25 Shevat

Feb. 7, 1413 - In Aragon, an apostate Joshua Lorki (Geronimo de Santa Fe ), known to the Jews as Hamegadef (the blasphemer), convinced anti-Pope Benedict XIII to stage a disputation at Tortosa, beginning February 7, 1413. Presided over by the Pope himself, its sixty-nine sessions lasted until November, 1414. The Jews were led by Rav Vidal Benvenisti and Rav Yosef Albo, the author of Sefer Haikarim. As the disputations failed to result in the conversion of the Jews, the pope issued a bill in which he interdicted the learning of the Talmud by the Jews, and ordered that the Talmud be confiscated and destroyed.

Feb. 11, 1673- Charles II of England ordered the Attorney General to desist from prosecuting Jewish "offenders" of the Conventicle Act of 1664, which considered as seditious any prayer meeting of more the five persons that was not according to the Book of Common Prayer.

Feb. 8, 1831- The French gov't under Louis Philipp gave financial support to Jewish institutions on par with Christian institutions.

Feb. 10, 1934- First ship with "illegal" immigrants broke through the British blockade of Eretz Yisroel.

Feb. 22, 1941- A blanket decree was issued by the Nazis prohibiting the sale of anything to a Jew outside a ghetto.

Feb. 12, 1950- Last of 378 flights which comprised Operation Magic Carpet, which brought over 40,000 Yemenite immigrants to Israel.

Feb. 1, 1970- Israel's Eilat Ashkelon pipeline was completed.