History events
1420 — (10th of Sivan, 5180) All the Jews of Austria seized
1637 — (10th of Sivan, 5397) Seven Jews, including Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac, were murdered today in Cracow
1929 — (13th of Iyar, 5689) In Palestine, the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel HaTzair, the two major labor parties sign an agreement that will merge the two parties into one. The merger is slated to take place on July 25.
1939 — (5th of Sivan, 5699) In Palestine, on the eve of the Shavuot holiday, seven new settlements are established simultaneously.
1947 — (4th of Sivan, 5707) The British intercepted a three-masted Italian schooner today off the shore of Palestine containing 1,457 Jews who were trying to enter the country. The Jews, most of whom were Polish, Russian or Hungarian, had been on the ship for over two weeks. They had named the vessel Mordei Hagetaoth (Ghetto Fighters) and placed a sign on the deck, written in English proclaiming “From the ruins of the ghetto to our own country – our only refuge – Open the gates
1948 — (14th of Iyar, 5708) The only advance of the Arab Legion beyond the Old City walls into «Jewish Jerusalem» was halted in front of Notre Dame. The commander of the Arab Legion, Sir John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha), considered that battle to be the worst defeat suffered by the legion throughout the war.
1948 — (14th of Iyar, 5708) Israeli forces take control of Ramat Rahel
1948 — (14th of Iyar, 5708) The settlement of Allonei Abba was established by Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany
1948 — (14th of Iyar, 5708) Egyptian forces began its attack on the Jewish settlement of Negba with an artillery barrage. The Egyptian force consisted of 2,000 well-armed troops as well as support from the Egyptians Air Force. The Jewish force at Negba consisted of 70 soldiers from the Haganah and 75 members of the settlement. They lacked artillery, air cover and pretty much anything else that a modern might need. Negba had to be held to keep the Egyptians from reaching Tel Aviv. The fight would last for nine days
1960 — (26th of Iyar, 5720) Prime Minister David Ben Gurion announces in the Knesset that Adolf Eichmann, an Nazi SS officer, was abducted from Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Israeli agents and flown to Israel to stand trial for crimes against the Jewish people
1979 — (26th of Iyar, 5739) Three people were killed and thirteen more were injured when a bomb was detonated at a bus stop in Petach Tikva
2013 — (14th of Sivan, 5773) A sketched map of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s land-for-peace offer to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 — hurriedly drawn up by Abbas after a meeting with Olmert that December, and made public for the first time today — suggests that Israel was prepared to withdraw to borders very similar to the pre-1967 lines and swap areas of northern and southern Israel in return for maintaining the larger settlement blocs
People
1572 — (18 Iyar 5332) On Lag B’Omer Moses Isserles, also known as the Rama passed away Born sometime between 1520 and 1525, he was the son of Israel Isserles, “ a wealthy leader of the Cracow community who, in 1553, received royal dispensation to build a synagogue in memory of his wife which is known as the Ream Synagogue.” Moses Isserles served as Rosh (Head of the) Yeshiva in Krakow. His main work was called Mappah Hashulchan («The Tablecloth») which adapted Caro’s Shulchan Aruch to the needs and customs of Ashkenazi Jewry, It was called the “The Tablecloth” because it “covered” the Shulchan Aruch which is translated as “the prepared table.” In other words he covered Caro’s Sephardic Table with an Ashkenazic Tablecloth. An earlier work, Darke Moshe Hakatzar (The Ways of Moses Abridged) was written in response to Caro’s comprehensive book on Jewish law called Beit Yoseph. He was known as well for the almost 100 Responsa he published. Isserles tried to strengthen the stature of many customs, elevating them almost to the level of Halachah (Jewish Law). On the other hand he was very lenient when it came to cases of stress or financial loss
1873 — (26th of Iyar, 5633) Birthdate of Rabbi Leo Baeck. He passed away in 1956
1948 — (14th of Iyar, 5708) Rabbi Yitzchak Avigdor Orenstein, the Western Wall’s first rabbi and his wife were killed today during the shelling of Jerusalem by the Jordanian forces trying to seize the entire city for its King
1990 — (28th of Iyar, 5750) Eusébio da Silva Ferreira — considered by many to be one of the greatest soccer players of all time — took a short trip to the Jewish section of Vienna’s central cemetery to pray by the grave of the late Béla Guttmann, a Hungarian Jew and soccer legend, buried there in 1981