Cheshvan 16

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Elazar M. Shach (1900-2001), dean of the famed Ponevitch Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. People came from far and wide to hear his talmudic discourses and spiritual guidance; he also served as advisor of the Degel HaTorah political party. Over 100,000 people attended his funeral.

Cheshvan 16 is also the night of Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass") in 1938, when Nazis destroyed almost all of the 1,600 synagogues in Germany, as well as thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. Similar violence was carried out in Austria. Kristallnacht ushered in a new phase of anti-Semitic decrees, and was for many the first major warning sign of what would become the Holocaust.