Kislev

[1 Kislev]

• Beginning of winter in Israel according to Rabbi Yehuda (Bava Metzi’a)
• Egyptian plague of SH’CHIN (boils).

[2 Kislev]

• Jews of New York were allowed to swear without reference to Christianity, 1727.
• Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard Revel, 1940.
• Yahrzeit of HaRav Aharon Kotler, 1962.

[3 Kislev]

• The first auto-da-fe (burning at the stake of those condemned by the Inquisition) in the Americas, Lima, Peru, several Jews burned, 1581.
• 36 Jews killed in Lemberg explosion, 1702.
• First Nazi mass-murder of Warsaw Jews, 1939.
• 1538 Jews of Poltava, Russia, executed by the Nazis, 1941.

[4 Kislev]

• A delegation of Babylonian Jews arrived in Jerusalem, 518 b.c.e. to ask Zecharia HaNavi if Tish’a b’Av should be discontinued. (Their question was asked during the construction of the Second Beit HaMikdash, two years before completion.)
• Jews of Pressburg were expelled by order of Maria of Hapsburg, 1526.
• Empress Elizabeth ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Great Russia, 1742.

[5 Kislev]

• Portuguese Jews had to leave by this date in 1497 (the decree of expulsion was earlier, but there was a grace period).
• Rumanian Jews were barred from the practice of law, 1864.
• Road of valor connecting besieged Jerusalem with the rest of the Yishuv was opened, 1948.

[6 Kislev]

• The SHLA”H arrived in Jerusalem, 1621.
• Jews barred from settling in Stockholm, Sweden, 1685.

[7 Kislev]

• King Yehoyakim burned a Sefer Torah, 603 b.c.e. – day was made a fast day.
• Ancient Jewish holiday (from the end of the Second Beit HaMikdash era) – the exact reason is disputed by historians.

[8 Kislev]

• A relatively quiet day in Jewish History (according to the book)

[9 Kislev]

• Jews of Paris expelled (again) by Charles VI, 1394. (Rabbi Bloch z”l points out that English, French, and Spanish Jewry were expelled roughly at 100 year intervals – 1290, 1394, 1492.)

[10 Kislev]

• 27,000 Jews of the Riga ghetto taken for execution, 1941.
• MBCS, 1976 (YHS).

[11 Kislev]

• 7000 Minsk Jews executed 1942.
• Yeshiva University received its charter, first American university under Jewish auspices, 1945.

[12 Kislev]

• Yahrzeit of the Maharshal (Yam Shel Shlomo), 1573.

[13 Kislev]

• Yahrzeit of Ravina, 499, co-author of Talmud Bavli. His death marks the end of the Talmudic period.
• Mass murder of Jews of Mogilev, 1761.

[14 Kislev]

• Birth of Reuven
• 2192 from creation.
• Czar of Russia provides for the establishment of Jewish schools and seminaries, 1844.
• Nazi’s place Jews of Poland outside the law and beyond protection of the courts, 1941.
• First plane of Operation Magic Carpet bringing Yemenite Jews to Israel, 1948.

[15 Kislev]

• A pagan altar was set up in the Beit Hamikdash, 167 B.C.E.
• Pulver Purim established by the Chayei Adam, 1804.

[16 Kislev]

• Hermann Ahlwardt elected to the German Reichstag, 1892, marking the beginning of political anti-Semitism in Germany.

[17 Kislev]

• Massacre of Jews of Ausburg, Germany, 1349.
• Anti-Jewish riots in Paris, many Jews killed, 1380.
• First Jewish author in America, and his mother, burned to death in Mexico City by the Inquisition, 1596.
• Jews of Nassau, Germany granted equality, 1848.
• Anti-Jewish violence in Bucharest, 1897.
• Hebrew date of the U.N. vote to partition Palestine, 1947.

[18 Kislev]

• Yahrzeit of Avraham Maimuni, the son of the Rambam, 1237.
• Jews of Strasbourg were forbidden to circumcise, to wear beards, and to own Hebrew books (which were to be burned), 1793.
• Polish forces attack Jews of Lvov, 1918.

[19 Kislev]

• Yahrzeit of the Magid of Mezrich, early leader of Chasidut, 1771.
• Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the Baal HaTanya, was released from prison, 1798. YUD-TET KISLEV is celebrated by Chabad chasidim.

[20 Kislev]

• Ezra urged the Jews in Jerusalem to dissolve all intermarriages and to purge the Jewish community of foreign elements and influence, 456 b.c.e.

[21 Kislev]

• Har G’rizim Day, ancient festival celebrating victory over the Samaratins, 331 b.c.e.
• Austrian forces kill many Jews in Prague, 1744.

[22 Kislev]

• Charles IV issued letters of protection for the Jews of Strasbourg in 1357. Two years later, mobs burned 1000 Jews and baptized many others.
• King of Denmark invited Amsterdam Jews to settle in Norway and have religious freedom, 1622.

[23 Kislev]

• Year of Terror against Jews of Alsace began (with a well-poisoning accusation), 1348.
• Massacre of the Jews of Nuremberg in Black Death riots, 1349.

[24 Kislev]

• Foundation of second Beit HaMikdash was completed.
• Chaggai prophesied the downfall of Persia and the salvation of the Jews.
• British captured J’lem from the Turks, 1917.

[25 Kislev]

• First day of Chanuka.
• Cain killed Abel.
• Construction of the Mishkan was completed.
• Yahrzeits of the Vilna Gaon’s father and son, 1758, 1808.
• Jews ordered expelled from Tennessee by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
• Zichron Yaakov founded, 1882.
• The order of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain (associated withTish’a b’Av 1492) was officially voided on the first day of Chanuka 1968.

[26 Kislev]

• First Crusade proclaimed, 1095.

[27 Kislev]

• The Flood rains stopped.
• Agnon wins Nobel prize for literature, 1966.