brothers were thrown into prison on the eve of Passover, March 24, 1728, were brutally tortured, and sentenced to be burned. They did not survive until the execution, as they died during torture
1889 — (11 Iyar 5649) Premiere in the Jewish theater. The operetta «Shulamis» by Avraham Goldfaden was presented to the audience. In May 1889, a performance took place in Lviv by the first permanent Jewish theater in history, founded by the Lviv choirmaster Jacob Ber Gimpel. In Lviv, performances of the Jewish theater continued almost continuously for half a century. The history of Jewish stage art knew no such creative longevity until the establishment of the State of Israel.
1912 — (25 Iyar 5672) The Main Staff of Russia ordered that all restrictions imposed on «Talmudic Jews» be extended to all Jews, regardless of their religion. When presenting lower ranks for the rank of reserve ensign, commanders were obliged to «thoroughly ascertain the nationality of these lower ranks,» excluding from consideration not only Jews who had converted to Christianity, but also the sons, and even the grandsons of male and female persons «born in the Jewish faith.»
1919 — (12 Iyar 5679) Civil War. Pogrom in the Jewish colony of Gorkaya, pogrom in Uman, pogrom in Gaisin.
1933 — (16 Iyar 5693) The Shoah. The Munich police conducted searches in the offices of all Jewish organizations in the city. The property of more than 50 of them was confiscated. After numerous protests, part of the confiscated property was returned.
1934 — (27 Iyar 5694) Tel Aviv received city status.
1941 — (15 Iyar 5701) On the boat «Sea Lion,» 23 Haganah fighters under the command of Tzvi Spektor set out for Tripoli to carry out sabotage against the oil refineries working for the fascists. The entire detachment went missing (according to other sources, the detachment set out on May 18).
1942 — (25 Iyar 5702) The Shoah. 287 Jews were shot in Lokhvytsia (Poltava region)
1943 — The first Aliyah to the Negev began with the establishment of Kibbutz Gevulot. The first three settlements, Gevulot, Revivim, and Bet Eshel, were experimentally established in 1943 to determine the feasibility of permanent settlements in the Negev. As a result of the information gathered in the experimental stage, eleven new settlements were established in the Negev in 1946, and an additional seven in 1947 — (7th of Iyar, 5703) These settlements served also as strong-points to defend the Yishuv from attack by an enemy advancing from the south. The Egyptian army suffered its first defeat at Nirim, one of the settlements established in 1946, on the anniversary of the first Aliyah to the Negev
1944 — (19 Iyar 5704) All-Palestine PALMACH rally at the Mishmar HaEmek camp. During the rally, a sports day was held, which ended with a parade
1948 — (3th of Iyar, 5708) Bet-Shean was captured by the Haganah; specifically the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade. Bet-Shean is one of the oldest cities in the world having been first built in the fifth century B.C.E;
U.S. Secretary George Marshall “appealed to Ben-Gurion to hold off a decision for independence. Courteously, but firmly the appeal was refused.”
1948 — (3th of Iyar, 5708) David Ben-Gurion convened an emergency meeting of the Provisional Council, the governing body of the unborn Jewish state. The issue at hand was a proposal that there should be a delay in declaring statehood. According to one report as much as half of the council wanted to postpone the declaration and accept some sort of cease-fire with the Arab forces already fighting the Jews. The news the council was not good. Mrs. Meir reported on the failure of the talks with the Jordanians. She later reported that she was relieved to see that her report did not dissuade Ben-Gurion from deciding that the Jewish state would be born when the British mandate ended in forty-eight hours. The Council also heard from Yigal Yadin, the military leader who brought the negative reports about the pending destruction of the Etzion Bloc of settlements. Ben-Gurion closed the debate by outlining all of the risks. In the end, the Council voted by six to four to reject the offer of a cease fire and push forward with the declaration of statehood
1948 — (3th of Iyar, 5708) Having withstood the onslaught of the Arab Legion during the fight for Mishmar Ha-Emek, Lehi launched a successful operation on five villages directly to the west the Kibbutz
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) War of Independence. The Arab village of Breir was captured by the PALMACH. The road to the northern Negev, which had been blocked by the inhabitants of this and neighboring villages since March, was cleared.
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) War of Independence. The beginning of the Arab attack on the Gush Etzion settlements. Two hundred soldiers of the Arab Legion, supported by armored vehicles and a thousand armed local Arab residents, entered the battle. They were opposed by 500 self-defense fighters without heavy weapons and with a shortage of ammunition. The defense commander, Moshe Silberschmidt, was one of the first to be killed. The battle continued all day; by nightfall, the defenders’ positions were cut in two, and 70 people were killed.
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) War of Independence. After the fierce battle the day before, early in the morning the Arabs fled from Safed (Tzfat).
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) War of Independence. Beit She’an was captured by soldiers of the Golani Brigade.
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) War of Independence. The naval part of Operation Ben Ami for the liberation of the Western Galilee. 450 soldiers and equipment were transported by sea from Haifa to Nahariya. 300 women and children were evacuated from Nahariya to Haifa. The operation prevented the Western Galilee from being cut off from the rest of Israel.
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) Order of the Haganah General Staff to establish artillery units.
1948 — (3 Iyar 5708) Meeting in the Oval Office of the White House between the US President and his closest advisors and confidants: to recognize or not recognize the independence of the future State of Israel
1949 — (13 Iyar 5709) The Knesset approved the government’s austerity plan (rationing). The following daily rations were set: 360 grams of bread, 60 grams of cornflour, 60 grams of white flour, 17 grams of rice, 58 grams of sugar; monthly: 750 grams of meat, 12 eggs, 200 grams of cheese, 3.5 kilograms of potatoes
1965 — (10th of Iyar, 5725) Israel and West Germany exchange letters beginning diplomatic relations
1967 — (2th of Iyar, The USSR ambassador conveyed information to the Egyptians about a concentration of IDF forces near the border with Syria, although Israel had not begun mobilization. The ambassador’s telegram to Moscow read: «Today we conveyed to the Egyptians information regarding the concentration of Israeli troops on the northern border for a surprise attack on Syria. We recommended that the UAR government take appropriate steps.»In Moscow, an Egyptian parliamentary delegation including Anwar Sadat was told to expect “an Israeli invasion of Syria immediately after Independence Day, with the aim of overthrowing the Damascus regime.”
1973 — (10 Iyar 5733) Opening of the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv.
1992 — (9 Iyar 5752) Terrorist attack. An Arab stabbed two children with a knife at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. He did not manage to flee far and was caught by the crowd. He survived thanks to a religious woman, Bella Freund, who shielded him with her body for 27 minutes (until the police arrived), despite people putting out cigarettes on her. She said: «We are not beasts, like them.»
2006 — (14th of Iyar, 5766) Harvey Sheldon launched for the first time in the world, WORLD JEWISH NETWORK on the internet. The format will be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week of nothing but popular Jewish and Israeli music, that you can listen to and dance
2011 — (8 Iyar 5771) A ceremony was held at the Sde Dov airfield to mark the commissioning of the first firefighting aviation squadron in Israel’s history.
2016 — (4 Iyar 5776) On the eve of Israel’s Independence Day, on the Memorial Day for the Fallen, thousands of Arabs held a demonstration at the Kama junction north of Rahat in the Negev. The participants carried flags of the Palestine Liberation Organization and chanted «This is our land!», «Israel’s Independence Day is our catastrophe!» and «We will give our lives for our land!».
2021 — (1 Sivan 5781) The third day of Arab-Jewish unrest in Israel and Operation Guardian of the Walls. A father and daughter (16 years old) were killed when a rocket hit their car in Lod; a soldier was killed when an anti-tank missile hit his jeep near the Gaza border; a 6-year-old boy was killed in Sderot. From 06:00 to 20:00, at least 180 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip. Arab riots occurred in Lod, where a curfew was imposed from 20:00 to 04:00, and in Acre. Residents of the Arab village of Jisr az-Zarqa blocked the coastal highway near Or Akiva. Highway 444 was also blocked for a long time. On Highways 232 and 310, five suspects were detained for throwing stones at passing cars. Reports from the police press service about mass disturbances came in every few minutes.
2024 — (4 Iyar 5784) War with Gaza. Day two hundred and nineteen. Fighting throughout the entire sector. Rocket alerts sounded in the southern areas of Ashkelon, in Sderot, and the settlements of Nir Am, Ibim, Nahal Oz, and Kisufim.
2025 — (14 Iyar 5785) Archaeological excavations began in Samaria at the main gate of the ancient city of Shomron, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel during the time of the Tanakh
People
160 CE — (18 Iyar 3920) (or May 11) Death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) – one of the most prominent Jewish law teachers, a founder of Kabbalah (according to tradition). In Kabbalistic tradition, he is considered the author of the Zohar
1700 — (5th of Sivan, 5460) Joseph Athias, the native of Cordoba who served as a rabbi in Amsterdam where he published two editions of the Hebrew Bible passed away today
1800 — (Iyar 17, 5560) Rabbi Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sadilkov, author of “Degel Mahaneh Ephraim” passed away
1866 — Birth of Lev Shestov, philosopher. Died November 20, 1938.
1891 — Birth of M. Romm, captain of the first Russian national football team, journalist. Died February 13, 1967.
1911 — Birth of Avraham Shapira, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Died in 2007.
1918 — Birth of Y. Rosenberg, who was executed on June 19, 1953, in the electric chair along with his wife for espionage on behalf of the USSR.
1943 — (7th of Iyar, 5703) In London, Shmuel Zygielbogm committed suicide. He was one of two Jewish representatives of the Polish-Government-In-Exile in London. His final letter was a cry of agony and despair. He was crushed that the world would do nothing to save the Jews. His wife and son perished in the Ghetto. He felt his life had been a failure and hoped that his death might shock the world into action. At one point he wrote that he could not live ‘when the remnant of the Jewish people in Poland . . . is being steadily annihilated.’
1967 — At the Cannes Film Festival, the award for Best Actor was given to the 30-year-old Israeli artist Oded Kotler.
2008 — (7 Iyar 5768) Irena Sendler, a Righteous Among the Nations who saved 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust, passed away in Warsaw at the age of 98.
2018 — (27 Iyar 5778) The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the Israeli representative, 25-year-old Netta Barzilai