Elul - This Day in Jewish History

Our 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 History

Elul

[1 Elul]

Beginning of the Third Plague in Egypt.
G-d tells Zerubavel (via Chaggai) to rebuild the Beit haMikdash.
Beginning of the year for purpose of animal-tithes. according to the Tana Kama in Rosh HaShana 1:1.
Persian Jews made annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Serach b. Asher.
Jews of Palma massacred, 1391.
Anti-Jewish riots claim 77 lives in Prague, 1400.

[2 Elul]

160 Jews in France burned to death on charges of well-poisoning, 1321.
Jews of Poland and Lithuania granted a Charter of Rights, 1447.
Pope orders the confiscation and burning of all copies of the Talmud, 1553.
First printing of the Shulchan Aruch, near Tzfat, 1555.
Jews of Balogna, Italy granted equal rights,1796.

[3 Elul]

Birthdate of the Meiri, 1240.
Jews of Budapest were granted permission to conduct religious services in private homes, provided no rabbi was present, 1787 (amazing!).
Yahrzeit of Rav Kook zt"l, 1935. He died 16 years to the day of his arrival in Jerusalem.

[4 Elul]

Jews of Barcelona massacred, 1391.
Yahrzeit of R. Meir Simcha HaKohen, the Ohr Same'ach, 1926.

[5 Elul]

Yahrzeit of Miriam Bella, sister of the Rama and wife of the head of Cracow Jewry, 1619. She was famed for her piety & scholarship.
Ukrainian army massacred Jews of Kiev, 1919.
Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews, 1938.

[6 Elul]

Yahrzeit of the Tos'fot Yom Tov, 1654.
Italian planes bomb Tel Aviv, 1940, killing 117.

[7 Elul]

Amram remarried Yocheved (based on the Tradition that Moshe was a 6-month premee, 7 Elul being 6 months before 7 Adar. He was hidden for 3 months and was floated on the Nile and found by the daughter of Paro on 7 Sivan, the future date of Mtan Torah.)
Agrippa I dedicated new gate of the Jerusalem wall, 42 c.e. Day was celebrated as a holiday.
Jews of Hanover were granted equality, 1848

[8 Elul]

Jewish resistance to Roman forces came to an end, 70 c.e. with the fall of the walls of the upper city of J'lem.
Russian Emperor appoints a commission to study to injurious influences of Jews upon the native population, 1881.

[9 Elul]

Dan b. Yaakov born.
Ramban arrived in Jerusalem, 1267, and reestablished the Jewish community here, soon after his arrival. (The community enjoyed continuous existence until 1948. It was reestablished in 1967.)
Jews of Gerona, Spain, massacred, 1391.
Jewish teachers and students barred from Italian schools, 1938.

[10 Elul]

No'ach opened the window in the Teiva and sent the raven out.
Jews of the ghetto in Buda survived a riotous attack and declared the day as a Purim, 1684.
Yahrzeit of R. Yitzchak Yaakov Reines, rabbinic pioneer of Mizrachi, 1915.

[11 Elul]

Expulsion of the Jewish community in Moravia, 1563.
Liquidation of the ghettos of Minsk and Lida, 1943.

[12 Elul]

Pope renews anti-Jewish restrictions of the Roman Jewish community, 1732.

[13 Elul]

Jews of New York (1695, pre-USA) petition the governor for permission to exercise their religion in public. Permission was denied, because freedom of religion applied to Christians only.

[14 Elul]

Oldest existing ketuba written in the Western Hemisphere, 1643 (Yitzchak and Yehudit).
Nazis decreed that Jews had no rights to moveable or immoveable property, 1940.
Jews of Vilna confined to ghetto, 1941.
1668 Jews of Radomysl, Poland, executed by Nazis, 1941.

[15 Elul]

The right to public worship is denied to the Jews of New York, 1685. (44 years - almost to the day - later, the foundation was laid for the first synagogue structure in New York (and all of North America.)
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, 1758.
Russia decreed the draft of Jewish boys from the age of 12, 1827 (imagine how many boys were lost because of this!)

[16 Elul]

Nazi decree forbidding non-Jews to work for Jews, 1940.
Whole Jewish community of Meretsch, Lithuania, massacred by the Nazis, 1941.
Illegal Jewish immigrants exiled to Mauritius by the British, were admitted into Eretz Yisrael, 1945.

[17 Elul]

No'ach released the dove.
The 10 Meraglim died.
2000 Jews of Caesaria murdered by the local population at the instigation of the Romans, 66 c.e.

[18 Elul]

Shimon HaChashmona'i was elected Kohen Gadol and governor of the Jews, 141 b.c.e., marking the end of the struggle for independence and the beginning of the Hasmonian dynasty (which lasted for 206 years).
Ethiopian Jews' holiday marking the deaths of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov.
Yahrzeit of the Maharal of Prague,1609.

[19 Elul]

Anti-Jewish riots in Stockholm, Sweden (even there), 1852.
Anti-Semitic speech by Charles Lindbergh on the radio, 1941, marked the introduction of anti-Semitism as a political tool in America.

[20 Elul]

Order by Charles VI to expel the Jews of France, 1394.
Ghetto of Mir was liquidated, 1942.
Yahrzeit of the Ponevezher Rav, 1969.

[21 Elul]

Many London Jews killed in anti-Jewish riots in "honor" of the coronation of King Richard I, 1189. Among the dead was R. Jacob of Orlean, a tosefist.
German occupation of Piotrkow - Jewish population: 17,000.
First ghetto in Poland was established there, 1939.

[22 Elul]

First Jewish fighting force of modern times - Jewish regiment with the Polish Revolutionary Army, 1794.
Jews of Homel, Russia massacred, 1903.
9000 Jews of Slonim, Russia murdered by the Nazis, 1941.

[23 Elul]

A monk who converted to Judaism was burned at the stake in Rome, 1553.
First U.S. Jewish army chaplain, Rabbi Jacob Frankel, appt. 1862.
Liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, 1943.

[24 Elul]

David HaMelech and Bat-Sheva marry.
Jews began clearing site in preparation of building the Second Beit HaMikdash, 520 b.c.e.
Anti-Jewish riots in 2 Swiss cities, 1802.
Yahrzeit of the Chafetz Chaim, 1933.
Yahrzeit of Rav Uziel, first Sfaradi Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, 1953.

[25 Elul]

Day One of Creation. Nechemiya complete rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, 444 b.c.e.
Yahrzeit of the Minchat Chinuch, 1874.

[26 Elul]

Second day of Creation.
Jews of Zurich accused of causing the Black Plague; some were burned, the rest were expelled,, 1348.
Peter Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service, 1655 (forerunner of the 4D? Kidding!).

[27 Elul]

Third day of Creation - Take a flower to lunch.
Jews of Frankfort on the Main were expelled, 1614.
Jews of New York barred from voting, 1737. Kiev fell to Germany, 1941.

[28 Elul]

Fourth day of Creation - Sun, Moon, stars placed in the Heavens.
Peter the Great ordered 13 of his soldiers who participated in anti-Jewish riots hanged, 1708.
First shul in South Africa, 1849.
Gedera attacked by Arabs, 1901.
U.S. President Harding signed a joint resolution of Congress approving the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish Homeland, 1922.

[29 Elul]

Fifth day of Creation, butterflies, tuna, and sparrows (and their friends).
Jews of France emancipated, 1791 (first European country to enact such liberal legislation).
Germany occupied Miclec, Poland and killed its entire Jewish population 1939.
11,000 Jews of the Stolin ghetto were killed, 1942.

This Day in Jewish History Index