B"H
Yom Yom
B"H Yom Yom from
Day by Day in Jewish History
by Rabbi Abraham P. Bloch z"l
[20 Iyar]
Jews left the vicinity of Mt. Sinai in the second year of the exodus, after almost a year there.
Jews of Troyes, France, were condemned to the stake by the Inquisition on charges of ritual murder, 1288.
Jews of Venice were denied the right to practice law, 1637.
A community of Jewish slaves, captured over a period of two centuries and held for ransom by the Knights of St. John on the island of Malta, was officially dissolved, 1800.
The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital and Medical Center was opened on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 1939.
The Nazis decreed the execution of all pregnant Jewish women in the ghetto of Kovno, 1942.
Sedeh Boker was founded on an ancient Nabatean site never before inhabited by Jews.
[May 25]
Simcha b. Ha-Kohen of Worms was killed by Crusaders in a church for stabbing the bishop's nephew while pretending to submit to compulsory baptism, 1096.
Massacre of the Jews of Worms who took refuge in the castle during the First Crusade, 1096.
Chmielnicki's pogroms, which resulted in the massacre of more than 300,000 Jews, broke out, 1648
Minsk, Russia, recognized Yiddish as a second official language, 1917.
Jews of Warsaw and environs, expelled, 1784.
[21 Iyar]
Jewish agricultural settlement, Alliance, founded in New Jersey, 1882.
Karl Frank, Nazi protector of Bohemia-Moravia, executed, 1946.
[May 26]
A pogrom broke out in Minsk, Russia, 1905.
The Zion Mule Corps was disbanded, 1916.
The Russian government decreed the establishment of a rabbinical committee to be attached to the Ministry of the Interior. This was part of the government's policy which aimed at the compulsory assimilation of Russian Jewry.
Shalom Schwarzbard assassinated Ukranian S.V. Petlura, whose followers were responsible for 493 pogroms in which 50,000 Jews lost their lives.
34 Jewish men and 17 Jewish women were burned at the stake in Blois, France in the first ritual-murder charge on the European continent, 1171.
[22 Iyar]
The first "real" Shabbat for Bnei Yisrael. It was violated by some Jews who had gone out to collect manna.
All Hebrew books found in the Papal States were confiscated, 1731.
Rumanian government granted citizenship to all native-born Jews, 1919.
Nazi deportation of Jews from greater Hungary to the extermination camps began, 1944.
[May 27]
The Israel Defense Army (Zahal) was established, 1948.
The Arabs blew up the Hurva Synagogue, 1948.
Jewish community of the Old City surrendered to Jordan's Arab Legion, 1948.
The first Jewish day school in America, 1808.
Crusaders massacred the Jews of Mayence, 1096.
The Pope suspended the Portuguese Inquisition due to its severe treatment of Marranos, 1679.
30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood-ritual, were burned, 1529.
[23 Iyar]
Bnei Yisrael arrived at R'fidim.
Moshe Rabeinu struck the rock to provide water for the people.
Shimon HaChashmona'i drove the Syrians and their allies, the Hellenized Jews, out of the Citadel, their last stronghold in Jerusalem, in 142 B.C.E. The date was observed as a holiday in ancient times.
Amman, capital of Jordan, was bombed by Israel's air force, 1948.
The Arab states and Israel agreed to a cease-fire, 1948. By the time of the first truce, Israel had already scored substantial victories over the Syrian and Egyptian armies, though greatly outnumbered by the enemy. The Torah portion of that week includes the following p'sukim: "And I will bring peace in the Land... and you shall chase your enemies... and five of you shall chase a hundred..." (Vayikra 26:6-8)
[May 28]
Israeli forces captured the Arab village of Zar'in on Mt. Gilboa, 1948.
Jews of Frankfort on the Main, Germany, were permitted for the first time to appear in public at the coronation of Joseph II, 1764.
The first Jewish sermon preached and published in America ws delivered by Rabbi Hayyim Isaac Carigal in the Newport Synagogue, 1773.
60 Jews were murdered in Breslau, Silesia in riots which followed a disastrous fire which had destroyed part of the city, 1349. (our fault, of course)
Agudat Yisrael was founded in Poland, 1912.
[24 Iyar]
Mauthausen concentration camp was liberated, 1945. It had housed 225,000 inmates in the course of its existence. Of this total, 200,000 were killed.
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, 1945.
An Israeli attack on Egyptian positions at Ashdod marked the turning point in the war between Israel and Egypt, 1948. The battle forced Egypt to change its military strategy. It gave up its plans to attack Tel Aviv and made the isolation of the Negev from the rest of Israel its prime objective.
[May 29]
Pogroms in Brisk, Lithuania, 1905.
The Israeli army crossed into Lebanon, and scattered the Arab forces on the border, 1948.
Representative Louis T. McFadden (PA) delivered a Nazi-type attack on Jews, 1933. It was the first anti-Semitic speech in Congress.
Jews of Bacharach, Germany, were massacred by the Crusaders, 1096.
A disengagement agreement was reached between Israel and Syria, 1974.
Sultan Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, granted equal rights to Jews and other non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire, 1453.
[25 Iyar]
King Edward I of England ordered the cessation of persecution of Jews of Bordeaux, France, 1275.
1200 Jews of Toledo, Spain, were killed by army troops, 1355.
[May 30]
Crusaders reached Cologne and found the gate to the city closed by order of the bishop. Of all the Jewish communities in the path of the Crusaders, Cologne's Jews were the only ones to escape total destruction.
Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Emden, Prussia, 1762.
[26 Iyar]
Yahrzeit of Saadiah Gaon, head of the talmudic academy of Sura, author of Emunot ve-Deot, the first philosophical presentation of Judaism, 942.
Hundreds of Jews were massacred in Brussels, Belgium, 1370.
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Moses Hayyim Luzatto, author of Mesilat Yesharim, 1747.
War broke out between Israel and the Arab nations, 1967. The important Egyptian base at El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, was captured by the Israeli army on the same day.
[May 31]
The Jewish defender of Jerusalem surrendered the first wall of the city to the Romans, 70 C.E.
Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish department of the Gestapo, the first Nazi to be condemned by the Jewish state, was hanged, 1962.
Jews barred from living in Riga and Livonia, 1593.
Jewish community of Khonia, Crete, dating from Roman times, came to an end when the ship Danai, into which all the Jews had been herded, was towed out to sea and sunk, 1944.
[27 Iyar]
Demetrius II gave to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael the crown money which he had annualy levied. He thus recognized the independence of Judea under Shimon HaChashmona'i, 143bce
Theresienstadt was liberated, 1945.
Israeli army captured Yavneh, 1948.
The Israeli army captured the city of Gaza, 1967. The Jordanian-held cities of Latrun and Qalqilya were also captured on the same day.
U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a cease-fire in the Middle East War, 1967.
[June 1]
The Arab states and Israel agreed to a cease-fire, 1948.
A pogrom broke out in Bialystok, Russia, 1906.
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