April 11, 1945:
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany with its remaining 21,000 inmates. A total of 56,545 men, women, and children were murdered there by vicious medical experiments, summary executions, torture, beatings, starvation, and inhumane labor conditions.
Nisan 14, 2448 (1312 BCE):
The first Paschal lambs were sacrificed by the Jews in Egypt to be eaten later that night at the first Passover Seder (Exodus 12:28), and their blood was sprinkled on their doorposts as a sign that God will “pass over” the Jewish homes when inflicting the final plague upon the Egyptians.
This was an act of great courage, as sheep were regarded as idols in Egyptian society, and the Jews were technically still subject to Egyptian slavery.
When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the Passover lamb would be offered and eaten by every Jewish family that made the pilgrimage. Today, it is commemorated by the shank bone placed on the Seder plate and the afikoman – a portion of matzah eaten in its stead at the end of the Seder meal.
Nisan 15, 2018 (1743 BCE):
God made a covenant with Abraham in which the Holy Land was bequeathed to his descendants as their eternal heritage, but only after they experienced exile and persecution: “And He said to Abram: ‘Know surely that your descendants shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved to them, and they will afflict them 400 years... To your seed I have given these lands, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates’” (Genesis 15:13-18).
Nisan 16:
The Omer offering – which included matzah baked from the new crop of barley harvested that day – was brought to the Temple. This date also marked the beginning of the 49-day counting of the Omer, which retraces our ancestors’ seven-week spiritual journey from the exodus on Passover to the giving of the Torah at Sinai on Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15).
April 15, 1943:
Birthday of Robert Lefkowitz, American cardiologist and biochemist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his groundbreaking discoveries that revealed the inner workings of the G protein-coupled receptors. Between 30% and 50% of all prescription drugs today are designed to fit like keys into the similarly structured locks of Lefkowitz’s receptors, such as anti-histamines, ulcer drugs, and beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina, and coronary artery disease.
Nisan 18, 5753 (1993):
Death of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, scion of the illustrious Brisk rabbinic dynasty, who became the head of Yeshiva University. Over the course of five decades, he ordained more than 2,000 rabbis. Known as “The Rav,” he was a great thinker who authored many volumes on Jewish thought and law, such as The Lonely Man of Faith, a classic work synthesizing Kantian existentialism and Jewish theology.
April 17, 1924:
Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer founded MGM Studios.
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