July 12, 2006 — Hezbollah Begins Second Lebanon War
The Second Lebanon War begins when Hezbollah launches Katyusha rockets and mortars as a diversion for a cross-border raid to ambush an Israeli military patrol. Hezbollah kills three Israeli soldiers and abducts two others, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Five Israelis are killed in a failed rescue. The fighting continues until a cease-fire goes into effect Aug. 14. The war kills 19 Israeli civilians and 121 soldiers.
July 13, 1941 — Songwriter Ehud Manor is Born
Israel Prize-winning singer-songwriter Ehud Manor is born in Binyamina. A Cambridge graduate, Manor composes about 1,200 songs and translates 600 others into Hebrew. He also translates Broadway musicals and Shakespearean plays. He hosts TV and radio programs and writes children’s books. He writes 1978 Eurovision winner “A-Ba-Ni-Bi.” His best-known song is “Bashana Haba’ah” (“In the Coming Year”).
July 14, 1555 — Paul IV Orders Jews into Ghettos
Two months after becoming the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Paul IV issues an anti-Jewish decree, Cum Nimis Absurdum. Jews living under papal rule are subject to humiliations and restrictions, including ghettos. The Jews of Rome are forced into a ghetto along the Tiber River; they don’t escape the decree until the late 19th century. Other new rules include a mandate to wear yellow head coverings and a ban on owning property.
July 15, 1965 — Rabin Warns Neighbors Not to Divert Jordan
The Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff, Yitzhak Rabin, warns Lebanon and Syria they will face consequences if they move forward with an Arab League-backed effort to divert the sources of the Jordan River. Rabin has twice ordered tanks to bombard the border area of Syria to destroy earth-moving equipment involved in the construction of a canal to shift the Hasbani River away from the Jordan to the Banias and then to the Yarmouk.
July 16, 1948 — Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is Born
Grammy-winning classical musician and conductor Pinchas Zukerman is born in Tel Aviv. He begins playing the violin by age 8, and by 14 he is studying at the Juilliard School in New York under the sponsorship of violinist Isaac Stern, who also becomes his legal guardian. Zukerman plays violin and viola at his debut professional concert at Lincoln Center in 1969 and launches his conducting career in London the next year.
July 17, 1906 — Kibbutz Pioneer Yitzchak Ben-Aharon is Born
Yitzchak Ben-Aharon, a pioneer of the kibbutz movement, is born in Bukovina, Romania. He makes it to Palestine in 1928 by walking and riding a donkey. He helps found Kibbutz Givat Haim between Haifa and Tel Aviv and lives there until his death in 2006 at age 99. He fights for the British in World War II and spends four years as a prisoner of war. A labor activist and advocate of coexistence with the Arabs, he serves seven Knesset terms.
July 18, 1290 — England Expels its Jews
King Edward I orders the expulsion of the Jews from England, where they had settled in significant numbers only in the 11th century. Despite gaining legal protections early in the 12th century, Jews suffer massacres in 1189 and 1190, then are subject to high taxation and other persecution. Most of England’s approximately 4,000 Jews move to France or Germany. Jews are not allowed to return to England until 1656.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.