15 Cheshvan
Yahrtzeit of Matityahu, the leader of the Maccabees in their fight against the Syrian-Greeks, as recorded in the Chanukah story. Matityahu bravely resisted the attempts to spread secular-Hellenist culture throughout the Land of Israel, and with his five sons, started an uprising. The revolt continued after Matityahu's death in 139 BCE, and successfully concluded with the rededication of the Holy Temple and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.
Cheshvan 15 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.
Cheshvan 15 is also the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (1878-1953), known by the appellation "Chazon Ish." A brilliant scholar, he moved from Vilna to Israel in 1933, where he was regarded as the worldwide authority on all matters relating to Jewish law and life.
