This Day in History – 14 Iyar/April 24

14 Iyar, Pesach Sheini

In 5365/1605, the Jewish community of Bisenz, Austria, was massacred. Hy”d.

In 5693/1933, thousands of sefarim were publicly burned by the Nazis.

In 5720/1960, Adolf Eichmann, ym”s, who was in charge of the transportation of all Jews to the extermination camps, was captured in Buenos Aires. The “peak” of his career was reached in Hungary, in 1944, when he transported 400,000 Jews to the gas chambers in less than five weeks. Eichmann was tried in Israel, found guilty of crimes against humanity, and hanged in 5722/1962.

Yahrtzeiten

3881/121 C.E., the Tanna Rabi Meir Baal Ha’nes, zt”l. He is buried in Teveria (Tiberias). Sephardim have a minhag of commemorating his hilulah on this date at his kever in Teveria, but the mesorah of this yahrtzeit is unclear. (For further information, check the sefer Mekomos Hakedoshim by Harav Yechiel Mechel Stern, Yerushalayim, 5764.)

5580/1820, Harav Shmuel of Karov, zt”l

5667/1907, Harav Yehudah Tzvi of Stretin, zt”l

5672/1912, Harav Eliyahu Chaim Meisels, zt”l, Rav of Lodz

5586/1826

Harav Yehudah Leib of Zaklikov, zt”l, mechaber of Likutei Maharil

Harav Yehudah Leib of Zaklikov was initially opposed to the ways of Chassidus. One time, the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk traveled to Zavichwast, the hometown of Reb Yehudah Leib, to convince him to take on the ways of Chassidus.

Reb Yehudah Leib came to Lizhensk but wasn’t convinced — until he heard the hearty tefillah of the Rebbe Reb Elimelech. With time, Reb Yehudah Leib became his devoted Chassid.

After the petirah of the Rebbe Reb Elimelech, the majority of the Chassidim traveled to the court of the Chozeh of Lublin. At first Reb Yehudah Leib didn’t go to the Chozeh. Only after seeing the large crowd that traveled to Lublin did he also go. The Chozeh accepted him as a Chassid, and Reb Yehudah Leib was known as one of the leading and foremost Chassidim in Lublin.

His divrei Torah were published under the name Likutei Maharil. Many of the divrei Torah in his sefer are similar to those in the sefarim Ohev Yisrael and Toras Emes, which led some sources to say that these were actually copied from the manuscripts of those sefarim, and are in fact not the original divrei Torah of Reb Yehudah Leib.

Reb Yehudah Leib’s son, Harav Shmuel Shmelke, was also a close Chassid of the Chozeh but was niftar in his youth.

Reb Yehudah Leib was niftar on 14 Iyar, Pesach Sheini, 5586/1826.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

April 24

In 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States. (The United States responded in kind the next day.)

In 1913, the 792-foot Woolworth Building, at that time the tallest building in the world, officially opened in Manhattan as President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button at the White House to signal the lighting of the towering structure.

In 1915, what is regarded as the start of the Armenian genocide began as the Ottoman Empire rounded up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.

In 1916, some 1,600 Irish nationalists seized several key sites in Dublin. The rising was put down by British forces almost a week later.

In 1932, in the Free State of Prussia, the Nazi Party gained a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.

In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1970, the People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting its anthem, “The East Is Red.”

In 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1993, former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo died in Johannesburg, South Africa, at age 75.