This week in Jewish history: Birth of Hebrew University

A highly abridged weekly version of Dust & Stars.

 THE HEBREW University of Jerusalem opens, 1925.  (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
THE HEBREW University of Jerusalem opens, 1925.
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

March 28, 1939:

Birthday of Dov Frohman, Israeli electrical engineer who was the former vice president of Intel Israel, and inventor of the first non-volatile semiconductor memory that was both erasable and reprogrammable. Intel founder Gordon Moore called this innovation “as important in the development of the microcomputer industry as the micro-processor itself.”

March 29, 2002:

In direct response to the Park Hotel massacre in Netanya, the IDF launched Operation Defensive Shield, the largest military operation in Judea and Samaria since the 1967 Six Day War. The main objectives to strike Palestinian terrorist infrastructures and put an end to the wave of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens were achieved (temporarily), and the operation ended on April 17.

Nissan 1, 2449 (1312 BCE):

According to tradition, the construction of the Tabernacle was completed (Exodus 40:17; Numbers Rabbah 13), Moses completed the consecration rites of Aaron and his sons, and Aaron performed the first sacrificial rites in the Tabernacle. However, two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, died after entering the Holy of Holies unauthorized (Leviticus, Chapters 9-10).

March 31, 1492:

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was signed by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews by July 31. As a result, more than 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism to remain in Spain, while between 40,000 and 100,000 remained Jewish and suffered expulsion.

April 1, 1925:

The first Jewish university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was opened by Lord Balfour, seven years after the cornerstone was laid.

 MENACHEM BEGIN makes an historic visit to Cairo, April 1979.  (credit: AFP/via Getty Images)
MENACHEM BEGIN makes an historic visit to Cairo, April 1979. (credit: AFP/via Getty Images)

April 2, 1979:

Menachem Begin arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on the first visit ever by an Israeli prime minister.

Nissan 5, 2488 (1272 BCE):

Joshua sent scouts Caleb and Pinchas across the Jordan River to Jericho to gather intelligence in preparation for the Israelites’ first battle in their conquest of the Holy Land. In Jericho, they were assisted and hidden by Rahab, a woman who lived inside the city walls. She later married Joshua (Joshua 2:1).        <

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