History events
416 — (16th of Tishrei, 4177) Roman emperors Honorius and Theodosius II order that any Jews who have joined the Christian church to avoid punishments for crimes must be allowed to return to Judaism because, in the long run, Christianity will be better off without them.
1038 — (23th of Tishrei, 4799) Jews in Granada celebrate a special Purim commemoration after the capture of the Muslim leader Ibn Abbas who was brought to Granada, killed, and beheaded by a rival (and Jewish tolerant) Muslim faction
1491 — (20th of Tishrei, 5252) In an example of the Blood Libel, Benito Gracia, a Converso was accused today of taking part in the mutilation and murder of Christian child in what would lead to the creation of the legend of “The Holy Child of La Guardia.”
1876 — (6th of Tishrei, 5637) Based on information that first appeared in the London Jewish Herald, it was reported today that for the past four or five years Jews have been returning to Palestine in unprecedented numbers. The Jewish population of Jerusalem has doubled in the past ten years. Most of the immigrants have come from Russia
1882 — (11th of Tishrei, 5643) It was reported today that 17,693,643 Catholics living in Austria make up 92% of the population. There are 1,005,394 Jews living in the country
1928 — (10th of Tishrei, 5689) On Yom Kippur the Jerusalem police ….. interfered with the worshipers who resisted the removal of a screen separating the men and women. Jews at their Yom Kippur prayers at the Western Wall placed chairs and customary screens between the men and women present. Jerusalem commissioner Edward Keith-Roach, while visiting the Muslim religious court overlooking the prayer area, pointed out the screen, precipitating emotional protests and demands from the assembled sheiks that it be removed. Unless it was taken down, they said, they would not be responsible for what happened. This was described as violating the Ottoman status quo that forbade Jews from making any construction in the Western Wall area, though such screens had been put up from time to time. The British issued an ultimatum for its removal. When police officers in riot gear were then sent in, a scuffle took place with worshippers and the screen in question was destroyed. The intervention drew censure later from senior officials who judged that excessive force had been exercised without good reason. Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem exploited the incident by distributing leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque. One consequence was that Jewish worshippers frequently were subjected to beatings and stoning
1941 — (3th of Tishrei, 5702) Two thousand women and children were taken from the Wolkowysk Ghetto and murdered. Wolkowysk was located in southeastern Lithuania
1941 — (3 Tishri 5702) Shoah. Sonderkommando 11a began the «Jewish action» in Kherson. In Shiryayevo (Odessa region), 106 Jews were shot, and in Kalinovka (Dnipropetrovsk region) — 134 Jews.
1942 — (13 Tishri 5702) Shoah. The Donetsk command reported that there were 1,038 Jews in Luhansk and approximately 100 Jews in Voroshilovsk (Stavropol)
1945 — (17th of Tishrei, 5706) Five months after the Nazis had surrendered a pogrom took play at Topoľčany, ….. Czechoslovakia, known as the Topoľčany Pogrom in which at least 48 Jewswere “injured.” “There were about 3,200 Jews living in Topoľčany before World War II, of which 550 survived the Holocaust and returned to the town after the war ended. Anti-Semitism was widespread at that time due to both Slovak state official policy and also the strong economic position of Jews, which contrasted with a lack of basic commodities among the majority population. According to the protocol of county police boss Zidor, rumors began to spread in the town two days before the pogrom that Jews are about to overtake a local church school. The school was run by Catholic nuns at that time. Also, there were rumors that Jews had already created a separate classroom for Jewish children, in which they desecrated a crucifix. Further, according to rumors, the Jews were said to had overtaken a school in the nearby village of Bojná, run by Catholic monks. Local women wanted to protest against the rumored actions, but local authorities refused them. A pack of people, mostly women, then entered the school. Coincidentally, a Jewish doctor was at the time vaccinating children against smallpox in one of the school’s classrooms. Some of the vaccinated children cried, which gave base for a new rumor to spread among the angry crowd: a Jewish doctor poisons Slovak children! People then attacked and beat the doctor. As new rumors spread to the streets, many more Jews were beaten both in the streets and in their homes. Jewish property was plundered in the process.”
1948 — (20th of Elul, 5708) Operation Velvetta, a secret mission designed to deliver Supermarine Spitfires purchased from Czechoslovakia to Israel began today with a flight of 60 aircraft from Czechoslovakia to an abandoned Luftwaffe airbase at Nikšić , Yugoslavia
1949 — (1 Tishri 5710) Uzi Gal, a member of Kibbutz Yagur, presented a prototype of a submachine gun (SMG) to his superiors, which would later be named «Uzi.»
1949 — (1 Tishri 5710) Israel. The premiere of the play «Shadow» by Schwartz opened the Chamber Theater
1950 — (13th of Tishrei, 5711) A series of meetings focused on the economy which the Israeli government ….. had begun on September 1 came to an end without any official announcements or public policy changes. The meeting had focused on the failure of the program imposed in August that centered around rationing clothes and shoes. The three smaller parties making up the four-party coalition government were highly critical of Supply Minister Bernard Joseph who had overseen what they see as they failed rationing program. The Mapai Party, the largest member of the coalition seemed to clinging to it socialist policies and pedigree. No decision was made on proposals to move a little more towards a free-market economy; proposals that “included relaxation of controls for imports and trade in foreign exchange.”
1950 — (13 Tishri 5711) Israel. Operation «Magic Carpet» to repatriate 60,000 Jews from Yemen ended. It lasted over a year.
1950 — (13 Tishri 5711) Israel. The Israel Defense Forces’ radio station «Galey Tzahal» began broadcasting.
1955 — (8 Tishri 5716) The City Stadium was opened in Haifa. It was built with the help of Italian trade unions and could accommodate 14,000 spectators.
1956 — (19 Tishri 5717) Terrorist attack. In a field near Aminadav (near Jerusalem), Arabs from Jordan killed two people, a tractor driver and a girl gathering figs.
1967 — (19 Elul 5727) The government announced the re-establishment of the Gush Etzion settlements between Bethlehem and Hebron, which had been destroyed by Arabs in the War of Independence.
1973 — (27 Elul 5733) Members of the labor movement (then the Mapai party), who actively protested against the «occupational policy of the Israeli governments, the violation of the rights of the inhabitants of the territories,» founded the Ratz movement — a movement for civil rights, deciding to run in the elections for the eighth Knesset. After many years of fighting for voters’ voices, Ratz transformed into the Meretz bloc led by Shulamit Aloni. In the 1992 elections, it won 12 seats in the Knesset. Aloni headed the Ministry of Education and Culture in I. Rabin’s government, while I. Sarid headed the Ministry of the Environment. In 1996, the Ratz party was disbanded.
1995 — (29 Elul 5755) The signing in Taba of an agreement between the PLO and Israel on interim arrangements.
1996 — (11 Tishri 5757) The Hasmonean Cave was opened in the area of the Western Wall. The violent riots that broke out afterward in East Jerusalem and the territories claimed the lives of 14 IDF soldiers and 69 Arabs. A week later, under U.S. pressure, a high-level meeting took place in Washington involving King Hussein of Jordan, Yasser Arafat, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting contributed to achieving calm in the territories.
2006 — (2 Tishri 5767) A new train station «North» near Ben-Gurion University was inaugurated.
2008 — (24 Elul 5768) Israel. The Central Bureau of Statistics reported: as of the end of September 2008, Israel’s population was 7.337 million. 5.542 million were Jews, 1.477 million were Arabs, and 318,000 were classified as «others.»
2024 — (21 Elul 5784) Operation «Northern Arrows.» Four waves of airstrikes on targets in Lebanon. From morning until 7:00 PM, about 300 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Israeli territory.
2025 — (2 Tishri 5786) As a result of a drone attack from Yemen, at least 19 people were injured in Eilat. The drone exploded near the Club Hotel. It crashed into a building where several people were trying to take cover
People
1761 — (25th of Elul, 5521) Birthdate of Dutch journalist, translator and author Moses ben Zaddik Belifante
1762 — (7th of Tishrei, 5523) Moses Sofer, rabbinical author, born
1844 — Max Noether was born — mathematician. Died December 13, 1921
1894 — (23th of Elul, 5654) While on her trip to that would make her the first woman to bicycle around the world, Annie Londonerry, the Latvian born daughter of Levi and Beatrice Cohen, arrived in Chicago today having lost twenty pounds and “the desire to continue
1896 — (17th of Tishrei, 5657) Birthdate of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s most famous novel was The Great Gatsby
1896 — E. Triolet (Elsa Yurievna Kagan) was born — French writer. Died June 16, 1970.
1920 — Yossel Birchstein was born — Israeli writer. Died December 28, 2003.
1927 — Gary Pearl was born — Israeli actress, director, theater, and public figure.
1932 — Joanne Greenberg was born — American writer. Wrote under the pseudonym «Hannah Green.»
1952 — (5th of Tishrei, 5713) The Jerusalem Post reported that Barbara Propper, 22, a member of Sde Boker, was shot and killed while tending a herd of goats some 300 meters from the kibbutz. Infiltrators from Jordan fired at Jerusalem Corridor settlers in an attempt to steal irrigation pipes and cattle
1957 — G. Gurvich was born — director, head of the cabaret theater «Bat.» Died November 5, 1999
1993 — (9th of Tishrei, 5754) Yigal Vaknin was stabbed to death by terrorists in an orchard near the trailer home where he lived near the village of Basra. A squad of the Hamas’ Iz a-Din al Kassam claimed responsibility for the attack
2004 — (9 Tishri 5765) Tiferet Tartner, 24, was killed by a rocket fired at the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gaza. After completing her military service for religious girls, she decided to stay in the settlement, although she was born in Jerusalem.
2025 — (2 Tishri 5786) War with Gaza. Day seven hundred twenty. In the northern sector, Senior Sergeant Chalachon Shimon Demalash, 21 years old, was killed
2026 – (13 Tishrei 5787) Reserve Staff Sergeant Nadav Kali (24) and Reserve Staff Sergeant Ofek Moalem (23) were killed in Gaza