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This Day, July 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 20



356 BCE:  In Macedonia, King Philip II and Queen Olympia give birth to Alexander the Great. You can draw a straight line from Alexander’s Hellenization of Asia Minor to Chanukah to Tisha B’Av, 70 CE.



70: During the Siege of Jerusalem, Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.



1263: Pablo Christiani, a converted Jew, and Raymond of Penaforte, compelled King James of Aragon to force a debate between him and Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides). The Jews were afraid that no matter what the outcome they would lose, so they pleaded with Nachmanides to withdraw. The King ordered him to continue. Although the outcome was preset (the Christians "won"), the King was so impressed that he rewarded Nachmanides with a present of 300 maravedis. Pablo was given permission to continue these debates throughout Aragon with the Jews having to pay his expenses. Two years later Nachmanides was convicted for publishing his side of the debate. Although he was not severely punished by the King, he decided to leave Spain for good and settled in Eretz-Israel.



1402: During the Ottoman-Timurid Wars, Timur led the forces of the Timurid Empire to victory over the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara. This defeat could not have been a source of joy for the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. Bayezid had proven to be a friend of the Jewish people. “In 1394 Sultan Bayezid invited the French Jews who were molested by King Charles VI, to settle in the Ottoman Empire. They established communities in Edirne and the Balkans. The French Kings had the habit of inviting the Jews to establish commerce and borrowing money from them. However often, when payment was due, they expelled them; only to re-invite them when they needed further financing.” Bayezid died a year after the defeat.



1588: As the English prepared to meet the Spanish Armada, their fleet “tacked upwind…thus gaining the “weather gage” which would give the smaller fleet an edge in the upcoming battle.



1624(4th of Av): Rabbi Abraham ben David of Lemberg passed away



1633 (13th of Av): Rabbi Nathan Shaprio, a leading Kabblist from Cracow and author of Megale Amukot passed away.



1660: Miguel de Barrios with 152 coreligionists and fellow-sufferers set sail for the West Indies. Soon after his arrival at Tobago his young wife died, and he returned to Europe. He went to Brussels and there entered the military service of Spain.



1706:Shabbethai ben Joseph Bass who had founded printing business in Dyhernfurth, a small town near Breslau which produced its first book, a work by Rabbi Samuel ben Uri of Waydyslav in 1689, was forced to leave Breslau as a result of local hostility to Jews.



1775: At the request of the Continental Congress, Jews fasted and prayed for the success of the colonies against the British, and to be spared from the "agony of war."



1778: In Sandersleben, Rabbi Joachim Heinemann and his wife gave birth Jeremiah Heinemann the German author whose secular jobs including serving as the inspector of a teacher’s seminary in Berlin.



1790(9th of Av, 5550):Tish'a B'Av



1808: Napoleon decreed that all Jews of the French Empire must adopt family names.



1814: Birthdate of Maximilien Charles Alphonse Cerfberr of Medelsheim “a French journalist, writer and governmental official.”



1819: Birthdate of Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim the native of Frankfort-on-Main who was the grandson of Gumpel, the banker of Hamburg who became a distinguished jurist.



1823: Pius VII, the Pope who rebuilt the walls of the Rome Ghetto and returned the Jews to its confines after they had been freed by Napoleon passed away today.



1829: Birthdate of Thomas Rowe one of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era who designed the Great Synagogue in Sydney



1830: Birthdate of Francesca Janauschek the Prague native who gained fame as 19thcentury character actress Fanny Janauschek.



1834: Birthdate of Jacques Errera, the native of Venice who was a successful banker and the father of botanist Leo-Abram Errera.



1847: Birthdate of painter and graphic artist Max Liebermann. "Liebermann was one of the leading German impressionist painters." He painted in the manner of the Dutch impressionists rather than the French impressionists. This meant "he often painted people at their everyday tasks and explored the effect of changing sunlight on colors and shadows." When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they included his works in their first showing of "degenerate art." He died in 1935 having been stripped of all his honors and ordered not to paint. Eight years later his was wife committed suicide. I must admit a prejudice. I like his works.
http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/index.php/max-liebermann.html
http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/Liebermann/gallery



1855: According to today’s “New by the Mail” column, “A Protestant lady in St. Louis with seven children has joined the Hebrew congregation there.”



1859: Birthdate of German botanist and Zionist leader Otto Warburg whose family originally came to Germany in the 16th century and who was “one of the members of the El Arish expedition, appointed by Theodor Herzl as the agricultural member of the team led by Leopold Kessler.”



1862: As General George B. McClellan turned into a disaster, August Belmont wrote Thurlow Weed to express his view that the only way to effect re-union was by negotiations if possible.  He called for a cessation to the war effort because it was too costly in terms of human life and treasure.



1863: In describing conditions in Memphis, TN, a year after it had surrendered to forces of the Union Army, the New York Times reported that “There remains in the city but a portion of the old citizens, the balance are vagabonding in Dixie, or are carrying a musket in the Southern army, or have left their bones on the hundred battle-fields of the South. Their residences here have been seized by the Government, and to-day the palatial dwellings of many an old aristocrat are occupied by National officials, and the hordes of Jews, who follow in the rear of an army, like wolves behind the hunters.” [Anti-Semitic references like this stand in stark contrast to acceptance of Jews as can be seen by the change in the law allowing Rabbis to serve as chaplains and the reality of the thousands of Jews who fought for the federals, some of whom reached the rank of general.]



1863: The 11thRegiment of the New York State which was commanded by Colonel Joachim Maidhof when it was mustered into federal service in 1862 was mustered out of United States service today.



1864: Colonel Frederick Knefler commanded the 79th Indiana Infantry at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, part of Sherman’s audacious campaign to capture Atlanta.



1869: “The Innocents Abroad” Mark Twain’s travelogue describing his visit to Europe and the Holy Land (including what is now the state of Israel) is published.  For more about the famed American humorist’s attitude towards Jews see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/twain.html



1870(21stof Tammuz, 5630): Forty year old French journalist Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol the son of Léon Halévy passed away today in Washington, D.C.



1871: British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada. In 1858, the first large body of Jews arrived in British Columbia along with others seeking their fortunes in the Fraser River Gold Rush.  By 1863, there were enough Jews living in Victoria, B.C. to establish Congregation Emanu-El, now Canada's longest serving synagogue. Ten years after B.C. joined the confederation, the Jewish community would receive its next influx of settlers as refugees from Russian anti-Semitism settled in the Canadian West.



1876: Birthdate of German mathematician Otto Blumenthal.  Blumenthal converted at the age of 18.  He may have believed that he would find the path to academic success a lot smoother as a Protestant.  In the end, it did not save him from the Nazis.  Blumenthal died in concentration camp in 1944.



1881: It was reported today that in Neu Stettin, at least 30 anti-Semitic rioters who attacked the editor of the Neu Stettiner Zeitung, were arrested today.



1881: “Jews In Spain” published today, relied on information from the London Times to report that “In Spain, Praxedes M Sagasta the President of the Council of Ministers wrote to a prominent European Jewish author H. Guedalla that “article 1 of the Constitution of Spain is the most decisive revocation of the edict of banishment against the Jews in the year 1492.  Thus all of your coreligionists who wish can come to Spain without any obstacle whatever…”


1882: “A Great Fire In Smyrna” published today described the conflagration that left 6,000 people homeless including many of the city’s sizable Jewish population.  The Jews are the primary agents “in the barter and sale of merchandise from Asia, Syria, Baghdad and Persia.”



1882: During the Freight Handler’s Strike, the strikers stopped providing food for the Jewish and Italian workers whom they had convinced to honor their strike.  Mr. Wolkawoech, the President of the Jewish Freight Handlers’ Union reluctantly provided enough funds to cover the cost of the evening meal.  [Yes there were Russia Jews among the striking workers as well as Russian Jews among what would later be called scabs.]



1883: In Hungary, as the trial of a group of Jews charged with killing a Christian girl continued, it was reported that a constable testified that he had tortured one of the prisoners with thumbscrews. 



1884: “Lamb and Mint Sauce” published today described John Brady’s contention that the custom of eating tansy (bitter) puddings and cakes at Easter was introduced by the monk as a symbolic remembrance of the bitter herbs used by Jews at this time of year.  The monks included bacon in their dishes “to denote contempt for Judaism.”  According to Brady, the Jews “have contrived to diminish the bitter flavor” or their tansy “by making a it into pickle for their paschal lamb.”  From all of this has come the custom of combing mint with sugar to create the mint sauce or jelly eaten with the leg of lamb. [This was based on information provided by an annual publication, Clavis Calendaraia.]



1885: “Jews in Paris” published today summarized a report by the Judische Presse that described the growth of the Jewish population in Paris.  In 1789, there were only 500 Jews living in the French capital.  The numbers have grown: 3,000 in 1806; 12,000 in 1842; 40,000 in 1872; more than 50,000 in 1885.  Jews are more active in the general population as can be seen by the fact that the number of Jewish generals has grown from one in 1821 to five in 1878.



1886: Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell completed his term in office as Lord Chancellor in Great Britain.



1887: Mrs. Betty Michaelis “began mandamus proceedings” before Judge Potter today, “in which she asks that the Henrietta Verien be commanded to restore her to membership on the ground that her expulsion was not done according to law.” The legal action stemmed from a fight that she had with Mrs. Henrietta Loser, the President of the Henrietta Verein.



1887: Louis Keptlovwitch, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, who has been arrested on charges of bigamy, was confronted by both of his wives – the one he married in Poland and the one he married in New York – today. 



1889: Effective today, Coney Island’s Brighton Beach Hotel announces that it will completely exclude members of the “Hebrew Race” as guests.  The hotel was following the policy adopted by Messers Cable and Breen the lessees of the New York establishment. 



1890: The manager of the Bank and Steamship Passage at 78 Canal Street and his soliciting agent Louis Silikowitz, were arrested on charges of having swindling their customers, most of whom were Polish and Russian Jews out money with which they had been entrusted to buy tickets for family members still in members.



1890: It was reported today that Sol B. Solomon has raised $300 from the guests at the Long Beach Hotel to pay for the excursions provided by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.



1890: A portion of the 12th annual report of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children published today showed expenditures of $3,221 and a balance of $7,126 “which is deposited in the seven leading savings banks” in New York City.



1890: Birthdate of Theda Bara. Born Theodosia Burr Goodman in a wealthy suburb of Cincinnati, Bara’s mother was Swiss and her father was a Jewish tailor. She was known as a "vamp" and one of the first "sex symbols" of the silver screen. She passed away in 1955.



1891: “Mercy for Russian Jews” published today described a relaxation of “the persecution of the Jews” by the government.  Decrees expelling Jewish artisans from St. Petersburg have “been indefinitely postponed” and “and orders have been seen to the press” to have newspapers “refrain from publishing articles like to excite animosity against the Jews.” 



1891: “The young man who had killed three Russians” during an attack on the Jewish community near Veile, Russia” and several other Jews were scheduled to go on trial today and when the expected guilty verdict is returned the Jews will be shipped to Siberia.



1892: As of today, the coroner has not made a determination in the cause of death of Behr Israelson. Doctors claim he died of apoplexy but his Jewish neighbors claimed he was clubbed to death by a policeman. The Jews would not let the coroner’s jury hear the case because there it had no Jewish members.



1893: Three men who claim to be tailors and Russian Jews were arrested and charged with assault at the Essex Market Police Court based on evidence gathered Alter Shapiro, the Vice President of the Hebrew Protective Society that showed them to be part of a ring that robs and tortures Jews living on the lower east side.



1893: The Marshall, who had arrived at the apartment of Mrs. Sarah Goldstein at 181 Orchard to execute the order of eviction gave her an extra day to seek relief from the courts since she said her six children who had measles were still too sick to be moved.



1894: In defending the blackballing of Mr. Peixotto from the Republican Club as being based on reasons other than his being Jewish, Chairman Joseph M. Deuel was reported today to have said that “There are probably fifty Hebrews who are in good and regular standing in the club…There are Hebrews on the Executive Committee of the club and on the campaign committee.”



1895: “Hebrew Technical Institute Open” published described the school’s unique summer course for which 200 boys ranging in age from 12 to 15 have enrolled so that they can continue their education in the workshops, laboratories and drawing rooms of the facilities on Stuyvesant Street.



1895: “Hebrew Technical Institute Open” published today described the summer program which is be offered to 200 boys ranging in age from 12 to 15 at the “workshops, laboratories and drawing rooms” of the schools buildings on Stuyvesant Street.



1895: Birthdate of Samuel Randolph Parnes, the native of New York City and WW I veteran who was a textile manufacturing executive and trustee of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.



1895: Wolf Silverman was arrested tonight and “charged with an attempt to swindle the Empire Life Insurance Company.”



1896: It was reported today that an ambulance had arrived too late yesterday to save the life of Charles Liebhaber who had been ill for weeks but still insisted on observing the fast for the 9th of Av.



1896: Herzl meets with the Association des Etudiants Israëlites Russes.



1897: Funeral services were held today for Mrs. Julia Lauterbach, the widow of Moses Lauterbach, at her home on East 58th Street followed yb burial at Cypress Hills Cemetery.  She was one of those who incorporated the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York, a group which served as Vice President for 11 years.



1898: Among those serving with the 6th Missouri Volunteer Infantry when it was mustered into service at Jefferson Barracks for service in the Spanish-American War were Captains John H. Goldman and Adolph J. Jacobs as well as Musicians Oscar Bennewitz and Lewis Bloch, Corporal William A Feigel and dozens of privates.



1899(13thof Av, 5659): Seventy-four year old Charlotte de Rothschild, the French socialite and wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild passed away today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_de_Rothschild#/media/File:Gerome-CharlotteRothschild,_by_Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me.jpg



1903: Herzl writes to Leopold Greenberg (“an English Zionist and future editor of the Jewish Chronicle”) in London to do whatever possible to revive the Sinai enterprise. This is a reference to offers by the British Foreign Office to allow Jews from Eastern Europe to settle in a part of the Sinai Peninsula known as the Brook of Egypt.  Another, better known of these schemes, was the offer to allow Jews to settle in Uganda as a temporary Jewish homeland.  These desperate proposals came against a backdrop of Pogroms in Russia and a general worsening of conditions for Jews in Eastern Europe. While Zionists in German, Austria and Britain were willing to consider such alternatives, the Zionists of eastern Europe rejected them out of hand.  Those living in the greatest physical saw the spiritual danger in accepting anything less than Eretz Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.  In the man time Herzl wrote desperately, "We must indeed take East Africa, or at least the Charter, but we must not deceive ourselves as to the fact that all the non-English Jews are against East Africa. I shall have to use a great deal of patience for it, whereas El Arish is popular." Herzl also prepares steps to approach Portugal for a Charter for Mozambique, Belgium for a territory in the Congo and Italy for a section of Tripoli. 



1904(8th of Av, 5664): Eight-two year old Marcus Goldman a German-born American businessman and entrepreneur who founded Goldman Sachs which became one of the world's largest global investment banks passed away.
http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=100



1906: Antoine Louis Targe, a French officer whose investigations helped to establish the innocence of Dreyfus was made an officer in the Legion of Honor.



1906: Dreyfus was made a Knight in the Legion of Honor.



1907(9thof Av, 5667): Fast not observed because it is Shabbat.



1908: In a letter to the New York Times, William Maude provides commentary on the antiquity of an ancient copy of the Book of Joshua obtained by Dr. Moses Gaster in Samaria.



1910: In the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of Jerusalem founded by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, who was rosh yeshiva of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva, and Rebbetzin Tzivia gave birth to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, the rosh yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel



1919: Birthdate of Shlomo Zalman Auerbach an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, posek, and rosh yeshiva of the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel. “Auerbach was the first child to be born in the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood of Jerusalem founded by his maternal grandfather, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush, after whom he was named.”



1915(9th of Av, 5675):Tish'a B'Av



1915: Georgia Governor Harris “announced tonight that he would accompany the Prison Commission” when it goes “to Milledgeville to investigate the attack on Leo M. Frank.”



1915: Today, following the attack on Leo M. Frank by a fellow prisoner,” Rabbi David Marx and H.A. Alexander, the attorney for Frank in his final battle in the courts” arrived at Milledgeville “to comfort Mrs. Frank who has been under great strain since the attack on her husband.



1915: Today the Austrians conquered Russian controlled Lublin, Poland. This would appear to be the realization of a deathbed prophecy by the Chozeh of Lublin (Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz) came true.  When he died on July 15, 1815 (9th of Av, 5575) he said that 100 years from the day of his death, the Russians would lose their control over Poland. 



1916(19th of Tammuz, 5676): 2nd Lt. Joel Jacobs who had been at the Perse School, Cambridge before the war was killed today while serving with the Yorkshire Regiment.



1917: During WW I and the Russian Revoltion, in Minsk, Balta and Kherson “provincial organizations including zemstvos, committees of soldiers and workmen and town executives” issued a “strong appeal to soldiers to ignore all anti-Semitic incitement to attack Jews.”



1917: In Warsaw, “at a meeting of the Municipal Council, anti-Jewish members charge that Jews gave the German and Austrian governments the idea that these two nationalities were the masters of Poland” and that “prominent Jews in Berlin and Vienna are using their influence against the Poles.



1920: Birthdate of Lev Aronin. Born in the Soviet Union, he became International Chess Master in 1950.



1921(14thof Tammuz, 5681): Benjamin Bennett Levy, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War, passed away today.



1922: In Vilna, the administrator of the city’s Jewish Hospital, Solomon Kagan and his wife Leah gave birth to Saul Kagan the refugee from Hitler’s Europe who “was the founding director of the Conference on the Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)



1923: Sadie (née Schindler) and Philip Sendak, a dressmaker gave birth to children’s author Jack Sendak the brother of Maurice Sendak.(As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)



1924: Birthdate of Ann Gilbert. Born in Szydlowiec, Poland, Ann was a Holocaust survivor. She spent over four years in concentration camps and was liberated in April 1945. She married Fred Gilbert (Felek Gebotszrajber) on Jan. 2, 1946, in Scwabisch Hall, Germany. Ann was a consummate homemaker, an accomplished seamstress, and devoted to her family. She and Fred lived in Cedar Rapids from 1949 to 1986, where she was an active member of Temple Judah and in the community. She was a lifetime member of Hadassah. From 1986 to 2003, Ann and Fred lived in Los Angeles, where she was a much sought after seamstress to film and motion picture stars. Ann and Fred were also very active in the survivor community. They were regular speakers at the Simon Wiesenthal Center-Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She and Fred lectured frequently about their experiences. In 2003, she and Fred returned to Cedar Rapids to be near to Lena. Ann remained a constant source of inspiration until she passed away in 2008 at the age of 84.



1927: Birthdate of Barbara Rose Berman, the Bronx native who gained fame as “Barbara Bergmann, a pioneer in the study of gender in the economy who herself overcame barriers to women in the world of academic economics.” (As reported by Nelson D. Schwartz)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/business/barbara-bergmann-trailblazer-for-study-of-gender-in-economics-is-dead-at-87.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0



1930:  Maxim Litvinov is named the Soviet Union's Commissar of Foreign Affairs. Born Meir Henoch Mojszewicz Wallach-Finkelstein in 1876, into a wealthy Jewish banking family in Białystok in Congress Poland, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898. The party was an illegal organization, and it was customary to use pseudonyms. He changed his name to Maxim Litvinov, but was also known as Papasha and Maximovich. Over the years, his politics become more radical in response to the increasingly repressive policies of the Russian government.  He joined the Bolsheviks where he became a confidante of Lenin.  Litvinov carried out a variety of diplomatic missions for the Soviets after the Russian Revolution.  As Foreign Minister, Litvinov was a key participant that led to recognition of the Soviet government by the United States in 1933.  Litivinov sought to create an anti-fascist alliance with western powers during the 1930’s.  When the British and French caved in at Munich, Stalin decided to work on developing relations with Hitler’s government.  To that end, he removed Litvinov since it would not due to have a Jew negotiating with the Nazi government.  After the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Litvinov was sent to Washington to negotiate a Lend-Lease that would provide the arms the Soviets needed to meet the Nazi onslaught.



1933: Cardinal Pacelli issued a concordant known as the Hitler Concordant. Hitler described it as” unrestricted acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican." Cardinal Pacelli later became Pope Pious XII. In its spirit all teaching priests were to greet their students with "Heil Hitler, praised be Jesus Christ."  (editor’s note: There is not space to review the pernicious effect of this agreement but consider the following When Einstein was told how Pius XII directed a Polish priest to keep silent about the murder of Jews, because of the Concordat the Holy See had signed with Nazi Germany "obliged the Church to tread softly", he replied "There are cosmic laws, Dr. Hermanns. They cannot be bribed by prayers or incense. What an insult to the principles of creation. But remember, that for God a thousand years is a day. This power maneuver of the Church, these Concordats through the centuries with worldly powers... the Church has to pay for it.")



1933:  In Germany, two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.



1933(26thof Tammuz, 5693):  Seventy-year old Sir Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham GCMG, CH, TD, JP, DL, a British newspaper proprietor and a Liberal Unionist politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1885 and 1916 when he inherited his peerage passed away today.



1933: In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism. This may be seen as part of campanion piece to a rally held in March, 1933 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  The demonstration in London was certainly not representative of British public opinon or policy.  Many of the movers and shakers in Great Britain were impressed with  the cleansing effect that the Nazis were bringing to Germany, marking them as pro-German, anti-Semitic or both.



1934:The Court of Appeals today quashed the death sentence passed by the District Court on Abraham Stavsky on June 8 for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, prominent labor leader and member of the Jewish Agency Executive of Palestine. The Appeal Court found that the evidence was insufficient.  Thousands of supporters of Stavsky, who dodged a date with the hangman, reportedly danced in the streets of Jerusalem as they celebrated a victory for the Revisionist faction of the Zionist movement.



1936(1st of Av, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Av



1936: Birthdate of Harvey David Luber. The Chicago native became a first rate photographer, a leader of the Little Rock Jewish community and a great friend.



1936: The Palestine Post reported that since according to the 1935 Official Palestinian Report on Migration certain professions became overcrowded, the government had restricted the admission to the country of all those belonging to the medical, legal and engineering professions. [Editor’s note: This seemingly innocuous ruling came at a time when educated Jews were trying to leave Germany.] Arab snipers shot at British soldiers patrolling the Nablus road in Jerusalem. Lengths of railway track were found removed near Tulkarm. Arab hawkers asked for police protection in order to be able to sell their wares. They complained that the general strike brought them ruin, starvation and death. Several more prominent members of the Arab "National Guard" were interned at Sarafand



1939(4thof Av, 5699): Dutch sculptor Joseph Mendes da Costa passed away.  “Best known for making sculptures and ornaments for buildings” Mendes da Costa was a member of “Ars et Labor” which would become the Dutch version of Art Nouveau. 



1939:British policy on Palestine--particularly the latest decision to cut off legal immigration for six months, beginning Oct. 1--came under heavy fire in the House of Commons tonight. The opposition Laborites contended that the decision to suspend immigration was proof of failure of the government's new policy.



1939:  Birthdate of Judy Chicago.  For over four decades Chicago has been a leading educator, artist and shaper of the feminist movement.  One of her most famous works is the multi-media history of women in Western Civilization entitled “The Dinner Party.”



1941: A Jewish ghetto at Minsk, Belorussia, is established. 



1942: The first detachment of the U.S. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC’s) begins basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Among this group of volunteers are twelve Jewish women:Ruth Ginns, Beatrice Berg, Carolyne Casper and Jean Korn from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kathryne Goldfluss, Rose Ross and Joan Strongin from New York, New York; Bee Rosenberg and Ruth Spivak from Chicago, Illinois; Rita Fink and Isabel Bayley of Buffalo, New York; and Elizabeth Morgenstern of Seattle, Washington.



1942: The Jews of Kleck tried to revolt as the Germans circled their town. Only a few hundred escaped. The 1,000 remaining Jews were shot dead.



1942: In Cologne,“Jewish children and some of their teachers including Erich Klibanksy” were deported to Minsk today.



1942: The Germans murder 1000 Jews at Kleck, Belorussia; 400 flee into forests. Two from the latter group, Moshe Fish and Leva Gilchik (from nearby Kopyl), will form a partisan group;



1942: The Jews from Kowale Panskie, Poland are deported, to the Chelmno death camp.



1942:In Warsaw, Rabbi Alexander Zusha Friedman, a “leader in Agudat Israel, called on the people not to oppose the Germans with force.”God will not permit his people to be destroyed. We must wait and a miracle will certainly occur." Agudat Israel, like many groups in the Judenrat, were afraid that any "violent" opposition would mean the liquidation of the ghetto.



1943(17th of Tammuz, 5703):Tzom Tammuz



1943(17th of Tammuz, 5703): Five hundred slave laborers are murdered at Czestochowa, Poland.



1943: Over two thousand Jews are deported from Holland to Sobibór.



1943: Two Jews escape from Sobibór 



1943: General Leslie Grove, the director of the Manhattan Project acknowledged J. Robert Oppenheimer’s importance to the program to build the Atomic Bomb when he issued a written order to the Manhattan Engineer District commanding them to approve Oppie’s security clearance regardless of any negative information that might have been gathered.



1944: “Since You Went Away” a film about the U.S. home-front in WW II, produced by David O. Selznick who also wrote the screenplay and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States by United Artists.



1944: As of today, almost all of the Jews of Rhodes “had been captured and were being held in improvised concentration camps” while they were being robbed of their valuables and their homes were being looted by the Nazis. (Editor’s Note: “At this point one should mention the humanitarian stance shown by the Turkish consul, Selahettin Ulkumen, who intervened to save not only Turkish nationals but whole families as well, even at the remotest proof of their Turkish citizenship. He managed to save from the Nazis approximately 40 Jews who would have otherwise been led to death. For his acts, he was awarded after the War the title of "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem.”)



1944: The most famous plot to kill Hitler failed. This event has been romanticized by various revisionists. The plotters realized that they could not win the war. They thought that with Hitler gone, they could at least negotiate a peace treaty with the West. The plotters were not only incompetent, they were delusional as well. [For more about people who really worked to opposed Hitler see the recently publish “Red Orchestra.”]



1945: Laurence Adolph Steinhardt began serving as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia following his service as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.



1946: Birthdate of Israel Carmi (Weinstein) the native of Egypt who perished in 1968 at the age of 22 when the Israeli Submarine Dakar sank.



1946: Arthur Greiser, former Gauleiter of the Warthegau region in Poland, is hanged at Poznan, Poland, after being convicted of war crimes.



1949: Birthdate of Jean-Louis Cohen, “a French historian of architecture and urbanism.”



1949: Israel's 19 month War of Independence ended. The government of Syria signed the last of four armistices, which marked the end of open warfare. The cessation of hostilities did not bring peace since the Arab states refused to come to grips with the reality of the existence of Israel.



1950: Harry Gold, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.  Gold’s Jewish pedigree provided fodder for anti-Semites who sought to make being Jewish and being Communist (or disloyal to America) one and the same thing.



1950: “The Men” directed by Fred Zinnemann, produced by Stanley Kramer, written by Carl Foreman, with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released by United Artists today in the United States.



1950: In Israel, doctors employed by the Health Ministry will go on strike today unless their demands for increased pay are met.



1951: Abdullah Ibn Hussein Jordan's King was assassinated in Jerusalem. He was attending Friday prayers at a mosque when he was killed by those who were afraid he was negotiating with Israel. His grandson, Hussein, became the next King of Jordan. The assassination influenced the young king



1951: “The Law and the Lady” a comedy directed and produced by Edwin H. Knopf was released by MGM today in the United States.



1954:  United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn.  Roy Cohn was the chief counsel of the Senate Committee that McCarthy used to conduct his investigations that smeared people, ruined lives and unearthed no “Communist conspiracy among those he paraded before the television lights.  All of those right wing anti-Semites seemed to lose sight of fact that McCarthy’s chief henchman was one of those “New York Jews.”



1959: Birthdate of Samuel Israel III, the New Orleans born incarcerated hedge fund manager who was the subject of Octopus” Sam Israel, the Secret Market and Wall Street’ Wildest Con by Guy Lawson



1960: The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.



1961: The West End production “Stop The World – I Want To Get Off” a musical created by Anthony Newley who “was Jewish through his maternal grandmother.” Opened today.



1962:  Pope John XXIII sent invitations to all 'separated Christian churches and communities,' asking each to send delegate-observers to the upcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council in Rome. Vatican II would result in an improvement in the relationship between the Jewish Community and the Roman Catholic Church.  Of course, there are those that would that anything would have to be an improvement over Pope John’s predecessor, Pope Pious, the Pope of the Holocaust.



1965:  Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court. Fortas was a close friend of Johnson’s; one of the few people who could speak frankly with Johnson.  Fortas was “nominally” Jewish and he warned Johnson that the American Jewish Community would not see him as the right person to hold what, since the days of Brandeis, had become “the Jewish chair” on the High Court.



1969: In response to Nasser’s War of Attrition which was the Arab response to Israel’s attempt to negotiate a peace after the Six Day War, Operation Boxer began with a series of crippling air attacks.



1969: Israeli commandos successfully complete their attack on Green Island completely destroying the island fortress.  The press hails the attack as an Israeli Navronne, after the fictional island in the movie “The Guns of Navronne.”  But the casualties were not fiction.  Not only were they real, they were higher than expected.  The Israelis learned from the mission and went on to improve the functionality of their units.



1971: Syria and Jordan’s armies exchange fire over the common frontier. This would prove to be prelude to a Syrian attempt to seize Jordan, part of Syrian President Assad’s goal to create a Greater Syria.  In one of those strange twists, Israel moved tanks towards the area of conflict which Washington’s way of letting the Syrians know that they should back off and leave Jordan alone.



1973: Palestinian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.



1976: Today marked the start of what would become the Good Fence Policy along the border with Lebanon. The hope was that the medical treatment of Lebanese citizens in Israel and the beginning of trade between South Lebanon and Israel would start a new era of relations between the two countries. Like so many other peace initiatives this one died at the hand of terrorism.



1978: Birthdate of Elliott Yamin, born Efraym Elliott Yamin, who is an American singer known for his hit single "Wait for You" and placing third on the fifth season of American Idol.



1980:  The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is another reason that Israel tends not to trust the UN. In 1947, as part of the partition vote, the UN said Jerusalem would be governed by an international body.  When the Jordanians attacked Jerusalem and expelled the Jewish population from the Old City, the UN did nothing.  During the 19 year occupation of the city by the Jordanians Jews, of whatever nationality, were kept out of the city.  The UN did nothing.  But now that the Israelis controlled the whole city and it was open to Christians, Moslems and Jews, the UN acted to support the Arab view of the City of David.



1981:  The administration of newly elected Republican President Ronald Reagan suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel. 



1981(29th of Tammuz, 5739): Seventy-nine year old Joseph N. Katzthe founder and board chairman of Empire Kosher Poultry Inc., passed away today http://www.empirekosher.com/history/



1983; The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon. The Israelis had gone into Lebanon because the PLO occupied the southern half of the country and was using it as base to attack Israel.  The government of Lebanon either could not or would not remove the PLO so Israel was forced to act or accept the fact that Arafat’s terrorists would have permanent base on Israel’s northern border.



1994: Israel’s Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli official to do so



1996(4th of Av, 5756):Raphael Patai passed away.  Born Ervin György in 1910, Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer and anthropologist.



1997: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of Egypt’s Road to Jerusalem: A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beastby Patrick McGilligan and Inventing Memory:A Novel of Mothers and Daughters by Erica Jong.



1997: A conference “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years After Their Discovery” opened in Jersualem.



1999: Roman Bronfman and Alexander Tzinker formed the Democratic Choice faction.



2002: As a reminder that Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis, we mark the death of concentration camp survivor and art Jan M. Komski.
http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Komski.htm



2003: At the Lincoln Center Festival, Israel’s Gesher Theatre gives its opening performance of its adaptation of “The Slave.”



2003:Jewish Women International's first-ever international conference on domestic violence in the Jewish community held its first meeting in Baltimore.



2003(20th of Tammuz, 5763): Rabbi Bezalel Rakow, “an orthodox rabbi who headed Gateshead’s Jewish community” and who “was the chair of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudas Yisroel of Great Britain” passed away.



2004 (2nd of Av, 5764): Temple Judah mourned the loss of Rabbi Ed Chesman who passed away unexpectedly while vacationing with family in Florida.


2004: Ariel “Sharon called on French Jews to emigrate from France to Israel immediately, in light of an increase in French anti-Semitism (94 anti-Semitic assaults were reported in the first six months of 2004, compared to 47 in 2003). France has the third-largest Jewish population in the world (about 600,000 people).


2006(24th of Tammuz, 5766):Charles Bettelheim passed away. Born in 1913 he “was a French economist and historian, founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of Industrialization (CEMI: "Centre pour l'Étude des Modes d'Industrialisation") at the Sorbonne), economic advisor to the governments of several developing countries during the period of decolonization. He was very influential in France's New Left, and considered one of "the most visible Marxists in the capitalist world."


2006(24thof Tammuz, 5766): Ninety-year old Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro  “a leading authority on solid state physics” who was Professor of Physics and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand passed away today.


2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war:Maj. Benjy Hillman, 27; St.-Sgt. Rafenael Muscal, 21, of Mazkeret Batya; St.-Sgt. Nadav Baeloha, 21, of Karmiel; St.-Sgt. Liran Sa'adiya, 21, of Kiryat Shmona; St.-Sgt. Yonatan (Sergei) Vlasyuk, 21, of Kibbutz Lahav; Maj. Ran Kochva, 37, of Beit Hananya.


2007: Under the direction of Lauren Reece, The Footlighters ACT II performs "The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa.  Making this a Jewish as well as community even, Rabbi Portman of Agudas Achim in Iowa City will conduct an outdoor Shabbat Eve services on the grounds of what was Herbert Hoover’s boyhood home. While Jews preferred FDR to Hoover in 1932, it must never be forgotten that Hoover was responsible for putting Justice Cardozo on the Supreme Court when anti-Semitism was on the rise during the Great Depression.


2007: The Crown Prosecution Service announced that Lord Michael Levy was not to be prosecuted in connection with the so called "Cash for Honours" affair and that there were to be no charges against him.


2007: World premiere of David Zellnik’s  Ariel Sharon Hovers Between Life and Death and Dreams of Theodor Herzl” at Theatre J in Washington, DC.


2008: Fast the 17th Day of Tammuz, 5768


2008(17thof Tammuz, 5768): Israeli mathematician Michael Maschler best known for his contributions in the field of “game theory” passed away today.

2008: The Washington Post book section features a review of Debra Winger’s memoir, Undiscovered.


2008: The Sunday New York Times book section features a review of Rapture Ready in which Jewish author Daniel Radosh explores Christian pop culture.


2009: In upstate New York, Marilyn and Lester Milton Bornstein gave birth to Michael Scott Bornestein who gained fame as Michael Oren the author who served as Israel’s ambassador.


2009: At the 18th Maccabiah Games, the basketball competition continues as Brazil plays Germany, the USA plays Argentina, France plays Mexico and the hometown Israelis tip off against Canada.


2009:In an interview given today, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism said that the vast majority of American Jews back a settlement freeze.  


2009(28th of Tammuz, 5769):Mark Richard Rosenzweig an American research psychologist who found in animal studies on neuroplasticity that the brain continues developing anatomically, reshaping and repairing itself into adulthood based on life experiences, overturning the conventional wisdom that the brain reached full maturity in childhood passed away at the age of 86.


2009: Amidst the controversy surrounding the planned screenings of “Rachel,” a film that investigates the death of anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie, and its invitation to her mother, Cindy Corrie, to speak afterward, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Board President Shana Penn resigned from her post, citing “healthy differences on how to approach sensitive issues,” with five months left on a two-year term.


2010(9th of Av, 5770): Tish'a B'Av: 1,940th anniversary of the destruction of the Second Temple; 1,875th anniversary of the fall of Bethar.


2010:A judge at Tel Aviv District Family Court today rejected a request for a gag order on the contents of a box containing manuscripts written by Franz Kafka.


2010:Elena Kagan, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee on a nearly party-line vote today, her next to last hurdle before gaining a lifetime seat on the high court.


2011: Anat Cohen, an Israeli jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader, is scheduled to appear at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts at an event sponsored by Detroit Jazz Festival & The JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival.


2011:Medical residents announced an indefinite strike today as they continued organizing protests throughout the country against a deal being drafted between the Israel Medical Association and the Finance Ministry to end the doctors' strike.


2011:Reports that an Israeli killed in the New Zealand earthquake in February was an intelligence agent were wrong, Prime Minister John Key said today.


2011(18th of Tammuz, 5771): Eighty-eight year old portrait artist Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud and the brother of Clement Freud pass away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

2012(1st of Av, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Av


2012(1st of Ave, 5772): Thirty year old “Ari Ephraim Rubin, vice chairman of the Jewish Defense League died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound” today.

2012: Fresh from her triumphal performance in Des Moines, Iowa, renowned soprano Sarah Jane McMahon is scheduled to return to Touro Synagogue in New Orleans this evening for the fifth in a series of musical programs devoted to works by Jewish composers.  [For more about this and other happenings in “The Big Easy” see the Crescent City Jewish News http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/


2012: “5-Day Kosher Bike Trek” a 420 mile bike ride  that began in and offers Kosher food for all riders is scheduled to end today at Santa Fe, NM.


2012: As it marks it last Shabbat weekend in its downtown Washington Avenue location, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a potluck supper before Friday services.


2012: The tearful funerals of the five Burgas airport suicide-bomb bombings were held in the course of today, drawing hundreds — and in some cases thousands — of mourners. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2012:A suicide bombing that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria this week bore hallmarks of Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants but the U.S. Defense Department has not yet concluded who was behind it, a Pentagon spokesman said today. The attack on a bus carrying Israelis at a Bulgarian airport, "does bear the hallmarks of Hezbollah," George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.


2012(1st  of Av):Moshe Silman, the homeless man who set himself on fire at a Tel Aviv rally last weekend, died this afternoon at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer after succumbing to the burns which covered over 90 percent of his body.


2012: A Muslim husband and wife convicted of planning a terror attack against Jews in Manchester, England, were jailed today. Shasta Khan, who was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism and two counts of possessing information likely to be useful in an act of terrorism, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The 38-year-old hairdresser, who had pleaded not guilty, will serve four years minus the 350 days she spent on remand. (As reported by Miriam Shaviv)


2013: “More than Carnival,” a season ending summer concert is scheduled to take place at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.


2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform for a second day at the Hampton Synagogue at West Hampton Beach.


2013: “The geeky numbers guy who turned the electoral vote counting into a national obsession with his FIveThirtyEight blog is leaving the New York Times for the sports network” (As reported by Forward Staff)

2013: A leading minister confirmed  that Israel would release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the renewal of peace talks, but said that the government is not bound to a settlement freeze as a precondition for the resumption of negotiations. (As reported by Michael Shmulovich and Ricky Ben David)


2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Falling Out of Time by David Grossman and Friendship by Emily Gould


2014: Carole Glauber is scheduled to talk about the photographers in her exhibit “Israel in Light and Shadow” at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocuast Education.


2014: As of 1:30 a.m. Israeli time, network television reports on the fighting between Israel and Hamas show pictures of Gaza but show no pictures of rockets falling in Israel or Israelis "running for their lives"


2014(22ndof Tammuz, 5714: Thirteen members of the Golani Brigade were killed today as they fought the terrorirsts in Gaza including Captain Tzafrir Bar-Or, a commander in the Golani Brigade, 32, of Holon; Major Zvi Kaplan, a commander in the Golani Brigade, 28, from Kedumim;


Gilad Yaakobi, 21, of Kiryat Ono; Sergeant Oz Mendelovich, 21, from Avtalion; Nissim Shon Carmeli, 21, of Ra’anana (“In life they were loved and admired; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”)


2015: In Jerusalem, the OU Israel center is scheduled to present a special lecture from Rabbi Herschel Schachter, the Rosh Yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), Yeshiva University.


 


This Day, July 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. LEvin

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July 21



285: Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler. This was part of an attempt to shore up the imperial authority.  In another such step, Diocletian “ordered all the people …to accept his divinity and offer sacrifices to him.  Fortunately for the Jewish people, they were excluded from this decree…”  According to at least one source, “Diocletian’s regime was comparatively favorable to the Jewish people” which may not be saying all that much when you consider the behavior of most Roman rulers.



1391: In Burgos, Spain, Rabbi Solomon ha-Levi, the Talmudic scholar who was the son of Rabbi Isaac ha-Levin took the name of Paul of Burgos when he converted to Catholicism today which took place following “the great massacres of Jews which had begun in June.”



1414: In Celle Ligure, Italy,Leonardo della Rovere and Luchina Monleoni gave birth to Francesco della Rovere, the future Pope Sixtus IV who reluctantly authorized the Spanish Inquisition and allowed Jews and Marranos to settle in the Papal Domain in what some as an act of penance caving into Ferdinand and Isabella.  He rejected the notion of “blood libels” and withstood the pressure to canonize Simon of Trent.



1439 (9th of Av): Rabbi Johanan ben Mattathias Treves, Chief Rabbi of France passed away ten years after the death of his brother Joseph



1535: The Spaniards sacked Tunis and destroyed the Jewish community in the process.



1588: The English “fleet engaged he Spanish Armada off Plymouth near the Eddystone Rocks” in the first day of combat on which would hang the outcome of the Inquisition coming to the Netherlands and the British Isles.



1718(27thof Tammuz, 5473):Shabbethai ben Joseph Bass who was born at Kalisz 1641 and who was the father of Jewish bibliography, and author of the Sifsei Chachamim supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch passed away.



1733: A “group of 42 Jews who had sailed from London aboard the William and Sarah” arrived in Savannah today, “months after the colony's founding by James Oglethorpe.”  “Most of them were Spanish and Portuguese Jews, who had fled to England a decade earlier to escape the Spanish Inquisition.  Many of them had been members of the Bevis Marks Synagogue and would be founders of Mickva Israel, Georgia’s oldest Jewish congregation.



1773: Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal, a native of Hebron sailed to Suriname today from the British colonies in North America where his visit had made him the first rabbi to spend time in what is now the United States.



1774: The Russo-Turkish War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca marking the defeat of the Ottomans. The end of hostilities provided Sultan Abdul Hamid I with the opportunity to reassert his authority over parts of empire that were slipping away.  He attacked Dhaher al-Omar who had taken control of an area that coincided with modern day northern Israel and had invited Jewish merchants to pursue their commercial ventures under his protection. He also besieged the port of Acre. 



1816: Birthdate of Paul Julius Reuter. Born Israel Beer Josaphat, he changed his name to Reuter and converted in 1844. He founded what would become Reuter’s news agency in 1849. He used carrier pigeons to carry financial news to those parts of Germany, France and Belgium not yet served by telegraph. He opened his own telegraph service in England where he lived the rest of his life and died in 1899. He converted for the same reason so many other German and Austrian Jews did – it was the only way to advance in the worlds of commerce and art.



1820:.A small wooden building which had been erected at the northeast corner of Liberty and Whitaker streets Savannah was consecrated by members of Mikveh Israel. This was the first Jewish house of worship to be built in the State of Georgia. Jacob De La Motta delivered the consecration address.  A native of Savannah he graduated from the U of Pennsylvania Medical School and served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He practiced in New York City for a while but returned to the city of his birth where he became a leader in the medical and Jewish communities.



1825: Birthdate of Matthew Práxedes Sagasta the Spanish political who served as President of the Council of Ministers and who asserted the fact that “article 1 of the Constitution of Spain is the most decisive revocation of the edict of banishment against the Jews in the year 1492.”



1831: As Belgium gains its independence from the Netherlands of Leopold I of Belgium is inaugurated first king of the Belgians. Upon gaining its independence in 1831, the newly established Belgium parliamentary regime lost little time in recognizing Judaism as an official religious denomination (together with Catholicism, Protestantism, later Greek and Russian Orthodox Christianity and Islam).



1833:Birthdate of August, (Anshel) Bondi. “The Austrian native was the son of Jews who wanted him to have both a religious and a secular education. Caught up as a participant in the failed liberal revolution of 1848, the Bondi family fled to New Orleans and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Young Bondi encountered, first hand, the horrors of slavery and was deeply disgusted. In 1855 a New York Tribune editorial urged freedom- loving Americans to "hurry out to Kansas to help save the state from the curse of slavery." Bondi responded immediately. He moved to Kansas and along with two other Jews, Theodore Weiner from Poland and Jacob Benjamin from Bohemia established a trading post in Ossa-watomie. Their abolitionist sentiments very soon brought pro-slavery terrorists upon them. Their cabin was burned, their livestock stolen. Their trading post was destroyed in the presence of Federal troops who did nothing. The three courageous Jews joined a rabid local abolitionist, to defend their rights as citizens and to help rid the horror of slavery from Kansas. The Jews joined the Kansas Regulars under the leadership of John Brown. In a famous battle between the Regulars and the pro-slavery forces at Black Jack Creek, with the bullets whistling viciously above their heads, 23 year old Bondi turned to his 57 year old friend Weiner and asked in Yiddish – "Nu, was meinen Sie jetzt?" (Well, what do you think of this now?) He answered, 'Was soll ich meinen? Sof odem moves' (What should I think? Man's life ends in death). Kansas joined the union as a Free State. Bondi married Henrietta Einstein of Louisville, Kentucky in 1860. Their home became a way station for the Underground Railroad smuggling slaves to the North and freedom. The Civil War began in 1861, Bondi enlisted in the Union army encouraged by the words of his mother. He later wrote in his autobiography "as a Jew I am obliged to protect institutions that guarantee freedom for all faiths." August Bondi died in 1907, a respected judge and member of his Kansas community.”



1838: Rabbi Geiger was invited to preach at Breslau today – an invitation which Rabbi Solomon Tiktin was so opposed to that he went to the local police in an attempt to prevent Geiger from speaking.



1841: In Holstein, German, Dr. Marcus Cohen and his wife gave birth to Minna Cohen who gained fame at the poetess Minna Cohen Kleeberg whose work included ‘Ein Lied vom Salz” (A lyric about salt), a plea for the removal of the tax on salt in Prussia.’



1846(27thof Tammuz, 5606): Eighty-three year old Benedict (Baruch) Schott who served as tutor in the home of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer before pursuing a career at the long-serving director of the Jacobsonschule in Seesen passed away today.



1847: In Hamburg, jurist Isaac Wolffson and his wife gave birth to Albert Wolffson who followed in his father’s footsteps while also developing a career in politics..



1848: Birthdate of French historian Gustave Bloch, the father of historian Marc Bloch the co-founder of École des Annales who was murdered by the Gestapo.



1851: David Salomons who had been elected to Parliament on June 28 and who had been denied the right to take his seat because, as Jew, he could not take the oath of office, returned to the House of Commons to take part in the debate on the matter. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three divisions of the House.



1854: Birthdate of London communal worker Isidore Spielmann.



1857:During a debate tonight in the House of Lords on the question of "Jewish disabilities,"  Lord Campbell said that a revolution would take place if the Commons acted independently of the Lords in the matter by omitting from their oath the objectionable sentence



1857:This evening, Lord John Russell renewed his motion to bring in a bill for the admission of Jews into Parliament. Following an animated debated the motion carried by a vote of 246 to 154.



1861: During the Civil War, the Confederates defeat the Union at the first Battle of Bull Run.  In response to an inquiry written 30 years after the battle Oliver O. Howard, a Major General in the United States Army reported that a Jewish Aid-de Camp who served with him during the battle was “one of the bravest and the best; he is now a distinguished officer of the army, a man of the highest scientific attainment.” He also wrote that he could not release the man’s name without his permission.



1869: Albert Martin Wolffson was admitted to the bar in Hamburg today.



1874: Today’s “Foreign Notes” column reported that “Sir Moses Montefiore” who will celebrate his 90th birthday this October 24, “has been presented with the freedom of the Fishmongers’ Company in recognition of his philanthropic efforts on behalf of the oppressed Jewish in various parts of the world. [Editor’s note – The Fishmongers’ Company dates back to the 12th century and was guild for those who sold fish in London.  By the 19th century the company administered a various “charities and trusts” for the underprivileged classes of the UK.  This would account for their bestowing an honor on Sir Moses.]



1873(23rd of Tammuz, 5633): Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet, a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom passed away. . He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London, and one of the first two Jewish people to serve in the British House of Commons.



1877: In a letter to the New York Times, Edgar M. Johnson a prominent lawyer from Cincinnati took issue with claims that he had concealed the fact the fact that he was Jewish when he was offered accommodations at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs. He reiterated the fact that Mr. Wilkinson, who was employed by Judge Hilton was well aware of the fact as is everybody else.  Whether he is what Hilton calls “a Seligman Jew” is of little consequence since Johnson has no desire to stay at place where Hilton is “the tavern keeper.” Johnson closed by saying that he and his family had enjoyed previous trips to Saratoga Springs where nobody was will “to reject Jew money” but that these would be his last words on any subject related to Hilton.



1877: In Vienna, 22 year old Ida (Kuhn) Cohen and Eduard Cohen gave birth to Emilie (Mimi) Borchardt



1878: It was reported today that there has been a serious outbreak of violence between the Jews and Roman Catholics living in Kalisch, a major city in Poland (which was part of the Russian Empire). The origins of the violence can be found in the government’s ban on the Jewish practice of enclosing their houses “with a wire fence to indicate that no one might pass out or in” during the Sabbath. The Jews blamed the Roman Catholics for the government’s decision.  When the Roman Catholics blocked every street corner with altars during their procession on Corpus Christi Day, the Jews reportedly attacked one of the altars which was the excuse of a Catholic attack that destroyed the synagogue and forced the Jews to seek refuge in their own homes. So far twelve people were reported to have been killed during the violence. [Jews had been living in Kalisz (the Polish spelling) since the 12thcentury.  The synagogue that was destroyed dated back to the 14th century.  Jews played an active role in the economy of the community and by the start of WW II they accounted for about 30% of the population.  Most the 20,000 Jews did not survive the war and the town, like so much of Poland, has memories of Jews but no Jewish people.)



1878: A. Benisch, ended his editorship of the Jewish Chronicle which “he bequeathed to the Anglo-Jewish Association which then sold the proprietary rights to Sydney M. Samuel, Israel Davis and Asher I. Myers” who “was the managing editor till his death in 1902.”



1879(1st of Av, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Av



1880: The second free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will set sail on the East River this morning.  If the society can find more funds, these trips will continue on a weekly basis for the rest of the summer.



1880: It was reported today that two Postmasters named Barr and Johnson and their Jewish accomplice named Pearlstine are being held by federal authorities in South Carolina on charges of improper use of stamps and making false returns of canceled stamps to increase their pay. [Why Pearlstein was identified as Jew and the religion of the others was not mentioned is a mystery.]



1881: It was reported today that King Alfonso has invited Russian Jews to settle in Spain, a move that would improve conditions “by bringing a money making class into a country in dire need of it”



1882: During the Freight Handler’s Strike, Italian and Russian Jewish immigrants returned to the docks looking for work after the strikers stopped providing them with food and expense money as they had promised earlier.  To complicate matters, the ranks of the strikers also included Russian and Polish Jews who had come to the country earlier in the decade.



1884: A review of T.K. Cheyne’s The Book of Psalms described the authors attempt to present this section of the Bible as literature as well as “holy writ.”  For him, the Psalms should be viewed as literature that has survived “under a Jewish phase.”



1886: The first free excursion of the ear for poor Jewish moths and their children sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will set sail this morning.



1886: The SS Stateof Georgia arrived at Castle Garden from Glasgow, Scotland, carrying 40 Russian Jewish refugees.



1886: "A week of General Kissing” published today described the Russian custom of kissing people as a greeting during Easter week. Last year when the Czar came out of his room the first person whom he saw was the guard at his door who remained silent when the Russian ruler greeted him “Christ is risen.”  The Czar found out that the guard was Jewish which accounted for his lack of response.  While the Czar respected his honesty, Jews no longer serve as guards at his palace.



1887: Louis Keptlovwitch, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, was scheduled to face the Grand Jury on charges of bigamy.  [This is a real life example of letters that would appear in the Forwards about men who “forgot” about the family’s they left behind when they arrived in the New World.]



1887: “Appeals for Suffering Hebrews” published today described the effects of the catastrophic effects of the fire that swept through “the little Jewish town of Botuschania, Romania.”  A committee of prominent American Jews led by Benjamin Peixotto, has been formed to collect funds to relieve the suffering.  Contributions will forward to Romania by Jesse Seligman who has agreed to serve as the Treasurer of the Relief Fund.



1887: “Two Ladies At Odds” published today described a conflict between Mrs. Henrietta Loeser, President of the Henrietta Verein, a Jewish charitable organization, and Mrs. Betty Michaelis, the society’s Secretary.  A shouting match devolved into a physical confrontation when the secretary threw the society’s seal and record books at the president.  Loeser than tried to have Micahelis removed from the organization.  Mrs. Micahelis has sought a writ of mandamus so that she can gain readmission to the society.



1888: Police had to be called out to quell a riot in Drohobycz today when petroleum miners attacked the town’s Jews and trashed the local synagogue.



1888: A company of 13 police officers was hard pressed to deal with the huge throng that gathered this afternoon at the Norfolk Street Synagogue to hear the inaugural sermon of Rabbi Jacob Joseph. The sanctuary, which was built to hold 1,000, was filled with more than 1,500 people. The rabbi spoke for an hour concluding with a prayer that the Lord would guide and help the Jews in America to spread his light and cause Israel to become a blessing to this great land of freedom and among the people of the United States.



1889: “Hebrews Not Wanted,” published today described the decision of “Messrs. Cable and Breen , the lessees of the Brighton Beach at Coney Island” to follow the practice adopted by Judge Hilton at his Saratoga Hotel and ban all members of the “Hebrew Race” as guests.  Hebrews had been coming to the hotel in ever increasing numbers.  While they freely spent their money, there were not enough rooms available for Gentile guests.  Mr. Breen told the Times “that the public sentiment might be against such measures, but it was not so among Gentile patrons.”  The hotel was taking on the appearance of a “Jewish settlement” despite the best efforts of management to make Gentiles feel welcome.  Breen described it as a business decision. “It was self-preservation and the interests of our large number of other guests that caused us to take this step.”



1890: “Jews in Russia” published today, relied on information that first appeared in the London Daily News described the new regulations that are being applied to Jews living under the Czar. These include a requirement that when Jewish students complete their university studies, they must return “to their native towns.”  The parents of students who fail to do so and evade the authorities will be punished in their place.



1890(4thof Av, 5650): Seventy-four year old Moritz Duschak, the native of Moravia who served as a rabbi Cracow passed away today in Vienna having “spent his last days in neglect and disappointment.”



1891: The cloakmakers, most of whom were Polish and Russian Jews, were joined by the cutters and pressers in their strike again Oppenheim & Collins.



1891 A tribute written today in honor of Nathan Marcus and Hermann Adler said that they “gave their name”, “to a regime, to an era… The system of Rabbinate which had long come to be known as ‘Adlerism’, the keynote of which was the close consolidation of religious government and the concentration of ecclesiastical control… If, therefore, ‘Adlerism’ had its faults and its drawbacks… it has formed a basis on which can now be safely laid a system more fitted to Anglo-Jewry as it is” (As reported by Rabbi Raymond Apple, senior rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney)



1891: The weekly excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to take place today.



1891: General James R. O’Beirne, who was “in charge of the immigrants at Ellis Island” wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury recommending that the Jewish immigrants being held at the Barge Office be allowed to land’ since “they are desirable immigrants” who have skills “and are willing to work if they get a chance.”



1892: During the Homestead Steel Strike anarchist Alexander Berkman went to the office of Henry Clay Frick the chairman of Carnegie Steel Company with the intention of assassinating him; a an attempt that was thwarted because the secretary said Frick was too busy to see him.



1892: Abraham Oswald Swift the son of Harris and Sarah Swift, born Abraham Asher ben Joshua in Russia in 1869, was buried today at the Deane Road Cemetery in London



1893: The Marshall and three men working with him returned to the apartment of Sarah Goldstein, a widow living at 181 Orchard Street and executed the order of the court by putting the widow, her six sick children and her furniture on the sidewalk.  Neighbors were afraid to help because the children were sick with measles.



1893: Policemen are looking for other victims of gang of Russian Jewish thieves who lure other Russian Jews to their room at 81 Chrystie Street where they torture and rob the unsuspecting immigrants.



1894: “Old Boston Booksellers” published today described the Boston antiquarian book trade of the 1850’s which was dominated by two firms one of which was Burnham Brothers, a firm owned by Theodore, Frederick and Lafayette Burnham, who were either Jewish or “of Jewish origins.”



1895: The Rhine Gazette announced that the electors of Minden are preparing to hold a meeting demanding the resignation of the Baron von Hammerstein, the disgraced former editor of the Kreuz Zeitung.  Ironically, the Baron who “was a strong anti-Semite and leader of the Jew baiters” was brought to financial ruin by “his enormous expenditures” with which he lavished his Jewish mistress with “every luxury that wealth could purchase.”



1895: Birthdate of Henry Lynn, Russian born American “film director, screenwriter and producer.”



1896: Three days after his abortive meeting with Rothschild, Herzl made the decision to organize a Zionist Congress.



1898: Bishop John H. Vincent, the founder of the Chautauqua movement is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled The Chautauqua Idea at today’s session of the Summer Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society being held at Atlantic City, NJ.



1898(2nd of Av, 5658): Seventy year old Benjamin Marks “a wealthy retired merchant” passed away today at the Long Beach Hotel where he was spending the summer. A native of Berlin, he came to the United States at the age of 20 where he went to work for Brooks Brothers.  Several years later he began opening a string of retail stores specializing in woolen goods.  By the time he retired in 1871, he “was one of the largest, if the largest retail woolen merchants in America.”



1899: Sixty-five year old Robert Ingersoll who earned nickname “The Great Agnostic” for his views on religion passed away. While some Jewish leaders, such as Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El gave him credit for showing “to the world of the Church” they challenged his views on Judaism especially about Moses. But as Rabbi Silverman pointed out, Ingersoll “is not responsible for his mistakes…because he cannot read the Bible in its original language.”



1900: The uprising in Beijing known as The Boxer Rebellion began today.  Among the Marines who saw action during the month long conflict was William Zion, a Jewish private from Indiana who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor.



1901(5thof Av, 5661): Seventy-seven year old Bohemian textile manufacturer Isaac Mautner who had married Julia Rosenfeld in 1849 passed away today.



1902(16thof Tammuz, 5662): Adolph Landau passed away today
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Landau_Adolph



1903: Birthdate of Roy Rothschild Neuberger the co-founder of the investment firm Neuberger Berman and recipient of the National Medal of Arts. He “was an American financier who contributed money to raise public awareness of modern art through his acquisition of pieces he deemed worthy.”


1904(9th of Av, 5664):Tish'a B'Av



1905: In New York, Joseph Rubin, a manufacturer of straw braid and Helene Forbet Rubin, both of whom were “immigrant Polish Jews gave birth to Diana Rubin the wife of Lionel Trilling who gained fame as critic and author Diana Trilling. (As reported by Michael Norman)
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/25/books/diana-trilling-cultural-critic-member-select-intellectual-circle-dies-91.html?pagewanted=all



1906(28th of Tammuz, 5666): Saul Jacob El-Yashar, Hahambashi of Jerusalem passed away at the age of 92.



1906: Moses Gaster, the Chief Rabbi of the English Sephardic Community and his mother gave birth to Theodor Herzl Gaster, the British born American biblical scholar who published the first English translation of the Dead Sea scrolls. His father named him after his recently deceased friend, Theodor Herzl. (As reported by Andy Wallace)



1907(10thof Av, 5667): Fast observed since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat



1910: Birthdate of Himan “Hi” Brown the son of a tailor from Odessa who was a major producer during the Golden Age of Radio including “Bulldog Drummond,” “Inner Sanctum” and “Radio Mystery Theatre.”



1911: Birthdate of Felicia Haberfeld, a native of Poland who eventually settled in Los Angles where she worked as a city librarian and, with her husband, founded the 1939 Club, named for the year Germany invaded Poland. She was also instrumental in establishing an endowed chair in Holocaust studies at UCLA.

1911(25th of Tammuz, 5671): Rabbi Yehouda Jarmon of Tunis passed away at the age of 104.



1911: During the Mendel Beilis Affair, a small expeditionary force of gendarmes forced its way into the home of Mendel Beilis and arrested him.



1912: Jennie and Moses Montefiore Kursheedt gave birth to Abigail Hoffman (Kursheedt)



1915: In Milledgeville, GA, “Leo M. Frank’s physicians expressed the opinion that his recovery” from the wounds he suffered when prisoner J.W. Creen tried to kill him “was practically certain unless there should be some unexpected development.



1915: J.W. Creen told reporters today that “he was justified in attacking Leo Frank” and that he was not crazy as a newspaper story said he was.



1915: “As a result of the attack on Leo Frank” it was reported today that “seventy prisoners at the State Prison Farm are likely to be transferred to chain gangs throughout the state.”



1915: While it was reported today that “extra precautions have been taken to safeguard Leo Frank in the future, Trustees have informed the prison officials that there is a strong feeling against Frank among the prisoners.”



1915: It was reported today that Georgia Governor Harris wants “a complete investigation of affairs at the prisoner farm” and wants “to know how one prisoner was able to make an attack upon another.”



1916(20thof Tammuz, 5676): Harry Lewinstein who had been a Corporal in the Coldstream Guard serving in France in 1914 and was subsequently commissioned as a second lieutenant was killed today.



1918: In Russia, the revolutionary government that had overthrown the Czar removed the ban on Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals. 



1919: Birthdate of Seymour Pine, “the deputy police inspector who led the raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, on a hot summer night in 1969 — a moment that helped start the gay liberation movement   A graduate of Brooklyn College and a veteran of WW II who served in North Africa and Europe, Pine later apologized the raid and his role in it. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)



1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner met with newsmen today and announced that he was abolishing the censorship which had been in effect since the Jerusalem riots that began in April.



1920: Birthdate of Isaac Stern. Born in Russia, this famous violinist came to America at the age of ten months. His family settled in San Francisco and he debuted with the San Francisco Symphony. His career is too rich for this brief entry. Suffice it to say he is one of a long line of Jewish violinists and he has been a supporter of musical endeavors in Israel.



1921: Birthdate of Arthur Marx, who wrote screenplays for film and television and a best-selling book about his father, “Life With Groucho.”



1921: Birthdate of Stanley Tretick, the photojournalist whose career spanned an era from Truman through Bush I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Tretick#/media/File:Stanley_Tretick_photographing_JFK_1962.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Tretick#/media/File:Tretick_JFK_Jr_in_desk.jpg



1921(15th of Tammuz, 5681):  Benjamin Raphael Haim Moshe, Chief Rabbi of Spain passed away at the age of 74 years



1922: Birthdate of Bernard Gilbert Hoberman, the native of Chisholm, MN, who helped to save AM by creating All-Talk Radio.



1926:  Birthdate of director Norman Jewison.  Despite his name and the fact he directed the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Jewison is not Jewish.



1926: Birthdate of Karel Reisz a “Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema. “Reisz was a Jewish refugee, one of the 669 rescued by Sir Nicholas Winton.”


1931: Maxim Litvinov began serving as the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.


1931: Dr. Louis I. Newman will officiate at the funeral service for former state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Newburger who passed away at the age of 78. Following burial in Union Field Cemetery Cantor Nathan Meltzof is scheduled to conduct a memorial service at the home of the deceased The honorary pallbearers include Court of Appeals Justices Benjamin N. Cardozo and Irving Lehman.


1931: CBS’s New York City stations began broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the United States. George Gershwin was one of three people to appear on the first broadcast. That’s right – one third of the "cast" of this landmark television show was Jewish. Of course, CBS was owned by Bill Paley adding to the Jewish twist.



1933: The port at Haifa was opened to traffic.



1934:Vladimir Jabotinsky, president of the World Union of the Zionist Revisionists, today issued a statement hailing the acquittal of Abraham Stavsky



1938: While the rest of the world was embracing the Nazis or turning a blind eye to their depredations, “Pope Pius XI delivers an address to ecclesiastical assistants of Catholic Action in which he argues that Catholicism is opposed to racism, nationalism, and similarly exclusivist ideologies.”  (The differences between Pius XI and his successor Pius XII were far greater than a single Roman numeral.)



1938(22ndof Tammuz, 5698): Morris Mitchtom, the Jewish immigrant, who along with his wife “invented the Teddy Bear”, passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Michtoms.html



1939:The Jewish Agency for Palestine issued today a statement rejecting Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald's appeal for cooperation with the British Government's new policy for Palestine. The Jewish leadership rejected the White Paper with its limits on immigration and land ownership as being “devoid of moral and legal basis and…calculated to destroy the las and holiest possession of the Jewish people – the national home.



1940: Hans and Margret Rey left Lisbon aboard the Angola which was headed for Rio.


1941: In Minsk, 45 Jew were ordered to dig a pit. They were then thrown in and Russian prisoners were ordered to bury them alive. The Russians refused. The Germans then shot the Russians and the Jews in the pit.



1941: Jews of Upina, Lithuania, were killed by the Nazis.



1941: A concentration camp opens at Majdanek, Poland.


1941: “The Riga occupation command decided to concentrate the Jewish workers in a ghetto after which all Jews were registered and a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was set up.


1942: The S.S. Nyassa, a Portuguese liner carrying “Five hundred and fifty-seven refugees from Nazism who had been stranded in Portugal and unoccupied France” which had left Portugal on July 10 bound for Baltimore stopped in Bermuda today. (JTA)


1942: One thousand Jews deported from Paris, reached Auschwitz. Many of them were Polish Jews living in France. Six hundred and twenty-five were gassed while 375 selected for labor battalions. Only seventeen would survive the war.


1942: The Jews of Nieswiez organized a resistance movement and a planned an escape using kerosene and old guns as their weapons. A desperate battle ensued. Jews set fire to their own homes as a diversionary tactic. Some of those who made it to the woods found other Jews from Kleck and Niewswiez. They set up an underground unit.



1943: Tonight’s performance of “We Will Never Die” at the Hollywood Bowl was broadcast to a nationwide audience thanks to NBC.We Will Never Die was a dramatic pageant…staged to raise public awareness of the ongoing mass murder of Europe's Jews. It was organized and written by screenwriter and author Ben Hecht and produced by Billy Rose and Ernst Lubitsch.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Never_Die
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/pageant.html



1944: Jerzy Bielecki led Cyla Cybulska out of her barrack at Auschwitz and passed a sleepy guard to the woods and freedom.  He was a Roman Catholic who had been imprisoned in 1940 as a member of the Polish Resistance.  She was a young Jewess, who thanks to his courage was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.  He was recognized by Yad Vasham as one of the Righteous Gentiles in 1985. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)



1944: On the date after the attempt to assassinate Hitler failed, Henning von Tresckow, one of the chief conspirators, staged a partisan attack on his headquarters near Bialystok in Poland, and blew himself up with a grenade. He was buried with military honors, but a month later, when the Gestapo discovered his involvement in the plot against Hitler, his body was exhumed and burned in a crematorium of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.



1944: Birthdate of Paul Wellstone, United States from Minnesota who died in a plane crash in 2002.



1947: The Exodus, a refugee ship with 4,500 refugees on board, was turned back by the British and returned to Germany. The ship had tried to run the British blockade unsuccessfully: The British forcefully boarded the ship killing 3 Jews and wounding over 100. The pictures of the refugees being forcibly unloaded in Germany was a critical blow to world public opinion and helped force the British out of Eretz Israel.



1948: David Shaltiel, the district commander of the Haganah in Jerusalem held the last in a series of meetings mediated by the UN with Abdullah el Tell, “the commander of the Arab Legion in the city” where “they signed a formal cease-fire based on the existing positions of their forces.”



1951: In its story on the assassination of Jordan’s King Abdullah that occurred on July 21 The Jerusalem Post reported that King Abdullah was known for his efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. In his memoirs he wrote: "I have been astonished at what I saw of the Jewish settlements: They have colonized sand dunes, drawn water from them, and transformed them into paradise."



1953: Birthdate of award winning economist and hedge fund manager Sanford “Sandy” Jay Grossman.



1955: Architect Denise Lakofski, the daughter of Simon and Phyllis (Hepker) Lakofski became Denise Scott Brown today when she married Robert Scott Brown.



1955: Martin and Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave birth to Jane C. Ginsburg “the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at the Columbia Law School.” This could be a case of the fulfillment of genetic predisposition since her mother is a Supreme Court Justice and her father, of blessed memory, was a law professor and internationally renowned expert on tax law.



1957: Birthdate of comedic actor Jon Lovitz. Lovitz big break came in 1982 when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live. 



1969: On the second day of Operation Boxer, “four 109 Squadron Skyhawks attack an Egyptian anti-aircraft battery near Qantarah.”



1970(17th of Tammuz, 5730): Tzom Tammuz



1970: Libya's Col. Qaddafi nationalizes all Jewish property



1970: After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River in Egypt is completed. In 1954, President Nasser sought aid from the U.S. government to build the Aswan Dam.  He saw the building of the dam as being a vital to Egypt’s modernization program.  For a variety of ideological and economic reasons, the Eisenhower Administration eventually rejected the request for aid.  Nasser turned the Soviets who were only too glad to supply economic aid and masses of modern arms to Egypt.  Bolstered by his new Soviet sponsors and angry at Eisenhower and Dulles for what he considered their betrayal of his dreams. Nasser began to promote an agenda of pro-Soviet Pan-Arabism with the destruction of Israel as its emotional focal point.  Nasser also nationalized the Suez Canal because he needed the canal revenue to re-pay the Soviets.  All of this led to the Suez Crisis of 1956 which resulted in a lightening military victory.  Nasser’s vision may have died, but the dam was built.  Such is the law of unintended consequences on This Day in Jewish History.



1973: In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972’s Munich Olympics Massacre.



1974: “The White Dawn” directed by Philip Kaufman was released in New York City today by Paramount Pictures.



1976: “An all-black cast staged the first Broadway review” of “Guys and Dolls a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows” which officially opened today at the Broadway Theatre.



1977: The Tenth Maccabiah comes to an end.



1977: Seventy-year old Lee Miller, one of the few female combat photographers in WW II, who teamed with David E. Scherman to provide the public with a graphic portrait of the horrors of Buchenwald and Dachau, passed away today.
http://www.leemiller.co.uk/app/WebObjects/LeeMillerShop.woa/wo/2.0.3.22?0.3.22.1=concentration+camps&0.3.22.3=Submit



1982(1st of Av, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Av



1982: The first Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies which was attended by 100 people and where Dr. Geza Vermes was elected president came to an end today.



1985: Outfielder Mark Gilbert made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.



1985(3rdof Av, 5745): Eight-five year old art dealer Victor J. Hammer, the brother of Dr. Armand Hammer and the son of “Jewish immigrants Julius and Rose (Lipshitz) Hammer” passed away today in Florida.
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-24/local/me-4808_1_armand-hammer



1985: In “The Biographers As Detective: What Walter Lippman Preferred to Forget,” Ronald Steele author of what some consider to be the definitive biography on Lippman provides insight and background of a Jewish intellectual and author who was witness to and participant in many of the major events of the 20thcentury.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/21/books/the-biographer-as-detective-what-walter-lippmann-prefered-to-forget.html?pagewanted=print



1988: Pitcher Roger Samuels made his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants.



1990(28thof Tammuz, 5750): Sixty-five year old Oscar nominated screenwriter and producer Stanley Shapiro passed away.



1991(10thof Av, 5751): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat



1991(10thof Av, 5751): Eighty-seven year old Joseph Dorfman who “received the Veblen-Commons Award in 1974 from the Association for Evolutionary Economics” passed away today. (As reported by Glenn Fowler)
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/23/obituaries/joseph-dorfman-87-specialist-in-history-of-economic-mind.html



1997(16thof Tammuz, 5757): Two years before his wife Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo passed away, Turkish born Sephardic pianistVictoria Kamhi de Rodrigo, Marquise of the Jardines de Aranjuez passed away today and was subsequently buried in Spain.



2000(18thof Tammuz, 5760):Yosef Qafiḥ or Rabbi Kapach, a leader of the Yemenite Jewish in Yemen and then In Israel passed away today. He was the grandson of Yiḥyah Qafiḥ who had been born in 1853 and served as Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemen until his death in 1932. There is no way that this simple blog can do justice to either of these leaders.



2001:Adam MacRae Gimbel, “a grandson of Louis Stanley Gimbel, who was a managing partner in Saks Fifth Avenue and  a great-great-grandson of Adam Gimbel, who in 1842 founded the business that became Gimbel Brothers department stores” married Alexandra Sarah Wald today.



2002: The seventh Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies opened today in Amsterdam under the presidency of Professor Albert van der Heide.



2002: The Sunday New York Times features a review of The Ascent of Eli Israel: Waiting for the Messiah a collection of short stories by Joe Papernick, a 31-year-old Canadian who moved to Brooklyn, after having spent several months in Israel following Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in November 1995, A Place to Live And Other Selected Essays by Italian Jewish author Natalia Ginzburg and Reflections and Shadows by Saul Steinberg with Aldo Buzzi.



2002:The 88th annual national convention of Hadassah opens at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.



2004(3rd of Av, 5764):Composer Jerry Goldsmith passed away.  Born in Pasadena, California, in 1929, Goldsmith was one of the most prolific composers of television and move themes in the 20th century.  If you watched such television hits as Have Gun Will Travel, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason or The Waltons, you heard Goldsmith.  If you watched such films as Patton, Planet of the Apes or The Omen, you heard Goldsmith.  And this only scratches the surface.

2004(3rd of Av, 5764):Richard Adolf Bloch passed away at the age of 78. Born in 1926, he was an American entrepreneur, and philanthropist best known for starting the H&R Block tax preparation and personal finance company with his older brother Henry in 1955. His personal battle with cancer led him to invest in helping others fight and overcome the disease.

2004(3rd of Av, 5764): On the day before his 22nd birthday, Lance Corporal Mark E. Engel  (USMC) died in a Texas hospital from wounds he suffered while fighting in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.(As reported by Maia Efrem)


2005: 17th Macaabiah comes to a close.


2005: “Forbes.com readers and editors rank Meyer Amschel Rothschild as the seventh most influential businessman of all time.”

2005: Violinist Anton Polezhayev filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan charging the New York Philharmonic with sex discrimination in denying him a job and following a pattern of promoting only female violinists.


2006: The Jewish Week publishes a review of Auschwitz Report entitled “Portrait of an Emerging Author” by Liel Lebovitz. Lebiovitz writes that “Auschwitz Report is a previously unpublished manuscript by Primo Levi and Leonardo De Benedetti, a physician who was Levi’s close friend when the two were prisoners at the camp.


2006: In its fight to remove threat of Hezbollah,IDF troops uncovered several anti-tank missiles and several surface-to-surface missiles during an operation in the village of Marwaheen. They also found a machine gun, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and ammunition.


2006: Haaretz reported on the opening of the first U.S. branch Aroma, the Israeli equivalent of Starbucks The first franchise is located on Houston Street in Manhattan. Dressed in t-shirts saying “I Love Aroma New York” the staff prepared for the entry into the coffee and restaurant wars.  There were many unique challenges in the opening including the renaming of one Aroma’s signature sandwiches.  In Israel, the sandwich is called “the Iraqi Sandwich.”  In the U.S. it is called The Oriental Sandwich.


2007: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival presents a screening of “His People,” a film about two sons of Jewish pushcart peddlers living on the Lower East Side.


2007: In Jerusalem at the Sisters of Zion convent, a classical music concert entitled"Music in All the Shades" presents "Popular Melodies in Russian Choral Music," featuring "Musica Eterna" under the direction of Elia Plotkin.


2007(6th of Av, 5767):Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder the Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit in 1963 who also was the driving force behind the creation of the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969  died  today in an auto accident at the age of 79

2007: (6 Av, 5767) Shabbat Chazon; start of the reading of Devarim or Deuteronomy.


2008: Gordon Brown is scheduled to address the Knesset making him the first British Prime Minister to speak to the Israeli parliament.


2008: A jury in San Francisco convicted Eric Hunt of false imprisonment with a hate crime allegation, batter and elder abuse for his attack on 79 year old Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel.


2009: A disciplinary hearing was held today following yesterday’s brawl involving coaches and players that followed “Russia's 2-1 defeat of Argentina in the under-18 semifinals at the Maccabiah Games


2009:The Pet Shop Boys play a one-off performance in Tel Aviv becoming the latest British mega band to perform on Israeli soil after a Depeche Mode concert in May. The duo - Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe play at the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center
2009: At the 18th Maccabiah, Australia plays Israel in Women’s Netball


2009:Israel led the way in the men's half marathon today, taking the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in Netanya. The winner of the men's race was Zohar Zmiro who came in with a time of 01:10:31. He was closely followed by Dastaho Svanch at 01:10:41.


2009:The US baseball team capped off its undefeated season today with a 12-6 gold medal-clinching victory against Canada at Sportek in Tel Aviv.


2009:As the controversy continued to grow because of the planned showing of “Rachel”  “a sympathetic portrait of the American pro-Palestinian activist who was killed in 2003 in Gaza while protesting a home demolition, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Executive Director Peter Stein apologized “for not fully considering how upsetting this program might be,” though he added that the festival stands by its decision to screen the film.


2010:An 8-week session program entitled Hebrew Language and Conversation is scheduled to begin at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue.


2010:Debra Rubin, Editor of the Washington Jewish Week is scheduled to serve as a moderator of a discussion addressing issues concerning Jewish residents of Montgomery County at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in, Rockville, MD


2010:An Israeli oil prospecting and production firm announced it has struck a commercial amount of the black substance in central Israel, Army Radio reported today. Givot Olam Oil Ltd notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of the find in its "Megev Five" drill near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, saying it can produce 470 barrels of oil a day.


2010:The Ritz Carlton hotel chain announced today that it will build its first kosher hotel in Herzliya.


2011:The "Angel of Death" Josef Rudolf Mengele's writings are scheduled to be auctioned off by Alexander Historic Auctions of Stamford Connecticut today.


2011:Shalom,” American Jewish music legend Paul Simon told reporters in Tel Aviv on yesterday afternoon, on the eve of his first performance in Israel for almost three decades. Simon is set to perform at the Ramat Gan Stadium this evening, in his third show in Israel to date.


2011:A golden bell ornament that archaeologists believed belonged to a priest or important leader from the Second Temple Period was found in an ancient drainage channel in ruins next to the Western Wall today, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced.


 2011:As part of the ongoing doctors' work dispute, medical residents at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba opened up in a hunger strike today


2011: Libya has become a new source of smuggled weaponry for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said today.


2011: The production of the Cirque du Soleil Show Iris for which Danny Elfman composed the music began today.


2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a luncheon honoring the Collections Committee and Chair Janice Goldblum following the launch of its new on-line catalogue presented by Wendy Turman, JHSGW Archivist.


2011(19th of Tammuz, 5771): Ninety-one year old Bruce Sundlun, the second Jewish governor of Rhode Island passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

2011(19th of Tammuz, 5771): Ninety five year old Hyman “Bookie” Bookbinder a Washington lobbyist known by his trademark bowtie whose friends were a cross section of Washington, DC including Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Betty Ford, passed away today (As reported by T. Rees Shapiro)

2011(19th of Tammuz, 5771): Ninety-five year old Elliot Handler began Mattel Toy Company with his wife Ruth and helped to make Barbie, Chatty Cathy and Hot Wheels house-hold names passed away today. (As reported by Charles Duhigg)

2012: Agudas Achim is scheduled to hold its last Shabbat morning service in downtown Iowa City.


2012:Papercut artist David Fisher is scheduled to speak in Hebrew on "The Lost Synagogues", synagogues destroyed in the Holocaust at Kehillat Yedidya in Jerusalem.


2012: “Naomi,” a “tight edgy Israeli film noir” is scheduled to be shown at The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival


2012: “Lee Zurik, WVUE Fox 8 investigative reporter, picked up three first place awards tonight at the 54th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards sponsored by the Press Club of New Orleans”  (As reported by CCJN)


2012: Singer-songwriter, composer, sound designer and producer Keren Ann Zeidel became a new mom today with the birth of Nico.


2012: The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed a claim by Qaedat al-Jihad that it was responsible for the terrorist attack in Burgas. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed his condolences to the American people via a letter to US President Barack Obama late tonight, a day after a gunman stormed a movie theater in Colorado, killing 12.(As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman by Jeremy Adelman


2013: “Chagall between War and Peace” an exhibition at Paris’ Musee de Luxembourg is scheduled to come to an end.

2013:The High Court of Justice essentially recommended to the IDF to completely cease using white phosphorus to create smoke screens during military operations as opposed to eliminating its use in urban warfare and reducing its general use. (As reported by Yonah Jeremy Bob))


2013:”The cabinet approved a four percent budget reduction for government ministries and passed a planning and building reform plan that would ease bureaucracy on home improvements.” (As reported by Nev Elis)


2014: The 97th annual convention of Hadassah is scheduled to open at Las Vegas, Nevada.


2014:Willa Schneberg is scheduled to read from Rending the Garment “a series of link poems exploring the life and times of one Jewish family at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. 


2014: “The Real Inglorious Bastards” and “The Return of the Violin” are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.


2014: The funerals of 32 year old Captain Tzafir Bar-Or, 28 year old Major Zvi Kaplan, 21 year old Sergeant Oz Mendelovich and 21 year old Gilad Yaakobi, all of whom were killed yesterday are scheduled to take place today.


2015: Clarinetist Anat Cohen is scheduled to be one of guest performers at the Jazz concert hosted by the 92nd Y.


2015: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host tour of “Richard Avedon: Family Affairs” led by Josh Perelman, the Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections.


2015: The OU Israel Center is scheduled to host Dr. Charles Selengut’s lecture on “The World of Islam and the Root Challenge that We Face Today.”


 


 


 


 


 


 

This Day, July 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 22



1099: During the First Crusade Godfrey of Bouillon elected first Defender of the Holy Sepulcher of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.  Having driven out the Muslims and Jews (including the slaughter of innocent) the Soldiers of the Cross settle in for what they think is an eternity. 



1209: Forces that included the fanatical monk, Arnold of Citeaux, stormed the city of Beziers as part of the war aimed at destroying the Albigensians.  The destruction of the Jewish community, including the murder of two hundred Jews, was "collateral damage



1306 (10thof Av): Philip the Fair of France arrested all the Jews, confiscated their property, and expelled them from his lands. Most Jews left to the next Duchy. Gradually they were allowed to drift back.



1320: King James II of France – in reaction to the excesses in southern France, proscribed support for the Jewish survivors, including an exemption on taxes. At the same time he refused to allow forcibly baptized children to be returned to their parents



1456: During the Ottoman attempts to expand its power in Europe John Hunyadi, Regent of Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Belgrade.  Mehmet’s reign was friendly to the Jewish people including opening his empire to refugees from Christian Europe.  On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects.



1472:“Menahem ben Nethaneel Raphael Trabot” a member of family scholars living in Italy during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries “purchased Codex Turin A. vii. 18” today.



1489: In Soncino, printer Joshua Solomon Soncino produced the first copy Talmud Bavil, Tractate “Niddah.”



1570: During the war with Venice, Ottoman forces lay siege to Nicosia, Cyprus. The Jews had been living on Cyprus since Roman times.  Following the conquest by the Ottomans, Cyprus would become a haven for Jews fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition.



1588: After one of action, the English fleet prepares to take on the Spanish Armada off the coast of Plymouth.



1598; The Merchant of Venice is licensed for printing.  However, it would be two years before the play featuring Shylock would be printed for the first time.



1604: King James I sent a letter to Archbishop Bancroft that effectively permitted the English translation of the Bible.  For most people, Jews included, the poetic tones of the King James Bible are the sounds of the TaNaCh that they readily know.



1648: Ten thousand Jews of Polannoe were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres.



1686: Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan. Public records indicate the presence of Jews as early as 1658. Asser Levy owned property, obtained burgher's rights, and lived in Albany in the 1650s. Other early Jewish merchants and traders who resided in Albany included Jacob Lucena, Hayman Levy, Jonas Phillips, Asher Levy, Levi Solomons and Levi Solomons   Albany’s most famous Jewish resident was Isaac Mayer Wise who began what would become the Reform Movement while serving as a Rabbi in New York’s capital city. 



1676: Clement X, the Pope who prohibited the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival, passed away.



1706: By the time the details of the Treaty of Union which joined Scotland and England were worked out, at least one Jew, David Brown was living in Edinburgh



1787: In Kuttenplan, Bohemia, Benedikt Baruch Veith and Bräumel Veith gave birth to Johann Emanuel Veith who became “a Bohemian Roman Catholic Priest



1817: Birthdate of Lazare Eliezer Wogue the French rabbi from Fontainebleau who was director and editor-in-chief of the "Univers Israélite,"



1823: Birthdate of Louis Raphael Bischoffsheim the Dutch born French banker who founded the Nice Observatory.



1823: Birthdate of Ludwig Bamberger “political economist” and confidant of Otto von Bismarck



1833: the House of Commons passed a bill for the emancipation of the Jews of England. The House of Lords would reject the bill.



1839: Birthdate of August Wunsche, “the German Christian Hebraist” who “devoted his attention almost exclusively to rabbinic literature as can be seen by a work published in 1878 which was one of “the most complete collection of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the New Testaments as well as his translations into German of the Midrash Rabbah, portions of the Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud.



1849: In New York, the former Esther Nathan and Moses Lazarus gave birth to poet Emma Lazarus who became famous as the author of "The New Colossus" written in 1883, four years before her death. This poem appears at the base of the Statue of Liberty and is a celebration of America as the land of the immigrant. To give one a sense of the times in which she lived the New York Times described her not as a Jew, but as who belonged "to one of the best known and oldest Hebrewfamilies of the city..."



1850: In New Orleans, the cornerstone is laid for a new Synagogue, Shangaray Chassed.



1853: In a sign of how quickly Jews were accepted into pre-Civil War American society an article published today describing events surrounding Columbia College’s upcoming commencement exercises reported that while most of the college’s trustees have been Episcopalians, members of other religious denominations have served in that capacity including one or more Jews.



1853: In Darmstadt, banker Simon Messel and his wife gave birth to his third son, architect Alfred Messel whose works including the “Wertheim department store on Leipziger Platz and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin” and who converted in 1899.



1864: During the Civil War Union forces under General Sherman defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Atlanta which was actually one of series of clashes that would lead to the fall of the South’s major transportation and manufacturing center. Among those serving with Sherman was Edward S. Salomon whose distinguished service at the Battle of Gettysburg earned him the rank of Brevet Brigadier General.



1870: The St. Louis Democrat reported that a property dispute between two Jewish congregations in St. Louis that stretches back to the 1840’s has resulted in civil litigation.  B’nai El Congregation is suing the trustees of Emanuel Congregation over the transfer of property that the plaintiffs contend the Respondents have never completed



1872: The New York Herald published an editorial “that deplored the widely held opinion ‘that American Jews would remain forever content to study Hebrew and German for the sake of Worshipping God in those languages…Give them religious as well as secular instruction in their vernacular and there will not be much cause to complain of empty pews and neglected synagogues..’”  The editorial was written in response to a “report that the English speaking rabbis of Temple Emanu-El and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun had resigned their pulpits and that the congregations were having great difficulty in finding replacements.” The Herald had previously published an editorial praising plans for the creation of a seminary at Cincinnati to train rabbis for the American Jewish community.  The Herald believed that if services were conducted in English, Jewish throngs would fill their congregations.  What is amazing is the fact that a leading secular paper would involve itself in this issue.



1874(8th of Av, 5634): Erev Tish'a B'Av



1877:“Heine’s Love, Apostasy and Agony” published today described the two most painful events in the German poet’s life.  The first was his star-crossed love affair with Amalie Heine. The second was his decision to convert to Christianity so that he could gain favor with his Prussian patrons.  The conversion failed to bring the acceptance he sought.  These frustrations led him to write “I often get up in the night, and stand before the glass and curse myself.”



1877: “The Hebrew Controversy” published today presented a fulsome account of the controversy created by Judge Hilton’s ban on Jewish guests at his hotel in Saratoga Springs that includes correspondence that reveals much about the attitude and values of those involved in the matter. 



1878: Birthdate of Janusz Korczak, Polish born Jewish pediatrician who used the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit as an author of children’s book. 
http://www.timesofisrael.com/court-confirms-janusz-korczak-was-killed-in-treblinka/



1879: Mr. Austin Corbin, President of of the Manhattan Beach Railway Company, says that Jews, as a class, have made themselves offensive to those who patronize his railroad and hotel on Coney Island.”  He said “that they are vulgar and unclean…and that he will leave nothing undone to get ride of them in order to save his business from ruin.  While no official action has been taken by the Board of Directors to support Corbin’s position, “many stockholders agree with him.



1879: Prominent Jews have condemned Austin Corbin’s derogatory comments, calling him “a narrow-minded bigot whose proper country is Romania.”  Abram Dittenhoefer, the former judge and leader of the Jewish community, said Corbin “has not insulted the Jews, but all Americans who are opposed to intolerance.



1880: Michael Gernsheim, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co is scheduled to leave for Europe today aboard the SS Scythia.  He plans to be gone for four months.



1881: I.A. Engelhardt was elected President of the Society for Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Poor Israelites in New York at its meeting today.  The society seeks to improve “the sanitary conditions” of the city’s poor Jews “by providing them with the necessary information” regarding housing, including the enforcement of sanitary regulations and the means of eradicating the causes and sources of disease from their homes.



1881: Based on information supplied by the Daily News, an English paper, it was reported today that England, Austria, Holland, and possibly some other European powers are planning on sending a joint communique to Russia express their concern over that nation’s “harsh laws against the Jews.”



1882:”The Vicar of Bray,” a comic opera by Anglo-Jewish composer and conductor Edward Solomon opened at the Globe Theatre in London.



1883: It was reported today that Julius Hallgarten, a Jewish Philanthropist has established a trust in the amount of $5,000 to support the Art Schools of the National Academy of Design.  Dr. Felix Adler is among those who have been appointed to serve as trustees to manage the gift.



1883: “Not Fond of Israelites” published today described a lawsuit Louis Batist has filed a suit against the Manhattan Railway Company seeking $5,000 in damages after a conductor pushed him back so that he could not board the elevated train after saying “You are a Jew! We don’t permit Jews on this train.”



1884: Rabbis Wise and Huebsch are scheduled to officiate at the funeral retired merchant Mayer Schutz who passed away in his 80th year while vacationing at Coney Island.



1884: Miss Florence Schloss married Daniel Guggenheim today.



1886: It was reported today that 40 Russian Jews who had arrived in the United States yesterday will be sent back to Europe on the next State Line Steamer because they are destitute and “had no definite ideas as to how they were to earn a living.”



1887(1stof Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Av



1887: Birthdate of Gustav Hertz. This German-born quantum physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1925.



1888: “Hearing the New Rabbi” published today described the first sermon of Rabbi Jacob Joseph as being delivered in “a language which is a mixture of Hebrew, German and Polish.” The younger members of the audience complained that they “had difficulty in understanding…the language” he used.  [It would appear that the sermon was delivered in Yiddish which would have had a strange sound to those used to hearing such talk in German.]



1888: Approximately 1,500 Jews living on the Lower East Side, including a large number of children took an excursion boat to Raritan Beach.  The trip was sponsored by a liquor dealer named Ehrlich.  According to eyewitness accounts, Ehrlich, who had the drink concession, salted the drinking water, forcing mothers to buy beer and soda to slake the thirst of their children.



1888: Rabbi De Sola Mendes, of New York’s 44th Street Synagogue officiated at ceremonies dedicating The House of Miriam, the new synagogue in Long Branch, NJ. S.T. Meyer of New York contributed the land and several wealthy New York Jews who spend their summers at the New Jersey resort defrayed the cost of Construction. [The congregation exists today as Beth Miriam, a Reform Temple.]



1889: “Pilgrims by the Sea” published today described the thriving ocean resort scene in New York and New Jersey including the presence of Jewish guests at Brighton Beach Hotel.  Mr. Breen, one of the new managers of the hotel said that reports that Jewish guests were unwelcomed and had been excluded were false.  They had been circulated by a disgruntled former employee.  The hotel admitted guests strictly on the basis of their behavior and not ethnicity.



1889: In Boston, MA, Rabbi Raphael Lasker officiated at the funeral of Count L.B. Schwab.  Burial took place at the cemetery of the Union Park Street temple.  Among the pallbearers were Nathan Waxman and George Adams of the Hebrew Benevolent Society; Alexander Simons and James H. Cohen of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association; and Isaac Young and Usher Hyman of Adath Israel.



1890: Plans for the next free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children were published today.



1890: As the Cloakmakers Strike continued “a Russian Jew named Germain Oxehandler” was arrested for attacking a clerk and labor leader Joseph Barondees went around “repeating vague remarks about ‘streets flowing in gore.’”



1890: “A Jewish Settlement” published today described the growth of Alliance over the last eight years fo acres of wild brush in Salem County, NJ to a flourishing village of 612 Jewish immigrants from Russia.  The Hebrew Aid Society helped them by the land which at the time sold for $12 per acre but is now valued at more than $100 per acre thanks to the efforts of the Jews.



1891: It was reported today that Jesse Seligman and A.S. Solomons, Trustees of the Baron de Hirsh Fund have told authorities that the apparently impoverished Jewish Immigrants they are holding are in fact honest hard workers who were “robbed of all of their money’ at the Russian border.



 1892: “The Vicar of Bray, “a comic opera by Edward Solomon…opened at the Globe Theatre in London…for a run of only 69 performances.”  “An 1892 revival at the Savoy Theatre” last for 143 performances.



1892: Having been thwarted in his first attempt to assassinate the manager of U.S. Steel, anarchist Alexander “Berkman checked into a hotel under the name Rakhmetov, his role model from What Is to Be Done?”



1893: A reporter for the New York Timesvisited the home of 32 year old Adolf Bruckman, whose grandfather had been the chief rabbi at a city in Russian Poland and his family at a tenement on Ludlow Street. The destitute family had been forced to leave Russia because of imperial decrees that denied Bruckman of a chance to earn a living.



1894: “In Berg, Kingdom of Bavaria, master baker Max Graf and his wife Therese (née Heimrath) gave birth to author Oskar Maria Graf who was not Jewish but who was the husband of “Mirjam Sachs, sister of Manfred George and cousin of Nelly Sachs.



1894: Josephine and Henry Morgenthau, Sr. gave birth to Ruth Naumburg Knight



1894: “Jews at Buckingham Palace” published today described a visit by the Austrian Archduke to England where he was greeted by fifty of his subjects the royal home, forty of here were Jewish.  This should have come as no so surprise since it is believe “that in Vienna there are no fewer than 2,500 persons bearing the Jewish name of Kohn.”



1895: Wolf Silverman was accompanied by his counsel Abraham Joseph when he was arraigned on charges of having attempted to swindle the Empire Life Insurance Company.



1895:Seventy-eight year old Rudolf von Geist, the Protestant leader of the Berlin society fighting anti-Semitism who signed the Declaration of 75 Notables against Antisemitism in 1880, passed away today.



1896: Fourteen year old Julius Henry had a fight with his 16 year old sister Dora following which he told their parents of her secret marriage to George Webb, a twenty year old non-Jew.  Dora’s mother asked Webb to give her a divorce and when he refused, her husband Isaac had him arrested on charges of abduction.



1896(12thof Av, 5656): Julia Frank-Zeckendorf the native of Hanover whose marriage to William Zeckndorf spawned a multi-generational real estate empire.
http://swja.arizona.edu/content/julia-frank-zeckendorf-1840-july-22-1896



1896: Herzl visits Karlsbad, where he obtains an audience with Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The prince is a well-connected “royal” who will actually sit on the Bulgarian throne.  This appears to be one more attempt on Herzl’s part to use influence and connection to create the Jewish homeland.



1897(22ndof Tammuz, 5657): Seventy-five year old Lewis May, President of Temple Emanu-El passed away this morning at Dobbs Ferry.



1897:  In a very emotional manner, Vice President James Seligman announced at special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El that their President, Lewis May had passed away following which resolutions of expressing condolence to the family were adopted by the Board.



1899: It was reported today that Oscar S. Straus, the Minister to Turkey, is a member of the United States Section of The International Congress of History.



1899: Joseph Reinach writes from Paris to explain that while the story of Captain Dreyfus appears to be complicated, it is really quite simple because “it confines itself to the manner in which the bordereau the work of Esterhazy has been attributed to Dreyfus.”



1901(6thAv, 5661): According to some sources, in Nachod, Bohemia, seventy-seven year old textile manufacturer Isaac Mautner passed away today.



1902:Herzl and Wolffsohn leave for Constantinople with hopes that the Sultan will support a Jewish Homeland in the Ottoman Empire.  The trip did not go well as can be seen when Herzl writes his conclusions when the visit ends on August 5.



1903: Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first African American to hold statewide office in South Carolina passed away today.  The son Isaac Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew working in the customhouse in Charleston and Lydia Weston, a free black woman, Cardozo’s life reads more like a novel than anything else.  He was raised as Christian and is the “Cardozo” in Washington, DC’s Cardozo Senior High School.



1907(11th of Av): Rabbi Isaac Blaser, leader of the Musar movement and the author of Peri Yizhak, passed away



1913(17th of Tammuz, 5673): Tzom Tammuz



1914: Before the visit of his daughter Anna to Britain which was to be chaperoned by Ernest Jones, Sigmund Freud wrote, “She does not claim to be treated as a woman, being still far away from sexual longings and rather refusing man. There is an outspoken understanding between me and her that she should not consider marriage or the preliminaries before she gets two or three years older". “A tentative romance between Anna” and Jones who became Freud’s official biographer, “did not survive” Freud’s “disapproval.”



1915: State prison authorities believe that Leo M. Frank’s condition is “steadily improving” and that he “practically out of danger.”



1915: At Milledgeville, GA, “Charles Miller, a convict from Atlanta was stabbed across the abdomen by Frank Reid, a life from Columbus” it what was rumored to be “a quarrel over the Leo Frank case.”+



1915: According to reports published today J.W. Creen, the man who tried to murder Leo Frank at the state prison camp “reads incessantly…does not like to be disturbed and smokes constantly.”



1915: “Our Betters” by Somerset Maugham, “the first manuscript of a play to come from the war zone was received by the Charles Frohman Company” today after having been “passed by the center” and sent on to New York because Charles Frohman had contracted for the play before he passed away.



1917: In Russia, Kerensky, the Jewish former Minister of War became the premier. After the Czar abdicated, he took over the Russian government and formed a liberal provisional government, which lasted four months. Although well intentioned, he was not a strong leader and couldn't negotiate between the subversive forces between right and left. His government would be ousted by Lenin, ending Russia’s brief flirtation with Western style democracy.



1917: As of today, Chaim Weizmann had left Great Britain “on a secret mission to Spain on behalf of the British government in order to meet Henry Morganthau former American Ambassador to Turkey” who was “heading east in order to implement a plan he has conceived to ‘remove Turkey from the war.’”



1918: British General Allenby approves a town-planning scheme for Jerusalem complete with an expanded road network, new parks and municipal and residential buildings. 



1920: Establishment of Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund)



1921: Winston Churchill, Lloyd George and Lord Balfour met with Chaim Wiezmann at Balfour’s House in London in an attempt “to reassure Wiezmann that British policy in support of the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish home in Palestine had not changed.”



1921: Birthdate of Phillip Burgher, a native of Niles, Illinois who served in World War II.



1922: The League of Nations Council confirmed the British Palestine Mandate. The Balfour Declaration is part of the terms of the mandate.



1922: “The most notable reaction” to the assassination of Walther Rathenau “was the enactment of the Republikschutzgesetz (Law for the Defense of the Republic)” which took effect today.



1923: Tisha B’Av, 9th of Av, 5683



1926: Jacob Fishman, managing editor of the “Jewish Morning Journal,” is supposed to be one of the attendees at the Zionist Action Committee Meeting scheduled to start today in London.



1927: The convention of Palestine Jewish Labor Federation which had been meeting in Tel Aviv for the past fortnight comes to an end.  The convention adopted several resolutions including ones calling for greater freedom for Jews to immigrate to Palestine and more aggressive government action to deal with the problems of unemployment.



1927: Birthdate of Israeli Mathematician Michael Bahir Maschler known for his contributions to the field of game theory.



1934(10th of Av, 5694):Tish'a B'Av observed



1934: Dr. Solomon Deutsch, a Bronx Dentist and a leader of the JNF, and his family are scheduled to set sail today for Palestine where they plan on settling at Netanya. (As reported by JTA)



1936: The Palestine Post reported that the insurrection of Monarchists and Fascists in Spain was gaining momentum and was seriously threatening the democratic regime. Arabs killed Abraham Donagi, a watchman at Even Yehuda, and severely wounded Abraham Bauer in Jerusalem. Bombs exploded in Jaffa and the Iraqi Petroleum Co. pipeline was severely damaged. All this was part of the on-going Arab Riots aimed at destroying the Jewish community in Palestine.



1936: A British soldier was killed in an Arab ambush near Tulkarm. Arab attacks were reported from Ein Harod and Kfar Yehezkel. Arabs celebrated the 100th day of their insurrection with demonstrations, calls for prayer and donations. But the Arab Nashashibi Party proposed that the Arab Higher Committee should resign as a protest against the non-fulfillment of their promises and leave the people to decide the fate of their prolonged general strike by themselves


1939: Eichmann’s Central Office for Emigration, (of Jews) in Prague, officially opened



1941 France's Vichy government adopted an ordinance requiring the “registration of ‘Jewish’ businesses.”



1941: France’s Vichy government adopted an ordinance completely excluding “Jews from commerce and industry.”



1941: France’s Vichy government adopted an ordinance excluding those of “Jewish heritage” from serving as administrators.



1942:  On the day before Tisha B’Av German authorities and Ukrainian and Latvian guards in SS uniforms surround the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. Six thousand Warsaw Jews were told to gather for deportation. Over the next seven weeks as many as 300,000 Jews would be sent by train to the three gas chambers of Treblinka. The railway master at Treblinka was notified of a shuttle line being set up between Warsaw and its railroad station for "Settlers.” THIS WAS THE LARGEST SLAUGHTER OF ANY SINGLE COMMUNITY DURING THE HOLOCAUST. From July 22 through September 12, 1942: 4,000 Warsaw Jews per day would be gassed in Treblinka. Only those with special cards stamped with ‘Operation Reihnard', an eagle and the swastika were saved from deportation. Resisters or those taking flight would be shot on the spot by Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and German SS officers. Orphanages, children homes, hospitals, were all emptied. Each train was comprised of sixty cars. Each car was packed with human cargo.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/12.asp



1942: “When (Gerhard) Richter obtained Mihai Antonescu's assent to the deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps in Poland, the clandestine Jewish Council immediately learned of the details of the deportation program and used personal contacts to achieve the repeal of the agreement.” (Jewish Virtual Library)



1943: Because the U.S. State Department continues to delay any action on the Riegner Plan to save 70,000 Jews, American Rabbi Stephen Wise pleads with President Franklin Roosevelt to support the plan. Roosevelt allows the plan to be killed because of "strenuous British objections."



1944: German troops withdraw from Parczew Forest, Poland, the site of numerous Nazi searches for Jewish fugitives and partisans.



1944: Survivors of a July 13 mass execution of Jewish slave laborers at Bialystok, Poland, reach Red Army lines after crawling for nine nights.



1944: Samuel Klein, who had been “transported to Auschwitz” escaped, spending “the night in the fields, where some Christian Poles, also fugitives, helped him flee.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-founder-of-brazils-largest-retail-chain-dies/



1944: The Red Army occupied Chelm. The 68,000 Jews left in Vilna hope the Soviets will arrive before the Nazis can finish them off.



1944: During the so-called “Blood for Goods” negotiations Edmund Veesenmayer a member of the SS sent a cable to the German Foreign Office stating that Joel Brand and Andor Grosz had been sent to Turkey on the orders of Himmler



1945: Birthdate of award winning British biochemist Sir Philip Cohen.



1946: The Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The King David was the headquarters of the British civil and military administration. Ninety people, including Jews, lost their lives. The Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, claimed that they had called ahead to warn of the bombing. The British denied receiving any such call. The Jewish Agency, the de facto government of the Jews in Palestine and other Jewish leaders, denounced the attack. There was a "moment of mourning" on July 23 as the Jewish community paused to honor the dead. The attack marked a split between the recently agreed to alliance between the Haganah and the Irgun. What is amazing about the response of the Jewish community was that in the weeks prior to the bombing the British had imprisoned all a couple of the leaders of the Jewish Agency and seized its records in an attempt to squelch the Zionist movement. However terrible the British occupation was, the terrorism of the Irgun was not to be the Jewish answer.



1947: “Crossfire,” “a 1947 film noir drama film which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism” based on The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks, featuring Sam Levene as “Joseph Samuels “premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City” today.



1947: “In Beverly Hills, California, Thelma Leeds (née Goodman), a singer and actress, and Harry Einstein, a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio program and was known as Parkyakarkus gave birth to Albert Lawrence Einstein who changed his name to Albert “Al” Brooks after leaving college in the late 1960’s to become a comedian, director and actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the “nebbish newsman” in Broadcast News.



1948: The Israelis opened the refineries at Haifa.  They had been closed since the British shut them down on April 26 in the waning days of the Mandate.



1949:U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas today revealed here that he was “converted to Zionism” by the late Justice Louis D. Brandeis saying in Haifa that “I pledge to continue my sympathies for Israel and to do whatever I can for its welfare.” (As reported by JTA)



1949: In New York dentist Norman Menkin and his wife Judith gave birth to composer Alan Irwin Menken who won Academy Awards for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahantis.



1950: Captain Moshe Idelovitch, Assistant Superintendent of Police in Israel said that “Arab infiltration of Israeli territory could be stopped within twenty-four hours if Jordan cooperated.” Captain Idelovitch is commander of the Petah Tigva area, where most of the border marauders and murderers penetrate



1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that 69-year-old King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was assassinated inside al-Aksa Mosque in the Jordanian-held Old City of Jerusalem. Emir Naif, his second son, was declared regent. King Abdullah was known for his efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. In his memoirs he wrote: "I have been astonished at what I saw of the Jewish settlements: They have colonized sand dunes, drawn water from them, and transformed them into paradise..."



1951: As ceremonies were being planned for the burial of King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman, the Arab Legion turned the Jordanian-occupied Old City of Jerusalem into an armed camp in pursuit of the suspected Palestinian assassins.


1951: Israel observed the 47th anniversary of Theodore Herzl's death with a solemn ceremony held on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.


1951: White Sox pitcher Marv Rotblatt appeared in his last major league game.


1952: In Washington, DC David Brinkley and his wife gave birth to Joel Graham Brinkley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times from 1988 to 1991.


1954: Premiere of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ directed by Stanley Donen with music co-authored by Saul Chaplin.


1957: Birthdate of Jonathan Michael "Jon" Lovitz, the native of Los Angeles whose big break came when appeared on Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.


1964: “Marnie” a Hitchcock mystery co-starring Diane Baker and Martin Gabel with a score by Bernard Herrmann was released in the United States by Universal Pictures.


1967:  Poet Carl Sandburg passes away.  Sandburg was not Jewish.  In 1999 a group of previously unknown Sandburg poems was published.  The collection included a poem entitled “To Jacob M. Loeb” that contains the same raw power of such poems as “Chicago” – the one that begins:


“Hog Butcher for the World


Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat...”


 


“To Jacob M. Loeb” has that same kind of elemental power, but takes on the form of a letter challenging Loeb.  Before reading it, a little background is in order courtesy of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society.  Loeb was a real person.  He was born in Chicago to German-Jewish parents who had enjoyed economic success.  Loeb himself went into the insurance business where he too was quite successful.  The Loeb’s were active in the community giving both of their time and their money.  Loeb’s mother worked a B’nai Brith type organization that provided educational and recreational opportunities for the children of Chicago’s immigrant (largely eastern European) population.  Along with the famous Julius Rosenwald, Loeb helped to found the Jewish Institute and followed Rosenwald in the presidency.  Loeb was a major fund raiser in the fight to aid the Jews of Europe during and after World War I.  Loeb was also active in the civic affairs of the city of Chicago.  In 1914 he was appointed to School Board and later became President of that body.  And that is the source of the conflict described in the poem.  During Loeb’s time on the board, the school teachers went on strike for the right to unionize.  Loeb led the successful fight to give the board the right to fire any teacher who joined the union.  Sandburg could not understand how a Jew, whose people had a history of being part of the downtrodden, could turn on the working class once they had money and power.  He saw Loeb’s behavior as a betrayal of his Jewish origins.  The poem is not anti-Semitic.  There were plenty of Jews among the ranks of the teachers and the poem sites by name several Jewish labor leaders.  The conflict between the teachers and the school district highlighted an anomaly of Jewish history that was seen most often in the garment industry.  The owners were Jewish (usually Germans who arrived earlier) and the workers were also Jewish (eastern Europeans.)  The strike at Hart, Shaftner and Marx had pitted Jewish owners against Jewish garment workers.  The poem highlights this dichotomy.  Sandburg wanted to believe that Jews, of all people, would, once they had power and influence, support the less fortunate and not, in his view “sell out.”  He was expressing the same kind of outrage that other generations of Jews have expressed over southern Jews owning slaves.  How could the descendants of Pharaoh’s chattel take other human beings as chattel.  Since the purpose of these little daily exercises is to provide some context as well as raw information about Jewish history, you will find the poem quoted in its entirety below.  Those who know me, know that I am a fan of Sandburg’s so this poem took on special meaning for me.   


 


“To Jacob M. Loeb:


You are one of the Jews sore at Georgia for the way


they hanged Leo Frank and called him a damned Jew


there in Atlanta.


And you’re talking a lot about liberty and the rights


of school children.


You came from Kovno in Russia and you ought to


know something about liberty;


And how school boards, police boards, military


boards and czars have gone on year after year


To choke the Jews from having societies,


organizations, labor unions,


Shoving bayonets into the faces of the Jews and


driving them to the ghettoes.


You know what I mean. You know these European


cities where they call the Jews a despised race;


And anybody who spits in a Jew’s face is not


touched by the police.


D’ye get me? I’m reminding you what you already


know.


You’re the man who is leading the school board


fight on the Teachers’ Federation.


And you forget, your memory slips, your heart


doesn’t picture


How you and your fathers were spit upon in the


face.


And how the soldiers and police misused your


women––


Just because they were Jews, and in Kovno


Anybody could get away with what they did to a


Jew woman or a Jew girl;


And now you, a Jew stand up here in Chicago and


act proud


Because you have in effect spit in the faces of


Chicago women, accused them, belittled them.


First you tried to cut their wages, back here in May,


a seven-and-a-half per cent cut,


And now you’re going to make it a law that teachers


can’t have a labor union;


And they got to take what you and Rothmann and


Myer Stein hand ‘em.


I don’t think you’ll get away with it.


Sam Gompers, an English Jew, will speak tonight at


the Auditorium,


And Jacob LeBosky and Sam Alschuler and other


Jews in this town


Are against the game of shackling the teachers and


repeating Kovno and Kiev and Odessa here in Chicago.


In fact, five hundred Jews are already in revolt at


your Kovno trick


Of slamming the door on the free speech at the


Hebrew Institute.


These five hundred are the real blood of the Jew


race


That give it a clean flame of heroism.


You belong with the trash of history, the oppressors


and the killjoys.


 


1972:Follies, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman, opened at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, CA.


1973(22nd of Tammuz, 1973): Ninety-five year old Zvi Nishri the native of Russia who began teaching physical education in Palestine in 1908 and as a founder of the Maccabi movement passed away today.


1976: The visiting governor of the Bank of Spain, Luis Coronel del Palma, expressed hope of "a considerable improvement of relations between Spain and Israel."


1976: According to American experts the recent events in Lebanon and the Syrian intervention there threatened the total dismemberment of the PLO and the demise of Yasser Arafat who had lost control of all his forces.


1976: Mossad hit teams were reported to have been waging a concerted assassination program against all Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympiad. For those who consider the Israeli behavior "cold blooded" remember what happened.  The Munich Olympics went on almost as if the terrorists had not struck.  The response of the world community was to invite Yassar Arafat, complete with is pistols, to address the UN General Assembly.  And for good measure the UN passed the Zionism is Racism Resolution. 


1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Ministry of Agriculture had decided to enforce the law against squatting to counter the widespread increase in the illegal Arab settlement on state lands. The popular TV show Kolbotek was suspended following the discovery of irregularities in connection with one of its programs. The Mossad was reported to have informed Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of Arab plans to attack Israel two days before the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but this information was disregarded.


1979(27thof Tammuz, 5739): Ninety-one year old immunologist Reuben Leon Kahn who developed a test for syphilis passed away in Miami.


1980(9th of Av, 5740): Tish'a B'Av


1980: The Knesset voted by ninety-nine votes to fifty-one to annex east Jerusalem declaring that ‘Jerusalem, complete and undivided, is the capital of Israel.’


1981:Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth “was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, of Regent's Park in Greater London, becoming the first rabbi to receive this honor.”


1982: Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Myer, the daughter of Merlyn and Sidney Myer married Sir Robert Southey.


1984: The second convention of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened today at Hertford College under the presidency of Geza Vermes.


1993: Israeli Supreme court Justice, Aharon Barak, was present at Yad Vashem to watch seventy-six-year-old Ceslovas Rakevicius plant a tree.  Rakevicius had saved the eight year old Barak, his brother and his parents and more than twenty other Jewish families by smuggling them out of the Kovno Ghetto in 1944. 


1997(17th of Tammuz, 5757): Tzom Tammuz


1999(9th of Av, 5759): Tish'a B'Av


1999(9th of Av, 5759): David N. Myers of Cleveland, OH who died at the age of 99. He was a dedicated leader and benefactor of the Jewish and secular communities. As a long-time supporter of American Friends of the Hebrew University, he supported numerous programs and established the David Meyers Skin Laboratory and David and Inez Meyers Scholarship Endowment at The Hebrew University.


1999: Major league baseball player Bruce Ausmus and his wife Liz gave birth to their second child Abigail.


2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including ''Regarding Film'' by Stanely Kauffmann and “Walking the Bible” by Bruce Feiler.


2002: Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.


2004: Eighty-seven year old George Kidd, “the first Canadian ambassador to Israel” passed away today.


2005: In the evening, with the start of Shabbat, Rabbi Aaron Sherman officiates at his first service as the new spiritual leader of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish Community.


2006: Israel ousted Hezbollah guerrillas from a stronghold just inside Lebanon after several days of fierce fighting, the army said, as it bombarded targets across the south of the country. Israel Defense Forces ground forces commander Major-General Benny Gantz said troops took the hilltop village of Maroun Ras, where four soldiers were killed last Thursday, inflicting dozens of casualties on Hezbollah. IDF troops took positions in the vicinity of Maroun Ras, in southern Lebanon, on Saturday and carried out operations to detect rocket launchers and underground bunkers where Hezbollah militants are holed up.


2006:  At least 100 Katyusha Rockets fired by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon land in northern Israel.  At least nineteen Israeli civilians are reported injured.  In his weekly radio address, President Bush blames Hezbollah and its supporters – Iran and Syria – for the latest round of violence in the Middle East.  In the meantime Israeli forces continue operations in Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the launching of rockets by Hamas. 


2007: Sharon Fichman was the runner-up in today’s tennis tournament in Hamilton, Canada.


2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers including The House that George Built With a Little Help From Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed describing a musical era dominated by George Gershwin “and a few of his friends” and POP! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy by Daniel Gross whose earlier writings included “Can the Jews Save Christmas: Chanukah is Late this Year. Will this help retailers?”


2007: Brad Ausmus “recorded his 100th career stolen base today, becoming the 21st catcher all time to record that many steals


2007: Campbell Brown, who had converted to Judaism prior to her marriage to Daniel Senor in 2006 “announced today, on Weekend Today, that she would be leaving NBC News after 11 years to devote time to her family and expected baby.”


2008: The Karmiel Dance Festival opens.


2008. Senator Barack Obama begins his visit to Israel where he is expected to meet the country's top leaders: President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The publicity of this trip is a far cry from the comparatively anonymous trip the Senator made to Israel in 2006 when he visited the town of Fassouta,


2008:For the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital, wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby.


2009(1st of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Av


2009(1st of Av, 5769:Lynn Pressman Raymond, a leading toy manufacturing executive , passed away today at the age of 97. (As reported by William Grimes

2009:U.S. congressman Henry Waxman discusses his new book, “The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works,” at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue,


2009:The Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “Holyland Hardball,” which describes what happens “when a Boston baker with no sports management experience wanted to form the Israel Baseball League”


2009: Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff of the Air Force and the first Jewish commander of the U.S. Air Force completed a four-day visit to Israel


2010:In Metro-Detroit, MI, The Jean and Theodore Weiss Partners in Torah Program is scheduled to sponsor a program entitled "Life After Death," which will cover such topics as:The journey of the soul, a study of scriptural passages referencing the World to Come, the eternal nature of the soul, a look at testimonials of near death experiences, the relevance of the soul.


2010:The Israel Navy went on high alert today amid forecasts that a flotilla of two vessels from Lebanon was preparing to depart for the Gaza Strip in an effort to break the blockade by the end of the week. 2011(20th of Tammuz, 5771): Yahrzeit of “Rabbi Na'eh best known for his halachic works Ketzot ha-Shulchan and Shiurei Torah ("measurements of the Torah"), in which he converted archaic halachic measurements into modern terms.” He passed away on the 20th of Tammuz (July 21) 1954.


2011: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to sponsor its Shabba bakery which will give children a chance roll and braid their own challah which they can take home and bake.


2011:Jailed Jewish-American aid contractor Alan Gross told Cuba's Supreme Court today he had no intentions of hurting the Cuban government or its people. Gross, who was found guilty of undermining the state last February and sentenced to 15 years in prison, said he was thankful for the opportunity to appeal the verdict and denied the charges against him.  


2011:At least 200 medical students from all departments staged a protest outside of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv today, demanding improvements in Israel's healthcare system and pledging support for the months long battle being waged by doctors and residents across the country.


2012: In Sandy Springs, GA, Rabbi Rachel M. Bregman is scheduled to officiate at the graveside service for Laura Lynn Becker, a very accomplished Atlanta defense attorney for the past 30 years. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ms. Becker was the daughter of Harold Becker and Arlene Gabert Becker of blessed memory.


2012: The Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present screenings of “Radio Days,” “Broadway Danny Rose” and “Annie Hall.”


2012: The 12th Annual Summer Institute for Synagogue Musicians, Mifgash Musicale is scheduled to begin today on the HUC-JIR campus in Cincinnati, OH.


2012: In Columbus, Ohio, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to sponsor a HAZAK lox and bagel brunch that will included a tour of Motts Military Museum


2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The New Religious Intolerance:Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age by Martha C. Nussbaum


2012: Complaining that the Olympic movement is still ignoring their pain, Israelis marked the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre t0day with a modest service in the atrium of a London apartment block.


2012(3rd of Av, 5772): Ninety-year old “Dr. Warren Winkelstein Jr., a physician and researcher whose groundbreaking studies connected unprotected sex between men to AIDS, smoking to cervical cancer and air pollution to chronic lung disease” passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)

2012(3rd of Av, 5772): Eighty-nine year old urban legend and art collector Herbert Vogel passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2012: The world’s intelligence community is on the alert for terror attacks at the London Olympics, and Israel knows only too well that it can be targeted at such events, Defense Ministry Ehud Barak said this morning (As reported by Gabe Fisher)


2012: Gunmen opened fire on today at a bus of Israeli soldiers that was traveling near the Israel-Egypt border. The bus was hit when it was on Route 10 near Har Sagi, southwest of Mitzpe Ramon. No casualties were reported but damage was done to the bus.


2013: The annual Madridanza festival at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv is scheduled to come to a close.


2013: Amos Phinhasi is scheduled to perform “Mediterraneo” at the Between the Seas Festival.


2013: The second of two billboards sponsored by the pro-Israel group StandWithUs is scheduled to go up today at Helena, the capital of Montana. “The StandWithUs billboards read, “The U.S.-Israel Relationship Creates Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs in America” and “Israel Celebrates Diversity.”


2013(15thof Av): Tu B’Av – Jewish Valentine’s Day

2013: “A new report from the Anti-Defamation League has found a 14 percent decline in recorded anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, the organization said today. (As reported by Michael Wilner)


2013: Former MVP Ryan Braun, the left field for the Milwaukee Brewers known as “the Hebrew Hammer” was “suspended by MLB commissioner Bud Selig for the remainder of the 2013 season for violating the league's drug policy.”


2014: Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled to join the National Youth Orchestra of America when it makes it Carnegie Hall debut with a program that begins with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”


2014: Sun Kil Moon is scheduled to perform at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue.


2014: (24th of Tammuz, 5774): Eighty year old Irish director Louis Lentin whose works included “Grandfather, speak to me in Russian” a “docudrama” in which he “reconstructs the life of his paternal grandfather, Kalman Solomon Lentin who came to live with his family in Ireland in 1936” passed away today.

2014: Premiere of “Food Fighters” NBC’s “American reality based cooking television series hosted by Adam Richman.”


2014: In Las Vegas, Hadassah is scheduled to hold the second day of its 97thannual convention.


2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open with a “Coen Brothers” double feature.


2015: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “The Candidate” as part of its “70’s Summer Cinema” program.


2015: At the Museum of Jewish Heritage, “a living memorial to the Holocaust” Father Leo O'Donovan (former President of Georgetown University), Rabbi Elie Weinstock (Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun), and David Strathairn are scheduled to discuss "Heroes and the Holocaust.”


 


 

This Day, July 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 23



501: A violent earth quake hit Eretz Yisrael. The town of Akko was totally destroyed.



636: Following the Battle of Yarmuk Arabs took control of most of Eretz Yisrael from the Byzantine Empire.



1253: The Jews were expelled from Vienne, France by order of Pope Innocent III



1298(13th of Av): Massacre of the Jews of Wurzburg, Germany.



1312: King Frederick II order today that in Palermo Jews must live outside the city wall in a ghetto; and although they were soon afterward allowed to come into the city, they were still compelled to live in one quarter.



1588: The English fleet foiled the attempt of the Armada to establish a base off the Isle Wight from which the Spanish could invade the British Isles.



1626: Birthdate (on the secular calendar) of Sabbatai Zevi, the most famous of the Jewish false messiahs. He died in 1676 after converting to Islam and becoming a low-level official in the Turkish government.



1649: Birthdate of Giovanni Francesco Albani, the future Clement XI. In 1704, Clement issued a bull that dealt with Jewish converts to Catholicism.  “The bull dealt with the education of potential converts, encouraged forced preaching to Jews, and emphasized the importance of providing financial assistance to Jews who converted. It asserted that new converts were to be fully accepted into the Catholic community



1713: Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi placed Nehemiah Chiya Chayun under the ban, because the investigating committee appointed by the Sephardic directorate had not yet made its report. In consequence of this measure, both Ashkenazi and Moses Chagiz were subjected to street attacks, more particularly at the hands of the Portuguese, who threatened to kill them. In the midst of the constantly increasing bitterness and animosity, the report of the committee, which had been prepared by Solomon Ayllon, Chacham of the Portuguese congregation, alone, was publicly announced. It was to the effect that the writings of Chayun contained nothing which could be construed as offensive to Judaism. It was publicly announced in the synagogue that Chayun was to be exonerated from every suspicion of heresy.



1768(9th of Av): Rabbi Isaac Spitz, author of Birkat Yizhak passed away.



1787: The Jews of Austria were required to take family names.



1803: Birthdate of Benzion Judah Ben Eliahu Berkowitz, the Russian author whose texts dealt with the “Targum Onkelos’ (the Aramaic translation of the TaNaCh)



1811(2ndof Av, 5571): Abraham Abrahamson, medalist and “the master of the Prussian mint” whose medals included one he created commemorating the Enfranchisement of the Jews in Westphalia passed away today.



1832: Birthdate of violinist Adolph Pollitzer the native of Budapest who “became leader at Her Majesty's Theatre under Sir Michael Costa and also led the new Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society.”



1833(7thof Av, 5593): Rechli Lwow the wife of David ha-Levi Spitz passed away today.



1837(20thof Tammuz, 5597): Eighty-three year old Acher Ascher, a native of Minsk who was the husband of Gitlé Loëw passed away in Karlsruhe.



1839: Birthdate of Simon Sterne, the Philadelphia born New York lawyer whose clients included the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company and whose civic endeavors included taking a leading role in overthrowing the “Tweed Ring.”



1846: “The Montefiore Baronetcy, of East Cliff Lodge in the Isle of Thanet and County of Kent, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom today for the banker and philosopher Moses Montefiore in recognition of his services to humanitarian causes on behalf of the Jewish people. He was childless and the title became extinct on his death in 1885.”



1846: Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise arrives in New York from Europe.



1847: Prussian Jews were granted equality.



1854(27th of Tammuz, 5614): Engraver and artist Leopold Dick who was “appointed professor of the art of engraving at the Royal District Industrial School of Kaiserslautern in the Palatinate” in 1848 passed away today.



1857: The resignation of Baron Rothschild was announced today and new writ was published in London calling for an election to choose his successor. In London, the electors responded by holding a public meeting in which they pledged to return Rothschild to Parliament as their representative.  They also passed a resolution calling the government to do everything in its power to immediately settle the Jewish question



1858: Passage of the Oaths and Jewish Relief Acts in Great Britain. The act allowed each House to decide the wording for the oath of office.  It allowed Jewish office holders not to have recited the words, “I make this declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. For the full text of the oath see: http://books.google.com/books?id=52INAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA531&lpg=PA531&dq=Oaths+and+Jewish+Relief+Acts+in+Great+Britain&source=bl&ots=uqsqgiu8t-&sig=vPWUAn-B9_B3E9pCbleZBi9SdsE&hl=en&ei=qbpITKi2CobmsQOo8_VI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false



1860: A review of Life in the Desert; or Recollections of Travel in Asia and Africa by Colonel L. Du Couret, entitled “Asiatic Exploration.; The Journey of Du Couret through the Arabian Desert” reports that “in the heart of Arabia, our traveler found a considerable number of Jews, whose social condition seems to have been even worse than their political state, which, in itself, is bad enough. More Jews are found at Doan, a populous place, some leagues further on the route to the eastward. "Many of these Jews," says Du Couret,, "are brokers, and some of them make a living by the manufacture of buskins and palm leaf mats. They also lend out money at usurious interest to merchants trading to Sana, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf; but they carefully avoid any display of wealth, to save themselves from the extortion of the Mussulmans, who exact tribute from them. Such, under the rod of the Islam, are the modern descendants of the prophet Isaiah and of King Solomon." There is something unpleasantly suggestive in the following passage from our author's narrative: "Doan, which is, in all probability, the Dan spoken of by Ezekiel, is, at the present day, one of the largest and most important towns in Hadramaut, ranking next after Schibam and Terim.”



1862: Jacob and Amalia Nathansohn Freud gave birth to Pauline Regine (Pauli), a sister of Sigmund Freud who was deported to Treblinka in 1942.



1862: "Escape of Mr. W.H. Hurlbert from Richmond" published today described the year-long Southern sojourn of Charleston born author William Hurlbert, a Union sympathizer who claimed that he visited the Richmond at the invitation of Judah P. Benjamin, “the eminent Jew” with whom he found himself in total disagreement.   Hurlbert then visited Charleston where he was seized by a mob that refused Secretary Benjamin’s order to set him free.  Hurlbert was then imprisoned in Richmond over the objections of Secretary Benjamin where he languished for almost a year before escaping.  [Editor’s note - For those trying to figure how much credence to give Hurlbert’s account consider the following.  He was in Richmond  during the Peninsula Campaign and later reported that the  Confederate  forces  numbered between 80,000 and 90,000 (wildly exaggerated) most of whom were facing  Union General Fitz Jon Porter (accurate) which means that had General McClellan pushed forward  he would have  Richmond virtually unoccupied (accurate)]



1872: W.P. Wood and a Jew from Baltimore named Blumenberg are scheduled to arrive in Raleigh, North Carolina tonight.  The two men have reportedly been sent to North Carolina by the Liberal Republican Committee in an attempt to carry out a Tammany style ballot box stuffing.  Wood has been given $9,000 for his part in the scheme.  Blumenberg, who has served two years in the State Prison for Perjury was given $7,000.



1872: E.A. Rosenbluth wrote a letter to the New York Times in which he declared that he “and all my Jewish acquaintances” “will vote for” General Grant.



1873: Birthdate of Alice Petluck, the native of Russia and wife of Joseph Petluck who became a “pioneer female lawyer” in the United States and an officer of the Bronx Women’s Bar Association.



1874: It was reported today that as soon as $160,000 can be raised for a new Hebrew Theological College will be built in Cincinnati.  The late Emanuel Deutsch was the leading candidate to head the school but since his demise, Dr. Wise has renewed his efforts to obtain the services of the best available scholar to lead the effort.  The school is to be so amply endowed that students will not have to pay tuition or fees.  Henry Mack has been elected to serve as President of the Board of Governors. 



1874: Melissa Rogers Pinner and Moritz Pinner gave birth to Rogers Adolphe Pinner, a senior partner of the Mutual Electric Company



1874(9th of Av, 5634):Tish'a B'Av



1876: A reported published today described the scene witnessed by a group of “Cook pilgrims” when they visited the “The Wailing Place of the Jews on the west side of the Temple enclosure” in Jerusalem. The Jews come to the Wall where they can touch the stones (which the writer erroneously believed were from the times of King Solomon) and read from Lamentations and Psalms “in a wailing voice.” The Jews “occasionalyly cry aloud in a chorus of lamentation, weeping. Blowing their longs notes with blue cotton handkerchiefs” while “kissing the stones” worn smooth “owing to centuries of osculation.”



1879: Mr. Austin Corbin told a TIMES reporter today that he had received numerous letters from "nice people" approving the course he had taken in relation to the Jews, and urging him to persevere. He refused to permit copies to be taken for publication, on the plea that the matter had had enough notoriety, and he wished to let it die out.



1879: Birthdate of German archaeologist Ernest Herzfeld who contended that structure currently identified as Queen Esther’s tomb “may actually belong to Shushan Dokht, the Jewish queen of King Yazdagerd I (ca. 399-420 CE), who is credited with securing permission for Jews to live in Hamadan.



1879: It was reported today that “A Berlin dispatch to the Pall Mall Gazette says: ‘Germany has declined to entertain any proposals from the Roumania for the modification of the provisions of the treaty of Berlin relative to the emancipation of the Jews.’”



1882: “The Jews and Wagner” published today expressed bewilderment at the German composer’s expression of disdain for Jews.  According to the author, it was an un-named Jew who gave him his first piano.  And Giacomo Meyerbeer, the German-Jewish composer, was the “first men who helped him.” Wagner claims that the Jews of Vienna have conspired to harm his career, but his three most noted critics –Hanslick, Scheel and Speidl- are Viennese Catholics.



 1884(1st of Ave, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Av



1884: Robert Pinkerton, whose detectives had arrested Mrs. Fredericka Mandelbaum yesterday, described what he said was  her 25 year career as the “most successful…receiver of stolen goods – silks, diamonds” and other “swag” from burglars” that had brought her to the attention of law enforcement officers throughout the United States. (Mandelbaum was Jewish; Pinkerton was not)



1885: Sixty-three year old President U.S. Grant and the General who saved the Union passed away today. While some brand his an anti-Semite for issuing General Order 11, such was not the case.  Grant had many prominent Jewish supporters including the Seligmans. The vast majority of Jews voted for Grant when he ran for President and while President he contributed to Adas Israel and attended the dedication of the congregation’s new sanctuary.  For a complete, highly readable description of Grant’s relationship with the Jewish people see When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna



1889(24thof Tammuz, 5649): Miss Openheimer, an 18 year old Jewess who was the daughter of well-known Pittsburgh clothing merchant, died today at Harmony, PA when a horse-drawn wagon in which she was riding collided with a train.  Miss Oppenheimer was vacationing in Butler Country.  Her brothers and father who were in Atlantic City have not heard about the tragedy.



1890: Plans for the upcoming festival intended to raise funds for the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews sponsored by the B’nai Brith were published today.



1890:  In memory of Mrs. Stern, Isaac Stern is paying all of the expenses related to today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children for enjoyment of impoverished Jewish youngsters and their mothers.



1890: “The Cloakmakers’ Strike” published today described the violent labor confrontation between manufacturers and the workers who were led by Joseph Barondess



1891: Birthdate of movie mogul Harry Cohn, The son of Russian Jewish tailor, Cohn quit school and found work in vaudeville. He began working in the infant motion picture industry in 1913. He founded Columbia Pictures where, as a producer he won an Academy Award in 1934 for It Happened One Night. Cohn was noted for his vulgarism and bizarre quotes. One of his most famous was, "Give me two years and I will make her an overnight success." Cohn was one of several Jews who dominated the film industry in its early years. The interesting thing is that they did not make Jewish movies or movies about Jews. They gained success by giving the audiences slices of Americana. The created, or at least nurtured a vision of America that Middle America wanted to see. He passed away in 1958.



1891: In Philadelphia, PA, the Jewish Alliance of American presented its plan of action for dealing with the immigration of Russian Jews.



1892: “Reacting to claims that Jews don't really murder Christians to get their blood, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, carries an article stating: ‘Unfortunately, although they tried to deny that the Talmud's followers commit such an atrocious act, one cannot reasonably deny its existence.’"



1892: During the Homestead Steel Strike anarchist Alexander Berkman failed in his attempt to assassinate steel magnate Henry Clay Frick.



                                                           Or



1892: The “first terrorist act in America,” as its perpetrator described it, occurred today when Alexander Berkman, known as Sasha, a 20-year-old Russian immigrant outraged at the brutal suppression of the strike at Carnegie Steel’s Homestead plant, burst into the office of Henry Clay Frick, the plant’s manager, shot him twice, then tried to stab him. (As reported by Elsa Dixler)



1893(10thof Av, 5653): Tish’a B’Av observed the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat



1893(10thof Av, 5653): Issac Burnheimer, a retired millionaire who was over the age of 80 and suffering from ill health passed away today at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs.



1893: “Victims of the Czar’s Ukase” published today described the plight of Jewish refugees as seen through the eyes of one family who arrived in the United States with only seventeen dollars, eight of which they had to spend on rent and the rest was spent on purchasing the necessities of life which have left them broke.



1894: Young men “went among the audience selling copies…of The Arbeiter Freund, an anarchist paper printed in Hebrew and published in London” before tonight’s meeting of anarchists at Clarendon Hall.



1894: “What Shall Royalties Do?” published today speculates on how Europe’s impecunious nobility will support themselves and includes the possibility that someday, we may see “a Hapsburg taken into partnership with a Rothschild.”



1894: Lizzie Berus, a 17 year old Russian Jewish immigrant from Paterson, NJ is to go on trial in New York today on charges of having “procured diamonds by bogus check from several jewelry firms in Upper Broadway.



1894: Police are currently looking for George Patterson, the nephew of a prominent Presbyterian minister, who is the husband of Lizzie Berus and thought to be the mastermind behind a series of jewel robberies.



1895: As Wolf Silverman sits in jail facings charges of fraud related to an insurance policy purchased for his wife, the district attorney has also brought charges against the woman known as “Jane Doe” who impersonated his wife when he bought the policy and the insurance agent known as “Richard Roe” who sold the policy. It is believed that Silverman is involved in a wider fraud ring that involves several insurance companies and their employees.



1897: Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Black, Russian Jews from Kiev who are 104 and 100 respectively were awakened early this morning by a barking dog which is what saved them from dying as their apartment at 184 Clinton Street went up in smoke.



1899: In Haverhill, MA, founding of Beth Jacob which owns a cemetery on Merrimack Road.



1899: The United Hebrew Charities acknowledged that it had collected $148.50 (with contributions ranging from 50 cents to $25) to help settle a poor family that had become chronic invalids from overwork in rural location where they can work and take care of their children.



1899: The United Hebrew Charities acknowledged that it had collected $148.50


1901: Seventy-seven year old Isaac Mautner, who passed away yesterday was buried today in Bohemia


1902:Mrs. John M. Gitterman was the first to drink from the bronze fountain that was presented today to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in memory of her father, the late Simon Sterne.



1902(18thof Tammuz, 5662): Twenty-year old Elsa Neumann, “the first woman to receive a PhD in Physics from the University of Berlin passed away today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/23/1902/this-week-in-history-death-of-elsa-neumann-first-female-doctoral-graduate-of



1903 (28thof Tammuz, 5663): Sixty-five year old British born author Benjamin Farjeon passed away today.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1f1/farjeon-benjamin-leopold



1906(1st of Av, 5666): Rosh Chodesh Av



1910: Premiere of “Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes” “a German drama film serial” starring Paul Otto as” Arsène Lupin”



1911: Arthur Welsh set one of his many records today when he was joined by a passenger “to establish a new American two-man altitude record of 1,860 feet.”



1912: Birthdate of Meyer Howard “Mike” Abrams, the son of Jewish immigrants, who became a leading American literary critic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/books/mh-abrams-professor-who-shaped-the-study-of-romanticism-dies-at-102.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0



1913: Arabs attacked the Jewish settlement of Rehovot.



1913: Birthdate of “surrealist theorist and poet” Ghersaim Luca.



1914: In Chicago, Fanny (Rozin) and Isidore Foreman gave birth screen writer and producer Carl Foreman whose most famous work maybe “High Noon” the Gary Cooper classic western that featured Grace Kelly in her first major film role.



1915: “Governor Harris and members of the Georgia Prison Commission left” Atlanta “tonight for Milledgeville where an inquiry will be begun tomorrow into the attack made on Leo M. Frank at the State Prison Farm.”



1915: It was reported today that Leo Ditrichstein has terminated his relationship with director David Belasco.



1915: In Chicago, Illinois, a Summer Course sponsored by Hebrew Union College came to an end.



1915: In Milledgeville, GA, the warden at the prison reportedly believes that J.W. Creen, the convict who tried to kill Leo Frank, “is insane.”



1918: Birthdate of Abraham ('Appie') Bueno de Mesquita, the Amsterdam born comedian who survived the Holocaust.



1920: The Zionist Conference here, probably the most important gathering of Jews ever held, concluded today with the election of United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis as honorary President of the Zionist organization; Professor Chaim Weizmann, President, and Nahum Sokolow, Chairman of the Executive Committee.



1923: The New York Times reviews volume 4 of The Life of Benjamin Disraeli; Earl of Beaconsfield by George Earle Buckle which covers the years 1855 to 1868.



1926:  Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.  Sol M. Wurtzel was the producer responsible for Fox moving its operations to California and for making this purches.  Following the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Fox would be purchased and become part of production giant 20th Century Fox. 



1926: In Ellenville, NY, “Morris Heller and the former Yetta Shapiro, Russian Jewish immigrants who had been settled there by the Jewish Agricultural (and Industrial Aid) Society” gave birth to Isaac “Ike” Heller the toymaker and co-founder of Remco. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/business/isaac-heller-co-founder-of-remco-and-toymaker-to-a-generation-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well



1928: Birthdate of famed pianist, teacher and conductor, Leon Fleisher.  Fleisher is doubly famous.  When at the height of his successful career as a pianist, he lost the ability to use his right hand.  Fleisher then discovered a body of music written for the left-hand and gained greater fame for this accomplishment.



1930: Birthdate of French historian Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet whose interest included Jewish history and who was an active opponent of Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.



1931(9th of Av, 5691):Tish'a B'Av



1933: More than twenty leaders of the extreme wing of the Zionist Revisionist party were arrested today in various parts of the country, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and two Jewish villages, Kfarsaba and Kalmania, when the police simultaneously raided houses in connection with the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, member of the Jewish Agency Executive of Palestine. Dr Arslosoroff was killed while walking on beach at Tel Aviv with his on June 16.  This was no random killing since Arslosoroff’s killer held a flashlight into his face, asked “Are you Dr. Arslosoroff” and only fired the three fatal shots after the doctor had answered in the affirmative.



1936: The Palestine Post reported that a British soldier was killed in an Arab ambush near Tulkarm. Arab attacks were reported from Ein Harod and Kfar Yehezkel. Arabs celebrated the 100th day of their insurrection with demonstrations, calls for prayer and donations. But the Arab Nashashibi Party proposed that the Arab Higher Committee should resign as a protest against the non-fulfillment of their promises and leave the people to decide the fate of their prolonged general strike by themselves.



1936: Arab terrorists threw a bomb at a small religious school (Talmud Torah) in the Yemenite Quarter of Tel Aviv. Nine children were injured. One of the terrorists was later caught by a British constable and arrested.



1936: The British government officially declared that there would be no change of policy in regard to the issue of Jewish immigration into Palestine until the Royal Commission was able to visit the country, study the subject and publish its findings. Britain expected that all Arab terrorist activities would stop before the commission's arrival in the country. The British were wrong. The violence did not stop.



1938:  Jews in Germany are ordered to apply for identity cards to be shown to police on demand.



1940: Birthdate of Daniel Saul Goldin who was appointed as the 9th Administrator of NASA by President Bush in 1992 and served under three different Presidents.



1940: Hans Frank issues order revoking the autonomy of all Jewish, Ukrainian and Jewish independent aid organizations in the General Government.



1941: In White Russia an Einsatzkommando unit commander reported that some Jews were able to ‘escape into the surrounding forests and swamps’ because they “had managed to organize a ‘signal service’ between villages” that warned of the approach of the Nazi killing squads.



1942 (9thof Av, 5702): Tisha B’Av



1942 (9thof Av, 5702): Adam Czerniakow took his own life. Born in 1880, Czerniakow was the leader of the Jewish council of Warsaw, the Judenrat. Czerniakow had held the position for 3 years and kept a diary of over 1000 pages chronicling the formation of the ghetto up to the beginning of the forced transports. The Germans had ordered him to provide them with a list of names for deportation. His response was a list of his own name written hundreds of times. The day before his suicide, the Nazi officer in charge of the deportation procedure threatened to shoot his wife if he didn’t cooperate. In his suicide note he wrote "I am powerless, my heart trembles in sorrow and compassion. I can no longer bear all this."



1942 SS Senior Colonel General Viktor Brack advises Heinrich Himmler that all healthy Jews should be castrated or sterilized, and the remainder annihilated.



1942: The German Foreign Minister, Von Ribbentrop, warned the Italian Chief of Staff, that Italy should not resist efforts to deport the Jews of Croatia.



1942: The Nazis opened the Treblinka Extermination Camp.



1942: Deportation of Jews from Dobsina, Slovakia, to Auschwitz



http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/11.asp



1943(20thof Tammuz, 5703): Forty-year old Salomon Sachs was murdered at Sobibor today.



1943(20th of Tammuz, 5703): Forty-year-old Mandel Langer, a Jewish French partisan who was active as an anti-Nazi saboteur since the end of 1942, is captured and executed in Toulouse, France.


1943: Colonel Josiah Clement Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood, passed away.  Swimming against the establishment stream, he opposed the British decision to create an Arab state east of the Jordan River, seeing it as a betrayal of promises to the Zionists.  He opposed the 1939 White Paper on the same grounds.


1944: Otto Armster, “a German military intelligence-officer” who played a role in the July 20th plot to kill Hitler was arrested by the Gestapo today, taken to Berlin and placed in solitary confinement.


1944:  Soviet troops liberate the abandoned death camp at Majdanek, where about 500 inmates are alive.



1944:  The Nazis deport 1700 Jews from Rhodes to Auschwitz “while the Italian authorities who had governed the island from 1912 until 1943 idly stood by.”
http://www.jff.org.il/?CategoryID=1085&ArticleID=1562



1945: In what was their first joint operation after having “resolved to against British rule” a joint unit of Irgun and Lehi fighters, under the command of Yehoshua Weinstein (Benyamin) blew up a railway bridge near the village of Yibne.” (Jewish Virtual Library)



1948(16th of Tamuz, 5708): In Jerusalem, two more Israeli soldiers were killed by Arab firing from Abu Tor.



1948: Arab shelling from the village of Silwan damages the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.



1948: The possibility loomed today that the Israeli Government might conduct negotiations with Soviet Russia for a supply of crude oil to be refined at Haifa.



1949: The Turkish government authorized an Israeli, Victor Elyachar, to open an office in Istanbul to answer questions about the new state of Israel. In October of the same year, Elyachar was appointed Consul General of Israel at Turkey. 



1951: Thousands of mourners led the black-draped gun carriage carrying the coffin of King Abdullah of Jordan to the royal cemetery in Amman. The Jordanian police rounded over 70 suspects in connection with the king's assassination, including two relatives of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. There were clashes in the Jordanian-occupied Old City of Jerusalem between Arab Legion Bedouin and the local Arabs.



1951: The first immigrant from the U.S.S.R., 73-year-old Tova Lerner from Soviet Bessarabia, arrived in Israel together with 993 newcomers from Romania.



1952: General Neguib overthrew the monarchy and seized power. Some Israelis thought this change presaged a possible improvement in relations with the Egyptians. The last King of Egypt, Farouk, was man known for his personal and political corruption. The Israelis thought the revolutionaries would bring Western style reforms and that they would be more accepting of the Jewish State. Obviously this did not happen. One of the men behind what was known as "The Colonels’ Revolt" was Nasser. Nasser would soon seize the reins of power and make the destruction of Israel a cornerstone of his Pan-Arab policy. In a lesson that has still not been learned, Nasser said that he did not hate the West because of Israel but hated Israel because it was Western. In other words, anti-Western philosophy has been a staple of the Arab/Moslem world long before the appearance of Bin Laden.



1950: Based on the wording of the Official Citations, today marked the beginning of a series of heroic acts on the part of Corporal Tibor Ruman during the darkest days of the Korean War that would lead to him being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.



1955: Cordell Hull, Tennessee political leader and U.S. Secretary of State passed away.  Appointed by FDR, he served in the post until 1944 which made him the longest serving Secretary of State.  He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1945 for his role in creating the United Nations, which at its inception, played a positive role in the creation of Israel.  Hull blocked the admission of Jews fleeing Hitler as can be seen in his role with the SS St. Louis and the SS Quanza. Hull’s wife was reportedly Jewish, a fact they worked to keep from public knowledge lest it impede his public career.



1960: In New York City, Edie and Ely A. Laundau gave birth to Jon Landau, the producer of Titanic and co-producer of science fiction blockbuster Avatar.



1967: Herb Gray, Canada's first Jewish federal cabinet minister, Gray married lawyer Sharon Sholzberg, with whom he had two children: Jonathan David and Elizabeth Anne.



1967: Birthdate of Mariane Pearl, the wife and widow of Danny Pearl.



1967: Denise Scott Brown, the daughter of Jewish Rhodesian parents married fellow architect Robert Venturi.



1968: For the first time, the PLO hijacked an El Al plane. El Al was the first airline to put sky marshals on its flights and the first airline to introduce the security measures that many tried to emulate after 9/11.



1969(8thof Av, 5729): Erev Tish’a B’Av



1969(8thof Av, 5729): Seventy-seven year old “Sidney J. Weinberg, whose financial acumen earned him the sobriquet ‘Mr. Wall Street’” passed away today.  (As reported by Alden Whitman)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20F10FC3C5D1A7B93C6AB178CD85F4D8685F9
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_gladwell



1969: Birthdate of Rachel Goslins, the director of “God’s House,” a documentary about Albanian Muslims who save Jews during World War II based on Besa: Muslims Who Save Jews in World War II by Norman Gershman.  A member of Adas Israel, she has served as the Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.



1971: Birthdate of journalist Joel Stein.



1973:  Birthdate of White House Intern, Monica Lewinsky.



1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the visiting governor of the Bank of Spain, Luis Coronel del Palma, expressed hope of "a considerable improvement of relations between Spain and Israel." According to American experts the recent events in Lebanon and the Syrian intervention there threatened the total dismemberment of the PLO and the demise of Yasser Arafat who had lost control of all his forces. Mossad hit teams were reported to have been waging a concerted assassination program against all Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympiad.



1978: The Israeli cabinet rejected Sadat's call for return of 2 Sinai areas.



1978: In “Sex, Torah, Revolution,” Alan Lelchuk reviewed Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/25/home/singer-sosha.html



1979(28thof Tammuz, 5739): Eighty-one year old Argentine native Joseph Kessel who gained fame in his adopted France as a journalist and novelist after having serviced with the Free French in WW II passed away today.



1980(10thof Av, 5740): Eighty-four year old Dr. Max Kadushin, a leading Conservative Rabbi, passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10C16FC355D11728DDDAD0A94DF405B8084F1D3



1982(3rdof Av, 5742): Fifty-three year old actor Vic Morrow died today in a tragic accident while filming a movie.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/actor-and-two-children-killed-on-twilight-zone-set



1984: Convicted financier Shmuel Flatto-Sharon is attempting a comeback in the Israeli elections being held today.



1987: Fifty American volunteers pulled out of an archeological excavation site here today after a group of rigorously Orthodox Jews mobilized international pressure to halt digging in the area, which they say is an ancient burial ground. While 100 Israeli policemen, armed with riot sticks and tear gas, separated them from three busloads of angry Orthodox protesters, the American archeological volunteers spent the morning clearing dust off a fifth-century mosaic sidewalk in Caesarea, a historic coastal city 25 miles north of Tel Aviv



1996(7thof Av, 5756): Sixty-nine year old New Jersey State Chief Justice Robert Wilentz passed away today. (As reported by David Stout)
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/24/nyregion/robert-wilentz-69-new-jersey-chief-justice-dies-court-aided-women-and-the-poor.html



1997: According to a report released today the July 14 collapse of a pedestrian bridge at the Maccabiah Games was caused by a chain of failures involving the bridge's planning and construction.



1998: In Toledo, the sixth congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) under the presidency of Professor Angel Sáenz Badillos came to a close today.



1999: After having undergone “test regarding her heart condition at the Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio,” Janet Rosenberg Jagan “was discharged” today and returned to Guyana where she would later resign her position as the country’s president.



1999(10thof Ave, 5759): Seventy-seven year old photographer Stanley Tretick passed away today. (As reported by Nick Ravo)
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/20/us/stanley-tretick-77-photographer-of-kennedys-at-the-white-house.html
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9908/tretick.htm



2000: In “Jerseyana: A Fading Jewish Haven,” Robert Strauss describes a disappearing slice of Jewish life unknown to most Jews, that centered around rural and small-town New Jersey
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/23/nyregion/jerseyana-a-fading-jewish-haven.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm



2001: 16thMaccabiah comes to a close.



2001: Haim “Saban announced that he and News Corporation would sell Fox Family Worldwide Inc for $5.3 billion to The Walt Disney Company.”



2001: Matt Bloom lost the WWF Intercontinental Championship to Alliance member Lance Storm in Buffalo, New York



2001: “Issues in Jewish Philosophy,” a colloquia sponsored by The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened today.



2002:The Knesset approved the Tal Law as an attempt to reach a compromise to the public demand that the Israeli ultra-Orthodox citizens would share an equal extent of obligations which other Israeli citizens are required to fulfill, specifically requiring them to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The coalition upheavals delayed the initial adoption of the Tal law.



2002: The IDF bombed the building in which Hamas leader Salah Shehade was sleeping.  He was the mastermind behind a series of suicide attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians.



2003: Best-selling author Peggy Orenstein and Academy Award winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki gave birth to their daughter Daisy Tomoko.



2003: President Bush presents Edward Teller with the Medal of Freedom, six weeks before Teller’s death.



2005: Pitcher Craig Breslow made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres.



2005:  Several explosions rocked the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Shiek in the early morning hours.  The attacks were aimed at a number of resort hotels catering to tourists from Egypt, Europe and Israel. 



2005:  The Jerusalem Post reported that Ariel Sharon will not change the date of the evacuation from Gaza. 



2006: The San Francisco Chronicle reviewed How This Night Is Different by Elisa Albert



2006:  The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz - An Essay in Historical Interpretation by Jan T. Gross and  the recently released paperback edition of Freud's Requiem: Mourning, Memory, and the Invisible History of a Summer Walk by Matthew Von Unwerth an “elegantly meandering look at Sigmund Freud's life and the intellectual world he moved in that examines an obscure 1915 essay, ‘On Transience,’ in which Freud records a conversation with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and the psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salomé.”



2006(27th of Tammuz, 5766): Ursula Merkin, the widow of Hermann Merkin, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Yeshiva University passed away today.
http://forward.com/news/519/she-contained-multitudes/
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06E5DB1F3AF937A15754C0A9609C8B63



2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war: Shimon Glickblich, 60, of Haifa; Habib Awad, 48, of Ibellin.



2007: In Krakow, Poland, the Cinema Pod Baranami / Festival of Jewish Culture presents a screening of “Hungry Hearts,” which is “based on the short stories of Anzia Yezierska, the first writer to bring stories of American Jewish women to a mainstream audience.”



2007(8th of Av, 5767): Seventy-four year old Ronald Norman Miller the songwriter who created the lyrics to the Grammy Award winning hit “For Once in My Life” passed away today in California.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/23/guardianobituaries.obituaries1



2007: The New Republic features reviews of 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed The Middle East by Tom Segev and Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets’ Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War by Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez by Israeli historian and author Benny Morris as well Nathan Glazer’s review of Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York.



2008:At the Karmiel amphitheater Let Us Grow showcases 3,000 children from all over the country in a mosaic of dances choreographed especially for them featuring such singers as Tal Mosseri and Yoav Yitzhak.



2008: Dina Gottliebova-Babbitt an artist and Holocaust survivor had surgery today after having been “diagnosed with an aggressive form of abdominal cancer.”



2008: Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Connect, a version of Facebook Platform for users.



2008:In an example of interfaith at its best, members of Temple Judah load their cars with clothing items shipped to Cedar Rapids by Chabad of Des Moines and take them to Community of Christ Church for distribution to victims of the Cedar Rapids Flood of 2008.



2008(25th of Tammuz, 5768: Officer David Chriqui of Rishon Lezion, 19-year-old border policeman who was shot near the Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem on July 11 died of his wounds today. Officer David Chriqui of Rishon Lezion was shot in the head at close range by a man thought to be a Palestinian. Jerusalem police officer Imad Gadir from Kafr Zarzir in the Western Galilee has recovered from his wounds.



2008: Senator Barack Obama opened a day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders sharing breakfast with Ehud Barak before traveling to the West Bank to meet ith Mahmoud Abbas.



2009: Closing ceremony of the 18th Maccabiah takes place at Latrun



2009: Chicago’s Millennium Park celebrated its fifth anniversary with a blockbuster event of song and spoken word called SHELebration: A Tribute to Shel Silverstein.



2009: In New York City, rooftop premiere of Keren Cytter's feature length film, "The Great Tale." The Tel Aviv native “creates films that appropriate and transform different cinematic genres, such as film noir, melodrama, documentary, and soap opera. Often set in cheap domestic interiors, Cytter's films depict dysfunctional families and alienated friends on the verge of nervous breakdown.”



2009: Several rabbis were arrested as part of a public corruption and international money-laundering investigation in New Jersey. According to reports, among the 44 people arrested this morning by the FBI along with the rabbis were the mayors of three New Jersey towns, a deputy mayor and a state assemblyman.



2010: As part of “Downtown Shabbat”Robyn Helzner, one of the leading interpreters of world Jewish music, and Cantor Larry Paul are scheduled to lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.



2010:An Israeli government decision to shelve a controversial bill on Jewish conversions drew praise today from liberal Jewish groups in Israel and the U.S. who opposed the legislation and waged a vocal campaign to get it thrown out.



2010: From L.A. to Cedar Rapids and points unknown, family and many friends celebrate the birthday of Charlene Wolfe, a “balabus” par excellence.



2010((12thof Av, 5770):  Daniel Schorr, whose aggressive reporting over 70 years as a respected broadcast and print journalist brought him into conflict with censors, the Nixon administration and network superiors, died today at the age of 93. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/media/24schorr.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0



2010: In “At War With Itself” Leo Damrosch provides a detailed reviews of Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion and the Scandal of the Century by Ruth Harris.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Damrosch-t.html



2011: In Iowa City, Agudas Achim Sisterhood's annual Mitzvah Fund Event will include this evening’s University Repertory Theater production of Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers."



2011: The Daniel Ori Trio is scheduled to perform three sets of originals and new arrangements from the upcoming album Emuna at the Barn Next Door in NYC.



2011:Ten of thousands gathered in central Tel Aviv tonight for a mass rally against soaring housing prices and Israel's high cost of living.



2011:The first-ever reunion of the Ritchie Boys began today at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.



2011(21st of Tammuz, 5771):Jewish-British singer Amy Winehouse, whose hit single "Rehab" became the anthem for troubled celebrity culture, has been found dead at her home in north London, Sky News reported today.


2011(21st of Tammuz, 5771): Ninety-two year old Robert C.W. Ettinger, the “founding father” of the cryonics movement, passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)

2012: Shiva services for Lauren Becker, of blessed memory, are scheduled to be held at the home of her father Harold in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


2012: “One Day After Peace” is scheduled to have its American premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012:The Knesset Control Committee is scheduled to discuss the aspects of the annual State Comptroller’s Report that deal with the Temple Mount, including security and unsupervised building. (As reported by Melanie Lidman)


2012: As it prepares to move to its new location, members of Agudas Achim under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman gather at the Agudas Achim Cemetery to bury old prayersbooks, bibles, talisim and other religious artifacts in the time honored manner of the Jewish people.


2012: Today Pesident Shimon Peres condemned Syrian government statements that it would deploy chemical weapons in the event of a foreign invasion, and said Israel would do whatever it takes to eliminate the threat these weapons pose to the Jewish state.(As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2012: DNA evidence believed to belong to the culprit and his female accomplice in last week’s bombing at the Burgas Airport was reportedly found at the Hotel Perfekt in Varna, Bulgaria, Bulgarian TV station BTV reported today (As reported by Aaron Kalman and Ilan Ben Zion)


2013: The 17th annual Jerusalem 3x3 Streetball tournament sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality is scheduled to open at Safra Square.


2013: From Cedar Rapids to California and lots of other places, people celebrate the birthday of Charlene Wolff, a culinary wizard and pillar of the Jewish community.



2013: Coalition and Labor MKs praised the passing of the government's haredi enlistment plan in its first reading today, after a long debate in which haredi MKs used creative means to demonstrate their opposition. (As reported by Lahav Harkov)



2013: Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge walked out St. Mary’s Hospital with their infant who was born in the Lindo Wing which was named for Frank Charles Lindo, a member of a famous British Sephardi family who paid for the wing in 1937.



2014: The Historic Sixth & I Synagogue is scheduled to host “The Great Walk of Chinatown” which explores the history of this unique Washington neighborhood.



2014: “The US Federal Aviation Administration barred flights to Israel this evening for 24 hours, citing security concerns” but El Al continues with its full flight schedule. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)



2014: Oren Shaul who was identified today as the seventh of the soldiers “caught in in a deadly ambush in Gaza City’s Shejaiya area” was reported missing in action and presumed dead despite claims from Hamas that he is there prisoner. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)



2014: The 97thNational Convention of Hadassah is scheduled to come to an end in Las Vegas.



2015: Dr. Ori Z. Soltes is scheduled to lead a private tour for those wishing to “learn more about Sy Gresser's sculptures while viewing the exhibition ‘Stone, Silence, and Speech.’”



2015: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host two performances of “My Report to the World” The Story of Jan Karski.”



2015: The Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University is scheduled to come to an end today.



2015: The Friends and family of Charlene Wolfe are excited to share in what she calls “a milestone” birthday.



 


 

This Day, July 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 24



1148:  Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade. The Second Crusade gained nothing for the Christians.  The failure of the crusade may help explain “the long period of persecution that included French clergyman giving frequent anti-Semitic sermons. In some cities, such as Beziers, Jews were forced to pay a special tax every Palm Sunday. In Toulouse, Jewish representatives had to go to the cathedral on a weekly basis to have their ears boxed, as a reminder of their guilt. France’s first blood libel took place in Blois in 1171 and 31 Jews were burned on the stake.”



1298(14th of Av): During the Rindfleisch massacres, the Jewish community of Bischofsheim on the Tauber, Germany perished



1349(8thof Av): The Jews of Frankfort were killed in what would be called the Black Death Massacres



1518: Sefer ha-Harkavah, a Hebrew grammar written by Elijah Levita (Bahur) was published in Rome today.  249



1716: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Posin



1825(9thof Av, 5585): Tish’a B’Av



1836: Birthdate of Jan Gotlib Blich the Polish banker who converted to Calvinism to avoid the disabilities the Czar placed on Jews but who remained sympathetic to the plight of his people and who was an eaerly supporter of the Zionist Movement.



1840: Birthdate of Abraham Goldfaden, a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays who is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre



1848: The will of Mr. Isaac D ’Israeli was “proved” today by Benjamin D ’Israeli, his son and “sole executor.”



1855(9th of Av, 5615):  Tish'a B'Av



1858: In reporting on a case of alleged war profiteering in the boot business that took place at Weedon in England, the New York Times correspondent writes that “if the Jews are excluded from Parliament they are certainly compensated in some measure by the handsome share the Government allows them in the pretty pickings of such places as Weedon.”



1862: Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States passed away.  Martin Van Buren was the first President to order an American consul to intervene on behalf of Jews abroad. In 1840 he instructed the U.S. consul in Alexandria, Egypt to protect the Jews of Damascus who were under attack because of a false blood ritual accusation.”  Van Buren ordered his diplomats “to extend ‘the active sympathy and generous interposition of the Government of the United states’ on behalf of ‘an oppressed and persecuted race, among whose kindred are found some of the most worthy and patriotic of our citizens.’”



1864:Union General James A. Mulligan was mortally wounded as he led his troops Second Battle of Kernstown, near Winchester, Virginia. The last entry in his diary read, “The last thing in it, written that day, is: "Well, our cause is gloomy; we will conquer the South about the time the Jews all return to Jerusalem." (The general was not Jewish.  But his statement shows the depth of his despair and the universal symbolism that Jews had come to represent.)



1865: On this date, Baron Lionel de Rothschild signs his last will and testament.  The will is in his own handwriting.  Among the terms of the will is a request that “ ‘my good wife’ shall give 10,000 pounds to Jewish charities.”



1865(1st of Av, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Av



1865: In Vienna, Ignatz and Anna Rosenbaum Grossmann to Rudolph Grossman who would serve as associate Rabbi at Temple Beth El before becoming the spiritual leader of Rodef Sholom in New York City.



1867: In Vienna Ignatz and Anna Rosenbaum Grossman gave birth to Rudolph Grossman who became a Reform rabbi in the United States.



1871: Birthdate of Paul Epstein, the native of Frankfurt who followed in the footsteps of his professor father by becoming a professor in 1919 but who would lose his career when the Nazis came to power.



1873: Birthdate of Isador E. Philo, the native of Cardiff who earned a BA from CCNY and a doctorate from the University Illinois who went on to become a Rabbi in Akron, Ohio and Youngstown, Ohio.



1874: Today’s “Foreign Notes” column reported that “Jaffa is to be dismantled.  The walls and turrets are advertised for sale and the old fortifications will soon be utterly razed.”



1874(10thof Av, 5634): Seventy-one year old Baron Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, a member of the Vienna branch of the famous banking family who founded Creditanstalt passed away today.



1875:GabrielLippmann's PhD thesis, presented to the Sorbonne today, was on electrocapillarity



1876: In New Haven, CT, Mark Fisher and his wife gave birth to Henry M. Fisher the graduate of Yale and HUC who became the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Atlantic City.



1877: Henry Ward Beecher, a friend of Joseph Seligman's, preached a sermon against anti-Semitism. Beecher was the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.  He was an ardent abolitionist and a champion of what today we would call civil rights. Despite this appeal to reason, the policy of social discrimination soon became widespread. Though the Grand Union Hotel was not the first incident in the U.S., it received a great amount of publicity. Seligman was a renowned philanthropist and helped the Union cause during the Civil War. In recognition, President Grant offered him the post of Secretary of Treasury.



1877: The New York Times published a letter from Edgar M. Johnson, a prominent Jewish lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio.  He stated that he did not like to engage in a “newspaper controversy…especially one on such a disagreeable topic as the Seligman-Hilton imbroglio.”  However, he took issue with the false statements that he had tried to hide his religion when making reservations to stay at the Grand Union or that Judge Hilton’s employees did not know he was Jewish when they offered to let him stay at the hotel. He included the text of the communication in his letter and ended by saying that hotel owners in Saratoga Springs  had not had any problem accepting his “Jew money” when he had stayed there in the past.  But they need not concern themselves with the matter, since he had no intention of ever visiting again.



1880: Birthdate of Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch.



1880:  The Rochester (NY) Union reported that Rabbi Max Moll has officiated at the conversion ceremony of Mrs. Morse. Her husband is a member of Aitz Raanon.  The ceremony included a detailed examination on Jewish customs and laws which the young woman promised to obey.  The ceremony ended with the appropriate benedictions and the announcement that her name was now Sarah.



1881: “Notes of Foreign Life” reported that funds have been collected in Brussels to aid the persecuted Jews of Russia.



1882: Professor Felix Adler sent a check for one hundred dollars to the striking freight handler’s.



1883: “Burdened With an Insane Wife” published today described the attempts of David Holtz, a young Jewish immigrant to annul his marriage to Pauline Moses on grounds that he was misled as to the nature of the ceremony, that he has had to have her committed to an asylum and that he family concealed her history of mental illness from him prior to the marriage.



1883: In Munich artist Alfred Pringsheim and Hedwig Dohnm Pringsheim gave birth to musical marvel Kalus Pringsheim Sr.



1883 In Munich artist Alfred Pringsheim and Hedwig Dohnm Pringsheim gave birth to Katharina "Katia" Pringsheim, the twin sister of Klaus Pringsheim, Sr. who was the wife of author Thomas Mann.



1883: It was reported today Jews dominated a recent chess tournament.  Six of the fourteen players were Jewish and the Jews won first, second and fifth place.  This was should come as no surprise because since “the times of the Talmud, Jews have been pre-eminent at games similar to chess, while in modern time” Jews have been some of the best players for several generations.



1884: “A Queen Among Thieves” described the career and capture of Mrs. Fredericka Mandelbaum, a German born Jewess who is one of the most important and famous receiver of stolen goods.  Her reputation and criminal activities which have been going on for 25 years, are national in scope. The Pinkerton detectives have been tracking her for years and said that some of her confederates include her husband,, her brother-in-law Hirsh, “Mose” Erich and “Jew” Harris.  Don’t be deceived by the names; she dealt with crooks of a variety of ethnic origins.



1888: Mrs. Solomons, one of the Jews who had been on an excursion to Raritan Beach, went to the police to complain about a scheme by one of the organizers to force the patrons to buy beer and other drinks to slake their thirst.



1890: In Kippenheim, Germany, Dr. Julius and Emilie (Durlacher) Stern gave birth to historian and archivist Selma Stern-Taeubler.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stern-taeubler-selma



1891: W.D. Owens, the Superintendent of Immigration arrived from Washington, DC and met for several hours with the Acting Superintendent of Immigration at the Barge Office to discuss policies related to the detention of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland.



1891: In New York, Coroner Ferdinand Levy succeeded in finding bondsman who would post $1,000 for the six Jewish families Russia being held at the Barge Office so that they could enter the United States.



1892: “Berkmann An Anarchist” published today provided a profile of Alexander Berkman, the Lithuanian born Jewish anarchist who attempted to assassinate  Henry Clay Frick whom he held responsible for the murder of nine striking steelworkers during the infamous Homestead Steel Strike.



1892: In commenting on the shooting of Henry Clay Frick by Alexander Berkman, one “workingman was heard to say, “Served him right to be shot by a Russian Jew!  He was a Pole and” Frick “has brought thousands of pauper Polish laborers in this country.” (Frick was one of the many industrialists who used the contract labor system to bring in workers from eastern and southern Europe with a view to driving down the pay for workers.)



1893(11thof Av, 5653): Sixty-one year old Priscilla J. Joachimsen, the widow of Judge Joachimsen passed away today.  Born in Plymouth, England, she married the Judge when she was eighteen. The marriage last forty seven years during which they founded the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and were active in the Hebrew Lying-In Asylum, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and the Deborah Nursery.



1893: Simon Bernheimer, the senior partner of Bernheimer and Schmidt, is among those mourning the passing Isaac Burnheimer, the founder of the real estate and property management firm.



1894: “Meeting In Clarendon Hall” described the lecture delivered by Charles Wilfred Mowbray, “the English labor agitator and anarchist” to an audience that included a contingent of Jewish anarchists as can be seen by the fact that literature printed in Hebrew was distributed to throng.



1895: “While on vacation, Sigmund Freud carries out his first lengthy dream analysis”



1895(3rd of Av, 5655): Abram C. Bernheim of the firm of Shekan & Bernheim who was a member of Temple Emanu-El passed at Arverne, Long Island.



1897: The Special Board of Inquiry approved the entry of Adolf Bernstrom a Polish Jew who had arrived aboard the SS Lahn after his son, an east side tailor, had given “the necessary assurance that” he “would become a charge on the community.”



1897: It was reported today that the dispensary of the Brooklyn Hebrew Hospital, under the direction of Dr. Solo, which is open from 3 to 5 in the afternoon, provides free treatment to 40 or 50 patients each day.



1898: “The Persecution of Polish Jews Still Going On” published today described “the pillaging of Jews” and the burning of Jewish property which has been going on for the past three weeks.



1898: Following his funeral today, Benjamin Marks, who is survived by his widow Esther Cohen Marks and six children, will be buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery.



1898: In Atlantic City, NJ, the second Summer Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society is scheduled to come to an end.



1899: According to a summary of the annual report of the Bureau of Immigration for the fiscal year ending last June, most of the 29,000 immigrants from Poland and the 2,000 immigrants from Russia were Jewish.



1899: “Mistakes Made in Philippines” published today described the challenges facing the Americans in this Pacific Island change including the fact that the many of the military units are composed of unqualified recruits including “a low class of Romanian, Russian and Polish Jews.”



1901: In Haverhill, MA, Flora Craft and Leopold Albertson gave birth to actress Mabel Ida Albertson, the sister of actor Jack Albertson.



1902: “Simon Sterne Fountain” published today included a description of Sterne’s affection for horses and his support for the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Anmials.”



1909: On the Saturday before his 60th birthday The New York Times reviews an anniversary volume of essays and speeches by the Zionist leader Max Nodeau. In the chapter on Zionism, the Hungarian born leader writes “Zionism is but a new name for a very old cause, in as much as it merely expresses the longing of the Jewish race toward Zion.”



1909: George Picquart, the French officer who risked everything to expose the falsehood of the Dreyfus Conviction completed his service as Minister of War in the cabinet of Georges Clemenceau.



 1911: Fire in Balata district of Constantinople destroys Boys' and Girls' Schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, four synagogues, and 1,000 houses, about 600, which belonged to Jews.  



1914: Birthdate of Jan Kozielewski, who as Jan Karski, risked his life to infiltrate the Warsaw Ghetto and then escaped to the West bringing a first-hand account of the Holocaust.



1914: In Colonial Beach, Virginia, David and Anna Mirvish gave birth to Yehuda Mirvish, who gained fame as Canadian businessman and philanthropist Edwin “Honest Ed” Mirvish.



1915: Having arrived in Milledgegville, GA yesterday today Governor Harris and the state prison authorities began their investigation into the attack on Leo M. Frank.



1915:  This morning “William Creen told Governor Nat E. Harris that he tried to kill Leo M. Frank…because he believed that in doing so he would rid the Georgia State Prison of a man who presence would result in the attack by a mob on the prison and loss of live in a battle with the guards” – an opinion he said he had formed from reading newspapers.



1915: Warden Smith wants those investigating the recent attack on Leo M. Frank today to examin charges “George Johnson, a prisoner whose term has recently expired that Frank had been treated at the prisons as if he was on a social visit and the he had been provided with a roll-top desk.”



1918:On Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, Dr. Chaim Weizmann laid the cornerstone for Hebrew University. It would be several more years before construction began and the university would actually become a reality.



1919: Birthdate of Peter Zinner, Austrian born American Oscar winning film editor.  He passed away at the age of 88 in 2007.



1920: Birthday of theatrical producer Alexander H. Cohen, the father of producer Christopher A. Cohen.



1920: Birthdate of Bella Abzug. Born Bella Savitzky in the Bronx, she was the second daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants. Her father Emanuel Zavtizky was a butcher who ran the Live and Let Live Meat Market. Abzug became a lawyer and a politician. She was a feminist and anti-Viet Nam War Activist. While in Congress, she was a strident critic of the war and an unabashed supporter of liberal causes. She passed away in 1998 at the age of 77.



1921(18th of Tammuz, 5681): Since the 17th of Tammuz fell on Shabbat, observance of Tzom Tammuz



1922: The League of Nations confirmed Britain’s mandate over Palestine.



1923: In Switzerland, The Treaty of Lausanne was signed today officially ending the state of war between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies with the exception of the United States. The treaty marked the end of the Ottoman Empire, the reverberations of which are being felt in the 21st century. Albert Karasu covered the negotiations leading up to the signing of the treaty for the French-language Istanbul newspaper Le Journal d’Orient he founded in 1918. Born at Salonika in 1885, he passed away in 1982, five years after the newspaper closed down.



1923: Birthdate of Gerard Irwin Nierenberg, the Queens born lawyer who authored The Art of Negotiating and How To Read a Person Like a Book.



1924: Birthdate of Max Palevsky, a pioneer in the computer industry and a founder of the computer-chip giant Intel who used his fortune to back Democratic presidential candidates and to amass an important collection of American Arts and Crafts furniture.



1924: In London, Sir Herbert Samuel, High Commissioner of Palestine, told the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization that substantial progress in the building up of Palestine has been made in the past four years,



1924: The World Chess Federation FIDE is founded in Paris.  Approximately 47% of the world’s chess champions have been Jewish.)



1924: Matteo Mathieu Maurice Alfassa became (acting) Governors-general of French Equatorial Africa at Brazzaville. The community had a population of 4,500,000. Alfassa served till 16 Oct 1924. Today the country is called Republic of the Congo.



1926: Birthdate of Zvi Dinstein, the Tel Aviv native who served as member of the Knesset from 1965 to 1974.



1926: Premiere of “Mantrap,” a product of the Famous-Players-Lasky Corporation co-produced by B.P. Schulberg.



1932: Hope for improvement in the serious water situation in Jerusalem is seen in an announcement by the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, that the concession previously held by a British firm had been terminated and immediate steps were being taken to float a loan to meet the cost of a new water supply which will be undertaken by the government. The project will take at least year to complete which means water rationing will be enforced to deal with any shortage. 



1933: Birthdate of George Martin Rosenkoff the native of  West Philadelphia, who as George M. Ross, became a Goldman Sachs executive and a philanthropist and the driving force behind the establishment a major museum of Jewish history in Philadelphia for which he raised  $154 million



1933: Sir Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham was buried today at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.



1934 (12th of Av, 5694): Hans Hahn “an Austrian mathematician who made contributions to functional analysis, topology, set theory, the calculus of variations, real analysis, and order theory” passed away.



1936: The Palestine Postreported that Arab terrorists threw a bomb at a small religious school (Talmud Torah) in the Yemenite Quarter of Tel Aviv. Nine children were injured. One of the terrorists was later caught by a British constable and arrested. The British government had officially declared that there would be no change of policy in regard to the issue of Jewish immigration into Palestine until the Royal Commission was able to visit the country, study the subject and publish its findings. Britain expected that all Arab terrorist activities would stop before the commission's arrival in the country.



1937: Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called "Scottsboro Boys." This turn of affairs was a result of two Jewish lawyers from New York with connection to the Communist Party, Samuel Leibowitz and Joseph Brodsky.



1938: Artie Shaw recorded ‘Begin the Beguine,’ the song that helped to make him a household name.



1938: Near Athlit, Arab snipers fired on a large party of American tourists who were returning to the liner Roma docked at Haifa. The fifteen shots did not claim victims. 



1938: At Acre, a Jew was wounded when a sniper opened fire on a Jewish owned bus.



1941(29th of Tammuz, 5701): The entire Jewish male population of Grodz, Lithuania was killed by the Nazis.



1941 A ghetto is established in Kishinev, Ukraine.



1941: An Einsatzgruppe report stated that 4,435 Jews were liquidated in the town of Lachowicze.



1942: Opening of Treblinka II, which is a mile from Treblinka I.  The opening is part of Operation Reinhard, the Nazis’ plan for wiping out Polish Jewry.  



1942(10th of Av, 5702): Three thousand Jews were killed in the Dereczyn action



1942(10thof Av, 5702): Forty-two year old Erich Klibansky, a schoolmaster from Franfurt am Main and his family were murdered near Minks today after having been deported from Cologne.



1942: Martin Luther, undersecretary of state at the German Foreign Ministry, alerts Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to the fact that the Italian authorities are resistant to the German plan to deport Jews from Italian-held regions of Croatia.



1943: The Spanish government saved 367 Sephardic Jews by diverting them in transport from the death camp of Birkenau to the camp at Bergen-Belsen. Six months later they were released back to Spain.



1943: During World War II, Operation Gomorrah begins. British and Canadian airplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. I do not know who was responsible for naming this round-the-clock bombing campaign. But it must have been somebody who had read the Book of Bereshit or Genesis. The name Gomorrah as in Sodom and Gomorrah conjures up the image of fiery destruction that the Allies sought to inflict on the Nazis.



1943: Twenty-one young Jewish partisans in Vilna, Lithuania, join forces with Soviet partisans fighting behind German lines. North of Vilna, nine Jews were killed in an ambush at the Mickun Bridge. Three days later, 32 relatives of the nine dead partisans are seized by the Gestapo at Vilna, taken to nearby gravel pits at Ponary, and executed. Bruno Kittel, head of the Gestapo in Vilna, announces that the entire family of any Jew who escapes the ghetto to the forest will be executed. If an escapee has no family or roommates, all residents of his building will be executed. Further, if any ten-man Jewish labor gang comes back short, the remaining gang laborers will be executed.



1944: The Russian army liberated the concentration camp at Lublin.



1944: The deportations continued from Sarvar, Hungary, despite the fact that the German Army was retreating. One thousand, five hundred were sent to Birkenau. The fact that a retreating army would take time and resources for this is just one more reminder that the War Against the Jews was an integral part of the German military plan.  Contrary to what the Holocaust Deniers and their fellow-traveling Revisionist Historians say, the destruction of the Jews was a critical part of the Nazi program and not just a mere after-thought.



1944: Soviet forces entered Majdanek. For the first time, Allied soldiers saw the gas chambers, crematoria and the remains of thousands of charred human remains.



1944: The Nazis seize 258 Jewish orphans from Paris and the surrounding areas.  By now the Anglo-American armies have landed at Normandy, broken out of the hedgerow country and are sweeping across France.  If the war had only been about defeating the Allies, all German efforts would have been focused on stopping this advance.  This minor episode serves as a vivid reminder that the German war effort was indeed about wiping out the Jewish people. 



1944: At Bourges, France, Gestapo agents and militiamen massacre 28 Jewish men and eight Jewish women active in the Resistance. Some victims are thrown alive into a well.



1944: The German Army adopts the Nazi salute, abandoning the standard military salute.



1944: Time magazine reported that Louis “Waldman believes that the strength of Communism in the U.S. is now reaching a new peak in the C.I.O.'s Political Action Committee ‘the catch-all for the political activities of unions dominated by Communists, militant Socialists and others willing to cooperate with them… Unless the New Deal casts out the seeds of left-wing totalitarianism, which it fosters today, it may either lead to an American variety of Communism, or, what is more likely, provoke an American expression of unadorned fascism.’"


1944: “The Seventh Cross” the cinematic adaptation of a novel by Anna Seghers, with a script by Helen Deutsch, directed by Fred Zinnemann, produced by Pandro S. Berman and filmed by cinematographer Karl Fruend was released in the United States by MGM.


1948: During War of Independence, Israeli forces launched an assault as part of Operation Shorter on an area south of Haifa called the "Little Triangle." With “six 65 mm Napoleonchik cannons…stationed about 3 km to the west of the village and mortars placed to the southeast, a Golani company left a farm near Mazar (north of Jaba') to attack the Arab positions. “They encountered an ambush and retreated after 6–9 soldiers were injured.”


1948: At a Mapai Center meeting held today during the War of Independence, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion accused Mapam of hypocrisy regarding its treatment of Arabs in the combat zone.


1950: Seth Glickenhaus, the founder of Glickenhaus & Co. and his wife gave birth investment professional turned movie maker James Glickenhaus.


1950: The first World Congress for the Promotion of the Hebrew Language and Culture met in Jerusalem


1951:The Jerusalem Post reported that thousands of mourners led the black-draped gun carriage carrying the coffin of King Abdullah of Jordan to the royal cemetery in Amman. The Jordanian police rounded over 70 suspects in connection with the king's assassination, including two relatives of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. There were clashes in the Jordanian-occupied Old City of Jerusalem between Arab Legion Bedouins and the local Arabs. The first immigrant from Russia, 73-year-old Tova Lerner from Soviet Bessarabia, arrived together with 993 newcomers from Romania. The committee appointed to study the cost-of-living index found that it was not a true judge of Israeli living standards.



1952: Premiere of Western classic “High Noon” directed by Fred Zinnemann, produced by Stanley Kramer, with a screenplay by Carl Foreman and  a most memorable score by Dimitri Tiomkin that included “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”



1952: In Jerusalem Zila née Segal and professor Benzion Netanyahu gave birth “physician and author Iddo Netanyahu” the younger brother of Benjamin and Yonatan Netanyahu.



1956 At New York City’s Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together.



1957: Birthdate of Susan A. Gelman “a Heinz Werner Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan.”



1960: “The Gazebo” produced by Lawrence Weingarten, featuring Carl Reiner, Mabel Albertson, Martin Landau and Robert Ellenstein, was released today in the United Kingdom after having been released in the United States in December of 1959.



1967: Zvi Dinstein was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance.



1969: Operation Boxer continued with IAF attacking a radar station at Gebel Ataka and SAM sites.



1969: IAF pilots Shmuel Gordon, Michael Zuk and Ran Goren were responsible for shooting down three Egyptian aircraft today.



1976: As conditions between Uganda and Kenya continue to worsen President Idi Amin cut off supplies to its African neighbor.  The core of the dispute is based on reports that Israeli planes that had conducted the raid on Entebbe had refueled in Nairobi.



1979(29th of Tammuz, 5739): Eighty-three year old Dr. Jacob Furth a pioneering pathologist passed away today. (As reported by George Goodman, Jr.)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0A14FE3E5A12728DDDA10A94DF405B898BF1D3



1981: “William Wyler gave an interview with his daughter, producer Catherine Wyler for Directed by William Wyler, a PBS documentary about his life and career. A mere three days later, Wyler died from a heart attack. Wyler's last words on film concern a vision of directing his "next picture...Going Home". Wyler is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.



1983: A Broadway revival of Jerry Herman’s “Mame” opened at the George Gershwin Theatre where “it ran for only 41 performances.”



1984: Radio Luxembourg reported that Ya'acov Nimrodi, an intimate of leaders across the Israeli political spectrum, had met in Zurich with the deputy defense minister and the top intelligence officer of Iran and with Rif'at al-Assad, the brother of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Swiss government sources said that the meeting resulted in a deal to ship 40 truckloads of weapons a day from Israel to Iran, via Syria and Turkey.



1986(17th of Tammuz, 5746): Tzom Tammuz



1986(17th of Tammuz, 5746): Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine passed away.



1991(12th of Av, 5751: Author Isaac Bashevis Singer passed away. Singer was born near Warsaw.  His father was a rabbi and his mother came from a family of rabbis.  He moved to the United States in 1935.  Singer’s genre of choice was the short story.  His language of choice was Yiddish.  Many of his works first appeared in the “Forwards,” the popular Yiddish language daily. Singer received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.  He was the first Yiddish writer to win the prestigious award
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/01/25/home/singer-obit.html?_r=2



1992(23rd of Tammuz, 5752): Seventy-one year old Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov (a Soviet physician, known for inventing the Ilizarov apparatus for lengthening limb bones and for his eponymous surgery” passed away today.



1992(23rd of Tammuz, 5752):  Samuel “Sam” Berger passed away.  Berger was a driving force behind the Canadian Football League.  At different times he owed the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Montreal Alouettes. In 1986 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, for "his commitments to the sport and to the City of Montreal".  In 1993 he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.



1992: “Mom and Dad Save The World” starring Jon Lovitz as “Emperor Tod Spengo” with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United States by Warner Bros. today.



1993(6thof Av, 57530: On Shabbat Chazon, ninety-four year old “Dr. Abram Leon Sachar, a historian who led the Hillel Foundation for 22 years and was the founding president of Brandeis University” passed away. Sachar was a descendant of Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph the 16th century Italian Talmudist whose ‘chief work was the Sefer Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah, called also Sefer Yaḥya, on which he labored for more than forty years.’ (As reported by Richard D. Lyons)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/25/obituaries/dr-abram-l-sachar-historian-and-1st-brandeis-u-president-94.html



1995(26th of Tammuz, 5755): Mordechai Tuvya, 38, Nehama Leibowitz, 61, Zehava Oren, 60, Rahel Tamari, 65, Moshe Shkedi, 75 and Zvia Hacohen, 62 were killed and 30 Israeli civilians were injured when a Hamas suicide bomber detonated 33 pounds of TNT aboard No. 20 commuter bus in Ramat Gan near the Diamond Exchange.



1997: 15thMaccabiah comes to a close.



2000: Medieval Hebrew Poetry in its Religious and Secular Context, a colloquia sponsored by The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) is scheduled to being today.



2000: Negotiations that had begun on July 11 at Camp David between Barak and Arafat under the auspices President Clinton came to end with a final announcement to be made tomorrow.



2001: Jewish American real estate mogul Larry A. Silverstein signs a $3.2 billion, 99-year lease on the entire World Trade Center complex, 7 weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks.



2001: In Jerusalem, the body of seventeen year old Ronen Landau which was covered with stab and bullet wounds was found today.



2002: Hadassah’s 88th annual national convention comes to a close



2002(15th of Av, 5762):Aaron Albert “Al” Silvera, a journeyman outfielder who played for two seasons with the Cincinnati Reds in the mid-1950’s passed away. This meant he was a teammate of such talented players as Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan and Slugger Ted Kluszewski. He was also the nephew of former Major League pitcher "Subway Sam" Nahem.



2003: At the Lincoln Center Festival, Israel’s Gesher Theatre gives its opening performance of of its adaptation of “Shosha.”



2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters by Ben Green.



2005: In “Giving Hitler Hell,” Matthew Brzezinski recounted the travels of Arnold H. Weiss from youthful refugee from Nazi Germany to his return as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army to his ultimate triumph as a successful businessman and philanthropist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072101680.html



2005(17th of Tammuz, 5765): Shiva Asar Be-Tammuz (Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz).



2005: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Bernard Goldberg’s 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America which lists Jewish comedian Al Frankin as number 37.



2006: It was reported today that Randy Lerner, the son of the late Al Lerner intended to purchase Premier League club Aston Villa.



2006: During the 2006 Lebanon War, the IDF begins its attack on Bint Jbeil  



2006:"Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Haret Hreik ("Dahiya") district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa," a senior air force officer told army radio today.



2006:”The Association for Civil Rights in Israel appealed to Defense Minister Amir Peretz after IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz apparently said that “for every Katyusha barrage on Haifa, 10 more buildings in the Dahiya neighborhood of south Beirut will be bombed.” “The group also condemned the "grave and illegal" attacks carried out on the Israeli civilian population by Hezbollah” (As reported by Aviram Zino)



2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war: St.-Sgt. Koby Smileg, 20, of Rehovot; Col. Zvi Luft, 42, of Hogla; Sec.-Lt. Lotan Slavin, 21, of Hatzeva; Lt. Tom Farkash, 23, of Caesarea.



2007(9th of Av, 5767): Tish'a B'Av



2007(9thof Av, 5767):Psychoanalyst Albert Ellis “a founder of the now widely practiced cognitive behavioral therapy” whose “blunt advice to patients included “forget god-awful pasts, face fears and change actions”  passed away at the age of 93.



2007:Jacques Attali was entrusted “with the presidency of a commission dedicated to the study of the obstacles to economic growth, known as "The Commission for the Liberation of the French Economic Growth".



2008: The three day Karmiel Dance festival comes to an end. www.karmeilfestival.co.il in English



2008: Begin reading the Ezekiel as part of the “Daf Yomi Program” on DownHomeDavar



2009 (3rd of Av, 5769): One hundred twenty-eight anniversary of the arrival of “the first shipload of Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York City” on 3rdof Av, 1881. “This began the mass immigration of eastern European Jews to America, and in the next half-century over 2 million Jews would flee Russian pogroms for the safety of the U.S. This influx indelibly altered the demographics of American Jewry; according to the U.S. census of 1940, 1.75 million Jews spoke Yiddish at home.”



2009(3rdof Av, 5769:Ninety year old George Weissman, the businessman and patron of the arts, who revamped Philip Morris, passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/28weissman.html



2009: The Junior Philharmonic gives its annual Jerusalem performance at the YMCA with a program that includes Beethoven’s Symphony #6 – Pastoral, Ravel’s Bolero and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.



2009: Scottish actress Ronni Ancona appeared on the BBC’s “The One Show”



2009: Amid another round of political scandals, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine named state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), a self-described “Jewish grandmother from Bergen County” ashis new pick for lieutenant governor.



2010: In Cedar Rapids, Jacob Sarasin, son Amanda Colehour and Dr. Dan Sarasin (President of Temple Judah) is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah.



2010: Opening night of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2010:Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza launched a number of rocket attacks on southern Israel today.



2011: Bruce Sundlin, the second Jew to serve as Governor of Rhode Island “was buried at Sons of David and Israel Cemetery (Temple Beth El Cemetery) in Providence, Rhode Island”



2011: The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to host an Ice Cream Social For New and Prospective Members



2011: The Ritchie Boys Exhibit which will give visitors a chance to “witness how a small group of misfit intellectual Jewish boys formed a US Army intelligence unit and waged warfare against the Nazis during World War II” is scheduled to take place at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan Guy Stern, one of those "Ritchie Boys” is scheduled to attend the event.



2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel and the recently released paperback edition of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters, edited by Bill Morgan and David Stanford



2011:A group of university students interrupted a Knesset Finance Committee meeting in Ramat Gan today, as part of the current protests against housing prices.



2011: At the International Math Olympiad that came to an end today, “Israeli whiz kids walk away from competition with 1 gold, 4 bronze medals, as Israel reaches 23rd spot out of 101 teams.”



2012(5thof Av, 5772): Eighty-eight year old Irvin Faust, the high school guidance counselor who found time to write novels and short stories that critics likened to the magic realist fiction of South America” passed away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/books/irvin-faust-author-and-guidance-counselor-dies-at-88.html?ref=books



2012: “God’s Fiddler,” a documentary about Jascha Heifitz and “The Moon is Jewish” are scheduled to have their west coast premieres at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2012: Marbin which first started in 2007 as an improvised music duo consisting of Israeli-American guitarist Dani Rabin and Israeli saxophonist Danny Markovitch, is scheduled to perform at the Bowery Electric in New York



2012: Today, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said any attempt by Hezbollah to attain non-conventional weapons from Syria would prompt Israeli military intervention (As reported by Raphael Ahren)



2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that the government will have to raise taxes by August 1. He said the move was necessary to head off economic crisis. His plan includes a hike in VAT, which is sure to cause friction with protesters already concerned at economic inequalities in Israel. (As reported by Michal Shmulovich)



2013: The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a screening of “REFUSENIK,” the first retrospective documentary to chronicle the thirty-year movement to free Soviet Jews



2013: “Broadway Babes,” a musical revue that “is a tribute to the female voice on Broadway” is scheduled to open at 9 pm in Modi’in.



2013:The exquisite dancers of L-E-V, including Sharon Eyal herself, are scheduled to perform the provocative work HOUSE in its U.S. debut



2013(17thof Av): Yarhrzeit of Isidor Bush, publisher of Israel’s Herald, a German language publication that was the first Jewish weekly published in the United States.



2013(17thof Av): Seventy-eight year old Art Ginsburg the founder of Art’s Deli passed away today. (As reported by Steve Chawkins)
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-art-ginsburg-20130726-story.html



2013:Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau defeated Shmuel Eliyahu and David Stav to win ten-year terms as chief rabbis of Israel today, in a victory for Shas and United Torah Judaism over religious Zionism and Bayit Yehudi (As reported by Gil Hoffman)



2013: A middle-aged Jewish man was stabbed in the upper torso and arm during an unprovoked attack in a public bathroom at Bloomfield Park in Jerusalem this afternoon, allegedly by an Arab assailant (As reported by Daniel K. Eisenbud)



2014: American-Israeli violist Gil Shaham is scheduled to perform at Tanglewood with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States.



2014: Poet Davi Walders and Dr. Jenna Weissman Joselit the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies, The George Washington University  are scheduled to speak at the luncheon honoring Laura Cohen Apelbaum’s 20th anniversary as Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.



2015: Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to perform at the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, MA.



2015: Scheduled “Opening of the End of Year Exhibition of the Architecture Department at1 Bezalel Street.”



 



 


 

This Day, July 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 25



306: Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. Under the rule of Constantine, Christianity would in effect become the official religion the Roman Empire. This was the beginning of a downward spiral in the life of European Jewry.No century was more decisive for Jewish-Christian relations than the fourth century. The Edict of Milan issued by Emperor Constantine in 313 CE granted freedom of worship to all religious groups, including Jews. But Christianity quickly was to become the chief beneficiary of this decree, while Jewish fortunes were to sink to a new low. In 323 CE Christianity was granted a special position within the empire. Judaism theoretically continued as a legal religion, but it was frequently abused by Christian preachers and people without any action being taken by the imperial government. By the time Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity on his deathbed in 329, the imperial government had already begun to institute restrictive measures against Jewish privileges. By the end of the fourth century the civil status of Jews was in serious danger and their image had greatly deteriorated. The Jew was now seen as a semi-satanic figure, cursed by God, and specially set apart by the civil government.



404:Emperors Arcadius and Honorius repeal an earlier law which prohibits the Jewish patriarchs from collecting their own taxes.” (As reported by Austin Cline)



864: Charles the Bald orders defensive measures to be taken against the Viking marauders.  Regardless of whatever others may think of him, Charles the Bald, who was King of France, comes up on the plus side in Jewish history when compared to other monarchs since he resisted enforcing the anti-Semitic edicts of the Archbishop of Lyon.  Charles motives were political and economic, not religious.



1100: Jewish residents of Haifa joined with the Fatimids of Egypt in defending the city. Tancred, who unsuccessfully attacked Haifa, was reprimanded for his lack of success and told that he made "a mockery of the God of the Christians." Once the city fell, the remaining Jews were massacred by the crusading forces.



1196: Al Mohades despoiled the Jewish community of Castille, taking the Codes Hilleli, a 600 year old Biblical manuscript considered to be the oldest Hebrew copy of the Bible in Spain.



1215: Frederick II, under whom the Jews prospered because he recognized them as “a separate ethnic and religious group, and were not bound to the laws that targeted the Christian population” had a second coronation as King of Germany at Aachen today.



1261: The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos.  As head of the Byzantine Empire, Alexios followed the pattern of toleration towards the Jewish people started by his father despite pressure from leaders of the church to do otherwise.



1312: In Worms, Bishop Emerich “ordered that the Jew-bishop (the name the gentiles gave to the leader of the Jew they chose to lead the community) should no longer be confirmed in his office by the emperor, but by the bishop of the diocese; and also that a Jew-bishop once appointed should retain his title until his death, although his official duties should each year devolve on another member of the council.” (This was more about money than theology since the Jews had to pay the Catholic Bishop an annual fee under the new arrangement.)



1360: Anti-Jewish riots in Breslau resulted in many deaths and the expulsion of those that remained alive.



1492: The book of Proverbs with commentaries of Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides) and Menham Meiri was published in Leira Portugal by Abraham d’Ortas



1492:Innocent VIII passed away.  The Pope’s Jewish doctor had made a last ditch attempt to save Innocent’s life by providing him with a transfusion of human blood.  This was an experimental operation and all three attempts failed. The Jewish doctor fled when it did not work.



1554: Charles V, who was known for his “intolerant treatment of the Jews” “formally abdicated the throne of Naples.



1547: Coronation of King Henry II of France to whom Italian Rabbi Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno dedicated his commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes and to whom he sent a copy of Or Ammim which he had translated into Latin.



1572 (5 Av 5332): Isaac Luria the foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region passes away.. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah. He is known for the interpretation of his teachings in Kabbalah known as Lurianic Kabbalah. There is no way that this simple blog can do justice to his writings and their effect.



1603: James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots is crowned first king of Great Britain and becomes King James I.  During his reign Jews were still not allowed to return publicly to England, but there was an active community of Marranos living in the British Isles.  Kings James is most famous for the King James Bible, a translation commissioned during his reign completed in 161l.  Most Americans, including a large number of Jews, only know the words of this translation of the Bible.



1670: The Jewish community of Vienna was expelled.



1720: A Cuban named Jose Dias Piamena was burned at a grand auto-de-fe in Seville. A pirate, Piamena had been imprisoned in Cadiz. In his cell he wrote an anti-Christian tirade on Isaiah 53. When he escaped from jail, he left a message saying he, "desired to live and die for Judaism." He was sentenced because he had converted to Judaism while in Curacao, and married a Jewish girl.



1721(1stof Av, 5481): Rabbi Aaron ben Benjamin Wolf, the son of Isaac Benjamin Wolf ben Eliezer Liebman, author of Naḥlat Binyamin passed away today at Frankfort-on-the-Oder.



1739: Fifty-six year old Johann Christoph Wolf the “German Christian Hebraist” who authored the 4 volume Bibliotheca Hebræa which “brought together almost all the accessible information relating to Jewish authors and their works, as well as to the writings of Christians on Jewish subjects.”



1778:Moses Dobruška, “the first cousin once removed of Jacob Frank” who had converted to Catholicism and taken the name Franz Thomas Schonfeld “was elevated to the nobility in Vienna along Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld who had not converted.



1799: At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha. This was part of Napoleon’s opening gambit to fulfill his imperial designs which would include promises during the siege of Acre about the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine.



1804 Jacbo Abraham de Mist, the Dutch commissioner-general issued a proclamation in Cape Town instituting religious equality for all which allowed for the Jews, among others, to practice their religion openly in public.



1818: In Baghdad, David and Hannah Sassoon gave birth to Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon.



1835: The Jews of Hebron were attacked.



1841: Birthdate of Dr. Max Jaffe a native of Grunberg, Slesia.



1848: Birthdate of Arthur Earl Balfour.  Balfour will serve as Prime Minister in the first decade of the twentieth century.  But his real claim to fame came during World War I with the issuance of the British policy statement that bears his name – The Balfour Declaration.



1853: Birthdate of theatrical producer and writer, David Belasco. Belasco was highly prolific. He was involved in the production of almost 400 plays during a career that spanned one of the most dynamic periods in American theatrical history. He passed away in 1931



1854: In Frankfurt am Main Dr. Moritz Schiff and Caludia trier gave birth to “Italian chemist” Robert Schiff


1855: Birthdate of Edward Solomon, the English composer, pianist, and orchestra conductor.Solomon was the composer and first night conductor of two works at the Savoy:The Nautch Girl in 1891 and The Vicar of Bray in 1892.


1857: The New York Times carried a report that an English paper, The Advertiser, says there will be a new election for the city of London because Baron Rothschild had explicitly promised to resign if the bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities was not carried during this session of Parliament.


1858:After a five-and-twenty years' wrangling the admissibility of the Jews to Parliament has been conceded.


1875: Sir Moses Montefiore arrived in Jerusalem.



1876: Birthdate of Louis Thomas McFadden the Pennsylvania Congressman who was the first to insert excerpts from the Protocols into the Congressional Record” [Editor’s Note – McFadden was an outspoken foe the Federal Reserve Board.  He blamed the board for the Great Depression and saw it as part of a Jewish conspiracy to control the economy.  McFadden also wanted to impeach President Hoover.]



1878: It was reported today that “some officers of a Jewish synagogue in Liverpool” have recently been “tried for cruelty to animals” because they allowed a bullock to bleed to death “instead of slaughtering him in the usual way.  Professional experts testified that there was no cruelty…and the charge was dismissed.” 



1879: A report publish today described the desperate conditions in Russia brought on by an extended heat wave and an infestation of locust.  Towns in Poland and Lithuania towns “are swarming with…a large…unemployed Jewish population” that has caused the government to establish “more agricultural colonies in the various Provinces” because those created several years ago for the Jews surprisingly enough “have shown signs of prosperity.”  



1879(1stof Av, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Av



1880: It was reported today that the Southeby’s has just completed a showing and sale of the works of George Cruikshank whose works include an illustration of Dickens’ “Fagan” – “the foiled Jew sitting in his cell more like an evil bird of prey than any human thing.”



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cruikshank_fagin_cell.jpg



1881: It was reported today the estate of the late Earl Beaconsfield was valued at approximately £76.687 and after deducting for debts and funerals a net value of £63,312.  His executors include Sir Philip Rose, a prominent gentile lawyer and Sir Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild.



1882(9thof Av, 5642): Tish’a B’Av



1882: “Louis Berkowitz and Ignatz Mueller were appointed assistant teachers” at Hebrew Union College.



1882: The Turkish government added to the list of “bad things” that happened to Jews on the 9th of Av when it barred immigration of Russian and Romanian Jews and forbade the sale of land in Eretz Israel to Jews. The irony is that the Turks feared the Jews because they were Russians. Russia had cast covetous eyes on Turkish territory as it sought a warm water port.



1883: Among those arriving aboard the SS Persian Monarch from England were a Hungarian Jew named Anton Simony along with his wife and two children and Russian Jew named Nathan Smilansky along with his wife and six children.  The Hebrew Relief Society of London had paid for their tickets.  Both families were destitute.  [This is an example of what appears to be a pattern – European Jewish agencies buying tickets for eastern European refugees to make sure they would not settle in English and other cities.]



1883: Maria Kozorswska, a Jewish immigrant who had arrived in the United States from Russia in June, was swindled out of 25 dollars today. For some inexplicable reasons she a stranger the money so that he would buy her a ticket on a steamship that would take her back to Europe.



1884: It was reported today the conspirators who had tried to kill the Czar on his visit to Warsaw planned to start a rebellion in Poland and Western Russia that would include a plundering of the Jews.



1885(13th of Av, 5645): On Shabbat Nachamu, Sir Moses Montefiore passed away at the age of 101. Although he was an English man, Jews celebrated his 100th birthday around the world and his passing was marked in the same way. Born in 1784, Montefiore was a successful businessman and civic leader. He was recognized as a leader of the Jewish community and was knighted in 1837. He was a brother-in-law to the head of the English branch of the House of Rothschild. Montefiore was an observant Jew and a frequent visitor to Eretz Israel. He donated large sums of money for the development of agricultural settlements and built the first modern Jewish housing complex outside the walls of what is called the Old City. In other words, he started the expansion of what is Jerusalem today. He also provided funds for a windmill for grinding corn which is now known as “Montefiore’s Windmill.” It still stands today in Jerusalem as a testament to a man who supported the Jewish homeland and worked to alleviate the suffering of European Jewry.



http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/montefiore.html



http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112353/jewish/Sir-Moses-Montefiore.htm



http://www.teachittome.com/seforim2/seforim/diaries_of_sir_moses_and_lady_montefiore_1.pdf



1886: “Baron de Worm’s Suit” published today provides details of the divorce action brought Baron Henry de Worms.  He sued his wife Baroness Fannie de Worms (nee Von Todesco) on grounds of adultery and named Mortiz von Leon as correspondent. The Baron is a member of a prominent Jewish family and a Member of Parliament.  His wife was an Austrian Jewess.  At the end of the hearing the President of the court granted the petition and awarded custody of the children to the father.



1886: Jacob Novek and Samuel Sturmak two Russian Jewish peddlers went to the police station in New York and asked when the balloon would be leaving for Hamburg.  They explained that any single person who made the trip would be paid five hundred dollars and married travelers would be paid one thousand dollars.  The two said they were willing to go since they were starving.  The police made inquiries and discovered that the two immigrants were the victims of a hoax perpetrated by a boy who ran a soda water stand on Canal Street.



1888: “Put Salt in the Water” published today described a scheme to victimize poor east side Jews seeking relief on excursion to Raritan Beach.



1889: Herzl married Julie Naschauer in Reichenau. The young couple traveled to Switzerland and France and awaited the completion of their home in Vienna.



1889: Ohaveth Sholum (lovers of peace) was founded today in Seattle, Washington, making it the first Jewish congregation in the state’s largest city.



1890: “For Charity’s Sake” published today described the upcoming fund-raiser that B’nai Brith is sponsoring for the benefit of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews at Yonkers.



1891: All but two of the members of the United States Immigration Commission returned to London from Liverpool today where they have been investigating the involvement of the steamship companies and railways in sending “pauper immigrants” to the United States including Jews who had originally lived in Russia.



1892(1st of Av, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Av



1892(1st of Av, 5652): Washington Nathan died today in Boulogne, France. Nathan was the son of Benjamin Nathan, the prominent New Yorker, whose murder 12 years ago has never been solved.  There are those who are still convinced that Washington Nathan was involved in his father’s murder.



1892: Modest Aronstam arrived in Pittsburgh intending to finish the botched attempt on the life on Henry Clay Frick but panicked and went back to New York when newspaper articles identified him as a possible assassin



1893: A crowd of about 2,000, a third of whom were Jewish immigrants listened to the band concert tonight at Paradise Park.



1893(12thof Av, 5653): Forty three year old Paul d’Abrest, who was born Friedrich Kohn in Prague, and who pursued a career as a journalist in Paris and Vienna passed away today.



1893(12thof Av, 5653): Eighty-four year old Asher Kursheedt passed away in New York City.



1894(21st of Tammuz, 5654): Fifty-two year old Dr. Isidor Cohnstein, the husband of Ida Cohnstein, who was an author as well as a physician passed away today in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany



1895: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children’s rail excursion is scheduled to leave this morning at 9:20.



1895: It was reported today that out of the nearly five million people in Belgium only 4,000 are Jews.



1896: On Shabbat, striking Jewish tailors and those who had not yet joined the strike, attended a mass meeting at Walhalla Hall



1896: The Chairman of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration offered his services to the General Executive Committee of the Brotherhood of Tailors, most of whom were Jewish in an effort to end their strike with their employers.



1897: The funeral services for Lewis May are scheduled to be held at 11 A.M. this morning at Temple Emanu-El the congregation he served as President up until the time of his death.



1897: A party of thirty young Jewish men and women who were enjoying “some refreshments” after having visited the New Mount Sinai Cemetery at Woodside were accosted by a man claiming to be a police officer who said he would arrest them “unless he was paid to leave them alone.”



1898: In Hoboken, NJ, during a dispute over landownership, workmen arrived at the Moses Montefiore Congregation and used jack-screws to raise the building thirty feet in the aire.



1900: Percy George de Worms married Sir Harry Simeon Samuel’s only daughter, Nora, today. Although he was an English barrister and philatelist he was descended from Austrian nobility; his great-grandfather having been made a Baron by Emperor Franz Joseph.



1903: “Theodor Herzl arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia to intervene with the Russian government to life the prohibition of Zionist activities and stop the persecution of Zionists.”



1903: At the Sun-Rise Hill Climb near Edgehill in Warwickshire Dorothy Levitt was the official passenger of S.F. Edge because her Gladiator was a non-starter. Levit was born Dorothy Elizabeth Levi, the daughter of a tea dealer named Jacob Levi.



1905: In Ruse, Bulgaria, Jacques Canetti and Mathilde née Arditti gave birth to Elias Canetti who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.



1907: Birthdate of actor Jack Gilford. Born Jacob Gellman in New York City, Gilford’s "rubber-face" led him to play numerous character roles in films, televisions and commercials. One of his most famous roles was in “Cocoon” where he played the role of a gravelly voiced "doubting Thomas.”



1915: Sephardic Bikur Holim Synagogue opens in Seattle, Washington.



1915: In Chicago, a special summer course sponsored by HUC came to a close today.



1915: Pictures taken by Hal Reid showing Leo Frank in “prison garb” and showing his “life in jail” will start appearing “on the screen in all Marcus Loew’s theatres in New York as an addition to the regular program on view in these houses.”



1915: After visiting Leo Frank today and seeing his wounds, Governor Harris expressed the opinion that “Leo Frank’s days are numbered” despite what the doctors have said about his recovery.



1918: Louis N. Hammerling, President of the of Association of Foreign Language Newspapers was arrested today on a charge of him criminally libeling Vaclav G. Hajek a former investigator for the Department of Justice.



1921: Birthdate of Murray Handwerker, “who transformed his father’s Brooklyn hot dog business, Nathan’s Famous, into a celebrated national fast-food chain.”



1923: Birthdate of “David Gerber, an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning television producer who brought forward-thinking series like “Police Story” and “Police Woman” to prime time in the 1970s and produced more than 50 television films and mini-series during a four-decade career.”



1924: Birthdate of Hans Arnold Wangersheim who fled to the United States from Nazi Germany as a 13-year-old and as Arnold Hans Weiss returned as an American soldier during World War II, becoming a principal in the investigation that led to the discovery of Hitler’s last will and political testament.”



1925: In Ohio, the Sandusky Star Journal ran “an uncredited illustration of Louis Wolheim.



1926: Birthdate of Ray Solomonoff, the son of Julius and Sarah Solomonoff, “the inventor of algorithmic probability, and founder of algorithmic information theory, who was an originator of the branch of artificial intelligence based on machine learning, prediction and probability.”



1927: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency announced that “Nathan Straus will build a $75,000 health center” at Tel Aviv.  Straus has already funded a similar clinic in Jerusalem.



1928: Birthdate of “Igor Birman, a Russian émigré economist who virtually predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union years before its fall.”



1928(8thof Av, 5688): Sixty-three year old Monia Mathers, the sister of Henri Bergson passed away today
http://www.golden-dawn.org/biomoinam.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moina_Mathers#/media/File:Picture_of_Moina_Mathers_from_her_performance_in_the_Rites_of_Isis_in_Paris.jpg



1929:Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel HaTzair, the two major labor parties in Eretz Israel officially merge.


1929:Tzom Tammuz, 5689


1929: Birthdate of Yosef Alon, an Israeli Air Force officer, who was murdered in suburban Maryland while serve as Air Attaché.  The murder has never been solved.


1929: Anna Rachel (Berman) Asimov and Judah Asimov gave birth to Stanley Asimov, a younger brother of author Isaac Asimov “who was vice president of New York Newsday.”


1929: In Los Angeles, Nathaniel Shenberg, who “owned a business that specialized in beveled glass” and his wife Hortense gave birth to Mildred Shenberg who gained fame as “Mildred Friedman, a curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in the 1970s and ’80s.” (As reported by William Yardley)



1931(11th of Av, 5691):Dr. Lee K. Frankel passed away.


1934: The Nazis attempted to overthrow the Austrian government. Chancellor Dollfus was assassinated, but the putsch failed and Kurt von Schuschnigg was appointed Chancellor. He in turn tried his best to curtail Nazi influence in Austria.



1935: Birthday of Larry Sherry.  Along with his brother Norm, they formed an all Jewish battery combo that led the L.A. Dodgers to the World Series Championship in 1959.



1938: Fifty three persons were killed and fifty-eight were today as a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Arab market in the heart of Haifa.  While Arabs rioted in response to the violence, Jewish newspapers called for an investigation to find out who was responsible “demanding that the guilty parties, whether Jew or Arab, be brought to justice.”



1938(25th of Tammuz, 5698: A Jewish farmer was killed by a land mine planted near Ein Vered and Jewish guard was killed at Kfar Haroesh when he was attacked by a band of 25 armed Arabs.



1938: A group of Jewish laborers were fired on this morning as they worked in quarry in Tiberias.  One worker was killed and another was wounded.



1938: Tonight, the National Council of Palestine Jews issued a proclamation holding the Arabs accountable for the horrific outbreak of violence in Haifa saying that “the outrages” were an attempt to bring about a civil war in Palestine.



1939(9th of Av, 5699):Tish'a B'Av



1940: French army officer and rabbi, David Feuerwerker was demobilized today following France’s defeat by Germany. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with a bronze star for his service as chief of artillery communications during which he showed “drive, courage”…and contributed to maintain “the fighting spirit” of those around him.



1940:A cable from Simon Davidovitch Kremer, Secretary to the Soviet Military Attaché in London specifically identified Ivor Montagu as the head of the X Group spy ring “Ivor Montagu (brother of Lord Montagu) sic, the well-known local communist, journalist and lecturer.”



1941: In London, cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky and his wife gave birth to Peter Suschitzky who followed in his father’s professional footsteps.
 
1941: “Immediately after the Germans occupied the city of Lvov, Ukrainian militia commanders proclaimed Petliura Day (in memory of the Ukrainian nationalist hero who was assassinated in 1926 during his exile in Paris by a Jewish avenger) and embarked on a three day pogrom that massacred 6,000 Jews.



1941: In five separate incidents, Jews in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, throw gasoline bombs at Nazi cars.



1941: Max Dormoy, a friend and colleague of Leon Blum was assassinated today.



1941: A two day long Pogrom began in Kovno, Lithuania which would claim the life of 3, 800Jews.



1942: In Belgium, The Jewish Council completed a comprehensive list of the names and addresses of approximately 56,000 Jews living in the country. The SS ordered the creation of the list which was no available through existing governmental channels since Belgium did not track citizens by their religious affiliation. The SS told the Jews they needed the list so they could organize labor groups to be sent East to work. When the Jewish Council did not produce the list quickly enough, the SS threatened to start grabbing Jews off the street and shipping them East regardless of age, sex or physical description. What the Jewish Council did not know was that the SS was implementing the first steps of the Final Solution that had been agreed to in January, 1942. This list of Jews would in fact be used to prepare the transports for Auschwitz.



1943: Mussolini was dismissed from office. It was hoped that his downfall would ease the situation for Italy's Jews. In point of fact, things would actually get worse as the Nazis seized control of the Italian mainland.



1943: John Garfield and his wife Roberta Seidman gave birth to their second child and only son David Garfield whose middle name was Patton in honor of the famous general.



1943: Birthdate of actress Janet Margolin. Born in New York City, she first gained popular acclaim for her role in the 1962 film David & Lisa.



1944: Three tankers carrying more than 1600 Jews from the Italian-held island of Rhodes stop at the island of Kos, where 94 additional Jews are forced aboard


1944: Thirty-one faked postcards from deportees arrive at the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto. The writers claim to have been happily resettled, when in reality they have been gassed at Chelmno.


1944: Lord Walter Moyne, chief British official in the Middle East, finally approves British military training for Jewish Palestinians who are being sent on suicide missions into Occupied Europe. He writes: "The scheme would remove from Palestine a number of active and resourceful Jews.... The chances of many of them returning in the future to give trouble in Palestine seem slight."


1945: Following duty in England and on the Seine River, the SS President Warfield arrived at Norfolk, Virginia. After deactivation and re-sale, the President Warfield would gain fame as the SS Exodus.


1945: Kurt Gerstein, the former head of the Waffen-SSInstitute of Hygiene in Berlin and an advocate of euthanasia hangs himself in prison.


1946: Birthdate of Nicole Farhi, “a French fashion designer and sculptor” who “is the daughter of Sephardic Jews from Turkey” and who is married to author David Hare.


1946: Theodore Levin was confirmed by the United States Senate to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Edward Julien Moinet.


1946: Dean Martin (the Italian crooner) and Jerry Lewis (the Jewish clown) perform together for the first time.  During the next ten years, Martin and Lewis would move from clubs, to movies to a hit television program.


1948: During Operation Shoter, Israeli forces renewed their attack on an area south of Haifa known as the “Little Triangle.”


1950: The government of Lebanon protested to the United Nations claiming that an Israeli fighter plane had crossed into its territory and fired on a civilian airliner.  According to the Israelis, the airliner had violated Israel’s airspace when it flew over the northern Galilee.  When the plane failed to obey signals to land, the Israeli fighter fired warning shots.  The Israelis said they also planned to file a protest with the UN.


1951: The Jerusalem Post reported from Poland that former SS General Jurgen Stroop and Captain Franz Konrad were sentenced to death in Warsaw for the extermination of the Jewish population of the Warsaw Ghetto. In Jaffa, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, addressing a crowd of 10,000, mostly new immigrants, insisted that food and other government controls were necessary to fulfill the aim of reaching a population of two million and to establish 1,000 new settlements, even if this meant a temporary shortage of food and housing. "The newcomers will build their own homes and will grow their own food," he concluded.



1952: Birthdate of Ephraim “Effi” Eitam, the native of kibbutz Ein Gev whose political career has included membership in the Knesset from 2003 until 2009



1956: The Jordanians attacked UN Palestine truce keepers.



1957:  The Republic of Tunisia is proclaimed. Despite the fact that Jews like André Barouche had played an active role in Tunisia’s struggle for independence and the fact that it was a Pierre Mendes France, the Jewish Prime Minister of France, who granted Tunisia her independence, the conditions for Tunisia’s Jews deteriorated rapidly. The newly chosen President, Habib Bourguiba “ordered the dissolution of all Jewish organizations into one body known as the Jewish Religious Council, the members of which were appointed by the President...Under an order for slum clearance, the ancient Jewish quarter was razed to the ground, thereby demolishing the oldest and most historic synagogue in Tunis.” Things were so bad that 40,000 Jews (about 40% of the 1948 Jewish population) left for Israel.  (This is the Refugee Problem that nobody talks about)  



1958(8th of Av, 5718): Movie mogul, Harry Morris Warner passed away. Along with his three brothers, Harold Warner founded Warner Brothers Studio in 1923. These Jews made American movies. There first major star was a dog, “Rin Tin Tin.” The canine hero made 26 films for them and these hits were a big help in providing cash for the brothers. Warner Brothers took a gamble in 1927 and produced the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer. Harold apparently was not originally enthusiastic about the project since one of his most famous quotes is, "Who wants to hear actors talk?"



1959(19th of Tammuz, 5719:  Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog passed away. Rabbi Herzog was the second Chief Rabbi of Israel, serving from 1936 until his death in 1959 at the age of 71. Born in Poland 1888, the son of a rabbi, Herzog spent his childhood in England and France. A brilliant student, he completed the study of the Talmud at the age of 16. He pursued secular academic excellence as well, earning a doctorate from London University. His thesis was uniquely Jewish – "The Dyeing of Purple in Ancient Israel." Herzog served as the Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State before moving to Palestine to succeed the great Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Herzog worked diligently to try and save Jewish children trapped in Europe. After the creation of the state of Israel, he was faced with the challenge of applying halachah to life in a modern Jewish state, something nobody had done since the fall of Jerusalem in 70. His two most famous works are Main Institutions of Jewish Law and his responsa entitled Hekhal Yitzhak. Herzog’s life is life is a testament to the best in combining Orthodoxy and Zionism.
http://www.jta.org/1960/07/11/archive/first-anniversary-of-death-of-chief-rabbi-herzog-observed-in-israel
http://www.archives.gov.il/ArchiveGov_Eng/Publications/ElectronicPirsum/RabbiHerzog/



1960(1st of Av, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Av



1964: Birthdate José Joaquín Bautista Arias who may have been the only Jewish baseball player from the Dominican Republic to pitch in the Major Leagues.



1964: In Washington, DC, Harvey M. Applebaum, a Covington and Burling partner, and Elizabeth Applebaum of the Corcoran Gallery of Art gave birth to Pulitzer-prize winning author Anne Elizabeth Applebaum.



1965: Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.



1969: As Operation Boxer continues, IAF aircraft continue to pound Egyptian positions.



1969: In Highland Park, Illinois, Elise and Henry Loeb gave birth to screenwriter and producer Allan Loeb



1973: “The Mackintosh Man” a cold war thriller starring Paul Newman and featuring Wolf Morris was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.



1973: Birthdate of Israeli champion Paralympic swimmer Keren Or Leibovitch



1974(6thof Av, 5734): Seventy four year old real estate develop Joseph Eichler passed away today.
https://www.eichlerforsale.com/joseph-eichler.php



1975: Marvin Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line” opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre tonight.



1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Asian Games Federation resolved that it was in the interest of Israel and for the safety of other nations' athletes that Israel should not participate in the 1978 Asian Games. [In the early days of the War on Terror, this is an easy victory for the forces of terror.]  The Defense Ministry announced that it intended to allow Arabs living in Southern Lebanon to work inside Israel and that there would be no discrimination between Christians and Moslems willing to come. Israel had also sent truckloads of food to the Lebanese civil war victims. [This would be the start of what was known as The Good Fence Policy.] In his address to the Israeli Press Council, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin severely criticized the country's press and other media for "failing to check facts and for not presenting a balanced picture of news."



1976 (27th of Tammuz, 5736): One soldier was killed and three more were wounded when a terrorist set off a bomb in a restaurant in Batala.



1976: The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach



1979: Another section of the Sinai Peninsula is peacefully returned by Israel to Egypt.



1981: On the second day of The Battle of Bint Jbeil Brigadier General Gal Hirsch prematurely announced that the town had been taken.



1981(23rd of Tammuz, 5741): Former MK Yosef Goldschmidt passed away today.  Born at Frankfurt in 1907, he was certified as a high school science teacher before he made Aliyah in 1935.  After leaving the Knesset, he served as Deputy Mayor Jerusalem.



1983(15thof Av, 5743): Tuba Av



1983(15thof Av, 5743): Sixty-nine year old composer Jerome Moross passed away today in Miami.
http://jeromemoross.com/bio.html



1990: Roseanne “Barr performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds at Jack Murphy Stadium.”



1991(14thof Av, 5751): Ninety-seven year old Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, one of the last of the original Bolshevik revolutionaries passed away today. (As reported by Francis X. Clines)
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/27/obituaries/l-m-kaganovich-stalwart-of-stalin-dies-at-97.html



 1993: The IDF crosses into Lebanon in Operation Accountability.  The week long incursion was brought on by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israeli settlements and the PLFP’s a killing of Israeli soldiers.  



1994: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration at the White House ending their countries' 46-year-old state of war.



1994(17thof Av, 5754): “Border policeman Sgt.-Maj. Jacques Attias, 24, died of his wounds after being shot by Palestinian policemen during the riots at Erez checkpoint on July 17.”



1996: Yakov Kreizberg performed the United Kingdom premiere of Berthold Goldschmidt's Passacaglia op.4 today in the presence of the composer just months before he died.



1996(9thof Av, 5756): Tish’a B’Av


1996:In “Jewish Studies: Part of the Canon,” published today Jonathan Mahler warns that “the quarrel at Queens College over the selection of a non-Jewish professor to lead the school's Jewish studies program provides a lesson in the dangers of combining academic disciplines with identity politics. “http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/25/opinion/jewish-studies-part-of-the-canon.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm



1997: In Jerusalem, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years After Their Discovery a conference organized by Emanuel Tov came to an end.


1998:Selma Jeanne Cohen's "Encyclopedia of Dance"



http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/26/1998/selma-jeanne-cohen



1999: The New York Times featured an article entitled “Streetscapes /Giorgio Cavaglieri; Near 88, a Preservationist Is Still a Maverick describing the importance of the Jewish, Italian born, architect.



1999: The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg by Christopher Ogden and recently released paperback edition of The Process: 1,100 Days That Changed the Middle East by Uri Savir



2000: The Trilateral Statement on the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David was issued today.



http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/22698.htm



2000: The INS Tkuma was commissioned today.



2001: The SS Regent Sun formerly the SS Shalom of the Israeli Zim line, sank off the coast of South Africa.



2001: “Issues in Jewish Philosophy,” a colloquium sponsored by The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to a close today.



2001: After four hours of searching for the body of Chandra Levy under a broiling summer sun in Rock Creek Park, 28 police candidates break off the hunt not knowing that that missing interns body was a mere 79 yards below the trail where they had stopped.



2002: In Amsterdam, the seventh conference of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) under the presidency of Professor Albert van der Heide came to an end.



2003(25thof Tammuz, 5763): Seventy-seven year old film director John Schlesinger passed away today.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/jul/26/guardianobituaries.filmnews



2003: Gesher gives its last performance of “Shoshah” a play based on a novel of the same name by Isaac B. Singer at the Lincoln Center in New York City.



2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of When Hollywood Had a King: The Reign of Lew Wasserman, Who Leveraged Talent Into Power and Influence  Connie Bruck’s ''fascinating book which is a methodical portrait of an often secretive mogul whose vindictiveness, cunning and temper matched his shrewdness and prescience.''



2006(29th of Tammuz, 5766):Seventy-eight year old Professor Ezra Fleischer, an Israeli poet whose scholarly work re-defined views on the antiquity of prayer, passed away today.(As reported by Ari L. Goldman)



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/arts/01fleischer.html



2006: Eliot Spitzer took part in a gubernatorial debate at Pace University prior to the Democratic primary which is scheduled for September.



2006: At Jerusalem’s Confederation House, the third and last concert in the series based on baskot (requests), songs of supplication traditionally sung during the early hours of Shabbat morning in Middle Eastern Jewish communities.



2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hezbollah war:Doua Abbas, 15, of Mughar; David Mazen, 75, of Haifa.



2006: Blu Greenberg, best known for her work on behalf of feminism within Orthodox Judaism, was honored with Hadassah's highest honor, the Henrietta Szold award for outstanding leadership in the Jewish community. Greenberg, who shared the award jointly with her husband, Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, thus joined a list of prominent world leaders—from Elie Wiesel to Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Golda Meir—to be so honored



2007: In Jerusalem, a celebration of International Jewish Music entitled “Come to the Jewish Music Marathon,” features Jewish musicians from around world including, Daniel Kahan of Germany, PSOY of Russia, DJ Yonatan from Oi Va Voi of England, Trio Karfion of Israel, and Oy Devision of Israel.



2007: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's traveling exhibition Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Bookburning opens in Baltimore, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.



2008: A powerful explosion ripped through a car on a busy Gaza City killing four and wounding 23, Hamas security officials said.



2008: At Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, an exhibition that tells the story of Jewish refugees who took Trujillo up on his offer and settled in the town of Sosua, on the Dominican Republic’s northeastern shore comes to an end.



2008: Larry Leiber was presented the Bill Finger Award today “during the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International.”



2009: A screening of “Rachel.” a controversial film that purports to investigate the death of anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie, is scheduled to take place the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.



2009:In “Shabbat special for C.R. congregation,” published today Molly Rossiter of the Gazette describes upcoming events at Temple Judah.



The Shabbat service on Aug. 1 at Temple Judah will have triple significance for the congregation there. The Shabbat is the first for the congregation’s new rabbi, Todd Thalblum. The day also marks the Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation, which follows the Jewish fast of Tishah B’Av, the first of seven services leading up to Rosh Hashanah. And for the third year, it is also the Raoul Wallenberg Sabbath, a day marked by Gov. Chet Culver in 2007 to remember the man who helped the Jews in Budapest avoid the concentration camps. Thalblum joins the congregation after being named rabbi last month. Thalblum, 41, last served a congregation in Texas. He said last month that he was “looking forward” to returning to the Midwest and to serving as rabbi at Temple Judah. “The first priority is going to be getting to know the congregation, that’s going to come first,” he said. But he plans to get actively involved fairly early in community interests, as well. “The congregation has talked very much about what they’ve enjoyed about the rabbi being involved in the community,” he said.



2009:This year’s “World Outgames,” a festival of sports and culture hosted by the gay community in a different city every four years opens in Copenhagen where it pays tribute to Tel Aviv’s Centennial celebration by converting on of Copenhagen’s canal into a Tel Aviv Beach and hosting leading Israeli artists, Israeli music and beach games.



2009: In JerusalemBeit Avi Chai's Saturday night music line, directed by Shaanan Street, presents Amir Lev in a new concert marking the release of his album Hakol Kan. The concert features familiar and new songs about the lives of ordinary people, with their laughter and tears. The concert will include a special piyyut for Tisha B’Av.”


2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman and Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century by Ruth Harris



2010: Hadassah 95th annual convention opened today.



2010: “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story” premiered at the Stony Brook Film Festival



2010:During the afternoon session of the annual Hadassah Convention, Deborah Rosenbloom, Jewish Women International (JWI) program director, was a presenter at a workshop that will provide resources and a Jewish context for parents to help their daughters identify and develop healthy relationships entitled “Dating, Sex and Love: How to Help Our Daughters Develop Healthy Relationships,” based on two national curricula—Love Shouldn’t Hurt and Strong Girls, Healthy Relationships.



2010:Israel and the United States signed an agreement today under which the Defense Ministry will receive full funding for the development and production of the Arrow 3 ballistic missile defense system. The agreement was signed in Tel Aviv by head of the ministry’s MAFAT Research and Development Directorate, Brig.-Gen. Ofir Shoham, and the head of the US Missile Defense Agency, Lt.-Gen. Patrick O’Reilly.



2010: The ninth congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened today in Ravenna



2010:First Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Book Fair presented by ASF opened at noon today.



2010:Rabbi Manfred Gans announced his retirement after 60 years behind the pulpit that now stands in Forest Hills.



2011: The Silver-Garburg Piano Duo is scheduled to perform at Mannes College The New School for Music. “Sivan Silver, born in Israel in 1976, and Gil Garburg, born in Israel in 1975, studied with Prof. Arie Vardi at Tel-Aviv University and at the “Musikhochschule” in Hanover, Germany.”



2011: Israeli born dancer and choreographer Dana Ruttenberg is scheduled to conduct a Contemporary Dance Workshop at the Peridance Capezio Center in New York City.



2011:The chairman of the Israel Medical Association, Dr. Leonid Eidelman, announced that he was going on a hunger strike today to protest the state of the health care system in Israel, after exhausting all efforts to reach a negotiated agreement with the Finance Ministry



2011:After 5 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic in Jerusalem this morning, at least 200 protesters demonstrating against soaring rent prices gathered in Kikar Paris outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem today, blocking traffic on Aza Road.


2011: Nobel prize winning economist Joseph “Stiglitz participated in the "I Foro Social del 15M" organized in Madrid (Spain) expressing his support for the 2011 Spanish protests.”


2011: The first ever reunion of the Ritchie Boys, a unique intelligence unit that served in Europe from D-Day to VE-Day came to a close today at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.


2012: The North American Premiere of “Ameer Got His Gun” and the West Coast Premiere of “Just 45 Minutes from Broadway” are scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012: In New Orleans, Gates of Prayer and Beth Israel are scheduled to present part 2 of Tevye’s World, their combined continuing education program. (For more about Jewish life in the Big Easy, seehttp://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/


2012: Israel’s gas mask distribution centers are reporting a significant rise in the number of civilians seeking protection against chemical weapons.(As reported by Stuart Winer)


2012: “Mogul’s Latest Foray Courts Jews for G.O.P.” published today described Sheldon Adelson’s mulit-million dollar effort to gain Jewish votes for Mitt Romney.


2012: White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan arrived in Israel today for talks with several senior officials, according to a statement from the National Security Council spokesman. (As reported by Sam Ser)


2012: Under the Lone Star another the Star of David is blessed when Abbie and Feivel Strauss gave birth to their first child this evening in Houston, TX.  Mother and son are doing well as is the dad and the proud maternal grandparents Dr. Bob & Laurie Silber.


2012: Former Citigroup chairman Sanford Weill publicly changed his views on banks as the financial supermarket, when he told CNBC that “what we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans, have banks do something that’s not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail."


2012(6th of Av, 5772): Sixty-four year old Suzy Gersham the author of 16 “Born to Shop Guides” including Born to Shop New York passed away today in San Antonio, TX. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)



 2013: “Next Stop, Greenwich Village,” “a semi-autobiographical account of Paul Mazursky’s life” is scheduled to be shown this evening as part of the Only In New York Summer Film Series


2003: The 17th annual Jerusalem 3x3 Streetball tournament at Safra Square is scheduled to come to an end today.


2013:  After a busy year that has included a trip to Jerusalem and a move to Columbus, Ohio, Jacob Strauss celebrates his first birthday.


2013: In the southern Russian state of Dagestan, Rabbi Ovadia Eisekoff, a Chabad “emissary in the city of Derbent who was shot in the chest by an unkown assailant was taken to a hospital for emergency treatment at 1 a.m. this morning.


2013: Following an increase in violence that has included a double homicide two days ago and a stabbing last week, authorities in Jerusalem are stepping up their patorls in the Israeli capital. (As reported by Daniel Eisenbud)



2014: Following services at Riverside Memorial Chapel, Madeline Amgott, one of the female pioneers in the field of television news production is scheduled to be interred at Beth Israel Cemetery in Norwalk, CT.


2014(27th of Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-six year old financial mogul Alan C. Greenberg passed away today.



2014: “A French Jewish activist whose address was published in anti-Israel forums online was ambushed outside his home by several men who caused him minor injuries.”



2014(27th of Tammuz, 5774): Bel Kaufman, author of Up the Downstairs passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)



2015:My Report to the World: The Story of Jan Karski” is scheduled to be performed for the last time tonight.


2015: Dan Bern, the son of Marianne Bern, is scheduled to perform at a special kid’s show in Mt. Vernon, IA at the First Street Community Center.


2015: The Museum of Jewish Heritage and Lab/Shul are scheduled to host “a curated night of innovative performances, discussions, gallery tours, and candlelit contemplation as we mark Tisha B'Av”


 


 


 


 


 


 

This Day, July 26. In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 26



412: “Emperors Theodosius II and Honorius ban compulsion of public service or court appearances for Jews on the Sabbath or any other Jewish holy day. Thus all legal issues involving Jews must be completed between Monday and Friday, and the Jewish Sabbath receives general protection. By the same token, Jews should not summon Christians to court on Christian holy days.”



657: Caliph Muawiya defeated Caliph Ali at the Battle of Siffin.  Muawiya was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty.  Earlier, he had been instrumental in the founding of a synagogue in Tripoli (in modern day Lebanon).  The Umayyads would take control of Jerusalem, allow the Jews to live openly in the city and build one of their most famous mosques.  This battle may be “ancient history” to westerners but for some followers of Islam it resonates in the Sunni vs. Shiite conflict we see in the 21stcentury.



1139: Count Alfonso, who declared independence from Leon,  proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal and entered history as King Alfonso I. King Afonso I of Portugal entrusted Yahia Ben Yahi III, a Sephardic Jew born in Cordoba with the post of supervisor of tax collection and nominated him the first Chief-Rabbi of Portugal.



1267:Clement IV issued “Turbato corde” a Papal Bull that forbids Christians from embracing Judaism.



1267: Pope Clement IV established the Inquisition at Rome.



1305:Today, Rashba, who “was opposed to the philosophic-rationalistic approach to Judaism often associated with Rambam, and” who “was part of the beit din (rabbinical court) in Barcelona that forbade men younger than 25 from studying secular philosophy or the natural sciences (although an exception was made for those who studied medicine) wrote: ‘In that city [Barcelona] are those who write iniquity about the Torah and if there would be a heretic writing books, they should be burnt as if they were the book of sorcerers.’” Rashba is the Hebrew acronym for the title and name of Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet, “a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. The Rashba was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1235. He became a successful banker and leader of Spanish Jewry of his time. He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. His teachers were the Ramban and Rabbeinu Yona. Among his numerous students were the Ritva, Rabbeinu Behaye, and the Ra'ah. The Rashba was considered an outstanding rabbinic authority, and more than 3,000 of his responsa are known to be extant. Questions were addressed to him from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, and even from Asia Minor. His responsa, which cover the entire gamut of Jewish life, are concise and widely quoted by halakhic authorities. The Rashba's responsa also illustrate his opposition to messianism and prophetic pretensions as a general phenomenon, with examples against Nissim ben Abraham and Abraham Abulafia. The Rashba defended Rambam (Maimonides) during contemporary debates over his works, and he authorized the translation of Rambam's commentary on the Mishnah from Arabic to Hebrew.” He passed away in 1310.



1309:  Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.  Pope Clement V is first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans.”



1534: After a papal commission had attested to atrocities committed by the Inquisition against pseudo-Christians, Pope Clement VII issued a brief to the nuncio of the Portuguese court to press for the release and absolution of 1200 imprisoned Marranos.  The Pope would die before action could be taken on his order and the effort ended with his death.



1555: The Jews of Rome were forced into a ghetto by order of Pope Paul IV



1581: Adoption of the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration), the declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II. For Christians this is part of the battle between Protestants and Catholics; for Jews it is a conflict that will result in the independence of the Netherlands, a Protestant nation that would be a haven of tolerance for European Jews.



1605: A Jesuit Missionary traveling though China wrote a letter describing his meetings with Ai T'ien, a Chinese Jewish teacher. Most of what we know regarding the Kaifeng Jewish community is from this correspondence.



1612: Birthdate of Murad IV during whose Sultanate the Jews of Salonica suffered such severe financial losses that many of them were forced to migrate to Izmir.



1645: Alexis Mikhailovich succeeded his father as the “second czar of the Roman of dynasty.” The czar employed a Jewish physician named Stephan von Gaden. Unlike many other Russian rulers who pursued anti-Jewish policies, this Czar’s record is a mixed bag. “During his reign a considerable number of Jews lived in Moscow and the interior of Russia.”  “From the edicts issued by Alexis Mikhailovich, it appears that the czar often granted the Jews passports with red seals (gosudarevy zhalovannyya gramoty), without which no foreigners could be admitted to the interior; and that they traveled without restriction to Moscow, dealing in cloth and jewelry, and even received from his court commissions to procure various articles of merchandise.”  On the other hand he expelled Jews from various “newly acquired cities” in Poland and Lithuania.



1669:It was finally decided, today to expel a number of Jews from Vienna and Lower Austria; 1,346 persons were affected by this decree of banishment. In their dire need the Jews of Vienna once more sent a memorial to the emperor; but in vain, for the commission had attributed to them all kinds of crimes.



1670: The last Jews left Vienna, following expulsion orders. According to tradition, this took place on Tish'a b'Av.



1719 (10th of Av): Rabbi Samuel Filorintin, author of Olat Shemel passed away today.



1773: In Montreal, 38 year old Ezekiel Solomon and Marie Elizabeth Louise Dubois gave birth to Samuel Solomon



1788: New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States. The fates of the Jewish people and the state of New York have been intertwined since the earliest days of settlement in what is now the United States.  For example, Isaac Moses was a co-founder of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1768.  There were approximately 350 Jews living in New York City at the time of the American Revolution.  Many of them fled during the British occupation and did not return until after the war.  Jews were active in New York politics from the early days of the Republic as can be seen by Solomon Simpson’s role as a founder of the famed Tammany Society (the cornerstone of the Democratic Party) in 1794.



1788: British “colonists” settle in Sydney, Australia.  These “colonists” were part of an English transport of convicts shipped to New South Wales.  Australia was founded as penal colony.  According to at least one source there were eight Jews among the first shipment of eight hundred prisoners including “sixteen year old Esther Abrahams of London sentenced for stealing a piece of lace.”



1799: Birthdate of Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff the German Jewish author who “published under the pseudonym ‘Pliny the Youngest.’”



1803: Birthdate of Johann Jacob (Joseph Isidor) Sachs the German physician who practiced in Berlin where he also “was a prolific writer.”



1806: Napoleon formed the Conference of Notables to deal with the relationship between the Jews and the French State. It consisted of 112 deputies from all parts of the French Empire. At the assembly, led by the financier Abraham Furtado and Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim, the delegates were confronted with a questionnaire on polygamy, usury, loyalty and intermarriage. Pleased with their answers, he decided to reenact the Sanhedrin, with representatives from all congregations under his careful direction. Even though the assembly was to be held on the Sabbath (some claim as a loyalty litmus test) it was decided to attend and not risk the wrath of the Emperor.



1806: In Dessau, author and publisher Moses Philippson and Marianne Levy-Wust gave birth Phoebus Moses Philippson the author and physician who married his cousin Sara Gottshalk in 1832 and then married her sister Pauline in 1849 after his first wife’s death.



1815: Birthdate of Dr. Robert Remak, “embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist” who was denied academic tenure and credit for his work because he was Jewish.



1816(1st of Av, 5576): Rosh Chodesh Av



1832: In Brono, Johanna Jeitteles and Dr. Aloys Isidor Jeittels gave birth to women’s right activist Ottilie Bondy.



1844:Today, during the last weeks of his life, Aron Chorin wrote from his sick-bed a declaration expressing his full accord with the Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick, and on August 11 he sent an address to the conference of Hungarian rabbis at Páks. He died at Arad, Hungary.



1844: Sixty-four year old Carl Streckfuss the Prussian privy council who in 1833 wrote a treatise, “On the Relation of the Jews to the Christian States” in which he expressed reluctance “to recommend a universal emancipation because of the alleged moral and deficiencies of the common type of Jew. (As reported by Jacob Katz)


1846(3rdof Av, 5606): Eighty-three old Esther Mordecai Russell “the first-born daughter of Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah "de Lyon" Mordecai” who was the wife of “Dr. Philip Moses Russell, a Jewish Surgeon's Mate, who received a special commendation from General George Washington for his services at Valley Forge” passed away today in Philadelphia.



1847: The Republic of Liberia declares its independence.  One hundred years later, in November of 1947, Liberia would be one of 33 nations to vote for partition which would lead to the creation of the state of Israel.



1850:On Friday Rev. S. M. Isaacs, of New York, officiated at the dedication of the new Synagogue in Buffalo, NY.  Those attending donated a sum of six hundred dollars following the ceremony.  Rev. Isaacs is the spiritual leader of Gates of Prayer in New York City.



1856: Birthdate of William Rainey Harper, the Professor of Hebrew at Yale, whose writings included “The Jews of Babylon” and “The Return of the Jews from Exile.” He was the first President of the University of Chicago where Emil Gustav Hirsch was among the first faculty members.



1858: Sir Lionel Nathan Rothschild (the first Lord Rothschild), took his seat in the House of Commons after a long and bitter fight. The Christian oath was amended so that non-Christians could also serve in the House. He became the first Jew to sit in the House of Commons because a new oath of office was agreed upon that did not refer to Christianity.



1861: In Hamburg, Emmeline and Berman Bernays gave birth to Martha Bernays the wife of Sigmund Freud.



1861: At the start of the Civil War Elias Leon Hyneman, the son of Benjamin Hyneman,enlisted as a volunteer in Company C, Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, at Gettysburg in 1863 and in the Wilderness in 1864 before being taken prisoner.  He died at the infamous Andersonville Prison.



1862: The following telegram was sent today:



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


1863(10th of Av, 5623): Tish'a B'Av; the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat.



1865: Birthdate of Philip Scheidemann, German political leader and first Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. Scheideman was not Jewish but his first government included four Jews which provided ammunition for the anti-Semites and opponents to this post-war attempt at democracy in Germany.  He left Germany when the Nazis came to power and died in exile in Denmark. 



1869: Birthdate of anarchist Emma Goldman.



1874: Birthdate of Dr. Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky the Russian born conductor best known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 1924 to 1949.



1881: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem plan on taking an excursion to Staten Island next month.



1881: Birthdate of Clara Ferrin, the native of Tucson, AZ who taught at Stafford Elementary School before marrying merchant David Bloom becoming Clara Ferrin-Bloom a local civic and Jewish communal leader.



1891: Riots took place at Baerwald, Pomerania during which “a quantity of Jewish property was destroyed.”



1882: In San Francisco, Samuel L. Sachs disappeared after having shot his wife today.  Sachs, the son of Louis Sachs, a co-owner of Sachs, Heller &Co is Jewish which his wife, whom doctors say will survive her wounds, is the daughter of Thomas Shanon, a prominent Christian who has severed as Collector of the Port.



1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike continued things became so violent that a group of Russian Jews working at the Red Star dock in Jersey City began fighting among themselves.



1883: In New York, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment disbursed over $32,000 to a variety of charities including $1,870.57 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.



1886: “Life at Saratoga” published today reported that the section of Broadway that separates the Grand Union from Congress Hall is referred to as “the Red Sea” because it separates Jew from Gentile.  Ever since Judge Hilton announced his policy of banning all Jews from the Grand Union, New York Jewish Gentry led by the Seligman family, has been staying at the Congress.  According to Colonel Texas Ochiltree only two suspected Jews have stayed at the Grand Union – Jacob Hess and Abraham Hummel.  The latter is considered to be a Bulgarian so he does not pose a threat.



1886: Several New York rabbis and a representative of the Hebrew Immigration Society met with Immigration Superintendent Jackson at Castle Garden.  They asked him not send the Russian Jews currently staying at Ward’s Island back to Europe.  They offered to post bonds so that the immigrants would not be treated as paupers.  Jackson said he would refer the request to the Committee of Commissioners of Emigration.



1887:  L. L. Zamenhof publishes Dr. Esperanto's International Language. The father of Esperanto was a physician, the son of Lithuanian Jews.  Before his work with Esperanto, Zamenhof had published a Yiddish grammar book.



1887: Birthdate of Reuben Leon Kahn, the Lithuanian-American immunologist who developed the Kahn Test for syphilis.



1890: The officers of the synagogue on Stone Avenue in Williamsburg that was incorporated today include Alter Birn, President; Jacob Alter, Vice President, Joseph November, Treasurer; Wolf Jakobowits, Secretary; Loeb Waldmann, Isaiah Zwinckel and Louis Zwickel, Trustees.



1890; “Amusements” in The Los Angeles Heraldpreviewed the upcoming performance of the “Shatchen”  a drama by Charles S. Dickson featuring Frank Mordaunt.



1890(9th of Av, 5650) Shabbat Chazon: Erev Tish'a B'Av



1890: Even though the Cloakmakers strike was settled, “very little work was in any of the factories” today because most the workers were Jews who do not work on Saturday.



1890: The headquarters of the Cloakmakers’ Union on Ludlow, Suffolk and Orchard street were decorated with American and Red flags while the workers praised Joseph Barondees “who had so completely vanquished the manufacturers.



1891: “Phases of City Life” published today described the relation between the new chef at the Democratic Club and famed thespian Sarah Bernhardt.  Emanuel Bernard is her cousin and she adopted one of his girls, part of a family 15 children, after he wife died two years ago.



1891: While in London, Colonel John Weber, the former Congressman who is now the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island said that “reports” of “the reshipment of destitute Russian Jews from England” “are unfounded.  (There was a belief in the United States that western European countries and Great Britain were buying tickets for eastern European immigrants to travel to America.)



1891: Officials at the Hamburg-American Packet Company issued “indignant denials” to charges that the company is providing Russian-Jewish passengers tickets “at reduced rates.”  The “exiles’ committee pays full price for each passenger” but the company allows them to deduct the commission associated with these bookings.



1891: France annexes Tahiti. The first Jew probably arrived in 1769 with Capt. James Cook. According to Virtual Jewish History, Alexander Salmon, a Jew, moved to Tahiti, and later entered the Tahitian royal family when he married Arrioehau, a Polynesian princess. Today there are approximately 200 Jews living in Tahit

1892(2ndof Av, 5652): Forty two year old Yonah Halevi Ettinger who was born at Brody in 1850 passed away today.



1893: “No Mercy For Sick Children” published today described events surrounding the eviction of a widow, Mrs. Sarah Goldstein and her eight children which resulted  which has led to a suit against her landlords Theodor Fischer and Marshal George Haztzel in which she is being represented by Maurice B. Blumenthal.



1895: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the funeral of Abram C. Bernheim a partner in the firm of Shekan & Bernheim which was held this morning at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue.



1895: In Russia, today is the deadline for all Jews “who had resided in Moscow for a long time” to comply with the government’s order to lead the city.  All other Jews living in Moscow have already been driven out under a government program that began last summer.



1895: The will of Bertha May was filed for probate in the office of the Surrogate today.



1896: The condition of Henry Clay Frick, the steel magnate who was shot by Jewish anarchist during the Homestead Steel Strike was said to be improving and that he would soon be out of danger.



1896: “Webb Charged With Abduction” published today described the case of Dora Henry and George Webb, the 16 year old Jewish girl and 20 year old Lutheran man who were secretly married but never lived together after the ceremony.



1896: According to Meyer Schoenfield, the contractors will join the tailors, most of whom are Jewish, today in their strike against the manufactures



1896: The clothing salesmen will join the tailors in their strike today if the owners refuse their demand for a ten hour work and a guarantee that they will not be laid off during “slack season.”



1899: Dr. J.H. Hertz addressed a meeting of “Uitlander” on the issue of excluding Russian and Romanian born Jews from the right to vote in South Africa. Hertz would later be expelled from the country for this and other similar addresses on this subject.



1897: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler was the principal speaker at today’s session of the National Jewish Chautauqua Assembly in Atlantic, NJ.



1897: A group of Jews who had gone to Woodside to visit the new Mount Sinai Cemetery and were robbed and beaten by a group of thugs, are in the jail in the town hall after having been charged with using the grounds as a picnic grounds which is against the law.  In the meantime, their attackers have not been captured.



1898: During the Spanish American War the 6th Massachusetts Regiment whose members included Phillip Tworoger of Boston, in Company A; Johan Hamberg of Adams in Company B; Alfred J. Hermans of Boston in Company H and Jacob Ostreicher and Benjamin Baker both from Lowell and both in company C to part in the battle at Guanica which helped to secure Puerto Rico for the United States.



1899(19thof Av, 5659):Sixty-three year old Emil Breslaur a graduate of the Julius Stern Conservatory who composed music as well as taught music theory passed away today in Berlin.



1901(10thof Av, 5661): Mme. Hortense Levi, “a sister of the late Baroness de Hirsch” passed away today in Belgium.



1909(8th of Av, 5669): Erev Tish'a B'Ava



1911(1st of Av, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Av



1915: Following Governor Harris’s visit to the Georgia Prison Farm where he had gone to investigate the attack on Leo Frank, he expressed how appalled he was at conditions at the facility “tears rolled down his cheeks as he talked about them.”



1915: After converting to Judaism, Beatrice Venetia Stanley Montagu officially put an end to Prime Minister Asquith’s quest for her hand, by marrying Edwin Samuel Montagu.



1919: Famed painter and President of the Royal Academy Sir Edward John Poynter passed away.  Poynter was noted for his large canvases many of which drew on Biblical themes – “Visit of the Queen of Sheba,”  “King Solomon” and “Israel in Egypt.”  The latter was his first great artistic and commercial success.



1920: In Paris, Béatrice de Camondo and composer Léon Reinach gave birth to their daughter Fanny who passed away in 1944.



1922: On New York’s Lower East Side, William and Bella Berger gave birth to “character actress” Anna Berger



1926: In Amsterdam, diamond cutter Emanuel Emden and seamstress Rosa Emden-Devries gave birth to Bloeme Emden a childhood friend of the Frank girls who survived the Holocaust and gained famed as Bloeme Evers-Emden a teacher and psychologist who has written four books on the “hidden children” of WW II.



1928(9thof Av, 5688): Tish’a B’Av



1928: Birthdate of director Stanley Kubrick.



1929: Birthdate of Netiva Ben Yehuda “an Israeli author, editor, and former soldier of the Palmach” whose “writings, including a dictionary of Hebrew slang (written with Dan Ben Amotz) and several books on pre-state Israeli music, made her one of the aforementioned fighting force's most famous members.”



1928: Birthdate of Sarah A. Viner the native of Dublin and daughter of a diamond cutter who rose to become an MP, government minister and life peer known as Sally Oppenheim-Barnes, Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes and who served in Parliament with her son Phillip Oppenheim.



https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15146.html



1929: Birthdate of Bulgarian born pianist Alexis Weissenberg. (As reported by Margalit Fox)



1933: The German government adopts a statute leading to the “de-naturalization of Jews” living in the Reich.



1934: In Jersey City, NJ, Michael and Esther Novick gave birth to Dr. Peter Novick, the University of Chicago history professor who challenged the seemingly overbearing centrality of the Holocaust among American Jewry.



1934: ThePalestine Post reports that on July 14, 1934 a Jewish delegation from Adrianople spoke with the Turkish government, to ensure they do not remove all the police from the Adrianople towns in order to prevent the looting of abandoned homes.



1935: “The Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick announced today that a law forbidding marriages between Jews and non-Jews would shortly be promulgated, and recommended that registrars should avoid issuing licenses for such marriages for the time being.”



1936; The Palestine Post reported that a serious catastrophe, which might have involved a serious loss of life, was avoided only by chance when rails were loosened only a few minutes before a passenger train from Haifa was due to reach Lydda. A goods train, however, was derailed near Ras el-Ain. The Jerusalem water-pipeline pumping station was also sabotaged there. 



1938:As Arab violence continued to grow, a group of 80 American tourists who had arrived in Jerusalem yesterday are scheduled to leave for Jaffa today where their ship is waiting for them.  The group arrived from Egypt at the same time that an explosion rocked Haifa.  Ensuring concerns about their safety forced cancelation of part of their tour.



1939: Adolf Eichmann “established a Central Office for Jewish Emigration the purpose of which is to expel Jews from the Czech region now controlled by the Nazis. Eichmann was in charge of the previous office of Jewish emigration that had been established in Vienna in 1938.”



1939: Birthdate of Oscar Baylin Goodman, the native of Las Vegas who became a leading defense lawyer and the 21st Mayor of Las Vegas.



1940: Birthdate of Michael “Mike” Slive the Uitca, NY, born law school graduate who became Commissioner of the SEC (Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission) who is also a member of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama.



1941: The Germans occupied Boguslav, a city in Kiev, today.  By the end of the year they will have murdered most of the Jews in the town, living alive only some artisans whom they would execute in July of 1943.



1941: In the second of a pogrom and roundup of Jews in Lvov, three of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam's sons-in-law Rabbi Yecheskel Halberstam (son of Rabbi Yeshayale Tchechoiver), Rabbi Moshe Stempel and Rabbi Shlome Rubin were taken prisoner.



1943: American born expatriate poet Ezra Pound was indicted for treason today for his pro-Fascist, anti-American (and anti-Semitic) radio broadcasts that he made after Italy declared war on the United States.



1944: The Soviet army enters Lvov, a major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160.000 Jews in Lvov prior to Nazi occupation.



1944: The first German V-2 hits Great Britain. The V-2 was vast “improvement” over the V-1.  Unlike the V-1 which was essentially a flying bomb, the V-2 was a true Guided Missile, posing a much greater threat to the British and the Allied forces already in Europe.  Anglo-American military leaders were forced to alter their strategy to deal with this immediate threat.  This diverted forces from driving into the German heartland which prolonged the war and the agony of the Holocaust.



1945: The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom General Election, removing Winston Churchill from power. Labor’s Prime Minister Atlee betrayed the hopes of Jewish leaders by continuing to enforce the White Paper.  The new Foreign Minister would demonstrate a streak of anti-Semitism when he declared that the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were “pushing their way to the head of the cue” demonstrating the pushiness which is a Jewish trait.



1946: The Czech government, through the influence of its foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, opened its borders to Jews wishing to flee Poland. Within 3 months over 70,000 Jews using transportation paid by the Czechs would use this route on the way to Eretz-Israel.



1946: Warner Bros. distributed “Two Guys from Milwaukee,” a comedy co-authored by I.A. L. Diamond with music by Friedrich Hollaender.



1948: Operation Shoter came to a successful conclusion as the three villages south of Haifa in an area called the “Little Triangle” surrendered to Israeli forces.



1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, called in Cairo on heads of all Arab states to check the "brutal campaign of terror," carried out by the Jordanian authorities against Palestine Arabs, accused of carrying out the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. The new Jordanian Cabinet included only four Palestinians, out of 11.



1951: David Ben-Gurion visited Jerusalem as part of his successful campaign for re-election as Prime Minister.  Included in the trip were visits with evacuees from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.



1952: King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser was the power behind the throne and did not immediately take power.



1953: Armistice signed today ended the Korean War. Over 150,000 Jewish men and women served in the military during the Korean Conflict. Israel supported the American war effort in Korea and “sent $100,000 in foodstuffs to South Korea.”



1955: There was an 82.8% voter turnout as Israelis went to the polls to choose the members of the 3rd Knesset.



1956: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. This action would lead to the Suez Crisis in the fall of 1956 that would include a lightning strike by Israeli troops across the Sinai that would take all of one hundred hours.



1956: Haim Laskov replaced Yitzhak Pundak, as the commander of the IDF armored forces.



1960(2nd of Av, 5720):Rogers Adolphe Pinner “senior partner of the Mutual Electric Company” passed away. He was the son of Moritz and Melissa Pinner; the husband of Effie Woodruff; and the father of Karl Pinner.



1963: Pitcher Alan Koch made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.



1965: Birthdate of Jeremy Piven the New York born actor who was raised in Evanston, Illinois and is best known for his role as Ari in the television series “Entourage.”



1969: Operation Boxer continued with more strikes by the IAF.



1969(11th of Av, 5729: Composer Frank Loesser passed away at the age of 59.  His Broadway hits include Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, and How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.



1971(4thof Av, 5731): Forty-eight year old Diane Arbus the photographer who used the camera to create a unique form of black and white art, passed away today.
http://www.biography.com/people/diane-arbus-9187461



1973(26th of Tammuz, 5733): Sixty nine year old hydraulic engineer Hans Albert Einstein “the second child and first son of Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić” passed away today.
http://www.einstein-website.de/biographies/einsteinhansalbert_content.html



1976: In “6 Film Studios Vie Over Entebbe Raid,” Robert McFadden describes the intense interest to be first to make hey at the box office by telling the story of the Israeli rescue mission that took place less than three weeks ago.



http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60A15F63F551B7493C4AB178CD85F428785F9



1976: In “Book About Raid Says 50 Israeli Agents Paved Way in Kenya,” Robert Tomasson reviewed 90 Minutes at Entebbe in which author William Stevenson reveals the key role that intelligence gathering played in the successful rescues of the Jewish hostages.  The book takes on an added authoritative tone since Stevenson is the author of A Man Called Intrepid.



http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60A15F63F551B7493C4AB178CD85F428785F9



1981: New York Mayor Ed Koch is given Heimlich maneuver in a Chinese restaurant.



1982: Yuval Ne’eman began serving as the first Minister of Science and Development



1984: The second congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.



1985: “European Vacation” a National Lampoon inspired comedy directed by Amy Heckerling and featuring Maureen Lipman was released in the United States by Warner Bros.



1987: ''East End Synagogues: From the Shtiebel to Duke's Place,'' an exhibit at the Heritage Center in London is scheduled to come a close.



1987: The third congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened at Schloss Glienicke under the presidency of Professor Arnold Goldberg.



1993(8thof Av, 5753): Eight-four year old author and Academy Award winning screen writer passed away today.



http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/11/obituaries/daniel-fuchs-novelist-and-screenwriter-84.html



1996(10thof Av, 5756):Uri Munk, 53, and his daughter-in-law, Rachel Munk, 24, of Moshav Mevo Betar, were killed in a drive-by shooting attack near Beit Shemesh. 30-year-old Ze'ev Munk, Rachel's husband, was critically wounded and died in the hospital the following week.



1997: “Early Rabbinic Judaism,” a colloquium sponsored by the The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.



1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The International Encyclopedia of Dance,edited by dance historian Selma Jeanne Cohen and the recently released paperback edition of The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick



2000: A federal judge in New York approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.



2000: Following the failure of the peace negotiations sponsored by President Clinton with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Yassar Arafat returned to Gaza having rejected a compromise peace agreement because doing so would be, in his words, signing his own death warrant.



2001: Seventeen year old Ronen Landau was shot by terrorists today in Jersualem.



2002(17th of Av, 5762): Four people including a rabbi were killed and two children were wounded by terrorist gunfire south of Hebron.



2004: “The Village” a horror film produced by Scott Rudin, with Adrien Brody and Jesse Eisenberg was released by Buena Vista Pictures in the United States today.



2006: Hezbollah fired an additional 130 rockets into northern Israel wounding at least five Israelis.



2006(1st of Av, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Av



2006(1st of Av, 5766): In an act of unbelievable self-less courage, Major Roi Klie threw himself on a live grenade, sacrificing his life so that his comrades would live.  The action took place on the second day of the Battle of Bint Jbeil. 



2006(1st of Av, 5766): The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hezbollah war:Maj. Ro'i Klein, 31, of Eli; Lt. Amihai Merhavia, 24, of Eli; Cpl. Ohad Klausner, 20, of Beit Horon; Lt. Alex Schwarzman, 23, of Acre; St.-Sgt. Shimon Dahan, 20, of Ashdod; Cpl. Asaf Namer, 27, of Kiryat Yam; St.-Sgt. Idan Cohen, 21, of Jaffa; Sgt. Shimon Adega, 20, of Kiryat Gat; Lt. Yiftach Shrier, 21, of Haifa.



2007: The Vilna Shul / Boston Center for Jewish Heritage presents a screening of “Shalom Y’All,” a documentary that examines life of Jews living the South.



2007: Aluf David Ben Ba’ashat ended his service as commander of the Israeli Navy. 



2008: In Jerusalem, Beit Avi Chai's Saturday night concert series continues with a performance by Rona Keinan, daughter of the famous Israeli author Amos Keinan and singer of “Through Foreign Eyes” – her 2006 hit single - fame.



2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Safe Haven:Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh and Is real is for Real:An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History by Rich Cohen



2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Essays of Leonard Michaels.



2009: The Cedar Rapids Gazette published “Morocco challenges Mideast mind-set on Holocaust” which described the North African Kingdom’s attempt to deal with the Shaoh.



http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3751982,00.html



2010(15th of Av, 5770): Tu B’Av



2010:Rabbi Zerach Greenfield, an expert scribe, is scheduled to be at Tifereth Israel in Columbus to check your Tefillin and discuss repairs and for questions about any other ritual objects that people need reviewed.



2010: A screening of Hungry Hearts is scheduled to take place at the Castro Theatre during the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2010:The parents of missing Druze soldier Majli Halabi demanded today that authorities investigate convicted murderer Yichya Farhan regarding the case of their son, according to Israel Defense Forces Radio.



2010:After three years of renovation, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem reopened to the public firmly reestablishing itself as Israel’s national museum and the most important repository of Jewish culture in the world.



2010:The head rabbi of a prominent yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar was arrested today for writing a book that allegedly encourages the killing of non-Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is the alleged author of the book "The King's Torah," which deems as legal, according to "Jewish law," the killing of non-Jews.



2010: The Israel Air Force demolished a weapons plant in northern Gaza early this morning in response to recent attacks by Gaza terrorists on Israelis in the western Negev



2010(15th of Av, 5770): Six members of the IDF -Lt. Col (Res.) Avner Goldman, 48, from Modi'in; Lt. Col. Daniel Shipenbauer, 43, from Moshav Kidron; Maj. Yahel Keshet, 33, from Hatzerim; Maj. Lior Shai, 28, from Tel-Nof; Lt. Nir Lakrif, 25, from Tel- Nof; and Staff Sergeant Oren Cohen, 24, from Rehovot – were killed when their helicopter crashed in Roumania.



2011:The International Master Course for Violinists is scheduled to begin at Kibbutz Eilon “amid the scenic mountains of the western Galilee.”


2011: Avi Issacharoff, the Palestinian and Arab Affairs Correspondent, Haaretz, is scheduled to deliver an address entitled “Shifting Sands: The Mainstreaming of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood” in Waukee, IA.


2011: The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip hanged a father and son at dawn today for collaborating with Israel, a government spokesman said.


2011:Protesters in Tel Aviv's impromptu "tent city" housing protest dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest plan today, saying that he was trying to create divisions within the protesters, by offering discounts only to students.


2011:An Israeli orchestra broke a taboo today as it played the music of Adolf Hitler's favorite composer, Richard Wagner, in Germany. Some 700 spectators in Wagner's hometown of Bayreuth loudly applauded the Israel Chamber Orchestra as its 34 musicians concluded their concert with the Siegfried Idyll, becoming the first Israeli ensemble to perform a Wagner piece in Germany.


2011:The Anti-Defamation League is organizing a free "community briefing" tonight on First Amendment religious freedoms which will explain why it is concerned about Texas Governor Rick Perry's Christian-only day of prayer in Houston next month


2011: “Olive and the Bitter Herbs” is scheduled to have its first preview performance at 59E59 Theaters  



2012: University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Harry Reicher is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The Future of International Justice” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center



2012: “Harbor of Hope” is scheduled to have its West Coast Premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival while “Sharqiya” is slated to have its California Premiere at the same venue.



2012:The 12th Annual Summer Institute for Synagogue Musicians, Mifgash Musicale is scheduled to come to an end today at the HUC-JIR campus in Cincinnati, OH.



2012: Jibril Rajoub, the former head of the Preventive Security Force and current president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, expressed his approval the IOC’s decision not observe a moment of silence at the opening of the Olympics in memory of those athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics.  Apparently the killers do not want to be reminded of their crime.



2012(7th of Av, 5772): Ninety-four year old Miriam Porat, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Israel passed away today. (As reported by Tomer Zarchin)



http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-first-female-supreme-court-justice-and-state-comptroller-dies-at-94-1.453806



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/world/middleeast/miriam-ben-porat-israeli-judge-and-civic-watchdog-dies-at-94.html?_r=2&hpw&



2013: “Jew New York” an exhibition at Zach Feuer Gallery and Untitled Gallery is scheduled to come to an end today. (As reported by Nathan Burstein)



2013: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host the final session of the “Yiddish Film Festival.”



2013: Mercedes Bend, Boom Pam, Vaadat Charigim are among the bands scheduled to perform in Jerusalem at the Indie City Music Festival.



2013: San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s announcement today that he will undergo two weeks of intensive therapy amid sexual harassment allegations me with a negative reaction from members of the city council (As reported by Tony Perry)



2013: “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday that he “won’t be pushed” into a quick deal on a new labor contract for workers at the Department of Water and Power. (As reported by Michael Finnegan and Kate Linthicum)



2013: In Paris, prosecutors said that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to stand trial on charges of pimping. (As reported by Kim Willsher)



2013: “In Tug of  War Over New Fed Leader” published today described the competition between Janet Yellin and Lawrence Summers to replace Ben S. Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman is described.



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/in-tug-of-war-over-new-fed-leader-some-gender-undertones.html?hp&_r=0



2013: 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean Conflict


2013: “Israel has agreed to release 24 Israeli Arab prisoners serving life sentences who were incarcerated before the 1993 Oslo Accords, having already agreed to free 82 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, Israel Radio reported today. The releases would be carried out in phases, the radio report said, in parallel with progress at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which are set to resume next week. (As reported by Michal Shmulovich and Elhanan Miller) 


2013: Art Ginsberg the founder of Art’s Deli in Los Angeles who kibitzed with his customers “amid the knishes and the kreplach” was buried today at Sholom Memorial Park in Sylmar. (As reported by Steve Chawkins)


2014: “Vertigo,” a leading Israeli dance company is scheduled to perform on the open night of the


American Dance Festival in New York.


2014: The demonstration by “several thousand left-wing activists in Tel Avi…calling for an end to bloodshed in Gaza and a return to negotiations with the Palestinians” was cut short “when Hamas unilaterally ended a humanitarian truce with Israel and resumed rocket-fire from Gaza.”


2014: “The Hidden Passages,” an exhibition organized by Avi Lubin, a curator and head of the theoretical studies and the visiting artists at the postgraduate program, Ha’midrasha Art school.


2014: “Israel agreed to halt its military offensive in Gaza for 12 hours starting this morning amid intense international efforts to seal a broader cease-fire deal and a new explosion of violence in the West Bank, where at least six Palestinians were killed during clashes with Israeli forces.” (As reported by Isabel Kershner and Michael R. Gordon)


2015(10thof Av, 5775): Tisha B’av


2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artists and His Age by Al Hirschfeld.


2015: At the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH), Tomas Kovar, a native of Slovakia, is scheduled to talk about his experiences surviving the Holocaust.


2015: In Memphis, TN, at 4pm, members of Temple Israel are scheduled to share their personal stories of destruction, inspiring renewal, and hope, followed by a thoughtful learning session with Rabbi Feivel Strauss, and lovely, hopeful songs sung by Rabbi Bess Wohlner and our Music Director Abbie Strauss followed by a reading and discussion of a brief excerpt from the Book of Lamentations.


 


 


 


 


 


 

This Day, July 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 27



1192: As Richard the Lionheart and Saladin continued their conflict during the Third Crusade, Saladin laid siege to Jaffa.



1214: French King Phillip II defeats the forces headed by Otto IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King John of England at the Battle of Bouvines.  For the Jews, this is a lose-lose proposition.  King John and King Phillip were both notorious for the mistreatment of their Jewish subjects. Four years before the battle, King John had locked a group of Jews at Bristol Castle and said he would only free them if a 66,000-mark ransom were paid.  King Phillip began exploiting and expelling Jews from the start of his reign in 1180.  At the time of the battle, the king had actually allowed Jews back in his realm so he could take further financial advantage of them.  Otto gets a pass because his relations with Jews are a “blank slate.”



1245: At the First Council of Lyons Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor is deposed by Pope Innocent IV, the pope who will condemn the Blood Libel in 1249 but who will authorize the use of torture against Jews by Spanish inquisitors in 1252. The First Council of Lyons would follow in the footsteps of the Fourth Lateran Council and adopt decrees compelling Jewish creditors to renounce all claims to interest on debts or similar ordinances which supposedly would encourage men to “take up the Cross” and become Crusaders.



1290: Following his edict expelling the Jews from England, King Edward issued the following concerning how they were to be treated as they left the country. “The King to all his wardens, officers and sailors of the Cirque ports, greeting…You should ensure that their passage is safe and speedy…free from danger.”   According to Elliot Rosenberg, “the king meant what he said.  When a ship’s captain took passage money from a group of Jews, then left them stranded on asandbank to drown at high tide, Edward ordered him hanged.” 



1400: King Ladislas offered the Jews of Naples a charter which would give them economic equality.



1588: After having been driven back across “the Channel” the Spanish Armada anchored at Calais where its leaders found out that the greatly reduced Spanish Army of invasion was not ready to attack England which meant that the Inquisition was still not a fact of life for the Netherlands and the British Isles.



1655: Jews in New Amsterdam request a place to bury their dead. "Abraham de Lucena, Salvador d'Andrade and Jacob Cohen, Jews in the name of the others, petition the Honorable Director General this day to be permitted to purchase a burying place for their nation…." Less than a year after arriving, the Jews of New Amsterdam requested permission to open a cemetery in 1655. Permission was initially denied and was finally granted a year later. Very often, the formation of a burial society and the start of a cemetery preceded the organization of the Synagogue or Temple. In fact these community organizations were often the progenitors of the house of worship which would follow as the community grew.



1656: Spinoza was excommunicated in Amsterdam. . Spinoza had been accused together with Juan de Prado of denying the being of Angels, the immortality of the soul and that the Torah was given by God. De Prado apologized but Spinoza refused. The council forbade anyone to communicate with him in any fashion or to read any of his books.



1671(20thof Av, 5431)Abraham de Fonseca ḥakam of the Portuguese community at Glückstadt, and later at Hamburg and author of Ene Abraham” passed away today.



1782(16th of Av): Rabbi Jacob Raphael Hezekiah Hazak (Forti) author of Meginnei Erez passed away



1789: The United States Congress creates the Department of Foreign Affairs which later be renamed the United States Department of State.  A Jew would not get the top job at State until 1973 when Richard Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger to position of Secretary of State.



1825: Forty-six year old Jakob Salomon Bartholdy the Jewish born German diplomat who converted to Christianity and was the brother-in-law of Abraham Mendelssohn passed away today.



1836 (13th of Av): Rabbi Abele Poswoler a leading Lithuanian Talmudist passed away



1843: In Somos, Hungary, Emanuel Rich and Sara Gladstone gave birth to Adolphus W. Rich the husband of Rosa Sidenberg, whose success in Wisconsin led to his being named President of Congregation Emanu-El and to the founding of a “settlement for Jewish farmers at Arpin, Wood County, Wisconsin.



1846: Joseph B. Montefiore, his wife, nine daughters and two sons accompanied by two servants arrived in Adelaide where he went into “business with his nephew Eliezer Levi Montefiore as importers and shipping agents.



1849: Birthdate of Herman Naphtali Hyneman, the Philadelphia born painter whose works included “It Might Have Been” and “Marguerite in Prison."



1851: In Great Britain, Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen gave birth to their only child, Hannah de Rothschild who would marry the 5th Earl of Rosebery and become Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery.



1853: Birthdate of Vladimir Korolenko, “one of the few Russian writers who created positive Jewish images in his works, condemned the Kishinev pogrom” and the trial of Menachem Belis.



1853: Jewish architect Leopold Eidlitz and Lazelle Warner, his non-Jewish wife gave birth to Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz who designed One Times Square and the New York Times Building on Times Square.



1855: Today’s issue of The Israelite was published by Edward Bloch.  Bloch replaced Charles F. Schmidt who had been publishing The Israelite since it was founded by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise in 1854.  Bloch would also publish another publication founded by Rabbi Wise, Die Deborah.



1855: On the day before the death of Solomon Rothschild, the French poet Joseph Mery "said in his weekly article: If I owned the Hotel of the Rue Lafitte (Rothschild's) where ennui and lassitude reign undisputedly, I would do so and so and it would the first time in which a million was ever of benefit to mankind."



1857: The “Foreign Correspondence” column reported today on the status of the “Jewish Oaths Bill” now before Parliament, specifically, the House of Lords.



1860: An article entitled Remarkable Archaeological Discovery in Ohio reported that “several New-York Archaeologists have, within the past week, received various communications concerning the discovery of a very curious stone relic, covered with Hebrew inscriptions, said to have been found by Mr. Wyrick of Newark, Ohio, in one of those artificial earthworks so numerous in that vicinity.” The inscription on the stone, which may easily be rendered by any Hebrew scholar, reads as follows



1. Kedosh Kedoskim -- The Holy of Holies.



2. Torath, Jehovah -- The Law of God.



3. Melec Erets -- The King of the Earth.



4. Devar Jehovah -- The Word of the Lord.



“Some have suggested that the stone might be a Masonic emblem -- the keystone which Master Masons anciently deposited in the corner-stone of their temples. (But, unfortunately for this hypothesis, the shape is not the same.) Others have supposed it furnished evidence of the presence of the lost tribes of Israel. Copies of the inscription have been submitted to some of our learned Rabbis, who generally agree that the above is a fair rendering of the text. But a difference of opinion has been expressed with regard to the antiquity of the characters, some carrying them back to the rime of Ezra, whilst others think them more modern.” To date, there has been no agreement on the antiquity or sources of the stone.



1860: “A Jewish Republican Candidate” published today reported that “an expression having been made in a Republican meeting, at St. Louis, that ‘even the Jews’ were represented on the Republican legislative ticket of Missouri, Mr. Isidor V. Bush takes the remark as the text of a communication to the Democrat. Mr. Bush is a Jew and a Republican candidate for the Legislature. He contends that neither he nor his people have any personal or selfish ends to serve in politics, but that the Jews unite their interests with those of the State. He adds the following suggestive observations: ‘At the same time you will find the Jews, with few exceptions, in favor of our party, and naturally so -- first, from the impression's received in early youth by the teachings of the Bible, (Exodus xxi., Deuteronomy xv., Leviticus xxv.) "And ye shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof;" secondly, from his own historic recollections. His daily prayers remind him that his forefathers were slaves in the land of Egypt, freed and brought forth by the Lord; and almost like slaves, worse than free negroes here, burdened with exceptional laws, disfranchised, were our fathers -- are to this very day millions of Jews in some other countries. From sympathy, therefore, the Jew cannot and will not vote for those who enact such cruel, inhuman laws as the selling of free Negroes into Slavery again.’"



1862: The Richmond Enquirer printed in full what it terms "an eloquent invocation for the success of the Confederate Army," which was pronounced in the synagogue on Mayo-street (Bayeth Ahabah) by Rabbi J.M. Michelbacher.



"We give Thee thanks, O God of Israel for Thou hast brought the vaunting and insulting army of our enemy to naught -- they boasted of strength and valiant deeds, and Thou hast made them weak and caused them to flee. Their wisdom and their cunning arts of war they exalted and enthroned as the minor of might, to be reflected upon the numerous hosts that believed their standards to anticipated triumphs; but Thou, O Eternal God of Israel; hast debased their proud exaltation, and brought it down in its pride, its vanity and its foolishness. Their vain and forward words were like the sound of threatening thunder from an approaching and lowering cloud -- as to meet David, Thy servant, so they come forth to the army of people who trust in Thee; and Thou hast caused their threatenings and their vain is to be heard me more! For all these manifestations of Thy divine care and goodness we desire, with  of hearts, to other the cure of our worship of thanks to Thee with dispositions of joy and gladness in the presence of the country unity shining light of Thy visible and emitting protection."



The following is its conclusion:



"O, God, continue Thy protecting care of our army -- and our soldiers to deeds of self-sacrifice and value in the battles for the liberty and independence of our country. Be with them, O Lord! in the lights and push them with Thy right hand against the enemy, and give them a firm foot-hold upon the trend, and let them think of Thee, and call upon Thy name, that they may be always led to victory -- let one of them be as ten thousand in the sight of the toe; and giant that in all engagements our soldiers may win the victory by the presence of Thy countenance. O, God! the perpetuity of a patriotic and just government, with counsellors and refers of wisdom, is a great blessing from Thee to the people; therefore, we pray Thee, that the Government of the Confederate States of America may be firmly established, and that Thou be unto it the rock upon which it shall be founded. Let the nations of the earth respect and revere it, and [???] its just resentment; let the dispensation of its laws be equal and just, and let its exaltation consist in the righteousness of the people. Protect and defend it from enemies abroad and foes within; and grant that the hearts of the people may be ever turned toward Thee, both in the public and private affairs of life. Grant that the Ministers of Government may have a constant fear of Thee, and a continual desire to subserve the best interests of the common welfare. We earnestly pray Thee to inspire the President of the Confederate States of America with true piety, courage, wisdom, prudence and foresight. Give unto him a just fear of disobeying Thy divine laws, and let his heart do reverence at the mention of Thy great and glorious name, that our people may be blessed in the Chief of their choice. Keep him in the path of patriotism and rectitude, that he may be a model the people of an upright citizen that [???] the Lord. Endow our Governor with all the attributes meet and proper for his station; and let his private and official conduct redound to the honor had best interests of the State of Virginia, and the happiness and prosperity of the people.



1862: The Knoxville Register reported that it has been informed that certain parties in Huntsville, who were unpatriotic enough to sell their cotton to the Jews who swarmed there from the North, were paid by them in bogus gold. “The galvanized coating has worn off the pewter, and these gentlemen have lost their cotton as effectually as if they had burned it like other true Southerners.”



1863: As the United States implemented a draft during the Civil War that resulted in a major riot in July of 1863, today a man, said to be a “Jew broker, made his appearance in Westchester, Penn., accompanied by a dozen others, whom he represented as anxious to serve as substitutes, for a consideration. Although some of the men, it is said, boasted of having taken part in the New-York riots, yet they were eagerly caught up by drafted men, and engaged at various prices as substitutes. Two of the number were sharp enough to get their money before being mustered in, and they immediately skedaddled. Four others were accepted by the Enrollment Board, and sent to the barracks, but three out of the number turned up missing the next morning. They were pursued by the Deputy Provost-Marshall and by dint of threats, and the more powerful argument of a loaded revolver, were induced to return, when they were lodged in jail for safe keeping. Three others escaped, and have not yet been caught.



1868: Birthdate of Milton S. Florsheim, the native of Chicago, Illinois who founded the Florsheim Shoe Company in 1892.



1868: Birthdate of Michael Adler, the Rabbi of the Central Synagogue in London.



1870: Playwright and poet Hermann Hersch passed away today in Berlin.



1874(13th of Av, 5634):  Baron Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, the second generation leader of the Austrian branch of the House of Rothschild passed away. Born in 1803 in Frankfurt am Main he was the son of Baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife Caroline. In 1826 he married his cousin Charlotte Nathan Rothschild, daughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild from the London branch of the family; they had eight children.



1879: In the wake of Austin Corbin’s announcement banning Jews from Manhattan Beach, it was reported that “they are not prohibited on account of their religious principles from buying Humphrey’s Parisian Diamonds” which are on sale at Humphrey’s Jewelry Store at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street.



1880: Theodore Herzl passes his first legal exam.



1881: Forty-eight year old Michael Meyer, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, lies in a hospital bed in Jersey City fighting for his life.  Meyer, a popular cattle driver, was attacked by a bull this morning leaving him with crushed ribs and a mangled right leg.  Meyer, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, had begun working in the cattle business in Germany before coming to the United States.



1881: “The Affairs of Russia” published today described the outbreak of new violence aimed at the Jews of Pultava in the Ukraine.



1882: In San Francisco, CA, nobody has seen Samuel L. Sachs since he shot his wife yesterday.  Sachs is the son of Louis Sachs and a partner in Sachs, Heller & Co, a firm that specializes in importing dry goods. 



1884: “Lessing” published today provided a summary of the writings and philosophy of Gotthold Ephriam Lessing best known for “Nathan the Wise” that portrays religious toleration in mythical meeting of a Jewish merchant, Saladin and a nameless Templar during the Crusade.



1885: “The Russian Idea of Cowboys” published today described the offer of a Polish born Jew living in Dallas, TX to supply to supply the Czar with 106 cowboys if he should go to war with England. (Considering the oppressive treatment of Jews in Russia, this is a bizarre offer to say the least.)



1887: It was reported today in New York that Joseph Levy will act as business agent for Booth-Barrett.



1887: It was reported today that John Howson has been chosen to play the part of “the Jew” in “Pawn Ticket No. 1,525) a play by Clay M. Green which is an adaptation of the novel Court Royal



1887(6th of Av, 5647): Long-time Brooklyn resident, Hirsch Harris who was known as “Rabbi Hirsch” passed away today at the age of 109. A native of a small town near Warsaw, Harris made his fortune making and selling kimmel a liqueur made from cumin, fennel and caraway seeds. He came to the United States in 1850 where he continued to enjoy success manufacturing kimmel. His nickname came from his scrupulous observance of Jewish laws and customs.



1888: The managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have collected $179 to pay for next week’s excursion.  Since the children are poor and the excursions are free, the public can send additional donations to Nathan Lewis, Hezekiah Kohn and Joseph Davis.



1889: The general public is invited to attend the upcoming lecture by Cyrus Adler of Johns Hopkins University that will be delivered at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.



1889: It was reported today that the 5th free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium For Hebrew Children will take place next week.  The cruise will be limited to children six years and younger.



1890: In St. Petersburg, Russia, the Minister of the Interior “has ordered the local authorities to prevent foreign missionaries from” proselytizing among the Jews since it infringes on the Orthodox Church’s “exclusive right of conversion “



1890: “A Queer Sort of Victory” published today described the victory of the workers led by Joseph Barondees over the Cloak Manufacturers Association during a season of strikes that spread throughout the New York area.



1891: Members of the United States Immigration are scheduled to leave Great Britain for the European continent where they will continue their investigation into abuses of the system including the practice of buying cut-rate tickets for Russian Jews to sail for America so they will not remain in France and England.



1891: The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury received a communication from Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham written on behalf of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations objecting to Russian Jewish immigrants being classified as “paupers or assisted immigrants” “when hands of help to elevated them to the exalted position of American citizenship without demanding any contributions from national or local taxes.”



1892: It was reported today that Washington Nathan had died in France.  Nathan was the son of Benjamin Nathan, the prominent New Yorker who was murdered in 1870.  The murder has never been solved.  There are those who think that the son was involved in his father’s murder.



1892: Police continue to scour the area around Pittsburg looking for other anarchist who may have been part of the plot in which the Jewish-born anarchist Alexander Berkman shot Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike.



1893: The funeral of Priscilla J. Joachimsen, President of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the widow of Judge Joachimsen is scheduled to take place this morning.



1893: Fire broke out this afternoon at 123 Clinton Street, a double tenement occupied by sixteen Russian-Jewish families when the stove of Mrs. Morris Lewenthal exploded.  Her husband operates a butter and provision store on the ground floor next Meyer Norman’s poultry and meat store.



1894: In Minneapolis, MN formation of Council No. 9 of the National Council of Jewish Women with Nina M. Cohen serving as President and Mrs. Mamie Lehmaler serving as Secretary.  (Council No 10 would be formed at Duluth in September and Council No. 11 would be formed at St. Paul in October giving the state three chapters of this major national Jewish women’s organization.



1895: Herzl leaves Paris and will never return as a resident. He will become an editor for the Neue Freie Presse at a reduced salary.



1895(6th of Av, 5655): Austrian physician Karl Bettelheim passed away.



1895: The resolution adopted by the Council of the University Settlement  Society of New York published today expressed the members’ sense of loss at the death of Abram C. Bernheim and acknowledged his contributions including  the organization of the first free art exhibition on the Lower East Side which has become an annual event.



1897: “National Jewish Chautauqua” published today described events at the second assembly which is meeting at Atlantic City including Dr. Henry Berkowitz’s report on the work of the society and a talk by Dr. M.H. Harris on Ezra the Scribe.



1904: Birthdate of author Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He passed away in 1991.



1905: The seventh annual Zionist Congress opened today in Basle, Switzerland.  Dr. Max Nordau was elected President at the afternoon session and Rabbi Judah L. Magnes was elected as Secretary of the English-speaking section.



1909(9th of Av, 5669): Tish'a B'Av



1909: In Cologne, Eugen Löwenstein, a German Jewish lawyer and his wife gave birth to Hilde Palm (née Löwenstein) who wrote under the pseudonym Hilde Domin.



1909: In Dunedin attorney Henry Brash (born Hyam Brasch) and Helene Mary Fels gave birth to Charles Orwell Brasch New Zealand poet and patron of the arts.



1909: Turkish Parliament passed a law allowing Jewish societies to have the privilege of purchasing land in their own names.



1915: “A training school for Jewish communal workers” which has enabled “those engaged in Jewish charitable labors to exchange views” and has featured such speakers Dr. Ludwig B. Bernstein, Miss Lillian D. Wald and Professor Mordecai Kaplan” is scheduled to come to an end today/



1915: During WW I, in Berlin, Albert Einstein was among a group of 91 prominent German intellectuals who signed a declaration opposing all territorial annexations and calling for a compromise peace



1916: It was announced today that many of the philanthropic organizations working in New York City had come together to form The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.  The new organization should increase efficiency both in the soliciting and distribution of funds.  Based on the experience of other cities, there should be a 30% increase in the amount of money raised.  Abram I. Elkus, whom President Wilson recently named to serve as Ambassador to Turkey is the Chairman of the new federation.  Alfred M. Heinsheimer kicked off the donation process with a contribution of $25,000.



1916 Ed Wynn the Jewish comedian whose career ran from Vaudeville to Television and Hilda Keenan gave birth to actor Keenan Wynn.



1917: In Nikolaev (also known as Mykolaiv): Authorities denied the demand of workmen under the control of the Black Hundreds to dismiss Jewish laborers employed by the Admiralty Committee and “dismissed the ringleaders from government employ.”



1918: Birthdate of cellist Leonard Rose. Born in Washington DC, Rose was the concert cellist with the New York Philharmonic from 1943 to 1951.



1920: Keren Hayesod (Eretz-Israel Foundation Fund) was created in London at the London Zionist Conference. It was intended for education, absorption and the development of rural settlements in Eretz-Israel.



1922: Birthdate of television producer Norman Lear. Yes, the man who made Archie Bunker a national institution, who created the “Jeffersons” which provided a acting vehicle for numerous Afro-American performers and who got Americans to look at their own prejudices, is Jewish.



1920: Chaim Weizmann was elected president of the World Zionist Organization.



1924:  The Eighth Olympic Games close in Paris.  The 1924 Olympics were the focal point of the movie hit “Chariots of Fire” which featured the struggle of Harold Abraham to gain social acceptance and athletic success.  The real Abraham had lost in his attempt to win a medal in the 1920 Olympics. In 1924, he surprised everybody by winning the Gold Medal in the 100 meter race, making him the first European to win in one of the sprint competitions. 



1925: Birthdate of Marion “Meg” Dulin a native of Vinton, Iowa, who served with the 423rd Medical Collecting Company during World War II and “was among the young Americans who entered Buchenwald Concentration Camp to free prisoners” an event that must have been of some significance in his life since it was specifically mentioned in his obituary when he passed away in July, 2009 at the age of 83.  While there are those who have been quick to criticize America for its lack of effort to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust, Dulin is an example of the American G.I.’s who literally liberated the remnant of our co-religionist from “the Night.”



1926: Birthdate of Bernard Harper Friedman, known as Bob to his friends, “a real estate executive who gave up his business career to write well-received novels and art criticism and whose books include an early biography of Jackson Pollock.”



1927(29thof Av, 5687): Less than two months before his 67th birthday, Solomon Joseph Solomon the acclaimed artist who was the brother of Lily Delissa Joseph, who was also an artist, passed away today.



http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/2011/09/color-palettes-solomon-j-solomon-1860.html



1929: Birthdate of Alan Lloyd Haberman, the native of Worcester, MA, who led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders in 1973.and then spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. (As reported by Margalit Fox)



1930: U.S. premiere of Le Miracle des Loups, a French silent film directed by Raymond Bernard where it was known by its English subtitle “The Miracle of the Wolves.”



1930: Birthdate of Anthony Janoff Weiner, the New Jersey native who became a noted futurist after he co-authored The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-three Years (As reported by Douglas Martin)



1934: A dispatch to The Timesfrom Palestine calls the attention of the British Government and people to the fact that the Jewish national home is turning out to be something very different from what they expected and even from what the first Zionists expected. The Anti-Jewish Campaign in Germany has sent a flood of immigrants to Palestine. In the meantime the Revisionists appear to be gaining recruits and support.



1935: After 184 performances at the Belasco Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of  “Awake and Sing” written by Clifford Odettes and directed by Howard Clurman with a cast that included “Luther Adler (Moe Axelrod), Stella Adler (Bessie Berger), Morris Carnovsky (Jacob), John Garfield (Ralph Berger) and Sanford Meisner (Sam Feinschreiber).



1935: As the condition of German Jews continues to deteriorate an “article entitled ‘Finish Up with the Jews’ urges German girls to wake up and not go with Jews any longer.”  Equating social interaction with economic activity, the article continues, ‘Gewrman woman, if you buy froms, and German girl if you carry on with Jews, then both of your betray your German Volk and its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, and commit a sin against your German volk and its future.’”



1936: The Palestine Post reported that 12 Arabs were known to have been killed in a battle with British troops in the hills, off the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway. Barbed-wire barricades and other police precautions were evident in Jaffa as Arabs observed the 100th day of their national strike and uprising. The Iraq Petroleum Co. pipeline and railway lines were damaged and the government imposed heavy collective fines on villages suspected of sabotage. Arabs attacked Ramat Hakovesh and other settlements near Kfar Saba but were beaten off.



1937 A ritual-murder trial of five Jews opens in Bamberg, Germany



1937: “Rustler’s Valley” a western featuring Lee J. Cobb as “Cal Howard” was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States today.



1940: “They Drive by Night” a pre-war film noire produced by Mark Hellinger, with a screenplay by Jerry Wald and was featuring George Tobias as “George Rondolos” was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.



1940: With Mel Blanc providing the voice Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare. The Bunny had the voice of the Jew without a Yiddish accent.



1941: German and Rumanian troops entered Kishinev, Soviet Union. Five thousand Kishinev Jews would be executed within a week.



1941(3rdof Av, 5701): Jews were taken from the Kovno and executed by Lithuanian militia at the Seventh Fort.



http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/06.asp



1941(3rd of Av, 5701): In retaliation for Jewish resistance, 1,200 Jews were taken from Belgrade to the labor camp at Tasmajdan. One hundred twenty of them were taken to Jajinci and shot. In other words, one out of every ten captives is shot. The reality is that they would all have been killed at some point in time as part of the Final Solution.



1941: A second pogrom known as the "Petliura Days",which had been  named for Symon Petliura came to an end.  “For three straight days, Ukrainian militants went on a murderous rampage through the Jewish districts of Lwów. Groups of Jews were herded out to the Jewish cemetery and to the prison on Łąckiego Street where they were shot. More than 2,000 Jews were killed and thousands more were injured.”



1941: The clothing of Jews murdered in Ponas, Ukraine, is sold by the Ukrainian and Nazi killers



1941: In Holland, a collaborationist military force with ties to the SS, Freiwillingen Legion Niederlander (Dutch Volunteer Legion), is established.



1942: The Nazis take Rostov for a second time, touching off another wave of slaughter for the Jews that would take the life of Sabina Spielrein, the first female psychoanalysts.



1942: The Germans distributed a proclamation stating that any Pole or Ukrainian who tried to help a Jew would be shot.



1942(13thof Av, 5702): Thirty-three year old Russian-born French philosopher Valentin Feldman who was a member of the French Resistance “called out to his firing squad ‘Imbecile, it is for you that I die’ just before he was murdered by the Nazis today.



1942: The first Belgian Jews arrived at Mechelen. The ancient fortress in this small town between Brussels and Antwerp was actually the first stop for the Jews being transported to Auschwitz. The Jews thought they were going to work in factories in the East. Mechelen would serve as the collection point. Each time a thousand Jews were brought together, a train would leave for the death camp in Poland.



1943: While combing the ruin of the Warsaw Ghetto for loot, the Germans uncovered hidden Jews, most of who are shot on the spot.



1943:  The Leon Group escaped from the ghetto in Vilna.  The Leon Group was made up of 21 Jewish partisans under the command of Joseph Glassman.  Michael Kovner, brother of Abba Kovner was a member of the group.  The Leon Group was the first group of what were intended to be many groups of partisans that Abba Kovner would send into the woods beyond Vilna to take part in guerilla warfare against the Nazis and their allies.  As the group of 21 made the fifty mile trek to the forests they were ambushed.  Nine of the Jews died in the brief, uneven fight.  A search of the corpses produced the names and addresses of the victims.



1944: Siauliai, Lithuania, is liberated by the Red Army, 12 days after German deportations of 7000 local Jews and the murder of 100 left behind.



1944: Dvinsk, Latvia, is liberated by the Soviet Union two years too late to save the Jewish community. When the Germans occupied Dvinsk at the end of June 1941, the Nazis organized a Pogrom. Synagogues were burned down or taken over by the army. A ghetto was set up in July 1941 including Jews from the surrounding localities. In October, 1941, most of the Jews in the Ghetto were murdered and the Ghetto was liquidated in May, 1942



1944: The Wehrmachtretreats from Lvov, Ukraine. Only a few of the city's Jews, many of them hiding in sewers, have lived through the German occupation



1945(17thof Av, 5705): Shakne Epshtein, the “Jewish-Russian journalist and the secretary and editor of the Eynikayt (Unity) the newspaper published by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who championed the creation of a Jewish republic in the Crimea passed away today.



http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/E/epstein-shakhne.htm



1946(28th of Tammuz, 5706):  Gertrude Stein passed away.



http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0203.html



1946: Theodore Levin received his commission to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan He served as chief judge of that court from 1959 to 1967, and thereafter served until his death.



1946: In Metuchen, New Jersey, Helen and Stanley Cowen gave birth to Scott Cowen who served as President of Tulane during the challenging times brought on by Hurricane Katrina.



1947(10th of Av, 5707): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9thof Av fell on Shabbat



1947: Jews who had tried to enter Palestine aboard the Exodus, observed the fast of Tish’a B’Av as the Empire Rivaltransported them back to France.



http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/16.asp



1948(20th of Tammuz, 5708): Forty-four year old S.J. “Skid” Simon the native of Harbin who gained fame as a bridge player and author of comic works including Don't, Mr. Disraeli!  passed away today.



1948(20th of Tammuz, 5708): Fifty-two year old Joel Woolf Barnato, the British financier, racing driver and RAF veteran passed away today.



1949: In Brooklyn, Irving and Clarice Chaykin gave birth to Maury Alan Chaykin, Canadian character best known to many for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe. (As reported by Bruce Weber)



1950: New Zealand recognized Israel.



1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had asked the UN Security Council to instruct Egypt to open the Suez Canal for Israeli cargoes and shipping "permanently and unconditionally." Final plans were made for the new Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, including a 430-bed hospital, a nursing training school and nurses' home and a medical school.



1953: King Hussein of Jordan declared that east Jerusalem was the ‘alternative capital of the Hashemite Kingdom.’  In fact, the Jordanians would do all they could to discourage development of the portion of Jerusalem they had occupied since 1948.



1955(8thof Av, 5715): Erev Tish’a B’Av



1955(8thof Av, 5715): A plane bound for Israel was shot down by Bulgaria. Fifty one passengers and seven crew members were killed. This episode took place at the height of the Cold War when such incidents were not that uncommon. The plane was flying from Vienna to Tel Aviv when Bulgarian fighters forced the El Al plane to land at Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. As the plane was circling to land, it was shot out of the sky by the Bulgarians. The Israeli government claimed the bodies and buried them in Israel. The episode provided opponents of El Al with an argument for doing away with a national airline as a luxury the infant state could not afford. But the government stuck to its guns. There were no other such incidents and El Al continued to fly.



1955: Forty year old Pinchas Porat who was one of Israel’s pilots who flew with 101 Squadron died today while serving as the co-pilot aboard El Al Flight 402 which was shot down by Bulgaria.



1956: Birthdate of Carol Leifer, an American comedian, writer, producer and actress who describes herself as a Jewish lesbian vegan.



1961: Birthdate of Israeli performer Erez Tal whose “first hit program was "Ma Yesh" ("What's Up"), broadcast on Galatz, Israel's Army radio.”



1968(2ndof Av, 5728): Seventy-five year old Czech architect Otto Eisler passed away today a Bron.



1969(12th of Av, 5729): Seventy-three year old Vivian de Sola Pinto the British poet who served at Gallipoli in World War and who “appeared for the defense in the obscenity trial regarding Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960 passed away. (For the ultimate literary experience consider the during WW I he served in a company in which he was second in command to Siefgried Sasson – were the orders in prose or poetry)



1969: As Operation Boxer continues “several 109 Squadron Skyhawks carried out a nighttime attack.”



1972: After 896 performances at the Palace Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Applause”  “a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green” and a cast that included Lauren Bacall and Bonnie Franklin.



1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department sought to downplay the significance of its contacts with the PLO, stressing that they were only "technical" and designed to assure a safe departure of American citizens from Lebanon.



1977: “Dire Straits” featuring David Knopfler as rhythm guitarist “recorded the now famous demo tapes of five songs: "Wild West End", "Sultans of Swing", "Down to the Waterline", "Sacred Loving" (a David Knopfler song), and "Water of Love".



1979: Zuheir Mohsen, head of PLO military operations was killed by unknown parties as he exited a casino in the fames French resort of Cannes.



1980(14th of Av, 5740):  A Jewish boy from France was killed and others were injured when terrorists threw grenades at a group of children in Antwerp, Belgium.



1981(25th of Tammuz, 5741): Award winning movie director William Wyler passed away. There is no way that this blog can do justice to his career.



https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.obituaries/Wx2KzqNjebo



1990: U.S. premiere of “Flatliners” a “sci-fi horror thriller” directed by Joel Schumacher.



1991:TV Guide publishes its 2000th edition. This icon of American culture was created by Jewish millionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg. 



1993: “The Senate today confirmed the nomination of Arthur Levitt Jr., President Clinton's selection as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”



1993: The Senate confirmed the nomination of Joseph Stiglitz to serve on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers.



1993: Alan Blinder began serving “on President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers” today.



1995: In “Dead Birdie” published today, Gerald Thomson pans the Davis Production of Charles Strouse’s musical “Bye Bye Birdie.”



1997: The Sunday New York Times features a review of Bloomberg by Bloombergby Michael Bloomberg



1998:G. Oliver Koppell, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, attacked two of his rivals on of which was Elliot Spitzer, today for accepting campaign contributions from members of the Tisch family, which controls the Lorillard Tobacco Company.



1998(4thof Av, 5758): Ninety-five year old English actress Binnie Barnes whose father George Barnes was a Jewish policeman in London passed away today.



1999: Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus and his wife Liz gave birth to their second daughter, Abigail



2000: Medieval Hebrew Poetry in its Religious and Secular Context, a colloquium sponsored by The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.



2001: “Planet of the Apes” part of a series of science fiction films with a music by Danny Elfman was released today in the United States by 20th Century Fox.



2002: John Phillip Key “assumed office as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Helensville.”



2003: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including History of Britain by Simon Schama, Support Any Friend by Warren Bass and My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir by Carl Reiner.



2004(9th of Av, 5746): Tish’a B’Av



2004: A revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” opened today at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, England



2006: The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on 59 year old Dr. Daniel Yaakobi whose burned body was found today in the trunk of his care.



2006: Police interrogated Haim Ramon for seven hours today, the same day on which, in an unrelated matter he said "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah”



2006: During the first round of what would become his 15th tour title, Jewish golfer Corey Pavin broke the record for the fewest number of strokes needed to complete nine holes at a PGA Tour event, with an 8-under par score of 26.



2006: Yaakov Edri “was named Minister without Portfolio responsible for Jerusalem Affairs.”



2007: Brad Ausmus “recorded his 100th career stolen base today, becoming the 21st catcher all time to record that many steals.”



2007: Toby Press publishes the thirtieth anniversary edition of Brothers by Chayym Zeldish.



2007: In Jerusalem, Zubin Mehta leads the Israel Philharmonic in a concert to celebrate the birthday of philanthropist Edmund Safra and the 40th anniversary of united Jerusalem.



2007: Ralph A. Alpher awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest such honor in the United States, which was presented to his son Dr. Victor S. Alpher because he could not travel to receive the award due to failing health.



2007: The U.S. Post Office released a full-sheet pane of Marvel Super Heroes. Ten of the stamps are portraits of individual Marvel characters and the other 10 stamps depict individual Marvel Comic book covers. According to the credits printed on the back of the pane, Jack Kirby's artwork is featured on: Captain America, The Thing, Silver Surfer, Amazing Spider-Man #1, The Incredible Hulk #1, Captain America #100, X-Men #1, and Fantastic Four #3



2008: The Saul Steinberg: Illuminations travelling exhibition, which displays original Steinberg works at various museum and galleries around the world has its final showing the  Fondation Cartier-Bresson, in Paris.



2008: In “A Modest Proposal: Eco-Friendly Stimulus” published today Alan S. Blinder described the “Cash for Clunkers” program.



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/business/27view.html?_r=0



2008: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of Moral Clarity A Guide for Grown-Up Idealistsby Jewish author Susan Neiman.



2008(27th of Tammuz, 5768): Eighty-four year old Mexican multi-millionaire Isaac Saba Raffoul, the son of an immigrant from Aleppo, passed away today.



http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/M12Y.html



http://www.respectance.com/Isaac_Saba_Raffoul/



2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of a children’s book entitled Little Brother by Canadian born Jewish author Cory Doctorow and The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Noah Feldman.



2008: In TheWashington Post, “The Poet’s Choice” column features reviews of the work of Jewish poet Allen Grossman including "A Pastoral,""The Piano Player Explains Himself"and"The Work" from The Ether Dome and Other Poems: New and Selected



2009: In Jerusalem, it is Open Mic Night In English at the Off the Wall Comedy Basement on Ben Yehuda Street.



2009: In Jerusalem, Agite Drive plays Balkan music at the Biblical Zoo aka, The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens (Biblical Zoo)



2009: Newsweek magazine reads like a copy of the Forwards with a spate of articles about Jews and/or of special interest to Jews including “Israel Fights Wire With Wire,” “Hit Squad vs. Mossad,”  “The Israel Trail,” about a 600-mile footpath “that ambles from the country’s…border with Egypt…to the edge of Lebanon”,  a profile on the views of economist Joseph Stiglitz and the semi-positive quote from “the normally pessimistic economist Nouriel Roubini” that “the light at the of the tunnel, for once, is not an incoming train.”



2010:Random House is scheduled to publish Gary Shteyngart’s third novel, Super Sad True Love Story



2010: As part of WJFF Year-Round, a creening of Eli & Ben is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C.



2010: After a 29-year hiatus, the Annual National Bible Quiz for Adults is once again underway with 2,078 contestants taking part in the first round in Jerusalem today.



2010: “Junk food junkies” were saddened today at the passing of 90 year old Morrie Yohai, the “developer of Cheez Doodles. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/business/03yohai.html



2010(16th of Av, 5770): Sixty-one year old character actor Maury Chaykin, passed away today in Toronto. (As reported by Bruce Weber)



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/arts/29chaykin.html



2011: Rabbi Mordechai Becher is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Two Great Jewish Mystics – The Ramcal and the Maharal of Prague at the Philadelphia Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square.



2011: YJAM-Young Jewish Adults of Milwaukee is scheduled to provide a free nosh for those attending the Battle of the Bands at River Rhythms.



2011: Planet Money reporters Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson are scheduled to offer a practical and humorous field guide to America's economic future at Washington’s Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.



2011: Today, the French Foreign Ministry circulated comments made by its minister Alain Juppe last week saying that any solution to the Middle East will need to recognize Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people.


2011: Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini pledged support today for demonstrators protesting across the country for affordable housing, saying the Histadrut would join protests "at all levels" if the government did not invite the labor organization to discuss real solutions to the issues facing the middle and lower classes, Israel Radio reported


2011(24th of Tammuz, 5771)): Ninety-three year old Admiral Maurice “Mike” Rindskopf, a hero of the Silent Service during WW II passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi and Emily Langer)



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/us/07rindskopf.html



http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/retired-rear-adm-maurice-h-mike-rindskopf-dies-at-93/2011/08/08/gIQAprcF5I_story.html



2012: Donald Sanford, the 400 meter runner, is scheduled to be part of the Israeli team representing the Jewish state at the Olympics which open today in London.


2012: The Tel Aviv International Children’s Festival which features 30 films for children between the ages of 3 and 13 is scheduled to come to an end today.


2012: The public is scheduled to join Leket Israel’s gleaning initiative where participants can pick vegetables for distribution to Israel’s needy at Moshav Nahal. (For more pre-Shabbat fun see www.janglo.net )


2012: Since the IOC has sided with the killers and decided against “a moment of silence” to honor the memory of those slaughtered at 40 years ago at Munich  the following prayer composed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is scheduled to be offered by many Jews throughout the world


2012: The faces of the 11 murdered Munich Olympians, flashed on the screen in Israel as the Israeli delegation marched into the stadium.


2012: Terrorists fired two Kassam rockets from Gaza into southern Israel this evening.The rockets landed in an open field. No injuries or damage to property has been reported.Security forces are scanning the area looking for the fallen rockets.


2012: Ninety-eight year old Tony Martin, the son of Polish immigrants, whose singing career spanned eight decades passed away today. (As reported by Frank J. Prial)



2013: The Arab-Hebrew Theatre is scheduled to present “Eyes based on the works of Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish in New York City.


2013: “Joe Papp in Five Acts” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: Avital Raz is scheduled to debut her newest album in Jerusalem.


2013(20th of Av, 5773): Seventy-seven year old Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet passed away today.



2013(20th of Av, 5773): Eight-six year old pioneering television newsman Herbert Kaplow passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)



2014: In a sign of that summer is ending, Temple Judah is scheduled to hold its Religious School In-Service.


2014: “A Serious Man” and “The Big Lebowski” are scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.


2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and the ADL are scheduled to host “Family Day” where attendees can explore identity through art.


2014: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird, Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story by Jack Devine and Vernon Loeb, Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open by Phoebe Hoban, The Golden Age Shtetl: A New History of Jewish Life in East Europe by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and The Essential Ellen Willis edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz.


2014(29th of Tammuz, 5774): Twenty-seven year old Sergeant First Class (Res.) Barak Fefael Degorker fomr Gan Yavne died today from wounds he suffered  last night during a mortar attack.(“In life they were loved and admired; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”)


2014: “Vic Alhadeff, the chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, stood down today as the part-time chair of the NSW Community Relations Commission just two weeks after an email he sent accusing Hamas of “war crimes” triggered outrage among Arab and Muslim organizations.” (As reported by JTA)


2015: In Tel Aviv, at Midnight the “6th Annual Tisha B'Av by Candle light on the Beach - Eicha, Story & Songs of Jerusalem” is scheduled to come to an end.


2015: The European Maccabi Games are scheduled to open today in Berlin “at a site constructed by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics.” (As reported by David Rising)


2015: This year’s winners of the MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Israeli Keren Katz whose work will be on display at an exhibition scheduled to open today.


 


This Day, July 28, In Jewish History

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July 28 



450:Theodosius II the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 408 to 450 passed away. His reign was not a good period for the Jews people. In 425 “on the death of the Jewish Patriarch Gamaliel II, the patriarchate, and the Jewish council associated with it, is ended.” In 429 the “Roman empire formally abolished the Jewish Patriarchate and diverted the Jewish temple tax to the imperial treasury. In 439 The Theodosian Code was “published which, among others, imposed the death penalty on any Jew who tried to convert a Christian to Judaism” and excluded Jews from holding public office.



532: “Emperor Justinian issues a new law condemning Manichaeans, Samaritans, and heretics. In the process, he categorizes Jews as being heretics” "Since many judges, in deciding cases, have addressed us in need of our decision, asking that they be informed what ought to be done with witnesses who are heretics, whether their testimony ought to be received or rejected. We therefore ordain that no heretic, nor even they who cherish the Jewish superstition, may offer testimony against orthodox Christians who are engaged in litigation, whether one or the other of the parties is an orthodox Christian." (As reported by Austin Cline)



1232: In a grant issued today, King Henry III gave Peter de Rivel “the office of Treasurer and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and ‘the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland’” which meant that all Jews in Ireland shall be intentive and respondent to Peter as their keeper in all things touching the king".



1294: Adolf of Nassau “issued an order” forbidding Jews in Worms to acquire real estate and banning them from occupying “the commons” i.e. territory belonging to the commonwealth.



1315:Nine years after he had expelled the Jews (1306), King Louis X of France issued an edict that permitted “the Jews to return for a period of twelve years, authorizing them to establish themselves in the cities in which they had lived before their banishment. He issued this edict in answer to the demands of the people. Geoffroy of Paris, the popular poet of the time, says in fact that the Jews were gentle in comparison with the Christians who had taken their place, and who had flayed their debtors alive; if the Jews had remained, the country would have been happier; for there were no longer any moneylenders at all (Bouquet, xxii. 118). The king probably had the interests of his treasury also in view. The profits of the former confiscations had gone into the treasury, and by recalling the Jews for only twelve years he would have an opportunity for ransoming them at the end of this period. It appears that they gave the sum of 122,500 livres for the privilege of returning. It is also probable, as Vuitry states, that a large number of the debts owing to the Jews had not been recovered, and that the holders of the notes had preserved them; the decree of return specified that two-thirds of the old debts recovered by the Jews should go into the treasury. The conditions under which they were allowed to settle in the land are set forth in a number of articles; some of the guaranties which were accorded the Jews had probably been demanded by them and been paid for. They were to live by the work of their hands or to sell merchandise of a good quality; they were to wear the circular badge, and not discuss religion with laymen. They were not to be molested, either with regard to the chattels they had carried away at the time of their banishment, or with regard to the loans which they had made since then, or in general with regard to anything which had happened in the past. Their synagogues and their cemeteries were to be restored to them on condition that they would refund their value; or, if these could not be restored, the king would give them the necessary sites at a reasonable price. The books of the Law that had not yet been returned to them were also to be restored, with the exception of the Talmud. After the period of twelve years granted to them the king might not expel the Jews again without giving them a year's time in which to dispose of their property and carry away their goods. They were not to lend on usury, and no one was to be forced by the king or his officers to repay to them usurious loans. If they engaged in pawn broking, they were not to take more than two deniers in the pound a week; they were to lend only on pledges. Two men with the title "auditors of the Jews" were entrusted with the execution of this ordinance, and were to take cognizance of all claims that might arise in connection with goods belonging to the Jews which had been sold before the expulsion for less than half of what was regarded as a fair price. The king finally declared that he took the Jews under his special protection, and that he desired to have their persons and property protected from all violence, injury, and oppression.”



1586:  The first potato arrived in Britain.  Since the potato is indigenous to Peru and Bolivia this date means that European Jews could not have enjoyed such delicacies as Latkes and Potato Knishes until at least the 17thcentury.



1609: Bermuda is first settled, by survivors of the English Sea Venture, en route to Virginia. “Historically, few Jews moved to Bermuda because of the harsh policies of the English toward Jews on the island in the 18th century. There is one place on the island, Jews Bay, which proves Jewish origins in Bermuda. The name of the bay dates back to the early 1600s, and is considered to be named after a group of Jews who did business on the island.”http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/bermuda.html



1627: Emperor Ferdinand II, “the terror of the Protestants” sent a “threatening letter” to the senate in Hamburg expressing his indignation that “the Lutheran city on the Elbe would not allow Catholics to build a church” but would allow the Jews open a synagogue because of their importance in the trading life of the city.  The city relied on the support of Portuguese Jews living in Amsterdam for financial support and had allowed a group of them to settle in the city.



1648: Three thousand Jewish children were killed by Chmeilnicki's hordes in Konstantnow.



1764:  Birthdate of Solomon Etting, the Baltimore businessman and politician who led the successful fight to end Maryland’s laws that banned non-Christians from holding public office and practicing law.



1776: Jonas Phillips “sent a letter to a relative and business correspondent of his in Holland, Gumpel Samson by way of the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius. The letter begins by discussing his last letter and other business matters. He moves on to discuss the conflict with England and laconically mentions that the Americans have 100,000 soldiers to the British 25,000. He finishes the letter with an appendix of items he want sent to America so he may sell them.  There are two important things about this letter. First, Jonas enclosed within the letter a newly-minted copy of the Declaration of Independence. And secondly, Jonas wrote the letter in Yiddish. Since at war with Britain Jonas would have expected the letter to be intercepted, but by writing in Yiddish they would not be able to read it. The British did intercept the letter and not knowing in language it was written concluded it was in code.” Phillips was born in Germany in 1736 and came to America in 1756.  After working as an indentured servant in Charleston SC, he moved North, eventually settling in New York City where he became a successful merchant who was active in the Jewish community of both NYC and Philadelphia and supporter of the American Revolution.  He was the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.



1786: Joseph Abraham Stelicki, a well-educated middle-class Catholic who converted to Judaism was not charged with failure to pay the special taxes on Jews because he was deemed to “be mentally unbalanced.”



1789(5th of Av, 5549): Meir ben Saul Barby the scholar who escaped poverty and served as rabbi at congregations at Halberstadt and Halle-on-the-Salle.



1794:  French political leader and revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre meets his fate with the guillotine.  Whatever his other shortcomings, Robespierre took the unpopular stance of advocating full rights for the Jews of France when the subject first was debated in 1789. In part he stated, “How can you blame the Jews for the persecution they have suffered in certain countries?  These are, on the contrary, national crimes that we must expiate by restoring to them the imprescribable rights of man of which no human authority can deprive them…Let us give them back their happiness, their country and their virtue by restoring them their dignity as men and citizens…The vices of the Jews are born of the abasement in which you [Christians] have plunged them.  Raise their condition and they will speedily rise to it!”



1797: Sixteen year old Baltimore native Zipporah Russell, the daughter of Philip Moses Russell and the granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Nunez, the Sephardic Jew who brought the first Torah to Savannah, GA, married Isaac D. Mordecai today.



1808: Birthdate of Salomon (Solomon) Formstecher, “a German rabbi and student of Jewish theology.”



1812: In Warsaw Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska gave birth to Józef Ignacy Kraszewski author of The Jews in which the protagonist Jacob, a “highly-educated and philosophical Jews” “is forced to take part in the revolution” “against his will” and who “found many colorful words to describe Jewish women of whom he wrote “Nearby industrious Jewess sit in their little stores, aloof from the crowds of people, and with their shrieks and yells they call people in, tempt them, beg, pull in , quarrel, bargain, even fight – with astonishing multitasking astuteness and unappreciated talent.”



1814: Birthdate of Betty Berta Warburg.



1821: Jose de San Martin declares Peru’s independence from Spain. San Martin was one of the great leaders in the fight to free South America from Spanish rule.  At the time of Peru’s liberation from Spanish rule, whatever Jewish population existed in “the land of the Incas” was made of conversos or secret Jews.  The Jewish Peruvians slowly made their presence known but it was not until the middle of the 19th century that they would become an open, functioning community.



1830: In Lauterbourg, France “David Caspari and the former Charlotte Baruch gave birth to Leopold Caspari who came to the United States after the Revolution of 1848 and settle in Natchitoches, Louisiana which he eventually represented in the state legislature where he worked for the creation of what is now Northwestern State University.



1834(21stof Tammuz, 5594):Abraham Hirsh Lwow passed away today.



1836(14thof Av, 5596): Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the London branch of the House of Rothschild passed away. The Jewish Virtual Library provides an interesting synopsis of his life. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/RothschildN.html



1836: Herman and Johanna Diamant gave birth to Jeanette Johanna Herzl, who married Jacob Herzl and became the mother of Theodor Herzl.



1849: The First National Assembly of Hungary led by the revolutionary leader Kossuth, granted complete political and civil rights to the Jews in recognition of their loyalty.



1851: Birthdate of Samuel Sachs, the Maryland native who gained fame as part of Goldman-Sachs.



1852: Rabbi Lyon officiated at the wedding of P.S. Jacobs from Columbia, SC and Mary Ann Adler of Charleston, SC.



1855(13th of Av, 5615):Eighty-year old Salomon Mayer von Rothschild the second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild  and the founder of the Viennese branch of the House of Rothschild whose children were Anselm Salomon von Rothschild  and Betty Salomon passed away today. A measure of his accomplishments can be seen by the fact that in 1822 Emperor Francis I awarded him the hereditary title of “Baron” making the Jewish financier a part of the Austrian nobility.



1855: Today’s “Foreign Extracts” column reported that John Abrams, a Polish Jew, has been charged with trying to induce members of the Foreign Legion stationed at Shorncliffe to desert. Based on the questioning of officers and enlisted men, it is believed that Abrams is an agent of the Russian government.  [This episode took place during the Crimean War when Britain and France were fighting Russia.]



1858(17thof Av, 5618): Sixty-five year old French banker Benoît (Bénédict) Fould, the husband of Helena Oppenheim, the daughter of Salomon Oppenhiem, who was also “active in Jewish communal affairs” passed away today.



1861:A review of History of Civilization by Thomas Buckle reports that "Jews and heretics were persecuted with unrelenting vigor" in pre-711 Spain when Arian Visigoths and the orthodox Franks were contesting for power.



1863:As the United States implemented a draft during the Civil War that resulted in a major riot in July of 1863, The New York Times reported that “a Jew broker, from New-York, reached West Chester with a dozen men to hire out as substitutes. The men boasted that they were from New-York, and were engaged in the late riots.”


1868: The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is certified, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.The“Due Process Clause” prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the individual states, which was a boon for Jewish interests because of the language in the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion.


1868: Birthdate of French poet and Zionist André Spire


1870: On what would turn out to be the last night of his life, prominent New Yorker Benjamin Nathan went to sleep on mattresses on the second floor reception room of his mansion.  Nathans’ house was being renovated so he could not spend the night in his bedroom. His son Frederick returned to the house to before midnight.  His other son, Washington, returned after midnight when his father was already asleep.


1875: Birthdate of Jacob Solomons who gained famed as John Parker author of Who's who in the theatre; a biographical record of the contemporary stage and The Green Room Book: Who’s Who on the Stage.


1875: Sir Moses Montefiore visited the large Ashkenazi synagogue in Jerusalem where he was greeted by Haham Bashi who later entertained the British nobleman at his home.  A crowd of 20,000 that included Jews, Muslims and Christians, greeted the Baronet as he walked the streets of the City of David.



1876: The German parliament passed the Austrittsgesetz, which allowed Jews to secede from their religious community which led “Samson Raphael Hirsch of Frankfurt, who had campaigned for the law to be passed, to declare that Orthodox Jews in Frankfurt had the duty to officially secede from the non-Orthodox Grossgemeinde.”



1879(8th of Av, 5639): Erev Tish'a B'Av



1879: In Paris, Helene and Leon Yehudah Tedesco gave birth to Giacomo Tedesco.



1881: “The Troubles In Russia” published today described “the disinclination” of the United States to join European governments in a proposed communique being sent to the Czar to protest Russia’s treatment of her Jews since it has “already instructed its Minister to Russia on the subject.”



1882: The Polish Jews traveling in steerage got the fright of their life today when the SS. Gellert caught fire as it sailed from New York to Hamburg.  The fire which was caused by smoldering tobacco  melted part of the iron deck before it was extinguished



1883: At Nyireghyhaza, Hungary, where a group of Jews has been charged with murdering a Christian girl the prosecution and defense gave their summations today.  The prosecution contended that for the Jews, “ritual murder was common and frequent.”  The defense “derided the charge” that Jews shed Christian blood as part of their rituals and said the charge was a lie used to “excite Christians against Jews.”



1884: James R. Osgood & Company has published Stray Leaves from Strange Literature, a collection of myths and legends including some from the Jewish people, by Lafacdio Hearn.



1884:A court circular from Marlborough House dated today noted that Walter Goodman had submitted the portrait of The Duke of Albany to the Prince and Princess of Wales, from where it was currently displayed at The Guildhall. Goodman was the second generation of Jewish painters in his family since his mother was Julia Salaman.



1885(16th of Av, 5645): Sir Moses Montefiore, one of the most famous and influential Jew of the 19th century passed away in the 101st year of his long and fruitful life. Ironically, while many Jews living in the 21stcentury have heard the name Montefiore in connection with a particular institution or building, including the famous Windmill in Jerusalem, few know much about his lifetime of accomplishments.  There is no way that this Blog can do him justice.  These websites should help fill in some of the gaps.



http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html



http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/770671/jewish/Sir-Moses-Montefiore.htm



http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/montefiore.html



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD4ERPVUGHM



1886: “Europeans in Persia” published today described the impact that westerners were having on Tehran including the local Jewish population which has benefited from the arrival of a Jewish dentist, doctor and “chemist” (pharmacist).



1886: The Castle Garden Committee of the Commissioners of Emigration is scheduled to meet today to consider the offer of several New York rabbis to provide financial guarantees for recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia so that they would not be deported as paupers.



1887: Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike, reportedly one of the first professional Jewish players played his last game today as a member of the New York Metropolitans. (This 19th century team should not be confused the modern day NY Mets)



1890: “Manning and the Jews” published today described the plans of several prominent English Jews including “Dr. Adler, the acting chief rabbi, Sir Julian Goldsmid, Mr. Frederick D. Mocatta, Sir John Simon Mr. Claude G. Montefiore and others” to present Cardinanl Manning “with an illuminated address of congrational on the occasion of his silver jubilee” on “behalf of the Jews of Great Britain.”  The gift shows the high esteem in which the Cardinal is held by the Jewish community who greatly appreciated his efforts on behalf of the Jews of Russia.



1891: The Russian Jews who came to Boston on board the SS Kansas have been detained because of the requirements of the new immigration laws.



1889: Dr. Cyrus Adler of John Hopkins University will deliver a lecture on “The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser” at Cooper Union in New York.  The lecture is part of the Summer Course sponsored by JTS.



1891: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to sponsor an excursion that will sail up the Hudson River.



1893:The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent announced that Henrietta Szold would be moving to Philadelphia from her home in Baltimore to serve as the secretary and first paid employee of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). Szold had been elected as the only female member of the JPS publication committee when the organization was founded in 1888 in order to provide a steady series of substantive works of Jewish culture to an American audience. Despite the initial apathy and opposition that the JPS encountered, Szold committed herself to the society, at one point "personally addressing eleven hundred circulars and membership blanks" although in the end they only yielded 75 responses. She had already served the organization as an author, translator, and editor, but now she would be a paid employee. While Henrietta Szold's most significant impact on Jewish life would come after she founded Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization in 1912, her work at JPS constituted a major contribution to the creation of an American Jewish culture. The Jewish Exponent article about her move to JPS suggests that, even before the formal commencement of this work, Szold was recognized as a woman who had and would continue to play an important role in the American Jewish community. Szold had already established herself as an educator and, through newspaper columns, as an astute observer of Jewish life. According to the Exponent article, "no one better equipped could be found than Miss Szold." Upon being offered the job of secretary in 1893, Szold withdrew from her positions in Baltimore, including her role as superintendent of the Russian night-school of the Hebrew Literary Society. As the school's founder, superintendent, fundraiser and one of its teachers, she had, according to the article, surrounded herself with teachers "whom she has made thoroughly conversant with her masterful manner of teaching English to Russo-Jewish immigrants and in the sympathetic manner of engaging their undivided attention so as to develop in them an appreciation of American ideals." Szold's work for JPS was monumental. Although she worked under the title and salary of secretary, she served as translator, indexer, fact checker, proofreader, statistician, administrator, and editor, overseeing the publication of 87 books during her tenure. Szold's clear mind, exhaustive dedication, and meticulous attention to detail enabled the Society to offer a remarkable literary and scholarly array. Many of the translations and original works published by JPS during this time still inform contemporary American Jewish culture and scholarship. A new Bible translation and the series of American Jewish Year Books that commenced publication in 1900 began to define the contours of a distinctive American Jewish intellectual world. After twenty-two years, Szold withdrew from JPS work in 1916 when a group of Zionists offered to provide her with an annuity in order to support her growing work for Hadassah.”



1893: “Driven From Home By Fire” published today described the aftermath of the tenement on Clinton Street which included Morris Lewenthal’s loss of his butter and provision store which cost the Russian Jewish immigrant $500 in losses that were not insured.



1895: “Jordan Ceased To Flow” published today includes a summary of an article by Lt. Col C.M. Watson of the Royal Engineers that had appeared in the last quarterly of the Palestine Exploration of London which described “a stoppage in the flow of the River Jordan” that had occurred in the 14th century which bore “a likeness to the miraculous” stoppage “of the river at the time of the…Israelites.”



1895: Founding of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Springfield, MA.



1896: Twenty year old George H. Webb will appear in court today to face charges of abduction after having failed to agree to divorce Dora Webb, a sixteen year old Jewess whom he secretly married but never lived with.



1896: The City of Miami is incorporated. According to one source Samuel Singer was reportedly the first Jew to move to Miami, arriving there in 1895. Others report that Isidor Cohen who signed the city’s charter in 1896 deserves the honor. There were enough Jews in the city when it was founded to hold regular religious services.  But the population dwindled in the first decade of the 20th century.  The anti-Semitic practices of early developers hampered the growth of what today is one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States.



1899: John Ireland, the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul, MN told friends in New York that while in France he did not see as much “turmoil over the Dreyfus” as reported in the press and “that the decision of the court-martial, whatever it may be, will be accepted as final since the matter is no longer seen as involving the honor of the army.”



1899: Messrs. Heinemann announces the publication of two books of interest because of the Dreyfus case. One is by Lionel Decle, an Anglicized Frenchman. The other is The Modern Jew, by Arnold White.



1901: The fifth annual session of the summer assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society came to an end.



1901: After more than a month of effort, Arnold Schönberg completes his work “on the opera-fragment "Die Schildbürger" (dramatic setting of Gustav Schwab's short story of the same name).”



1902(23rd of Tammuz, 5662): Rabbi Jacob Joseph passed away.Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovno, in 1840, he studied in the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv, where he was known as "Rav Yaakov Charif" because of his sharp mind. He was one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. He became successively rabbi of Vilon in 1868, Yurburg in 1870, Zhagory and then Kovno. His fame as a preacher spread, so that in 1883 the community of Vilna selected him as its maggid. He came to the United States in 1888 where he served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is named after him, and a playground is named after and honors the memory of a great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph who carried his name.



1902: In Vienna, Simon Siegmund Carl Popper, “a lawyer from Bohemia” and Jenny Schiff gave birth to philosopher Karl Popper whose grandparents were all Jewish but who was raised as a Lutheran because his family had converted before he was born.



1903: The High Commissioner delivered an address at the opening meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal



1904: Birthdate of Austrian born, British philosopher, Sir Karl Raimund Popper.  In an all too common pattern, Popper left Austria in 1937 to avoid the pending Nazi takeover.  He made his was to New Zealand where he continued his academic work.  In 1946 he moved to England where he gained further fame as a member of the faculty of the London School of Economics.



1904: Vyacheslav von Plehve, the director the Czar’s Secret Police and Interior Minister was killed by a bomb thrown by a revolutionary.  Plehve was the Interior Minister during the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903.  He reportedly gave orders for government forces not to interfere with the rioters during the three days of carnage.


1905:The New York Times reported that Max Nordau gave an “eloquent eulogy” in memory of Dr. Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement at the opening session of the Seventh Annual Zionist Congress. Herzl passed away in 1904.



1909: The cornerstone for Gymnasia Herzliya’s new build on Herzl Street in the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood of Tel Ave took place. Founded at Jaffa in 1905, it was the first Hebrew high school in what would become the state of Israel.



1909: British Ambassador Sir Gerald Lowther visited the Hahambashi (Chief Rabbi) in Constantinople.



1909: Birthdate of Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, a contract killer for Murder, Inc.



1910: In Zurich, Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Maric gave birth to their second Eduard Einstein.



1911: The King of Spain, who exercises sovereignty in Mellila, Morocco, replies favorably to the petition of these Moroccan Jews for equal rights since they pay taxes and serve in the army. The liberal press commends the Spanish Monarch's attitude, and hopes for annulment of discriminatory laws still in force against the Jews.



1913: In what turn out to be the worst single act of anti-Semitism in the United States, Leo Frank went on trial for the murder of Mary Phagan. 



1914: According to an appraisal filed today by the State Tax Assessor, the estate of the late Dr. Morris Loeb has a gross value of $2,474,585.  The largest beneficiary of the estate was his widow, Mrs. Eda K. Loeb and Harvard College.  He left several bequests to numerous Jewish and non-Jewish charities the Hebrew Technical Institute and the Solomon and Betty Loeb Memorial Home for Convalescents.  "Mrs. Loeb, Felix M. Warburg, Paul Warburg and Julius Goldman are the executors of the estate."



1914:  The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia thus starting World War I.  The war will prove devastating for the Jews of Eastern Europe.  Even worse, it will sow the seeds for the Second World War.  There is a straight line between the decisions reached in the heat of the summer of 1914 and the ashes of Auschwitz.



1915: Following the aborted attempt on his life, nothing Leo Frank continued to heal from his wounds.



1916: Birthdate of Gerhart Friedlander, “a veteran of the Manhattan Project…and a pioneer of nuclear chemistry who later exploited the first particle accelerators to do major research as head of the chemistry department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.”



1917: Birthdate of Irving Copilovich, the native of Duluth, MN who gained as philosopher and logician Irving Copi who among other things examined the possibility that the writings of Lewis Carroll were anti-Semitic.
http://forward.com/culture/217470/alice-in-anti-semitic-land/



1918: Gavrilo Princip, “the assassin who started WW I” by killing the Archduke Ferdinand died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt, the same Theresienstadt that would the show ghetto during World War II.



1922: Birthdate of William Coblentz, one of California’s most influential lawyers who battled Govenor Ronald Reagan, represented hostage/fugitive Patti Hearst and was “a donor both to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.”
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/59260/attorney-and-civic-leader-william-coblentz-dies-at-88/



 1922: On being released from prison after serving a four week long sentence, Hitler declares, “The Jewish people stands against us as our deadly foe and will so stand against us always, and for all time.”



1922: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, writes Churchill expresses his (and other un-named supporters) opposition to Zionist activity in Palestine.



1923: In Moscow, Victoria and Isaac Raeff gave birth to Marc Raeff who became one of America’s “scholars of Russian history.”  (As reported by Bruce Weber)


1923: Opera life began in pre-statehood Israel today with the performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata. The performance brought to life the vision of Mordechai Golinkin described in his thesis “The Vision of the Hebrew Art Temple of Opera Work in Palestine.”  Since there were opera houses in the new Jewish city, the performance took place in a movie theatre.


1925: Birthdate of Baruch “Barry” Samuel Blumberg, “the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and medical anthropologist who discovered the hepatitis B virus, showed that it could cause liver cancer and then helped develop a powerful vaccine to fight it, saving millions of lives.”


1929: Charles M. Bender is the delegate from Texas attending the 16th World Zionist Congress in Zurich.


1930: Birthdate of singer Firoza Begum


1931: Birthdate of Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi the second wife French musical artist Serge Gainsbourg.


1931(14thof Av, 5691): German Jewish physicist Emil Gabriel Warburg, a member of the famous Warburg family, passed away today.


1934(16thof Av, 5694): Sixty-five year old Polish painter Leopold Pilichowski who “served as President of the Association of Polish Jews in London and President of the Ben Uri Art Society passed away today.

1936(9th of Av, 5696): Tisha B’Av


1936: The New Masses publishes “The Travels of Lester Cohen,” Robert Gessner’s review of Two Worlds by Lester Cohen.


1936: It was reported today that this September, Henry Holt will publish Spring Up Oh Well by Dorothy Ruth Kahn. The book describes the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine, including the development of Tel Aviv and surrounding “hamlets.”


1937: Kfar Menahem, a moshav that had been abandoned in 1936 during the Arab Revolt “was re-established as part of the tower and stockade program.


1937:In Neuilly-sur- Seine Pierre-Gilles Veber, who was Jewish and his wife who was Armenian gave birth to Paul Veber.  He escaped the fate of his grand-uncle Tristan Barnard who was sent to Drancy since he was baptized.


1939: On the Mediterranean Sea north of Tel Aviv, “authorities detained 373 Jews today as unauthorized immigrants after the British destroyer Imperial halted the Colorado, a vessel flying” the Panamanian flag. 1940: Hitler called for an intensification of anti-Jewish actions in Slovakia.1940: Hugo Gutman and his family arrived in Vichy after escaping from Brussels and received the emigration permit today that would let them enter Portugal.


1941:David Rose marries Judy Garland.  It is the second of Rose’s three trips to the altar.  The third visit will be the one that lasts.


1941: In Scranton, PA, Rabbi Melech Schachter and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Herschel Schachter who followed in his father’s footsteps to serve as a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University.


1941: In Lithuania, the Nazis killed the Jews living in Aniksht and Vilkovishk.


1941: As German troops over run Russian territory, the killings of Jews increased in frequency and numbers.


1941: Local police and militiamen, acting with the acquiescence of SS troops at the prison at Drogobych, Ukraine, use guns, clubs, and fists to slaughter hundreds of Jews. The streets are choked with badly injured fleeing Jews and mangled corpses.


1941(4th of Av, 5701): German occupation troops in and around Belgrade, Yugoslavia, execute 122 Communists and Jews for resistance.


1941(4th of Av, 5701): Sixty-seven year old Ben Zion Halberstram the Second Bobover Rebbe was murdered today.


1941(4th of Av, 5701): Forty mental patients from Lódz, Poland, are taken from a hospital and executed in a nearby forest.


1942(14th of Av, 5702): The Nazis killed 10,000 Jews in Minsk.


1942: SS chief Heinrich Himmler writes to a senior SS official that the Occupied Eastern Territories "are to become free of Jews."



1942(14th of Av, 5702): Jewish parents in Tarnów, Poland, are forced to watch as their children are shot by Gestapo agents. The parents and other adults are subsequently deported to the camp at Belzec for extermination.



1942: In the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto, two male Jews, one just 16 years old, are hanged after escaping a work gang.



1942: Young members of the Warsaw Ghetto establish Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB; Jewish Fighting Organization). At this time, the only weapon in the ghetto is a single pistol.



1942: Over the next three days 30,000 Jews are killed in Minsk, Belorussia.



1942: As Operation Reinhard entered its sixth day, a Jewish resistance group was set up. Their arsenal consisted of two pistols. Operation Reinhard was the name given to the German plan to wipe out the Jewish population of occupied Poland.



1942(14th of Av, 5702): In Tarnow, Poland, the Jewish children were taken to the edge of town and shot. The rest of the town's Jews were taken to Belzec



1942: Eighty-nine year old Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie passed away. The famed archaeologist made his first of many trips to Palestine in 1890 when led a dig at Tell el-Hesi.  His most famous discovery came in 1896 when he identified the ‘Israel’ or Merneptah stele.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/s/sir_william_matthew_flinders_p.aspx



1943:  Using the information they found on the dead bodies of the members of the Leon Group, the Nazis entered the ghetto at Vilna and arrested 32 friends and family members of the murdered partisans.  The 32 were taken to the killing grounds of Ponar where they were executed.  The Germans published an announcement warning the family and friends of anybody else who planned to escape the ghetto that a one-way ticket to Ponar would be their reward as well.



1943: Jan Karski, the Polish officer who risked his life to bring first reports of the conditions facing the Jews of Europe, including the mass murders and concentration camps met with President Roosevelt for an hour in the Oval Office.  British Foreign Minister had not shown any interest in his report and Prime Minister Churchill was “too busy” to see him.  Before meeting with Roosevelt, Karski had met with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter who said, “I am unable to believe you.´Karski began by describing the activities of the Polish underground. The president listened with fascination, asked questions and offered unsolicited advice, some of it a bit eccentric -- such as his idea of putting skis on small airplanes to fly underground messengers between England and Poland during the winter. But when Karski related details of the mass killings of the Jews, Roosevelt had nothing to say. The president was, as Karski politely put it, "rather noncommittal." (Editor’s note – The British were too busy, FDR was not.  As to being “noncommittal” the reality was that the war was not going well and that is a gross understatement.  At this point the Allies had just landed in Sicily, were still trying to win the Battle of the Atlantic and had only scratched the surface of the Island Hopping Campaign against Japan



1943: During World War II the British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians. In a twist of irony, the mission is named Operation Gomorrah.  (There is no record of an air mission called Operation Sodom.)



1943: Birthdate of guitar playing composer Mike Bloomfield.



1948: Leon Blum began serving as Vice Premier of France in the government of Prime Minister Andre Marie.



1948: “United Nations peace envoy, Folke Bernadotte, issued a statement which said that there was ‘no evidence to support claims of massacre’” at al-Tira, a village near Haifa, that had been made by Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League. 



1948: Arthur Miller’s award winning play “Death of a Salesman” opened it London.



1949: Today’s proposal by the Ben-Gurion to the UN that would allow 100,000 Arabs to return to Israel touched off a wave of opposition that would later lead to its withdrawal.



1954: “On the Waterfront” a film that provided a gritty, realistic view waterfront corruption produced by Sam Spiegel, written by Budd Schulberg, filmed by Cinematographer Boris Kaufman, featuring Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam and Nehemiah Persoff with music by Leonard Bernstein was released in the United States today by Columbia Pictures.



1956(20th of Av, 5716):Abraham Telvi “a Jewish-American mobster and hitman for New York labor racketeer Johnny Dio, known most notably for blinding crusading New York journalist Victor Riesel with acid” was gunned down today.


1959: Premiere of “North by Northwest” the suspense thriller with a script by Ernest Lehman, music by Bernard Hermann and featuring Martin Landau in one of his early roles.


1964: Birthdate of Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead the Scottish businessman who is “The fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago.”


1969: Operation Boxer came to an end with a dogfight between IAF Mirages and Egyptian MIG-21s during which neither side was able to score a victory.


1969: Opening of the Eighth Maccabiah



1970: During the War of Attrition Soviet military personnel were reportedly among the casualties during an attack by Israeli aircraft.



1970(24thof Tammuz, 5730): Seventy-eight year old economist Dr. Melchior Palyi passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9B0DEFDB1E3AE03BBC4950DFB166838B669EDE



1971: Marvin Israel discovered the body of photographer Diane Arbus two days after she had taken her own life.



1982(8th of Av, 5742): Erev Tish'a B'Av



1984: The 1984 Summer Olympics opened in Los Angeles where Bernard Rajzman earned a Silver Medal as a player with the Brazilian Volleyball Team



1988: Jordan canceled a $1.3 billion development plan in the West Bank.



1988:Israeli diplomats arrived in Moscow for their first visit in 21 years.



1988: Jack Lang completed his first term in office as Member of the French National Assembly for Loir-et-Cher



1989: Units of the IDF crossed into Lebanon and seized Sheik Abd al-Karim Obeid a Hizballah cleric and military commander of Islamic Jihad. This took place during what is now called the First Infitada. 



1993: Catcher Brad Ausmus made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres.



1995(1st of Av, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Av



1995(1st of Av, 5755): Ninety-three year old Harry Zimmerman, the physician who helped found Albert Einstein College of Medicine and made major contributions in dealing with diseases of the nervous system, passed away today. (As reported by Robert Thomas, Jr.http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/31/obituaries/dr-harry-zimmerman-93-dies-founded-albert-einstein-college.htm



1996: The newly opened William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is the site of a reception for the Israeli Olympic team and a commemoration of the 1972 massacre at the Games in Munich when terrorists killed 11 of the country's athletes and officials.



1998: Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity so that she can testify against President Clinton.



2000(25th of Tammuz, 5760): Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist and science historian passed away.  Pais was the son of a father from the old Dutch Sephardic community while his mother was Ashkenazi.  His trials and tribulation during World War II are the kind of harrowing tale that would make a great adventure novel.  Yet they were true.  His academic achievements were equally amazing.



2002: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Sonnets by Jewish poet Gerald Stern and Man Walks Into A Room, the first novel by Jewish poet Nicole Krauss



2002: David Levy and his breakaway Gesher faction left the government due to their opposition to the budget.



2003: “Monitoring Calls in New World of Quality Assurance” described the role that software is playing in fulfilling Shlomo Shamir’s vision of changing call centers from being “cost centers” to being “strategic centers.” Shamir is the President of the American arm of Nice, an Israeli company that is the leader in this software field. (As reported by Claudia H. Deutsch) 



2005: As reported in the Oakland (CA) Tribune, Pacifica resident Lillian Greenwald is praised for having volunteered at the Jewish Home for nearly 25 years.



2006:  Five Katyushas struck Peki'in and one directly hit a home next to the yard where a family was preparing for an afternoon wedding. Ten people were lightly wounded and treated for shock.Peki'in is an agricultural settlement in the Upper Galilee.  



2007 In Jerusalem, a classical music concert entitled"Music in All the Shades" took place at the Sisters of Zion convent presented "Songs, Trombone, and Piano," featuring Galina Chipper Blat, mezzo-soprano, Natalia Jadanov on piano, and Olga Melchovski and Yuri Prokofchok on the oboe.



2007(13th of Av, 5767: Shabbat Nachamu  



2007: In Calgary Sharon Fichman was the runner-up in today’s professional tennis match.



2008:In Washington, D.C., veteran Jewish photography editor Leora Kahn discusses and signs Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan



2008: In Washington, D.C., Michaele Weissman discusses and signs her new book, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee



2009: Father Patrick Desbois, secretary to the French Conference of Bishops for relations with Judaism as well as an adviser to the Vatican on the Jewish religion, discusses The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews, an investigation of German atrocities in the Ukraine in World War II, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.



2009:Police dismantled the West Bank outpost of Mitzpe Avihai near the town of Hebron



2010: Hadassah 95th annual convention is scheduled to come to a close today.



2010:"Surviving Hitler: A Love Story,” is scheduled to be shown today at The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2010:Ninety-year old Samuel Kunz, a former Nazi death camp guard has been charged with participating in the murder of 430,000 Jews and other crimes during the Third Reich, German prosecutors said today.



2010: The New York Times featured a review of 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman



2010:Terra Olivio, the first Mediterranean international olive oil competition and conference, which attracted over 120 people from Israel and abroad was held today at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel.



2011:LIVE FROM JERUSALEM: An Evening with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra,” conducted by Zubin Mehta With Renee Fleming and Joseph Calleja is scheduled to be shown at more than 480 select movie theaters nationwide this evening.



2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Always: Irving Berlin,” an evening filled with the music of one of America’s great composers and lyricists.



2011: The Foreign Ministry announced today that Israel has established full diplomatic relations with the government of the newly UN-recognized South Sudan.



2011:Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini told Army Radio today that he does not intend on "bringing down the government" by joining the housing protests, but stressed that it must take action to lower housing prices and cost of living.


2012(8th of Av, 5772): Ninety-three year old pioneer in children’s theatre Judith Martin passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2012: The California premiere of “Six Million and One” is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012: After a 12-week season the curtain comes down on the West End production of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys.”


2012: Thousands of people attended a Tisha B’Av prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem tonight


2012:Four rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel today landing in unpopulated areas and causing no direct damage.


2012: Rabbi Yossi Nemes service of The Gerson Katz Chabad Center in Metairie, LA is scheduled to officiate at tonight’s memorial service in honor of the athletes murdered in Munich including wrestler David Berger a graduate of Tulane University who made Aliyah shortly before the Olympics

2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — Plus Plenty of Valet Parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich,  The Love-Charm of Bombs Restless Lives in the Second World War by Lara Feigel, Fools by Joan Silber and Rendezvous With Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America Into the War and Into the World by Michael Fullilove


2013: The Washington, DC is scheduled to sponsor an outing to the ballpark featuring the Nats against the Mets in “Hadassah Plays Ball!”


2013: “Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to shown this evening at the Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2013: “A brand new festival called Machaol Olam – World Dance” that began in Israel on July 11 is scheduled to come to a close.


2013: 99th anniversary of the start of World War I, a conflict about which so many know so little while its effects continue to reverberate into our lives in the 21st century.


2013: The cabinet voted 13 to 7 today to approve talks with the Palestinians and to allow a ministerial committee to release 104 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists over the next 9 months. (As reported by Herb Keinon)


2013: Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho left for Washington to take part in peace talks under the aegis of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.


2013:A robber carrying an automatic pistol stole jewelry and watches belonging to Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev worth millions of euros from the luxury Carlton Hotel in Cannes today, police and judicial sources said. 


2014: Brave Miss World & Hunting Elephants are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.


2014:The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and The Wiener Library host a workshop "The Holocaust in Eastern Europe in the Records of the International Tracing Service Digital Archive," which is scheduled to open today at the USHMM in Washington, DC.


2014: One hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I – “the war to end all wars.”


2014(1stof Av, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Av


2014(1stof Av, 5774): Sixty eight year old Little Rock native Margot Adler passed away today.

2014: At 12:40 pm today the unofficial ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was broken when Code Red sirens blared in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council as four rockets were fired from Gaza. (As reported by Itay Blumenthal and Yoav Zitun)


2014: “Charlotte Salomon” an opera based on the life of the German Jewish artists with a libretto by Barbara Honigmann “was first performed” today “at the Slazburg Festival.


2014: The rocket alert siren was sounded in Zikhron Ya'akov, Binyamina, Hadera, Caesarea and other cities in northern Israel at around 7:11pm and two rockets were fired at the Carmel area this evening


2014: “A judge issued a sweeping victory today for Rochelle Sterling, ruling that she had the authority to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to the businessman Steve Ballmer, who has agreed to pay a record $2 billion for the franchise.


2014: Twenty-two year old Staff Sgt. Eliav Eliyahu Haim Kahlon from Safed, 23 year old Staff Sgt. Adi Briga from Beit Shikma, 20 year old Corporal Maeidan Maymon Biton from Netivot, 20 year old Corporal Niran Cohen from Tiberius and 20 year old Sgt. Moseh Davino from Jerusalem were killed today.(“In life they were loved and admired; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”)


2015: “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” is scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.


2015: The Annual Karmiel Dance Festival is scheduled to begin today.


 

This Day, July 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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July 29



1099:  Pope Urban II, the man behind the First Crusade, passed away.  Considering the impact of the Crusades on the Jews of Europe, his impact on Jewish history is self-obvious.



1336: Led by John Zimberlin, a self-proclaimed prophet, a group of peasants in Germany known as the Armleder (for their leather straps warn on their arms) attacked Jewish communities in Franconia and the Alsace region. They also destroyed Jewish communities in Bohemia, Moravia and elsewhere along the Rhine. Roughly 1500 Jews were murdered. Eventually when the Armleder began to attack non-Jews, they were opposed by local Lords.



1567: James VI is crowned King of Scotland. Scotland’s King James VI will enter history as King James I of Great Britain, the monarch who gave his name to the King James Bible, the English translation of the holy book whose text most Americans (including many Jews) will think of as the real words of God.



1588: English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeats the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France. The defeat of the Spanish Armada meant that the Catholics and their Inquisition would not take control of the British Isles or re-take the Netherlands, the Protestant nation that was haven for European Jews.  Morrano spies reportedly provided information to the English which helped them to know when and where to expect the arrival of the Armada.



1612(29thof Tammuz, 5372): Abraham Portaleone, the Italian physician who studied under Jacob Fano and who was granted special dispensation so he could treat such prominent Christians as the Dukes Guglielmo and Vincenzo of Mantua and Pope Gregory IV passed away today.



1644: Urban VIII, the Pope who issued an edict in 1625 forbidding Jews in Rome from erecting gravestones, passed away.



1654(Av, 5414):Miriam Lucerna, “the daughter of a well-known rabbi and physician, Leo Lucerna” and the wife of Meshullam Solomon Fischhof-Auerbach passed away today in Vienna.



1808: As he prepared for surgery, Rothschild drew up his last will and testament.



1827: In Strasbourg, “banker Adolphe Ratisbonne and his wife Charlotte Oppenheim” gave birth to French author Louis Raisbornne whose uncles had converted to Catholicism and become priests.



1819: David Moses Dyte and Hannah Lazarus gave birth to Charles Dyte, who married Evelina Nathan and with whom he had five children.



1830: Abdication of Charles X of France. Charles abdicated in favor of his grandson.  But the Chamber of Deputies rejected this move and chose Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, to fill the vacant throne.  This proved to be a good thing for the French Jews since Louis would ratify a motion putting Judaism on a par with Christianity, granting State support to Synagogues and their Minister of Religion. This meant that France extended financial support to Jewish religious institutions on par with Christian institutions.



1840: Birthdate of Simon Baruch, a physician, who was born in Schwersen, Germany (now part of Poland). He attended German schools and received a degree from the Medical College of Virginia (1862); was surgeon for the Confederate Army (1862-1865); and practiced in Camden, South Carolina, until 1881, then in New York. He was the Chairman of the South Carolina Board of Health (1880) and was the author of books on the use of hydrotherapy. He married Isabel Wolfe in 1867. His greatest claim to fame was that he was the father of Bernard Baruch, the famed financier and advisor to Presidents.



1847: Grace Aguilar made her last entry in her Frankfort Journal, a 34,000 word long effort that recorded her family’s journey through Belgian and Germany.  It was also her last literary effort since she would pass away in September.



1849: In Pest, Gabriel Südfeld, a Hebrew poet and his wife gave birth to Simon Maximilian Südfeld who gained fame as Max Nordau, the Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. He was a co-founder of the World Zionist Organization together with Theodor Herzl, and president or vice president of several Zionist congresses. Nordau died in Paris, France in 1923. In 1926 his remains were moved to Tel Aviv.



1850(20th of Av, 5610): Sarah Moses, the daughter of Abraham Moses and the wife of Lazarus Moses, passed away and was buried in Chatham, Kent, England.



1864: In article describing President Jefferson Davis' cabinet, the Richmond Sentinel reported that "The whole burden of the objections to the Secretary of State seems to have dwindled down to the fact that he is a Jew, for all admit his distinguished abilities. The time is at hand when his abilities will be needed, and we feel confident that when the occasion occurs he will not be found wanting, but will ably sustain the dignity of his office and his already acquired high reputation. "



1870: Benjamin Nathan’s body was discovered at 5:50 a.m. in his New York mansion. “Mr. Nathan was found lying dead with his skull smashed in…A heavy iron instrument used by ship carpenters called a ‘dog’ was found near the body.”  This was the murder instrument. Apparently, Mr. Nathan was killed when he interrupted a robbery that was taking place at his home. (Despite the offering of a large reward and numerous arrests, the murder remains unsolved.)



1870: An “excitable weekly” called the Sunday Mercury published an unsigned article accusing Washington Nathan of murdering his father, Benjamin Nathan



1870: The New York Stock Exchange offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the murder or murderers of Benjamin Nathan.  Nathan had been a member of the Exchange for thirty years.



1873: In Odessa, Russia, Isaac Stone and Rose Leviash gave birth to Nahum I. Stone, the husband of Bertha Esther Levinson who earned an M.A. from Columbia University and was he the author of several works including “Capitalism on Trial in Russia,” “Economic Resources of Siberia” and “A Study of Agricultural Statistics in the United States.”



1873:At Castle Garden (NY), the President of the Romania Society presented a letter at today’s meeting of the Commissioners of Emigration requesting “that the board take charge of five Rumanian emigrants and send them back home.”  The five are Orthodox Jews who could not exist on the food prepared at the commission’s Ward’s Island facility. The letter also stated that if the Commissioners would send the Jews home, the Society’s President would see to it “that the emigration” would be stopped in Romania. The commission agreed to send them back and expressed “regret that the American Consul in Romania had not stopped the emigration” in the first place.



1875: Suffering from the effects of his trip to Palestine, a fatigued Sir Moses Montefiore spends the day rest in bed.



1875: While visiting Palestine, Sir Moses Montefiore wrote a letter to Hayyim Guedalla in which he described the marked increase in the number of dwellings in Jerusalem, and, given the increasing density of the population, the need to start building “suitable dwellings” beyond the current city limits.



1876(8th of Av, 5636): Shabbat Chazon, Erev Tish'a B'Av



1877: It was reported today that the Jews have established Young Men’s Hebrew Associations in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and Cincinnati.  They are modeled after the YMCA’s. The Jewish Messenger “thinks the system should be extended to other cities” because they have the “power to mold American Judaism.”



1877: “Any Change in Turkey For the Better” published today relying on information from the Duke of Argyll that first appeared in the Contemporary Review, described conditions in the Ottoman Empire in which “Moslem tyranny” exercises control “over the whole non-Moslem population while the government “has been friendly to the Jews”  “this toleration is nothing” in reality “but equal and indiscriminate contempt.”



1878: “Palestine” published today described “the model of the entire country” now on exhibit at on the grounds near the Round Lake Hotel built on a scale of “two and a half feet to the mile” that allow “visitors” to walk from Jaffa to Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and after having taken a dip in the Jordan River to visit Bethlehem and Mt. Hermon



1879(9th of Av, 5639):Tish'a B'Av                                                                                    


1879: The Standard’s Constantinople dispatch reported today that the Jewish quarter at Orta Keui, a village on the Bosporus, has been destroyed by “a terrific fire.”



1881: The first ships containing large numbers of Russian Jews arrived in New York following pogroms in Russia. This was the beginning of mass immigration to the U.S. during that would change the face of the American Jewish Community.  The great waves of immigration would slow with World War I and come to a halt during the 1920's when an isolationism, nativism and racism closed the doors of America to most immigrants. 



1882: In Hungary, Solomon Schwarz, Abraham Buxbaum, Leopold Braun, and Hermann Wollner, were charged with murdering a Christian girl named Esther Solymosi . Josef Scharf, Adolf Jünger, Abraham Braun, Samuel Lustig, Lazar Weissstein, and Emanuel Taub, were charged with voluntarily assisting in the crime. Anselm Vogel, Jankel Smilovics, David Hersko, Martin Gross, and Ignaz Klein, were charged with abetting the crime and smuggling the body. This case which turned into a blood libel began in April and would rile the kingdom for at least another two years.



1883: “Scenes on the East Side” published a visitors account of what he saw when he visited this section of Manhattan including “a colony of foreign-born Jews of the lower classing inhabiting the southern end of Allen-Street” and polyglot neighborhoods on Essex, Ludlow and Hester Streets that included a poor immigrants of many nationalities including Jews from Russia.



1884: It was reported today two of the rioters who participated in the anti-Jewish riots at Zaleszozuky, Hungary were sentenced to five years in prison and another was sentenced to four years in prison. This was the Hungarian town that was the home of Esther Solomossy, a Christian girl who was allegedly killed by Jews as part of their religious rituals.



1885: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Bernard Goodman and Pauline Louise de Coppetti gave birth to  Theodosia Burr Goodman who gained fame as Theda Bara, the silent screen star known as “The Vamp.



1885: The Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna has completed a census of the religious affiliations of Englishmen and Americans living in the Austrian capital.  The Anglo-American population of 1,316 included 111 Jews.



1885: The “majority of the shops” in Ramsgate are closed today because the town is in mourning over the death of Sir Moses Montefiore.  The Town Hall is draped as sign of mourning and the municipal authorities including the Mayor plan to at tend the funeral for the Jewish philanthropist



1886: At their meeting this afternoon, The Commissioners of Emigration listened to an appeal by several Jewish leaders including a representative of the Hebrew Immigration Society on behalf of eastern European immigrants being detained on Ward’s Island. The commissioners accepted the argument by the Jewish leaders that the immigrants had friends who would take care of them and were not therefore not indigent.  With the exception of a couple of the families in question, the rest were allowed to pass through Castle Garden on their way to a new life in the New World.



1887: in Gross-Kanizsa, which at that time as part of the Austro Hungarian Empire, Adam and Clara Rosenberg gave birth to Sigmund Rosenberg who gained fame as composer and conductor Sigmund Romberg.



1887: Isaac Ullmann, Jr. the secretary of the Utopia club obtained an injunction today restraining  the club from keep him from exercising his rights a member.  The members of the Utopia Club are wealthy New Haven (Ct) Jews.  Ullmann had been banned for a year when it was discovered that he had not paid a fine levied against him.



1887: Adolph Reich, who had been convicted of murdering his wife is scheduled to be hung today.  When the Judge had pronounced the death penalty he expressed his surprise at a Jew being brought before him on such a charge, “since they were, as a rule orderly, law-abiding citizens.” He could not remember ever sentencing a Jew to be hanged.



1889: A three story house owned on Main Street, Sing Sing, owned by David Ross which was home to numerous Jewish peddlers burned in a fire that started at three in the morning.  A machine shop owned by Abram Kipp then caught fire and, by the time it was over, only the walls remained.



1889(1st of Av, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Av



1890: “City and Suburban News” published today described plans for the upcoming benefit sponsored by B’nai B’rith as a fundraiser for the Home for old and Infirm Hebrews.



1890: “The Shatchen” by Charles S. Dickson, featuring M.B. Curtis who starred in “Sam’l of Posen” is scheduled to open today at the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles.



1890: Four Russian Jewish immigrants were stopped from going to work for Marcus Ullman, a peddler on New York’s east side when it was discovered that he was going to pay them $12 a month while the Labor Bureau had found work for them at salaries of $14 to $17 per month.



1891(23rdof Tammuz, 5651): Sixteen year old Louis Rabinowitz, a Russian Jew, passed away today at New Haven, CT.



1891(23rdof Tammuz, 5651): Jacob Levy, one of the suspects in the “Ripper Murders” passed away this evening at in the asylum for the mentally ill where had been confined.



1891: Birthdate of Bernhard Zondek, the German born Israeli gynecologist who developed the first reliable pregnancy test.



1891: Thirty Russian immigrants who sailed from Liverpool on the SS Norseman arrived in Boston today where they have been refused permission to land..



1891: “The Russian Jew Persecutions” published today described the burning of “a little farming settlement four Russian miles from Veile” where fourteen Jews were burned today and twenty more were seriously injured. “All the time the Russians were rushing wildly about shouting, ‘Kill the Jews!  Kill the Jews!’”



1892: Henry Heller, who had served as a Sergeant in Company A of the 66th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War was issued his Medal of Honor today for voluntary crossing into enemy lines under heavy fire to bring a Confederate officer who provided his superiors with “invaluable information” concerning the position of the enemy during the Battle of Chancellorsville, which was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Army of the Potomac.



1892: “Dr. Michael Singer, who was reported a few weeks ago to have absconded with $25,000 of the Baron Hirsch Fund at Budapest” today “denied the charge and said he had written to Dr. Alexander Klein…to bring a suit for libel against” the paper that had published the charge.



1893(16th of Av, 5653): Shabbat Nacahamu



1893(16thof Av, 5653): Sixty-two year old historian Julius Aronius who was working on Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland at the time of his death passed away today.



1894: As of today, the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children has provided excursions for 2,647 children and 1,213 mothers free of charge.  In addition 233 sick infants and children have been cared for at the Rockaway facility.



1894: Contributions needed for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children to continue its work may be sent to its managers – Nathan Lewis, Hezekiah Kohn and Joseph Davis.



1894: “Germany In Earliest Times” published today provides a review of A History of Germany In The Middle Ages in which the author begins with a critical overview of the efforts of past historians including Josephus who he said “wrote of the same events in his Antiquities as in the War of the Jews and reported them differently.



1895(8th of Av, 5655):Less than a month before his 84th birthday Joseph Derenbourg, or Joseph Naftali Derenburg, a Franco-German orientalist, who wrote an Essai sur l'histoire ella geographie de la Palestine passed away today.



http://www.jstor.org/stable/1449830



http://archive.org/stream/jstor-1449830/1449830_djvu.txt



1895(8th of Av, 5655) Erev Tish'a B'Av



1897: The Protective Musical Union Band will provide the entertainment at the second annual outing of the Brooklyn Hospital Society which is being held at Wissel’s Ridgewood Park.



1898: “The Russian Jew in America” by Abraham Cahan, the man who ran the Forverts for 40 years appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. This brought together one of those unlikely combinations – the immigrant Jew and the classical WASP intellectual journal.
http://tenant.net/Community/LES/cahan5.html



1898: Birthdate of physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi Poland whose exploration of the atom earned him a Nobel Prize in 1944.



1898: Isaac F. Goldenhorn, the attorney for Michael Aaronberg, Abraham Hoffman, Mendal Bloomkey, Jacob Joseph and Adolph Horowitz, the Trustees of the Moses Montefiore Congregation in Hoboken, NJ, went into court today to seek an injunction to keep David Engler from removing the building from its location at 76 Grand Street.



1899: In describing his trip to Europe, John Ireland, the Archbishop of St. Paul, MN is reported to have told friends “that there is not so much turmoil over the Dreyfus Affiar as would appear from the press reports and that the decision of the court-martial whatever it may be will be accepted as final.” (Editor’s note – boy was he wrong)  He also said that the issue was no longer the guilt or innocence of Dreyfus but the honor of the army. (He was right about that)



1899: “The treaties, declarations and final acts of the Hague Peace Conference which Jan Bloch attended were signed today.”



1899: “Book News In London” published today described a English language translation of a monograph by Jules Huret on Sarah Bernhardt which has a preface by Edmond Rostand, the author of Cyrano de Bergerac.



1905: Birthdate of American poet Stanley Kunitz.  Kunitz was poet laureate in 2000.



1904: Mathew Nathan succeeded Sir Henry Arthur Blake as the Governor of Hong Kong.



1907: Lt. Col. Mathew Nathan completes his service as the 13th Governor of Hong Kong.



1914: Birthdate of comedian and actor, "Professor" Irwin Corey



1917: “Wife Number Two” a silent movie filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today by Fox Film Corporation.



1919(2ndof Av, 5679): Twenty-eight year Jewish American racketeer Johnny Spanish, born John Weyler, was murdered by three unknown gunmen while entering a restaurant at 19Second Avenue in Manhattan ending what was the “Second Labor Sluggers War.”



1921: In Germany Hedwig Ehrenberg and Max Born gave birth to Gustav Victor Rudolf Born who served as the Sheild Professor of Professor of Pharmacology at Cambridge. He is the father of Professor Georgina Born and the uncle of singer Olivia Newton-John



1921: Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.



1923: The New York Times features a review of The Soul of Woman: A Reflection on a Life by Gina Lombroso, the Italian-Jewish sociologist.



1923: In Bennington, VT, Congregation Beth El which had been founded in 1909 dedicated its new synagogue “at the corner of North and Adams Streets.” 



1928: The Day, a Jewish newspaper printed in New York City, published a report from its correspondent in Palestine that Frieda and Goldina Rubinson, two sisters born in Hamburg now living in Tel Aviv claimed that the late composer Giacomo Pucini had plagiarized the score of his opera “Turnadot” from them. They claim to have proof that they composed the work in 1896 at which time they obtained a copyright in Germany and the United States.  The two sisters plan on making a trip to the United States to pursue their claim against, among others, the Metropolitan Opera Company which produced the work in 1927.



1929: Dr. Arthur Ruppin addressed the second session of the 16th Biennial Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland today.  He said that “conversion to other faiths, intermarriage, a decreasing birth rate and unchanged mortality rate” were “disintegrating forces menacing the continued existence of the Jews as a people.” 



1930: Birthdate of Sol Steinmetz, the Hungarian born American “lexicographer, author and tenured member of Olbom (As reported by Margalit Fox)



1931: Birthdate of Art Ginsburg the native of Troy, NY, who gained fame as the television chef and author known as “Mr. Food.
1933: In Vienna, Sara and Herman Kirchenbaum gave birth to Peretz Kidron who became a noted Israeli writer, journalist, and translator



1934: The New York Times publishes an article by Sir Herbert Samuel in which the first British High Commissioner for Palestine describes the progress and problems facing the country.  His lengthy commentary is based on his first visit to Palestine in nine years.



1935: Publication of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence’s somewhat overwrought account of the “Arab Revolt” during World War I.  Lawrence supported the interests of Feisal against the Europeans including his own British Foreign Office.  Lawrence believed that there was room in the Middle East for both a Jewish homeland and an Arab Caliphate.



1936: The Palestine Post reported that a British constable and 10 Arabs fell in a day-long battle near Nablus. Among the many arrested, one Arab claimed that he was forced to join the marauders. The Royal Air Force joined the land forces in their organized pursuit of the rebels, many of whom escaped into the more inaccessible areas, carrying their wounded. Arab terrorists warned local Arab villagers living near Motza and other neighborhoods close to Jerusalem that they would be killed and their property destroyed unless they submitted to all their demands. Six Jewish communists were deported to Russia and one to Poland.



1936:The plan of the Austrian Government to broadcast to Germany the Salzburg festival performances has run afoul of Arturo Toscanini. It has just leaked out from circles in close contact with the Italian conductor that Mr. Toscanini has threatened to leave Salzburg immediately, never to return, if any performance conducted by him is broadcast to Germany.



1938(1st of Av, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Av



1938(1st of Av, 5698): Confronted with the realities of life in Nazi Germany, Dr. Friedreich Gernsheim and his wife Rosa committed suicide



1939: Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel is installed as Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Haifa.



1940: In a case of misplaced hosannas, Lifemagazine “praised António de Oliveira Salazar as ‘the greatest Portuguese since Henry the Navigator’” because Portugal was “seen…as a haven of hospitality for” Jewish refugees.  In point of fact, Salazar destroyed the career of Aristides de Sousa Mendes the diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews in defiance of the dictator’s wishes.



1940: Orson Welles films the first scene of his classic “Citizen Kane.”  Herman J. Mankiewicz shared the Oscar for best screenplay for his work on this epic.  Who actually wrote the screenplay would become a source of controversy with many critics siding with Mankiewicz.



1941(5th of Av, 5701): Twenty-nine Jewish mental patients from Lotz were taken away by truck and shot in the woods



1941: The Second Lvov Pogrom came to an end. “According to Yad Vashem 6 thousands Jews were killed by Einsatzgruppen, some Ukrainian nationalists and some Ukrainian militia.


1942: A religious youth center, Tiferet Bachurim, was secretly opened in the Kovno ghetto



1942: Signs were put up in the Warsaw Ghetto offering free bread for any family volunteering to be deported. This was a scheme designed to make the German job of rounding up 6,000 Jews a day a little easier.



1943:Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile a distinguished Royal Navy officer who turned into a leading British Pro-German anti-Semite in the years before the Second World War was released today after having been interred for three years under Defense Regulation 18 B which allowed the government to inter people for their pro-Nazi sympathies. (The British had no trouble with his anti-Semitism, just his views on Hitler, et al.



1944: 3520 Jews are forced on a death march westward from Warsaw. More than 200 die.



1945: Rabbi Martin Riesenburge celebrated the first wedding at Berlin’s Rykestrasse Synagogue since the Nazis closed it in 1940.



1946: The Paris Peace Conference during which the “victorious wartime Allied Powers” began negotiations with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland which would lead to peace treaties officially marking the end of the war.



1946: The New York State Supreme Court revoked the charter of the Ku Klux Klan thanks in no small part to the efforts of Nathaniel Goldstein, the New York State Attorney General.



1947(12th of Av, 5707):Leo Stein passed away in Florence, Italy. Born in 1872 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, he was an American art collector and critic. In addition to being elder brother to Gertrude Stein, he is also remembered as an influential promoter of 20th-century paintings.



https://books.google.com/books?id=0_-C4PfJYWUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Appreciation:+Painting,+Poetry,+and+Prose&source=bl&ots=-NoPi2eYFt&sig=hsBcdPLTIHsQXmL-Uhnu9eyVmUg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6WA1UKc4i5aZBd6vgKgO&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Appreciation%3A%20Painting%2C%20Poetry%2C%20and%20Prose&f=false



1948: For the first time since the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, London hosts the Fourteenth Olympiad where two American Jews each won Gold Medals. Frank Spellman won his for weightlifting and Henry Wittenberg won his in freestyle wrestling.



1948: As the United Nations investigates claims by Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League, that Israeli forces had committed atrocities during Operation Shorter, a team of UN observers came to survey the damage” at al-Tira “and did not find any bodies…”



1951(25thof Tammuz, 5711): On the day before his 71st birthday, Bernhard Weiss, the most prominent Jewish member of the Berlin police department who challenged the Nazi Party and successfully sued Joseph Goebbels, passed away. 


 
http://forward.com/articles/151805/jewish-creator-of-modern-german-police/



1951: Following its premiere in Albuquerque, NM in June, today Billy Wilder’s “Ace In The Hole” a film that provides a dark look at the values of a newspaper man starring Kirk Douglas was released to the rest of the United States by Paramount Pictures.



1951:The Jerusalem Post reported that the stage was set for the elections to the Second Knesset. The number of eligible voters reached 900,000. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs signed an agreement with the UN providing for the training of nine experts in various economic, social and administrative fields.



1954:The 1953 Stephen S. Wise award for an outstanding contribution to Jewish welfare was presented today to Youth Aliyah. The citation described the organization's work as "rescuing more than 65,000 children from over seventy-two lands during the past twenty years and educating them for creative citizenship in the land of Israel."



1957(1st of Av, 5717): Rosh Chodesh Av



1965: Premiere of “Ship of Fools” the cinematic treatment of the novel by the same name set at the start of the Nazi era directed and produced by Stanley Kramer with a script by Abby Mann and music by Ernest Gold.



1966(12th of Av, 5726): One day after his 98th birthday French poet and Zionist Andre Spire passed away today.



1969: Under the leadership of General Sharon, the Head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Israeli frogmen attacked Green Island during the War of Attrition.



1970(25th of Tammuz, 5730):  Hungarian born conductor George Szell passed away.  From 1946 until his death, Szell led the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.



1974(10th of Av, 5734:  Cass Elliott passed away.  Born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore in 1941, Elliott dropped out of school, changed her name and headed for New York. She found fame in fortune performing with the singing group, Mamas and Poppas.



1975: Edward Graham Lee began serving as the Canadian ambassador to Israel.



1975: President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland as he paid tribute to the camp's victims.



1976(2ndof Av, 5736): Sixty-two year old mobster Mickey Cohen passed away today.



1976: “Rescuing the Entebbe Hostages” published today provides a detailed review of 90 Minutes At Entebbe, William Stevenson’s “hurriedly published paperback account of the” hostage rescuing raid. Stevenson, who is best known for A Man Called Intrepid, appears to won the race to publish the first account, if not the most thorough one.



1976: The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that contrary to earlier reports, the US had had direct contacts with the PLO "for some time" and that they would continue. Three hundred Americans were evacuated from Lebanon as Syrians and the PLO reached an agreement on this issue. The price of meat rose by two to three shekels per kilo as agreed between the Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture and the Histadrut's Consumer Authority.



1979(5th of Av, 5739): Herbert Marcuse leftist German born, American philosopher passed away.  Marcuse influenced a whole generation of leftists, radicals and anarchists including Angela Davis and Abbe Hoffman.



1979: A fifteen-day conference organized by Gerda Lerner and co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence, the Women's Action Alliance and the Smithsonian Institution, which was intended for female leaders came to an end today.



1981(27th of Tammuz, 5741):  Robert Moses passed away.  Born into a well-to-do German Jewish family, Moses gained fame as New York’s master builder.  Both his critics and his supporters agreed that he was one of the 20th century’s influential urban planners.



1981: A bus was attacked in the entrance to Kibbutz Ma'ale Hahamisha near Jerusalem. A boy of 12 and a girl of 17 were wounded.



1982(9th of Av, 5742): Tish'a B'Av



1982: Sir Zelman Cowen, who was the 19th Governor-General of Australia, completed his term of office.



1986(22nd of Tammuz, 5746): Seventy-seven year old Richard David Barnett passed. A product of Cambridge and a veteran of WW II, he was a distinguished academic who was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He also served a President of the Jewish Historical Society of England and Chairman of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society.



1986(22nd of Tammuz, 5746): Fifty-five year old Israeli poet and Holocaust survivor Dan Pagis passed away today.  A native of Romania, one of his most famous poems is “written in pencil in the sealed railway car.”



http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/18706



http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/lesson_plans/dan_pagis.asp



1986: Chaim “Drukman left Morasha and returned to the NRP



1987: Ben & Jerry's agree on a new flavor -  Cherry Garcia



1990(7th of Av, 5750): Bruno Kreisky passed away.  When Kreisky became Prime Minister of Austria during the 1970’s, he was the first Jew to hold that position.



1992: Aryeh Gamliel begins serving as Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction.



1993: “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” produced and directed by Mel Brooks who also co-authored  the script and co-starring Richard Lewis was released in the United States today by 20thCentury Fox.



1993: The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free



1997:The documentary film Blacks and Jews, written and directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow, was aired on PBS.



1998(6th of Av, 5758): Jerome Robbins, American choreographer passed away.  The Tony Award winner’s list of famous musical is almost endless including West Side Story, The King and I, Gypsy and The Pajama Game.



2000:In “The Bible, as History, Flunks New Archaeological Tests; Hotly Debated Studies Cast Doubt on Many Familiar Stories,” Gustav Neibur described the supposed conflict between the tales of the Bible and findings of modern archaeology:



http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/29/arts/bible-history-flunks-new-archaeological-tests-hotly-debated-studies-cast-doubt.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm



2001: The New York Times book section includes a review of Blue Diary by Jewish author Alice Hoffman



2001: Two people were injured today in a Jerusalem car bombing.



2002: Today in the Edna Ferber’s “hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, the U.S. Postal Service issued an 83¢ Distinguished Americans series postage stamp honoring.” which artist Mark Summers, well known for his scratchboard technique, created by referencing a black-and-white photograph of Ferber taken in 1927



2003: President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met at the White House.



2003: Singer Barry “Manilow had a complete upper and lower facelift, which includes the removal of drooping skin from the eyelids and the general tightening of facial skin.”



2004: A photo exhibit designed to memorialize Anne Frank in what would have been her 75thyear closes at the Kraushaar Galleries in New York City.



2006: On Shabbat Chazon, Jews respond to a request from the Governing Council of the Chief Rabbinate by continuing to recite Psalms 83, 130 and 142 on a daily basis.



2006(4thof Av, 5766): Seventy six year old French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/europe/14vidal-naquet.html



http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/article258.html



2007: The National Gallery of Art presents a screening of “The Dybbuk,” the Yiddish film based on Ansky’s celebrated drama.



2007: In Jerusalem,Off the Wall Comedy Empire presents "Find Me a Wife: Find You a Husband," an annual Tu B`Av special event show starring David Kilimnick. Kilimnick approaches the issues of the single man/woman in Jerusalem.



2007:  The Washington Post book section features reviews of a biography of America’s first Jewish Secretary of State entitled Henry Kissinger and the American Century by Jeremi Suri and a novel entitled Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobsen.The novel which purports to be an “examination of a Jewish sub-culture is a convoluted combination of family saga and semi-tepid murder mystery, focusing on its narrator, Max Glickman, a Jewish cartoonist with a hefty persecution complex and a series of anti-Semitic non-Jewish ex-wives.”



2007:Ariel Sharon Hovers Between Life and Death and Dreams of Theodor Herzl” has its final performance at Theatre J.



2007:The first edition of Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) appeared.



2007(14th of Av, 5767): Seventy-three year old Raya Czerner Schapiro, psychiatrist, Holocaust educator and author passed away in Chicago.  After a harrowing experience, Mrs. Schapiro arrived in the United States at the age of 5 after fleeing from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia.  She was inspired to pursue a medical career in memory of her uncle, a doctor, who had sheltered her before her escape and who died during the Holocaust.



2007: Rep. Anthony Weiner and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) objected to a $20 billion arms deal that the Bush Administration had negotiated with Saudi Arabia because they do not want to provide "sophisticated weapons to a country that they believe has not done enough to stop terrorism," also noting that 15 of the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001 were from Saudi Arabia. Weiner made the announcement outside of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Washington, stating that "We need to send a crystal clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that their tacit approval of terrorism can't go unpunished."



2008: Robert Wexler, a six-term Jewish U.S. congressman from Florida, discusses and signs Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress(written with David Fisher) at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.



2009(8th of Av, 5759): Fast begins at sundown



2009(8th of Av, 5769): Eighty-six year old Dina Babiit who used her artistic skills to survive Auschwitz and to save her mother’s life, passed away.(As reported by Bruce Weber)



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/arts/02babbitt.html



2009:The Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival came to a close with aClosing Night Bash!” - A gala dessert reception and a chance to win membership and fitness benefits at the JCC.



2009:An archeologist announced today that a unique Aramaic inscription on a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during the first century has been uncovered in a dig on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The six-week excavation is being carried out within the Gan Sobev Homot Yerushalayim national park, close to the Zion Gate of the Old City. The 10-line Aramaic script, which is clear but cryptic, is being deciphered by a team of epigraphic experts in an effort to determine the meaning of the text, said Prof. Shimon Gibson, of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who is co-directing the excavation. "This is a difficult script, not one that is worn or graded, which demands research," Gibson said. He estimated that it would take a couple of months to determine what the inscription says. "It is like digging out grandparents' hand-written letters," he quipped. Gibson said the find uncovered two weeks ago was rare because few inscriptions from the Second Temple Period had been discovered in Jerusalem. The dig also uncovered a sequence of building dating from the First and Second Temple periods through to the Byzantine and Early Islamic eras. The additional finds include a house complex with a mikve ritual bath featuring a remarkably well preserved vaulted ceiling. Three bread ovens - dated to 70 CE, when Titus and the Roman army stormed the city - were also found in the house. Archeologists believe that this area of Jerusalem's Upper City was the priestly quarter during Second Temple times. A large arched building with a mosaic floor from the Byzantine period preserved to a height of 3 meters was also uncovered. It may be part of a building complex or street associated with the nearby Church of St. Mary.



2009: In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., a seven count indictment was handed up in U.S. District Court charging white supremacist James von Brunn in his murderous attacked on museum guard Stephen T. Johns.



2009: The New York Times reviews books by Jewish authors including Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes Rouges, and the Inside story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets.



2010: “A Film Unfinished,” a rigorous and profound documentary that simultaneously exposes the perversity of Nazi propaganda, honors its victims and pays tribute to the resiliency of the filmmaker’s own grandmother and the other survivors of the Ghetto is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2010: The Washington Postreported today that Jewish nonprofit group whose leader was accused of fabricating dramatic stories about rescued sefer Torahs has reached a deal with Maryland investigators forbidding it from publicizing such stories about sacred scrolls unless it can prove them. The agreement ends an investigation into the Rockville-based Save a Torah and its driving force, Rabbi Menachem Youlus, often described as "The Indiana Jones of Torah Scribes."



2010:Israel is tied with Canada, Switzerland, and Australia as the world's eighth happiest country out of 155 surveyed, according to a Gallup World Poll posted by Forbes today



2010: The 9th Congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to a close in Ravenna today.



2010: Congressman Anthony “Weiner criticized Republicans for opposing the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act which would provide for funds for sick first responders to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, many of whom reside in Weiner's district.



2011(27th of Tammuz, 5771): Eight-year old Shulamit Shamir, wife of Yithak Shamir, passed away today in Tel Aviv. (As reported by Gabe Kahn)



http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146231#.UfRdz50o6po



2011:“Sarah’s Key,” a French film that centers on events that began with the roundup of French Jews in 1942, is scheduled to open in major US cities today.



2011: Starting at 1 pm, a Beach Party, complete with eighty-tons of sand brought in just for the event, is scheduled to take place at the Malcha Mall in Jerusalem.



2011:Following a day of advocacy and meetings at the White House, grassroots leaders from about twenty Jewish social justice organizations are scheduled to gather for Shabbat services and dinner at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.


2011: As the doctor’s labor dispute entered its 132ndday Israel Medical Association chairman Dr. Leonid Edelman continued his one-man hunger strike


2011(27th of Tammuz, 5771): Tens of thousands mourned the death of Rabbi Elazar Abuchatzeira at his Jerusalem funeral this afternoon, after he was stabbed to death in the early hours of the morning. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4101678,00.html

 
2011:Women’s organizations that operate public day care centers for preschoolers, including WIZO and Naamat, today called for parents to join the housing protests


2011: After finishing his career at Wisconsin, Gabe Carimi signed a four year contract with the Chicago Bears.


2011: Minor league pitcher Josh Zeid who had played his college ball at Tulane was traded to the Houston Astros today.
 
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg and An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel 

 
2012(9th of Av, 5772): Tish’a B’Av


2012: The fundraiser being held for US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney while he’s in Israel is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. this evening well after Tisha B’Av ends at sundown. The fundraiser will reportedly cost $60,000 a plate.


2012: “Glickman,” a documentary about Marty Glickman, is scheduled to have its Bay Area Premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.


2012:Police closed the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors this morning, the fast of Tisha Be’av, due to fears of “provocation” – despite a promise last night that the holiest site in Judaism would be open to Jewish worshipers


2012: Shahar Peer was the last Israeli to play today, and she too lost in the first round. The tennis player was eliminated from competition at the London Games by Russian medal favorite Maria Sharapova, ending a disappointing day for the blue-and-white team. (As reported by Aaron Kalman)


2012:US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today touted the close security relationship between Israel and the US, suggesting that Israel remained on board with international efforts to pressure Iran on its nuclear program and had not decided to unilaterally strike the Islamic Republic.


2012: Ninety year old August Kowalczyk the last survivor of the June 10, 1942 breakout from Auschwitz passed away today.



2013: “The Last Sentence” a movie about Swedish anti-Nazi journalist Torgny Segerstedt is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
 
2013: Leading Jerusalem chefs are scheduled to lead a “Mahane Yehuda Shuk Outing!”


2013: An Israeli negotiating team led by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is scheduled to meet with Palestinian negotiators at the Washington, DC home of U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry prior to the start of peace negotiations which are scheduled to begin in earnest tomorrow. (As reported by Herb Keinon)

 
2013: A full-capacity crowd gathered this evening at the capital’s newly-launched Jerusalem Press Club to hear a panel discussion among luminaries Dr. Mehmet Oz, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky about Jewish values and its impact on society. (As reported by Daniel K. Eisenbud)


2013: Former Bank of Israel Governor withdrew his nomination to return to the position, Channel 2 reported today, following an ongoing scandal over an alleged shoplifting incident at a Hong Kong duty free store. (As reported by Nev Elis)
 
2014: The JDC Archives is scheduled to host a presentation by Dr.Gerald Steinacher the Hymen Rosenberg Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln entitled “The Red Cross, Jewish Relief Agencies, and the Holocaust” at the Center for Jewish History.

 
2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a Coen Brothers double header with showings of “Blood Simple” and “No Country For Old Men.”


2014: The Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host an hour of “Jewish Sangha"
 
2014: For the third time since the start of Operation Protective Edge “a UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees said today that a stockpile of Hamas rockets was found in of UNRWA’s Gaza School” – a fact “not publicized by UNRWA on its website or official Twitter feed.” (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2014: After a night where rockets “were fired at central and southern Israel more missiles were fired at Ashkelon and Sderot.


2014: “A high ranking military official spoke with journalists today about the next stages of the operation and said that "the political leadership must decide now – either we push deeper (into Gaza) or we backtrack." Indicating tensions between the IDF and Israel's political leadership, the senior official said "our responsibility is to lead the offensive to where it needs to go, not to where the public wants. This is not reality TV and rating is not a factor." (As reported by Yoav Zitun)

 
2014: US-born Sgt. Sahar Elbaz, from the Rimon Unit in the Givati Brigade remained in place while his unit came under attack from a grenade throwing terrorist cell “and despite coming under intense enemy fire” and “a glitch in his firearm” provided “covering fire” killing four of the attackers in the process.

 
2015: The StandWithUs Israel Education Center is scheduled to host a speech by Christian Arab Israeli diplomat George Deek.

 
2015: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to host “Jazz & Sondheim, Side by Side,”



 

This Day, July 30, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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762:Caliph Al Mansur founded the city of Baghdad. By the start of the 10th century wealthy Jewish merchants were playing the role of “court bankers” and were reportedly lending funds to the caliphs and his their minister. 



1192: The forces of Saladin successfully stormed the walls of Jaffa forcing the remaining Crusaders to take refuge in the town’s citadel.



1286: Gregory Bar Hebraeus a bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church whose name serves a reminder that he was the father of Jewish physician passed away today.http://sor.cua.edu/Personage/BarcEbroyo/Budge.html



1360: A butcher’s license for a carniceria was issued to a Christian named Bernard Arlouin. In Spain, Jews were not allowed to have butchers licenses.  In other words, they operated butcher shops, but were not allowed to own them. In this case, a Spanish Jew named Jafudenus Amilus operated the shop.



1488: Sixteen Jews were burned at the stake in Barcelona.



1492(9thof Av, 5252): The entire Jewish Community, numbering 200,000 souls was expelled from Spain.



1492: Don Isaac Abravanel gave up his power, wealth and prestige to join his fellow Jews on their perilous road out of Spain.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111855/jewish/Don-Isaac-Abravanel-The-Abarbanel.htm



1549: Birthdate of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany who “invitedJews, including Marranos, to settle in Pisa and the free port of *Leghorn, which before long became one of the great Jewish centers of the Mediterranean area.” (Jewish Virtual Library)



1729:  Baltimore, Maryland is founded.  Jews were already living in the colony of Maryland when Baltimore was founded.  The Jewish community in Baltimore is one of the oldest in the country. However, the first building that was built as a synagogue, the Lloyd Street Synagogue, was not constructed until 1845.



1756: In London Elie and Hana Pinto Vega gave birth to Abraham Furtado the President of the Assemblee des Notables and the assistant of the Mayor of Bordeaux.



1825:  Birthdate of Ignaz Gorssman, the Hungarian born Rabbi who came to the United States in 1873 to Congregation Beth Elohim.



1825: Birthdate of Chaim Aronson, a Lithuanian Jew, who was inventor and academic. Aronson's inventions, which included several machines for mass producing cigarettes, a clockwork calculator, a prototype for an early movie camera, and the microdiarama, were, for their time, ground breaking. Aronson, however, is better remembered for a series of memoirs he wrote, published long after his death in the book A Jewish Life Under the Tsars This is an autobiography of Aronson's own difficult life, but it also describes insightfully, the life of ordinary society in Imperial Russia.



1829: Daniel O’Connell best known for his work in favor of the Emancipation of Catholics but who also supported Emancipation for Irish Jews and the repeal of the British law "De Judaismo",  was elected to Parliament today



1836: Birthdate of Gustav Solomon Oppert, “German Indologist and Sankriist who was the brother of Julius Oppert.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15159.html



1851: Rabbi Lyons officiated at the wedding of Mr. Solomons from Savannah, GA and Frances Joseph from Charleston, SC



1856: In New York Asher Kursheedt and Abigail Kursheedt gave birth to Lionel Judah Kursheedt



1860: The New York Times reported that The Fast of Ab. -- Yesterday was the fast of the month of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of the temple of Solomon by Nebuchadnezzar, and of the second temple by Vespasian, among the Hebrew population all over the world; and was fully observed in the synagogues of this City. The fast of Ab is really one of abnegation. No meat is eaten, and but very little bread is broken. The synagogues yesterday were hung with black, and the Book of Lamentation was read in the original Hebrew.



1862: During the American Civil War, General William T. Sherman wrote a letter from Union-occupied Memphis, Tennessee stating, "I found so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use - the purchase of arms and ammunition... Of course, I have respected all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but in these new cases (swarms of Jews), I have stopped it."



1863: It was reported today that “a Jew broker, made his appearance in Westchester, Penn., accompanied by a dozen others, whom he represented as anxious to serve as substitutes, for a consideration. Although some of the men, it is said, boasted of having taken part in the New-York riots, yet they were eagerly caught up by drafted men, and engaged at various prices as substitutes.” [The Times did not report on the ethnic or religious origins of any of the other participants in this scheme. This story was part of a series on the Draft Riots that racked New York in the summer of 1863.  Did the Times identify the rioters as “Catholics” or Irish Catholics? ]



1863: Birthdate of American automaker Henry Ford. For Americans, Ford is the man who made the Model-T. For Jews, he is the man who popularized the "Protocols of the Elders Of Zion." Towards the end of his life, Ford apologized for his involvement with this anti-Semitic literature that still infects the world today.



1863:Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler consecrated the new building housing the Bayswater Synagogue.



1864:  During the American Civil War, Union Army Sergeant Major Abraham Cohn distinguished himself at the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, VA.  Cohn would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his fighting during the Wilderness Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg.



1870: Newspapers carry full accounts of what is called “A Horrible Murder” – the murder of prominent New Yorker Benjamin Nathan – and the so far fruitless efforts of the police to solve the crime.



1871: It was reported today that “the industrious Jews” are “annoying Christians.” In New York, the Alanson M.E. Church on Norfolk Street occupies a building adjacent to a tenement house that is “occupied almost exclusively by” Orthodox Jews. The Jews go to the synagogue on Saturday and work on Sunday.  Many of them work as tailors “and the ceaseless whirr of their sewing-machines has proved very annoying to the worshipers in the church.” One of the Jews offered to stop working if the church members would pay him for his lost time.  The trustees have declined his offer and are considering taking legal action against the Jewish worker.



1876(9th of Av, 5636): Tish'a B'Av



1876: “A Jewish Festival,”  published today, reported that Tish’a B’Av, “a Jewish festival” commemorating “the destruction of Jerusalem was begun at 9 o’clock last evening in many of the synagogues” in New York City “and will be generally observed today at the various Jewish temples of worship, notably those of the orthodox Jews.  In the churches of the latter, the services will consist of chants and prayers for the re-establishment of the Jewish hierarchy.”  In addition to praying and singing, “the festival is…observed…by a fast of twenty-four hours duration.”  [Ed. Note – It is worth noting that this brief but detailed description of a minor Jewish fast day appeared in the New York Times.



1878: Birthdate of Adolf Guttman, the native Kleinstinach who served in the German Army during WW I.



1878: German elections resulted in the reactionary element having a dominant voice in the Reichstag. This date is considered the birthday of modern German anti- Semitism.



1880: Birthdate of Colonel Robert R. McCormick who gained famed as the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune in an era when newspapers were the dominant voice of the media in the United States.  He was a founder of the American First Committee, a powerful organization dedicated to keep the United States out of World War II which took on a decidedly anti-Semitic viewpoint. 



1880: Birthdate of Bernhard Weiss, the German born lawyer who served as a top ranking police official during the Weimar Republic and fearlessly confronted the Nazis.



1880: “Resting at Schooley’s Mountain” published today provided a brief history of this famous New Jersey resort area. The area had become so popular with Jewish vacationers that two of the cottages, Heath House and Belmont Hall, effectively banned Jewish guests. The ban was lifted when the locals saw its negative impact.  (This was one of only of series of bans instituted at hotels, etc. following the Civil War.)



1881: “Foreign Topics” published today described the nightly anti-Semitic demonstrations taking place in Hammerstein, West Prussia.  The riots are similar to ones that have already taken placed in Baerwald, Pomerania.



1881: It was reported today that troops fired on rioters in Poltava who have been attacking Jews, killing four and wounding two.



1884: Theodor Herzl is admitted to the bar in Vienna.



1884: Two New York detectives apprehended Samuel Barnett, a Polish Jew who reportedly has been committing a series of robberies over the last three months in Harlem.



1884: In Nashville, TN, the jury hearing the case of Meyer Moskowitz and “Zeke” White was discharged this evening.  Moskowitz, a Jew and White had been charged with murdering Meyer Fried of Nashville.  The jury had acquitted White but was deadlocked on the issue of Moskowitz‘s guilt.



1885: Myer S. Isaacs presided over a meeting of the Board of Delegates of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which had been called to determine how to respond to the death of Sir Moses Montefiore.  The board decided to recommend that all Jewish congregations hold special memorial services on Friday night and Saturday morning in honor of the late philanthropist.  Plans will be made a later date for a more formal memorial service to be held in September.



1885: “Two young gentlemen of Hebrew extraction who were engaged selling bullet-like green apples from a wagon at the rate of one cent per quart” unsuccessfully tried to escape Dr. Cyrus Edson, Chief of the Secondary Sanitary Division, and his officers during a raid on the lower east side as part of Edson’s drive to put an end to the sale of unsanitary produce.



1886: Among the institutions that received money from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment today was the Hebrew Guardian Society in the amount of $2,858.29



1886: “Jew and Gentile Wedded” published today described the elopement of Nellie Goodwin and Meier Weil.  Goodwin the 16 year old daughter of Reverend W.R. Goodwin of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church and Weil, the son of prominent Jewish merchant, have left Jacksonville, Illinois for parts unknown.



1886(27thof Tammuz, 5646): Shlomo Ganzfried, the Hungarian rabbi who created the “Kitzur Schulchan Aruch” which may be viewed as a “summary” or abbreviation of the larger work by Joseph Karo which makes Jewish ritual, customs and laws available to the “average” Jew.
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/03-Torah-Halacha/section-42.html



1887: “Wealthy Hebrews Worried” published today described Isidor Freedman’s inability to gain membership in the Utopia Club, a social club for wealthy Jews living in New Haven, CT.  Freedman, part of the firm of Mendel & Freedman had been blackballed by Isaac Ullmann. (Not exactly the kind of story they taught us in Hebrew School)



1888: Forty-five year old Irish-American playwright Barley Campbell author of “Siberia” a drama about the persecution of the Jews of Russia passed away



1888:In Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, dramatist Tristan Bernard and his wife gave birth to French playwright Jean-Jacques Bernard



1890: “The Juvenile Band of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” will play at today’s concert sponsored by B’nai B’rith for the benefit of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in Yonkers. 1892: Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, a Russian born Jewish bacteriologist, reported the results of his test of his cholera vaccine to the Biological Society in London.



1890: The Times of London reported that the Russian government has ordered the enforcement of the edicts of 1882 which were aimed at limiting the economic opportunities for Jews and forcing them to live “in certain towns.”



1890: The New York Times will forward a check for $30.50 that it received from Mrs. S.J. Nathan to the Hebrew Sanitarium, the charity for which the people of Sucassunna, NJ collected the money.



1891: Morris Goodhart of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society was among those who testified as to the harmful effects of the Standard Gas Company works on the riverfront at east 114th Street.



1891: The Russian immigrants who arrived at Boston yesterday from Liverpool will not be admitted into the country are because “they are deemed likely to be a pubic charge.”



1892: John Collins chaired the meeting of Fourth Assembly District Republicans held at the Hebrew Institute Hall.



1892: Dr. C.H. Goodman and Mrs. Goodman set sail today aboard the SS Gallia for Liverpool.



1892: Dr. Michael Singer’s denial of charges that he had “absconded” with funds from the Baron Hirsch Fund published today stated that “Mrs. David Bischitz, who is a million has charge of the fund and is the only person who handled any of its money.  We had a disagreement and she gave a certificate of character and 1,500 gulden in place of the usual notice of dismissal.”



1892: “Divided Against Itself” published today described a dispute about the spending of funds by K.H. Sarasohn, the President of Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Home, which was founded “about eighteen months ago to provide temporary home” for Jewish immigrants for from Russia.



1893(17thof Av, 5653): Seventy-six year old Solomon Heyman who operated a successful dry goods business and was one of the Directors of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum passed away while on vacation in Long Branch.



1893: “Sir Richard Burton’s Life” published today provided a detailed review of The Life of Capt. Sir Richard F. Burton, the author of The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam



1894:Birthdate of Blanche Wolf Knopf “who carved out her own place in the publishing industry as vice-president and president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.”



1894: “Socialist Leaders Went Too Far “published today described the conflict among the Cloakmakers nearly all of whom are Jewish which was resolved when they chose Socialist Joseph Barondess to serve as their president. One of the points of contention was the Socialist demand that the Union Zeitung which is published in Hebrew with a circulation of 10,000 paid subscribers should be replaced with the Arbeiter Zeitung, “a Hebrew Socialist organ.”



1894: “Five jurors were impaneled” today “in part I. of the Court of General Sessions to try Policeman Jeremiah S. Levy” who is Jewish, “of the Thirty-first Precinct for birbery.



1894: Max Lefkowitz signed an affidavit today say that Officer Jeremiah Levy was not the man who had cheated him out of $25 in a scheme to provide testimony that would have freed his brother Ignatz who was facing charges of grand larceny.



1895(9th of Av, 5655): Tisha B’Av



1895(9thof Av, 5655): New York banker Simon Wormser passed away today.



1895: The strike of the Brotherhood of Tailors, most of whom were Jewish, seemed to be coming to an today as could be seen by Meyer Schoefield that “at least seventy contractors had already signed an agreement to give the strikers what they demanded” and that another twenty were prepared to sign.



1895: Samuel Gompers addressed a group of strikers tonight at Cooper Union.



1895: Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor who was responsible for the unification of Germany passed away. A complex person, Bismarck’s views changed from the 1840’s when he “could not accept Jews serving in the name of his ‘holy majesty’” to serving as Chancellor when Jewish emancipation came in 1869.  For more see Were They Good for the Jews?by Elliot Rosenberg


 
1898: Moses Montefiore Congregation in Hoboken, NJ is contesting the claim by David Engler that he actually owns the surface rights to the lot on which the synagogue sits and that he has the right to lift the building off of its foundation so that he can build a store on the property.



1899:”The United Hebrew Charities acknowledged” today that it had received a total of $180.50 to help resettle a family of four in the country.  The parents have become chronic invalids from their work in the city and seek to support themselves in a rural area.



1901: Fifty-one year old historian Herbert Baxter Adams who wrote “valuable papers on the services” contributed by the “patriotic Jew” Chaim Salomon when others challenged his accomplishments, passed away today.



1901: Those attending the “Conference of Chazanim” which ended today in Vienna “decided to establish a General Cantors’ Association.”



1902: Over 50,000 mourners followed the casket of Rabbi Jacob Joseph during his funeral in New York today.



1902: Dr. Paul Kaplan and A.H. Sarahson, an attorney were among those attending a meeting in the office of Dr. Julius Halpern tonight where the police were denounced “an a committee was appointed to investigate and formulate charges against the officers in charge” at the funeral of Rabbi Jacob Joseph.



1902: “At a meeting of the John Steibling Republican Association of the Twelfth Assembly District a resolution was passed denouncing the employees and heads of departments of the R. Hoe & Co during the funeral” of Rabbi Jacob Joseph when they threw “hot water and missiles on the mourners.”



1905(27thof Tammuz, 5665): Tobacconist Solomon Wallenstein passed away.  Born 1831, he married Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding president of the Hebrew Infant Asylum, in 1865.



1905: In Bialystok, during the anti-Jewish riots, physicians were prevented from treating Jewish victims.



1908: Dr. Franz Kafka walked into the building housing the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague and began working as an assistant in the legal department.  He would retire in 1922 because of complications from a lung disease.



1911(5thof Av, 5671): Moritz Pinner, the father of Rogers Pinner, who was known as ‘Captain Mortiz Pinner’ passed away today.



1914: In a move the results of which resonant throughout the Middle East and beyond to this day, two days after the outbreak of WW I, the Ottoman Empire formed a secret alliance with Germany aimed specifically at Russia.



1916(29thof Tammuz, 5676): Dr.Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser passed away.
http://deadscientistoftheweek.blogspot.com/2012/01/albert-ludwig-sigesmund-neisser.html



1918(21st of Av, 5678): Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, the son of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik  and author of the Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim, a commentary on the teachings of Maimonides, passed away today. Born in 1853, he was known as Reb Chaim Brisker because of the methodology he developed for studying Talmud.
http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2007/10/reb-chaim-soloveitchik-obituary.html



 1921: Birthdate of U.S. Army Alvin David Ungerleider who as a 23 year old lieutenant stormed Omaha Beach during the Normandy landings and helped to liberate the Concentration Camp at Nordhausen in 1945.



1922: Birthdate of Henry W. Bloch, the co-founder and (since 2000) the chairman emeritus of H&R Block. Henry and his brother, Richard Bloch, founded H&R Block in 1955 in Kansas City, Missouri. Bloch was born in Kansas City. He attended Southwest High School, and was an undergraduate at University of Missouri–Kansas City and the University of Michigan, graduating from Michigan in 1944. Through the Army Air Corps he received graduate training at the Harvard Business School. Bloch and his wife Marion married in 1951 and live in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Henry Wollman Block fountain in front of Union Station in Kansas City is named in his honor, as is The Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the Bloch Building, a major addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Mr. Bloch was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2001.



1925: Birthdate of Jakob Josef Petuchowski a native of Berlin, Germany. He was brought from Germany to London, in a children's transport, prior to the outbreak of World War II. After receiving a B.A. with honors in psychology from the University of London in 1947, Petuchowski moved to the United States in 1948 and earned his rabbinic ordination, master’s degree and Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Petuchowski served in the congregational rabbinate in Welch, West Virginia and Washington Pennsylvania. He was also the High Holiday rabbi of Temple B'nai Israel, Laredo, Texas, from 1956 through 1991.



1928: Claims by Frieda and Goldina Rubinson, two sisters born in Hamburg now living in Tel Aviv that they are the authors of the opera now known as “Turnadot” and that Puccini plagiarized the score from them were greeted with scorn and ridicule by sources in New York including William J Guard of the Metropolitan Opera Company and G. Ricordi & Co, the music publishers. 



1929: In Zurich, at the second session of the sixteenth Biennial Zionist Congress, statistician and agricultural expert Dr. Arthur Ruppin of Tel Aviv delivers an address in which he described the negative impact that conversion, intermarriage, decreasing birth rate and an unchanged mortality rate were having on the survival of the Jewish people.



1932: The 1932 Olympics opens in Los Angeles. Attila Petschauer a gold medal winning swordsman was part of the Hungarian Fencing Team.  The 1999 film Sunshine is a multi-generational study of Petschauer’s family and vividly depicts his death at the hands of the Nazis in 1943. Jewish Gold Medal winners includedIstvan Barta, Hungary water polo, Gyorgy Brody, Hungary, water polo; Lillian Copeland, USA, athletics, discus throw; George Gulack, USA,
gymnastics, flying rings; Endre Kabos, Hungary, fencing, team saber; Miklos Sárkány, Hungary
water polo.



1933: “The editor of Der Surmer, Julius Streicher, newly appointed Reich Commissar for Franconia, gave orders that 250 Jewish tradesmen in Nuremberg should be arrested, and ‘set to plucking the grass out of a field with their teeth.’”



1933: Catcher Harry Danning made his major league debut with the New York Giants.



1934: Birthdate of Bud Selig, Commissioner of Baseball and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.



1934: In Lodz, Poland, Eljasz (Edward) and Natka Skornicki gave birth to Paulina Skornicka.
http://digitalassets.ushmm.org/photoarchives/detail.aspx?id=1106065



1936: The Palestine Post reported on the appointment in London of the Royal Commission for Palestine, chaired by Earl Peel. Other members were Sir Horace Rumboldt, Sir Laurie Hammond, Sir Morris Carter, Sir Harold Morris and Professor Reginald Coupland. The commission's terms of reference were "to ascertain the underlying causes of the disturbances... to inquire into the manner in which the Mandate was implemented in relation to the obligations of the Mandatory towards the Arabs and Jews... to study legitimate grievances and make recommendations for their removal and for the prevention of their recurrence."



1936: General Franco declared his Fascist government and the Spanish Civil War broke out. During the Second World War, Spain officially remained neutral, yet Franco sent troops to fight against the Russians, and Spain later served as a refuge for fleeing Nazis.



1937: Pierre-Marie Gerlier who would be posthumously awarded the title Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 was named Archbishop of Lyon today.



1937: In Memphis, TN, Lewis Glick and Sylvia Kleinman Glick gave birth to Milton D. Glick, nationally renowned academic leader who served as the 15th president of the University of Nevada, Reno



1937: “London by Night” a murder mystery produced by Sam Zimbalist was released today in the United States by Lowe’s Inc.



1939: Birthdate of movie director Peter Bogdanovich.



1939(14th of Av, 5699): Dutch sculptor Joseph Mendes da Costa passed away.



1939: In a private letter Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain described Germany's jealousy of the Jews' superior cleverness and states: "No doubt Jews aren't a lovable people; I don't care about them myself; but that is not sufficient to explain the Pogrom."



1939: Reacting to German anti-Jewish policies and reflecting the attitude of many other officials in Great Britain and Western Europe, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain writes: "No doubt Jews aren't a lovable people; I don't care about them myself. But that is not sufficient to explain the pogrom."



1940: Birthdate of producer Stanley Jaffe, the man who gave us Fatal Attracations.



1941(6th of Av, 5701): At Ponar, outside of Vilna, approximately, 150 Jews are shot.  Most of the victims are elderly.



1941: “Today the Aktion Klostersturm (Operation Monastery) was ended by a decree of Hitler, who feared the increasing protests by the Catholic population might result in passive rebellions, harming the Nazi war effort at the eastern front.”



1942: “Five hundred and fifty-seven refugees from Nazism who had been stranded in Portugal and unoccupied France, arrived” in Baltimore last night “aboard the Portuguese liner, S.S. Nyassa.” (JTA)



1942: German industrialist Eduard Schulte, whose company has mines near Auschwitz, reveals to a Swiss colleague that Hitler and the German Reich have decided to round up the millions of Jews of Occupied Europe, concentrate them in the East, and murder them using prussic acid starting in the fall of 1942. The information is soon communicated to Swiss World Jewish Congress representative Gerhart Riegner.



1942(16th of Av, 5702): German SS kills 25,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia



1942:Esther "Etty" Hillesum was transferred to Westerbork.



1942: The U.S. government established the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, program. Though Navy women would not be allowed to serve outside the continental U.S., or even to go to sea, the military hoped that the recruitment of 10,000 women, who would work in onshore bases, would free sufficient numbers of men to fight overseas. Although women had served as nurses in the navy as early as the Spanish-American War, and officially in the Navy Nurse Corps since 1908, the WAVES program was by far the largest-scale effort to recruit women to active duty in the Navy. In the WAVES program, thousands of women performed nearly every possible job at over 500 naval stations through the Second World War. As military leaders had hoped, they enabled male officers and enlisted men to staff the ships that were responsible for the Allied victory in the Pacific theatre. Among the earliest group of women to enlist in the WAVES was Miriam Miller. Although her parents felt that military nursing "wasn't the life for a nice Jewish girl," Miller enlisted soon after her graduation from the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital School of Nursing, in Pennsylvania. She was assigned first to the Great Lakes Naval Station and then to the San Diego Naval Hospital. Later, when the Navy relaxed its prohibition on women serving outside the continental U.S., she worked in Guam, where she cared for soldiers injured in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Active in veterans' affairs after the war, Miller was elected President of the Jewish War Veterans National Ladies Auxiliary in 1961.



1943: First publication of Mishmar, a newspaper owned by Hashomer Hatzair that would be re-named Al HaMishmar



1944(10th of Av, 5704): Since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat, Tish'a B'Av is observed today.



1944: Three tankers, carrying some 1750 Jews from the Italian-held islands of Kos and Rhodes, arrive at Piraeus, Greece, where the Jews are bullied onto trucks and driven to the Haidar detention camp near Athens



1944: More than 100 Jews are deported from Toulouse, France, to Auschwitz.



1944: Edi Weinstein, his father and his friend Berl Goldberg, all of whom who had escaped from Treblinka were discovered by German soldiers.  They killed Goldberg. Weinstein and his father survived and Edi Weinstein actually joined the Polish Army in 1945 helping to fight the Nazis in the waning days of the WW II. 



1945: The administration of Germany is assumed by the Allied Control Council.



1946: A three-day pogrom begins in Miskolc, Hungary.



1948: “Escape” directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by William Perlberg was released in Los Angeles today by 20th Century Fox.



1949(9thof Av, 5709): Sixty-eight year old Henrik Galeen, the actor, screenwriter and director from Lemberg whose first major film was “The Golem” a 1915 silent movie depiction of the Jewish character and who was forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power passed away today in Randolph Vermont.



1950: James G. McDonald, the U.S. Ambassador to the state of Israel has submitted his resignation.  McDonald is coming to the end of a normal two year posting at Tel Aviv.



1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that more than 1,500 polling stations opened to admit an estimated 880,000 voters for the Second Knesset. There were 17 lists of political parties contesting for the election of 120 Knesset members. About 75,000 Arabs were eligible to vote.



1951: Voter turnout for today’s elections for the 2nd Knesset reaching 75.1%



1951: Birthdate of Indian born, British artist and designer Gary Judah. For a look at his work go to http://www.gerryjudah.com/



1952(8thof Av, 5712): Seventy-nine year old Rebecca Weintraub, a native of Russia who was a 60 year veteran of the Yiddish theatre and the widow of Yiddish actor Sigmund Weintraub passed away today in New York.



1953: Senator Robert Taft of Ohio passed away. Most people do not remember Senator Taft.  But in his day he was a political power.  Known as “Mr. Republican” Taft was considered a “shoe-in” for the Republican nomination for President in 1952.  However, his plans were upset by the surprise entry of Ike Eisenhower into the battle for the nomination.  Ike won and the rest is history. As a Conservative Republican, Taft opposed most the social legislation that was popular among the Jews of his day.  The Taft-Hartley Act was seen as a piece of anti-labor legislation that limited the power of labor and therefore the influence of many Jewish leaders.  However, Taft joined Senator Wagner of New York (his political opponent on most domestic issues) in introducing a resolution supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  The resolution was introduced in October of 1945 and demonstrated the changing attitude towards Jews and the increasingly broad support for the Zionist cause among non-Jews.



1956:In Tashkent, Avner and Chana Leviev gave birth to Lev Avnerovich Leviev the businessman and philanthropist who served as president of the World Congress of Bukharian Jews.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Lev-Leviev_XUR9.html



1965: US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. Wilbur Cohen, a man whose active career ran from the New Deal through the Great Society and was serving as Under Secretary of H.E.W. in 1965 was considered to be the driving force behind this landmark legislation that removed the fear of ill health for senior citizens and their families.  Johnson would later name Cohen, the Wisconsin born son of Jewish immigrants, to the position of Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.



1969:Barbra Streisand opens for Liberace at International Hotel, Las Vegas



1970: Israeli airmen shot down four MIGs flown by Russian pilots over the Suez Canal. This marked the first military encounter between Israeli and Russian forces



1976: Two French tourists were wounded when a bomb went off on a Jerusalem sidewalk.



1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Britain severed relations with Uganda after Idi Amin's regime failed to provide information on the fate of Dora Bloch, the British-Israeli dual national dragged from a Kampala hospital after her fellow hijacked Air France hostages had been rescued from the Entebbe airport by Israeli commandoes



1976(2ndof Av, 5736): Seventy-five Emile Solomon Sachs, the Lithuanian born South African labor leader passed away today.



http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/emil-solomon-solly-sachs-south-african-socialist-dies-london



1980: The Knesset passed the “The Jerusalem Law” establishing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.



1982: “Night Shift” a comedy produced by Brian Grazer, written by Lowell Ganz, with music by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and co-starring Henry Winkler was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.



1983(20th of Av, 5743): MGM executive Howard Dietz passed away.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C62



1992(29th of Tammuz, 5752):  Ken Meyer, the son of Australian entrepreneur and businessman Sidney Myer, and his wife died today in plane crash.



1992(29th of Tammuz, 5752):  Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman, passed away.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joe-shuster-1538812.html?printService=print



1993: “Rising Sun” an American murder mystery with a Japanese twist directed and produced by Philip Kaufman who co-authored the script and co-starring Harvey Keitel was released today in the United States by 20th Century Fox.



1997(25th of Tammuz, 5757):  Double suicide bombings to place in Jerusalem that would eventually claim the lives of fourteen Israeli victims.



1997(25thof Tammuz, 5757):Lev Desyatnik, 60, of Jerusalem; Regina Giber, 76, of Jerusalem; Valentina Kovalenko, 67, of Jerusalem; Shmuel Malka, 44, of Mevaseret Zion; David Nasco, 44, of Mevaseret Zion; Muhi A-din Othman, 33, of Eilabun; Simha Fremd, 92, of Jerusalem; Gregory Paskhovitz, 15, of Jerusalem; Leah Stern, 50, of Jerusalem; Rachel Tejgatrio, 83, of Jerusalem; Liliya Zelezniak, 47, of Jerusalem; Shalom (Golan) Zevulun, 52, of Jerusalem and Mark Rabinowitz, 80, of Jerusalem were murdered by Hamas today at Mahane Yehuda Market.



1999: The INS Dolphin was commissioned today.



1999: Russian born American conductor led Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Peteris Vasks's Symphony No. 2 at the Royal Albert Hall



2000: The African American/Jewish Coalition for Justice hosts a picnic at Seward Park in Seattle, Washington.



2000: Bruce Fleisher carded a three day score of 198 to win the Lightpath Long Island Classic.



2000: The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti, Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery by Jewish born author Maxine Kumin and Millicent Dillon's new novel entitled Harry Gold about Harry Gold, the American Jewish chemist who acted as a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930's and 40's.



2002(21st of Av, 5762): Five people were injured by a suicide bomber on Hanevi’im Street in Jerusalem



2003(1st of Av, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Av



2004: In “Hyam Maccoby” Lawrence Joffe examines the life an accomplishments of this Jewish scholar who was the grandson and namesake of “Rabbi Hyam (or "Chaim") Maccoby better known as the "Kamenitzer Maggid," a passionate religious Zionist and advocate of vegetarianism and animal welfare.”
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jul/31/guardianobituaries.religion



2004: Following its premiere 4 days ago, “The Village” a horror film produced by Scott Rudin with a cast that included Adrien Brody and Jesse Eisenbeg was released throughout the United States today by Buena Vista Pictures.



2006: Jewish golfer Corey Pavin won the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.



2006: The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Freud's Requiem: Mourning, Memory, and the Invisible History of a Summer Walk by Matthew Von Unwerth. “This elegantly meandering look at Sigmund Freud's life and the intellectual world he moved in examines an obscure 1915 essay, "On Transience," in which Freud records a conversation with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and the psychoanalyst Lou Andreas-Salomé.”



2006: Hezbollah fired a record 140 Katyusha rockets at targets in northern Israel today wounding at least eight people, including a Haaretz correspondent.



2006(5thof Av, 5766): One hundred and six year old Philip Montagu D’Arcy a pioneer in the field of Tuberculosis Research who was the son of solicitor Henry D’Arcy Hart, the husband of Ruth Meyer, the father of Harvard University economics professor Oliver Hart and the brother of engineer James D’Arcy Hart passed away today.



2006(5th of Av, 5766): Murray Bookchin, American libertarian and socialist, passed away. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/aug/08/guardianobituaries.usa



2007: In Jerusalem, Peretz Eliyahu and Victoria Chana collaborate to perform original music tied to ancient texts about love at a Tu B’Av event.



2007: Victoria Redel, author of The Border of Truth based on the experiences of Jewish refugees aboard the SS Quanza, presents a reading at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, NY.



2007(15th of Av, 5767): Tu B'Av.



2008:Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, embroiled in a high-profile corruption investigation, announced that he would resign his office after his party chose a new leader in September elections.



2009(9th of Av, 5769): Tish'a B'Av



2009:Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival presents a screening of “Max Minsky & Me,” a delightful comedy set in contemporary Berlin in which Nelly, a bookish bat mitzvah candidate, who wants to be on her school basketball team so she can meet her prince charming recruits a reluctant coach who offers her athletic training and ultimately, his respect.”



2009: In an interview today the head of the Israel Defense Forces' ground troops during the Gaza disengagement said the decision to evacuate Gaza Strip settlements in 2005 was "utter nonsense." Israel Defense Forces General (Res.) Yiftach Ron-Tal made the comment during an interview on Army Radio, a day before the fourth anniversary of the disengagement on the Hebrew calendar.



2010:A Grad-type Katyusha rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck close to an apartment building in a residential area of Ashkelon on today, while two mortar shells exploded in the western Negev just a few hours later.



2010:An Israeli Air Force Boeing aircraft carrying the coffins of six IAF servicemen killed in Monday's Yasour helicopter crash in the Carpathian Mountains landed Friday morning at the Tel Nof air base. The funerals of the fallen soldiers will be held at various military cemeteries throughout the day today. Lt.-Col. (Res.) Avner Goldman will be buried at 12:15 p.m. in Modi'in; Lt.-Col. Daniel Shipenbauer will be buried at 3:00 p.m. in Gdarot; Maj. Yahel Keshet will be buried at 1:00 PM in Sharona; Maj. Lior Shai will be buried at 2:00 p.m. in Hod Hasharon; Lt. Nir Lakrif will be buried at 12:30 p.m. in Haifa; and St.-Sgt. Oren Cohen will be buried at 1:00 p.m. in Rehovot.



2010;It was reported today that the three bidders still in the mix to buy Newsweek magazine, according to the New York Times, are audio equipment tycoon Sidney Harman; tastefully named hedge fund guy Marc Lasry; and Mort Zuckerman chum Fred Drasner. All three are Members of the Tribe.



2010: “Mother’s Savior: A Revelation” published today chronicles the misfortunes of the Peltzman family and Norbert Stern, “a piano prodigy” whose musical skills were just one more victim of the Nazis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/nyregion/01about.html
http://www.timesofisrael.com/echoes-of-prodigys-music-strike-chord-with-lost-family/



2010: “With Curious George” published today the plans for “Illumination Entertainment, the animation company founded by former Fox Animation President Chris Meledandri and whose movies Universal finances and distributes, is developing a new version of ‘Curious George,’"  the creation of the Jewish team of Hans and Margret Rey.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/07/curious-george-illumination-movie-book-universal.html



2011: Gefen Books is scheduled to releaseConfidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan, by brothers-in-law Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, which “tells the story of an Israeli nuclear intelligence agent who found his way into the film business.”


2011(28th of Tammuz, 5771): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of Uhely, Hungary, author of Yismach Moshe and patriarch of the Hungarian Chassidic dynasties who passed away on the 28th of Tamuz, 5601 (July 17, 1841).


2011: “Blood Relation” and “77 Steps” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2011:Those who are protesting the spiraling cost of living in Israel are planning to hold five marches tonight, in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva, Haifa and Nazareth. Each is expected to end in a mass assembly. Organizers expect tens of thousands of people from all over the country to participate. 



2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was expected to put together a team to examine the burden of indirect taxes on the public in the coming days, Army Radio reported today.



2011:An explosion was reported at a depot along the Egyptian natural gas pipeline in Sinai that normally supplies Israel with gas, Army Radio reported today.



2011:Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took part in protests held in cities across the country tonight, the largest collaborative protest yet in a popular movement over social issues that has swept the country in the past two weeks



2012: The Northern California Premiere of “Papirosen” is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2012: “Yossi,” a sequel to “Yossi and Jagger” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan.



2012:Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) today slammed proposals calling for IDF conscription of Arabs.



2012:Following a day of mostly disappointing results for Israel at the London Olympic Games, two Israelis advanced to the semi-finals in their events in swimming and judo this morning. Amit Ivri set a new Israeli record in the 200 meter women's medley relay this morning. Ivri finished the race in 2:13:29, putting her in 12th place and allowing her to advance to the semi-finals this evening.



2012: (11th of Av, 5772): Ninety-one year old philanthropist Fred Worms passed away today.(As reported by Greer Fay Cashman)
http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Philanthropist-Fred-Worms-dies-at-91
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/anglo-file/philanthropist-was-amazing-example-of-a-world-jew-1.455681



2012: “In what appears like a clear endorsement of a presidential candidate, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said tonight that Barack Obama has been the most supportive president on matters of Israeli security throughout the two countries’ diplomatic relations.” (As reported by Yaakov Katz)



2012:The climactic denouement of the Daf Yomi seven-year study cycle of the Talmud was staged in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem tonight, with tens of thousands of haredi men crowding into venues in the two cities to celebrate their having completed the study of the ancient work of Jewish law.(As reported by Jeremy Sharon)



2013: A conference on “The Bible in the Iberian World: Fundaments of a Religious Melting Pot is scheduled to open at Leipzig, Germany.”



2013: “Sukkah City” and “Neil Diamond: Solitary Man” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.



2013: Dancers from the Paris Opera are scheduled to appear at Haifa’s Rappaport Hall.



2013: The Maccabiah Games are scheduled to come to an end.



2013: Ninety-nine year old Berthold Beitz, the head of ThyssenKrupp who “was remembered for his efforts to save hundreds of Jews and Poles from the Nazis while stationed in Poland during World War II” passed away today. (As reported by Melissa Eddy)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/business/berthold-beitz-german-steel-industrialist-who-saved-jews-dies-at-99.html



2013: Josh Zeid pitched in his first major league game as a member of the Houston Astros.



2013:Senator Dianne Feinstein of California introduced a bill tonight that would have the Senate resolve itself to supporting Secretary of State John Kerry's push for a two-state solution(By Michael Wilner)



2013(23rd of Av, 5773): Ninety-four year old Ottie Schecthman, one of the pioneering stars of the NBA passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/sports/basketball/ossie-schectman-who-scored-the-nbas-first-points-dies-at-94.html?hpw



2014: Historic 6th& Synagogue is scheduled to host Trivia Night sponsored by B’nai B’rith.


2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host another night of Coen brothers’ films.


2014: Hamas continued its attack on Israel with rockets being fired towards Ashkelon, Ashdod, Rishon, LeZion, Rehovot and Tel Aviv.(As reported by Matzn Tzuri)


2014(3rdof Av, 5774):St.-Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, from Rishon Lezion, St.-Sgt.Omer Hay, 21, from Savyon, and St.-Sgt. Guy Algranati, 20, from Tel Aviv “were killed this morning in Gaza in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed a tunnel entry shaft.” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)


2015: The Annual Karmiel Dance Festival is scheduled to come to an end.


2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire.


 

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

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July 31



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 before 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 Jewish people.



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



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(10thof 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



1806: In Baltimore, MD, Jacob Myers of Georgetown, SC, married Miriam Etting the daughter of prominent Jewish merchant Solomon Etting.



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).
http://books.google.com/books?id=-A-yZagiSqYC&pg=PP1&ots=sNK7qYM9fG&dq=nachman+krochmal&sig=fEDP9b-1dRs04anda7uXFHiPzrE#v=onepage&q=nachman%20krochmal&f=false



1841; The Ouse Valley Viaduct which had been designed in part by David Mocatta, was opened and in use.



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



1854: Birthdate of Fritz Hommel author of Ancient Hebrew Tradition in which “he attacked the Graf Wellhausen hypothesis” and “controverts the method deployed by the higher critics of the Old Testament.”



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.



1859(29th of Tammuz, 5619): Eighty-six year old Isaac Katzenelnbogen, the husband of Fanny Neuburg, passed away at Furth today.



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 native of Bohemia who was editor of The Jewish Chronicle and helped to form the Anglo-Jewish Association who was a “Zionist” before Herzl, passed away.



1878: Birthdate of philanthropist and child-welfare activist Madeleine Borg who lived her whole life in New York City, was educated at Columbia University, where she studied the causes of juvenile delinquency. Subsequently, she held leadership positions in more than a dozen major child welfare organizations. Her roles included chair of the executive committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians of New York, director of the Child Welfare League, member of the executive committee of the Girls' Service League of America, and trustee of the Training School for Jewish Social Work. She also served on the executive boards of the American Jewish Committee and the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York. Borg's largest contribution to child welfare was probably her role in founding the Big Sister movement, beginning in 1912. Modeled on earlier Big Brother programs targeted at troubled boys, Big Sister programs provide young girls with role models and companions. In 1914, Borg was among the founders of the Jewish Big Sisters, which sought to help poor and troubled girls by providing them with role models from a similar ethnic and cultural background. Today, Jewish Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs also match adults with disabilities with non-disabled friends. Always interested in child welfare, Borg was also active in promoting psychiatric clinics as part of the study of child behavior. In 1954, the Jewish Board of Guardians renamed its Child Guidance Institute in Borg's honor. Borg's public roles also extended beyond child welfare and beyond the Jewish community. In 1929, then-Governor Franklin Roosevelt appointed her to the New York State Old Age Pensions Committee; she also served on the executive committee of the New York City Crime Prevention Bureau. In 1939, she became a trustee of the New York World's Fair. Also in 1939, she became president of the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the first woman to hold that post. Borg died on January 9, 1956.



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. 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



1882: Ten members of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) led by Zalman David Levontin  founded Rishon LeZion (First to Zion) which has become 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 at 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 5thStreet 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 the 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 William F. 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.



1894: “Seventy-five little sewing school children held their closing celebration at the roof garden of the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street where they enjoyed a generous supply of ice cream.



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(12thof Av, 5658): Fifty-three year old New York realtor and clothing merchant who came to the United States from Germany at the age of 22 passed away at his country home in Forest, PA.



1898(12thof Av, 5658): Fifty-five year old Samuel Firuski, who had spent 22 years as an auctioneer in Brooklyn and was a member of Temple Israel in Brooklyn, passed away today at Pavilion Hotel in Sharon Spring



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: “Riot Mars Funeral of Rabbi Joseph” published today descried the outbreak of violence that occurred when the procession of mourners for the Grand Rabbi passed by the R. Hoe & Co. The workers who were at lunch began jeering,  threw buckets of water and finally bombarded the Jews with “paper saturated with oil, bits of iron, small blocks of wood and other missiles” which caused a violent reaction.



1902: It was reported today that Julius Weber had not been clubbed to death by police as originally claimed but was in fact being cared for by friends living on Suffolk Street after having been seriously injured during the near riot that had broken out during the funeral procession carrying Rabbi Joseph to his final resting place.



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



1906: In Austria, thirty-eight year old Siegfried Reginald Wolf and his wife Ida gave birth to Franz Karl Wolf.



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



http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/14/us/for-chicago-s-town-crier-the-stories-linger.html



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



1914: Fifty-four year old Jean Jaurès who was “one of the most energetic defenders of Alfred Dreyfus” was assassinated today by a French nationalist today.



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 Tageblattprotesting 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: In Montreal, Alton Goldbloom and Annie Ballon gave birth to Victor Charles Goldbloom who served as Minster of the Environment and CEO of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.



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 Rosenfeld won the silver medal in the 100-meter race, though many spectators thought she had actually finished first.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/31/1928/bobbie-rosenfeld



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.



1934: Birthdate of Stanley Edwin “Stan” Daniels, the native of Toronto who “won eight Emmy Awards for his work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/obituaries/14daniels.html?_r=0



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 19thcentury 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: Ships carrying the Jewish population of Rhodes arrived at the port of Piraeus and the Jews were immediately shipped to the concentration camp at Haidari in suburban Athens where the Red Cross would not be allowed to supply them food and water.  



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.”


1945: Birthdate of Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, the native of Newark, NJ, who has served as Deputy Director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Director of the USHMM's Holocaust Research Institute and whose books included The World Must Know, Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp


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


1948: Harry Dexter White, “the youngest child of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants” was accused today before the House Committee on Un-American Activities of having “been involved in espionage activities on behalf of the Soviet Union during World War II and had passed sensitive Treasury documents to Soviet agents.”


1948: Leo Nomis reported to Modi Alon at Herzliya preparatory to flying with 101 Squadron.


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.]


1952: Birthdate of Faye Kellerman the St. Louis native who trained to be a dentist but fortunately for us became one of the finest mystery writers of the 20thcentury.


1952: It was reported today that Yiddish actress Weintraub, the widow of Sigmund Weintraub, is survived by her son Milton Weintraub and her daughters Pearl Weintraub and Mrs. Frances Weintraub Lax.


1952: “Ivanhoe” a cinematic treatment of the novel that includes the tale of Isaac York and his daughter Rebecca produced by Pandro S. Berman was released in the United States today by MGM.


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.”


1954: A raid led by Meir Har-Zion that takes the unit to the area around Jenin begins.


1960(7thof Av, 5720): Seventy-year old Philip B. Perlman who “became the first Jewish U.S Solicitor General” when Harry Truman appointed him to the position in 1947 passed away today.


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


1963: United Kingdom premiere of “Cleopatra,” co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Martin Landau, produced by Walter Wagner, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and with a screenplay co-authored by Ben Hecht and Joseph L. Mankeiwicz.


1968: “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” starring Alan Arkin was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.


1968: “5 Card Stud” a western film featuring Yaphet Kotto as Little George was released in the United States today Paramount Pictures.


1970: In Finland, premiere of “Getting Straight” a comedy starring Elliot Gould, featuring Jeannie Berlin and John Rubinstein, the son of concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein.


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.


1970: “Move” a comedy directed by Stuart Rosenberg, produced by Pandro S. Berman, starring Elliot Gould, with music by Marvin Hamlisch was released today in the United States by 20th Century Fox.


1972: Premiere of “Greaser’s Palace,” starring Allan Arbus


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.


1985: Three people were injured in a terrorist bombing at Haifa.


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(5th of Av, 5747): Eighty-one year old movie producer Joseph E. Levine who had a hand in bringing over 500 films to the American screen passed away today. (As reported by Nan Robertson)

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


1994(23rd of Av, 5754): Ninety-four year old Karola Bloch, the anti-Stalinist communist and wife Ernst Bloch passed away today.


1998: One person was injured today when a terrorist threw a bomb at a truck in North Jerusalem.


1998:BASEketball a comedy directed by David Zucker who co-produced and co-wrote the script and co-starring Matt Stone and featuring Al Michaels was released today in the United States by Universal Pictures.


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: As of today Kenny G (Kenneth Bruce Gorelick) had sold 48 million albums in the United States.


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(16thof Av, 5767): Ninety-two year old British historian Norman Cohn whose works included Warrant for Genocide  and who was the husband of Verio Broido, the daughter of Russian Jews and the father of writer Nik Cohn passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/world/europe/27cohn.html



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. Kidswithcameras-jerusalem.com



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: U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to extend sanctions against Syria, despite positive signs of progress in the relationship between the two nations, a White House statement said today.


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..



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



2010: Ryan “Kalish was promoted to the Red Sox from the minor league team in Pawtucket.”



2010: This morning the IDF confirmed that the Air Force hit several Hamas-linked targets in Gaza overnight.



2010: The ninth congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies under the presidency of Professor Mauro Perania came to a close at Ravenna.



2010(20thof 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.



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.


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, 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.  



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).



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)


2013:Two controversial bills aimed at enabling the government to function better cleared a hurdle when they passed their first reading tonight in a stormy session of the parliament. (As reported by Gil Hoffman)


2013: HUC announced the decision to have Rabbi Aaron Panken succed Rabbi David Ellison as president of The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform movement’s rabbinical school. Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/31/news-opinion/hebrew-union-college-names-new-president#ixzz2ag0Q1whk



2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host “Coen Brothers Trivia Night.”


2014; “Ten days after her husband was killed in battle by Hamas gunmen inside the Israeli border with Gaza, Galaitu Kshaun, the widow of Warrant Officer Bayhesain Kshaun, 39, gave birth to a baby girl early today. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)


2014: As Ilia Salita became tne new CEO of Genesis Philanthropy Group Michael Fridman, co-founder of Genesis Philanthropy Group released a statement today that said “We are confident that Genesis Philanthropy Group’s management team under the leadership of Ilia Salita will expand and deepen the organization’s impact on Russian-speaking Jewish communities around the world,” (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel)


2014: This evening U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry jointly announced that an unconditional 72 hour cease fire between Israel and Hamas is scheduled to go into effect tomorrow morning. (As reported by JTA)


2015: Michael Slive is scheduled to retire as Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).


2015(15thof Av, 5775): The 15th Day of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). Tu B'Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine's Day in English-speaking countries. There is no way to know exactly how early Tu B'Av began. The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (compiled and edited in the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted saying, "There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife)…"( Taanit, Chapter 4). The Gemara (the later, interpretive layer of the Talmud) attempts to find the origin of this date as a special joyous day, and offers several explanations. One of them is that on this day the Biblical "tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with each other," namely: to marry women from other tribes (Talmud, Taanit 30b). This explanation is somewhat surprising, since nowhere in the Bible is there a prohibition on "intermarriage" among the 12 tribes of Israel. This Talmudic source probably is alluding to a story in the book of Judges (chapter 21): After a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and other Israelite tribes, the tribes vowed not to intermarry with men of the tribe of Benjamin. It should be noted that Tu B'Av, like several Jewish holidays (Passover, Sukkot, Tu Bishvat) begins on the night between the 14th and 15th day of the Hebrew month, since this is the night of a full moon in our lunar calendar. Linking the night of a full moon with romance, love, and fertility is not uncommon in ancient cultures. For almost 19 centuries--between the destruction of Jerusalem and the re-establishment of Jewish independence in the state of Israel in 1948--the only commemoration of Tu B'Av was that the Morning Prayer service did not include the penitence prayer (Tahanun). In recent decades Israeli civil culture promotes festivals of singing and dancing on the night of Tu B'Av. The entertainment and beauty industries work overtime on this date. It has no formal legal status as a holiday-- it is a regular workday--nor has the Israeli rabbinate initiated any addition to the liturgy or called for the introduction of any ancient religious practices. The cultural gap between Israeli secular society and the Orthodox rabbinate makes it unlikely that these two will find a common denominator in the celebration of this ancient/modern holiday in the foreseeable future.


2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT.


2015: The Museum of Jewish Heritage are scheduled to host SLOW/DOWN/TOWN, “a pre-Shabbat party.”


 

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

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August 1


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 Ptolemy rule over the area, Antony partially 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 Judea and 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 Milan on 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 Switzerland during the days of the Roman Empire. Records of the Jewish community officially date back to the 13thcentury, with Jews having settled in Basel in 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 Berne of 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.


1431: “King Sigismund assured the Jews of Worms that all edicts annulling the outstanding debts owed them would be declared invalid upon the payment by each Jew of an indemnity.”


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 Luxemburg 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.


1658: Coronation of Leopold I who borrowed large sums of money from banker Samuel Oppenheimer to fight the “Great Turkish War.


1753: The Imperial Court rescinded the order confiscating copies of the prayer book and Talmud because they were found not contain derogatory statements about Christianity.


1776(16th of 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, the native of Ancona whose works included "A Memorial Sermon on the Death of Francis I. of Germany", written in Spanish, and translated by Castello's son Joseph Castello into Italian passed away in Leghorn, Italy.


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.


1819: Birthdate of American novelist Herman Melville the special subject of study of Viola Sachs who “conducted research and studies for the decoding of Melville’s master works” and who survived the Holocaust by living in Brazil along with her husband, economist Ignacy Sachs


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.


1841: Birthdate of Dr. Isidor Cohnstein the native of Gnesen who married Ida Cohnstein.


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.


1855: Castle Garden opened as the immigrant process center in New York.


1856: Lauritz Weidemann, one of the framers of Norway’s constitution whose opposition to Jewish citizenship was expressed somewhat incoherently when he wrote “"The Jewish nation's history proves, that this people always has been rebellious and deceitful, and their religious teachings, the hope of again arising as a nation, so often they have acquired some remarkable fortune, led them to intrigues and to create a state within a state. It is of vital importance to the security of the state that an absolute exception be made about them" passed away today


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 published today 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.


1864: Birthdate of South Carolina Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith a supporter of the immigration quota system who wanted to exempt Jews from the quota system” because “their thrift, their economy and their love of learning” appealed to him. (As reported by Henry L. Feingold)


1864: Today, following the end of the Schleswig War, Prussia, under the leadership of Bismarck who relied on his banker Gerson Bleichröder for financial advice took possession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.


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


1865: It was reported today that “the Israelites in New York 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.


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 Denver community 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.


1876(11th of Av, 5636): Lewis Wormser, the native of Stuttgart who moved to Ireland in 1821 where he became such a successful businessman and leader of the Jewish community that he was waiting to begin serving as Lord Mayor of Dublin when he passed away today.  Had he lived, he would have been the first Jew to hold that position and honor that would fall to Robert Briscoe eighty years later.


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


1879: Following the Russo-Turkish War, Czar Alexander II today awarded Joshua be Aaron Zeitlin “ a medal in recognition of his services” as “a contractor for the victorious Russian Army


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.


1881: Birthdate of Otto Toeplitz, the third generation German mathematician who would seek refuge in Palestine after the rise of the Nazis.


1881: Birthdate of  Fritz Spira, the Viennese actor who played Austrian Emperor Franz Josef in the 1926 film The Third Squadron but whose fame did not keep him from being arrested by the Nazis and dying ignominiously at the Ruma Concentration Camp in 1943.


1882: Birthdate of  Jacob Benjamin Salutsky, the Russian immigrant who gained fame as the J.B.S. Hardman a prominent socialist who serve as Education of Director of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers after having left the Communist movement in apparent disgust.


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(11th of Av, 5647): Issac Margolis, the Russo-Polish rabbi who was a descendant of Yom Tov Lippman Heller of Prague  who came to the United States in 1884 and assumed the leadership of Congregation Anshe-Kalvariya  passed away in New York.


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


1888: Birthdate of Rene Marx Dormoy, the friend of fellow socialist Leon Blum in whose government he served as Minister of the Interior and defeated the attempt of the right-wing La Cagoule to overthrow the Third Republic before WW II.  Dormoy did not turn his back on Blum after the cowardly capitulation of the French and the rise of Vichy – a loyalty that cost him his life.


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(19th of Av, 5653): Joseph Korman, “an educated Russian Jew” who came to the United States about a year ago and who had been “a successful merchant at one time” passed away today after being for six months leaving behind a destitute widow and four children.


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 policeman who has been charged with bribery continued today.


1895: Birthdate of Béla Zsolt, the native of Komárom, Hungary who survived Bergen-Belsen, rode to freedom on the “Kasztner Train” and wrote Nine Suitcases a Holocaust memoir that would later be turned into a one act play.http://dannyreviews.com/h/Nine_Suitcases.html
(For more information about the Kasztner Train see http://www.killingkasztner.com/)

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: A case involving that pits the Moses Montifiore Congregation of Hoboken against David Engler who claims to own the lot on which the synagogue sits and who is trying to force the congregation to move its building is scheduled to be hear in The Chancery Court in Jersey City, New Jersey today.


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(13th of 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)


1900(6th of Av, 5660): Forty-eight year old “German physiologist” Immanuel Munk, the brother of Hermann Munk, passed away today in Berlin.


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(29th of 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.


1910: Birthdate of composer and arranger Walter Scharf, “the son of Yiddish theatre comic Bessie Zwerling” who worked with everybody from George Gershwin, to Rudy Valle, to Al Jolson to Elvis Presley.

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


1912: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Camden, NJ was incorporated today.


1913: Birthdate of multi-talented composer Jerome Moross whose most famous works may be theme music for the western television series “Wagon Train” and the big screen western “The Big Country.”

1914: Germany declared war on Russia in 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.”


1914: The British Ambassador to France “was to have dined with at Edmond de Rothschild Boulogne-sur Seine villa tonight but they have to dine in Paris instead because “all of his horses and automobiles have been appropriated” by the government as part of the mobilization for war.


1915: It was reported today that with 25,000 Jews already serving in the military, the British War Office has made serious efforts “to meet all of their religious requirements” including wherever possible making arrangements for them “to return from the firing line for Passover  and for the Fest of Weeks.”


1915: It was reported today that the officers of the “New Synagogue” the recently formed “liberal Jewish congregation” on New York’s West Side are Morris Rothschild, Chairman; Jerome Wile, Treasurer and J.L. Frankel, Secretary who will be supporting a professional staff consisting of Rabbi Ephraim Frisch and organist Clarence Adler.


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: Decree issued “securing the title of the Chestnut Street Cemetery” in Cincinnati, Ohi.


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: As The Hungarian Soviet Republic came to an end, Bela Kun “fled as Romanian troops approached Budapest.”


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.


1922(7th of Av, 5682): Sixty-three year old mechanical engineer Donát Bánki the son of a Hungarian Jewish physician who helped to invent “the carburetor for the stationary engine.”


1924: In Dąbrowica, Poland, Anna (Szapiro) and Maurice Charpak gave birth to Georges Charpak, the 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 Palestine as of August 1, 1925 shall 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.


1930(7th of Av, 5690): Forty-eight year old Jack Zuta, an accountant for mobsters in Chicago was shot by unknown gunman while hiding out in Wisconsin


1930: Premiere of George Cukor’s “Grumpy” co-starring Paul Lukas and filmed by cinematographer David Abel.


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



1931: Eduard Strauch who would murder over 10,000 Jews from Riga in the Rumbula Forest joined the Nazi Party and the SA.


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: In Tel Aviv, journalist Theodor Loevy and his wife Elisa gave birth to television director and writer Ram Loevy.


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 Warsaw and 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 Eastern Territories." 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: In Poland the final liquidation of the Bendzin Ghetto began today as the first batch of what would total 8,000 prisoners were deported today.


1943: When the Nazis began their final liquidation of Bendzin Ghetto they are met with unexpected “armed resistance in several bunkers” led by young Jews that “hampered” the Germans forcing them to spend two weeks on this latest venture in murderous cruelty.


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.


1943(29th of Tammuz, 5703): Sixty-eight year old Ismar Elbogen the German rabbi and historian who wrote Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History which has been updated many times since its first publication in 1913, passed away in New York City.



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


1944: Rose Valland, the French art historian and member of the Resistance “learned that the Germans were planning to ship out a last five boxcars full of art” most of which had been looted from French Jews and notified the Resistance “who prevented the train from leaving Paris.


1944: Future Nobel Prize winner François Jacob who fought with Free French 2nd Armorded Division “returned to a liberated Paris.”


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.


1948: IAF volunteer pilot Leo Nomi took a 25 minute truck ride to Netanya where he flew patrol in a D-114 with three other pilots including Ezer Weizman.


1948: “Syd Antin and Red Finkel flew a pair of S-199s on patrol today, out of Netanya.


1948: Birthdate of Aline Goldsmith, Kominsky-Crumb, the Long Beach, NY native who “reshaped” the world of comics.

1949: “Mr. Soft Touch” a crime movie directed by Henry Levin was released today in the United States by Columbia Pictures.


1949: Warner Brothers releases a spoof about the movie industry – “It’s a Great Feeling” 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.


1952: As part of a major cost reduction program at MGM studios, today is scheduled to be the last day of work for Richard Goldstone who has produced nine pictures for the studio over the last three years.


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


1954: A group of ten raiders under the command of Meir Har-Zion returned from a raid conducted near Jenin where they “attacked two policemen and took one of them prisoner.”


1955: “The Kentuckian” co-starring Walter Matthau with music by Bernard Hermann was released in the United States today by United Artists.


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.


1960: Ella Fitzgerald began recording what would become an album of the songs of Harold Arlen known as “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook.”


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


1976:Natalia Grigoryevna Kushnir and the Russian volleyball team won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics which closed at Montreal today.


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:“Between today and through most of 1985, few merchants were as lavishly praised as Ed Finkelstein,” Isadore Barmash, a former retailing reporter for The New York Times, wrote in his 1989 book, “Macy’s for Sale.”


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: “Jerusalem Storm Just One More in Tortured History” published today described the city’s history in light of the Knesset’s vote this week “affirming Jerusalem as a united city and the capital of Israel.”

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: Abu Daoud, a Black September commander who openly claimed to have helped plan the Munich attack, was shot multiple times by a gunman in a Warsaw hotel cafe. Daoud survived the attack


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." (As reported by Colin Campbell)

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


1985(14th of Av, 5745): Ninety two year old Jules Salvador Moch, the son of Captain Gaston Moch and the grandson of Colonel Jules Moch who fought with the Free French at Normandy before becoming a political leader passed away in Cabris.


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


1989(29th of Tammuz, 5749): Fifty-nine year old Hungarian born Canadian director who had survived the Holocuast passed away today.

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


1992: Thirty-four year old producer Scott Rudin “signed a deal with Tri-Star Pictures.


1999: U.K. premiere of “A Price Above Rubies,” a film about Chasidic Jews directed and written by Boaz Yankin and co-starring Julianna Marguiles.


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: Premiere of “Yossi & Jagger,” an “Israeli romantic drama film directed by Eytan Fox.


2002: The body Shani Ladani, 27, of Moshav Olash, shot and bound, was found west of Tulkarem, near the Green Line, in the industrial zone where he was employed.


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 1970's and later helped it develop into a powerful civil liberties conglomerate passed away today at the age of 88.  "During the years of crisis he was more responsible than any other single person for keeping the program afloat," said Ira Glazer, the executive director of the A.C.L.U. from 1978 to 2001. He explained how Mr. Forman juggled the bills and even earned interest on a deficit operational budget, and recalled visits from officials of Chemical Bank who complained that although the organization was moving around millions of dollars, its average balance was $3.79.,"He was the chewing gum and rubber bands that held the organization together and made the high intellectual and strategic law possible," Mr. Glazer said. When Mr. Forman arrived at the A.C.L.U. in 1968, the organization had two lawyers, one part-time press person and no one in charge of administration and finances, fund-raising or development. By the time he retired in the late 1990's, the organization had a $50 million annual income, more than $100 million in assets and staffed offices in every state. Before joining the A.C.L.U., Mr. Forman was the comptroller of the Noma Corporation, a large, diversified holding company; he became unemployed when Noma merged with a predecessor of Gulf and Western. During World War II, he was an Army officer stationed in Washington, where he fell in love with a woman with whom he had his only daughter but felt he could not marry because she was not Jewish. He graduated magna cum laude from New York University in 1939 and earned a graduate degree in business administration there.


2006(7th of Av, 5766): Sixty-two year art historian Arlene Raven passed away today. (As reported by Elaine Woo)

2006: A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Sweet's decision, holding 2–1 that federal prosecutors could inspect the telephone records of Judith Miller


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 Biographyby 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)

2010:“Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey” is scheduled to be shown for the last time today at the Jewish Museum


2010: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to travel to Egypt today for a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two are expected to meet behind closed doors to discuss advancing diplomatic efforts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. They are also expected to discuss cooperation between Israel and Egypt.



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(1stday 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: “Just seven months after a gunman’s bullet nearly killed her, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the floor of the House of Representatives to cast her vote in favor of a bill to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.”


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.”


2013: A gag order was lifted today on an espionage indictment filed against a 46-year-old Jerusalemite member of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Haredi Sect accused of offering to serve as a spy for the Iranian regime. (As reported by Havi Rettig Gur)


2013: The 12th Annual March for Pride and Tolerance took place this evening in Jerusalem


2013(25thof Av, 5773): Sixty-seven year old Igal Brightman the chairman and CEO of the major local accounting firm of Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar died when his plane crashed outside of Eilat.

2013: The Los Angeles Time featured a review of Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar Straus & Giroux by Boris Kachka


2014: The jury is scheduled to announce the winners in the Sukkah Design contest sponsored by Oregon Jewish Museum at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.


2014: A weeklong workshop “The Holocaust in Eastern Europe in the Records of the International Tracing Service Digital Archive” at the USHMM is scheduled to come to an end.


2014: Based on announcement by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a 72-hour unconditional cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. local time today.


2014(5th of Av, 5774): Major Benaya Sarel, 26, from Kiryat Arba and St.-Sgt. Liel Gidoni, 20, from Jerusalem both serving with the Givati Brigade were killed today after the cease fire had begun. At the same time 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba was kidnapped. On August 2, Hadar was declared to have died in today’s attack as well. (In life they were loved and admired. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.)


2014: Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican whose last day as House majority leader yesterday, said today that he would resign his seat effective Aug. 18 in hopes that his successor will be able to participate in the lame-duck session after the November elections. Mr. Cantor’s departure means that they are no Jewish Republicans serving in the House of Representatives.


2014: At Temple Judah’s Friday night services, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rabbi Todd Thalblum is scheduled to describe his trip to Israel.


2014: Michael Bloomberg’s fellowship, the Genesis Generation Challenge is scheduled to “go live” today.


2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Main State Pier in Portland, ME.


2015: Benjamin Levin, son of David Levin, hits the big Three Oh!


2015(16thof Av, 5775): Shabbat Shuvah

 


 


 


 

 

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

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August 2 



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 Martinez refused 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.


1549: Birthdate of Russian nobleman Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł author of Podróż do Ziemi Świętej, Syrii i Egiptu 1582-1584 (The trip to Holy Land, Syria and Egypt 1582-1584) provided a first-hand description of life in Palestine at the end of the 16th century.


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 Calimani poet and linguist, passed away at Venice.


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


1792: In Charleston, Mrs. Nathan married Abraham Jones, “the clerk to the synagogue.”


1795: Birthdate of Austrian Talmudist Aaron Kornfeld who was a native of Bohemia.


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:According to information first published inthe Aroostook Pioneer it was reported today 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.


1882(17th of Av, 5642): Austrian born author David Podiebrad who specialized in the history of the Jews of Prague passed away today.


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 grounds 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.


1891: “The Jews In Russia” published today challenges the contention that Russia’s treatment of its Jews has nothing to do with religion and his contention that somehow 4 million Jews are controlling the economic lives of sixty million Russians through their practice of usury.


1891: “Jews Who Plow” published today provides Arnold White’s affirmative response to the question “Has a Jew ever been see to plow” in which he includes descriptions of active Jewish agricultural settlements.


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


1897: Birthdate of Karl Otto Koch, the commander of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Majdanek who was executed by the Nazis in 1945.


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.


1906: Birthdate of Atlantic City native Edwin Harvey Blum the screenwriter whose work includes “Stalag 17.”


1909(15th of Av, 5669): Two weeks before his 78thbirthday Sir Henry Aaron Isaacs “English businessman and politician” who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1889, passed away today.


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


1912: The list of the trustees of the newly incorporated Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Camden, NJ published in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer included Benjamin Natal, Joseph F. Kantor, Max Goldich, Philip M. Pinksy, Bertrand Schneeberg, Arnold Weiss, Samuel Heine, Jacob Furer and Israel Heine.


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.


1914: In a move that would help push the Ottoman Empire to became a partner with the Central Powers, with all that that would mean for the future of Eretz Israel (among other places) the British seized two modern battleships that were being built in English shipyards for the Turkish navy


1914: In WW I, German troops began the bombardment of Kalisz, a Polish city in the Russian Empire which would result in “deliberate destruction” of “150 Jewish homes” the death of thirty three Jews in the center of the city.”


1915: “A call was sent out today for a conference of representatives of Jewish societies, congregations, trades unions, lodges and clubs for the purposed of start a campaign for additional fund to aid Jewish war sufferers in Europe.”


1916(3rd of Av, 5676): Seventy-year old historian Martin Phillipson who taught at the University of Brussels because of anti-Semitism in his native Germany and founded the “Society for the Advancement of Jewish Studies” passed away in Berlin.


1916: Twenty five of the leading producers of motion pictures including Jesse Lasky met at the Hotel Claridge today “to approve the articles of incorporation” for the newly formed Associated Motion Picture Advertisers.


1917: Birthdate of Brigadier General Felix Sparks who as a Lt. Col. “led the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army, the first Allied force to enter Dachau concentration camp and liberate its prisoners.”


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.


1919(6th of Av, 5679): Twenty-eight year old Hungarian communist Tibor Szamuely was killed as during the unsuccessful fight to establish the Hungarian Soviet Republic.


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 Barnard College, 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.


1926: Harry Einstein and his wife gave birth to journalist and author Charles Einstein who wrote The Bloody Spur and who was the older half-brother of Albert Brooks and Jacob Einstein


1927: Birthdate of James Milton Young, known simply as “Jimmy” to several generations of congregants at Adas Israel where he served  as “caretaker and chief custodian” for 56 years.  Rabbis and cantors may come and go, but Jimmy was a rock of reliability who always had a kind word for the kids who were forced to hang around on Sundays when their parents were going to faculty meetings.


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. I

1932: Birthdate of composer Marvin David Levy the native of Passaic, NJ who overcame prison to restart his career.

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.


1935: “Made Love” a film directed by Karl Fruend, starring Peter Loree, with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United Kingdom today.


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 passed away today


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.


1941: The board of the Union of Jewish Communities “achieved the cancellation of the order that Jews wear the yellow badge and other measures, including the creation of ghettos in the cities and mobilizing women to join men in forced labor.” (Jewish Virtual Library)


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: The last major deportation from the Bendzin Ghetto continued for a second day.


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.


1943: “Young Ideas” a comedy directed by Jules Dassin was released in the United States today by MGM. (This entry may seem incongruous when compared to the ones just above.  It should give readers an idea of the difference between WW II in the United States and WW II in Europe, Asia and North Africa.


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: Commissioning of HMS Springer and S Class Submarined that would be sold to Israel in 1958 where it was recommissioned as the Tanin or Crocodile.


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


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: “Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell” a comedy directed by Henry Koster and featuring Zero Mostel as “Emmett” was released in the United States by 20th Century Fox.


1951: “As Young As You Feel” a comedy written by Paddy Chayefsky was released in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.


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)


1951: Premiere of “As Young as You Feel,” a comedy written by Paddy Chayefsky.


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


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


1960: In California, Jane and Gerald Finerman gave birth to movie producer Wendy Finerman.


1965(4thof Av, 5725): Seventy-seven year old František Langer a physician who was a general in the Czech Army during WW II who had gained fame as an author and who was the older brother Hebrew author Jiří Langer passed away today.


1967: Birthdate of professional tennis star Aaron Krickstein


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


1972(22ndof Av, 5732): Sixty-year old author Paul Goodman passed away.

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


1976: Max Rayne, the grandson of “a Hebrew scholar and teacher” and the son of Phillip Rayne, a garment manufacturer from London’s East End who had had been knighted in 1969 was “made a life peer as Baron Rayne, of Prince's Meadow in the County of Greater London today.”


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-jinx with David Schine that helped to lead to McCarthy’s downfall and his loss of power.

1989: “Parenthood” a comedy produced by Brian Grazer, with a screenplay by Lowell Ganz, music by Rany Newman and co-starring Rick Moranis  was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures. 


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)

1991: Robert S. Strauss began serving as U.S. Ambassador to the now non-existent U.S.S.R.


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.

1994(25th of Av, 5754): “Yoram Sakuri, 30, of Kiryat Netafim in Samaria, died of stab wounds suffered when a terrorist broke into his home on July 1st.” (Jewish Virtual Library)


1995: Norman Spector completed his services Canada’s Ambassador to Israel – a position some might have felt him uniquely qualified to hold since he the first Canadian born Jew to hold the post.


1996: Eighty-four year old Michel Debre a member of prominent Jewish who converted to Catholicism who served as the first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic in France passed away today.


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


2008:“The Fly, an opera in two acts by Canadian composer Howard Shore was broadcast by Radio France's station France Musique today.”


2008 “Love, Loss and What I Wore” a play by Nora and Delia Ephron co-starring Linda Lavin was performed for the first time at the Bridgehampton Community House.


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

2009(12th of 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.


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.


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.



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.


2013: President Obama has narrowed the field for Chairman of the Federal Reserve to a trio of Members of the Tribe – Lawrence Summers, Janet Yellin and Donald L. Kohn


2013: Bank Hapoalim chief economist Leo Leiderman has turned down the nomination for becoming the next Bank of Israel governor, Israel Radio reported this afternoon.


2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to continue with its program of Coen Brothers films.


2014: The traditional minyan at Temple Judah is scheduled to honor the Righteous Gentiles on Raoul Wallenberg Shabbat while mourning the deaths of the IDF who have given their lives to prevent another Holocaust.


2014:St. Sgt. Maj. (res.) Omri (full name withheld for security reasons), from the Duvdevan Unit, who jumped on a fellow soldier after a grenade was thrown at the unit in Gaza today protecting him with his body.


2014: “After 16 days of a ground incursion inside the Gaza Strip, the IDF started moving troops out of urban areas to the border area today, amid military estimates that the mission to destroy the 31 known terror tunnels will be completed within 24 hours.” (As reported by Roi Kais)


2014: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to host its first movie night with a showing of “Noah” preceded by Havdalah services.


2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to “Family Day at the Museum” complete with a visit from the ice cream truck.


2015: Marisa Scheinfeld whose photographs are on display in “Exhibits from the Borscht Belt” is scheduled to deliver a talk at Yiddish Book Center’s Brechner Gallery.


2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Brush Back by Sara Paretsky.


2015: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a screening of “The Age of Love” this afternoon.


2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a public memorial tour.


2015: “Richard Avedon: Family Affairs” is scheduled to close today at the National Museum of Jewish History.


 


 

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

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August 3 



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.”


1108: Coronation of Louis VI during whose reign the monarch gradually ceded control of the Jews and the revenue they represented from the King to the Church.


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 Spain right 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 Spain under orders of expulsion from the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand.


1493: Property confiscated from Jews and Conversos was used to finance the construction of the monastery of Santo Tomás de Ávila, which was completed today



1603: Tamar Barocas and twenty five year old Fra Diogo da Assungao, a Franciscan friar who became attracted to Judaism were burnt at the stake by the Inquisition at Lisbon.


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. 


1803: Birthdate of British architect Joseph Paxton who designed Mentmore Towers, the country home of Baron Mayer de Rothschild which “was the first of what was to become a virtual Rothschild enclave in the Vale of Aylesbury, as later, other members of the family built houses at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott, Aston Clinton, Waddesdon and Halton.”


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.


1823: Birthdate of German painter Gustav Richter, the husband of Cornelle Meyerbeer and the son-in-law of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.


1829: In the Cape Colony, Sir Anthony Oliphant and his wife Maria gave birth to Laurence Oliphant who  supported the building of a railway between Jaffa and Jerusalem, who starting in 1879 began working to “settle large number of Jews” especially those from Eastern Europe in Palestine and who himself lived for a time “in the Germany colony in Haifa.”


1830(14th of Av, 5590): Austrian Rabbi Joseph Moses Spiro, the son of Rabbi Abraham Moses whose works included Mesillah le-Elohenupassed away today at Kanitz, Moravia.


1836: In Rochester, NY, Alvah Strong and his wife gave birth to August Hopkins Strong, a Baptist minister and theologian whose Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God “presented another explanation of the alleged inaccuracies in the Hebrew Bible” citing the use of idiom and metaphor by the author of the holy text which means that he was not part of those who believed in the concept of Biblical inerrancy which was so popular at the time.


1836(20th of Av, 5596): Fifty-six year old “Dutch Jurist” Carel Asser, the son of Moses Salomon Asser and husband of Rose Levin who worked for the full emancipation of the Jewish people despite the opposition of Daniel Cohen d'Azevedo, rabbi of the Portuguese, as well as by Jacob Moses b. Saul Löwenstamm, rabbi of the Ashkenazim, who were afraid that political emancipation would result in the disintegration of Judaism


1839(23rd of Av, 5599): Seventy-four year old German novelist Dorothea von Schlegel, the oldest daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, passed away today.


1842: Birthdate of Bertha Spiegelberg, the native of Borgholz, Germany who was the wife of Levi Spiegelberg and the mother of New York City native Eugene E. Sperry.


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.



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.



1864(1stof Av, 5624): Rosh Chodesh Av



1870: The Toledo (Ohio) Balde reported that Benenet Scop has been hung in Huron Count, Ohio after having been convicted of murder Jacob Goodman, a Jewish peddler for who he had been working.  The motive appeared to be robbery.



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.



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.



1876: Birthdate of Joseph W. Pincus, the Russian born agricultural expert who worked with Jewish farmers in the United States who was the author of “The Jewish Farmers’ Best Friend.”
http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/pageview/1132602



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.
http://www.musicassociatesofamerica.com/madamina/1981/gruenberg.html



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: The Young People’s Association of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn required the use of two barges for their excursion today to Washington Park on the Hudson River.



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.



1891(28th of Tammuz, 5651): Leopold Dukes, the Hungarian born student of Jewish literature who spent :20 years in England doing research that enable him “to completed the work of Leopold Zunz” the founder of what some call modern “Jewish Studies” or “Judaic Studies.”



1891: Birthdate of Nathan “Kid Dropper” Kaplan a petty gangster and labor racketeer in New York.



1893: In Warsaw, a Hebrew newspaper Ha’Tzfira printed a story describing “a festive dinner held in a Warsaw suburb” in honor of Rabbi Abraham Eliyahu Harkavi.(As reported by Vered Guttman)



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: Despite attempts to silence him Aaron Drucker spoke out at a meeting in the Church of the Sea and Land being held to convert Jews to Christianity declaring that such meetings should not be held because they were “an outrage to humanity and “if a man is born a Jew of true Jewish parents he is always a Jew and nothing change him!”



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



1897: According to today’s Times of London, Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University said [The Cairo Genizah] “is a battle field of books, and the literary productions of many centuries had their share in the battle.... Some of the belligerents have perished outright, and are literally ground to dust in the terrible struggle for space, whilst others...are squeezed into big, unshapely lumps."



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.”



1902: Birthdate of Regina Jonas who when she was ordained by Rabbi Max Dienemann in 1935 became the first female rabbi in Jewish history.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/regina-depicts-worlds-first-woman-rabbi-killed-in-holocaust/



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



1913: Birthdate of Shmuel Tolchinsky, the native of shtetl near Odessa who gained fame Mel Tolkin the head writer of  Your Show of Shows where he helped to launch the careers of such greats as “Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart.



1914: During WWI, Germany declares war against France, while Turkey declares 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: Congressman Mayer London was reported today to be the chairman of the newly formed People’s Relief Committee which is committed to raise funds to alleviate the suffering of the Jews in the European war zone.


1915: “Russian Allurements” published today described the importance of Riga the port city that was home to “the first Jewish synagogue known in Europe” to the Czar’s war effort.


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, near the Egyptian town of Romani the Central Powers launched their last offensive to seize the Suez Canal in what would become known as the Battle of Romani.


1917: The “Red Glove” a “new anti-Jewish league formed at Simferopol” “incited the populace to participate in pogroms.”


1917: At Odessa, today, the “Jews were accused of molesting Christians going to church and desecrating churches.
1917: In Warsaw the dean of the Polytechnic Institute declares “that Jews are merely guests in Poland and their use of Yiddish evidence of the opposition to Polish nationalism.”


1917: In Warsaw “anti-Semites openly agitate for a boycott” against the Jews, urge the closing of all business on Sundays” and “attacked” priests who trade with Jews.


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 States and Latin America.


1918: Sixteen year old Yitak Jacov a member of the British Jewish Legion 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers serving in Palestine wrote in his diary “Now that I placed my life at risk, it is becoming so interesting that I feel that everything must be written down, so that later either I – if I survive – or my friends can re-live these days.”


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. Discovering her gift for design while attending Girl's Commercial High School in Brooklyn, she found work in the garment industry directly out of high school. Within a year, she was working at Varden Petites where she redesigned the firm's line, introducing a new style of ready-to-wear and sophisticated clothing for young (thin) women that would come to be known as Junior Miss. In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein and became principal designer of Junior Sophisticates, a new company established by her husband. In this role, Anne Klein transformed the type of clothing available for petite women like herself. Junior Sophisticates offered elegant styles to shorter women who previously had to make due with more child-like attire. In addition, Klein was the first designer to follow the example of French designer Coco Chanel, adapting men's clothes (suites, jackets, shirts) for women's use. Klein continued to innovate. During the 1950s, she introduced clothing that was sold as "separates," offering women a range of jackets, blouses, skirts, and slacks that could be bought together and then assembled into many different outfits. When the Klein marriage ended in 1960, so did her connection with Junior Sophisticates. In 1963, she remarried and established her own design studio. She specialized in redesigning the failing clothing lines of other companies. In 1968, Anne Klein and Company opened with Klein as director and half-owner. By the early 1970s, more than 800 American department stores and dress shops carried her creations.  Klein won numerous fashion awards. In 1973, she was the only woman invited to participate in a fashion show consisting of five American and five French prominent designers, intended to raise money for renovations at Versailles. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York restaged the American component of this show in 1993. Since the designer's death in 1974, the Anne Klein label has remained a strong presence in retail stores around the world.


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 Baltimore native who 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 Coe College 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. 

1932: “Doctor X,” a horror film directed by Michael Curtiz was released today in the United States by First National Pictures through Warner Bros.


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 Nations decided 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 Palestine into 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 meantime, 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.


1937: “In Stepney in the East End of London,” “Pauline (née Hyman), a housewife, and Alfred Berks, a tailor” gave birth to Leslie Steven Berks who gained fame as English playwright and actor Steven Berkoff.


1940: The government at Vichy France 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(3rd of Av, 5703): At Bedzin, a man named Baruch tried to challenge Nazi deportation orders and was shot for his effort. 


1943: “The last major deportation of residents from the Bedzin Ghetto” which sparked an uprising by members of the ZOB ended today.


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: At the Haidari Concentration Camp, having stolen all of the glass from the Jews of Rhodes and extracted the gold from their teeth, the Germans loaded them in animal wagons, sealed the doors and shipped them to Auschwitz.


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


1947: Three British ships - Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival – arrived in Marseilles carrying the Jewish immigrants from the SS Exodus whom the French said would only be allowed to leave the vessels if their departure were voluntary and not coerced by the British.


1948(27th of Tammuz, 5708): Sixty year old Beatrice Venetia Stanley Montagu who chose Edwin Samuel Montagu over Prime Minister Asquith and converted to Judaism to marry the Liberal MP – a marriage that was cut short by his death and was unfulfilling for her while it lasted.


1948(27th of Tammuz, 5708): Emanuel Rothstein died today while flying his Auster for the IAF.


1948(27th of Tammuz, 5708): Zahara Levitov died today while flying his Auster for the IAF.


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.


1950: “A Lady Without Passport” a film noir starring Hedy Lamar, featuring Steve Hill with a score by David Raskin was released in the United States today by MGM.


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 Suez this 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.


1963: Philip L. Graham, the chief executive officer of the Washington Post and the husband of Katherine Graham passed away today. (Graham was not Jewish, but his wife came from a Jewish family that certainly has had an impact on the world of the media in the second half of the 20th century.)

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

1966: “This Property Condemned” a tragic film set in the Deep South directed by Sydney Pollack and produced by John Housman who was the son an Alsatian Jew was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.


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.


1976: The 1976 Summer Paralympics opened in Toronto where Hagai Zamir would win a medal for volleyball.


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 US was not disclosing its back-door intelligence which indicated that the real intentions of the Arab desire to destroy Israel were still there.  


1978: Ezzedine Kalak, chief of the PLO's Paris bureau, and his deputy Hamad Adnan, were killed at their offices in the Arab League building. Three other members of the Arab League and PLO staff were wounded.


1980: 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.”


1981(3rd of Av, 5741): Seventy-year old chess champion Wolfgang Heidenfeld the father of chess champion Mark Heidenfeld, passed away today.

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


1992: Los Angeles premiere of the “Unforgiven” a dark western featuring Saul Rubinek as W. W. Beauchamp.


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 Vermont summer 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 Camp Wonderland, part of the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack that 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: Janet Yellin completed her service as Chair of “President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advsioers.”


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, CO comes 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. A barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel today, killing at least eight Israelis. Four people were killed when a rocket crashed directly into a house near the northern town of Ma'alot, and another four were killed when a rocket exploded near their vehicle in Acre. Four people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate wounds in rocket strikes in Acre, Hurfeish and Kiryat Shmona. Another 31 people were also lightly wounded in the attacks. Shimon Zaribi, 44, and Albert ben Abu, 41, both of Acre, were killed in the rocket attack on their hometown. Sinati Sinati, Amir Naeem and Mohammed Fouad, all 17-year-old residents of the village of Tarshiha, were killed in the attack near Ma'alot.


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. Harari was killed by sniper fire on his observation post while he was overseeing a tree pruning operation along the border fence with Lebanon. His father, Yaakov Harari, told Channel 2 news that Dov was about to retire from reserve duty, but voluntarily asked to continue.


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 found 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

2012: Fifty-nine year old award winning theatre and television producer Joan Stein passed away today.

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: Hamas freed a Salafi leader of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror group, it was reported today.(As reported by Ron Friedman and Michal Shmulovich)


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: A revival performance of Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman opened at the Dentsu-Shiki Theatre in Tokyo.


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


2013(27thof Av, 5773): Eighty-six year old journalist Yehuda Lev the WW II veteran who helped to smuggle Jews into Palestine passed away today.


2013: Israeli swimmers, Guy Barnea and Jonathan Koplover, finished first and fourth respectively qualifying to swim in the finals at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain.


2013: “Betrayed by Braun, Brewers Owner Twists in an Ill Wind” published today described the impact Ryan Braum, “The Hebrew Hammer” has had on fans, friends et al when “he was exposed as serial liar” whose greatness may rest not on his skill but on his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reaganby Rick Perlstein, The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman, J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artistby Thomas Beller, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton and Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold Warby Ken Adelman as well as an interview with Amy Bloom.


2014: The Coen Brother’s double feature is scheduled to be shown for the last time at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.


2014 The IDF spokesman announced early this morning, Israeli time that at 11:25 p.m. yesterday, August 2, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Brigadier Gen. Rafi Peretz, declared the death of IDF officer Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in the Gaza Strip on August 1, 2014. (In life he was loved and admired. He was swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.)  


2014: “Israeli singer David Broza was at the Yehud military cemetery today to sing his song "Mitahat LaShamayim" ("Under the Sky"), the song that was to be Captain Omri Tal and his girlfriend Liat Zimerman's wedding song. Instead, Broza's words floated through the air of the cemetery, over Omri's grave.”


2014: “Some 12,000 people turned out in Johannesburg, South Africa at a rally in solidarity with Israel.”


2014: “Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel on Sunday of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned it would "drown in the blood it sheds”


2015: In Aspen, CO, Ambassador Dennis Ross is scheduled to speak at the Chabad Jewish Community Center.


2015: Starting today, “the Jewish Museum of Maryland in conjunction with the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Maryland State Department of Education, is scheduled to host a three day workshop on Holocaust education that focuses on giving educators the tools to help their students understand the Holocaust.”


 


 


 


 


 


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

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August 4



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 Zohar appeared. 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.


1769: Herz Wesel Gumperz and Abraham Wesel Gumperz gave birth Ruben Samuel Gumperz the husband of Roeschen Gumperz


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.


1785: Joseph de Palacios a Sephardic Jew living in Charleston, SC, married Mrs. Nathan Harris, a widow from the Island of St. Eustatius.


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."


1817: Birthdate of Max Ring, the native of Silesia who gained fame as a German poet, author and playwright.


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 “monopoly 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 Jewish 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 organize a congregation made up of members from these two former French provinces.


1878: “Ill-Treating A Faithful Wife” published today described eventful life of Mrs. Josephine Lewinski who is seeking a divorce from Phillip Lewinski “one of the members of the notorious Lowery gang of gang of counterfeiters” who were arrested in Brooklyn.


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 include “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.


1884: Birthdate of Benjamin Antin, the Russian born American lawyer who served in the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate.


1885: It was reported today the Cassell & Co will soon be published a new novel – As It Was Written: A Jewish Musician’s Story by 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: Rabbi Tabenahus preached his first sermon at the Temple Gates of Hope based on the teachings of Isaiah, “And then thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great peace shall come to thy children.”


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 21st century.)


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(29th of Tammuz, 5651): Seventy-three year old Salvatore de Benedetti, the Italian scholar who took advantage of the news granted to the Jewish people under Victor Emmanuel to pursue an academic career that included becoming a Professor of Hebrew at the University of Pisa where he wrote Vita e Morte di Moses, a compilation of “the legends concerning the great Hebrew legislator.”


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: Attorney Meyer J. Stein filed a suit in replevin in Kings County on behalf of a client who had a dispute over a hotel bill from a stay at the Hotel Lowry owned by J.L. Lowery which had sign saying “No Jews” posted.


1895: Aaron Drucker was fined five dollars in the Essex Market Court today  after the Magistrate “told him he had acted wrongly” when he interrupted the services Church of Sea and Land denouncing them as a vehicle for converting Jews to Christianity.


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.


1896: Rehearsals began today at the Olympia Theatre for Oscar Mammerstein’s “new romantic comic opera ‘Santa Maria.’”


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(10th of Av, 5671): Seventy year old Heinemann Vogelstein a leader of the Reform Movement who served as the rabbi in Pilsen and then Szczein and expressed his opposition to Zionism in a pamphlet entitled “Zionism, A Threat to the Prosperous Development of Judaism” passed away today in St. Moritz.


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 TCM or 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 21stcentury, 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.”


1915: It was reported today that among the ten thousand prisoners being held by the Germans in a camp “near the university town of Giesen in Upper House includes “Russian Jews.”


1916: During the Battle of Romani, the last attempt by the Central Powers to cross the Suez, the Anzac Mounted Division engaged the German Pasha I formation and the Ottoman 3rd Infantry Division slowing their advance and giving other units of the British Army to mount a defense.


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: In the Bronx, David Winick, a house painter and his wife the former Sadie Brussel gave birth to “Charles Winick a professor of anthropology and sociology who wrote a book bemoaning the blurring of lines between the sexes and who challenged prevailing views about the dangers of drug abuse.”

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


1928: “Warming Up,” a baseball movie produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky based on a story by Sam Mintz was released today by Paramount Pictures.


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 appoints 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: Birthdate of Judith Smith Kaye, the first woman to serve as Chief Judge of New York, “the State Judiciary’s highest office.”


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.


1940: Hugo Gutmann (aka Henry G. Grant) who during WW I served as an officer in a regiment that included Adolf Hitler and his family reached Lisbon and safety after having fled from Brussels across France ahead of the advancing Nazi forces.


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. 


1944: Victor Kugler, one of the people who helped to hide Anne Frank was arrested by Karl Silberbauer and taken to Gestapo headquarters where he was interrogated and ten transferred “to a prison for Jews and 'political prisoners' awaiting deportation on the Amstelveenseweg.”


1945(25th of Av, 5705): Fifty-five year old Eugene E. Sperry, a native of New York and the son of Levi and Bertha Spiegelberg passed away today in Deal, N.J.


1945: In Haifa Miriam and Shmuel gave birth to Benjamin Zeev Kol-Kari who lost his life when the Dakar, an Israeli submarine sank with all hands on board.


1945: British movie producer Sydney Bernstein received a memo from the British Foreign Office which put an end to the documentary he was making “German Concentration Camps Factual Survey” although the footage he had gathered was used in the war crime trials at Nuremberg.


1945: Birthdate of actor and comedian Richard Belzer 


1948: “Regulations of the activities of the recognized religions, including Judaism, were set down in the today’s order of the presidium of the Grand National Assembly (which also served as the presidency of the state)


1950: Sixty-four year old Norihiro Yasue “an Imperial Japanese Army colonel who played a crucial role in the so-called Fugu Plan, in which Jews were rescued from Europe and brought to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II” passed away today in Soviet labor camp.

1950: In Rehovot, Daniel and Tzipora Gov gave birth to Israeli entertainer Gidi Gov who “was married to playwright Anat Gov with whom he has three children.”


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.


1956: “The Indian Fighter” starring Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau with a script by Ben Hecht and music by Franz Waxman was released in the United States today by United Artists.


1958: In Gabès, Tunisia, Shimon Shalom gave birth to Silvan Shalom, who came to Israel a year later where his political career has included in several ministerial positions including Vice Prime Minister.


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.


1972: “Alfredo, Alfredo” an Italian language comedy starring Dustin Hoffman was released today in Italy.


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 Hesselberg in 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.

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.


1992: Mordechai Gur began serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.


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


1994: Playwright Arthur Miller’s “Broken Glass” was performed for the first time in Great Britain at “the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre.”


1994(27thof 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.


1994: Actor Richard Lewis has been sober from this date forward.


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): Mordechai Yehuda Friedman, 24, of Ramat Beit Shemesh, Sari Goldstein, 21, of Karmiel, Maysoun Amin Hassan, 19, of Sajur, Marlene Miriam Menahem, 22, of moshav Safsufa, Sgt.-Maj. Roni Ghanem, 28, of Maghar, Sgt. Yifat Gavrieli, 19, of Mitzpe Adi, Sgt. Omri Goldin, 20, of Mitzpe Aviv, Adelina Kononen, 37, of the Philippines and Rebecca Roga, 40, of the Philippines were killed and 38 others were injured during a suicide bombing aboard Egged Bus 361 at the Meron Junction for which Hamas took credit.


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 BCEbuilding 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: “Three rockets fired by Hezbollah hit Hadera.”


2006: Over 200 rockets were fired at northern Israel, killing three people.


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 inured 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) while Sports 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 97th anniversary 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."


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 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. As a young adult, Feodor Mikhailichenko risked his life to feed, clothe and protect the young Lolek Lau, who was 10 years his junior, in the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.


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: Actress Roseanne Barr won the 2012 presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party.


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 100thanniversary 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 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.


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(28thof Av, 5773): Centenarian Yitzhak Berman, Israeli political leader passed away today.

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: Generall Martin Dempsy, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrives in Israel as the guest of Major General Benny Gantz, Israel’s Chief of Staff who will host meeting meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon.


2013: Igal Brightman, the chairman and CEO of the major local accounting firm of Deloitte Brightman who died in light plane crash is scheduled to be buried today in Tel Aviv.


2013: At Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa 12,000 youngsters joined President Shimon Peres, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Education Minister Shai Piron enjoyed an evening with soccer superstran Lionel Messi and his Barcelona Football Club.


2013: American journalist Steven Sotloff was kidnapped by terrorists near Aleppo.


2014: “Aftermath Poland” is scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.


2014(8thof Av, 5774): “Rabbi Abraham Wallis, a 29-year-old resident of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, was killed in what has been described as  terrorist attack earlier today while working at a construction site for Atra Kadisha, an organization which assures graves are not disturbed during building.”  (In life he was loved and admired. He was swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.)  


2014(8thof Av, 5774): Eighty-six year old physician and Holocaust survivor Emanuel Emek Tanay lost his battle with prostate cancer today.

2014: “An Israeli man was shot in the stomach at the entrance to the Har Hatzofim (Mount Scopus) tunnel in Jerusalem, in what looks to be the capital's second terror attack in a matter of hours.” (As reported by Gil Ronen)2014: President Barack Obama signed a bill today granting an additional $225 million in US taxpayer dollars for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

2014(8thof Av): In the evening fast of Tisha B’av begins


2015: Steve Gimbel, author of Einstein: His Space and Times” is scheduled to speak at the Washington DC JCC as part of its Brilliant Minds, Great Thinkers program.


2015: YIVO and the Yiddish League are scheduled to present the New York Premiere of “Chava Rosenfarb: That Bubble of Being”

 


 


 

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

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August 5 


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)


1769: Herz Wesel Gumperz and Abraham Wesel Gumperz gave birth Ruben Samuel Gumperz the husband of Roeschen Gumperz


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.


1820: In Frankfurt, Adelheid (née Herz) and Carl Mayer von Rothschild gave birth to Mayer Carol Freiherr von Rothschild who became the first Jewish member of the House of Lords of Prussia.


1842(29th of Av, 5602): Fifty-three year old German educator and theologian Michael Creizenach, author of the 4 volume work “Shulḥan 'Aruk, oder Encyklopädische Darstellung des Mosaischen Gesetzes," passed away today.


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.


1848: Birthdate of Adolph M. Radin, the Polish born, German-trained American rabbi who has served congregations in Elmira and New York City including the Congregation Gates of Hope and the People’s Synagogue.


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 overhead 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:It was reported today 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, Heraldand 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 Montefiore 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.


1865(13th of Av, 5625): Shabbat Nachamu


1865(13th of Ave, 5625): Thirty-one year old author Naphtali Keller whose works include to stores - "Sullam ha-Haẓlaḥah" and "Debek lo Tob", a tale of Galician Jewish life passed away today.


1872: In Baltimore, MD, Moses and Jane (Alborn) Friedenwald gave birth to Racie Friedenwald who became Racie Adler which she married Cyrus Adler.

1873: “ From A Traveler” published today provides the views of an American merchant in Switzerland on the treatment of religious groups in Europe as opposed to the United States concluding that “in the end tolerated must be secured to all.  I am led to this course of reflection from observing the wrong done the Jews than those inflicted on dissenting Christians.  If the great Rothschild does not devote his accumulated wealth to the assertion and maintenance of the rights of his people then he will deserve the execration of mankind.  That family, with a few others, have it within their power to say to the Governments of southern and eastern Europe ‘this far and no father.’”  (Editor’s note – This view of the all -powerful Jewish families is one of those myths that went up in smoke with the Shoah.)


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.”


1877: Birthdate of Hermann Ludwig Mass, a Protestant minister from Badem and one of the Righteous Among the Nations who attended the Six Zionists Congress and was imprisoned by the Nazis for helping Jews to escape from Europe.


1878: It was reported today 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.


1881: The views of “M. de Bacourt, Talleyrand’s friend, secretary and literary executor” on Americans published today included the following description of the New England Yankee whom others saw as a flinty Protestant as being “the type of the Englishman combined with the subtlety and cleverness of the Jews.  He is a mixture of British pride, coldness and stiffness with Hebrew cunning.” (Editor’s note – One can only imagine how those New Englanders who put stumbling blocks in front of the Jews would have felt about this description.)


 1881: Based on information that first appeared in the London Standard, “Beaconsfield’s Manuscripts” published today descried the high prices that these works by Benjamin Disraeli brought at auction citing in particular the original copies of the novels The Young Duke and Contarini Flemingwhich were written in his own hand.


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.


1888: “Hearing the New Rabbi” published today described the views of the recently elected spiritual leader of The Temple of Gates of Hope on the use of the pulpit and “the duties of the one who occupies it” which included the idea that just ‘as the statue in our harbor proclaims light and peace to all nations os the pulpit must proclaim light and peace to all mankind.” (Temple of Gates of Prayer was the forerunner of today’s Park Avenue Synagogue)


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(8th of Av, 5649): Erev Tish’a B’Av


1889(8th of 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)


1889: Seventy-eight year old author and German “feminist” Fanny Lewald who converted to Christianity at the age of 17 passed away today.

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.


1893: “Rabbi Cohen Has The Records” published today described the dismissal of Rabbi Louis Cohen by the congregation at 44 Orchard Street led by President Abraham Finberg and Secretary Samuel Finkelstein and the problems they have encountered in obtaining the congregation’s records from the former rabbi.


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.


1895: “The Aldemanic Law Committee met this afternoon and decide to recommend that the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum Society be allowed to sell the property from 76thto 77th Street, Third to Lexington Avenue.”


1895: It was reported today that Meyer J. Stein, a lawyer in New York has expressed his outrage along with that of several of his co-religionist over the letterhead of the Hotel Lowry that says in red ink “3$ per day. No Jews.”


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(17th of 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(29th of 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: In Ashton, England, UK Charles Rothschild and Rozsika Edle Rothschild (née von Wertheimstein) gave birth to “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.’


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/


1911: Max von Oppenheim and a team of 5 archaeologist began “a digging campaign” at Tell-Halaf.


1915: Three thousand mostly young Jewish workingmen and workingwomen attended a mass meeting tonight in Cooper Union “for the purpose of takings steps toward the organization of a Jewish congress” which would to “ameliorate the conditions of Jews all over the world.”


1915: It was reported today that among the ten thousand prisoners being held by the Germans in a camp “near the university town of Giesen in Upper House includes “Russian Jews.”


1916: “The Day’s New Editors” published today described the change in leadership at the “New York national Jewish daily newspaper which is now under the control of a board of three Jewish scholars, Professor Isaac Hurowitz, William Edlin and Dr. A. Coralnick.


1916: “Movie Ad Men In Association” published today described the first meeting of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers whose Executive Counsel includes Jesse Lasky, Paul Gulick and Harry Reichenbach.


1916:  Having been able to concentrate 50,000 troops at Romani in response the attack by the Germans and Turks, the British Imperial forces went on the offensive putting an end to the last attempt by the Central Powers to take the Suez Canal and opening the way for the British to begin to seriously considera campaign that liberate Palestine and take them all the way to Damascus by war’s end.


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.


1918(27thof Av, 5678): Seventy eight year old Moritz Guedemann, the chief rabbi of Vienna passed away today.

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)


1925 Birthdate of Richard Heffner who conducted some two dozen interviews with Elie Wiesel for his public television productions "The Open Mind" and "Dialogues: A Series of Conversations on the Crucial Issues of Our Times” which were published as Conversations with Elie Wiesel

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: “The Big Brain” based on story by Sy Bartlett who also wrote the script was distributed today in the United States by R.K.O. Pictures


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.


1938: “Algiers’ produced by Walter Wagner (born Walter Feuchtwanger) and starring Hedy Lamar was released in the United States today by United Artists.


1938: “The Crowd Roars” produced by Sam Zimbalist and featuring Lionel Stander as "Happy" Lane was released in the United States today by Loew’s, Inc


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


1941(12th of Av, 5701): Sixty-five year old  Yaakov Ben Zion Mendelson, the rabbi of the Bergen Street Shul  and a leading member of the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America and Canada passed away today.


 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: “Tales of Manhattan” an “American anthology film” produced by Sam Spiegel, with music by Sol Kaplan, with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and co-starring Edward G. Robinson was released in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.


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.  


1944: The Mekfure carrying 394 Romanian Jews seeking refuge in Palestine sank today


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.


1950: The Saturday Review published “The Squaw Man Rides Again,” Robert Gessner’s reviews of the western film “The Broken Arrow”


1953: Premiere of “From Here to Eternity” for which Fred Zinnemann won an Oscar as Best Director.


1955: The task of marking the border between Israel and Egypt “in the Nitzana/Auja vicinity” was completed today.


1957(8th of Av, 5717): 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.


1964: David Hurst appeared in the role of “Paedagogus” when “Electra” opened at the Delacorte Theatre during the New York Shakespeare Festival.


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: After more than 4 years, the 18th government under Prime Minister Menachem Begin came to an end.


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


1985(18th of Av, 5745): Eighty-seven year old Arnold “Arnie” Horween who was the first Jewish captain of the Harvard football team and then went on to a career in the NFL and coaching passed away today.

1987: Mathew Broderick was in a car accident in Northern Ireland in which he was seriously injured and the passenger in the other was killed for which he was eventually found guilty of “careless driving and fined $175.


1993: A soldier was kidnapped and killed north of Jerusalem


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.


1996: “Shylock” a one act play that “focuses on a Jewish actor named Jon Davies, who is featured as Shylock in a production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice” opened at Bard on the Beach in Canada today.


1998(13th of Av, 5758): Harel Bin-Nun, 18, and Shlomo Liebman, 24, were shot and killed in an ambush by terrorists while on patrol at the Yizhar settlement in Samaria. (Jewish Virtual Library)


1998: Two soldiers were killed during an ambush at Yizhar.


1999: Matan Vilnai succeeded Ehud Barak as Minister of Culture and Sport


1999: Yithak Vaknin began serving as Deputy Minister of Communications.


1999: Efraim Sneh began serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.


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


2001: U.S. Premiere of “Wild Iris” co-starring Emile Hirsch.


2001: “Israeli helicopters fire a pair of laser-guided rockets at a carrying the Hamas terrorist Amer Hassan Madiri


2001: For the first time TNT broadcast the made-for-television film “James Dean” written by Israel Horovitz and directed by Mark Rydell.


2001(16th of Av, 5761):Tehiya Bloomberg, 40, of Karnei Shomron, mother of five and 5 months pregnant, was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the family vehicle between Alfei Menashe and Karnei Shomron. Three people were seriously wounded, including her husband, Shimon, and daughter, Tzippi, 14.


2002: At the Umm al-Fahm junction a terrorists set off a bomb killing himself and wounding his Israeli-Arab taxi driver.


2002: “A heavily armed Palestinian in a wet suit was shot and killed by Israeli police as he swam ashore near an Israeli settlement.”


2005: In Los Angeles, actress Rena Sofer, the daughter of Rabbi Martin Sofer and Sanford Bookstaver gave birth to their first child Avalon Leone.


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(21st of Av, 5767): Eighty-nine year old Amos Manor, the survivor of Auschwitz who was Director of Shin Bet for ten years passed away today.

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. (Editor’s note: With an active Jewish community like this, it does not seem so odd that the two leading contender for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota this fall are both Jewish despite the relatively small number of Jews living in the land of a thousand lakes.



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.

2009:The Times of London reported 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, giving President Obama his second appointment to the high court in a year, and a political victory as the Senate neared the end of its business for the summer.



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: Roseanne Barr appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and announced her candidacy for president in the 2012 presidential election, running on the "Green Tea Party" ticket



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 Sunday night, hours after an IAF airstrike killed a terrorist in Rafah. Authorities urged residents to remain in fortified shelters and lock their doors.



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



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.2013: Jeff Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post from the family of Katherine Graham, the daughter of Eugene Isaac Meyer the Los Angeles born Jew who bought the bankrupt paper in 1933.


2013: A massive operation to inoculate some 150,000 children in the south of the country against polio began this morning as part of a Health Ministry effort to stamp out the virus before it can infect anyone. (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)


2014(9thof Av, 5774): Tisha B’Av


2014(9thof Av, 5774): Eighty-seven year old Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld, Nixon’s Surgeon-General passed away today.  (As reported by William Yardley)


2014: A 72 hour cease-fire is scheduled to begin today at 8 a.m. local time


2014: This evening, The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host an Online Resource User-Testing Focus Group which is part of the growing interest in the digitization of historical collections.


2014 Israeli security forces announced the arrest of Hussam Kawasme, a native of Hebron thought to be the ringleader of the terror cell responsible for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in mid-June.” (As reported by Avi Issacharoff)


2014: The Israel Antiquities Authority announced today the discovery of “a hoard of coins from the fourth year of the Jewish Revolt against Rome — minted months before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE —“just outside of the Jewish capital city. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)


2014: “As the 72-hour truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding, Israel was preparing to send a delegation to Cairo to participate in negotiations. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)


2014: In Jerusalem,  a Palestinian stabbed a security guard “near the police station in Ma'aleh Adumim, close to Jerusalem”  making this third such attack in the last twenty four hours and comes on the same day that Moslem worshippers threw rocks and Molotov cocktails from the Temple Mount.
 
2014(9th of Av, 5774): Eighty-six year old physician and Holocaust survivor Emanuel Emek Tanay lost his battle with prostate cancer today

2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a screening of “Paper Moon.”


2015: In Baltimore, MD a three day workshop on Holocaust education that focuses on giving educators the tools to help their students understand the Holocaust sponsored by the Jewish Museum of Maryland in conjunction with the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Maryland State Department of Education is scheduled to come to an end.


2015: In Berlin, the 14th European Maccabi Games are scheduled to come to an end today.

 


 


 

This Day, August 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 6 



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(23rd of 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 Meron in Eretz Yisrael. This cave was also known as the cave of Rabbi Hillel and 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 Egypt died. 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 a charter which would have given them economic equality, passed away.


1492: Following the issuance of the order expelling the Jews from Spain, today, “Infante Henry ordered the Catalonian officials to transfer to him the property of the Jews expelled from Jaca.´ (Jewish Virtual Library)


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(17th of Av, 5484): Sixty-six year old 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.


1775: Birthdate of Irish reformer Daniel O’Connell known for fighting for Catholic Emancipation but who also supported the rights of Irish Jews and in 1846 insisted on the repeal of “De Judaismo” which “prescribed a special dress for Jewish. He claimed that Ireland was “the only country unsullied by any one act of persecution of the Jews.”


1789: Birthdate of Solomon Ludwig (Levy) Steinheim whose poems included Sinai and Obadjah Sohn Amos Lieder aus der Verbannung and whose contribution to philosophy is memorialized by the creation of The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg Germany


1799(5th of Av, 5559): Marcus Elieser Bloch the German physician who was one of the leading ichthyologists of the 18th century “whose collection of 1500 specimens is preserved at the Museum for Natural History at Humboldt University in Berlin passed away today.


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 Austria required 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: Bolivia gains 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 Cruz de 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(24th of 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 Times reported 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



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


1882: “Mohammed’s Success” published today includes in its description of the rise of Islam the reminder that “it must not be forgotten that the Arabs and Jews were kindred races, speaking kindred customs, practices and prejudices” and that many Jews, having been “driven out of their own land during successive epochs settled in Arabia.


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, has 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


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: As of today, the managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have $7,118.47 which can be used for their free summer excursions.


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 Executive Board of the Jewish Alliance of America met in Philadelphia, PA, this evening where they adopted “an excellent plan” for meeting the needs of the “friendless and often penniless” Jewish immigrants arriving in the United States.


1891: “The grand annual afternoon and evening picnic of the Daughters of Israel Benefit Society” most of whose members are from Congregation Beth Israel “took place at Bay View Park” today.


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.


1895: In the U.K., Alfred Mond the son of chemist Ludwig Mond and his wife Violet gave birth to Lady Eva Violet Mond Isaacs, née Melchett, Marchioness of Reading who served “as Vice President of the World Jewish Congress and President of its British section” where she was a “vocal supporter of the Zionist cause.”


1896: “Died Too Far Uptown” published today described a case being hearing in New York’s Fourth Civil District Court in which it will be decided if the member of a “downtown Hebrew benefit society” “should die above a certain street” in New York is still entitled to the benefits for which he has been paying dues.


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.


1898: Anti-Juif Marseillais et de la Région du Midi, a short lived anti-Semitic published appeared at Marseilles for the first time 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.


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.


1901(21st of Av, 5661): Thirty year old Hungarian poet and author Emil Makai passed away today.

1901: Birthdate of Arthur Flegenheimer, who gained fame as gangster Dutch Schultz who 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 Catholic Cemetery in the state of New York. 
 
1903: In Charleston, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Levy Cohen and Lena Berger.
 
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 met 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 aelection 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: Pincus Rutenberg, one of the leaders of the 1906 Russian Revolution who has been living in Italy was reported today to have been one of the speakers at the recent mass meeting at Cooper Union where the Jewish attendees called for the creation of an organization designed to ameliorate the suffering of their co-religionists around the world.


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: Having stopped the attack of the Central Powers at Romani, the mounted ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand) forces begin driving the Turks back on Oghratina in fighting that would permanently secure the Suez and England bases in Egypt and the Sinai from which they would eventually launch their attack on Palestine and Syria.


1916:  Birthdate of historian Richard Hofstadter whose father was Jewish and whose mother was not.  Hofstadter was a professor at Columbia University 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 Carlsbad for the gathering took part in a memorial service to President Harding held here yesterday, to which all Americans were invited.


1924: In the Bronx Morris and Shirley Haber gave birth to Herbert Lawrence Haber “, the chief labor negotiator for the City of New York from 1966 to 1973.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)


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.


1926: Birthdate of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Norman Wexler.

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: The photo of two young black being lynched today provided the inspiration for the Abel Meerpol to compose “Strange Fruit, one of the most haunting jazz ballads of the past century.”

 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, “the Lebanese Sephardi Jewish Banker” and his wife Esther 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: “The Nazi regime expatriated” (banished) Manfred George the German-Jewish author who had fled his homeland in 1933 living in various countries as an exile until he finally came to the  United states where he the Aufbau “into an important journalistic voice for the Jewish exile community.”


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.


1946: In New York City Professor Irene Golden Dash and greeting card published Martin Dash gave birth to historian Deborah Dash Moore whose “GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation was “awarded the Saul Viener Prize for Best Book in American Jewish History.”

1946, Gabriel Charitos is elected First Mayor of a free Rhodes, after 600 years of occupation.


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. Israel announced 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 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: “Eighteen Soviet Georgian Jewish families” made an appeal to the United Nations calling “for their right to leave the Soviet Union.”


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 Max Kellerman, boxing commentator and sports talk radio host.


1976(10th of Av, 5736): Seventy-three year old Russian born American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky passed away today.

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.


1978: Eighty year old Pope Paul VI who visited Israel in 1964 and who is remembered for “the impetus he gave to a continuation of the Catholic Church’s rapprochement with Judaism initiated by the late Pope John, and his personal encouragement and support of the Guidelines for the implementation of Nostra Aetate No. 4, a document that holds promise of a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations” passed away today. Read more: http://www.jta.org/1978/08/08/archive/israeli-jewish-leaders-express-sorrow-at-the-death-of-pope-paul-vi#ixzz39Tm3K17x


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


1986: The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the pardon given to Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom, in connection with the “300 Bus Affair.”


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.


1991(26th of Av, 5751): Eighty-five year old violinist and viola player Max Rostal passed away today.

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.


1998: Robert D. Sack, “the son of Eugene Sack, who served as rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim for 35 years” began serving as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today.


1990: Funeral services are held at Temple Emanu-El for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt Moses 


1991(26th of Av, 5751): Eighty-five year old Austrian born British violinist whose pupils included Yifrah Neaman and Edith Peinemann and who” played in a piano trio with Heinz Schröter and Gaspar Cassadó passed away today.


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.


2001(17th of Av, 5761): Yitzhak Snir, 51, of Ra'anana, an Israeli diamond merchant, was shot dead in Amman, in the yard of the building where he kept a flat. His body was found the following morning


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): Ninety year old Esther Abraham, who was the first Miss India when she won the crown in 1947 and whose cinema fans knew her as Pramila passed away today.

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 Israel from the Ukraine in 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 Judean Desert, 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 took senior status 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 Cobb, GA rabbi 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.


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” 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. The biggest demonstration took place in Tel Aviv where more than 200,000 marched from Habima Square, near the tent city on Rothschild Boulevard, to the Kirya defense compound on Kaplan Street.



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 100th anniversary 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): Sixty-eight year old Pulitzer Prize winning composer Marvin Hamlisch passed away today. (As reported by Rob Hoerburger)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/arts/music/marvin-hamlisch-composer-dies-at-68.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.marvinhamlisch.com/



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


2013(30thof Av, 5773): Eighty six year old Jerry Wolman the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team and the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

2013: Zygi “Wilf, along with his brother and cousin, were found liable by a New Jersey court for breaking civil state racketeering laws and keeping separate accounting books to fleece former business partners of shared revenue” leading the judge award “the two business partner plaintiffs Ada Reichmann and Josef Halpern $84.5 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages and interest that the Wilfs must pay.:


2013: Beginning this morning, passengers traveling on Dan’s #5 bus line in Tel Aviv may suddenly encounter a much quieter and cleaner ride, aboard the country’s first fully electric – and vibrantly orange – bus. (As reported by Sharon Udasin)


2013: A poll released today “by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, found that 63 percent of Jews in Israel oppose a withdrawal to the 1967 lines with land swaps as part of any peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority, even if it meant Israel would hold onto the Etzion Bloc, directly south of Jerusalem; Ma’aleh Adumim, east of the capital; and Ariel in the central West Bank about 34 kilometers (21 miles) east of Tel Aviv. (As reported by Asher Zeiger)


2013: “Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov, the Chabad rabbi shot in a likely terrorist attack in southern Russia has been discharged from an Israeli hospital after recovering from surgery to repair his live. One or more terrorists shot him in the chest as he was getting out of his car near his home.” (As reported by Jewish Press)


2014: Annual commemoration of the role the Jews of Corfu played in defending the island against the Turks during the invasion in 1716.


2014: Dr. Diane M. Sharon is scheduled to begin teaching a four week course, “Biblical Temptress: Sacred or Scandalous?”


2014: Tomasz Jankowski a freelance genealogist specializing in Jewish genealogy and founder of Jewish Family Search is scheduled to present “Legal and Practical Aspects of Genealogical Research in Galicia (Poland and Ukraine)” at the Center for Jewish History.


2014: “Israel has reportedly agreed to extend the current ceasefire in Gaza Strip today as indirect Israel-Palestinian negotiations over extending a truce in Gaza got underway in Cairo. However, Hamas was quick to deny the reports, saying it will renew fire at Israel as soon as the current lull has ended.” (As reported by Roy Kais)


2014: According to a poll published today, more Israelis believe Hamas emerged victorious in Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip than think that Israel did” (As reported by Gil Hoffman)


2014: A school bus driving children home from three Jewish private schools in Sydney, Australia today was boarded by eight drunk men who proceeded to yell “Heil Hitler” and “Kill the Jews,” threatening to cut the children’s throats before disembarking (As reported by Stephanie Butnick)


2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host the Camp Omanoot Performance: "Fiddler on the Roof"


2015: Larry and Mindy are scheduled to sing “Simon & Garfunkel” tonight at Café Yaffo.


2015: The Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host “An Evening with Delta Spirit & Friends.”


 

This Day, August 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 7


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. 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


1839(27th of Av, 5599): Eighty-six year old Baron Bernhard von Eskeles the co-founder of banking-house of Arnstein and Eskeles  and the founder of the Austrian National Bank who was also a patron of the arts passed away today near Vienna.


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.


1840: Birthdate of Edward Henry Palmer who 1869 took part in the survey of the Palestine Exploration Fund’s survey of the Sinai and the author of The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys On Foot In The Wilderness of the Forty Years’ Wandering.


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.


1850: In Laupheim, Klara Adler and Elkan Henle gave birth to composer and cantor Mortiz Henle.


1862: "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: “A Scheme for Paying the National Debt” described a plan that “a leading Jewish banker in Hamburg” plans on presenting the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury that will employ the same system of loans and lotteries used in Europe to wipe out America’s debt.


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 Sixty-Fifth Regiment a twelve-hundred man cavalry unit consisting of ten companies from Philadelphia and two companies from Pittsburgh which was organized by Colonel Max Friedman which had a large number of Jews was mustered out of service today at Richmond after four years of service with the Union Army.


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: 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: A reprint ofan 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 was published today in the United States.  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: “Literary Notes” published today described the purchase by the British Museum of “The Judaeo-Persian manuscripts” recently acquired by Dr. 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.


1890: Talmudic scholar Shalom Albeck and his wife gave birth to Hanoch Albeck who would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University.


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.


1895: Henry Marks was elected to represent the constituency consisting of St. George, Tower Hamlets in the general elections that end today in the United Kingdom.


1895: “Gifts to Hebrew Charities” published today lists the bequests to Jewish organizations made by the late Eugene Kelly that total $9,500 which are to be distributed by Joseph Seligman.


1898(19th of Av, 5658): Sixty-one year old German Jewish Egyptologist who discovered the Ebers Papyrus, a collection of medical writing from approximately 1550 BCE.

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” began 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.


1915(27th of Av, 5675): Lt Leo Edwin Davis, Manchester Regiment, was killed at Gallipoli. Of him one of his soldiers wrote. 'I was his orderly and all the men used to say what a nice officer we had got. He was as cool a man as I ever saw and never troubled'


1915: As the Gallipoli Campaign in which the Zion Mule Corps distinguished itself continue to stall, the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade suffered severe losses during a failed attack at the Nek.


1915: According to reports reaching Berlin tonight from Warsaw, the Polish capital has fallen to Germans following an attack on August 5 that was led by a Prussian reserve division.


1916: During WW I, the Ottoman and Germany forces that had launched an attack intended to take the Suez from the British continued their retreat which tonight reached Bir el Abd, the supply base established three weeks ago.


1918: The Central Committee began publishing Der Emes (“The Truth”) today in Moscow.  It was the continuation of a short lived publication Di Varhayt 


1918: Following the Aisne-Marne Offensive which ended yesterday, future Medal of Honor Winner William Shemin began fighting along the Vesle River, near Bazoches.


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: On Long Island Marcus and Anna (Low) Kaufman gave birth to author Sue Kaufman whose works included Diary of a Mad Housewife.


1927: The Maccabee soccer team of Palestine defeated the Brooklyn Wand-erers by a score of 2 goals to 1 at Hawthorne Feld in Brooklyn today, thus completing their tour of the United States with an even break of five victories, five losses and one tie.


1929(1st of Av, 5689): Rosh Chodesh Av


1929(1st of Av, 5689): Victor Luitpold 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 streetcar accident.


1931: “Huckleberry Finn” a movie version of the Mark Twain novel directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Adolph Zuckor and Jesse Lasky was released in the United States today by Paramount Pictures.


1931: “The Miracle Woman” a movie based on “Bless You Sister” a play co-authored by Robert Riskin produced by Harry Cohn with a screenplay by Jo Swerling was released in the United States today by Columbia Pictures.


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: “Blonde Trouble” a romantic comedy based on the George S. Kaufman musical “June Moon” was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.


1937: “A Yiddish newspaper called Der Freihaits Kempferor Fighters for Liberty appeared at the Front” during the Spanish Civil War today.


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.


1938: Seventy-five year old Constantin Stanislavski, found of the Moscow Art Theatre whose relationship with “Yiddish actress Stella Adler” is the subject of “Stella in the Bois de Bologne” passed away today.

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.”

1941(24th of Av, 5702): Four hundred and two Jews were forced to watch the pubic hanging of two Jewish judges – Wolf Kieper and Moshe Kagan- in Zhitomir, Ukraine.

1942(24th of Av, 5702):Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish educator, children's author, and pediatrician known as Pan Doktor ("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor ("Old Doctor") who wrote under the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit died with the orphans he had been caring for at Treblinka

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.


1947: Fourteen members of the SS, 4 kapos and 1 civilian faced charges of war crimes “commited in the operation of the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp on the first day of the “Dora Trial.”


1948: Birthdate of Dan Halutz who served as Commander of the Israeli Air Force and Chief of Staff of the IDF.


1949: In New York the former Beverly Behrman and her husband Norman Bertram Coleman, Sr. gave birth to Norman Bertram “Norm” Coleman, Jr. the future U.S. Senator from Minnesota.


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.


1953: “The Band Wagon,” a musical comedy co-produced by Arthur Freed, written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Alan Jay Lerner and co-starring Oscar Levant was released today in the United States by MGM.


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.  


1958: Filming of “The Geisha Boy” starring Jerry Lewis came to an end.


1960: In New York Margaret "Meg" Duchovny and Amram "Ami" Ducovny a writer and publicist who worked for the American Jewish Committee gave birth today David Duchovny, award winning star of the X-Files.


1968: “With Six You Get Eggroll” a comedy directed by Howard Morris and produced by Martin Melcher was released today in the United States by National General Pictures.


1969: Birthdate of American journalist Scott Stossel author of My Age of Anxiety.

1969: One soldier was killed and 12 more injured in bus bombing near El Hamma.


1970: A cease fire was declared between Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon on the one hand and Israel on the other.  


1970: A cease-fire agreement was reached, forbidding either side from changing "the military status quo within zones extending 50 kilometers to the east and west of the cease-fire line." Minutes after the cease-fire, Egypt begins moving SAM batteries into the zone even though the agreement explicitly forbids new military installations and by October there are approximately one-hundred SAM sites in the zone.


1971(16th of Av, 5731): Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin, a Haredi (ultra-orthodox Jewish) politician passed away. “He had political roles in Poland and Israel. One of 37 people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence, he served in several Israeli cabinets, and was a longtime leader and Knesset minster for Agudath Israel and related parties. Born in Góra Kalwaria (known as Ger in Yiddish) in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), Levin studied at yeshivas, before being certified as a rabbi. A founder of Agudath Israel in Poland, he was elected to Warsaw Community Council as a representative of the organisation in 1924, and five years later was elected to the World Agudath Israel presidium. In 1937 he was elected as one of the two co-chairmen of the organisation's executive committee. Between 1937 and 1939 he was a member of the Sejm, the Polish parliament, representing Agudath Israel. In 1940 became the sole chairman. He was also involved in founding the Beis Yaakov school system for religious Jewish girls. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Levin helped refugees in Warsaw, before immigrating to Mandate Palestine in 1940, where he became head of the local branch of Agudath Israel. After signing the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948, Levin joined David Ben-Gurion's provisional government as Minister of Welfare. He was elected to the first Knesset in 1949 as a member of the United Religious Front, an alliance of the four major religious parties, and was reappointed to his ministerial role in the first and second governments. After retaining his seat in the 1951 elections Levin rejoined Ben-Gurion's government as Minister of Welfare, but resigned in 1952 in protest at the National Service Law for Women. He remained a member of the Knesset until his death in 1971, but not a member of the cabinet; in his remaining terms, he represented Religious Torah Front -- an alliance of Agudath Israel and its laborer's branch Poalei Agudath Israel.”


1972: Sandy Koufax is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York


1974: Premiere of “California Split” starring George Segal and Elliott Gould.


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 and featuring Robert Rosen as “Henry.”


1978: “Israeli, Jewish Leaders Express Sorrow at the Death of Pope Paul VI” published today described the saddened reaction of everybody from Yitzhak Navon to Menachem Began to Rabbi Shlomo Goren to the death of the pontiff of whom Goren said, “He tried to remove the chronic hatred between Christianity and Judaism.” (JTA)


1988: “Safe Men” a comedy directed and written by John Hamburg costarring Michael Lerner was released in the United States today by October Films.


1992: After premiering in Los Angeles, “The Unforgiven” a very dark Western with music by Lennie Niehuas and featuring Saul Rubinek as W. W. Beauchamp was in the rest of the United States today by Warner Bros.


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. 


1998: Publication of paperback edition of The Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fictionby Peter Kravitz the native of London who has spent “most of his life in Edinburgh where among other things, he served as the editor of Polygon for ten years.


2001(18th of Av, 5761): Wael Ghanem, 32, an Arab Israeli resident of Taibeh, was shot and killed by Palestinian assailants on the road near Kalkilya. Police believe he was murdered because of suspected collaboration with Israeli authorities.


2001(18th of Av, 5761): Zohar Shurgi, 40, of Moshav Yafit in the Jordan Valley, was shot and killed by terrorists while driving home at night on the Trans-Samaria Highway.


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


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.


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. 


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 Eden by 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.


2011(7thof 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: An Israeli American man escaped from his captors today after being kidnapped while hiking in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Mickey Grossman, 64, a 1973 Yom Kippur War veteran, was captured August 5 by approximately 20 gunmen whose affiliation is unclear, as well as several members of the Huaorani Tribe, near Yasuni National Park, which reportedly is an unfriendly area to foreigners


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.


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(10thof 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, 5773): Ninety-two year old Elisabeth Maxwell, the widow of media tycoon Robert Maxwell passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2013(1stof Elul): Purim de los Christianios observed commemorating the defeat of Portuguese King Sebastian at the “Battle of the Kings.”


2013: Barred once again from entering the women’s section of the Western Wall, some 300 activists from the Women of the Wall prayer group held their monthly Rosh Hodesh (new moon) prayer service at the back of the Western Wall compound this morning, raising their voices in song against the jeers and whistles of a large gathering of ultra-Orthodox protesters. (As reported by Debra Kamin)2013: As peace negotiations began in Washington, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed overnight in an open field in the Eshkol region of southern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported (As reported by Yoel Goldman)


2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host “Artist Panel: Creating A Legacy” where attendees can “meet Chicago Holocaust survivor artists Gerda Meyer Bernstein, Vera Klement and Ava Kadishson Schieber and view their stunning artwork.”


2014: Hamas officials said that if its demands are not met on ending the blockade the true will end tomorrow.


2014: “Israel will have to host its Davis Cup World Group playoff tie against Argentina abroad after the ITF ruled today that it can't be held in Tel Aviv due to the security situation.” (As reported by Allon Sinai)


2014: Hamas said today that it had executed several Palestinians “on suspicion of helping Israeli forces during the recent” fighting in conflict and that it had executed its spokesman Ayman Taha “on suspicion of spying for an Arab country and financial corruption.” (As reported by Khaled Abu Toameh)


2015: The Historic Sixth & I Synagogue is scheduled to a Shabbat dinner and “a low-energy service with Rabbi Shira and Chazzar Aaron Shneyer.


2015: Oriental Lab, a Jerusalem instrumental group, is scheduled to give a live pre-Shabbat performance at the Tower of David.

2015: “Employees at Ben Gurion International Airport are scheudled to strike this evening, shutting down the airport for 24 hours.” (As reported by Times of Israel)


 
 

 


 


 

This Day, August 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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August 8 


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 Temple Mount.  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]

1524:Giles of Viterbo who studied Hebrew with “grammarian Elias Levita” and provided him with sanctuary when war drove him for Padua to Rome today became Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.


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 Dnieper became 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.


1804: Birthdate of Dr. Gedelia Daniel Rudolph Warburg.


1805: Today Hungarian Rabbi Moses Münz “declared that” Aaron Chorin, the author of "'Emeḳ ha-Shaweh"“was to blamed for certain statements in the first part entitled ‘Rosh Amanah’ which were apt to mislead the public” but “reaffirmed that the book contained no heresies.”


1809: A group of 70 people led by the followers of the Vilna Gaon arrived in Eretz Yisrael.


1816: Today “the Austrian Beobachter, a semi-official government newspaper, vigorously attacked Lubeck for having expelled the Jews, without waiting for the action on the Jewish question by the Diet.”(Max J. Kohler)


1817: Frederick VI granted Hartvig Philip Ree “the right to build a sugar refinery at Aarhus.”


1820: Birthdate of composer and conductor Jules Stern the native of Breslau “who established his reputation” when he conducted the first performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” in 1847.


1829: In Paris, Lucinde Paradol and Léon Halévy the son of the writer and chazzan Élie Halévy gave birth to journalist Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol


1846: Second and concluding day dedicatory services for the Eagle Street Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio.


1849: Birthdate of Henri Cordier, the native of New Orleans who grew up in France and eventually became President of the Société de Géographie


1850(30th of Av, 5610): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1854: It was reported today 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: Louis and Lillian (Wolff) Seligsberg gave birth to 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.


1881(13th of Av, 5641): Just 6 days before his 52nd birthday Jules Moch a Colonel of the 130th Regiment in the French Army, the father of Gaston Moch and the grandfather of Jules S. Moch passed away.


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. http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Voskhod


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 predecessors…”


1886(7th of Av, 5646): Gedaliah Tiktin the son Solomon Tiktin whom he succeeded as the rabbi in Breslau and who received the Order of the Red Eagle for his services rendered during the Franco-Prussian War passed away today.


1887 A payment of $1, 097.23 was made to Leopold Feiss today by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.


1887: A payment of $157.57 was made to A.J. Friedlander to by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.


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.


1890: Mendel Feldstein saw two men, one of whom was Jacob Rohnewitch bury$90 worth of jewelry that they had stolen from Israel Simovitch.


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.


1891: “No Swindle Like This One” published today described commercial co operations engineered by Steve Ryan of Atlanta, Ga most of whose 400 victims are Jewish merchants from several locations in the United States.


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.


1898(20th of Av, 5658) Sixty-seven year old Adolph Sutro, the first Jewish mayor of San Francisco who made his fortune in the Comstock Lode passed away today.


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 Offical Records of Temple Emanu-El of New York, with a Description of Salem.


1900: In Dresden, Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak gave birth to German American director Robert Siodmak.


1900: Birthdate of composer and conductor Victor Young, the native of Chicago who has “received 22 Academy Award nominations.”


1903: Dorothy Levitt 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, Sydney arrived in Hollywood after 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 Rabbi of 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 Germany in the war.  But because he was a civilian and a Jew he was faced with constant hostility from the German General Staff.


1915: According to reports published today German correspondents describe German troops as being welcomed to Warsaw as liberators by crowds in the streets “filled with Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians.”


1915: A Conference of Jewish representatives from 110 organizations took place today at the Educational Alliance Building in New York where plans were made to raise additional funds for Jews trapped on the Eastern Front which includes 600,000 of their co-religionists.


1917: Birthdate of scriptwriter Malvin Wald who was responsible for the gritty film noir “The Naked City” starring Kirk Douglas

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, the native of Brooklyn who gained fame as Bea Kristol, the husband of Irving Kristol and mother of William Kristol 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: In Bălți, Simon Greenberg and his wife gave birth to Lia Greenberg whose parents sent her to Palestine in 1940 where gained famed as Lia van Leer “the founder of the Haifa Cinematheque, the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the Israel Film Archive and the Jerusalem Film Festival.”


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.


1926: Hundreds of residents of the Jewish quarter of Paris assembled at the Garenord station at 11 o'clock tonight to greet the poet Chaim Nachman Bialiak with shouts of "Heidad!", and the singing of Hatikvah on his visit to the French capital after “the conclusion of the Zionist Actions Committee in London.” (JTA)


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 Drefyus.


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


1935: “Following complaints from Dr. Schacht plus reports on the public disagreement with the wave of anti-Semitic violence, Hitler ordered a stop to "individual actions" against German Jews today.”


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."


1936: “Girls’ Dormitory” starring French born actress Simone Simon whose Jewish father would die in a WW II concentration camp was distributed in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.


1937(1stof Elul, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Elul


1937(1stof Elul, 5697): Sixty-four year old Theodore A. Peyser the native of Charleston, West Virginia, passed away today while representing New York’s 17thcongressional district.

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: In Los Angeles, Lillian (née Gold) and prop supervisor Harry Hoffman gave birth to their second son Dustin Hoffman, the younger brother of attorney and economist Ronald 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: Neilma Myer, the daughter of Australian businessman and philanthropist Sidney Myer, became Neilma Gantner when she married Vallejo Gantner in Melbourne.


1941: In Hungary, enactment of The "Third Jewish Law" which prohibited intermarriage and penalized sexual intercourse between Jews and non-Jews.


1941: Georges Mandel, the Franco-Jewish journalist who became a leader of the Resistance and whom Winston Churchill “was believed to have preferred as a leader of the Free French” instead of DeGaulle was arrested “on the orders of the Prime Minister of the fascist, anti-Semitic Vichy government.


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 Berlin that 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 several months many more conspirators would be sent to trial.


1944(19th of Av, 5704): Famed expressionist painter Chaim Soutine passed away. Born in Belarus in 1894, Soutine moved to Paris in 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.


1944: Wireless operator Denise Bloch, a French born Jewish secret agent working with the SOE (the British version of the American OSS) was shackled to one of her fellow agents today after having captured by the Nazis and was placed on a train – the first leg of a trip that would end with her execution at Ravensbruck.


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.”


1962: “Valley Jewish Center Dedication Scheduled” published today in the Los Angeles Times


1964: French music man Serge Gainsbourg and his second wife Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi gave birth to their daughter Natacha.


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.


1976: Three Israelis were injured when a bus was fired on near Hebron.


1977: Officials in Washington agreed 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.


1980: As part of the on-going Soviet campaign to punish Jewish refusniks, Grigorii Geishis was put on trial at Leningrad.


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.
 
1984: Funeral services were held today in Jerusalem for “Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz, former Chief Rabbi of the Orange Free State in South Africa and more recently a Herut Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem.” (As reported by JTA)http://www.jta.org/1984/08/09/archive/rabbi-louis-rabinowitz-dead-at-78


1984: Based on an order from the Israeli Supreme Court, financer Shmuel Flatto-Sharon is scheduled to report to jail today where he is “to start a three- month sentence for bribery during his campaign for the Israeli Parliament in 1977, which was successful.”


1986: “The Transformer: The Movie” an animated feature film featuring the voices of Judd Nelson, Lionel Stander and Leonard Nimoy was released in the United States today by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.


1986: Warner Bros. released “One Crazy Summer,” a romantic comedy produced by Michael Jaffe featuring Jeremy Piven in the role of “Ty.”


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 the 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.



1995: Eighty-nine year old SS officer Kurt Becher who was involved in deals to trade money and goods for sparing the lives of Hungarian Jews that included dealings with Rudolf Kastner passed away.

(For more about Rudolf Kastner see Gaylen Ross’s award winning documentary “Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis” http://www.killingkasztner.com/ and Kastner’s Trainby Anna Porter and


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 Adas Israel on Elizabeth Street in Sag Harbor


2001: Hamas claimed credit for today’s bombing at Moshav Beka’ot


2003(10th of Av, 5763):Third Petty Officer Roi Oren, 20, an Israel Navy commando, was shot in the head and killed in an assault on a Hamas bomb factory in Nablus.


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.


2005: Today “Haaretz quoted a top Palestinian Authority religious cleric, Sheikh Jamal al-Bawatna, the mufti of the Ramallah district, in a fatwa (a religious edict) banning shooting attacks against Israeli security forces and settlements, out of concern they might lead to a postponement of the pullout. According to Haaretz, this is the first time that a Muslim cleric has forbidden shooting at Israeli forces.”


2005: “Kevin Youkilis took the field in the 9th inning along with Adam Stern and Gabe Kapler, setting a "record" for the most Jewish players on the field at one time in American League history and the most in Major League Baseball history since four Jewish players took the field for the New York Giants in 1941. (Jewish Virtual Library) 


2005: Wolf Blitzer began hosting The Situation Room, a two-hour afternoon/early evening program on CNN


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.  While Beijing and Jerusalem seem to be worried about the rituals of Shabbat, they do not seem to have the same concern about the Biblical strictures about caring for the widow, the orphan and the stranger in your midst as can be seen in Darfur and Tibet.


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. A fascinating musical journey including improvisations created in each concert.


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.


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. The ruling to reject the petition, which had been brought by the Eshkol Regional Council, follows an upsurge in Palestinian rocket fire against the South in recent days.


2011: During a discussion on the subject, the High Court criticized the Israel Medical Association's (IMA) conduct during negotiations with the finance and health ministries.


2012: The Summer Learning Institute is scheduled to begin at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.


2012: “Hope Springs” a comedy directed by David Frankel was released today in the United States by Columbia Pictures and MGM.


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. Today, eight residents of Nazareth and the town of Ghajar - half of which is in Israel and the other half in Lebanon - were charged in the Nazareth District Court with assisting in the infiltration of the explosives.


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 Klexmer Festival “the biggest festival of Jewish soul music in the world” is scheduled to come to an end.


2013: Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton psychologist known for his application of psychology to economic analysis who “escaped Nazi Europe and served in the Israeli army” was one of the people President Obama named as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


2013: In response to a “security concerns” no planes were allowed to land at or leave the Eilat airport when the IDF closed the facility for two hours today. (As reported by Asher Zeiger)


2013(2ndof Elul, 5773): Ninety-two year old Jack Zomlefer, a brilliant chemist, successful business and educated Jew who shared his last years enhancing the quality of  the Jewish community in Cedar Rapids ,passed away today.


2013*2ndof Elul, 5773): Ninety-year old opera star Regina Resnik passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)

2013(2ndof Elul, 5773): Actress Karen Black passed away today.

2014: Israel’s Dimona Theatre/Cultural Lab and the Classical Theatre of Harlem are scheduled to “present a succinct journey into Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Sugar Hill.


2014: “High-profile Toronto Jewish delicatessen owner Zane Caplansky is scheduled to send his food truck to the outdoor screening ‘Laila’s Birthday’ a dark comedy by Palestinian director by Rashid Masharawi.” (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)


2014: In Milwaukee, Congregation Shalom is scheduled to host its final concert of the summer featuring Becky Spice and Jack Forbes in “an original cabaret show.”


2014: True to its word Hamas ended the cease fire by firing rockets into Israel today including one that scored a direct hit on a house “in the embattled city of Sderot.”


2014: “United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the renewed rocket fire on Israel and also called for a return to a truce in Gaza. (As reported by Yitzhak Benhorin)


2014(12thof Av, 5774): Eighty-five year old director/producer Menahem Golan passed away today

2015(23rdof Av): Parsha Ekev


2015(23rdof Av): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Benjamin Arron of Cracow


2015: In New York, “a live performance of chamber ensemble led by the Music Director, Israeli Cellist Elad Kabilio” is scheduled to be part of this evening’s Ballet Festival.


2015: The 92nd St is scheduled to host “Le Roc USA Party”


 


 


 

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