June 6, 1982:
Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon at the beginning of Operation Peace for Galilee to destroy PLO military bases, which were used to launch Katyusha rockets and terrorist attacks against northern Israel. The IDF achieved most of its objectives, destroying the PLO’s military infrastructure and driving the terrorists out of Lebanon, but its continued presence there aroused deep divisions in the Israeli public.
June 7, 1981:
Israel bombed and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. The United States, Europe, and even the leaders of the Israeli opposition condemned Menachem Begin for this act; but after Operation Desert Storm, the American State Department belatedly praised his actions, admitting that Israel had saved countless lives.
June 8, 1967:
Nineteen years after Jordan took control of the West Bank, desecrating Jewish cemeteries (including the almost total destruction of the Mount of Olives, which had been in continuous use for more than 2,000 years) and destroying 58 synagogues during its occupation, Israeli forces liberated the holy city of Hebron.
June 9, 1856:
The birthday of Aaron David Gordon, who, at age 48, decided to give up his comfortable life in Russia to become an agricultural worker in pre-state Israel. He was a major influence on the Jewish labor movement, preaching the redemption of Israel through the return to nature and working the land.
June 10, 1648:
6,000 Jews of Niemirów, Poland, perished in the Chmielnicki massacres. The anniversary of this day was set aside by Polish Jewry as a day of fasting and mourning. In the 10 years of the Cossack uprising, more than 700 Jewish communities, mostly in Ukraine, were destroyed, and as many as 500,000 Jews were murdered.
Sivan 15, 2196 [1565 BCE]:
According to the Midrash Tadshe, Yehuda (Judah), the fourth son of Jacob and Leah (the source of the English word “Jew”), was born. He died 118 years later. At the end of Jacob’s life, Yehuda was given the blessing of kingship. All the kings of the Davidic line (including the future Messiah, according to tradition) descend from the tribe of Yehuda.
June 12, 1942:
Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday and made her first entry. On July 7, she, her sister, and her parents went into hiding. Helped by sympathetic Dutch friends, they lived in secret for 25 excruciating months until they were discovered and deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne died from typhus shortly before the camp was liberated.
Anne’s last entry is dated August 1, 1944. Since the diary was first published in 1947, it has appeared in more than 75 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Through her diary, Anne Frank became the symbol of Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust. She was named one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by Time magazine.
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