History events
1485 — (29 Elul 5245) In Hijar, a city in the Kingdom of Aragon, the work «Path of Life» by Jacob ben Asher was printed at the printing press of Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansi
1553 — (1st of Tishrei, 5314) Under the auspices of Cardinal Caraffa, later to be Pope Paul IV, a “rabid” leader of the counter-Reformation, the Talmud was confiscated and publicly burned in Rome. The Cardinal chose the day of Rosh Hashanah of that year specifically so the Jews would feel the grief more strongly. Talmud burning would soon spread across many other parts of Italy
1839 — (1st of Tishrei, 5314) The Jewish community of Melbourne, whose members had begun arriving in 1835, held their first High Holiday services
1883 — (7th of Elul, 5643) Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Agram, the city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire which is also known by its Croatian name – Zagreb
1910 — (5th of Elul, 5670) El Desperter a new Ladino newspaper appears in Tetuan. It is the first Jewish newspaper in Morocco
1939 — (25 Elul 5699) Shoah. The synagogue on Dekert Street in the city of Sosnowiec (Poland) was set on fire
1940 — (6th of Elul, 5700) Italian planes bombed Tel Aviv. One hundred seventeen people were killed
1941 — (17 Elul 5701) Shoah. The Parliament of Slovakia approved the «Jewish Code.» Jews were required to wear a distinguishing mark; forbidden to move from one locality to another without special permission, or to go out on the street in the evening; prohibited from working (with some exceptions) as lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, and engineers; forbidden to possess or keep money above a certain amount (Jewish bank accounts were frozen); prohibited from performing ritual slaughter; forbidden to use telephones or listen to radios, or to wear furs and jewelry. Despite the fact that a significant portion of Jewish-owned property had been confiscated, they were still levied high taxes, and in several cases, they were required to pay taxes on income from enterprises that no longer belonged to them.
1941 — (17 Elul 5701) Shoah. A detachment of Special Action Squad 5 liquidated the Jewish intelligentsia in Shpola (Cherkasy Oblast) (160 victims). 72 Jews were shot in Kaharlyk (Kiev Oblast). In Chudnov (Zhytomyr Oblast), the 303rd Police Battalion shot about 900 Jews
1942 — (27th of Elul, 5702) Two thousand Jews were assembled at Kislovodsk, sent to nearby Mineralnye Vody, marched to a ditch and shot dead
1942 — (27 Elul 5702) Shoah. A train with 1,000 Jews from the Theresienstadt ghetto arrived at the Estonian town of Kaasiku. All of them were shot by members of the local police. A week later, the same fate befell Jews brought from Berlin.
1942 — (27 Elul 5702) Shoah. In Vysotsk (Rovno Oblast), 700 Jews were killed, and 300 fled
1944 — (21th of Elul, 5704) At the Chelmno Death Camp in Poland, an inventory was reported of 775 wrist watches and 550 pocket watches which had been collected since July from the victims of the Lodz ghetto cleansing
1952 — (19th of Elul, 5729) The Jerusalem Post reported that West Germany approved the terms of The Hague Reparations Agreement. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his government hoped that this act, apart from the contribution to the economic recovery of Israel will build a bridge of reconciliation
1969 — (26th of Elul, 5763) Operation Raviv, a ten hour raid mounted against Egypt under the command of General Avraham Adan and Admiral Arvaham Botzer successfully destroyed a radar site at Ras Saafrana while playing havoc with Egyptian forces on that nation’s Red Sea Coast
1989 — (9 Elul 5749) Attempted terrorist attack. An Arab unsuccessfully tried to push an «Egged» cooperative bus into a ravine
1993 — (23th of Elul, 5753) The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state
2001 — (21 Elul 5761) Terror attacks. At 8 a.m., near the Yarden junction, next to Jericho, Arabs from an oncoming car fired at a minibus that was transporting kindergarten and school teachers. The driver and a teacher were killed. Three were wounded. Later that same day, at approximately 10:30 a.m., a suicide bomber detonated himself a few dozen meters from the entrance to the Nahariya railway station. Four people were killed, and about 30 were wounded.
2003 — (12 Elul 5763) Terror attacks. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the «Hillel» café on Emek Refaim Street in Jerusalem. The result: 7 killed – Dr. David Apelbaum (51) and his daughter, Nava (27), from Jerusalem; David-Shimon Avizadris (51) from Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem (27) from Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi (22) from Jerusalem; Gila Moshe (40) from Jerusalem; Yehiyel (Emil) Tubol (52) from Jerusalem; 50 wounded. An Arab suicide bomber detonated himself among a crowd of soldiers at a bus stop near the «Tzrifin» military base, killing 8.
2005 — (5 Elul 5765) The last IDF soldiers left Gaza. The 38-year Jewish presence in this part of Eretz Yisrael has, for now, come to an end.
2006 — (16 Elul 5766) About 25,000 people gathered in the evening at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the government’s conduct during the war in Lebanon, known as the Second Lebanon War. Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens said that there had never been such disorganization in the army as during the war against Hezbollah.
2007 — (26th of Elul, 5767) Israeli archeologists announced that they’ve stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: the subterranean drainage channel Jews used to escape from the city’s Roman conquerors
2011 — (10 Elul 5771) In Cairo, local Arabs ransacked the Israeli embassy in Egypt. The embassy staff, their families, and the security guards were successfully evacuated.
2011 — (10 Elul 5771) In the morning hours, Arabs opened automatic fire towards the homes of Kibbutz Netiv HaAsara, adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip. No one was injured, but five houses were damaged.
2012 — (22 Elul 5772) At night, two Grad rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli territory. One of them hit a residential building in Netivot. The building was destroyed
People
1801 — (2 Tishrei 5562) Born Boris Semyonovich Jacobi – physicist. Died in 1874.
1864 — (8 Elul 5624) Born Rebecca Bettelheim Kohut – social activist in the United States and the American Jewish community. Died August 11, 1951
1899 — (5st of Tishrei, 5660) Captain Alfred Dreyfus condemned a second time
1918 — Born B. Zakhoder – poet, writer. Died November 7, 2000
1930 — (16th of Elul, 5690) Sixty-year-old David Weisbord, the author of a book on Vilna and one of the founders of Tel Aviv, the world’s only ‘all Jewish city’ passed away today in Tel Aviv
1936 — (22 Elul 5696) In Izmir, Yitzhak Ben-Shoham was born – a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, commander of the 188th Armored Brigade during the Yom Kippur War. He was killed in battle on October 7, 1973, when four tanks of his brigade under his command attempted to hold back the advance of Syrian tanks near the Nafah military base. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor («Itur ha-Oz»). In the same battle, his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel David Israeli, was also killed.
1939 — (25 Elul 5699) Born Reuven Rivlin – Israeli statesman, Speaker of the 16th Knesset.
1997 — (7 Elul 5757) At the age of 93, Laura Margolis passed away – the only woman representative of the «Joint» committee working abroad. At the beginning of her career, she helped refugees from Germany reach Cuba in 1939. In May 1941, she was sent to Shanghai, but the outbreak of the war in the Pacific interrupted her work assisting refugees with emigration. While in Shanghai, Margolis raised funds from the local Jewish community and provided support to 8,000 refugees. In early 1942, the Japanese interned her as a subject of an enemy state. Margolis returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange operation
2003 — (12th of Elul, 5763) ….. Dr. David Applebaum, 51, of Jerusalem – head of the emergency room at Shaare Zedek Medical Center; Nava Applebaum, 20, of Jerusalem – David Applebaum’s daughter who was to have been married the day after the bombing; David Shimon Avizadris, 51, of Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem, 27, of Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi, 22, of Jerusalem – the Café Hillel’s coffee security guard; Gila Moshe, 40, of Jerusalem and Yehiel (Emil) Tubol, 52, of Jerusalem were murdered today by a Hamas terrorist at the Café Hillel, a Jerusalem coffee house