History events
1320 — (1th of Tishrei, 5081) Pope John XXII issues a bull against the Talmud. Calling it «the damned initiatives of the perfidious Jews,» he orders that «the plague and deadly diseased weed [of Judaism] must be pulled out by its roots.»
1578 — (3th of Tishrei, 5339) Pope Gregroy XIII “ordered the Jews of Rome to contribute 1,100 gold scudi (Approximately $12,600) toward the maintenance of the Casa dei Catecumeni (Home for Converts to Christianity)
1654 — (3th of Tishrei, 5415) 23 souls, big as well as little arrive in North America.”
1871 — (18th of Elul, 5631) Décret Crémieux (named for Adolphe Cremieux) conferred French citizenship on all Jews living in Algeria, which had been a department of France. Arabs and Berbers were not made French citizens
1921 — (1 Elul 5681) An agreement was concluded in Karlsbad between Slavincky, a representative of Petliura, and Jabotinsky, concerning measures to prevent pogroms in the event of an invasion of Ukraine by Petliura’s troop
1934 — (24 Elul 5694) The cornerstone was laid for the construction of Zina Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, named after the wife of the city’s first mayor, M. Dizengoff, who died in 1930
1939 — (20th of Elul, 5699) The invading Nazis shot 180 Jews in the city of Czestochowa. When the Jews refused to burn the Torah, the Germans burned the rabbi, Abraham Mordechai
1939 — (20 Elul 5699) Shoah. Germany occupied the Polish city of Kalisz, which had a population of 30,000 Jews. Kalisz remains in history as the place where suffocation by poison gas was first used. Using «gas vans,» they killed 439 elderly men and women from the Jewish old-age home.
1941 — (12 Elul 5701) Shoah. During preparations for the «Jewish action» in Berdichev, the headquarters company of the Higher SS and Police Leader in Southern Russia shot the entire Jewish youth — 1,303 people, including 876 Jewish women over 12 years old. In Gritsev (Khmelnytskyi region), several hundred Jews were shot
1942 — (22th of Elul, 5702) Jews in Macedonia are required to wear the Yellow Star.
1942 — (22 Elul 5702) Shoah. In Manevichi (Volyn region), 1,840 Jews were shot, and presumably on the same day in Ustilug (Volyn region) — 1,847 Jews, and in Porytsk (Pavlovka) — 1,800 (900 from Porytsk and 900 from the surrounding areas).
1944 — (16 Elul 5704) Uprising in Auschwitz (possibly September 5 or October 7). A group of the Sonderkommando, consisting of Greek Jews, set fire to one of the crematoria and threw two nearby SS men into the flames. The insurgents even managed to cut the barbed wire and escape outside the camp, but the camp’s many thousands of SS personnel quickly subdued them.
1944 — (16 Elul 5704) Shoah. Accompanying note composed by Józef Cyrankiewicz and Stanisław Kłodziński in Kraków, addressed to Teresa Lasocka-Estreicher: «Urgent. Send these two metal spools of film (2.5 and 3.5 inches) as soon as possible. It is possible to obtain prints. We are sending photographs from Birkenau — people who were gassed. The photograph shows a pyre of bodies being burned outside. Bodies are burned outside when the crematoria cannot cope with burning the required number. In the foreground are bodies prepared to be thrown into the fire. Another photograph shows one of the places in the forest where people are ordered to undress, supposedly to go to the bathhouse, but in reality to the gas chamber. Send the spools as soon as possible…»
1945 — (26 Elul 5705) In Kyiv, NKVD Lieutenant I. Rosenstein was attacked by two anti-Semitic servicemen. They turned out to be two young soldiers who, being on short-term leave, had arrived in the Ukrainian capital to help the relatives of one of them prevent the return of their living space to its old owners — a Jewish family being re-evacuated from the east. However, they failed to do so. Embittered against all Jews, the young men decided to drown their sorrows in wine at a Kyiv snack bar, where, inflamed by alcohol, they vented their anger on a patron of Jewish appearance, whom they first insulted and then brutally beat. Unfortunately for the brawlers, their victim turned out to be NKVD Lieutenant Rosenstein, who was wearing civilian clothes. The next day, having located his assailants, he arrived at their home in uniform and demanded they accompany him to the police. They resisted, and in the ensuing scuffle, Rosenstein used his service weapon. The Tribunal of the NKVD Troops of the Ukrainian District sentenced Rosenstein to death by firing squad.
1951 — (3 Elul 5711) Israel. A strike by ice merchants was caused by the Ministry of Agriculture’s decision to cease the operation of mobile ice distribution points
1968 — (11th of Elul, 5728) In Tel Aviv, one person was killed and 71 were wounded when three bombs exploded “in and near a bus station
1975 — (28 Elul 5735) The Salzburg Agreement on the second disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces after the Yom Kippur War. It included an agreement on limiting troop numbers in the Sinai, the passage of non-military cargo for Israel through the strait, the use of Americans as observers, and the return to Egypt of part of the occupied Sinai.
1982 — (16 Elul 5742) Eight soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were captured by Arabs during the First Lebanon War. Six of them were released on November 23, 1983, as part of a prisoner exchange. Israel released 4,765 Arabs. The remaining two were also subsequently released in exchange for 1,150 Arab terrorists.
1985 — (18 Elul 5745) Israel. As an element of economic stabilization, the new shekel — the shekel-chadash — was introduced. It was exchanged at a rate of 1 to 1,000 old ones. The old ones were withdrawn. Banknotes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 50 shekels appeared. However, the money began to be put into circulation at the beginning of 1986.
1997 — (2 Elul 5757) Terrorist attack on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. Five people were killed.
2001 — (16th of Elul, 5761) Hamas took credit for today’s bombing on Hanevi’im Street in Jerusalem which injured 20 innocent civilians
2018 — (24 Elul 5778) Before the New Year, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics was published. Israel had 8,907,000 residents, of whom 74.4% were Jews, 20.9% Arabs, and 4.9% other minorities
People
1609 — (5th of Elul, 5369) Rabbi Judah Loew Ben Bezalel, ….. the Maharal of Prague, passed away. Born in 1525, he spent most of his life in Prague where he gained fame for his philosophic works and his commentaries including one on Rashi’s Commentaries. He was an advocate of reforming Jewish education, drawing on the words of Pirke Avot for his inspiration. His fame was not limited to the Jewish community and the Emperor Rudolph was counted among his admirers. For many the Marhal’s greatest claim to fame was tied to a fictional creation called the Legend of the Golem. That legend is a medieval version of the story of Frankenstein, according to which the Maharal breathed life into a human-like figure by sticking a slip of paper with the Tetragrammaton to his forehead. This gigantic figure would be called forth to protect the Jews whenever they were in danger. Such was his popularity that there is a statue of him near the old city hall — a singular honor for Jew from the Middle Ages. The term Maharal comes from the first Hebrew letters of the phrase (Moreinu ha-Rav Loew, «Our Teacher and Rabbi Loew»)
1745 — (18 Elul 5505). Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe) was born.
1808 — (12th of Elul, 5568) Michael Sachs, German rabbi, born
1827 — (12th of Elul, 5587) Rabbi Simcha Bunim Bonhart of Peshischa, a leader of the Chasidic movement passed away today
1892 — Darius Milhaud, French composer, was born. He died on June 22, 1974.
1937 — Soviet illegal intelligence officer Ignace Reiss (Nathan Poretsky) was killed by NKVD agents near Lausanne. In the summer of 1937, he had written a letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): «… I have walked with you until now — not a step further. Our paths diverge! Whoever is still silent now becomes an accomplice of Stalin and a traitor to the cause of the working class and socialism.»
1972 — At the Munich Olympics, American swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals. A record
1997 — (2nd of Elul, 5757) In Jerusalem three Hamas suicide bombers simultaneously blew themselves up on the pedestrian mall, killing five Israelis including three 14 year old girls — Sivann Zarka, Yael Botvin and Smadar Elhanan
2003 — (7 Elul 5763) Staff Sergeant R. Komeli of the Israel Defense Forces was killed in Shechem (Nablus)