10th of Tevet, 3174 (586 BCE):
The armies of Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar began their siege on Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1). By Tammuz 17, 3174, the city walls were breached, and on the 9th of Av that year the Holy Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people exiled to Babylon for 70 years. Commemorated as a fast day, the 10th of Tevet was chosen to also serve as a general day of Kaddish for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.
Jan. 11, 1935:
Founding of HaKibbutz HaDati, the religious kibbutz movement affiliated with the religious Zionist Labor Organization.
Jan. 12, 1906:
Birthday of Emmanuel Levinas, Russian-born French philosopher best known for his writings on Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and ethics.
Jan. 13, 1898:
Emile Zola published his famous open letter titled “J’accuse,” forcing a revision of the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, who had been falsely accused of being a spy. Four days later, antisemitic riots broke out across France. Compelling evidence of Dreyfus’s innocence led to a pardon in 1899. In 1906, his conviction was reversed and he was restored to the army and awarded the Legion of Honor; but it wasn’t until 1995 that he was officially exonerated by the French Army.
Jan. 14, 1925:
Birthday of “Reb” Shlomo Carlebach. The “singing Rabbi” inspired tens of thousands of unaffiliated young Jews, from the 1960s until his death in 1994 (and beyond) through his songs, stories, and teachings.
15th of Tevet, 4817 (1056):
Yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNagid (Rabbi Shmuel ibn Naghrillah), leader of Spanish Jewry, scholar, soldier, merchant, statesman, and poet – who lived in Iberia during the golden age of Jewish culture. Best known to posterity as the first Hebrew poet of the Middle Ages to also compose secular poetry, he was perhaps the most politically influential Jew in Moorish Spain, serving as the vizier and top general (commanding a Muslim army) of the king of Granada. The following is one of his poems:
“Shake off, Shake off [the dust], and receive the day of salvation/Your days of mourning are over, your pain is past, your balm has been found/ Arise, O drunk and storm-tossed one, intoxicate those who intoxicate you/ Now, he who has been seen but [has] not [risen until] now, will rise up like a lion/Zion which became a withered tree [that] will bear fruit/Those who disgraced you will be disgraced, and no longer will you be called a rebellious people.”
Jan. 16, 1906:
The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design was founded in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz, formerly the painter and court sculptor for King Ferdinand of Bulgaria.
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