Today in the long history of Antisemitism
Today's list covers 1,975 years. People have been trying to ostracize, isolate, and destroy us for a long time . . . BUT we're still here and we ain't going nowhere!
Remember and do not forget that on this day, April 14 . . .
-In 70(3830), the Siege of Jerusalem begins in earnest as Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital, with four Roman legions.
-In 73(3833), according to the Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots commit mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls are breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion. (Two women and five children survived by hiding in a cistern.)
-In 1484, the Cortes (legislative chamber) at Tarazona, Spain, approves the formation of Inquisitional Tribunals at Valencia and Saragossa. The Inquisitors waste no time in beginning their investigations for signs of Jewishness in the communities of the New Christians.
-In 1660, in an auto-da-fé in Seville, Spain, seven Conversos are accused of Judaizing (secretly practicing Judaism) and are burned alive at the stake.
-In 1859, in Galatz, Romania, Jews are accused of taking blood from a Christian child (for the baking of matzos) though not of killing him. Fifteen Jews are arrested. The next day a mob breaks into the synagogue, killing some of the worshipers, destroying some 50 scrolls and demolishing the synagogue. Jewish houses and shops are destroyed and more Jews are murdered. The 15 Jews will soon be released with no convictions, yet the government refuses to allow the synagogue to be rebuilt for nearly 20 years.
-In 1893, antisemitic violence breaks out in Kolin, Bohemia, a town 35 miles from Prague. The body of a servant girl name Marie Panlik is found floating in the Elbe River and the citizens of the town decide that she has been killed by the Jews as part of their religious customs. Before the military could quell the riot the homes of the Jews have been sacked, the population assaulted, and the synagogue has been wrecked.
-In 1933, the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (National Political Educational Institutes) are established as training schools for Nazi Party cadets.
-In 1934, in the second of such outbreaks in Tangier, Arabs respond to a march by Jewish boy scouts by mounting public demonstrations against Jews.
-In 1941, the Ustashe (Ustaša), a Croatian far-right organization that pursues Nazi and fascist policies, is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers. The Ustashe will be responsible for the murder of at least 30,000 Croatian Jews.
-In 1941, Hungarian troops occupy portions of northern Yugoslavia. About 500 Jews and Serbs are shot to death.
-In 1941, after watching the German propaganda film “Der Ewige Jude,” 200 Flemish paramilitary supporters from the Volksverwering, VNV and Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen begin a pogrom in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. They burn two synagogues in the city and throw the Torah scrolls into the street after which they attack the home of Marcus Rottenburg, the town's chief rabbi.
-In 1942, in Riga, Latvia, 300 Jewish patients from the principal mental hospital are brought to the nearby Bikerneku forest and shot to death.
-In 1943, the slave labor camp at Siedlce, Poland is liquidated. Five hundred Jewish prisoners are deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. A small group manages to ESCAPE into the forest, where they offer ARMED RESISTANCE AGAINST THE NAZIS until the end of the year.
-In 1943, in an Aktion carried out by the SS and the Ukrainian police in Sambor, Poland (today Sambir, Ukraine), 1,000 Jews are murdered.
-In 1944, Henk Drogt, a 24 year old Dutch military policeman, is executed by the Nazis eight months after having been arrested for his refusal to arrest Jews and then joining the Resistance. He refused orders to help roundup the remaining local Jews in Grootegast, quite his post, and joined the Dutch RESISTANCE. He took part in the smuggling of downed Allied pilots to the Belgian border and in helping Jews escape the clutches of the Nazis. After the war, Drogt was posthumously decorated by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Dutch Government for his actions in the resistance movement. He has also been honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel.
-In 1944, the first deportation transport of Athenian Jews, leaves Athens, Greece for the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland.
-In 1944, German task forces arrest 150 men of the Jewish community of Baja on the Danube, Hungary, and deport them to extermination camps.
-In 1948, the British withdraw from Safed. Before leaving, they give the Arabs the city's police station, the fortress like police station on Mount Canaan, and the ancient citadel in the heart of the town. Surrounded by armed Arabs, the Jews of Safed await the final onslaught and their death. However, a Palmach platoon that was the spearhead of Operation Yiftach enters the city after marching through the mountains. They bring food, weapons, and hope.
-In 1953, terrorists try for the first time to infiltrate Israel by sea, but are unsuccessful. One of the boats is intercepted and the other boat escapes.
-In 1963, Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, rebuffs Israel's Premier Ben Gurion’s request for help in improving relations with Egypt. The Yugoslav leader appeared to be pandering to leaders of the so-called “Third World” by saying that he would concentrate his efforts at the United Nations instead of on bi-lateral talks.
-In 1974, several Jews from Kiev (today Kyiv), Ukraine SSR, lay wreaths and flowers at Babi Yar, “in memory of the Kiryat Shmona victims and Warsaw ghetto heroes.”
-In 1994, Prime Minister Rabin accuses Jordan of helping the Islamic militant group Hamas, whose suicide bombers have killed 12 Israelis in two weeks. "Israel cannot tolerate the situation of Amman being a paradise for the activities of the Hamas," Mr. Rabin said at a late-night news conference. "There's a direct contact and connection between the Hamas and Jordan, the offices of the Hamas and its activists and those who carry out its activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza," Mr. Rabin said. "We view very severely the fact that Jordan and its Government are not taking any steps to prevent the freedom of activity and the freedom of representation of the Hamas and its murderous activities." [NOTE: Thing do evolve and improve. Last night, Jordan helped shoot down drones sent by Iran into Israel.]
-In 2000, The Times of London writes about Deborah Lipstadt’s court victory over Holocaust denier David Irving saying “History has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory.”
-In 2003, U.S. troops capture Abul Abbas in Baghdad, Iraq. Abbas was the leader of the Palestinian terrorists who high-jacked the Achille Laura cruise ship in 1985. They threw Leon Klinghoffer a wheel-chair bound Jewish passenger overboard. According to some accounts, Abbas was "allowed to escape" by Italian authorities.
-In 2007, calling the decision by the Vatican’s ambassador to Israel to boycott the Holocaust memorial services at Yad Vashem "inappropriate and insulting," the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today repeated its longstanding call for the Vatican to open its wartime archives so that the facts concerning the wartime actions of Pope Pius XII may finally be brought to light. [NOTE: I think the Vatican finally has recently done this.]
-In 2014, on Erev Passover, a 40-year-old Israeli man is pronounced dead after attempts at resuscitation fail following a shooting attack on Route 35 near the Tarkumia checkpoint outside of Hebron. The attack leaves two others, a woman and a child with injuries. The 28-year-old woman suffered injuries to her upper body and was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for further treatment. The nine-year-old boy suffered wounds from shrapnel in his chest. He was taken to Hadassah University Medical Center at Ein Kerem. An eyewitness told Channel 2 that a man wearing a helmet on the side of the road all of a sudden opened fire on passing cars with a AK-47 rifle.The Islamic Jihad released a statement commending the attack.
-In 2016, an Arab terrorist attacks an IDF soldier with an axe in Gush Etzion. The attack occurs near Al-Arub, north of Hebron. The terrorist hit the soldier on the head with the axe, but, only lightly wounded him, since he was wearing a helmet. Soldiers who were near the terrorist immediately shot and killed him.
-In 2016, two to three hours after an Israeli soldier is injured in an axe attack near Al-Arub, about 150 Palestinians from Al-Arub riot. An IDF soldier is injured by a rock thrower.
-In 2016, on Highway 431, between Ramla and Nes Ziona, a woman is injured by a rock thrown at her car.
-In 2017, a British exchange student, Hannah Bladon (21), is stabbed multiple times and murdered by an Arab passenger while traveling on the Jerusalem light rail. Two other passengers are also injured. Hannah was standing by the exit doors of the train, near to the murderous Palestinian assailant, because she had given up her seat to enable a woman who was holding a baby to sit down. She had previously been sitting further back in the carriage. Her family in the UK said Hannah “was the most caring, sensitive and compassionate daughter you could ever wish for.” Hannah had been studying religion, theology and archaeology at the University of Birmingham since 2015. As part of her studies she began a program in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University in January, which she was set to complete in September. She had been returning from an archaeological dig when she was killed. Medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service carried out CPR on Hannah at the scene before taking her to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. She was brought to the hospital in critical condition, with multiple stab wounds to the upper body, and died shortly after arriving to the hospital. The two other people were injured when the tram made an emergency stop, a pregnant woman and a man in his 50s. Both were taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.
-In 2024, ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 191
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi spoke with CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla earlier today, following last night’s Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel, the military says. Halevi “expressed great appreciation for the joint defense effort to thwart and intercept the Iranian attack on Israel,” the IDF says in a statement. He also told Kurilla that the “close cooperation between the armies throughout the war resulted in the creation of a strong defense coalition that proved itself last night.”
“Last night Israel experienced one of the most dramatic nights we have ever experienced, hundreds of missiles of various types were fired at the State of Israel including over 100 ballistic missiles fired from Iran, each with hundreds of kilograms of explosives,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says at the Arrow 3 site, joined by US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew. “The continuous preparation we did together with our American partners brought the most impressive results,” he says.
As the IDF continues a pinpoint operation against Hamas in the central Gaza Strip, the military says combat engineers built bridges for tanks to cross the Wadi Gaza river. Two bridges were used by troops of the 401st Armored Brigade to carry out an offensive against several sites belonging to terror groups south of the stream. The IDF says its 162nd Division continues to kill gunmen in the area, on the outskirts of Nuseirat camp. The troops also uncovered and destroyed several rocket launchers, which were primed for attacks on Israel, the military says.
The 7-year-old girl who was seriously wounded during the interception of a missile fired from Iran last night underwent surgery for a major head wound, Soroka Medical Center says. The girl, from a Bedouin town near Arad, is now in the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit. Her injury occurred when shrapnel from the intercepted ballistic missile fell on her family’s home around 2 a.m.
-In 2025, a man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion where he set a fire had planned to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a hammer if he found him, according to court documents released today. The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family and guests to evacuate the building early Sunday. The man, arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault, authorities say.
-In 2025, ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 556
Responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling the parents of a hostage that he is working on a deal that would see 10 live hostages freed, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urges him to reach an agreement that would see all the remaining hostages freed. “While the families wait hopefully and would welcome the release of any hostage from Hamas captivity, we continue to call for a comprehensive deal that will return ALL hostages immediately,” the Forum says in a statement. “Every additional day in captivity endangers the lives of those still being held by Hamas terrorists, who are subjecting them to horrific conditions including starvation, physical abuse, and confinement in darkness,” the Forum says. “We urge the obvious, possible, and appropriate solution: end the war and return all the hostages, the living and the dead, immediately,” it says. Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, only 24 of whom are still believed to be alive.
Over 35 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force across the Gaza Strip over the past day. The targets included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza and a primed rocket launching site. In northern Gaza, troops of the 252nd Division directed an airstrike on a cell of operatives planning to ambush the forces. Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, troops of the Gaza Division located and demolished a Hamas tunnel. The tunnel, in Rafah’s Shaboura camp, was hundreds of meters long and some 20 meters deep. It was used as a meeting point for Hamas operatives and connected to other underground passages. Nearby, the Gaza Division troops located a cache of weapons Hamas had hidden in a former school.
In the Morag Corridor area, between Rafah and Khan Younis, the military says the 36th Division found a cache of weapons and several tunnel shafts.