July - 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

July

[July 1]

Titus set up battering rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem, 70c.e.
Russian Jews granted permission to print Jewish books, 1862.
Pogrom in Jassy, the cradle of Rumanian anti-Semitism claimed 5000 Jewish lives, 1941.
First Jew to lose his life in the American Revolution, 1776.
Sir Herbert Samuel became first British High-Commissioner of Palestine, 1920. (The dedication of what street took place in his presence?)
Jews of Lithuania received a Charter of Privilege, 1388.

[July 2]

Nazi-instigated pogrom claimed many Jewish lives in Lvov, 1941.
Chumash with Ramban first published in 1490.

[July 3]

Pogrom in Bialystock, 1903.

[July 4]

Pogrom in Kielce, Poland, first post Nazi massacre of the Jews, 1946.
Catherine II of Russia restricted the area where Jews were permitted to trade, 1794.
RAID AT ENTEBBE, 1976.
The non-Jewish owner of a building used as a shul was burned at the stake, 1632.
American Independence was declared on 17th of Tammuz, 1776.
41 Jews were burned at the stake in Brelau, 1453. The remainder of the Jewish population was expelled.

[July 5]

The then 50-year old Jewish community of the Belgian Congo, consisting of 2500 Jews fled in the wake of riots which followed independence, 1960.
The Knesset passed a law granting every Jew the absolute right to settle in Israel, 1950.
The Pope decreed against blood-ritual charges, 1247. (It seems that the decree was ignored.)
Another pope banned forced baptism of Jews, 1345. (This decree was overturned by subsequent pope's in 1597 and 1747 - and probably by others at other times as well.)

[July 6]

President Roosevelt called for an international conference to consider the "displaced persons" problem, 1938. The negligible results highlight the passive role the Western world in the face of the Nazis.
The first 14 members of BILU arrived at Yaffa port, 1882.
Bendin (Poland) ghetto uprising, 1942.

[July 7]

5000 Jews of Kovno executed by Nazis, 1940.
Hundreds of Jews of Catalonia murdered, 1358.

[July 8]

Jew badge for all the Baltic States, 1941.
A band of Druze attacked the Jewish community of Tzfat, 1838.
First Jewish settler in North America leaves for New Amsterdam, 1654.

[July 11]

Jewish settlers, with Torah and other religious items, arrive in Savannah, Georgia, 1733.
Jews expelled from Little Russia, 1740.
Gates of the Jewish ghetto in Venice were torn down, 1797.
Kovno ghetto liquidated by the Nazis, 1944.

[July 13]

Equal rights for Jews of Rumania, 1878.
Israeli law prohibiting the raising of pigs in Jewish settlements, 1963.
Anti-Jewish riots in Cordova, Spain, 1148.
5000 Jews of Rovno (Polish Ukraine) executed by the Nazis, 1942.

[July 14]

Israel bombed Cairo. 1948.
6000 Lithuanian Jews were killed, 1941.
Jews of Holstein, Germany were granted equality, 1863.

[July 15]

Berlin Jews attacked by Nazi gangs, 1935.
Spanish Inquisition was officially abolished, 1834.
Crusaders captured Jerusalem, 1099.
The pope promulgated a Church doctrine which held Jews doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation because they killed you know whom, 1205. This classic charge of deicide was officially removed in 1963.
A Russian Jew and the ger he had converted to Judaism were burned at the stake in St. Petersburg, 1738.

[July 16]

Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a shul and set it aflame, all the Jews perished in the fire, 1099. For the 88 years of Crusader control of Jerusalem, Jews were barred from the city.
The first train with Jews from Holland left for a killing camp, 1942.
13,000 Jews of Paris were rounded up by the French police for deportation, 1942.
The execution of Czar Nicholas II, 1918 brought an end to a dynasty guilty of many crimes against Jews.

[July 17]

Legislation abolishing discrimination against the service of chaplains in the United States army became a law, 1862. (an entry of this type in BHYY is not meant to highlight this particular event, but rather to call to the reader's attention that such discrimination existed in the U.S. in the first place.)
The expulsion of all Marranos in Ghent, Belgium, 1549.
Raoul Wallenberg was reported by Russia to have died in prison, 1947.

[July 18]

Jews of Brussels were ordered expelled, 1716.
The British seized the Exodus carrying 4000 "illegal" immigrants, 1947. Its defiance of the British navy and its ultimate return to Germany formed one of the most dramatic episodes in post-war Jewish history.
King Edward I ordered the expulsion of all Jews from England, 1290. (It was on Tish'a b'Av).

[July 19]

The second truce in the war on Independence went into effect, 1948.
The Yarkon water project opened, 1955.
38 Jews were burned at the stake in Berlin, (Prussia), 1510.

[July 20]

Napoleon decreed that all Jews of the French Empire must adopt family names, 1808.
The famous disputation between the Ramban and Pablo Christiani opened, 1263.
HBT.

[July 21]

Libya ordered the confiscation of Jewish property, 1970.
Jews of Upina, Lithuania, were killed by the Nazis, 1941.
Haifa port was opened to traffic, 1933.
Russia removed the ban on Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals, 1918.

[July 22]

10,000 Jews of Polannoe were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres, 1648.
A bill for the emancipation of the Jews of England was passed by the House of Commons, 1833; rejected by the House of Lords until 1845!
The mass transportation of Jews of the Warsaw ghetto was announced, 1942 Deportation began on Leil Tish'a b'Av and continued for 53 days, during which, 300,000 Jews were taken to the killing camps.

[July 23]

Rehovot was attacked by Arabs in 1913.
Jews of Austria were required to take family names, 1787.
Prussian Jewry granted equality, 1847.
The Jews of Wurzburg massacred, 1298.
Arabs took control of most of Eretz Yisrael from the Byzantines, 636.
A violent earth quake hit Eretz Yisrael, 501. Acco was totally destroyed.

[July 24]

League of Nations confirmed Britian's mandate, 1922.
The entire Jewish male population of Grodz, Lithuania was killed by the Nazis, 1941.
Russian army liberated Lublin concentration camp, 1944.
Anti-Jewish riots in Posin, 1716.
Jews of Frankfort killed in the Black Death massacres, 1349.
Cornerstone of Hebrew University was laid, 1918.

[July 25]

Mussolini was dismissed from office, 1943. His downfall eased the situation for Italy's Jews.
Jews of Hebron were attacked, 1835.
Jewish community of Vienna was expelled, 1670.
The Turkish government barred immigration of Russian and Romanian Jews, 1882 and forbade the sale of land in E. Yisrael to Jews.
Anti-Jewish riots in Breslau, 1360, resulted in many deaths and the expulsion of those that remained alive.
Sir Moses Montefiore died, 1885.

[July 26]

The Inquisition was established by Pope Clement IV, 1267. Last victim of the Inquisition was executed in Valencia, Spain, 1826 - 559 years later, to the day.
Last Jews left Vienna, following expulsion orders, 1670. It was a Tish'a b'Av.
Jews of Rome were forced into a ghetto by order of Pope Paul IV, 1555.
Baron Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jew to sit in the British parliament, 1858, after a new oath of office was agreed upon that did not refer to Christianity.

[July 27]

Jews of New Amsterdam requested permission to open a cemetery in 1655. Permission was initially denied and was finally granted a year later.
A plane bound for Israel was shot down by Bulgaria, 1955. 58 people were killed.
New Zealand recognized Israel, 1950 (what took them so long?)

[July 28]

Jewish males of Aniksht and the Jews of Vilkovishk, both Lithuania, were killed by the Nazis, 1941
3000 children were killed by Chmeilnicki's hordes in Konstantnow, 1648.
10,000 Jews of Minsk were killed by the Nazis, 1942.

[July 29]

First shipload of Russian Jews arrived in New York, 1881, following pogroms in Russia. This was the beginning of mass immigration to the U.S. during that period of time.
A religious youth center, Tiferet achurim, was secretly opened in the Kovno ghetto, 1942.

[July 30]

Israeli airmen shot down four MIGs flown by Russian pilots over the Suez, 1970. This marked the first military encounter between Israeli and Russian forces.
German elections, 1878, resulted in the reactionary element having a dominant voice in the Reichstag. This date is considered the birthday of modern German anti- Semitism.
16 Jews were burned at the stake in Barcelona, 1488.

[July 31]

The ghetto in Florence, Italy was established, 1571.
The Final Solution was officially undertaken by the Nazis, by order of Goering, 1941.
The one millionth Oleh since the establishment of the State, arrived in Israel, 1961.

This Day in Jewish History Index