Shvat 1, 2883 (878 BCE): King Saul, the first king of Israel, and his sons were killed during a war on Mount Gilboa. He had been anointed by the prophet Samuel. At first, he achieved great military success against Israel’s hostile neighbors. As the popularity of David (who would eventually succeed Saul as king) grew, Saul suffered from intense jealousy and depression. His story is related in 1 Samuel 9-31.
Jan. 20, 1942: At the infamous Wannsee Conference held in Berlin, Gestapo leader Reinhard Heydrich met with top representatives of the German police, the SS, and the Nazi Party to discuss the implementation of the “final solution of the Jewish question” – in other words, the complete annihilation of European Jews.
Jan. 21, 1912: Birthday of Konrad Bloch, who received the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how cholesterol is synthesized in the body and the relationship of its blood levels to the formation of atherosclerosis. This was a breakthrough in understanding cardiovascular disease.
Shvat 4, 5744 (1984): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, Sephardi sage known as the Baba Sali. From a young age, he was revered as a miracle worker and master Kabbalist. His grave in Netivot has become a pilgrimage site visited by thousands annually.
Jan. 23, 1918: Birthday of Gertrude Elion, American biochemist who received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for creating a drug with the remarkable success rate of totally curing 80% of all childhood leukemia patients. In addition, she helped develop drugs to prevent kidney rejection and to treat anemia, hepatitis, gout, herpes, malaria, and shingles. She also helped create the first licensed US drug to combat AIDS.
Jan. 24, 1941: Birthday of Neil Diamond, American singer and songwriter. Thirty-eight of his songs have been in the Top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, of which 10 were #1 singles. All told, he has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
Jan. 25, 1882: Russian students from the University of Kharkiv formed the Zionist group called Bilu (Hebrew acronym for “House of Jacob Let Us Rise and Go”), which called for active settlement of pre-state Israel.
Jan. 26, 1482: Jewish printer Abraham ben Hayyim dei Tintori published the first printed edition of the Pentateuch in Hebrew, in Bologna, Italy.
Russia liberates Jews from Auschwitz
Jan. 27, 1945: The Russian Army arrived at Auschwitz and liberated about 7,000 survivors – those left behind as unfit to join the evacuation “Death March.” At least 1,100,000 men, women, and children were murdered in Auschwitz, more than 90% of whom were Jewish. Among the items found by the Russians were 370,000 men’s suits, 837,000 women’s garments, and 7.7 tons of human hair.
Jan. 28, 1902: Shaare Zedek Hospital opened with the financial support of the Jewish communities of Amsterdam and Frankfurt, the first large hospital to be located in the western portion of Jerusalem. Founded by Dr. Moshe Wallach, who served as the hospital’s director for 45 years, it brought modern medicine to the impoverished and disease-ridden citizenry. Today, it is a leading research and teaching institution and the city’s fastest-growing hospital, treating more than 600,000 patients per year.
Jan. 29, 1903: Birthday of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Israeli philosopher, writer, and professor, known for his outspoken views on ethics, religion, and politics.
Jan. 30, 1933: In the same year that Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the Society for Youth Aliyah was established in Berlin. It transported to Israel more than 115,000 children between the ages of 12 and 16.
Jan. 31, 1923: Birthday of Norman Mailer, American novelist, journalist, essayist, activist, and actor. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II – more than any other postwar American writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for Armies of the Night and for fiction for The Executioner’s Song.
Feb. 1, 2003: The NASA space shuttle Columbia, returning from its mission, was destroyed upon reentry, 16 minutes before its scheduled landing. All its crew members perished. This included Ilan Ramon, a combat pilot in the Israel Air Force (decorated for his role in the airstrike against Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor), who was Israel’s first astronaut. Cognizant that he represented the Jewish people, Ramon had taken with on board kosher food, a Kiddush cup, and a Torah scroll that had survived Bergen-Belsen.
Shvat 15: Tu Bishvat (New Year of the Trees)
We mark the day of Tu Bishvat by eating fruit from the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised – wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deuteronomy 8:8). We also remember that “Man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on our place in the natural world.
Feb. 3, 1809: Birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, one of the greatest composers of the 19th century. Grandson of Jewish philosopher and spiritual leader Moses Mendelssohn, Felix was nevertheless baptized as a young boy to further his career options. In his brief 38 years, he composed five symphonies and numerous other works, which include the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the “Wedding March.”
Feb. 4, 1980: The first cardioverter-defibrillator, invented and developed by Michel Mirowski, a Polish-born Israeli-American physician, was implanted in a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Since then, the device that Mirowski further improved and miniaturized has been installed in millions of patients worldwide to monitor and help regulate life-threatening electrical problems with the heart.
Feb. 5, 1840: The Damascus affair started with the disappearance of Father Thomas, a Franciscan superior. The French consul accused the Jews of ritual murder (blood libel) and extracted a “confession” by torture in which one of the victims died. Others, including 63 children, were arrested and starved to coerce their parents to confess. Mob attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East ensued. Thousands of American Jews protested, and by August 1840 a Jewish delegation led by Sir Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Crémieux, and Salomon Munk succeeded in pressuring the Syrians to drop the charges and release the captives.
Feb. 6, 1897: Birthday of Louis Lepke Buchalter, head of Murder, Inc. and one of the only major mob figures to be executed.
Feb. 7, 1413: A seven-month religious disputation began in Tortosa, Spain, pitting 70 cardinals, archbishops, and other high dignitaries of the church against 20 Jewish scholars, with Rabbi Yosef Albo as the chief spokesman. Using intimidation and threats, the Christians attempted to compel Jews to accept their arguments. As a result, Rabbi Albo, one of the most important Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages, decided to formulate the basic principles of the Jewish faith and wrote the Sefer HaIkkarim (Book of Principles), a systematic presentation of the fundamentals of Judaism.
Feb. 8, 1878: Birthday of Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher, writer, and Jewish thinker whose work I and Thou influenced both the secular and the religious world of ideas.
Shvat 22, 5619 (1859): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, renowned hassidic leader and forerunner of the Gerrer hassidic dynasty. He was said to be completely uncompromising in his quest for faith, honesty, and truth. He abhorred rote piety, taught his followers that they must renew their dedication to self-knowledge and truth on a daily basis, and is known for his sharp wit.
“If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you – then I am I, and you are you. But if I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I – then I am not I, and you are not you,” he wrote.
Shvat 23, 2572 (1188 BCE): Armies of the tribes of Israel converged upon the tribe of Benjamin in the aftermath of the “Concubine at Givah” incident in a war that nearly brought about the extinction of the entire tribe (as related in Judges 19-21).
Feb. 11, 1986: Natan Sharansky, first known as a Russian prisoner of Zion and human rights advocate whose imprisonment for nine years on false charges became the focus of an international campaign, was finally released as part of a prisoner exchange. He was reunited in Israel with his wife, Avital, who had led the struggle for his freedom. In Israel, he founded a political party based on representing Russian immigrant interests. He served as trade and industry minister; interior minister; housing & construction minister; and chairman of the Jewish Agency. In 2020, he was awarded the Genesis Prize. He currently serves as chairman of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).
Feb. 12, 1948: Birthday of Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor (“Edison’s rightful heir,” according to Inc. magazine), futurist, and author. His inventions include optical character recognition (OCR); text-to-speech synthesis; and speech recognition technology. He has written seven books on health, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and futurism, of which five have been national bestsellers. He has received 21 honorary doctorates, as well as honors from three US presidents, such as the 1999 National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Shvat 26, 5427 (1667): Yahrzeit of Rabbi David HaLevi, better known as the Taz, an acronym of his popular commentary on the Shulhan Aruch code of Jewish law, Turei Zahav (Rows of Gold), which was permanently appended to the text and reprinted in every edition since.
Feb. 14, 1896: The book Der Judenstaat was published in Vienna by Theodor Herzl, in which he envisaged a Jewish state combining humanitarian principles and technological achievements. Subsequently, 80 editions were printed in 18 languages.
“We are a people, one people… In vain do we exert ourselves to increase the glory of our fatherlands by achievements in the arts and sciences and their wealth by our contributions to commerce… We are denounced as strangers… If only they would leave us in peace… But I do not think they will,” he wrote.
Feb. 15, 1905: Birthday of Harold Arlen (Hyman Arluck), Broadway/Hollywood composer whose songs include “Stormy Weather,” “Get Happy,” “I’ve Got the World on a String,” “I Got the Right to Sing the Blues,” “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” and the Oscar-winning “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
Feb. 16, 1870: The Jews of Sweden were emancipated.
Feb. 17, 1949: Chaim Weizmann, chemist, Zionist leader, and founder of the Weizmann Institute, was elected as the first president of Israel. He had played a decisive role in securing the Balfour Declaration through his international reputation earned by his inventions in the field of explosives.■
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