B"H Yom Yom [9 Tevet] Ancient fast day. Traditional date for the yahrzeits of Ezra and Nechemya. ### Yosef ibn Nagrela, rabbi of the Granada community, was crucified at the gates of the city, 1066. 4000 Jews were killed in the accompanying riots. ### Followers of Zecharya of Kiev were burned to death in Moscow, 1503, on charges of Judaizing. [January 4] A much-publicized pro-slavery sermon by Rabbi Morris J. Raphall evoked widespread reaction, 1861 (just what we needed!). ### The minute-book of Congregation Magen Avraham of Recife, Brazil, opens with an entry for January 4, 1649 — The Jewish community of Recife dates from the conquest of the city by the Dutch in 1631. The community grew rapidly due to the religious freedom granted by the Dutch... Local Calvinist authorities succeeded in closing both shuls in 1638... The Jewish community (which outnumbered the non-Jews, influenced government officials to reopen the shuls in 1642... Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca came from Holland to become the first rabbi to serve an American Jewish congregation. ### Follow this one: Jews of Toulouse, France buried a Jew who had converted to Christianity and then had come back to Judaism, in the Jewish cemetery. They were tried by the Inquisition in 1278 and Rabbi Isaac Males was condemned to the stake. The severity of the punishment was indicative of a deep fear of the Church that Christians might be drawn towards Judaism. [10 Tevet] "Public" Fast Day marking the siege around Yerushalayim, 588bce, prior to the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash. It is one of the four fasts mentioned in Zecharya, related to the CHURBAN. ### Yirmiyahu purchased a field and prophesied that "houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land", 587bce. ### Yahrzeits of the prophets Zecharya and Malachi. ### King Herod captured Yerushalayim, 37bce. ### A wave of massacres in Simferopol, Crimea (southern Ukraine), ended, 1941. 10,000 Jews had been killed. ### YOM KADDISH K'LALI, a memorial day for the Six Million, as proclaimed by Israel's Chief Rabbinate. [January 5] Alfred Dreyfus was subjected to military degradation, 1895. ### Maryland's "Jew Bill", 1826, qualified Jews for public office if they believed in Reward and Punishment and in the hereafter. Now get this: Ever since the establishment of the colony of Maryland as an asylum for Catholics in 1634, the denial of the validity of Christianity had been a capital crime. Theoretically, every Jew living in Maryland was liable to the death penalty for professing Judaism. It wasn't until 50 years after the establishment of the U.S. that Maryland officially caught on to the freedom of religion thing. [11 Tevet] 100,000 Jews of Sicily were expelled, 1492. ### President Lincoln promised to press for change in the Chaplaincy Law which provided for Christian chaplains only, 1861. This removed the last of the "Jewish disabilities" in the U.S. because of creed. [January 6] Haym Salomon, superintendent of finance during the U.S. Revolutionary War, died, 1785. ### Yeshivat Kol Yaakov, a seminary for religious functionaries to serve the Jewish community in Russia, was established, 1957. It was set up by the Russian government to show the world that they were not anti-Jewish. [12 Tevet] Yechezkeil prophesied the downfall of Egypt and the ascendence of Babylonia, 587bce. ### A violent earthquake in Eretz Yisrael, 1033, caused part of the walls of Jerusalem, Migdal David, and other structures to collapse. ### Mordechai and Esther of Medzibezh (later the town of the Baal Shem Tov) saved the Jews from Chmielnicki's army, 1648. [January 7] Israel shot down five British planes over the battlefront on the Egyptian border, 1949. [13 Tevet] A Siddur, the first workk printed by the Hebrew printing press of Amsterdam, was published, 1627. ### Jews of Prague, Bohemia and Moravia were expelled by order of Empress Maria Theresa, 1774. ### First Jewish censor was appointed by the Russian government, 1798. [January 8] Jews of Genoa, Italy, were expelled, 1598. [14 Tevet] Jews of Laibach, Austria (now in Yugoslavia) were expelled, 1515. ### Yahrzeit of the "court Jew" Leffman Behrends, financial advisor to the duke of Hanover, 1714. He, like others in his position around Europe, served the duke AND the Jewish community well. ### Window Purim, a private festival of the S'fardic community in Hebron, was observed in commemoration of the community's deliverance from a crushing tax. [January 9] The Jews of Basle, Switzerland were burned alive in a wooden house, erected for that purpose on an island in the Rhine, 1349. ### The Portuguese congregation in Surinam appealed to the Ashkenazi congregation to join in an effort to establish a rabbinical seminary. This is the first record of such a project in the Western Hemisphere, 1797. ### The Nazi district commander of Warsaw decreed that no Jew was to greet a German in public, 1941. ### 3000 Jews were killed in anti-Jewish riots in Bucharest, 1941. [15 Tevet] First printed edition of the SMa"G, Sefer Mitzvot Gadol, Soncino, Italy, 1488. ### Begin and Sadat met at Ismailia, 1977. [January 10] Anti-Jewish riots in Ancona, Italy, 1798. ### The ships "Independence" and ""In-gathering" carrying "illegal" immigrants, were taken by the British to Cyprus for interment, 1947. ### The Arab Liberation Army invaded "Palestine", 1948, and attacked Kfar Szold. [16 Tevet] Emperor of Austria issued Edict of Toleration, 1782, repealing most restrictions on Jews. It was not successful, and we can say B"H to that, because its true objective was assimilation. This was so of some, but not all, of the freedom the Jews were granted in different countries. ### The ship "29th of November", carrying "illegal" immigrants, was driven off the coast by the British, 1947. [January 11] Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Dynow, the Bnei Yissaschar, leader of the fight against the Haskala movement, died, 1841. ### Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter, second Gerer Rebbe, the Sfas Emes, died, 1905. ### The poipulation of Israel reached 3 million with the arrival of a Russian Jewish family, 1971. [The Vayigash Homepage]
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