History events
-1313 BCE — (29 Sivan 2448) Moses sent a group of spies to scout the land of Canaan and report on its strengths and weaknesses. Twelve men traversed the southern part of the country until they reached Hebron, the location of the giants. The spies were awestruck by the enormous size and strength of the inhabitants; this made such a strong impression on them that they concluded the land could not be conquered
1780 — (20 Iyar 5540) In Mogilev, Jews awaited Empress Catherine the Great in the entrance hall of the palace where she was staying. During her procession, the Jewish Kahal presented the empress with an ode on a brocade pillow, which she ordered to be accepted
1784 — (5th of Sivan, 5544) Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek
1844 — (7th of Sivan, 5604) Louis-Philippe introduced changes to Napoleon’s decree of March 18, 1808, concerning the operation of the consistories. He gave them a more secular character. The right to vote in elections for the governing bodies of the consistories was granted to all members of the Jewish community, without a property qualification
1871 — (5 Sivan 5631) Havatzelet, a newspaper published in Jerusalem, reported that the Turkish governor had been instructed by higher authorities to «pay attention to the sacred ancient sites, improve them, and establish their contents, so that travelers arriving in the country from Europe would not trouble themselves with requests to our government for permission to conduct excavations.» Following this directive, the governor began excavations on the Mount of Olives and, in particular, near the Tomb of Zechariah. The Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Eretz Israel immediately lodged a vigorous protest, and the excavations were halted.
1902 — (18th of Iyar, 5662) In Lisbon, a foundation stone is laid for the first synagogue built in Portugal since the expulsion of the Jews in 1497
1917 — (4th of Sivan, 5677) In Minsk, Russia, Yiddish was recognized as a second official language
1919 — (25 Iyar 5679) A pogrom was carried out by the gang of Ataman Grigoriev against the Jewish colony of Dobraya. 67 Jews were murdered. The pogrom did not end there; it was continued by peasants from the neighboring villages of Yavkino and Novoegorovka, who looted everything that the bandits had not managed to take in six hours
1923 — (10th of Sivan, 5683) Britain recognized Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader.
1926 — (12th of Sivan, 5686) Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of Ukrainian People’s Republic.
1929 — (15th of Iyar, 5689) According to reports published today “industrial establishments in Palestine have increased to 513, employing 5,000 workers” with a total of $7,500,000 in invested capital
1930 — (27 Iyar 5690) A hospital was opened in Tiberias, funded by Rebecca Schweitzer with assistance from the Hadassah charity fund
1932 — (19th of Iyar, 5692) Sixty-nine persons were injured today in communal rioting after Arabs attack Jewish inhabitants of the Crater district of Aden whom they accused of defiling a mosque
1936 — (4th of Sivan, 5696) The Jewish Auxiliary Police, «Ghaffirs», was established to guard Jewish settlements and rural roads
1936 — (4 Sivan 5696) An agreement was signed between the British army in Eretz Israel and the «Egged» bus drivers’ cooperative, stipulating that the cooperative would undertake transportation for British military units throughout the country
1942 — (9 Sivan 5702) The Shoah. In Kovel, Jews unfit for work were separated from those fit for labor and gathered in a separate ghetto
1945 — (13th of Sivan, 5705) Just three weeks after the surrender of the German capital, pharmacist Erich Zwilsky became the Berlin Jewish Hospital’s managing director, assuming responsibility for the only Jewish institution that had remained in operation throughout World War II
1948 — (16th of Iyar, 5708) The Old City of Jerusalem falls. Defended by local residents, Etzel members and about 80 Haganah soldiers, they were outnumbered and out-gunned by the Arab legionaries. After weeks of desperate fighting it was decided to surrender and save the almost 2000 mostly elderly Jews who were still living in the Old City
1948 — (16th of Iyar, 5708) The attack on Latrun, begun the night before continues. ….. The forces of the Arab Legion are able to fire down on the attacking Jews. As the Jews fall victim to the barrage of bullets, they are forced to confront a second enemy, the searing heat which many of these recent refugees from Europe are not used to. To make matters worse, many of them went into battle without canteens. Their pleas for water are met by sniper fire from the Arabs. Realizing that the attack has failed, the Israelis withdraw with eighty dead and uncounted others wounded. Among the dead is Reuven Oppenheim who had survived the Holocaust. He fought with partisan forces in that part of the Soviet Union known as White Russia. Miraculously, Oppenheim’s immediate family (mother, father and sister) survived with him and came to Palestine in 1947. The price for a Jewish state was high indeed
1954 — (22 Iyar 5714) A herd of cattle was stolen from Kibbutz Ein Gedi by the Dead Sea (see May 26).
1955 — (4 Sivan 5715) In Jerusalem, the founding conference began for the establishment of a center for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. The center was named the Leo Baeck Institute.
1965 — (23 Iyar 5725) The Herut Party, the Liberal Party, and several smaller factions formed the Gahal electoral alliance. At the end of 1973, on the eve of the elections for the Eighth Knesset, following the initiative of Ariel Sharon to add several small opposition factions to Gahal, the Likud bloc was formed.
1976 — (25th of Iyar, 5736) A guard at Ben Gurion Airport was killed and nine others were injured when a bomb planted in a suitcase by a terrorist went off prematurely.
1976 — (25 Iyar 5736) Terrorist attack. A bomb exploded at the Rothschild Bank in Paris
2001 — (3th of Sivan, 5761) The terrorists of Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for the bombing today the Hadera bus station where 65 people were injured but nobody was killed.
2014 — (25 Iyar 5774) In the Hurish Tal National Park, near a man-made lake, the cornerstone was laid for Israel’s first trailer park.
2021 — (3 Sivan 5781) Near the settlement of Kiryat Netafim, an Arab driver collided with a car bearing Israeli license plates. When the driver, Yael Sharfer, got out to assess the damage, the carjacker pushed her aside, got into her car, and fled the scene. The settlement was founded in 1984 and is located in central Samaria, 30 km from Tel Aviv, 38 km from Jerusalem, and 8 km west of Arie
People
1096 — (1th of Sivan, 4856) Simcha bar Isaac Hakohen pretended to submit to baptism. As he entered the church he attacked the priest. He was «torn to bits» by the crow
1710 — (7th of Sivan, 5470) Rabbi Benjamin Ozer of Zolkiev, author of “Even ha-Ozer” passed away
1845 — (18 Iyar 5605) Lipman Emanuel Pike was born — a famous American baseball player. He died on October 10, 1893.
1885 — Jean-Richard Bloch was born — a French writer and public figure. Member of the French Communist Party. He died on March 15, 1947.
1904 — Joseph North was born — an American publicist. He died on December 31, 1976.
1921 — Jack Steinberger was born — an American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (1988). He died on December 12, 2020.
1927 — (23 Iyar 5687) Peter Malkin was born — an Israeli intelligence officer. He died on March 1, 2005.
1929 — (15 Iyar 5689) Belle Miriam Silverman was born — a renowned opera singer in the United States. She died on July 2, 2007.
2024 — (17 Iyar 5784) War with Gaza. Day two hundred and thirty-three. In battle in the northern Gaza Strip, Staff Sergeant Saar Sudei, 20, was killed. Staff Sergeant Betzalel Tzvi Kovach, 20, who had been seriously wounded in battle on May 22, died in the hospital