-Rav Moshe Zorach Eidelitz of Prague, author of Ohr La’yeshorim, Berurei Hamiddos, and Meleches Machsheves, and Ohr LaYeshraim (1780 or 1755). Orphaned as a youth and raised by Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz, Rav Zorach grew to become a dayan and darshan in Prague. His great, great-grandson, Rav Eliezer Eidletz of Los Angeles, is an authority on kashrus.
-Rav Yeshaya Pick, author of Haga’os to Mesores Hashas and She’ailas Shalom (1799).
-Rav Chaim Meir Yechiel Shapira of Mogelnitz (1849). Raised and taught by his maternal grandfather, the Koznitzer Maggid, he was the disciple of the rebbes of Lublin, Pesichah, Apta, andRuzhin. He married the granddaughter of the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lyzhinsk.
-Rav Meir Auerbach (1815-1878). Born in Dobri, he became the Rav of Kalisch, then made aliya to Eretz Yisrael in 1860, replacing Rav Shmuel Salant (who was traveling) as Rav of Yerushalayim. Upon the latter’s return, they shared the position. Rav Meir played a central role in the establishment of the neighborhood of Meah She’arim. He is the author of Imrei Binah on Shulchan Aruch.
-Rav Eliezer Chaim Rabinowitz of Yompoli (1916).Today in History – 5 Iyar
· Pope refuses to allow Jews of Cordova, Spain to build a shul, 1250.
· The English fleet headed by Capt. Venables and William Penn seized the island of Jamaica, occupying Santiago de la Vega (later known as Spanish Town), 1655. They were welcomed by the Marranos, who began to openly acknowledge their Jewish religion and soon after founded a shul at Port-Royal. A Jewish community descended from these original Jews exists there until today.
· When a Jew in a neighboring town to Minsk was accused of knifing a Christian girl to use her blood to make matzos, King John III Sobieski released him and decreed that only under the conditions of 3 Jewish and 3 Gentile witnesses could such an accusation be leveled, and only the king could judge such a case of ritual murder, 1666.
· A letter of Empress Catherine II of Russia opened the way for limited settlement of Jews in Riga, 1764.
· Napoleon retreated from Acco, giving up his dream of conquering the Near East, 1799.
· A decree issued prohibiting the import by Russian Jews of books in any language, 1800.
· Joseph Rivlin laid the cornerstone of the first private home to be erected outside the wall of Yerushalayim marking the beginning of the modern Yishuv, 1869.
· Israelwas proclaimed an independent state, 1948. The first legislative act of the provisional government of the State of Israel provided for the repeal of the British White Paper of 1939, which had restricted Jewish immigration and the acquisition of land in Eretz Yisrael
· A Hezbollah car bomb killed 63 people, 17 of them Americans, at the U.S. embassy in Beirut, 1983.
{Matzav.com Newscenter/Chinuch.org}
