History events
1349 (18 Elul 5109). Jews in Constance (Germany) were burned alive on charges of spreading the plague
1671 — (16st of Tishrei, 5432) Jewish community founded at Berlin
1871 — (24th of Elul, 5631) Miss Isabel Burton’s account of her recent visit to Hebron was published today. She described how the Moslems had co-opted the Cave Macpalah by building a mosque on the site and the limitations on placed on Jews trying to visit the site
1903 (28 August, Old Style) (18 Elul 5663). In St. Petersburg, the far‑right newspaper Znamya (editor and publisher — State Duma deputy Pavel Krushevan) began publishing “The Program for the Conquest of the World by the Jews.” This was the newspaper’s name for The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
1910 (6 Elul 5670). The Russian Minister of War prohibited the enlistment of Jewish volunteer soldiers in fortress garrisons.
1922 (17 Elul 5682). The first census of Jewish workers in Mandatory Palestine was conducted. It recorded 16 600 men and women
1938 — (14th of Elul, 5698) The Third Betar Congress opens in Warsaw, Poland. “Betar is the Zionist revisionist youth movement established 1923, by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Betar is an acronym for ‘Brit Trumpeldor,’ and is also the name of Bar Kochba’s ancient fortress
1938 (14 Elul 5698). Arabs killed 11 members of the Haganah near the village of Masmiyah. That day, they were guarding workers from the Electric Company who were repairing the power line from Gederah to Be’er Tuvia. They were ambushed on their way back. The truck with the workers broke through, but the guards’ tender got stuck. They defended themselves until they ran out of ammunition. The Arabs finished them off with rifle butts and knives.
1941 (18 Elul 5701). The Shoah. A unit of Sonderkommando 4a shot about 1 000 Jews in Korosten (Zhytomyr Oblast). Units of the Police Regiment “South” shot 1 548 Jews: 835 in Komsomolske (Vinnytsia Oblast) and about 750 in Ruzhyn (Zhytomyr Oblast). Units of Task Force D shot Jews in the villages of Nova Poltavka, Dobre, and Yefingar (Mykolaiv Oblast), killing 837, 560, and 519 people respectively. A unit of Operational Team 5 shot several hundred Jews in Tarashcha. Additionally, 87 Jews were killed in Novy Beryslav and 98 in the settlement named after Kaganovich (Kherson Oblast); more than 100 Jews in Rayhorodok (Zhytomyr Oblast); and probably 50–60 Jews in Slovechno (Zhytomyr Oblast). The gendarmerie inspector in Bessarabia issued directives to evacuate Jews from the Vertyuzhany camp (which held 22 969 Jews as of 31 August 1941) to Ukraine (Vinnytsia and Odesa Oblasts) along two routes, in columns of 1 600 people; those who fell behind the column were to be shot.
1942 (28 Elul 5702). The Shoah. Jewish artisans and their families were shot in Shepetivka and possibly in Slavuta (Khmelnytskyi Oblast). Five hundred Jews were deported from Chernivtsi to the Trostianets district of Vinnytsia Oblast. A total of 8 205 Jews were transported from Kosiv, Kuty, Horodenka, Sniatyn, Obertyn, Zabolotiv, Pystyn, Yabluniv, Rozhniv, Pechenyzhyn, Hvozdets, and Vyhoda to Bełżec. Of these, 1 000 people were left at the Janów camp in Lviv on the 11th; in their place, about 1 000 non‑able‑bodied Jews from the camp were loaded onto the train. Upon the train’s arrival in Bełżec, about 2 000 dead Jews were found on board.
1951 (9 Elul 5711). Israel. Due to an order to bake bread three times a week, huge queues formed for bread, and fights broke out.
1952 (20 Elul 5712). In Luxembourg, after lengthy consultations, a reparations treaty was signed between Israel and West Germany — to compensate for the material losses suffered by European Jews due to Nazi Germany. Under the treaty, Israel was to receive 3.45 billion marks from the FRG by the end of 1964 inclusive.
1954 (12 Elul 5714). Israel. The government requested that the Swiss authorities provide information about the bank accounts of Holocaust victims, so that the money could be returned to the heirs or transferred to charitable funds.
1956 (5 Tishrei 5717). A terrorist attack. Arabs from Jordan killed 7 IDF soldiers in the foothills of Hebron and desecrated their bodies. The railway tracks of the Beersheba–Tel Aviv line were also blown up.
1993 (24 Elul 5753). Rabin’s response to Arafat’s letter recognizing Israel. Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian Arab people.
2024 (7 Elul 5784). The war with Gaza. Day 340. Air Force aircraft struck the Hamas headquarters, which was located in the Al‑Mawasi humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The main targets of the attack were high‑ranking Hamas members. The operation was planned and carried out jointly with the Shin Bet, military intelligence, and the Southern Command headquarters
People
1199 — (17th of Elul, 4959) Maimonides wrote to Samuel Ibn-Tibbon, ….. who as translating the «Guide to the Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew. The letter included advice on how to do this as well as plea that Ibn-Tibbon not undertake his planned trip from France to Egypt to visit him. The distance was too great, and he would be too busy since to see him for more than an hour since each day except Shabbat he must travel from Fostat to Cairo where he spends half a day ministering to the Sultan and his court. Then he travels back to Fostat where he is besieged by Jews, Moslems, et al all seeking his medical skill and advice
1676 — (13st of Tishrei, 5437) Shabbethai Ẓebi, pseudo-Messiah, died
1857 — Flora Langerman was born — the “Grand Dame of the Southwest Frontier.” Together with her husband, she moved to the town of Santa Fe in New Mexico (USA), where she became only the eighth woman in the town. She opened two religious schools (including one in Hebrew), the first secular school, and established the town’s first kindergarten
1860 — (23th of Elul, 5620) In Mstislavl, Russia, Meyer Ya’akov Dubnow a lumber merchant and his wife gave birth to Shimon Meyerovich Dubnow who gained fame as the great Jewish historian Simon Dubnow
1899 (6 Tishrei 5660). The famous psychic Wolf Messing was born. He died on 8 November 1974.
1900 (16 Elul 5660). I. Feffer, a poet, was born. He was executed by firing squad on 12 August 1952.
1909 (24 Elul 5669). Judith Kaplan, a well‑known US musicologist and composer, was born. She died on 14 February 1996.
1923 — Uri Avnery, an Israeli journalist with far‑left views, was born. He died on 20 August 2018.
1923 — Shmuel Eisenstadt Noah, an Israeli sociologist, was born. He died on 2 September 2010