Dec. 27, 2008:
After Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza had fired over 2,000 rockets into Israel between 2005 and 2008, killing four Israeli civilians and wounding 75, the IDF launched Operation Cast Lead. Israel’s stated goal was to halt the Palestinian rocket fire into Israel and the weapons smuggling into Gaza. Cast Lead ended on January 18, 2009, without fully achieving its aims.
Dec. 28, 1903:
Birthday of John von Neumann, a Hungarian-born American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, and engineer who was a key figure in the development of the digital computer. During World War II, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project, problem-solving key steps involved in thermonuclear reactions and the hydrogen bomb. After the war, he served on the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission and designed and promoted the policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD) to limit the arms race.
Dec. 29, 1901:
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) was established, as proposed by Prof. Zvi (Hermann) Schapira, at the Fifth Zionist World Congress for the purpose of purchasing and developing land in Israel. Over the past century, KKL-JNF has planted over 240 million trees throughout the land, likely making it the only nation in the world to end the 20th century with more trees than it had at the beginning.
Dec. 30, 1948:
Birthday of Randy Schekman, American cell biologist who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for groundbreaking work on cell membrane vesicle trafficking, mechanisms at the heart of neurotransmission, hormone secretion, cholesterol homeostasis, and metabolic regulation. In 2011, he was appointed editor of eLife, a high-profile open-access journal and competitor of the publications Nature, Cell, and Science, which he criticized for their “self-serving, deleterious effects on science.”
Dec. 31, 1492:
After more than 1,400 years of Jewish presence, some 25,000 to 30,000 Jews living in 52 different locations were exiled from Sicily. Most of them found sanctuary in the kingdom of Naples. Nine thousand Jews converted to Christianity and remained in Sicily.
Tevet 1, 3400 (362 BCE):
According to tradition, King Achashverosh made Esther the queen of Persia, in Vashti’s stead, on the seventh day of Hanukkah, setting the stage for the miracle of Purim six years later (Esther 2:16).
Jan. 2, 1782:
Emperor Joseph II of Austria issued an Edict of Tolerance which repealed most restrictions on Jews that had been imposed by the church. This followed his Patent of Toleration for Lutherans, Calvinists, and Serbian Orthodox, enacted in 1781.
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