This week in Jewish history: Moses ascends Mount Sinai, a massacre shakes Hebron

A weekly column chronicling Jewish historical milestones, including Moses' third ascent of Mount Sinai, the 2005 Gaza disengagement, the Hebron massacre of 1929, and notable birthdays and anniversaries.

This week's column in Jewish history covers a range of events. It begins with Moses' third ascent of Mount Sinai on Elul 1, 2448 (1312 BCE), where he obtained divine forgiveness and received the second Tablets of the Law. The column also marks the anniversary of the 2005 Gaza disengagement, when 14,000 IDF soldiers evicted over 8,500 Jewish residents from 25 towns, leading to subsequent rocket fire on Sderot and eventually the October 7 attacks. It notes the yahrzeit of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, a founder of religious Zionism. Other entries include the birthdays of Samuel Goldwyn, Mikhail Botvinnik, Sean Penn, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Sergey Brin, and Nobel laureates Kenneth Arrow and Robert Solow. Historical events include George Washington's 1790 letter to the Jewish community of Rhode Island, the 1929 Hebron massacre where 67 Jews were killed, the 1933 Transfer Agreement, and the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903. The column also mentions the founding of the World Zionist Organization in 1897 and the revelation of the Baal Shem Tov in 1734.