History events
1096 — (2st of Sivan, 4856) The Crusaders massacred the Jews of Neuss, Germany
1171 — (20st of Sivan, 4931) Martyrdom of Jews at Blois. The first ritual murder accusation in Europe occurred in Blois, France. Fifty-one Jews were burned, seventeen of them women. As they were burning, they chanted the hymn ‘Aleinu’ (composed in Talmudic times). Rabbenu Tam declared a day of fasting and prayer in England, France and the Rhineland
1716 — (16 Sivan 5476) A ship arrived in Massachusetts from London with the first Jews. They established the first Jewish community in New England
1753 — (22th of Iyar, 5513) In Zhitomir, the castle court under the influence of Bishop Solik of Kiev sentenced 33 Jews to death for the «ritual murder» of a Christian child. The entire evidence was based on the «confessions» of the innkeeper and his wife which had been made after being tortured, although they later retracted their statements. Thirteen of them were released upon converting. Many others, including the local Rabbi, were quartered alive. One couple converted on the spot and was granted a beheading
1753 — (22 Iyar 5513) In Zhytomyr, a court sentenced 13 Jews to death based on a blood libel. «… all six of the mentioned individuals were first taken to the market, where their hands were bound with wooden splinters soaked in tar, then they were wrapped up to their elbows in tow and set on fire. In this condition, they were taken outside the city to the gallows, where first three strips of skin were flayed from each of them, then they were quartered alive, heads were severed, and those heads, as well as the separate quarters of their bodies, were displayed on stakes… The next day, the six aforementioned Jews, sentenced to be quartered alive, were brought out to the gallows, and three of them, who persisted, were executed according to the sentence. The others, who expressed a desire to accept holy baptism, were simply beheaded; but for their greater enlightenment in the holy faith, the execution of their sentence was postponed until the following day, which indeed took place…»
1866 — (12 Sivan 5626) A certificate was issued to Isaac Bakst, a merchant from Oshmyany, for the operation of a printing house in Zhytomyr, which published both religious books and secular literature. Isaac Lazarovich Bakst passed away on May 26, 1882 (8 Sivan 5642) at the age of 73. His printing house ceased to exist around 1878
1894 — (20th of Iyar, 5654) Emanuel Lasker became a World Champion chess player.
1905 — (21 Iyar 5665) A pogrom occurred in Minsk
1916 — (23th of Iyar, 5676) The Zion Mule Corps was disbanded after the end of the Gallipoli Campaign
1934 — (12st of Sivan, 5694) In Tel Aviv, the third biennial Levant Fair comes to an end.
1935 — (23th of Iyar, 5695) In Tel Aviv a group of Yiddish authors sponsored a lecture in observance of the 70th birthday of Dr. Chaim Zhitlowski, social critic, political activist and author who was a “Yiddishist.” Members of Betarim, “a young military Revisionist-Zionist group” were responded violently to the fact that the lecture was conducted in Yiddish instead of Hebrew. They cut off the electricity, pelted members of the audience with stones and were so disorderly that police had to break up the meeting.
1936 — (5st of Sivan, 5696) For the first time ever, the Mandatory government in Palestine today mobilized Jewish settlers for self-defense as an open Arab revolt swept the country. read more Settlers at Rehoboth were armed and prepared to repel further assaults by Arabs after two days’ of their marauding had resulted in the destruction of various “agricultural enterprises; The first mass attack on a Jewish settlement took place” today “at Kfar Tabor at the foot of Mount Tabor in the Galilee district” when “a band of hundreds of Bedouins began firing at” the Jews “but police supported by the young Jewish farmers, repelled the attackers without casualties; After a lumber yard was set on fire and nine bombs were tossed by Arab attackers in Nevei Shalom, Jewish settlers fled to Tel Aviv
1938 — (25 Iyar 5698) The moshav Ramat Hadar was founded using the «Fence and Tower» method
1939 — (8 Sivan 5699) Near the village of Balad al-Sheikh, a Jewish train engineer was killed by Arabs. After 18 days, the murderers were found and executed by a special unit of the Haganah
1942 — (10st of Sivan, 5702) Belgian Jews were required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
1944 — (4 Sivan 5704) Sh. Mikhoels and Sh. Epstein sent copies of letters from Jews in the USSR regarding «abnormal phenomena» related to them locally to L. Beria.
1946 — (25 Iyar 5706) Akiva Feinstein, the resident of Mossad for Aliyah Bet, who was in charge of operations to smuggle illegal immigrants to Israel from Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, was arrested in Beirut. He spent 5 years in Arab prisons
1948 — (17th of Iyar, 5708) At the United Nations, the Arabs indicated a willingness to stop the fighting on condition read more that the Jews would regard the proclamation of statehood as null and void and that no further Jewish immigration would be accepted. Abba Eban responds publicly; “If the Arab states want peace with Israel, they can have it. If they want war, they have that, too. But whether they want peace or war, they could have only with the sovereign independent state of Israel.”
1948 — The position of Jewish forces in the Old City was beyond desperate. «There was nothing to eat; nothing to shoot with…» One hundred Haganah troopers had been killed with even more wounded as the Arab Legion pressed its attack on all sides.
1948 — (17th of Iyar, 5708) As part of a plan to avoid fighting among different military forces that had been established during the Mandate, the newly formed government of Israel asserted its control over military force with the issuance of “Defense Army of Israel Ordinance No. 4” that “established the Israel Defense Forces, which would be comprised of «land forces, a navy and an air force».
1948 — (17 Iyar 5708) The provisional government approved Ben-Gurion’s order to establish the Israel Defense Forces. On the same day, the Jerusalem front was established. Under the command of D. Marcus, the Etzioni, Harel, and Seventh brigades were assigned.
1948 — (17 Iyar 5708) The War of Independence. A Syrian plane bombed the central part of Nahria. Five people were killed, and dozens were injured
1953 — (12st of Sivan, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported read more that Dr. Dov Joseph, the Acting Minister of Finance, introduced in the Knesset a Bill on «Income Tax Advances for Relief Works» and described the scheme which was expected to provide 2,650,000 work days for the country’s unemployed for the next six months; that the rationing of potatoes came to an end and potatoes were put on the free market sale for the first time in four years. Over 250 immigrants were expected to arrive from Iran
1953 — (12 Sivan 5713) Two members of the underground religious organization Brit HaKenaim, which operated in Israel from 1950 to 1953, were arrested by the General Security Service. They planned to throw a smoke bomb at the Ministry of Education in protest against a law on state education being prepared within its walls
1954 — (23 Iyar 5714) Ten young people from Kibbutz Ein Gedi crossed the Jordanian border and returned a herd of cattle that had been stolen the day before, killing four Arabs in the process
1958 — (7 Sivan 5718) Jordanians attacked Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, killing four police officers and wounding two. Jordan, as usual, blamed the incident on the IDF, which allegedly violated the ceasefire line.
1964 — (15 Sivan 5724) The final tournament of the Asian Cup in football began in Israel. Besides the Israeli team, teams from Hong Kong, India, and South Korea participated. The tournament lasted until June 9. Winning all matches, the Israeli team won the Asian Cup
1967 — (16th of Iyar, 5727) As the crisis that would result in the Six Day War intensified, President Nasser of Egypt declared, “the battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.” While President Johnson worked to develop an international response that would open the Straits of Tiran, the Soviet Union let the members of the Security Council know that Moscow would veto any proposal that was not in accord with the wishes of Syria and Egypt
1977 — (9 Sivan 5737) A 500-lira banknote was introduced. The banknote featured a profile of Ben-Gurion and the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. It was issued due to inflation and rising prices and circulated until 1984 when a currency reform was carried out.
1997 — (19 Iyar 5757) Three IDF soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon after falling into an ambush by Hezbollah.
2005 — (17 Iyar 5765) The cornerstone of the new Academic Library was laid at the Academic College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel.
2009 — (3st of Sivan, 5769) For the first time since its founding, the Knesset is officially marking today as Yiddish Language and Culture Day. A Yiddish-Hebrew Knesset lexicon was released for the occasion
2013 — (17st of Sivan, 5773) Hundreds gathered at Ammunition Hill in the capital this evening to witness the swearing-in of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, the only haredi (ultra-Orthodox) unit in the IDF. The battalion, currently numbering close to 1,000, is responsible for military operations in and around Jenin.
People
1615 — (8st of Sivan, 5375) Abraham Samuel Bacharach, a leading Rabbi in Worms, passed away
1757 — (7th of Sivan, 5517) Rabbi Jacob Daniel of Ferrara author of “Eden Arukh” passed away
1910 — E. Rozner, a musician, was born. He died on August 8, 1976.
1939 — (8th of Sivan, 5699) Rabbi Ya’akov Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, passed away
1939 — (8 Sivan 5699) Charles Wingate and his family were recalled from Palestine due to «excessive» sympathy for the Jews. He entered the history of Israel and its Armed Forces under the name of «Friend.» He developed the tactics of the Haganah for sudden retaliatory and preventive strikes against the enemy, which the Israel Defense Forces still use today
1943 — (21 Iyar 5703) The Shoah. The German Foreign Ministry’s appeal to Eichmann requesting the return of a German woman, the mother of three children with a Jewish husband, M. Sasson, from the concentration camp due to the family’s dire situation. Eichmann delayed the response until Sasson was exterminated.
1944 — (4st of Sivan, 5704) Mordechai and Yehuda Eldar arrived at Auschwitz. read more Mordechai Adler was slated to die in October but through a fluke received a reprieve when he was one of 50 prisoners chosen to work in “Canada,” the warehouse operation where the Nazis greedily stored the belongings of their Jewish victims. In 1947, Eldar and two of his sisters (the only surviving members of his extended family) sailed to Palestine on the SS Exodus. Sent back to Hamburg by the British, he returned to Tel Aviv in June of 1948. He joined the IDF and served for 30 years before retiring as a colonel in 1978
1954 — (23th of Iyar, 5714) Meir Har-Zion was part of ten-man squad “from the newly formed 890th Paratroop Battalion led by Ariel Sharon which carried out a raid near Khirbet Jinba” today
1958 — (7th of Sivan, 5718) Four Israeli police officers were killed in a Jordanian attack on Mount Scopus, in Jerusalem