January 30, 1933 — Youth Aliyah Program Is Established
Recha Freier receives the Israel Prize from Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1981. By Chanania Herman, Israeli Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0.
German Zionist Recha Freier founds the Committee for the Assistance of Jewish Youth on the day Adolf Hitler is appointed the chancellor of Germany. Renamed Youth Aliyah, the program rescues more than 11,000 Jewish children during World War II and becomes a signature Hadassah program for bringing children to Israel from various parts of the world, although at first Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold does not support the project.
January 31, 1961 — Ben-Gurion Resigns Over Lavon Affair
Pinchas Lavon, who resigned as defense minister after a botched spy operation in Egypt in 1954, was exonerated at the end of 1960. By Teddy Brauner, National Photo Collection of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigns, triggering an election in August, to protest a Cabinet decision a month earlier to exonerate Pinchas Lavon for his role in a botched spy operation in Egypt in 1954. Lavon had resigned as defense minister at the time, although an investigative committee was inconclusive about what went wrong. The Lavon Affair resurfaced in 1960 over revelations that two senior officers had given false testimony.
February 1, 1885 — Novelist Peretz Smolenskin Dies
Peretz Smolenskin wrote six novels, all focused on Jewish life.
Novelist and Hebrew editor Peretz Smolenskin dies of tuberculosis at 43. Born in Russia, he began his writing career while teaching Hebrew in Odesa at 22, then moved to Vienna to lead the Hebrew department of a large press and founded the journal HaShachar (The Dawn). He rejected assimilation and became a strong advocate for Jewish immigration to Palestine after the wave of Russian pogroms in the early 1880s.
February 2, 1915 — Diplomat Abba Eban Is Born
South Africa native Abba Eban was raised in England and settled in Jerusalem in 1944.
Politician, diplomat and historian Abba Eban is born in South Africa. After moving to England as an infant, he makes aliyah in 1944 and, as part of the Jewish Agency’s delegation to the United Nations, plays a crucial role in the U.N. General Assembly’s passage of the partition plan for Palestine. He serves as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and United States, a member of the Knesset, and the foreign minister.
February 3, 1919 — Zionists Present Case to Peace Conference
The Paris Peace Conference’s “Big Four” — British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson — were behind most of the conference’s major decisions.
A World Zionist Organization delegation led by Chaim Weizmann makes the case for a Jewish homeland in Palestine to the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference. The delegation accepts the proposed British Mandate but, in accord with Britain’s Balfour Declaration, asks that it support Jewish immigration and the eventual establishment of an autonomous commonwealth that will serve as the Jewish national home.
February 4, 1997 — Helicopter Collision Kills 73
The fatal helicopter crash Feb. 4, 1997, involved the CH-53 Yasur, a mainstay of the Israeli military for a half-century. By Celia Garion, Israeli Air Force.
Two CH-53 Yasur military helicopters collide in the middle of the night over northern Israel while ferrying troops and munitions to the Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon, killing all 73 military personnel on board. Bedouin, Druze and Jews, secular and religious, are among the victims of the crash, for which a cause is never established. The disaster contributes to Israel’s decision to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000.
February 5, 1890 — 1st Tu B’Shevat Planting in Land of Israel
Educator Ze’ev Yavetz started the custom of planting trees in Israel on Tu B’Shevat in 1890.
Zichron Ya’akov educator Ze’ev Yavetz takes his students to plant trees on Tu B’Shevat, celebrated as the trees’ birthday, starting an annual tradition in the Land of Israel that the Jewish National Fund and teachers unions adopt in 1908. Yavetz tells the newspaper Haaretz in 1891: “For the love of the saplings … the school must make a festival of the day that was set aside from ancient times in Israel as the new year of the trees.”
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.