B"H
Yom Yom
from Day by Day in Jewish History
by Rabbi Abraham P. Bloch z"l
[Tish'a b'Av]
The Meraglim returned to the people after 40 days of scouting out the land. The Generation of the Wilderness was condemned to die out in the course of 40 yrs. of wandering. Approx. 15,000 adult Jewish males died each year on Tish'a b'Av.
Both the first and the second Beit Hamikdash were destroyed.
The Romans plowed up the site of the Mikdash to establish a Roman colony there, 71CE.
The City of Betar, last independant outpost under Bar Kochba, fell to the Romans, 135.
King Edward I of England ordered the expulsion of all Jews, 1290.
The period of expulsion of the Jews from Spain began, 1492.
3,000 Jews were killed in Konstantynow, in the Chmielnicki massacres, 1648.
The Jews of Hungary were emancipated, 1849.
Petach Tikvah was founded, 1878.
World War I began, 1914.
[August 10]
The Turkish government renounced its sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael and recognized the British mandate, 1920.
Massacre of the Jews Gerona, Spain, 1391.
[10 (Menachem) Av]
Birth of Yissachar.
The first Beit HaMikdash was destroyed by fire that started the day before, 586bce.
Jews of France were arrested and ordered to leave the country, 1306. (They were readmitted nine years later.)
Hundreds of Jews of Catalonia (region of northeast Spain) were murdered, 1358.
Columbus set sail for the new world, 1492.
Jews of Rome were forced to move into a ghetto, 1555.
[August 11]
The British Aliens Act, which reflected anti-Jewish bias, became a law, 1905.
Joop Westerweel, Dutch poet and educator was executed by the Nazis, 1944, for helping Jews escape.
[11 Menachem Av]
Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt (Germany), 1264.
Anti-Jewish riots in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), 1360, many Jews were killed, the rest expelled.
Edict of expulsion of Bohemian Jews was revoked by Empress Maria Theresa, 1748.
The Common Council of New York City revoked the license of a non-Jewish butcher for affixing Jewish seals to non-kosher meat, 1796. This is the earliest act of legal intervention in protection of kashrut.
New York Penal Code (for example) forbids (under the laws of fraud) the use of Hebrew letters or Jewish symbols on butcher shops that sell non-kosher meat. Even if the shop does not claim that its meat is kosher, the use of a Menora or Magen David, or the word in Hebrew BASAR, is deemed as an attempt to defraud. Now for the update: Brooklyn federal judge, Nina Gershon, ruled that New Yorks kosher-food statutes are unconstitutional. The case she ruled on was that of a butcher shop under Conservative supervision that was sanctioned for not labeling chickens "soaked and salted". The butcher claimed that he was complying with the rabbi's rules and that thestate's kosher laws were discriminatory (meaning Orthodox).
The judge's decision is being appealed. Note that in many countries where anti-Sh'chita bills have been passed, it has been through the efforts of non-Jews with an anti-Jewish agenda. This time, July 2000, it was a Jewish judge acting on a complaint from a Jewish butcher.
Arab forces blew up the Latrun pumping station, 1948, cutting of Jerusalem's water supply.
[August 12]
Moshav Magdi'el (now part of Hod Hasharon) was founded, 1924.
Nazis began systematic murder of the Jews of Dvinsk, Latvia, 1941.
24 of the foremost Yiddish writers of Russia were executed by the Soviet Government, 1952.
[12 Menachem Av]
The famous disputation between the Ramban and Pablo Christiani began, 1263. King Jayme of Aragon hosted the debate, guaranteed the Ramban freedom to say what he pleased, and rewarded the Ramban with 300 gold coins for his "most admirable defense of a wrong position".
38 Jews were burned at the stake in Berlin, 1510.
The Russian gov't removed the ban on Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals, 1918.
Russian army liberated the city of Kovno, 1944.
[August 13]
17 Jews were burned at the stake in Silesia (now Poland and/or Czech Republic), 1453.
Jews of Great Poland are granted limited self-government, 1551.
[13 Menachem Av]
Jews of Wurzburg were massacred, 1298.
Yahrzeit of Sir Moses Montifiore, 1885.
[August 14]
Jewish Agency for Palestine founded, 1929.
120 Jewish families arrived in Buenos Aires, 1889, giving birth to the modern Argentinian Jewish community.
Archbishop of Lvov provided hiding places for Jewish children and Sifrei Torah, 1942.
[14 Menachem Av]
Arabs took control of Eretz Yisrael from the Byzantines, 636.
Pope Nicholas III requires compulsary attendance of Jews at conversion sermons, 1278.
407 Jews of Zhitomir (western Ukraine) were killed by the Nazis, 1941. 10,000 Jews of Minsk were killed by the Nazis, 1942.
[August 15]
S.A. Bierfield was lynched by the K.K.K. in Franklin Tenn., 1868, first such incident involving a Jew.
Albert Bettelhein, journalist and author, convicted by a Georgia jury of murder, was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob, 1915.
[15 Menachem Av]
T"U B'AV: See separate piece elsewhere. The power of the Almohads, a fanatic anti-Jewish Muslim sect in Spain, was broken in battle, 1212.
Jews of Great Poland were authorized to elect a Chief Rabbi, 1541.
Jews of Cochin, India received a large shipment of Judaica, including Sifrei Torah from Amsterdam, 1686. The day was celebrated as an annual holiday.
Baron Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jew in the British Parliament, 1858, after a new version of the oath of office was agreed upon, without reference to Christianity.
Tiferet Bachurim, a secret religious youth center was opened in the Kovno ghetto, 1942.
[August 16]
Bialystok ghetto uprising, 1943.
Bogdan Chemlnicki (with the blood of over 300,000 Jews on his hands) died, 1675.
[16 Menachem Av]
The British government ordered the removal of all illegal immigrants to E. Yisrael to Cyprus, 1946.
[August 17]
The Council of 4 Countries (semi-autonomous congress of Polish Jewry) met for the last time, 1762. It functioned for almost 200 years before the Polish government ordered its dissolution.
Now watch this one: Jews of Budapest, Hungary, received permission from the government, 1787, to conduct religious services in private homes provided no rabbi officiated.
The pope prohibited Jews from admitting Christians into shuls, 1592.
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