History events
-456 — (20th of Kislev, 3306) On November 21, Ezra called together all the men of Judah and Benjamin and told them that they would have to give up their foreign born wives
-164 — (6th of Kislev, 3598) On the secular calendar, Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Events commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
1744 — (27 Kislev 5505) Pogrom of the Prague ghetto, carried out by the Prussian troops of Frederick the Great, who took the city by storm during the War of the Spanish Succession. When the Prussians left and the Austro-Hungarians returned, the Jews were again accused of treason and the ghetto was once again attacked.
1879 — (6 Kislev 6540) The first issue of the American weekly Jewish magazine The American Hebrew was published.
1906 — (4 Kislev 5667) The third congress of Russian Zionists opened in Helsinki. The so-called «Helsingfors Program» was adopted, consisting of 4 parts: practical work in Palestine, a political platform (in particular, recognition of the Jewish people as an integral unit with the right to self-government), the national-political demands of Zionism, and immediate actions.
1910 — (19 Cheshvan 5671) The organization of Jewish doctors of Vilna was registered. On April 20, 1920, the association of Jewish doctors of Vilna was transformed into a Union. In 1921, the Union united 64 doctors.
1919 — (28 Cheshvan 5680) The pogrom in Lvov, carried out by the Polish army fighting against the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, lasted 3 days; 142 people were killed and 50 houses were destroyed.
1933 — (3th of Kislev, 5694) A delegation representing all elements of the Jewish community including members of the Vaad Leumi, representatives of Agudath Israel, ….. leaders of the agricultural community and Israel Rokach, the Vice Mayor of Tel Aviv, met with the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope. They were protesting British immigration policy including plans to deport Jews already living in Palestine as well as the negative impact of that immigration policy on the economic well-being of all those living in Palestine including the Arab populace
1938 — (27 Cheshvan 5699) Shoah. Operation «Kindertransport.» The British Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, at a meeting with a delegation of the «Movement for the Care of Children from Germany,» agreed to introduce an accelerated immigration process. In total, England accepted about 10,000 unaccompanied children. Initially they came from Germany and Austria. In March 1939, after the German army invaded Czechoslovakia, transports from Prague were hastily organized. In February and August 1939, trains came from Poland
1940 — (20th of Cheshvan, 5701) A cargo of 1,771 stateless Jews mostly from Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, Hungary and Rumania are loaded aboard the Patria, a French steamer chartered by the British to ship them from Palestine to detainment camps on the British island of Mauritius
1941 — (1 Kislev 5702) Shoah. In Bazar (Zhytomyr Oblast), 29 Jews were shot; in Yalta, 13 Jews; in Freidorf (Crimea), 64 Jews. In Yevpatoria (Crimea), Jews were concentrated in one place. The 1st SS Motorized Infantry Brigade reported on this day that from September 10 to November 10, 1941, it had carried out «actions according to wartime customs»; their results: «adults: male — 4,146, female — 1,033; children: male — 126, female — 92; total 5,397 people.» The «actions» consisted of the killings of Jews in a number of settlements in Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy Oblasts
1947 — (8th of Kislev, 5708) Against Palestine Partition a letter from several prominent Americans published today ….. provides a panoply of reasons of why the United States should oppose the creation of a Jewish state including the fact that four –fifths of the proven oil reserves are in Arab hands and the fact that there are 40 million people inhabiting the Arab League States. The letter writers “all have intimate Jewish friends” but warn that any outbreak of violence in the Middle East that hampers American business interests will lead to a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States
1948 — (19th of Cheshvan, 5709) It was announced in Tel Aviv today that “the picking of citrus fruit will begin throughout Israel this week, with the prospect of a crop almost equaling last season’s in Jewish-owned groves but altogether of a little more than one-third of the pre-war production in Palestine.”
1948 — (19 Cheshvan 5709) The premises of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were closed and a search was conducted there. On the same day, publication of the newspaper Eynikayt was stopped
1958 — (9 Kislev 5719) A 48-hour sandstorm brought life in the settlements of the southern Negev to a halt
1961 — (13th of Kislev, 5722) New Square, the first Chassidic town in the U.S., elected its mayor
1961 — (13 Kislev 5722) Thousands of Orthodox Jews demonstrated calling on the Knesset to adopt a Sabbath law. But it was not adopted
1962 — (24th of Cheshvan, 5723) Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion attended the founding ceremony for the city of Arad
1965 — (26th of Cheshvan, 5726) The port of Ashdod port opened for business when a freighter docked at the port for the first time
1967 — (18 Cheshvan 5728) Battle on the Jordan in the area of the Umm-Shurt bridge with the use of tanks, aircraft, and artillery — the most serious clash on the border since the Six-Day War. It began after the Jordanian army shelled IDF positions.
1972 — (15 Kislev 5733) Two air battles with the Syrian Air Force over Lebanon and the Golan. The Syrians lost 13 aircraft.
1973 — (26 Cheshvan 5734) A state commission was created to investigate the actions of the state authorities in the Yom Kippur War, the so-called Agranat Commission. The commission was headed by Shimon Agranat, President of the Supreme Court. The commission sat for about three months, heard 90 witnesses, received additional written testimony from 188 IDF officers, and published its first preliminary report on April 1, 1974. According to its conclusions, the cause of the failures was the concept adopted by the Israeli leadership according to which neither Egypt nor Syria could attack Israel at present, and if they tried to do so, they would immediately receive a crushing retaliatory blow. As a result of blind adherence to this concept, the abundant data on the movements of Arab armies near Israel’s borders were not taken into account, and the necessary preventive measures (mobilization, etc.) were not taken. As a result, the commission placed all the blame on the military rather than the political leadership: Chief of the General Staff David (Dado) Elazar (recommendation to dismiss from his post), Chief of Military Intelligence Eli Zeira (same recommendation), and Commander of the Southern Front Shmuel Gonen (Gorodish).
1984 — (26th of Cheshvan, 5745) “Operation Moses,” a two month long “covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan began today
1985 — (8 Kislev 5746) In the United States, at the gates of the Israeli embassy in Washington, an American Jew, U.S. Naval Intelligence officer Jonathan Pollard, was arrested. He was accused of passing secret materials to Israel about military installations in Arab countries. The intelligence officer appeared before the court, pleaded guilty, but claimed that his actions were dictated exclusively by ideological considerations and that he had not harmed U.S. security. In 1987 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
1988 — (12 Kislev 5749) D. Shilansky was elected Speaker of the Knesset. In the autumn of 1952, near the Foreign Ministry building in Jerusalem, a man was arrested — a Herut activist with a bomb in his bag. His name was Dov Shilansky — a native of Lithuania who had survived the Holocaust and the shelling of the Altalena. At trial he was accused of membership in an underground organization whose goal was to prevent the conclusion of an agreement with West Germany. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison. The trial and Shilansky’s statements at it received broad press coverage — largely thanks to the efforts of the young lawyer Shmuel Tamir. In prison he wrote the books: «Diary of a Jewish Political Prisoner in a Jewish Prison» and a novel about the Holocaust, «Mozelman.»
2002 — (16th of Kislev, 5763) Eleven people were killed and some 50 wounded by a suicide bomber on a No. 20 Egged bus on Mexico Street in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood of Jerusalem. ….. The bus was filled with passengers, including schoolchildren, traveling toward the center of the city during rush hour. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Hodaya Asraf, 13, of Jerusalem; Marina Bazarski, 46, of Jerusalem; Hadassah (Yelena) Ben-David, 32, of Jerusalem; Sima Novak, 56, of Jerusalem; Kira Perlman, 67, and her grandson Ilan Perlman, 8, of Jerusalem; Yafit Ravivo, 14 of Jerusalem; Ella Sharshevsky, 44, and her son Michael Sharshevsky, 16, of Jerusalem; Mircea Varga, 25, a tourist from Romania; Dikla Zino, 22, of Jerusalem
2005 — (19 Cheshvan 5766) A. Sharon resigned as Prime Minister and announced the creation of the new party Kadima.
2005 — (19 Cheshvan 5766) Deterioration of the situation on the northern border. Heavy rocket and mortar shelling by Hezbollah; one soldier was killed.
2006 — (30 Cheshvan 5767) Fifty immigrants from India, members of the Bnei Menashe community, arrived in Israel on a special flight from Bombay. The Bnei Menashe are considered to be one of the ten tribes of Israel exiled from their native land by the Assyrian conquerors 2,700 years ago. They live compactly in the states of Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.
2008 — (23 Cheshvan 5769) Israel. In the morning, almost 600 people lined up for the start of the next, sixth, race up the stairs to the upper platform of the Azrieli shopping complex in Tel Aviv. Participants in the unusual marathon had to overcome 1,400 steps.
2012 — (7 Kislev 5773) The anti-terrorist operation «Amud Anan» («Pillar of Cloud») ended with a ceasefire with Gaza. From November 14 to 21, the IDF struck 1,500 targets in the Gaza Strip
2014 — (28th of Cheshvan, 5775) Two Jewish seminary students were attacked and wounded in East Jerusalem this evening. ….. The two were reportedly hit with stones, metal rods and nails near the Beit Orot seminary in Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, days after Palestinian terrorists opened fire in a Jerusalem synagogue and killed four rabbis and a Druze policeman
2023 — (8th of Kislev, 5784) Iron Swords. ….. As November 21 begins in Israel, tensions continue to mount on the northern border as Hezbollah continues to launch missiles, mortars and drones into Israel, the Iranian backed Houthis have officially opened a new front with their statement yesterday that “Israeli ships are legitimate targets and Hamas continues to fire rockets at Tel Aviv which does not draw a warning from the international community about avoiding civilian casualties while the Hamas held hostages begin day 46 in captivity
People
1471 — (8 Kislev 5232) At the age of 82, João Gonçalves Zarco died — Portuguese navigator who discovered the Madeira archipelago in 1420. He came from a noble family, presumably of Jewish origin.
1698 — (28 Kislev 5459) At the age of 39, Rabbi Hezekiah bar David De Silva (Pri Hadash) died — an outstanding teacher of law.
1800 — (4 Kislev 5561) Barney Aaron, nicknamed «Star of the East,» was born — one of the strongest boxers in England of his time. He died in 1850. He was recognized as the strongest lightweight in the world in 1819–1834.
1819 — (3 Kislev 5580) Daniil Avraamovich Chwolson was born — Semitologist, compiler of a large collection of Jewish incunabula. He died on March 23, 1911.
1936 — A. Ginzburg was born — journalist. He died on July 19 (or 18), 2002.
1946 — O. Kagan was born — violinist. He died on July 15, 1990.
1970 — The well-known American writer A. Yuzerskaya died in California
1985 — (8th of Kislev, 5746) Jonathan Pollard and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Israel
2000 — (23th of Cheshvan, 5761) Itamar Yefet, 18, of Netzer Hazani died from a gunshot wound to the head by Palestinian sniper fire at the Gush Katif junction
2023 — (8 Kislev 5784) War with Gaza. Day forty-six. The IDF completed the encirclement of the Jabalia camp in the north of the sector, imposed a blockade on the Indonesian Hospital, and conducted serious battles in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Reserve Captain Arnon Moshe Avraham Benvenisti Vaspi, 26, Senior Sergeant Ilya Senkin, 20, and Captain Liron Snir, 25, were killed; six servicemen were seriously wounded. In the evening — an air-raid alert in central Israel, areas close to Gaza, and in the North.
2024 — (20 Cheshvan 5785) War with Gaza. Day four hundred and twelfth. In battle in the sector, Senior Sergeant Ron Epstein, 19, was killed. Operation «Northern Arrows.» As a result of shelling from Lebanon in Nahariya, one person was killed