November 23

History events
1510 — (21nd of Kislev, 5271) The Jews were expelled from Naples
1584 — (1nd of Tevet, 5345)The Sultan ordered an investigation into the number of synagogues in Safed. In his letter to the local administration, he wrote, «in the town of Safed there are only seven sacred mosques. But the Jews who in olden times had three synagogues have now thirty-two synagogues, and they have built their buildings very high.»
1924 — (26th of Cheshvan, 5685) Herzliya was founded as a moshav. It has since become a flourishing town on the Mediterranean coast
1938 — (29th of Cheshvan, 5699) It was reported today that, ….. “The movement started only a week ago by Palestine Jewry to adopt children from Germany is spreading with amazing rapidity. Following a suggestion made by Israel Rokach, Mayor of Tel Aviv…to members of the Jewish Women’s Labor Federation” have already “volunteered to adopt refugee children.” The National council of Palestine Jewry had set a goal of adopting 5,000 children but given the quick positive response the goal will be met and exceeded
1947 — (10nd of Kislev, 5708) Eliezer Sukenik an outstanding archaeologist and text expert ….. on the faculty of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University first received word of the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents, dating between 200 BC and AD 70, had been accidentally discovered earlier that winter by two Bedouin shepherds in the vicinity of Qumran. Sukenik was able to purchase three of the scrolls they had found, the War Scroll, the Thanksgiving Scroll and a small Scroll of Isaiah. The Great Scroll of Isaiah had already been purchased the Metropolitan Stephen, of St. Mark’s Church. In one of the strange twists of fate, Yigal Yadin, Sukenik’s son, would arrange for the purchase of the Scroll of Isaiah and three other scrolls in 1954. The purchase began with a simple newspaper ad in the Wall Street Journal, “Miscellaneous For Sale…Four Dead Sea Scrolls.” Yadin knew the importance of the items and arranged for a loan of a quarter of a million dollars (a large sum in those days, especially for the infant state of Israel) to bring them back to their ancestral home. The secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls are still being unlocked by scholars to this day
1948 — (21th of Cheshvan, 5709) During the War for Independence, Israeli forces launched Operation Lot in the eastern Negev and Arava; Israel forms a reserve forced made up of men aged 40 to 45
1949 — (2nd of Kislev, 5710) Israeli forces made their way through the Negev Desert to the isolated outpost at Sodom (the Biblical Sodom) on the Dead Sea which had been cut off from any overland contact for more than six months. Their success in reaching Sodom extended the boundaries of the new state of Israel 20 miles further south and east
2000 — (25th of Cheshvan, 5761) A powerful car bomb killed two Israelis and wounded scores during rush hour in the coastal city of Hadera this evening
2005 — (21th of Cheshvan, 5766) The IDF unveiled the tombstones of five soldiers including two American volunteers, ….. who fell in a battle for Latrun in the War of Independence at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery after positively identifying their remains which had been resting in a mass grave. The five soldiers being honored were Pvt. Menachem “Mendel’ Math, Cpl. Shlomo Berber, Pvt. Yehuda «Jerry» Kaplan, Pvt. Ya’akov Shnawiss (who changed his name to Sheleg Lavan), and Pvt. Moshe Hessman

People
1777 — (23rd of Cheshvan) Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen of Brisk, author of Minhat Aharon passed
1848 — (27th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Meir Benjamin Danon, author of Be’er ba Sadeh, passed away
1886 — (25th of Cheshvan, 5647) Leopold Kompert, ghetto poet and novelist, died
1911 — (2nd of Kislev, 5672) Eighty-five year old Rabbi Jacob Hamburger, “the sole author and editor of the first explicitly Jewish Encyclopedia” passed away today
1926 — (17nd of Kislev, 5687) At Kibbutz Ein Harod, Noach Hantman, a farmer and poet and Yehudit Volwelsky, a social activist gave birth to Rafi Eitan, the leader of the Mossad operation that led to the arrest and trial of Adolf Eichman
2000 — (25th of Cheshvan, 5761) Lt. Edward Matchnik, 21, of Beersheba, was killed in an explosion at the District Coordination Office near Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip; Sixty-nine year old Clarence Yale Palitz, Jr. the Chairman of the Board of Financial Federal Corporation and patron of the arts who is survived by his wife Anka passed away today