History events
1317 — (26th of Iyar, 5077) In his will dated today, the infante Don Pedro, ordered that Judah Abravanel be paid: (1) 15,000 maravedis for clothes delivered; (2) 30,000 maravedis as part of a personal debt, at the same time requesting Judah to release him from paying the rest. Judah had been in great favor with King Alfonso the Wise, with whom he once had a conversation regarding Judaism
1664 — (24th of Iyar, 5424) In Lemberg and Cracow, Poland, anti-Jewish riots by students and peasants resulted in damages and death in both communities. In Lemberg, the cantor was killed during when the synagogue was attacked
1712 — (14th of Iyar, 5472) In Berlin, the cornerstone of the first public synagogue was laid in Heiderentergasse
1855 — (21th of Iyar, 5615) The new building for the Jews Hospital in New York, located on 28th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, has been completed. The building which cost $35,000 is four stories high and has room for 150 patients
1881 — (10th of Iyar, 5641) Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Shpola and Ananyev, Russia.
1900 — (10th of Iyar, 5660) During the Konitz Affair, a blood libel in West Prussia, “the Staatsbürgerzeitung, the leading anti-Semitic organ of Berlin, said: ‘No one can help forming the impression that the organs of the government received orders to pursue the investigation in a manner calculated to spare the Jews’” even though the opposite was quite true as could be seen by the detectives and judges eagerly listened to “the most improbable statements implicating Jews, while Christian witnesses withheld important testimony.”
1916 — (6th of Iyar, 5676) The British and the French finalize the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
1939 — (20th of Iyar, 5699) The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus
1972 — (25th of Iyar, 5732) One day after Sabena Flight 571 was hijacked by four terrorists from Black September demanding the release of 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists in exchange for the passengers, a rescue mission was mounted. A group of commandos led by Ehud Barak that included Benjamin Netanyahu took back control of the plane, free the passengers with the loss of only one life, not counting the two dead terrorists
2001 — (16th of Iyar, 5761) The bodies of two Israeli teenagers – Yaakov “Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran — who had been kidnapped yesterday were found in a cave in the Judean Desert near their home which was covered with the boy’s blood “reportedly smeared by their killers” who had bound them, stabbed them and beaten them to death with rocks
People
1775 — (9th of Iyar, 5535) Birthdate of Moses Philippson the Jewish writer, teacher, translator and publisher who was related to 16th century Rabbi Joshua ben Joseph Hoseschel and who taught at the Jewish School in Dessau
1778 — (12th of Iyar, 5538) Chasidic Rabbi Samuel Shmelke Horowitz, author of Divrei Shmuel, passed away today
1930 — (11th of Iyar, 5690) Birthdate of Mordechai “Motta” Gur who commanded the division that reunited Jerusalem in 1967 and served 10th Chief of Staff of the IDF.