History events
-586 — (16th of Cheshvan, 3176) King Zedekiah was blinded and taken into captivity. ….. He was the last king of Judea. Zedekiah’s («Tzidkiyahu») original name was Matanya. He was torn between the two great powers of Egypt and Babylon. Unfortunately, Egypt under Hopra was no match for Nebuchadnezzar who pushed out the Egyptians and laid siege to Jerusalem. Zedekiah tried to flee from Jerusalem but was captured along with his sons in Jericho. He ended his life in a Babylonian prison
1485 — (6th of Cheshvan, 5246) At Soncino, Italy, Joshua Solomon Soncino printed ….. “The Former Prophets” with a commentary by Kimhi. (Kimihi probably refers to David Kimihi, the 13th century rabbi known as RaDak. But it cannot be said with certitude that it does not refer to his father Rabbi Joserph Kimhi and his brother Rabbi Moses Kimhi) The Soncinos were a family of Sephardic Jews who had begun operating printing presses in the town of Soncino, Italy in 1483
1871 — (30th of Tishrei, 5632) “English Jews” published today reported that ….. the Jews of the United Kingdom are “divided into two sects- orthodox and reformers.” The Orthodox are led by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom who delivered a sermon declaring “that the oral law and written law are equally Divine. The Reform or Liberal Jews are led by Professor David Woolf Marx. A smaller group, they use a synagogue in Upper Berkeley Street, Portman Square. Their numbers are described as “very small” and “the services lifeless”
1928 — (1th of Cheshvan, 5689) “The Republic of Flappers” a silent movie directed by David Constantin and filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released today in Jerusalem
1930 — (23th of Tishrei, 5691) The High Commissioner put an end to the proceedings against six Jews who had been arrested at Tel Aviv for protesting against Dr. Drummond Shiels when he arrived in Palestine last week. ….. The prisoners were released to a joyful crowd who had been angered by reports that Shiels supported creation of Parliament in Palestine that would guarantee Moslem rule and put an end to the creation of a Jewish homeland as promised by the Balfour Declaration
1936 — (29th of Tishrei, 5697) “Armistice in Palestine” published today described a truce that had been reached in Palestine ending “the general strike of Arabs against the British authorities intended to force the discontinuance of Jewish immigration” thanks to the efforts of the “Arab Kings of Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Trans-Jordan.”
1937 — (10th of Cheshvan, 5698) The Palestine Post reported ….. on the end of the temporary cease-fire, and an intense revival of the Arab anti-Jewish and anti-British terror activities throughout the country. Bullets and bombs hit Jewish transport, buses in particular. The Iraqi Petroleum Company pipeline was damaged and the oil flowing from Iraq set on fire near Beit She’an. A passenger train from Haifa and a goods train were derailed. The settlements of Ginegar, Afula, Rosh Pina, and Migdal Tzedek were exposed to persistent firing and 12 Jews were injured. Telephone lines were cut. The authorities closed the Syrian border and imposed a curfew in Jerusalem
1941 — (24th of Tishrei, 5702) Нolocaust. The Nazis began the first mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern European ghettos
1942 — (4th of Cheshvan, 5703) Нolocaust. ….. An SS Aktion is undertaken against Jews of Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland that would last until October 21. During this time untold numbers of Jews are shot in their homes and 22,000 are deported to the Treblinka death camp; The Nazis murdered 2,000 Jews living in the second ghetto at Bar in the Ukraine; The Nazis murder 25,000 Jews from Brest-Litovsk, Belorussia. Jewish resistance, led by Hana Ginsberg, attempts to fight back
1944 — (28th of Tishrei, 5705) Нolocaust. ….. The Germans emptied Plaszow Camp at Cracow. Included in the evacuation were 700 of the Jews protected by Oscar Schindler. They were sent to the concentration camp at Gross Rosen. Schindler managed to retrieve these Jews, claiming the essential nature of their contribution to his factory and the war effort. Schindler also fought for release of 300 other of «his» Jews who were sent to Auschwitz
1945 — (8th of Cheshvan, 5706) In a press conference at Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion, ….. chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared that “Judah will arise anew as an independent state and the Jews will return freely to their own land.” In a statement that was construed to mean that the Yishuv was developing a shadow government that would assume official authority when the British left Palestine, Ben-Gurion said “Palestine’s Jews will have ‘to constitute a kind of state before the final and orderly state machinery comes into being.’”
1948 — (12th of Tishrei, 5709) War for independence. ….. Following numerous violations of the UN Truce by Egypt, the Israel Army and Air force took the offensive and launched Operation ‘Yoav. Since the UN would not act the Israelis felt compelled. In addition to the immediate tactical considerations, the strategic goal of Operation ‘Yoav’ was to open a corridor to the Negev, cut the Egyptian lines of communications along the coast and on the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road, isolate and defeat the Egyptian forces, and ultimately to drive them out of the country; Yigal Alon led a flight of three S-199s from Herzliya (four had been planned but one went unserviceable) over the Mediterranean, where they met up with two C-46 bombers and two C-47 bombers (three were planned, but only two had been armed in time). The fighters took up station ahead of and below the bombers as the formation continued out to sea until the shore disappeared from sight. The planes turned south, then back east to approach the the target, Gaza, from out of the sun. The attack run was co-ordinated with two other groups: 103 Squadron’s two Beaufighters and an escort of three 101 Squadron Spitfires attacked the Egyptian airfield at Al Arish and 69 Squadron’s three B-17s bombed Majdal. This action kept most of the Egyptian frontline fighters out of the skies and gave the IDF air superiority for the first time
1956 — (10th of Cheshvan, 5717) On the day in which Iraqi troops entered Jordan in what Israel saw as a menacing move, Ben Gurion ordered a partial mobilization of Israeli forces and told the Knesset that “Israel reserves to herself freedom of action»
1973 — (19th of Tishrei, 5734) Yom Kippur War. ….. Start of the Battle of the Chinese Farm which “was fought in the Sinai, north of the Great Bitter Lake and just east of the Suez Canal near an agricultural research station” which the Israeli soldiers incorrectly thought was the home to equipment from China; General Arik Sharon led an attack on the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal. Joined by Generals Adan and Magen, within a week the IDF cut off the main road from Cairo to Suez and surrounded Egypt’s 3rd Army. The hold on the West Bank greatly improved Israel’s negotiating position with the Egyptians and the morale of the country
1977 — (3th of Cheshvan, 5738) Two people were injured in two bombings today in Jerusalem
2015 — (2th of Cheshvan, 5776) Hundreds of Palestinians entered the Joseph’s Tomb compound in the West Bank town of Nablus late today and set it on fire
2023 — (30th of Tishrei, 5784) Iron Swords. As October 15 begins in Israel, rockets from Gaza are targeting central Israel including Haifa and Tel Aviv, Hezbollah is firing mortars from Lebanon and rockets are being fired into northern Israel from Syria
People
1733 — (17th of Cheshvan, 5494) Birthdate of Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal the native of Hebron who is reported to have been the first rabbi to visit the colonies that would become the United States of America
1739 — (13th of Tishrei, 5500) António José da Silva “was garroted and burnt at a Lisbon auto-da-fe. Born in 1705, he was a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as «the Jew»
1821 — (19th of Tishrei, 5582) Moritz Hartmann, Austrian poet, born
1890 — (1th of Cheshvan, 5651) Birthdate of Leib Kvitko, the Ukrainian born Yiddish poet who was a member of the Jewish Ant-Fascist Committee, an organization Stalin supported as a vehicle to gain foreign support for the Soviets during WW II. Stalin repaid him for his efforts by making him one of the victims of the “Night of the Murdered Poets.”
1894 — (15th of Tishrei, 5655) Birthdate of Moshe Sharett, ….. second Prime Minister of Israel. Born Moshe Shertok in the Ukraine, Moshe Sharett emigrated to Palestine in 1908 where his family was one of the founders of Tel Aviv Sharett was the first Foreign Minister of Israel. He was a key figure in establishing the Armistice Agreements that ended with a Jewish victory in the War for Independence. When Ben Gurion resigned as Israel’s fist Prime Minister in 1953, Sharett was the logical choice to succeed him. He was ousted by Ben Gurion in 1956 and he returned to the Foreign Ministry. He passed away in 1965
1907 — (7th of Cheshvan, 5668) Birthdate of Varian Fry, known as the American Schindler for his gallant rescue of those fleeing Hitler and the Nazis. . Some of those he saved were Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt and Alma Mahler. In 1995 Varian Fry became the first United States citizen to be listed in the Righteous Among the Nations at Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem
1973 — (19th of Tishrei, 5734) Yom Kippur War. Binyamin Livne and Rahamim Sofer were taken prisoner after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by either a MiG or Egyptian anti-aircraft fire. Tragically, Sofer would die while being held prisoner; For the valor he displayed in destroying an enemy position today in the Sinai, Sergeant Moshe Levi was awarded Israel’s Medal of Valor