Thanks to Phil Chernofsky of the OU/NCSY Israel Center for Including
This Material in His Remarkable Torah
Tidbits, based on the book Day by Day in Jewish History by Rabbi
Abraham P. Bloch z''l
This Day in Jewish
World War II broke out, 1939.
Mussolini canceled civil rights
of Italian Jews and expelled all foreign-born Jews, 1938.
Wearing the yellow star became
obligatory for all Jews in the Reich, 1941.
Jews of Frankfort on the Main
were expelled, 1614.
Jews of Holland were emancipated, 1796.
The Mir ghetto was
Anti-Jewish riots in Stockholm, Sweden, 1852.
England and France declare war on Germany, 1939.
Many Jews of London were killed
in riots during the coronation of Richard I, 1189.
Jews of Hanover granted equality, 1848.
leading Jews of Posen, Poland were imprisoned and tortured following blood
Germany occupied Cracow, 1939.
Nazis ordered the
liquidation of Bialystok ghetto, 1942.
- Russian government decreed the draft of Jewish boys at 12 years old,
- Pogrom in Shedlitz, Russia, 1906.
- A group of 23 Jews from Recife, Brazil arrived in New Amsterdam,
1654. They became the pioneers of New York's Jewish community.
- Alexander Susskind, who gave his whole fortune as ransom for the
body of Rabbi Meir of Rottenberg, died, 1307.
Israel agreed to accept reparation money from West
Torquemada died, 1498.
First Jew known to have settled in Canada,
Italian planes bomb Tel Aviv; 117 are killed,
Copies of the Gemara were burned by the Inquisition, 1553.
Italian planes bomb Tel Aviv; 117 are killed, 1940.
- The Jewish community of Berlin was organized, 1671.
- The Congress for the Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests, which
opened in Dresden, Germany, 1882, was the first international
assembly to promote anti-Semitism.
- Daf Yomi was initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapira of Lublin, 1923.
- The liquidation of the Minsk and Lida ghettos began, 1943.
- Charles Lindbergh made an anti-Semitic speech on radio, 1941.
- The ghetto in Stolin, Poland, was wiped out with the mass murders
of 11,000 Jews, 1942.
- 90,000 Jews were sent to their deaths from the Warsaw ghetto,
1942. A total of 300,000 Jews were sent to Nazi killing camps during a
53 day period from Erev Tish'a b'Av until Erev Rosh HaShana that year.
- First organized attack
by Nazi stormtroopers, Berlin, 1931.
- Ghetto of Uman was liquidated by the
- The governor of New York was petitioned to allow the Jews to
exercise their religion in public, 1695. It seems that the Charter of
Liberties granted by James I of England in 1683, applied only to
Christians. So much for liberty for all. Therefore, the governor
declined the petition.
- Gedera was attacked by Arabs, 1901.
- First organized attack by Nazi storm troopers against Jews took
place in Berlin, 1931.
- Compulsory education law passed in Israel, 1949.
- First shul services in
Manhattan, 1654. First for St. Louis, 1836.
- Jews of Klausenburg, Hungary, were massacred, 1600.
- 40 rabbis of the ghetto of Lodz were killed by the Nazis, 1942.
- Germany occupied Miclec, Poland, 1939, and murdered its entire
- Jews of Homel, Russia, were massacred, 1903.
- The first Jewish self-defense organization in Eretz Yisrael was founded,
- 9000 Jews of Slonim, Russia, were killed by the Nazis, 1941.
- The Supreme Court of Israel was inaugurated, 1948.
- British troops occupied New York City, 1776, disrupting Jewish life.
- The foundation stone for Ararat was laid in Buffalo, New York, 1825.
Ararat was to be a city of refuge for displaced Jews. It was to be on Grand
Island in the Niagra River.
- The anti-Semitic Nuremberg racial laws were passed by the Nazis, 1935.
- 800 Jewish women of Shkudvil, Lithuania, were executed by the Nazis,
- The first synagogue in South Africa, Tikvat Yisrael, was dedicated in
- Here's a nasty one... Pope Benedict XIV prohibited Jewish converts
to Christianity from giving their wives gittin (religious divorce),
- The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston,
- Sam Rayburn was elected Speaker of the House, 1940. He held that
position for 17 of the following 21 years, serving longer than anyone
else in that post.
- The Jewish Quarter of Paris was plundered, 1394 (it was a Yom Kipur).
- The Camp David summit talks (the first ones) ended, in 1978.
- Religious freedom was granted to the Jews of Morocco, 1880.
- The Jewish community of Shirvint, Lithuania, was massacred by the Nazis,
- German forces occupied the Polish city of Lukow, killing many Jews,
- Nazi decree forbidding non-Jews to work for Jews in their homes or
- Germany captured Kiev, 1941.
- Magellan set sail, 1519, in search of a "western passage". One of
his ships eventually completed a full circle of the world. (Magellan
was killed en route).
- Dreyfus was released from prison on Devil's Island, 1899.
- Happy 83rd birthday, basketball Hall of Fame coach of the Boston
Celtics, Red Auerbach.
- Jews of Zurich, Switzerland were charged with perpetuation of the
Black Death epidemic. Some were burned to death; the rest were
- Jews of Mogilev, Russia were atacked during Tashlich, 1645.
- Privileges granted the Jews of Sweden were revoked by the Swedish
- Jews of Arnhem (Holland) were ordered to wear the Jew-badge by the
city's cardinal, 1451.
- Hodel, daughter of Moshe Kikinish of Lemberg, was martyred, 1710,
after falsely confessing to blood-ritual charges in order to save the
lives of other Jews.
- Anti-Jewish riots in two Swiss cities, 1802.
- U.S. President Harding signed a joint resolution of congress
expressing approval of the establishment of a national home for the
Jewish People in Eretz Yisrael, 1922.
This Day in Jewish