This Day In History 13 Iyar/May 9

In 5027/1267, in Vienna, the Church ordered Jews to wear distinctive attire.

In 5187/1427, Jews were expelled from Bern, Switzerland. Bern had a long history of expulsions and anti-Jewish riots.

During the Middle Ages the Jews were more oppressed and persecuted in Switzerland than in any other country, but on account of their being indispensable during financial crises they were more frequently readmitted into Swiss cities than elsewhere. With marvelous persistence, they returned again and again to the cities and villages which they had been ordered to leave. They were banished from the city and canton of Bern in 1427, from Freiburg in 1428, from Zurich in 1436, from Schaffhausen in 1472, from Rheinau (where they were plundered) in 1490, from Thurgau in 1494, and from Basel in 1543.


Yahrtzeiten

5424/1664, Harav Aharon, Hy”d, son of Harav Lapidos, Dayan of Lvov. He and his Rebbetzin were killed al kiddush Hashem during the riots that took place in Lvov.

5483/1723, Harav Yeshayah Yisrael, the Ba’er Heitev, zt”l

5529/1769, Harav Nesanel Weil, zt”l, the Korban Nesanel

5743/1983, Harav Shimon Langbart, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Volozhin, Bnei Brak


5484/1724, Harav Moshe of Vilna, zt”l

Harav Moshe (Reb Moshe Hadarshan) was Rav in Kempna.

He was the son of Rav Hillel, who served as Rav in Vilna and wrote Beis Hillel on Yoreh De’ah and Even Ha’ezer. Reb Moshe was a talmid of his father and of the Magen Avraham.

When Rav Hillel was about to be niftar, he called his son Reb Moshe and asked him to take care of the publication of his sefarim.

Thus, following the petirah of Reb Hillel, Reb Moshe published his works, adding many of his own chiddushim.

In his later years, Reb Moshe was Rav in Vilna.

He was niftar on 13 Iyar 5484/1724, in Vilna, and was buried there.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.


May 9

In 1754, a political cartoon in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette depicted a snake cut into eight pieces, each section representing a part of the American colonies; the caption read “JOIN, or DIE.”

In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia.

In 1945, with World War II in Europe at an end, Soviet forces liberated Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation.

In 1951, the U.S. conducted its first thermonuclear experiment as part of Operation Greenhouse by detonating a 225-kiloton device, nicknamed “George,” on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific.

In 1994, South Africa’s newly elected Parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

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