This Day, December 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 12456 BCE (1st of Tevet, 3305): Ezra opened convocation on the problem of intermarriage.627: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by...
View ArticleThis Day, December 13, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 13522 BCE: Darius I, the Persian monarch who allowed the Jewish people to re-build the Temple at Jerusalem strengthened his hold on his kingdom when he defeated Nebuchadnezzar III in a battle...
View ArticleThis Day, December 14, In Jewish History by MItchell A. Levin
DECEMBER 14164 BCE (3597): On the secular calendar date on which Judah Maccabee restored the service in the Temple in Jerusalem. 1503: Birthdate of Nostradamus. Nostradamus was not Jewish but his...
View ArticleThis Day, December 15, In Jewish History, by Mitchell A. Levin
DECEMBER 1537: Birthdate of Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus 5th emperor of Rome. While legend remembers him as the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned, Jews will remember him as the ruler who was...
View ArticleThis Day, December 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 161431: King Henry VI of Englandnamed King of France following the death of his grandfather, Charles VI, King of France. Charles VI was the French king who expelled the Jews from France.1485:...
View ArticleThis Day, December 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 17520 BCE (24th of Kislev): “The foundation-stone of the Temple was laid” (As reported by Jewish Encyclopedia)1141 (Tevet, 4902): After leaving Cairo, Jehuda Halevi arrived at the port of...
View ArticleThis Day, December 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 181271: Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China. Reportedly, Marco Polo found several influential Jews at the court of Kubla...
View ArticleThis Day, December 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 19324: Licinius abdicates his position as Emperor leaving Constatine I, “the first Christian Emperor” in control of the Roman Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.1154: Coronation...
View ArticleThis Day, December 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 2069: General Vespasianus occupied Rome on the same day that the Emperor Vitellius was murdered. Vespasianus is better known as Vespasian, the Roman general who was in charge of putting down...
View ArticleThis Day, December 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 2169: The Senate acknowledged Vespasian as emperor. This marked the end of the so-called The Year of the Four Emperors during which four individuals - Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian –...
View ArticleThis Day, December 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 2269: Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered by the Gemonian stairs in Rome. Vitellius was the third of The Four Emperors. He would be succeeded by Vespasian, the man who put down the...
View ArticleThis Day, December 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 23962: Byzantine troops led by Nicephorus Phocas defeated Moslem forces and seized Aleppo. This temporary turn of events could not have been good for the Jews who had been living there since...
View ArticleThis Day, December 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 241166: Birthdate of King John of England. King John is known to history as the brother of Richard the Lionhearted whom he followed to the throne in 1199. He is also the monarch who was so...
View ArticleThis Day, December 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 250337(14th of Tevet, 4098): Earliest possible date on which Christmas was reported to have been celebrated on December 25th. 496: Baptism of Clovis I, the Frankish ruler who united all the...
View ArticleThis Day, December 26, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 261194: Birthdate of Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor who improved the conditions for the Jews of Palermo, Naples and Jerusalem.1424: The city of Barcelona, Spain was granted the right to...
View ArticleThis Day, December 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 27175 BCE(Tevet 3585): This day marked the completion of the Septuagint translation of the Bible into the Greek language. According to a letter from Aristeas to Philocrates, 72 sages, (six...
View ArticleThis Day, December 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
December 28 1235: A ritual murder massacre at Fulda resulted in the death of 32 Jews. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire established an investigation at Hagenau (located in modern Alsac) to confirm...
View ArticleThis Day, January 2, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
January 2438: Empress Eudocia allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem1012: Jewish mourners were attacked at a funeral in Egypt.1481: An edict was handed down in Spain calling for all persons to aid in...
View ArticleThis Day, January 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
January 3106 BCE: Birthdate of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero is remembered as Roman statesman and orator. From the Jewish point of view he was just one more anti-Semitic intellectual. “He denounced...
View ArticleThis Day, January 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin
January 441: The Praetorian Guard killed the Roman Emperor Caligula. Caligula is one of those vile figures whose behavior is dismissed as the acts of crazy person. As far as the Jews are concerned,...
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