History events
1287 — (18th of Iyar, 5047)Jews were arrested and accused of «clipping» the coinage in England. Although there was no evidence, the community as a whole was convicted and ordered to be expelled. A ransom of 4,000 (some say 12,000) pounds of silver were paid in ransom. This was the penultimate act in the story of the medieval English Community. For a century or more they had been drained of their wealth by Richard the Lionhearted, his brother King John and his son Henry III. In 1290, having reduced the Jews to a state of semi-poverty, and replaced them with Italian Bankers, King Edward I expelled the Jews from England. Part of his rational was that if some Jews were guilty of counterfeiting, then the whole community must be guilty
1515 — (19th of Iyar, 5275)An edict was issued ordering the expulsion of the Jews from Ragussa. There were exceptions to the order including physicians and merchants operating in the country on a temporary basis
1926 — (20th of Iyar, 5686) In Palestine, “all work in Jewish office, factories and institutions…stopped at 1:30 today as thousands of mourners paid tribute to the late Dr. Max Nordau…whose body was brought to Palestine from France. As the body was being carried to Tel Aviv’s town hall, the procession stopped at the Great Synagogue where special religious services were held
1939 — (15th of Iyar, 5699) In Hungary, Miklos Horthy signs “The Second Jewish Bill” which had been introduced into the Hungarian Parliament in December of 1938 and was laughingly called “the Christmas present for the Jews.” The bill was the Hungarian version of Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws and proved to almost immediately ruinous for much of Hungary’s Jewish population
1942 — (17th of Iyar, 5702) The first day of an eleven day deportation of 10,000 Jews from Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno Death Camp. They were part of 145,000 people who were gassed between December, 1941 and September 1942.
1947 — (14th of Iyar, 5707) The Irgun Zeva’l Le’umi, known in Hebrew by the abbreviation as Etzel or the Irgun, staged the famous prison break at Acre Prison. In April, 1947, the British had hung members of the Irgun so Menachem Begin felt it was imperative to try and rescue at least some of those held in the aging fortress. In a act of daring-do worthy of any adventure novel, the Irgun entered the prison and freed 41 Etzel and Lehi (Stern Gang) prisoners. They could not free more because of the lack of hiding places
1948 — (25th of Nisan, 5708) Arab Legion which was the Jordanian army that included a compliment of British officers attacked Kfar Etzion and was driven back by the poorly armed Jewish fighters; Palmach launched Operation Broom. Operation Broom was intended to “sweep away” Arab bases so that Jewish settlements in the lower and upper Galilee could be joined together with a wide, safe strip of Jewish territory.
1953 — (19th of Iyar, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that the Treasury doubled the exchange rate for leather and textiles to IL2 per dollar. The Histadrut banned all overtime and double jobs in order to ease the current heavy unemployment
1955 — (12th of Iyar, 5715) A fund of $100,000 was presented tonight to the Israelis Federation of Labor to build a cold storage plant in Israel
1994 — (23th of Iyar, 5754) Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed an according that granted the Palestinians the right of self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho
2000 — (29th of Nisan, 5760) Shiite Muslim terrorists “fired five barrages of Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, killing one Israeli soldier and sowing panic in the northern border town of Qiryat Shemona” in what was the fiercest cross border attack since last June
People
1758 — (26th of Nisan, 5518)Solomon Lipschitz who was born at Furth in 1675 and served as a cantor in Prague and Frankfurt passed away today leaving behind Te’udat Shelomo as a guide for future generations of Jewish musicians
1816 — (6th of Iyar, 5576)Birthdate of violinist Joseph Franco
1864 — (28th of Nisan, 5642) Benjamin II, Rumanian traveler, died
1939 — (15th of Iyar, 5699) Birthdate of Israeli author Amos Oz