June - 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

June

[June 1]

The Arab states and Israel agreed to a cease-fire, 1948.
A pogrom broke out in Bialystok, Russia, 1906.

[June 2]

Viktor Brack, who was Hitler's supervisor of the installation of gas chambers in Poland, was executed, 1948.
An Israeli attack on Egyptian positions at Ashdod marked the turning point in the war between Israel and Egypt, 1948.
U.S. House of Representatives requested the president to have all international treaties which impair the rights of American citizens because of religion amended to secure equal rights, 1879. This was a result of Russian mistreatment of Jewish American businessman.

[June 3]

Yizhak Rabin, the first native-born Israeli to become prime minister of Israel, assumed office, 1974.
The German military commander of occupied France ordered all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David with the inscription "Juif" on it, 1942.

[June 4]

The republic of Croatia issued an order depriving all Jews of their property and compelling them to wear a yellow badge with the letter Z, 1941.
A riotous mob led by the Queen Mother's confessor, killed many Jews in Seville, Spain, 1391. The riots spread throughout the country.

[June 5]

War broke out between Israel and the Arab nations, 1967.
Israeli armed forces captured Yavneh, 1948.
The Israeli army captured the city of Gaza. The Jordanian cities of Latrun, overlooking the old road to Jerusalem, and Qalqilya were also captured on the same day 1967.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a cease-fire in the Middle East War, 1967.
Jews of Canada were accorded equal political rights with Christians, 1832.
The Allies marched into Rome, 1944. Jews emerged from their hiding places and the gate of the great synagogue was opened.

[June 6]

The "Road of Valor" to Jerusalem was completed by Israel, 1948.
The Soviet government informed the Jewish community that is would permit the opening of a yeshiva in Moscow for the training of rabbis, 1957. The announcement was made on Shavuot, probably to "impress" world Jewry that the USSR was doing a wonderful thing for Jews and Judaism. Turns out that it was mostly "smoke". The laymen's council of the yeshiva was dissolved in 1961. The bulk of the students had come from Georgia. After Pesach of 1962, these students were denied permits by the local government to return to Moscow. Thus the yeshiva, reduced to a handful of students, could no longer hope to provide rabbis for Russian Jewry.
The Inquisition was introduced into Mexico, 1536.
24 wagonloads of talmudic volumes and 200 other rabbinic manuscripts were burned at Paris, 1242.

[June 7]

Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem uniting the city for the first time since the establishment of the state. It also captured, on the same day, Jericho, Bethlehem, and Sharm-el-Sheikh, and lifted the blockade of the Gulf of Eilat. The entire Jordanian bulge on the western bank of the Jordan came under Israeli control. Hostilities between Israel and Jordan came to an end upon their acceptance of the cease-fire demanded by the Security Council of the U.N., 1967.

[June 8]

Israel, Egypt, and Syria accepted the cease-fire ordered by the Security Council, 1967.
Jewish insurgent forces captured the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem, 65. This battle marked the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against Rome.
Oswald Pohl, chief of the economic office of the SS, Otto Ohlendorf, responsible for the murder of 90,000 Ukranian Jews, and Colonel Paul Blobel, organizer of the massacre of the Jews of Kiev, were hanged, 1951.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (parent organization of the Israel Center) was organized, 1898.

[June 10]

Cease-fire between Israel and the Arab armies, 1948.

[June 11]

Israel and Syria cease-fire, 1967.
Himmler ordered the liquidation of all Polish ghettos, 1943.
French (Vichy) planes bombed Tel Aviv killing 20 Jews, 1941.

[June 12]

First Israeli ship sailed thru Gulf of Eilat after 6-Days War, 1967.

[June 13]

Rumania and Finland recognize Israel, 1948.
Bnei Braq founded, 1924.
Cornerstone for AECOM, 1954.
Pope allows Jews accused by the Inquisition the right to know who their accusers were, 1299.

[June 14]

Auschwitz was opened, 1940. Approx. 2.5 million people were killed and another 500,000 died of starvation and disease there.

[June 15]

Jews of Genoa were expelled, 1567.
Riots in Tzfat cost many lives, 1834.
12 Jews of Cologne martyred, 1266.

[June 16]

Massacre of the Jews of Erfurt, Germany, 1221. Formerly observed as a fast day (25 Sivan)

[June 17]

Central system of Israel's underground water supply was dedicated in Northern Negev, 1951.

[June 18]

Beginning of the War of 1812.
Napoleon's Waterloo, 1815 (the term became to mean a crushing defeat, but the one referred to here was the original, literal Waterloo.)

[June 19]

First Soviet citizen (Jewish) to be issued an immigrant visa to Israel - try guessing the year before you look - 1951. The hoped-for easing of the Russian policy of not letting its citizens out did not materialize for decades to come.
Panama and Costa Rica (whose embassy is one of the two in Jerusalem) recognized Israel, 1948.
Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg was imprisoned, 1286.
King Louis IX of France decreed that all Jews must wear the distinctive yellow badge, 1269.

[June 20]

20 Jews were killed in a bombing in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo, 1948.
Haidamack uprising cost 50,000 Ukranian Jews their lives, 1768.
Mass killings of Jews by the Nazis began, 1942 at Auschwitz.
4,000 Jews were killed in Toledo, Spain, 1391.

[June 21]

The Rhodes Conference on the Israeli-Arab war opened, 1948.
Himmler ordered the destruction of all Russian ghettos, 1943.
Citizens of Nuremberg, Bavaria received permission to expel its Jews, 1498. (Read that one again, and think about it).

[June 22]

Germany invaded Lithuania and Latvia in its first attacks against Russia, 1941.
The Jewish Brigade was formed, 1942.
Jewish quarter of Prague was burned and looted, 1559.

[June 23]

Jews of Posen, Poland were saved from a mob set to avenge the murder of a soldier, 1696. A peasant woman seized carrying the victim's clothing, confessed to her son's murder.
Jews were granted permission by Empress Catherine II to settle in Kiev, 1794. The great yeshivot of Slobodka and Telz closed their doors the day after Germany invaded Lithuania, 1941.
The pope entered Rome and spurned the Torah scrolls offered to him by the Jewish community, 1295.
Massacre of the Jews of Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, 1298.

[June 24]

The Inquisitor of Ancona, Italy decreed that Jews may not live in any municipality where there was no ghetto, 1843. (Would have thought it was way earlier in history. Amazing how long some people stayed in the dark ages.)
Second expulsion of Jews from France, 1322.
First public warning of rising anti-Semitism in the U.S. was given in a sermon by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 1873.
Russia prohibited Zionist meetings, 1903.
Germany occupied Kovno and Vilna, 1941, and killed the Jews of Gorzhdy (all in Lithuania).
1000 Jews of Tulchin, Poland were tortured and massacred by Cossacks, 1648.
Massacre of the Jews of Ifhauben, Austria, 1298
3rd expulsion of the Jews from France, 1322.

[June 25]

Many Jews were killed in a pogrom at Jassy, Romania, 1941.
Rabbi Menashe b. Yisrael applied for official permission to practice Judaism in England, 1656. Permission was granted (surprise?) bu the Council of State.

[June 26]

Spain granted Jews and Protestants the right of public worship for the first time since Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed catholicizsm as Spain's only religion, 1967.
Lithuanian facists massacred 2300 Jews in Kovno, 1941.
Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was imprisoned, 1629.
First printed edition of the Sefer Hachinuch, 1523.

[June 27]

Bialystok, Poland fell to the German, 1941.
The volunteers of the Jewish Battalion in World War I were sent to the front, 1918

[June 28]

1500 Jews were killed in Kovno, 1941.
Minsk, Russia was captured by the Germans, 1942, trapping approx. 40,000 Jews.

[June 29]

British arrested 100 leaders of the Yishuv on the "Black Sabbath", 1946.
Nazis murdered the male Jews of Drobian, Lithuania, 1941.
Crusaders massacred the Jews of Mehr, 1096.

[June 30]

In 1294, the Jewish community of Berne, Switzerland forfeited all financial claims against non-Jews, and then were expelled from the country.
The Jewish community of Morgentheim, Austria was massacred, 1298.
Henry Ford retracted and apologized for the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1927.
The last British armed forces left Israel, 1948.

This Day in Jewish History Index