History events
1215 — (6 Tevet 4676) A papal bull put into effect the decisions of the Fourth Lateran Council, according to which all non-believers had to wear special marks. In practice, such a mark was a piece of yellow or crimson cloth — in England in the form of two tablets with the Ten Commandments, in France, Germany, and other countries — in the form of a circle. In some countries, where a simple badge was considered insufficient, Jews were also ordered to wear a hat of a prescribed color
1286 — (11th of Kislev, 5047) Bull of Honorius IV. to archbishops of York and Canterbury, against the Talmud
1516 — (5 Tevet 5277) By order of Don Samuel, son of Don Meir Benveniste, the reproduction of the manuscript «Sefer ha-Chinnuch» was completed (a rabbinic text discussing each of the 613 commandments of the Torah, both from a legal and moral point of view. It was published anonymously in Spain in the 13th century)
1790 — (23th of Kislev, 5551) King Leopold II forwarded the petition from the Jews asking for full equality with other citizens to the “chancelleries of Hungary and Moravia” to see if this change would be supported (November 29)
1932 — (1 Kislev 5693) The last issue of the newspaper «The Palestine Bulletin,» predecessor of the English-language «Palestine Post,» was published
1933 — (12th of Kislev, 5694) The David Baazov Museum of History of the Jews of Georgia “was officially founded by the order of People’s Commissariat of Education of Georgia today, under the title ‘Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Museum’”
1936 — (16th of Kislev, 5697) An American flag, the gift of Mayor a Guardia of New York, was presented today to the municipality of Tel Aviv by the Maccabee soccer team which had just returned from a tour of the United States. The Maccabee also presented a flag of New York Harbor to the new Tel Aviv port in ceremonies at the City Ha, where the athletes were officially welcomed after a parade
1940 — (29th of Chtshvan, 5701) After the “Patria incident,” ….. General Wavell, Britain’s top military officer in the Middle East complains vehemently to Sir Anthony Eden protesting the decision to let any Jewish refugees remain in Palestine. He contends that the decision to let 1,900 Jews remain in Palestine will undermine British relations with the Arabs. The Mufti, who is Berlin with Hitler, will be strengthened. Nazi sympathizers in Syria will be encouraged. And fifth columnists in Egypt will find it easier to gain support for the Germans
1941 — (10th of Kislev, 5702) Нolocaust. Start of the Rumbula Massacre, the liquidation of the Riga Ghetto, a killing spree exceeded only by Babi Yar
1941 — (10th of Kislev, 5702) Haj Amin, leader of the Palestinians was ceremoniously received by Hitler
1942 — (21 Kislev 5703) Shoah. In Germany, all Jewish elementary schools were closed.
1942 — (21 Kislev 5703) Shoah. The ghetto for «specialists» in Khmelnytskyi (Proskuriv) was liquidated. The Nazis and their local accomplices killed seven thousand Jews from Proskuriv and 900 Jews from the town of Nikolaev.
1942 — (21 Kislev 5703) Ben-Gurion at the national assembly of the Jews of Palestine: «We do not know exactly what is happening in the Nazi valley of death, how many Jews have already been killed… We do not know whether Europe, before democracy, freedom, and justice manage to triumph there, will turn into a gigantic Jewish cemetery… We are the only people in the world whose blood, as a nation, is permitted to be shed with impunity… We Jews are not recognized politically, we have no Jewish army, no Jewish independence, no Jewish homeland… Give us the right to fight and die as Jews… We demand the right to a homeland and independence. What happened to us in Poland, what, God forbid, will happen to us in the future, all our innocent victims, all the tens and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions… – are the victims of a people without a homeland. …We demand… a homeland and independence.»
1942 — (21 Kislev 5703) Shoah. In the Yishuv, two days (and the first of December) of mourning were declared for those who perished in the Catastrophe. The first pages of newspapers were bordered with black frames
1943 — (3th of Kislev, 5704) All nine Palestinian Hebrew newspapers and the German-language daily issued at Tel Aviv re-appeared today after eleven days’ suspension. ….. “The suspension resulted from” the “simultaneous uncensored publication” by these papers “of identical accounts with uniform editorial comment on the search carried” out at a kibbutz named Ramat Hakovesh by British forces looking for arms. The search turned violent resulting in the murder of one of the Jewish settlers. The articles in the newspapers had been part of the Jewish response which, among other things, continues to claim the right for Jews to be able to defend themselves
1944 — (11th of Kislev, 5705) More than 100,000 persons, ….. more than half the population of the city, greeted Dr. Chaim Weizmann when he visited Tel Aviv today for the first time since arriving in Palestine two weeks ago. The demonstration was the greatest welcome ever given to anyone in Tel Aviv. Weizmann responded by saying, “I never imagined my own people could have received me with such spontaneous joy.” When he went to Tel Aviv to review 200 soldiers who were serving in the new Jewish bridged of the British Army, he was greeted by crowds that were so large that they filled balconies, windows, lamp posts, trees, and telephone poles. Weizmann saw a direct connection between the fate of European Jewry, these troops and the creation of a Jewish commonwealth. He told the crowd that the “remnants of the European Jews” would receive the Jewish brigade as “a harbinger of freedom and by the masses of Jewish soldiers serving in the Allied armies as a symbol of national unity”
1947 — (17th of Kislev, 5708) On the day after UN decree for Israel, Arabs attacked Jewish settlements. ….. Even though the Jewish state would not officially declare its independence until May 1948, this day marked the beginning of the Israeli War of Independence as a bus near Lydda (Lod) was attacked by Arabs killing five passengers. The Arabs proclaimed a general strike and attacked the commercial quarter near the Old City of Jerusalem; Arab rifleman fired shots at an ambulance on its way to Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus; Arabs armed with machine guns and grenades attacked a bus traveling from the coast to Jerusalem killing four Jews including Jerusalemites Hirsh Stark and Hanna Weiss and twenty-year-old Shoshana Mizrachi Farhi who had been on her way to Jerusalem to get married; In another attack on a bus bound for Jerusalem, Arab gunmen killed Hehama Hacohen a pathologist at Hadassah Hospital; Moshe Goldman, a twenty-five-year-old from Jerusalem was shot dead at the Jaffa-Tel Aviv boundary
1947 — Headline of The New York Times: «General Assembly approves by majority vote the plan for the partition of Palestine, Arabs reject this initiative»
1948 — (28 Cheshvan 5709) Israel submitted an application to join the UN, but was not accepted; one vote was lacking. The country became a UN member on May 13, 1949.
1948 — (28 Cheshvan 5709) An agreement on the division of Jerusalem between Israel and Jordan was signed
1951 — (1th of Kislev, 5712) The Central Bureau of Statistics announced today that the population of Israel at the end of September had reading 1, 554,000 of who 1,382,000 were Jews
1953 — (23 Kislev 5714) Report to the Knesset by the Foreign Minister on the UN Security Council decision regarding the border incident with Syria and Jordan. On November 24, 1953, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 101, condemning Israel’s actions in the Jordanian village of Qibya (see October 14). The terror attack in the village of Yehud was not mentioned, although «frequent acts of violence» against Israeli citizens committed from Jordanian territory were noted. The UN Security Council resolution contains a request to the governments of Israel and Jordan to strengthen measures to prevent acts of violence from both sides of the demarcation line
1959 — (29 Cheshvan 5720) First session of the 4th Knesset. Knesset member Kadish Luz was elected to the post of Speaker of the Knesset.
1962 — (3 Kislev 5723) Minister of Agriculture M. Dayan banned the cultivation and commercial use of poplar. As a result, the local production of popsicle sticks was destroyed, and they had to be imported.
1981 — (4 Kislev 5742) A strategic partnership agreement was concluded between Israel and the United States.
1993 — (16th of Kislev, 5754) “Schindler’s List,” the movie version Schindler’s Ark premiered in Washington, D.C. today
2009 — (13 Kislev 5770) In Munich, the trial began of Ivan Demjanjuk, accused of complicity in the destruction of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp in Poland during World War II. Demjanjuk served in the guard of concentration camps – first at Treblinka, then at Sobibor. The trial lasted a year and a half. Sentenced to five years in prison, placed in a nursing home.
2012 — (16 Kislev 5773) The UN General Assembly granted the request of the Palestinian National Authority to grant Palestine the status of observer state.
2012 — (27 Kislev 5774) A wave of Arab protest demonstrations against the plan adopted by the Israeli government to resettle Bedouins in the Negev swept across the north and south of the country. 15 police officers and dozens of demonstrators were injured, 20 people were arrested. Police used water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. The Arabs rejected the plan proposed by the government, according to which some illegal Bedouin settlements were to be legalized and the rest demolished. A few days later, B. Netanyahu’s government canceled this plan.
2014 — (8 Kislev 5775) For the first time in Israel, the Day of Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran was marked, dedicated to those who had to leave Arab countries and Iran after the establishment of Israel because of persecution
2018 — (22 Kislev 5779) In the port area in Eilat, a Jordanian citizen seriously wounded two workers with a hammer
2023 — (17 Kislev 5784) Terror attack in Jerusalem. Two Arabs began shooting at people with automatic weapons. Three residents of Jerusalem were killed, ten people were wounded. The Arabs were killed. At the moment when the Arabs opened fire on civilians, Yuval Kestelman got out of a car with a pistol and began shooting at the terrorists. However, IDF reservists who came to help mistakenly took him for a terrorist and, despite the fact that he, kneeling and raising his hands, begged them not to shoot until the last moment, opened fire on him. He also died, so in the terror attack 4 residents of Israel were killed
2023 — (17 Kislev 5784) War with Gaza. Day fifty-five. Seventh day of the truce. 8 female hostages were released. The youngest of those released was 17, the oldest was 41
People
1631 — (15th of Kislev, 5392) Rabbi Samuel Eliezer ben Judah ha-levi Edels passed away. He was known as an outstanding Talmudist and master of dialectics whose commentaries were of such value that they were included in most editions of the Talmud
1823 — (27th of Kislev, 5584) Birthdate of German botanist Nathanael Pringsheim who in 1882 established the German Botanical Society, which in twelve years included over 400 German botanists, and of which he was annually elected president until his death
1880 — (27 Kislev 5641) Born Adam Czerniakow. In 1939–1942 he headed the Judenrat of the Warsaw Ghetto. On July 23, 1942, he committed suicide, having failed to prevent the mass deportation by the Nazis of Jews from the ghetto to the Treblinka camp
1913 — (1 Kislev 5674) Born V. Dragunsky — writer
1916 — (5 Kislev 5677) Born Edmund Wilhelm Brilnt Halevi — one of the creators of the Israeli navy. Died in 2004
1883 — (1st of Kislev, 5644) In Rushville, Indiana, a violent quarrel, including fisticuffs and gunfire, between Jewish merchants Eli Frank and Jacob Block turned fatal when Frank was shot to death by Block’s son
1943 — (3rd of Kislev, 5704) Esther «Etty» Hillesum a young Jewish woman whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943 describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation died at Auschwitz. They were published posthumously in 1981, before being translated into English in 1983
1949 — (9 Kislev 5710) Born Mati (Matityahu) Caspi — singer and composer. Died February 8, 2026
2017 — (12 Kislev 5778) In Arad, at a bus stop near a shopping center, 19-year-old IDF Sergeant Ron Yitzhak Kukia was killed by a knife strike to the neck
2024 — (29 Cheshvan 5785) War with Gaza. Day four hundred twenty-one. Senior Sergeant Zamir Burke, 20, was killed in battle in the north of the sector