History events
-1705 BCE — (17 Cheshvan 1656) The Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month. The gates of heaven opened and the depths of the earth burst forth, pouring torrents of raging, surging water over the land, devouring everything in their path
1290 — (3rd of Cheshvan, 5051) Today, St. Denis’s Day, the Jews of London departed in accordance with the Edward’s order of expulsion which was to take full effect in November
1334 — (9rd of Cheshvan, 5095) Casimir III., the Great, of Poland, grants Jews «Privilegium Fredericianum»
1619 — (11 Cheshvan 5380) A letter from the Jewish merchant Albert Dionis to King Christian IV of Denmark, from the city of Glückstadt (today in Germany, in the state of Schleswig-Holstein), founded by Christian in 1617, regarding the mint that the king had appointed the merchant to establish and manage. Dionis, a Sephardic Jew of the «Portuguese Nation,» as they were called in Denmark, settled in Hamburg in 1605, where he developed an extensive import-export business and became the first Jew to receive a royal Danish letter of safe conduct. After consulting with Dionis in 1622, Christian IV invited «Portuguese» Jews from Amsterdam and Hamburg to settle in Glückstadt in the hope that the city would compete with Hamburg. To attract enterprising merchants with available capital, they were offered a wide range of trading privileges as well as freedom of worship. The privileges granted to these Jews were expanded several times, until they received, among other things, the right to trade freely in Denmark, and throughout the seventeenth century they supplied luxury goods to the Danish court and arranged large loans for the Danish kings.
1892 — (18 Tishrei 5653) In Denver, Colorado (USA), the cornerstone was laid for a hospital that, in 1899, under the auspices of B’nai B’rith, received the status of National Jewish [Hospital]
1941 — (18rd of Tishrei, 5702) The Nazis murdered 3,726 Jews including 717 children in the Poligon barracks near Swieciany, Lithuania
1941 — (18rd of Tishrei, 5702) A recruiting rally was held in Tel Aviv as part of a campaign to get another 5,000 Jews from Palestine to enlist in the British Army.
1941 — (18 Tishrei 5702) Shoah. The administration of the Łódź Ghetto protested against Eichmann’s intention to add 20,000 more Jews and 5,000 Roma to the 160,000 already living in an area of 4 square kilometers.
1941 — (18 Tishrei 5702) Shoah. The mass deportation of Jews from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to Transnistria began (an exception was made only for 20,000 Jews in the city of Chernivtsi). In Transnistria (a territory comprising parts of the Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the left bank of the Moldavian SSR during World War II), deportees were confined to concentration camps and placed in ghettos alongside local Jews. Over three years, approximately 270,000 people perished here — 120,000 Jews from the right bank of the Dniester and 150,000 residents of the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine.
1942 — (28 Tishrei 5703) Shoah. Hitler’s closest aide and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, Martin Bormann, signed a decree stating: “The permanent removal of the Jews from German territory can no longer be carried out through emigration, but only through the use of ruthless force in special camps in the East.”
1942 — (28 Tishrei 5703) Shoah. 520 Jews from Mlynov (Rivne Oblast) were executed by firing squad.
1943 — (10 Tishrei 5704) Shoah. 14,000 Jews were transported from the Łódź Ghetto (Łódź Province, Poland) to the Treblinka extermination camp. Some Jews managed to escape and hide in the forests, becoming partisans. On the same day, the liquidation of the Przedbórz Ghetto (Kielce Province, Poland) began. 4,500 Jews were transported to Treblinka.
1945 — (2rd of Cheshvan, 5706) Tonight, security at the Atlit Detention Center near Haifa — a camp for ‘illegal’ Jewish immigrants in Mandatory Palestine — was breached; 200 detainees mainly Holocaust survivors and recent arrivals from Europe, were released in a daring operation launched by the Palmach
1947 — (25rd of Tishrei, 5708) The Jewish Agency…called upon…Jewish veterans of the North African and Italian campaigns now living in Palestine “to form the nucleus of a Jewish army that would be ready for a ‘life or death showdown’ with Arab forces
1956 — (4 Cheshvan 5717) Details of the Sinai Campaign (Operation Kadesh) were coordinated between Israel and France. Only the formal consent of Britain to participate in the operation was lacking.
1956 — (4 Cheshvan 5717) Terrorist attacks. Two workers at an orange plantation near Tel Mond were killed. Two Israelis were killed by Arabs in the garden of the youth settlement Neve Hadassah in the Sharon region.
1958 — (25rd of Tishrei, 5719) HMS Springer an S class submarine of the Royal Navy was sold to the Israeli navy today and renamed the Tanin
1968 — (17rd of Tishrei, 5729) Forty-seven Jews praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs were wounded in a grenade attack by Arabs
1973 — (13rd of Tishrei, 5734) Yom Kippur War. ….. On the third day of the Yom Kippur war a pessimistic Moshe Dayan addresses a group of journalist leading them to believe that Israeli forces are in such precarious shape that they will have to surrender most of the Sinai to the advancing Egyptians and make a stand in the eastern edge of the peninsula. Prime Minister Golda Meir is so alarmed by Dayan’s emotional about-face that she refuses to let him address the nation on television in the evening. Israeli news broadcasts reported for the first time that the Egyptian attack had driven Israeli forces from the east bank of the Suez Canal. While Syrian artillery was able to shell villages in the Jezreel Valley, Israeli planes had attacked installations in around Damascus; During a meeting of the war cabinet, Defense Minister Dayan voiced confidence in the Israeli forces’ ability to overcome Syria and asked permission to bomb targets in Damascus. «There’s an order: No retreat on the Golan,» he said. «Fighting to the death and not moving … What I’m suggesting and asking for approval of [is] bombings inside the city.» Prime Minister Meir asked whether he meant within the city itself, and Dayan confirmed this. He said the IDF can’t muster a column to march on Damascus even as a decoy, but bombing in and around the city could «break the Syrians» — though he conceded, «You can’t say the population wouldn’t be hurt.»Why would it necessarily break them?» Meir asked. «Would a bombing here break us?” General Elazar replied: «A heavy bombing here, on Reading and Ramat Aviv, would seriously disrupt things»; As of today, those parts of the Golan that were the responsibility of the Golani Brigade were back under Israeli control, and the Syrians had been pushed back over the Purple Line. The Purple Line was the name given to the cease fire line drawn between Israel and Syria after the 1967 war; Against orders, reserve Maj. Gen. Ariel Sharon launches a counterattack against Egyptian forces in the canal area which led to the loss of 20 tanks, most of which were left in enemy territory. Sharon’s actions lead to moves for his dismissal; Lt. Colonel Avigdor Kahalani was awarded the Medal Valor for his leadership and valor shown starting today during the Yom Kippur War when “he commanded a hastily assembled group of tanks and crews from different armor units” that “repelled a vastly superior Syrian force which had overrun the Israeli positions in the first days of the war.” The scene of the fighting was so “littered with hundreds of burned tanks that it was renamed “Emek Ha-Bacha” (the Valley of Tears)
1982 — (22 Tishrei 5743) A terrorist attack at the main synagogue in Rome: a child was killed and 34 worshippers were wounded
1988 — (28rd of Tishrei, 5749) Active polio viruses have been discovered in sewage and a water purification plant in four more Israeli cities, bringing the total number of infected areas to nine, Israel Radio said today. ….. Officials at the Tourism Ministry said they had not been consulted before the decision was made. They expressed concern that the move to inoculate most of the population would frighten tourists planning to visit Israel. Dr. Walter A. Orenstein, director of the immunization division at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and a member of a team of experts here to advise the Israelis, said, »We’re seeing a number of cases in people who had oral polio vaccine in the past.» That is the same form of vaccination most North Americans were given as children. Ten Israelis have been diagnosed with polio since an outbreak of the disease began early last month. Officials originally said they believed the outbreak was confined to north-western Israel, around the town of Or Akiva, where the first two cases were discovered. Open sewage in Or Akiva was thought to be the source of the disease, and the town’s entire population of 5,000 was inoculated. But then other people in Hadera, Acre, Ramle and Lod, near Tel Aviv, became infected with the virus. Israel Radio reported this morning that water and sewage tests have revealed active polio viruses in the Haifa water purification plant and in the sewage systems of Yahud, Petah Tikva and Tiberias. On Thursday, in response to advice from the team of foreign health experts, the Health Ministry announced that all residents up to the age of 40 would be vaccinated. Israeli officials had been reluctant to order mass inoculations because it is believed that 90 percent of the population has natural or acquired immunity to polio. But the foreign experts recommended the move because Israelis in that age group were inoculated with a less potent oral vaccine. Palestinians in the occupied territories, where no cases of polio have been reported, were traditionally given the more powerful injected vaccine because of their poorer living conditions. As a result, Mr. Orenstein told Israel Radio today that there is »suggestive evidence that there may be some susceptibility problems in some of the young teen-agers and adults» throughout Israel. He said that though the cases were still small in number, the »proportion is much greater in adults.» When asked if North American immigrants living in Israel should also receive a polio booster, Mr. Orenstein said, »If it were me, I’d participate with the rest of the population. We think the risk is low, but we don’t think the risk is zero.’
1991 — (1 Cheshvan 5752) The USSR purchased 5,000 tons of oranges from Israel.
1994 — (4 Cheshvan 5755) A terrorist attack in the Nahalat Shiv’a area of Jerusalem. Two people were killed.
1994 — (4 Cheshvan 5755) IDF Corporal N. Vaksman was abducted by terrorists from the Hamas organization near the Bnei Atarot junction. They hid the hostage in the village of Bir Naballa, north of Jerusalem, and demanded the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and other Hamas members from Israeli prisons in exchange for Vaksman. After a prolonged search, agents of the security service (Shabak) obtained precise information about Vaksman’s location. An assault on the house by soldiers of the “Sayeret Matkal” special forces unit ended in failure. The terrorists managed to kill the hostage before the commandos broke into the room where he was being held. The special forces eliminated three terrorists. During the operation, a special forces officer, Captain Nir Poraz, was also killed
2006 — (17rd of Tishrei, 5767) A ceremony took place for setting the keystone of the National Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest
2013 — (5 Cheshvan 5774) In Jerusalem and in the territories of Judea and Samaria, Arab stone-throwers carried out terrorist attacks — assaults on Israeli private vehicles and a passenger bus. On Mount Tzofim in Jerusalem, unknown assailants pelted two cars with stones, causing damage to the vehicles, but the people inside were unharmed. Near the settlement of Na’ale, Arabs stoned a passenger car, lightly injuring a woman. In the Kiryat Arba area, a hail of stones struck an Egged bus on route 160. The vehicle was damaged, but none of the passengers were injured.
2016 — (7 Tishrei 5777) A terrorist attack in Jerusalem. At 10:12 a.m., an Arab drove a white car up to a tram stop on Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard (Route 60) and opened fire on the people there. After the attack, he attempted to flee, driving toward the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. He was pursued by officers of the YASAM police special unit on motorcycles; in the ensuing gunfight, the attacker was killed. He had left behind a video recording in which he stated his motives for the planned attack: «On Judgment Day, we will be asked what we did for the sake of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. All the crimes committed by the occupiers against our people will not help them. They wanted to keep us away from Jerusalem, but we have returned. They wanted to keep us away from the mosques, but we have returned once again.» As a result of the attack, two people were killed: a 60-year-old woman and a 29-year-old police officer. Shortly after the attack, relatives of the terrorist published a video expressing solidarity with his deed. «Tonight our father will be at the gates of paradise,» said one of the terrorist’s daughters. «We are happy and proud of what he has done.» Throughout the day, the killer’s family handed out sweets to residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. In the evening, dozens of Arabs gathered near the terrorist’s house, chanting slogans of solidarity with the killer and swearing to «avenge him.» Similar displays of joy were observed in certain areas of the Gaza Strip as well.
2023 — (24 Tishrei 5784) The Gaza War. Day three. In the evening, volunteers from the ZAKA service reported that they had recovered 108 bodies from the territory of Kibbutz Be’eri. The Israeli Ministry of Health reported (as of 23:00 on 09.10.2023) 2,741 people affected as a result of rocket barrages and terrorist attacks. Among the wounded, 25 were in critical condition and 363 in serious condition. 605 wounded were hospitalized, of whom 4 were in critical condition and 155 in serious condition. Rocket fire from Gaza continued against Ashkelon, Sderot, border communities, Be’er Sheva and its environs, and Jerusalem; in Beitar Illit, four people were wounded, including a 10-year-old boy who was critically injured. Sirens and explosions were heard in Holon, Rishon LeZion, Ashdod, and other cities in the south and center of the country. A group of terrorists entered Israeli territory from Lebanon. It was eliminated. Arabs continued to infiltrate from Gaza into Israeli territory through breaches in the fence, and clashes with them were ongoing. The IDF struck terrorists in the Gaza Strip from sea and air
2023 — (24rd of Tishrei, 5784) The Country is dealing with a cascade of problems including, but not limited to, reports of mounting numbers of dead and wounded, rocket attacks from Hezbollah, the possibility of an attack from Syria, continued terrorist attacks from Gaza and in one sense, worst of all, how to gain the freedom of the hundreds of hostages, many of them civilians being held by Hamas
People
1184 — (2rd of Cheshvan, 4945) Judah ben Elijah Hadassi a Karaite Jewish scholar who lived in Constantinople began working on Eshkol ha-Kofter, a treatise on the Ten Commandments
1580 — (30rd of Tishrei, 5341) Immanuel Tremellius, the Italian Jewish convert to Catholicism who then became a Protestant and was the Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge before becoming the Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg passed away today
1809 — (29rd of Tishrei, 5570) Adolf Franck, French philosopher, born
1856 — (10 Tishrei 5617) David Wolffsohn was born — the second president of the World Zionist Organization. Died on September 15, 1914
1867 — (10rd of Tishrei, 5628) Abraham Mapu, Russian Hebrew writer, died
1881 — (16rd of Tishrei, 5642) Birthdate of Victor Klemperer, a businessman, journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specializing in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life, successively, in the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and in the German Democratic Republic were published in 1995. He passed away in 1960
1884 — Helene Deutsch was born — a psychoanalyst, student and follower of S. Freud, the first to specialize in women’s issues. Died on March 29, 1982.
1897 — Rabbi Avraham Sofer (Schreiber) was born — a writer and commentator on religious literature. Died on April 10, 1982.
1904 — Michael Stone-Ari (Walter Schwarz) was born — an Israeli botanist. He made an enormous contribution to the study and development of the Negev. Died on April 15, 1989.
1911 — John Joseph Rosenthal was born — a renowned American photographer. Died on August 20, 2006.
1917 — (23rd of Tishrei, 5678) After enduring days of torture at the hands of the Ottoman authorities Sarah Aaronsohn committed suicide rather than betray her comrades. Aaronsohn was a member of Nili, a Jewish spy ring working for the British in Palestine
1923 — Haim Gouri was born — an Israeli poet, writer, composer, and journalist. Died on January 31, 2018.
1932 — (9 Tishrei 5693) Devora Omer was born in Kibbutz Ma’oz Haim — an Israeli writer for children and young adults. Died in 2013.
1973 — (13rd of Tishrei, 5734) Aharon Sagi, Harel Gilutz and Yosef Ye’ari made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down
1974 — (23rd of Tishrei, 5735) Oskar Schindler passed away
1993 — (24th of Tishrei, 5754) On Shabbat, Dror Forer and Aran Bachar were murdered by terrorists in Wadi Kelt in the Judean Desert. The Popular Front and the Islamic Jihad ‘Al-Aqsa Squads’ each publicly claimed responsibility