Buses Promoting Women of the Wall Are Attacked
Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men hurl rocks at and slash the tires of buses bearing ads on their sides promoting female worship at the Western Wall.
2nd-Generation Haredim Elected as Chief Rabbis
July 24, 2013 Haredi Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau are elected to 10-year terms as Israel’s chief rabbis — Yosef for the Sephardim and Lau for the Ashkenazim. Each wins 68 of the 147…
Haredim Jailed in School Discrimination Case
June 17, 2010 Thirty-five Haredi fathers of girls attending the Beis Yaakov Chasidi School in Emanuel refuse a Supreme Court order to send their daughters to the regular Beis Yaakov School and instead accept two-week…
Rabbi Zerach Warhaftig Dies
Rabbi Zerach Warhaftig, a founder of Israel’s National Religious Party and signatory of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, passes away in Jerusalem at the age of 96.
Law Passed to Prevent Discrimination in Schools
December 4, 2000 The Knesset passes legislation proposed by Ehud Barak, who is Israel’s education minister as well as its prime minister, to prevent discrimination in schools and educational centers. The Pupils’ Rights Law draws…
Christian Extremists Denied Entry to Israel
Israel refuses to let 26 Irish and Romanian tourists enter the country at the port of Haifa for being members of an extreme Christian cult.
Rabbi Goren Urges Soldiers Not to Remove Settlements
December 17, 1993 Shlomo Goren, the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi from 1973 to 1983, publishes a statement in the newspaper HaTzofeh calling on…
Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Kach
The Israeli Supreme Court upholds the Central Election Committee’s ban on the extremist right-wing political party Kach from the election for the 12th Knesset.
11th Knesset Election Results in National Unity Government
When neither party receives a majority of the votes in the eleventh Israeli Knesset elections, the Labor and Likud parties form a coalition government.
Archaeologists, Haredim Battle in City of David
August 3, 1981 Excavations in Jerusalem’s Area G, on the eastern side of the City of David, are suspended because of attacks on archaeologists at the site by Haredi Jews, most of them part of…
Chaim-David Halevi Named Sephardic Chief Rabbi
May 27, 1973 Chaim-David Halevi is elected the Sephardic chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa against five other rabbis, succeeding Ovadia Yosef, who has been elected the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. Halevi holds the position…
Jewish Settlement Established at Hebron
April 4, 1968 Moshe Levinger and several other Israeli Jews pretending to be Swiss tourists check into a Hebron hotel to establish the first permanent Jewish presence in the city in almost 40 years, taking…
Shrine of the Book Opens
April 20, 1965 The Shrine of the Book, built to house seven Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Qumran caves in 1947, opens as part of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Moshe Sharett announced the…
Israel Announces It Owns 4 Dead Sea Scrolls
February 13, 1955 Prime Minister Moshe Sharett holds a news conference to announce that Israel has acquired four of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in a cave at Qumran. Gen. Yigael Yadin and…
Shagar Is Born
November 13, 1949 Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg, known by the acronym Shagar, is born in Jerusalem to Reb Shalom Zelig and Sasi Rosenberg, both Holocaust survivors. Shagar is recognized as a rabbi, a philosopher of…
Israel Adopts State Flag
The iconic flag with two blue stripes and a blue Star of David at its center becomes the official Israeli flag more than five months after the establishment of the state.
Musician Ariel Zilber Is Born
September 22, 1943 Singer-songwriter Ariel Zilber is born in Tel Aviv to Bracha Zefira, a singer, and Ben Ami Zilber, a violinist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He attends a nonreligious boarding school on Kibbutz…
Jacob Toledano Is Installed as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv
Jacob Toledano returns to the Land of Israel in early 1942 to take up his new post as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv and Jaffa.
Religious Kibbutz Tirat Zvi Founded
June 30, 1937 Kibbutz Tirat Zvi is established in the Beit She’an Valley as one of the first religious kibbutzim. The kibbutz is just west of the Jordan River and just north of what becomes…
Politician Zevulun Hammer Is Born
May 31, 1936 National Religious Party politician Zevulun Hammer is born in Haifa. Hammer participates in the Zionist youth group Bnei Akiva and serves in the Israel Defense Forces’ Armored Corps with the Nahal program,…
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook’s Funeral
80,000 mourners, approximately a quarter of the Jewish population in Palestine, line the streets of Jerusalem for the funeral of Rav Abraham Isaac Kook. He passed away the day before from cancer.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach Is Born
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, one of modern Judaism’s most influential composers and spiritual leaders, is born in Berlin.
Rabbi Yehuda Amital Born in Romania
Yehuda Amital, the founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion, is born as Yehuda Klein in Oradea, Romania, where he receives a religious education.
Yisrael Meir Friedman Ben-Shalom Is Born
November 8, 1923 Rabbi Yisrael Meir Friedman Ben-Shalom, a sixth-generation descendant of Rebbe Yisrael of Rizin, is born in Bohush, Romania, to a Hasidic and Zionist family. Friedman Ben-Shalom joins Hashomer Hatzair, the secular Zionist…
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