June 15, 1970 — Refuseniks Are Arrested Before Stealing Plane

A plot to steal a commercial aircraft to escape the Soviet Union is foiled when 12 dissidents are arrested at Leningrad’s Smolnoye Airport just before boarding the plane. Four others are arrested in Priozersk, where the plane is supposed to stop before flying to Sweden. All but two of the 16 are refuseniks, Jews denied the opportunity to emigrate. Their court cases propel the international movement to free Soviet Jewry.

June 16, 1933 — Jewish Agency Official Haim Arlosoroff Is Killed

Two men trap and fatally shoot Haim Arlosoroff on the beach in Tel Aviv. Arlosoroff, who heads the Jewish Agency’s political department, has just returned from a mission to Germany to arrange Jewish emigration in exchange for the import of German goods into Palestine. His political enemies among the Revisionist Zionists are accused of the murder, but they say Arabs intending to assault Arlosoroff’s wife are the culprits. The crime is never solved.

June 17, 2010 — Haredim Are Jailed in School Discrimination Case

Thirty-five Haredi fathers of girls attending a Hasidic school in the settlement of Emanuel are jailed after refusing a Supreme Court order to send their daughters to a less strict religious school in the same town. The court has determined that the Beis Yaakov Chasidi School discriminates against Sephardi families, even though 30% of the students are Sephardi. The men are released after 11 days when rabbinic authorities reach a compromise.

June 18, 1992 — Artist Mordecai Ardon Dies

Painter Mordecai Ardon dies at age 95 in Jerusalem. He studied with the Bauhaus school in Berlin, and he changed his name from Max Bronstein a few years after making aliyah in 1933. His work featured symbolism, including Kabbalah, and explored connections between the visible and the invisible. His process was to start with realistic pieces and abstract them. He directed the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts from 1940 to 1952.

June 19, 1967 — LBJ Outlines 5 Principles for Peace

Speaking two weeks after the start of the Six-Day War, President Lyndon B. Johnson lays out five principles for Middle East peace during a foreign policy address at the State Department: the right of all nations to live in peace; justice for refugees; the preservation of maritime rights; the end of the regional arms race; and the need for recognizable borders. He does not demand that Israel withdraw from recently captured territory.

June 20, 1914 — Poet Zelda Is Born

Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky, the poet known simply as Zelda, is born into a family of Hasidic rabbis in Russia. She makes aliyah with her family in 1928. Soon after she marries in 1950, her mother and her husband die, and she takes up poetry while studying to become a teacher. Her students include Amos Oz. Her poem “For Every Person There Is a Name” is recited annually in Israel on Yom HaShoah, which is the day she dies in 1984.

June 21, 1882 — Filmmaker Ya’acov Ben-Dov Is Born

Israeli filmmaker and photographer Ya’acov Ben-Dov is born in Yekatermoslav, Ukraine. He makes aliyah in 1907 and is studying photography at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts when he is introduced to moviemaking in 1911. He obtains his own camera in 1917 in Jerusalem and shoots footage of the British army’s arrival in December 1917. He shoots documentaries in the Land of Israel through 1932 but can’t adjust to sound in movies.

Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.