Feb. 16, 1932 — Writer Aharon Appelfeld Is Born
By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0
Aharon Appelfeld died in January 2018 while a professor emeritus of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Author Aharon Appelfeld is born near Czernowitz, then part of Romania and now in Ukraine. He and his father are sent to a Nazi concentration camp in 1941, and his mother and grandmother are killed. Appelfeld escapes at age 10 and survives on the run until joining the Soviet army as a kitchen boy in 1944. He moves to the Land of Israel in 1946. His works earn him the Bialik Prize in 1979 and the Israel Prize in 1983.
Feb. 17, 1948 — State Department Tries to Stop Partition
President Harry Truman (center) and Secretary of State George Marshall (right), shown with Dean Acheson, disagreed on U.S. endorsement of a Jewish state in Palestine.
The State Department’s policy planning staff sends a memo to President Harry Truman and Secretary of State George Marshall to argue against the implementation of the U.N. partition resolution for Palestine, for which the United States voted in November. The memo argues that a Jewish state will make Arabs angry at the United States, force the U.S. military to intervene after Arab armies win the war and enable Soviet intervention.
Feb. 18, 1577 — Safed Jews Petition for Protection
Safed’s Sephardi quarter is seen in 1895. Jewish communities experienced different levels of autonomy under different Ottoman sultans.
The Jews of Safed (Tzfat), which is the largest Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine during the 16th century and is going through a period of growth, petition the sultan for protection from persecution by local officials. The petition cites extortion, violence and forced menial tasks on Shabbat, such as transporting dung. Later in 1577, the sultan orders an investigation to ensure Safed’s Jews are paying enough taxes.
Feb. 19, 2009 — Yemeni Jews Secretly Are Flown to Israel
photo: FEB19
caption: By David Eldan, National Photo Collection of Israel
Like most of their community, Yemeni Jews fly to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet in December 1949. Ten of the few Jews left behind took the same journey Feb. 19, 2009.
Facing threats from Al-Qaeda and other terrorists, 10 of the fewer than 300 Jews remaining in Yemen are secretly airlifted to Israel by the Jewish Agency. The immigrants include Said Ben Yisrael, the leader of Yemen’s Jewish community. Yemen’s Jewish population was roughly 50,000 when Israel declared independence in 1948, but almost all were flown to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 and 1950.
Feb. 20, 1957 — Eisenhower Emphasizes U.N. Resolutions
President Dwight Eisenhower laid out U.S. policy on the Middle East during a televised speech in 1957.
In a nationally televised address, President Dwight Eisenhower discusses the Middle East situation after the October 1956 war over the Suez Canal. He emphasizes the need for Israel to abide by U.N. resolutions calling for its withdrawal from all of Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Israel has refused to complete its promised withdrawal while seeking international security guarantees and protection for sea navigation.
Feb. 21, 1955 — Ben-Gurion Returns to Government
Prime Minister Moshe Sharett (right) visits David Ben-Gurion at his Sde Boker home Feb. 20, 1955, to ask him to return to the government as defense minister.
David Ben-Gurion, who went into political semiretirement in December 1953, joins Prime Minister Moshe Sharett’s Cabinet as defense minister. Ben-Gurion replaces Pinhas Lavon, who was forced to resign over a botched covert operation in Egypt. Ben-Gurion is supposed to stabilize the government but instead brings tensions that lead Sharett to resign. Ben-Gurion begins his second stint as prime minister Nov. 2, 1955.
Feb. 22, 1914 — Technion Chooses Hebrew
The board of directors of the under-construction Technikum in Haifa decides that the language of instruction will be Hebrew, reversing an October decision to teach in German. The choice of German had sparked protests in the Yishuv, whose children are taught in Hebrew, and led Ahad Ha’am and two others to resign from the college’s board. The university changes its name from the German Technikum to the Hebrew Technion.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.