15 Av

c 1476 BCE- The decree of death for the "generation of the wilderness", the generation that came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership, came to an end after 38 years of wandering through the wilderness when no more died after this day.

1212- The power of the Almohads, a fanatic anti-Jewish Muslim sect in Spain, was broken in battle.

1541- Jews of Great Poland were authorized to elect a Chief Rabbi.

1686- Jews of Cochin, India, received a large shipment of books of Torah and other Judaica from Amsterdam. The day was celebrated annually as a Yom Tov.

1858- Baron Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jew to serve in the British Parliament after a new version of the oath of office was agreed upon containing no reference to Christianity.

July 29, 1942- A secret religious youth center, Tiferet Bachurim, was opened in the Kovno ghetto.