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This Day, July 31, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 31 In History


904: Thessaloniki, which is also known as Salonica, is sacked and looted by Saracens (an Arab group).  The Jewish population of Thessaloniki dates back at least to the first century of the Common Era.  By the time Benjamin of Tudela visited the city in the 11th century the Jewish population numbered a significant “hundred souls.”  Salonica’s Jewish population would grow when the Ottomans made it a refuge for Sephardic Jews following their expulsion in 1492.

 
1009:  Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. During the Papacy of Sergius, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. There was a two-fold response in the West. Sergius issued a papal bull calling for Islam to be driven from the Holy Land and the Jews were attacked because rumors were circulated blaming them for inciting the Caliph to destroy the church.


 
1255: An English boy who would become known as Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln disappeared setting the stage for the one of the more notorious blood libels in English history
 
1305: In Barcelona it is decreed that anybody who reads works of science and metaphysics before the age of 25 or who adheres to allegorical interpretations which rject the notion of revelation will be excommunicated.

 
1390: Solomon Halevi converts and takes the name of Pablo de Santa Maria.  He became the Bishop of Burgos and Chancellor to the King of Castille.


 
1391: Joshua Loki wrote to Pablo de Santa Maria, known as Solomon Halevi befoe he converted, rejecting Pablo’s interpretation of the messianic role of Jesus.  Lorki would convert ten years later and become a leading tormentor of the Joshua people.


 
1492: The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree

 
1527: Birthdate of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. “In his diary entries, Maximilien described the Jews as a quarrelsome and deceitful people who denounced one another, gave usurious loans to miners and artisans and traded in inferior medals.  Between 1567 and 1573 the emperor repeatedly issued mandates to expel Jews” from Lower Austria.


 
1556:  Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest and founder of the Jesuits passed away. When accused of being crypto-Jew or having Jewish ancestry he replied If only I did! What could be more glorious than to be of the same blood as the Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and our Lord Himself?" Robert Maryks, “an expert on the history of early Jesuits details the significant role of “conversos’’ — Jews and their descendants who were pressured to convert to Catholicism before and during the Spanish Inquisition in his recently published book, The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews: Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early Society of Jesus 


 
1571: The ghetto in Florence, Italy was established.
 


1610: Paul V issued “Apostolicae Servitutis ,” a papal bull concerning the need for monks to learn Hebrew.


 
1725: During the reign of Charles VI, an imperial order fixed the number of registered Jewish families in Moravia at 5,106 and threatened any locality which accepted Jews where they had not been previously settled with a fine of 1,000 ducats. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)


 
1743(10th of Av, 5503: In Jerusalem, Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar,Talmudist and Kabbalist passed away. He was buried on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Born at Mequenez, Morocco in 1696 he was one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. In 1733 he decided to leave his native country and settle in the Land of Israel, then under the Ottoman Empire. En route he was detained in Livorno by the rich members of the Jewish community who established a yeshiva for him. Many of his pupils later became prominent and furnished him with funds to print his “Ohr ha-Chaim” or “The Light of Life,” a commentary on the Pentateuch. He was received with great honor wherever he traveled. This was due to his extensive knowledge, keen intellect and extraordinary piety. In the middle of 1742 he arrived in Jerusalem where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael. One of his disciples there was Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai, who wrote of his master's greatness: "Attar's heart pulsated with Talmud; he uprooted mountains like a resistless torrent; his holiness was that of an angel of the Lord ... having severed all connection with the affairs of this world. A prolific author, two of his other published works were “Hefetz Hashem or “God’s Desire,” consisting of dissertations on four Talmudic treatises and “Peri Toar” or “Beautiful Fruit,” a novella based on the Shulchan Aruch.

 
 1776(15th of Av, 5536): Francis Salvador, one of the most prominent Jews of the American Revolutionary period, , was shot and scalped by Indians after riding 28 miles to raise a militia after attacks occurred on settlers. His father (also named Francis Salvador) was a wealthy London Jew who financed the earliest Jewish settlers of Savannah, Georgia


 
1821: Lazarus Magnus, the son of Simon Magnus and the husband of Sarah Moses, passed away today in Chatham, Kent, England.


 
1840(1st of Av, 5600): Rosh Chodesh Av


 
1840(1st of Av, 5600): Nachman Kohen Krochmal, one of “the first Jewish historians to treat Jewish history as an integral part of all human history” passed away.  A native of Brody, Galicia, one of his most famous works was Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman (Guide for the Perplexed of the Time).


 
1845: In Great Britain, Parliament passes the Act for the relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices.


 
1856:  Christchurch New Zealand is chartered as a city. According to Robert Case, the first Jews settled in Christchurch during the 1850’s. By 1860, there were fewer than four hundred Jews living in all of New Zealand.    Although the Jewish Community of Christchurch has always been a small one, it built a synagogue in 1890.  Today the Christchurch’s Canterburgy Hebrew Congregation consists of a synagogue, Temple Beth-El that offers regular Shabbat services as well as cheder classes, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, conversion support, holiday services and a variety of social activities. It is also home to the South Island chapter of Habonim Dror and the Christchurch Council of Jewish Women. The community also has a Chevra Kedisha and Chabad House.


 
1870: In the wake of the reported massacre of Jews in Romania, letters have been received in Washington, DC that states that Article 21 of the new constitution guarantees freedom of conscience to all.  These letters claim that the 400,000 Jews in Romania have 176 synagogues in which they “worship in the manner prescribed by their religion.”   The letters conclude by asking if religious persecution really existed why would the Jews be allowed to have so many synagogues which they are free to use


 
1878(1st of Av): Rosh Chodesh Av

 
1878(1st of Av): Abraham Benisch, the journalist and theologian who was a “Zionist” before Herzl, passed away.

 
1878: Birthdate of philanthropist and child-welfare activist Madeleine Borg.
 
1881: It was reported today that the English publishers of the late Lord Beaconsfield’s works are about to issue a new edition of his works called the “Hughenden Edition.”  Surprise has also been expressed that so many of the Disraeli’s possessions have been sold instead of being preserved as family mementoes.

 
1881: It was reported today after receiving payments from “wealthy Jewish capitalists,” the Sultan has agreed to allow a Jewish colony to be established on 1,500 acre tract in the districts of Gilead and Moab.


 
1881: “Jews In Russia” published today said that Jews in Russia were not hated because they are richer than their Christian counterparts.  The Jews are hated because they do not practice the vices of the gentile counterparts.  “If the Jews would only get drunk and spend their money recklessly, there would be very little temptation to persecute them.”


 
1882: “Russian Persecutions” published today, relying on information that first appeared in the London Telegraph described the conditions of the Jews in Kiev where the “persecution by the population” has been replaced by “legal proceedings” that are “less noisy” but even crueler and more effective in persecuting the Jews.


 
1882: Rishon Lezion or First For Zion was founded by a group of 10 families in Eretz Israel led by Zalman David Levontin. The settlement marked the beginning of the first Aliyah (going up) to Eretz- Israel, and the beginning of Rothschild’s deep involvement with settlement activities. Later that year, Baron Edmund De Rothschild in response to the Russian pogroms and a plea by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever agreed to help the new Moshava. It is now the fourth largest city in Israel
http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/HistoryofRishonLeZion.aspx


http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/default.aspx

 
1882: Eliezer Ben-Yedhuda, the “father of modern Hebrew” and his wife gave birth to Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda


 
1882: Today’s review of National Religions and Universal Religions, a collection of lectures by Dr. Abraham Kuenen the Dutch theologian teaching at the University of Lyden, states that “the finest part of the lectures is the analysis of early Jewish religion under the prophets.”


 
1883: Jewish leaders met in Baltimore, MD , tonight in response to a request for funds to support an agricultural  colony of approximately 60 Russian Jewish immigrants at Middlesex, Va.  They were being asked to raise $200 per month to meet the pressing needs of the colonists.  (The settlement at Middlesex was part of an effort to settle Jews away from the major eastern cities in the United States.  These colonies would be found in South America and Canada as well as in the rural United States.)


 
1884: Samuel Barnett, a Polish Jew, was arraigned before Justice Welde on multiple charges of theft and burglary.  Barnett immediately pleaded guilty to at least one of the charges.  His wife, who had been arrested as an accomplice, was released.  Many of the victims of Barnett’s criminal activities came to the police station looking for their possessions among the many items that had been seized at Barnett’s home at 136 Orchard Street.  This would have put him in close proximity to 97 Orchard Street, the tenement made famous by Jane Ziegleman in her book by that name
 
1885: Memorial services were held this evening B’nai Jeshurun in New York City to mark the passing of Sir Moses Motefiore who had died in England on July 28.  Rabbis Henry S. Jacobs and Alexander Kohut delivered the eulogies.  At the end of his remarks, Rabbi Jacobs said, “He conquered prejudice not by yielding to it, but by rising far superior to its pettiness, like the other hero whose loss America is mourning today.” (This closing comment was in reference to President U.S. Grant who had passed away on July 23.  This positive comparison between this larger than life Jewish leader and Grant is further evidence that the Jews of his time did not consider him an anti-Semite.)


 
1887(10th of Av, 5647): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th fell on Shabbat.


 
1887: “Diamonds and Vulgarity” published today describes the increasing presence of Jewish families and their friends at the New Jersey resort city of Long Branch.


 
1889: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children’s fifth free excursion which was paid for entirely by Isaac Stern is will from a pier at the foot of the 5th Street and the East River.

 
1889: During today’s session of the House Commons, Sir James Fergusson responded to reports that the Russian government intends to enforce the anti-Jewish edicts of 1882. According to the British Charge de Affaires at St. Petersburg, the government is not considering any “fresh measures” aimed at denying the Jews “any of the privileges they now enjoy.” (This begged the question since enforcing edicts from 1882 might not be considered as “fresh measures)


 
1890: “Persecuting the Jews” published today provided a summary of the edicts  now being enforced which state  that prohibit Jews from owning mining stocks or working in mines; allow Jews to live in only 16 provinces; debar Jews from government posts and serving as officers in the military; prohibits Jews from practicing law, medicine or engineering and “entering any other professions.


 
1890: It was reported today that Russian government hopes that enforcing the anti-Jewish edicts promulgated in 1882 will force one million Jews to leave the country. (This is a contemporary reference to the Czar’s “one third; one third; one third” policy under which one third of the Jews would convert, one third would leave and one third would die)


 
1891: “Persecution of Jews” published today provided “harrowing stories…of the extremely unjust laws in force against the Jews” and “the general atrocities practiced upon” them “by the Russian soldiers.” “Any Russian Christian…, who wishes to possess himself of the property of a Jewish neighbor, can obtain it by paying one-tenth of its value to the Mayor or government representative.”


 
1891: In Washington, DC, Acting Secretary of State Wharton asserted that the Department of State does not have any information regarding any new edicts issued by the Russian government aimed at depriving the Jews of their rights.


 
1891: A private letter received in Washington “from Moscow asserts that things are worse than ever in Russia” for the Jews.


 
1891: “A dispatch was received in Wall Street from London” today stating that  Messrs. C. J. Hambro & Son of that City” has “been appointed bankers to the Russian Government” replacing the Rothschilds who have been their bankers for years.


 
1892: “Still Persecuting The Jews In Russia” published today described the fate the Jews who have been expelled from Moscow.  Many of these families “had resided in Moscow a long time” and had been given a year to get out.  In the end, they were not able to sell their homes and businesses and they were “unable to get a penny of compensation for their splendid synagogue…which while they were to sell at once.”

 
1892: In the period starting with June 28 and ending today, 93 mothers and children were admitted for treatment at the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The sanitarium cannot keep up with demand since “more applications for admission are being received than can be accommodated.”

 
1893: During the Panic of 1893, there was a run on several New York financial institutions including the Dry Dock Savings Bank on the Bowery, most of whose depositors are Russian Jews.  Today $41,000 was withdrawn and only $14,000 was deposited
 
1893: During a stop in New York,  Dionysius Latas, a leading Greek archbishop told reporters  “he intends to oppose the persecution of Jews” in his homeland.


 
1894: Abraham Levy is the lawyer for Jeremiah J. Levy, the Jewish policeman whose case is being heard by a jury, some of whose members are also Jewish.


 
1895: Colonel George Waring, Jr. a leading sanitary engineer and civic reformer met with 2,000 children at the Hebrew Institute, most of whom were poor and spoke little English.  Waring “told them what children had done and could do for the cleanliness of the city.

 
1895: In Brownsville, the striking tailors issued a manifesto countering the one issued by the contractors written in Hebrew asking the landlords “to have no mercy on the strikers” who cannot pay their rent.


 
1897: “Rabbinical Excommunication” published today relied on information that first appeared in The American Hebrew described a response by rabbis in Jerusalem to aggressive Christian attempts to gain converts among the city’s Jews.  Any Jew supplying their institutions with Kosher meat will have to deal with the threat of “cherem.”


 
1897: Victor Joze has dedicated “his new book entitled La Tribu d’Isidore,  “the first volume of a series of historical novels about a Jewish family to Emile Zola, the defender of Dreyfus.


 
1898: Samuel Gompers arrived in Springfield, Illinois where he planned to attend the upcoming state convention of the American Federation of Labor.  Mr. Gompers spoke out against the condition of workers in the territories recently annexed after the Spanish American War; specifically he demanded that slave labor be stamped out there in and in Hawaii.

 
1899:”What Paris Talks About” published today described the French reaction “to the sudden death from apoplexy of Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild…the sister of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, head of the French branch of the family and the first cousin of…Lord Rothschild,” head of the English branch of the family. The loss was felt even more by the artistic community than the financial community.  In her younger days she “showed real talent as a watercolorist.”  Later in life she bought the paintings of many “modern painters” before they gained fame as an act of generosity.


 
1900: Herzl leaves Altaussee and travels to Luzern, Paris and London.  The trip will take a toll on his health and he will be ill by the he gets to London on August 7.

 
1902(26th of Tammuz, 5662): Seventy-two year old Benjamin Szold passed away.  Born in Hungary in 1829, he came to the United States in 1859 to serve as the first rabbi at Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore.  While he accomplished a great deal serving in this capacity, his greatest claim to fame may that he was the father of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah.


 
1906(9th of Av, 5666):Tish'a B'Av

 
1912: Birthdate of newspaper and Chicago literary institution Irv Kupcinet.


 
1912: Birthdate of economist and Federal Reserve Chairman Milton Friedman. Friedman won the Nobel Prize in 1976.



1914: In Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France Albert Samuel and Hélène Falk gave birth to Raymond Samuel who would gain fame as French Resistance leader Raymond Aubrac.



1914: German Jewish industrialist Walter Rathenau published an article in the Berliner Tageblatt protesting Germany’s blind loyalty to Austria; a loyalty which he felt was leading to a great European war.  



1918:Joseph Schlossberg, General Secretary Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and Abraham Epstein, President Workmen's Circle were among the leaders of a meeting of a Conference of Trade Unions, Branches of the Workmen's Circle, and other Progressive Labor Organizations of Greater New York scheduled to be held be held in Webster Hall, 119 East 11th Street, for the purpose of organizing the workers into a permanent central body for aiding all persons prosecuted who are in need of help, and of arousing public opinion against the further suppression of constitutional rights and liberties.  The Conference will be held under the auspices of the Liberty Defense Union, and has been endorsed by the United Hebrews Trades and the National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle.



1919: Birthdate of the Italian-Jewish writer and chemist Primo Levi. Levi spent time fighting with Partisans during the war and survived Auschwitz. These experiences provided much of the material for his writings. He passed away in 1987. (We do not have the space to do his work justice and you are urged to read any of his several works which are available in English.)



1923: Birthdate of Richard Schifter, a native of Vienna who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1985 to 1992.  Schifter was a  member of unique WW II intelligence unit known as the Ritchie Boys.



1923: A Hebrew version of Verdi’s “Traviata” was performed in Jerusalem this evening.  The performance was described as “brilliant.”  The Hebrew version of the opera had previously been performed in Tel Aviv.



1926: Birthdate of Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, the self-described Jewish atheist who converted to Roman Catholicism.  Nathanson was “a campaigner for abortion rights who, after experiencing a change of heart in the 1970s became a prominent opponent of abortion and the on-screen narrator of the anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream.” (As reported by William Grimes)



1928: When MGM introduces its first “talkie,” “White Shadows on the South Seas” the famed Lion Logo makes its first appearance.  With so many Jews involved in MGM, including Harry Rapf, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer and Nicholas Schenck one might wonder if the choice of the Lion was subtle reference to the Lion of Judah. 



1928: Bobbie Rosenfeldwon gold and silver medals in the 1928 Olympics. “Bobbie Rosenfeld was well known as a star of Canadian track and field. Born Fanny Rosenfeld in Dnepropetrovsk, Russia in 1904, she moved to Canada as an infant; she was later nicknamed "Bobbie" because of her bobbed hair. Growing up in Barrie, Ontario, and then in Toronto, Rosenfeld was an enthusiastic athlete from a young age, playing basketball, softball, hockey and tennis, as well as running. Despite widespread belief that strenuous exercise was damaging to women's bodies, Rosenfeld's family supported her athletic pursuits. In 1923, Rosenfeld burst onto the national scene when she entered the 100-yard dash at a picnic on a dare from a softball teammate. At the time, Rosenfeld was working in a Toronto chocolate factory. Rosenfeld not only won the race but also beat the Canadian national champion, Rosa Grosse. Two years later, Rosenfeld and Grosse would share the world record for the 100-yard dash, at eleven seconds. Later in 1923, she entered her first major race at the Canadian National Exhibition. In the 100-yard dash, she again beat Grosse and also beat American and world-record holder Helen Filkey. The same evening, after the race, Rosenfeld joined her softball team and helped lead them to the city championship. Over the next decade, Rosenfeld came to symbolize Canadian women's sport. She went from success to success, leading ice hockey, basketball, and softball teams to championships and winning the Toronto Ladies Grass Courts tennis tournament in 1924. She claimed victory in so many sports that one author later wrote that "the most efficient way to summarize Bobbie Rosenfeld's career ... is to say that she was not good at swimming." A consummate athlete, she was also applauded for her sportsmanship. Both these qualities would soon be evident on the world stage. In 1928, Rosenfeld was chosen as one of the "matchless six" on the Canadian women's Olympic track and field team. The Olympics of 1928 were the first in which women were allowed to compete in track and field, although only on a trial basis. On July 31, 1928, Rosenfeld won the silver medal in the 100-meter race, though many spectators thought she had actually finished first. A few days later, Rosenfeld competed in the 800-meters, a race in which she had been entered only to encourage teammate Jean Thompson, and for which she had not trained. Coming from the rear, Rosenfeld ran alongside Thompson through most of the race, allowing her teammate to finish fourth while she placed fifth; this was considered a great act of compassion and sportsmanship, as Rosenfeld could easily have pulled ahead and earned a medal in the race. Finally, on the last day of track and field events, Rosenfeld got her gold medal when she led her team to victory in the 400-meter relay. On the team's return to Toronto, 200,000 people lined the streets to cheer a celebratory parade. Rosenfeld had helped to show that women's competition could be a worthy part of the Olympics; after the Games closed, the delegates of the International Amateur Athletic Federation voted 16-6 to continue women's track and field events at future Olympics. The Canadian delegate voted against women's participation. Back at home, though Rosenfeld had received a hero's welcome, she went back to work at the chocolate factory to pay her bills. In 1928, no endorsement contracts or professional sports opportunities were available to women. Rosenfeld continued to play sports, even starring on championship ice hockey and softball teams, but recurrent attacks of severe arthritis ended her athletic career in 1933. She moved to coaching track and softball, and then, in 1937, to writing about sports. For nearly twenty years, she wrote the "Sports Reel" column for the Toronto Globe and Mail. She retired from the Globe and Mail in 1966 and died on November 14, 1969. Rosenfeld's legacy is one of breaking down barriers. First as an athlete, and then as the only woman on the sports staff of the Globe and Mail, she carved new paths for women in sports, making it clear to skeptics that, as she put it in a column, "girls are in sports for good." These contributions were recognized both during Rosenfeld's lifetime and after her death. In 1950, a press poll of sportswriters named her Canada's Female Athlete of the Half Century; in 1955, she was among the earliest inductees to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Her portrait recently appeared on a Canadian postage stamp, and every year the Bobbie Rosenfeld trophy is awarded to Canada's Female Athlete of the Year.”



1932: National elections are held in Germany and the Nazi Party won 230 seats in the Reichstag.



1933: By now, approximately 30,000 people are interned in Nazi concentration camps.



1936(12th of Av, 5696):Rabbi Moses Simon Sivitz, renowned Jewish historian died in Montefiore Hospital ... He also wrote five books on Moses after years of research.



1936: The Palestine Post reported from London that the newly-appointed Royal Commission was expected to arrive in Palestine in October. Meanwhile a new wave of Arab rioting spread towards Tiberias where many Jews were compelled to leave the Old City. There were assaults, arson, and stone-throwing. The Arab police and the British authorities dealt with the rioters in a diffident and condoning manner.



1939: Isadore Breslau, the Zionist leadership's chief representative in Washington, writes a letter showing  that former Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis actively supported Aliyah in defiance of British policy as outlined in the May 1939 White Paper that severely limited the immigration of Jews to then British-run Palestine. The letter reveals that the widely respected jurist, who had just retired after nearly a quarter century on the court, held views on Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel that were in direct opposition to those of the British government, the Roosevelt administration and mainstream American Jewish groups and leaders. "Speaking on the question of the immigration he [Brandeis] said that Jews would continue to immigrate regardless of the White Paper," the letter written by Isadore Breslau reads. "When someone suggested that it was illegal, he said that the Jewish people considered it legal in view of the fact that any attempt to curtail immigration was in violation of the terms of the Mandate; that it may be considered illegal by Great Britain, but that we Jews considered it to be legal."

 

1940: According to The Olkusz Memorial book “a German police unit arrived in Olkusz” today and gathered all the Jewish men in the main square. There the Jews were forced to lie on the ground while the policemen and members of the SD “registered them”. During this process, the Germans brutally beat the Jews, shooting one of them. In order to further humiliate them, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Hagerman was forced to don his tallith (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries) that had been defiled, and to stand barefoot and pray next to the prostrate men of the Jewish community. At the end of the day, the Jews were permitted to return home, and the Germans left. Due to the beatings suffered by the Jews, the event was subsequently referred to as ‘Bloody Wednesday’”. (For a photo see http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/04.asp  )

 

1941: The Nazis officially undertook The Final Solution. Hermann Goring instructs SS Reich Security Service chief Reinhardt Heydrich by letter "to carry out all the necessary preparations with regard to organizational and financial matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence." - That influence now covered a dozen countries. - "I further charge you with submitting to me promptly an overall plan... for the execution of the intended FINAL SOLUTION of the Jewish question."

 
1942:  Governor Wilhelm Kube reports to Hinrich Lohse, Reichskommissar of the Baltic regions and Belorussia, that "Jewry has been completely eliminated" in the Minsk area.  According to Kube ‘16,000 Jews were liquidated in Lida, 8,000 in Slonim.’  In the previous ten weeks, 55,000 Jews have been liquidated.



1942 (17th of Av, 5702):  Bluma Rozenfeld, 19, leaps to her death from a fifth-floor window in the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto.



1942: Israel Lichtenstein writes from the Warsaw Ghetto: "At present, together with me, both of us get ready to meet and receive death. I wish my little daughter to be remembered. Margalith, twenty months old today....I don't lament my own life nor that of my wife. I pity only the so little, nice and talented girl. She deserves to be remembered."



1942 (17th of Av, 5702):  German SS troops gassed 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia



1942: In what was the first reference to Dan Schoor in FBI files, on this date FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "asked the chief of the Special War Policies Unit for more information on Schoor's status as a 'representative of a foreign principal' because he was employed as a correspondent for the Netherland Indies News Agency.  During the Red Scare of the 1950's "Hoover told the CIA director that the bureau had looked over Schoor's background and had kept information on this travels to 'Iron Curtain Countries.'"  Is it possible that Hoover did not know that Schoor was the Moscow correspondent for CBS news which would have meant he traveled for Iron Curtain countries.  Ironically, the Soviets expelled him because they did not approve of his news gathering work.

 
1944: The hull of the Liberty ship "Benjamin Peixotto" was laid down today.  The ship is named for the 19th century Jewish leader.



1944(11th of Av, 5704): Eighteen year old Leendert Kleerekoper died at Auschwitz today.  He was the son of Gerrit Kleerekoper, the coach of the of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastics team, which won the Olympic title in Amsterdam in 1928.  The coach, his wife and his 14 year old daughter had already been gassed. On the exact same day at the exact same place, Kleerekoper, born February 15, 1897, also died together with his wife, Kaatje, and their 14-year-old daughter Elisabeth. His 18-year-old son Leendert died at Auschwitz on July 31, 1944.


1944: Among 1300 Jews deported from Drancy, France (northwest of Paris), to Auschwitz are 258 Jewish orphans seized in and around Paris on July 24. Upon arrival at the camp, all 500 children and 300 adults are gassed. This is the last transport of Jews from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz. In total, 73,853 Jews have been shipped from Drancy to their deaths at Auschwitz and Sobibór.



1944: As Western troops moved forward to Paris, a last train departed with over 300 deported Jewish children.

 

1944: Three thousand Jews were transported from the labor camp at Blizyn to Birkenau where over 500 are gassed to death upon their arrival

 
1944: By the end of July, French Jew Maurice Löwenberg, founder of the National Liberation Movement resistance group, is tortured to death by the Gestapo.



1944: By the end of July 46,000 Jewish inmates are gassed and cremated at Auschwitz.



1944: By the end of July SS General Richard Baer had become the new Auschwitz commandant.



1945: French collaborationist politician Pierre Laval is arrested in Austria.  Laval was the driving force behind the Vichy Government which was so supportive of the Final Solution that it often delivered Jews “ahead of schedule.”

 

1946: An Anglo-American committee jointly chaired by Henry Grady, an assistant secretary of state and Herbert Morrison, a British Labor Party leader published the Morrison-Grady plan which proposed a British dominated trusteeship that would “supervise separate Jewish and Arab provinces.”  The British loved it because it kept them in power.  The Arabs and the Jews rejected it for the same reason.

 

1947: In reprisal for the execution of Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weisss and Meir Nakar, the Irgun killed two British sergeants whom they were holding captive.  “Following the death of the two sergeants and the publicity surrounding it, the British public demanded that the troops be brought home.  In Palestine, several Jews were murdered by British soldiers as a counter-reprisal

 

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported on most orderly elections to the Second Knesset. According to this newspaper's fifth successive edition which appeared at 6 a.m. Mapai won 42.23 per cent of the vote, Mapam 19.18, General Zionists 13.47, Hapoel Hamizrahi 7.37, Progressives 5.33, Herut 4.22, Poalei Aguda 1.49, Communists 1.36, Mizrahi 1.11, Aguda 1.07. The rest was split among smaller parties, which couldn't get even 1 percent of the vote to be eligible for a Knesset seat. [Editor's note: The Israelis use a system of proportional representation which works a strong two-party electoral system.  This system encourages all kinds of splintering, factionalism and gives disproportionate power to minor, but cohesive, groups.  This concept was so entrenched the Israeli psyche that not even David Ben Gurion could overcome it.]

 

1954: Mary Clawson, an American living in Jerusalem, watches as Arabs began “shooting over to this (the Jewish) side and after waiting a brief time to investigate to be sure the shooting was not just a trigger-happy Legionnaire, the Jewish side returned the fire.”

 

1961: The one millionth Oleh since the establishment of the Jewish State arrived in Israel.

 

1970: Norwegian General Odd Bull completes his term as Chief of Staff United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).  His thirteen year term included the Six Day War.

 

1981: The New York Times reported that Israelis were stunned and startled by U.S. anger following an Israeli air attack on Beirut.  Government officials in Jerusalem are hoping that their adherence to the Lebanon cease-fire arrangement will be seen in Washington as a gesture of good will to American interests.

 

1981: Morton I. Abramowitz completed this three years of service as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand

 

1983: Jewish golfer Corey Pavin won the Lufthansa German Open.

 

1986: Eighty-six year old Chiune Sugihara passed away.  While servicing as Vice Council for Japan in Lithuania he defied his government and issued transit visas to thousands of Jews allowing them to escape the clutches of the Holocaust.

 

1987:''Portraits of an Era: Photographs by Irv Kline,'' an exhibition that is part of the Jewish East End Celebration is scheduled to come to a close today.

 

1987: The third congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies organized by Professor Peter Schafter under the Presidency of Professor Arnold Goldberg came to an end at Scholoss Glienicke, Germany.

 

1988:Dr. Joanna Lisa Fine, a child psychiatrist, and Stephen Michael Harnik, a lawyer, who graduated together from the Dalton School in 1971 were married today at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park. Jerome Raik, the president of Ansche Chesed Congregation in Manhattan, officiated.

 

1990(9th of Av, 5750):Tish'a B'Av

 

1992(1st of Av, 5752): Rosh Chodesh Av

 

2000: In a vote of 63 to 57, the Knesset chose Moshe Katsav to serve as President of Israel in a race against the favorite, Shimon Peres.

 
2002(22nd of Av, 5762): A bomb exploded inside a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine people, including five Americans.



2003:The Israeli Knesset enacted the Nationality and Entry Into Israel Law, prohibiting any residency or citizenship status to Palestinians who live in the territories and are married to Israeli citizens.  The law was initiated in the midst of the second intifada by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as an anti-terrorist measure.  The law would become the subject matter of 2008 documentary "Just Married."

 
2006: Funeral services are held at Temple B’nai Torah for PamelaWaechter, 58, who was killed in Friday's shooting at the Seattle offices of the Jewish Federation by an American Muslim.



2007: In Jerusalem, the Israeli Wine-Tasting Festival, a celebration of wine tasting from the best vineyards in Israel takes place at the Israel Museum.



2007: Today, Jack Lebewohl announced that the Second Avenue Deli, home of the world’s greatest kosher meat knishes and tongue sandwiches, would reopen at a new location in the fall of 2007.http://www.2ndavedeli.com/


2008: Solomon "Momy" Levy began serving as Mayor of Gibraltar.



2008: At the Boston Public Library, the photographic exhibit, “Kids with Cameras: Beyond the Walls” sponsored by the Zionist House/Israel Cultural Central and the Consulate
General of Israel to New England, comes to a close.

2009: Opening of The National Parks and Nature Authority’s fifth annual Outdoor Acoustic Music Festival in Ein Hemed, a beautiful nature reserve just 10 minutes from Jerusalem. Each performer at this year’s festival will dedicate at least one song to the Earth, in order to promote environmental awareness.


 2009: In Jerusalem, Ohad Chitman takes the stage at Hama'abada, playing an acoustic show featuring the best hits from his two albums and from the third album on the way.



2009: In Brooklyn, as part of Bargemusic at Fulton’s Landing Yoed Nir is the featured performer in “World of Cello” The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello and Beyond, Part 1



2009: Two brothers were arrested early this morning in connection with the shooting attack on disgraced soccer star Felix Halfon, who was seriously wounded when he was shot outside a Tel Aviv night club hours earlier. The older of the two suspects, 33, is believed to have shot Halfon while driving a motorcycle. The other brother, aged 20, is suspected by police of having provided assistance. According to an initial police inquiry, the two perpetrated the attack following a previous quarrel with Halfon. Both suspects are known to police and have prior criminal records, but they denied during their interrogations the charges of their involvement in the shooting. The brothers appeared in court on Friday afternoon for a remand hearing. Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived on the scene found the former soccer player with wounds to the stomach and lower part of his body. He was rushed to Ichalov Hospital in the city, where he underwent surgery. Halfon, who was considered one of the best players for Hapoel Tel Aviv during the nineties, was arrested in 2003 for trying to smuggle drugs. He was sentenced to four and half years in prison, and was released after three. Last year, Halfon returned to the soccer league and played for Hapoel Bat-Yam.


2010: A screening of Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2010: This morning the IDF confirmed that the Air Force hit several Hamas-linked targets in Gaza overnight on Friday, One of the targets hit was believed to be in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood; another was reportedly the site of smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border. The IAF's strike followed yesterday morning's Grad missile attack in Ashkelon, for which the Aza Din al-Kassem Gazan terror group claimed responsibility.



2010(20th of Av, 5770):Ninety-nine year old Mitch Miller, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who played a major role in the world of popular music and was best known for his “Sing A Long With Mitch” television show, passed away today. (As reported  by Richard Severo)


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print


 


2011: Standing Silent and An Encounter with Simone Weil ,Julia Haslett’s documentary that looks at  the life of French philosopher Simone Weil, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, who was raised by a secular Jewish family and lived during the rise of Fascism in Europe,  are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. “Standing Silent profiles the heroic efforts of Phil Jacobs, a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, as he relentlessly pursues sexual predators, including prominent rabbis and community leaders, in Baltimore’s insular Orthodox Jewish community. However, rather than being celebrated for his efforts, Jacobs, an observant Jew, instead faces ostracism from a community more intent on shielding itself from external scrutiny than on protecting its young people from abuse.”



2011: Members of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community are scheduled to celebrate “Faith and Family Day At The Ballpark” as they watch the Cedar Rapids Kernels play the Beloit Snappers



2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly by Lee Siegel and Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany by Frederick Taylor.

 

2011:The government will absorb the higher cost of gasoline in August, after Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz bowed to pressure from National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau today and signed a directive cutting the excise tax by an amount equal to the price rise. The price of self-service 95 octane gasoline was due to rise at midnight by NIS 0.31 per liter to NIS 7.53, just short of the record of NIS 7.62 set in May. Instead, it will remain at NIS 7.22, effective until the end of August.

 

2011: Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US ambassador designate Dan Shapiro tried their hands at outreach today, with Netanyahu broadcasting a Ramadan message to Israeli Arabs and Muslims around the world, and Shapiro launching a Facebook page to interact with the Israeli public.  

 

2012: “Mazel Tov! A Celebration of Jewish Weddings” is scheduled to come to a close at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee.

 

2012: As it prepares to move to its new location, Agudas Achim is scheduled to officially vacate its downtown Iowa City location.

 

2012” “God’s Fiddler” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
 

2012: Robin B. Jacobson, Director of Library Services at Adas Israel Congregation is scheduled to lead a discussion of Nemesis by Philip Roth sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.


2012:Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi sent a missive to President Shimon Peres, wishing stability and security for all of the region's nations, including Israel.  The short letter, dated July 15, was delivered today to Peres' military adviser Brigadier General Hasson Hasson by a diplomat from the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv. It came as a response to a message sent by Peres a month ago, in which the president congratulated Morsi for his victory in the elections, and offered his blessing ahead of the month of Ramadan.



2012:Israel's Alice Schlesinger lost in the finals of the under 63kg Judo competition at the London Olympics today, falling to France's Gevrise Emane after losing to Slovenia's Urska Zolnir in the quarterfinals. Earlier on today, Schlesinger had defeated Austria's Hilde Drexler to advance to the quarterfinals.



2012: Aly Raisman, a Jewish American, won the floor exercise in helping the U.S. women's team to the gold medal in the gymnastics competition at the London Olympics. The Americans today won their first team gold medal in women's gymnastics since the Atlanta Games in 1996,  finishing with 183.596 points to defeat Russia (178.530) and Romania (176.414)
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/07/31/3102336/aly-raisman-wins-gold


2013: “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco”  is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

 

2013: “When Comedy Went To School” is scheduled to open at the JCC in Manhattan.

 

2013: Leslie Cohen Berlowitz is scheduled to resign as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences today after she was accused of embellishing her resume with a spurious doctoral degree.(As reported by Todd Wallack in the Boston Globe)


 

This Day, August 1, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 1 In History


30 BCE:  Mark Antony died.  Following the victory of Octavian and Antony over those who had murdered Julius Caesar, Antony became ruler of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire.  Antony did name Herod as ruler of Judaea.  But when his lover Cleopatra let it be known that she wished to recreate the Ptolomey rule over the area, Antony patially reversed himself by giving the Queen Jericho and numerous other towns in Judaea.  None of this had anything to do with Antony’s feelings about the Jews but rather reflected his passion for Cleopatra. In the end none of this matter since Octavian defeated Antony and control of the Jews passed to the man who became Caesar Augustus.


10 BCE: Birthdate of Claudius 4th Roman emperor. Claudius reigned from 41 through 54. Regardless of how the PBS television series portrayed, for a Roman Emperor, Claudius was a plus for the Jews of his time. He repealed the anti-Jewish edicts of his predecessors. He held the Samaritans responsible for the attacks on Jews in Judeaand befriended the Jewish King, Agrippa. At one time he did exclude Jews from the city of Rome. But this appears to have been a matter of dealing with civil unrest sparked the early Christians living in the imperial city.


388: The synagogue located on the Euphrates in Callinicum was looted and burned by Church officials. St. Ambrose (one of the four Latin doctors of the Catholic Church) defended the action. He reprimanded Theodosius the Great for ordering the local Bishop to pay restitution, even though expropriation was illegal under Roman law. St. Ambrose offered to burn the synagogue in Milanon his own. 


527: Justinian I also known as Justinian the Great becomes the Byzantine Emperor.  For gentiles, Justinian might be considered “Great” but he was an enemy of the Jews.  Justinian’s celebrated code contains the following about his policy towards his Jewish subjects. “They shall enjoy no honors.  Their status shall reflect the baseness which in their souls they have elected and desired.”  “The principle of servitus Judaeorum (‘servitude of the Jews’) was established, and the hitherto uneven pattern of persecution was systemized for a Christian civilization march towards its age of faith.”  Justinian banned the recitation of the Shema because its declaration of the Oness of God was at odds with the Trinity.  In response to demands of his Bishops, Justinian banned the public reading of the Torah.  He also forbad the observance of Passover in the years when it preceded Easter on the calendar.


1137: King Louis VI passed away and is succeed by his Louis VII who will launch the Second Crusade.  Louis VII’s reign was not “Jew friendly.” Following the logic of the time that it made no sense to go to Palestine to fight those holding on to the Christian Holy Sites and leave the defilers of Christianity at home alone, in 1144 Louis VII would expel all the Jews who had converted to Christianity and then returned to Judaism. In 1171 the first Blood Libel in France took place in Blois.


1291: The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.The original Jews settled in what is now Switzerlandduring the days of the Roman Empire. Records of the Jewish community officially date back to the 13th century, with Jews having settled in Baselin 1213, seventy years before the confederation was formed. Jews from France and Germany settled in Bern by 1259, St. Gall in 1268, Zurich in 1273, Schaffhausen, Diessenhofen, and Luzerne in 1299. But anti-Semitism is almost as old as the confederation itself since in1294 in when many Jews living in Berneof the city were executed and the survivors expelled under the pretext of the murder of a Christian boy.

1298: Although assisted by humane Christian citizens, the Jews of Nuremberg were overpowered and butchered today. Among the victims was Mordecai ben Hillel, a pupil of Jehiel ben Asher, with his wife and children.


1580: Evard Mercurian, the fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) passed away.  The first three leaders of the order had been Spanish and there was concern that they might be Coversos or at least have Jewish blood.  So Mercuvian, a native of Luxemborg got the job because Pope Gregory XIII wished to dispel an connotation of a Jewish connection.


1626: Birthdate of Sabbatai Zevi, the most famous the False Messiahs.


1670: As a result of a proclamation by the Emperor, as of today, all the Jews had left Vienna.


1776(16thof Av, 5536): Twenty nine year old Francis Salvador, the member of a prominent Sephardic South Carolina family and an ardent Patriot, was killed while fighting the Tory and Indian supporters of the British.

1797: Two Jews named Bromet and DeLemon were elected members of the Second National Assembly of Holland today


1789(9th of Av): Rabbi Abraham Isaac Castello passed away


1789: The British Fleet under Nelson defeats the French Fleet in the Battle of the Nile.  Nelson’s victory left the British in control of the Mediterranean.  Napoleon’s army had already landed before the battle.  Although the French leader would score victories in Egypt and Syria, crossing through Eretz Israel, his victories would mean little since the French army could not be sustained.  Among the lesser known consequences was the end of promises Napoleon had made during the siege at Acre to create a Jewish homeland.


1833: On a second reading a bill designed to free Jews from all civil disabilities which would open the world of politics to them, was defeated.


1852:This afternoon, the new Jewish Synagogue in Eighth-street, between North First and North Second-streets, was dedicated by appropriate ceremonies of the Jewish religion. There were Hebrew chant and lectures by Rabbi, Max Lilienthal, Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs and Rabbi.Morris Raphall. Dr. Barnard officiated as Rabbi to the congregation. The Synagogue is to be known as the "House of Israel." There were many Gentiles present to view the ceremonies.


1859: The Report of Sir Moses Montefiore to the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews on the subject of his mission to Rome in the Mortara Case was published today. While Sir Moses was thankful for those who assisted in him arranging meeting with Vatican officials, the Church refused to acknowledge any error in the case.  The conversion stands and the Jewish child stolen from his parents will be raised as a Catholic.


1859: An editorial in the New York Times, expresses disappointment at Rome’s refusal to yield on the issues in the “Mortara Case” while expressing relief “that such an enormity as the abduction of the Mortara child cannot be repeated even by Rome.”  The Times also points out the horrible conditions under which the Jews of Austria, a patron and protector of the Pope, are living. “The case of the Israelites…bad as it is in Rome, is still worse in Austria.”  Jews are restricted in the vocations they may pursue and are banned from “many of the higher vocations of trade.”  They are limited in their right to move to different parts of the empire and they need a special license if they want to leave the country altogether.  In some parts of the empire, there is a limit on the number of Jewish marriages “so that a young man must await the death of his parent before he can enter the state of matrimony. This hideous and demoralizing law is but one of the many horrors which Austrian persecution has designed for the Israelites living in Austria, and who are kept by the brutal system, in a state of ignorance which the condition of Jewish populations in free countries proves to abnormal with that portion of the human family.” [All of this will change with a stroke of a pen after Austria loses its war with Prussia and is forced to reorganize as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.]


1862: In an interlude between the Siege of Corinth and the Second Battle of Corinth, Jacob C. Cohen of the 27th Ohio Infantry wrote to the Jewish Messenger to describe what life was like as they bivouacked at Camp Clear Creek just outside of the Mississippi town.

1865(9th of Av, 5625): Tisha B'Av


1865: The New York Times reported that “the Israelites in this city and throughout the world solemnized in sorrow and in sadness, in tears and in lamentation, in fasting and in prayer, the annual fast of Ab, founded on the destruction of the Temple, and the overthrow of the national government. Although nearly 2,300 years have elapsed since the first Temple was destroyed, and eighteen centuries since the construction of the second Temple, both occurrences taking place on the same day of the month, the fast is still continued from Monday evening to Tuesday night, in accordance with the Jewish ritual, and in consonance with Israelitish feeling. The fast is inaugurated with reciting the lamentations of Jeremiah, and, after the morning service, several hours are employed in the synagogues in chanting in plaintive tones the compositions of the saints of antiquity, and imploring the God of Israel to remove the rod of chastisement from Israel, and again to resume the light of other days, by the reestablishment of their Temple and restoration of their government to its original splendor.”


1869: Birthdate of Moishe Hillkowitz, the native of Riga, who gained famed as New York labor lawyer and Socialist political leader, Morris Hillquit.


1870: Birthdate of Rabbi Tuvia Geffen who gained fame as “The Coca Cola Rabbi.”


1870: A rumor swept New York today that the  police had apprehended the murder of Benjamin Nathan – a plumber who with a lacerated face who was caught with a stolen watch belong to the deceased.


1870: “The Jews in Romania” published today reported that there were 176 synagogues serving 400,000 Jews in Romania.


1870: Di Post, the first Yiddish periodical to appear in the United States was published for the first time today in New York City


1870: Benjamin Nathan, the prominent Jewish New York businessman who was murdered in his own home, was buried today at the Jewish Cemetery, Shearith Israel at Cypress Hill. His brother-in-law, Rabbi J.J. Lyons had officiated at funeral that was held at the deceased’s resident.


1873: It was reported today that the last person to see ten year old John Henry Lance was “a Jew peddler in Williamsburg.”


1875: “The Jews of Italy,” an article published today described the conditions of the Jews living in this newly reunited nation.  It focused on the deplorable conditions of many of the Jews living in the old ghetto of Rome along the Tiber, the improved condition of Jews living outside of the capital and the annual ceremony at St. John the Lateran set aside to baptize any Jew who has converted during the past 12 months. However, no Jew has participated in the ceremony in the last twenty years, despite the best efforts of the Church.


1878: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society of the City of Brooklyn was incorporated today under the leadership of President Ernst Nathan. 


1876:  Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.  The largest number of Jews began arriving in Colorado as part of the gold rush activities in 1859.  Jews helped supply the miners in many of the camps that later became small towns throughout the state.   Hyman and Fred Salomon, two Jewish brothers from Prussia, were leading members of the Denvercommunity by the time statehood was declared.  In addition to their business ventures, they helped organize the Colorado Pioneer Society, the Denver Public Library and the Denver B’nai Brit Lodge.


1879: As reported in the Jewish Messenger, "...About twenty, mostly young men, have formed themselves into a congregation under the name of 'Orach Chaim', Path of Life, their objective being to hold Divine service every day, morning and evening, as well as on Sabbath and holidays on strict orthodox principles, as it has been handed down to them by their fathers."


1880: “A Christian Woman Becomes a Jewess” published today described the conversion ceremony of Mrs. Morse that took place last month in Rochester, NY.


1881: No reason was given today when it was reported that the excursion of Athletic Society of Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem has been postponed until later this month.


1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike continued the Russian Jews had been replaced by Germans as workers at Pier Number 39 of the Pennsylvania Railroad.


1885: John T. Robeson, the U.S. Consul-General in Beirut sent a telegram to the governor-general of Syria protesting the order expelling Mordecai Yitzhak Lubowsky and his brother.  The two Jews were American citizens and the diplomat pointed out that expelling them was a violation of the treaty between the Porte and the United States since it discriminated based on religion.


1885: A well-attended memorial service in honor of the late Sir Moses Montefiore, who was buried on Friday in Ramsgate, England, was held today at the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, on the corner of Eighty-fourth-street and Avenue A in New York.


1887: Today, on his 18th birthday, Morris HIllquist joined the Socialist Labor Party of America.


1889: New York Mayor Hugh Grant received a letter today from Henry M. Leipziger, Director of the Hebrew Technical Institute concerning an exhibit for the upcoming World’s Fair. 


1889: Nine year old Samuel Ehrenstein and five year old Lazarus Ehrenstein were left with Coroner Levy in New York.  A letter said that they were orphans and should be sent to a charitable institution for care


1890: “The British House of Commons” published today describe activities in Parliament including Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sir James Fergusson’s reassurance that he has no proof that the Russian government plans on enforcing any edicts aimed at reducing the rights of Russian Jews.


1890: “In the House of Lords…the Marquis of Salisbury…said he could not confirm reports…of any anti-Jewish edicts by the Russian government.”


1890: New York Congressman Charles Baker asked the Committee on Foreign Affairs to consider “a resolution protesting ‘in the name of humanity, against such inhuman and barbarous acts as the enforcement by Russia of the edict of 1882, against the Jews, requesting the President to transmit, through our representatives in Russia, this protest to the Russian Government.”


1891: It was reported today that U.S. government believes the fact that nothing has been heard from Dr. J.M. Crawford the United States Consul General in St. Petersburg “for a long time past” is “convincing proof” that the Russian government is not contemplating any action to enforce the edicts aimed at depriving the Jews of their rights.


1891: Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham of Washington, DC, representing the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury concerning the immigration Russian Jews to the United States.


!891: Secretary of Treasury Charles Foster wrote to Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham assuring them that the immigration laws would be enforced “efficiently” but “humanely.


1891:  Birthdate of Eliyahu Lulu, who would gain fame as a member of the First Knesset under the name of Eliyahu Hacarmeli.


1891: “The Czar Changes Bankers” published today attributed the Russian government’s decision to move its accounts from the London branch of the House of Rothschild to Messrs. C.J. Hambro & Son to that country’s “attitude toward the Jews.”


1892: Emma Goldman was among those attending the meeting of anarchists held tonight at 193 Bowery.


1892: At a meeting of anarchist of Newark, NJ the speaker praised Alexander Berkman, who had attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike, by saying  “I trust that in the near future we may all become Berkmanns.”


1893: Today is the deadline for all the Jews living in Lifland to sell their property and move into the Pale.


1893: It was reported today that Archbishop Dionysius Latas, a prominent Greek prelate, said that if the subject comes up during his visit to Chicago he intends to express his opposition to the persecution of the Jews.


1893: The body of 76 year old Solomon Heyman who passed away yesterday in Long Branch will be brought to New York City today for burial.


1894: “East Side Roof Gardens” published today described the growth of these popular venues including one that  “the young men of the Hebrew Institute” have established at the building on East Broadway and Jefferson Street. From 9 in the morning until 8 in the evening mothers and their “babes in arms” can sit under the big awning on the roof in attempt to stay cool during the summer heat.


1894:The trial of Jeremiah J. Levy a Jewish policman who has been charged with bribery continued today.


1895: “In The Real Estate Field” published today described the sale of a lot on the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 77th Street by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society for $87,500.


1895: “The Clothing Industry” published today attributed the success in New York of the “industry  for manufacturing clothing” to “cheap labor.”  This labor “has not been made cheap through any effort or design of the manufactures” but is the result of vast number of Russian and Polish Jews who have “forced down the price” of labor.


1896: It was reported today that the Jewish Colonization Company will pay the expenses of 800 Jews to return to Russia from Argentina because they know nothing about farming and are not able to work on the Hirsch colonies that have been established in that country.


1896: Thirty year old Chaim Silberman, a Hebrew school teacher who arrived in the United States last January told the authorities about his harrowing trip to the United States during which 6 of his fellow passengers died of suffocation in a case of “criminal neglect.”


1896: Colonel Eugene Levy and thirty –six year old Marie Melanie Simikins a former school teacher who converted from Catholicism  to Judaism were married today at the mayor’s office.


1898: The body 53 year old Elias Jacobs who had passed away at his country home in Forest, PA was brought to New York City where his funeral will be held.


1898(13thof Av, 5658): Ephriam W. Sells, of Sells Brothers Circus, passed away today in Columbus OH.


1899: “The Jews in Babylon” by William Rainey Harpert was published in Volume 14 of The Biblical World.



1899: Mordecai is scheduled to run in the Sixth Race at Brighton Beach. (No word as to Haman or Esther)


1903: Birthdate of Helena Nordheim, one of five Jewish members of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastics team, which won the Olympic title in Amsterdam in 1928. Forty years later, Helena Kloot- Nordheim, her husband Abraham and her 10-year old daughter Rebecca were gassed at Sobibor.


1905(29thof Tammuz, 5665): Less than a month before his 47th birthday Leo Abram Errera a distinguished Belgian botanist who all wrote Les Juifs Russes: Extermination ou Emancipation?" passed away today in Brussels.


1911: Jews in Peoria, Illinois contribute one thousand dollars to Jews in Turkey suffering from the aftermath of major fires in that country.


1914: Germanydeclared war on Russiain WW I. The Jews of German fought valiantly for the Kaiser in defense of the Fatherland. But the Iron Crosses they earned would not save them or their progeny from the "Austrian Corporal’s Final Solution." According to Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers by Bryan Rigg, “About 10,000 volunteered for duty, and over 100,000 out of a total German-Jewish population of 550,000 served during World War One. Some 78% saw front-line duty, 12,000 died in battle, over 30,000 received decorations, and 19,000 were promoted. Approximately 2,000 Jews became military officers and 1,200 became medical officers.”


1917: In Manhattan, Martha Schallek and Joseph S. Wallenstein gave birth to Herbert Joseph Wallenstein, the Republic political leader who served as Assistant State Attorney general for 20 years starting in 1959.


1918: Joseph Schlossberg, General Secretary Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and Abraham Epstein, President Workmen's Circle were among the leaders of a meeting of a Conference of Trade Unions, Branches of the Workmen's Circle, and other Progressive Labor Organizations of Greater New York scheduled to be held be held in Webster Hall, 119 East 11th Street, for the purpose of organizing the workers into a permanent central body for aiding all persons prosecuted who are in need of help, and of arousing public opinion against the further suppression of constitutional rights and liberties.  The Conference will be held under the auspices of the Liberty Defense Union, and has been endorsed by the United Hebrews Trades and the National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle.


1919: Hungary limited the number of Jews in commerce, law, medicine, and banking. The new definition of a Jew is someone who converted after August 1, 1919. An estimated 5,000 Jews converted to Christianity during the weeks before the law went into effect. 


1919(5th of Av, 5679):Oscar Hammerstein I passed away. Born in 1847 he was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.


1920: Birthdate of Israeli politician Michael Dekel, the native of Pinsk who fought with the Soviet and Polish armies during WW II before making Aliyah in 1949.


1924: Birthdate of Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born French physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1992.


1925: The (Turkish) Palestine Citizenship Ordinance went into effect. It said that any "Turkish subject" in Palestineas of August 1, 1925shall become a Palestinian citizen, unless he opts for Turkish nationality, or nationality of another state.


1926: At Constantinople it was announced that the Jews of Turkey formally renounced their rights as minorities. They would for now on be considered full citizens with equal rights as all citizens have.


1926(21st of Av, 5686): Israel Zangwill passed away. The Russian born, Anglo-Jewish author, Zionist and champion of social justice is best known for two of his works - a novel entitled Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People  a highly successful play entitled The Melting Pot.  Among those who saw and enjoyed this was President Theodore Roosevelt.


1931: Birthdate of Elliott Charles Adnopoz, who became famous as Ramblin' Jack Elliott


1932: Birthdate of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League.


1933:The Deutsche Modeamt, a newly-formed Nazi fashion office, announces that Jewish firms will not be permitted to exhibit in the exhibition of men's and women's wear.


1933: Fritz Rosenfelder, leader and founder of the sports club at Saanstaat, Wurtenberg, commits suicide because he was expelled from the club; in a final letter to his former club colleagues, he wrote: "I am leaving with no hatred. My only wish is that Germany should be restored to reason . . . How more beautifully could I have given my life for my Fatherland."



1933: The Commissariat for Medical Associations issues a decree prohibiting non-Jewish physicians from having any professional contact with Jewish physicians; non-Jewish medical men must not serve as consultants, and must not treat patients recommended to them by Jewish physicians.



1933:The Dutch Society of Sculptors and Artists responds to an appeal on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany by donating many objects of art which will be used in a lottery sanctioned by the Government.


 1936: The report of the Peel Commission was discussed today in Geneva, home of the League of Nations. Poland, Romania and other East European countries, debating the Peel Report on the proposed partition of Palestine, demanded that Great Britain continue to fulfill her obligations under the Mandate. The Arab leadership argued that the rights of the people of Palestine could not be contested and that any partition scheme was contrary to Articles 20 and 31 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. In a contradiction of facts the Arabs did not deny the rights of the Jewish minority in Palestine, and were even prepared to furnish guarantees in this respect, but they unanimously opposed the country's partition and demanded immediate, total independence. But part of the rights of the Jewish community under the terms of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate was to a Jewish Homeland, not citizenship in an Arab country. In South Africa General J.C. Smuts, vice premier and minister of justice, expressed his grave misgivings about the partition scheme in general, and the smallness of the proposed Jewish state in particular. A total rejection of the partition was also the subject of letters written by Colonel J.C. Wedgwood, MP (Member of Parliament), and addressed to the British and world press.


1936: Birthdate of Leonard Steinberg, Baron Steinberg of Belfast, founder of Stanley Leisure Ltd and found and first President of the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel


1936: The Olympics open in Berlin.

1940: Antonio Origo and Iris Cutting Origo an Anglo-Irish writer who helped to save Jewish children through the kindertransport including the painter Frank Helmut Auerbach gave birth to their second child, and first daughter, Donata.


1940: The Nazis begin the expulsion of the Jewish population from Cracow, Poland. One-third would be sent to Warsawand other Polish towns.1942: The first "reliable report" of the Nazi plan to murder all the Jews reached the West. The U.S. State Department suppressed the report for several weeks, until Jews living in the United States heard about the report from other sources. 


1941: Heydrich informed Himmler, “that in the future there will be no more Jews in the annexed EasternTerritories." Every day in every village and town, Jews would be hunted down, molested, tortured, and executed. 


1941(8th of Av, 5701): Another 1,000 Jews were shot in the city of Kishenev. 


1941: The Nazis established The Bialystok Ghetto.


1942: In Danbury, CT, Annette and Lazarus Heyman gave birth to Abigail Heyman “a photographer whose stark portraits of women at work, at home and at weddings gave a visual concreteness to feminist doctrine of the 1970s about the oppressiveness of traditional female roles.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)


1942 (18th of Av, 5702)Rabbi Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz, last Rebbe of the Radomsk dynasty, educator, a director of the Kesser Torah organization, member of the religious council in the Warsaw ghetto was murdered with his family in the Warsaw ghetto


1942:Benjamin Sagalowitz, press secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities phoned Gerhard Riegner with information from an unimpeachable source, a non-Jewish German industrialist, that Hitler had decided to have all European Jews exterminated by means of poison gas by the end of the year.


1943: Rabbi Louis Werfel, a graduate of Yeshiva College and RIETS “was sent to North Africa, where he served as Chaplain with the 12th Air Force Service Command, where his area of operations included Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Sicily.


1944: Anne Frank writes the last entry in her diary.


1944: Fourteen months after the Warsaw Ghetto, the Polish underground rises against the Nazis in Warsaw. Jewish fighters came of hiding to participate in the fight. However, those who could not come to the aide of the Jews in 1943 would now find out what it felt like. The Soviet Army waited outside the city and did not come to their aid. Instead, they let the Nazis slaughter the Poles and then they entered the city as liberating heroes


1945: Birthdate of Douglas Dean Osheroff, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996.  His father was Jewish and his mother was Lithuanian.


1945: Former Senator Guy M. Gillette of Iowa today announced his acceptance of the presidency of the American League for a Free Palestine and the post of chief political adviser to the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation.


Declaring that he considers the "so-called Jewish problem not as a Jewish or a Hebrew question, but as an urgent problem of the United Nations and of the decent portion of mankind," Gillette urged that the Allied Control Commission in Europe recognize the "Hebrew national status" and permit "stateless or Axis Jews" to decide their own status as Hebrew nationals, or stateless, or nationals of Germany, Rumania or Hungary. He also recommended:


1. Freeing of all Jews from Axis concentration camps.


2. Extension of UNRRA relief operations to the Balkan countries where, he charged hundreds of thousands of Jews in Rumania and Hungary, particularly, are starving and have not yet received any UNRRA aid.


3. Addition of Jewish representatives to the United Nations War Crimes Commission.


4. Consideration by the Reparations Commission now meeting in Moscow of the "claims and rights" of surviving Jews, and inclusion of compensation for the losses of the Jewish people.


Gillette said that every Jew in Europe should be authorized "to apply to the nearest British consulate and receive his first papers of Palestinian citizenship." He also suggested the creation of an Anglo-American-Russian committee with adequate powers to effect the speediest repatriation of all such applicants to Palestine. These steps, Gillette asserted, are "essential for the commencement of a solution of the entire problem." Annulment by the new British Government of "discriminatory laws against Jews in Palestine" was likewise demanded by Gillette. (As reported by Jewish Telegraph Agency)


1945: The final Little Boy was assembled and ready to be dropped on Japan.


1946(4th of Av, 5706): In Miskol, Hungry industrial workers stage a pogrom. Two Jews are lynched. This is an example of the post-war anti-Semitic violence that led approximately 4,000 Jews to leave Hungary for Palestine during the next two years.


1949: Warner Brothers releases a spoof about the movie industry – “It’s a Great Feelig” with a screenplay by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson based on a story by I.A.L. Diamond, a score by Jule Styne all of which were brought together by producer Alex Gottlieb.


1953: Birthdate of British born Jewish  historian Martin David Goodman.


1956: The Salk Vaccine, created by Dr. Jonas Salk, becomes available to the American public.


1965: Birthdate of English stage and film director Sam Mendes.  His father was from Trinidad and his mother was an English Jew.


1970: Nobel Prize winner Otto Heinrich Warburg passed away.  Warburg was part of the famed Warburg clan but he was not Jewish.  His father, Emil, had converted to Christianity.


1970:Ensio P.H. Siilasvuo of Finland assumes the role of Chief of Staff United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)


1971(10th of Av, 5731): Tish’a B’Av observed


1979: “Melech Epstein Dead at 90” published today provided a brief account of the life of this former Communist and Jewish author.

1979:Alleged violations by Egypt of its peace treaty with Israel were discussed here today by Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Egypt’s Defense Minister Kamal Hassan Ali who ended his three-day visit to Israel this afternoon. Read more: http://www.jta.org/1979/08/01/archive/israel-complains-to-egypt-about-violations-of-peace-treaty#ixzz2afGP53oc


1979: Following her graduation from rabbinical college in Philadelphia, Linda Joy Holtzman was appointed spiritual leader of the Conservative Beth Israel congregation in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, making her the first female rabbi to head a Jewish congregation in America. 


1980: Egypt said today that it would not suspend the talks with Israel on autonomy for the occupied areas nor would it recall its Ambassador from Israel in response to the passage of an Israeli law formalizing the annexation of Jerusalem.


1980: Two days after the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law, an article entitled “Jerusalem Storm Just One More in a Tortured History” which traced the history of the city from ancient times to the period following the Six Days War was published. The article includes the following: “During the war that followed Israel’s independence in 1948, Jordan seized the eastern sector of Jerusalem…and the new state won control of the western sector.  The Jordanians evicted all Jews from the Old City; from 1948 to 1967 was off limits to Jews and most of the old synagogues there were destroyed.”  (Editor’s note – The author, working for The New York Times, writes about an eastern sector and a western sector of Jerusalem as well as the Old City.  The term “East Jerusalem and, its concept as a separate city, is apparently a more recent creation.) 

1981(1st of Av, 5741): Rosh Chodesh Av


1981: Dr. Donald Payne, the husband of Jessica Savitch, passed away today in Washington, DC.


1981(1st of Av, 5741): Paddy Chayefsky passed away. Born in 1923, Sydney"Paddy" Chayefsky began writing scripts for television during its golden age of drama in the 1950’s. He switched to films where he won three Oscar for writing "Marty", "Hospital" and "Network."

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/02/obituaries/paddy-chayefsky-dead-at-58-playwright-won-three-oscars.html



1985: Birthdate of Benjamin Levin, the son of David Robert Levin


1989: Morton Abramowitz began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey


1991: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir accepted a formula for peace talks in the Middle East


2000: Moshe Katsav was sworn in as President of Israel making him the first person to be elected to a seven year term and the first person from Likud to be elected President.


2002: Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, the daughter of Yitzhak Rabin, resigned as Deputy Minister of Defense.


2003: Jill Abramson, the Washington bureau chief of the New York Times was one two people appointed today to serve as managing editor of the Times.  She “will be managing editor for news gathering.”


2004: The New York Times book section features a review of'Jerome Robbins': From Stravinsky to the Sharks by Nicholas Fox Weber.


2004: In Aspen, CO, Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, Inc. is the headline speaker at United Jewish Communities (UJC) eighth annual Jewish Leadership Forum (JLF)


2004(14th of Av, 5764): Sidney Morgenbesser passed away at the age of 82 from complications of ALS.  Morgenbesser was the Emeritus John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia. He attended JTS and earned a Ph.D. from Penn.  He was known for his erudition and his wit.  David Shatz of Yeshiva University recounted the story of Morgenbesser chastising a faculty member for hiding his Jewishness: “Oh, I see your model is Icognito, ergo sum.”


2005 (25th of Tammuz, 5765):George Forman, a longtime comptroller of the American Civil Liberties Union, who brought fiscal discipline to a ramshackle organization near bankruptcy in the late 1970s and later helped it develop into a powerful civil liberties conglomerate, died today at the age of 88.(As reported by Lily Koppel)

2005: President George W Bush nominated Roland Arnall to become the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands.


2005: A political essay written by Russian businessman and oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in his prison cell, titled "Left Turn", was published in Vedomosti, calling for a turn to more social responsible state.


2005 (25th of Tammuz, 5765): Al Aronowitz passed away at the age of 77.  He was a pioneering journalist who covered the Beat literary scene and engineered a meeting between Bob Dylan and the Beatles that has passed into rock 'n' roll legend.


2005 (25th of Tammuz, 5765):George Forman, a longtime comptroller of the American Civil Liberties Union, who brought fiscal discipline to a ramshackle organization near bankruptcy in the late 1970s and later helped it develop into a powerful civil liberties conglomerate, died today at the age of 88.(As reported by Lily Koppel)

2006(7th of Av, 5766): Skirmishes with Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta al-Shaab left three soldiers, including an officer, of a Paratrooper Brigade unit dead and at least another 25 wounded. The names of the fallen have been released: St.-Sgt. Yehunatan Einhorn, 22, of Moshav Gimzo; First Sergeant Michael Levine, 21, of Jerusalem; and Lieutenant Ilan Gabbai, 22, of Kiryat Tivon.


2006:A number of Jewish-owned stores in Italy had their doors sealed with glue and the shutters nailed down overnight as a response to Israel’s policies in Lebanon


2007: U.S. President George Bush imposed sanctions on Syria today because of the role the Damascus government has played in creating regional instability.


2007: U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice arrives in Jerusalem.


2008:  Solomon "Momy" Levy began serving his term as Mayor of Gibraltar.


2008: Solomon Levy began serving as the Mayor of Gibraltar. 2008: In Falls Church VA (suburban Washington, D.C.), Jewish author Benjamin Rosenbaum reads from and discusses his new collection of SF tales, The Ant King and Other Stories


2009: At Temple Judah, a Triple Header:


  1. Shabbat Nachamu

  2. Rabbi Todd Thalbum officially takes the pulpit at Temple Judah and reads the Torah portion at his first Cedar Rapids Shabbat Morning Service

  3. Raoul Wallenberg Sabbath  Annual  Observance of Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Day (August 4, 2009) which has been proclaimed by the Governor of Iowa for three years in a row. 


2009(11th of Av, 5769):A gunman shot dead two people and wounded at least thirteen others in an attack at a central Tel Aviv gay and lesbian center tonight before fleeing the scene.

2010:The Skirball Cultural Center show "Monsters and Miracles: A Journey through Jewish Picture Books," is scheduled to come to a close today.



2010:Modern Art, Sacred Space: Motherwell, Ferber, and Gottlieb is scheduled to have its final showing at the Jewish Museum,in New York.



2010: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to travel to Egypt today for a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Telling Times:Writing and Living, 1954-2008 by Nadine Gordimer, Running Commentary:The Contentious Magazine That Transformed the Jewish Left Into the Neoconservative Right by Benjamin Balint, Norman Podhoretz: A Biography by Thomas L. Jeffers, High Financer:The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg by Niall Ferguson and Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman


2010:The Jewish Community Center in Omaha welcomed nearly 1,000 young Jewish athletes for an Olympic-style competition that will run through August 6.  This will be the third time in 19 years that the Maccabi Games have been held at the Jewish Community Center.


2010(21 Av, 5770): Eighty-eight year old Reginald Levy, the airline captain who thwarted the hijacking of his Belgian airliner in 1972, passed away.(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

2011: A screening of “Bobby Fischer Against the World,” Liz Garbus’s documentary that takes us on Fischer’s journey from Jewish child prodigy to world chess master to virulent anti-Semite, is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Festival.


2011(1st day of Av, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Av


2011: Today, for the first time, the IDF unveiled a special guided missile system that has been used successfully in action in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

2011: “Kmo Kulam” (Like Everyone Else)  by Elisha Banai and the Forty Thieves was released today.


2011:"Volunticipate," a weeklong encounter that brings together representatives of Jewish and Roma, or Gypsy, youth groups from eight countries begins today in Hungary.

2011:Leaders of the protest for affordable housing who met with President Shimon Peres today found a champion for the cause.  

 

2011: Haaretz’s board of directors has appointed Aluf Benn as the paper’s editor in chief, effective today.

2011: A Kassam rocket was fired at southern Israel from Gaza tonight.

2012: Ninety-two thousand Jews are scheduled to gather in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for the 12th Siyum Hashas.

2012:US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is scheduled to arrive in Israel today to gauge Israel’s determination to attack Iran and to try to persuade Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to give sanctions and diplomacy more time. (As reported by Yaakov Katz)


2012: “Best of Tel Aviv,” celebrating the 40thanniversary of the Tel Aviv University film school, is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012: Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski is scheduled to begin teaching “Simply Mordecai M. Kaplan: From Heretic to Prophet of American Judaism” at the Skirball Center.


2012: Yemen Blues, a group organized by Ravid Kahalani and Omer Avital, is scheduled to perform at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.


2012: In Houston, TX, brit milhah for Joseph Levy (Yosef Label) Strauss, son of Abbie and Feivel Strauss.


2012:Barbara Berger, whose brother, David, was on the Israeli wrestling team in 1972, wrote in Haaretz today that families of the 11 victims of a Palestinian terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics would continue to advocate for a formal moment of silence at the Olympics, despite the refusal of the International Olympics Committee to allow such a moment this year, the massacre’s 40th anniversary. (As reported by JTA and The Times of Israel)


2012:In some respects, today was a historic turning point for Israel — the day on which ultra-Orthodox Israelis became officially subject to the draft along with the rest of the country’s Jewish citizens.

2012:Yakov Toumarkin today became only the second Israeli swimmer to reach the final of an Olympic event by finishing fifth in the semifinal of the men's 200m backstroke event.

2012(13th of Av, 5772): Eighty-five year old New York Times editor Gerald Gold passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2012(13th of Av, 5772): Seventy-four year old Esther Kartiganer who played on the undefeated women’s Brandies University basketball team and was a senior producer at “60 Minutes” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

2013: “Soldier on the Roof,” a documentary about the Jews living in Hebron, is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival today.


2013: “Crossing Delancey” is scheduled to be shown this evening at the “Only In New York Summer Film Series.”

This Day, August 2, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 2 In History

338 BCE:  A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean. Phillip was the father of Alexander Great.  His victory paved the way for Alexander’s conquests which had a major impact on the Jewish people of which we are reminded each year when we celebrate Chanukah.


1222: Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence passed away. “He was so sympathetic to the Jews that Pope Innocent III caused him to take an oath ‘that he would deprive the Jews of their offices and that he would never appoint any Jews or in any way favor them.’”


1389: Catholic Archdeacon and Jew hater Ferran Martinez is denied the right to act as a judge or to preach after refusing to follow an order of the Pope.  The Archbishop of Seville issued this strong punishment because Martinezrefused to issue permits for Jews to build new synagogues, in accordance with the wishes of the Pope.


1492: According to some sources this day marked the beginning of the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain.  According to tradition it was Tisha B’Av on the Jewish calendar.


1579(10th of Av): Joseph Nasi, duke of Naxos, passed away.

1589: King Henry III of France passed away. Before he was King of France, as Henry of Anjou he was elected as the first King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  He owed this victory to a Jew named Solomon Ashkenazi who was the principle adviser to the Emperor of the Ottoman Empire.


1675: The "Great Synagogue" was inaugurated in Amsterdam on Rapenburgerstraat. This was a Sephardic synagogue, home to K.K. Talmud Torah, which was a union of Congregations Neveh Shalom founded in 1608 and Bet Yisrael found in 1618.



1696:  Birthdate of Mahmud I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In 1739, Mahmud signed the Treaty of Belgrade that gave citizenship rights to the Ottoman Jews.  Austrian Jews were so impressed with the grant of rights that many of them applied for citizenship in Mahmud’s empire.


1784(11th of Av): Rabbi Simcha ben Abraham, poet and linguist, passed away


 

1790: The United States conducts its first census.  Out of a population of four million people, there are approximately 2,000 Jews.


 

1819: An anti-Semitic riot breaks out in the city of Wurzberg.  It will be the first in string of such violent actions to plague the Jews of Germany. The violence which lasted until October of 1891 was known as The Hep-Hep Riots taken from the rallying cry of the anti-Semitic rioters.  Nobody seems to know the true origin of the term.


1853: Samuel Joseph Rubenstein, a Jew who arrived from Russian in 1829, was naturalized as a citizen of the United Kingdom.


1865: Birthdate of Antoine Targe, the native of Saint-Chamond whose investigation in 1903 during the Dreyfus Affair, “established the fact that several forgeries still existed in the War Ministry's offices, that some documents had clearly been altered, that there were erroneous commentaries, that exonerating documents had been hidden, and that others were "receptacles for every sort of gossip from dismissed servants and malicious concierges." He would ensure that these documents were available to the Court of Cassation when it considered the fate of Dreyfus.


1866:The New York Times quotes the Aroostook Pioneeras saying that a religious movement is forming in Maine with the intent of immigrating to Jerusalem. A ship is being fitted out at Jonesport which should be ready to sail by the middle of next month. Land has already been purchased near Jaffa where the immigrants plan on making their home. [Ed. Note - the article does not mention if any Jews were involved or note.]


1870: The report that police had apprehended the person responsible for the murder of prominent New York businessman Benjamin Nathan has turned out to be nothing more than an unfounded rumor.  The police are continuing to vigorously investigate the murder but will not take any action against any individual until they are absolutely sure of their facts.


1873: “Life in Bohemia” published today provides an anecdotal account of conditions in this part of central Europe.  The section “The Jews” described the contempt that many of the Bohemians have for the Jews, which the author compares to that which Brian de Bois Guilbert had for Isaac of York and the other Jews of England in the novel Ivanhoe. Conditions are not better for the Jews of the newly created nation of Romania where Jews have been forbidden to take part in the newest commercial ventures.


1878: Mrs. Josephine Lewinski, the wife Phillip Lewinski, a member of the Lowery gang of counterfeiters applied for alimony and legal fees as part of the divorce proceedings she has brought against her notorious husband.


1878(3rd of Av: Shiye Mordecai Lifshits passed away


1879: “Caring For The Sick Poor” published today traced the history of medical facilities in New York including the founding of Mount Sinai Hospital by the Jews in 1852.


1879: In New York, Detectives Fogarty and Handy arrested a Jew named Louis Pollard because he had some shoes in his possession that matched the description of shoes stolen last September.  Pollard first claimed that he had bought the shoes at an auction but later said he got the shoes from a woman named Lena Bezona. She was arrested and Pollard was released.
 
1879: The Medal of Honor was issued to David Orbansky for “his gallantry in action” at the Battle of Shiloh.


1883: Troops were called out to disperse rioters who attacked the Jews living in Ekaterinoslav, Russia.


1884: Twenty three year old Solomon Rintel, a Hungarian born fresco painter living in New York was seen alive for the last time as he retired to his room at boarding house on 6th Street.


1886(1st of Av, 5646): Rosh Chodesh Av


1888: Poor youngsters and their mothers will have the chance to enjoy a free excursion today sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children


1890: “The Jewish Persecutions” published today described the Marquis of Salisbury, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom speech in the House Of Lords in which he assured those present “that there were no gronds for dreading a wholesale invasion of Great Britain of pauper Jews from Russia.”


1890: It was reported today that New York Congressman Charles S. Baker has expressed his concern for the fate of Russian Jews by asking the Foreign Affairs Committee to report favorably on a resolution calling on the President to intervene on their behalf.


1890: The government in Berlin has sent orders to the frontier customs posts to watch for the threatened migration of Jews from Russia in response to the new edicts promulgated by the Czar’s government.


1891: It was reported today that Hartog Veld who has been serving as a Rabbi in Troy, NY is moving to Montreal to serve another congregation in Canada.


1892: Birthdate of movie mogul Jack Warner. Born in Canada, Warner and his four brothers founded Warner Brothers, which became a giant in the film industry. Among other claims to fame Warner Brothers produced "The Jazz Singer," the first "talking" motion picture. Some of his stars included Bette Davis, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Warner was known for his frugality and was not necessarily that well liked. At one point his son and namesake said of his dad, "At times he gloried in being a no-good sonofabitch. If his brothers hadn't hired him, he'd have been out of work."


1892: “Wild Anarchist Talk” published today described a meeting attended by “300 wild-eyed, unshaven, unclean and foul-mouthed men and about a score of hard-featured cigarette-smoking young women” that was addressed by Emma Goldman who, speaking in German praised the man who had attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.


1892: “This Fellow Praised Berkmann” published today described a meeting of anarchist that met in a Newark, NJ neighborhood “populated almost entirely by Russian Jews…and the lower class of Germans.” (This was one of several meetings held to cheer Alexander Bermkimann, the Jewish anarchist who had attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, the business leader whose exploitative behavior led to the infamous Homestead Steel Strike)



1894: The prosecution completed presenting its case against Jeremiah S. Levy, the Jewish policeman charged with having accepted a bribe from Charles Krumm, “the Chrystie Street concert hall keeper for permitting him to” operate his business “without a license.”


1895: “The Children And The Streets” published today described the visit of Colonel Waring to the Hebrew Institute where he told the immigrant children about the importance of their work in keeping cleaning the streets.


1896: Colonel Eugene H. Levy and his bride Marie have gone to Old Point Comfort for their honeymoon. Levy is a journalist who served with the Confederates during the Civil War.  His wife is a former school teacher who converted to Judaism before the wedding.



1896: It was reported today that Morris Lerner and Levi Milrod have retained Stiefel and Lauer to sue the owners of the SS Herman, the German steamship on which their sons Joseph Lerner and David Milrod who died as a result of their mistreatment while sailing to the United States


1899: “Boers Remain Intolerant” published today described the Volksraad’s decision to reject President Krueger’s proposal to allow Jews and Catholics to have the franchise. (These are the progenitors of the people who created Apartheid in South Africa)



 

1903: Opening of the Bank Leumi’s first branch in Turkish Jaffa.


 

1911: In Great Britain, Alderman Henry Hart completes his jubilee of service on the Canterbury Council.


1913: An article entitled SOCIALISTS CAPTURE FIRE PROTEST RALLY; Rose Schneiderman Turns a Fire Prevention Meeting to Their Purposes published today While a number of well-known men, including Amos R. Pinchot, William Jay Schieffelin, Henry Moscowitz, and the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant, were listed as patrons and possible speakers at a fire-prevention mass meeting held at the north end of Union Square yesterday at noon, they were conspicuously absent from the speakers' platform when the meeting was called to order.


1913: Noble prize winning physicist Max Born married Martha E., née Ehrenberg. She had Jewish ancestors on her father’s side but was raised as a Lutheran.  This may help explain why born converted to that sect of Christianity in 1914.


1918: Birthdate of Irving Harold Franklin, the native of Brockton, MA, who is credited with creating the modern glove worn by major league baseball players when they are at bat. (As reported by Douglas Martin)


1918: During a debate in the House of Lords, “the subject of Sir Edgar Speyer’s membership on the Privy Council Sir was brought up by Lord Lincolnshire” who condemned his “brutal and insolent German manner.”  [Editor’s Note – Considering what would happen in 30 years, there it is ironic to hear the Jewish Speyer being condemned for being a German.]


1919: Birthdate of Nehmiah Persoff, the Jerusalem native who became famous as an American actor appearing in numerous films and television series.


1920: Birthdate of Eliyahu Moyal, MK  who served as a community leader in his native Sale, Morocco before making Aliyah in 1945.


 

1922: Birthdate of Eugene Hirsch Kummel,chairman and chief executive of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, McCann Erickson Worldwide. “Under Mr. Kummel’s leadership, McCann Erickson created memorable television commercials like Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ campaign in the 1970s and, several years later, the Miller Lite campaign, ‘Everything you always wanted in a beer, and less,’ with personalities like George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin arguing, ‘Tastes great, Less filling.’”


1922(8th of Av, 5682): Erev Tish'a B'Av


1922(8th of Av, 5682):Emil Ganz, a businessman and three-time mayor of Phoenix, Arizona., passed away.  The son of German Jews, he was a self-professed atheist.


1923:  After falling ill, Warren Harding the 29th President of the United States passes away.  During his brief tenure, Harding’s record regarding Jews and Jewish issues was mixed.  He signed an immigration bill that was based on national origin quotas which put greatly limited Jewish immigration to the United States.  On the other hand, he appointed famous Chicago advertising man Albert Lasker as Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board.  Under his tenure, the U.S. Merchant Marine was reorganized and improved.  In 1922, Harding signed a congressional Joint Resolution “favoring the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people.”


1923 (20 Av, 5683): Birthdate of Shimon Peres.


1924: A group of 12 settlers of Ashkenazi origin who received a plot of land from Yehoshua Hankin found Magdiel which would merge with Ramatayim, Hadar and Ramat Hadar in 1964 to form Hod HaSharon.


1924: The first issue of the Saturday Review of Literature appeared. This famous literary publication was formed by Amy Lovemean and three colleagues who had worked together on The New York Evening Post. Loveman was listed as an associate editor. She remained at the Saturday Review for three decades, becoming the magazine's poetry editor in 1950. In the first two decades alone, she wrote close to 800 items for the Review. These included editorials, reviews, and answers to readers' questions. Born in 1881, Amy Loveman shaped the literary choices of generations of readers through her work with two important institutions: The Saturday Review and the Book-of-the-Month Club. Educated at BarnardCollege, where she earned a B.A. in 1901, Loveman's first literary work was as an assistant to an uncle who was revising The New International Encyclopedia. From that job, she moved to the New York Evening Post, where she became a book reviewer and then associate editor of the newspaper's literary review. In addition to her work at the Saturday Review, Loveman played an important role in the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she joined the reading committee soon after its founding in 1926. In 1939, she became head of the Club's editorial department, a job she balanced with her ongoing work at the Review. In this role, she helped to select books for the Club as well as writing frequent reviews herself. In 1951, she joined the Club's editorial board. Loveman's compelling writing style and devotion to literature were recognized by several awards. In 1946, she received both the Columbia University Medal for Excellence and the Constance Lindsay Skinner Achievement Award of the Women's National Book Association. Loveman died in 1955.


1926: The American Jewish Congress cabled a message of condolence to Mrs. Israel Zangwill over the death of her husband.  The cablegram was signed by Carl Sherman, Acting Chairman and Bernard G. Richards, Executive Secretary.  Dr. Stephen Wise, the President of the AJC is England and is expected to represent the organization at the funeral.


1926: Birthdate of Betsy Bloomingdale of department store fame.  Her husband was part of President Regan’s kitchen cabinet and she was a close friend of Nancy.


1929(25th of Tammuz, 5689): Seventy-one year old George W. Seligman, the son of the late Joseph Seligman who was one of the founders of the Seligman banking house, passed away today.


1931: Einstein urges all scientists to refuse military work.


1932: “Lillian Copeland set new world and Olympic records in discus, with a throw of 133 feet, 1 5/8 inches, winning a gold medal.

 

1933: In Vilna,Ministry of Education announces that the Yiddish secondary school and the Hebrew gymnasium have been granted equality with the governmental high schools, and

will therefore have the right to issue university admission certificates to their students.



1933. The Ministry of Justice announces that Jewish students engaged in the study of law or economics will not be permitted to take the final examinations in Prussia, if they intend to become lawyers or university teachers.


1933: In a public address to foreign diplomats and journalists Dr. Anzesoria, Bolivian minister to Germany, indicates that his Government is prepared to open its doors to German emigrants, provided the German Government is ready to negotiate the transfer.


1933: Der Angriff, a newspaper owned by Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment carries a story that Jews are organizing themselves into military units to "attack Germany at the first opportunity."



1933 The Breslauer Judengemeindeblatt is closed down by the Nazi state president "in the interest of public security."


1934: Eight-six year old Paul von Hindenburg, the President of Germany passed away. Hindenburg’s death paved the way for Hitler, who was the Chancellor to consolidate power and rule as the Fuhrer.  When it became obvious that Germany had lost the World War in 1918 Hindenburg adroitly shifted the responsibility from the General Staff to the civilians who would become the leaders of the Weimer Republic.  In this way he helped to create the myth that Germany had not been defeated but had been stabbed in the back by traitors at home including the Jews.  This lie help to pave the way for the rise of the Nazis.


1938(5th of Av, 5698):Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky, an old line Bolshevik best known as the man who organized the execution of Czar Nicholas II.


1939: Eugene Wigner introduced Leó Szilárd to Albert Einstein; a meeting which further the cause of getting America to develop the Atomic Bomb ahead of the Axis.


1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. Einstein’s support was critical to getting Roosevelt’s support for what would become "The Manhattan Project." (What a difference eight years can make.)


1941: The Jews were ordered expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia.


1941(9th of Av, 5701): Over 200 Jews were shot in Kovno on Shabbat.


1942: After twelve days, approximately 75,000 Jews had been deported to the death camp at Treblinka. 


1942: A large group of Jews who were trapped under Spanish and German rule in Morocco sent an eloquent appeal for help to the AJDC in New York. "Gentlemen, please excuse our daring attitude in addressing this pathetical letter to you, in our distressful hour; but it is written in the Talmud, 'when trouble comes upon Israel like a rushing stream, look for someone to help you.'." 


1943: Harpers announced that Geoffrey Bles, Ltd will release the English edition of Bella Fromm’s Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary which was published last year in the United States.


1943: Led by a small group of prisoners using primitive weapons and pistols, inmates at Treblinka attacked the guards and burned down the barracks. Between 300 and 500 prisoners escaped although most of them were either captured or turned over by Polish peasants. Though the revolt did not stop all activities, the German government decided to liquidate the camp, which it did in October. [Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of those slaughtered at the camp.]


1943: Birthdate of Uzi Landau, the native of Haifa who served with the IDF, graduated from the Technin and earned a PhD from MIT before entering the Knesset and holding several ministerial positions.


1944: A handful of Jewish survivors of the Kovno ghetto - including Rabbi Efrayim Oshri, author of Responsa from the Holocaust - emerged from hiding. Rabbi Oshri was one of several Rabbis who wrote answers to those with troubling ethical dilemmas growing out of life under the Nazis.  To some, such behavior might seem ludicrous when you consider the conditions.  To others, it is a tribute to the vitality of Judaism and even a form of resistance.


1944(13thof Av, 5704):Eleazer Silas Kadoorie, known as Sir Elly Kadoorie part of the Kadoorie family, a “tribe” of Jews who made their way from Baghdad, to Bombay to Shanghai passed away after having been freed from the Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong.


1944: Felix Nussbaum, the surrealist painter and his wife arrived at Auschwitz.


1945: Birthdate of Alan F. Segal the Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College and author of Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion.


1945: Birthdate of U.S. Army Colonel Jack Howard Jacobs who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Viet Nam War.


1945: The Potsdam Conference, the meeting of the leaders of the Big Three – U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R. – comes to an end.  Among other things the leaders agreed to the complete denazification of Germany and the prosecution of war criminals.


1947: The Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival which were carrying the passengers forced off of the SS Exodus arrived at Port-de-Bouc near Marseilles where “the French Government said it would allow disembarkation…only if it was voluntary on the part of the passengers.”


1948: Hilda (née Friedfeld) and Max Prager gave birth to Dennis Prager


1951(29th of Tamuz, 5711):Heinrich Loewe a German born journalist, publicist, folklorist, linguist, philosopher, librarian and political figure passed away in Tel Aviv.


1945: Birthdate of Alan F. Segal, “a leading scholar known for his comparative studies of how religions view the afterlife.”


1948: Birthdate of Dennis Prager.  While he is Jewish, this popular author and talk show host is a major proponent of a Judaeo- Christian culture and ethic. 


1948: “The Israeli Government proclaimed the areas of Jerusalem under Israeli control to be Israeli-occupied territory and appointed Bernard Joseph as Military Governor.


1949: Under a plan of the new Israeli government, part of the old city of Beersheba will be flooded as a 500-acre water reservoir for the projected new Negev city on the heights overlooking Beersheba. The reservoir would be formed by damming the Wadi Saba, rocky watercourse through which 10,000,000 cubic meters of rainwater sweep into the Mediterranean every winter.


1951: Birthdate of Andrew Gold, a musical wizard who played backup with Linda Ronstadt before embarking on career of his own that included recording hits like “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)


1957:British oil interests were warned today that they might forfeit ownership of their refinery plants in Haifaif they suspended operations in Israel.


1967: Birthdate of professional tennis star Aaron Krickstein


1970: Birthdate of Colorado native and PGA tour member Jonathan Andrew Kaye


1972: Catcher Bob Yeager made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers.


1979: “Gilda Radner Live From New York” opens on Broadway.


1980:Egypt has asked for at least a temporary postponement of the talks with Israel and the United States on autonomy for the occupied areas to give the two countries time to respond to President Anwar el-Sadat's protest...


1981: The funeral of playwright and three-time Academy Award Winner Paddy Chayefsky is scheduled to take place at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.


1986(26th of Tammuz, 5746):  Roy Cohn passed away. Born in 1927, Cohn gained fame (or notoriety) as the counsel for the McCarthy Hearings. He portrayed himself as a rabid anti-Communist. Ironically, it was his high jinks with David Schine that helped to lead to McCarthy’s downfall and his loss of power. 


1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to conflict with coalition forces in the Gulf War.


1990(11th of Av, 5750):Lucy Goldschmidt Moses, a philanthropist, passed away today at the age of 103. (As reported by Joan Cook)



1992: Birthdate of American actress Hallie Kate Eisenberg.


1992(3rd of Av, 5752): French singer and songwriter Michel Berger died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 44.



1997:Lady in the Dark,” a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart, is performed for the last time at the Royal National Theatre in London.


1998(10th of Av, 5758): Tish'a B'Av (The 9th of Av fell on Shabbat)


1998(10th of Av, 5758): Television puppeteer Shari Lewis passed away. Born Shari Hurwitz in 1933, Lewis is best remember for her creations – Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and the ever-popular Lamb chop.



1998: The New York Times featured a review of A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey From the Inner City to the Ivy League by Jewish author Ron Suskind


2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that an Israeli financial consortium announced that two Spanish companies were joining the group in preparing a bid for a massive desalinization project.  The need for new supplies of fresh water is critical to the growth of the Israeli economy and the survival of the Jewish state.


2005: Haaretz reported that Tunisia is the new hotspot for Israeli tourists.


2006(8th of Av, 5766):Some 210 rockets and missiles were launched toward northern communities - the largest number since the beginning of the fighting. Dave Lalchuk, 52, of Kibbutz Sa'ar, was killed and 16 others were wounded, three moderately, in the attacks, as Jews begin to prepare for the observance of Tisha B’Av.


2007(18th of Av, 5767): Frank Rosenfelt, a top movie executive at studios including MGM passed away at the age of 85. One of his proudest moments was the acquisition of the movie rights for “Dr. Zhivago.”  One of his biggest disappointments was the failure of the 1976 film “Network” to win the Oscar for Best Picture. (As reported by Douglas Martin)\



2008: In Cedar Rapids, at Temple Judah Triple Header Shabbat Morning Service


  1. Rosh Chodesh Av

  2. Completion of Bamidbar

  3. Observance of Raoul Wallenberg Day (actual date is August 4, 2008 by proclamation of the Governor of the State of Iowa


2009: Cantor Jacob Chomsky of Tifereth Israel sings the National Anthem as part of Jewish Community Day during a Columbus Clippers’ home game.


2009: The Los Angeles Times features books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, the Brazilian-Jewish author, by Benjamin Moser


2009:Two Arab families were evicted from Jewish-owned homes in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood of Jerusalem this morning. The evictions took place following a Supreme Court ruling in which the court found in favor of Jewish families who claimed ownership of homes in the area.


2009: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Judas by Susan Gubar.


2009(12thof Av, 5769): Seventy-five year old journalist and author Sidney Zion passed away. (As reported by Robert McFadden)



2009(12thof Av, 5769):Seventy-one year old Michael A. Wiener, broadcasting mogul and patron of the arts passed away.(As reported by Geraldine Fabrikant)



2010: “Ahead of Time,” a documentary about author, journalist and photographer Ruth Gerber is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2010:The “First Jewish Women's Music Festival” is scheduled to begin at Falls Village, CT.


2010:A huge explosion destroyed the home of a senior Hamas commander and injured 24, Palestinians reported today. Palestinians said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike, but this has been denied by the IDF.


2010:Palestinian militants fired five rockets into the Israeli port city of Eilat with one of them landing in nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba, flaring up tensions in the Middle East anew. Though there were no immediate reports of casualties from the beach resort of Eilat, five persons were injured; four of them seriously, when one of the rockets strayed off course and hit the Jordanian city of Aqaba.


2011: “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” “a riveting portrait of the man who transformed Yiddish from a vernacular language into a literary one” and “The Hangman,”a fascinating and complex portrait of Shalom Nagar, a Yemeni Jew, who as a young man worked as prison guard and was the execution of Adolf Eichmann.



2011(2ndof Av, 5771): Einat Tavori, an Israeli traveling during a break from medical school in Hungary, passed away today after she fell off a cliff while hiking in the mountainous Parvati Valley region of northern India.



2011(2ndof Av, 5771): Ninety year old Nobel Prize winning immunologist Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, passed away. (As reported by Denise Gellene)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/us/03benacerraf.html



2011: The 2011 Security Briefing for Jewish Institutions is scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.  Scheduled presenters included local police commanders and senior FBI security personnel.



2011:The IDF spokesperson confirmed today that the air force attacked several targets in Gaza overnight, including a smuggling tunnel in the southern Strip and a terrorist center in the north.


2011:Today Israel's Supreme Court issued an unprecedented ruling ordering the state to dismantle the largest illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank by April 2012.


2011:A senior officer in the Israeli Navy said today that terrorists groups close to Israel are in possession of missiles capable of hitting all Israeli ports and offshore infrastructure such as oil rigs. Brigadier General Yaron Levi, the Navy's intelligence chief, spoke about the matter on today at a conference in Tel Aviv University that focused on the naval theater


2011: In “Shame on Me, and Your for Taking Pleasure in It,” Dwight Garner reviewed Humiliationby Wayne Koestenbaum.


2012: “The Moon is Jewish” is among the movies scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012: “Fiddler on the Roof” with Cantor Joel Colman in the title role is scheduled to open in a production sponsored by Tulane University’s Summer Lyric Theatre.



2012: Israel’s Counterterrorism Bureau warned Israeli citizens to leave Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula immediately. “We possess information that Gaza terror groups and others are planning attacks on Israeli tourists in the immediate future,” the government agency said in a statement released today.



2012: Swimmer Yakov Toumarkin provided Israeli sports with a moment of history in an otherwise disappointing day of setbacks at the London Olympics today. The 20-year-old recorded the best ever result for an Israeli swimmer at the Olympics by ending the 200- meter backstroke final in seventh place in a time of 1:57.62 minutes.



2013: “Dancing in Jaffa” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013:“The Bible in the Iberian World: Fundaments of a Religious Melting Pot” is scheduled to come to an at Leipzig, Germany


2013: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to open at theatres in Rochester, Richmond, Spokane and Madison, Wisconsin


2013: A revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” is scheduled to premiere tonight at the Starlighters Theatre in Anamosa, Iowa.

This Day, August 3, In Jewish HIstory by Mitchell A. Levin

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AUGUST 3 In History

8 C.E.: Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus. As the stepson of Augustus, Tiberius would become Caesar four years after this victory.  Tiberius did appoint Pontius Pilate as the procurator of Judea.  On the other hand, he did have the good sense to overrule Pilate when the Jews of Jerusalem complained that he had desecrated the city by bringing inscribed shields into the Jewish capital. Tiberius’ inconsistent treatment of the Jews was consistent with the moody behavior of the Roman ruler who would have much preferred to serve as a general.


435: Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II exiled the deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, to a monastery in Egypt.  Nestorianism was a form of Christianity that challenged the orthodoxy of its time and presented a political threat to the Roman Empire. Theodosius, like Constantine used the Christian religion as part of his political power base.  Therefore, it is not surprising to note that this is the same Theodosius II who issued Anti-Judaic laws in 438 that “forbade the Jews to accede to any public task,” made proselytism a capital crime and denied Jews the right to build new synagogues or “to embellish the old ones.”


1399: Thanks to the efforts of an apostate named Pesach-Peter a large number of Jews in Prague are arrested and imprisoned.  Lipmann (Tab-Yomi) of Muhlhaussen, the German scholar versed in Torah, Talmud as well as the New Testament, which he had read in Latin was among the victims. 


1492: Columbus set sail for the New World. There is an entry in Columbus' diary noting the expulsion of Jews from Spainright before he set sail. He was accompanied by Luis de Torres who is considered to be the first Jew to arrive in the “New World.” 


1492: Jews depart Spainunder orders of expulsion from the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand.


1603: Fra Diogo da Assungao, a Franciscan friar became attracted to Judaism. He was burnt at the stake for refuting the Inquisition, at age twenty-five.



1766: Birthdate Rabbi Aron Chorin, the Hungarian born Rabbi who would become a center of controversy for his non-conformists views about Judaism and support for some of the views connected with the new-born Reform Movement.


1770: Birthdate of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, the reactionary monarch who would undo the reforms of the Napoleonic period and repudiate the Edict of 1812 that had elevated the civil status of the kingdom’s Jews.


1797: The emperor of Bohemia ordered that Jews, who volunteered for army service, should be allowed to marry outside the restricted quota of marriage of Jews. 


1806: Joseph David Sinzheim completed answering the questions that had been laid before the Assembly of Notables to the satisfaction of the French government officials.


1856: Birthdate of Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia.  In 1905, Deakin appointed Isaac Alfred Isaacs to the position of Attorney General, making him the first Jew to serve in that post. The following year, Deakin scored another “first” for the Jewish people when henamed Isaacs as a Justice to the High Court of Australia, 


1857: Today’s “Foreign Correspondence” column reports that the second reading of the Jew Bill has passed by an immense majority.



1857:Lord John Russell’s call for a Select Committee to inquire as to how far a certain act of Parliament that dispensed with the use of the words in the oath which excluded Jews from the House would go was agreed to.



1857: Handbills were posted in Goldsboro ordering all Germans and Jews to leave Goldsboro, NC by August 4, 1857.



1860: Today, in Boston, Louis Goldenberg, a jeweler by trade, informed his neighbors that he was lonely and he was to visit his wife who had gone to the country. Louis Goldenberg aged 55, was a German Jew, born in Russia, who had lived in the United States for the last ten year and had been employed by Currier & Trott as a watch repairer for the last six years. For the last several months Mr. Goldenberg had been engaged in a series of swindles in which at least six prominent jewelers were victimized to the tune of $5,000 in losses..  Mr. Goldenberg’s “visit to his wife in the country” was actually his getaway.

1864(1st of Av, 5624): Rosh Chodesh Av



1870: The Toledo Blade reported that Bennett Scope has been hung after being convicted of murdering a Jewish peddler named Jacob Goodman.  Goodman had befriended his co-religionist Scope who had only recently arrived in this country, giving him money and employment. Although Scope protested his innocence to the end, the jury believed that the motive for the murder had been greed. Rabbi Mayer of Cleveland had unsuccessfully appealed to the governor of Ohio to spare his life.  Mayer was with Scope at the execution.





 



 





 





 



 




 



1873: “Death of an Eminent Hebrew” published today memorialized the life of the late Sir David Salomons the Jewish banker who was leader in the fight for Jews to received full rights of citizenship.  It recounted his struggle which finally led to him serving as the Sheriff of London and sitting in the House of Commons. Described as an able and amiable man who was a generous benefactor to a variety of charities, readers were reminded that Prime Minister Gladstone had advised the Queen to “create him as a baronet,” a hereditary title that now passes to his nephew.



http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9806EFDE1239EF34BC4B53DFBE668388669FDE



 



1873: It was reported today, that out of the approximately 320 religious “newspapers” listed in Rowell’s American Newspaper Directory, nine are Jewish as compared with the 47 published by the Methodists.



http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940DE0DE1239EF34BC4B53DFBE668388669FDE



 



 



1878: Solomon Goldsmith of San Francisco received a cable today from Louis Goldsmith of New York stating that Michael Reese, a successful Jewish businessman and civic benefactor had died suddenly while visiting the Bavarian town of Wallerstein.



1879: In keeping with generally accepted practice, a Jew named Adolph D. Pollack sold cigars and neckties to customers in White Plains, NY.  His action would lead to litigation challenging the violation of so-called “Blue Laws.”


1882: As the Tisza-Eszlar affair came to a climax, a Hungarian jury acquitted the Jewish defendants of murder charges touching off anti-Jewish riots in Budapest.


1883: The anti-Semitic riots continued for another day at Ekaterinoslav, Russia.


1883: A woman and her two children burned to death in a cabin belonging to Ivan M. Lotowski at the Jewish Colony in Estillville, NJ.


1884: The body of Solomon Rintel, a 23 year old Hungarian Jew who worked as fresco painter, was found today in the room he was renting at 403 Sixth Street in New York.  It appears the Rinel took his own life.


1884: Birthdate of composer Louis Gruenberg.  Born near Brest Litovsk Poland, Gruenberg immigrated to the United States.  He was one of several Jewish composers, including George and Ira Gershwin, who incorporated African-American themes in their musical works.

1886: Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill became his party’s leader in the House of Commons. Churchill was also the cousin of Colonel Charles Henry Churchill who while serving as British diplomat in the Middle East in the middle of the 19th century “declared his support for Jewish restoration of sovereignty over Palestine.”


1889:  In Ulster County, NY, a group of ruffians known as the “Yellowstone Cowboys,” armed with pistols and bowie knives forced their way into a boarding house owned by J. Epstein, Jewish innkeeper in Saugerties, chased out the guests and demanded to be fed dinner.  They departed after about an hour.


1890: “Hebrew, Israelite and Jew” published today which relies on information first published in the Hebrew Journal described the origins of these three terms which today are used in the following manner: “Hebrew refers to race, Israelite refers to the nation, Jews to the religion.”


1890: “Expected Migration of Jews” published today described the impact of new regulations of the Czar’s government which “will tend to drive vast bodies…of Jews who are settled in the frontier provinces” from the country.  “The dread of wholesale transportation to Siberia for failure to observe the edicts will impel the flight westward of many thousands of Jews.”  Jewish leaders in Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort have communicated with Jewish leaders in London “for the purpose of preparing” to provide relief for their “distressed” co-religionist.


1890: “An Empire’s Young Chief” published today provides a description of the young Kaiser’s Germany including the fact “that a very large proportion of  Germany’s present authors are Jews and radicals which gives the contemptuous attitude of the dominant Berlin classes toward literature a decided political twist.”


1891: In Paris, a conference of French Jews approved the plans of Baron Hirsh “for the amelioration of the condition of the destitute” Jews which will require “the cooperation of the Jews in Europe and America” in organizing the emigration of the Jews from Russia.


1894(1st of Av, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Av


1894: The attorney for Jeremiah S. Levy the Jewish police officer accused of taking bribes began presenting testimony “in defense of his client” after the Judge denied his motion for acquittal on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to “prove its case.”


1894(1stof Av, 5654): Twenty-seven year old Adolph Hobart Henriques passed away today. He is the son of Solomon Nunes Henriques who passed away 20 years ago.


1895: “Sponging Houses” published today described the different literary treatment of these temporary quarters for English debtors including that found in Henrietta Temple a love story by the Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli.


1895: Third base man Ike Samuels makes his major league debut with the St. Louis Browns.


1898: The funeral for fifty three year old Elias Jacobs who had been realtor and “engage in the clothing business for 21 years” is scheduled to take place at nine o’clock this morning at his home on East 80th Street.


1899: The funeral for 55 year old Samuel Firuski who has worked in the auctioneering and storage business in Brooklyn for the last 22 years are scheduled to be held today at Temple Israel in Brooklyn


1899: “Topics of the Times” published today described life among the Boers who are fighting the British including the decision of their Parliament to deny Jews and Catholics which shows these rebels to be something other than advocates for “toleration and progress.”


1910(27th of Tammuz, 5670): The former Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Moise Levy, passed away in Constantinople at the age of 89.


1911(9th of Av, 5671):Tish'a B'Av


1914: During WWI, Germanydeclares war against France, while Turkeydeclares itself neutral.   During the war, Jews from around the world came to help the French, including 600 Turkish Jews (as well as Jews from other Ottoman territories) signed up with the French Foreign Legion to help in the battle against the Germans.


1915: Edith Cavell a British nurse was arrested in Belgium and charged with harboring Allied soldiers. Sadi Kirschen, the father of Claude-Anne Lopez, would be chosen to serve as her defense attorney.


1916: During World War I, Allied armies defeat the Ottomans at the Battle of Romani.  This victory by British led forces helped lead to the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of the Mandate that incorporated the terms of the Balfour Declaration.


1917: Samuel Gompers, speaking on behalf of organized labor in America, announced that he and his organization would not be attending the planned conference in Stockholm that is called by some a “peace conference.”  Gompers is praised by Allied leaders for supporting the war against the Kaiser.


1918:  Birthdate of Sidney Gottlieb who was an early and important official with the CIA.


1918:The proposal, made by the American Federation of Labor through its President, Samuel Gompers, to the Mexican labor unions, suggesting that conferences be held on the border between President Wilson and President Carranza, has been favorably accepted here.  Gompers believes that the meetings will help improve relations between the United Statesand Latin America.


1921: Birthdate of Broadway Composer Richard Adler. One of his most famous hits was Damn Yankees.


1922(9th of Av, 5682):Tish'a B'Av


1923: Birthdate of Hannah Golofski who would grow up to become noted fashion designer Anne Klein.

1923:  Vice President Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th President of the United States following the death of President Warren Harding.  Coolidge was not an anti-Semite but some of his actions had a negative impact on Jews. In 1924, he signed the Johnson Act.  This immigration law effectively ended the wave of immigration that had started in 1880.  It contained a National Origins Quota System that favored Western Europeans while barring those from Southern and Eastern Europe.  This quota system would be in place during the Holocaust and would be used to deny Jews entry into the United States.  Silent Cal did speak favorably about the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  Finally, as Vice President he wrote a letter to a prominent Jewish leader which read in part, “’Teach the ancient landmarks to the youth of the Jewish race…That learning and wisdom which has been a sustaining influence to the Jewish race through all the centuries must be preserved for the benefit of mankind.  The youth of your people can associate themselves for no more patriotic purpose.’”


1924: In New York William and Esther Diamond Kaufman gave birth to Melvyn Kaufman, “a quixotic, unabashedly contentious developer who helped shape Manhattan’s postwar streetscape and is credited with injecting his personal brand of whimsy into the city’s office towers…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)


1924:  Birthdate of author Leon Uris.  The Baltimorenative first came to national attention with the publication of Battle Cry,one of a series in what were called “the great American war novels.”  Uris based his on his own experiences as a Marine fighting during World War II.  He gained greater acclaim for his next major work, Exodus.  Exodus is one of those epic works of historic fiction which, in this case depicts the early days of Zionism and the fight to establish the Jewish state despite opposition from the British and the Arabs.  The novel was turned into a cinematic box office hit.  Uris followed this with several more novels on Jewish themes.  Mila 18 recounted the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  QBVII, was based on a lawsuit actually filed by somebody who felt they had been defamed by a statement in Mila 18.  


1926: Birthdate of football coach and CoeCollege graduate Marv Levy.


1929(26th of Tammuz, 5689): Inventor and scientist, Emil Berliner, passed away.  Born in German in 1851, Berliner worked in a number of fields.  He developed a microphone for the telephone.  He developed the prototype for the modern phonograph record which replaced Edison’s original recording cylinders.  Until the advent of tape and CDs, his phonograph record was the backbone of the recording and music industries.  He also developed a revolutionary lightweight engine which he then put into a experimental helicopter he developed. 


1933:The Foreign Office agrees to support a complaint submitted by Polish Jews of German Upper Silesia to the arbitration tribunal at Beuthen, against the prohibition of skechita in the plebiscite area.


1933: In Toronto, Mayor Stewart orders police to investigate theSwastika Club, an organization that has been placarding local beaches with swastikas.


1933:The Government approves movement for settlement of fifty Jewish families in the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia.


1933: Der Stuermer, Nuremberg daily, begins the publication of a black list of German young women seen in the company of Jewish men.


1933: In Wurzburg, All the Jewish student homes are occupied by Nazi storm troops to be used for party offices; the Jewish Student Association is ordered to dissolve.


1933: In Breslau, The Free Students Association, at a mass meeting decides to boycott lectures by Jewish instructors, and asks the Ministry of Education to expel the Jewish teachers remaining in the high schools.


1933: According to reports from Jaffa, three Revisionist Zionists are under arrest as suspects in the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff are formally charged with conspiring to assassinate the Zionist leader.


1934: Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer


1937: The debate over the Peel Commission report continued at the League of Nations meet at Geneva. The Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nationsdecided to postpone until September its deliberations of the Royal (Peel) Commission¹s Report on Palestine. It set forth, however, in writing, the advantages and disadvantages of such options as the maintenance of the existing Mandate or its modification, the division of Palestineinto cantons after the Swiss federal system, or a complete partition. It was also open to other suggestions.


1937: At Zurich, during a meeting of the Zionist Congress the Jewish leaders were also discussing the Peel Commission Report. Dr. Chaim Weizmann said that for the past 2,000 years the Jewish people had not been confronted by the necessity to make such an important decision.  In the mean time, a Jewish water expert warned that the proposed partition border would deprive the Jewish state of all the most important water sources.  Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion led the majority that decided to accept the partition plan in light of the Peel Report. Berl Katznelson, Menachem Ushishkin from Mapai (Labor) as well as the Revisionists and the Orthodox fiercely argued against it.


 1940: The government at VichyFrance passed anti-Jewish racial laws. 


1941: One thousand, two hundred Jews arrested in Czenowitz. Almost seven hundred of them were executed. 


1941: One thousand, five hundred fifty Jews were removed from the town of Mitau. 


 1941: In Stanislawow, hundreds of doctors were shot. 


1942(20th of Av, 5702): German born chemist Richard Willstätter passed away.  Born in 1872, Willstatter won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.  In 1924 he left his post a prominent German university because of the overt anti-Semitism he encountered (This is not a typo – it happened ten years before Hitler).  He left Germany during the thirties and settled in Switzerland where he died.


1943;



1943(3rd of Av, 5703): At Bedzin, a man named Baruch tried to challenge Nazi deportation orders. He was shot for his effort. 


1944(14th of Av, 5704): At Strassenhof Camp, 2,400 Jews were marched away never to return. They were all under the age of eighteen and gassed in a makeshift crematorium. Three days later the Red Army liberated the 600 surviving camp members


1944: The Henry Gibbons arrived in New York carrying a shipload of Jewish refugees bound for the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter.


1949:  Founding of the National Basketball Association.  Jewish players and coaches had played a major role in professional basketball prior to World War II.  Ironically, the establishment of permanent professional league came at a time when Jewish participation had begun to decline.  There were still a few stars like Dolph Schayes and Red Holtzman.  Red Auberbach would prove to be the dominant coach of the fledgling league and Eddie Gottlieb continued his life time of involvement in professional basketball as the owner of the Philadelphia Warriors.


1951(1st of Av, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Av


 1958: The oil pipeline from Eilat to Haifa was completed.  Since Israeli ships and ships that stopped at Israeli ports were barred from using the Suezthis joining of Israel’s two major seaports was of great economic importance. 


1963: Allan Sherman releases "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda" the musical parody on letters campers sent home to their parents.


1966(17th of Av, 5726): Comic Lenny Bruce passes away from a morphine overdose


1970(1st of Av, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Av


1970:Igal Shohat and Moshe Goldwasser were taken prisoner when their F4-E Phantom was shot down during the War of Attrition. Tragically, Goldwasswer reportedly died while in captivity and Shohat lost his leg.  [This is entry is a tragic reminder that the brave, unsung heroes have paid the highest price for the Jewish state of Israel.  The least we can do is remember – Zachor – their sacrifice and courage.]


1976: “Entebbe Raid Leader Moving Up” published described plans for Brigadier General Dan Shamron the 39 year old commander who led the operation to free the hostages at Entebbe and commanded an armored brigade during the Yom Kippur War to assume a more important position in the near future.


1977:The United States Senate held hearings on MKULTRA.  MKULTRA was a study of mind control methods begun at the CIAunder Allen Dulles.  Sydney Gottleib was the director of the project.


1977: The former chief of US Air Force Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. George Keegan (Ret.) accused the Carter Administration of basing its current Middle Eastern policy on quicksand. Keegan charged that the USwas not disclosing its back-door intelligence which indicated that the real intentions of the Arab desire to destroy Israel were still there.  


198O: An article entitled “Israel Applying The 'Brakesim' To Foreignisms; Begin Favors Updating of Hebrew Old Language for New Needs” described what some view as “the plague” of invented, non-Hebraic terms that are rapidly being added to what was once viewed as the holy tongue. “Israelis have injected so many non-Hebrew words into ‘the language of holiness’” such as “autonomiya” for the English word “autonomy” or “pluggim” for spark plugs, that “some ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sects which formerly forbade Hebrew speech because it was the language of prayer, have all their members to witch from Yiddish to Hebrew.”


1986: It was reported today that Beatrice Siegel's latest book for young readers is Sam Ellis's Island.


1993: The Senate voted 96-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 


1993: Yakov Kreizbergmade his debut at The BBC Proms conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra today.


1994: A plane piloted by King Hussein of Jordan flew over Jerusalem.  It was the King’s first aerial view of the city and, at the time, seen as harbinger for better times.


1994: Stephen G. Breyer completed his service as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.


1994: Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermontsummer home. At this time Jews are less than two per cent of the population and make up twenty two percent of the Justices on the Court.  


1994: Hadassah’s 80th Convention, held at the New York Hilton, comes to an end


1997: The Long Island Journal featured a report about CampWonderland, part of the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commackthat contains a city-of-Jerusalem-playground which is the newest addition to the Y.


1997: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including  One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century by Donald Sassoon who describes himself as a middle Eastern Jew despite having lived in England for forty years, Selected Poems, 1960-1990by Jewish born Pulitzer Prize winner Maxine Kumin, Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfrect Suburb by Bernard Lefkowitz and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th  Streetby Roni Schotter.


1998: Russian composer Alfred Garyevich Schnittke whose father was Jewish and whose mother was not, passed away. 


1999(21st of Av, 5759: Eighty-five year old Yitzhak Rafael passed away today.  Born in Galicia, he made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually became active in Israeli political life as an MK and Minister of Religions.


2001: 98 U.S. senators express concern about popular anti-Semitism in Russia by sending a letter to then-President Vladimir Putin. The letter asks Putin to take a stronger stance in publicly condemning anti-Semitism, which gained traction from “ideological...


2003: The Sunday New York Times book section features a review of Fabulous Small Jews by Joseph Epstein, a collection of short stories in which “most of the characters are secular Jews who -- like Epstein himself -- are men over 50 who grew up in or around Chicago.”


2004: The United Jewish Communities (UJC) eighth annual Jewish Leadership Forum (JLF) in Aspen, COcomes to a close.


2005: In a triumph for Israeli scientific and engineering capabilities a “new $250 million desalination plant in Ashkelon began pumping potable water filtered from the Mediterranean Sea” today.

2006(9th of Av, 5766) Tish'a B'Av


2006: Jews all over the world observe the Fast Day of Tisha B’Av as the IDF battles against Hezbollah and Hamas. .


2006: In “Hezbollah Missile Threat Assessed” published today, Frank Gardner described the threat still facing Israel after three weeks “of an intensive…air campaign.”

2007: Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed Read Abu Ads, the Islamic Jihad commander in Nablus


2008: The Sunday New York Times Editor’s Choice listings included Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, by Susan Neiman in which the Jewish born author “champions Enlightenment values without any hint of oversimplification, dogmatism or misplaced piety.”


2008: The Washington Postfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Book of Dahlia by Jewish author Elisa Albert Hitler, The Germans and the Final Solution by Ian Kershawand Hitler’s Priests: Catholic Clergy and National SocialismbyKevin P. Spicer


2008: At the Jewish Museum in New York, an exhibition entitled Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered comes to an end. Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century(1980) depicts renowned luminaries of Jewish culture: Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Gertrude Stein. Warhol referred to this pantheon of great thinkers, politicians, performers, and writers as his "Jewish geniuses." Warhol's iconic portraits attest to the lasting achievements and fame of these singular figures. Originally published as a portfolio of silkscreen prints on paper, Warhol was so pleased with the commercial success of his Ten Portraits that he decided to create additional versions of the series as silkscreen paintings on canvas. The Jewish Museum initially showed three sets of paintings and an edition of prints in the fall of 1980. On view in this exhibition are one of the five complete sets of ten paintings, an edition of the final print portfolio, several sketches, a preparatory collage, and the photographs that Warhol used as source images, offering new insights into their development and historical context.


2009: In Jerusalem,Beit Avi Chai's Music on Monday’s series presents A Groyse Metsie: Jewish music in various styles.

2009:About half of Israelis believe that in order to be a "true Israeli," one has to have been born in Israel, so finds the Israel Democracy Institute in its annual Israeli Democracy Index, published today.

 

2009:An American-Israeli crime ring conspired to defraud United States tax authorities of tens of millions of dollars for at least five years, according to Israeli and American court documents filed today. 
2009(13th of Av, 5769): Rabbi Aharon Zelig Epstein Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah-Grodno, passed away today.


2009:Chabad Lubavitch presented a request today to Yad Vashem to recognize a high-ranking military commander in the Third Reich as a righteous gentile for saving Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Schneerson, the sixth Chabad rebbe. Admiral Canaris, commander of the Nazi Abwehr, or intelligence, had a central role in securing Schneerson's escape from the Warsaw Ghetto along with members of Schneerson's family and entourage, said Yosef Kaminetzky, a writer who recently completed a book on the escape story.

2010: Tzofim Friendship Caravan Family Concert featuring the Israeli Scouts is scheduled to take place at the Washington DCJCC.


 


2010(23rd of Av, 5770):Israel Defense Forces analysts believe that the Lebanese sniper fire at the Israel-Lebanon border today , which killed Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Captain Ezra Lakia, was in fact an ambush planned by a Lebanese officer who was encouraged by his commanders

2010(23rd of Av, 5770):Family and friends of Dov Harari, affectionately called "Barry", who was killed in a military confrontation on the Israel-Lebanon border, said that Harari loved his country and the Israel Defense Forces, and that everyone who knew him loved him.

2010(23rd of Av, 5770):A Jewish father of three was among the victims of a shooting rampage at a Connecticut beer warehouse. Louis Felder, the director of operations at the Hartford Distributors in Manchester, was one of eight people shot dead  by an employee accused of stealing, who then killed himself.Felder was a member of the Young Israel of Stamford.Steve Hollander, the company's head of marketing, and a member of the Hollander family that founded and owns the company, was reported to have been shot, according to the Hartford Courant. “The Hollander family is probably one of the most venerated families in the Hartford area in the Jewish community," U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) told the Courant. "There isn’t a charity that they haven’t contributed to.”


2010(23rd of Av, 5770):American Rabbi Bruce M. Cohen, who joined with Farhat Agbaria an Israeli Arab in founding Interns for Peace passed away today at the age of 65.


2011: Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski is scheduled to give the first in a series of lectures entitled “The Essential Heschel: Teachings of a Modern Day Revolutionary Prophet” at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.


2011: Dr. Regina Stein is scheduled to give the first in a series of lectures entitled “Jewish Holidays for Grownups” at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.

2011:The Knesset passed a controversial housing bill today, despite the objections of leaders of the housing protest movement that has been gaining momentum across the country in recent weeks.

2011:MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) told Army Radio today that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak political asylum several months ago.

 

2012(15th of Av): Tu B’Av


http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Modern_Holidays/Tu_BAv.shtml



2012: Fifty-nine year old award winning theatre and television producer Joan Stein passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-joan-stein-20120804,0,5470587.story



2012: The celebration of the Israeli holiday of love, Tu B’Av is scheduled to begin this morning in the open courtyard of the Citadel of the Tower of David Museum with a musical performance of Neapolitan love songs.   


 2012: Sam Kringlen, son of Janice Binder and Jim Kringlen is scheduled to participate in Friday Night Services at Temple Judah as his Bar Mitzvah weekend begins.



2012: A bipartisan group of six Congress members is sponsoring a bill that would ensure recognition of the plight of 850,000 Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries since Israel's War of Independence in 1948. Their bill in the US House of Representatives also would recognize other displaced populations, including Christians from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf.


2013: “Lies in the Closet” is among the films scheduled to be shown this evening at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2013: Final performance of “Division Avenue,” a new comedic play by Miki Bone that uses the orthodoxy of the Hasidic culture to explore the challenges facing those trying to find their way in the face of doubt and modern culture´ is scheduled to take place at the June Havoc Theatre.


2013: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the traditional minyan at Temple Judah is scheduled to observe Raoul Wallenberg Shabbat where we Remember the Righteous Among the Nations including Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who defied his government by issuing transit papers to Lithuanian Jews so they could escape the Holocaust and Aristides de Sousa Mendes who defied his government and issued transit papers to Jews so they could escape across the Pyrenees

This Day, August 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 4 In History


70: According to some record, the date on the secular calendar when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.


367: Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-August by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.  The reign of Valentinan I was a period of religious toleration where all cults, including Judaism, were practiced with little or no interference from the state.  Gratian would reverse his father’s policy of toleration, although most of his actual edicts were aimed against the Pagans. 


1265: During the Baron’s War, Prince Edward (the future King Edward I of England), leading the armies his father, King Henry III defeated the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester at the Battle of Evesham killing de Montfort and many of his allies. “During the Barons Wars, the Jews were seen as instruments of royal oppression and one Jewish community after another was ransacked and many of its inhabitants killed during the fighting” which had begun in 1263.  In 1264, the violence became so bad, that many Jews fled to Normandy.  As bad as things were under King Henry III, life would be worse under the reign of Edward who would order their expulsion in 1290.


1278: Nicholas III issued a Papal Bull ordering Jews to hear sermons on conversion. 


1558: The first printed edition of the Zoharappeared. This popularized the study of Kabbalah, mysticism and Messianism. 


1578: This date is considered a Moroccan Purim (Purim de Los Christianos); a celebration of a time when Jews there faced near disaster because forces led by King Sebastian of Portugal nearly succeeded in conquering the country. The Portuguese were defeated at al-Qasr al-Kabir. Their defeat meant that the Inquisition would not be coming to Morocco. The Jews of Morocco saw themselves as being delivered from a Portuguese Haman, hence the name of the celebration. 


1704: During the War of the Spanish Succession, a joint Anglo-Dutch force attacks and captures Gibraltar.  Under the terms of the treaty ending the war, the British will gain control of Gibraltar but the British are enjoined from allowing Jews to settle on this newly acquired possession.  The British ignore the prohibition and Jews are allowed to live there.


1776: Colonel William Thomson wrote a letter to William Drayton from the banks of the Keowee River in which he described the death of 29 year old Francis Salvador.  Salvador, a Jewish patriot had been killed in South Carolina on the first of the month.  After having been wounded he was scalped.  He died of his wounds and according to Thomson, was lucid to the end.


1790: A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard). Some of the Jews were members of, or associated with this valiant force were: musician and vocalist, Mel Torme,; Arthur Fiedler who “volunteered during the early days of World War II for the Temporary Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard and was later a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary” and comedian and television star Sid Caear who joined the Coast Guard in 1939. This proved to be a boon to his carrer. Assigned to play in military shows, he caught the attention of producer Max Liebman, who was impressed by his ability to make other musicians laugh. Liebman took him out of the orchestra and cast him as a comedian, jump-starting his career upon release from the Coast Guard in 1945. And the rest is show biz history. When Sid Caesar was celebrating his 80th birthday, The Coast Guard presented him with a public service award that read as follows:


"The Commandant of the United Stated Coast Guard takes great pleasure in wishing a joyous 80th birthday to Coast Guard veteran Sid Caesar and presenting to him this Coast Guard Certificate of Appreciation, in recognition of his public support of the Coast Guard, most notably in the early days of his career as an actor, musician and comedian and more recently as public spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard. Mr. Caesar joined the Coast Guard in 1939, after studying saxophone at the Julliard School of Music and playing in a number of prominent big bands. In the Coast Guard, he was assigned to play in military revues and shows, such as "Tars and Spars," but he showed a natural penchant for comedy by entertaining other band members with his improvised routines, prompting show producer Max Liebman to move him from the orchestra and cast him as a stand-up comedian to entertain troops, jump-starting his career upon his release from the Coast Guard in 1945. After leaving the Coast Guard, Mr. Caesar went on to perform his "war routine" in both the stage and movie versions of the revue, and continued under Liebman's guidance after the war, in theatrical performances in the Catskills and Florida, but he never forgot the service that launched his career. Mr. Caesar's performance distinguished the Coast Guard as an honorable and valuable service. Friends and acquaintances say he always kept the Coast Guard close to his heart, especially its hardworking enlisted members. Each and every time the Coast Guard asked Mr. Caesar for a favor, he came through for us, whether it was speaking before the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association or recording audio public service announcements for Coast Guard recruiting campaigns. His respect, admiration and fondness for our service shines bright. Mr. Caesar's years of generosity, concern and dedication to the Coast Guard family are deeply appreciated and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard and public service."


1821: Birthdate of Louis Vuitton, French designer and founder of the French fashion house that bears his name. According to Louis Vuitton, A French Saga, by French journalist Stephanie Bonvicin the fashion house collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France. Reportedly, “members of the Vuitton family actively aided the puppet government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain and increased their wealth from their business affairs with the Germans. The family set up a factory dedicated to producing artifacts glorifying Pétain, including more than 2,500 busts. Petain's Vichy regime was responsible for the deportation of French Jews to German concentration camps.”


1823: Birthdate of Oliver P. Morton, who as Governor of Indiana during the Civil War gave Frederick Knefler his first “leg up” on a military career that would lead to him becoming a Major General by the end of the war. Morton showed that in America, a man’s patriotism was more important than his religious background.


1827: In Romania, untold numbers of Jews perished when the Jewish quarter of Jassy was swept by fire


1856: The "Literary Items" column reported that a soon to be published 8 volume work about the religious and scholastic learning of the Jews by J.W. Etheridge is to be called Jerusalem and Tiberias, Sora and Cordova.  According to the title page, the book was designed to be “A survey of the religious and scholastic learning of the Jews; designed as an introduction to the study of Hebrew Literature.”


1857:  According to handbills which had been posted today is the deadline for all Germans and all Jews to leave Goldsboro, N.C. The order, from parties unknown, stemmed from a violent outburst that had taken place during a trial that pitted Dr. John W. Davis, a popular local physician, against Falk Odenheimer, a German-Jewish merchant.  During the trial Windal T. Robinson, a nephew of Dr. Davis, struck Odenheimer on the head with a spade, or shovel, breaking his skull. In the ensuing mêlée Charley Spaght, a step-son of Odenheimer shot Dr. Davis, seriously wounding him. Even though Davis’ nephew had started the trouble, a crowd formed that wanted to lynch Odenheimer.  Odenheimer had to be taken jail for his own safety where he was protected by a brave local citizen named T.T. Hollowell. Odenheimer and Davis both recovered from their wounds and many of the Jews who had gradually returned to Goldsboro.


1858: The New York Times reported on the final passage of the Oaths Bill in Great Britain. “Henceforth Jews may sit in Parliament. The Oaths Bill from the House of Lords has passed in the Commons, and is the law of the realm. A Jew may now qualify without swearing to uphold the Christian religion.” The final passage took place on July 21.  Word of the passage was brought by ship from England.


1860: It was reported today that the Times of London no longer has a “special advantage” or “monoopy on information” which would make a sought after journal because Mr. Reuters, “that clever and far-seeing German Jew” has used his control over “telegraphic communication to see to it that all newspapers receive the same domestic and foreign news make The Daily News the equal of the Times or its other high priced rivals. (Reuters actually converted shortly after he arrived in England from Germany, but the impact of his news service is accurately described)


1864: In accordance with the Proclamation issued by President Lincoln, today was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. All business was voluntarily suspended, the public offices, the banks and stores were closed, and citizens flocked to such places of worship as were open for services.  At the Wooster Street Synagogue, Rabbi S.M. Isaacs, “after the usual morning service, read the Prayer for the Government, and delivered a discourse from Jonah, 3d chapter, 8th verse: "Let men and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let man call unto God with might, and let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence which is in his hands." He referred to the proclamation of the President calling upon all loyal and law-abiding people to convene at their usual places of worship and implore the Almighty not to forsake the nation. He alluded to these days of fasting and humiliation recommended to be observed by the Executive authorities as losing their value from the circumstance that fasting and prayer are too often devoid of meaning; that they are unaccompanied by practical amendment. This idea was predicated on the Book of Jonah, where it is recorded that God repented of the evil he intended the Ninevites, because He observed that they forsook their evil ways and became truly penitent. He adverted to the critical condition of the country and the singular appropriateness of our national appeal to the never-ceasing mercy and goodness of Heaven. Israelites, especially, have reason to sincerely pray for the restoration of the Republic to its former greatness, prosperity and harmony. While recognizing the unspeakable happiness they had enjoyed under the protection of the Stars and Stripes, they should gaze hopefully heavenward, and their supplication would not be in vain. He prayerfully invoked Heaven to endow the rulers and the people of the land with the proper spirit -- the spirit of genuine, earnest patriotism -- that the severe trial to which our capacity for self-government and our professed loyalty to the principles of liberty and right may be for our ultimate benefit and regeneration; that the war which is now desolating the land may be speedily terminated by the return of the disaffected to the embrace of the banner whose far-spreading folds yearned to receive them as of old. He concluded his address with a suitable prayer. "


1865: A Jew cigar peddler, hailing from New-York, was arrested and taken before Recorder Avery, of Hoboken, today, charged with peddling cigars without a license, and for which he was required to pay a fine of $5. The accused, who gave his name as Louis, pleaded and begged to be let off, declaring that he was poor; had only a dollar and a quarter; that he got married only six months since and that his wife had a baby, etc. When Wolfksy realized that the Recorder was unmoved by his plea for mercy, and that he would have to go to jail if he did not pay the fine, he very quickly produced the money and paid the fine.


1872: A group of Jewish immigrants from Alsac and Lorraine met at Mehl’s Assembly Rooms in New York.  They appointed a committee that was to organized a congregation made up of members from these two former French provinces.


1878: Mr. Ottinger is President of a new Jewish organization in New York that has been formed to provide free trips up and down the Hudson river for poor and sick children during the summer.  If the group can raise more than the $1,200 it already has, it will provide “seaside” recreation for poor Jewish girls working in local shops and factories.



1878:  The facts surrounding the condition of Jennie Minster which has been described as a “case of insanity” were revealed at Bellevue Hospital tonight.  Miss Minster, an 18 year old Jewess, went to work for Simon Metzger, a prominent Jew living in New Haven, Connecticut. Given her beauty and accomplished nature, Metzger made her the governess for her children.  Last week she was brought back to her parents home in New York by Mr. Metzger who said she was “a violent lunatic.”  According to Metzger, Miss Minster had been bathing with the family at the summer resorts called Savin Rock when she sank in the water.  She was rescued and when she regained consciousness, “it was found that her fright had entirely robbed her of her sanity.”  Her parents took her to Bellevue where she was placed in a padded cell due to her violent nature.  Authorities accept Metzger’s version of events but are still puzzled as what to do next.


1878: The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the estate of the Jewish businessman Michael Reese is valued at somewhere between five and ten million dollars. The bequests show the same broad generosity that he had displayed during his lifetime. Among the beneficiaries are the University of California which is to get $650,000 and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum which is to get $25,000.


1878: It was reported that “a number of charitable Hebrew gentlemen” in New York “have formed an association for the purpose of taking” sick and poor Jewish children on excursions on the Hudson River.  So far they have raised $1,200.  If they can raise more money they plan to included “poor shop or factory girls” in the excursions.


1881(9th of Av, 5641): Tish’a B’Av



1881: In what would seem to be a strange choice of date, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to host an outing aboard the SS Long Branch will sail out to and around Staten Island.


1881: After the deputy coroner performed an autopsy on Samuel Alt, an elderly Jewish man found floating in the water at the foot of east 76th Street, the coroner concluded  that “death resulted from concussion of the brain and compression due to serious effusion caused by violence.”  The deceased had probably been knocked down by a “violent blow over the left eye” and after being rendered unconscious was “thrown or pushed into the water.”


1882: In New York State Supreme Court, Judge Donahue granted Fannie Warburg a limited divorced from her husband August Warburg “on the grounds of inhuman conduct toward her…”  The judge awarded her custody of the four children and appointed a Referee to recommend that amount of alimony she should receive.


1883(1st of Av, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Av



1883: It was reported that the ten Hungarian Jews who have been standing trial on charges that they killed a Christian girl so they could her blood “in their Passover bread” have been acquitted. While the prosecution had not case, the defendants would have been found guilty were it not for the fact that the “abundant perjury” prosecution witnesses had been exposed to the world “under the bright light of publicity.”


1883: Charles A.L. Totten, one of those who supported the plan for the Jews to return to “their old homes in Palestine” “through an international conference” began serving as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the Cathedral School of St. Paul in New York


1884: It was reported today that Solomon Rintel, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary had taken his own life because he was despondent about having lost his job.  In a note found by Max Schack, his brother-in-law, Rintel had tried to commit suicide three years ago while he was living in Gratz. [Adjustment to a new land was tough on immigrants as stories like this remind us.  The streets were not paved with gold.]


1884: Herzl enters his law practice in the service of the state.


1885: It was reported today the Cassell & Co will soon be published a new novel – As It Was Written: A Jewish Musician’s Storyby Sidney Luska. “The name Sidney Luska is a pseudonym.  The author is said to be a young man, the son of a noted lawyer” who has spent so much time with the Jews “that he fairly thinks as a” Jew. (For more about this  from an non-contemporaneous source see Josh Lambert’s “As It was written : A Jewish Musicians Story” http://mobile.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Literature/Jewish_American_Literature/Immigrant_Literature/As_It_Was_Written.shtml


 1888: At least 20 people died today when the Stern Building in the Bowery went up in flames. The fire probably began in the stove of a loft occupied by Solomon Cohn. At first the authorities thought that the fire was set intentionally but when they discovered that none of the tenants had insurance they discounted that theory.  Mr. Stern, the owner of the building has asked the United Hebrew Charities to take of the funeral arrangements, which along with any medical expenses, he will pay for out of his own pocket.


1888: “Mistaken Quotations” published today described the repeated attempts to attributed to the Bible stories that are not actually there, including the one that the Hebrews in the Bible were commanded to make bricks without straws. “If men would examine the Bible text more carefully before they assail it or before they attempt it defense, there would fewer blunders made in both directions.” (For those of you living in the United States, you realize that this advice is still very valid in the 21stcentury.)


1889: In Ulster County, NY, a gang of thugs calling themselves the “Yellowstone Cowboys” were arrested this morning when they returned to a Mr. Epstein’s boarding house with the intent of forcing him to feed them a free breakfast.


1891: Twenty-one of the Russian Jews who had been detained at the Barge Office, New York’s entry point for immigrants, were allowed to leave and continue on their respective destinations.


1891: Thirteen Jewish immigrants who arrived at Locust Point, MD aboard a Dutch ship were allowed to land today.


1891: “The Russian Jew Exodus” published today described the plans sponsored by Baron Hirsch and supported by Western Jews to deal with wave of immigrants leaving the Czar’s Kingdom.  A delegation will be sent to St. Petersburg to serve as a central committee and will establish provincial committees which will be “charged with regulating the exodus.”  Russian Jews who leave “without the sanction of the Central Committee” will not receive the
benefits offered by Baron Hirsch. (Compare the 19th century response to the crisis of Russian Jewry with the 20th century response to the crisis of German Jewry)


1892: “Sanitarium for Hebrew Children” published today provided a summary of the society’s including the fact that from June 28 to July 31, it has provided free excursions for 3,481 mothers and children.


1892(11th of Av, 5652): Eighty two year old Ernestine Louis Rose, the daughter of a Polish rabbi who became a leading feminist, abolitionist and self-declared atheist, passed away.

1893: Abraham Finberg, the President of a small Orthodox congregation at 44 Orchard Street said he is prepared to go to court to retrieve the synagogues records that had been taken Louis Cohen, who had been deposed as the rabbi.


1894: As evidence of the acceptance of Jews at the highest level of British society, Lord Rothschild nominates six horses for the upcoming Derby.


1895:The Jewish citizens of Yonkers, NY, were reported today to have chosen B.H. Shulman to serve as president of their newly formed “religious organization” which hold High Holiday Services at the Odd Fellows Hall this September.


1895: “Jewish Women’s Council” published today provided a history and description of the National Council of Jewish Women which was formed following “the Woman’s Congress held at Chicago in 1893” during the Columbian Exposition. The council was formed in Chicago in 1894 and currently has chapters in 13 cities. Mrs. Rebekah Kohut is President of the New York Council. Miss Rosa Sonneschein is the editor of The American Jewess, the council’s monthly magazine. The next national convention is scheduled to take place at New York in May, 1896.


1897: “The Pan-Anglican or Lambeth Conference issued an encyclical today that, among other things expressed “a wish for an increase in proselytizing among the Jews.” (Ah the 1890’s – the Russian are trying to kill the Jews and the English are trying to convert the Jews)


1898: Joseph Purzin began teaching at a summer school funded by the Baron de Hirsch Fund at Osborn Street and Sutter Avenue in Brownsville.


1899:”Actors Get Engagements” published today provided information about the upcoming theatrical season including the fact that Jacob LItt has hired Sidney Herbert to play a leading part in “The Ghetto” which will open at the Broadway Theatre in October.


1900(9th of Av, 5660): Russian-born artist Isaac Levitan died days before his fortieth birthday. For a look at some of his works see

1902(1st of Av, 5662): Rosh Chodesh Av


1910: Birthdate of Hedwig Lindenberg, the Bucharest native who gained fame as “Hedda Sterne, an artist whose association with the Abstract Expressionists became fixed forever when she appeared prominently in a now-famous 1951 Life magazine photograph of the movement’s leading lights”  (As reported by William Grimes)


1910: Birthdate of American composer and educator William Schuman. Schuman passed away in 1992 at the age of 81. 


1911: Birthdate of Jacob Mortimer Rothschild the son of Pittsburgh, PA residents Lillian and Meyer Rothschild.


1911: In Russia, the St. Petersburg Jewish community opened a Teacher’s Training College and Museum in memory of two deceased Jewish communal leaders, Barons Horace and David de Gunzberg.


1911: The Jewish community of Ekaternioslaff, a Russian city on the Dneiper River, petitioned the government for the right to build a medical school next to the local Jewish hospital.  The government agreed if the Jewish enrollment was limited to fifteen per cent.  By October, the governor of the province would be attempting to ban Jews from the town.


1911: In Great Britain, American Reform Rabbi Israel I. Mattuck was named as the first spiritual leader of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue.  Born in 1883, Mattuck, who passed away in 1954, was an author, commentator and proponent of Classical Reform Judaism


1911: At a conference in New York, the Seventh Day Adventists adopted resolutions condemning the mistreatment of Jews.


1911: Samuel Oppenheimer was elected professor of Astronomy at the University of Vienna.


1912: Birthdate of Raoul Wallenberg, one of the truly great, brave people of history. A Swede, Wallenberg risked his life by going to Hungary in 1944 and literally yanking thousands of Jews from the jaws of death. He disappeared into the hands of the Red Army when it liberated Budapest. Some claim that he passed away in a Soviet prison in 1947. But nobody really knows what happened to him other than the fact the world did nothing to save him.  


1912:  Birthdate of composer and writer David Raskin.  In his long career, Raskin wrote the scores for numerous films, many of which were famous in their day but now are only seen on TCMor other such venues.  Raskin was caught up in the Red Witch Hunt of the late 1940’s and 1950’s.  He was not a victim of the blacklist since he gave the investigators the one thing they wanted, the names of more people they could investigate. He passed away in 2004.


1913(1st of Av, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Av (Unbeknownst to anybody, Europe is starting its last twelve months of peace.  A year from now WW I will have begun. To paraphrase one English statesmen, the lights of the world were about to go out and we do not know when they will come back on again.


1914: After Great Britain had declared war on Germany at the start of World War I, Sir Edgar Speyer resigned as a partner in the Frankfort branch of his family’s banking business.   Speyer, the American born son of German parents had become a naturalized British citizen in 1892. Speyer would spend the war defending himself against charges of being disloyal and accusations that he was supporter/spy for Germany.  


1914: Germany invades Belgium which forces Great Britain to declare war on Germany since the British are guarantors of Belgian independence and neutrality.  It was the invasion of Belgium that “sealed the deal” and turned the nascent European hostilities into World War I.  From the vantage point of the 21st century, we can see so many places where this war might have been avoided and all that flowed from it including the Shoah.  In other words, if the Germans had viewed treaties as more than “a scrap of paper” (the way one German leader reportedly described the treaty guaranteeing Belgium’s independence, six million Jews might not have been smoke and ashes.)


1915: Birthdate of pianist and band leader Irving Fields.  “Fields pioneered the melding of Cuban sound with Jewish rhythm via his Bagels and Bongos series in the 1950's to create a vibe which is equal parts Havana, Harlem, and the Catskills.”


1918: Birthdate of Sidney Harman the Montreal native an audio pioneer who built the first high-fidelity stereo receiver, dabbled in education and government, and made a late-in-life splash by acquiring an antiquated Newsweek magazine and wedding it with a sassy young Web site, The Daily Beast…(As reported by Robert McFadden)


1918: Corporal Adolf Hitler was award the Iron Cross, First class, based on the recommendation of his regimental adjutant, Captain Hugo Guttman who was Jewish.


1922: “A young Zionist named Zalker was killed by an Arab in the outskirts of Haifa.” Early in the day, five Jewish porters had been injured in a clash with Arabs over who would carry the luggage of tourists arriving at the port.


1922 (10th of Av): Jewish author David Frischmann passed away today


1929: Founding of the Jewish agency for Palestine


1933:In France, An International Committee for the Protection of Academic Freedom and the Rights of Savants in all countries is formed to help German Jewish scholars and students in jeopardy in Germany.


1933: In Austria,President Miklas names four Jews as university professors out of nine new appointments.


1933: In the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson gave birth to Sheldon Adelson, who in 2011 “was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.”


1933: In Moscow, an official map of Soviet nations and nationalities, shows that the Jewish population is two and a half million or 1.7% of the total.


 1937: Zurich was in a holiday mood with thousands of visitors arriving hourly for the 20th Zionist Congress. Hotels and pensions were filled to capacity. Only one Swiss paper, Die Front, a Nazi organ, published a venomous attack on Jews. Dr. Franz Kahn opened the Congress with the same gavel used by Theodor Herzl at the First Congress in 1897. Dr. Chaim Weizmann delivered his 40-minute opening address. He pointed out the need to decide whether to accept or reject the Royal (Peel) Commission¹s Report on Palestine, pointing out to the advantages and disadvantages of the scheme. 


 1937: In Geneva, the Permanent Mandate Commission of the League of Nations examined both the Peel and Palestine administration¹s reports and tried to determine whether the Palestine Mandate, drafted in 1922, was indeed no longer workable and whether the necessary fundamental changes, as requested by Great Britain, ought to be carried out. 


1938: While on a boating trip, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini discusses Adolf Hitler’s new anti-Semitic laws with his mistress, saying “We must give Italians a feeling of race so that they don’t create half-castes, so that they don’t spoil what is beautiful...


1940(29th of Tammuz, 5700): Just months before his 60thbirthday, Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky passed away while inspecting a Betar Camp in New York. 



 

1940: Margret and Hans Rey arrive in Rio de Jeneiro aboard the Angola.


1942: The first train with Jews from Belgium went to Auschwitz. The train contained 998 Jews. Normally the Germans would wait until they had an even thousand before sending a train from Belgium to Auschwitz. (On April 19, 1943, three Jewish resistance fighters would stop the Twentieth Train with Jews bound for Auschwitz. Several hundred Jews would escape, although many were caught in later round-ups and sent to the camps. This episode teaches us many valuable lessons. One of them is about Jewish courage in the face of almost certain death. Another of them is that history is not made up of events, but of the events we know about. The ambush took place on the same day as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Both were events of great courage. But we only celebrate the events at Warsaw because that is the one that most people know about.)


1942: One thousand Jews were deported from Theresienstadt. 


1942: In Warsaw, Chaim Kaplan wrote the last entry in his diary before he was murdered: “If my life ends - what will become of my diary?”  Saul Friedlander would see to it that the material covered in the diary would survive the killers and the victims when he would he use it as resource material for The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945


 1942(21st of Av, 5702): In Radom, Poland, 10,000 Jews were assembled for deportation to Treblinka. The Germans began shooting them as they gathered.  


 1942: An additional 13,000 Jews were rounded up in Warsaw as Operation Reinhard continued into its second month.  


1944: A limited number of Jewish war refugees arrived in New York Harbor.  They then moved to a decommissioned army camp in Oswego New York. Ruth Gerber, an American journalist was selected“to go on a secret mission to escort the refugees to the United States. This journey became ‘the defining Jewish moment’ of Gruber's life.  In her role as a spokesperson for the refugees, Gruber presented the refugees' journey as a human interest story for the press. She told the New York Times that the refugees represented "a cross-section of every refugee now pouring into Italy," including Jews, Catholics and Protestants for whom religious services were held onboard the ship. In a touching moment in Haven, her book recounting the voyage, Gruber recalls a rabbi conducting a service as the boat passed the Statue of Liberty, and her pride in telling the Jewish refugees of the Holocaust that the poem on the base was written by Emma Lazarus, an American Jew.The story of these European refugees stands out as a momentary relaxation of America's restrictive immigration policy. President Roosevelt's decision provided the refugees with a safe haven as "guests" in the United States during the war, with the assumption that "they were destined to be sent back to their homelands when the peace comes." While Roosevelt planned to allow the nearly 1000 refugees to reside in the United States only until the end of hostilities, when the end of the war came, Gruber lobbied the President and Congress—with the help of Catholic, Jewish and Protestant clergy—and convinced the officials to let the refugees stay. While the story ended happily for these refugees, sadly it came at the expense of others waiting in displaced persons camps in Europe. Since the overall immigration laws and quotas remained unchanged, the close to 1000 refugees were just subtracted form that year's quota.


 1944: Anne Frank was arrested with her parents and sister. Anne, 15 years old, was sent to Bergen-Belsen where she died in March 1945. 


 1945: Birthdate of actor and comedian Richard Belzer 


 1952: Rishon Lezion or First for Israel celebrated its 70th anniversary. Rishon is approximately seven miles southeast of Tel Aviv.  By the time of its 70th century, several well known Israelis had worked or lived on the Moshav.  Two future prime ministers of Israel, David Ben Gurion and Levi Eshkol worked in the winery at Rishon Lezion. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of the Modern Hebrew language taught at Rishon LeZion.


1951: Birthdate of Yona Metzger, the native of Haifa and IDF veteran who served as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel.


1961: Birthdate of Barak Obama whose Presidential campaigns were run by David Axelroad; whose first chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel; whose use of Jack Lew, a Sabbath Observant Jew, has filled many positions including Secretary of Treasury. He was willing to triple down on Jewish Justices when he nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.  While he has been criticized by some for his failure to visit Israel until his second term in office, Obama has fully funded Iron Dome during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  He has so many Jews on his staff that he has been hosting a Seder since 2009 making him the first President to recline and dine while hoping not leave a stain from the chrain. Of course, it will be up to history and the historians to evaluate his ultimate impact on the Jews as well as everything.


1962: Birthdate of television executive Michael Gelman


1964: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found buried inside an earthen dam in Mississippi. Schwerner and Goodman were two Jewish youngsters who had come to Mississippi to work in a drive to register Black voters. Chaney was an African-American from Mississippi. Their deaths helped to galvanize support for what would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965.


1973(6th of Av, 5733): Sam Katzman an American film producer and director passed away Born  in 1907,into a poor Jewish family, Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry. He would learn all aspects of filmmaking and become a highly successful Hollywood producer for more than forty years.


1977: US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. Dr. James Schlesinger, the son of Russian and Austrian Jews, was named the first secretary of the Department.  Unlike another famous Harvard PhD. named Henry Kissinger, Schlesinger converted to Christianity, when, according to some sources, he discovered that the “faith of his father’s was an impediment to his budding academic career.


 1977: Three terrorists who were on their way to Kibbutz Ashdod Ya'acov were killed and two captured after they crossed the Jordanian border. 


1977: Syria rejected the American initiative to hold a Middle Eastern mini-summit in the US and asked for the reconvening of the Geneva Peace Conference instead. 


1978(1st of Av, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Av


1978(1st of Av, 5738): Lilya Yuryevna Brik, the so-called "muse of Russian avant-garde" died at the age of 87.


1981: Birthdate of Ariel Glaser

1981(4th of Av, 5741):  Famed American actor Melvin Douglas passed away. Born Melvyn Edouard Hesselbergin Macon, Georgia, Douglas began his film career in 1931.  Some of his more memorable films include “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” and the “Americanization of Emily.”  He won two Oscars, including one for best supporting actor as the crotchety old rancher in “Hud.”  He has an additional claim to fame as the husband of Congresswoman Helen Cahagan Douglas.  Rep. Douglas ran against Richard Nixon for the Senate in 1950.  She was an early victim of Nixon and the right-wing Republicans smear tactics in which all liberals were equated with Communists.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/04/obituaries/melvyn-douglas-81-stage-and-film-actor.html


1990 (5750): Shabbat Nachamu


1992: Ran Cohen began serving as Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction.


1992: Eli Ben-Menachem was appointed Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s office.


1993: Harvey Weinstein, a formalwear manufacturer and chairman of Lord West Formal Wear was kidnapped in New York.


1994(27th of Av, 5754): Two days before his 86th birthday Solomon Adler, a U.S. Treasury Employee who served in China during World War II and was later accused of being “a Soviet intelligence source” passed away today.


1996: The Los Angeles Times featured a review of Rich Little Poor Boy: A Ghost of a Chance by Peter Duchin with Charles Michener. Duchin was the son of socialite Marjorie Oelrichs and musical genius Eddy Duchin, the son of Jewish immigrants. When Oerlichs was kicked out of the Social Register for marrying the Jewish Duchin she reportedly said, "Who cares?" "It's only a telephone book." [ “The Eddie Duchin Story” with Kim Novak and Tyronne Power left the Jewish part.]


2000: David Levy completed his term as Foreign Minister.


2002: On the 110th anniversary of the death of Ernestine Rose, the Ernestine Rose society “held a memorial service at London’s Highgate Cemetery to dedicate the restored headstone of Ernestine and William Rose, fulfilling the group’s mandate to ensure that this “courageous and pioneering woman… would no longer rest in an unmarked grave.”

2002(26th of Av, 5762): A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, killing nine passengers. 


2002: The New York Times book section featured a review of Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention about the relationship between the gentile and his Jewish apprentice by Charles M. Joseph, I’ll Be Short: Essentials for a Decent Working Society by Robert B. Reich, Bill Clinton’s first and Jewish, Secretary of Labor and Elvis In Jerusalem: Post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel by Tom Segev.


2005(28th of Tammuz, 5765): Eden Natan Zada, age 19, who was absent without leave from the Israeli army opened fire on a public bus traveling to an Arab town in northern Israel, killing at least four people and wounding 10. In the immediate aftermath, passengers swarmed the gunman, killing him before he could leave the bus.


2005: Eliat Mazar announced she had discovered in Jerusalem what may have been the palace of King David,


2005:  The Jerusalem Post reported that for the second year in a row, Canadian hockey Jean Perron legend is conducting camp at the Canada Centre, in the town of Metulla near the border with the Lebanon.


2005: Israeli archaeologist Eliat Mazar announced the discovery the site of Palace of David, a 10th Century BCE building in the Old City of Jerusalem.  The site is widely recognized as a major find but there is dispute over the identification of the building as being David’s Palace which is described in the Bible.


2006: Marissa Carson leads Friday Night Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of the rituals marking her Bat Mitzvah.


2006: Over 200 rockets were fired at northern Israel, killing three people. At least 86 more were wounded, one critically and five seriously. A barrage of rockets landed near Karmiel just before 6 p.m., killing two people in the villages of Majdal Krum and Dir el-Assad.


2007(20th of Av, 5767): Eight-one year old Raul Hilberg, one of the historians who created the field of Holocaust Studies passed away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2007: To his everlasting credit, Chet Culver, Governor of the state of Iowa, officially proclaims this day as Raoul Wallenberg in honor of the Swedish Diplomats work in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews and as an example of a great humanitarian who provided living proof that one person’s efforts can make a difference in the fight against evil.


2007: The Indianapolis Colts place Mike Seidman on the injured reserved list.


2008: Taking time from dealing with aftermath of the floods and tornadoes that have struck Iowa, Chet Culver, Governor of the state of Iowa, officially proclaims this day as Raoul Wallenberg in honor of the Swedish Diplomats work in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews and as an example of a great humanitarian who provided living proof that one person’s efforts can make a difference in the fight against evil.


2008: In a testament to the involvement of Jews in diverse strata of American life, U.S. News & World Report discloses that Henry Kissinger, the first Jewish U.S. Secretary of State has agreed to lend his name to a foreign policy think tank (at the Woodrow Wilson Center) whileSports Illustrated reports on the recent death of legendary baseball writer Jerome Holtzman and marvels at re-emergence of basketball great Nancy Lieberman, who at the age of fifty had two assists in playing nine minutes for the Detroit Shock


2009: During the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show “Rachel” at the Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theater.


2009: Despite being forced to deal with worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, Iowa Governor Chet Culver still finds the time to proclaim today Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Day on the 97thanniversary of the great Swede’s birth.  This is the third year in a row that the Governor of Iowa has issued such a proclamation.


2009: Rashi’s Daughters: Book III – Rachel by Maggie Anton goes on sale today.  This is the third and final volume in a fictional trilogy based on the lives of the daughters of the great sage.


2009: Israeli police have broken up an Israeli-American crime ring specializing in tax fraud and money-laundering in an operation codenamed "American Pie." Seven people were arrested today on suspicion of involvement in massive tax fraud in the United States following a joint investigation by Israeli and American law enforcement authorities.
 
2009(14th of Av, 5769: Eighty-two year old Israeli author and gadfly, Amos Kenan passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

2009: The Russian gentile,  Feodor Mikhailichenko, who saved former chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau during the Holocaust was posthumously honored at Yad Vashem with the prestigious Righteous Among the Nations award today.
 
2009: Raoul Wallenberg Day


2010: “Surviving Hitler: A Love Story,” a documentary about a young Jewess named Jutta who joined the Resistance and plotted to kill Hitler, is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival


2010: The United Nations peacekeeping force in South Lebanon, Unifil, said today that it had concluded that Israeli forces were cutting trees that lay within their own territory before a lethal exchange of fire with Lebanese Army troops yesterday, largely vindicating Israel’s account of how the fighting started. 

2011: The Jewish community of Cedar Rapids, proudly awaits today’s opening of “13: The Musical” starring one of its youthful and talented members, Bentlee Birchansky.


2011: The 2011 Security Briefing For Jewish Institutions in Northern Virginia is scheduled to place at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation.


2011: “Next Year in Bombay,” film that “profiles the surprising diversity of India’s Jewish communities, some of which have existed for over 2,500 years” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2011: IDF aircraft struck targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours this morning, Palestinians said, a day after Palestinians fired at least two Grad rockets, striking deep into Israel.

2011: Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman said today that although progress has been made in negotiations with the Treasury on the doctors' work dispute, sanctions would continue in hospitals and clinics until a final agreement is reached.

2011: Tomer Rotem, a Chabad rabbi working in Quito, Ecuador, who was kidnapped on August 1 and held for four days, was released tonight.


2011: Hundreds of Wikipedia activists from around the world will descend upon Haifa today for the seventh annual Wikimania conference, to discuss debate and deliberate all things Wiki.


2011: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the appointment of Ram Rothberg as the next head of the Israel Navy,[3][4][5][6] after being nominated by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz


2012: Raoul Wallenberg Shabbat


2012: Sam Kringlen is scheduled to be called to the Torah this morning as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


2012: Yemen Blues, a group that originated in Tel Aviv, is scheduled to perform at the City Winery in New York City.


2012: In Auburn, ME, Temple Shalom Synagogue is scheduled to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg with a special Saturday morning service and screening of a film later in the evening about his rescue work.


2012:Israeli windsurfer Lee Kurzits finished first in race eight of the women’s RS-X competition this afternoon at the Olympic Games, and was in second place overall at the end of the day with strong prospects of a medal.
 
2012: Bearing banners, shouting slogans and calling for a better Israel and a brighter tomorrow, thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for a major protest organized by the social justice movements, which put aside their differences to join forces for the event.


2012: IDF forces shot a Syrian man who crossed into Israel through its northern border today. The infiltrator, who was carrying a pair of wire cutters, was identified during a routine patrol and asked to stop; when he didn’t, the troops on patrol opened fire on him, injuring him in the leg.


2013(28thof Av): Yarhrzeit for Larry Rosenstein, of blessed memory, husband of Judy Levin Rosenstein, of blessed memory.  Gone to soon but always remembered! 


2013: “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. & Mrs. Kraus” a documentary about Gilbert and Eleanor Karus’ successful effort to save 50 Jewish children from Austria.


2013: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center.


2013: A group of 36 Democratic members of the House are expected to arrive in Israel for a one week visit to the Jewish state.  A group of 26 Republicans are expected to visit next week. (As reported by Herb Keinon)


2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including a novel by Louis Begley, Memories of a Marriage  and Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff of blessed memory.

2013: Raoul Wallenberg Day

This Day, August 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 5 In History


135: Betar fell to the Romans


1100: Henry I is crowned King of England at Westminster Abby. During Henry’s reign the first attempts were made to introduce the continental principle - that all Jews were the king's property.  Under King Henry, a clause to that effect was inserted in some manuscripts of the so-called "Laws of Edward the Confessor."


1199: Birthdate of Ferdinand III of Castile.  Catholics remember as the monarch who was canonized as Saint Ferdinand III.  Jews remember him as the King who refused the Pope’s demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing. Apparently he was afraid that if the Jews mistreated they would flee to Muslim Granada, which would be disastrous for the revenues of the kingdom


1264: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Arnstadt Germany


1381: Rabbis and communal leaders from Speyer, Worms and Mayence met at Mayence to review and reinforce laws pertaining to marriage and the rights of widows in the wake of the Black Death.  One of the rules enacted was Tekanoth Shum which allowed a childless widow to receive a definite portion of her late husband’s property even though she had refused to marry her brother-in-law.


1391: More than 400 Jews were killed in attacks in Barcelona. Attempts by the city Fathers and Artisans to protect them were of no use. The attacks were instigated for the most part by Castilians, who had taken part in the massacres in Seville and Valencia.

 
1529: Francis I, King of France and Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who was also King of Spain appear to settle their differences by signing the Treaty of Cambrai in which Francis agrees to give up his claim to Italy and Charles gives up his claim to Burgundy (a part of modern day France.) The Jews had been expelled from France in 1394, so officially there were no Jews for Francis to mistreat or exploit. Charles treatment of his Jewish subjects depended upon where they lived.  As King of Spain, Charles followed the line established by his forbearers starting with the Spanish Inquisition. As Emperor he took a much more benign attitude towards his Jewish subjects living in central Europe. Pope Clement VII, whose support of the Jews earned him the “accolade of ‘favorer of Israel’ and a price gracious to Israel,” made the mistake of siding with Francis over Charles in their dispute.  Once in control of Italy, Charles allowed his troops to sack Clement’s Rome, safe in the knowledge that no French troops would come to the Pope’s assistance. Dona Gracia, the famous Marrano businesswomen who reasserted her Jewish identity, lent money to both monarchs and her nephew was well known to both of these competing rulers. 


1748: Empress Maria Theresa revoked the edict of expulsion directed at the Jews of Bohemia


1769: In a move that set him apart from many of his predecessors and successors, Pope Clement XIV elevated the conditions of the Jews when he declared that they were “no longer under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and are instead subject to the authority of Rome's cardinal vicar (Vicariato di Roma). Jews were furthermore given permission to work as artisans and even to own small factories.” (As reported by Austin Cline)


1772: First of the three partitions of Poland begins.  The Jews of what had been Polandand Lithuaniawill end up in the Prussian, Austrian and/or Russian Empires.  Ironically, the bulk of them will end up living under Russian monarchs who had committed themselves to keeping Jews out of Russia


1802: Birthdate of Eliakim Carmoly, a French born Jewish scholar and rabbi who would eventually resign from the rabbinate, move to Frankfurt and devote himself to Jewish literature and to the collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts.


1843: Birthdate of Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, the son of Isaac Hyneman who was born in Richmond, Virginia but moved to Philadelphia, PA.  When the Civil War broke out, the southern born Hyneman cast his lot with the Union, serving with the U.S. Army from 1862 to 1865.


1854:John Griffins, a native of Poland, was arrested today for swindling Reverend Stephen Wilkins, the pastor of a Baptist church in New York.  Wilkins gave money to Griffins because the latter claimed to be collecting funds for a society for "aiding and better the conditions the Jews."  Griffin’s claims were false.


1860:The consecration of the new synagogue to be used by congregation B'nai Israel, located on the corner of Stanton and Forsyth streets, took place this afternoon. The building, which is capable of holding about 800 people, was formerly a Baptist Church, but has recently been purchased, and converted into a synagogue by the above congregation, most of whom are natives of Holland. The interior transformations required to convert it into a synagogue were not extensive or costly -- the only change being a shifting of the position of the pews, so as to leave a space for the "reading desk" in the centre of the church, and the erection of a semicircular ark in the place of the pulpit. The reading desk is the same as that used in the old synagogue of this congregation, in Christie-street, made of rosewood, and surrounded by an enclosure, or railing, about ten feet square, and of elegant workmanship. On the four corners of the enclosure are gas fixtures, in imitation of candies, and over head depends a magnificent bronze chandelier, with numerous jets, all of which were kept burning during the consecration service. The "Ark" is also made of rosewood, with sliding doors, and, when closed, is screened from public view by rich damask curtains, which were presented by the ladies of the congregation. The synagogue was filled to its utmost capacity, yesterday, by an audience composed about equally of ladies and gentlemen. As the congregation B'nai Israel is among the strictest of the "orthodox" party of the Jews, and opposed to the modern "improvements" and "reforms" that have been introduced into some other synagogues, the old customs, seating the sexes apart, was adhered to, and the ladies occupied the gallery, while the gentlemen sat in the body of the church. Among the Jewish clergy of other congregations present were Rabbi Morris Jerome Raphall, of the Greene-street Synagogue; Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs, of the Wooster-street Synagogue and Rabbi J.J. Lyons, of the Portuguese Synagogue. The ceremonies of the consecration were arranged and conducted by Rabbi M.R. de Leeuw, of the congregation B'nai Israel. The consecration service opened with a chant from the choir, which occupied the enclosure surrounding the reading-desk, and was led by the minister of the congregation. The trustees of the synagogue then entered bearing the "sacred scrolls," and proceeded by twenty-four young girls, dressed in white, with blue scarves, and each one carrying in her band a basket of flowers. The trustees took their position in the open space, between the reading-desk and the ark, and were flanked on either side by a column of the young girls, who commenced picking flowers from their baskets and throwing them at their feet, while the choir chanted a dedication psalm. The bearers of the sacred scrolls, accompanied by the honorary officers of the church, men marched in procession seven times around the synagogue, each circuit being accompanied by an appropriate chant from the choir. On each return of the procession to the open space fronting the ark they were pelted with roses from the fair hands of the young misses until the ground was literally covered with these fragrant floral offerings. The seventh circuit having been completed, the ark was opened, the sacred scrolls were deposited therein, the doors were closed, the damask curtains were drawn close around it, and the perpetual lamp which depends from the ceiling in front was ignited, never to expire. After another chant from the choir, Rev. Dr. RAPHALL ascended the platform on which rests the ark, and addressed the congregation in a few remarks befitting the occasion, taking for his text the passage of Scripture commencing, "How beautiful are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts." He alluded to the persecutions which the children of Israel had suffered under the Roman Empire, and all through the Middle Ages, even to the time when they crossed the ocean and landed in this home of freedom and equality. He spoke of the progress of the congregation B'nai Israel, from the time when he first addressed them in their Synagogue in Pell-street until now, and exhorted them to renewed devotion and praise to the Lord for the prosperity that had attended them. Rabbi Isaacs alluded in disparaging terms to the innovations of the "reform party" among the Israelites, which he attributed to religious pride. He thanked God that the congregation B'nai Israel remained uncontaminated by these pretended reforms, and adhered strictly to the ceremonials of their fathers. A consecration prayer was then delivered by Rabbi de Leeuw, and the ceremonies closed with a Hallelujah by the choir.


1860:The London correspondent for the New York Times reported that the Times of London no longer enjoys any special advantage over its competitors because it has lost its monopoly on information.  The accumulated wealth of the Times had given it access to the telegraph providing it with an advantage over its poorer competitors.   “But since the monopoly of telegraphic communication has been secured by that clever and far-seeing German Jew, Mr. Reuters, all the journals are supplied, share and share alike, at the same time, and at the same tariff. In many specialties, such as "City Intelligence" and "Foreign Correspondence," the Daily News is nearly equal to the Times. The leading articles of the Telegraph are generally on the same subjects as those of its high-priced rival, and the Post, Herald and Star each appeal to their own peculiar class of readers.”


1861: At the meeting of the Board of Alderman in New York City this evening the report of the Committee donating $30,000 to the Hebrew Benevolent Society was adopted, but was subsequently reconsidered and laid over, on the motion of Alderman Tuomey.


1865:A correspondent for the Levant Herald wrote from Smyrna today describing the mortifying effects of the Cholera epidemic that has struck the city. Among other things he reported that Hyde Clark, the English engineer, has informed Sir Moses Motifiore of the suffering among the Jewish people. In response, the Jewish philanthropist has begun raising funds from the Jewish communities in London and France and it is thought that he and his associate, Dr. Hodgkins might personally come to the city with the necessary aid.


1876: Leopold Wintner who had assumed the position of the eight rabbi of Temple Beth El in Detroit gave his farewell sermon today. When Wintner delivered a sermon at the Church of Our Father in May of 1876, he became “the first Detroit rabbi to preach in a local Christian church.”


1878: It was reported today that the Peace Society had sent a delegation headed by Professor Leone Levi to the Congress of Berlin that was supposed to present a petition to the leaders of Europe calling for the use of arbitration as a method of settling international disputes.  Britain’s Lord Salisbury expressed his sympathy with the effort but held out little hope for any action.  Levi was an Italian born Jew who moved to Great Britain where he converted and became a lawyer and author.


1879: “Tracing Some Stolen Goods,” an article published today described how a Jew named Louis Pollard was arrested and falsely accused of stealing shoes worth five hundred dollars from a shoe factory on West Broadway last September.  The police finally realized their error and release him.


1881: It was reported today that mobs have started to attack the synagogues and shops owned by Jews in Pomerania.  The police had to be called to disperse the mobs.


1882: The Standard Oil of New Jersey is established. During the 1930’s “Standard of New Jersey…forged a synthetic oil and rubber cartel with the Nazi-controlled I.G. Farben.”  This “helped the Third Reich to make significant gains “in the development of synthetic rubber and gasoline”; gains which would prove to be of invaluable assistance to the Nazis during WW II.  During the 1930’s Farben’s holding in Standard of New Jersey “were second only to those of John D., Jr., himself.” (For more about Standard Oil and the Jewish people, see The Secret War Against the Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons.)


1883: It was reported today that there was an anti-Semitic riot at Presburg in protest over the not guilty verdicts rendered in the case of Esther Solymosi.


 
1883: “The Scientific Gossip” column published today explained earlier comments by M.G. Lagneau about the differences in birthrates between Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Although Jews have a lower birthrate than the other two religions, there mortality rate “is remarkably low” a condition  attributed to their religious dietetic and hygienic regulations, early marriages, the fact that most Jewish women do not work out of the home and “general sobriety.”


1885:Herzl withdrew from the court service in order to become a writer.


1888: It was reported today that plans have been to provide the youngsters at the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children with an extra summer excursion.


1888: According to a review of Quince Culture by W.W. Meech published today, the fruit is so mild that In Palestine it is eaten as soon as it is picked from the tree.  According to Jewish tradition, the quince was “the apple” that Eve used to tempt Adam.


1889: Salvatore Levy was arrested on charges of obtaining credit under false pretenses.  A  Greek Jew, Levy claimed to be the son of  Elie Levy, who had a seat on the Bourse in Paris and had sent him to America.


1889: Assemblyman Charles “Silver Dollar Smith got into an altercation with Samuel Roberts at the Golden Rule Hotel during a meeting of Republicans of the 8thAssembly District.  [Smith was a Jewish political leader named Solomon who, among other things, passed out free Matzot at his saloon each year before Pesach. 


1889(8thof Av, 5649): Erev Tish’a B’Av


1889(8thof Av, 5649): Seventy-seven year old Isaac Phillips passed away this morning in New York City.  A successful businessman, he worked in the cutlery industry in Philadelphia and New York before pursuing a life of public service including work as a Customs Examiner and Surveyor of the Port.  He also edited the Courier Enquirer.  A life-long Democrat, he attended the convention that nominated James K. Polk to serve as President of the United States.. An active member of the Sephardic community, he was one of the founders of Mount Sinai Hospital.  In 1834, he married Sophia Phillips and after she died in 1855, he married Miriam Trimble, a gentile woman who had converted to Judaism. He was the son of Naphtali Phillips who held a position of responsibility at the Custom House and was editor of the National Advocate


1889: The members of gang called the Yellowstone Cowboys were sentenced to the Albany Penitentiary for their role in terrorizing a boarding house owned by Jew in Ulster County. (Compare this to what was going on in Russia at this time)


1890: When asked about the order to enforce the Russian edicts of 1882 against the Jews, Sir James Fergusson, the Under Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons “that the British Government could interfere with the Czar’s treatment of the Jews.” (Sort of reminds you of the British not being able to “interfere” with Hitler’s “treatment of the Jews.”)


1890: The U.S. State Department cabled the American Legation at St. Petersburg asking if there was “any foundation” to reports of wholesale Jewish expulsion.


1890: A man described as a slender 5’ 8” German Hebrew attempted to obtain three copies of a recently issued book using a forged purchase order from H.C. Squires, a gun dealer on Broadway.


1890: “Dancing At Saratoga” published today provided a summary of activities and events at the New York resort including the fact “that Judge Hilton no longer holds a controlling interest in…the Grand Union Hotel” and there the “Hebrews are once more welcomed there.”


1891: “Russian Jews Released” published today describe the decision to let a group of Jews from Russia enter Baltimore now that the Maryland State Board of Immigration has been “given satisfactory assurances that the immigrants would not become public charges.


1892: A letter printed in an English publication, the Jewish Chronicle, “confirmed the failure of Baron de Hirsch’s colony in Argentina.” According to the writer, the conditions at Moiseville, the Jewish colony, “baffled description.  The land selected for the settlement was ill chosen and an enormous number of the families are huddled together in tents and sheds, where they have been living for months in idleness and intrigue.” After failing to improve conditions, Colonel Goldsmid disbanded the colony and made arrangements for eight hundred of the colonists to sail back to Europe.


1894: “Masquerade Ball at Deal Beach” published today described this social event that included Bryan Kennelly and Lou Rolston dressed as “a Hebrew merchant and his wife.” (Is it Shylock or Rothschild?)


1894: “Remains of the Eight Cities” published today provided a detailed review of A Mound of Many City: Tell-el-Hesy Excavated by Fredrick Bliss the American archaeologist who worked at the site under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Society and under the direction of the famed British archaeologist Flinders Petrie


1895: “Objects To Having Jews Converted” published today described “Aaron Drucker’s indignation” that “has been aroused” by the Saturday afternoon meetings in the Church of Sea and Land “for the purpose of converting his co-religionist to Christianity.” He broke up one such meeting when shouted “Such meetings as this should not be held!  It is an outrage to humanity.  If a man is born a Jew… nothing can change him!” Efforts to convert the Jews of the Lower East Side continued despite his objections.


1895: Louis Stern, a New York dry goods merchant, went on trial today in Kissingen, Germany on charges that he had insulted Baron von Thuengen, the Deputy Commissioner of the city’s Spa much to the delight of “the Jew-baiters” and “the anti-Semitic press.”


1895: Birthdate of William Sawelson, World War I recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.


1896 “Free Trade In Money” published today provides the view of Edward Atkinson that the attempt to switch  United States currency from a gold standard to a bi-metal standard is a plot spearheaded by William Jennings Bryan, the silver miners and “the Jews bankers.”


1896: “Notes of Stage People” published today provided a preview of the fall season in New York including Oscar Hammerstein’s production of the romantic comic opera “Santa Maria” which will open at the Olympia.


1897: The roof garden on the Hebrew Institute Building opened for its second season this evening. The delay in re-opening this facility which provides relief from the heat for thousands on the Lower East Side was brought by the need to finish “extensive repairs…to the building” that will make it nicer for those seeking some semblance of “coolness.”


1897: The Straus sterilized milk booth (so named because they are funded by Nathan Straus) which was located at the roof garden of the Hebrew Institute  last year opened today “for the first time this year.”


1898: “A Riot In East New York” published today described a spontaneous outbursts of violence when Jewish immigrant mothers thought that attempts to vaccinate their daughters were an attempt to put the mark of the cross on their bodies and convert them to Christianity.



1898(17thof Av, 5658): Seventy-six year old Isidor Bush the native of Prague whose “maternal great-grandfather was Israel Hönig, Edler von Hönigsberg, the first Jew raised to nobility in Austria” passed away in St. Louis MO. He moved to the United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848 where he enjoyed an exciting life that included a career in banking, service in the Union Army and helping to develop the Jewish community in St. Louis and the wine growing industry in Missouri; an effort that was felt all the way back to France.


1899(29thof Av, 5659): Seventy-five year old Myer Stern passed away today at Bath Beach while staying at the Hotel Argyle. A native of Bavaria, at the age of 16 he went to work for a banking house owned by the father of Baron Hirsch before coming to the United States where he became a successful banker and merchant.  An active philanthropist, he served as President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, first President of the Institute of Deaf Mutes and was a founder of Temple Emanu-El.


1899: Israel Zangwill, the author of “The Children of the Ghetto” was one of the first passengers to come down the gangplank of the SS Campania when “she docked at the Cunard pier” today.


1899: Israel Zangwill left New York this evening to visit Judge Meyer Sulzberger in Philadelphia, PA


1899: The United Hebrew Charities acknowledged that it had raised an additional $200.50 for an impoverished family that sought to move to the country since both of the parents had become chronic invalids as result of overwork in the city  The contributions ranged from as much as $20 from A.A. Levy to fifty cents from Philip Domich.



1902: Herzl’s trip to the Ottoman Empire begun on July 22, 1902 ends.  Of the trip, Herzl writes, "The negotiations have again led to no results." Herzl comes to the conclusion that the direct road to Palestine was for the time being blocked. He hopes to advance the indirect road of El Arish. Herzl offers to liquidate the entire Ottoman national debt in return for a concession to "Haifaand its environs."



1903: Herzl begins his journey to visit the Jews of Russia.  The trip will end on the 18th day of the month.


1906:Today, eleven English-speaking Jews held a formal meeting in Havana with the intention of founding a congregation and cemetery. The venue was the home of Manuel Hadida at Pasaje Arcado No. 9. Hadida was a Sephardic Jew originally from Algeria, who apparently had migrated from North Africa to Paris, and then to the United States. Evidently it was from the United States that he moved to Havana. Typical of the period, most of the others were Ashkenazi "Americans," although some had been born in Europe.At the first meeting Louis Jurick was elected chairman of the Hebrew Congregation of Cuba, and Manuel Hadida was chosen as general secretary


1906: Birthdate of Nobel Prize-winning economist, Wassily Leontif. Born in St. Petersburg, the son of an economist, Leontif received his Ph.D. from BerlinUniversity. He began teaching at Harvard in 1932. He won the Nobel Prize "for the development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic problems." Later in life he developed an interest in environmental issues. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 92.


1908: Birthdate of Miriam Rothschild, the heiress who discovered how fleas jump, brought Chaucerian wildflowers back to modern England and was acknowledged as one of the world's most distinguished naturalists. . Dame Miriam's father was the banker Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, who found more than 500 new species of fleas. Johnson on her program to beautify American roadsides.  Her interests ranged far beyond science.
 
 
1908: In Charenton-le-pont, Meir Pines and his wife gave birth to Sholomo Pines the Israeli scholar who made Aliyah in 1940 and is best known for his English translation of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed.  The Shlomo Pines Society, founded in 1990 is dedicated to advancing his work a preserving is memory http://www.shlomopines.org.il/len/


1918: The New York Times reported that the Hebrew University has received a gift of five thousand shares of the Jewish Colonial Trust valued at $25,000 from Jacob Schiff.


1919(9th of Av, 5679): Tish'a B'Av


1920: Birthdate of Selma Diamond. Born in London, Ontario this comedienne with the gravelly voice gained lasting fame as Selma on the television hit, Night Court.


1925: In Brooklyn, Phillip and Minnie Shainmark Bloom gave birth to Joel Nachum Bloom “who in his 21 years as director of the science museum and planetarium at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia transformed a lackluster exhibition space into a bright and appealing one with hands-on experiments and walk-through exhibits, including a giant, pulsing human cell…” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


1926: Houdini stays in a coffin under water for more than one hour


1933:Archaeologists working for  the Palestine Exploration Fund  discovered an ancient synagogue, dating from the sixth century C. E near Nahalal.


1933:In Montreal, The arrival of Sir Herbert Samuel in Montreal, as leader of British delegation to the fifth biennial conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, is made the occasion of attack by anti-Semitic newspaper, Le Patriot, which charges him with being the emissary of the "Elders of Zion" to open Canada to Jewish refugees from Germany.


1933:The Nazi Lawyers' Association addresses a formal letter to business establishments threatening them with a boycott if they continue to employ Jewish lawyers.


1933: In Frankfort, Court imposes a two months' imprisonment sentence upon a Jewish journalist for wearing a swastika, even though he contends that he renounced Judaism in 1922 and had applied for membership in the National Socialist Party.


1933: In Hamburg, The Heinrich Heine monument is removed from the city park.


1933: The Nazi Rhine officials issue an order prohibiting the employment of Jews as non-qualified labor in the entire Rhine district. Employers are warned of penalties if they employ Jews who do not produce a special card entitling them to employment.


1934(24th of Av, 5694): One hundred Jews are killed in an anti-Semitic pogrom at Constantine, Algeria.


1936:  Arab disturbances and on the division of responsibilities between the Palestineand the British governments.


1937:The British Palestinian policy gained its first ground today when Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Congress, made an eloquent though guarded plea in favor of the partition principle to the biennial congress.


1937: Birthdate of Dan Shomron the Sabra who would play a key role in the 1976 Raid on Entebbe and served as the 13th Chief of Staff of the IDF.


 1937: The 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich, decided by a vote of 285 against 115, to hold the political debate behind closed doors. 


 1937: In Geneva, the Permanent Mandates Commission reminded the British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby-Gore, that Britainadministered Palestineon its behalf.


1938: As they attempted to halt Arab instigated violence, British troops clashed with a band of armed men, killing three and wounding four.


1940(1st of Av, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Av


 1941(12th of Av, 5701): The Holocaust continued to gain momentum. In Rasaininai, 213 men and 66 Jewish women were murdered.


1941: A three day long slaughter of Jews begins in Pinsk that results in the death of eleven thousand Jews. 


1942: In the Warsaw Ghetto German soldiers came to collect the 192 (there is some debate about the actual number and it may have been 196) orphans and about one dozen staff members to take them to Treblinka extermination camp. The children were under the care of Janusz Korczak,the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogue, known as Pan Doktor(Mr Doctor). Korczak had been offered sanctuary on the “Aryan side” of Warsaw but turned it down repeatedly, saying that he could not abandon his children. Now too, he refused offers of sanctuary, insisting that he would go with the children. The children were dressed in their best clothes, and each carried a blue knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Joshua Perle, an eyewitness, described the procession of Korczak and the children through the ghetto to the Umschlagplatz(deportation point to the death camps):


... A miracle occurred. Two hundred children did not cry out. Two hundred pure souls, condemned to death, did not weep. Not one of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and brother, Janusz Korczak, so that he might protect and preserve them. Janusz Korczak was marching, his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt around his waist, and wearing high boots. A few nurses were followed by two hundred children, dressed in clean and meticulously cared for clothes, as they were being carried to the altar. (...) On all sides the children were surrounded by Germans, Ukrainians, and this time also Jewish policemen. They whipped and fired shots at them. The very stones of the street wept at the sight of the procession.


According to a popular legend, when the group of orphans finally reached the Umschlagplatz, an SS officer recognized Korczak as the author of one of his favorite children's books and offered to help him escape, but once again, Korczak refused. He boarded the trains with the children and was never heard from again.


Korczak's evacuation from the Ghetto is also mentioned in Władysław Szpilman's book The Pianist


"One day, around 5th August when I had take a brief rest from work and was walking down Gesia Street, I happened to see Janusz Korczak and his orphans leaving the ghetto. The evacuation of the Jewish orphanage run by Janusz Korczak had been ordered for that morning. The children were to have been taken away alone. He had the chance to save himself, and it was only with difficulty that he persuaded the Germans to take him too. He had spent long years of his life with children and now, on this last journey he could not leave them alone. He wanted to ease things for them. He told the orphans they were going out in to the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two nicely dressed and in a happy mood. The little column was lead by an SS man who loved children, as Germans do, even those he was about to see on their way into the next world. He took a special liking to a boy of twelve, a violinist who had his instrument under his arm. The SS man told him to go to the head of the precession of children and play – and so they set off. When I met them in Gesia Street the smiling children were singing in chorus, the little violinist was playing for them and Korczak was carrying two of the smallest infants, who were beaming too, and telling them some amusing story. I am sure that even in the gas chamber, as the Zyklon B gas was stifling childish throats and striking terror instead of hope into the orphans hearts, the Old Doctor must have whispered with one last effort, ‘it's all right, children, it will be all right’. So that at least he could spare his little charges the fear of passing from life to death." The Pianist - Page 96


Sometime after, there were rumors that the trains had been diverted and that Korczak and the children had survived. There was, however, no basis to these stories. Most likely, Korczak was killed with most of his children in a gas chamber upon their arrival at Treblinka. There is a memorial grave for him at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.


1943: Along with 11 other women Liane Berkowitz was executed Plötzensee Prison for their part in the German Resistance Movement.


1943: Harold Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoes, married Dorothy Levine of Waterford, Maine.


 1944:  Polish fighters liberated the Gesoiowaka Labor Camp from the Germans. Among those freed were 384 Jewish prisoners.  


 1945: The Atom Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It was August 6th in Japan. The bomb certainly could not have been built without the help of several Jewish scientists. The project to build the bomb owed its start to the letter Einstein sent to Roosevelt in 1939. While views about the use of the bomb have grown over the years, the tens of thousands of Allied soldiers and sailors who were projected to die while invading Japan certainly were not bothered by the use of what some came to call "the Jewish bomb."


1947:Israel Rokach, the future Mayor of Tel Aviv is imprisoned in the prison at Latrun


1948: Today Austrian banker Sonja Kohn was born to Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe in Vienna. “She grew up in Vienna in a small Jewish community. In the 1970s, with her husband Erwin Kohn, she started an import-export business and moved to Milan, Italy. In 1984 she founded the Bank Medici in Vienna. One year later, she moved to New York. They lived in Monsey, a large, ultraorthodox Jewish community. Increasingly orthodox, she covered her hair as is customary for traditionally orthodox women. The Kohns founded a small brokerage firm, the Eurovaleur Inc. In New York City she became known as “Austria’s woman on Wall Street.” In 1990s, they moved back to Vienna. There, she cooperated with Gerhard Randa of Bank Austria. The Bank Medici was relaunched in 2003 as an Aktiengesellschaft. Sonja is shareholder of 75 percent and is head of the bank's supervising board. She also became consultant of the Vienna Stock Exchange and was member of the supervisory board of Italian Finlombardia bank.


1948: In light of the realities of the military situation and the failure of the UN to act, the Israeli government explicitly rejected the proposal for an internationalized Jerusalem.


1957: Nobel Prize winning chemist Heinrich Otto Wieland passed away.  Wieland was not Jewish. According to one source, Wieland provided educational opportunities for Jewish students who were expelled under the terms of the Nuremberg Laws. Wieland was also an associate of members of the White Rose, a secret anti-Nazi organization whose membership was, for the most part, killed off by the Gestapo during the last years of the war.


1958: Birthdate of  Israeli  political leader Silvan Shalom, the native of Tunisia who made Aliyah in 1959 and served in a number of ministerial positions including Vice Prime Minister


1959(1st of Av, 5719): Rosh Chodesh Av


1962(5th of Av, 5722): Actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home. She was 36. Her death was ruled a probable suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills. Monroe had converted to Judaism when she married playwright Arthur Miller.


1964:  Mel Brooks marries Anne Bancroft.


1966: Birthdate of actor Jonathan Silverman the son of Rabbi Emanuel Silverman and the grandson of Rabbi Morris Silverman.


1975: Birthdate of Iddo Goldberg, the Israeli actor who played Yitzchak Shulman, in the film version of Defiance, the book and film that told the story of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War.


1976: Leonard Bernstein conducted the German-language premiere of Candide, at Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna.


1978:Birthdate of Israeli tennis player Harel Levy.


1981: Ariel Sharon replaced Menachem Begin as Minister of Defense.


1981: Yitzhak Berman succeeded Yitzhak Moda’i as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.


1981: Mordechai Tzipori, succeeded Yoram Aridor as Communications Minister


1995(9th of Av, 5755): Because today is Shabbat, this evening is Erev Tisha B’Av


1995(9th of Av, 5755): Israeli composer Menachem Avidom passed away at the age of 87.


1999: Matan Vilnai succeeded Ehud Barak as Minister of Culture and Sport


1999: Yithak Vaknin began serving as Deputy Minister of Communications.


2001: The New York Times book section featured a review of Francine du Plessix Gray’s biography of Simon Weil, the ‘atheist Jew’ entitled Simon Weil


2005: Nicole Sarah Mackey, daughter of Mark and Karen Mackey, granddaughter of Harvey and Elaine Luber, and an all-around great person, becomes a Bat Mitzvah in Little Rock, Arkansas.


2006: Marissa Carson, daughter of Laura and Bill Carson is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah in Cedar Rapids, IA.  As the Israelis are battling those who would destroy the Jewish state, there is additional drama and poignancy to the opening words of her haftarah, “Comfort, ye, comfort my people – Nachamu, Nachamu ami.”


2006(11th of Av, 5766): Fadiya Juma'a, 60, and her daughters Sultana, 31, and Samira, 33 were killed by Hezbollah rockets.


2007: An exhibition entitled “Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art” comes to a close at the Jewish Museum in New York City.


2007: The Sunday New York Times Book Section reviewed Dalia Sofer’s first novel, The September of Shiraz,a “richly evocative, powerfully affecting depiction of a prosperous Jewish family in Tehran shortly after the revolution” and 15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall: Three Generals Who Saved the American Centuryby the Jewish author Stanley Weintraub.


2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section reviewed Girls Gone Mild by Jewish author Wendy Shalit andFateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Keshaw.The last decision Kershaw explores -- moving to the industrial-scale murder of Europe's Jews -- wasn't so much a decision as the endpoint of a long trajectory of anti-Semitism that found its ultimate exponent in Hitler and its impetus in the speed of his victories in 1940 and 1941. This final chapter is a horrifying chronicle of the "spiral of radicalization" in Nazi thinking that led from Mein Kampf to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a fitting coda to Kershaw's thoughtful, far-reaching examination of events that echo down to today.”



2007: The Cedar Rapids Gazette featured an article about In Tolerance a precision contractor manufacturing company owned by Jewish community leader Robert Becker describing it as “a Cedar Rapids company leading the way in family-friendly policies.”



 

2007: Eighty-year old Jean-Marie Lustiger, the French Cardinal who was a born Jewish in Poland and whose mother died in a Nazi Concentration Camp, passed away today. (As reported by Tagliabue)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/europe/06lustiger.html?pagewanted=all



2008: In Little Rock, AR, opening session of From Ruins to Glory, a course of study based on a virtual tour of the Temple.



2008: In St. Paul, MN, the Modern Marvels series, “Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel”examines The Quitter by Harvey Pekar.

2008: Shaul Mofaz officially entered the race to be leader of Kadima and received a blessing by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef



2008: Yakov Kreizberg conducted his final symphony at the BBC Proms.



2009(15th of Av, 5769):Tu B’Av - “According to the Talmud (tractate Ta'anit, 30b-31a), Tu B'Av was a joyous holiday in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem: Unmarried girls would dress in simple white clothing (so that rich could not be distinguished from poor) and go out to sing and dance in the vineyards surrounding Jerusalem. One of the happier holidays on the Jewish calendar, the Fifteenth of Av is today considered the Israeli equivalent of Valentine's Day. Yet another holiday with agricultural origins, Tu B'Av is said to be the day that the members of the twelve tribes were first allowed to marry each other. While often forgotten elsewhere, Tu B'Av is a fairly big deal in Israel. People send cards and give flowers to their loved ones, and hold special "Holiday of Love" parties. http://www.sfjcf.org/resources/jholidays/



2009:The Times of Londonreported today that the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has stockpiled 40,000 rockets near the border with Israel and is training its guerillas to use missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv. According to the report, militants are now being trained in the use of both long-range ground-to-ground missiles as well as anti-aircraft missiles to use against Israel.

2009(15th of Av, 5769):Budd Schulberg, an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer passed away.  He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for “On the Waterfront,” and his 1957 screenplay for “A Face in the Crowd.”



 

2009: The New York Times reviewed Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony Flint



2010: A screening of "Azi Ayima", a documentary that explores the roots of the Moroccan Jewish community, is scheduled to be shown at the Leavantine Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA.



2010:Bankito, sometimes referred to as "Jewstock" -- a youth-oriented Jewish culture festival is scheduled to begin on the shore of Bank Lake, north of Budapest.



2010: The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to a seat on the Supreme Court today.

2010:Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) has been easily re-nominated in his Democratic primary tonight, beating back former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton's effort to make race an issue against the white progressive Congressman from a majority-black district. With 59% of precincts reporting, Cohen leads by a whopping 79%-20%. This result so far seems identical to last cycle's Dem primary, in which the incumbent Cohen faced a challenge that not only centered around race, but also featured seemingly anti-Semitic attacks against him.



2010: Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, lost out on his bid to buy the Texas Rangers baseball team.



2010(25thof Av, 5770): Ninety-three year oldStanley Simon, the former Vice President of Bulova Watch Company who assisted veterans following World War II passed away today (As reported by Maraglit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/nyregion/16simon.html



 

2011: In Israel, the JCC Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to a close.



2011:Jewish Rock Artist Sheldon Low is scheduled to perform at a musical family Shabbat service at Temple B'nai Shalom, in Fairfax, VA.



2011: Bellamy, the daughter of Debbie and Michael Beecher will be the center of attention at her baby-naming ceremony that is scheduled to take place at Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, IA


2011: This morning, the Air Force struck five targets in the Gaza Strip following several strikes earlier yesterday coming in response to increased rocket fire emanating from the Strip in recent days, including one rocket which reportedly landed in the Lachish area but caused no damages or injuries. .


2011:Due to escalation in rocket fire from Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided today to deploy a battery from the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system outside the southern city of Ashkelon. Barak's decision came after close to thirty rockets have been fired into Israel since the beginning of July.


2011: Ten dairy farmers staged a small protest rally today near Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Shalom Simhon's home in Moshav Even Menachem in northern Israel.  The farmers protested Simhon's support of the government's dairy market reform, which is likely to cut their profit margin.

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz, Einstein’s Jewish Science by Steve Gimbel, Uncanny Valley and other Adventures in the Narrative by Lawrence Weschler and What in God’s Name by Simon Rich



2012: A revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” sponsored by the Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, featuring Cantor Joel Colman, is scheduled to have its final performance.



2012:Dozens of mortars were fired at Kerem Shalom from the Gaza Strip hours after an IAF airstrike killed a terrorist in Rafah.

2012:  Lex Shatilov failed to win an Olympic medal today, finishing the men’s floor exercise in sixth place



2012(17thof Av, 5772): Ninety-six year old Martin Segal head of the Segal Company and “the elder statesman of Lincoln Center” passed away today. (As reported by Robin Pogrebin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/arts/martin-segal-leading-new-york-cultural-figure-dies-at-96.html?_r=1&hpw



2012:In an ambitious and sophisticated attack, global jihad terrorists infiltrated Israel tonight after breaking into an Egyptian military base and stealing two armored jeeps. One of the vehicles, likely boobytrapped, exploded as it rammed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is shared by Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. A number of terrorists succeeded in exiting the second vehicle before it was destroyed by an air strike. They crossed into Israel and engaged in a firefight with IDF troops.

2012(17th of Av, 5772): Ninety-eight year old Ben Heineman, the successful businessman who wrote speeches for Adlai Stevenson and advised Lyndon Johnson during his presidency, passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)

2012(17thof Av, 5773): Eighty-six year old Sami Rohr passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

2013: “The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich” a documentary about “the controversial Jewish psychoanalyst and experimental scientist Wilhelm Reich” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: “Fill the Void” a film that tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic family from Tel Aviv is scheduled to open at the Bear Tooth Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska which is in an interesting choice of venues for such a film.


2013(29thof Av): Yarhrzeit of Abraham Cahan, the editor of The Jewish Daily Forward who passed away on the 29th of Av, 5711 (August 31, 1951)


2013(29thof Av: Yarhrzeit of Rabbi Samuel Salant

2013(29thof Av: Yarhrzeit of Moshe Leib Halpern, the modern Yiddish poet.

This Day, August 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 6 In History



412:Roman emperors Honorius and Theodosius II command that Jews should not be persecuted because of their religion or have their property confiscated without cause but Jews are warned not “to disrespect Christianity.(As reported by Austin Cline)


475: Among the edicts issued by Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III is one banning Jews from own Christian slaves. (As reported by Austin Cline)


1223: Coronation of Louis VIII, the French monarch “who issued an ordinance that prohibited his officials from recording debts owed to Jews” which deprived the Jews of income and set him at odds with Theobald IV, the powerful Count who ruled Champagne.


1243: After a ritual murder accusation in Kitzingen, Bavaria (Germany), fifteen Jews were tortured to death. Their corpses lay in the street for a fortnight before they were allowed to be buried. 


1284: Genoa defeated Pisa at the Battle of Meloria. This battle took place when Genoa was at the height of period “mercantile expansion.”  According to Cecil Roth, “Genoa was on the least hospitable and tolerant of Italian states as far as the Jews were concerned.”  Not only did the Genoese not encourage the settlement of Jews, they may have actually actively discouraged them from settling so as to avoid introducing business competitors.  There was no organized Jewish community in Genoa at this time and in fact, there may have only been two Jews living there.  By the 13th century evidence exists that Pisa did have an organized Jewish community of at least 20 families.There are Jewish tombstones embedded in the town walls that date back to the middle of the 13th century.  And a synagogue may have been located on the “Alley of the Jews” during this time.


1301(23rdof Av, 5061): Rabbi David ben Avraham Maimuni HaNagid passed away. Known variously as David Maimuni or Rabbi David Hanagid, this Rabbi was the grandson of the Rambam He was born in 1233 and followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father as Nagid or "Prince" over the Jewish congregations in Egypt. He was an ally of the powerful Rabbi of Barcelona, Solomon ben Abraham Ben Adret known as Rashba. In 1285, when those who opposed Rabbi Hanagid sought to depose him, Ben Adret supported his declarations of excommunications. An interesting legend has grown up around the Hanagid concerning these attacks. According to the legend the embattled Rabbi prayed at the cave of Meronin Eretz Yisrael. This cave was also known as the cave of Rabbi Hilleland Shammai. Supposedly its waters had magical powers. When cold water issued forth from the cave in response to the Rabbi’s prayers, he excommunicated five hundred of his opponents. On that day the five hundred who had slandered him in Egyptdied. Surely a legend like that would have greatly troubled his rational and compassionate grandfather. Hanagid was scholar. For those of you have read Pirke Avot, you might remember Hillel’s comments about a floating skull. Maimonides' grandson, Rabbi David Hanagid, cited a tradition handed down by "the early ones" that the floating skull belonged to none other than Pharaoh himself. Hillel therefore told him: "Because you commanded that Jewish children be drowned in the Nile, you were drowned." It was specifically Hillel who confronted Pharaoh's skull, since as a reincarnation of Moses he was fit to confront Pharaoh.  


1414: Ladsilas, the King of Naples who offered the Jews offered the Jews a charter which would have given them economic equality, passed away.


1527: R. Samuel Margolioth of Posen was confirmed as chief rabbi of Great Poland, and was vested with important powers over all the Jews of that district by a document issued by Sigismund I bearing today’s date.


1724(5484):Samson Wertheimer who was chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt as well as an Austrian financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I passed away in Vienna.


1762: Myth meets myth.  According to the non-Jewish world the sandwich was born today when the Earl of Sandwich has a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so that he can eat without leaving the gambling tables.  As anybody who has ever attended a Seder, the Earl was a Johnny-come-lately since Hillel began eating his sandwich – bitter herbs between two pieces of Matzah – during the days of the Second Temple.


1806: Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire. But this was not a great loss to this European monarch since he had already declared himself Francis I, Emperor of the Austrian Empire in 1804.  It was in this more powerful role that he would have an effect on the life of European Jews, For example, in 1820, Francis I of Austriarequired rabbis to study sciences and use the language of the country in prayers and sermons. As a result, a rabbinical seminary opened in Padua in 1829. While moves such as this were supported by followers of the Haskalah, they were viewed with suspicion, if not outright dread, by those opposed to the modernists.


1810: Rabbi Issachar Dov Baer of Zloczow, author of Mevas-ser Zedek passed away


1819:  Norwich University founded in Vermont. Rabbi Ken Spiro, the Jewish historian, has a Masters Degree in History from The Vermont College of Norwich University.


1825: Boliviagains its independence from Spain.  During the colonial period, the Jewish presence would have been made up of Marranos or Conversos some of whom worked in the silver mines and helped establish the city of Santa Cruzde la Sierra.  Evidence of Jewish presence may be seen in reports of settlers following “Jewish customs” including “lighting candles on Friday nights and sitting on the ground in mourning when a close relative dies.” A truly recognizable Jewish community appeared in the country in the early 1900’s with the arrival of Russian Jews.


1840: As Europeans – Jews and non-Jews – attempted to deal with the Blood Libel in Damascus, Moses Montefiore sought an interview with Mehmet Ali in Cairo.  When the two met Montefiore “handed him a petition in the name of the Jewish community rerrqauestion permission to go to Damasacus” so he could investigate the charges that had been.  The Jewish leaders need a guarantee of safe conduct so that they could meet with prisoners.


1842(30th of Av, 5602): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1847(24thof Av, 5607): Baltimore communal leaders Samuel Etting passed away at the age of 83.“Maryland had a ban on non-Christians holding office or practicing law, and from 1797, Etting campaigned persistently to have this barrier removed. He finally succeeded in 1826 and was immediately elected to the Baltimore City Council. By the time of his election the American Jewish population numbered 6,000.”


1855: Birthdate of Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs.  The son of a Polish Jew named Alfred Isaacs, Sir Isaac “was an Australian judge and politician, was the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post.”


1857:The New York Timesreported that Baron Rothschild had resigned his seat in the House of Commons and a noticed had been posted for the election of a replacement.  A public meeting of electors in London pledged to return Rothschild to his seat in Parliament and called upon Lord Russell to resolve the matter that was keeping Jews from serving in Parliament.


1858: After a five-and-twenty years' wrangling the admissibility of the Jews to Parliament has been conceded.


1863: As part of the day of National Thanksgiving which was celebrated today Rabbi Samuel Isaacs of B’nai Jeshurun addressed his congregation in New York City.


1865: Jacob Schiff came to the United States arriving today in New York City.


1867: Isaac and Julia Elkus gave birth to Abram I. Elkus, the New York lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. “In 1902, Elkus' firm James, Schell & Elkus, merged with a firm headed by Joseph M. Proskauer, creating the firm of Elkus, Gleason & Proskauer, a predecessor of the law firm of Proskauer Rose.”


1867: Solomon and Betty Loeb gave birth to their second son, James Loeb who joined Kuhn, Loeb & Co in 1888 and became a partner in 1894 before retiring because of health problems in 1904. A patron of the arts, he endowed the Loeb Classical Library founded the Institute of Musical Art, which later became part of the Juilliard School of Music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loeb_Classical_Library



1871: It was reported today that The Jewish Messenger has proposed a national conference aimed a promoting “the unity and welfare of the Hebrews” living in the United States.  Among the proposals that the Messenger feels should be considered are that delegates from the various congregations from across the country should meet regularly to discuss measures that would “bring order from chaos, union from discord” as regards the differences between different Jewish groups and that efforts should be started to provide trained rabbis who can meet the needs of the American Jewish community,


1873: Approximately 700 Jewish youngsters including students who attend the six New York schools that make up the Free Hebrew Association and the children living at the Jewish Orphan Asylum and Industrial School went on an excursion up the Hudson River to Excelsior Park.  Among those traveling with this well behaved group were Abraham Oetlinger, President of the Hebrew Free School Associations and several Jewish philanthropists who had raised the funds for the trip.


1878: The case of Lewinski v Lewinski is scheduled to be held in Brooklyn, New York. Mrs. Josephine Lewinski is suing her husband Philip Lewinski for divorce.  As part of the divorce decree she is seeking alimony and the payment of her legal fees. The Lewinski’s are both Jewish.  Six years ago, when Lewinski was a successful businessman he met Josephine Schauffer at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, where she was a ward.  The trustees gave them permission to marry after Lewinski told them that he loved her and she had happily consented to the marriage.  However, Lewinski’s business affairs went sour and he became a counterfeiter.  He was caught and imprisoned.  Mrs. Lewinski stood by him and went to various officials seeking his release.  After he got out of prison, he began spending time with his old associates which is why she is seeking a divorce.


1879: The Congressional Medal of Honor was issued to David Orbansky who had served with 58th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War was it fought its way down the Mississippi River starting with the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.


1881: It was reported today that the excursion sponsored by the Athletic Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem which had been scheduled to take place on August 4 has been re-scheduled for later this month. (August 4 was Tish’a B’Av which probably accounted for the scheduling change)


1881: The government of Argentina appointed a special agent to attract Jewish immigrants from Russia.


1881: It was reported today that Englishmen have developed a more positive attitude towards beef imported from the United States.  Part of that improvement is attributed to the fact that between April and October of 1880, English Jews bought cattle from 15 different shipments without any complaint.  Not one of the animals was rendered not Kosher or “unsound.”  Apparently, the strict observance of Jewish laws concerning the inspecting and slaughter of meat is well enough known among the general populace for this fact to have had a positive impact on the sale of American cattle in the United Kingdom

 
1883: It was reported today that the Town Council of Ekaterinoslva, Russia has voted to give the Jews 5,000 rubles to compensate them for the losses suffered during a recent attack by an ant-Semitic mob.


1883: “The Nyireghyhaza Tiral” published today described the feelings and treatment of Jews in Europe in the wake of the “blood libel” trial recently held in Hungary.


 
1884:General Sir William John Codrington passed away.  Codrington served as the Governor General of Gibraltar in 1859 when he provided food and shelter for Jews who had taken refuge in the colony because of the war between Spain and Morocco.


1884: “Hotel Rent By Religious War” published today described the conflicts between Jewish and Gentile society matrons at one of the leading resort hotels in Long Branch, NJ


1884: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs delivered the principle address this afternoon at the cornerstone laying ceremony for the new synagogue to be used by Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun. The building is located at Madison Avenue, between 64th and 65thStreets in Manhattan. The Chairman of the Building Committee, Newman Cohen, deposited a variety of items including newspapers, coins and a scroll containing the history of the congregation into the cornerstone before it was put in place. Unlike many of the other Jewish congregations in the area, B’Nai Jeshrun will follow Orthodox ritual.


1886: Superintendent Jackson, the chief immigration officer at Castle Garden received a cable today from Hamburg informing him that a large number of Romanian and Polish Jews were waiting for a ship at the German port that would take them to America.  According to the message, most of them were paupers.


1886: A major fire in Phoenix, Arizona, finally convinced the city council to accept the proposal of Mayor Emil Ganz to establish a waterworks and fire department.


1887: Today’s “Short Cuts” column contained an excerpt from the American Hebrew about the quality of meals served at the various resort “the mountains.” While patrons complain about the food, they come back year and year out.  The paper concluded that the vacationers except too much for the small amount of money they pay. (The mountains refers to the Catskills which will later be known as The Borscht Belt)


1888: Stern Brothers of West 23rd Street in New York,have promised to provide the fund for today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.


1889(9th of Av, 5649): Tish’a B’Av


1899: “Dreyfus Case Clearly Reviewed published today provides a summary of Joseph Reinach’s explanation of how Dreyfus was wrongly convicted including the fact that the French Army attributed Esterhazy’s treachery to French Jewish officer.


1890: Coroner Ferdinand Levy is one of the speakers scheduled to address those attending Shoen & Lowenthal’s German American Institute and Kingdergartern, a summer festival at the foot of East 69th Street.


1890: Paul Ohleshaus whose skull was fractured by Timothy Abbot after he stopped him from “tormenting an inoffensive Jew” is “lying unconscious in the Chambers Street Hospital”


1890: At its meeting in Berlin, the International Medical Congress “rejected a proposal to meet in St. Petersburg” because “of the repression of the Jews in Russia.”


1890: The Jews of Edinburgh met today and resolved to raise funds which would be sent to the Jewish Society for the Colonization of Palestine to provide assistance for “Jews expelled from Russia.”


1891: “The Russian Jews” published today described the attack on the Jewish quarter of Elisabethgrad by a mob crying “Kill the Jews!”  The authorities did nothing to stop the mobs or put an end to the looting.


1892: “Religious Statistics” published today provided a summary of the Unite States cenus report prepared by Charles E Bull Chief of the Division of Religious Statistics that showed of the 20,347,346 people counted 150,000 of them are Jewish.


1892: Harper’s Weekly published a drawing of Alexander Berkman, the Jewish anarchist who attempted to Henry Clay Frick, the steel magnate who played a key role in the Homestead Steel Strike.

1893: It was reported today that a Jewish organization in London took care of the Russo-German family named Kaiser who had been expelled as Protestants by the government in Kiev along with a stream of Jews.  The English Jews raised $250 to send them on to Winnipeg. 


1894: “A Standard German Life of Heine” published today provides a detailed review of Heinrich Heine’s Life In His Own Words edited by Gustav Karpleles and translated from the German by Arthur Dexter.  According to the review, the refusal of the city of Dusseldorf to erect a statute to the “Hebrew poet” and the attempts to build one for him in the United States has done more to keep him before the public than publication of successive editions of his works would do.


1894: “Swearing Oaths on Books” published today contained the reminder that in English courts “Christians are sworn on the New Testament, Jews on the Old Testament and Mohammedans on the Koran and persons of other religions according to the form prescribed for that purpose by the religion they profess.”  (In the 21st century an American Jewish radio host would come unglued when a newly elected Moslem member of the House of Representatives asked to take the oath of office using a Koran)


1895: The late I.S. Goldberg of San Francisco was reported to have divided his estate equally among the city’s Jewish, Protestant and Catholic Orphan Asylums.


1895: “Jewish Liberality” published today, relying on information that first appeared in The Jewish Messenger, described the decision of the late Abraham Levy of Richmond, VA, to divide his estate among Protestants, Catholics and Jews.”


1895: Louis Stern, the New York dry good merchant is prepared to serve a fortnight in a German jail and pay 600 marks after having been found guilty of insulting Baron von Thuengen who objected to Mr. Stern’s son being in the dance hall at Kur Garden in Kissingen.


1897: “East Side Roof Garden” published today provided the rules for the facility on top of the Hebrew Institute Building which will allow children to visit along between 8 A.M. and 5:30 P.M. but require them to be accompanied by their parents or guardians from 7:30 P.M. to 11:00 P.M.


1895: It was reported today that Hebrew Institute under the direction of Superintendent of Isaac Spectorsky will be offering concerts five times a week now that remodeling has been completed.


1898: Dr. Adolph M Radin, the rabbi of the People’s Synagogue celebrated his 50thbirthday today


1899: In an interview published today Israel Zangwill said his “soul purpose in visiting America is to supervise the staging of ‘The Children of the Ghetto’” Since “the Hebrew character has never been faithfully portrayed on the stage” and “the Jew has been caricatured” his “aim is to give a true a picture of the Hebrew as he is both as regards characteristics and religion” which is important because many of the characters in his play are Jewish.


1901: Birthdate of gangster Dutch Schultz. Born Arthur Flegenheimer, Schultz made his money as a violent bootlegger during the dry days of the Roaring 20’s. Even his fellow gangsters saw him as being out of control and they gunned him down in 1935. Actually, the Jews dodged the bullet on this one. Schultz converted to Catholicism before he died and is buried in a CatholicCemetery in the state of New York


1909: Birthdate of U.S. economist Solomon Adler, the native of Leeds who was the brother of Israeli doctor Saul Adler


1911: Birthdate of Norman Gordon a “South African cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1938 to 1939.”


1912: The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum. The Bull Moose Party was formed by Teddy Roosevelt after he lost the Republican nomination to Taft.  The formation of the party would lead to a three way race for the Presidency in 1912 between Taft, Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt had enjoyed strong support among Jewish leaders going back to his days as Chief of Police in New York and his two terms in the White House where appointed a Jew to the cabinet and championed the rights of Russian Jews.  So strong was his support among the Jewish reform leaders that Oscar Straus “led the New York delegation down the aisles at Roosevelt’s breakaway Progressive convention in Chicago and then agreed to run for governor of New York on the Progressive ticket.”  Jewish reformers were obviously in this election as can be seen by the support of Brandies for Wilson.  In the end T.R. lost, but he never lost the good will of a significant part of the Jewish community. According to one source, a Jewish police officer, Otto Raphael, said Kaddish over Roosevelt's body the night before he was buried.


1915: As part of the Gallipoli Campaign, the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay. Despite the courage of the troops, the landings were botched due to the ineptitude of the generals in charge.  The campaign ultimately failed with the hopes of knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war and breaking the stalemate on the Western Front.  The Zion Mule Corps, an all Jewish supply unit gained the respect of the British during the campaign and this helped lay the groundwork for the creation of all Jewish Battalions in the British Army that would distinguish themselves while fighting with Allenby.


1916:  Birthdate of historian Richard Hofstadter.  Hofstadter’s father was Jewish.  His mother was not.  Hofstadter was a professor at ColumbiaUniversity where he had earned his Ph.D.  Hofstadter came of age during the Great Depression.  He embraced communism because it was the enemy of capitalism, a system that Hofstadter had failed the working men and women of America.  As the thirties wore on, he became equally disenchanted with the Party and the Soviet Union.  The final break came, as did with so many others, over Stalin’s pact with Hitler in 1939.  Hofstadter’s writings were quite influential during the mid 20thcenturies.  Two of his works, The Age of Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life won Pulitzer Prizes and were on the required reading list in many of the history and political science departments at American colleges and universities.  His influence would have been greater had he lived longer.  He died at tragically at the age of 54.


1918: Birthdate of Norman Granz, American jazz musician and record producer


1920: In Bucharest, the government of Romania decides to consider Turkish Jews as enemy aliens. The Romanians intern the Jews, sequester their property and threaten to expel them. The Union of Native Jews of Romania intervenes to help their co-religionist.


1923:American delegates to the "World Zionist Congress, as well as hundreds of other American Jews who have come to Carlsbadfor the gathering took part in a memorial service to President Harding held here yesterday, to which all Americans were invited.


1924: The Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor made public the text of a letter sent with its approval by Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor to former Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, who had asked the council not to make a decision on Presidential endorsements until it had the acceptance speech of John W. Davis before it, a request which was refused


1926: In New York, the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juanstarring John Barrymore


1926: Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.


1929: A month before his death, Louis Marshall wrote a letter to Julius Rosenwald in which traced the history of the Jewish Theological Seminary, praised its many accomplishment and expressed his fear that adequate funding would not be available to ensure the growth of this unique educational institution. (This letter would inspire Rosenwald to contribute a half million dollars to JTS after Marshall passed away in September of 1929)


1930: Birthdate of Marvin Pomerantz, the Des Moines, Iowa native who would become a successful businessman, public benefactor, a friend and adviser to Republican governors and presidents for four decades,  who twice served as president of the Iowa Board of Regents. He was the eighth of nine children of Jewish immigrants who came to Iowa from Poland in 1912. In 2006, he published his autobiography entitled The Best I Can Do.



1932: In Beirut, Jacob Safra and his wife gave birth to “Lebanese Brazilian banker” Edmond J. Safra.


1933: In Springfield, New Jersey, an undetified plane flies over an open-air meeting of United Singers Society and scatters German language pamphlets protesting against the decision of the Society to prohibit representatives of the Friends of New Germany from attending its meetings. The Friends of the New Germany was a pro-Nazi organization formed at the behest of Berlin that would morph into the German-American Bund. The United Singers Society was a German organization made up conservatives who are not sympathetic to the Friends of New Germany.  Attendees complained that the noise of the plane interrupted the community sing-along taking place below.


1937(29th of Av, 5697):Miss Eleanor Septima Cohen, prominent for many years in Jewish and non-sectarian benevolent activities, died today at a Baltimore hospital at the age of 79. Her grandfather, Benjamin I. Cohen, was one of the founders and president of the Baltimore Stock Exchange. A philanthropist who supported numerous Jewish and non-Jewish causes and institutions, Miss Cohen was a descendant of Solomon Etting (her great-grandfather) and Jacob I. Cohen (her great-uncle) who were instrumental in the fight for Jews to obtain religious rights in Maryland.


1938: Near Hedaria, several Jewish laborers were wounded when they were fired on by and a band of Arabs.


1938: In Danzig, “the Gestapo raided a number of hotels, restaurants and cafes and frequented by Hews and demanded that all present establish their identity and explain their presence in the Free City.”  This was the first of two nights of what were described as “harsh anti-Jewish measures.


1939: “The Dinah Shore Show” starring the singer of the same name debuted on NBC Radio.  Dinah Shore was the stage name of France Rose Stein, the Jewish lass from Tennessee who was a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.


1940:As more than 12,000 persons stood out in the street, a funeral service was held today for Vladimir Jabotinsky, author, soldier and world leader of the New Zionist Organization, at the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel in New York.


1942: The 5,500 Jews imprisoned at Gurs whom the French turned over to the Nazis were shipped to Drancy from where most of them would be sent to their death at Auschwitz.


1942: Three thousand Jews were slaughtered in the streets of Minsk. One hundred would escape and form a partisan unit 


1942:The Palestine Regiment consisting of, three Palestinian Jewish battalions and one Palestinian Arab battalion was officially formed as part of the British military armed forces. Despite the efforts by the British to enlist an equal number of Jews and Arabs into the Palestine Regiment, three times more Jews volunteered than Arabs. Arab reluctance and Jewish enthusiasms accounts for the numerical disparity. At the time of its formation, the Regiment was principally involved in guard duties in Egypt and North Africa. The British also wanted to undermine efforts of Hajj Amin al-Husayni who successfully drummed up Arab support for the Axis Powers against the Allies.


1943: In Vilna, over a dozen Jews were shot as they attempted to resist deportation orders.


1945: The Atomic Bomb named Little Boy is dropped on Hiroshima.  The “Jewish Bomb” as some call it hastened the end of the war and save the lives of untold numbers of Allied soldiers and sailors who would have died during an invasion of Japan as well as the millions of lives of Japanese who would have also died.  Without the work of Oppenheimer, et al, the war would have lasted anywhere from three to five years longer.


1946(9th of Av, 5706): Tish'a B'Av


1946: Leonard Bernstein conducted American premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes, BMC.


1952: Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett denied that Israel was constructing air bases for atomic bombs on its soil and that it had agreed in the past, or will agree in the future, to serve a foreign power for such purposes.


1952: Over 500 members of the World Assembly of Jewish Choirs turned Jerusalem into a city of song.


1952: The first English draft of the text of the agreement between Israel and West Germany was drawn up and agreed to at The Hague. Israelannounced that a special German Goods Purchasing Commission would be appointed as soon as the Jewish negotiating team returned from The Hague. The issues of reparations from the Germans and diplomatic relations between the two governments were two of the most contentious items confronting Israeli and Jewish society.


1959(2nd of Av, 5719): Salman Schocken passed away at Pontresina, Switzerland. Born in 1877 in Margonin, Province of Posen, German Empire (today Poland) , he was a German Jewish publisher and businessman. Salman Schocken was the son of Jewish shopkeeper in Posen. In 1901, he went to Zwickau, a German town in southwest Saxony, to help run a department store owned by his brother, Simon. Together they built up the business and established a chain of stores all over Germany. In Chemnitz and Stuttgart, Schocken commissioned the German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn to build branches of the Kaufhaus Schocken. In 1915 Schocken was co-founder of the Zionist journal Der Jude (with Martin Buber). After Simon's death in 1929 Salman Schocken became sole owner of the firm. The same year, in which Schocken's friend Franz Rosenzweig also died, 1929 he established the Schocken Institute for Research on Jewish Poetry. In 1931, he founded the publishing company Schocken Verlag, which reprinted the recently completed Buber-Rosenzweig translation of the Bible.In 1934, after the rise of Nazism, Schocken left Germany for Palestine. In 1940, he settled in the United States. In Jerusalem, he built the Schocken Library, also designed by Erich Mendelsohn. He was a board member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and bought the newspaper Haaretz, which is still owned by his family. He also founded Schocken Publishing House Ltd. and opened another branch in New York (Schocken Books). The Nazis forced him to sell his German enterprises to Merkur AG but he managed to recover some of his property after the war. Schocken became the patron of Shmuel Yosef Agnon when he was a struggling writer in Palestine. Recognizing Agnon's literary talent, Schocken paid him a stipend that relieved him of financial worries and allowed him to devote himself to writing (Agnon went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature).


1960:  Shabbat Nachamu: Bar Mitzvah of David Levin at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. – the words of Isaiah never sounded so sweet! This was the first time that a large group of adults got a chance to be dazzled by his voice and skill.  Fifty-three years later, he is still dazzling us.  This also marked the first Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel that was officiated by Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz.


1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  The passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Right Act of 1964 marked one of the high water marks in the battle for equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, religion, national origin and sex.  Both of these landmark laws were supported by Jewish voters, communal leaders and elected officials.


1967: Birthdate of sportscaster David Greenberg


1969(22nd of Av, 5729): A month before his 66th birthday, Theodor W. Adorno, passed away.



1970: Elimelekh Rimalt completed his service as the Minister of Postal Services in Israel.


1973: Birthdate of sportscaster Max Kellerman


1974: Birthdate of Max Kellerman, boxing commentator and sports talk radio host.


1976: Kenya and Uganda “formally agreed…to end their state of belligerency and resume normal relations.”  The strained relations came following Israel’s rescue mission at Entebbe in which the Ugandans claimed the Kenyans had played an active role.


1977: The United States officially disclosed that the nuclear facilities in the US were unable to trace more than 3,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. A number of American newspapers speculated that the minerals might have found their way to Israel.


1985:Thomas R. Pickering presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.


1986:Bernard Lewis publishes his seminal work Semites and Anti-Semites, which explores modern anti-Semitism in the Arab world.


1986(1st of Av, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Av


1990: The funeral for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt Moses who passed away at the age of 103 is scheduled to take place this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El.


1995(10th of Av, 5755): Tish’a B’Av


1998: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.


1990: Funeral services are held at Temple Emanu-El for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt Moses  


1995(10th of Av, 5755): Since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat today Tish'a B'Av is observed.


2000: The New York Times book section featured reviews of In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time by Leonard Garment, one of a handful of Jews who worked for Richard Nixon, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein, Benjamin Zucker's first novel, Bluewhich is at once a spiritual challenge and a gorgeous typographical object. Echoing the style of the Talmud, the book presents a continuing narrative in the center of each right-hand page, where a passage from the Mishna -- ancient commentary on the Torah -- would ordinarily be placed.


2001: President George W. Bush receives President's Daily Briefing entitled Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US and does nothing in response.  It will be left to future historians to determine if a response might have avoided the first successful attack on Washington, D.C. since the British burned the city in 1814.  To paraphrase Elie Weisel, the only thing we know for sure is that now the world knows what it feels like to be Jewish in the worst sense of that term.


2005(1st of Av, 5765):Rosh Chodesh Av:


2005: In Cedar Rapids, despite summer vacations and myriad of other distractions, the small Jewish community at Temple Judah mustered more than a minyan for the Traditional Shabbat morning services.


2006 12th of Av, 5766): Fifteen Israelis are killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks. Among them were the following twelve soldiers:


Sgt. Gregory Aharonov, 34, of Or Akiva, moved to Israelfrom the Ukrainein 1991. Despite concerns about serving, Aharanov obliged when he was called up. Aharanov was named after his grandfather who died, also at the age of 34, in World War One. Aharanov was the manager of a cosmetics factory and is survived by his wife, two children, parents and older sisters. He was laid to rest at on Monday.


Sgt.-Maj. Marian Berkowitz, of Ashdod, was called up Wednesday and has a younger brother who is currently serving in Lebanon. Friends described him as fun loving and that he "loved challenges." Berkowitz is survived by his parents and two brothers. He was laid to rest at on Monday in the Ashdod military cemetery.


CWO Yosef Karkash, 41, of Afula, met with Shlomo Buchris, his cousin and fellow reservist, early Sunday. Later that day, both cousins were killed by the Katyusha. Relatives are devastated, and were quoted as saying that they "don't know which family to visit and console first." Karkash is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was laid to rest at in the Afula military cemetery.


Sgt.-Maj. Ro'i Yaish, 27, of Herzliya got his call up order last week. "He loved his motorcycle," friends said. "You couldn't touch his bike or his helmet. Whenever we heard his bike, we knew he was coming and everyone would get excited." Ro'i is survived by his parents and three brothers. Ro'i was laid to rest at in his hometown.


Despite being recently hurt in a field trip to the JudeanDesert, St.-Sgt. Yehuda Greenfeld, 27, of Maale Michmas, was called to duty. Greenfeld leaves behind a two and a half year old daughter and a four month old son. Greenfled is survived by his wife and two kids, along with his parents and five brothers. He was laid to rest at in the Herzliya cemetery.


St.-Sgt. Shaul Shai Michlowitz, 21, of Netanya, had finished his army service three months ago, and was waiting for his request to serve additional time as a career soldier to be authorized. Instead, he received an emergency call-up order last week. Shaul is survived by his parents and two sisters. He was buried at in the Netanya military cemetery.


St.-Sgt.Maj. Daniel Ben-David, 38, of Moshav Ahituv, volunteered to join fellow paratroopers in Lebanon, despite his family's objections. Ben-David was described by a neighbor as "always laughing and hugging" and as someone who "loved to help people." Ben-David is survived by his wife and three children. He was buried at in the Ahitub cemetery.


Warr.Ofc. Shmuel Halfon, 41, of Bat Yam, was called up two weeks ago, only to be told that he could return home last week. One day after he went home, Halfon was called up again. Family members said that Halfon loved the army and liked serving reserve duty. Halfon left behind three sons, one of whom is 11 months old. Halfon is survived by his wife and three sons. He was laid to rest at in the military section of the Holon cemetery.


Sgt.-Maj. Ziv Balali, 28, of Kfar Sava, was about to celebrate his 29th birthday next month. Ziv recently completed a degreee in Middle East Studies. He is survived by his parents and sister. He was laid to rest at in the military cemetery in his hometown.


St.-Sgt.Maj. Shlomo Buchris, 36, of Moshav Sde Yitzchak, reassured his brother that while other troops had gone into Lebanon, he had not yet entered and was fine. Just a short time later, Buchris was killed. Buchris was named after his father, who fell in the Six Day war.
He was buried at in the Sde Yitzhak cemetery.


F.-Sgt. Mordechai Abutbul, 28, of Shlomi who was buried at in the military section of the Shlomi cemetery.


Captain Eliyahu Elkariaf, 34, of Moshav Granot. He will be laid to rest on Tuesday at in the military section of the Kfar Ata cemetery.


2006: Surprisingly, the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed article by David Memet entitled, “Bigotry Pins Blame on Jews.”


2006: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including  Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer by Brooke A. Masters and Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography byDavid S. Brown. (Hofstadter’s father was Jewish.)


2006: Anglo-Jewish author Michael Rosen was the subject of the BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs program.


2007:  In article entitled “Climates” that appeared in The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, takes issue with the behavior and media treatment of the “super-rich” citing specifically Sanford Weill and “the obscene Stephen Schwarzman, who is very bad for the Jews.”


2007: The New Republic published a review of Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schafer.


2007(22nd of Av, 5767): Mose Fishman, who as a 21 year-old from New York fought Fascists in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, passed away at the age of 91.


2007: At a meeting in the synagogue of the Novominsker Rebbe, more than a dozen religious heavyweights – including Rabbi Aryeh Kotle and Rabbi David Zwiebel – consider evidence that that chickens may have been mistreated in past Kapparot ceremonies and acknowledged that the problem rose to a level that could violate rabbinic law.  After the conference, the rabbis collectively issued a call for members of the community to clean up the process during this year’s holiday season.


2008: After a meeting today between Prime Minister Ehud Omert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials from both sides announced that Israel will release about 150 Palestinian prisoners at the end of the month as a gesture to President Abbas


2009: In Jerusalem Beit Avi Chai presents Part 4 of “Symbolically Speaking": Visual images of Israel, Hebrew culture, Zionism, and Judaism in which art scholar Dr. Gideon Ofrat traces the course of five icons of Jewish art until they reached Israeli galleries, thereby telling the story of modern Hebrew culture with its hopes and disappointments, highs and lows.


2009: Final night of the Israeli Wine Tasting Festival at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.


2009: Funeral is held for Amos Kenan at a Kibbutz in central Israel.


2009: Voting closes for the selection of those who will appear in the Only In America Gallery of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.


2009: Robert David Sack, the son of Rabbi Eugene Sack completed his term as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.


2009:Israel's largest political party, Kadima, shut down its official Web site today, claiming it had been infiltrated by Palestinian hackers.
 
2009:A rabbi in Cobb, Georgia, is seeking to declare Georgia’s Kosher Food Labeling Act unconstitutional, saying it de-legitimizes interpretations of “kosher” by different Jewish communities. Shalom Lewis, rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim, filed suit today in Fulton County Superior Court. He is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia and Atlanta law firm King and Spalding. The Kosher Food Labeling Act, enacted in 1980, mandates that any food sold as kosher must meet “orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements.” Lewis, a conservative Jew, said he cannot fulfill his rabbinical duties because his theological interpretation of the state’s kosher laws differs from that of Orthodox Judaism. He said he violates state law when he approves some foods as kosher that are not kosher under Orthodox definitions. According to the lawsuit, for example, there are disagreements between the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish communities as to whether swordfish and sturgeon may be eaten under dietary laws. The same is true for many dairy products and wines, the suit said. Lewis also said the state should not endorse one religious group’s beliefs over another. “It’s an intrusion into the separation of church and state clause.” A state Attorney General’s Office spokesman declined comment. Orthodox are among the more traditional Jews. Conservative Jews are more open to change than Orthodoxy. About one in three American Jews belong to a Conservative synagogue, according to the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey. About one in five are Orthodox.


2010: In Omaha, Nebraska, the JCC Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to an end.


2010: In Springfield, VA, a Wine and Cheese Reception is scheduled to take place at Adat Reim prior to Friday night Shabbat services.


2010: According to a report by London-based Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin met with Egyptian officials today to discuss the Grad rockets fired at Eilat and Aqaba earlier this week.

2010:CNN host Fareed Zakaria has returned an award to the Anti-Defamation League over the group's opposition to building a mosque near Ground Zero. Zakaria, also a Newsweek columnist, had received the Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize in 2005.
 
2010(26th Av, 5770): Sixty-two year old Tony Judt, a highly praised and controversial historian who wrote with sharp persistence about the changing world at large and the tragic world within - the fatal disease that paralyzed him - died today at his home in New York City. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/08judt.html?pagewanted=all



2011: “In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery a film that provides “A lush, surprising and utterly absorbing journey into the lively stories hidden among the tombstones, pathways and woodlands of the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, which has been in continuous operation in Berlin for 130 years,” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2011(6th of Av): At Shabbat Chazon services in Cedar Rapids, congregants celebrated the second anniversary of Todd Thalblum, as Rabbi at Temple Judah with a special Kiddush.



2011:More than 250,000 people took part in demonstrations across Israel tonight to protest the high cost of living.



2012: Athletic competition is scheduled to begin today at the Maccabi Games in Memphis, TN after opening ceremonies were held yesterday.



2012:AACI - Association of Americans & Canadians in Israel- is scheduled to present a program commemorating the 100thanniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg at the Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center in Jerusalem featuring a special message from Raoul Wallenberg's niece Louise von Dardel



2012:Two Kassam rockets hit the Hof Ashkelon region today. The rockets exploded in an open area and there were no reports of injury or damage.



2012(18th of Av, 5772): Eighty-nine year old R. Peter Straus, the son of Nathan Straus Jr. and Helen Sachs Straus, “who took over WMCA in New York in the late 1950s and turned it into one of the nation’s most innovative radio stations, broadcasting what are regarded as the first radio editorials and political endorsements and helping to popularize rock ’n’ roll” passed away today (As reported by Robert McFadden)



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/business/r-peter-straus-wmca-radio-pioneer-dies-at-89.html?_r=2&hpw&



2012:Representatives of the families of 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympics attacked International Israeli Olympic Committee Chairman Dr. Jacques Rogge at a memorial event in London.



http://www.haaretz.com/



http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=280317



2012:The Tel Aviv City Council rejected a proposal to include Arabic on the city's official emblem



2013: “Closed Season,” a film about a young German student who visits a holocaust survivor in Israel is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: The fans of Faye Kellerman are filled with excitement and anticipation as The Beast, the latest in the Decker/Lazarus novels arrives at book stores across the country.


2013(30thof Av, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Elul

This Day, August 7, In Jewish History by MItchell A. Levin

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August 7 History


117:  The Roman Emperor Trajan passed away.  Trajan came to think of himself as another Alexander the Great and moved east towards Babylonia with the intent of extending the boundaries of the Roman Empire.  One of Trajan’s first moves was to conquer Parthia and then continue his eastward march towards to the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.  Unfortunately for him Parthia refused to remain conquered.  They rebelled against Trajan forcing him turn back and try and subdue them a second time.  The Jews of Parthia, many of whose families had fled the Roman Legions fifty years earlier when Rome sacked Jerusalem, were active in the revolt since they had no desire to live under Trajan or any other emperor.  If this were not enough reason for Trajan to have no love for the children of Israel, the Diaspora Revolts centered, primarily in the Jewish communities of Egypt and Cyprus broke out in 115, and last until the year of Trajan’s death. These revolts further drew down on the empire’s military might helping to end Trajan’s dreams of glory.


317: Birthdate of Constantius II, Roman emperor who, unfortunately for the Jewish people, followed in the footsteps of his father, Emperor Constantine. “Judaism faced some severe restrictions under Constantius, who seems to have followed an anti-Jewish policy in line with that of his father]. Early in his reign, Constantius issued a double edict in concert with his brothers limiting the ownership of slaves by Jewish people and banning marriages between Jews and Christian women[64]. A later edict (issued by Constantius after becoming sole Emperor) decreed that a person who was proven to have converted from Christianity to Judaism would have their entire property confiscated by the state. However, it should be noted that Constantius' actions in this regard may not have been so much to do with Jewish religion as Jewish business; apparently, it was often the case that privately-owned Jewish businesses were in competition with state-owned businesses. As such, Constantius may have sought to provide as much of an advantage to the state-owned businesses as possible by limiting the skilled workers and the slaves available to the Jewish businesses.”


1106: Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, passed away.  During the period of the First Crusade acted to protect his Jewish subjects giving rise to the notion that rulers of the Holy Roman Empire saw themselves as “guardians” of their Jewish subjects.  Henry protected the rights of German Jews to pursue commercial activities.  In opposition to the Pope, Henry allowed any Jews who had been forcibly converted to return to Judaism.  Anyone who harmed “their Jews” was liable to be charged with treason.  The price of this protection was the acceptance of the role as “servi camerae,” i.e. “serfs of the imperial chamber.”


1316: John XXII is elected Pope.  During his reign, John the second of Avignon Popes would take the unpapal role of opposing a crusade, in this one proposed by King Philip V.  He did banish the Jews from all “Roman territory after his sister Sangisa conspired with “several priests to give testimony that the Jews had ridiculed by words and actions a crucifix which was carried through the street in a procession.”


1610: Paul V, issued “Exponi nobis nuper fecistis,” a papal bull concerning the dowries of Jewish women


1705: Rabbi Zvi Ashkenazi sent a letter, co-signed by two other rabbinic judges, “exonerating David Nieto of all charges and the taint of Spinozian heresy.”


1713: A commission in Amsterdam declared that Nehemiah Hayyun was not guilty of heresy and he was returned to the community at public ceremony held at that city’s great synagogue.


1772: In a letter from Jacob ben Abraham Benider to the Earl of Rochford (Britain), Jacob tells how he was appointed by the Emperor of Morocco to be the Moroccan Minister to the English Court of King George III.  


1789: The United States War Department which would be renamed the U.S. Defense Department by President Truman, is established. The first Jew to hold the title of Secretary of War is Judah P. Benjamin.  But he held the job with Confederates, not the United States.  James Schlesinger, was the first person who was born Jewish to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense.  However, he had converted to Christianity.  Harold Brown, who served under President Carter, was the first Jewish person to ever hold the top civilian military job.


1791: King Louis XVI of France signed into law a bill passed by the Assembly “that the Jew taes should be remitted without an indemnification and that every tribute, under whatever name – protection money, residence tax, or tolerance money – should cease.”


1812: Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, who supported and aided the Czar's army during the Napoleonic wars, was forced to flee his hometown from Napoleon's forces which were advancing through White Russia in their push toward Moscow. After five months of wandering he finally found refuge in Pyena.


1820: Jacob De La Motta, the Georgia native who served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 wrote a letter to President James Madison which he attached to a copy of the remarks he had made at the dedication of the new synagogue in Savannah.  It read in part, “Believing that you have ever been, and still continue to be, liberal in your views of a once oppressed people, and confident that you would cheerfully receive any information appertaining to the history of the Jews in this country, have induced me to solicit your acceptance of a Discourse pronounced on the occasion of the Consecration of the new Synagogue recently erected in our city.” (This stands in stark contrast to anti-Semitic environment Jews were dealing with in post-Napoleonic Europe.  As reported by Jewish Virtual Library)


1830: Following the July Revoltuion, Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet a French deputy, proposed that recognition of a state religion should be removed from the constitution.  The proposal met with general approval and was another step towards Jews becoming fully integrated into French society.


1835: Birthdate of Governor Roswell Flowers who appointed Edward Jacobs a lawyer and leader of the Jewish community to serve as Loan Commissioner


1840: As Europeans – Jews and non-Jews – attempted to deal with the Blood Libel in Damascus, a delegation head by Adolf Cremieux and Moses Montefiore arrived in Egypt.


1842(1st of Elul, 5602): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1844: Birthdate of French geologist Auguste Michel-Lévy


1846: Beginning of the dedication of the Eagle Street Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio.


1862: An article entitled "From Central Europe: A Scheme for Paying the National Debt " published today reports from Hanover Germany, that “a leading Jewish banker in Hamburg” has a plan “for defraying the expenses of war in America, raising a revenue, and paying the national debt” which he plans to present to the Secretary of the Treasury.  He proposes to use a lottery based system similar to that used by the Austrians and the Russians to save the credit of the United States. He proposes, on a semi-annual loan of $200,000,000, to issue eighty thousand representative shares at $2,500, which shares are to be subdivided into certificates, twenty-five in number for every share, and bearing the uniform value of $100, to which shall be attached a promissory coupon for two and a half per cent semi-annual interest. Every certificate, numbered for each share successively from one to twenty-five, is to be made payable semi-annually two months after the interest therefore becomes due, and to be taken up each in its regular order. In addition to this, he proposes the distribution of prizes, to be drawn after the manner of lotteries, and allotted to the holders of the drawn and fortunate shares -- every certificate representing a ticket or chance in the semi-annual drawing. These prizes, ranging variously from $200,000 down, are to be one hundred in number, and make a total of $490,000 every, half year. The loans, upon this basis, it is calculated, would cost the Government six per cent.


1862: An article published today entitled “Speculators Proscribed” quotes the following telegram from General Grant:


“To Brif.-Gen. J.T. Quimby, Columbus, Ky.:


GENERAL: Examine the baggage of all speculators coming South, and, when they have specie, turn them back. If medicine and other contraband articles, arrest them and confiscate the contraband article. Jews should receive special attention.


(Signed) U.S.GRANT. Major-General


1865: Birthdate of Micha Josef Berdyczewski, the Ukrainian native and son of a rabbi who wrote in Hebrew, Yiddish and German.


1865: The New York Times published the following letter from one of its readers who took exception to the use of the term “Jew” in a previous day’s publication along with an “apology from the paper.


To the Editor of the New-York Times:


Being one of a large number of the "Jewish" subscribers and supporters of your journal, I this morning noticed in your paper an extraordinary fact, that a "Jew" was in trouble for selling cigars to make a living, without a license. May 1, as a Jew, ask you why this dreadful crime should call forth from you the fact that the perpetrator was a "Jew?" Was it because you so seldom hear of a Jew being in trouble or committing crime, that it deserved your special mention of the fact that the man was a Jew and not a Catholic, Protestant or of any other denomination? By informing me through your columns, you will much oblige MANY JEWISH SUBSCRIBERS.


We do not know that there is any propriety in giving prominence in a report to the religious persuasion of any delinquent before the courts. Nor do we believe the practice to be a common one. It was done in the instance above complained of, inadvertently. Unless a journal is in the habit of making such insidious distinctions in matters of religion, nationality, and so-forth there is probably little gained by parading a casual grievance of this kind. We don't suppose one in ten thousand readers of the TIMES will have noticed the slip (if such it must be called,) in our report until they read this. Certainly, there is no daily newspaper in the world less chargeable with sectarianism than the TIMES, and no class of our citizens know this better than those in whose behalf our correspondent professes to write. -- [ED, TIMES.]


1873: Birthdate of Alice Lillie Seligsberg, social worker and Zionist who helped to found Hadassah.


1873: In a letter dated with today’s date. John T. Leonard, sent a letter to the Sherriff of Placer County California, in which he claimed to have information as to who had murdered the late Benjamin Nathan of New York City.  The letter was actually addressed to the Superintendent of the New York City Police Department


1873: B.D. Dunman, the Sheriff of Placer County California wrote to Superintendent Matsell of the New York City Police Department that he had a letter from John T. Leonard in which Leonard claimed to have vital information about the unsolved murder of Benjamin Nathan. Dunman said he was enclosing a copy of the letter and would await instructions from Matsell as to what should be done next.  (The Nathan Murder was a major scandal in New York in which suspicion was cast on several people including Nathan’s sons.  The murder has never been solved.)


1874: Late this afternoon, Simon Meyer, a Jew from Poland, entered a saloon at Port Jefferson, New York.  For some unknown reason, Captain Simpson, skipper of the schooner James Owen, “committed a brutal and…unprovoked assault” on the Jewish Peddler.  The crowd of citizens separated the two and Simpson ran off.  But a little while later, he went into a store and attacked Meyer again.  This time Simpson was arrested and made to stand trial for these assaults.


1875: Julius Myers was the first President of The Hebrew Benevolent Society was organized today in Alpena, Michigan. (As reported by Rabbi Robert Layman)


1876: “Sodom and Gomorrah,” an article published today contains a description of Selah Morrel’s archeological expedition in Palestine that include visits to a series of “tel’s”  (mounds) that correspond to various sites mentioned in the Bible.
 
1877: The New York Times reprinted an article by Alfred Austin that had appeared in The National Review in which the British poet examined the life of Benjamin Disraeli including allusions to the prejudices he faced.  In the end Austin concludes that in terms of Disraeli, “the English people blamed what was blameworthy, distrusted what was untrustworthy, and admired what was admirable. Had not wit ripened into wisdom, had not duty burned ambition pure, he never would have become Prime Minister of England.”


1878(8th of Av, 5638): Erev Tish'a B'Av


1879: The London Truth featured an article that described the relationship between the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and such biblical figures as Haggai, Joshua and Zerubbabel with the Fraternal Order of Masons.
 
1880: William Daly, the attorney for Gustave Hauser gave notice of his intention to appeal the jury’s decision that B.N. Crane did not have to repay the money his client had paid for the burial of person whom the undertaker had identified as being Jewish.  Hauser contended that Crane knew the deceased was not Jewish and misled the Jewish community so that the burial expenses would be covered.


1881: “A Cemetery for Strangers” published today described an upcoming concert that will be held to raise funds for a Jewish cemetery in Long Branch, NJ.  The concert is the second such fund-raiser held by a group under the leadership of Joseph Seligman.


1882: By nine o’clock this morning a crowd of more than three hundred Jews had gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society.  The destitute immigrants were seeking aid from the society.


1882: In New York, the eight-week long freight handlers strike came to an end when the workers capitulated even though the Italians and Jews who had been filling in for them appeared to be willing to join their ranks. (Businessmen would successfully pit members of different ethnic groups against each as a way to break a strikes; a tactic that would lose its effectiveness in the 1890’s)


1882: It was reported today that the British Museum has just bought the Judaeo-Persian manuscripts that had been acquired by Dr. Adolf Neubauer


1882: Shortly before noon, a crowd of desperate Jews rushed up the stairs of the offices of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society.  The situation deteriorated and the police were called to quell the commotion.  Mr. Heilprin, the Superintendent of the Society, said the action was understandable because they had been misled by so many agencies in Europe that they no longer trust promises of future help


1883: It was reported today 100 people have been killed or wounded during anti-Semitic riots in Ekaterinoslav, Russia.  The mob has destroyed many of the homes and businesses belonging to the Jews including the liquor stores.

1883: “An Important Discovery” published today reported that the owner of a newly discovered manuscript has offered to sell it to the British Museum for five million dollars. The manuscript, which is nearly 3,000 years old contains a version of the Ten Commandments that differs from the one found in the Book of Exodus. 
 
1883: Mrs. Ivan M. Lotowski, a Jewess from Estellville, NJ lies near death after her cabin burned under mysterious circumstances which she has refused to describe to authorities.


1884: In Leadville, Colorado, the board of directors Temple Israel approved a contract for the building of a sanctuary at 201 West 4th Street.


1886: “Charitable Work Criticized” published today described a turf war between Jewish agencies.  The President of the Jewish Immigrants’ Protective Society wrote a letter to the President of the United Hebrew Charities asking him to withdraw his organization’s representative from Castle Garden.  The Society was supposed to be taking care of the “resident poor” and most of the arriving immigrants were heading for the American West, thus bringing them under the purview of the Protective Society.


1886:”On The Watch For Paupers” published described the scheme of some of the subagents of English shipping lines to transport poor Romanian and Polish Jews to the United States for the highly discounted price of 38 marks of $10 per person.


1887: It was reported today the next excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will be paid for by “a friend.”  This anonymous donor is a woman who has been sponsoring the cruises for the last three years.


1888(30th of Av, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1890: As of today the managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children “have received…$6,983” which will be used to provide free excursions for the children and their mother.


1892: It was reported today the newly opened St. Vincent Hospital offers many services but unlike Mt. Sinai Hospital, it does not an “out-patient department” nor does it provide service for “convalescents that no longer require medical or surgical treatment.”


1893: “Education and the Family” published today provides a review of Talks by Twilight by Abbott Kinney who writes that Jews and Catholics in the United States enjoying the “happiest…family life.”


1894: Dr. James Drew, a professor of Biblical Literature who had written a Hebrew grammar book passed away.  He was a member of the Palestine Exploration Committee, the leading organization for modern archaeological exploration of 19th century Eretz Israel.


1894: Elias Ganse, the Jew who rented the ground floor at 236 Broome Street which he used as a saloon and liquor store stands accused of setting fire to the building so that he could collect  on a $2,500 insurance policy.  The  smell of kerosene and the discovery that the fire had four points of origins was the Fire Marshall’s first clue that the fire was not one of those accidental conflagrations that was common to the Lower East Side.


1899: Captain Dreyfus  today “refused to see the last set  of photographs of children” that his brother had brought from Paris to Rennes where the French officer was about to go on trial for a second time.


1899: At Rennes, France, “the second trial by court-martial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the Fourteenth Regiment of Artillery” who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1894 “after having been convicted of delivering to the agents of a foreign power documents connected with the defense of France” begam at 7:10 this morning


1899: “Jews Talk of Buying Cyprus” published today described the decision of Jews meeting in Berlin to gather more information about the American plan to purchase the Mediterranean island as site for Jewish colonization “before proceeding in the matter.”


1903: Herzl arrives in St. Petersburg, where he seeks Russian intervention with Turkey on behalf of his Zionist proposals to secure Jewish settlement in Palestine, and to permit open Zionist activity in Russia. He is received twice by Count Wenzel von Plehve, Russian minister of the interior, who is believed to be responsible for the Kishinev pogrom. Herzl's most important achievement is Wenzel von Plehve’s acquisition as a supporter of Zionism. Von Plehve would do anything to rid Russia of her Jews.


1904: Birthdate of Ralph J Bunche. Bunche was an African-American who hand an unusual career with the United States government before going to work with the United Nations shortly after its founding. a founder & UN diplomat (Nobel 1950) Beginning in 1947, he was involved with the Arab-Israeli conflict. He served as assistant to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine, and thereafter as the principal secretary of the U.N. Palestine Commission. In 1948 he traveled to the Middle East as the chief aide to Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been appointed by the U.N. to attempt to mediate the conflict. In September, members of the Stern Gang assassinated Bernadotte. Bunche became the U.N.'s chief mediator and concluded the task with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements. This was a Herculean task that began with negotiations on the island or Rhodes. Bunche had to conclude separate agreements between each of the combatants and Israel. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in 1950 


 1904: Birthdate of anti-Nazi activist Hanna Melzer.


1904: An attorney living in Solomonville, a town in the southeastern Arizona Territory founded by Anna and I.E. Solomon wrote a letter describing the Solomon family’s preparations for the upcoming wedding of their daughter Lillian. In the same letter, the lawyer lamented the fact that another local attorney and Lillian had been in love with each other but Anna Solomon “raised a big hullabaloo” because “he was not one of the chosen people” and the relationship came to an end.


1906: Birthdate of American philosopher Nelson Goodman


1914: Ludwig Wittgenstein, the 25 year old Austrian philosopher volunteered as a gunner in the Austrian army. Wittgenstein’s story was all too common. His paternal grandparents were Jewish.  His father, a well-to-do industrialist was raised as a Christian and young Wittgenstein followed in the faith of his father, not his grandfather.


1918: The Central Committee began publishing Der Emes (“The Truth”) today in Moscow.  It was the continuation of a short lived publication Di Varhayt 


1920: “Adolf Hitler gives a speech in Salzburg in which he asserts the importance of eliminating the Versailles Treaty and furthermore blames the Jews — not just for the treaty, but for all of the problems afflicting Germany.” (As reported Austin Cline)


1923: Birthdate of Liane Berkowitz a member of the German resistance movement who was executed in 1943


1925: Nahum Shtif established YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute - Yidisher Visenshaftlikher Institut) as a Yiddish academic institute with its center in Vilna. Its goal was to promote scholarly research in Yiddish, especially on Jewish life and history in Eastern Europe. In addition, it standardized Yiddish spelling and gathered thousands of documents on Jewish culture and folklore from over much of Europe.


1926: Birthdate of satirist and humorist Stan Freiberg. 


1929(1st of Av, 5689): Rosh Chodesh Av


1929(1stof Av, 5689): Victor  Berger, a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and the first member of the Socialist Party to serve in the United States House of Representatives, died today from injuries sustained in a street car accident.


 
1933: Birthdate of  Elinor Clair Awan, the daughter of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother who gained fame as Elinor Ostrom, the award winning political economist.


1933: In Springfield, New Jersey, for the second day in a row, an undetified plane flies over an open-air meeting of United Singers Society and scatters German language pamphlets protesting against the decision of the Society to prohibit representatives of the Friends of New Germany from attending its meetings. The Friends of the New Germany was a pro-Nazi organization formed at the behest of Berlin that would morph into the German-American Bund. The United Singers Society was a German organization made up conservatives who are not sympathetic to the Friends of New Germany.  Attendees complained that the noise of the plane interrupted the community sing-along taking place below.

 
1933: In Germany, an order is issued forbidding Jews to remain in the towns near Nuremberg

 
1933: The municipality of Nuremberg forbids Jews to use municipal swimming pools and baths.

 
1933: The Baden Government issued new citizenship regulations declaring that no Jew, no Jewish descendants, and no one married to a person of Jewish blood will be permitted to obtain citizenship; non-Jews applying for citizenship must prove their pure "Aryanism."

 
1933: The Leipzig Fair Management announces that non-Aryans will be admitted to the exposition; and though there will be a "Brown display" of goods limited to Germans only, Jews will not altogether "be eliminated from the bazaar."

 
1933: In an interview with Herschel Farbstein, of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, President Ignacy Moscicki of Poland expressesd his satisfaction with the share Polish Jewry has played in the rebuilding of Palestine.


1933(15th of Av, 5693): The Nazis murdered Felix Fechnebach, a Jewish Editor in Dachau.


1935: In Chicago, 40,000 fans watched Joe Louis knocked out King Levinsky after only 2 minutes and 21 seconds of the first round.


 1937: Menachem Ussishkin was unanimously elected president of the 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich.


1937: The debate over the recommendations of the Peel Commission raged on among and between Jews, Arabs and various third parties. Opening the deliberations, Chaim Weizmann, on behalf of the Zionist Organization, proposed to accept the Royal (Peel) Commission's partition plan in principle, but simultaneously declared the present scheme unacceptable. He complained that world Jewry failed to make a massive aliya in the early 1920s. Weizmann urged that the current challenges demand an undivided Jewish front and thought that the eventual emergence of a Jewish state would facilitate the Jewish-Arab understanding. Dr. Moshe Kleinbaum (Sneh) also urged the congress to accept the Jewish state, but sought to empower the Zionist Executive to negotiate different frontiers.  


1938(10th of Av, 5698):Tish'a B'Av


1938: In Danzig, a second night of Gestapo raids aimed at Jews frequenting local hostelries and dining establishments.  Several British Jews who vacationing along the Baltic were victimized along with the local Jewish population.”


1938: As Malcolm McDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, visited Palestine he got a firsthand taste of Arab violence when “a settlement near Tel Aviv” was subject to an attack by Arabs armed with heavy weapons including machine guns while another band of Arabs broke into a Jewish mosaic factory near Petah Tikvah and burned it.


1940: The Jews of Algeria lose their French citizenship with the abrogation of the Cremieux Decree.


1941(14th of Av, 5701): In Zhitomir, Russia  402 Jews were gathered and brought to the town square, where they were forced to watch the public hanging of the two Jewish judges, Wolf Kieper and Moshe Kagen.  After the hanging, “A large crowd of locals had gathered to watch the event, and participated in the public abuse, beating and murder of the 402 Jews gathered in the town square.”

1942: During World War II the Battle of Guadalcanal begins as U.S. Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.  Jewish boxer Barney Ross (he was lightweight, welterweight and junior welterweight champion in the 1930s) had enlisted right after Pearl Harbor even though at age 32 he was well passed draft age.  During the battle of Guadalcanal, he was seriously wounded while rescuing injured comrades from a Japanese ambush. His heroism under fire earned him a Silver Star. Other Jewish Marines who served on Guadalcanal included Lou Diamond and LeRoy Diamond, model for the film Pride of the Marines


1942: A photograph, a copy of which survived the war, was taken today of Jewish policeman and Germans during an aktion in the Warsaw Ghetto.

1944: Approximately 68,000 Jews remained in the Lodz Ghetto.. This was the largest gathering of Jews outside of the camps left in all of Europe. Of this remnant, 67,000 of were told they were to be resettled. Instead they are sent to Birkenau. The shipment of Jews that began on August  7 lasted 23 days, finally ending on August 30. Once there, most of the Jews meet the usual horrific fate - selection, death by gas, and then the cremation of their bodies. Some of the crippled were specially selected by Dr. Mengele. He still had plenty of subjects to use for his medical "studies" and experiments


1945: It is reported that there are eight Rabbis left in Salonica.


1948: Birthdate of Dan Halutz who served as Commander of the Israeli Air Force and Chief of Staff of the IDF.


1950: Birthdate of David Duchovny, the actor best known for his role as Fox Mulder in the “X-Files.”  Duchovy’s father Amram, was a writer and publicist who worked for the American Jewish Committee. His mother was not Jewish.


1951: The New York Times reports from Tel Aviv that many prominent United States Zionists who are gathering here for the opening next week of the World Zionist Congress are trying to use their influence to bring about an Israeli coalition government of the Socialist Mapai party and the General Zionists.


1954: Birthdate of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.


1952: In its on-going war against Arab terror Israeli police and soldiers caught 37 infiltrators trying to enter the country in the week just ended. 


1954: Birthdate of Jonathan Jay Pollard


1955: Birthdate of comedian and television producer Marc Weiner.


1955: Bar Ilan University was founded. Since its founding, Bar Ilan has grown to become one of Israel’s largest universities. The main campus is located outside of Tel Aviv and currently has 32,000 students with a faculty of over 1,600. For more about the school see its English language website http://www.biu.ac.il/index_eng.shtml.  


1960: Birthdate of David Duchovny, award winning star of the X-Files.According to one source his father is Jewish, his mother Scotch and he speaks Hebrew.


1970: A cease fire was declared between Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon on the one hand and Israel on the other.  


1971(16th of Av, 5731): Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin, an Haredi (ultra-orthodox Jewish) politician passed away.
 
1972: Sandy Koufax is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York


1976: President Amin of Uganda is reportedly asking President Kenyata of Kenya to act “as a go-between with Britain in efforts to normalize relations” between the two nations.  Uganda had broken diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in the wake of the Entebbe Rescue Mission.


1977: Wayne L. Horvitz, who President Jimmy Carter had named director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in April 1977 played a behind-the-scenes role in the negotiations between the Communications Workers of America and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company that averted a nationwide strike just before tonight’s  midnight deadline


1977: After 1.050 performances, the curtain came down on “Shenandoah,” a musical with a book co-written by the producer Philip Rose.


1996: Rabbi Eli Suissa, the native of Morocco whose family moved to Israel in 1956 became Minister of Religious Affairs a position he held for only five days until replaced by Nentanyahu. 


2003: During an interview on the "Sean Hannity Radio Show," Alabama state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore says that he may ignore the federal court order to remove the 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument which he installed at the state's judicial building.  For those who object to the display, this is a matter of separation of church and state.  Moore claims that the Biblical commandments are a cornerstone of the American legal system.  One problem that he and those of his ilk never address is which version of the commandments should be shown – Hebrew, Latin or English ; Exodus or Deuteronomy;  Jewish, Catholic or Protestant.


2004: “The Nautch Girl” a two-act comic opera with music by Edward Solomon was performed for the first time by the Royal English Opera Company of Rockford, Illinois.


2005:  Quarterback Bennie Friedman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the following article entitled Benny Friedman: Considered NFL’s First True Passer” Seymour “Sy” Brody described the prowess of one the early stars of the NFL.


Benny Friedman was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today.
After many years of being overlooked, while friends and sports figures campaigned for his induction, it became a reality.
Friedman was considered as football’s first great passer. He changed the running game into one of running and passing and, as a result, revolutionized college and professional football.Benny Friedman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1905, to orthodox Jewish parents. He went to high school in Cleveland. Upon graduation, he went to Michigan University where he was a quarterback on the football team. The first three games of the 1924 season found Benny Friedman sitting on the bench. Michigan’s legendary coach, Fielding Yost retired before the season. He convinced Coach George Little that he should start Benny Friedman against Wisconsin. Friedman became an instant star by throwing a 62 yard touchdown pass and running 26 yards for a touchdown.Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan were college football’s greatest passing combinations. Friedman was twice named All-American as a quarterback and as a halfback.. After graduating in 1927, he turned pro and joined the Cleveland Bulldogs of the National Football League.Professional football at this time didn’t enjoy the same attention that it has today. Red Grange and Benny Friedman were the stars of that era. They attracted large crowds for their games. Benny Friedman was named All-Pro for four years and he led the league in passing and passing touchdowns.The Cleveland Bulldogs folded and he moved to the Detroit Wolverines. The New York Giants wanted Benny Friedman so much that they bought the entire Detroit Wolverines franchise so that they could have him. The Giants finished the 1929 season with a 13-1-1 and for the first time made a profit.In 1934, Friedman retired from professional football and became the head coach at City College of New York (CCNY). In 1949, he became the Athletic Director of Brandeis University and was the head coach of the football team. It was his hope to make the Brandeis football team the “Jewish Notre Dame.”Benny Friedman was named one of the 300 Greatest Players of All-Time by Total Sports, the Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. He was elected to the College Hall of Fame, the University of Michigan Hall of Honor, the State of Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.Paul Gallico, a top football expert and sports writer of his day, said, ”The things a perfect football player must do are kick, pass, run the ends, plunge the line, block, tackle, weave his way through broken fields, drop and place kick, interfere, diagnose plays, spot enemy weaknesses, direct an offensive and not get hurt. I have just been describing Benny Friedman’s repertoire to you.” Forty-two years after Football Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio, Benny Friedman got his spot there. David Friedman, a nephew, gave the speech for the family at the induction ceremony. He said, “despite being denied for so long, his uncle would have been very respectful of the honor.”


2005:  Bibi Netanyahu resigned from the Israeli cabinet in protest over the withdrawal from Gaza.  While his followers and those in the settler movement praised him, others saw the resignation at this time as a form of political grandstanding designed to help Netanyahu wrest control of Likud from Sharon


2006(13th of Av, 5766): John Livingston Weinberg the American banker and businessman who ran Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990 passed away.  


2006(13th of Av, 5766): Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and four others wounded in fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants today in southern Lebanon. Two of them were identified as Major Yotam Lotan, 33 of Kibbut Beit Hashita and Staff Sergeant Malk Moasha Ambao, 22, from Lod.


2007:  The Jerusalem Post reported that swastikas and other Nazi symbols had been painted on at least 100 gravestones the large Jewish cemetery in Czestochowa, Poland and that officials of the Israeli government expressed their anger over the failure of the Polish government to publicly condemn the continuing anti-Semitic rhetoric of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, founder of Poland's Catholic, nationalist Radio Maryja whose audience is estimated at between 1.5 million and 2.5 million daily.


2007: Today, Poland's chief rabbi and the mayor of a Polish town joined efforts to clean gravestones at a Jewish cemetery that vandals had desecrated with Nazi symbols. Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that he and Tadeusz Wrona, mayor of the southern city of Czestochowa, joined about 20 Polish art students who spent a couple of hours scrubbing black paint off some of 100 gravestones at the city's Jewish cemetery.


2007: Britain declared the New West End Synagogue in London a national monument putting it in the same category as Buckingham Palace and Stonehenge. The decision means the British government will henceforth be responsible for the synagogue's upkeep, and the Jewish community can request state funding for any necessary renovations. Only one other synagogue has been declared a British national monument - Bevis Marks in East London, the country's first synagogue, which was built in 1701. New West End was built in 1879. "We're happy and excited," said the synagogue's rabbi, Geoffrey Shisler. "Above all, the decision proves that the British government recognizes the Jewish contribution to the kingdom's history." Shisler noted that both Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, and Herbert Samuel, who was the first British high commissioner for Palestine, were members of New West End, and plaques mark both of their former seats. The synagogue's first rabbi, Simeon Singer, translated and edited the Authorized Daily Prayer Book, an edition of the siddur (Jewish prayer book) that is still commonly used in Orthodox synagogues throughout the British Commonwealth. Today, the congregation numbers some 400 families, and "because of the synagogue's beauty, we are also the most popular place in Britain for [Jewish] weddings," Shisler said. Altogether, Britain has some 15,000 national monuments and about half a million lower-level historic preservation sites. New West End had previously been a historic site, but the Jewish community had asked the relevant government agency, English Heritage, to upgrade its status, and after inspecting the building three months ago, the agency approved the request this week. In its decision, English Heritage wrote that the upgrade was justified by both the synagogue's exceptional architecture and its historic importance. "The New West End Synagogue is the architectural high-water mark of Anglo-Jewish architecture," said Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage. Hannah Parham, the agency's protection adviser, added that "a lot of early 19th-century synagogues tried to follow the styles of their Christian counterparts, but the New West End synagogue celebrated the cultural heritage of the people it served." The synagogue was designed by George Audsley of Scotland.


2008: In Washington, D.C.  Kenneth M. Pollack, director of research at the Brooking Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, discusses and signs his new book, A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East, at Politics and Prose Bookstore


2008: Rep. Steve Cohen was all smiles after resoundingly winning his primary today in Tennessee, but it was hardly a pleasant campaign for the freshman Democrat. A white Jewish incumbent representing a predominantly black Christian constituency, Cohen defeated Nikki Tinker by a 4-to-1 margin, despite efforts by his black opponent to insert race and religion into the primary.


 

2009: In New York, Yoed Nir performs at a Bargemusic Concert in a program entitled “World of Cello” The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello and Beyond, Part 2.


2010: “Amos Oz: The Nature of Dreams” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2010(7thof Tammuz, 5770): Ninety-one year old chemist Jacob Bigeleisn  who worked on the Manhattan Project, passed away. (As reported by Kenneth Chang)

 

2010: “Imagining Madoff” written by Deboarah Margolin is scheduled to have the final performance of its first run at Stageworks/Hudson, a theater company in this town, about 30 miles south of Albany. Elie Wiesel had used legal threats to shut down the original version of the play which was to have premiered in Washington, D.C. Apparently Mr. Wiesel was offended by the fact the  Ms Margolin had used a characterization of him for her drama.


2010: Michael Leventhal, son of Shelley Arenson and Bruce Leventhal is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA.


2010: Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Elena Kagan as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Justice Kagan is a “third” twice over.  She joins two other women serving on the court making it the first time that three women have served at the same time.  She joins two other Jews making it the first time that three Jews have served on the Court at the same time.  Being Jewish did not prevent Justice Kagan from being sworn in on Shabbat.


2011: The final performance of “13: The Musical” starring Temple Judah’s very own Bentlee Birchansky is scheduled to take place tonight.


2011: “In Another Lifetime,” a film about a group of Hungarian Jews who “begin staging a Strauss operetta” for those living in an Austrian village in an attempt to avoid the Final Solution, is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2011: Wikimania, the annual international conference of the Wikimedia community which is being held in Haifa is scheduled to end today.


2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Paradise Lust:  Searching for the Garden of Edenby Brook Wilensky-Lanford


2011: Israel's finance minister says the government will take swift action to reduce the soaring cost of living, looking to ease tensions a day after 300,000 people demonstrated across the country.

2011: The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opened to major losses today, as indices plunged by more than 6 percent, immediately prompting a series of brief suspensions in trading.

2011: An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter Scale was felt for several seconds across Israel today, shortly before midday.
 
2011(7th of Av, 5771): Ralf Pinto, who founded the Algarve Jewish community in western Portugal and was instrumental in the restoration of the Faro Jewish Cemetery there, passed away today. He would become the first person to be buried there since 1923.


2011(7th of Av, 5771): Eighty-three year old educational innovator Stanley Bosworth passed away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2012: San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav is scheduled to host a special yizkor or remembrance today to raise awareness about suicides and bullying
 
2012: Jared Loughner, the man accused of killing six people and wounding then-U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, is scheduled to plead guilty in a Tucson court today (As reported by Reuters and The Forward)


2012: Sixty-four year old Mickey Grossman, a 1973 Yom Kippur War veteran escaped from his captors today after being kidnapped while hiking in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador .

2012: Jewish-American gymnast Aly Raisman won a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a bronze on the balance beam at the London Olympics. Raisman, 18, of Needham, Mass., took the gold today with a score of 15.6 to edge Catalina Ponor of Romania and Aliya Mustafina of Russia, the silver and bronze medalists.
 
2012: Romanian Jews expressed outrage today after a politician who made comments denying the Holocaust in the country was appointed to a ministerial position.
 
2012(10th of Av, 5772): Ninety-year old Judith Crist, one of American’s most noted film critics, passed away today.


2013: The 2013 Summer Author Talk Series is scheduled to come today with “Fay Moskowitz, And the Bridge of Love.”


2013: “Before the Revolution” a story about the Iranian Jewish Community is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013(1stof Elul, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Elul


2013(1stof Elul): Purim de los Christianios observed commemorating the defeat of Portuguese King Sebastian at the “Battle of the Kings.”


 


This Day, August 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 8 In History

117 C.E.:  Hadrian named Emperor of the Roman Empire.  He is remembered as the man who accepted the limits of the Roman empire, as can be seen by the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in what is today Great Britain.  It was designed to keep the barbarians out of the empire and was viewed as the greatest engineering feat of the Roman legions.  Hadrian was also seen as a man of culture who a devotee of Greek learning.  Jews remember him as the man who brought on Bar Kochba’s Rebellion.  At the end of this extended but ultimately failed clash of arms. Hadrian made war on Judaism itself.  He sought to build a temple to Jupiter on the TempleMount.  He hunted down the Jewish sages and created the list of martyrs some of whom we invoke by name each year on the High Holidays.  In Jewish writings he is referred to as “the Wicked or the Evil One.”


1356: The King of Aragon sent his Jewish physician to tend to the wounds of a Muslim who was fighting in the king’s army.  


1391:In Barcelona, the citadel where many of the Jews had gone for protection was stormed, by the mob and more than 300 Jews were murdered, among the slain being the only son of Hasdai Crescas.


1488: Makre Dardeke  (Teach of Young Children) was published for the first time in Naples Italy,by Joseph Ashkenazi.  This Judaic glossary was trilingual: Hebrew, Arabic and Italian.  [For more see “A history and guide to Judaic dictionaries and concordances, Volume 3, Part 1” by Shimeon Brisman]


1541: The Jews of Great Poland were authorized by King Sigismund to elect a chief Rabbi


1588: In the war between England and Spain, the Battle of Gravelines comes to an end.  Conventional commentators see it as turning point in history because it marked the end of the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England. Any defeat suffered by Spain, the land of the Inquisition had to be seen as a plus from the Jewish point of view.  More specifically, the end of the Battle of Gravelines meant that the Spanish Armada could not support the landing of Spanish troops in the Netherlands.  Part of the mission of the Armada was to provide support for Spanish forces fighting to impose Catholic rule on the Protestant Dutch.  The Spanish were determined to bring the Inquisition to the Netherlands to punish the heresy of the Protestants and would of course have doomed the future for the Sephardic Jews who had already settled in Holland or would be settling there.  If the Spanish had been successful at Gravelines, the 23 Jews who would sail into New Amsterdam would have found a Catholic government that would have not provided them aid, shelter and a New World in which to settle.  It is not too great a stretch to say that a line can be drawn from Drake’s victory over the Armada at Gravelines to the founding of the Jewish Community in America.  As we have said many times in our studies in Cedar Rapids, you must understand history to understand Jewish history and seeing history through the Jewish prism is not the same as seeing history in its general form.


1654: Jacob Barsimson sailed for New Amsterdam from Holland aboard the Peartree and landed on August 22. Some consider him to be the the first Jewish immigrant to travel to what is now New York City. Other dates have been giving for this sailing. Regardless, the official date of the start of the Jewish community comes later in 1654 when 23 Portuguese Jews landed in New Amsterdam.


1655: The Russians captured Vilna. As part of the peace settlement between Chmielnicki and Czar Alexis, the east bank of the Dnieperbecame part of the kingdom of Moscow. Jews were once again subject to expulsion and murder.


1670: After Leopold I evicted the Jews from Vienna; he sold the Jewish quarter for 100,000 florins. The Jewish quarter was then renamed Leopoldstadt in his honor. The Synagogue and the Bet Midrash (study hall) were turned into St. Margaret's Church.


1765(21st of Av, 5525): Elkalah Myers Cohen, the first wife of Myer Myers died at the age of thirty, leaving him with three sons and two daughters to raise

1809: A group of 70 people led by the followers of the Vilna Gaon arrived in Eretz Yisrael.


1846: Second and concluding day dedicatory services for the Eagle Street Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio.


1850(30th of Av, 5610): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1854:The New York Times reported that all of the people of Jamaica, regardless of religious persuasion, have responded sympathetically to the plight of the Jews living in Jerusalem and other parts of Palestine.  They have raised $2,000 to help alleviate their suffering which includes the effects of a famine brought on by an outbreak of “pestilence” and skyrocketing food prices.  The suffering of the Jewish communities is blamed on Czar Nicholas who has prevented the Jews from receiving financial aid usually sent from Russia.


1868: Baron James Mayer Rothschild purchased a Chateau for 4.4 million francs. The estate became Château Lafite Rothschild. However, Baron James, died just three months after purchasing Lafite and the estate became the joint property of his three sons: Alphonse, Gustave, and Edmond.


1871: The Court of Special Sessions in New York, Judge Shandley presiding heard an usual case today.   Mr. Robert Thomas, a member of the Alanson Methodist Episcopal Church complained that a Jew named Nathan Koyofski was disturbing their Sabbath (Sunday) Services with noise made by his sewing machine. Koyofski lives in a tenement adjoining the building housing the church.  Requests from church members that he stop his work had proven fruitless so they were forced to take legal action.  Koyofski ‘s lawyer contended that any attempt by the state to dictate which days were for work and which were for worship “would be an infringement of fundamental American principles…”  Shandley found Koyofski guilty of violating the law that stated “explicitly that no one should willfully disturb religious worship, of whatever nature it might be…” If anybody disrobed the Jews on Saturday, they would have an equal righ to complain.  The Judge suspended the sentence. But he warned Koyofski that if he were brought before him again on a similar charge, he would have to go to jail.


1873: Birthdate of Alice Lillie Seligsberg a social worker and Zionist who helped to found Hadassah.


1878(9th of Av, 5638):Tish'a B'Av


1879: A major fire has destroyed much of Sarajevo today including the city’s Jewish quarter.


1882: “Discontented Russian Jews” published today provided the reasons for the angry outbursts that had taken place yesterday at the offices of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society. After having been subject to indignities in various European cities as they made their way to the United States, several of the Jews felt betrayed when they found out that they would not be receiving 160 acres  and enough financial support to begin life as farmers.  At the same time, their lack of language skills has made them feel they will never be able to earn a living and some are so frustrated that they want to return to Russia.


1882: The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society was reported to be sending groups of Russian immigrants to agricultural communities near Hartford, CT and Vineland, CO on a daily basis.  The society is planning on sending 25 men to South Orange, NJ next week so that they can start a new colony.(The unprecedented mass migration of Eastern European Jews was already overwhelming available resources in the first of its four decades)


1883: It was reported today that the dinner provided at the recently held conference of Jewish congregations in Cincinnati was a violation of Jewish dietary laws since included Little Neck clams, soft shell crabs and shrimp salad. In response to reports that some “of the conservative congregations would withdraw from the union,” Rabbi Wise disavowed responsibility for the menu since it was paid for by private individuals who could spend their money as they please.  Besides, the rabbi said that “the American Hebrews’ religion does not center in the kitchen or the stomach.”


1883: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Budapest following the acquittal of Jews charged with the ritual murder of Esther Solymose


1884: It was reported today that “The Woskhod, the Hebrew journal, has received a warning from the authorities for violating the press laws.”  (This must be a reference to Voskhod, a monthly founded by Adolph Landau in 1881.

1885: “The Four Great Moses” published today identifies the leading Jews with that name – Moses of Biblical fame, Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides), Moses Mendelssohn and Moses Montefiore, who “put into practice the teachings of his three great predecessor…”


1888(1stof Elul, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1889: The funeral of Isaac Phillips is scheduled to take place today at his home in New York City.


1889: The United States Deputy Marshall said that “Simon Baruch, a Spanish Jews accused of stealing approximately $150,000 while in Austria arrived at New York aboard the SS Hammonia.


1890:N.J. Arbeely was appointed to serve as an interpreter at the Barge Office (the major entry point for immigrants in New York) based on his fluency in several foreign languages which includes Hebrew.



1890: A squad of police moved through an a area bounded by Hester, Essex, Division, Orchard  and Norfolk streets arresting fifty immigrants, including a number of Jews for violating city ordinances concerning pushcarts, stands and other commercial conveyances that blocked the streets.


1890: The will of the late Alexander Bach was filed for probate today.


1891:Birthdate of German violinist Adolf Busch.  Busch was not Jewish.  But early on, he saw the dangers of the rise of Hitler and moved to Switzerland. When WW II he moved to the United States where he continued his career until his death in 1952.


1892: Birthdate of Solomon Bennett Freehof “a prominent Reform rabbi, posek, and scholar. A native of London, he moved to the U.S. in 1903, received a degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1914 and was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1915.  He was a World War I army chaplain, a liturgy professor at HUC, and a rabbi at Chicago's Congregation Kehillath Anshe Maarav before moving to Pittsburgh.” Rabbi Freehof served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Beginning in 1955, he led the CCAR's work on Jewish law through its responsa committee. He also spearheaded changes to Reform liturgy with revisions to the Union Prayer Book. For many years, he served as the pulpit rabbi at Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh, PA.”  According to the congregation, "For more than 35 years, Dr. Freehof's weekly book review series attracted audiences of more than 1,500 Christians and Jews." He retired in 1966 and passed away in 1990. He was a descendant of the Alter Rebbe.


1893: Reverend Herman P. Faust of the Hebrew Christian Mission accused the United Hebrew Charities of refusing to give needy Jews.  He specifically cited the case of Joseph Korman, a Russian Jew whom he said had been denied aid and when he died it was left to his group to pay for the burial and provided for his widow and orphans (more to come tomorrow)


1897: “From Cactus Aristocracy” published today described society in Los Angeles where “the big fortunes are held …by three classes:  “the native ranch interest;”  “the lumber dealers;” and “the Jews.” “The Jews…are socially conspicuous but less obtrusive than either of the other two.”


1897: It was reported today that Herr von Diest’s pamphlet that accuses Bismarck of “gaining wealth by questionable methods” will delight the anti-Semites because of its attacks on the Rothschilds and Gerson von Bleichröder, the Jewish banker who handled financial matters for the Chancellor and Prussia.


1899 Israel Zangwill is scheduled to return to New York today after visiting with Judge Meyer Sulzberger in Philadelphia.


1899: Funeral services for Myer Stern were held in the Temple Emanu-El today forenoon, and many men prominent in business and fraternal circles were present. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and his assistant, Dr. Joseph Silverman, officiated. In an earnest eulogy Rabbi Gottheil spoke of Mr. Stern's philanthropic character, and of his activities in various organizations. In his brief eulogy Rabbi Silverman said “Myer Stern made the world better for being here. He catered neither to the great nor the strong but follolowed where the principles of truth, right and justice led.”  Mr. Stern was the author of The Rise and Progress of Reform Judaism : Embracing a History Made from the Official Records of Temple Emanu-El of New York, with a Description of Salem.


1903: DorothyLevitt drove the Napier motor-boat at Cowes and won the race


1905: In Ashland, VA, Martha and William E. Dodd, FDR’s first Ambassador to Nazi Germany gave birth to William Dodd, Jr.  The younger Dodd accompanied his father to the posting in Berlin and became an ardent anti-Fascist at a time when famous Americans like Lindbergh were cozying up to Hitler.  Unfortunately, like many of his political persuasion he became a victim of the Right Wing Ant-Communist this college professor with a PhD ended his days as a clerk at Macy’s.  Whatever their views before they came to Berlin Ambassador Dodd and both of his children saw the danger of the Nazis and tried to warn America about it.


1908: Birthdate of Arthur J. Goldberg. Son of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, Goldberg became a labor lawyer who championed the rights of the workers. President Kennedy appointed him as Secretary of Labor in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy named him as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Felix Frankfurter. Goldberg resigned to service as Ambassador to the United Nations under President Johnson. Johnson named Abe Fortas to replace Goldberg on the High Court. Goldberg passed away in 1990.


1909: First Jewish community organization is founded in Santiago, Chile – Sociedad Unon Israelita de Chile.  At the same in Argentinian, a group of Jewish students founded Juventud Israelita Argentina which produce a journal entitled Juventud, which became a favorite among Argentinian Jewish intellectuals.


1910:  Birthdate of actress Sylvia Sydney.  Born Sylvia Kosow to Russian Jewish immigrants, Sydneyarrived in Hollywoodafter playing leading roles on Broadway just as the talkie era began. She quickly became one of Paramount's top women stars along with Marlene Dietrich, Miriam Hopkins and Claudette Colbert. In the 1950’s her career seemed to come to an end.  However, she gained fame toward the end of her life playing in the television comedy “WKRP” and the film Bettlejuice. She passed away at the age of 88.


1911:During the 62nd Congress Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. There were 5 Jews serving in the House during the 62nd Congress including, Jefferson Levy, Julius Kahn, Victor Berg, Henry Goldfogle, Adolph Sabath. By contrast, the 111th Congress (the session meeting in 2010) there were 31 Jews serving in the House of Representatives; 30 Democrats and one Republican.


1911: Moses Gaster, the Romanian born Jewish scholar who was Chief Rabbiof the Sephardic communities in England, writes a letter to the Board of Deputies (the governing body of the British Jewish Community) protesting the wording of an amendment introduced into the Slaughter of Animals Bill before Parliament at the insistence of the Board.


1914: German industrialist Walter Rathenau went to see the Head of the General War Department in Berlin to offer his support to the war effort.  “Rathenau proposed to ‘save Germany from strangulation’, and with a few days was put in charge of a specially created War Raw Materials Department.”  His job was to keep Germanyin the war.  But because he was a civilian and a Jew he was faced with constant hostility from the German General Staff.


1918(30thof Av, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1918: Australian troops under General John Monash spear headed the successful attack of the British army at the Battle of Amiens.  Amiens was the opening round in the great allied offensive that would force the surrender of the German Army.  Monash’s key role would be recognized when he was Knight Commandeer of the Order of the Bath by King George V.


1919: Birthdate of Murrey Marder, the crusading journalist who was the first to expose the tissues of lies created by Joe McCarthy during the Anti-Communist witch hunt – a smear campaign that the Right continues to in the second decade of the 21st century.

1920: Birthdate of Bernard Schoenbaum, the son of Jewish immigrants, “who in hundreds of cartoons in The New Yorker needled the relatively affluent, the media-conscious, the irony-besotted and the socially competitive.”


1920: Establishment of Gdud HaAvoda VeHaHaganah al shem Yosef Trumpeldor a “socialist Zionist work group also known as Gdud Ha’Avoda that its name from Joseph Trumpeldor, the one-armed Russian soldier who died defend Tel Hai from attacks from the Arabs.


1921: In Manhattan actress Lillian Bonner and movie producer Ephraim Asher gave birth to “William Asher, a producer, director and screenwriter in the early days of television who directed some two dozen shows — most notably “Bewitched,” which starred his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, and more than 100 episodes of “I Love Lucy” (As reported by Denise Grady)


1922:Birthdate of Gertrude Himmelfarb, who has made her career as an intellectual historian and has perhaps made her larger mark on the world as a conservative public intellectual.

1922:  Birthdate of Rudi Gernreich.  Born into an Austrian-Jewish family, Rudi arrived in America during the rise of Hitler.  He eventually became a famed designer of American fashions for women who created and/or popularized such then daring items as the miniskirt and the topless bathing suit. He passed away in 1987.


1922: Birthdate of Dr. Leon Eisenberg, who “conducted some of the first rigorous studies of autism, attention deficit disorder and learning delays and became a prominent advocate for children struggling with disabilities.” (As reported by Benedict Carey)


1923: Samuel J. Bloomingdale, the President of Bloomindale Bros. hosted a luncheon at his office today during which Francis Leffler announced the completion of plans to raise funds from the manufacturers in the house furnishing trades that will help erase the $500,000 deficit in the budget of the New York Federation that supports the Jewish Philanthropic Societies. (As reported by JTA)


1924:Plutario Elias Calles, President-elect of Mexico, spent a few hours in Atlantic City today for the so he could meet with Jewish labor leader Samuel Gompers and the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor, which is in session here at the Ambassador Hotel.


1925:  In one of their largest rallies ever, 40,000 Ku Klux Klansmen marched down
Pennsylvania Avenue
in Washington, D.C.  The Klansmen marched in full hooded regalia and were watched by adoring throngs.  The Klan was not just a Southern organization.  Large groups could be found in such Mid-Western states as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  The Klan was anti-Semitic as well as anti-Catholic and opposed to all non-Caucasian races including African-Americans.  Memories of this march help to explain the timidity of the Jews in the 1930’s when it came to pressing the case for opening the doors to refugees from Nazi Europe.


1929: “On the ground that Alfred Dreyfus, a write and sculptor, has been committed to a sanitarium as insane although he is of sound mind, an application was made” today “to Supreme Court Justice Frankenthaler for an order directing that the question of his sanity be determined by a jury.  Dreyfus had been committed to a mental institution more than a year ago by his brother Walter Ludwig Dreyfus.


1931: Birthdate of Joshua Matza Israeli political figure and “president and CEO of State of Israel Bonds, a global enterprise that generates more than $1 billion in annual sales. Israel utilizes the funds for economic development projects. Matza was recommended for the post in 2002 by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and then-Finance Minister Silvan Shalom. Matza served 18 years in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, as a member of the Likud party. He was a cabinet minister in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, holding the portfolio of minister of health. Matza also served 20 years on the Jerusalem City Council, 10 of which were in the capacity of deputy mayor.”


1931:The Arab National Association adopts a resolution indicating that the Arabs do not intend to obey the government's orders to cease agitation against sealed armories and will continue to defy the British government in Palestine.


1933: Dr. Daniel Mulvihill, a New Yorker visiting Berlin “was assaulted by a German citizen…apparently because he had failed ‘to salute a Nazi detachment.’”


1933: The police and the Aeronautics Board of the Department Commerce began an investigation today into reports that a an unidentified plane had, for the last two days, been dropping German language pamphlets on a meeting of the United Singers Society protesting the exclusion of the Friends of the New German from its activities.  The Friends of Germany is pro-Nazi while the United Singers Society is a conservative German organization that does not support the Nazis.  The investigation was begun at the behest of Albert F. Frosh, president of the United Singers Society.


1933: In Czernowitz, Romania, the Maccabee sports organization submits a claim for 100,000 lei as compensation for cancelling the Maccabiade, international meet of Jewish athletes, forbidden by Rumanian Government, owing to fears that Lord Melchett, head of Maccabee World Union, would be molested by anti-Semites. Lord Melchett was Sir Alfred Moritz Mond, the son of Ludwig Mond.  He was a leading British businessman, politician and supporter of Zionism.


1933:The German Government announced that those East European Jews who will be deprived of their citizenship in accordance with a recent decree will be given the status of Staatenlose (men without citizenship in any country); this explanation is accompanied by estimates that 10,300 East-European Jews had been naturalized in Prussia alone since 1922.


1933: The All-German Richard Wagner Association, meeting at Beiruth to arrange for the Wagner Festival, decides to amend its by-laws so as to exclude all "non-Aryans," and to instruct its branches throughout Germany to expel Jewish members. It was actions like this that created the myth that Wagner, who was dead by now, was an anti-Semite.


1933:  In Regina, the Jewish Colonization Association prepares statistics for the World's Grain Exhibition and Conference which show that 557,000 Jews in eight countries engage in agriculture and cultivate 5,410,750 acres of land, and that the Jewish farmers in Canada raise 500,000 bushels of wheat annually. The family of Ekiel Bronfman was one of those Jewish families who did not succeed in its agricultural endeavors.  Thanks to Ekiel’s son Sam, they found another way to make money from grain besides growing it


1933: In Germany, The Ministry of Labor issues an ordinance which provides that no Jewish physician is to remain associated with any sick benefit association, with the exception of front-line war veterans, and establishes an official list of sick fund doctors, from which all Jews are excluded.


1935 (9th of Av): Yiddish poetess Rivka Galin passed away


1936: The World Jewish Congress was convened in Geneva. Stephen Wise and Nahum Goldman founded the Congress. Although they organized a boycott of German goods, they felt that a more direct approach would prompt the Nazis "to even harsher policies."


1937: As the debate over the Peel Commission Report continued Rabbi Dr. Stephen Wise, president of the Zionist Organization of America, assailed the partition plan as abandonment of trust, but his rejection did not oppose the very idea of the creation of a Jewish state. He said that Great Britain cannot say that it failed as a trustee. It failed to try and, if the whole truth be told, it has tried to fail. David Ben-Gurion refused even to consider the notion that Jews might ever remain a minority in their homeland. He wanted Eretz Yisrael to provide the solution to the entire Jewish problem. Ben-Gurion held that the Jewish state should be proclaimed immediately, as an alternative to the Peel Commission's partition. This will accelerate the country's development and Jews will become a powerful factor in Palestine. He firmly believed that Jews and Arabs can live in peace. A decade later Ben-Gurion would take an opposite stance and embrace partition with Jerusalem as an international city.  Ben-Gurion was a Zionist.  He was also a realist and statesman.


1937: Birthdate of actor Dustin Hoffman.


1938: Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael, the High Commissioner of Trans-Jordan and Commander in Chief of Palestine issued an appeal for an end to the “ruinous campaign of murder and sabotage.


1938: An Italian newspaper, the Tevere, printed an attack on the Jewish historian Emil Ludwig.  The attack on Ludwig was triggered by comments about  “the race problem” made by Mussolini “in 1932 that are included in his book, Conversations With Mussolini that are in sharp contrast with the views now expressed by the Fascist dictator who has allied himself with Hitler.


1938: Hadassah headquarters in the United States received a cable from the Youth Aliyah offices in Berlin stating that fifty seven Jewish boys and girls fleeing Germany and Austria had arrived in Palestine and that another 110 young Jewish refugees embarked today for the trip to Palestine. 


1938: The Nazis opened the Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration camp.


1941: In Hungary, enactment of The "Third Jewish Law" which prohibited intermarriage and penalized sexual intercourse between Jews and non-Jews.


1941: Corporal Hank Greenberg, the all star baseball player now serving with the U.S. Army is placed in charge of a five man anti-tank crew.


1942: Gerhart Mortiz Riegner sent the “Riegner Telegram” describing plans for the Final Solution to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the President of the World Jewish Congress. “Have received through foreign office following message from Riegner Geneva STOP Received alarming report that in Fuhrers headquarters plan discussed and under consideration all Jews in countries occupied or controlled Germany number 3½ to 4 million should after deportation and concentration in East at one blow exterminated to resolve once and for all Jewish question in Europe.”

 
1942: All 2,000 Jews of Szczebrzeszyn refused to gather for a deportation round up. The Germans commenced a search for them. Only 400 were found. They were all killed.


1944: The Frank family and all those who had been hiding with them in attic were taken from their prison cells and sent to the Westerbork Concentration Camp.


1944: After a kangaroo trial in Berlinthat was overseen by Goebbels, Hitler hung several of the German officers and other conspirators who tried to kill him. They are hung on meat hooks with chicken wire around their necks. The butchery is filmed and sent to Hitler for review. Over the next months many more conspirators would be sent to trial.


1944(19th of Av, 5704): Famed expressionist painter Chaim Soutine passed away. Born in Belarusin 1894, Soutine moved to Parisin 1911 where he developed his unique style. He flourished in the inter-war years. However, his good times were not to last after the invasion of France by German troops at the start of World War II. As a Jew, Soutine had to escape from the French capital and hide in order to avoid arrest by the Gestapo. He constantly moved from one place to another and was sometimes forced to seek shelter in forests, sleeping outdoors. Suffering from a stomach ulcer and bleeding badly he had to leave his safe hiding place for Paris in order to undergo emergency surgery, which failed to save his life. Chaim Soutine died of a perforated ulcer just two weeks before the French capital was freed by Allied forces. After his death his vivid colors and passionate handling of paint gained him recognition as one of the foremost Expressionist painters. If Soutine had merely been an Expressionist Painter and not a Jewish Expressionist Painter, he would have probably lived to a ripe old age covered with glory and honors.


1945: First base man Mike Schemer made his major league debut with the New York Giants.


1948(3rd of Av, 5708): Seventy-eight year old Leo Morris Franklin, a leading Reform rabbi who served Temple Beth El in Detroit from 1899 to 1941, passed away today.


1953:  Birthdate of Donny Most who played Ralph in the sitcom Happy Days.


1964: Alaska Democrat Ernest Gruening was one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.  The two senators saw the resolution as “unconstitutional because it was ‘a pre-dated declaration of war power’ reserved to Congress. This vote cost him his seat in the Senate; a fate that many of the johnny-come-lately opponents such as the anti-Semite J. William Fulbright were spared.


1977: Officials in Washingtonagreed that there was no evidence that more than 8,000 pounds of the lost American enriched uranium and plutonium had ever reached Israel.


1977: The Jerusalem YMCA, one of the most beautiful in the world and the only one to have a membership 98 per cent Jewish, celebrated its centenary.


1982: Just two weeks before her 84th birthdate Rosie Goldschmidt Waldeck, the author whose works include Athene Palace passed away.  Born a German Jew in 1898, she converted to Catholicism  and became a U.S. citizen in 1939


1982:Where are the Arab ‘brothers' now?” by Daniel Pipes appears in the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.danielpipes.org/5322/where-are-the-arab-brothers-now

1986: Warner Bros. released One Crazy Summer, a romantic comedy produced by Michael Jaffe.


1987:Mary Travers, the folk singer, plays Emma Lazarus, as one of a series of radio spots for a program entitled “Voices of Freedom.”  Ms Travers said her character also had such contemporary relevance. ''She doesn't talk about history as if it's frozen in time,'' Ms. Travers said of Lazarus. ''Her words are valuable not as the words of a woman willing to struggle with inequity in 1883, but as the words of an American willing to struggle with inequity in 1987.''


1987: ''Yiddish Theater in London, 1880-1987 an exhibition included in this summer's Jewish East End Celebration is scheduled to come to an end.



1987: ''Daughters of the Pale,'' an exhibition that in words and photographs documents the experiences of daughters of Jewish immigrants, is scheduled to come to an end in London



1988: Israeli Ambassador Moshe Arad met with Rev. Jesse Jackson.The two men and their advisers said they discussed a wide range of issues, including the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians; the plight of black Israelis; Israel's relationship with South Africa, and recent friction between blacks and Jews in this country, particularly in Chicago and New York.
 
1989: A Broadway revival of he musical “Shenandoah” with a “book” co-authored by producer Philip Rose opened today.


1993: The third in a series of family tours to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Congress is schedule to begin today.



1993: The Bosnian family sponsored by Temple Beth Am arrived in Seattle, Washington.



1996: Mel Torme, an icon of the American Jazz scene, suffered a stroke which effectively ended his career.


1999: PGA golfer Bruce Fleisher  won the Lightpath Long Island Classic.


1999: The New York Times includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945 by Leo Marks, Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings: Volume 2, 1927-1934and Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates, the author who discovered late in life her own family's Jewish history: Her grandmother, who immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, kept her religion hidden for fear of persecution.


1999: Avery Corman, the novelist, who has just completed working on a new musical with Cy Coleman, discusses ''The Musical: The American Jewish Theater in Its Heyday'' at Temple AdasIsraelon
Elizabeth Street
in Sag Harbor


2004: Second and final performance  by the Royal English Opera Company of Rockford, Illinois of “The Nautch Girl,” a comic opera composed by Edward Solomon.  These are the only times the opera has been performed in North America.


2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross


2005:  Legislation is introduced in Congress that would make it illegal to deny life insurance to people based on their travel habits.  Those traveling to Israel, including at least one Jewish member of the House of Representatives have been denied life insurance.  While those pushing the legislation have not accused the life insurance industry of an anti-Jewish bias, one of the non-Jewish supporters of the bill noted that he had never been denied insurance even though he had taken repeated trips to his ancestral homeland, Ireland.



2006:Five ambulances donated to Magen David Adom by Canadian Jewry were flown to Israel from New York by CAL Cargo Airlines.

2006 (14th of Av, 5766): Staff Sergeant Oren Lifschitz, 21, of Kibbutz Gazit and Staff Sergeant Moran Cohen, 21, of Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov were killed  in battles in the south Lebanon village of Bint Jbail. St.-Sgt. Yesmao Yallao 26, from Or Yehuda and Cap. (res.) and Gilad Balahsan, 28, of Karmiel were killed in clashes with Hezbollah near Leboneh.


2007:
The last two concerts The Zimriya - The World Assembly of Choirs are held at 8 P.M., at Einav Cultural Center in Tel Aviv and at Independence Hall on Mt. Scopus. The Zimriya has been held every three years since 1952.



2007(24th of Av, 5767): Melville “Mel” Shavelson, writer, director and producer passed away at the age of 90.


2008:Israeli President Shimon Peres attends the Olympic Games' opening ceremony at the invitation of the Chinese government.  Since the games open on Friday, the Chinese government has agreed as a goodwill gesture to house him in a hotel within the Olympic complex so he will not desecrate the Sabbath. 

2008:  In an article entitled “Jewish Roots in India,” the Washington Post reviews The Girl From Foreign by Sadia Shephard in which the American born author traces the Jewish roots of her Indian grandmother who lived as a Moslem.


2008: In Virginia, Jody Wagner resigns her position as Secretary of Finance.
 
2008(7th of Av, 5768):Ted Solotaroff passes away at the age of 80


 
2009: In Jerusalem, Beit Avi Chai's Saturday night music line, directed by Shaanan Street, presents "Eve’s Women": Four musicians create a magical, diverse musical world, with fresh, new arrangements of familiar melodies and songs from Jewish tradition, klezmer tunes, and Hasidic songs.

2010: A documentary entitled “Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2010:Bankito, sometimes referred to as "Jewstock" -- a youth-oriented Jewish culture festival on the shore of Bank Lake, north of Budapest is scheduled to come to an end.


2010:First Jewish Women's Music Festival at Falls Village, CT is scheduled to come to an end.


2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including two novels set in Nazi-occupied Holland by Dutch author Hans Keilson – The Death of the Adversary and Comedy in a Minor Key, Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, As Husbands Go by Susan Isaacs, 97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman and Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; The Letters Edited by Bill Morgan and David Stanford


2011: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.


2011(8thof Av): Erev Tisha B’Av – fast starts at sundown


2011: This evening, a delegation of 18 Washington-based ambassadors from four continents and one other senior diplomat who have embarked on a fact-finding mission to Israel and the West Bank organized by The Israel Project (TIP) will go to the Old City of Jerusalem to observe the commemoration of Tisha B’Av


2011:Three mortar shells fell last night in Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, causing damage to a fence.  The incident comes after a spate in rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip last week. Since the beginning of 2011 more than 340 rockets have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.


2011: Today, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition asking that the government be ordered to deploy the Iron Dome rocket defense system in Gaza border communities.

2011:The High Court criticized the Israel Medical Association's (IMA) conduct during negotiations with the finance and health ministries. Supreme Court President Judge Dorit Beinisch said "the IMA's behavior does not arouse faith, this is no way to negotiate."

2012: The Summer Learning Institute is scheduled to begin at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.


2012: “Photographer David Rubinger, who immortalized paratroopers reaching the Wall in the 1967 war, recreated his iconic image with a female trio holding a Torah scroll (As reported by Aaron Kalman)

 


2012: Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the annual free festival of music and dance, is scheduled to present the U.S. debut of The Alaev Family, a Bukharin groove band from Israel with deep roots in the music of Tajikistan and Jewish Bukhara.


2012: Citing disappointing results for Israeli athletes in the 2012 Olympic games, Minister of Culture and Sports Limor Livnat announced today that she will establish a committee of experts to look into this year’s failures in order to bring about better results in the next Olympics, set to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the summer of 2016


2012: The British Guardian newspaper today acknowledged it was wrong to call Tel Aviv Israel’s capital, but reiterated its stance that Jerusalem is not the capital either, since it is not recognized as such by the international community.


2012:A series of Hezbollah terror attacks inside Israel were foiled recently by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) after a group of Israeli-Arabs helped smuggle 20 kilograms of high-grade explosives into Israel

 

2013: “Esther Broner - A Weave Of Women,” a documentary about the pioneering feminist and scholar is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: At Zefat, the three day International Klezmer Festival “the biggest festival of Jewish soul music in the world” is scheduled to come to an end.

This Day, August 9, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 9 History


48 B.C.E.: Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at the battle of Parsalus. This victory helped to cement Caesar’s position and put an end to Pompey. Considering Pompey’s behavior towards the Jews, including his desecration of the Temple, Caesar’s victory was the preferred outcome.


378: Roman Emperor Valens who began his reign in 364, was killed by the Visigoths as he led his large to defeat at the Battle of Adrianople.   During his reign Valens followed the course of his predecessors and issued an edict strengthening the Patriarchate.  He issued an edict that exempted “officers of communities subject to the ‘illustrious Patriarch (Nasi)’ from service on municipal councils.  In 368 he issued an edict forbidding the billeting of troops in Synagogues.  Such minor sounding positive notes, makes him better than his imperial peers when it came to treatment of the Jewish people.


681: Founding of the first Bulgarian Empire. Archaeologists have found traces of Jewish communities in the area that pre-dated the formation of Bulgaria.  The first major movement of Jews into Bulgaria took place early in the 8th century when Jews fled persecution in the Byzantine Empire.


1471: The Papacy of Sixtus IV began.In Italy the reign of Sixtus IV marks a high point of tolerance. The pope used Jewish physicians, and perhaps employed Jews for the collection, copying, and translation of Hebrew works. He refused to canonize Simon of Trent, allegedly a victim of Jewish ritual murder. It is clear, however, that the pope's tolerance was offset, outside his own domains, by local hostility. A generous bull of 1479 concerning the Jews of Avignon was questioned and subsequently withdrawn. In November 1478 the pope issued a bull investing Ferdinand and Isabella with extraordinary powers to appoint inquisitors in all parts of Castile.” ( From the Jewish Virtual Library)  This was the first step in what would lead to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.


1506: Prince Yaroslavitch established the community of Pinsk. At the same time, he reconfirmed the rights given to the Jews by King Alexander Jagello, King of Lithuania.


1732(18thof Av, 5492): Rabbi Yaakov Culi the Talmudist and Biblical commentator who was the grandson of Moses ibn Habib, passed away in Constantinople.


1807(5th of Av): Rabbi Ze’ev Lesh, author of Kedushat Yisrael, passed away


1819: With the mobs crying “Hep, hep!” an anti-Semitic riot broke out in Frankfort.


1827: Birthdate of William Morris Stewart, the Senator from Nevada who defended the Jews of Romania from an attack by Senator Sprague.  Sprague said the Jews were to blame for their suffering because of the economic success. “Mr. Stewart said he hoped Mr. Sprague did not mean to imply that when a man gets rich he ought to be killed.” Senator Sprague gave a faint smile but made no reply.


1850(1st of Elul, 5610): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1850(1st of Elul, 5610): Miss Rachel Myers Cohen of Philadelphia passed away at the age of 70.


1855:As further proof of the existence of a Jewish community from the earliest days of the Lone Star State, The San Antonio Texan reported today on the excitement that has gripped this city during its recent election. "In fact the excitement reached every class of our citizens, old and young, rich and poor, male and female, Protestant, Catholic and Jew..."


1858: It was reported today that the in Great Britain, the House of Lords, has taken action on two of the pressing issues of the day related to religion. Based apparently on its view of Biblical law, the Lords has expressed its opposition to allowing a widower to marry the sister of his deceased spouse. The Lords has agreed to allow Jews to sit in the House of Commons if they are elected to that chamber.  The Lords has opposed this measure for decades, but as in so many other matters including the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Divorce Bill, the “upper house” has given way to the popular will.  This latest capitulation in the matter of the Jews is seen as further evidence of the erosion of the power of the Lords. [This issue of the Jews sitting in Parliament was, in some respects, part of a much larger battle that was fought throughout most of the 19th century, between the landed gentry and the rising trading, industrial and professional classes.]


1860: It wasreported today that Baron Alphonse De Rothschild has been appointed Consul-General of Prussia. He is the first Jew who has exercised such functions for that Kingdom.


1862: Birthdate of David Phillipson, the native of Wabash, Indiana who became one of the leading Reform Rabbis of the late 19th and 20th centuries.


1864: Birthdate of Roman Dmowski the Polish political leader who, during the inter-war years led a political party that was both anti-Semitic and anti- ethnic Germans.  Among other things, he believed the “wealth of the Jews and the Germans” should confiscated and given to Polish Catholics.


1868: In Chicago, a hospital on La Salle Avenue sponsored by the United Hebrew Relief Association opened its doors to patients for the first time.


1871: “France and Algeria” published today described the pitiful conditions of the Jews living in Algeria prior to its colonization by the French.  Among the Moslem “races…hatred of the Jew is a tradition and almost a religious duty.”  During the Moslem “rule in Algeria, the Jews suffered every kind of torment.  They could not walk in the streets after 6 o’clock at night without obtaining a special authorization from the police.  If the night was dark, instead of carrying a lantern, like the Turks and Moors, they had a lighted candle, which the wind blew out continually.  They were obliged to take off their shoes in passing before a Mosque and to kneel before the Kasba.   Jews could only address a” Moslem “ with deference and submission.”   The Jews “moved off the pavement to allow” the Moslems “ to pass and any infraction of these customs was punished with basonado and fines.”  The Jews “could not ride on horseback and could not event the town on a donkey.  Any insult toward a “Moslem” was punished by sudden death, inflicted arbitrarily, and often according to the offended Moor’s caprices…” [The idea that all the lands of Islam were hospitable to Jews until the creation of the state of Israel, is obviously not an accurate one.]


1874: It was reported today that the London School Board had appointed “Mr. Levy, a Jew…as head master of a school in Whitechapel, in a district where the majority of the inhabitants are Jews.”


1879: It was reported today that much Sarajevo, the multi-ethnic capital of the Turkish province of Bosnia has been consumed by fire.  Amongst those who have suffered great loss are those living in the Jewish district the home of many of those who dominate the commercial activities of the region.


1880:Samuel Untermyer married Minnie Carl, daughter of Mairelius Carl of New York City today. “They had three children, Alvin, who served in the 305th Field Artillery in France during the Great War; Irwin, a justice of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, and Irene, a philanthropist who married Louis Putnam Myers and, after his death, became the wife of Stanley Richter.”


1883: “Moritz Scharf, the boy who was the principal witness for the prosecution in the recent trial of a number of Jews at Nyireghyhaza, charged with murdering a girl in order to procure her blood for ritual purposes and who swore he saw the murder committed, has confessed…that his testimony was false.”


1885: In Detroit, Louis Grossman, the tenth person to serve as Rabbi at Temple Beth El organized the Emerson Circle, “a society for the promotion of general culture.”


1885: “Strolling Bands” published today described the various wandering musicians found on the Lower East Side and Coney Island  Membership in the strolling string bands is confined to Polish and Italian Jews.


1886: “The New Books” column described Court Royal: A Story of Cross Currents, the latest novel by S. Baring Gould.  The novel which is “conspicuous” for its “exceeding bad taste, features Emanuel Lazarus, a Plymouth pawnbroker who is a Jew “of the most repulsive type” and misses no opportunity to ridicule the customs of the Jewish religion.


1886(8thof Av, 5646): Rabbi Mendes led the Tish’a B’Av services tonight at the 19thstreet Synagogue. The well attended services began with a reading of the 137thPsalm followed by the chanting of Lamentations.


1888: During today’s meeting of the House of Representative’s Committee on Immigration which was holding hearings in New York, Henry Zeltner described the manner in which many Polish Jews reach the United States.  There are several operatives on Canal Street who “sell steamship tickets to Poles in this country on the installment plan.”  “By paying $3 down, they can have a ticket to America sent to a relative in Poland.  “The relative then comes” to the United States and “works out the price of the ticket.”


1890: “City and Suburban News” published today listed upcoming events in the New York Metropolitan area including a lecture by Dr. Cyrus Adler at the Jewish Theological Seminary.


1890: As of today, the leaders of London’s Jewish community have not been able to “discover the exact truth about the…anti-Jewish crusade in Russia.”


1890: In Pittsburg, Mrs. William Schmidt, Mrs. Sarah Vabelinsky and their two children, all of whom are Polish Jews  experienced convulsions and fainting spells which might have been caused by food poisoning.


1890: A list of those charities receiving bequests of a thousand dollars from the late Alexander Bach was published today included: Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Home for Incurables, Hebrew Benevolent and orphan Asylum Society, United Hebrew Charities, Temple Gates of Hope, Hebrew Free School Association, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and Temple Israel of Harlem.  The Deborah Nursery was on the list but only for $500.


1892: “Extradition proceedings in the case of Harris Blank and Charles Roseneigh,” who have been accused of murdering a Jewish peddler, Jacob Marks came to a close today in Toronto, Canada.


1893: Following claims by Reverend Herman P. Faust of the Hebrew Christian Mission that the United Hebrew Charities “often refuses to give aid where it is plainly needed” as exemplified by the case of the late Joseph Korman whose family was left destitute by the Jewish agency, “a reporter for the New York Times found” the family “living in rooms that are neat.”  The United Hebrew Charities said that it had offered the family $5 in aid, “which was refused.”  It had not given more because the family had three children who were old enough to work and the agency offered, as was its practice, to find each of them jobs.


1896: “East Side Roof Garden” published today described  the recently opened facility atop the Hebrew Institute  as “one of the greates blessing that could been devised to give the overcrowded population on the east side a chance to breathe a little fresher air than they can get in the stifling streets and tenements.” Ice water is provided free of charge to the eight hundred people allowed on the roof which is also the scene of evening concerts three times a week.


1896(30th of Av, 5656): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1896(30th of Av, 5656): Aviation pioneer Otto Lilenthaldied when his glider crashed during a test flight.  Lienthal is referred to some as the Jewish “Wright Brothers” since he is credited by some with making one of the first flights with a heavier than air craft.


1896: Birthdate of Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget who was treated by Sabina Spiielrein, the Jewish pioneer psychoanalyst who served as his analyst for 8 months in 1921.


1896: Birthdate of Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky.


1896: Due to the “sever heat” the milk depots funded by Nathan Straus will be kept open all day.  Mr. Struas has also said that any doctors “practicing among the poor” who does not have one of his coupon books for free milk, can just write the order on a prescription blank which will then be honored.


1899: Israel Zangwill will go to Southampton, Long Island, “as the guest of James Herne, who is “going to state “Children of the Ghetto.”


1902: Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom(Great Britain, Scotlandand Ireland).  When he was Prince of Wales, Edward broke with conventional social notions by including numerous Jews in his “set.”  On ascending the throne, Edward earned a lasting position of endearment among the Jewish people.  He pressed the Russians to improve the treatment of their Jewish subjects.  When he went to Russia, he insisted on raising the issue with Czar Nicholas II even though his advisors pleaded with him not to.  Edward’s intervention did not improve the situation but he gets high mark for having made the effort.


1911: It was reported toda that Boston Rabbi Wolf Margolies has agreed to become the Rabbi for United Hebrew Communion also known as Adas Israel.  The congregation has 10,000 members and will reportedly the new rabbi an annual salary of five thousand dollars.


1912: Birthdate of Giora Yoseftal, the native of Nuremburg who made Aliyah in 1938 and became a leader of Mapai.


1918(1stof Elul, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1923: The JTA reported that it would not be publishing the Daily News Bulletin tomorrow in observance of the national day of mourning for the death of President Harding


1924:Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor refused to attend the notification ceremony for John W. Davis at Clarksburg, West Virginia. Davis was the compromise candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, having been chosen on the 103rd ballot.


1924: A statement from Samuel Gompers that he was "willing to forget and forgive acts of omission and commission resulting from differences of opinion during the war" is contained in a letter made public by Mr. Gompers today incidental to the meeting of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor at the Hotel Ambassador.


1925: A memorial tablet erected to one of its patients by his fellow patients was unveiled today in the MontefioreHospital for Chronic Diseases, at
Gun Hill Road
and
Bainbridge Avenue
, the Bronx. Although tablets on hospital walls usually represent benefactions to the institution, this one is a tribute from the 600 patients, who were cheered in his lifetime by Max Messinger.
 Confined to his wheel chair for twelve years, Max Messinger was the good Samaritan of the hospital. His busy brain and fingers, the only parts of his body over which he had control, worked to create amusement for the other patients to whom he brought music, vaudeville, moving pictures, books, magazines and a social club, as well as a monthly paper, which he edited. By establishing contacts with performers and film companies, he was able to present a full performance each week to the hundreds who assembled on crutches and in wheel chairs for relaxation. He received literature which he distributed to the others, and traveled about the wards, especially among the children. With a portable victrola perched on his wheel chair he played the records that friends had sent. For ten years he was the editor of the monthly paper, The Montefiore Echo, in which he encouraged the others to write. On the walls, with memorials to such noted benefactors as Sir Moses Montefiore, Jacob H. Schiff, Professor Morris Loeb, has been placed a bronze plaque made possible by the small contributions of the patients, a simple expression of gratitude to Max Meninger.


1926: The Third International Conference of the Ort associations opened in Berlin at a building that formerly housed the Prussian House of Lords. (ORT is an organization that was founded in 1880 to provide assistance and educational opportunities for Russian Jews.  The scope has expanded and it currently offers programs for Jews in over a one hundred countries.)


1926:Hundreds of residents of the Jewish quarter of Paris assembled at the Garenord station at 11 o'clock last night to greet the poet Chaim Nachman with shouts of "Heidad!", and the singing of Hatikvah. (As reported by JTA)


1927: Birthdate of Marvin Minsky. Marvin Minsky has made many contributions to AI (Artificial Intelligence), cognitive psychology, mathematics, computational linguistics, robotics, and optics. In recent years he has worked chiefly on imparting to machines the human capacity for commonsense reasoning. Minsky is on the faculty of MIT and winner of the ACM Turing Award


1927The Maccabee soccer team of Palestine left New York today aboard the SS Sinaia.


1927:M. Henri Torres, counsel for Sholom Schwartzbard, has addressed a cablegram to Louis D. Brandeis, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, asking him to intervene in favor of Sacco and Vanzetti.


1929: “Friend Sues To Free Sculptor As Sane” published today described the efforts De Hirsch Margules to gain the freedom of Alfred Dreyfus. The painter and sculptor has petitioned Chief Justice Alfred Frankenthaler on behalf of Alfred Dreyfuss, the sculptor and writer to overturn the order issued by Justice Lydon that has committed his friend to a sanitarium for the insane.  Margules contends that Drefyuss’ mother brought the suit after having been unduly influenced by her other son who is seeking to control the family’s financial affairs.


1930: Famed cartoon character “Betty Boop” made her debut in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.  Boop and the film were the creation of an Austrian born Jew named Max Fleischer. Fleischer was producing animated cartoons years before Disney’s Steamboat Willie appeared on the screen.


1933: In Vilna, Chamber of Commerce unanimously votes to proclaim a boycott against German goods in protest against the Nazi treatment of the Jews.


1933:Edgar Ansell Mowrer, president of the Foreign Correspondents Association in Berlin, resigned from his post in order to secure the release of Paul Goldman, 68-year-old Jewish correspondent of the Vienna Neue Freie Presse, who was charged with "high treason." 


1938: Warner Bros. released “Four Daughters” a musical drama based on a novel by Fannie Hurst with a screenplay co-authored by Jules Epstein.


1938:Today Senator Norris of Nebraska made a recommendation that President Roosevelt appoint Felix Frankfurter, Professor of Law at Harvard University and one of the original New Deal advisers, to the United States Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Benjamin Cardozo.


1938: In article entitled “Children Go to Palestine,” the New York Timesreports on the migration of 167 Jewish children from Austria and Germany to Palestine.  The youngsters are part of the Third Aliyah and are being settled at Ain Harod and Kfar Jecheskiel.


1938: The situation in Palestine threatened to grow worse when Moslem ecclesiastical authorities issued a fatwa calling for Iraqi participation in the fighting in Palestine which was labeled a Jihad.  Thousands of young Iraqis responded by rushing to sign up at recruiting stations set up in Baghdad.


1940(5th of Av): Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, author of Ahi’ezer passed away


1941: According to reports at the time the Nazis killed 510 Jews Brest-Litovsk and 296 Jews killed in Bialystok


1942: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in Auschwitz.  Born Edith Stein, Sister Teresa and her sister converted long before World War II.  However, the Catholic Church allowed the Nazis to seize her and thousands of other Jews who had converted to Catholicism and ship them off to the death chambers.  According to Canon Law, Sister Teresa was a Catholic.  But apparently she was not a real Catholic since the Church let her go up in smoke facing the fate of a Jewess named Stein.


1942: In the first mass deportation to the gas chambers 10,000 Jews were sent from the Borislave ghetto to the Belsen death camp.


1942: Two hundred Jews escape into the forests of Mir. During that week, another 6,000 would die in Naliboki, Lubcz and Karelicze.


1942: Birthdate of director and comedian David Steinberg.


1945: Birthdate of Avraham Poraz, the native of Bucharest who made Aliyah in 1950 and served in the Knesset and as Minister of the Interior.


1948:The first envoy from the USSR arrived in Israel today


1949: Birthdate of mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman. Kellerman is the author of the series featuring Dr. Delaware. He is also the husband of mystery writer Faye Kellerman.


1960:The Religious Torah Front, an alliance of the Ultra-orthodox parties Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael that had been formed in 1955, split today with Poalei Agudat taking two of the Front’s six seats in the Knesset.


1960: Larry Sherry came in to relieve starter Johnny Podres and protect the team’s victory over the Milwaukee Braves.


1961: Birthdate of John Phillip Key, the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand National Party.


1965:  Singapore seceded from Malaysia and gained independence.  The Jewish community in Singapore traces its origins back to the early 18th century. The famous Sassoon family established business operations in the middle of the century. David Marshall, a prominent leader of the Jewish community, was known as the “father of Singapore Independence” for his efforts to gain liberation from Great Britain.  Today, Singapore has a small but vibrant Jewish community that supports two venerated houses of worship Maghain Aboth and Chesed El Synagogues.


1967: Hafez Tahoub, a former Jordanian district judge, and Mussa el-Bitar, a insurance agent, were arrested today by Israeli authorities for instigating a general in east Jerusalem that was aimed at crippling the economy in the section of the city that had been occupied by the Jordanians from 1948 until June of 1967.


1969:  Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski and four others were murdered in Los Angeles.  It would turn out that they were victims of Charles Manson and his gang of killers.


1973:  At a lecture to the StaffCollege, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told the officer “the overall balance of forces is in our favor and this is what decides the question and rules out the immediate renewal of the war.”  These reassuring words would come back to haunt the Israelis when Egypt and Syria would attack two months later in the Yom Kippur War, which almost had disastrous consequences for the survival of the Jewish state. 


1974: In the wake of the Watergate Scandal, Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States. Nixon turned out to be “a mixed bag” for the Jewish people.  He began his career on the political right as a fellow-traveler the McCarthy Movement which made him an anathema to many Jews who tended to be moderates and liberals.  As President, he appointed the first Jew, Henry Kissinger to the position of Secretary of State.  During the Yom Kippur War, he pulled out all of the stops to aid Israel.  Yet the Watergate Tapes have him uttering some of the most vile anti-Semitic sentiments that one can imagine coming from the lips of U.S. President. 


1978: Morton Abramowitz began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand.


1981(9th of Av, 5741):Tish'a B'Av


1981: At the All Star Baseball Game in Cleveland, Bob Verdi of the Chicago Tribune sits next to Jerome Holtzman, the popular Jewish baseball writer who wrote for the Sun-Times.  Holtzman indicated to Verdi that he was ready to move from the Sun Times to the Tribune.  Verdi contacted George Langford, the Trib’s sports editor, setting in motion Holtzman’s switch from Chicago’s #2 paper, to the WindyCity’s # 1 paper.


1983(30th of Av, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1985: Release date for “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman


1994:Edward P. Djererjian left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.


1998: The New York Times features a review of Benjamin Disraeli Letters Volume 6: 1852-1856 Edited by M. G. Wiebe, Mary S. Millar and Ann P. Robson.  Disraeli is Britain’s most famous Jew who was not Jewish.


2001(20th of Av, 5761):  A suicide bomber struck a busy intersection in Jerusalem, blowing up a Sbarro Pizza Parlor, killing 15 and wounding 130.  Seven the victims were children.
The Sbarro pizzeria is on the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.



2005: Eric Edelman began serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Polic


2005:  The Jerusalem Post reported on The Dry Bones Project.  The project is the brainchild of Yaakov Kirschen, creator of the popular Dry Bones Cartoons.  The project is intended to use humor to fight anti-Semitism.  Kirschen plans to talk about his work at international conference of cartoon aficionados to be held later this month.  An example of the projects work is The Shmendrick Awards. Those awarded Shmendriks will be "honored" during a ceremony in this year's Animation, Comics and Caricature Festival in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque from August 27 to 30. “.This year, the winners (or rather, the "ineffectual losers") are the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, for his frequent remarks disparaging the Jewish state (in first place); the American Presbyterian Church for divesting from companies doing business in Israel (in second place); the Neturei Karta - a small group of ultra Orthodox Jews who protest against Zionism and the State of Israel (in third place); and an honorable mention for Prince Harry, who appeared in a Nazi costume two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. For more info on the project, go to http://www.drybonesproject.com.


2005:  Haaretz reported on the fourteenth meeting of World Jewish Congress of Jewish Studies held this week at the HebrewUniversityin Jerusalem.  One of the sessions featured a theoretical debate on the question of "Teaching Mysticism in Academia."  Discussion of this topic in an academic form highlights renewed interest among the mainstream Jewish community in the topic of mysticism within the framework of Judaism.

2005(4th of Av, 5765): Seventy-year old Judith Rossner, author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar passed away.
2006(15th of Av, 5766):  Eighty-three year old Melissa Hayden, one of the biggest starts in  American ballet passed away.(As reported by Anna Kisselgoff)

2006(15th of Av, 5766):  Fifteen members of the IDF have been  killed and another twenty-five wounded in the fight against Hezbollah.


2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Saudi Arabian government continues to bar Jews and Christians from bringing items such as Bibles, crucifixes and Stars of David into the country and is threatening to confiscate them on sight. "A number of items are not allowed to be brought into the kingdom due to religious reasons and local regulations," declares the Web site of Saudi Arabian Airlines, the country's national carrier.


2007:A 23-year-old Jewish woman was attacked in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris, by two youths who beat her and shouted anti-Semitic slogans, said the French National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism. The attackers shouted "You dirty Jew" at the woman before stealing the mobile phone she was using and beating her violently about the head and body. One of the two attackers was later arrested by police and put in custody. According to Rebecca, the two aggressors recognized her Jewish origin when they saw a Star of David around her neck. At first she didn't mention the anti-Semitic character of the attack to police out of fear for reprisals, but she did so later after speaking to the National Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism.


2008(8thof Av, 5768): Shabbat Chazon; Begin reading the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy)


2008: Five of Israel's representatives will be competing in the first day of the Olympic Games today. Judoka Gal Yekutiel will be the first Israeli to take part in the Games, facing Athens 2004 bronze medalist Tsagaanbaatar Hashbaatar of Mongolia on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the under-60kg event at the University of Science and Technology Gymnasium. Gymnast Alex Shatilov will compete at the National Indoor Stadium, while Gal Nevo, Anya Gostomelsky and Tom Be'eri will swim for the first time at the NationalAquaticsCenter.


2008(8thof Av, 5768): Seventy-four year old Jack Landau “a founder of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press” passed away today.
 
2008(8thof Av, 5768): In the evening, Fast of Tisha B’Av begins; David Levin chants Chapter Five from the Book of Lamentations  - a sweet voice for a sad occasion.


2008: The Washington Post reportsthat nearly three months after a federal immigration raid uprooted almost 400 employees at a meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa, dozens of Somali immigrants are slowly but steadily filling the depleted ranks left by the arrested workers.


2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics“Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle’s insightful, entertaining and profusely illustrated biographical monograph, which chronicles almost everything Kurtzman accomplished…”


2009(19th of Av, 5769): Seventy year old Lester Glassner whose penchant for “kitsch” turned him into a major collector of pop culture artifacts, passed away. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

2009: Gaza militants fired mortars at a crossing into Israel just as Palestinian patients were being transferred for treatment, a Palestinian official said. "It's a miracle nobody was hurt," Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. Two radical Palestinian groups, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front, said they fired 12 mortars at the Erez crossing.

 

2009:Fervently Orthodox Jews mobbed Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and threw stones at his car.


2010: This is scheduled to be the final night of this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2010:Oscilloscope Laboratories said today that it would appeal the rating by the Classification and Rating Administration for "A Film Unfinished," which explores a Nazi propaganda film taken in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942.

2010(29th of Av, 5770):  Eighty-eight year old New York real estate tycoon Paul Milstein passed away (As reported by Douglas Martin)

 

2010:A New Zealand judge has allowed the kosher slaughter of animals to resume until the lawsuit filed by the Jewish community against the government comes to trial.

2010:The synagogue of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, luminary sage and father of modern religious Zionism, was reopened today in southern Tel Aviv 30 years after it closed its doors. The synagogue, Shaarei Torah, is located in the Neveh Shalom neighborhood just north of Yafo (Jaffa). Following the informal re-dedication today amid singing and dancing, the synagogue is now open for daily prayers.


2011(9th of Ave, 5771): Fast of Tisha B’Av


2011:The British Jewish community has expressed its shock over the recent rioting which has shaken the UK over the last few days.

2011:Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who is a member of the Trajtenberg Committee created to examine the demands of the social-movement protesters, visited the Rothschild Boulevard tent protest on this evening where activists explained to him their discontent with the government, and particularly the minister's, inefficiency.

 

2011(9th of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old David Lewis, the British entrepreneur who founded the Isrotel chain of hotels, which is the country’s large hotel chain, passed away today.

2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including The Long Night: William L. Shirer and ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' by Steve Wick
 
2012: Jerusalem’s Hazel Hill String Band is scheduled to perform tonight at Petah Tiqva


2012: Dr. Laibl Wolf is scheduled to deliver a lecture on"The 2012 Secret of Successful Relationships" - Intimacy, Commitment & Exploitation!” at the Chabad Center of Rechavia


2012:An American Jewish woman, Debra Ryder, is demanding NIS 50,000 in compensation from El Al Israel Airlines Ltd.for allegedly switching her seat on a flight from the US, because haredi (ultra-orthodox) men refused to sit next to her. She claims that the flight steward moved her to a seat in the back of the plane, which did not meet her medical needs.


2012:A Brooklyn hardware store clerk pleaded guilty today to charges he abducted and dismembered an 8-year-old boy who lost his way home. The guilty plea, to charges of second-degree murder and kidnapping, guarantees Levi Aron a sentence of 40 years to life in a case that traumatized the victim’s tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community.


2012: David Kilimnick, Razorback by birth – Israeli by choice, is scheduled to perform The Aliyah Monologues: Tour of Funny through the Holy Land at the Off The Wall Comedy Club in Jerusalem.


2012: Janet Maslin reviewed two books that might be of special interest to Jewish readers--Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spiesby Ben Macintyre and Agent Garbo:The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephen Talty


2012(21st of Av, 5772): Forty-seven year old “comic essayist” David Rakoff passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

2012(21st of Av, 5772): Seventy-seven year old Holocaust survivor turned New York political powerhouse Raymond B. Harding, passed away today. (As reported by Robert McFadden)

2013: “Blumenthal” and “Awake Zion” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: “Fill the Void,” a film that tells the story an Orthodox Chassidic family from Tel Aviv is scheduled to pen at Century 16 in Anchorage, Alaska, making it the second theatre in the state to show the film.

This Day, August 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 10 In History



612 BCE: Sinsharishkun, King of the Assyrian Empire was killed and his capital city of Nineveh was destroyed.  This is the same Assyriathat destroyed the Northern Kingdom and laid siege to Jerusalem.  This is also the same Nineveh to which God had sent Jonah.


70: According to sources, this is the date on the secular calendar when the Second Temple was destroyed.


117: Start of the reign of Hadrian as Roman Emperor.   At first Hadrian seemed to be a friend of the Jews.  He executed the anti-Jewish governor of Judea and promised to rebuild Jerusalem as a Jewish city.  For some unknown reason, he turned against the Jews banning circumcision throughout the Empire and announcing the decision to build a major temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem.  The Jews responded with what has become known as Bar Kochba's Rebellion.  The fighting was intense on both sides and resulted in the complete desolation of the land by the Romans.  Hadrian banned Jews from Jerusalem and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina.  He even had a copy of the Torah burned on the Temple Mount.  Antonius Pius, Hadrian's successor repealed many of Hadrian's anti-Jewish decrees including the bans on Torah study and circumcision.  But it was too late to save the Jewish community of the Promised Land.


1267: Birthdate of King James II of Aragon.James would prove to show greater toleration towards his Jewish subjects than his grandfather James I had.  . He permitted Jewish refugees from France to settle in Barcelona. In recognition of Jewish financial support for his equipping his fleet, the King released many Jewish communities from paying their taxes for a period of several years.  James also protected the Jews from popular anti-Semitic uprisings. In Barcelona in 1285, Berenguer Oller, announced that he planned to kill the local nobles and the Jews following which he would plunder their homes.  The King intervened to prevent the violence.  Whether he was more concerned about the well-being of the nobility or the Jews is unknown.


1391: The anti-Semitic rioting came to an end with Barcelona with an untold number of Jews converting at the point of the proverbial sword.


1391: Massacre of the Jews in Gerona, Spain.


1397: Birthdate of Albert II, who as Holy Roman Emperor Agreed to accept 900 gulden from the city of Augsburg in return for allowing them to expel their Jews.


1492: A large group of Jews from Spain, thousands strong, arrived in the Port of Naples. Jews from Sardinia soon joined them. 


1675: The Portuguese-Jewish synagogue opens in Amsterdam.


1762: Birthdate of Joshua Montefiore, an English lawyer, soldier, and journalist who would eventually move to the Unites States where he “edited Men and Measures, a weekly political journal” before finally settling in St. Albans, Vt.


1778: Gotthold Lessing, while having trouble sleeping, comes up with the inspiration for his play, “Nathan the Wise.”



1794: Birthdate of Leopold Zunz  also known as Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz, "the German Reform rabbi and writer who was the founder of what has been termed the "Science of Judaism" (Wissenschaft des Judentums), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual.


1810: Birthdate of Count Camillo di Cavour, the Italian statesman who was part of the triumvirate that created the modern Italian state.  Cavour worked with Baron James de Rothschild who secretly provided the funds with which the Piedmont nobleman was able to fight the Austrian.  Cavour enjoyed good working relations with members of the Jewish community, including “Isaac Arton, his confidential secretary and ‘faithful lieutenant’.”


1815: In an attempt to attract non-Hispanic Europeans to Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Spanish government issued the Royal Decree of Graces which allowed non-Spaniards to own land on the islands.  While Jews did settle in the islands, the decree really did not work to their advantage since only Catholics were allowed to own land. 

 
1818: In Bavaria, Suesel Schloss and his wife gave birth to Moses Schloss who would move to New and become a successful dry goods merchant.


1819: Anti-Semitic riots continue for a second day in Frankfort.


1821: Missouri becomes the 24th state to join the Union.  Jewish immigrants, many from Germany, had settled in the area since its territorial days.  The first known Jew settled in St. Louis in 1807.  The first Jewish lawyer settled in St. Louis in 1817.


1824: Under Czar Alexander I, all foreign Jews were prohibited from settling in Russia. Alexander I, after an initial period of liberalism, reverted to the anti-Jewish proclamations of his predecessors. It began with forbidding Jews to have Christian servants. After that came the prohibition of settlement. The culmination of his policies came just before when all Jews were banished from the larger villages in the Mohilev and Vitbesk districts.



1854: The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau opened today.


1858(30th of Av, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1859: The New York Timesreported that “there has recently arrived in this City an eminent Jewish traveler, a Mr. Benjamin, the object of whose life hitherto has been to explore the interior of the Asiatic and African continents for the purpose of ascertaining the condition, occupations, hopes,  of his Hebrew brethren.”


1861: The New York Times reported that “The past week Mr. J.J. Benjamin, a Moldavian traveler and Jew, has been in this city from California. This gentleman's ruling passion appears to be to find out the "Ten Lost Tribes," to accomplish which purpose, he states that he has already traveled over a great portion of the civilized and the uncivilized world. He thinks he has discovered a clue to those missing tribes in Northern Africa and in Asia. Whether or not any such clue exists in this Great Basin, the world will, perhaps, be informed of in due time.
[Editor’s Note: Mr. Benjamin and J.J. Benjamin are the same person.  J.J. Benjamin was a Rumanian born Jewish businessman who became historian.  Reportedly he modeled himself as modern day version of Benjamin of Tudela, the famous twelfth century Jewish traveler. He signed many of his writing as Benjamin II.]


1862: In a letter written to President Lincoln today, August Belmont persisted in his advocacy of a negotiated peace with the Confederates.


1868(22nd of Av, 5628): Approximately three months after her last performance, Adah Isaacs Menken passed away while living in Paris. The cause of death was most likely peritonitis, tuberculosis, or the combined ravages of both. She was buried in the Jewish section of the Montparnassecemetery in Paris.



1868: Birthdate of Paul M Warburg, the scion of a German banking family, who came to  New York and became a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company and an advocate of a “central bank” that took form as the Federal Reserve Board.


1873: A group of Jewish teachers met at #142 East 40th Street in New York today and formed a committee to develop an organizational plan for a Jewish Teacher’s Association.  The plan will be submitted at a future meeting the time of which has not been established.


1873:  It was reported today that Anshey Chesed has decided to hire Dr. Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati to serve as it rabbi.  The congregation has just completed the building of sanctuary on the corner of Lexington and 63rd at cost of $250,000.


1874:  Herbert Hoover, future President of the United States, was born in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover is best remembered by Jews as the President who nominated Benjamin Cardozo to the Supreme Court in 1932.  In his memoirs, Hoovermakes only a brief reference to the appointment.  There is no mention about the fact that he was Jewish.  Hoover was concerned that there might be opposition because appointing Cardozo would mean that there would be two New Yorkers sitting on the High Court.  His Congressional supporters advised him that this would not be a problem.  So, thanks to a Quaker from Iowa, the Supreme Court found itself with two Jewish Justices (Frankfurter being the other) at a time when anti-Semitism was on the rise in the United Statesand Europe.


1874: Sherrif Honscheidt of McClean County, Illinois, wrote a letter today addressed to George Walling, the Superintendent of the Police in New York City containing information about the murder Benjamin Nathan.  According to the Sherriff, a German Jew named Levy came to his house and confessed that he had killed Nathan.  He gave the address of the crime; described the murder weapon; and claimed that the motive was robbery.  Levy says he had an accomplice whose name he will only reveal once he is back in New York.  He claims that he has confessed because “he has had no rest nor peace of mind since he committed the crime.”  The Sheriff is not sure if Levy is telling the truth if he is just some “humbug” looking for a free trip to New York. (Nathan was a prominent Jewish member of the business community.  His shocking murder provided a great deal of scandal, but never produced a perpetrator)


1875(9th of Av, 5635): Tish'a B'Av


1875: The New York Times reported that “the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem will be celebrated throughout the world to-day by the conservative Jews, as a day of mourning.”


1877(1stof Elul, 5637): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1879: According to reports published today, there eight societies in Great Britain devoted to converting Jews to Christianity and a dozen more in continental Europe devoted to the same purpose.  Together, these organizations have a half million dollars to spend and employ 250 in this work.  The London Society for the Propagation of Christianity Among the Jews is the oldest and most prominent of these groups headquartered in London.  The society has 34 offices encompassing those cities in Europe, along the Mediterranean and in Abyssinia that have large Jewish populations. [These societies had little success.  Based on anecdotal evidence, most conversions took place in western Europe and Britain for purposes of social and economic progress.]


1879:  It was reported today that the Jews play an activity role in the philanthropic activities in London since the synagogues of that city have give $3,460 to the hospital fund which is supported by donations from all denominations, “except perhaps the Catholics.”


1879: As various hotels and resorts began excluding Jews one merchant published an ad today designed to further their inclusion. “Although the Jews have been excluded from Manhattan Beach, they are not probhibted on account of their religious principles from buying Humphrey’s Parisian Diamonds.  They are for sale only at Humphrey’s Jewelry Store…Price list sent free.”


1881: Over 2,500 people attended the corner-stone laying ceremony for the Home for the Aged and Infirmed in Yonkers.  Joseph E. Newberger gave the opening remarks on behalf of the B’Nai Brith and was followed by Norton Otis, the May of Yonkers.


1883: “The Outrages in Hungary” published today described the violent anti-Semitic reaction to the acquittal of Jews who have been standing trial at Nyireghyhaza on charges of ritual murder i.e. killing a young Christian girl.  Joseph Scharf, the father of Moritz Scharf, has been attacked several times because his son’s testimony during the trial.  There have been several outbreaks of arson aimed at the Jewish population of the town in which the dead girl lived.


1883: August Rholing, notorious slanderer of Jews and the Talmud brought charges of defamation against Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch of Vienna


1883: The escape by Theodore Hoffman, who was convicted of murdering Zife Marks, a Jewish peddler, was thwarted today.


1884: It was reported today that Jews in England are seeking to have their government intervene on behalf of their co-religionists in Romania who have been harmed by “the new hawking law.”


1884: It was reported today that Novoje Vremya, “the chief Jew-baiting organ in Russia” has received a warning from the authorities to cease its attacks on Jews.


1884 During today’s Earthquake in New York City, Jews living on Ludlow Street threw their furniture out of their windows and fearfully ran out of their houses carrying trunks, valises and mattresses.


1887: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children are providing another free excursion today for the poor children of the Lower East Side.


1886(9thof Av, 5646): Tish’a B’Av


1888: The Immigration Committee chaired by Congressman Ford met today at the Westminster Hotel. While Ford and Congressman Guenther tried to paint a picture of an invasion of immigrant paupers, they were stymied by testimony of at least one Jewish witness.  When Ford asked, “Do all the immigrants have the means of subsistence when they reach here?” the response was “If they have not, they are cared for by relatives and friends here.  Certainly they do not become a charge upon the public.  The records of the state Board of Charities will not show that a single Jew has been cared for by public charity.” (This sounds painfully familiar to those who have been listening to the current debate about immigration in the United States)



1890: Dr. Cyrus Adler is scheduled  to  deliver a lecture sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary at Cooper Union entitled “The Bible and Modern Discoveries with Special Reference to the Geography of Egypt and Palestine”


1890: “Waiting for A,B,C” published today relied on information that first appeared in the Edinburgh to traces the history of written alphabets including a listing of ancient inscriptions, one of which is “the Hebrew text…known as the Siloam inscription” which  “is very clearly of the age of Hezekiah” approximately 700 BCE.

1890 It has been determined that the group of Polish Jews who fell ill yesterday in Pittsburgh were not victims of food poisoning.  They had all drank coffee deliberately poisoned by Mrs. Levy, the wife of a second-hand clothing proprietor.  No reason has been given for her action. As to the victims, Jacob Schmidt and Jacob Levenson will recover but two of the mothers and their daughters are still in danger. The mass poisoning was made possible by the fact these Jews cook and eat a communal meal at the Sabbath.


1891: “A Rabbit At Chautauqua” published today described the incredulity of some Christians that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil is scheduled to speak before this organization.


1891: “Caring For Jewish Immigrants” published today described plans that leaders of the Jewish Alliance of America  have to help their co-religionists arriving in this country including helping them to settle in several states, find work for those “who are skilled mechanics or laborers” and “to purchase cheap arable lands for those” who want to farm.


1893: James O’Mara and William Davison sole the pack of a Jewish peddler went he entered Patrick Devitt’s saloon in Brooklyn.  Two policemen arrived and arrested the thieves.



 

1893(28th of Av, 5653): Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin passed away today in Warsaw. Born in Mir, Russia, in 1816, he “was also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv.” Berlin “was…dean of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania.”


1895: “A score of charitable” people from Brooklyn who are spending the summer at Tannnersville, NY, hosted a fund raiser for the benefit of the Hebrew Santitarium.



1895: Lucian Sanial spoke first tonight at the mass meeting in Union Square sponsored by several Jewish organizations held “express sympathy with the locked-out hat and cap makers.”


1895: During the mass meeting at Wlhalla Hall on Orchard Street, it was announced that the strike by the tailors, most of whom are Jewish has come to an end.


1896(1st of Elul, 5656): Rosh Chodesh Elul 


1896: “Education in Germany” published today provided a statistical analysis by religion of the Germans “attending the universities and other higher educational institutions.  For every 10,000 Protestants, 50 of them are students; for every 10,000 Roman Catholics, 32 are students: for every 10,000 Jews, 333 are students. “These figures testify to the extreme value set on a university education by Jews in Germany and explain how it is that young Hebrews are pressing into all the learned professions in far greater proportion than their ratio to the entire population of the country would warrant.” (While the Jews may have been elated about this, many Germans thought the progress of the Jews had to be part of some evil plot which, however irrationally, fueled the flames of anti-Semitism)


1897(12thof Av, 5657): Moses Schloss, a native of Bavaria who has been a successful merchant in New York for the past 50 years passed away today which was his 79thbirthday.


1898: In Wellington, Nevada, the sheriff is about to close down the Occidental Colony Company which was organized and operated by Jewish immigrants from Russia.


1902: Birthdate of Canadian Oscar winning actress Norma Shearer who converted to Judaism in 1927 when she married movie mogul Irving Thalberg.


1903: The New York Times features a review of a compendium of the writings of Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler entitled Studies in Jewish Literature.


1905:  The Russians and the Japanese begin peace talks at Portsmouthunder the watchful eye of President Theodore Roosevelt.  The talks would bring an end to the Russo-Japanese War.  The Russians were humiliated by the defeat.  The Czar did make some half-hearted attempts at democratic reform which was encouraging to the Jews in the emerging Russian middle class.  At the same time, the Slavophiles, extreme Russian nationalists also sought power; trying to convince Nicholas II that Russia would only find greatness when it had rid itself of all Western and foreign (i.e. Jewish) influences.  In the end, nothing changed for the better and the Communists would come to power thirteen years later. Russian anti-Semitism gave the Japanese an edge in fighting the war.  The Russian government had refused to take responsibility for pogrom. It had blocked American attempts to investigate the treatment of the Russian Jews. When war broke between the Russians and the Japanese, several American Jewish financiers were instrumental in insuring that Japanese war underwritten which meant that the Japanese would have money to fight the war. 
 
1900: Birthdate of Philip Levine, the Russian born American pioneer in the research “of serums and antibodies who discovered the Rh factor in human blood.” (As reported by Peter B. Flint)


1907: At Cowes, Lord Rothschild is one of the notable guests aboard the famed yacht Margaritta one of only two vessels of interest at this fabled nautical event.


1911: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, headed a delegation of men interested in labor publications who appeared before the Congressional commission on second-class mail matter to protest against the raise in the rates.


1913: The Second Balkan War comes to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest. As a result of the war, the final boundaries for the modern Greek state were finally established.  This led to an end of the “protected status” many Balkan Jews had enjoyed under Ottoman rule as they became citizens of Greece.


1914: Samuel Prince, a former Assemblyman from the east side and a labor agitator passes away and includes a bequest of fifty dollars to Samuel Gompers for use in supporting strikers in Colorado.


1916: Chief Rabbi of Salonica received a telegram from the Minister of Interior stating the government has taken steps to ensure tranquility for the Jews on Corfu, after a blood libel accusation arose. 


1919(14th of Av, 5679):The Ukrainian National Army massacres 25 Jews in Podolia Ukrane



1920: The Turkish government renounced its sovereignty over Palestine and recognized the British mandate.


1920:  Birthdate of Basketball coach William Red Holzman When he retired, Red Holzman was the second winingnest coach in NBA historywith 696 victories in regular season play, mostly with the New York Knickerbockers. His Knick teams won NBA championships in l970 and l973. Red was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 1986. Incidentally, the only man ahead of Holzman on the all-time win list was another Jew, Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.


1923:In Carslbad, Dr. Glickson, a delegate to the Thirteenth Zionist Congress denounced the policy of the British administration in Palestine toward the Jews of the country and toward the Zionist movement. He declared that "the Government hinders the upbuilding of the Jewish national home."


1923: The American delegation to the Thirteenth Zionist Congress cabled the newly installed U.S. President, Calvin Coolidge, “a message of greeting” including wishes for  a “successful administration.  The Zionists…recalled that the President has on various occasions expressed his admiration of the effort to re-establish Palestine as the Jewish homeland.


1923: JTA does not publish its daily news bulletin today because it is the National Day of Mourning in memory of President Warren G. Harding.


1925: More 30,000 members of the ILGWU held a rally today at Yankee Stadium.  The Union was dominated by Jewish members and leaders including Morris Sigman the president from 1923 to 1928


1926(30th of Av, 5686): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1928: Birthdate of Eddie Fisher.  Fisher’s early fame came as “crooner” and teen-age heartthrob in the 1950’s.  He gained a certain level of infamy when he dumped Debbie to marry Elizabeth Taylor.  Taylorlater dumped him after a pubic romp with Richard Burton.  Of such was the news in simpler times.


1930:The fourth world congress of the Zionist Revisionists opened in Prague today under the presidency of Vladimir Jabotinsky. The Revisionists constitute the Opposition in the World Zionist Organization.

 
1933: In Amsterdam, 225 German-Jewish children, chiefly from the Rhine region, arrived to stay with Dutch Jewish families.


1933: Der Ernes, the Yiddish language newspaper published in the Soviet Unon, reported that a farmer named Leiser Kabakoff, had been expelled from his collective in the Crimea for his efforts to get other farmers to refrain from working on the Sabbath.


1937: At the historic plenary session of the 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich under the chairmanship of Dr. Stephen Wise, a last desperate attempt was made by Menahem Ussishkin to prevent the adoption of a resolution that was tantamount to the Jewish acceptance of the Peel Report’s principle of Palestine’s partition. The acceptance of this proposal, said Ussishkin, means the end of our historic hope... it will mean that a great misfortune must befell us. Ussishkin criticized Moshe Shertok.


1937: The Weizmann policy on the partition of Palestinetook textual form today in the draft of a resolution submitted to the political resolutions committee of the World Zionist Congress here. This body, elected today, started what promises to be an all-night secret debate on this resolution, particularly on the last two and most crucial points.


1938: A group of Arabs carried out a daring day time robbery of the Barclays Bank at Nablus.  The proceeds of the action are thought to be a source of funding for the on-going wave of Arab terror and violence which claimed more Jewish victims today when a car filled with Jewish workers approaching an orange grove near Hadera struck a land mine and a Jewish cart driver was wounded by sniper fire as he drove along the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.


1938: Three Hebrew language dailies, including Davar, published editorials condemning violence that was traced back to the Revisionists wing of the Zionist movement.


1938: NurembergSynagogue is burned down.



1940: The government of Rumaniapassed anti-Jewish racial laws.


1942: This was the first of thirteen days when over 40,000 Jews were shipped from Lvov to the death camp at Belzec.  By the end of the month, another 36,000 Jews from Lvovand its surrounding area would be shipped to Belzec where they would meet a similar fate.


1943(9th of Av, 5703): Tish'a B'Av


1943(9th of Av, 5703): Twenty-seven more Jews were found in the ‘Aryan' portion of the ghetto in Warsaw and were shot.


1948: In another example of how a Jew helped to create American pop culture, Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" TV debuted on ABC.  Long before “reality t.v.” hit it big, Funt showed the world how to laugh with ordinary people doing ordinary things while the whole world (which was much smaller then) watched.


1948: A concert was held in Tel Aviv attended by Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett.


1959:  Birthdate of actress Rosanna Arquette.


1972(30th of Av, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1981(10th of Av, 5741): Seventy-five year old Yeruham Cohen, an Arabic-speaker of Yemeni origin who was “an early Israeli undercover soldier” passed away today. He was a top aide to the commander of Israel's underground forces during the country's war for independence in 1948 and also belonged to a unit whose members disguised themselves as Arabs to infiltrate enemy lines.  Mr. Cohen is most famous for his acquaintance with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, whom he met in 1948 during the Israeli war for independence while Israeli forces encircled Egyptian troops the southern Negev. According to historical accounts, Mr. Cohen saw the future President while watching the Egyptians retreat, shouted and ran toward him, and they shook hands warmly.


1981: Pitcher Bob Tufts made his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants.


1983(1stof Elul, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1989: Birthdate of Ben Sahar, Israeli born football (soccer) star.


1990: Eighty-two year old Martha Dodd Stern, the daughter of William Dodd, FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany, who became an anti-Nazi, passed away today.  (As reported by Glenn Fowler)

1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme court. Thus she became the second woman, and the first Jewish woman, to serve on the Supreme Court. Ginsburg replaced retiring justice Byron R. White. “Born in Brooklyn on March 15, 1933, Ginsburg was the first in her immediate family to attend college. She earned her B.A. from Cornell, with High Honors in Government, in 1954. Admitted to HarvardLawSchool, she delayed her studies to move with her husband to Oklahoma, where she worked for the Social Security Administration. Returning east, Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard in 1956, but switched to ColumbiaLawSchoolfor her final year when her husband accepted a job offer from a prestigious New York law firm. At both Harvard and Columbia, Ginsburg was accepted to the Law Review; at Columbia, she tied for first in her class. Despite this record of achievement, Ginsburg found it difficult to work as a lawyer upon graduation. Few judges and no law firms were willing to accept a woman as clerk or staff member. Finally, she won a clerkship with Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Palmieri accepted her only on the promise from a male lawyer that if Ginsburg did not work out, the man would leave a law firm job to become a law clerk. That proved unnecessary. After her clerkship, Ginsburg worked for the Columbia Project on International Civil Procedure, which did basic research on foreign systems of civil procedure and recommended changes in the U.S. system of transnational litigation. With the completion of the Columbia Project, Ginsburg embarked on an academic career, first at Rutgers University (1963-1972) (where she was paid less than her male colleagues), and then at Columbia (1972-1980), where she was the first tenured woman on the law faculty. Just before her move to Columbia, Ginsburg also became co-director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project. Dividing her time between Columbiaand the ACLU, Ginsburg worked extensively on sex-discrimination cases, especially those relating to employment. In this work, Ginsburg filed briefs in nine major sex discrimination cases that were decided by the Supreme Court, personally arguing six of them. Ginsburg argued that protections granted to persons under the constitution should apply to women and, thus, successfully established that differential treatment based on gender was unconstitutional. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. She served there for thirteen years, until her nomination and confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. In nominating Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, President Clinton described her as "one of our nation's best judges, progressive in outlook, wise in judgment, balanced and fair in her opinions." He also said that "Ruth Bader Ginsburg cannot be called a liberal or a conservative. She has proved herself too thoughtful for such labels." Ginsburg's record as a centrist likely helped to ease her confirmation; the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously endorsed her nomination, and the full Senate voted 96-3 in her favor. On the Court, Ginsburg's work has been characterized by cool logic and reason, and a pragmatism that takes into account the real-life implications of Court decisions. In her written decisions she has continued to establish the constitutional basis for prohibiting discrimination based on gender. Justice Ginsburg has actively participated in this year's 350th anniversary celebrations of Jewish life in North America, pointing proudly to Judaism's eternal pursuit of justice, the promise of America, and the accomplishments of Jewish women who have preceded her. The resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor makes Justice Ginsburg the only woman on the Supreme Court.”


1997: The New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Secret Channels: The Inside Story of Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiationsby Mohamed Heikal and Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America by Elliott Abrams


2000:At the U.S.Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, Dara Torres swam the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 57.86. (In 2005, Torres was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.”


2003: The Sunday New York Times book section includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including  When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashanah Tale,Erica Silverman’s adaption of a story by Sholom Aleichem illustrated by Matthew Trueman,  Lay Back the Darkness, a collection of poems by Edward Hirscha Midwestern man with a Jewishheritage and  Ronit Matalon's novel Bliss translated by Jessica Cohen that “focuses on Israel's two pains: the kind it suffers and the kind it inflicts”


2006(16th of Av, 5766):IDF Staff Sergeant Kobi Idan, 26, from Eilat was killed and at least 16 other soldiers were wounded, nine of them seriously, in the clashes with Hezbollah.


2006: During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Israeli authors, David Grossman, Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua spoke at a press conference calling upon the government to agree to a ceasefire as a basis for talks toward a negotiated solution, describing further military action as "dangerous and counterproductive" and expressing particular concern for the Lebanese government. [Editor’s note - Two days later, Grossman’s 20-year-old son Uri, a staff sergeant in an armoured unit, was killed by an anti-tank missile during an IDF operation in southern Lebanon shortly before the ceasefire.]


2007: The Indianapolis Colts placed tight end Mike Seidman on the injured reserved list


2007 (26 Av): On the secular calendar commemoration of  Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s, the third Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty, popularly known as the "Tzemach Tzedek," departure from Petersburg after having successfully prevented the government's disruption of traditional Jewish life.
2008(9th of Av, 5768): Tish'a B'Av


2008:The New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest includingThe Challenge:Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power by Jonathan Mahler, My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates,American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalemby Jane Fletcher Geniesse and Kingmakers:The Invention of the Modern Middle East by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac.


2008: TheJerusalem Post reported that the Jewish Agency has released a statement that some 200 Jews living near the town Gori, on the South Ossetia border, were advised to evacuate to the Georgian capital after the outbreak of hostilities with Russia two days ago.


2008(9th of Av, 5768): Howard G. Minsky, a former Hollywood talent agent and the producer of the movie “Love Story,” passed away today at the age of 94. Mr. Minsky began his career during the silent-film era and sold reels of film door to door before breaking into the Hollywood scene. He worked as an executive for 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures and as a talent agent for the William Morris Agency. In the 1960s he left the agency to produce the romantic drama “Love Story,” written by one of his clients, Erich Segal. Released in 1970, it became a blockbuster, winning five Golden Globes, including best picture, and an Academy Award for music.


2009:The exhibit, Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee which documents the history of Jewish immigration to Tennessee opened at Chattanooga State, the College on the River.


2009: Opening of the Tzfat [Safed] Klezmer Festival


2009 (20th of Av): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the seventh and last Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. A brave and educated soul, he after being imprisoned by the Soviets for thwarting the Communists attempts to wipe out Jewish civilization.


2009: Israeli aircraft bombed tunnels early today along the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, Hamas officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the predawn raid against targets in the town of Rafah. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Israel has frequently attacked tunnels it says are used to smuggle weapons or materials to build weapons into Gaza from Egypt. The bombings may also have been response re-newed mortar and rocket attacks by terrorists in Gaza.
2010(30th of Av, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2010(30th of Av, 5770): Eighty-two year old David L. Wolper, who changed America’s view of race and slavery with “Roots”, passed away today. (As reported by Richard Severo)

2010: The first public screening of “A Film Unfinished” is scheduled to take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.



2010: While testifying before the Turkel Committee today, Defense Minister Ehud Barak “placed the blame” for the botched flotilla raid “on the IDF, which he said was responsible for warning the government if ‘the mission cannot be carried out.’ In the case of the flotilla the IDF did not warn, Barak said.



2011: The International Master Course for Violinists which has been taking place amid the scenic mountains of the western Galilee at Kibbutz Eilon is scheduled to come to an end today.


2011: The DC Premiere “Maya” is scheduled to take place at this evening’s WJFF (Washington Jewish Film Festival) Friend-raiser Screener and Party



2011: Philip Levine was named today as the new poet laureate of the United States. Levine has an MFA through the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. His works include a "continuous examination of his Jewish immigrant inheritance.



 


2011: The Romanian Academy said today that it will change its definition of an anti-Semitic slur in a dictionary to make it clear the word is pejorative.

2011:The International Master Course for Violinists which is taking place at Kibbutz Eilon is scheduled to come to an end.


2012: Rookie right tackle Mitchell Schwartz is scheduled to start in the Detroit Lions’ first exhibition pro-football game.


2012: The Russian Olympic basketball team coached by Israeli-American David Blatt is scheduled to play Spain today in the semifinals.


2012: Victor Lieberman is scheduled to lead Shabbat eve services at B’nai Israel in Grand Forks, ND


2012: Ben Sarasin will help lead Shabbat eve services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as part of his “Bar Mitzvah Weekend.”


2012: Shai Wosner is scheduled to perform at Lincoln Center


2012:New Zealand Jewish sailor Jo Aleh and her partner Polly Powrie won the gold medal in the women’s 470 regatta. Aleh, 26, whose parents are dual Israeli-New Zealand citizens, skippered the pair into the lead from the start of the gold medal race today at the London Olympic Games


2012: Israeli rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin leapt to the finals after her ribbon routine in the individual qualifiers today at the London Games.


2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have “almost finally” decided on an Israeli strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall, and a final decision will be taken “soon,” Israel’s main TV news broadcast reported this evening.


2013: “Dancing in Jaffa” and “Gideon’s Army” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: Kol HaOt is scheduled to sponsor “The Sounds of Elul” featuring Yehuda Katz.


 

This Day, August 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 11 In History


1492: Alexander VI is elected Pope.  Alexander was one of the Borgia popes.  He had reputation for “moral depravity” and was more politician than prelate.  He defied Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain by allowing large numbers of Marranos who were fleeing the Inquisition to take refuge in Rome.  He did reduce the size of the badge worn by the Jews under his rule but raised their taxes by five per cent.  He also lengthened the course that the Jews of Rome were forced to run each year so that he could view it from the comfort of his castle.  The Jews were forced to run naked much to the amusement of the Christian population of Rome– the home of Catholicism.  Everything is relative and for all of his shortcomings, Alexander VI’s treatment of the Jews was a lot better than that of the other Catholic strongman of the day, The Grand Inquisitor – Torquemada.


1634: Seventeen arrests were made by the Inquisition after a man turned another man in for being "unwilling to make a sale on Saturday," and for not wanting to eat bacon.


1667(21stof Av, 5427):Jonah Abravanel, a Dutch Jewish poet and author, passed away today at Amsterdam.   “He was the son of the physician Joseph Abravanel, and a nephew of Manasseh ben Israel.”


1772: Following the partition of Poland which gave the Russians a large, unwanted population, Catherine II whom the Boyars call “Great,” issued an order that read, “Jewish communities residing in the towns, cities and territories now incorporated in the Russian Empire shall be left in the enjoyment of all those liberties with regard to their religion and property which they at present possess.” 


1786: Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia. The Penang Jewish Cemetery, established in 1805, is believed to be the oldest single Jewish cemetery in Malaysia.  According to legend, the first Jews may have actually come to Malaysia as far back as the 11thcentury.


1804: Francis II assumed the title of first Emperor of Austria. When it came to his Jewish subjects, Francis and his chief minister, Metternich followed in the footsteps Maria Theresa and not the more liberal Joseph II.  During his reign ghettos were set up in Austria.  Jews were not allowed to settle in the province of Tyrol.  Stringent restrictions were placed on where Jews could live in Bohemia and Moravia. In Vienna, a special tax was placed on all Jews who entered the capital.   While the Emperor “ennobled a few Jews” he “humiliated” the remainder of the population. Jewish marriages were restricted to the eldest son or those who had enough money to pay large bribes to the appropriate officials.


1827: Birthdate of Jesse Seligman, the German born American banker and philanthropist whose career began in Alabama and ended in San Francisco, CA.


1828: Birthdate of Edward Salomon a native of Saxony who served as Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin from 1860 to 1862 at which time he became the state’s 8th Governor when Louis P Harvey drowned in the Tennessee River.


1833: Birthdate of Robert G. Ingersoll, Civil war soldier, orator and defender of agnosticism.  He was the author of “Some Mistakes Moses Made” which begins “For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes.” Ingersoll was not an anti-Semite.  He had a “low opinion” of other religions as well.


1840: Lord Palmerston the British Foreign Secretary wrote a letter to the ambassador in Constantinople that said, “There exists…among the Jews…a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine…. I instruct you… to strongly recommend that the Turkish Government … encourage the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine.”  Palmerston was not philo-Semite or a proto-Zionist.  Rather he was an English statesmen looking to bring what he considered Western civilization to the Orient.


1844: Just days before his death, Rabbi Aron Chorin sent an address to the conference of Hungarian rabbis meeting at Páks.


1853: It was reported today that an unnamed Jew owns a house at Table Rock adjacent to the Great Horse Shoe Falls where visitors can buy brandy and cigars and seek protection from the spray of the cataract.


1856:  Isle Dernière (Last Island), a barrier island southwest of New Orleans which has served as a resort was destroyed today by the Last Island Hurricane whose victims included more than one unnamed Jewish resident.


1857: During a debate on India, Benjamin Disraeli reiterated his conviction that the mutiny in India was more than just a military matter and that the government was not taking the correct measures in the matter. He also repudiated the government's faith in European alliances declaring that could not be depended upon.


1858(1st of Elul, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1860:The Jewish Messenger cautions “the public against an impostor, who calls himself Nelton and Abramowitsch, according to circumstances,” who writes his name with Hebrew letters “which may mean saint or sinner, as far as the knowledge of the common crowd goes. He dresses in priestly attire, so the Messenger says, with a white cravat and black cassock. While asking the Editor for charity, he appropriated an article of silver-ware from the mantelpiece”.


1862: In a letter written today addressed to the Adjutant General of the United States Army, General William Tecumseh Sherman warned that "the country will swarm with dishonest Jews" if continued trade in cotton is encouraged. (In a letter written in 1858, Sherman had described Jews as "…without pity, soul, heart, or bowels of compassion…"  During the Civil War Sherman had numerous Jews serving in the various armies under his command with no whiff of anti-Semitism attached to his decisions.  This included the 82nd Illinois Regiment that included a large contingent of Chicago Jews and was commanded by Edward S. Salomon.  The regiment fought under his command during Sherman’s brilliant Atlanta Campaign and rose to the rank of General as Sherman’s forces bravely marched north from Savannah to help trap the remaining Confederate forces.


1864(9thof Av,5624): Tish’a B’Av (Did the Jewish soldiers fighting in the Union’s multi-prong offensive against the Rebels fast as they made their way across Northern Virginia and Georgia.


1867:  Birthdate of Joseph Weber, one half of the vaudeville comedy act of Weber and Fields. Playing Jews was not a key to show biz success when this team started out.  Some of their early success came playing Dutch (German characters) and Irishmen, something their audiences really enjoyed.


1879: It was reported today that there are parts of Coney Island, New York’s popular resort, where  “Jews are not tolerated.”


1879: The New York Times featured a review of Somebody’s Ned by Mrs. A.M. Freeman. This is a work of romantic fiction combined with a murder mystery.  In this case the star crossed lovers are a French Catholic named Danton Roland and French Jewess named Rachel Rosenthal as well David Dudley and Jessica-Rachel.  The plot thickens when Solomon Rosenthal is found dead. To find “who done it” go to

1879: In White Plains, New York, Justice C.W. Cochrane heard a case in which the Osmond C Lyon had filed a complaint against a Jewish merchant – Adolph D. Pollack – for selling cigars and neckties on Sunday in violation of the “blue laws.” The defendant responded that he had not violated the law because he had not “exposed” his goods “for sale” and had only sold them quietly when requested. He also said that as a Jew, he observed the Sabbath on Saturday and the enforcement of the law in this manner was a violation of the New York Constitution which prohibits interference with his religious views.


1879: “A Cool Day At Coney Island” published today shows that prejudice against Jews is now becoming prevalent at the popular resort. “For Coney Island is miniature New York and has its German quarter, its American quarter and its quarter where Jews are not tolerated.”


1881: It was reported today that the new Home for the Aged and Infirmed Hebrews being built in Yonkers will cost more than $60,000.


1881: During a period of on-going Pogroms,” a dozen of the wealthiest Jews in Tsarist Russi filed into the palatial St. Petersburg home of Baron Horace de Gunzberg”  to discuss their concern that a mass exodus of Jews from Russia would convince the authorities to continue their program of violence as a way of dealing with “the Jewish problem.”


1882: Mr. Lazarus Silverman, a Chicago banker, appeared at the office of the Clerk of Circuit Court with 12 Russians Jews who had arrived in the Windy City with their families.  After following all of the legal requirements, the men took the oath and became citizens of the United States.  Since their knowledge of English was limited, they signed the documents in Hebrew.


1883: Police fired on a mob that had resumed its attacks on the home of Joseph Scharf one of the defendants who had been acquitted of charges of having killed a Christian girl as part of a Jewish ritual murder.


1883: “The Demands on Charity” published today described a change in the assistance that will be rendered to the needy by New York’s charitable organizations. In the future, they will provide assistance to the needy who are trying to establish themselves in gainful occupations and trades. The United Hebrew Charities will help Jewish immigrants establish themselves in almost any occupation with the exception of street peddler, a calling that is now considered to be a public nuisance.



1884(20thof Av, 5644): Israel Blatchky, a young Jew who has been working in Des Moines, Iowa for the past three years passed away today. 


1888: Oliver Hazard Peary married Josephine Diebitsch who would join Angelo Heilprin , the Hungarian born Jewish explorer on the expedition to Greenland in 1891


1889: “The Russian Emancipation” published today described the freeing of the serfs, which took place a quarter of a century ago, as a total failure.  The peasants are in perpetual debt due to their inability to re-pay the government for their land and the failed agricultural system.  This forces them to borrow money from the Jews who seize the land when they are unable to repay the loan.  (Yet another reason for treating the Jews badly – they are the moneylenders despoiling the noble serfs)
 
1890: “Geographical Palestine” published today provides a detailed review of Palestine by Major C.R. Conder.  Claude Reignier Conder served in the Corps of Royal Engineers and served two tours with the Palestine Exploration Fund providing him with invaluable first-hand knowledge of the future Jewish homeland.


1891: “The seventh free excursion” sponsored by “the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children” takes place today with the boat leaving from the foot of East Third Street at nine o’clock this morning.


1892:  Birthdate of publishing giant Alfred Knopf.


1892: The Third Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Robert Cecil, who as Prime Minister has reassured the House of Lords that regardless of the Czar’s policies “there were no grounds for dreading a wholesale invasion of Great Britain by pauper Jews from Russia” left office today and became the leader of “the loyal opposition.”


1893: In Brooklyn, Justice Walsh sentence William Davison to ten days in jail for his part in robbing a Jewish peddler named Burns.


1895: Five Jews were arrested by the police from the Elizabeth Street Station for violating the Sunday Closing Laws.  One of those arrested, Morris Cohn “pleaded that he was a strict observer of the Hebrew Sabbath” and he was released by the Magistrate.


1895: Based on instructions provided by Meyer Schoenfeld and Herman Robinson the striking tailors, most of whom were Jewish and  who were returning to work were not worried that they were being locked out today by the contractors since it was Sunday and the bosses observed the Sunday closing laws. 


1895: During July, it was reported today, the United Hebrew Charities “responded to the applications for relief from 3,304” people on behalf of 11,013 individuals.


1898: “Nevada Colonists Despoiled” published today described how a group of Russian Jews who had been building a new life in Lyon County, Nevada, were swindled by two of their co-religionists Daniel Schwartz who mortgaged the groups crop to get $1,500 from a bank in Carson City and then ran off with money.  The penniless Jews are now faced with the prospect of losing their newly built homes.


1899: “Joseph Haworth’s New Role” published today described Jacob Litt’s decision to cast Joseph Haworth in the role of Raphael, the leading character in Israel Zangwill’s “The Ghetto.”


1899: The officers presiding over the court marital of Captain Dreyfus announced that the next four sittings of the court would be held behind closed doors.


1900: Mass meeting of the English Zionist Federation was held in East End.


1903: Herzl meets Jews from all circles in St. Petersburg and a banquet is arranged by the Russian Zionists.


1905: Birthdate of Erwin Chargaff, the Austrian born American biochemist who discovered two rules that led to the discovery of double helical structure of DNA.  He passed away in June of 2002.


1905: The British Aliens Act, which reflected anti-Jewish bias, became a law. The anti-Jewish bias was aimed at the Jews fleeing Rumania and Russia who were seeking a safe haven in England.  This was manifestation of lingering anti-Jewish sentiment in an English society that was increasingly accepting of its Jewish population.


1909: The Chief Rabbi of Adrianople was forced to resign by Jews of Demotica for failing to take action and not protesting against the change in market day at Demotica, from Thursday to Saturday.


1911: Birthdate of Giorgio Cavagliere, an American Jewish architect who fled Mussolini’s Italy and became a leader of the urban preservation movement.


1911: Jews suffer the impoverishing effect of fires in Russian communities including Tulishkoff, Mlava and Konskavola.


1911: As the Turks recover from the effects of the fires at Constantinople, the Chief Rabbi forms a Relief Committee and Grand Vizier Hakki Bey sent a telegram to the 10th Zionist Congress meeting at Basle, Switzerlandthanking the Jewish organization for the contributins to relieve the suffering of fire victims.


1911: In Copenhagen, Denmark, attacks are made on Shechitah at the Animal Protection Congress.

1914: Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland


1917: Turkish representative at The Hague, Netherlands denies that negotiations took place between Turkey and former United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau regarding the sale of Palestine to the Jews


1917: Birthdate of Algerian born, French-Israeli writer Andre Chouraqui, known for his French-language translation of the Bible and his work for the government in Israel. A poet, Chouraqui was best known for translating religious texts, including La Bible hebraique et le Nouveau Testament (The Hebrew Bible and New Testament), published in 26 volumes between 1974 and 1977. Chouraqui studied law in Paris. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and hid out in the Haute-Loire region of central France. After moving to Israelin 1958, he became an adviser to Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, from 1959 to 1963. He also served as deputy mayor of Jerusalem. He passed away at the age of 89 at his home in Jerusalemin 2007.



1919: The Weimar Republic's first Reichspräsident ("Reich President"), Friedrich Ebert of the SPD, signed the new German constitution into law. The Weimar Republic marked Germany’s first experience with a truly democratic government.  It failed for lack of popular support and would give way to Hitler’s Third Reich.  One of the excuses offered for German support the Holocaust was that Jews were associated with the founding of the Weimar Republic and the Weimar Republic was viewed as a humiliation saddled on the Germans by the Allies at the end of World War I.  The logic is tortured, but it is neither the first time that people would rationalize and justify their anti-Semitism.


1920: Samuel Gompers is one of several labor leaders who attend a dinner honoring T.J. Healy before he departs for Europe where he will represent the American Federation of Labor at an international labor conference.


1923: At a session of the World Zionist Congress meeting in in Carslbad, Czechoslovakia, that continued until this morning, Dr. Chaim Weizmann and Nabum Sokolow, heads of the World Zionist Organization, defended their administration from the attacks to which it has been subjected during the last few days.


1926(1st of Elul, 5686): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1927: Birthdate of Stuart Rosenberg, director of Cool Hand Luke.


1929: The Jewish Agency was created at the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich. It was intended  to include non-Zionists such as Louis Marshall, Leon Blum and Felix Warburg to take a leading role among those working to create a Jewish state. 1929: Florence Wolfson Howlett turned 14 and made her first entry in the diary she received as a birthday present.  The diary would provide the basis for The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel


1930: At the second session of the fourth world congress of the Zionist Revisionist, Dr. Robert Lichtheim delivered a speech in which he said that the organization “would conduct its own political activities, particularly in pleading the Zionist cause before governments and statesmen, independently of the Zionist executive and the Jewish agency.


1930: In New York City, an announcement was made at the headquarters of the Allied Jewish Campaign that more than $1,214,000 was spent in the development of the economic  and cultural program of the Jewish Agency in Palestine during the half year” that ended on May 1.


1932: Birthdate of American architect Peter Eisenman


1932: Birthdate of Israel Harold “Izzy” Asper, Canadian tax attorney and media magnate. A native of Minnedosa, Manitoba, Asper “was the founder of CanWest Global Communications Corp and father to Leonard, Gail and David Asper, each of whom served as officers of CanWest.


1933: The Supreme Representative Committee of German Jews established a farm near Rathenow, in Prussia, to train unemployed Jews as agricultural workers.


1933: Nineteen year old actress Heddy Lamar, the daughter of Viennese Jewish parents married Austrian arms dealer and fascist Friedrich Mandl.


1933: In response to what is described as an “epidemic of suicides among German Jews of the Rhineland,” the Jewish community of Cologne has issued an appeal signed by the lay leaders and the Rabbinate, urging Jews not to despair.


1933: The Hamburg Federation of Grain Merchants, which had a large Jewish membership, was dissolved. Its funds and property were turned over to the "Aryanized" All-German Federation of Commerce.


1933:In Warsaw, an edict was issued forbidding Jewish bakers, who observe the Sabbath, to bake bread on Sundays. The edict affected over 50,000 Jewish bakers.


1933: In Cracow, Thirty-one of the forty-two arrested persons, charged with organizing riots against Jews in a nearby town received sentences of imprisonment of from four months to three years.


1936:Condemning British proposals to partition Palestine as "outrageous," Senator Royal S. Copeland (Dem., NY) introduced in the Senate today a resolution asking the Senate's "forthright indication of unwillingness to accept modification in the mandate without Senate consent." Senator Copeland declared that the territory allotted the Jews in the proposed partition was insufficient to maintain even a small number of Jews and that establishment of a small Jewish state might result in a war between the Jews and the Arabs.  The Jews are having a "terrible time" in Germany, Poland and Rumania.... At the same time he noted a "distinct animosity" on the part of American consuls abroad in granting visas to Jews, which, he said, showed discrimination. (As reported by JTA)


1936: Rabbi M.L. Perlsweig, head of the World Zionist Organization's political information department, addressed the World Jewish Congress which was meeting in Geneva. During his speech tonight, he accused the British authorities in Palestine of "political ineptitude so gross as to be almost unbelievable."


1937: By a vote of 304 to 158, the 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich, endorsed Chaim Weizmann¹s proposal and empowered the Zionist Executive to negotiate with the British government the terms of the Royal (Peel) Report, according to which the partition of Palestinewould be implemented and the Jewish state was to be established. Dr. Weizmann¹s proposal was denounced by Dr. Stephen Wise, on behalf of American Jewry and many other delegates, including Menachem Ussishkin. A revised version of the partition plan was also supported by David Ben-Gurion.


1937: In Zurichroving bands of Nazis assaulted and molested a number of Zionist delegates.


1939: Laurence Steinhardt begins serving as U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R.


1941: Birthdate of Brooklyn political figure, Elizabeth Holtzman.  A graduate of HarvardLawSchool, Holtzman began serving in Congress in 1973 just in time to be part of the Watergate investigation.  After leaving the House, she held various political positions but missed out on her biggest prize, a seat in the U.S. Senate. 


1944: Joop Westerweel, Dutch poet and educator was executed by the Nazis, for helping Jews escape. In late February 1944 Joop Westerweel traveled to the foot of the Pyrenees to say farewell to the group about to cross into Spain, which included Joseph Heinrich and thirteen other young people Joop and his underground group had helped to escape from Holland. His memorable speech was later vividly recalled by many who were present. He wished them well and that they should build Palestineinto a place where there would be no war, only food and work for everyone. As the young pioneers left for Spain, Joop turned back to Holland. On March 11, he was arrested by border police while helping two young Jewish girls cross illegally from Hollandto France. Five months later he was executed in prison in Vught Concentration Camp. The sacrifice of Joop Westerweel and those like him must never be forgotten.  The challenge for the living is to be worthy of the proof of such virtue.


1945: A ‘small pogrom’ took place in Krakow, Poland, three months after the end of World War II in Europe.


1945: Collier’s magazine published “Terror in Palestine” by Frank Gervasi which provides a contemporary look at events following the death of Lord Moyne.

1948(8th of Av, 5708):Elaine Hammerstein, the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein, who gained fame as an American silent film and stage actress, passed away.


1951(9th of Av): Yiddish playwright and journalist David Pinsky passed away.


1951(9th of Av, 5711):Rebekah Bettelheim Kohut passed away


1952: The ailing Talal¹s son, Hussein II, was proclaimed the King of Jordan, but a Regency Council was appointed to rule the country, since he was a minor. In 1952 three Middle Eastern monarchs ­ Hussein II of Jordan, Ahmed Fuad of Egypt and Faisal of Iraq ­ were minors. King Hussein had seen his grandfather assassinated by an Arab fanatic who thought he was too friendly with the Jews.  Hussein’s goal was to stay alive and remain king.  He wisely did not take part in the Sinai Campaign of 1956.  He foolishly attacked Israel in 1967 and lost the West Bank and east Jerusalem.  In the end, he signed a peace treaty with Israel but without gaining any territory west of the Jordan River.  Fuad would be ousted by a revolt masterminded by Colonel Nasser, the Pan-Arabist who had a secular version of Osama’s vision.  Faisal would die in a revolt in 1958 that would eventually bring Hussein (the dictator not the king) to power in Iraq.


1955: Leonard Bernstein led premiere of Symphonic Suite from "On the Waterfront", BSO, Tanglewood


1961: Birthdate of columnist David Brooks


1964(3rd of Elul, 5724): Sixty-four year old Leopold Mannes, the creator of Kodachrome, passed away today.

1970(9th of Av, 5730): Tish’a B’Av


1972(1st of Elul, 5732): Rose Schneiderman passed away.  Born in Poland in 1884, Miss Schneiderman was brought to the United States by her father who worked as a tailor on the lower East Side.  She gained first-hand experience on life in the garment industry when she went to work as a cap maker. She earned eight dollars a week.  But she had to buy her own sewing machine with a cash $25 cash down payment and an additional $45 paid in installments.  In addition to this, she had to pay for power and thread.  Miss Schneiderman helped to organize the Women’s Trade Union League, an organization that she served as President for several terms.  In 1909 she took part in a strike of waistmakers that began the unionization of the garment industry. In New York, she served as Secretary of the State Labor Department from 1937 to 1944.  During the Great Depression, she served as an official of the National Recovery Administration and was considered to be a member of F.D.R.’s “brain trust.”

1977: West Bank mayors and notables submitted separate views to US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The mayors acknowledged that the PLO was the ³sole² representative of the Palestine Arabs and claimed that no settlement was possible without PLO participation. But other West Banknotables had different ideas. They advocated an immediate mutual recognition of the national rights of Palestinians and Israelis in the area. They claimed that their two homelands must be mutually exclusive and advocated the establishment of a ³peace-promoting force² acceptable to both nations. These West Bank notables advocated the holding of a plebiscite during the interim period so that Palestinians could decide freely whether to join Jordanor establish an independent, democratic state. Unfortunately, these talks led to the same place as those that had come before and after – nowhere.


1977: Jordanand Egyptinformed the USthat they were prepared to sign formal peace treaties with Israel, but at the conclusion of the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.


1983: Today,Joseph Hochstein wrote an Op-Ed titled "Not goodbye, but l'hitraot," in which he said, "I love newspapering, and I have a special love for this paper,  since I helped start it in 1965 with my father. ... What happens each week at The Jewish Week is achieved with greater difficulty than the work done in the newsrooms of great metropolitan dailies, and it is more profoundly needed. Knowing that I played a central role in making this happen helps offset the regret of leaving, as does the joy of realizing a long-held dream of living in Israel." He wrote this just before making Aliyah.


1987:  Alan Greenspan becomes Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Another Jewish economist hits the top spot.


1988: Meir Kahane renounced his US citizenship to stay in the Israeli Parliament.  Kahane and his virulent anti-Arab views have been rejected by the Israeli mainstream.  Kahane himself was gunned down by Arab terrorists.


1991:In an article entitled The Felix Warburg Mansion; A Window to the Past in the Present,” Christopher Gray describes the past, present and future of the building that was home to one of New York’s most influential and famous Jewish families. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/11/realestate/streetscapes-the-felix-warburg-mansion-a-window-to-the-past-in-the-present.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm


1991(1st of Elul, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1997: Baltimore born Washington lawyer Alfred H. Moses completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Romania. Five years later the President of Romania awarded him the Marc Cruce Medal.


1999:Sheila Finestone began serving as Senator for Montarville, Quebec.


1999: Max Kampelman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


2002: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 'F E G: Ridiculous Poems for Intelligent Children by Robin Hirsch Fireweed: A Political Autobiographyby Gerda Lerner, the Austrian born Jewish American political activist.


2005:  While the front pages of the paper carried news of Sharon’s attempts to bring peace to the Middle Eastwith the withdrawal from Gaza, the back pages of Haaretz carried a reminder of Sharon’s warrior past.  According to a story in Haaretz,The bloodstained bandage that wrapped Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's head after he was injured in fighting during the 1973 Yom Kippur War has been offered for sale on e-Bay with the bidding starting at $10,000.”  Sharon sustained the head wound when he was leading Israeli forces across the Suez Canal. 


2006: First day of the New York International Fringe Festival which will include a performance of “The Cheerleader and the Rabbi” featuring Sandy Wolshin.  “A former cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders shelater immersed herself in a mikveh as part of an orthodox conversion.”


2006:  The Jerusalem Post reported that Maj. Nimrod Hallel, 42, from Rosh Ha'ayin, was killed in the town of Lebonehin the western sector of southern Lebanon when an anti-tank missile was fired at his vehicle.


2006:  A reported 120 rockets rained down on northern Israelstriking Haifa, Safed and Kiryat Shimona.


2006: Conflicting reports abound concerning the terms of a proposed cease fire intended to stop the fighting in Lebanon.  Some of the major points of contention include the robustness of the mandate of the international force and the willingness of the Lebanese army to confront and disarm Hezbollah fighters.


2007: On the “Jewish Jock Front,” The San Diego Union-Tribunereported that San Diego ChargerIgor Olshanskymay not get to play in an upcoming exhibition game with the Seattle SeaHawks whileJohn Grabow of the Pittsburgh Pirates won a game on just 13 pitches, which was all he needed to complete a one inning relief stint against the San Francisco Giants.


2008: YuliTamir announced plans to remove Ze'ev Jabotinsky's work from the national education curriculum


2008Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On decidedto implement all of the recommendations of the State Commission of Inquiry into the government's handling of Holocaust survivors.One of the key recommendations was to increase the monthly stipend of about 43,000 survivors to the level of 75 percent of the stipend given by the German government to recipients of its restitution payments.


2008:Palestinian terrorists in Gaza violated a truce agreement with Israel, firing a Kassam rocket at the western Negev town of Sderot.

2008:Iowa native,James Hoyt passed away at the age of 83. As one of the first four American soldiers to discover the Buchenwald labor camp in 1945, James Hoyt rarely slept well. “He’s finally getting the rest he’s never had all these years,” his daughter, Theresa Stewart, 51, of Oxford said. When he closed his eyes, he’d see images of the Nazi concentration camp, which he thought was a mannequin factory when he first saw it before its liberation April 11, 1945, Stewart said. His daughters remembered him as a reserved man who put others first and loved reading, rebuilding cars and solving crossword puzzles.“He had time to listen to anyone and would hear everybody’s story,” Stewart said. For years, Hoyt did not share his own story. He later learned from doctors at the VeteransAffairsMedicalCenter in Iowa City that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Hoyt of Oxford, Iowa graduated from high school in 1943 and became a private first class after he was drafted in early 1944 to serve in World War II. He was a member of the 6th Armored Division’s 9th Infantry Battalion and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. On April 11, 1945, Hoyt was the radio operator and driver for a four-man reconnaissance team when two Buchenwald escapees flagged them down. The team went to the camp, which was hidden in a forested area. “When the people saw our vehicle with the American markings on it, they really went wild. They tore a part of the fence down. They threw us up in the air,” Hoyt told The Gazette 10 years ago. “It was a very sorry sight all the way. They were skin and bones, the living ones. Of course, there were all kinds of dead ones there.” In all, about 238,500 prisoners were held at the camp. As the years passed, Hoyt became more willing to talk about his experience, helping him to heal, his daughter, Pat Hatcher, said. “We didn’t know what he was fighting,” Hatcher said of the emotional memories. “It helps us understand him better.” After the war in 1949, Hoyt married Doris Hipp. He worked with his brothers in construction before joining the United States Postal Service in Oxford, where he served more than 30 years.


2009(21stof Av, 5769):Robert William LeVine passed away to at the age of 71.(As reported by Emma Stickgold)

2009: Three books about Bernie Madoff – Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff, Madoff with the Money, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff– all hit the bookstores today.


2009: The National Jewish Retreat opens at Greenwich, Connecticut.  Featured presenters and performers for this event include Rabbi Manis Friedman, Rabbi Immanuel Schochet, Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, Professor Jonathan Sarna, Mrs. Rivka Slonim and recording star Arvram Fried.


2009: Barnes & Noble announces that Rashi by Elie Weisel and Blindman’s Bluff by Faye Kellerman are available at their stores and on-line.


2009: Releases of “Saints & Tzadiks” a CD on which Irish chanteuse Susan McKeown and Lexatics bandleader Lorin Skalmerg sing Yiddish, Irish and blends of Yiddish and Irish songs that highlight “the traditions and similarities as well as the different ways each tradition tells a musical tale.”


2010(1st of Elul, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Elul:


2010: Anat Hoffman leader of the Women of the Wall Prayer group is scheduled to blow the shofar on behalf of the group as she has done for the past 21 years.


2010:US envoy George Mitchell met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to discuss advancing direct talks with the Palestinians. “We see eye to eye on the need open up direct talks with the Palestinians," Mitchell said about Netanyahu in comments made before the meeting.


2010:IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told the Turkel Committee today that the IDF made a crucial mistake when it did not resort to accurate fire against those blocking entry to the Mavi Marmara Turkish aid ship as IDF Shayetet 13 commandos rappelled onto the ship from helicopters.  

2011: Another session of “Hebrew Literacy: Aleph, Bet, and Beyond” is scheduled to take place at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.


2011: The Eleventh Memorial for Yiddish Poets is scheduled to take place tonight at the amphitheatre in Tekoa.  The event memorializes “the victims of the ‘Night of the Murdered Poets’ who were thirteen prominent Jewish figures in the USSR who were secretly executed at Stalin's order on the night between August 12th and August 13th 1952. These were the most outstanding and renowned Jewish writers, intellectuals, poets, musicians and actors of their time.”


2011: At the Off the Wall Comedy Club, Jerusalem funny man David Kilimnick whose funny bone was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, is scheduled to performTu BAv Comedy Special 'Jewish Singles' from The ‘Find Me A Wife’ Show.


2011: Israel's interior minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more in days, officials said today.


2011: Eighty-two year old Juergen Corleis passed away.

2011:Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said today during a meeting with that the “time is ripe for an upheaval in the coalition” in order to solve the ongoing social crisis that has rocked the country over the past month.
 
2011(11thof Av, 5771):Noach Flug,a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of other survivors is remembered as "a towering figure" passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of 86.
http://sdjewishjournal.com/site/2516/holocaust-survivor-noach-flug-dies-at-age-86/



2012: Ben Sarsin in scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


2012: “Avenue Q,” the musical creation of Jeff Marx is scheduled to have its final performance at the Barter Theatre.


2012: The International Arts and Crafts Fair also known as Hutzot Hayozer is scheduled to open one after the end of Shabbat in Jerusalem.


2012:A fire broke out near the town of Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa, this morning, a few days after firefighters battled repeated blazes in the area believed to have been set by arsonists.

2012: "Israeli rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin performed well in all four routines at the London Games today, to secure a best-ever Israeli finish in the event. Rivkin, 21, finished seventh overall, making her the most successful rhythmic gymnast in Israeli Olympic history. Evgenia Kanaeva of Russia won the gold."


2013: “The Last White Knight” Paul Saltzman documentary about his persona encounter with Mississippi Racism is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: The San Diego Jewish Film Festival, PJ Library, Shalom Baby, and Jewish Family Service are scheduled to sponsor “Learn About the Jewish New Year with Elmo” an event designed to prepare youngsters for the upcoming holidays.


2013: “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” an exhibit co-presented by the American Historical Society and Yeshiva University is scheduled to come to an end today.


2013: Harriet Rochlin, the leading expert on Western Jewish History recommends that those who can attend this evening’s opening of American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco” a film that tells the epic story of pioneer Jews in San Francisco, a number of whom played a significant role in the transformation of a tiny village to California’s first metropolis.


2013: In Cedar Rapids, friends and family are scheduled to celebrating the graduation from Nursing School and Pinning of Rebbitzin Sabrina Thalblum.


 


 


 

This Day, August 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 12 In History


30 BCE: Cleopatra committed suicide.  According to Josephus, the Egyptian tried to convince her lover and co-ruler, Marc Antony, to give her control over lands to the east including Syria and Palestine.  Herod was so afraid of her that he reportedly built the fortress at Masada as place of refuge should she attack. While Antony did not give into all of her demands, he did give her control over Jericho and several towns surrounding the ancient city.


1099: During the First Crusade, the Crusaders defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ascalon.  This led to the creation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem under Godfrey of Bouillon.  The Crusader victory led to a period of persecution of the small Jewish population living in Palestine.  The Crusaders attempted to ban the Jews from living in Jerusalem.  Apparently it did not occur to them that such a ban would have meant that Jesus could not live in the Christian kingdom.


1121: At the Battle of Didgori the Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.Georgian-speaking Jewry is one of the oldest surviving Diaspora Jewish communities. The origin of Georgian Jews, also known as Gurjim or Ebraeli, is debated, but some claim they are descendants of the ten tribes exiled by Shalmaneser. Others say the first Jews made their way to southern Georgia after Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalemin 586 B.C.E. after first fleeing to Babylonia. The first Jews in Western Georgia arrived in the 6th century when the region was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. Approximately 3,000 of these Jews then fled to Eastern Georgia, controlled by the Persians, to escape severe persecution by the Byzantines. The existence of the Jews in these regions during this period is supported by archaeological evidence showing that Jews lived in Mtzheta, the ancient capital of the East Georgian state of Kartli. The Ebraeli spoke Georgian and Jewish traders developed a dialect called Qivruli, or Judeo-Georgian, which included a number of Hebrew words. In the second half of the 7th century, the Muslim Empire conquered extensive Georgian territory, which became an Arab caliph province. Arab emirs ruled the majority of the region until 1122. Under the Arabs, in the late 9th century, Abu-Imran Musa al-Za'farani (later known as Abu-Imran al-Tiflisi) founded a Jewish sect called the Tiflis Sect which lasted for more than 300 years. The sect deviated from halakhah in its marriage and kashrutcustoms.

 

1281: The fleet of Qubilai Khan, the Chinese emperor who celebrated the festivals of the Muslims, Christians and Jews, indicating that there  really were a significant number of Jews living in China during his reign, is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.


1317: John XXII, the second of the Avignon Popes, issued “Ex  Parte Vestra” a Bull that dealt with converts who relapse i.e. Jewish converts who wanted to return to the “faith of their Fathers and Mothers.”


1381(14th of Av, 5141): In the Balearic Islands, Sayd ben David was burned at the stake after being charged with “incontinence with a nun”

1452: Birthdate of Abraham Zacuto “a Sephardi Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian who served as Royal Astronomer in the 15th century to King John II of Portugal. The crater Zagut on the Moon is named after him.” The creator of new type of astrolabe that could be used at sea, he was one of the few Jews who was able to flee Portugal despite the edicts of King Manuel I.  He either passed away in Jerusalem in 1515 or Damascus in 1520.


1484: The Papacy of Sixtus IV came to an end.

1530: A charter was granted to the Jews of Germany despite the protests of Martin Luther. Josel of Rosheim, the famous "shtadlan" (interceder) was instrumental in its passing.


1819:  Anti-Semitic riots broke out in Darmstadt and Bayreuth, Germany


1829(13th of Av, 5589):Mordecai ben Abraham Benet, who was born in 1753 and became the chief rabbi of Moravia passed away.


1833: Founding of Chicago. Jews were present in Chicagofrom its earliest days. The first Jews in the city were German and Ashkenazim. By 1847, there were enough Jews in Chicagoto establish Kehilath Anshe Maariv — Congregation of the Men of the West — on an upper floor of a commercial building. The congregation was popularly referred to as KAM and found its home in Hyde Parkamong the South Side German Jewish community. German Jews generally were accepted into mainstream society. In Chicago, they were already being elected to political office in the 1850s. Among the enterprises established by Chicago's German Jews were Florsheim Shoe Co., Hart Schaffner & Marx clothiers, the Brunswick billiard-table empire, Spiegel mail-order Company and Mandel Brothers department store, long a fixture on
State Street
. The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb by Irving Cutler provides a readable, popular history of the Jews of the Windy City.


1843: Birthdate of American playwright  Bartely Campbell, the son of Irish immigrants who wrote “Siberia” a play about the persecution of the Jews in Russia.


1844: Birthdate of Edward Lauterbach, successful defense attorney, leader of the Republican Party and trustee of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.


1847(30thof Av, 5607): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1848(13thof Av, 5608): Avraham Ullmann, who had been born in 1791 and was the son Shalom Charif Ullman, the chief rabbi of Lackenbach, passed away.


1853: A German Jew, who has used a variety of aliases including J. Meyer, was arrested at the Irving House.  While being taken to court he tried to get rid of a package containing pledge  tickets for a large quantity of valuable goods recently pawned at the shops of Bernstein, Levy, Silver, Smith and Murdock. The items left at the pawn shop were all stolen.


1854:The Moral and Religious column described a new sect that has started in England called The Disciples. They believe that Christ will appear in 1864; that the Russians will triumph over the Turks and the Jews over the Russians-- the latter event to happen in ten years' time when the Jews will become a nation in the Holy Land. Christ is to be their King, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the righteous Jews of old, with a few elect among Christians, will rise from the dead and live forever in Palestine; but the heathen and the wicked Jews and Christians will sleep eternally.


1862:Birthdate of Julius Rosenwald

1862:Construction was completed on the first synagogue built on Long Island which came to be known as the Boerum Schule because it was located in Boerum Hill.


1862:In the part of Germany that included the cities of Moisling and Lubeck, The Oath More Judaico or Jewish Oath was modified.  It would remain in force until 1879, when the Germans adopted laws regulating civil procedure which abolished the oath.


1870:A few days into the inquest being held to determine the facts surrounding the death of Benjamin Nathan, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle protested the disparity in treatment being shown to his son’s Washington and Frederick, and the Irish Catholic servants of the Nathan family who had suddenly become the prime suspects.


1877(3rd of Elul, 5637): Rabbi Jaques Judah Lyons passed away today in New York. Judah and Mary Lyons; gave birth to him at Surinam, Dutch Guiana in 1814. “He was educated in Surinam, and was minister of the Spanish & Portuguese congregation there, Neveh Shalom, for five years. He left Surinam in 1837 and went to Richmond, Va., where for two years he was minister of the Congregation Beth Schalom. In 1839 he was elected minister of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation Shearith Israel, New York city, in succession to Isaac Seixas, and served the congregation thirty-eight years, successfully combating every movement to change the form of worship in his congregation. Lyons was among those who founded The Jews' (now Mount Sinai) Hospital; he was actively concerned in founding the Jewish Board of Delegates and Hebrew Free Schools and was superintendent of the Polonies Talmud Torah School…For many years he was president of the Hebra Hased ve-Emet and of the Sampson Simpson Theological Fund. Lyons was an ardent student and collected a library that is now in possession of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.” In 1857, he joined with Dr. Abraham de Sola of Montreal, in preparing and publishing a Hebrew calendar covering fifty years, together with an essay on the Jewish calendar system


1878:Jewish representatives from the United States, Holland, Germany, England, Belgium, Romania, Palestine, Turkey, Italy Spain, France Austria and Russia met in Paris today to celebrate the anniversary of the Alliance Israelite Universelle of France. During the meeting, the attendees provided reports on the conditions of Jews in various countries and possible ways to improve their conditions.  It was suggested that a medal “commemorating the emancipation of the Jews in the East” should be presented to each member of the Berlin Congress on behalf “of the Jews of the world.”


1878: It was reported today that details have been released regarding the will of the late Michael Reese. His generosity included $650,000 for the State University of California and $25,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.


1879:It was reported today that Romania might agree “to accept the principle of equal rights for the Jews” if some consideration would be given to how it is applied.  Germany might be willing to agree to such an arrangement.


1881:  In Ashfield, MA, Henry and Matilda Beatrice DeMille gave birth to movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille.  His father was Episcopalian and his mother was Jewish. Regardless of how you view his religious background, he will forever be connected with Moses and the Jewish people through “The Ten Commandments.”


1881:It was reported today that anti-Semitism is so prevalent Pomerania and West Russia that recent government actions to protect the Jews living there will be totally ineffective.


1882: Today’s Congressional Record contained “a speech by the Honorable S.S. Cox on the persecution of the Jews in Russia.”  It was “an elaborate paper illustrated with poetical extracts, two pages of tables and a neatly engraved map.”


1882: “Russian Jews” published today described the plan of Chicago banker Lazarus Silverman to settle several Jewish immigrant families totaling 150 men, women in children on 300 acres that owns on 300 acres of land on Carp Lake in Michigan. The group includes one tailor, one wagon-maker, one blacksmith, one cooper, one paper-hanger, two tinsmiths, three coppersmiths and most important of all, 3 farmers.


1883(9thof Av, 5643): Tish’a B’Av


1883: “Bread Making” published today which describes the baking of bread in the British Isles begins by declaring that “since the time of the early Jews there has been very little change in the process.”


1883:”Ancient Manuscripts” published today described how Moses Shapira acquired an ancient copy of the Book of Deuteronomy in Palestine and sent it on to London where it can be preserved and studied. It is claimed this codex is 2,700 years old and provides evidence that the ancient Israelites were writing “consecutive narrative” at a time that corresponds to the Greeks Homer and Hesiod.



1884: It was reported today that a note had been found on the body of Israel Blatchky, a young Jew who had been living in Des Moines for three years.  According to the note he was despondent over a failed love affair and bought poison six months ago.


1884: In Telšiai, Lithuania, Isaac Noyk and Esther Chana Ravid gave birth to Michael Noyk who became a solicitor and Irish republican political leader.


1884: Leading Chicago businessman Morris L. Cohn was arraigned today and held for trial in lieu of $10,000 bond on numerous charges of forgery that included his issuance of $15,000 in bogus notes.


1885: Americans living Haifa write today that their “colony” in that city “is well known as an industrious, intelligent and law abiding community and the members of it are justly entitled to the full protection of their government…The time has come when it is absolutely necessary for the United States government to take a firm stand against the aggressive and illegal policy of the Turkish authorities.”  (As reported by Ruth Kark and Seth Frantzman)


1888: It was reported today that the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will be providing another free excursion for sick children under the age of six later this month.


1890: The Lord Mayor of London announced that “inquiries into the persecution of the Jews of Russia give reason to believe that the Government’s edicts will not be enforced.” (He was wrong)


1890: Birthdate of Al Goodman. Born inNikopolRussia, he was the orchestra leader for the NBC Comedy Hour, a show that dominated Sunday nights during the early 1950’s.


1892: In Canada, Judge Dugas ordered the extradition of two Jews - Harris Blank and Charles Rosenweigh - who are accused of murdering a Jewish peddler named Jacob Marks in Towanda, PA.


1892: Davis Rubenstein, a Russian Jew who lives at 183 Clinton Street lodged a complaint against Berman’s butcher shop at 9 Suffolk Street for the sale of “impure food.”


1894(10thof Av, 5654): The 9th of Av fell on Shabbat so Tish’a B’Av is observed today


1895: Felix Fader who was found selling calico from a pushcart on Mulberry Street, Nathan Rablowitz who was caught selling dry goods at his store on Grand Street, Abraham Wolf who was arrested for selling three hats on Bowery and Max Rothman who was arrested for selling underwear from a wheelbarrow on Catherine Street went to court and pleaded that they observed the Jewish Sabbath which meant they should not have been arrested for violating the Sunday Closing Laws.  The court “overruled their plea that they worked on the Christian Sunday they must do so quietly.” This downturn was consistent with the downturn for all immigrant groups.


1897: At Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil will officiate at the funeral of the late Moses Schloss the life-long Republican businessman who had served as the Congregation’s Vice President as well as President of the Hebrew Theological Institute.  He was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Amalia Water, the daughter of I.D. Walter.  He is survived by his bother Philip and his son Israel,


1897: A summary of immigration statistics published today showed that 22,750 Russian Jews had arrived in the United States as of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897.  This compared with 45,137 Russian Jews who had arrived in the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896.


1898: An armistice took effect ending the Spanish-American War. “In the Spanish-American War, Jews once again demonstrated that they are willing and ready to fight and serve in defense of our country. When the battleship Main was sunk on February 15, 1898, there were 15 Jewish sailors who went down with the ship. The executive officer of the Maine, and later a vice admiral in the United States Navy, was Adolph Marix, a Jew. Marix was the chairman of a board of inquiry to investigate the mysterious sinking of the Maine. It is interesting to note that his father was an interpreter in the Lincoln Administration and that Abraham Lincoln appointed Adolph Marix to the United StatesNavalAcademy. When the United Statesdeclared war against Spainon April 21, 1898, the first volunteer was Colonel Joseph M. Heller, who left a thriving medical practice to become an acting assistant surgeon in the Army. About 5,000 Jews served in this war. When the Jewish High Holy Days were approaching in 1898, there were 4,000 requests for furloughs to attend services. There were indeed 30 Jewish Army officers and 20 more in the Navy in the Spanish-American War. Jewish casualties ran high for the percentage of Jews in the service. Twenty-nine were killed, 47 wounded, and 28 died from disease - for a total of 104. Corporal Ben Prager received the Silver Star Medal for his bravery in the Philippines in 19 skirmishes and engagements. The official citation describes his accomplishments: "When the engagement was fully opened up, Corporal Benjamin Prager and seven other soldiers from Companies A and L, 19th United States Infantry, moved out and charged the enemy ... and after twice charging in the face of heavy fire, succeeded in dislodging the enemy and putting the entire force to rout. With true soldierly spirit, the success was followed up and the enemy was driven out of the city across the river and mountains." Colonel Teddy Roosevelt commanded the Rough Riders, which included a large number of Jews. The first Rough Rider killed was a 16-year-old Jewish boy, Jacob Wilbusky. Colonel Roosevelt promoted five men in his command for their bravery in the field without knowledge of their religion. One of them was a Jew. Sergeant Maurice Joost of the First California Volunteers, a regiment that had more than 100 Jewish soldiers, was the first man to fall in the attack on Manila. There were 280,000 American soldiers in this war, which was four-tenths of I percent of the population. Jewish soldiers were one-half of I percent of the American Jewish population; therefore, Jews served in greater proportion than did the remainder of the nation's citizens.”


1898: Birthdate of actor Oscar Homolka


1899: In Rennes, France, the President of the Court returned Dreyfus’ salute for the first time marking a shift in the tone of the Court Martial which indicates the Jewish Captain will be acquitted.


1899: “Third Zionist Congress” published today identified the “two chief questions” that will be discussed at the upcoming meeting in Basel, Switzerland which relate to the settlement in Palestine and the “financing of trust company” which will further that endeavor.


1899: Five thousand “enthusiastic” Jews gather in London this evening to express their sympathy with Captain Dreyfus.


1899:Herzl travels to Darmstadt and is received by the Grossherzog of Hessen, brother-in-law of the Czar. Herzl asks him to recommend the "Chartered Company" to the Czar.


1899: Jacob Adler performed the role of King Lear at the People’s Theatre, a Jewish playhouse located in the Bowery.


1900:A Garden Party was held in Regent's Park during Herzl’s visit to Great Britain.


1900(17th of Av, 5660): The Father of Modern Chess, Wilhelm Steinitz, passed away.  Born in the Jewish Ghetto inPrague, in 1836, Steinitz began his professional career as a journalist.  He won his first major chess tournament in Viennain 1861.  This marked the beginning of his domination of the game that would continue almost up to the time of his death.


1902(9th of Av, 5662): Tisha’ B’Av


1910: Jews in Serres, Salonica protested against the use of the 200-year-old Jewish cemetery site for the construction of a new hospital. The plan was later abandoned. 


1911(18th of Av, 5671): Eighty-seven year old Dutch painter Jozef Israëls passed away.



1912:Yankee Guy Zinn sets a record by stealing home twice in the same game.


1912: Birthdate of Max I Dimont, the native of Helsinki who moved to Cleveland as a teenager and wrote Jews, God and History while spending 35 years working for Edison Brothers.


1912: Birthdate of Whitney Harris, one of the prosecutors who brought high-ranking Nazi war criminals to justice at the Nuremberg trials and who, a half-century later, was a significant voice in the creation of the International Criminal Court.


1913(9th of Av, 5673): Tish’A B’Av


1914: As Europe stumbles its way into what will become World War I with all of its negative consequences for Jews Britain (and therefore the British Empire) declares war on Austria-Hungary.


1918: Birthdate of Sanford Daniel Garelik, the Bronx native whom became the first Jew to serve as Chief Inspector in the New York Police Department (As reported by Matt Flegenheimer)


1918: General John Monash was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the battlefield by King George V following the successful Battle of Amiens. (Monash was Jewish; King George wasn’t)


1918(4th of Elul, 5678): Anna Held Polish-born, American actress and singer, passed away.  Held is variously described as the mistress and/or common-in-law wife of Flo Ziegfeld.  Reportedly, she collaborated with Ziegfeld on the creation of his famed Follies review. She was 46 when she died of cancer. 


1922: Birthdate of Holocaust survivor and Polish journalist, Leopold Unger.


1924: Moshav Magdi'el (now part of Hod Hasharon) was founded. A Moshav is a form of collective settlement.  Unlike the Kibbutz, the Moshav allowed for more private ownership.  Hod Hashron has grown into a modern city in the Central District of Israel.


1927: Birthdate of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich winner of theJewish National Fund 1987 Man of the Year and the Humanitarian Award from the United Jewish Appeal Federation


1930:  Birthdate of millionaire businessman George Soros.  Soros has had a minimal involvement with Jews and Jewish causes.  In a 1993 speech he essentially blamed Jews for anti-Semitism.  He said that the rise in European anti-Semitism was just the result of Israel’s policies.  He refers to the country as Palestine.  The head of the Anti-Defamation League described his views as obscene.


1931: Birthdate of William Goldman, author of Marathon Man and Princess Bride.


1931:Louis Lipsky, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, returned today aboard the White Star liner Homeric from Europewhere he had attended the World Zionist Congress, held recently at Basle, Switzerland,


1936: In Vienna, Ernest and Mimi Hausner gave birth to Evelyn Hausner, the Austrian born refugee who gained fame as Evelyn Lauder, the wife of Leonard Lauder,


1937: The British Colonial Secretary, Mr. W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, declared in Geneva, during the deliberations of the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission, that he was told by Dr. Chaim Weizmann that the political resolution adopted by the 20th Zionist Congress opened the door to negotiations for giving effect to the Peel Commission¹s proposals for the partition of Palestine and that talks on this subject would start at the conclusion of the September sessions of the League of Nations Council. Reports from Damascus indicated that Syria had become the center of activity for the training of armed men, the future leaders of the PalestineArab uprising. The recent attack on Kfar Menahem was a trial measure perpetrated by such roving terrorist bands. The Arab Higher Committee denied that foreign money donations were used to carry out such military and sabotage training, carried out in preparations for future disturbances. 


1937:A proposal to settle 200,000 Jews in Palestine within the next three years, involving an investment of about $175,000,000, was laid before the World Zionist Congress today. The proposal was made by Elieser Kaplal, treasurer of the Zionist executive committee, who said American Jewry was expected to contribute $2,000,000 to the Zionist movement and Palestine fund in the current fiscal year.


1940(8th of Av, 5700): Erev Tish'a B'Av


1941(19th of Av, 5701): Nazis began the systematic murder of the Jews of Dvinsk, Latvia.


1941: The House of Representative votes to extend the first peace time conscription bill.  Proponents of the bill prevailed by one vote.  This one-vote victory was one of Sam Rayburn’s proudest legislative accomplishments.  If the bill had not passed, the United Stateswould have been in the process of disbanding its newly created military force just at the moment when the Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor.  One can only imagine of how much longer World War II would have lasted and how many more than six million Jews would have perished in a prolonged Holocaust.


1942(29th of Av, 5702): Fifty-six year old pioneering psychoanalyst Sabin Spielrein was murdered by the Nazis at Rostov-on-Don.

1944: Members of the 16th SS-Panzergrenadier Division “Reichsfuehrer SS,” killed more than 500 civilians in the Tuscan Village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema (As reported by David Rising)

1944(23rd of Av, 5704): Berl Katznelson “one the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental to the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and the editor of Davar, the first daily newspaper of the workers' movement,” passed away today. “He was born in Bobruysk, Russia in 1887, and dreamed of settling in the Jewish homeland from an early age. In Russia, he was a librarian in a Hebrew-Yiddish library and taught Hebrew literature and Jewish history. He made aliyah to Ottoman Palestine in 1909, where he worked in agriculture and took an active role in organizing workers' federations based on the idea of "common work, life and aspirations." With Meir Rothberg, Katznelson founded the consumer co-operative known as Hamashbir Latzarhan. He helped to establish the Kupat Holim Clalit sick fund, a major fixture in Israel's network of socialized medicine. He was the editor of the newspaper, Davar, as well as the founder and first editor-in-chief of the Am Oved publishing house.” Katznelson was buried in the cemetery on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.


1945: From Halkis, Greece it was reported, "The one man capable of teaching Hebrew and Judaism, Rabbi Davidson Matsa and his wife and 6 children have recently left for Janina, where he hopes to function as rabbi. He originally came from Janina. Individual Jews are trying to fill his place by carrying on religious activities in the Synagogue." 


1946: President Harry Truman sends a telegram rejecting the ”Morris-Grady” plan because it would turn the Jewish zone in Palestine into “a ghetto” and “a betrayal” of promises made to the Jews and Jewish aspirations for a homeland.


1948: The first diplomatic envoy of the United States arrived in Israel


1948: The Czech government ordered a halt to arms shipment to Israel.  The new Communist Czech government’s policy was conforming to the increasing anti-Israel policy of their Soviet masters.  


1948(7th of Av, 5708): Three Jewish soldiers, Moshe Eliash, Alfred Rabinowitz and Pinah Solevetchik, were killed when Arab Legion shells fell on Mount Zion.


1948: “Arab Legion forces blew up the Latrun water pumping station” forcing Jewish Jerusalem to rely on private cisterns for its water supply.


1950: Riots broke out at Kikar HaShabbat (Sabbath Square) in Jerusalem when members of the Haredi community clashed with youth from Hashomer Hatzair who upset by the problems they were having delivering milk from their farms.


1951(10th of Av, 5711):  Since the 9thof Av fell on Shabbat, observance of Tish'a B'Av


1951: Joseph B. Levin was designated Assistant Director of Office of Opinion Writing at the Securities and Exchange Commission.


1952: The government withdrew from the Knesset the bill granting the World Zionist Organization a special status, as “the representative of the Jewish people.” The government felt that there were many Jews and Jewish organizations in the world which were not a part of the Zionist movement and who had no intention of joining it, and yet they were interested and working for Israel. The government did not wish to do anything to lessen their goodwill or to interfere with their direct connection with the State. It was, however, prepared to support a corrected version of the WZO status. A new, blue Israeli passport was shown to the press for the first time.


1952(21st of Av, 5712): In what was part of a wave of post-war anti-Semitism, 24 of the foremost Yiddish writers of Russia were executed by the Soviet Government. Among the victims were Peretz Markish, David Bergelson, Itzik Fefer, Leib Kwitko, David Hofstein,Benjamin Zuskin, Solomon Lozovsky and Boris Shimeliovich


1956: William Shatner married Gloria Rand


1962: Birthdate of David Horovitz, the London born Israeli journalist who made Aliyah in 1983 and founded the newly created The Times of Israel.


1971:  Birthdate of actor Michael Ian Black


1979(19th of Av, 5739): Ernst Boris Chain German-born biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 passed away.


1990: IraqPresident Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve the Gulf crisis if Israelwithdraws from occupied territories.  Of course, invading Kuwaithad nothing to do with Israel, but Israelis always a good smoke screen when Arab dictators are up to devious deeds.


1991(2nd of Elul, 5751):Yeruham Cohen, an early Israeli undercover soldier, died on today, at the age of  75 years. “Mr. Cohen, an Arabic-speaker of Yemeni origin, died of an unspecified illness. He was a top aide to the commander of Israel's underground forces during the country's war for independence in 1948 and also belonged to a unit whose members disguised themselves as Arabs to infiltrate enemy lines.  Mr. Cohen is most famous for his acquaintance with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, whom he met in 1948 during the Israeli war for independence while Israeli forces encircled Egyptian troops the southern Negev. According to historical accounts, Mr. Cohen saw the future President while watching the Egyptians retreat, shouted and ran toward him, and they shook hands warmly.


2001: The New York Timesbook section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Houdini’s Box: The Art of Escapeby Adam Phillips, a children’s book entitled Sigmund Freud Pioneer of the Mindby Catherine Reef and two books about Nixon’s Jewish born Secretary of State: The Trial of Henry Kissingerby Christopher Hitchens andNo Peace No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnamby Larry Berman.


2004(25th of Av, 5764): Thirty year old Capt. Michael Y. Tarlavsky was killed today when his unit was attacked in Najaf, Iraq.(As reported by Maia Efrem)


2005:  A report in the Jerusalem Post concerning absenteeism among workers may come as a surprise to some Americans.  For the first seven months of 2005, the rate of absenteeism was higher among men than women.  There was no explanation for this reverse in the statistical model from past years.  The report also revealed that absenteeism rates rise when economic conditions improve.  During economic slowdowns workers are loathe to be away from work for fear of being replaced. 


2005: Reuben Greenberg resigned as Chief of Police in Charleston, SC.


2006(18th of Av, 5766):Staff Sgt. Uri Grossman, 20, the son of renowned novelist and peace activist David Grossman was killed in Lebanon, just days after his father made a public call for the government to halt its military operation and enter negotiations.


2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including How American Grew From Sea to Shining by Jewish Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Kluger and The Man In The White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado in which she “chronicles her Jewish family’s flight from the rise of Nasser.”


2007: The Chicago Sun Timesbook section featured a Q&A with Gail Carson Levine author of Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand and a review of What Goes Up by Eric J. Weiner.


2007: In a story entitled, “A Museum to Get Lost In, And How Israel Is Fixing It” the New York Times describes “an $80 million expansion and renovation that will transform the way a visitor navigates and experiences” the Israel Museum, “


2007(28th of Av, 5767): Dr. Ralph Asher Alpher, author of the Big Bang Theory, passed away.


2007: The City of Toronto “granted a closure of Bloor Street between Bathurst and Markham Streets to accommodate a celebration in honor of Ed Mirvish” the late Canadian “businessman, philanthropist and theatrical impresario.”


2008: In Little Rock, AR at the Chabad House, second session of From Ruins to Glory, a course of study based on a virtual tour of the Temple


2008:Rabbi David Loksen and Rabbi Shmulie Hecht, of the Brooklyn, New York-based Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Community Enrichment Program who are volunteers with Chabad Hawaii, leave Guam.  They have been working with the island’s small Jewish community since July 22, 2008



2008:Two Israeli physicians were dispatched to Georgia to treat Yedioth Aharonot journalist Zadok Yehezkeli, who was seriously wounded in Gori when shrapnel from an artillery shell, reportedly fired by the Russians, hit him.



2008: General Norton A. Schwartz became the 19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold that position.



2009:Tzfat [Safed] Klezmer Festival comes to a close.



2009:Two Israelis were lightly wounded in a shooting attack in the northern West Bank tonight, according to the IDF.

2009:The youth movement Habonim Dror, a driving force behind the popular campaign for Gilad Schalit's return, organized a global prayer for the captured IDF soldier's safe return the focus of which was a communal service held at the Western Wall tonight at time that coincided with the soldier's 23rd birthday according to the Hebrew calendar.

2010:YAD Detroit Book Club Cluster is scheduled to discuss The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee at the Barnes & Noble Book Store in West Bloomfield, Michigan.


2011:A special performance by Makela, DC’s co-ed Jewish a cappella group, is scheduled to take place at the Sixth &I Historic Synagogue.


2011:Tel Aviv municipal inspectors distributed an eviction notice today to a tent dweller who erected a structure that served as a kitchen and storage room at the Nordau Boulevard tent city in north Tel Aviv.

2011: A hearing to discuss political redistricting in the Baltimore area began this evening at 6:30 p.m.  The hearing was originally scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. but was changed to the earlier time to accommodate Jewish citizens who need to be at home or in their synagogues to mark the start of Shabbat.  Like all other citizens, Jews can e-mail in their testimony.


2011: The New York Daily News published the first interview that Levi Aron, the man charged with killing 8 year old Leib Kletzky, has given to the media.


2012: The New York Times features reviews of books written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann and the recently released paperback editions of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Heddy’s Folly:The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes.


2012: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a contra-indicated (by the weather) fundraiser – Community Eat-for-Heat featuring a pancake feast and water play.


2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present a special screening of “Granito:  How to Nail a Dictator”


2012: The Summer Learning Institute at Hebrew Union College is scheduled to come to an end.      


2012: “Word Games (Mischakei Milim)” is scheduled to be shown at the Abingdon Theatre in NYC


2012: An off-duty female soldier was forced to disembark from a bus before she had completed her journey in order to avoid a verbal assault by ultra-Orthodox passengers who complained about her attire and point of boarding onto the vehicle, Israel Radio reported today


2012: Luiza Nahari, a Yemenite Jew whose husband, Moshe, was murdered in their hometown of Raydah in December 2008, immigrated to Israel this morning with four of her children. Nahari was reunited with her five other children, who had moved to Israel following her husband’s murder.(As reported by Times of Israel)


2012: “More than 1,000 people gathered at Rostov-on-Don, which 70 years ago witnessed the worst Holocaust atrocity in Russia.  Wearing arm bands marked with a Star of David, the crowd today marched to the mass grave of approximately 27,000 people executed by German soldiers near the city in 1942. Most of the victims were Jewish, according to the Russian Jewish Congress. Leading the procession was Rabbi Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor and former chief rabbi of Israel. “The unprecedented turnout shows the memory of the Jewish genocide in Rostov is shared and preserved by Jews and non-Jews,” Russian Jewish Congress President Yury Kanner said.(As reported by Haaretz)


2013: “The A Word” which tells the story of the Rotenberg clan who live in the Arava desert is scheduled to shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: Lisa Levine of the Wharton Business school is scheduled to present “Negotiate with Israelis – Like a Pro!” at Talpiyot Jerusalem.

This Day, August 13, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 13 In History


236: The body of Hippolytus, the author of Contra Judaeous, which blamed the harsh conditions of the Jews on their rejection of Jesus was buried in a cemetery on the Via Tiburtina


339: The Roman Emperor “issued a decree forbidding intermarriage between Jews and Christians with transgressors to be punished by death.” (As reported by Austin Cline)


339: The Roman Emperor “issued a decree imposing the death penalty on Jews who circumcise non-Jewish slaves.” (As reported by Austin Cline)


339: The Roman Emperor issued a decree imposing the death penalty on an Jews who hired women weavers that had been “in imperial service.” (As reported by Austin Cline)


1311: Birthdate of King Alfonso XI of Castile. During his reign, in 1348, Alfonso issued decrees prohibiting Jews from charging interest when lending money and prohibiting them from collecting unpaid debts.  (The same rules applied to Moslems, but not Christians.) At the same time, Jews were still allowed to own land during his reign.


1315: Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou.In 1315, Louis X also overturned the decree of his predecessor that allowed the Jews to return to France, and accorded them a charter "in answer to the demands of the people."


1391: In Spain, anti-Semitic mobs attacked the Jews of Lerida, reportedly killing 75. Other Jews were forcibly baptized and were forced to see their synagogue turned into a church. 


1453: Seventeen Jews were burned at the stake in Silesia (now Poland and/or CzechRepublic).


1516: The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis recognized Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognized Francis's claim to Milan. Twice, Charles would issue edicts expelling the Jews from Naples.  The second one, issued in 1533, would take effect despite Jewish attempts to dissuade him. 


1551: Jews of Great Poland were granted limited self-government.


1620(4th of Av): Rabbi Menachem Azariah da Fano (Rama), author of Alfasi Zuta, passed away


1624: In France Cardinal Richelieu was named first chief minister of finance by King Louis XIII.  The Cardinal gave new meaning and depth to the term “power behind the throne.”  Many historians contend that any decree issued by King Louis XIII was really the work of Richelieu. This would include a decree issued in 1632 after the French had taken the fortress city of Metz that allowed the Jews to remain in the city.  The decree was necessitated by the fact that the King had issued a decree in 1615 banning all Jews from living in France.  This decree is an oddity in its in own right since when it was issued Jews were supposedly not living in the Gallic realm to start with.


1713: Birthdate of David Franco Mendes, the native of Amsterdam, a successful businessman who used his leisure time to write poetry, study Talmud and play a prominent role in the Spanish-Portuguese community.


1804: Birthdate of Israel Franklin Moses the native of Charleston, South Carolina who became known as Franklin J. Moses, Sr. – prominent planter, politician and jurist.


1823: Birthdate of Goldwin Smith, “a pathological anti-Semite” who spent his last years in Canada.

1846: Birthdate of Sir Otto Jaffe, the Hamburg native who became a successful British businessman and Lord May of Belfast.


1847(30th of Av, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1851: Birthdate of Felix Adler. Born in Germany, Adler’s family moved to the United states when he was five.  His father, Rabbi Samuel Adler, was head of Temple Emanu-el, the leading Reform Congregation in New York City.  In 1873, Adler became professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at CornellUniversity.  In that same year he delivered a major address at his father’s congregation entitled “the Judaism of the Future.”  He proposed ridding Judaism of its superstitious traditions in order to better focus on the ethics that he felt were central to any human community.  The congregation was receptive to his emphasis on ethics but was loathe to cast aside 3000 years of religious tradition.  Adler soon found himself beyond the pale.  In 1876, he founded the New York Ethical Cultural Society.  He remained a champion of the Ethical Cultural Movement until his death in 1933.


1860:In response to a public call, signed by a number of influential citizens, a meeting was held at the Tract-Society House today afternoon, to consider the subject of the Christian massacre in Syria, and to adopt measures for rendering assistance to the sufferers. About twenty persons were present, among them some of our most prominent clergymen.  During the meeting it was noted that meetings for the same purpose were being held in England and France by Jews as well as Christians.


1861: Birthdate of Dr. Marcus Jastrow, Jr., the Warsaw native who moved to Philadelphia with his father, the famed Talmudist Marcus Jastrow and became a noted Orientalist.


1867: Birthdate of Arthur Eichengrün, the German-Jewish chemist who holds 47 patents but is best known for his claim to really have been the inventor of Aspirin.


1867: Birthdate of Dr. Lee K. Frankel, the Philadelphia native who gained fame for his work with various Jewish philanthropies.


1867: Birthdate of Dr. Charles Foster Kent, the American Biblical scholar who wrote dozens of works on ancient Israel including Outlines Of Hebrew History, A History of the Hebrew People (2 volumes) and A History of the Jewish People during the Babylonian, Persian and Greek Periods.


1871:The Grand Lodge of the Ancient Jewish Order of Kesher Shel Barzel  held their annual banquet this evening at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street in New York City. The lodge has 4,000 members. The dinner was attended by 110 members including thirty delegates from  various parts of the United States.



1871: In Chicago, Rabbi Elkan Herzman was physically forced to leave his synagogue on Fifth Avenue. Some of the congregants had complained because Herzman had violated Jewish law by eating ice cream on a day when he should have been fasting.  When Herzman arrived at the synagogue he found another rabbi in his usual place.  Following the altercation, Herzman complained to the police who said that there was nothing they could do about.  Herzman has threatened further political action.  (I have not been able to find any further reference to this Rabbi or a synagogue on fifth avenue, so if you have, please let me know.)


1872: Birthdate of German born chemist, Richard Willstätter.  Willstatter won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1915 for his study of the structure of chlorophyll and other plant pigments.  He resigned his position on the faculty at a university in Munichover the issue of anti-Semitism. After Hitler’s rise to power, he fled to Switzerlandwhere he died in 1942. 


1872: Birthdate of Jacob de Haas, an English journalist who was one of Herzl’s earliest supporters. After Herzl’s death, de Haas became a lead of the Zionist movement in Israel.


1874(30thof Av, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1874: It was reported today that George Walling, the Superintendent of the New York Police Department had written to Henry Honscheidt, the Sheriff of McLean County, Illinois, telling him that in his opinion the man who had confessed to the Sheriff that he had killed Benjamin Nathan was “either  insane or an imposter.”


1875: Birthdate of Arthur Yitzhak Biram, Israeli philosopher, philologist, and educator, who died on the first day of the Six Days War.


1877: Midhat Pasha, the head of the “Young Turkey” Party is in Vienna where he hopes to negotiate a treaty with Austria and England that will protect the Ottoman Empire and avoid a Holy War. Pasha is the son of a Bulgarian Jew who converted to Islam to enhance his commercial opportunities in the lands of the Sultan.


1876: The Anglo-Jewish Association’s description of a Jewish community living in India was published today. According to the reported the community is known as the Beni-Israel (Children of Israel) and has  been in existence for a thousand years.  They dress like Hindus and speak the Hindu language.   While they know little Hebrew, they follow the Levitical Code and strictly observe the Sabbath. They are separate from other Jewish communities in the subcontinent.


1881: It was reported today that the government is taking “strong measures” to suppress the anti-Semitic riots in Pomerania including the arrest of 21 rioters at Koslin.


1883: The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Raphael Lewin in which the author disputes the account of the Damascus Libel of 1840 published in the Times on August 6 describing it as being slanted and anti-Jewish.


1884: The Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College re-elected Bernhard Bettmann as President.  Rabbi Henry Berkowitz of Mobile, Alabama and Rabbi Max Landsberg of Rochester, NY, were chosen to serve as new members on the board.


1884: It was reported today that Russian Jew on his way to his brother’s wedding in Paris was detained for 4 days by authorities because he did not understand French and could not answer their questions.  While in custody, a rope was kept around his neck; he was handcuffed and knocked about by those holding him.  When the mayor heard of the incident he called for an investigation


1884: It was reported today that Mrs. Morris Cohn, the daughter of Michael Englemann (the Salt King of Manistee, Michigan) has gone left her husband and returned after his arrest on charges of numerous counts of forgery.  Cohn, a prominent Jewish businessman had spent the $50.000 wedding gift from Englemann and turned to criminal activity to support their lifestyle.


1886: It was reported today that numerous homes of Jews living in Kiev have been destroyed during anti-Jewish riots in the Russian province.


1887: It was reported today that Israel Lipski’s solicitor has new facts that will prove that he did kill Miriam Angel, the woman he was convicted of killing.  Lipski’s lawyer has met privately with Judge Stephen convinced him of his client’s innocence.


1887: Henry Mathews, the Home Secretary has refused to interfere in the case of Israel Lipski who has been sentenced to hang for murdering Miriam Angel.


1889: It was reported today that Theodore Cohn, the young man who stole $610 from A.H. & King is in the Tombs awaiting trial on a charge of grand larceny.


1890: The expenses of today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will be paid in full by an anonymous female donor who has been paying for one such excursion for each of the last seven years.


1890: In London, “the meeting at the Mansion House to protest against” Russian persecution has been postponed following reassurance by the Lord Mayor offers reassurances that there is no reason to believe that the Czar’s government will enforce the edicts of 1882.


1890: Godfrey Taubenaus has been selected to serve as Rabbi of Mount Sinai Temple on East 72nd Street.


1891: The Russian government prohibited the collection of funds or the publication of appeals for financial assistance to Jewish immigrants today


1892: “A Chicken Too Much for the Police” published today described the uproar at police stations throughout New York caused by Davis Rubenstein bringing a decayed chicken  to each police station in his attempt to have action taken against Berman’s Butcher Shop which is “selling impure food.” The foul fowl was turned over the Sanitary Bureau to use in its investigation.


1893(1st of Elul, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1893: “Parties in Austria” published today described the political divisions in the polyglot central European kingdom that include “anti-Semites, who conscientiously hold that hell is not hot enough for the Jews, whose torments ought, in strict justice, to begin in this life and be continued in the next.”


1893: Birthdate of Monnet Bain Davis who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel from 1951 through 1953

1895: According to Charles Bernstein, the settlement committee of the striking tailors, most of whom were Jewish, will meet for the last time tonight.


1896: Herzl meets with the Turkish ambassador, Mahmud Nedim Bey, in Vienna.


1896:  Since American commanders did not know that an armistice had been signed yesterday they proceeded to capture the Philippine city of Manila, the climactic moment in the Battle of Manila.  Sergeant Maurice Justh of the First California Volunteers, a regiment with 100 Jewish members, was the first soldier “to fall in the attack on Manilla.”


1898: “Hebrew Charities Building” published today described “the new Hebrew Charities Building, just now rising above the ground level on the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty-first Street” next to the Post Graduate Hospital.


1898: An entry in a Swiss hotel log showed that Freud stayed at the hostelry possibly with “a woman who was not his wife” and may have been his sister-in-law Minna Bernays.


1899: As tensions rise in France during the re-trial of Captain Dreyfus, Paul Deroulede, the poet who is also a member of the Chamber of Deputies and 23 of his allies were arrested today.  (The Dreyfus affair was symptomatic of deep divisions in French society that pitted Republican secularists against Royalist Roman Catholics.)


1899: Three duels are scheduled to be fought by journalists cover the court martial of Captain Dreyfus and Rennes, France.


1899: In Paris, demonstrations took place this evening outside of the offices of the Anti-Semite League where the President of the League and Max Regis, “the former Jew-baiting Mayor of Algiers” are hiding.


1899: “London Sympathy With Dreyfus” published today described a rally where a resolution was adopted calling for “a meeting of rejoicing” “in the event of the acquittal of Dreyfus.”


1900:The Fourth Zionist Congress convened in London with five hundred delegates in attendance. Max Nordeau gave the opening in address which included an account of the appalling conditions faced by the Jews of Romania and a tribute to the Kaiser for his treatment of the Jews of Pomerania and East Prussia.


1900: In London, an open air meeting for the evangelizing of Jews was held near Queen’s Hall where the Zionists were holding their congress.


1903: In Salt Lake City, Utah President Joseph F. Smith of the LDS (Mormon) Church gave the dedicatory address at the cornerstone laying for Congregation Montefiore.


1907: The first American taxicabs appear on the streets of New York City.  At least two Jews played a major role in the introduction of this type of conveyance in the United States. In 1915, John Hertz, a Hungarian born Jew started the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago, Il. In 1922, a Russian born Jew named Morris Markin formed the Checker Cab Company and in 1929 he bought the Yellow Cab Company from Hertz


1911: At Basel, Switzerland, the 10thZionist Congress, adopted a resolution to establish a Zionist immigration office in Berlin


1912: Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer in Berlin.  The relationship between these two had a profound effect on Kafka’s literary output as well as his personal life.  One critic recently wrote that Kafka’s correspondence with Bauer “is the most useful key to Kafka’s thoughts and actions during the decisive years of his emergence as a writer.”


1912:  Birthdate of Italian born biologist Salvador Luria. In 1969 he and Max Delbruck shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for the “Luria-Delbruck experiment” which “demonstrates that in bacteria, beneficial mutations arise in the absence of selection, rather than being a response to selection. This reinforces the Darwinian notion of evolution by natural selection acting on random mutations.”


1916: Birthdate of Connie Polan who became Connie Wald when she married Jerry Wald.

1917: The Turkish military leader Djemal Pasha announces the Turkish government has become convinced that the Jewish colonies inside Palestine must be destroyed, so they won't present a danger to the integrity of Turkey.


1918: Birthdate of Judith Iris Martin, the Newark native who created the long-lived children’s theater group, the Paper Bag Players which would become a New York City institution (As reported by Douglas Martin)


1922: Birthdate of Ruby Burman, the native of Columbus, Ohio, who as Ruby Cohn became “a theater scholar who espied the genius of Samuel Beckett early on in Paris and became a leading authority on his work as well as his friend…” (As reported by Bruce Weber)

 
1922:Samuel Untermeyer, President of the Palestine Foundation Fund made public a letter from Dr. Arthur Ruppin describing the future establishment of Jewish suburbs at Jerusalem and other sites in Palestine which show the likelihood of the development of major municipalities throughout the area.
 
1925: In the “Free City of Danzig” Eliezer and Dina Sterenberg gave birth to  Meir Shamgar who served as President of the Israeli Supreme Court from 1983 until 1995


1928: Birthdate of Yehuda "Nimrod" Lapidot “an Israeli historian and former professor of biochemistry. Lapidot was a member of the Irgun and an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1980 he was appointed head of Lishkat Hakesher by former Irgun commander and then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Lapidot received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Hebrew University in 1960 and later became a professor.”


1928: At the casino in Deauville, Charles A. Levine punched the editor of The Boulevardier after the latter admitted that he was the one who had been taking “dirty cracks” at Levine.  The two were separated and Miss Mabel Boll, who was reportedly Levine’s mistress, took him away.  Levine, a non-observant Jew, claimed to be the first passenger to fly the Atlantic in 1927.
 
1929: New York State Supreme Court Justice Frankenthaler is scheduled to hear arguments regarding a petition to have the question of the sanity of Alfred Dreyfus be determined by a jury.


1929: Jewish financier Felix Warburg and Lord Melchett, the famous British nobleman whose picture appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on October 29, 1928, each donate five hundred thousand dollars to start a financial concern aimed at helping development in Palestine.


1933:The Jewish Telegraphic Agency published an article that estimated that there were about 660,000 non-Aryans living in Germany of which 500,000 are "official" Jews and 160,000 of Jewish descent.


1934: The comic strip “Li’l Abner,” created by Al Capp, made its debut. Born Alfred Gerald Caplan in New Haven, in 1909, Capp was a successful syndicated cartoonist by the age of 19.  He created Li’l Abner and all of his Hillbilly friends during the depths of the Great Depression.  One of the most famous characters in the strip were the Schmoos.  These characters could jump into your pot or skillet and “cook up” to taste like any food you wished for.  To Jewish kids, the Schmoos sounded an awful like the manna in the Bible.


1936:Felix M. Warburg, New Yorkbanker and philanthropist, today was named chairman of the American division of the executive committee of the Council for German Jewry.


1937:A proposal to settle 200,000 Jews in Palestinewithin the next three years, involving an investment of about $175,000,000, was laid before the World Zionist Congress today. The proposal was made by Elieser Kaplal, treasurer of the Zionist executive committee, who said American Jewry was expected to contribute $2,000,000 to the Zionist movement and Palestine fund in the current fiscal year.


1938(16th of Av, 5698): As they bicycled from Ramatayim to Petah Tikva Benjamin Babayoff and his wife were shot and killed by gunmen firing from an orange grove and their seven year old daughter who was riding on the handlebars was severely wounded.


1940(9th of Av, 5700): Tish'a B'Av


1940: During World War II, the Battle of Britain begins as the Luftwaffe attacks British airfields.  Field Marshall Goering told Hitler that the Luftwaffe could bomb the British into submission making an invasion unnecessary. On the other hand, by destroying the RAF, the Germans would be able to invade the British Isles with complete control of the skies insuring a Nazi victory.  If the British had lost the Battle of Britain, the Final Solution would have been that much closer to being truly “final.”  For more about the role of Jews in actually fighting the Battle of Britain see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/sugar4.html.   Failure to win the Battle of Britain soured Hitler on the capabilities of the Luftwaffe and caused him to turn his face eastward towards the Soviet Union.  The invasion of the Soviet Union would result in the millions of Jews coming under the sway of the Final Solution.


1942(30thof Av, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1942: The Jewish communities at Mir, Belorussia, and Gorodok, Ukraine, are liquidated.


1942: Switzerlandforces Jews (mostly French) already safe in Switzerland back across the border. The Swiss government will turn back 10,000 Jews to their deaths during the remainder of the war on the grounds that only political refugees can be admitted into Switzerland, not "racial refugees." The Swiss government does, however, welcome the gold that the Germans extract from the mouths and fingers of the dead Jews.  


1942: For the next fourteen days, 53,750 Jews from Warsawwill be deported to the Treblinka death camp.


1942: United States State Department officials and the British Foreign Office decide that the Riegner Cable outlining details of the Holocaust be kept secret.


1943: Y. Ben Ami wrote a letter to Peter H. Bergson proposing “the creation of a ‘Free Palestine League’ to influence United States policy on the Middle East and to wage a publicity campaign to create public support for an independent Palestine.” (Ben Ami would have a son, Jeremy who became the executive director of “J Street.”)


1945: Thirty-five Jews sacrifice their lives to blow up Nazi rubber plant in Silesia



1946: British authorities open detention camps on the island of Cyprus to hold Jewish refugees who have been prevented from entering Palestine due to British restrictions on immigration.


1946: In Brooklyn Anna Blumenthal and Dr. Julius Yellen gave birth to Janet Louise Yellen the American economist who has a career as an academic and public service including chairing the Council of Economic Advisers and holding senior positions with the Federal Reserve.


1948(8th of Av, 5708): Silent screen star Elaine Hammerstein, daughter of Arthur Hammerstein and granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein, died in an automobile accident.


1952: In New York Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt welcomed the 50,000th visitor to the
Bond Drive
’s Israeli Industrial Exhibition. The Hebrew lettering on a gleaming, Kaiser-Frazer car, assembled in Israel, made a great impression.


1953(2nd of Elul, 5713): Seventy-three year old history Eugen Täubler who began his career teaching  ath the Higher Institute for Jewish in Berlin and finished it teaching at HUC in Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away today.

1955: Two years after the death of Joseph Stalin, old-line Bolshevik Semyon Dimanstein was rehabilitated by the Communists running the Soviet Union.  Born in 1886, Dimanstein reportedly became a Rabbi after studying at a Chabad Yeshiva before becoming a Russian revolutionary.  He was widely identified with Jewish issues inside the Soviet Union including the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Far East and Yidn in FSSR (Jews in the Soviet Union). He was a victim of Stalin’s murderous purges in 1938. Rehabilitation is sort of like the Communist version of Resurrection.


1959(9th of Av, 5719):Tish'a B'Av


1973(15th of Av, 5733):Maurice Bisgyer, retired executive vice president of B'nai B'rith, the Jewish service organization, died today at the age of 75.


1973:The body of Sir Moses Montefiore, father of modern Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel, will be returned to Jerusalem a century after his death, the Israeli Government said today. The body will be moved from Ramsgate to Israel in 1975.


1977: President Carter’s administration rejected the Israeli request for the co-production rights of the F-16 fighter-bomber and announced that Israelwould not be able to purchase the 250 planes as requested. This number had been reduced to 50 or 75 on grounds that the Israel Air Force no longer needed to maintain its air superiority over the Arabs.


1978(1st of Av, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Av


1991:The publisher Robert Maxwell said today that he had reached a private agreement with the publisher and other shareholders of Israel's Ma'ariv-Modin Group to acquire the majority of shares in the company, which owns the Israeli daily Ma'ariv. Ma'ariv is published in Hebrew in Tel Aviv. Financial details were not given. A statement said Mr. Maxwell would be the chairman and publisher and hold more than 70 percent of the shares. Dov Judkowski, who with Mr. Maxwell controls more than 75 percent of the shares, will be editor in chief and deputy chairman. "I shall put at the disposal of Ma'ariv-Modin all the funds necessary for the swift development of the paper, for the benefit of both the group and its staff," said Mr. Maxwell, who recently acquired The Daily News in New York.


1995: Aharon Barak succeeded Meir Shamgar as President of the Supreme Court of Israel.


1999(1st of Elul, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Elul


2000: The New York Times book section featured a review of Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Pastby Susan Jacoby and Rodinsky’s Room a mystery about David Rodinsky coauthored by Iain Sinclair and Rachel Lichtenstein, granddaughter of Polish Jewish refugee Gedaliah Lichtenstein.


2001: In the fight against West Nile Virus, pesticides are applied at Baron Hirsch Cemetery In New York


2003: “The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rules to refuse to reconsider a three-judge panel ruling that a Ten Commandments plaque from 1920 can remain on the Chester County courthouse in Pennsylvania. The appeals court was overruling a decision that the plaque with the commandments “violated the separate of church and state.” (As reported by Austin Cline)

2005:The 20th annual Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE) opens at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst


2006: A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua (translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin) was reviewed in the Book Section of the New York Times. A human resources manager is described as “the nameless main character” of this latest acclaimed novel.  Finally a novel features a Jewish human resources manager – how can one not be excited at the prospect of reading this? 


2006: The Book Section of the Washington Post featured a review of  Peter Hartcher’s Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing 7 Trillion Dollars which the reviewer describes as a “flawed jeremiad” that attempts to blame Greenspan for the collapse of the dot com bubble and the losses that may or may not have taken place.


2006(19th of Av, 5766): Mahadi Hiyat, 83, was killed when a rocket crashed directly into his house near the town of Shlomi. Hiyat was the sole Egyptian resident of the northern Jewish community of Ya'arah.


2007: A copy of Faye Kellerman’s latest novel, The Burnt House is contributed to the Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, thus insuring that its library will have a complete collection of her detective mysteries. With The Burnt House, Kellerman returns to her literary roots with Rina and Peter Decker, the Jewish couple that solves murders.  Besides the fact they are slick yarns, where else can you be on the trail of multiple murderers while one of the characters talks about “hashgacha pratite” and another reassures his spouse that they could enjoy a visit to Santa Fe since “they have a Chabad there.”


2007: Some 75 people from the Jewish community of Rochester, New York, attended a dedication ceremony today to honor a rediscovered burial plot, long unknown to the community, where over 100 Jews from the 19th century were buried.

 
2008: "Forty Reform Jews land in Israelfor a first-of-its-kind trip to meet members of the Israeli Reform movement.
 
2008: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with Jewish leaders today, pledging to work together against anti-Semitism and open up channels of communication despite differences on Middle East politics.

2009: Funeral for Robert William Levine, the businessman and philanthropist who worked to aid Russian immigrants is scheduled to take place at Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA followed by burial at Memorial Park in Sharon, MA.


2009: In Jerusalem, the Yiddishpiel Theatre helps prepare people for the High Holidays by presenting a “unique musical event which combines stories about the great cantors and Jewish and cantorial soul songs.


2009: In Jerusalem, Beit Avi Chai,A cultural center that explores concepts of Jewish and Israeli identity and creativity presents a workshop led by Dr. Meir Buzaglo, Department of Philosophy, at Hebrew University entitled Rambam in the 21st Century that asks the questions, “How does the Rambam’s thinking relate to the basic questions of the modern age?”

2009:The Israel Defense Forces said today that they were investigating reports of a kidnapped soldier.

2009: Rai Ephraim Simon, co-director of Friends of Lubavitch and a father of nine donated one of his kidneys to Samar Chasid living in Williamsburg who is the father of ten.


2009 Patriot’s rookie Julian Edelman scored his first professional points on today in a pre-season game with the Philadelphia Eagles returning a punt 75 yards for a touchdown


2010(3rd of Elul, 5770):  On the Hebrew calendar today marks the 75th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook. He passed away on the 3rd of Elul, 5695. During the British Mandate, “Rabbi Kook was the first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel in modern times, and had great love and respect for the secular Zionist movement…”


2010: Temple Judah is scheduled to celebrate the 88th birthday of Marianne Bern at the Oneg following Friday night services.


2010: The man who killed Meir Kahane in 1990 claims he did not carry out the shooting alone, as previously thought, but was part of a three-man terrorist cell with links to al-Qaida.

 

2010:The reopening of Shaarei Torah,the synagogue of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, luminary sage and father of modern religious Zionism, coincided with the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Kook's death.


2011(13th of Av, 5771): Shabbat Nachamu


2011: The Summer Israeli Folk Dance Mostly Couples Marathon is scheduled to take place at Buttenwieser Hall in New York City.


2011: Social protests took place throughout Israel today, with demonstrators turning out en masse in Haifa, Be’er Sheva and Afula.
 
2011:Gunmen abducted an American Jew after breaking into his house in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore today in an unusually brazen raid that illustrated the threat to foreigners in this militancy-wracked, US-allied country.

2012: Five short films created by Israeli directors - Occupy Rothschild, Wall to Wall, Busted, Word Games, A Wonderful Day – are scheduled to be shown in NYC 


 2012: Hezbollah has rockets that can hit any Israeli city, a leading official of the organization said this afternoon. 2012: Hezbollah has rockets that can hit any Israeli city, a leading official of the organization said this afternoon.2012: Hezbollah has rockets that can hit any Israeli city, a leading official of the organization said this afternoon. 2012:The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.2012:The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.2012:The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.2012:The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.v


2012:The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry announced today that the price of a price-controlled loaf of bread will rise by 6.53 percent tomorrow.



2012: Hezbollah has rockets that can hit any Israeli city, a leading official of the organization said this afternoon.


2012:Israel may need to destroy parts of Lebanon and Gaza if Hezbollah and Hamas rain missiles upon the country in response to an Israeli attack on Iran, former Mossad head Danny Yatom said today


2013: “Israel: A Home Movie” is scheduled to be shown at the Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts as part of the Year-Round Washington Jewish Film Festival.


 

2013: Amir Levy is scheduled to appear in “Bellimi and the Sultan” at the Robert Moss Theatre.

This Day, November 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 16


42 BCE: Birthdate of Tiberius, 2nd Roman emperor. The stepson of Augustus reigned from 14 to 37 C.E. A competent general with a sour disposition, Tiberius came to the thrown through the efforts of his pushy mother. Tiberius treatment of the Jews did not spring from some early form of anti-Semitism. Rather, he was a bit of a clod who made poor decisions, some of which impacted the Jews. He placed power in the hands of the power-hungry Sejanus who happened not to like Jews. He appointed Pontius Pilate Procurator in Judea, a role that was a classic mismatch between the governed and the governor. And for a period, he banned the Jews from Rome, but this had to do with some domestic spat, not religion. In the end the true measure of the man was his choice of heirs. Tiberius selected Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula. Caligula’s belief in his own divinity would create another set of problems for the Jews of Judea and Alexandria.


534: Publication of the second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus or Justinian’s Code. The code reflected Justinian’s hostility towards Judaism. It contained provisions that prohibited marriage between a Christian and a Jew (the fear was that the marriage would lead to the Christian converting to Judaism) and placed restrictions on the practice of circumcision. It elevated canon law to the equal of civil law thus forcing the Jews to accept the authority of Church officials. It also forced the Jews to use a Greek translation of the Bible in their services, placed restrictions on public assembly by Jews, prohibited Jews from building new synagogues and testifying against Christians in legal matters and finally banned the celebration of Passover in years when it came before Easter.


1272: King Edward III passed away. King Edward continued the predatory taxation policies towards his Jewish subjects that had been followed by his father King John. In addition to confiscatory tax policies, the King enacted royal decrees inimical to the well-being of the Jewish people including one that stated, “And that there be no synagogue of the Jews in England save in those places in which synagogues were in the time of King John, the king’s father…and that every Jew wear his badge conspicuously on his breast.”
 
1380: Jews were killed in riots in Paris.



1384: Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman. Jadwiga would marry Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania who took the name of Władysław II when ascended the Polish throne. The purpose of the marriage was to unite Poland and Lithuania. For the Jews of Poland, the results were less than optimal since the first extensive persecutions of the Jews took place during the reign Wladislaus II and neither the king nor his successors acted to stop these events.


 

1491: Five Jews were accused of murdering a child in La Guardia (Spain). The investigation was conducted by Tomas De Torquemada, the cleric who would later lead the infamous Spanish Inquisition. Even though there were no witnesses nor was a body ever found all five were found guilty. Three of them were forcibly baptized, strangled, and then burned. The two others were just torn apart.


1497: Gershon Soncino published a copy of “Talmud Babli Sanhedrin” at Barco.


1694(28th of Cheshvan): Rabbi David Lida, author of Be’er Mayim Hayyim, passed away


1745: In Trier Rabbi Isaac Sinzheim and his wife gave birth to Joseph David Sinzheim, the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg.


1756 (23rd of Cheshvan): Rabbi Isaac ben Samuel Lampronti, author of Pahad Yizhak, passed away  41


1794(23rd of Cheshvan, 5555): Saul Berlin passed away in London. Born in 1740, he “was a German Talmudist and one of the most learned Jews of the Mendelssohnian period.”


1821: Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail which enjoyed a Golden Era of trade that lasted until the early 1850’s. Jews were reluctant to be identified as such since New Mexico was still thought to be within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. Apparently a Prussian Jew named Albert Speyer had no such qualms and he conducted trading operations on the Santa Fe Trail and in Mexico itself in the early 1840’s


1827: Birthdate of Charles Eliot Norton, the Harvard professor, whose friendship with James Loeb was so meaningful that Loeb, the Jewish banker and philanthropist created The Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship in his honor.


1845: Israel Beer Josaphat was baptized at St. George’s German Lutheran Chapel in London where he took the new name of Paul Julius Reuter.  His name lives on today in the name of the news service he established- Reuter’s.  Reuter may have shed his religion but his enemies would mock him as a Jew when it suited their needs.


1852: An article entitled Germany: Political Movements published today reported that in Berlin that newly empowered reactionaries are seeking to modify Article 12 of the Constituion, which had freed “the exercise of political rights from all ddependence on the religion of the citizen…” The change is aimed at excluding the Jews from the political process so that Prussia will be “a Christian State.”  The liberals are afraid that once the Jews are excluded, other groups will be excluded including  “the free communists, German Catholics and other non-conformists.


1853: The Tenth Anniversary Dinner of the German Benevolent Society was held tonight at the Assembly Rooms in New York City. Joseph Seligman, president of the society presided over the affair which was attended by two hundred gentlemen. The attendees donated $2,000 to the society.


1853: Birthdate of Victor Worms, the native of Luxembourg who was the younger brother of Emile Worms and a prominent French lawyer.


1860: Birthdate of Jesse Houghton Metcalf, the Senator from Rhode Island, who as early as June of 1933 “deplored” the racial and religious prejudice of the German government in a speech on the floor of the Senate.


1871: “Cruelties Practiced by Poultry Dealers” published today described activities at the so-called “Jews’ Washington Market” on Essex Street which is home to a large number of butchers and their coops of chicken.



1874: It was reported today that Rabbi Artom officiated at the wedding of Mr. Isaac Abecassis of Lisbon and Miss Helena Ben Sande of the Azores at the Portugese Synagogue on Bryanstone Street.  The service included all of the Jewish traditions including the breaking of the glass.  The reception was held at the Langham Hotel where Jewish traditions continued to prevail among a wedding party that included many gentiles as could be seen by wearing of hats by the Jewish men during the entire affair.


1874: It was reported today that Carl Schurz will deliver a lecture next Wednesday members of the Hebrew Young Men’s Association in New York.


1874: It was reported today that Rabbi De Sola Mendez will deliver a lecture next week at the Lyric Hall in New York City.


1874: It was reported today that the Jews of Chicago have held a service to honor the memory of Rabbi Abraham Geiger, the leader of Reform Judaism in Berlin who passed away in October of 1874.


1874: It was reported today that those who lost seats in recent Austrian elections blame their defeat on the fact that there were two Jewish members of the government.


1879: It was reported today that “Romania positively refuses to enfranchise her dirty Israelites, except on her own conditions” which are not those that she had agreed to when negotiating with the Great Powers.


1881: It was reported today that SS Silesia is expected to arrive soon in New York City with 250 Jews from Russia.  A total of 5,000 Jews are expected to come during the Winter months.  “Most of the Jews are farmers and will settle in Texas and Louisiana.”  The Hamburg Line, whose ships are bringing the Jews to America, has promised to provide Kosher food for the travelers “from the time they leave the Russian frontier until” they arrive in the United States.


1881: It was reported today that Julius J. Frank is planning on giving a lecture to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.


1881: It was reported today that The Porte has told representatives of English and German philanthropists who are promoting the migration of Jews to Turkey that Jews will be allowed to settle “in separate communities in all parts of the empire, except Palestine.


1883: It was reported today that in England, Charles K. Salaman has used “words…in the original language of the Old Testament to compose “A Hebrew Love Song.” (Salaman is name many do not recognize today.  He was prolific 19th Anglo-Jewish composer whose career spanned 70 years)


1883: It was reported today the President of the Union Trust Company on Broadway in New York gave David Salzman a quarter when he turned in a check in the amount of $1,250 drawn on the company.  The Jewish boy who works as a bootblack “was somewhat surprised at the amount.”


1884: The leaders of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Society hosted their annual reception at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.


1884: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the wedding of Miss Leonitine Huebsch, the daughter of Rabbi Adolphus Huesbsch , of blessed memory and Mrs. Joshua Kantrowitz, associate editor of the Hebrew Standard.


1885: The National Rabbinical Convention, a meeting of Reform rabbis from across the United States, opened this morning in Concordia Hall in Allegheny City, PA.


1886: “Curious Will Suit” published today described litigation brought by the heirs of the late Moses Issacks  to try and recover $50,000 that had been left to him as a life interest by his Uncle, the late Sampson Simson, the noted philanthropist who helped to fund Mt. Sinai Hospital.  According to the will, upon Isaacks death, the principle of the life estate was to revert to an organization that would help with educational activities in Jerusalem. The executor of the estate turned the money over to the North American Relief Society for the Indigent Jews but the heirs claim they should get the money because the money did not exist at the time of Simson’s death so it was not eligible. (The court will find for the Society.)


1886: Birthdate of Arthur B. Krock. Born in Kentucky, Krock gained fame as a conservative political journalist working for the New York Times. He won four Pulitzer prizes. According to some published reports, during the 1930’s the Jewish publisher of the Times denied Krock a promotion because the paper did not want to have Jews in prominent editorial positions. He passed away in 1974.


1887: Over two thousand men and women attended the 9th annual charity ball hosted by the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum at the Academy of Music.


1889: It was reported today that shots were fired into stores and homes owned by Jews living in three towns in Louisiana’s East Carroll Parish.  At the town of Alsatia “a placard was stuck on the door” that reading “‘No Jews after the 1st of January.  If you disregard this warning fire and lead will make you leave.’”


1889: Birthdate of American playwright George S. Kaufman. Born into a family of German-Jews in Pittsburgh Kaufman moved to New York where he worked as a journalist before pursuing a career in the theatre. Kaufman almost always wrote in collaboration with somebody else, but he was always the senior collaborator, no matter how distinguished the other writer might have been. In their day, Kaufman’s works were almost all theatrical successes. But most of his works are not known to today’s public. One exception would be three plays – The Cocoanuts, A Night at the Opera and Animal Crackers – all of which were made into hit movies by the Marx Brothers. Kaufman passed way in 1961.


1899: Today’s review of the most recent revival of “The Merchant of Venice” praised Henry Irving’s portrayal of Shylock as the best since that of the late Edwin Booth because of its “expression of the Jew’s craft and malice, his implacable disposition and the bitterness of his hatred.”  (Shylock was one of Irving’s signature roles.  Portrayals of Shylock have varied over the centuries and often reflect how Jews are viewed in a given place or time.)


1890: In Philadelphia, PA, The Society Hachnasath Orechim, or Wayfarers' Lodge, was organized today.


1890: In “One of the Persecuted Jews” published today Herman Rosenstraus, a Russian Jew living in the United States provided a firsthand account of the travails that brought him to this county.


1892: The building owned by Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Memphis hosts the second day of the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union’s national convention.  The Alliance is a southern version of the Grange, which was considered to be a “radical” agrarian organization by the railroads and the banks.


1893: The Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived last week aboard the SS Roland who are still being detained at Ellis Island will be re-examined today and if they continue not to meet the required standards will be ordered back to Europe.


1895: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El entitled “The Charity of the Jews.”


1898: The staff at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and public health authorities including Dr. Dillingham, the assistant Inspector for the Health Department “discredited” reports “of a severe outbreak of scarlet fever” at the Jewish children’s facility.


1896: Rabbi Kahn of Rodof Sholom officiated at the funeral of 84 year old Ephraim Wolbach who was a co-founder of the congregation.


1896: An address by Mrs. Nellie L. Miller of Memphis “stirred up a lively discussion” at this afternoon’s “session of the National Council of Jewish Women.  Many of the delegates took issue with her declaration “that today the people of her race are lax in their religion, careless in the faith of their fathers “ and could learn lessons from Christian women when it comes to “strength and perseverance.


1898: “100,000 Given for Education” described how Jacob H. Schiff had contributed $25,000 towards an endowment fund for the Educational Alliance that attracted the following additional contributions: Louis Stern, $25,000; B. Altman, $20,000; William Saloon, $10,000; Isidor Straus, $10,000; Felix Warburg, $5,000 and Louis Marshall, $5,000.


 

1898: It was reported today that Israel Zangwill had delivered a lecture on the history of the Jewish people in which he said that “Colonel Roosevelt had said to him that the Jews in the Rough Riders were among the bravest in his regiment.”


1900: Lissa & Kann, the family owned bank managed by Zionist leader Jacobus Henricus Kann makes £ 700.000 available for Herzl’s use. Born in 1872, Kann was an aide to Theodor Herzl and was one of the founders of the Jewish Colonial Trust in 1899. He was an active participant in the Zionist Congresses and was elected to the Zionist Organization's executive in 1905. Later he worked on various projects in Palestine. He passed away in 1945.



1906: The house physician at the Hotel St. George attributed the death of Rabbi Raphael Benjamin to “acute indigestion” which was probably the result of the “bad health” he had been experiencing for an extended period of time.  At the time of his death “he was much disturbed over an incident in connection with the recent unveiling of the Washington monument at the Williamsburg Bridge plaza. He had been invited to speak on that occasion as a representative of the Hebrews, and the Rev. Father Belford pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of Sts. Peter and Paul was also to deliver an address, but before the ceremony the priest made a public denunciation of the Jews, and invitations to both speakers were cancelled.” (As reported by “Cyber Angel”)


1907: Oklahoma was established as the 46th state in the Union. In 1890 the estimated Jewish population of Oklahoma Territory was one hundred and at statehood about one thousand. In Oklahoma City the time lag between the founding of the mostly German Reform congregation B'nai Israel and the mainly Eastern European Orthodox Emanuel Synagogue was only one year (1903 and 1904). By the time Oklahoma was granted statehood, the Jewish population had grown from an estimated 100 living in the territory in 1890, to around a thousand. Signs of the establishment of Jewish communities, as opposed to just individual Jewish settlers, could be seen even before statehood was granted. In Oklahoma City, Temple B’nai Israel was formed in 1903 by the Orthodox Emanuel Synagogue in 1904. In Muskogee, Temple Beth Ahabah, was formed in 1905. In the same year that statehood was granted, the 100 or so Jews who had settled in Ardmore formed a Reform congregation called Temple Emeth. Today, the small but vibrant Jewish community is centered primarily in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.


1909: Turkey bans all non-Muslims from holding political meetings in houses of worship.


1909: Alma Gluck first appeared on stage with the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Sophie in Massenet's Werther. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)


1914: The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens. In 1930, Eugene Meyer was the first Jew appointed to serve as the Chairman of the Fed.  Two more Jews have served as Chairman of the Fed.  Alan Greenspan was appointed in 1978.  When he retired, Ben Bernake was appointed in 2006


1914: In Germany, a small group of intellectuals whose leaders included Albert Einstein appeals for “the prompt achievement of a just peace without annexations and for the establishment of an international organization that would have as its aim the prevention of future wars.”


1915(9th of Kislev, 5676): Sixty-six year old Raphael Meldola, the Anglo-Jewish chemist who invented Mendola Blue Dye, passed away.


1917(1st of Kislev, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Kislev


1917: New Zealand cavalrymen entered Jaffa; next stop – Jerusalem


1917: During World War I, British forces under General Allenby entered Tel Aviv. In less than a month, the British Army, including Jewish contingents would liberate Jerusalem.


1921: Birthdate of Ben Weisman an American composer and pianist best known for having written many of the songs associated with Elvis Presley. A native of Providence, Ben Weisman was one of Elvis Presley's chief songwriters throughout the 1960s. He co-composed for Elvis' movies and stage performances nearly sixty songs that proceeded to go gold or platinum, including "First in Line", "Got a Lot of Living to Do", "Follow That Dream" and "Wooden Heart". Weisman also wrote songs recorded by Barbra Streisand ("Love in the Afternoon"), The Beatles ("Lend Me Your Comb"), Johnny Mathis ("When I Am with You"), Terry Stafford ("I'll Touch A Star"), Bobby Vee ("The Night Has A Thousand Eyes") and many others. Since Weisman's outward appearance was atypical for a "rock 'roll guy", Elvis' pet nickname for him was "the mad professor". Just before Weisman's last meeting with Elvis in 1976, Elvis proudly announced to the crowd that he had recorded more of Weisman's songs than those of any other songwriter. Weisman's most recent musical score was for the 1995 movie Crossroads at Laredo: The Lost Film of Edward D. Wood Jr.


1922(25th of Cheshvan, 5683): German physicist Max Abraham passed away
 
1924: Birthdate of Haim Brotzlewsky in Vienna who made Aliyah to Palestine in 1939 where he gained fame as Haim Bar-Lev, the IDF’s Chief of General Staff from 1968 through 1971.

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1924: This afternoon, five thousand persons tried to get into the auditorium of the National Hebrew School in New York to attend the funeral services for Dr. Menachem Mendel Scheinkin, the noted Zionist leader who was killed in a street car accident while visiting Chicago, Illinois


1933: The United States recognizes the government of the Soviet Union. Maxim Livtvinov, the Soviet Foreign Ministers led the effort that resulted in this major foreign policy shift, Born Max Wallach, Litvinov was one of many Jews who played a leadership role in the Bolshevik movement and the government of the Soviet Union. Litvinov saw the opening of relations with the United States as a key in the fight against fascism. Litvinov would lose his job in the late 1930’s when the Soviets negotiated a non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany. At that point, Stalin was prepared to do anything to ingratiate himself with Hitler.


1937: Pierre Crabites, a Law School Professor at L.S.U. and for 25 years the American Representative on the Mixed International Tribunal at Cairo of which he became the chief judge wrote a letter to the New York Times in which he advocated that the Haz Anim El Husseini, the Grand Mufti be allowed to return from his self-imposed exile from Palestine without having to fear arrest for the role he allegedly has played in the wave of Arab violence. In the letter, Crabites states his belief that the Grand Mufti is a key player in any attempt to bring to peace to Palestine while appearing to support limitations on the settlement of Jews in Eretz Israel.


1938: Birthdate of American philosopher Professor Robert Nozick. When he passed away in, he was described as “ the greatest American philosopher since William James; his influence extended far beyond the academic world, most famously with his powerful critique of the Left-liberal moral philosophy that underpinned the welfare state.


1939: At Lodz, the Nazis ordered all Jews to wear a Star of David


1939(4th of Kislev): Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Kamenetz Yeshiva, passed away


1940: The Warsaw ghetto was permanently closed. Officially Jews no longer had access to anything, or business, outside of the ghetto


1942: Today, during the darkest days of World War II, a proclamation was published  over the signatures of 1,521 outstanding Americans, declaring the moral right of the stateless Jews of Europe and of the Jews of Palestine "to fight -- as they ask to fight -- under the ancient banner of David the King, as the Jewish Army…They renewed the appeal that has been made ineffectively in the last eighteen months against Arab opposition for he separate arming of 200,00 Jews or more in the Middle East.”  The declaration read, in part “The first victims of Hitler’s aggression cannot conceive democracy denying to them participation…in this crusade against barbarism.”


 
1943: In Manhattan, Edith Hillman Boxill and Dr. Nathan Epstein gave birth to Dr. Paul Epstein, “a public health expert who was among the first to warn of a link between the spread of infectious disease and extreme weather events, adding a new dimension to research into the potential impact of global climate change” (As reported by Paul Vitello)


1943: Ill Jewish slave laborers at the Skarzysko-Kamienna, Poland, ammunition factory, who are lured from their barracks by Ukrainian guards and SS men promising soup, are gunned down or loaded onto trucks and taken to an execution site elsewhere in the camp. The Ukrainians killed all those they thought were too weak to continue working


1943: British forces carried out a search at for arms at Ramat Hakovesh. When members of the kibbutz resisted, the situation erupted in violence. The British killed one kibbutznik wounded 35 others and arrested an additional 35 Jews.


1945: Premiere of “The Lost Weekend” the film about an alcoholic directed by Billy Wilder.


1945: A delegation representing the American League for Free Palestine, a Zionist organization, took off from New York today bound for a meeting of the UN in London.


1945: Yeshiva University came into existence (as a university), making it the first American university under Jewish auspices.


1947: The British seized the SS Kadima, one of several ships filled with Jews that tried to run the British blockade of Palestine.  The ship, which was equipped to carry 400 passengers, left Italy filled with 800 Jews desperate to get out of the European DP camps.  The British took control of the ship at Haifa and deported the Jews to the camps at Cyprus where they remained for a year and three months. Mira (Miriam) Shefer was one of the passengers on the ship.  She met her future husband Efriam while on Cyprus.


1948: The Arabs continue to insist on not recognizing Israel.


1948:The UN Security Council demands that Israel and Egypt negotiate Negev armistice directly or through UN mediator Ralph Bunche. This demand does not alter previous order calling for demilitarization of Negev.


1948(14th of Cheshvan, 5709): Former California Congresswomen Florence Prag Kahn passed away in San Francisco. Elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, United States Representative-elect Julius Kahn, and reelected to the five succeeding Congresses (February 17, 1925-January 3, 1937), she was unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1936.


1955(1st of Kislev, 5716): Rosh Chodesh Kislev


1958: Birthdate of actress Marg Helgenberger, the Catholic wife of the Jewish actor Alan Rosenberg who was President of the Screen Actors’ Guild. Helgenberger is credited with the following quip: “I'm Catholic, he's Jewish, and it was just easier to elope.”


1959: David Susskind produced “The Waltz of the Toreadors” on “The Play of the Week.”


1959: The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''The Sound of Music'' opened on Broadway. Two Jewish writers created a Broadway (and later cinematic) box office hit about a failed Catholic Nun who married an Austrian nobleman and then escaped the Nazis. Theodore Bikel played the lead role as Baron von Trapp. Many of you remember Bikel for his portrayal of Tevya in “Fiddler on the Roof” and for his numerous recordings of a wide variety of folk music including authentic melodies from Russia and Israel. Bikel was born in Vienna. His family moved to Palestine in the 1930’s to escape the rising tide of European anti-Semitism. So his portrayal of von Trapp struck a responsive personal chord. And all of the action in the played happened while everybody was singing a raft of very memorable tunes. Only in America!


1969: The New York Times features a review of the novel, “Phoenix Over the Galilee” by Ka-tzetnik 134633; translated from the Hebrew by Nina de-Nur. “Ka-tzetnik was the slang used to designate a prisoner in a Nazi death camp.  Ka-tzetnik 135633 was an inmate of Auschwitz.” (As reported by John Reed)


1970: At a board meeting of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal Dr. Solomon reported on meeting with Lazarus Phillips and Jack Shacter as the congregation grappled with a financial shortfall.


1977: Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” premiered. Richard Dreyfus appearance in the lead role gave an added Jewish presence to this science fiction blockbuster.


1977: Menachem Begin met with his cabinet to discuss developments since the dramatic announcement in the Egyptian parliament the week before by President Anwar Sadat that he was to speak before the Knesset to achieve peace. General Ephraim Poran, and aide to Begin told Colonel Menachem Milson that he had been chosen to serve as aide-de-camp to Sadat should he actually make the trip to Israel.


1977: Arnold Wesker’s  “The Merchant” with Joseph Leon playing Shylock and Marian Seldes as Shylock’s sister opened at New York’s Plymouth Theatre.  Zero Mostel had originally been casted in the role but he passed away before the Broadway production opened.


1978: Jacob Landau delivered the convocation address at Colby College entitled “The State of the First Amendment.”



1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Illustrated History of the Jewish People, edited by Nicholas de Lange and A Director Calls by Wendy Lesser


1999: Martin Indyk was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.


2000: It was reported today that during Senator-elect Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Knesset she could hear Palestinian gunman firing into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilonow.


 
2001: Ronald Lauder opened the Neue Galerie in New York, an art museum a few blocks away from the Metropolitan Museum, dedicated to art from Germany and Austria from the early 20th century.


2003: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Desire and Delusion: Three Novellas by Arthur Schnitzler, selected and translated by Margret Schaefer


2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that “in a move meant to pave the way for its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Saudi Arabia cancelled its economic embargo against Israel. Israel is a member of the WTO. Under the bylaws of the WTO charter, no member nation may impose an economic embargo on another member state. As a member of the Arab League, Saudi Arabia participated in a joint embargo on Israel for many years, despite its desire to enter the organization. During 12 years of negotiations with the WTO, the Arab nation had refused to lift its embargo against Israel.” The Director General of the WTO described Saudi Arabia’s decision as being an historic event that will pave the way for Saudi entrance into the trade organization next month.

2005: In “A shy wunderkind, Stephen Feinberg” Eytan Avriel described the business workings of the CEO of Cerberus.



2006: Nathan Cooper auditions for Chair Placement at the 60th annual All-State Music Festival Nathan Cooper of Cedar Rapids Jefferson and a stalwart member of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, is one of a thousand outstanding high school musicians who have been chosen to participate in this major cultural event at Iowa State University


2006: Ross Posnock appeared at the Columbia University Bookstore for a discussion and signing of his new book, Philip Roth's Rude Truth: The Art of Immaturity


2006: British religious and architectural charities appealed for help saving the country’s struggling synagogues as they marked the 350th anniversary of the resettlement of Jews in England after they were expelled by King Edward I.


2006(25th of Cheshvan, 5767): Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman passed away at the age of 94.


2006: National Jewish Book Month begins.


2007(6th of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-six year oldVictor Rabinowitz, “a leftist lawyer whose causes and clients over nearly three-quarters of a century ranged from labor unions to Black Panthers to Cuba to Dashiell Hammett to Dr. Benjamin Spock to his own daughter” passed away today.(As reported by Douglas Martin)

2007: Guest Conductor Roni Porat leads the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra an all-Mozart program, including Abduction from the Seraglio Overture, Symphony No. 35 in D Major (Haffner), Serenade no. 6 in D Major and Serenata Notturna.


2007: Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and one of the world’s most prominent cryptographers issued a warning about a hypothetical scenario in which a math error in a widely used computing chip places the security of the global electronic commerce system at risk.


2007(16th of Kislev, 5768): Maine native Harold Alfond, philanthropist and Dexter Shoe founder passes away at the age of 93.


2007: It is time for another round of Dueling Jewish Economists. While on a trip to London, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist said the U.S. economy risks tumbling into recession because of the “mess” left by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Greenspan defended his record and said that Stiglitz’s criticisms are “inaccurate or incomplete.”


2007: The Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign affairs announced that Reb Nachman’s grave in Uman is a cultural site and cannot be sold. The announcement provides comfort to the followers of Breslov Chasidism that the grave site would sold to private parties for commercial exploitation.


2008: Today’s issue of Makor Rishon contains Ya'akov Bar-On's interview with former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau who recently became Chairman of the Board of Yad Vashem. In this informative interview, Rabbi Lau spoke about the meeting in March 1946 between Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog and Pope Pius XII.At this audience, Rabbi Herzog entreated the Pope to make a public declaration to churches, monasteries and Catholic families which had rescued Jewish children to return them to their people. "To this day," Rabbi Lau stated, "no such declaration has been made."It is clear that the conversation went badly and that for Rabbi Herzog the encounter must have been distasteful. Lau related that, at the conclusion of his audience, the Chief Rabbi asked to be taken directly to the mikve teharah, the ritual immersion bath. A member of his entourage told that "he felt a need to immerse himself in purifying water." Meeting a clergyman of another faith is definitely not a reason for ritual immersion, so Herzog's request was original and extraordinary. Through this silent and symbolic deed, the Chief Rabbi revealed his feelings after being in the presence of Pope Pius XII. Separately, we have an additional piece of fragmentary information indicating that Rabbi Herzog was profoundly shaken by this failure. During a lecture at the Darkhei No'am yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Beryl Wein, recounted that, shortly after his visit to Rome, Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog came to Chicago. There, Rabbi Herzog publicly wept because he had failed to recover the Jewish children in Catholic institutions. Rabbi Herzog's efforts have not been generally known. One of the challenges for historians of this generation will be to discover more pieces of the larger story and asses their significance. Hopefully, new information will come to light so that we may learn more about the fateful struggle to recover the Jewish war orphans in Europe after the Holocaust. This was a contest which seems to have been lost.


 

2008: The Jewish Reconstructionist (JRF) Biennial Convention comes to a close in Boston, Mass.


2008: Final performance by the Inbal Dance Company of “Shaker.”

2008: The 32nd annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show which featured 23 Israeli artists comes to an end.


2008: In Chicago, the Spertus presents a lecture entitled “What Is Literary Archaeology?”
during which Yair Zakovitch, Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University, discusses “how biblical narratives are designed to deliver messages” and explores “how these accounts may reflect only one version of a complex and multifaceted story.” Zakovitch’s most recent book is entitled That’s Not What the Good Book Says written with Avigdor Shinan.


2008: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics concerning Jews or Judaism including Friendly Fire: A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua; translated by Stuart Schoffman and Chagall: A Biography by Jackie Wullschlager.


2008(18thof Cheshvan, 5769): The emotional legal battle over whether to keep a 12-year-old New York boy on life support at Children's National Medical Center ended early today after the boy's heart stopped beating, a lawyer for the boy's family said today. Motl Brody, who had been hospitalized in Northwest Washington with brain cancer since June 1, was buried near his Brooklyn home today after a private funeral, said the family's lawyer, Jeffrey I. Zuckerman.

2008: Ami Ayalon announced he would be leaving the Labor Party for the left-wing religious Meimad party


2009: Columbia University's Institute for Israel &; Jewish Studies and American Studies Program together with The Library of America present an evening with Meir Shalev Israeli Novelist, Essayist and Columnist who will discuss “The State of Israeli Literature.”


2009: Letters of Conscience: Raphael Lemkin and the Quest to End Genocide opens at Yeshiva University Museum.

 

2009: Noralee Frankel discusses and signs Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.

2009: Journalist Ariel Sabar discusses and signs his memoir, My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq as part of the Schapiro Lecture Series held at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Branch, Baltimore, Md.,


2009: After the revival of his play “Brighton Beach Memoirs” closed a week after it opened, Time magazine quotes Neil Simon as saying “After all these years, I still don’t get how Broadway Works.”


2009(29th of Cheshvan, 5770): Sixty-eight year old “Bobby Frankel, one of the most successful American thoroughbred trainers of the last 40 years, whose horses included the champions Bertrando, Ghostzapper and Empire Maker, the winner of the 2003 Belmont Stakes, died today. (As reported by William Grimes)



2009: Excerpts of the diaries kept by Claretta petacci, Benito Mussolini's mistress, were published today that showed the Italian dictator to be "a fierce anti-Semite who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler's and vowed to 'destroy them all.'"


2010: Dr. Laurie Ann Levin author of God, The Universe: Where I Fit and Rebecca Rosen author of Spirited are scheduled to speak at the 19th Annual Book Festival of the MJCAA in Atlanta, GA


2010: The New York Times featured a review of Cynthia Ozick sixth novel, Foreign Bodies.


2010(9thof Kislev, 5771): Ronni Chasen was murdered today.  Born in 1946 she was called "Hollywood's ultimate old-school publicist"by Los Angeles Times film critic Patrick Goldstein in an article posted about Ms. Chasen's murder.


2010: Montclair philanthropist Josh Weston was named an honorary fellow of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo as part of today’s ceremony dedicating the institution’s Josh and Judy Weston School of Management and Economics Building.


2011: Martin Fletcher, author of “The List” and David Javerbaum, author of “The Last Testament” are scheduled to appear at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.


2011: “Max Schmeling,” a film about the German boxer that includes tales of how he worked to save Jews, is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.



2011: The meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors is scheduled to come to an end in Argentina.



2011:Joshua Maroof  the rabbi at Magen David Sephardic Congregation in Rockville, Maryland is scheduled to  give the first in a series of lectures entitled “Ezekiel: Prophet of Majesty, Mystery, and Hope.”


2011:A trio featuring Liza Stepanova – piano; Michael Katz – cello; Balazs Rumy – Clarinet is scheduled to perform this evening at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Iowa.


2011:Iran today denied press speculation that Israel was behind the explosion at a military base near Tehran which killed 17 members of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)..


2011:Thousands of aging Holocaust survivors in the U.S. ¬want Congress to clear a path for them to sue European insurance companies they contend illegally confiscated Jewish life insurance policies during the Nazi era and have refused to pay an estimated $20 billion still owed.

 

2011: For the fourth time in the past month, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN Security Council condemning the continuing rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip.

2011(19th of Cheshvan, 5772): Eighty-eight year old “Irwin Schneiderman, a lawyer and a philanthropic leader who guided the New York City Opera through a decade of ups and downs” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2012: Dr. Jenny Carson of the University of Manchester is scheduled to a lecture entitled “Quaker Service: The Friends Relief Service in Post-War Europe” at the Weiner Library in London.  “Friends Relief Service (FRSO ‘Team 100’ was one of the first relief teams  to enter the newly liberated “Camp of Bergen Belsen.”


2012(2nd of Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar in ancient Israel today would be proclaimed as a fast day if the rains had not begun to fall


2012: As Operation Pillar of Defense continues, Israeli officials have placed limitations on those who can attend services at the mosque on the Temple Mount as a pro-active measure to avoid outbreaks of violence. 


2012: Kathe & Gary Goldstein, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community celebrate the birth of their second grandchild, the daughter of Chava and Stephen Rosenbaum.


2012: As Jews around the world prepare to observe Shabbat, their hopes and prayers are with their co-religionists in Israel who have been subjected to rockets attacks for several weeks by Hamas which is dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state and have been forced to take military measures to defend themselves.


2012: Councilors selected Michael Mark Applebaum to serve as interim Mayor of Montreal.


2012:Two rockets landed outside of Jerusalem this evening as sirens rang out, causing no injuries or damage. Police reported there was "no indication" that rockets landed in the city, stating that "most likely, the rockets landed in an open area outside of Jerusalem."


2012:Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the IDF's request this evening to increase the maximum number of reservists it could enlist, seeking cabinet approval to mobilize up to 75,000 troops ahead of a possible Gaza ground operation.

 


2013: In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila is scheduled to host is annual Chanukah Celebration and Talent Show.


2013: In Herndon, VA, Congregation Beth Emeth hosts an evening with Stacey Beyer, “one of TIME Magazine’s Top 10 Starts of New Jewish Music.


2013: “Arabani” and “Dancing In Jaffa” are scheduled to be shown at the 7thannual Other Israel Film Festival.
 
2013: Temple Judah's very own Lincoln Ginsberg is scheduled to star in tonight's production of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Forum" in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

This Day, November 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 17



9CE:  Birthdate of Titus Flavius Vespasianus, better known as Vespasian, who as a Roman General and then Emperor put down the Judean Revolt which included the destruction of the Second Temple.



284: Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. “According to Jewish tradition, in his youth Diocletian had been a swineherd and when he went past the Beis Midrash the children would beat him.” After he became Emperor, Diocletian spent time in Tiberias where enemies of the Jewish people said they disrespectfully referred to him as ‘the swineherd.’ Angered by the charges, the emperor demanded that Jewish leaders come to Tiberias and answer for their slanderous remarks.  The rabbis conceded that they had acted badly towards Diocletian the swineherd but they had never been disrespectful towards Diocletian, the emperor.  The Emperor accepted their argument and apology.  Based on this experience the Jerusalem Talmud cautions Jews against treating any Roman disrespectfully, no matter how low his station in life, since one never knew how high he might rise. In an attempt to bring unity to the empire, Diocletian ordered all of his subjects to accept his divinity and to offer sacrifices to his cult. Fortunately, he exempted his Jewish subjects from this decree.  Diocletian’s reign was a comparatively favorable period for the Jewish people especially when one remembers the fate they would suffer in the next century at the hands of Constantine and his successors.



331: Birthdate of Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus. Known by some as Julian the Apostate, Julian reigned from 361 until his death in 363.  Ironically, he was the nephew of Constantine the Great, the man who made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. For some unknown reason, Julian repealed many of the harsh laws that had been promulgated against the Jews by his predecessors.  While Julian believed that his paganism was superior to Judaism, he felt that the Jews had suffered unnecessarily at the hands of Rome for the last four centuries and he sought to redress the imbalance.  Julian announced plans to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.  He ordered the local Roman officials to help with the project.  Jews returned from as far away as Persia and even built a small synagogue near the Temple Mount in anticipation of this monumental project.  Unfortunately, Julian died while on a military campaign before work could begin.  Rumor had that he had been killed by a Christian Arab in the pay of those who disliked his support of the Jews.  This brief window of hope closed and the Christian Religion joined hands with the power of the Roman state to embitter the lives of the Jews.  



473: The future Zeno I is named associate emperor by Emperor Leo I. Leo was the Byzantine Emperor from 457 until 474. Leo was determined to wed the power of the Empire to the Christian Church. In 468 Leo issued a decree banning everyone but Christians from practicing law. Jews were persecuted with combinations of imperial decrees and church canon. Leo, in his desire to outlaw Judaism and force Christianity upon Jewish people, declared in Constitution LV (55) of the Constitutions of Leo, "Therefore We, desiring to accomplish what Our Father failed to effect, do hereby annul all the old laws enacted with reference to the Hebrews, and We order that they shall not dare to live in any other manner than in accordance with the rules established by the pure and salutary Christian Faith. And if anyone of them should be proved to, have neglected to observe the ceremonies of the Christian religion, and to have returned to his former practices, he shall pay the penalty prescribed by the law for apostates." Leo's Constitution became part of the Justinian's Civil Law. Now Jews had to pretend they were Christians and observe Christian ceremonies. The penalties that could be inflicted on Jews included loss of real estate and/or personal possessions, loss of testamentary rights, exile and, in some case, loss of life.



1278:Edward I of England arrested all the Jews for alleged coin clipping and counterfeiting. 680 were arrested, jailed and put on trial. The judges were given prior instructions clearly biased against the Jews. Although many Christians were accused, many more (ten times as many) Jews were hanged than Christians (269 Jews and 29 Christians). Edward received 16,500 pounds from the property of the executed Jews and the fines of those charged. At that time Jews comprised 1% of the English population. 16,500 pounds was almost 10% of the exchequer's national income.
1333 Ibn Batuta, the Arab traveler, visits Jewish communities in India


1558: The Protestant monarch Elizabeth I assumes the throne of England following the death of her Catholic half-sister known to history as “Bloody Mary.” During her reign the Jewish community was limited to small groups of Marranos living in London and Bristol.  Jews did play a part in the realm foreign affairs. “Don Solomon Aben-Jaish, an adviser to the Sultan of Turkey established ties with Lord Burleigh, one of Elizabeth’s closest advisors.  The two men were and the their two countries were drawn together by their common foe, Philip II, the Catholic King of Spain. In 1588 England faced the threat of the Spanish Armada. A Morrano, Dr. Hector Nunes provided the English with invaluable intelligence on the progress of the Armada as it sailed north towards England.  This information enabled Drake and the other English Sea Dogs to position their ships to best advantage.  On a more negative note, Dr. Roderigo Lopez, who served as one of Elizabeth’s physicians, was accused of plotting to poison the monarch. Lopez was caught in political contest between two of Elizabeth’s advisors – The Earl of Essex and Sir Robert Cecil.  Essex provided evidence of Lopez’s guilt;   Cecil proclaimed his innocence.  Given the tenor of the times, and the numerous plots on her life, Elizabeth had the unfortunate doctor executed.  His ordeal provided the impetus for Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and William Shakespeare’s TheMerchant of Venice featuring the famous Shylock.


1720(10th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Jehiel Michel Teimer, author of Seder Gittin passed away today


1755: Birthdate of King Louis XVIII of France. Following the defeat of Napoleon, Louis was restored as the Bourbon King of France.  As such, he is seen as a figure of reaction seeking to undo the legacy of the French Revolution, including the rights gained by the Jews of France.  The facts speak otherwise.  As Napoleon became more and more an Emperor and less and less of a Republican he chipped away at the rights of the Jews.  Under the Infamous Decrees of 1808, Napoleon placed severe restrictions on Jewish businessmen.  These decrees remained in effect until 1818, when the restored Louis refused to renew them.

1757: Bishop Dembowski's violent death that led to a reversal of fortune in conflict between the Frankist and Talmudists in Poland.  Persecution of the Talmudists immediately came to an end. The Frankist found themselves declared outlaws subject to persecution and imprisonment.  



1800: Birthdate of Achille Fould, French financier and statesmen who was a close advisor to Louis Napoleon.


1846: A welfare society, the Chevra Mevaker Cholim, was organized today in Montgomery, Alabama by 12 German Jewish immigrants including Emanuel *Lehman, uncle of Herbert H. *Lehman. The society conducted services, purchased a cemetery, and on June 3, 1849, with 30 members transformed itself into Congregation Kahl Montgomery. The mobility of immigrant Jews and the tentativeness of their settlement is indicated by the constitutional provision of Kahl Montgomery that "four members shall be sufficient to continue the Society, but should there be only three members, the Society shall be dissolved." The congregation is now called Temple Beth Or, and its first building, built in 1862 with seed money from Judah Touro, is the oldest synagogue building in the state. It now houses a church.

1852: In New York City, the members of the German Hebrew Benevolent Society celebrated the organizations 9thanniversary with a dinner in the City Assembly Rooms.  From September 1, 1851 to September 1, 1852 the society had raised $2,325.50 and spent $2,148.52 in  meeting the needs of the poor and the indigent.



1853: The Five Academies comprising the Institute of France held their annual meeting today.  Among the presenters was M. Holely of the Academy of Fine Arts, composer of the "Wandering Jew" who read "an interminable discourse on Frohberger, a German organist whom no one ever heard of, and whom the writer himself acknowledged was snuffed out by Handel.


1858: The New York Times reported that the Pope is back in Rome, “safer than ever…since he assumed the triple crown.”  The Pope “is disgusted with political reform but deeply interested in infant Jews.”  By infant Jews, the reporter was referring to the Morata Affair, which involved the kidnapping of a Jewish child who was secretly baptized by a maid and turned over to the Catholic Church for safe-keeping.

1869: The Suez Canal opens creating a direct water route from Europe to the Orient. The canal is controlled by the French with the Egyptians as minority stockholders British imperialists wanted control of the canal since it was the gateway to India, the pride of the Empire. In 1875 Benjamin Disraeli bought the Egyptians shares using money borrowed from the Rothschilds. Protecting the Canal was the primary goal of British policy in the East from that day until the middle of the twentieth century.  The British wanted the mandate over Palestine to protect the East Bank of the Canal. Hence their willingness to betray the promises of the Balfour Declaration because they saw Arab violence as being a threat to English control of the waterway to Inida.  The British gave up the Mandate in 1947 which resulted in the creation of Israel because India was gaining its independence.  The Suez Crisis of 1956, which led to the Six Day War in 1967 which has led today’s stalemate, was triggered by British vestigial feelings for the Canal. 



1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger approves of the recent defeat of the Tammany Machine in local city elections.  The Messengergives credit to the New York Times for informing the public about the great abuses and agrees with the Times that this was not a victory of party but of principle.

1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger does not think that appealing to the Russian government for a redress of the conditions of the Jews of Russia will do much to improve conditions. The primary source of misery comes from “petty sources” that no government can control in such a vast expanse as Czarist Russia. [To most of us, this view Jewish life in Russia, is unique]



1878: “Ancient and Modern Gymnastics” published today  commented on the recently published findings of Dr. Schaible in which he traces the history of physical training among various ancient people.  According to Schaible, “the Jews ‘paid but little attention to exercises for the body.’ If this were true, it would that the nation which possesses the most inexhaustible vitality” (the Jews) “ is that which has taken the least trouble about training.” The article challenges Schaible’s view of Jewish physicality.  Not only does the Bible contain numerous accounts of a people who were physically strong enough to win and hold their lands by the swords.  But in modern times, the number of successful Jewish boxers in the UK would tend to refute his contentions.



1878:  “The Jews and the Keys of Jerusalem” published today described two unusual customs practiced by the Jews living under Ottoman rule in Palestine The first concerns “small squares of brass-foil stamped with the Hebrew words meaning visiting the sick.”  Nobody is sure of the origin of this unsanctioned (by the Turkish government) coinage but it is used for commercial among the Jews in the local bazaars. The other custom has to do with acquiring the great keys to Jerusalem when each Sultan passes away.  After a mysterious religious ritual, the Jews return the keys to authorities for used by the incoming Sultan.  The local Turkish authorities see it as harmless activity that enriches them since the Jews have to pay a bribe to get the keys.

1881: Julius J. Frank delivered a lecture entitled “The Jew” Has he Still a Mission” at a meeting sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.



1884: “A Good Old Philanthropist” published today provides a detailed review of Sir Moses Montefiore: A Centennial Biography by Lucien Wolf



1884: Plans for an upcoming fund raiser to be held at the Thalia Theatre “for the benefit of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” were published today.

1884: It was reported today that Mount Sinai Hospital currently has 168 patients.  The hospital has a capacity to serve 185 patients and serves them regardless of race, creed or financial condition.  The hospital has a fund of $175,000 and owes no money on its building or furnishings.



1885: “Hebrews in Convention” published today described events at a conclave of 35 Reform rabbis at which Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler presented his plans for changing the practice of Judaism in the United States.  Among them is the rejection of the traditional belief that all Jews are going back to Palestine and the elimination of reading those sections of the Scriptures “which referred to certain subjects not fit to be read in public or placed in the hands of children.”  He also “denounced the rite of circumcision as a relic of barbarism.” (As can be seen from Kohler’s proposals, the rift between Reform and Jewish traditionalists was about a lot more than just serving shell food at a banquet in Cincinnati)

1887(1st of Kislev, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1887: “Dancing for Charity’s Sake” published today provided a full description of the 9th annual charity ball held by the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The event opened at ten o’clock when President and Mrs. Ernst Nathan and Vice President Samuel Goldstein and his daughter Sara led the promenade. Mayor Whitney and Mayor-elect Chapin attended the event which raised $6,000.

1889: “Modern English Jews” published today traces the history the Jewish community in the British Isles from its earliest days until the end of the present time when Sir Henry Isaacs is about to be named Lord Mayor of London.



1892: “Indignant Russian Hebrews” published today described the anger friends of the late Louis Krabitz expressed when Israel Ronginsky was released following a coroner’s inquest. Both men were Jewish immigrants from Russia who worked as peddlers.

1893: Having lost their courtroom battle with landlord Alexander Grant, 33 Russian Jewish families were reported today to have three days to move out of their tenements and find other housing.



1895: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil “began a series of sermons on ‘Womanhood’ the first of which was entitled ‘The Birthday of a Great Woman.’”

1895: “The Charity of the Jews” published today described Rabbi Joseph Silverman’s view on the generosity of his co-religionist  which included his view “that Israel was always noted for her charity, and, in fact was the first nation to make public charity and benevolence prevalent among its people so that a landed aristocracy could hold no footing in the nation.”



1895: It was reported today that Temple Emanu-El’s Joseph Silverman has “paid tribute to the liberal spirit of the Emperor of Austria for his firm stand against the anti-Semitic fanaticism that recently broke out in Vienna.”


1895: “Queer Marriage Customs” published today described marital rituals in ancient times and non-European societies including “Talmudic prohibitions” requiring “that the male must not be under fourteen years and a day and the female under thirteen years and a day.” During the Middle Ages the Jewish wedding banquet featured “a dressed hen and a raw egg” which “were placed before the bride as a way of urging her to be prolific when it came to children.

1896: Mrs. Sophie C. Axman of Kansas City delivered a lecture on “Child Life” at the Convention of the National Council of Jewish Women which is now in its third day.



1896: Birthdate of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky

1898: Dr. Dillingham, the assistant Sanitary Inspector of the Health Department was reported today to have said that the two cases of measles and three cases of scarlatina have been taken care of and there is no public health problem at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.



1901:  Birthdate of director Lee Strassberg. Born Israel Strassberg in Budzanow, Poland, he was the son of a provincial innkeeper. At the age of 7, he immigrated with his family to the United States, where his father worked in the garment industry. Growing up on the Lower East Side, he attended the theater whenever possible and joined the Chrystie Street Settlement's drama group as an actor. It was at that time that he changed his name to I. Lee Strasberg, subsquently dropping the initial. He worked as a wigmaker; studied improvisational acting techniques with Richard Boleslavsky, a student of Stanislavsky, and began working as an actor. He pioneered the technique of "method acting" and taught many famous actors and actresses how to behave on stage and in front of a camera.  In later life he gave a memorable performance as the Myer Lansky like character in Godfather II.



1902: Birthdate Laurette Eugen Wigner. Wigner was a Hungarian-born American physicist who was the joint winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physics (with Maria Goeppert Mayer and Johannes Hans Jensen) for his insight into quantum mechanics, for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles. He made many contributions to nuclear physics and played a prominent role in the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear energy.



1907: Lord Lionel Rothschild has tentatively agreed to send two of his motorboats to the United States to take place in a series of race scheduled to take place during 1908.



1909: Birthdate of Alter Mojze Goldman a Polish Jew who was active in the French Résistance during World War II



1909(4th of Kislev, 5670): Rabbi Nissim Moche Amon, President of the Constantinople Bet Din (religious court) passed away at the age 72.



1913:  Amidst a controversy over using Hebrew as a language of instruction in the schools in Palestine, the German Counsel in Haifa warned Berlin that use of Hebrew would heighten Arab suspicions about Jewish intentions while exacerbating inter-communal conflicts among the Jews.



1916: Birthdate of author and Civil War historian Shelby Foote.  Foote grew up in Greenville, Mississippi.  His maternal grandfather was a Viennese Jew who immigrated to the United States and settled in Mississippi.  According to an interview found in Confederates in the Attic, Foote’s mother took him to Saturday services in Greenville until he was eleven years old.  Foote did not say why she stopped taking him. However he did say that he did not experience any anti-Semitism while growing up in Greenville. He soon found out that the rest of the world was not as accepting. As a student at UNC in Chapel Hill, Foote was blackballed from a fraternity being pledged by his friends because of his religion. As Foote said in an interview, “’I knew all the trouble I’d have down the line,’ he said of his Jewish heritage.  “I was always not wanting to take on that kind of trouble.   It just added one more problem, an added awkwardness to life.’” So, while in his twenties, Foote was Baptized and confirmed as an Episcopalian. Foote passed away in 2005.



1917: During World War I, General Allenby’s forces entered the Hills of Jerusalem.  The German General on whom the Turks were depending left Jerusalem and headed for Nablus.  He had no intention of fighting by the side of his Ottoman compatriots as the Allies made their way towards the City of David.



1917: Birthdate of Helen Gavronsky the  Germiston, South Africa native who would gain fame as activist and Nobel Prize Winner Helen Suzman



1917: In Brookline, MA, Rose and Myron Helpern gave birth to David Moses Halpern, “the business side of the husband-and-wife apparel design team known as Joan & David…” (As reported by Paul Vitello)



1918(13th of Kislev, 5679): Captain Joseph B. Greenhut passed away today in Peoria, Illinois.  Born at Bishop-Purnitz, Austria, in 1843, lived in Mobile, Alabama before moving to North prior to the Civil War.  He was the second man in Chicago to respond to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers.  As a Sargeant in the 12thIllinois Infantry he fought at Fort Donelson where he was wounded and then promoted to the rank of Captain.  His fought in most of the major battles of the war including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain and the Battle Above the Clouds.   His valor earned him the brevet rank of Colonel.  He served on the state of Edward S. Salomon, one of the Jewish soldiers to reach the rank of General in the Union Army.  After leaving the Army, Greenhut settled in Peoria where he was a successful businessman for over thirty years. His membership in the Grand Army of the Republic and the B’nai Brith bespeak his pride in being an American and a Jew.



1919: Birthdate of composer and arranger Hershy Kay.


1921: Winston Churchill demands that Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner, move forcefully to collect the fines from Arab rioters who had attacked Jews and destroyed their property in Jaffa.



1922: Birthdate of Stuart Schulberg, the son of producer and studio executive B.P. Schulberg and younger brother of novelist/screenwriter Budd Schulberg,



1924: Release date for a Rudolph Valentino melodrama “A Sainted Devil produced by Jesse Lasky and Adolph Zukor.



1927: Birthdate of Stanley Cohen  "an American biochemist who shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his researches on epidermal growth factor (EGF), a substance produced in the body that influences the development of skin tissues.

1930: Birthdate of acclaimed composer David Amram,  "one of the most eclectic, versatile, and unpredictable American musicians of the 20th–21st centuries"

1931: Montefiore Kahn, vice president of Oil Shares, Inc., is scheduled to make a court appearance today related to the theft of $100,000.



1931: ”Kameradschaft” a German made film with social protest overtones co-starring Jewish actor Alexander Granach premiered in Germany today.



1937: As the Arab terrorist war against the Jews of Palestine continued, The Palestine Post reported that 45 Jews were arrested under the new emergency regulations. The Jewish Agency stated, in reference to the revolting murder of five Jewish pioneers at Ma’aleh Hahamisha, and an apparent dissidents’ retaliation during which six Arabs were killed in Jerusalem, that it would oppose to the utmost any attempts at revenge on innocent persons. The agency was confident that all responsible Jewish bodies would stamp out dissidents from their midst. British troops killed three Arab terrorists in Galilee.



1938: Mussolini adopted an Italian anti-Semitic Code patterned after the German Nuremberg Laws.  Was Mussolini an anti-Semite?  This is the subject of The Contract: Mussolini, the Publisher of Hitler by Giorgio Fabrre, recently released in English translation and reviewed by the New York Times on November 7.  This book explores the murky relationship between the two fascist dictators including the fact that Mussolini paid an exorbitant sum for the rights to publish Mein Kampf in Italy.  Apparently the money was really a secret campaign contribution from Mussolini to Hitler.  Prior to the enactment of this code, Mussolini had already moved against the Jews of Italy including his former mistress who was Jewish. The most immediate impact of the code was to force many Jews out of Mussolini’s Fascist Party.  This controversial book has forced many Italians to re-examine this dark chapter in their history.



1938: Sheik Abdul Rahman el Khatib was shot and seriously wounded while walking on a street here this morning. There is little hope for his recovery. His Arab assailant escaped.



1938: As Arab violence continues for a second straight year, “A Jew was fatally shot this morning by an Arab near Sharona, a Christian German colony near Tel Aviv.”



1939: Nazis destroy all of the synagogues in Lódz, Poland.



1939: Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Very Warm for May," premieres in New York City.



1939(5th of Kislev, 5700): Boruch Ber Leibowitz passed away.  Born at Slutsk (Belarus) in 1864, he was Talmudic prodigy who studied under Rabbi Chaim Brisker before becoming head of the Kneseth Beis Yitzchak Yeshiva in Slobodka which he was forced to re-locate and reconstitute in different locales based on the vicissitudes of World War I and the ensuring violence that gripped Eastern Europe.  Tragically, death came to him in Vilna the last location of his Yeshiva.



1940: The Lodz Ghetto Archive was established today, by order of the Chairman of the Judenrat, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski.



http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/october/15.asp



1940: In Tel Aviv, a conference of 300 communal representatives formed a “United National Front” dedicated to carrying out the reform program championed by Pichas Rutenberg.  “This united front has the support of many middle class Jews” who have been concerned by the breach growing between “socialists affiliated with the General Jewish Labor Federation and Zionist Revisionists.”



1940: In Berlin, Lieutenant Colonel Kazys Skirpa, former Lithuanian ambassador to Germany, established the Lietuviu Aktyvistu Frontas (Lithuanian Activist Front), a collaborationist Fascist organization dedicated to nationalism and anti-Semitism.



1941: Proceeds from tonight’s performance of the play “Theatre” at the Hudson Theatre featuring Cornelia Otis Skinner will go to the Women’s League for Palestine and help the league raise funds for the construction of a center for refugees in Jerusalem.



1941: Eight Jews executed for going outside the Warsaw ghetto without permission. Six were women.



1941: In France, the Vichy government expanded the Aryanization rules to exclude Jews from any employment beyond menial labor.



1942: Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz “married Rachel Unger Leifer of Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of Rabbi Naftali Unger, av beis din of Neumarkt  and a descendant of Rabbi Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz.”



1942: It was reported today that two chapters “Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary” by Bella Fromm have appeared in Harper’s Magazine.   [Bella Fromm was a German Jewish correspondent for the Ullstein newspapers and the Times. She risked her life by staying in Germany during the 1930’s so that she could report on events surrounding the Hitler régime.  She finally fled to the United States where her reportage became the inspiration for this first-hand account of events in the land of the Nazis.]



1942: The headline in today’s edition of Haaretz announced that "The Eretz-Israeli residents that have been exchanged have arrived from the Reich."  According to the Jewish daily, “There’s been much commotion at the Afula station in preparation for the arrival of 114 women and children, relatives of Eretz-Israeli and British residents, who've come from Germany. They were exchanged for German women and children from Eretz Israel, who were allowed to travel to Germany."



1943: Nine hundred ninety-five Jews from Holland were sent to Birkenau where 531 were gassed, including 166 children.



1943: General Antonescu, the Rumanian dictator warned the cabinet against giving into Hitler's demands for the Jews. Hundreds of thousands still survived in camps and ghettos. "We will take them away from here." Four thousand, four hundred orphans were the first to be repatriated, followed by 15,000 others.



1943: The director-general of the BBC, Robert Foot, issued a policy directive . . . 'that we should not promote ourselves or accept any propaganda in the way of talks, discussion, features with the object of trying to correct the undoubted anti-Semitic feeling which is held very largely throughout the country'



1944: Birthdate of producer Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live.



1945: A delegation from the American League for Free Palestine headed by former Iowa Senator Guy Gillette arrived in London tonight.  The delegates are supposed to hold discussions with British leaders about the situation in Palestine and payment of reparations to those living in DP camps in Germany.



1945: As the British government sought to enforce the White Paper and clamp down on Jewish resistance activities, “British paratroopers carried twenty expectant mothers to hospitals in armored cars today.  A baby born in one of the armored cars was named Shalom by his mother.



1946: As part of growing wave of terror caused by Britain failing to honor its war time promise to allow Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel and increasing repressive measure aimed at the Jews of the Yishuv, four British policemen were killed when their truck was blown up outside Tel Aviv.



1947: In Palestine, the departing British administration plans to sell state-owned real estate along the Haifa waterfront and to invest in England money from bonds sold to Palestinians.



1947: A Liverpool jury needed only 13 minutes of deliberation to find newspaper editor James Caunt not guilty of charges of “seditious libel against the Jews in Britain.”  Caunt had written an editorial in The Visitor criticizing “British Jews for not doing more to prevent Zionist killing of British  troops in Palestine, describing Jews as ‘a plague on Britain’ and encouraging violence against them.



1947: Today, while the National Conference of the CDE was still conducting its business, Dr. William Filderman resigned from the leadership of the UER, and after a short time, succeeded in leaving Romania clandestinely. This decision had to be made, because it was discovered that the Romanian authorities were preparing a plot in which he would be accused of being a spy for Great Britain.



1948: King Abdullah of Transjordan hopes for a "real peace" to replace "semi-peace." He suggests that "the Israelis should be more reasonable "and the Arabs "should accept the logical." (Abdullah was a complex figure who wanted to rule Jerusalem,  He announced that no land under the control of the Jordanian army would be turned over to what are called today the Palestinian Arabs.)



1950: Soprano Roberta Peters, the twenty year old daughter of Ruth and Sol Peterman debuted at the Metropolitan Opera when she replaced a colleague on six hours’ notice. (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archive)



1953 (17 Kislev):Isser Zalman Meltzer passed away.  Born in1870, he was a famous Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, Rosh Yeshiva and pose. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel", after the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishne Torah.



1954(21st of Cheshvan): Hebrew poet Yizhak Lamdan passed away



1960: Birthdate of Mandy Yachad a former South African cricketer and field hockey player who represented the South African national team in both sports.


1962: “Little Me” a Broadway “musical written by Neil Simon with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.


1962: “More Language That Needs Watching” by Theodore M. Bernstein, the assistant managing editor of the New York Times is scheduled to be published today. This is Bernstein’s second book on linguistics. “Watch Your Language” provided examples “of words gone wrong – incorrect usage – and inept sentence structure” as well as selections of “bright and incisive writing.”


1962: In his sermon delivered today, Dr. Israel Margolies said that laws that prevent the abortion of deformed babies are barbarous. The New York City rabbi has been quoted as saying “that the truly civilized mind would be hard pressed to devise a greater sin than to condemn a helpless infant to a life of permanent deformity, or to the twilight world of the slum and orphanage, or to an unwelcome home.”



1964(12th of Kislev, 5725): Chaim Mordechai Katz  the Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, suffered a massive, fatal heart attack today.



1968: In what became known as the “Heidi Game” NBC cut away from the last minute of football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets so viewers could see the children’s classic, Heidi.  Given the closeness of the game, NBC’s switchboard was lit up with calls from irate fans.  The Jets were owned by two Jews, Sonny Werblin and Leon Hess and the Raiders were owned by another Jew, Al Davis. 



1969: An F-4E Phantom Jet manned by Ehud Hankin and Shaul Levi fell victim to Jordanian anti-aircraft fire.



1977:Egyptian President Sadat formally accepts invitation to visit Israel. This is the start of a historic process that will result in the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.  While Sadat may have been the leader of the sneak attack that started the Yom Kippur War, he is worth remembering as an Arab Nachson, a man who was brave enough to plunge into the unknown for the greater good.  He literally paid for peace with his own blood. 



1977: Colonel Menachem Milson, the Israeli officer named to serve as aide-de-camp to Anwar Sadat during his upcoming visit to Israel met with the committee coordinating preparation for the historic visit. 



1980: Bella Abzug and Grace Paley were among the thousands of women who participated in today’s Women’s Pentagon Action.



1980: In a move that reinforced the concept of separation of church & State, the Supreme Court today decided in Stone v Graham, that “a Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments purchased with private contributions on the wall of each public classroom in the State is unconstitutional”



1982(1st of Kislev, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1982(1st of Kislev, 5743): Russian violinist Leonid Borisovitch Kogan passed away.



1983: Birthdate of Milwaukee Brewers MVP Ryan Braun.



1988: Neil Simon's "Rumors," premieres in New York City.



1990(29th of Cheshvan, 5751): Robert Hofstadter passed away. Hofstadter was an “American scientist who was a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1961 for his investigations in which he measured the size of the neutron and proton in the nuclei of atoms. He revealed the hitherto unknown structure of these particles and helped create an identifying order for subatomic particles. He also correctly predicted the existence of the omega-meson and rho-meson. He also studied controlled nuclear fission. Hofstadter was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Stanford Linear Accelerator. He also made substantial contributions to gamma ray spectroscopy, leading to the use of radioactive tracers to locate tumors and other disorders. (He shared the prize with Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer of Germany.)”



1993: Judith Rodin was named the president of the University of Pennsylvania making her the first woman to head an Ivy League University.

1993(3rd of Kislev, 5754): Sgt. 1st Cl. Chaim Darina, age 37, was stabbed by a Gazan terrorist while seated at the cafeteria at the Nahal Oz road block at the entrance to the Gaza Strip. The terrorist was apprehended. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the murder.



1996: In New York, the complete list of candidates for landmark status and their architects suggested by Robert A. M. Stern includes the Henry L. Moses Research Institute, Montefiore Hospital, East Gun Hill Road, Bronx



1998: Israel's parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace accord with the Palestinians.



2001: Daniel Saul Goldin finishes serving as Adminstrator of NASA.  Goldin was the first Jew to hold the post.  He held the position longer than any of his predecessors, serving under three different Presidents.

2002 (12th of Kislev, 5763): Abba Eban passed away.  (Editor’s note:  This entry is a little on the lengthy side, but the subject is well worth the time.  There is a prejudice at work here.  As youngster growing up in Washington during the 1950’s I heard Eban speak several times. His round Churchillian tones along with his sharp, lucid comments made one swell with pride.  I was further amazed to think that Israelis sounded just like Winston Churchill [boy was I in for a surprise].  But in the early days of the state, when Israel was not a popular cause, Ambassador to the U.S. and the U.N., Abba Eban bucked the odds, conducting a one-man diplomatic and public relations offensive against the well-heeled American oil lobby and the Arab governments to provide Israel with a positive image in the United States at a time when the survival of the state hung in the balance on daily basis. He will always be remembered as one of the statesmen who helped persuade the world to approve creation of Israel and dominated Israeli diplomacy for decades.)

Abba Eban, orator, Israeli statesman and diplomat, Foreign Minister from 1966 to 1974, was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and brought up in England. He studied oriental languages and classics at Cambridge University, England, where he was a lecturer in Arabic from 1938 to 1940. He was already a public speaker of caliber and renowned for his presence at debates on the Middle East. During World War II he served in the British Army in Egypt and Mandate Palestine, becoming an intelligence officer in Jerusalem, where he coordinated and trained volunteers for resistance in the event of a German invasion. In 1946, the Jewish Agency appointed him political information officer in London, where he participated in the negotiations with the British government and the UN concerning the establishment of the State of Israel. When Israel became independent in 1948, he was appointed its first Ambassador at the UN. From 1950 until 1959 Eban was both Israel's ambassador in Washington, D.C., and chief delegate to the UN. On his return to Israel in 1959, Eban was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Mapai party, and served under David Ben-Gurion as Minister of Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963. From 1963 to 1966, he was deputy to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. He was also president of the Weizmann Institute at Rehovot from 1959 to 1966. As Israel's Foreign Minister from February 1966 to 1974, Eban tried to strengthen relations with the United States and to associate Israel with the European Economic Community. During and after the Six-Day War of June 1967, he led Israel's diplomatic struggle in the UN. Following the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, Abba Eban helped bring about a disengagement of Egyptian and Israel forces in Sinai.  Eban continued to serve in succeeding sessions of the Knesset, but outside the ministerial sphere, as a member and later as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, until he retired from politics in 1988. He was widely admired for his brilliant oratory outside Israel and his statesmanship at the UN on Israel's behalf, including some dramatic oratory. He wrote a scathing article on the infamous UN "Zionism=Racism" Resolution in 1975.  A figure of multiple accomplishments, Eban was fluent in ten languages, with the dual vocation of statesman and erudite academic. Throughout his career, he found time to publish meticulous and detailed historical works based on his vast knowledge and personal experience. His books include Voice of Israel (1957); My People (1969); My Country (1972), and Personal Witness (1992), as well as An Autobiography. After his retirement, he was able to dedicate more time to writing and lecturing, including essays and books The New Diplomacy and Diplomacy for the Next Century(1998), but his major landmarks were his involvement in the creation of three major historical television documentary series about the Jewish People and Israel, in which his remarkable voice rings throughout the narration with elegance and confidence. The first two were for Israel Television: Heritage: Civilization and the Jews; Personal Witness: A Nation is Born; and The Brink of Peace was produced with PBS.  In 2001, Abba Eban was awarded the Israel Prize for his lifetime achievement, but his wife received the prize on his behalf, as he was too ill to attend the ceremony. He also held twenty honorary doctorates and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.



2002: The New York Timesbook section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, Media and Her Children by Ludmila Ulitskaya, translated by Arch Tait and The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Rightby Daniel Levitas.



2005:  Haaretz reported on the three day visit of Israel’s President Moshe Katsav to Italy.  On the second day of the trip, Italy’s prime minister said that Israel should be admitted to the European Union.  This appears to be further evidence of the end of a period in which Israel was isolated from western democracies.  Katsav also announced his plans to invite the new Pope to visit Jerusalem.



2005: Conrad M Black was indicted for his alleged role in stealing $51.8 million dollars from Hollinger International, the giant international newspaper publisher he helped create.  His publishing empire included The Jerusalem Post.  Black is Catholic but he is married to the conservative columnist Barbara Amiel, who is Jewish.  



2006: William Shattner, the actor best known for his role as Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise appears in a commercial on the History Channel proclaiming that he is a Jew while wishing Mazel Tov to the Pilgrims.  The commercial is promoting an upcoming television telling the untold story of the Pilgrims travels to America in 1620.



2006: Jessica Savitch, of blessed memory, was inducted into "The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Hall of Fame"



2007: The International Oud Festival presents "Peace on Earth" at the Jerusalem Theater. The ensemble put together by Dinkjian for our Festival this year is comprised of some of the finest musicians from Greece, Turkey and Israel, Christians, Muslims and Jews, who will improvise together and play a selection of works by composers of the different faiths.



2007: As part of the Australia Festival of Jewish Cinema “The Vow” is shown in Melbourne, Australia and “The Cantor’s Son” is shown in Sydney, Australia.



2007: Omer Golan scored the winning goal for Israel against Russia, handing England a lifeline in their qualification group for Euro 2008,



2007: Haaretz reported that “the Jewish poverty rate in the United States is higher than that in Israel. In Israel 24 percent of the population is considered poor, but about half is not Jewish…The poverty line for a family of three is set at an annual income of $15,000 but in New York and other large cities it is adjusted to the higher cost of living and set at $22,530.”  

2008: The Jewish Community Center of Chicago holds its annual Hall of Fame Dinner, this year honoring Edward Fox followed by a benefit concert featuring Itzhak Perlman with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.



2008: As part of the Meet the Author series, the JCC in Manhattan presents an evening with Yehudit Katzir, “a leading fresh female voice from Israel whose work has been translated into many languages.”  Her latest novel, “Dearest Anne, is a coming of age story set in mid-1970s Israel. After divorce shatters her family, Rivi is raised by her neglectful mother and helps care for her two younger brothers. She documents her feelings in a diary addressed to Anne Frank.”



2008(19th of Cheshvan, 5769): Ali Ashtari was hanged today after being sentenced to death on June 30 by a revolutionary court in Teheran. It was the country's first known conviction for espionage linked to Israel in almost a decade.



2008: Moshe Ya'alon announced that he was joining Likud and that he would participate in the primaries which would determine the Likud candidates for the 2009 elections. Ya’alon had served as IDF Chief of Staff from 2002 through 2005.



2009: At Acre, the second workshop sponsored by UESCO on the subject of “Protecting Heritage Sites from Disaster” comes to an end.



2009: Opening of The Fifth International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition - WATEC Israel 2009 at the Trade Fair and Convention Center in Tel Aviv.



2009 (30th of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



2009: Noralee Frankel discusses and signs Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee at noon as part of the Books & Beyond series at the Library of Congress.



2009: Adolf Storms. a former SS sergeant who worked unnoticed for decades as a train-station manager was charged with 58 counts of murder today after Admreas Foster a student doing undergraduate research uncovered his alleged involvement in a massacre of Jewish forced laborers.

2010: In New York City, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present: Journeying to the Jews: Literary Ethnography along the Eastern Front, 1914-1918.



2010:  In New York City, Jaimy Gordon was the surprise winner of the National Book Award for fiction.



2010: It was announced today that  Gerda Weissman Klein, a Holocaust survivor who teaches children the value of citizenship is among those who will be honored by President Obama with a Medal of Freedom.

2010: Today Israel approved the withdrawal of troops from the northern half of a divided village that straddles the border with Lebanon — a step that would end its four-year presence in the volatile area. The pullout, expected to take place in the coming weeks, would resolve a key dispute between the neighboring countries that has simmered since Israel reoccupied northern Ghajar during the war with Lebanese Hezbollah militants in 2006.

2011: The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El are scheduled to present “Gender, Power, and Authority in Jewish Life: Challenges and Opportunities in North America and Israel” featuring Renana Pilzer, head of the Beit Midrash at the Shalom Hartman Institute Midrashiya Girls High School and Rabbi Joanna Samuels, Director of Strategic Initiatives,Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community



2011: Jeremy Cowan author of “Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah: How it took 13 years, extreme Jewish Brewing and Circus sideshow freaks to make Schmaltz Brewing Company an International Success” is scheduled to appear at the JCC in St. Louis, MO.



2011: Rabbi Jeff Portman is scheduled to begin teaching a five session course “The Simpsons and the 10 Commandments” at Kirkwood Community College.



2011: “The Young Zionist of Dror in Morocco” a film that documents Jewish life in Morocco during the 1950’s is scheduled to be shown today at the Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.



2011: Israel has reached its lowest poverty levels since 2003, according to the 2010 poverty report released today, but still faces significant problems in wealth disparity and impoverished children.

2011: Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch said today that medical residents who were resigning en mass in protest over pay and conditions were “taking the law into their own hands.” Beinisch was speaking during a High Court hearing over a petition doctors

2012(3rd of Kislev, 5773): Ninety-four year old “Leah Gottlieb, who started with a single sewing machine in a refugee camp in the new nation-state of Israel and rose to become one of the world’s most renowned designers of women’s bathing suits” passed away at her home in Tel Aviv today.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/fashion/leah-gottlieb-a-designer-of-swimsuits-dies-at-94.html?hpw&_r=0



2012: “Süskind,” a cinematic treatment of the life the Jewish manager of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam in 1942, is scheduled to be shown at the UK Jewish Film Festival.



2012: The Jerusalem International Oud Festival is scheduled to come to an end.



2012: The World Union For Progressive Judaism is scheduled to host the 2012 International Humanitarian Awards Dinner in NYC.



2012: Flory Jagoda, Aaron Shneyer, Hannah Spiro, Freida Enoch, Jessi Roemer, Jill Sege and Jonathan Tucker are scheduled to perform at Congreation Tifereth Israel as part of the Jewish Folk Arts Festival.



2012: As Jews around the world observe Shabbat the words “Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya'aseh shalom aleynu v'al kol yisrael vimru amen”  (He who makes peace in his high places, he shall make peace upon us and upon all Israel, and say amen) take on a special poignancy as terrorist rockets are fired at Jerusalem and Israeli soldiers prepare to risk their lives to preserve the Jewish state.



 2012: As Israel entered the fifth day of Operation Pillar of Defense, an eerie silence washed over the south, with the familiar sound of red alerts and booms of rockets giving way to rumors of a ceasefire. As soldiers continued to stream south, Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi told reporters that there were indications that an agreement to halt hostilities was close. Israel denied the report, with officials saying there were still too many targets to hit before they could be confident the job they set out to do was done. Still, Southern Command head Tal Russo told reporters Hamas had been dealt a heavy blow. (As reported by Times of Israel)

2012: The Iron Dome intercepted two Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles aimed at Tel Aviv today. The missiles marked the third attack on the heavily populated central city in as many days, after Palestinian terrorists from Gaza fired four missiles toward the financial capital yesterday and the day before yesterday, prompting red alert air raid sirens to sound in the city. (As reported by Jerusalem Post)

2013: In Australia, the annual Jewish International Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.



2013: “The Fading Valley” and “Good Garbage” are scheduled to shown at the “Other Israel Film Festival” in New York City.

2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Map and The Territory: Risk, Human Nature and the Future of Forecasting by Alan Greenspan, Jews In Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920-2010 by Jeffrey S. Gurock, The Rise of Abraham Cahan by Seth Lipsky, Hanukkah in America: A History by Dianne Ashton, Jews and the Military: A History by Derek Penslar  and The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt.



 

 
 
 

This Day, November 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 18



1095: Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Summoned to plan the First Crusade, it was attended by over 200 bishops. Among its official policies, the Council decreed that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem made every other penance superfluous.  And so began one of the darkest periods in Jewish history.



1302: Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam that proclaimed, "outside of the Church there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins." It declares that those who resist the Roman Pontiff are resisting God's ordination. This is the same Pope Boniface VIII who issued the bull Exhibita Nobis, ordaining that Jews could be denounced to the Inquisition without the name of the accuser being revealed, so as to protect Christians against Jewish reprisals.



1489: Joseph Günzenhäuser, Yom-Tov ben Perez and Solomon ben Perez published “Hobot ha-Lebabot” (Duties of the Heart) by Bayha ibn Pakuda in Italy. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century. The same trio had printed “Eben Bohan” byKalonymus ben Meir ben Kalonymus in August of 1489. Kalonymus was a an author and translator who lived in Provence “Eben Bohan” (The Touchstone) was a seminal work on morality for the Jews living in southern France.


1570: In Ferra, Italy, the town where Azarya ben Moses dei Rossi is living was struck by an earthquake, which “miraculously” spared the Jewish Community.   In the aftermath of the earthquake, Dei Rossi became aware of whole body of Jewish literature from the time of the Second Temple which was known to Christians but had been lost to the Jews because it was written in Greek.   In twenty days he translated "The Letter of Aristas," from Greek into Hebrew. "The Letter of Aristas,""is supposed to be the discourse a Greek king gave about the wisdom of the Jews [Some sources give 1571 as the date for the earthquake.]


1648: Bogdan Chemielniki and his Cossacks began their attacks. Kamenets, in the western Ukraine is one of the first cities to be attacked, with thousands killed in the first few days. Chemielniki was leading a Ukrainian national uprising against their Roman Catholic Polish masters. The Russian Orthodox Ukrainians were bitter over the forced conversions to Catholicism led by the Jesuits and the unscrupulous taxes collected by some Jews for the nobles.  The Jews managed the Ukrainian estates of the absentee Polish landlords. This volatile mixture of nationalism, religion and economic exploitation set the stage for the Cossack uprising. During the reign of Vladislav IV, the Zaporozhin Cossacks lived in a semi-autonomous kingdom called Sitch. Led by their leader - or Hetman - Chemielniki, they decided to avenge the people's rights. Their victories over the Polish army encouraged the serfs to join them. The Jews were even more hated than the Poles and were massacred in almost every town. In the ten tumultuous years that followed, over seven hundred Jewish communities were destroyed and between one hundred and five hundred thousand Jews lost their lives.



1804(15th of Kislev, 5565): First observance Purim of Abraham Danzig which is also called Pulverpurim or Powder Purim. Memorial Day established for himself and his family by Abraham Danzig, to be annually observed by fasting on the 15th of Kislew and by feasting on the evening of the same day in commemoration of the explosion of a powder-magazine at Wilna in 1804. By this accident thirty-one lives were lost and many houses destroyed, among them the home of Abraham Danzig, whose family and Abraham himself were all severely wounded, but escaped death (see Danzig, Abraham ben Jehiel). Danzig decreed that on the evening following the 15th of Kislew a meal should be prepared by his family to which Talmudic scholars were to be invited, and alms should be given to the poor. During the feast certain psalms were to be read, and hymns were to be sung to the Almighty for the miraculous escape from death.



1838: In Mainz, Lazarus and Eleonore Hallgarten gave birth to Charles Hallgarten who followed in his father’s footsteps as an American banker at Hallgarten & Company.



1842: Birthdate of Edwin Einstein who was the Congressman from New York’s 7thdistrict from 1879 until 1881.



1844: Birthdate of Sir Benjamin Louis Cohen, Baronet, British businessman and Conservative politician.



1851: Birthdate of Austrian critic and journalist Anton Bettelheim.



1851: Reverned Henry Giles delivered a lecture before the Mercantile Library Association entitled "The Greek Man: or the Man of Culture" in which he compared the ancient Greeks to the Jews. Among other things he said that "Among men of the higher races, the Hebrew man and the Greek man stand, perhaps, the most in contrast. The spirit of the Hebrew man went upward; the faculties of the Greek man went outward.  In one was the idea of the divine: in the other, the idea of the Human.  The Hebrew man abhorred all image of God; the Greek man had no Got but in an image...The worship of the Hebrew ascended to a single and supreme object; the worship of the Greek went diffusively abroad...The mere form of the Hebrew ritual was eminently ceremonial...the appeal was with a sublime and sacramental meaning of which that of the Greek had nothing...the Hebrew life was developed through faith  and governed by authority.  The Greek life was developed through imagination and was governed by art.


1856: In Lancaster, PA, Congregation Shaarai Shomayim was incorporated today with  Jacob Herzog serving aas the first president.


1858: At New York’s Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, popularly known as the Greene Street Synagogue, Rabbi Morris Raphall preached a Thanksgiving Day Sermon following the afternoon service based on the words of the Psalmist, “Thank ye the Lord, for He is good; His mercy endureth forever.”  In his sermon, the Rabbi noted that the Governor’s Thanksgiving Proclamation had been written in such a manner that it did not offend the Jews making this a day that fulfilled the words of the Psalm, “How good, how beautiful it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.



1858: A Thanksgiving Day service was held today at Congregation Shearith Israel on Crosby Street.  The service began at 11 a.m. and featured a sermon by Dr. Fischel based on the words of the Psalmist, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman walketh but in vain.”



1863:  King Christian IX of Denmark decided to sign the November constitution, which declared Schleswig as part of Denmark, what was seen by the German Confederation as a violation of the London Protocol and lead to the German–Danish war of 1864. If you look at history in the long haul, The Prussian war with the Danes was the first of a series of conflicts ultimately led to the creation of Modern Germany.  In other words, there is a line from war with the Danes, to war with the Austrians, to war with France in 1870, to World War I to World War II and the Holocaust.



1869: In New York City, Rabbi James K. Gutheim delivered a Thanksgiving Day sermon at Temple Emanu-El based on Isaiah, XXXV, 17.



1873: “Give a Dog a Bad Name” by Anglo-English playwright Leopold Davis Lewis was published today.



1874: Rabbi De Sola Mendes delivered the first in a series of six lectures on Hebrew poetry at the Lyric Hall in Manhattan.



1875: The Cleveland (Ohio) Herald reported that an unnamed young woman living on the city’s west side has canceled her wedding.  The bride assumed that her future husband, a local doctor, was a Roman Catholic.  In fact he is a Jew who regularly attends services at his synagogue.  The young woman sent word that she would not marry him unless he renounced his Judaism; something that he does not appear to be willing to do.



1878: It was reported today that during the recent Congressional elections in Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan delivered a speech opposing the candidacy of Colonel William Lowe in which he described Charles E. Mayer, the United States District Attorney and a Lowe supporter as being a “Jew dog.” The attack on Mayer resulted in many Jews who had opposed Lowe to support him in his bid for election.  Lowe, who was opposed by the Bourbon Machine, won the election. Morgan was a bigot who sought to pass legislation legalizing lynching an repealing the 15th Amendment. Mayer served as U.S. District Attorney from 1876 through 1870.



1879: Bernard Williams, a Jew born in Poland now living in New Orleans, was one of the witnesses who testified before the Senate Sub-Committee looking into allegations of irregularities regarding the elections held in the Crescent City’s Seventh War in 1876.  Allegations concerning voter fraud were a major issue in the South following the Civil War as the “Bourbons” sought to return to power by disenfranchising newly freed slaves and poor whites who would not support them.



1880(15th of Kislev, 5641): Arthur Lieberman, a Jew who had fled Russia to avoid arrest by the authorities took his own life today in Syracuse, NY.



1883: It was reported today that the Lord Mayor of London has received telegrams from Jews in the United States and Germany congratulating him on his decision to not let Herr Stoeckel, the anti-Semitic German religious leader speak at Mansion House.



1883: It was reported today that Herr Stoeckel, the anti-Semitic German minister, has had numerous offers to speak before sympathetic audiences in London.



1883: “Morris Ranger’s Career” published today traces the rise and fall of this native of Hesse-Cassel who joined the Liverpool Exchange and became the “Napoleon of the Cotton Speculators” before suffering financial reverses in the amount of £10,000,000.



1883: “Gossip of the Theatres” published today contained a clarification issued by Daniel Frohman, the Jewish American theatrical producer, expects “The Strangler” to run for another seven or eight weeks at the New Park Theatre.  This play is a collaborative effort of all three Frohman brothers -  Daniel, Charles and Gustave.



1884(30th of Cheshvan, 5645): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1884: It was reported today that the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society for Children is providing lodging for “nearly 400 children who are homeless waifs.”



1884: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society for Children sponsored a fund raiser featuring theatrical and dramatic performances by the Thalia Theatre Company



1885: “A New Jewish Platform” published today lists the 8 points of what will become known as the Pittsburgh Platform of Reform Judaism – that group’s controlling document for decades to come.



1885: The Hebrew Asylum Ball was held tonight at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NY.



1886: Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States passed away.  Elected as Vice President, Arthur became President after James Garfield was assassinated by a disappointed office seeker.  Arthur was one of the least distinguished personages to occupy the White House. In 1882, when the United States finally ratified the Red Cross treaty, President Arthur appointed Adolphus SimeonSolomons as one of three delegates to represent the country at the Geneva Congress, where he was elected vice-president. Solomons was a successful Washington businessman who played an active role in the secular and Jewish communities



1888: “Searching For Her Husband” published today tells the story of Mrs. Hirschbeck, a Jew from Warsaw who has arrived in Buffalo, NY, her latest stop on a five year quest to find her husband, who is now known as Nathan Cohen.  According to her, he was a dissipated man who deserted her and their five children.



1890: A conference of Protestant clergymen met today at the University of the City of New York where attendees spoke in favor of keeping religion out of the public schools because Roman Catholics and Jews “were partners in the public schools” and “their children were entitled to the benefit of them…without the liability of having” to change “their faith in the religion of their fathers.”  The ministers felt it was the responsibility of churches and homes to provide moral and religious training.



1891: Tonight, in New York, Carnegie Hall will be transformed into an Oriental Bazaar such as those found in Palestine where items will be sold in various “stalls” to raise funds for the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School.



1892 (28th of Cheshvan): Seventy-six year old Hebrew scholar Senior Sachs passed away in Paris.  Born in Russia he was trained in Talmud by his father Rabbi Tzemach Sachs.  After studying in Berlin during the 1840’s he arrived in the French capital in 1856 where he worked as a private librarian and produced several works including Kanfe Yonah



1893: As two more Spanish regiments arrive Mellila to deal with the Rif Berbers “numbers of Jews continue to leave” the Spanish city on the coast of Morocco.



1894: In New York, Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a talk on “What Is The Attitude of Judaism to Christianity and Other Religions” which is “the first of a series of lectures on ‘Answers to Jewish and Christian Inquirers.”



1895: It was announced today that “Dr. Ahlwardt, the anti-Semitic leader of Berlin, Germany, is making arrangements to sail for the United States next month to deliver lectures”  at the invitation of “a committee of German Americans in Milwaukee.”  Given his nickname “Jew-baiter” there is little doubt as to the subject matter of the talks.



1896: Fannie and Irving Dittenhoefer married today in New York City.



1896: In Cleveland, Ohio, Micahelis Machol, the Rabbi at the Reform Temple on Scoville Avenue protested “against that portion of President Cleveland’s Thanksgiving proclamation of Christ as the mediator between man and God.”



1896:  The delegates at the National Council of Jewish Women have changed the name of their organization to the Council of Jewish after Mrs. Mendola de Sola of Canada protested “the use of the word national.”  The delegates then adopted “Faith and Humanity” as their motto.



1897: In Albany, Chief Examiner Fowler of the State Civil Commission announced that candidates for the upcoming examination of interpreter for the First Judicial District must be able to interpret several languages including “Hebrew jargon.” (This may a reference to Yiddish)



1898: William Sparger conducted the Sabbath eve service at Temple Emanu-El which was a prelude to a Thanksgiving Service and a celebration of Dr. Guastav Gottheil’s silver anniversary as the Rabbi of New York’s leading Reform congregation.



1898: Following the meeting of Herzl and Kaiser Wilhelm II outside of Jerusalem, the London Daily Mail wrote today that: “An Eastern Surprise Important Result of the Kaiser’s Tour Sultan and Emperor Agreed in Palestine Benevolent Sanction Given to the Zionist Movement One of the most important results, if not the most important, of the Kaiser’s visit to Palestine is the immense impetus it has given to Zionism, the movement for the return of the Jews to Palestine. The gain to this cause is the greater since it is immediate, but perhaps more important still is the wide political influence which this Imperial action is like to have. It has not been generally reported that when the Kaiser visited Constantinople Dr. Herzl, the head of the Zionist movement, was there; again when the Kaiser entered Jerusalem he found Dr. Herzl there. These were no mere coincidences, but the visible signs of accomplished facts.” Reverend William Henry Hechler, an Anglican clergyman who supported the Jewish return to Palestine, was instrumental in arranging the meeting between the Zionist leader and the German monarch.



1899: Birthdate of Conductor Eugene Ormandy. A native of Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy was a child prodigy.  He began playing the violin at the age of 4 and entered the Royal Academy at the age of 5.  Ormandy’s father dreamed of his son becoming a great violinist.  So he was disappointed when Ormandy pursued a career that would lead him to become one of the world’s greatest conductors.  For most of his career, Ormandy was the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  This was no small accomplishment since he was following in the footsteps of the world-renowned Arturo Toscanini.   He passed away in 1985.



1899: “Notes and News” published today described the decision of Harper & Brothers to published a second edition of The Jewish Question and the Mission of the Jews which include “much additional material” including an article on Captain Dreyfus. Originally published anonymously, the second edition will included the name of the author, Dr. Charles Waldstein, Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Cambridge, an American born Jew who graduated from Columbia.



1906: Birthdate of German novelist Klaus Mann.  Klaus Mann was the son of Thomas Mann and Katia Pringsheimz.  Pringshmeimz was Jewish which according to Halachah means Kalus Mann was Jewish as well. He was also part of the unit known as “Ritchie Boys.”



1906: Birthdate of biologist George Wald, American biochemist who received (with Haldan K. Hartline of the U.S. and Ragnar Granit of Sweden) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1967 for his work on the chemistry of vision



1917: Eleven young men in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded Sigma Alpha Rho(ΣAP)  the oldest, continuously run, independent Jewish High School Fraternity.



1921: “President Warren Harding gave Rabbi Simon Glazer of Kansas City, Kansas, executive permission to adopt five children who are now in Romania.” Glazer already has five children of his own.  The orphans lost their mother in one of the Ukrainian massacres last year and their father died in the United States.  If it had not been for President Harding’s intervention, current immigration restrictions would have kept the rabbi from bringing the youngsters to the United States.



1921(17th of Cheshvan): Fifty-six year old journalist and author Micha Josef Berdyczewski passed away in Berlin.  Born in Russia, the son of a Rabbi, he wrote in Hebrew, Yiddish and German. Sdot Micha, the moshav founded in 1955, was named in his honor



1922: Marcel Proust passed away. “Marcel Proust was the son of a Christian father and a Jewish mother. He himself was baptized (on August 5, 1871, at the church of Saint-Louis d'Antin) and later confirmed as a Catholic, but he never practiced that faith and as an adult could best be described as a mystical atheist, someone imbued with spirituality who nonetheless did not believe in a personal God, much less in a savior. Although Jews trace their religion through their mothers, Proust never considered himself Jewish and even became vexed when a newspaper article listed him as a Jewish author. His father once warned him not to stay in a certain hotel since there were "too many" Jewish guests there, and, to be sure, in Remembrance of Things Past there are unflattering caricatures of the members of one Jewish family, the Blochs. Jews were still considered exotic, even "oriental," in France; in 1872 there were only eighty-six thousand Jews in the whole country. In a typically offensive passage Proust writes that in a French drawing room "a Jew making his entry as though he were emerging from the desert, his body crouching like a hyena's, his neck thrust forward, offering profound `salaams,' completely satisfies a certain taste for the oriental." Proust never refers to his Jewish origins in his fiction, although in the youthful novel he abandoned, Jean Santeuil (first published only in 1952, thirty years after his death), there is a very striking, if buried, reference to Judaism. The autobiographical hero has quarreled with his parents and in his rage deliberately smashed a piece of delicate Venetian glass his mother had given him. When he and his mother are reconciled, he tells her what he has done: "He expected that she would scold him, and so revive in his mind the memory of their quarrel. But there was no cloud upon her tenderness. She gave him a kiss, and whispered in his ear: `It shall be, as in the Temple, the symbol of an indestructible union.'" This reference to the rite of smashing a glass during the Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony, in this case sealing the marriage of mother to son, is not only spontaneous but chilling. In an essay about his mother he referred, with characteristic ambiguity, to "the beautiful lines of her Jewish face, completely marked with Christian sweetness and Jansenist resignation, turning her into Esther herself"--a reference, significantly, to the heroine of the Old Testament (and of Racine's play), who concealed her Jewish identity until she had become the wife of King Ahasuerus and was in a position to save her people. The apparently gentile Proust, who had campaigned for Dreyfus and had been baptized Catholic, was a sort of modern Esther. Despite Proust's silences and lapses on the subject of his mother's religion, it would be unfair, especially in light of the rampant anti-Semitism of turn-of-the-century France, to say that he was unique or even extreme in his prejudice against Jews. And yet his anti-Semitism is more than curious, given his love for his mother and given, after her death, something very much like a religious cult that he developed around her. His mother, out of respect for her parents, had remained faithful to their religion, and Proust revered her and her relatives; after her death he regretted that he was too ill to visit her grave and the graves of her parents and uncle in the Jewish cemetery and to mark each visit with a stone. More important, although he had many friends among the aristocracy whom he had assiduously cultivated, nevertheless when he was forced to take sides during the Dreyfus Affair, which had begun in 1894 and erupted in 1898, he chose to sign a petition prominently printed in a newspaper calling for a retrial. The Dreyfus Affair is worth a short detour, since it split French society for many years and it became a major topic in proust's life--and in Remembrance of Things Past. Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a Jew and a captain in the French army. In December 1894 he was condemned by a military court for having sold military secrets to the Germans and was sent for life to Devil's Island. The accusation was based on the evidence of a memorandum stolen from the German embassy in Paris (despite the fact that the writing did not resemble Dreyfus's) and of a dossier (which was kept classified and secret) handed over to the military court by the minister of war. In 1896 another French soldier, Major Georges Picquart, proved that the memorandum had been written not by Dreyfus but by a certain Major Marie Charles Esterhazy. Yet Esterhazy was acquitted and Picquart was imprisoned. Instantly a large part of the population called for a retrial of Dreyfus. On January 13, 1898, the writer Emile Zola published an open letter, "J'accuse," directed against the army's general staff; Zola was tried and found guilty of besmirching the reputation of the army. He was forced to flee to England. Then in September 1898 it was proved that the only piece of evidence against Dreyfus in the secret military dossier had been faked by Joseph Henry, who confessed his misdeed and committed suicide. At last the government ordered a retrial of Dreyfus. Public opinion was bitterly divided between the leftist Dreyfusards, who demanded "justice and truth," and the anti-Dreyfusards, who led an anti-Semitic campaign, defended the honor of the army, and rejected the call for a retrial. The conflict led to a virtual civil war. In 1899 Dreyfus was found guilty again, although this time under extenuating circumstances--and the president pardoned him. Only in 1906 was Dreyfus fully rehabilitated, named an officer once again, and decorated with the Legion of Honor. Interestingly, Theodor Herzl, the Paris correspondent for a Viennese newspaper, was so overwhelmed by the virulent anti-Semitism of the Dreyfus Affair that he was inspired by the prophetic idea of a Jewish state. In defending Dreyfus, Proust not only angered conservative, Catholic, pro-army aristocrats, but he also alienated his own father. In writing about the 1890s in Remembrance of Things Past, Proust remarks that "the Dreyfus case was shortly to relegate the Jews to the lowest rung of the social ladder." Typically, the ultraconservative Gustave Schlumberger, a great Byzantine scholar, could give in his posthumous memoirs as offensive a description of his old friend Charles Haas (a model for Proust's character Swann) as this: "The delightful Charles Haas, the most likeable and glittering socialite, the best of friends, had nothing Jewish about him except his origins and was not afflicted, as far as I know, with any of the faults of his race, which makes him an exception virtually unique." It would be misleading to suggest that Proust took his controversial, pro-Dreyfus stand simply because he was half-Jewish. No, he was only obeying the dictates of his conscience, even though he lost many highborn Catholic friends by doing so and exposed himself to the snide anti-Semitic accusation of merely automatically siding with his co-religionists.”



1922: Die Zaubernacht (The Magic Night), a children’s pantomime by Kurt Weil premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm;



1929: According to the report o the Palestine Committee presented at today’s meeting of Hadassah held in Atlantic City, NJ, “the outstanding event in Palestine heal work this year has been the completion an formal opening of the Nathan and Lina Straus health center in Jerusalem.”



1937: As the British struggle to deal with the violence caused by the latest "Arab Uprising"
military courts  are established as of today in Palestine to try civilians. 



1937: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish farmer, Yehuda Shpanov, was shot in Afula and died four hours later in the local hospital, where his wife was awaiting the birth of their child. An official amendment held that "no judgment over the proceedings of the Military Court shall be called in question or challenged in any manner whatever by or before any other Court."



1937:  The Palestine Post reported that in Hamburg a baptized Jew, Dr. Theodor Wohlfahrt, was sentenced to 10 years penal servitude for having married a gentile and claiming in a German court that it was his right to do so.



1938: Hitler recalls Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff, German ambassador to the United States, after President Franklin Roosevelt recalled the U.S. ambassador to Germany as part of America’s protest against Kristallnacht.



1938: The American Virgin Islands Assembly offers the islands as a haven for Jewish refugees. The American government does not explore this possibility.



1939: Hans Frank, the governor-general of Occupied Poland, reiterates Reinhard Heydrich's order of September 21 regarding the establishment of Judenräte in Jewish ghettos.



1939: The Nazis ordered the Jews of Cracow to wear a Star of David.



1941: J.D. Salinger “wrote to a young woman in Tornoto,” Marjorie Sheard, “to look for a new piece of his in a coming issue of The New Yorker” which he described as “the first Holden story.” (As reported by Dave Itzkoff



1941: Friedrich Jeckeln, the SS General who developed the 8 point Jecklin System for murdering Jews was searching for the right place to slaughter of the Jews of Riga when he saw Rumbula for the first time.



1942:  Birthdate of pianist Jeffrey Siegel.



1942: As part of the Holocaust German SS carry out a selection of Jewish ghetto in Lviv in the western Ukraine arresting 5.000 "unproductive Jews". All get deported to Belzec death camp.



1943: In an attempt to hide the Holocaust from the westward moving Soviet Army, 300 Jews at Borki were told  that they were to dig up the trenches of 30,000 dead humans in Borki and then burn them all. One thousand bodies were placed on each pyre. The bones were ground to dust and taken away. The graves were emptied, disinfected, filled with earth and grass was planted over them.



1943: During the Holocaust, as part of Aktion Emtefest, the Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lviv, western Ukraine, murdering at least 6.000 surviving Jews. The German SS leader Fritz Katzman declares Lviv (Lemberg) to be Judenfrei (free from the Jews).



1944(2nd of Kislev, 5705): Enzo Serini, Havivah Reik, Raffi Reiss and Zvi Ben Ya'acov were all murdered at Dachau. They were all Jews from Palestine serving in the British Army who had parachuted behind German lines. Their treatment was a violation of the rules of war and is proof positive that slaughtering Jews was a primary driving force for the Germans including the German Army.

1945:At Zionist Organization of America meeting, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver is elected to succeed Dr. Israel Goldstein as president. A proposal is made to allow the Jewish National Fund of America to buy 500,000 acres of land in Palestine in defiance of British land transfer regulations. A budget is approved for immigration and settlement.



1945: In the wake of the latest British statements about Palestine it was reported today that “It was apparent that some sort of compromise will have to be forthcoming from outside Palestine as there is little possibility of the Arabs and Jews getting together on anything so far proposed.” (Editor’s Note – what was written in 1945 sounds as if it could have been written in 2012)



1945: Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization, says British foreign minister Ernest Bevin cannot divide Zionists and other Jewish People.



1946: Police and Jewish citizens clash in Tel Aviv



1947: “Stern Gang Hints at Truce” published today examined the possibility of “a respite from violence in Palestine” should among other things Lehi make good on its announcement to the press that it was “ready to resume its truce pledge.”



1947: Birthdate of Michel-Jean Hamburger, a very successful French singer and songwriter of Jewish origin.



1947: British editor James Caunt was reported today to have expressed his belief that the accusations of seditious libel that had been filed after his assertions that anti-British propaganda “was financed by American Jews and “that if British Jews were really concerned by the shooting of British boys in Palestine they should ‘disgorge their ill-gotten wealth in try to dissuade their brothers in the United States from pour out dollars to facilitate the entrance into Palestine of European Jewish scum’” were politically motivated by those who believe that “anyone who criticizes the Jews must be a Fascist.”



1948:British state minister Hector McNeil offers the Political Committee a resolution calling for permanent settlement based on Bernadotte plan. Israel proposes compromise: it will withdraw all troops who arrived in Israel after October 14; troops who arrived before October 14 will stay to ensure that area does not fall to Egypt. Israel announces it is ready to begin armistice with Arabs.



1949:UN Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East proposes after a three-month study that the General Assembly set up program of relief and public works in various Arab countries for 652,000 Arab refugees from Palestine. No comparable fund would be suggested for providing aid to Israel when Jewish populations of Arab and Moslem countries were forced to flee from their homes.



1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that observers noted Arab protests over the German-Israeli Reparation Agreement were meant only to extort more trade and imports from their countries to Germany.



1955(3rd of Kislev, 5716): Sixty-five year old chess master Solomon Rosenthal passed away today.



1956: In case of “Jew on Jew,” Alfred Kazin reviews Saul Bellow’s most recent book, Seize the Day.



1958: The Assistant United States Attorney said that the $4,790.44 that Charles A. Levine still owed the government as part of a $5,000 fine levied after he was convicted of smuggling in 1937 was not collectible.



1958: Jerusalem's new reservoir was opened ending a long history of water problems that made Jerusalem more vulnerable to siege.  Water for Jerusalem had been a challenge going all the way back to Biblical times.  Remember the story of how David took the city in the first place.  Fear of siege was not paranoia for the Israelis.  The Jews had nearly lost the city ten years earlier when the Jordanian Army (the Arab Legion) laid siege to it during the War for Independence.



1959: William Wyler’s film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City. William Wyler was Jewish.  Judah Ben Hur was also Jewish.



1959: Opening of the Sephardic Bibliographical Exhibition in Madrid, Spain.  The Exhibition was in conjunction with the World Sephardi Federation, Arias Montano Institute, the faculty of Philosophy of the Madrid University as well as the Royal Academy of Spanish Language. The Exhibition demonstrated rare Sephardic documents, books, maps and material showing the life of Jews in Spain up to 1492.



1962: Niels Henrik David Bohr passed away. “Bohr was a Danish physicist, born in Copenhagen, who was the first to apply the quantum theory, which restricts the energy of a system to certain discrete values, to the problem of atomic and molecular structure. For this work he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. He developed the so-called Bohr Theory of the atom and liquid model of the nucleus. Bohr was of Jewish origin and when the Nazis occupied Denmark he escaped in 1943 to Sweden on a fishing boat. From there he was flown to England where he began to work on the project to make a nuclear fission bomb. After a few months he went with the British research team to Los Alamos in the USA where they continued work on the project.”



1964: In London, UK, Neil Simon’s “Little Me” opened at the Cambridge Theatre.



1966: Sandy Koufax announces his retirement, due to an arthritic left elbow



1971(30th of Cheshvan, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1973: Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis delivered a speech today at Madison Square Garden that led to the formation of “Hineni,” “one of the first Ba’al Teshuva movements.



1977: Longtime feminist activist and U.S. Representative Bella Abzug presided over the first federally funded National Women's Conference.



1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that 60 Egyptians and 2,000 journalists arrived in order to prepare the historic visit of the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Israel. Chaim Herzog, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, suggested that the General Assembly suspend the "acrimonious and counterproductive" debate on Palestine in order to be able to consider this historic event. It was also reported that Sadat¹s visit was partly prompted by a question that the Post¹s US correspondent, Wolf Blitzer, had asked Sadat in Washington last April.



1978(18th of Cheshvan, 5739): Judge Leo Frederick Rayfiel passed away.  Born in 1888 to immigrant parents in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of New York University Law School.  He was a member of the New York State Assembly and served two terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before being appointed to the federal bench by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. Rayfiel was a voracious reader and die-hard Dodgers fan until the team left Brooklyn.



1983(12th of Kislev, 5744): Ninety-one year old publisher, George B. Eisler passed away today.



http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/09/obituaries/george-b-eisler.html



1990(1st of Kislev, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1990: The third Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof opened today at the Gershwin Theater. It ran for 241 performances at the George Gershwin Theatre. Topol starred as Tevye, and Marcia Lewis was Golde. Robbins' production was reproduced by Ruth Mitchell and choreographer Sammy Dallas Bayes. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival.



2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Complete Works of Isaac Babel:  Edited by Nathalie Babel, Translated by Peter Constantine. Introduction by Cynthia Ozick, Somewhere For Me:
A Biography of Richard Rodgers
by Meryle Secrest, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions by Martha C. Nussbaum, Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945by Richard Overy and I’m Not Bobby by Jules Feiffer.



2002: During the investigation of Jack Abramoff’s business activities in Guam a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding that the administrator of the Guam Superior Court release all records relating to the contract.



2002: “U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson of Montgomery, Alabama, orders the removal of Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument, finding that it violated the constitution's ban on government establishment of religion.”



2003(23rd of Cheshvan, 5764): Grammy award winning musician Michael Kamen passes away. While studying the oboe, he formed a rock classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, which was on the first of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic.



2004(5th of Kislev, 5765): Cy Coleman, American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist passed away.  Born Seymour Kaufman, to Jewish immigrant parents, Coleman won or was nominated for 15 Tony Awards, 3 Emmy Awards and 2 Grammy Awards. (As reported by Robert Berkvist)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/theater/19cnd-coleman.html



2005(15th of Cheshvan, 5766): Harold J. Stone passed away. Born Harold Hochstein to a Jewish acting family in 1913, Stone practiced his craft on Broadway, in film and finally in television where he gained respect and a form of fame as “a character actor.” 
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/19/local/me-stone19



2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that Pope Benedict XVI responded positively to an invitation extended to him by President Moshe Katsav when the two met at the Vatican. 



2006: Some eight thousand people gathered near Germany's biggest World War II soldiers’ cemetery to protest against far-right extremism.



2006(27th of Cheshvan, 5767: Jack Werber passed away at the age of 92.  He was a Holocaust survivor who helped save more than 700 children at Buchenwald slave labor camp.  He gained economic success in the mid-fifties by manufacturing coonskin caps during the Davey Crockett craze.



2007: The SundayWashington Post book section featured a review of The Conscience of a Liberal by Jewish economist Paul Krugman



2007: The Sunday New York Timesbook section featured reviews of three books about or by comedian Woody Allen including, Conversations with Woody Allen: His Films, the Movies, and Moviemaking by Eric Lax, Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen and The Insanity Defense: The Complete Proseby Woody Allen.



2007: The Chicago Tribune business section reported on the growth of Chicago based Levy Restaurants. Since its founding in 1978 by brothers Larry and Mark Levy, Levy Restaurants has grown from a single delicatessen in Chicago to a specialized, industry-leading food organization with a network of internationally acclaimed restaurants; the leading market share of premium foodservice operations at sports and entertainment facilities; as well as a full-service consulting and advisory services group. The keeper of the Company’s precious culture is Eadie Levy, mother of Larry and Mark, and resident Mom to almost 15,000 team members. Her story is simple, but it’s one filled with a passion for great food and a love for making people happy. When her two sons opened a delicatessen called D.B. Kaplan’s in Chicago’s Water Tower Place in 1978, they thought they had everything under control. That is, until their ambitious investment started to struggle a bit. Their rescue strategy? They called their mother, Eadie. At the time, she was living in St. Louis and her cooking skills were considered a work-in-progress, being that she didn’t even learn to cook until she was married. But as any mother would do, she came to the rescue of her two sons. Eadie moved to Chicago and immediately became involved in the deli operations, starting in the kitchen. Many of the recipes in the Levy Restaurants repertoire are Eadie’s or her grandmothers, passed down from generation to generation. Eadie herself trained the staff on the preparation of the traditional Jewish menu items. Her work with D.B. Kaplan’s eventually lead to the creation of her namesake restaurant, Mrs. Levy’s Delicatessen, located in Chicago’s Sears Tower. Since 1986, Mrs. Levy’s Deli has been one of the city’s greatest delis, treating guests to authentic, New York-style sandwiches, homemade soups and old-fashioned soda fountain creations. After a few years behind the scenes, Eadie’s desire to have more interaction with her guests grew, and she moved to the front of the house, where she remains today, meeting and greeting guests, most of whom she knows by name. This personal touch has made Eadie a celebrity in her own right. Photos of her posing with her favorite celebrities – everyone from local hero, Michael Jordan, to Hollywood stars Goldie Hawn and Steven Spielberg – adorn the walls of the deli. And in true Midwestern style, Eadie graciously obliges every request to have her picture taken and added to the growing "Wall of Fame." These days, Eadie Levy, a grandmother and great-grandmother, still believes that despite her own success, her proudest accomplishment remains her sons’ entrepreneurialism and creativity in making Levy Restaurants a successful company, full of genuinely nice people.



2008: In Israel, members of the National Religious Party “voted to disband the party in order to join the new Jewish Home Party



2008: French and Israeli police discovered 43 of timepieces that had been stolen from the L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic art in two French bank safes.



2008: Ethan Berkowitz conceded defeat in the race to fill the seat of U.S. Representative for Alaska's At-large congressional district, after counting of absentee and provisional ballots had mostly been completed and his Republican opponent Don Young had a clearly insurmountable lead.



2008: At Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Des Moines, Iowa AIPAC Midwest Political Director Jonathan Greenberg speaks on “Changes in the White House and on Capitol Hill:  How It Impacts The Pro-Israel Agenda.”  Of course, the presentation is based on the premise that AIPAC’s agenda and the “Pro-Israel Agenda” are one and the same.



2008: The Ninth Annual Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival presents: “The Counterfeiters”  “One Day You’ll Understand,” adaptation of Jerome Clement’s autobiographical novel, Plus Tard, Tu Comprendras and “Two Ladies” a hopeful drama that offers a sensitive portrayal of the unlikely friendship two French women – Esther, who is Jewish, and Halima, who is Muslim – which defies the prejudice and hostility that surround them.



2008:As part of the "Jewish Encounters" series at the D.C. Jewish Community Center,writer and poet Adam Kirsch discusses and signs Benjamin Disraeli, his new biography of the British prime minister in which takes an in-depth look at the first—and only—Jewish Prime Minister of England.



2008: Michael Rosen was presented with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by the Government of France at the French Ambassador's residence in London



2009 (1 Kislev): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



2009: Moshe Holtzberg, son of Barvriel and Rivka Holztberg of blessed memory who were murdered by the terrorists in Mumbain in 2008, celebrated his third birthday according to the Jewish calendar. A party was held at Kfar Chabad which was attended by 2,000 people who stayed for a memorial dinner for his parents.



2009: In Fairfax, VA, Congregation Olam Tikvah hosts “Sacred Scripture: How do you understand your own? Can I try?” as part of its interfaith program.



2009: At the UK Jewish Film Festival, a screening of an episode from the groundbreaking TV drama "Good Intentions", which centers around two female chefs, one Palestinian and one Israeli, co-hosting a cookery show despite intense opposition from their respective communities.



2009(1st of Kislev, 5770): Seventy-five year old  Ari Kiev, a psychiatrist whose early work on depression and suicide prevention led to a career helping athletes and Wall Street traders achieve peak performance, passed away today in Manhattan. (As reported by William Grimes)



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/business/30kiev.html



2009(1st of Kislev, 5770):James F. Berg, who as the chief negotiator for most of the major landlords in New York City was given large credit for an era of labor peace in their buildings because of the trust he inspired on both sides of the bargaining table, died today in Manhattan. He was 65 (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)



2010: “Precious Life” is scheduled to be shown at the Other Israel Film Festival today at the JCC in Manhattan.



2010: In New York, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present The Fall Concert which is part of The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series at YIVO:



2010: In response to a call by Chief Ashkenazi RabbiYona Metzger and Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo for the public to pray for rain during this draught-like period, today is scheduled to be a special day of fasting and prayer to atone for the sins that are likely preventing the direly missing rainfall.



2010:"Army of Islam," a group linked to Al Qaida, released today for the first time a statement in Hebrew threatening to avenge the killing of two senior members of the organization in the Gaza Strip yesterday


2010: Jacob Lew began serving as Director of the Office of Management and Budget.


 2011: “Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish” is scheduled to be shown this evening at Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.


2011: An opening day reception  is scheduled to take place at the Derek Eller Gallery marking the opening of “Rona Yefman: Marath a Bouke, project #4” in which Rona Yefman will present an installation about Martha Bouke, an 80-year-old grandfather and Holocaust survivor living in Tel Aviv who assumes a feminine persona…”


2011: It was reported today that Henry Kissinger in 1972 called Jews "self-serving" because of pleas from the community for the Nixon administration to increase the pressure on the Soviet Union to allow its Jews to leave. "Is there a more self-serving group of people than the Jewish community?" Kissinger, who is Jewish, asks Leonard Garment, also Jewish, in transcripts of a 1972 exchange released this week by the State Department and reported by The Associated Press. Garment, a special counsel to President Nixon, replied: "None in the world." Kissinger, who at the time was the national security adviser, added: "What the hell do they think they are accomplishing? You can’t even tell bastards anything in confidence because they’ll leak it.”Nonetheless, Kissinger tells Garment he will raise the issue with the Soviet ambassador. Kissinger resented the Jewish community's emphasis on releasing Jews, saying it detracted from the overall White House strategy of achieving detente with the Soviet Union -- a strategy he to this day maintains would have brought greater success for Soviet Jewry, although veterans of the movement adamantly disagree. Kissinger's office said he was traveling and not immediately available for comment. A request to Garment for comment, emailed to a law firm where he is last known to have had offices, went unanswered. Revelations of Kissinger's disparagement of Jews during his Nixon years have at times led to him apologizing; most recently, last December, he said he was "sorry" for telling Nixon in 1973 that it would not be an American concern if the Soviets were to consign Jews to death camps.

 
2011:Israel sent housing assistance for up to 1,000 people in Turkey affected by two earthquakes that hit the country in October. The mobile homes, which were requested by the government in Ankara, were delivered by the Defense Ministry this morning. In October, a 7.2 magnitude quake killed 600 people in Turkey’s eastern region, leaving thousands homeless. Less than three weeks later, another 5.7 earthquake hit the same region, killing five and burying scores under rubble. After the first quake, Israel sent a civilian aircraft to Turkey carrying prefabricated homes, warm blankets and mattresses.



2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe which “begins with Marvel’s best-known employees:” – Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber) and Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzburg) and the recently released paperback edition of A Train In Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women Friendship and Resistance in Occupied Franceby Caroline Moorehead which traces the fate of 230 women shipped to Auschwitz in January, 1943.

2012: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.


 
2012: The American Society for Jewish Music and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present The Hugo Weisgall Centennial Concert

2012(4th of Kislev, 5773): Eighty-six year old academic and diplomat Helmut Sonnenfeldt passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/world/helmut-sonnenfeldt-expert-on-soviet-and-european-affairs-is-dead-at-86.html



2012: Adas Israel Cantor Arianne Brown and the Charm City Klezmer are among those scheduled to perform at the Jewish Folk Arts Festival hosted at B’nai Israel in Rockville, MD.

2012: Global Day of Jewish Learning

2012: As published today in the Cedar Rapids Gazette


http://thegazette.com/2012/11/17/weeks-of-arab-attacks-preceded-israeli-attack/



2012: After a few hours of relative quiet, a rocket fired from Gaza this evening hit a house near Kiryat Malachi. (As reported by the Jerusalem Post)



2013: The Center For Jewish History and the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research are scheduled to present a concert and lecture “Charles-Valentin Alkan: His Life and Music” as part of the Circles of Justice Program.


2013: “The Lesson” and “Mom, Dad, I’m A Muslim” are scheduled to be shown at The Other Israel Film Festival.


2013: The Embassy of the Czech Republic, Embassy of Israel and LCPA-Hebrew Language Table are scheduled to present “The Story of the Shipwrecked from the Patria.”



This Day, November 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 19



1095: The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins. The Crusades ushered in one of the darkest periods in Jewish history.  In the name of Christianity, the Crusaders would leave a path of death and destruction for the Jewish people that stretched from the Rhineland to the streets of Jerusalem.



1190: Baldwin of Forde, the Archbishop of Canterbury who expressed his displeasure with King Richard’s decision to allow a Jew who had been forcibly converted to return to the faith of his fathers by saying “If the King is not God’s man, he had better be the devil’s” passed away today while with serving with the Crusaders in Palestine.



1600: Birthdate of King Charles I. The English monarch who would be defeated by the Puritan forces commanded by Cromwell and eventually be executed in 1649. The death of Charles and the rise of the Puritans helped encourage Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel to approach Cromwell about allowing the Jewish people to return to England. 



1621:  Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, known as the Shlah after the title of one of his major works Shnei Luchos Ha-Bris arrived in Jerusalem.  The Shlah was a renowned Halachist, kabbalist and communal leader.  He was born in Prague in 1656 and eventually became head of the Jewish community in Frankfort.  He moved to Jerusalem as the death of his wife.  The Shlah was a wealthy philanthropist who stressed man’s ability to overcome the evil inclination and turn it into the good inclination.  He passed away in 1650 and was buried in Tiberias near the tomb of the Rambam.



1816: Warsaw University is established in the part of Poland that was incorporated into the Russian Empire as part of the partitions that had taken place in the waning decades of the 18th century.  The fortunes of the university would follow the ebb and flow of political and cultural events in Poland as it sought to regain and then maintain its independence. In 1968, the government would conduct and anit-Semitic and anti-democrat campaign at the university that would touch off a wave of student unrest. During the subsequent government crackdown professors of Jewish descent were removed from their positions and many of them were forced to emigrate. 



1853(17th of Tishrei, 5614): Third day of Sukkoth



1862: During the Civil War, Jacob Cohen of the 27th Ohio Infantry wrote to the Jewish Messenger from Davis’ Mill, MS where the Union Army had gone into camp describing the victories at Iuka and Corinth.



1863: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One of the more interesting stories, if it is true involves Dr. M.L. Rossvally, a Jewish surgeon who saved the life of a Christian drummer boy.  Rossvally went on to become the Surgeon General of the United States.



1869: It was reported today that in a manner similar houses of worship of other denominations, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun hosted a Thanksgiving Service where Rabbi Henry Vidaver delivered a sermon based on the words of Zechariah.



1872: A meeting was held tonight at the Thirty-fourth Street Synagogue in New York City to deal with impending immigration of Romanian Jews to the United States who were seeking refuge from the persecution in their native land.  A twenty-five man Executive Committee was established that will contact various European Jewish Committees involved with this issue to ensure that the emigrants come from the “industrial classes” and to arrange for their transportation. Several hundred families are expected to arrive in the Spring and the committee will set the mechanism to provide them with employment and support.


 
1874: Nathan Aaronson, a wealthy Jew is spending tonight in the Tombs after having been arrested and charged with numerous counts of grand larceny, obtaining goods under false pretenses and other crimes related to a series of swindles. Aaronson was arrested after having posted bail on similar charges in New Jersey as he attempted to sail to Europe.

1876: The New York Times published a review of The Ethics of Benedict De Spinoza: From the Latin with an Introductory Sketch of his Life and his Writings published in New York by D. Van Nostrand. According to the review, this is believed to be the first translation of any of the writings that has appeared in the United States.


 
1876: A report published today attributed the change in the writing style of George Eliot( Mary Anne Evans) that resulted in Daniel Deronda was a product of a collaboration with her consort, George Henry Lewes.  Lewes claims that “he wrote every line of the chapter which describes the discussion at the club to which Mordecai introduced Daniel. Such a club as this really had an existence in London under the presidency of a Jew upon whom Mr. and Mrs. Lewes modeled Mordecai.”  The report concluded that many of Eliot’s admirers are not pleased with the new novel feeling that literary partnership “has destroyed the classic purity of the lady’s English.”  Despite this, the novel is selling quite briskly.


 
1878(23rd of Cheshvan): Poet Abraham Dov Levenson (Adam ha-Kohen) and father-in -law of Jewish author Joshua Steinberg, passed away



1880: Birthdate of Hugo Gutmann, the German Jewish officer who was Adolph Hitler’s commanding officer during 1918 and who saw to it that the Austrian corporal received the Iron Cross First Class.



1880: Based on information that first appeared in the Boersen Zeitung, “public quarrels and duels have taken place between Jews and Germans.”


 
1881: “The Hebrew Union College” published today summarized plans to upgrade HUC, the Cincinnati educational institution that is only place in the United States dedicated to providing formal education for rabbis in the United States. The plan is to create a million dollar endowment by selling 200,000 “subscription certificates at $5 each.”  (The rabbis trained here will be Reform and will not be able to address the needs of the traditional movements of Judaism)


 
1882: It was a reported today that the Public Prosecutor has applied to the court at Nyireghyhasa, for an order to disinter and re-examine the body of a Christian girl, who it is alleged, was by the Jews at Tiszaeszlar” in order to sift through the evidence “and put an end to a scandal which has lasted six months.” (This is a reference to The Tiszaeszlár Affair, a blood libel that began in April of 1882 and would actually resurface  in the world of Hungarian politics in the 21stcentury.)


 
1882: It was reported today that a radical newspaper editor has fought a duel with a member of the parliament who defended Jews against charges in The Tiszaeszlár Affair.


 
1884(1st of Kislev, 5645): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1885: Upon his return to Cincinnati from the national of Reform Rabbis in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise said, “The meeting was an official expression and confirmation of principles which have been advanced and advocated by progressive Jews for a decade past.”


 
1885: It was reported today that the Reform movement has adopted a resolution that would effectively allow the substitution of Sunday morning services to replace the traditional Saturday morning Shabbat services. 


 
1885: “The Hebrew Asylum Ball” published today provided a description of the fundraiser hosted for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” which was attended a large segment of notables including Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wechsler, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wechsler and Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Oppenheimer.


 
1886: It was reported today that based on information that first appeared in the Vossische Zeitung, Jews make up the largest contingent of the Hungarian immigrants crossing Germany on their way to the United States.



1887(3rd of Kislev, 5648): Emma Lazarus passed away.  Born in 1849, Lazarus is remembered as the poet who wrote the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. When Emma Lazarus died on November 19, 1887 at the age of 38, the obituary published in the New York Times referred to her as "an American Poet of Uncommon talent," but did not mention her poem, "The New Colossus," which today is indelibly associated with The Statue of Liberty. One of the first successful Jewish American authors, Lazarus was part of the late nineteenth century New York literary elite, and was celebrated in her day as an important American poet. In her later years, she wrote bold, powerful poetry and essays protesting the rise of anti-Semitism and arguing for Russian immigrants' rights. She called on Jews to unite and create a homeland in Palestine before the title Zionist had even been coined. She is best known today for her poem, "The New Colossus," which was written in 1883 as part of the effort to raise money for a pedestal to the Statue of Liberty. France was donating the statue to the United States, but Americans had to raise the funds for the pedestal. Her untimely death, probably from cancer, was mourned in both the Jewish and broader communities. It was only, however, after Lazarus's friend Georgina Schuyler installed a bronze memorial tablet inside the entrance to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903, inscribed with the lines from the "New Colossus," including "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," that Lazarus's memory became forever associated with her powerful vision of America as a symbol of hope for the down-trodden.



1890(7th of Kislev, 5651): Thirty-nine year old Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery, the daughter of Juliana and Mayer de Rothschild, who was rumored to be the richest woman in Britain, passed away. (There is no way that we can do justice to the life of this woman. She is far more fascinating than any fictional character created by Bronte sisters and those other writers of 19thcentury romance novels)



1890: The Citizens’ Savings Bank paid out $113,000 to depositors as a run on the bank began following a story “in an east side Hebrew Newspaper.”



1891: The more than four hundred pupils attending the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School are the beneficiaries of the Palestine Bazaar which is being held for a second day at Carnegie Hall.



1892: “Prussians Jealous of Hebrews” published today, relying on information that first appeared in the London Daily News described a debated taking place among “Prussian Conservatives” on the “ways and means of decreasing the influence of Jews in public life.”  The Conservatives are especially upset because the Jews “get themselves better educated than their neighbors and so win their way to professorial chairs.”



1892: During an interview Otto Von Bismarck warned “the anti-Semites that ‘in trying to obtain State legislation against the Jews, they got hold of the wrong insect powder. (The term used was Wanzenpulver which has a contation that is even more insulting than the English translation and gives one the idea of the low esteem in which the Iron Chancellor held the Jewish people)



1893: According to a rumor published today, the Jews are fleeing Melilla because they fear what “the inquiry into the illicit trade firearms’ might reveal. (The implication is that the Jews are guilty of selling guns to the Berbers who are revolting against their Spanish colonial masters)



1893: Today’s review of “The Bells” praises Henry Irving’s performance of Mathias whom he plays as “a large, spectacular figure” who is a victim of remorse; a portrayal that is not consistent with that found in the translation of Leopold Lewis. The reviewer concludes his portrayal of this Jewish figure is “always worth seeing once” and then worth seeing a second time because Irving’s “Mathias is to be remembered because of its historical importance.”



1894: “Not Antagonistic To Christianity” published today provided Dr. Joseph Silverman’s views on the attitude  of Judaism to non-Judaic religions.  Among other things, he said that Judaism’s view on this has always been represented; that Judaism is neither “tribal, narrow or exclusive” but universal.  While Christianity claims that only those who believe in its doctrine can be saved, “Judaism has never claimed that universal salvation depends on universal conversion to Judaism.”



1896: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of New York and the Hebrew Technical Institute were reported today to be among the institutions willing to host a “series of popular lectures on the affairs of the City” which will lead to greater civic participation.



1895: While visiting Paris and London trying to gain Jewish support for a Jewish homeland, Herzl gained one “convert’ - Max Nordeau.



1896: The first national convention of the National Council of Jewish Women which was held at Tuxedo Hall in New York City between came to an end. Founded at the conclusion of the Jewish Women's Congress held at Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in November 1893, the National Council of Jewish Women was the first national open-membership organization for American Jewish women. Addressed by the leaders of the nation's leading women's organizations and numerous prominent rabbis, it was clear that the Council was helping to establish the legitimacy of Jewish women's presence on a public stage. The convention received extensive coverage in the New York Times and other papers. During its first three years, Council sections around the country had focused on diverse activities ranging from Bible study to education for children to active philanthropy in the interest of immigrant women and children. Representatives at the first convention summarized these achievements, established a clear institutional structure and sought to offer guidance to local sections. Conflict emerged in relation to the Jewish character of the Council. Hannah Solomon of Chicago presided over the convention, but some members objected to her advocacy of Sunday as the Jewish Sabbath. Solomon memorably responded "I consecrate every day in the week." As the New York Times reported, "Pandemonium reigned for five minutes, and then Mrs. Solomon was re-elected." In its first few decades, NCJW transcended these religious divisions by focusing especially on aid to newly arrived Jewish immigrants. In sections across the country, NCJW provided an early training ground for Jewish women leaders and a forum for Jewish women's concerns within and outside the Jewish community.



1897: Herzl publishes his article "Die jüdische Kolonialbank" -"The Jewish Colonial Bank" in Die Welt.



1897: “Dreyfus May Be A Victim” published today offers the unique theory that the French Captain was actually the victim of a blackmail plot gone awry.  Taking advantage of the “wave of Jew-baiting” that was sweeping Europe in 1893, these conspirators forged the documents that would lead to the conviction of Dreyfus.  The conspirators had used “a beautiful woman whose house” was a refuge to many French officers and foreign diplomats as a go between to try and extort money from Mrs. Dreyfus who was wealthy in her own right in exchange for the document.  When the Dreyfus family refused to be involved, members of the press who were part of the plot helped to incite the public in such a way that the conviction of Dreyfus was inevitable.


 
1904:  Birthdate of Nathan Leopold.  Leopold and Loeb, sons of wealthy Chicago families, saw themselves as a superior intellects not bound by the rules.  Their murder of Bobby Franks and the trial that followed (where they were defended by Clarence Darrow) forever marked both of them as venal, vile killers.  Leopold died in 1971. 



1906: Birthdate of Henri Temianka, a native of Scotland who was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.  Among his accomplishments was a performance of the Bach Double Violin Concerto with four other Jewish violinists – David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng and Jack Benny.



1909: At the request of the Hahambashi, the Grand Vizier of Turkey directs the Minister of War to appoint Jewish chaplains to battalions where Jews serve, to grant soldiers the ability to observe the high holidays and to facilitate they be provided with kosher food. The Hahambashi also requested that all teachers in Jewish school and rabbinical students be granted an exemption from military service.



1911: Herman Bernstein, who has written for such publications as The Nation and The New York Evening Post delivered an address to the Mikve Israel Association in Philadelphia, PA, entitled “Anti-Semitism in Russia, Germany and Elsewhere.”  According to Bernstein, while political and social progress has been made “in every part of the world” anti-Semitism is the one age-old evil “for which no remedy has been found.” [Bernstein would go to a distinguished career as a foreign correspondent with the New York Times and as U.S. Ambassador to Albania.  His History of a Lie provides an account of the history of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.]


 
1913: Serbian troops enter and loot Monastir. As part of the violence, Jewish shops were burned and robbed.



1913: Birthdate of Morris Ziff, the Brooklyn native, who was an award winning expert in rheumatic diseases and  who investigated how the body sometimes turns on itself to cause such illnesses (As reported by Jeremy Pearce)



1915 (12th of Kislev, 5676): A wide variety of Jewish and gentile leaders including Louis Marshall, Jacob Schiff, John H. Finley, President University of the State of New York at Albany and Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia, expressed their sense of sorrow and deep admiration for Dr. Solomon Schechter who passed away today in New York. Schechter’s original fame rested on his work with the Cairo Geniza. As President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, he was the driving force behind Conservative Judaism.  He was an early Zionist who played an active role in the work of the Jewish Publication Society.  This brief entry cannot do justice to his impact on the world at large or the Jewish community in particular.



1916: Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Company which would become one of the most successful independent filmmakers.



1919: The U.S. Senate, under the leadership of the Republicans, fails to ratify the Versailles Treaty.  This meant that the United States would not be joining the League of Nations which meant that the League was DOA.  It also signaled America’s return to isolationism.  The rejection of the Versailles Treaty was a contributing cause to the rise of Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust.



1919: Birthdate of Judge Wapner of People’s Court Fame.  Considering the Torah’s injunctions about Judges, what do we make of the fact that both Judge Judy and Judge Wapner are Jewish?



1921: Today Joseph Missrahi Orpahli, an Oriental Jew, became the first Jew to receive the death penalty for murder in connection with the August riots.  “Orphali was accused of firing from a rooftop into a mob of Jaffa Arabs who had congregated supposedly for an attack on Tel Aviv.”  Three British police officers Dixon had testified that “they had heard no shots besides those of the police who fired on the mob, but relatives of Arabs killed declared the accused had killed on Arab purposely and another unintentionally.”



1921: “Thirty-seven Arabs of the Tireh village, near Haifa who had previously been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, had their sentences reduced on appeal today to three months.  They had been accused of participating in an attack on Bath Gilim, a suburb of Haifa.”



1921: Pinchas Ruthenberg, director of the Palestine Electric Corporation and chairman of the Palestine National council, told the commission of inquiry” sent from London to find the reasons for the Arab August riots and the lack of preparation on the part of the police, “how he had warned H.C. Luke, acting High Commissioner, of the gravity of the situation developing over the Wailing Wall, an was told by Mrs. Luke that he was exaggerating the danger.  Mr. Rutenberg’s suggestions for precautions were not followed.”



1925: Birthdate of Zygmunt Bauman the Polish born sociologist who was forced to take refuge in England in 1970 following an anti-Semitic purge orchestrated by the Polish Communist Party.  Bauman “has made some of the most important observations about the Holocaust and modernity.”



1928: A concert featuring Alexander Baerwald and Thelma Yellin was held in Jerusalem as the European born Jews of Jerusalem celebrated the centenary of the death of Schubert.



1929: Birthdate of medieval scholar, Norman Cantor.  Cantor did step out of his expertise when he wrote The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews. Based on the reviews, Cantor would have been better off if he had stuck to works on the Middle Ages.



1932: Birthdate of Avner Friedman, who earned his doctorate from Hebrew University in 1956 and became Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at Ohio State University.



1933(1st of Kislev, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1933: Birthdate of Gerald "Jerry" Sheindlin who served as a judge on the television show The People’s Court and is married to Judith Sheindlin, known as television’s Judge Judy.



1933(1st of Kislev, 5694): “Samuel Leib Gordon, noted Hebraist, teacher and scholar who translated Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ and Zangwill’s ‘Children of the Ghetto died’ in Tel Aviv today.” The sixty-six year old intellectual had lived in Tel Aviv since 1924.  “Mr. Gordon was born in Lida, Lithuania in 1890.  He taught Hebrew in Jaffa from 1898 to 1910 and wrote and edited many textbooks in Hebrew.  For a time he edited Olam Kata, a Hebrew magazine for Jewish youth, published in Warsaw.  Several volumes of a scientific commentary on the Bible which he began in 1903 have also been published. His son, Moses Gordon, has followed in his father footsteps by serving as general secretary of Tarbuth, the Hebrew education movement.



1934: Birthdate of French artist Sam Szafran.



http://forward.com/articles/179077/jewish-artist-who-once-called-chagalls-art-crappy/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Saturday-and-Sunday_Daily_Newsletter%202013-06-29&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20%28Monday-Friday%29



1933:  Birthdate of television personality Larry King.



1937: Today marked the end of the first of a four week London Season for the Habima Players.  They had demonstrated what is known as the "Habima Method" in their performances of the Dybbuk.



1937: The Palestine Post reported that the country was generally quiet, but the Jerusalem curfew continued for the eighth day in succession. Telephone lines were cut between Hebron and Beersheba and Beersheba and Gaza.



1937: In an article critical of the Jewish development of Galilee ThePostpointed out that the Jewish settlement of Mahanayim had been completely deserted since the riots of 1929. Mishmar Hayarden, "The Watch Over the Jordan," was almost a dead village ­with many of the farmyards burned to the ground. The Post demanded rapid development of this area, with particular attention given to the settlement of those Jewish lands which belonged to persons who did not live in Palestine.



1938(25th of Cheshvan, 5699): Existentialist philosopher Lev Isaakovich Shestov passed away.  Born in Czarist Russia in 1886, he fled from the Bolshevicks in 1921 and settled in France where he continued to work until his death. While not well-known today, Shestov influenced many more famous philosophers and writers including Albert Camus.



1940: A Christian is killed by German soldiers for throwing bread into the Warsaw ghetto. Close to 400,000 Jews would be contained within approximately 37,200 apartments.



1941: In the West, gassing has become the popular method of exterminating the Jews. Eichmann moved forward on his plans for the deportation of Jews.



1941: Friedrich Jeckeln decided that Rumbula was the best site to murder the Jews imprisoned in the Riga Ghetto.



1942: Birthdate of Calvin Klein, the Bronx born son of Jewish-Hungarian immigrants who went on to became a leading figure in the American fashion industry.



1942: Birthdate of Congressman Gary Ackerman who represents New York’s Fifth District.



1942(10th of Kislev, 5703):The Germans shoot 100 Jews from Potrkow outside of the town.



1942: Germans in Debica, Poland, announce that as of December 1, any Pole who assists Jews "will be punished by death."



1942(10th of Kislev, 5703):Bruno Schulz, the brilliant Polish Jewish author and artist, was gunned down by a Nazi officer in the Drohobycz ghetto.



1943: Jewish prisoners at Janowska, a labor and extermination camp, revolted against their captors. The revolt failed and the camp was liquidated.  One thousand of the survivors were taken to the town of Sandomierz .


 
1943: One thousand Jews are shot at the Jewish cemetery outside Sandomierz, Poland.



1943: Birthdate of fashion designer Calvin Klein



1945: Five months after World War II ended in Europe, Anti-Jewish riots erupt in Lublin, Poland. Jan T. Gross would document post Holocaust anti-Semitism in Poland in Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz published in 2006.



1945: It was announced today that the curfew imposed on Tel Aviv after rioting last week will lifted effective tomorrow.



1945: “Five thousand officers and men of a Jewish brigade in the British Army of the Rhine began a hunger strike today in protest against Foreign Minister Bevin’s declaration on Palestine.”  Some did not go to the mess hall “while others sat idly before full plates.  The Jewish brigade is deployed in a swath of territory from  northwest Belgium and through southwest Netherlands


 
1945: In London members of the American League for a Free Palestine called on Great Britain to immediately allow 100,000 Jews to settle in Palestine.  Guy Gillette, a former U.S. Senator from Iowa and head of the league warned the British that any delay would be unpopular with the citizenry of the United States.



1945: Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met twice today to discuss the situation in Palestine. Among the attendees were Robert F. Wagner the Democratic Senator from New York and Robert A. Taft the Republican Senator from Ohio “co-authors of a proposed Senate resolution favoring immediate unlimited Jewish immigration to Palestine.” [Wagner, who was a Liberal and Taft, who was a Conservative, were polar opposite on most issues.  Dealing with the DP Jews of Europe and Palestine brought them together in common cause.]


 
1947:  Chaim Weizmann “rose from his sickbed” and went to Washington to meet with President Truman to talk about the creation of a Jewish state that included the Negev.

 
1947: Lessing J. Rosenwald, the President of the American Council for Judaism expressed his opposition for “plans to establish the American Jewish Conference on a permanent basis to coordinate all Jewish activities” in the United States.

 
1948:UN mediator Ralph Bunche accepts Israel's proposal made yesterday that included the Jewish state’s stated readiness to begin an armistice with the Arabs.

 
1948: In an unprecedented move that would have serious consequences for the region th UN General Assembly approves $30 million fund for relief of Palestinian refugees forming the UNRPR. Assembly asks UN member countries for contributions. No money would be provided for Jewish citizens forced to flee from their homes in Arab and/or Moslem countries.  These funds would create a permanent  and ever-growing refugee population on Israel’s borders and would keep the Arab and Moslem states of the region of offering a home to their Palestinian brethren.

 
1951: “Tillie’s Unpunctured Romance” published today describe the love affair between Tillie Louse (born Myrtle Ehrlich) with the tomato.


 
1952:The Jerusalem Postreported that Albert Einstein had declined to accept the offer of the Israeli Presidency. Einstein said that while he was deeply touched by the offer, he felt unsuited for such an office.


1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the minister of social affairs, Mrs. Golda Myerson, promised that the new immigrants’ tent cities would completely disappear within the next half year.  Mrs. Myerson was a former school teacher from Milwaukee who would change her name to Meir and go to serve as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.



1953: As tensions mounted between Israel and Jordan because Palestinian terrorists repeatedly crossed from Jordan in to Israel, Prime Minister Churchill cautioned against sending British troops to support the Jordanians lest they be caught in a cross-fire between Israeli and Arab forces.



1959: David Susskind produced an adaptation of “The Power and the Glory” for tonight’s broadcast of the Play of the Week.



1954: Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. loses his left eye in an automobile accident. 



1962: S(amuel) N(athaniel) Behrman’s "Lord Pengo," premiered in New York City.



1971(1st of Kislev, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1971 (1st of Kislev): Yiddish poet and essayist Jacob Glatstein passed away
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/761/features/summoned-home/
http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/jacobglatstein.html



1971(1st of Kislev, 5732): Sportscaster Bill Stern passed away at the age of 64.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/BillStern.htm


1977:  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.



1980:CBS TV bans Calvin Klein's jeans ad featuring Brooke Shields. [He is Jewish; she is not.]



1982(3rd of Kislev, 5743): Sixty year old Canadian born sociologist passed away today. (As reported by William Dicke
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/22/obituaries/erving-goffman-sociologist-who-studied-every-day-life.html
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html



1983(13th of Kislev, 5744):  Fifty seven year old lyricist Carolyn Leigh passed away.(As reported by G. Gerald Fraser)
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/21/obituaries/carolyn-leigh-lyricist-for-peter-pan-dies.html



1988: Alter Mojze Goldman was elected to the Légion d'Honneur on for his role in the French Résistance. He died barely a month later at the age of 79.



1994: The Shagmar Commission which had been established to conduct to investigate the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin held its first meeting today.



1998: During the Mona Lewinsky scandal, The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.



1998(30th of Cheshvan, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1998(30th of Cheshvan, 5759): American film producer, writer and director Alan J. Pakula the Yale educated son of Jewish parents from Poland passed away. Some of his more memorable efforts included “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Sophie’s Choice,” “Klute” and “The Pelican Brief.”



2000:  The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including At Memory’s Edge:  After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architectureby James E. Young, Highlanders:A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory by Yoav Karny, Lying Awake by Mark Saltzman and Louisa by by Simone Zelitch



2001: During the investigation of Jack Abramoff’s business dealings in Guam, U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black, the chief prosecutor for Guam and the instigator of the indictment, was unexpectedly demoted and removed from the office he had held since 1991. The federal grand jury investigation was quickly wound down and took no further action.



2004(6th of Kislev, 5765): Children’s book illustrator Trina Schart Hyman passes away.



2004:The Wall Street Journalpublishes “They Call It Chrismukkah: ‘The O.C.’ launches a new interfaith holiday” in which columnist Jonathan Eig describes another response to the confluence of Christmas and Chanukah in America. "The O.C.," is a television show which traces the lives of some hip teens in Orange County, Calif. One of them is Seth Cohen, the fictional son of a Protestant mother and a Jewish father.



2005: The movement that was the first to welcome intermarried families into its synagogues nearly three decades ago now will focus on actively inviting non-Jews to convert to Judaism. That was one of the initiatives announced by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, during his Shabbat sermon at the movement’s 68th biennial in Houston.



2006: TheNew York Times book section featured reviews of Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg by Bill Morgan, Collected Poems:1947-1997by Allen Ginsberg, and I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life  by A Goldstein and Josh Alan Friedman



2007: In Jerusalem, as part of the International Oud Festival, Dovid Broza and Yair Dalal present an evening of love songs in Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic.



2007(9th of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-one year old Wiera Gran passed away.
http://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/131148/curse-of-the-survivor?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=15762aae5f-5_2_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-15762aae5f-207008977


 
2007(9th of Kislev, 5768): Ido Zuldan, a 29 year old resident of Shavei Shomron was killed by Palestinian gunman while traveling between two villages on the West Bank while in a separate incident, five Qassam rockets and 18 mortar shells struck the western Negev including at least one rocket that struck the city of Ashkelon.



2008: Barney Rosset receives a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in honor of his many contributions to American publishing, especially his groundbreaking legal battles to print uncensored versions of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He is also the subject of “Obscene,” a documentary by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O’Connor.



2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hadassah Book Club discusses The History of Love by Nicole Krauss at the home of Amy Barnum.



2008: On its final night the Ninth Annual Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival presents “Four Seasons Lodge”, a movie about a bungalow colony in New York’s Catskill Mountains that has provided idyllic refuge to a group of Holocaust survivors and their families for nearly three decades.

2008: Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor won his race to become the new minority whip today, becoming the second-ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives. While the House Republican leadership has been set, the party's own transition has just begun. Wednesday's moves shift the House delegation further to the right, with the elevation of conservatives such as Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives. The Republican Party as a whole is now debating whether it needs to consolidate its conservative base or reach out to moderates, and the outcome could determine if Jews other than Cantor feel comfortable in the Grand Old Party.



2008: Facing a tight economic crunch, the New York-based Anti Defamation League has laid off nearly 10 percent of its staff at its national headquarters, the organization said today.
 
2008:Israeli archaeologists excavating what they believe is the tomb of biblical King Herod said today they have unearthed lavish Roman-style wall paintings of a kind previously unseen in the Middle East and signs of a regal two-story mausoleum, bolstering their conviction that the Jewish monarch was buried here.
 
2008: Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg replaced Moshe Tamir as commander of The Israel Defense Forces Gaza Division (Territorial) which is subordinate to the Southern Regional Command.



2008: Today, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan for operation cast lead was brought for Barak's final approval.



2009: Melvin Urofsky, a professor of law and public policy, discusses and signs "Louis D. Brandeis: A Life," his new biography of the Supreme Court justice, at the National Archives



2009: At the Trade Fair and Convention Center in Tel Aviv the Fifth International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition - WATEC Israel 2009 comes to an end.



2009: Moshe Holtzberg, son of Barvriel and Rivka Holztberg of blessed memory who were murdered by the terrorists in Mumbain in 2008, receives his first haircut at a ceremony called upshiren.



2009: The Iowa Department of Economic Development Board approved state incentivizes of more than $600,000 that will help kosher meatpacker Agri Star Meat &Poultry in Postville launch a $6.7 million expansion to add a line of oven-baked beef and poultry.  Agri Star is the successor the defunct Rubashkin operations in Postville.  The new Canadian owners have made a commitment to operate in a manner that is Kosher in name and as well as spirit since they have promised to follow federal, state and local laws and regulations.

 
2010: Israeli/International Folk Dance for Seniors is the scheduled activity for today at The Jewish Folk Arts Festival.

 
2010:An exhibition featuring the work of Ayala Gazit, the Haifa born photographer, entitled “Was It A Dream,” is scheduled to open in New York City.

 
2010:Following multiple rockets and mortar shells being fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip today, the IDF confirmed that IAF jets successfully struck three terror-related targets in Gaza in response.The IDF also reported that the four mortar shells that landed in the Ashkelon Regional Council area earlier today contained white phosphorous.

 

2010(12th of Kislev, 5771): Seventy six year old  Marvin Levin, a real estate developer who wore a wire in his cowboy boots during a major FBI anti-corruption sting of California’s state government in the 1980s, passed away today

2011: “Now I Am Talking, Memories of a Woman Partisan” a film that tells the story of Vitka Kovner, the Jewish resistance fighter who was the wife of Abba Kovner, is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.

 
2011: Adat Reyim is scheduled to host its annual Autumn Art Auction in Springfield, VA.



2011:Cellist Inbal Segev is scheduled to perform selected string trios as part of the Amerigo trio with Glenn Dicterow and Karen Dreyfus at the music for Youth Concert in New York.


2011:Israel sees cracks in Syrian power structures amid increasingly violent unrest, and there are signs President Bashar Assad may not be in power for long, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on today.

2011:Israel Police and the Communications Ministry cut off the broadcasts of Kol Hashalom radio station today, claiming that they are pirate broadcasts. Kol Hashalom’s operators claim that their offices, which are located in the Palestinian Authority, are not subject to Israeli law, but Palestinian law, and therefore the Communications Ministry does not have the authority to shut it down.

 
2011(22nd of Cheshvan, 5772): Ninety-three year old “Sanford D. Garelik, a former New York City mayoral candidate and a City Council president who served the city amid the fiscal and criminal turmoil of the 1970s” passed away today. (As reported by Matt Flegenheimer)

2012: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Jewish World in Action: Facing the Polish-Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1648-1683.”

 
2012(5th of Kislev, 5774): Eighty two year old Warren Rudman, the senator who led the fight for a balanced budget passed away today. (As reported by Adam Clymer)
2012:The Wiener Library and the University of London are scheduled to host "The Strongest Possible Terms": The Evolving Role of Parliamentary Condemnations of Atrocities Past and Present a debate marking the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Persecution of the Jews.

 
2012: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a musical evening celebrating 100 years of Woody Gutherie. 

 
2012: To date, since the start of the year, more than 1,700 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza.

 
2012: As Sunday gives way to Monday, Israel continues to defend itself during Operation Pillar of Defense.

 
2012: Two Katyusha missiles aimed at Israel from Lebanon were “discovered” today in the southern region. Both were set to launch, a security source told Lebanese newspaper The Daily Sta
 
2012:Israel’s operation to stem Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel continued in its sixth day today. The Israel Air Force struck over 80 terrorist targets in Gaza, while Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired 130 rockets into Israel.

2013: “It’s Better To Jump” and “The Lesson” are scheduled to be shown at the Other Israel Film Festival.


 


 
 

 

 





This Day, November 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 20



331 BCE (21st of Kislev, 3431): According to the Talmud, Simeon the Just destroyed the Samaritan Temple at Mount Gerizim.  The Samaritans had undermined the efforts during the post-exilic period and this move was as much about establishing political sovereignty as it was about wiping out a “high place” intended to compete with Jerusalem.  The victory was marked by a minor festival called Mt. Gerizim Day.



284: Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor.  Diocletian began a policy of subdividing the various provinces of the Roman Empire into increasingly smaller administrative units.  Palestine, the name the Romans gave to Eretz Israel, was divided into three territories: Palaestina Prima including Judea, Samaria, and the coastal plain, Iduemea and Peraea with Caesarea (the one on the Mediterranean that had played such a key role in the Great Revolt against Rome) as its capital; Palaestina Secunda, consisting of the Galilee and the Golan with Beth-shean (the city to which the ancient Philistines had taken King Saul’s decapitated body) as its capital; Palaestina Terita consisting primarily of the Negev with Petra as its capital.  In a further division of powers, each of these new subdivisions had a military and a civilian head. All of the new bureaucrats who came with these new subdivisions took on aura of divinity connected in keeping with their role as representatives of the Divine Emperor.  What it meant for the people of the empire was further subjugation and impoverishment.  Diocletian was also the last of the Roman Emperors took actively persecute the Christians.  His ultimate successor would adopt a policy that represented a 180 degree and would mark even worse times for the Jewish people.



1194: Palermo, Sicily, is conquered by Emperor Henry VI. By the time of Henry’s conquest, Jews had been living on the island of Sicily for over a thousand years. Jews had been living in Palermo since the sixth century because we have evidence that in 590 “Pope Gregory the Great ordered the ecclesiastical authorities to reimburse the Jews of Palermo for the damage suffered by the expropriation of their synagogue.” Furthermore, just prior to the conquest, the famous traveler Benjamin of Tudela mentioned the Jewish community of Palermo in his writings.



1272:Edward I proclaimed King of England. Edward is remembered as the English king, who, after stripping the Jews of their wealth, expelled them from his realm in 1290.



1316: King John I of France died.  His father, Louis X had issued a decree in 1315 allowing the Jews to return.  We do not know how John felt about the Jews (or anything else for that matter) since he only lived for five days.  We do know that the Jews were allowed to remain in France until the end of the 14th century when they were again expelled.



1451: Pope Nicholas V issued an edict empower the bishop of Osma and the vicar of Salamana to appoint new inquisitors to examine the cases of "new-Christians suspected of Judaizing.  The inquisitors were authorized to punish the convict, imprison them, confiscate their goods and disgrace them, to degrade even priests and hand them over to the secular arm - a church euphemism for condemning them to the heretic's stake



1521: All Jewish wine was dumped by Arabs and heavy fines imposed on the Jewish community of Jerusalem. The Arabs blamed the Jewish use of wine for a severe water shortage. 



1616: Bishop Richelieu becomes French minister of Foreign affairs/War.  Richelieu was the power behind the throne during the reign of King Louis XIII. Any decree issued over the signature of Louis was probably written by Richelieu.   While Jews had long been banished from France, exceptions were made. For example, when the French captured the city of Metz, a special letter was posted allowing the Jews to remain because their presence was a necessity for the good of the Kingdom.  Furthermore, the ban against Jews was not enforced during Louis XIII’s reign in his overseas possessions. Once again, thanks to economic needs, in places such as Martinique, the Jews were allowed to settle while engaged in trade and practicing their faith.



1657: Manasseh Ben Israel passed away. Manasseh Ben Israel will always be remembered as the Jewish leader who negotiated with Oliver Cromwell to gain the right for Jews to settle in England.



1785: “The earliest known Yiddish letter from the United States was written by Barnard Gratz of Philadelphia to his brother Michael in London today.



1789: New Jersey became the first state to ratify the amendments to the U.S. Constitution known as the Bill of Rights with its guarantee of Freedom of Religion.  It would take another two years for the Bill of Rights to become part of the Constitution. Virginia would put it over the top in December of 1791.



1790: Governor of Georgia Edward Telfair authorized a charter for the "Parnas and Adjuntas of Mickve Israel at Savannah" under which the congregation still operates.



1827(1st of Kislev, 5588): Rosh Chodesh



1829: The Jews were expelled from the Russian cities of Nikolayev and Sevastopol.



1857:In Westphalia, German Solomon Spiegel and Rosalie Herzberg gave birth to Cincinnati trained lawyer Frederick S. Spiegel, the husband of Minnie Steinberg who became a Judge of Court of Common Pleas in the 1stJudicial District of Ohio.



1858: The Executive Committee of the Representatives of the United Congregations of Israelites of the City of New York addressed a letter to President James Buchanan concerning the Mortara Case. The letter included reference to the letter sent by London Committee of Deputies of British Jews “to their brethren in the United States” seeking their support in having the boy who was kidnapped in Bologna returned to his family.  The letter informed the President of the support being offered by several European nations and of plans to hold a public meeting to enlist public support in the United States. The committee reminded President Buchanan of the prompt action taken by President Van Buren in 1840 when he was asked to intervene to aid the persecuted Jews of Damascus and expressed the hope that he would do the same.



1870: It was reported today that Robert C. De Large, a mulatto with a Jewish father has defeated Mr. C.C. Bowen in the race for the Second Congressional District in South Carolina. A Republican, Mr. De Large “combines the shrewdness of the Jew with the intuitive cleverness of the negro…”



1880: It was reported today that the Purim Association will be hosting a ball in March at the Academy of Music “for the benefit of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.”



1880: In Germany, the members of the government are expected to face questioning from deputies about anti-Semitic “agitation” that has been taken place.



1880: According to a referee’s reported filed today described the sham by Henry Cone, Abraham Altman, Emanuel Levi and the Third National that enabled them to gain control of the Buffalo clothing firm Friedman & Co owned by Jacob and Burnet Friedman.



1881: It was reported today that “the King of Denmark has knighted four Jews in Jutland.”



1881: A resolution was adopted by a group at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum to hold a meeting on November 27 to discuss ways to deal with the unprecedented demand on resources being created by the arrival of the wave of immigrants from Russia.



1883: The Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum held its second annual charity ball tonight.



1884: Birthdate of Norman Thomas social reformer and frequent Socialist candidate for President of the United States.  Thomas was not Jewish but he was active in numerous causes that affected the Jewish People.  He was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.  As a member of the America First Committee he opposed America’s entry into World War II until Pearl Harbor changed his mind.  At the same time, he worked to change American policy during the 1930’s to make it possible for Jewish victims of the Nazis to enter the United States.



1885: It was reported today that while the Reform movement has approved substituting Sunday services for Saturday services, such will not be the case in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Rabbi Wise, who spoke approvingly of the change said that it was not necessary to make the change in the Queen City.



1886: Birthdate of Alexandre Stavisky, the Ukrainian born French financer whose elaborate swindle gave rise to the infamous Stavisky Affair, a scandal that rocked France in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.



1886: It was reported today that the recent decision of the Supreme Court that “affirmed the illegality of keeping open a shop on Sunday “for the purpose of doing business’” will work an extra hardship on Jewish merchants.  The police had allowed them keep their shops open on Sunday “on the supposition” that because they observed the Sabbath on Saturday they were not covered by the law.  Rabbi Solomon Schindler has already chaired a packed meeting at the Columbus Avenue Synagogue on this subject.  The Jews will comply with the law but will work to have the legislature change it in the next session.



1887: “Miss Adams, The Writer” published today traces the life and career of Hannah Adams, the first American woman to earn her living as an author.  Her works included The History of the Jewswhich was published in 1812.  The full title was The History of the Jews from the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Present Time and it may be the first book on this topic published in the United States.



1887: “Reading From Right to Left” published today relied on information that first appeared in the Hebrew Journal to speculate as to way Hebrew is read from right to left.  “The most pertinent reason lies in the fact that our vision from right to left is much clearer and stronger than it is from left to right.”



1887: “Emma Lazarus” published today provided a laudatory obituary of the Jewish poet who passed away yesterday.



http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9505E2DD1639E731A25753C2A9679D94669FD7CF



1887: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler delivered a lecture to the congregants at Temple Beth-El entitled “Prejudice.”



1888: A concert was given tonight at the Metropolitan Opera House to raise money for the Aguilar Free Library, an institution supported by the leading Jews of New York City.



1888(16th of Kislev, 5649): Simon Lederer, a prominent New York merchant passed away today.  Born in Austria in 1823, he came to the United States in 1857 where he pursued a 17 year career in the tobacco business  first with Gustav Resiman and  then as a partner in Bondy & Lederer. A life-long bachelor, he was a generous but modest supporter of Jewish charities.



1889: Gustav Mahler’s 1st Symphony premiered.  Mahler was born Jewish and was still nominally Jewish when he wrote the First Symphony.  He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1897 so that he could become Director of the State Opera.



1890: As the “run” on Citizens’ Saving Bank, located on the Lower East Side with a large number of poor, Jewish depositors, it was suggested “that Chief Rabbi Joseph be invited to examine the thousands of dollars in the bank’s vault and then tell his people what he had seen” – a move that the Bank President hoped would reassure the depositors and end the run.



1892 (1st of Kislev, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1892: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Military Band is scheduled to play at a fundraiser at Central Turn Hall which will be addressed by Ferdinand Levy, Judge Henry M. Goldfogle and Dr. Herman Baar, the Superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum



1892: A service is scheduled to take place this morning at Temple Emanu-El to honor the memory of the recently deceased Seligman Adler.



1892: “Russia and Her Jews” published today provided a detailed review of The New Exodus” a Study of Israel in Russia by Harold Frederic a Presbyterian journalist and novelist  who had just visited Russia last summer.



1893: As of today the tenants at 59, 61, 63, and 65 Moore Street, all of whom are Russian Jews are to have vacated the premises as ordered the Civil Justice in Brooklyn.



1894(21st of Cheshvan, 5655): Russian born pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein passed away.



1894: Birthdate of English film composer and music director, Louis Levy.



1896: “Rachel Frank of California, the only woman rabbi who is famous as the ‘inspired prophet’ of the Jews on the Pacific Coat” was “conspicuous among” the delegates at the just completed first convention of the National Council of Jewish Women



1896: Professor H. L Sabsovich, the General Agent of the Baron De Hirsch Fund officiated at the service dedicating the new synagogue in Woodbine, NJ, a colony settled by Russian-Jews.  The service included a sermon in English by Rabbi Sabato Morris and a sermon in German by Dr. Morris Jastrow.



1896: Birthdate of Russian author Yevgenia Ginzburg.



1898: A summary of the United Hebrew Charities report for October revealed that the society had processed 2,243 applications that would provide assistance to 7,477 people.



1898(6th of Kislev, 5659): Fifty-five year old Emanuel Wachenheim passed away tonight at Bellevue after he had brought to the hospital from the Victor Hotel where he had registered under an assumed name and may have tried to take his own life.



1898: Vice President Maruice Untermyer gave the opening address at the formal dedication of “the new home of the Hebrew Infant Asylum” which included a performance by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band.



1901: At the opening meeting of the Second New York State Conference of Charities and Correction, Rabbi Adolph Radin of the People’s Synagogue and Chaplain of the House of Refuge arose from his chair and said, “I wish to register…my protest in the name of justice and humanity against the action of the Juvenile Asylum” to which “Jewish children are sent…and after a brief period are sent to Christian families.” He compared this form of proselytism to the practices of Czar Nicholas II.



1901: A devastating fire broke out a four story brick factory building in Brooklyn, the top floor of which was occupied by Isadore Gerber’s sweatshop.



1902: “The Jewish Theological Seminary held its first public gathering this evening in the hall of the Young Men's Hebrew Association at Lexington Avenue ad Ninety-Second Street. Prof. Solomon Schechter, the professor at Cambridge University, England, who is known for his archaeological work in the Genizah of Cairo, made his inaugural address as President of the Faculty of the new seminary.”  Dr. Cyrus Adler, President of the Board of Trustees, followed with a speech that outlined the development of Jewish educational institutions in the United States.



1903: Birthdate of journalist and co-editor of the Menorah, Herbert Solow who began as a Bolshevik and ended up working for Henry Luch.



1908: The Grand Vizir of Morocco sent a letter to President of the Alliance Israelite Universelle approving educational work and stating that the new Sultan is resolved to protect Jews.

1909: The One-hundredth anniversary of the death of Moses Mendes Seixas was observed at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York. Gershom Mendes Seixas was the first native-born rabbi in the United States. He was one of seven children of Rachel and Isaac Seixas. He was born in New York City on January 15, 1746. He was the first rabbi in America to give his sermons in English. He gave sermons which dealt with Jewish participation in the life of the state and made appeals for support of the American Revolution and against the British-Indian raids in the Northwest Territory. When the council members of Philadelphia made eligibility for an assembly seat dependent on professing the divine origin of the New Testament, he and other Jews fought against this unconstitutional religious test.



1911: In Warsaw, “Regina and Benjamin Szymin, a respected publisher of Yiddish and Hebrew Books” gave birth to David Syzmin who gained fame as David Seymour famed photographer and co-founder of Magnum Photos.



http://davidseymour.com/



http://lightbox.time.com/2013/01/16/a-second-look-chims-children-of-war/#1



http://merrill.umd.edu/events/visible-scars-children-and-war-photography-david-chim-seymour



http://museum.icp.org/mexican_suitcase/bio_chim.html



1913: Birthdate of Charles Bettelheim, a French economist and historian and founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of Industrialization (CEMI).



1913: Birthdate of Leo Hanin, the native of Vilna who found refuge in China and Japan before finally making Aliyah in 1948
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/idcard.php?ModuleId=10006693



1913: Birthdate of Professor Henry A. Fischel, the noted linguist who played a key role in the founding of the Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University.



1917: As the Empire of Russia collapses, the Ukraine declares itself an independent republic. In the ensuing civil war, as many as 100,000 Jews may have been killed in organized pogroms or by forces competing for control who had one thing in common --- anti-Semitism.



1918: Rabbi Joseph Silverman will officiate at the funeral of Civil War veteran and successful Peoria (Illinois) businessman Captain Joseph B. Greenhut this morning at 10 o’clock at Temple Emanuel with burial at Salem Field Cemetery.



1922: The Conference of Lausanne, one of the many peace conferences held to windup World War I which was covered by Albert Karasu opened today. Born in 1885 in Ottoman Salonika, he went to school in Switzerland before returning to Istanbul where he founded Le Journal d’Orient  which survived until 1971, 11 years before Karasu passed away.



1923: Birthdate of Nadine Gordimer. Gordimer is a South African Jewish novelist and writer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in literature and 1974 Booker Prize. She was born in Springs, Gauteng, an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg, the daughter of Isidore and Nan Gordimer. She lives in Johannesburg. Gordimer was educated at an Anglican convent school. Thereafter she studied for a year at Witwatersrand University, but did not complete her degree. During the 1960s and 1970s she taught at several universities in the United States. She drew praise for her demand that South Africa re-examine and replace its long held policy of apartheid. As such, most of her works deal with the moral and psychological tensions of her racially divided home country. Her first novel, The Lying Days, was published in 1953. A founding member of the Congress of South African Writers, Gordimer has been awarded numerous honorary degrees, as well as France's Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.



1924: Birthdate of mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot. Mandelbrot is a leading proponent of fractal geometry. He is Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Emeritus at Yale University and IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center.



1925:  Birthdate of Robert F. Kennedy.  In 1968, Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.  Supposedly he was upset because Kennedy was a supporter of the state of Israel.



1929: Birthdate of Joyce Beber (née Sacks) the yeshiva student turned advertising executive who co-founded Beber Silverstein & Partners and created numerous memorable campaigns for the Helmsley group of hotels, which successfully promoted Leona Helmsley and her hotel chain, but led to her being hired and fired four times by Helmsley.


1929: Rabbi Judah P. Magnes declares that Palestine must be a place for Christians, Moslems and Jews. He sees Palestine as an international home for people of all three faiths and calls for “the renunciation of all ideas of Jewish political domination” along with the development of “cultural Zionism.”



1929: Today, Gertrude Berg's popular radio program, The Goldbergs, about an upwardly mobile American Jewish family debuted on NBC radio. Berg developed the kernel of the show as a series of live sketches to entertain guests at her family's Catskills hotel. It was produced in recurrent runs as a daily 15-minute program on NBC and other networks for nearly two decades before shifting to television in January, 1949. On both radio and TV, Berg served as the sole writer, producer, and star of one the nation's most popular programs. Throughout its 30 years on radio and television, as well as in presentations on Broadway and on film, The Goldbergs dealt explicitly with Jewish life in the United States, joking about the cultural differences between "old world" immigrants and their American-born offspring. Berg's Molly became a cultural touchstone, a figure combining old world wisdom, new world common sense, and a mother's humanity in confronting the perplexities of American life. Over the show's three decades, the Goldberg family moved from a New York City tenement to the Bronx and later to suburban Connecticut, mirroring the upward progression of many Jews into the American mainstream. Although Berg continued to produce The Goldbergs into the 1950s, the show's popularity declined. The demise of The Goldbergs reflects the homogenizing trend in postwar American society. As millions of ethnic Americans fled their traditional urban enclaves in search of an un-hyphenated, simply "American" identity in the suburbs, programming explicitly grounded in ethnic cultures gave way to more all-American shows like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. The Goldbergs went off the air in 1955.



1933(2nd of Kislev): Rabbi Moses Mordecai Epstein, author of Levush Mordecai, passed away today.



1934: Lillian Hellmann’s "Children's Hour," premieres in New York City.



1935: King Levinsky, who had recently been knocked out by a youthful Joe Louis, “fought professional wrestler Ray Steele in a bout that attracted national interest.”



1938: Father Coughlin made the first of his many anti-Semitic attacks on his radio show. Using Nazi documents, American radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin contends that Jews are responsible for Russian communism and for Germany's problems. All of Coughlin's radio programs are approved by his archdiocese as not contradicting Catholic faith or morals. Some Catholics protest Coughlin's broadcasts, including Chicago's Cardinal George Mundelein, but most of the American Church is silent.



1939: In what had been Poland, the Nazi Generalgouvernement blocked all bank accounts held by Jews. Withdrawals were limited to thirty dollars per month.



1940: Britain announced a more stringent policy aimed at Jews trying to enter Palestine illegally.  Jews found on ships running the British blockade will not be allowed to enter Palestine.  They will be taken to an undetermined colonial destination where they will be imprisoned until the end of the war.  At that time, there final destination, which will not be Palestine or the site of the imprisonment will be determined. 



1940: The Jewish Agency informed Prime Minister Churchill of the inhumane conditions under which Jewish detainees are being held on the island of Mauritius.



1940: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers. This is the first step on the long road which will belatedly bring the Holocaust to the Jews of Hungary including Nobel Prize Winner Elie Weisel.



1941(30th of Cheshvan, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Kislev



1941(30th of Cheshvan, 5702): Approximately 7000 Jews from Minsk, Belorussia, are killed at nearby Tuchinka.



1942 (11th of Kislev, 5703): Rechaviah Lewin-Epstein, who was in charge of the economic work of the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs died in Cairo today at the age of 49 while on his way to Palestine to continue his work.  Mr. Lewin-Epstein, the son of author and Zionist leader Elias W. Lewin-Epstein, established The Bureau of American Economic Committee for Palestine an organization he headed until 1938.  He returned to New York in 1939 after he had “facilitated the settlement of thousands of refugees in agriculture, industry and trade” in Palestine.



1942: Birthdate of folk singer Norman Greenbaum.



1943: Facing withering fire from Japanese artillery and machine guns, U.S. Marines land on Tarawa.  This bloody battle provides part of the backdrop for “Battle Cry,” the World War II novel by Leon Uris.



1943: This afternoon several hundred residents of Tel Aviv protested the search that had been carried out at Ramat Hakovesh.  The protesters also demanded the release of men who had been arrested during the search. 



1943: Madeline Dreyfus who had chosen to remain in France as part of the Resistance instead of joining most of her family in the United States was sent to Auschwitz. Her grandmother Lucie Eugénie Hadamard, Colonel Dreyfus’ widow stayed with her.  She would be hidden in a convent, survive the war and not pass away until 1945.



1943: The Nazis auction off the furniture and household possessions of the family of Isak Plesansky in an example of how the property of Norwegian Jews “mysteriously” disappeared.



1944(4th of Kislev, 5705): Havivah Reik and Rafael Reiss, together with a group of captured Jews, were murdered in the Kremnica forest by the Germans and their Slovakian fascist collaborators. They dumped the bodies into a large ditch that served as a mass, unmarked grave.



1944(4th of Kislev, 5705):Haviva Reik was captured and executed by the Nazis and members of the Ukrainian Waffen SS. Born in 1914, she was one of four volunteers from the Yishuv in Eretz Israel who parachuted into Slovakia to help the uprising against the Nazis. In September 1944 she succeeded in helping the Jews who were left in Banska Bystresis. When it fell they moved into the mountains with other Jewish partisans. Kibbutz Lahavot Haviva and the Givat Haviva center are dedicated to her memory.



1945:  Twenty-four Nazi leaders went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg. Colonel Benjamin Kaplan, ”who later became a Harvard law professor and served nine years on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court” played a key role in crafting the indictment. 



1945: Birthdate of Deborah Eisenberg, an American short-story writer, actor and teacher



1946: As tensions rise in Palestine, a bomb explodes in Jerusalem.



1947: The New York Times includes a review of The Victim, Saul Bellow’s novel about Asa Leventhal, “a frightened and lonely, man.”



1947:"Meet the Press" makes network TV debut on NBC. The popular television news show began as a radio program in 1945, produced by Lawrence Spivak. A panel of four news people interviewed a prominent leader of the day.    When the show shifted to television, Spivak was the permanent panel member and some time served as moderator. 



1947: Lillian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest," premieres in New York City.



1947: It was reported today that Lessing J. Rosenwald, the President of the American Council of Judaism, has expressed his strong opposition to “plans to establish the American Jewish Conference on a permanent basis to coordinate all Jewish activities in this country.”  The American Council of Judaism was a leading anti-Zionist Jewish organization in the United State.



1947: British diplomat Sir Alexander Cadogan delivered his country’s response to United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on the Palestine



1948: “An unarmed RAF photo-reconnaissance De Havilland Mosquito of No. 13 Squadron RAF was shot down by an Israeli Air Force P-51 Mustang flown by American volunteer Wayne Peake as it flew over the Galilee towards Hatzor Airbase. Peake opened fire with his cannons, causing a fire to break out in the port engine. The aircraft turned to sea and lowered its altitude, then exploded and crashed off Ashdod.” Both members of the crew were killed. (So much for the myth of British neutrality in the Middle East.



1948: The first preliminary armistice talks begin when William E. Riley, chief UN truce observer, meets separately with Israel Foreign Office officials and Egyptian commander Fouad Sadeh Bey.



1948: Dr. Philip C. Jessup announces U.S. policy regarding peace talks in the Palestine including a proviso that any changes in Israel’s boundaries must be agreed to by the Jewish state and a willingness to examine some parts of Count Bernadotte’s plan including the internationalization of Jerusalem.



1949: The Jewish population of Israel reached one million.



1951: Lewis L. Strauss addressed the second annual convocation of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.  Dr. James Conant, President of Harvard, Dr. A. Whitney Griswold, President of Yale and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, president and publisher of The New York Times, received honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters. (Sulzberger was the Jewish member of the trio).



1951: Dr. Simon Greenberg, vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary conferred the degree of Doctor of Hebrew Literature on Rabbi Shraga Abramson, a visiting lecturer on the Talmud.



1952: The Slánský trials- a series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic show trials - began in Czechoslovakia. The Slansky trials take their name from Rudolf Slansky.  “A veteran of revolutionary of Jewish origin, he had served as Secretary of the Czech Communitys Party.  Slansky was accused of spying for American imperialism, for the State of Israel and for the Zionist movement; allegedly he was a link in a chain of treachery” designed to undermine the authority of the Socialist Revolution i.e. Stalin and the Soviets.  “Fifteen years later this affair was officially declared to have bee a despicable slander, the whole affair having been fabricated by Soviet security agents working in Czechoslovakia.”



1955: Dr. Cari Alpert, special assistant to Yaakov Dori, president of the Technion (Israel’s answer to MIT) “said a permanent peace between Israel and the Arab states would result in the opening of Technion’s doors to Arab students.



1957:Morton Wishengrad's "Rope Dancers," premieres in New York City. Wishengrad was raised on New York’s Lower East Side by his Orthodox Jewish father.  Wishengrad was not particularly interested in maintaining his Jewish identity which was rather ironic because, in 1944, he became the first script writer for the radio show, “The Eternal Light” produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary.



1959: WABC fires Jewish disc jockey Alan Freed over payola scandal.



1960(1st of Kislev): Seventy-nine year old author and poet Ya’Kov (Jacob Cohen) passed away


1964: The Second Vatican Council, under Pope Paul VI, condemned anti-Semitism, declaring that the Jewish people as a whole are not to be blamed for Jesus' death.



1968: Birthdate of David Einhorn, an American hedge fund manager and the founder of Greenlight Capital.



1973(25th of Cheshvan, 5734): Forty-eight year old author and songwriter Allan Sherman who wrote the popular musical satire Camp Granada passed away.



http://jangle04.home.mindspring.com/sherman3.html



http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/sherman.htm
 
1975: Spanish dictator Francisco Franco passed away.  A fascist who aligned himself with the Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War which would be seen as a “dress rehearsal for WW II” Franco refused to join the Axis and remained neutral during the war.  “According to the recent discovery of a World War II document, Franco ordered his provincial governors to compile a list of Jews while he negotiated an alliance with the Axis powers.] Franco supplied Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler with a list of 6,000 Jews in Spain, for the Nazis'"Final Solution". However, Franco built no Jewish concentration camps on Spanish territory, nor did he voluntarily hand Jews over to Germany. Furthermore, Spanish diplomats extended their diplomatic protection over Jews in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Balkans



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/20/franco-gave-list-spanish-jews-nazis



1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address the Knesset, Israel's parliament.



http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/sadat_speech.html



http://www.historycentral.com/Israel/1977SadatComesToIsrael.html



1978: The funeral of Judge Leo F. Rayfel is scheduled to take place today at 2 pm in Farmingdale, Long Island.



1979: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.  Anybody who was paying attention would have noted that 1)violence in the Middle East has many causes that have nothing to do with Israel and 2) the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites should be a real matter of concern



1982: Andy Kaufman was forever voted off of Saturday Night Live by a live phone poll.



1991: Nadine Brozan described one of those strange coincidences in life where Richard Dreyfus and Michael Burns who lived near each other as children both became involved in projected related to Alrde Dreyfus.  Burns authored Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789-1945 while Dreyfus produced and starred in a film about the French Captain entitled “Prisoner of Honor” that focuses on one of those sought to free Dreyfus, Georges Picquart.



1995:  In a front page article, The Austin American Statesman reported that a group of IBM employees who were supposed to move from Florida to Austin were balking at the move because Austin lacked a kosher butcher and a Jewish Day School.  Within a month, H.E.B opened a kosher butcher shop at one of its Austin stores.



1998(1st of Kislev, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Kislev


2003: Car bombings in Istanbul continue.  The initial bombing targeted two synagogues resulting in the death of 25 people and the wounding of 300 more.


2005: A symposium is held at the American Schools of Oriental Studies entitled “The Tel Zayit Stone: A New Tenth-Century Inscription from the Judean Shephelah.” A dramatic discovery punctuated this year's excavation season at Tel Zayit, Israel, where The Zeitah Excavations recovered a large stone bearing an incised, two-line inscription. The special importance of the stone derives not only from its archaic alphabetic text, which hints at formal scribal training at the site, but also from its well-defined archaeological context in a structure dating securely to the tenth century BCE. The borderland site of Tel Zayit lies in the lowlands district of Judah, and in this period it exhibits strong links with the highland culture to the east, in the direction of Jerusalem, not with the coastal culture of the Philistine plain. The early appearance of literacy at Tel Zayit will surely play a pivotal role in the current discussion of the archaeology and history of Israel and Judah in the tenth century BCE.



2005: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including the paperback edition of Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books byAaron Lanksy which recounts the adventures of  Lansky, who won a MacArthur award in 1989, as president and founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, traveling the world to salvage and catalog a literature once on the verge of oblivion.



2006: “A rally organized by Anglo students to raise Israeli awareness about the genocide in Dafur is held at Zion Square in downtown Jerusalem.  The rally is sponsored by Hatzilu et Amei Dafur (Save the Nation of Dafur) a group composed of Yeshiva and seminary students.



2006: Birthdate of Noah Pozner who would be the youngest victim at the Sandy Hook Mass Shooting



2007: In Jerusalem, as part of the International Oud Festival, Imad Dalal who heads the Arabic music department at Safed College presents a program of traditional and contemporary song.



2007: Prime Minister Olmert is reported to be going to Cairo for a surprise meeting with Egyptian leaders.



2008: At the conclusion of his three-day trip to Great Britain President Shimon Peres is scheduled to meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace where he will be awarded a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG), the sixth-most senior award in the British system, used to honor individuals who have rendered important services in relation to foreign nations.

2008: After critical failures in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997.  This is part of the long descent into what has been termed the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression that will have a devastating on all Americans, Jew and gentile alike.  Many Jewish organizations will be forced to down-size as funding sources dry up.



2008: As part of the Live From Lincoln Center series, Jewish, Violinist Gil Shaham, the son of two Israelis, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and pianist Jonathan Feldman perform this intimate concert at the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse featuring the music of composer Pablo de Sarasate in a panoramic survey of the music of his music on the occasion of the 100 anniversary of his death.



2008:Poland's capital marked the completion of a massive restoration project that marks the borders of the former Jewish Ghetto that was walled in by Nazis occupiers during World War II. The mayor of Warsaw, along with the minister of culture, inaugurated the project that included 21 new information points along the boundaries of the former Jewish Ghetto. The project also placed a beige line, labeled "Ghetto Wall," along the city streets that outlined the furthest reaches of the Ghetto's borders.

2009: The 92nd St Y in New York, hosts the Shababa Bakery where you are invited to prepare for Shabbat by squishing, rolling and braiding your very own challah which you can take home and bake.



2009: At Columbus, Ohio, at Tifereth Israel, Rabbi Unger leads The Mitzvah Initiative which features an unconventional approach to learning that is a series of open and honest workshops and discussion by participants which examine some of the most critical elements of Jewish life.

2009: The U.S. State Department issued a statement noting “a growing trend of anti-Semitic hate crimes and discrimination around the world.” The statement coincided with the appointment of Hannah Rosenthal to serve as the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.  “The position has been vacant since Gregg   Rickman left at the end of the Bush administration.”



2010: Sarah Michelle Levin and Melissa Ellen Levin are called to the Torah as B’not Mitzvah at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El.  They are the twin daughters of Gigi Cohen and Michael Levin and the sisters of Dana Levin who celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in the same congregation in November of 2008.  They are the granddaughters of Zena and David Cohen of blessed memory Mrs. Betty Levin, an ayash chayil par excellence and Dr. Jacob Levin, of blessed memory.



2010:JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to hold its 30th Fall Fundraiser honoring Tanya and Stephen Bodzin.



2011: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest of Jewish readers including “Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945” by Max Hasting, “Eva Bruan: Life with Hitler” by Heike B Gortemaker, “The Unmaking of Israel” by Gershom Gorenberg and  Umberto Eco’s novel, “The Prague Cemetery,” that explores the history of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”



2011: “Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny,” a film Narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley, that recounts Churchill's years in the political wilderness, his early opposition to Adolf Hitler and Nazism, his support for Jews, his return to government by the demand of the British people and his rise to the Prime Minister's office in 1940, is scheduled to be shown at The Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.



2011: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is scheduled to speak at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa.  Emanuel is Jewish.  Jefferson and Jackson were not!



2011:Fears of a fuel crisis this morning followed last night's discovery of a water problem in Ben Gurion International Airport's jet fuel. According to tests conducted by Paz Nachsei Teufah, the company responsible for maintaining the quality of airport fuel at Ben-Gurion, water levels in airport jet fuel exceeded the state limit. It appeared that water might have seeped into the fuel tanks, which apparently does not contaminate the fuel, but does dilute it.

2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today called for medical residents to return immediately to their hospitals as their representatives informed the High Court of Justice that they were willing to return to the negotiating table and to accept the court's proposal to appoint a mediator. Netanyahu expressed empathy with medical residents, but took a harsh tone in calling on them to get back to the wards since more than 300 have walked out of their hospitals.
 
2012: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginias is scheduled to present the final part of the series “The Evolving Views on the Afterlife in Judaism.”


2012: Four rockets fired by Gaza-based terrorists exploded near a community in the Eshkol Regional Council.


 2012: As of midnight, Operation Pillar of Defense enters its seventh day with the Israeli government holding off on a ground offensive in the hope that talks in Cairo will lead to an end to massive Hamas assault on its citizens.


2012: Those living in southern Israel organize demonstrations against plans for a cease-fire one of which is to take place in Kiryat Malachi where three Israelis had been murdered by terrorist rockets and one at Ashdod.


2012(6thof Kislev, 5773): Eighteen year old Corporal Yosef Partuk and an Arab-Israeli civilian identified as Alayaan Salem al-Nabari were this  morning during a mortar attack


2013: Today Noah Pozner would be turning 7 if had not been gunned down last year at Sandy Hook Elementary School.


2013: Yosef Mendeolovich is scheduled to discuss his memoir, Unbroken Sprit: A Heroic Story of Faith, Courage and Survival at the Center for Jewish History


2013: Temple Judah is scheduled to host the Hadassah Book Club which will discuss Breakfast at Stephanie’s by Nancy Margolis.


2013: “Inheritance” is scheduled to be shown at the Other Jewish Film Festival.

This Day, November 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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November 21


456 BCE(20th of Kislev, 3306): On November 21, Ezra called together all the men of Judah and Benjamin and told them that they would have to give up their foreign born wives.  This was part of an attempt by the returning exiles to purify and strengthen the House of Israel even though some might say that it altered the definition of “who was a Jew” as can be seen by the Book of Ruth which was written to portray a different point of view. 



164 BCE: On the secular calendar, Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Events commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.



1272:  Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England.  As bad as Henry had been for the Jews, Edward would prove to be even worse.  After squeezing all he could out of his Jewish subjects, Edward expelled them in 1290.  England would remain officially Jew-free until for the next four centuries.



1384, Philip the Bold regulated the status of the Jews. He permitted fifty-two families to settle in the towns of his domain on payment of an entrance fee and an annual tax. He fixed the rate of interest; henceforth a Jew was to be believed on his oath, and the evidence of a single apostate was declared invalid. The chiefs of the Jews were called "masters of law"; the Jewish cemetery was separated from the others, and a noble of the court was instituted guardian of the Jews. The general expulsion of the Jews from France in 1394 put an end to their presence in Franche-Comté. Israel Lévi has proved that a certain number of well-known rabbis lived in this province in the first half of the fourteenth century—for instance, Joseph b. Jacob Tournoy and Joseph de Musidan.


1513: As Johann Reuchlin continued Johannes Pfefferkorn's drive to confiscate all books belonging to the Jews, Pope Leo ordered the Bishops of Speyer and Worms to hear the charge against Reuchlin.  Reuchlin was a Christian German Scholar whose field of study included Greek and Hebrew.  He had studied the Hebrew texts for the Emperor and found that most of them did not speak ill of Christiainity which meant that they should not be destroyed.  This thwarted the aim of Pfefferkorn and his allies. 


1619: Shah Abbasi (Sufi Dynasty, Persia) intensified persecution against the Jews. Many Jews were forced to live "Marrano-like" lives, outwardly practicing Islam. This policy was continued by his son, Abbas II.



1694: Birthdate of the French philosopher Voltaire.  The great philosopher of the Enlightenment was a vicious anti-Semite.  Not only that, he was an anti-Semite with a twist.  Other Enlightenment philosophers that once Jews were no longer persecuted they would give up their religious trappings and meld into the mainstream of European culture.  Voltaire believed that Jews were innately deformed and that they were beyond reform.  However, Voltaire was humane, but he did not believe that they should be burned at the stake. In his own words he described Jews as “an ignorant, and barbarous people who have long exercised the most sordid avarice and detestable superstition, and an insurmountable hate for all peoples who have tolerated and enriched them.:



1789: North Carolina ratifies the U.S. Constitution to become the 12thstate in the Union.  North Carolina has one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. The early history of the Jews in North Carolina is a mixed.  In 1776, it was one the original thirteen colonies that could boast of having an organized Jewish community.  In 1852, the Jews of Wilmington, N.C, purchased land for a burial plot.  However, the congregation was not organized for another until 1867.  This lengthy was not unusual in the South.  In other ante-bellum communities, land was purchased for a cemetery, but with war clouds gathering, Jews waited before building synagogues and temples.  Further delay was caused by the Civil War and the impoverishment that followed. In 1809, Jacob Henry was the first Jew elected to the legislature in the state.  He accomplished this feat despite the state’s religious tests for office holders.  Strangely enough, the Tar Heel state did not get around to removing religious tests until 1876. The Jewish Community of North Carolina has made great strides over the years.   According to the Glenmary Research Center, which publishes Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States Guilford County (which includes Greensboro and High Point) ranked 99th on a list of the 100 counties in 2000 with the largest Jewish communities, based by percentage of total population. The thirty thousand Jews comprise 0.3% of the state’s population but pack enough clout to have gotten then Governor Jim Hunt to support a state agency designed to stimulate economic and cultural exchanges with the state of Israel. 



1818: A petition written by Lewis Way, an English missionary, requesting the restoration of an independent Jewish nation in Palestine was submitted by Czar Alexander to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
 
1822(7th of Kislev, 5583): Eighty year old Lazarus Solomon passed away in Jamaica today.



1824: [Editors note: Contrary to popular misconception, the American Jewish Community has deep, historic roots outside of New York and its immediate environs.] The first Reform Congregation, Beth Elohim, was established in Charleston, South Carolina. Beth Elohim congregation is the birthplace of Reform Judaism in America and the oldest surviving Reform congregation in the world. Its members have been eminent leaders in the city, state and nation. Among them: Moses Lindo, who helped develop cultivation of indigo, and Joseph Levy, the first Jewish military officer in America. The present beautiful Greek revival temple at 90 Hasell Street (pronounced Hazel) was built in 1840. The congregation began as a Sephardic group in 1749. George Washington wrote, "May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me rest upon your Congregation..." The Beth Elohim Coming Street cemetery is the largest pre-Revolutionary Jewish cemetery in America. The congregation's first rabbi, Moses Cohen, was the first person buried here, in 1762. Bernard Baruch's great grandfather, Rabbi Hartwig Cohen, is one of several other Beth Elohim rabbis here. Other noteworthy persons at this site are nine Charleston Jews who took part in the American Revolution, six who fought in the War of 1812, eight of the 180 Charleston Jews who fought in the Civil War, and three of the Jewish Masons who founded the Scottish Rite here in 1801. The history of Charleston Jewry is beautifully documented with ceremonial objects, records, paintings and photographs at the Beth Elohim Archives Museum. A three-story house at 89-91 Church Street in Charleston was the model for Catfish Row, the centerpiece of Porgy and Bess. George Gershwin wrote the opera while living in Folly Beach. As it moves into the 21st century, the Jewish Community shows its vibrancy through the construction of the College of Charleston, Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Center. Housed in a new three million dollar, 12,000 square foot building, the center offers college credit Jewish studies courses serving the entire community. The Robert Scott Small Library houses the largest archives of South Carolina Jewish history.  Last but not least, Reuben Morris Greenberg has been Chief of Police in the city since 1982.  He is the first African-American Jewish police chief in the city’s history.



1848: In New York, the "B'nai Jeshurun Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society," for the relief of indigent females was formed thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Henry Leo, Mrs. A.H. Lissak and Mrs. David Samson.



1849: Birthdate of William A Gans, who practiced law with Samuel B Hamburger for 35 years and who besides his involvement in numerous Jewish communal organizations, served as a Captain in the Sixth Regiment of the National Guard of New York.



1857: In Zanesville, Ohio, Jacob Schumacher and his wife gave birth to Gottlieb Schumacher, the future U.S. Consular Agent in Haifa.



1861: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Judah P. Benjamin Secretary of War. Before the Civil War, Benjamin had been the second Jewish member of the United States.  After the war, he would refuse to surrender and would move to Great Britain where he became a barrister.  Benjamin is always connected with Louisiana and New Orleans.  However, there is also a strong connection with Charleston, South Carolina. Judah Philip Benjamin attended the Hebrew Orphan Society School in Charleston, as a boy. The building still stands at 88 Broad Street. High on the front is a Hebrew inscription. The house of Judah Benjamin's father can be seen nearby at 35 Broad Street.



1866: Jacob Schiff was licensed as a broker today.



1870: In Vilna, leather merchant Osip Berkman and Yetta Berkman gave birth to Ovsei Osipovich Berkman who gained famed as Alexander Berkman the anarchist from of Emma Goldman who attempted to assassinate  Henry Clay Frick during the steel strike.



1873: It was reported today that the Charity Committee of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society has issued an appeal to the Jewish community to provide aid to their less fortunate co-religionists who are suffering during the current economic depression which has resulted in a marked increase in unemployment.  Because of the severity of the current economic crisis there is a large number of “industrious laborers and artisans” who are suffering and are not used to seeking aid and assistance. Contributions of money and clothing can be left a Number 6 Walker Street in Manhattan.


 
1875: According to reports published today, Emanuel B. Hart, a member of New York’s Jewish community will be in charge of entertainment at next month’s fund raiser for Mount Sinai Hospital.


 
1878: It was reported today that a copy of the “Kabbala Denudata” which was published in Frankfort in 1684 has been sold at auction for $19.00. (This probably refers to work entitled “The Kabbalah Unveiled” by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth.]


 
1879: “An assignment for the benefit of creditors, by Abraham Lager to Max Moses, with $,1850 preferences was filed in the County Clerk’s office” in New York today.



1879: A report was published today describing the worsening situation of the Jews in Germany.  During the last month, at least 30 anti-Semitic pamphlets have been published in Berlin.  An "Antisemiten-Liga" (“League of Antisemites”) has been formed the members of which are “many of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens.”  Riots have taken place in which Jews have been not only insulted by severly maltreated.   The origin of this commotion may be traced back directly to that current of reaction, both in Church and State, which is now setting in over all Germany.”


 
1879: The first edition of The American Hebrew is published in New York. Phillip Cowen was the first publisher of this weekly paper which was founded by F. de Sola Mendes.



1880: The annual reception and ball sponsored by the William Rothschild Association is scheduled to take place this evening in New York City’s Irving Hall.



1880: It was reported today that the government faced stiff questioning about the recent outbreak of anti-Semitism during a session of the lower house of the Prussian Diet.  Deputies “denounced the revival of race hatred and pointed out the inconsistency” of a country that “had taken diplomatic action in favor of the removal of disabilities of the Jews in the Balkan Principalities” harboring such sentiments.


 
1881: “Jewish Legends” published today provides a detailed review of The Wandering Jew by Moncure Daniel Conway.


 
1882: Jehiel Brill left Rosinoi, Russian Poland, with eleven men—ten farmers and a "melamed" (teacher)—today, and arrived at Palestine the following month. The story of his journey and of its results is given in detail in his work, Yesod ha-Ma'aleh (The Base of the Slope). Brill was Russian journalist who had been chosen for his take by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever and Baron Edmond de Rothschild.  (As reported by the Jewish Encylopedia)



1883: It was reported today that Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Nathan led the opening march at the charity ball hosted by the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.



1885: On Shabbat, Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes delivered a sermon at Shearith Israel Synagogue  “concerning the recent meeting” of a group of rabbis at Pittsurgh “and their publication of a…declaration of the ideas of reformed Judaism, ideas which”  the rabbi said, “are totally different from European reformed Judaism.



1887: “Something About Prejudice” published today highlights the views of Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler on this subject. In his view, the Jews can do a great deal “to totally annihilate” prejudice “by not exhibiting prejudice in their turn”


 
1888: It was reported today that Conrad Ausorge performed Schubert’s “Wander Fanstasia” at the Metropolitan Opera House as part of concert that was a fundraiser of the Aguilar Free Library which was founded in 188 and named for Sephardic Jewish author Grace Aguilar.



1890: After surviving a three day run the Finance Committee of the Citizens’ Savings Bank which had been so desperate to regain public confidence that it had enlisted the services of a local rabbi, is scheduled to meet today to see what can be done to salvage the financial institution that has large number of poor Jewish depositors.  



1890: Mark Koss, a tailor from Kiev, begged Agent Reinholz of the United Hebrew Charities Society to help him recover his missing baby who had been kidnapped by Sara Grimsburg, a former girlfriend whom he had known in Russia.



1891: A “Palestine Bazaar” a fund raiser held to provide additional funds for the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily comes to an end after three days.  The Bazaar had been closed on Friday.



1891: Herzl's comedy "Prinzen aus Genieland" - "Princes from Genius Land", is produced at the Carltheater in Vienna. It achieves only a short run.



1892(2nd of Kislev, 5653): Henry Murh, a prominent member of the Philadelphia, PA Jewish community passed away.  A native of Bavaria, he established H. Murh’s Sons, a jewelry manufacturing firm.



1892: Sándor Wekerle, the Prime Minister of Hungary appeared before the Diet where he “promised that bills for State recognition of the Jewish religion” would be introduced by his government.



1893: Dr. Joseph Silverman introduced Professor Charles Briggs at a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association who lectured on “Modern Biblical Criticism.”



1893: “A Sop for Jews in Russia” published today described a possible new policy in Russia that will Jews to live in “Russo-Polish” villages owned by noblemen who will “guarantee their lawful behavior” but will continue to forbid Jewish settlement where such guarantees cannot be obtained.



1894: “The New Czar” published today held out little hope for an improvement of the condition of the Jews, since “the cruel persecution of the Jews, was the most popular part of the late Czar’s governmental program and that if a “really representative Russian Parliament” were ever assembled it adopt even more stringent regulations against the Jews.



1895: Several New York Jewish businessman expressed their “utter indifference” with the announced plans of Dr. Ahlwardt , the German anti-Semite and Jew baiter to visit the United States next month. 



1895: Herzl arrives in London and holds conversations with Israel Zangwill. Zangwill gives him the names of "several suitable men" with whom to meet including Colonel Goldsmid, Rabbi Singer and Chief Rabbi Adler.



1896: Following the issuance of President Grover Cleveland’s Thanksgiving Proclamation that asked for “a continuance of heavenly favor through the mediation of Him who us how to pray, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise said that in invoking the image of Jesus, “the President panders to the passions of those bigoted sectarians who have been endeavoring to undermine the pure secularism upon which this Government is based.”


 
1897: Professor Felix Adler delivered an address “What is Religion?” at the Carnegie Music Hall today.



1897: Services were poorly attended today at Temple Emanu-El “owing to the fact that it was not generally known that Sunday services were being held” and that this only the second Sunday on which Sabbath services have been held. (The Reform Movement would find that moving Shabbat Services from Saturday to Sunday would not be a boon to attendance any more than the replacing Saturday services with Friday Night Family Services would be.)


 
1898: After having having identified the body Emanuel Wachenheim, William Wolf was reported to have said he count imagine “why he killed himself” since he was “in good circumstances,” had a wife and three children and was active in several Jewish organizations including the Sons of Benjamin.



1898: According to a description published today the new Hebrew Infant Asylum “building” which can accommodate 200 children “is a four story structure of colonial design” that includes all the modern conveniences including “a hospital for contagious disease.”



1899: Herzl submits a memorandum for the Czar to explain the Zionist plans and to ask for an audience.



1899: In Paris, “The Senate sitting as High Court for the trial of conspiracy cases resumed the examination of” Jules Guérin “who insisted the Anti-Semitic League of France” of which he is a leader ‘had not meddled with politics but had merely ‘defended the working classes against the power of the Jews and that he “had never plotted against the Republic.”  (Anti-Semitism, including the Dreyfus case, were part of a larger conflict between those who supported the Third Republic and those who sought a rightist takeover.)



1901: The care of children was scheduled to be the topic at the second day’s meeting of the Second New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections at which time Rabbi Adolph M. Radin will be allowed to express his concern about the treatment of Jewish children at the Juvenile Asylum including the lack of a Rabbi to serve as a children and the practice of taking Jewish children and sending to live with Christian families who will raise the youngsters in that faith.

1904(13th of Kislev, 5665): A month before his 62nd birthday, Joseph Bernard Bloomingdale, the Bavarian born Jewish immigrant who, along with his brother Lyman “founded Bloomingdales Department Store” or as it is known to shopping aficionado’s  “Bloomies.”


 
1905: Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the famous equation e=mc².



1913: Supreme court Justice Seabury ordered the sale in foreclosure of the Bijou Theatre property in a suit brought by Felix M Warburg, Isaac N Seligman, Paul M. Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff as trustees under the will of Alfred M. Heinsheimer against the Bijou Real Estate Company. [Seabury was the only non-Jew mentioned in this item.]



1915: Funeral services for Dr. Solomon Schechter were held this morning at the Jewish Theological Seminary.  Four hundred mourners, including a “who’s who” of the Jewish community, packed the building while more than a thousand people stood outside waiting to pay homage to the deceased sage and scholar.


 
1916: Birthdate of Sid Luckman, legendary quarterback of the Chicago Bears.



1916:  Emperor Franz Josef dies at the age of 85. He is followed to the throne by his 29 year old great nephew, Archduke Charles. Beginning with the start of regime of Franz Joseph I of Austria as the Emperor of the Austria–Hungary Empire his Jewish subjects enjoyed an unprecedented period economic, artistic and social success. “Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria bestowed on the Jewish population equality of rights saying, ‘the civil rights and the country’s policy is not contingent in the people’s religion.’ The emperor was well liked by the Jewish population, which as a token of appreciation wrote prayers and songs about him which were printed in Jewish prayer books. In 1849 the emperor canceled the prohibition against the Jewish population organizing within the community. In 1852 new regulations of the Jewish community were set. In 1867 the Jewish population formally received full equal rights. In 1869 the emperor visited Jerusalem and was greeted in great admiration by the Jewish population there. The emperor established a fund aimed at financing the establishment of Jewish institutions and in addition established the Talmudic school for rabbis in Budapest. During the 1890s several Jews were elected to the Austrian parliament.” But Franz Josef’s greatest impact on the Jewish people was his role in the start of World War I.  The Emperor’s unwillingness to reach any compromise with Serbia and his determination to punish his Slavic neighbor unleashed the catastrophe that caused unprecedented suffering for the Jews of eastern Europe who were caught between the opposing imperial armies for four years, unleashed the forces that led to the Holocaust and led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire that results of which reverberate across the Middle East as we approach the second decade of the 21st century.


1917: The Allied Forces (including Jewish soldiers) under General Allenby were fighting the Turks on the slopes of Nebi Samwil, the traditional site of the Tomb of the Prophet Samuel.



1918: After the fall of the Czar there was a strong movement in Ukraineto establish an independent political entity. The Jewish parties voted against the severance with Russia leading to direct attacks on the Jews in the form of Pogroms (lasting 2 years). One of the first attacks was in Lvov where 72 Jews were killed and 443 wounded.



1918: During the Polish-Ukrainian War, the Lwów or Lemberg Pogrom began.



1918:Polish soldiers organize a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland.



1919: In an interview with the Sultan, Hahambashi assures him that Jews will never forget that when they were persecuted in other countries, Turkey welcomed them and that, if they had reason for complaint in recent years, it was directed rather against the regime which had been disastrous for all elements of the population, than against the Turkish people.



1921: Birthdate of Lev Lipschitz, the Moscow native who made Aliyah in 1924 and gained fame as Israeli political leader and MK Aryeh Eliav.



1923: Birthdate Harry Zohn the native of Vienna who became a professor at Brandeis University.



1924: In Baltimore Cantor Max Kotlowitz and his wife Debra gave birth to “Robert Kotlowitz, a novelist and editor who reluctantly became a public television executive in 1971 and went on to help shape a lineup of homegrown and imported shows — including “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” “Live at the Met,” “Dance in America” and “Brideshead Revisited” — that represent a high-water mark in American television” (As reported by Paul Vitello)



1924: Today, the Febre Line vessel, SS Canada which is carrying the body of the late Dr. Menachem Mendel Scheinkin set sail for Jaffa which is to be the site for his burial.



1929: Birthday of Nahum Admoni the native of Jerusalem who served as Direct of Mossad from 1982 to 1986.



http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1091989&ticker=BLZ:LN&previousCapId=430536&previousTitle=EMBLAZE%20LTD


 
1929: Birthdate of Brooklyn born comedian Stanley Myron Handelman.  By the time he died on August 5, 2007 at the age of 77 Handeleman had enjoyed a successful career as a television and nightclub comedian.



1933: A delegation representing all elements of the Jewish community including members of the Vaad Leumi, representatives of Agudath Israel, leaders of the agricultural community and Israel Rokach, the Vice Mayor of Tel Aviv, met with the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope.  They were protesting British immigration policy including plans to deport Jews already living in Palestine as well as the negative impact of that immigration policy on the economic well-being of all those living in Palestine including the Arab populace.



1935: U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and 800 others honored Rebekah Kohut's 50 years of communal work at a special dinner. Chaired by the novelist Fannie Hurst, the dinner assembled a wide array of political, cultural, and philanthropic notables who spoke of Kohut's varied contributions and her efforts to apply scientific principles to charitable work. Kohut was a notable activist in the Jewish and secular communities in the areas of education, social welfare and women's organizational life. She came to the United States from Hungary as a child, growing up in Richmond and San Francisco where her father served as a rabbi. In her early twenties, she married the traditionalist New York rabbi Alexander Kohut, a widower with 8 children, 6 under the age of 13. Rebecca devoted herself chiefly to these children and to her husband's scholarly work until his death in 1894. In succeeding years, Kohut immersed herself in the expanding world of Jewish women's organizational life and in the financial support of her family. She was the first president of the New York Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, gave public lectures on Jewish subjects, and opened a private school in cooperation with her stepchildren. During World War I, she became involved in employment work, which led to her role as an advisor on unemployment to New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early 1930s. Her efforts to bring relief to devastated European Jewish communities after World War I led to her leading role in convening the World Congress of Jewish Women in Vienna in 1923 and being elected as the organization's first president.



1937: Henri Caïn, who the libretto for “Le Juif Polonais” (The Polish Jew) passed away today.



1937: Birthdate of Ingrid Pitt, the daughter of a Polish Jew who survived the Stutthof Concentration Camp to become the first lady of British horror cinema, who starring in sanguinary classics of the 1970s like “The Vampire Lovers,” “Countess Dracula” and “The House That Dripped Blood.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)



1938: The British House of Commons objects to German persecution of minorities.



1938(27th of Cheshvan, 5699): Pianist Leopold Godowsky passed away,
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60914FF3C5F1B7A93C0AB178AD95F4C8385F9


 
1938: In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, Time published an article entitled “German: These Individuals!”



"The civilized world stands revolted by a bloody pogrom against a defenseless people. Every instinct in us cries out in protest against the outrages which have taken place in Germany during the last five years and which sank to new depths in the organized frenzies of the last few days. . . . If you saw a gang of cowardly ruffians set upon a helpless man in a public street and proceed to beat him, you wouldn't long remain silent. If you saw a fanatical mob pillage and burn a church or a synagogue you wouldn't long remain silent. If you saw a brutal band drive helpless families from their own homes, you would speak out, and promptly." Thus last week outspoke New York State's defeated gubernatorial candidate, Republican Thomas E. Dewey, and was joined in vehement indignation by Democratic Senator William H. King of Utah who proposed that the U. S. forthwith break off diplomatic relations with the German Government. Outspoke ex-U. S. President Herbert Clark Hoover: "The blame is squarely up to the political agencies in power [in Germany]. These individuals are taking Germany back 450 years in civilization to Torquemada's expulsion of the Jews from Spain. They are bringing to Germany not alone the condemnation of the public opinion of the world. These men are building their own condemnation by mankind for centuries to come." One, Two, Three. But no active head of State,* and no No. 1 official associates of any head of State chose to speak out last week against "these individuals" who shocked an almost shockproof world with a display of deliberate and unprovoked mass cruelty. "These individuals" are four. Adolf Hitler is the World's No. 1 anti-Semite by temperament and conviction, whose intimate friend Julius Streicher publishes Der Stunner, the grossly fanatical No. 1 anti-Semitic newsorgan of the world. No. 3 Nazi Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels is a part-time virtuoso of antiSemitism, using his Ministry for Propaganda & Public Enlightenment alternately to incite and to calm German anti-Semitic mobs. And No. 2 Nazi Hermann Wilhelm GÖring is a ruthless German activist who signs the most drastic anti-Semitic decrees and has them legally enforced by the courts, the police and the army. "I Am Not A Dog!" The Führer was beside himself last week because a Polish Jew, once a resident of Germany, had put two bullets into Ernst vom Rath, third secretary to the Germany Embassy in Paris. Herr Hitler immediately sent his personal physician, Dr. Brandt, to Paris accompanied by the eminent German specialist, Professor Georg Magnus of the university at Munich. Four blood transfusions failed to save Ernst vom Rath. He died in a coma without being able to understand a message from the Führer promoting him to First Class Embassy Counselor. The assassin, Herschel Grynszpan, meanwhile told his French jailers: "Being a Jew is not a crime. . . . I hoped President Roosevelt would take pity on us refugees. . . . I am not a dog. I didn't mean to kill. I lost my head.""Mobs" and Mobs. Nazi bigwigs have often said off the record that if a Jew should ever assassinate the Fuhrer, "next day not a single member of the Jewish race would be left alive in the Reich." Last week only a handful of Jews were reported killed in the avenging of Ernst vom Rath. But in every part of Germany mobs smashed, looted, burned Jewish property. The purpose was to wreak final ruin on a section of the German population which had already been systematically persecuted to the brink of ruin. Synagogues were everywhere fired or dynamited. Numberless Jews of both sexes were beaten by mobs from the Baltic to the Brenner and from Sudetenland to the North Sea. The complicity of the German Government was proved by the fact that in most cases police made no effort to restrain the so-called "mobs." These consisted mostly of young Germans who drove up in cars. Heavy boots of the sort worn by party members when in uniform gave a good clue to the identity of the window smashers and firebugs. The synthetic "mobs" were in some cases joined by genuine mobs but these were mostly Germans who simply grabbed what they could after Jewish shop fronts had been smashed by the "mobs." Some mobsters tossed Jewish goods out of smashed windows to passersby with guffaws and cries of: "Here are some cheap Christmas presents. Get yours early!" Not all German Aryans countenanced this depravity. Said an Aryan Berlin housewife despondently as she watched Aryan children making off with the contents of a Jewish shop: "So that is how they teach our children to steal!". A few poorly-clad men jogged the elbow of a New York Times Berlin correspondent and whispered: "The German people do not approve of such treatment of the Jews." Bad Neighbor Policy. The harsh, explosive epithets in which the German language is rich, were heaped, together with obscenities, upon Jewish men, women and children in every part of the Reich. They were spat upon, cuffed, nose-jerked, kicked and given black eyes. The atrocities stopped short of rape or firing squads. Some Jews were so affected by the Nazi terror that, notably along the German-Netherlands frontier, they pitifully got down on their knees and crawled some distance, wailing and lamenting, to supplicate Dutch frontier guards to let them in. These guards were adamant in every case, on instructions of Her Majesty's Government, for The Netherlands has good reason to fear Bad Neighbor Germany. Damage & Indemnity. In Germany, insurance companies reported damage claims of more than $5,000,000 from Jewish policy holders in Berlin, more than $4,000,000 in Vienna. The New York Times estimated that total damage to Jewish property in Germany "may possibly reach one billion marks" ($400,000,000). The Times thought that the Jewish community this week, after all depredations, still owned property in Germany worth perhaps four billion marks ($1,600,000,000) and, before Hitler, may have owned 20 billions. But the spoliation did not end with the three-day pogrom. At the Air Ministry in Berlin last week, Air Minister Goring signed, as Economic Chief of the German Four-Year Plan for Self-Sufficiency. decrees providing: 1) that Jews of German citizenship as a community pay to the State a billion marks indemnity for the assassination of Rath; 2) that the State confiscate whatever is payable to Jews by insurance companies for damage done last week; 3) that Jewish owners of damaged premises must repair them at their own cost; 4) that after Jan. 1, 1939 Jews be excluded from "operation of retail shops, mail-order houses and independent exercise of handicrafts. . . . Jewish shops operated in violation of this order will be closed by the police" [and presumably turned over to Aryans]. He planned ultimately to move into ghettos all Jews who can or must tolerate life in Germany. And Jews were also forbidden to go to theatres, concert halls, art galleries, public schools, high schools, universities. In Paris, when the assassin of Rath heard of these decrees, he vowed in anguish: "I will pray every Monday for forgiveness for what I have done to my people." In England meanwhile Lord Rothschild said that nothing short of the execution of the Jews of Germany could be worse than what has now been done. Let Jews Starve? In Frankfort, where the assassin once resided, every male Jew between the ages of 18 and 60 was taken into custody. The same was done in certain other German cities. With many Jewish breadwinners torn from their families, with many of those families hungry, Der An griff, personal organ of Dr. Goebbels, coldly noted: "Noticeably large is the number of Jewish women with many children who ask for relief. . . . Our laws give even a foreigner the right to relief. . . . [Jewish] progeny and their [obscene synonym for "females"] become a burden on German funds." By holding the Jewish community of Germany in a state of general inability to earn a living wage, Nazis obviously hope to force the international Jewish community to remit to Germany huge enough sums in "good money" to keep their Jewish relatives in the Reich from going too hungry or too cold. The dollars, pounds, francs to be secured by thus "shaking down the whole Jewish race" (as some Nazis term it) are wanted to pay for such vital imports as Germany cannot get by barter deals. The Schwarze Korps, influential Nazi newsorgan of Adolf Hitler's personal Elite Guard and the Blackshirt Storm Troops, has openly hinted at the burgeoning of this gangster-blackmail scheme for several years. "Intellectual Originators." Referring to the assassin, Der Angriff libelously insinuated: "It is no coincidence that Grynszpan took the same line followed by Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper and their associates!" Der Angriff went on with a long list of "the intellectual originators of the crime'' which included, strangely enough, certain French Rightists like Henri de Kerillis but not the French Jewish Socialist on whom Nazis usually vent spleen, Leon Blum. Obvious reason: Blum and his Socialists last week had not broken with French Premier Edouard Daladier, one of the Munich "Big Four." In Paris the Jewish aunt and uncle of the assassin were arrested and it was revealed that just prior to the killing of vom Rath they were held under arrest for five days on suspicion of harboring an undesirable alien. Their papers were seized and the French Surete Generale probed to discover who really were the "intellectual originators" of the crime—if any. Meanwhile, French editors were not behind those of Britain and the U. S. in denouncing German pogroms in the strongest possible language and showing they felt even that to be inadequate. It was suggested that Charles Augustus Lindbergh and other Aryans who have recently received high German decorations ought to send them back to the Führer. Funk No. 2? The Great Powers plainly funked when Germany was permitted to dismember Czechoslovakia. On the issue of Jewish persecutions in Germany, Funk No. 2 raised its head this week. Typically funking was a statement issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England: "Would that the rulers of the Reich could realize that such excesses of hatred and malice put upon the friendship which we are ready to offer them an almost intolerable strain!"


*Britain's Neville Chamberlain did say: "No one in this country would seek to defend the senseless crime of the murder of vom Rath, but at the same time there will be deep and widespread sympathy for those being made to suffer for it."


1940: A cargo of 1,771 stateless Jews mostly from Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, Hungary and Rumania are loaded aboard the Patria, a French steamer chartered by the British to ship them from Palestine to detainment camps on the British island of Mauritius.



1943:  Future Nobel Prize winner Dr. Arthur Kornberg married Sylvy Ruth Levy, also a biochemist of note. She worked closely with Kornberg and contributed significantly to the discovery of DNA polymerase.


1943: In a review entitled “A Revolutionist’s Testament” Saul Bellow examines the newly published Arrival and Departure by Arthur Koestler.


1945:  Laura and Edward Hawn gave birth to Goldie Hawn, the product of the Washington suburbs who first gained fame on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.


1947: “Against Palestine Partition” a letter from several prominent Americans published today provides a panoply of reasons of why the United States should oppose the creation of a Jewish state including the fact that four –fifths of the proven oil reserves are in Arab hands and the fact that there are 40 million people inhabiting the Arab League States. The letter writers “all have intimate Jewish friends” but warn that any outbreak of violence in the Middle East that hampers American business interests will lead to a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States.

1948:The Sunday morning religious program "Lamp Unto My Feet" first aired over CBS television. It became one of TV's longest-running network shows, and aired through January 1979.


1948: Israeli soldiers jam the biblical city of Beersheba to hear piano concertos played by Leonard Bernstein.


1948: Israeli premier David Ben-Gurion praises King Abdullah of Transjordan and says he will meet with Abdullah and other Arab leaders anytime they wish.


1948: It was announced in Tel Aviv today that “the picking of citrus fruit will begin throughout Israel this week, with the prospect of a crop almost equaling last season's in Jewish-owned groves but altogether of a little more than one-third of the pre-war production in Palestine.”


1949: The United Nations voted to give Libya its independence within 14 months triggering a mass exodus of Jews who were so fearful of their future in the Moslem state that they left even though it meant giving up most of their property and wealth.  Over 30,000 of these Jews found refuge in the state of Israel.


1955: It was reported today that a two-day conference under the auspices of the American Tenchnion Society, the financial arm Technion, which was being held at the Statler Hotel in Washington, D.C. has come to an end.


1959(20th of Cheshvan, 5720):  Max Baer passed away.  Baer was heavyweight boxing champion in 1934.  He was 49 at the time of his death.



1959:  Jack Benny, on the violin, played a duet with pianist Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States.



1961: Alexander Bittelman was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to provide testimony about his former organization today but he refused to testify, citing his rights under the 1st and 5th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.


1961: New Square, the first Chassidic town in the U.S., elected its mayor. 



1962: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion attend the founding ceremony for the city of Arad.



1965: The port of Ashdod port opened for business when a freighter docked at the port for the first time.



1965: The Central Council of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America created a Golden Jubilee Committee to celebrate the Brotherhood's fiftieth anniversary. At the time there were over 2,500 members of the Brotherhood.



1970(22nd of Cheshvan, 5731): Anzia Yezierska, “a female sweatshop worker from a Polish shtetl” who became a “renowned author” passed away today.



http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/2/Literature/Jewish_American_Literature/Immigrant_Literature/Anzia_Yezierska.shtml



http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/yezierska-anzia



1970: Birthdate of Israeli actress and comedienne Alma Zack.



1973: The Agranat Commission, a national committee charged with investigating the failures of the IDF prior to the Yom Kippur War, was established today.



1982: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff delivered the closing prayer at the official dedication of “The Wall,” the Vietnam memorial in Washington, DC



1985: Jonathan Pollard and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Israel. Pollard, who had worked for Naval Intelligence, had passed on information to Israel regarding Arab capabilities. Pollard was caught as he was trying to enter the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The Pollard affair caused great embarrassment to Israel both from the American perspective and also due to Israel's refusal to support him once he was caught. He was given a life sentence, and despite numerous requests from Israel for clemency he is still in prison.



1988: Michael Dekel completed serving his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.



1988: Weizman Shiry completed serving his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.



1989: Morton Isaac Abramowitz was appointed “Career Ambassador.”



1990: Michael Milken was sentenced to 10 years for security law violations


1991: William Caldwell Harrop was named U.S. Ambassador to Israel.


1991(14th of Kislev, 5752):  David "Sonny" Werblin passed away.  For most Americans, Werblin is best remembered for his purchase of the New York Jets in 1963.  Werblin then used his fortune to draft the AFL’s first super-star, Joe Namath.  Namath would lead Werblin’s Jets to victory in Super Bowl III, an event that would change the face of professional football.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/23/sports/sonny-werblin-an-impresario-of-new-york-s-sports-extravaganza-is-dead-at-81.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
 
1997: Speaking “at a ceremony at which he recalled the push for peace made  by” the late Yitzhak Rabin President Clinton “warned the Israelis and Palestinians today that they were running short of time” to reach come to an agreement.


1998(2nd of Kislev): Eighty-eight year old Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, the Lakewood Mashgiach, passed away.


1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Yosl Rakover Talks To Godby Zvi Kolitz; translated by Carol Brown, Village of a Million Spirits: A Novel of the Treblinka Uprisingby Ian MacMillan and In The Family Way: An Urban Comedyby Lynne Sharon Schwartz.


2002(16th of Kislev, 5763): A Palestinian bomber killed 11 people aboard a bus in Jerusalem.


2004: In an article entitled “At Holocaust Museum, Turning a Number Into A Name,” the New York Times reports on plans for Yad Vashem to make its lists of Jewish victims of the Holocaust, along with biographical information available on line.


2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Breath: Poemsby Philip Levine


2005: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve the Knesset, just hours after he sent shockwaves across the political system with his decision to quit the Likud and form a new centrist party. Sharon formally announced that he had left the Likud and had formed a new party called National Responsibility.


2005:Shaul Mofaz rejected Sharon's invitation to join his new party, Kadima, and instead announced his candidacy for the leadership of Likud.


2006: Southern California coastal authorities have decided to allow a beachfront eruv - a boundary that makes it possible for observant Jews to carry objects on Shabbat - to be built in the state for the first time. The eruv will surround sections of Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Marina del Rey.


2007: The planned chopping down of the chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis did not take place thanks to a court order issued on November 20,2007 ordering city officials to into ways to save the 150 year old tree.


2007: “Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story” opens at the Two Boots Pioneer theater in Manhattan.This new documentary film is about Zypora Spaisman the amazing woman who has kept the oldest running Yiddish Theater in America alive. Zypora Spaisman is a Holocaust survivor who conquers all hearts in her passion for art, life and Yiddish.


2008: President Shimon Peres returns to Israel after a three-day state visit to Great Britain where he met withdignitaries, visited Parliament, delivered a lecture at Balliol College, Oxford University's oldest college, and met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and the Prime Minister.


2008:In Manhattan, the 92nd Street Y presents “An Exploration of the Seven Deadly,” during which Aviad Kleinberg, one of the most prominent intellectuals in Israel examines the seven deadly sins with his trademark insight and deadpan humor.

2008:Dozens of synagogues and mosques across the United States and Canada are to take part in a first-of-its-kind three-day joint public relations campaign against anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim xenophobia beginning today. The initiative, which was given the code-name "Twinning," calls for close cooperation between rabbis and imams based in some of the largest cities in North America, including Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Palm Beach, St. Louis, and Washington DC.

2009: In the face of far-left, Arab and Muslim opposition, the New York Mets organization has decided to honor its commitment to rent its Caesar's Club for a fundraiser benefiting the Jewish community of Hebron that is scheduled to be held tonight.

2009: At the 92nd St Y in Manhattan Alan Dershowitz, the self-described “top defender of Israel in the court of public opinion,” and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of J Street, debate issues surrounding America’s policy in the Middle East with special emphasis on matters surrounding Israel and its relationship with the United States.



2009: Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, in collaboration with the National Czech & Slovak Museum  gives two performances of the children’s opera, Brundibar, sponsored by the Joan & David Thaler Holocaust Remembrance Fund and Dr. Ronald and Sue Reider, two pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community.



2010: Michael Makovsky is scheduled to delve into Winston Churchill's complex relationship with Zionism, his impact on the creation of the State of Israel and the modern Middle East that emerged from the two world wars of the 20th century during a program entitled Winston Churchill, Zionism & the Modern Middle East  at the 92ndStreet Y in New York City.



2010: Avrom Bendavid-Val, author of The Heavens are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod  is scheduled to deliver a lecture based on his writings at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.



2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick and Saul Bellow: Letters edited by Benjamin Taylor.
 
2010: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy by Jonathan Miles.

 

2010:Outgoing head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin issued a warning at his final cabinet meeting today, saying that Israel should not be lulled into complacency by the relative quiet that the country has recently enjoyed. Yadlin said that Israel's enemies, with Iran under the leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being chief among them, are "getting more powerful and better arming themselves."


2010: Debbie Rosenbloom, the wife of David Levin, became a savta (grandmother) today when her daughter-in-law gave birth to a daughter.


2011: “Latkes & Grits” by Murray Wolfe opened at the Missing Piece Theatre in Burbank, California.


2011: David Mitchell became the Rabbi at West London Synagogue.


2011: The 8th Jewish Eye Festival, the World Jewish Film Festival held annually at Ashkelon is scheduled to come to an end.


2011: Israel and Arab states plan to attend talks at a forum opening today sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency aimed at freeing the world from nuclear weapons.


2011:Israel has gradually boosted naval patrols around its east Mediterranean natural gas fields for fear of guerrilla attacks and as maritime rivalry with Turkey deepens, an Israeli official said today.

 


2011:A Jordanian delegation visiting the West Bank today called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew peace talks with Israel. . 


2012: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to sponsor a screening of 'Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today'


2012: As the eighth day of Pillars of Defense begins, Israelis mourn the loss of eighteen year old Corporal Yosef Partuk and an Arab-Israeli civilian identified as Alayaan Salem al-Nabari who had been killed yesterday morning during a mortar attack


2012: In a case of Jew follows Jew, Lionel Perez was elected borough mayor of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace by acclamation, replacing Michael Applebaum after the latter was selected as the new Mayor of Montreal.


2012(7th of Kislev, 5773: Eighty-one year old “Mr. Food” who was in reality Art Ginsburg passed away today.


2012(7th of Kislev, 5773): Eighty-nine year old film editor Dann Cahn passed away,


2012: Ninety year old Valdka Mead, a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in which she served as a courier and arms smuggler, passed away today.



2012:An explosion ripped through a bus in central Tel Aviv around noon on Wednesday — the first bombing attack in the city since 2006.Twenty-one people were injured in the bombing, three of them seriously. No one was killed. 


2012: The UN Security Council called on Israel and Hamas to uphold a ceasefire agreement today and commended the efforts of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and others for brokering the deal.



2013: The Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “Marvin Hamlisch: One Singular Sensation.”


2013: Whole Foods in Friendship Heights is scheduled to host “8 Days of Oil” which will include a free olive tasting…and take-home booklets for celebrating” Chanukah.


2013: The Valley Chapter of the of Los Angeles Yiddish Club is scheduled to host an evening of Yiddish Song with Cindy Paley


2013: The 7th annual Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.

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