History events
1655 — (15th of Cheshvan, 5416) In New Amsterdam, the government refused to allow Jews to stand guard, requiring them to pay a tax instead. ….. In effect, this made Jews “second class citizens.” Jacob Barsimon and Asser Levy refused to pay the tax petitioned to stand guard. At first they were met with resistance, but Asser Levy performed the guard duties anyway just like any other burgher of the town. He would later be granted full citizenship rights in New Amsterdam, the first for a Jew in North America
1735 — (1th of Kislev, 5596) In Mantua, a town in the Italian province of Lombardy, a pact between the Jewish community and the local high school was mediated by the Secretary of State. In return for the Jewish community providing liquor, and other gifts to the school on St. Catherine’s day, the students would not press their right to throw objects at any Jew who passes the school
1937 — (1th of Kislev, 5698) The Palestine Post reported that an Egged bus driver and two his passengers were wounded when their vehicle was fired on, at the infamous Kilometer 5 of the Jerusalem-Jaffa road
1942 — (25th of Cheshvan, 5703) Нolocaust. The Nazis deported the last 1,800 Jews from Ciechanow, Poland; Jewish men from Stopnica, Poland, are sent to a slave-labor camp at Skarzysko-Kamienna, while 400 old people and children are shot in the town cemetery; Six hundred Jews from Borislav, Poland, are deported naked to prevent resistance; In France, 745 Jews, including 35 residents of the Rothschild Old Age Home, are deported from Paris to Auschwitz
1943 — (7th of Cheshvan, 5704) Нolocaust. Operation «Harvest Festival» continued at Poniatowa as 15,000 Jews were killed in one day. The children of the Siaulia Ghetto in Lithuania were deported to Birkenau and perished. The Nazis murdered 17,000 prisoners at Majdanek
1948 — (3th of Cheshvan, 5709) War for independence. Israeli forces retake Yad Mordecai from the Egyptians
1953 — (27th of Cheshvan, 5714) Armed Jordanians murdered a guard in a nighttime attack upon a post along the railway track north of Hadera in the coastal plain
1967 — (2th of Cheshvan, 5728) The last of Aden’s Jews arrived in Israel marking the end of this ancient Jewish community
2011 — (8th of Cheshvan, 5772) «It will take a year, two years, but I will return. I will never leave you again». ….. These words were written by missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, to his wife Tami and his daughter Yuval. Arad’s diaries were obtained by Channel 2 and shown today. He most likely wrote them during his first weeks in captivity. The notes were written on pages ripped from books Arad’s captors gave him. «To my dearest of all, Tami and Yuval, I am trying to forget you because I get a lump on my throat with every memory,» he wrote. «I love you, and you are the only reason keeping me from thinking about the worst of all. I promise you this at least: I will return. A year, two years – I will never leave you again, even if I have to stop flying. We will have a warm and loving and good home like we never had.» Arad writes to his wife Tami: «I had a dream about you last night. It was wonderful. We both met on the grass after a long workday and talked as usual, and I was with you again. I woke up in a sweat, but it gave me a few minutes of happiness.» Arad’s letters remained in Lebanon for 20 years. They were returned to Israel three years ago as part of a swap deal with Hezbollah (in which Israel received the bodies Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser). In some of the letters Arad wrote the address of his parents’ house in Hod Hasharon, suggesting he believed his captors would mail them to his loved ones
People
1826 — (5th of Cheshvan, 5587) Élie Halévy, a French Hebrew poet and author passed away
1864 — (6th of Cheshvan, 5625) David Sassoon, Indian financier, died
1963 — (18th of Cheshvan, 5724) In Tel Aviv journalist and politician Yosef «Tommy» Lapid, who served as Justice Minister, and novelist and playwright Shulamit (Giladi) Lapid gave birth to Yair Lapid, the 14th Prime Minister of Israel, the father of three and the husband of Lihi Lapid