September 16
1380: King Charles V of France died. Charles ruled during a very difficult time in French history – the 14thcentury – that included the One Hundred Years War and the Black Death. For French monarchs, guile and deception were critical to keep the state afloat. Regardless of his reasons, the Jews of France fared better under him than they did under many of his predecessors and successors. When he assumed the throne in 1364, he continued to honor the promises he had made to the Jews during the Regency. The “Jews of Paris lived quietly in the district of St. Antoine, near the dwelling of Hugues Aubriot, the grand provost of Paris, who protected them” reportedly because “he was fond of the beautiful Jewesses.” He saw to it that Jewish children who had been baptized were returned to their families and that those who stole from the Jews, including members of the nobility, were punished. The Jews did have enemies including those who owed them large sums of money and members of the nobility. These groups convinced Charles to issue a decree expelling the Jews; a decree he rescinded before it ever went into effect. “In 1370, when the king increased the general taxes, he solemnly confirmed the privileges that he had granted to the Jews, demanding of them only 1,500 francs. In 1372 he restored to them certain manuscripts which had been confiscated. But at the same time he did not lose sight of his own interests, and when he was in need of money, in 1378, he made an agreement with the Jews in accordance with which, in return for being exempted from all other imposts, they were to pay him 20,000 francs in gold, in four installments, and 200 francs a week. In 1379 he granted them an important concession in connection with the fairs of Champagne and Brie. On visiting the fairs the Jews were accustomed to take mortgages on the property of their creditors. But they could foreclose these mortgages only when solvent Christians acted as sureties, and they complained that, since they could not in general find anyone to act as surety, they always lost their claims. The king therefore decreed that Jews might in future be accepted as sureties. [Source – Jewish Encyclopedia; for a highly readable account of life in 14thcentury France that will help you better understand the plight of the Jews see A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.]
1087: Victor III, sometimes referred to as “the Jewish Pope” passed away today.
1498: According to some sources, Tomas de Torquemada, head of the Spanish Inquisition which destroyed the Sephardic Community on the Iberian Peninsula, passed away.
1501: A decree was issued by the Portuguese Governor Nicolas de Oviendo which aimed at keeping Jews from entering the New World.
1638: Birthdate of Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis reigned from 1643 until 1715.Louis’ dealings with Jews were of marginal historic interest. During his reign, Jews were variously allowed to, and banned from, conducting trading activities in French colonies and in Provence. As Colbert, one of Louis’ ministers pointed, opposition by Christian merchants to Jewish business ventures was not based on religion. Rather, the merchants were using the smoke screen of religion to eliminate competition. Only at the end of his long, debauched life, did Louis show any interest in the religious dynamics of the issue. Having grown pious as he faced death, Louis issued a decree banning Jews from Provence, including the port of Marseilles demanding that they leave and leave their possession behind.
1658: With the signing of the Treaty of Hadiach on this date, the Polish Crown elevated the Cossacks and Ruthenians to a position equal to that of Poles and Lithuanians in the Polish-Lithuanian Union, and in fact transformed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth. This led to a worsening situation for the Jews of Poland who had already suffered at the hands of the Cossacks for the last ten years.
1701: Sixty-seven year old King James II of the United Kingdom who put an end to a mandatory tax being imposed on Jews for not attending “the established church” and who said that the Jews should “quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion” passed away today. (Editor’s note – The kings’ action was tied to the conflict between Catholics and Protestants racking the British Isles during which the treatment of the Jews was a sideline event.)
1747: Birthdate of German theologian Johann Ludwig Ewald an “advocate for the Jews” arguing that the “shortcoming” of the Jews “were the result of persecution.”
1747: Pope Benedict XIV prohibited Jewish converts to Christianity from giving their wives gittin(religious divorce).
1777: In Frankfurt am Main, Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Gutle Schnapper gave birther to their fourth child Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the English House of Rothschild.
1779: Philip Minis volunteered to serve a guide for the French and American forces who were beginning their siege of Savanah today during the American Revolution.
1784(1stof Tishrei, 5545): Rosh Hashanah
1793(10thof Tishrei, 5554): Yom Kippur
1795: For the first time, during the Napoleonic Wars, British Forces occupied Cape Colony, South Africa, as way of keeping the valuable maritime choke point from falling in French hands. Although there is evidence that some non-observant Jews were living in the colony at this time, there was no organized Jewish community due to the fact that the Dutch East India Company, which controlled the colony, required all of its employees to be Protestants. The British would leave in 1803 only to return in 1806 when they would establish a permanent colonial presence. Oddly enough, when the Dutch regained control they promulgated an ordinance allowing for the practice of all religions; an ordinance the British repealed in 1806 and did not reactivate again until 1820, at a time when Jews first began to settle as a community in South Africa.
1807: This evening, “Mr. Hyam Abendadone of the Island of St. Thomas” married Miss Grace Abendanone of Charleston, SC.
1810: Mexico declares its independence from Spain. Spain would not recognize the independence until 1821. At the time of the declaration Mexico lacked an identifiable Jewish population thanks to the anti-Semitic policies of the government of Spain. There were numerous Conversos living in Mexico. Jewish migration to Mexico began in earnest in the middle of the 19th century. Today Mexico has approximately 40,000 to 50,000 Jews living in the country.
1812(10th of Tishrei, 5573) Yom Kippur
1812: Rothschild observed Yom Kippur for the last time. As an observant Jew, he walked to the synagogue, spent the day in prayer and returned home in the evening to break the fast.
1818: David ben Shumel married Sarah bat Isaac at the Western Synagogue today
1824: Louis XVIII who had been returned to the French throne as part of what is called “the Restoration” and during whose reign the “enemies of Jews” failed to undo the improvement of their conditions reached under Napoleon, passed away today.
1824: Charles X, the last of France’s absolute monarchs whose abdication helped lead to full emancipation of French Jews, began his reign today.
1828: Birthdate of “Dutch Christian Old Testament Scholar” Abraham Kuenen who “was one of the leaders of the modern school of Old Testament Critics” who spent the last six years of his life working on a new translation of Hebrew Bible.
1829: Lewis Davis married Rebekah Ann Jacobs at the Western Synagogue today.
1829: In violation of Papal Law, “a meeting of inquisitors addresses the case of 3 Jewish families living in Foligno, Italy.
1829: Isaac Isaacson married Miriam Mosely at the Great Synagogue today.
1835: Birthdate of Posen native Abraham Slimmer who came to the United States at the age of 15 and became a successful Iowa businessman before passing away in Dubuque. (Some sources show his birthdate as September 14).
1841(1st of Tishrei, 5602): Rosh Hashanah
1841: Lydia Maria Child, a non-Jew from Boston, attended Rosh Hashanah services at Shearith Isreal Synagogue in York City. What follows are excerpts from a letter of she wrote after attending the sevice,
Shortly after entering, she and her female companion were "gruffly" moved from the front seats to the women's section "in the upper part of the house." Child then recorded her feelings of being in a Jewish house of worship. "The effect produced on my mind by witnessing the ceremonies of the Jewish synagogue was strange and bewildering; spectral and flitting; with a sort of vanishing resemblance to reality; the magic lantern of the past." As she underwent this religious experience, she was "solemnly impressed with recollections of those ancient times when the Divine was heard amid the thunders of Sinai, and the Holy Presence (Shekinah) shook the mercy seat between the cherubim." Carefully, she looked at the ark containing the "Sacred Law written on scrolls of vellum and rolled as in the time of Moses." However, she was dismayed when she realized that instead of a "brazen laver" for washing there was only "a common bowl and ewer of English delf." All male members of the congregation, even little boys, wore "fringed silk mantles bordered with blue stripes." What she found incongruous were "these mantles worn over modern broadcloth coats and fashionable pantaloons with straps." Even the dress of the "priest" as she labeled the chacham, was problematic for her. "His large white silk shawl, which shaded his forehead and fell over his shoulders, was drawn over a common black hat!" She did see this official at times "cover his face completely, as in the time of Moses, stoop and lay his forehead on the book before him." Apparently, Child had made this visit thinking the Jews of her day were representatives of biblical times. Since this was not the case for her, she wrote. "But through the whole, priest and people kept on their hats. My spirit was vexed with this. I had turned away from the turmoil of the Present, to gaze quietly for a while on the grandeur of the Past; and the representatives of the Past walked before me, not in the graceful oriental turban, but the useful European hat!" She was also critical of the shofar blowing, even as she compared it to the instrument that sounded on Sinai. "The trumpet," she wrote, "which was blown by a Rabbi with a shawl drawn over his hat and face, was of the ancient shape, somewhat resembling a cow's horn. It did not send forth a spirit-stirring peal; but the sound groaned and struggled through it." (Editor’s note: I do not have the citation for this. I hope the author will not think that I have ‘moved the boundary stones’ on his or her work.
1843(21st of Elul, 5603): Ezekiel Hart passed away. Born in 1767, he was a Jewish Canadian entrepreneur and politician, and the first Jew to be elected to public office in the British Empire. “He was elected three times by the voters of Trois-Rivières to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. Some members consistently prevented him from taking his seat by observing that as a Jew, he could not take the oath of office, which included the phrase ‘on the true faith of a Christian’.”
1847(6th of Tishrei, 5608): The poet Grace Aguilar died at Frankfort-on-the Main, at age 31. She was the oldest child of parents descended from Portuguese Marranos who sought asylum in England in the eighteenth century. A prominent poet and writer, her words graced Jewish journals around the world. She was a staunch defender of Judaism, and a Torah loving woman. "Her last words, spelled on her fingers, were, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him,'"
1849(29th of Elul, 5609): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1850(10th of Tishrei, 5611): Yom Kippur
1854(23rdof Elul, 5614): Leil Selichot
1854(23rdof Elul, 5614): Miriam Aaron, the wife of Lewis Aaron passed away today, following which she would be buried in the Canterbury Jewish Cemetery.
1856: Birthdate of Moses Gaster, the native or Romania who become Chacham of the Spanish and Portugese Congregation in London as well as leading scholar at Oxford.
1858: Today’s Personal column reported that “a curious Hebrew publication has just issued from the Berlin press-a biography of Alexander Von Humboldt, written in the ancient tongue, and destined to extend the knowledge of the life and scientific labors of this celebrated man in the wide circle of the Russo-Polish and Asiatic Jews. The full title is, Alexander Von Humboldt: A Biographical Sketch, Dedicated to the Nestor of Wisdom on his 88th Birthday by S. Slominski.” Alexander Von Humboldt was a Prussian born naturalist and explorer who was born in 1769 and died in 1859 at the age of 89. He was not Jewish.
1859: A convention designed to "overcome evil with good" is scheduled to be held in Buffalo, NY. The Jews were among those whom the public invitation should "consider themselves cordially invited."
1860: Birthdate of Solomon Joseph Solomon, the British painter who was the brother of another painter, Lily Delissa Joseph.
1861: Judah P. Benjamin began serving as Secretary of War for the CSA.
1861: Corporal Samuel A. Apple began serving a four year hitch with Company B of the 51st Regiment.
1861: Private Moses Jacoby began serving a four year hitch with Company E of the 47thRegiment.
1863(3rd of Tishrei, 5624): Tzom Gedaliah
1871(1st of Tishrei, 5632): Rosh Hashanah
1871: An article published today entitled “Commencement of the Jewish New Year” reported that “at sundown last evening the new Jewish Year, 5632 commenced. The Jews do not inaugurate their ecclesiastical year with festivities; on the contrary, the Jewish year is commenced with ten days of atonement.” According to the article the Jews keep the first part of year holy because they are remembering the receiving of the word from Mount Sinai. [Editor’s note – At least they got part of it right]
1876: B.F. Peixotto, the United States Consul at Bucharest, Romania, is scheduled to address the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at their meeting hall on the corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in New York City.
1877(9th of Tishrei, 5638): Erev Yom Kippur
1877: The following anti-Semitic canard was published today during the Russo-Turkish War “The Jews are indeed ubiquitous. They are everywhere. Their jeweled fingers are in everything. The Russians cannot feed their troops without them. The Turks borrow of them to clothe their armies. No great event of any kind occurs unless they assist in it, both as principles accessories.
1877: It was reported today that Jews in the following cities have built synagogues in the past year: London & Bath (UK), Waadt (Switzerland), Rio de Jeneiro (Brazil), Linz (Austria), Bremen & Heilbrun (Germany), Ancona and Bologne (Italy), New York, Springfield & Petersburg (United States)
1877: It was reported today there 373 houses of worship in Rome, four of which are synagogues.
1877: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil will preach the sermon at Kol Nidre services this evening at Temple Emanuel in New York City
1877: Rabbi Adolph Huebsch will preach the sermon tonight at the temple on the corner of 55th Street and Lexington Avenue.
1877: Ten fires broke out tonight between 6 and 8 o’clock in places occupied by persons who are thought to be Jews. Thanks to the swift response of the fire department none of the fires caused much damage. The damage caused by all then fires was valued at approximately 500 dollars with individual losses ranging from “slight” to $300.
1878(4th of Tishrei, 5548): Tzom Gedaliah observed because the 3rd was Shabbat
1879: It was reported today that among those in Memphis who have recently contracted Yellow Fever are the Jewish brothers, James and Israel Peres, the sons of Jacob J. Peres who owns the brokerage firm of J.J. Peres & Company.
1879: Birthdate of Georg Lewin, the Berlin native who gained fame as Herwath Walden whose eclectic interests led him to careers as “a musician, composer, writer, critic, and gallery owner.”
1880: “City and Suburban News” published today described the observance of “Yom Kippur…the most solemn fast in the Jewish calendar” which ended yesterday at sundown during which “no orthodox Jew allowed morsel of food or drop of water to pass lips during the 24 hours.”
1881: It was reported today that “a disastrous fire” that has destroyed an “enormous” amount of fire has swept through Vitebsk, a major Jewish population center in the Pale of Settlement. For more about Vitebsk see:
1882(3rd of Tishrei, 5643): Shabbat Shuva – no Fast of Gedaliah because of Shabbat
1886: Sixty-seven year old Louis, duc Decazes who while serving as Foreign Minister in 1875 “informed Henri Blowitz, the Bohemian Jew who was the Paris correspondent of The Times of a confidential dispatch from the French ambassador to Berlin, discussing German plans to attack France” which he asked Blowitz to publish as part of an effective plan to prevent the Germans from carrying out their plans passed away today.
1888: It was reported today that “a peculiar and unprecedented schism has arisen among the Jews” of London. “The Socialist Jews” have protested against the Day of Atonement by holding a banquet at the International Workingmen’s Club in Whitechapel.
1888(11thof Tishrei, 5649): Seventy-five year old Lazare Isidor, who had been appointed Chief Rabbi of Paris in 1847 before being named Chief Rabb of France in 1867 passed away today.
1889: In Vienna, Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert and Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek gave birth to Mercédès Adrienne Manuela Ramona Jellinek. She is the Mercédès in Merceds-Benz. Yes, this quintessential German product was named for the granddaughter of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna.
1890(2ndof Tishrei, 5651): Second day of Rosh Hashanah
1890: “Prague-based German merchant Ludwig Kraus and his wife, Louise” gave birth to Ernst Deutsch “the protagonist in the world première of Walter Hasenclever's Expressionist play The Son.”
1890: Harris Adolphus and Max Rodden, the former Rabbi of the “Polish Hebrew synagogue” in Trenton, NJ, sought warrants for the arrest of Moses Skomwitschiki, the congregation’s new rabbi and several of the congregation’s officers.
1890: In Huntington, PA, Rabbi T.A. Moses of New York was stricken with apoplexy tonight after having dismissed the congregation for whom he had been leading services for the past week.
1891: In Providence, RI, Morris Reiger and Michael Bernstein, the mangers of the London Opera Company which they had organized among a group of Polish Jews, escaped from the police after having apparently absconded with ticket money collected for performances of “The Greenhorn.”
1891: “Troubles In the Dispensary of the Beth Israel Hospital” published today described the conflict between the Beth Hospital Association which started its hospital four months ago and the dispensary which had been open for a year before the two were combined.
1891: “Cholera In Asiatic Turkey” published today described the discriminatory measures being taken in the villages around Aleppo to deal with the epidemic where the Turkish officials allowed the Moslems and Christians “to leave the villages but not the Jews. They are compelled to stay.”
1892(24thof Elul, 5652): Sixty-one year old Judah Leib Gordon, one of the leading “Hebrew poets of the Jewish Enlightenment” passed away.
1893: Birthdate of Hungarian native Sir Alexander Korda who became a leading figure in the British film industry where he worked as both a director and producer.
1894: It was reported today that in the one New York district inhabited by Russian and Polish Jews “there an average of fifty-seven families to a house” while the general average in other tenement districts “is 34 persons to a house.”
1895: Reverend G.R. Cutting, pastor of the Yonkers Presbyterian Church presented a paper entitled “The Conversion of the Jews” today in which “he took the view that the Jews will be restored to the land of Palestine. Some of his fellow ministers who heard the paper said that the “Jews might become Christians before the end of the world, but that they would not return to Palestine” as would be proven if a vote were taken among the Jews; the majority of whom vote to remain in America “in preference to going to Palestine.”
1896(9thof Tishrei 5657): Erev Yom Kippur – Kol Nidre
1896: At a hearing in Jefferson Market Court John Dangels told the Judge that he lost his temper yesterday when David Meyer had refused to leave his butcher shop. He did not contest Meyer’s statement that the reason he had beaten him was because he was, to use Dangels’ word “a sheeny.”
1896: A group of Anarchist, most of whom were Jews held a meeting at Clarendon Hall with the announced intention of “ridiculing and burlesquing the Yom Kippur observances and the Jewish religion.”
1896: Twenty-three year old Nathan Fischer attacked Abraham Fisher, an usher at Mount Sinai Temple in a dispute over Fischer’s admission ticket. The police were called and Fisher was arrested.
1897: “President McKinley and the members of his cabinet attended the cornerstone laying of the new Synagogue” being “erected by the Washington Hebrew Congregation on 8th Street, near H.
1898(29thof Elul, 5658): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1898: Temple Beth-El, Temple Emanu-El and the West End Synagogue “have an extended an invitation to all solders who wish to attend services” at their respective congregations.
1898: Any Jewish families who wish to open their homes to soldiers on Rosh Hashanah should contact William Mitchell, Superintendent of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association or The American Hebrew.
1898: About 40 members of the 47th Regiment stationed at Fort Adams marched out of their barracks at Newport after having received a ten day furlough from Adjutant General Corbin so they could observe the Jewish holidays.
1898: Dr. M.H. Harris delivered a sermon tonight at Temple Israel of Harlem entitled “The Influence of Good Wishes” as Jew “ushered in the 5659.”
1898: Herzl is received by Graf Philip Eulenburg, the German ambassador in Vienna.
1898: Birthdate of prize-winning Israeli novelist Chaim Hazaz
1898: Birthdate of Hans Augusto Reyersbach, the native of Hamburg, Germany who gained fame as Hans Augusto "H.A." Rey is best known for his creation of the Curious George series.
1899: A mass meeting protesting the Dreyfus Conviction is scheduled to be held at this evening at Cooper Union.
1898: Birthdate of CCNY basketball star Hyman “Hy” Fliegel
1898: Birthdate of Baruch Lumet, the Warsaw native who was an actor in the Yiddish theatre in the United States as well as the husband of Eugenia Gitl Lumet (née Wermus) and the father of director Sidney Lumet.
1899: Birthdate of Samuel Spewack, who with his wife Bella wrote several screenplays including “My Favorite Wife:” which earned them an Oscar nomination for Best Original Story.
1899: A mass meeting protesting the Dreyfus Conviction organized by Jews living on the Lower East Side is scheduled to take place tonight at Mandelbaum’s Hall.
1899: In a “Blood Libel Case’ a Hungarian jury convicted Leopold Hilsner of murder and the judge sentenced him to hang. Following a public outcry and campaign, Hilsner would be retried, found guilty of acting as an accomplice to murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1899: “A Drama of Jewish Life Opens the Broadway Theatre” published today provides a review of “The Ghetto” which “was very well received” even though it was “rather slow and monotonous.” The play which was translated from Dutch into English by C.B. Fernald “personifies and embodies the spirit of revolt in the Jewish nature against the meanness and sordidness with which the race has been affliected.”
1900: Herzl meets Arminius Vámbéry in Budapest. ("He gave me his word of honor that the Sultan would receive me by May.")
1901(3rd of Tishrei, 5662):Tzom Gedaliah
1901: “The Messenger Boy” a musical featuring songs by Paul Rubens opened on Broadway today.
1903: At its meeting today The Executive Committee of the Board of Education recommended to the Board of Education that it confirm the appointment of Miss Julie Richman as District Superintendent to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles Haskell.
1906: Friends and family of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Fauerbach celebrated the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary this evening. For seventeen years, they received, respectively as the Superintendent and Mtron of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum.
1909(1st of Tishrei, 5670): Jews observe Rosh Hashanah for the first time under the President of William Taft.
1910: Jews of Salonica compel editors of Turkish paper that published anti-Semitic remarks to send a public retraction to every Turkish journal.
1911(23rdof Elul, 5671): Leil Selichot
1911(23rdof Elul, 5671): Forty-one year old New Yorker Alfred L. Peck, a native of Munich and President of the Hardman, Peck & Co. piano manufacturers who had married Lucy Strauss of Frankfort last October passed away today.
1911: Birthdate of Jerome “Jerry” Irving Wald, the Brooklyn native who gained fame as a screenwriter and producer.
1912: “To Talk on Judaism” published today described the upcoming visit to the United States of Rabbi Israel Abrahams, the noted English scholar and author. After delivering a series of lectures at Harvard on “Some Aspects of the Life and Faith of Israel from the Liberal Point of View, he will speak at various venues including Stanford, Yale and Columbia where he will speak on the theme of “A Justification of Liberal Judaism.” (Liberal Judaism is another term for the Reform Movement)
1914: Birthdate of Allen Funt, creator of the television hit “Candid Camera.”
1914(25thof Elul, 5674): Abram Glaser passed away.
1914(25thof Elul, 5674): Aron Gottschalk passed away.
1915: Albert Einstein visits Switzerland where he tells the French pacifist Roman Rolland that he was no longer hopeful about an early end to the war. According to Rolland’s diary, Einstein described the German people as having an admiration of and belief in force and a firm determination to conquer and annex territories.
1915: Guy Zinn, an outfielder with the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League, played his last game as a major leaguer.
1915: In New York, “a report by Chief Kenlon that twenty-four accidental fires were started by candles last” list last week during Rosh Hashanah “cause Fire Commissioner Adamson to urge that Jews exercise care in burning candles in connection with the” upcoming “celebration of Yom Kippur.”
1916: The German Jewish industrialist Walter Rathenau, who had been urging European reconciliation and the mitigation of hatred, wrote a public letter to Field Marshall Ludendorff supporting the forcible deportation of 700,000 Belgian workers to Germany as part of the Hindenburg Industrial Program.
1916: Jewish baseball player Guy Zinn plays in his last major league game.
1916: A list of the officers of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies published today included Felix M. Warburg, Chairman; Leo Arnstein, Vice Chairman; Harry Sachs, Treasurer; William Goldman, Secretary and Miss Harriet B Lowenstein, Controller and Auditor.
1916: “Hope that Jews in the United States might agree on an American Jewish congress to take up problems of Jews in other countries dwindled” today “when it became know that a plan that had been signed by representatives of the competing factions, after a long controversy has been defeated by a referendum vote of the delegates who drafter the first outline of the congress at a conference held at Philadelphia last March.”
1916: “Figures covering the last four months made public” today “by the Department of the Immigrant Aid of the Council of Jewish Women show that the war condition are driving” many Greek and Turkish Jewish woman most of whom are under the age of 30, the bulk of them being “girls in their teen” to come the United States which “represent a class of aliens almost unheard of” in the history of the United States.
1916: Henrietta Szold wrote to Hyam Peretz explaining why she would be saying Kaddish for her mother.
1917: (29th of Elul, 5677): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1917 “New Year of the Jews Begins at Sunset: Hashanah Will Be Celebrated This Evening All Over the World; Two Days of Festival Orthodox Jewish Community Devotes First and Second of Month of Tishri to Observance” published today reported that “The celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the festival of the New Year, by the Jewish people throughout the world will begin at sunset this evening. The new year is 5678 in the Hebraic calendar and begins on the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, the month that is held to be of great importance as the festival of the New year, the fast of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement and the festival of Succoth, or Tabernacles, the harvest fest all occur during that month.
1917: New Year’s eve services were held in the auditoriums of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York as well as “in all of the army camps and naval stations in the” New York area.
1917: Dr. Samuel Schulman officiated at services at Temple Beth-El.
1917: Dr. Joseph Silverman officiated at services at Temple Emanu-El.
1917: At Carnegie Hall, Dr. Stephen Wise of the Free Synagogue delivered a sermon on “Making a Fresh Start.”
1917: During World War I, U.S. soldiers and sailors began their furloughs today so that they could participate in the observance of Rosh Hashanah. The War and Navy departments had agreed to a request for the holiday furloughs that had been made by Jewish Board for Welfare Work.
1917: It was reported today that “The American Jewish Relief Committee of which Louis Marshall is the Chairman and Arthur Lehman is the Treasurer” “acknowledged last week receiving new gifts amounting to more than $132,000.”
1917: It was reported today that among the contributions received by The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War were $150 from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and $977 from the Jewish Daily News.
1918(10th of Tishrei, 5679): Yom Kippur
1918: Sir John Monash, the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Australian Army planned the allied attack on the German defenses known as the Battle of the Hindenburg Line, which began today.
1918: Second Lieutenant Louis C. Simon, Jr. of Columbus, Ohio, displayed “extraordinary heroism in action in the region of Hadonsville Les Lochausse” while serving with the 147th Aero Squadron
1918: Birthdate of Benjamin Forester “Ben” Sohn the native of San Diego and an all-star guard with USC who played on a Rose Bowl winning team before going on to a successful career with the New York Giants.
1919: “Di Arche” (The Ark) a science fiction film directed by Richard Oswald and written by Robert Liebmann and Richard Oswald was released in Germany today.
1919: In a lengthy written memorandum, Adolph Hitler first expresses his hatred of the Jews describing them as a people that infect host nations with a kind of racial tuberculosis. He called for measures that would eliminate them from all level of the nation’s cultural and economic life.
1920: Furloughs that were granted to soldiers so they could observe the Jewish New Year came to an end today at noon.
1920: F.K. Hirsch of Sumter, South Carolina, wrote today that “a reading of “ The American Hebrew“would prove of great benefit to Jews and non-Jews alike, and is by far the best answer to the Dearborn Independent that has yet appeared.” (Editor’s note: The Dearborn Independent was the anti-Semitic paper published by Henry Ford.)
1920: The funeral for Colonel Harry Cutler, the chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board who passed away in London in August, is scheduled to take place this afternoon at Temple Bethel on Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island.
1920: The first round of the Fall Entrance Examinations for admission into the Jewish Theological Seminary are scheduled to take place” today “in the Seminary Building.”
1922: The League Nations recognized the Jewish Agency as the organization authorized to act in concert with the British Mandate authorities with a view to “facilitating the Jewish immigration and fostering intensive settlement of Israelites on the soil of the country.”
1923: Birthdate of Judith Deena Hochberg, the Brooklyn born daughter of immigrants from Eastern Europe who gained fame as architect Judith Edelman.
1924: In the Bronx, Natalie (née Weinstein-Bacal), a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske,” gave birth to Betty Joan Perske, who gained fame as actress Lauren Bacall a relative of Shimon Peres who was married to Humphrey Bogart in 1945; a marriage that lasted until his death in 1957. They co-starred in three film-noires of the 1940's - The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.
1924: Birthdate of Bess Myerson. Bess Myerson was crowned Miss American in 1945. She was the first (and only Jew) to win the honor. It is strange that the first Jew to be named America’s national beauty queen came as Americans were basking in the victory over Nazi Germany and were learning of the horrors of the death camps.For many American Jews, her victory was a sign of the acceptance of Jews by the general population.
1925: Birthdate of Samuel Menashe Weisberg, who as Samuel Menashe, became “a Greenwich Village poet whose jewel-like, gnomic short verse won him an ardent following in Britain and belated recognition in the United States when the Poetry Foundation gave him its first Neglected Masters Award in 2004.”
1925(27th of Elul, 5685): Fifty-two year old Austrian composer Leo Fall who had followed in the musical footsteps of his father, composer Moritz Fall passed away today.
1925(27th of Elul, 5685): Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian physicist who discovered the expanding-universe solution to the general relativity field equations in 1922, passed away.
1926: Dr. Isaac Landman, editor of The Ameircan Hebrew, presided over a memorial program dedicated to the lateIsrael Zangwill which was broadcast in New York and New England through the efforts of Stations WRNY, New York, and WMAF, South Dartmouth, Mass.
1927: Joseph Shilkret’s “The Lonesome Road” was recorded today for the first time with “Shilkret directing the Victor Orchestra.”
1927: Birthdate Peter Falk, “who marshaled tics, prop room appurtenances and his own physical idiosyncrasies to personify Columbo, one of the most famous and beloved fictional detectives in television history.” Falk’s paternal ancestry was Jewish. He passed away in June of 2011.
1928(2ndof Tishrei, 5689): Second day of Rosh Hashanah
1928: “The Docks of New York” directed by Josef von Sternberg was released today In the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1929: In Manhattan, Louis and Sarah Goldman gave birth to Miriam Goldman the graduate of Barnard and Columbia Law School who gained fame as Judge Miriam Cedarbaum. (As reported by Joseph P. Fried)
1930: In Paris, marriage of Robert Calmann-Levy and Jacqueline Piatigorsky
1930: “Bernice and Phyllis Zitenfeld, twins, said they were “through with the
English channel” today. They expect to return to their homes in the United States soon. Extremely rough water and I rough seas forced the girls to I abandon their attempt to swim from England to France when they were four and a half miles from their goal.
1932: “The Western Code” co-starring Mischa Auer was released in the United States today.
1932: “Thirteen Women,” “a psychological thriller produced by David O. Selznick with music by Max Steiner and screenplay by Samuel Ornitz premiered today at the Roxy Theatre in New York.
1933: Birthdate of Vera Buchtal, the native of Dortmund, Germany who gained fame as British technology pioneer Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley.
1935: Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn the Zionist leader whoworked to revive spoken Hebrew and helped found the Safah Berurah ("Plain Language") society in Jerusalem passed away.
1935(18th of Elul, 5695): Isaac Loeb Goldberg, “one of the world’s foremost Jewish philanthropists and a founder of the modern Zionist movement passed away today at the age of 75. A longtime resident of Tel Aviv, he was in Zurich at the time of his death seeking medical treatment. A native of Szaki, Lithuania (which was part of the Russian Empire), this son of poor merchants received “the usual Jewish educational training” before becoming the representative of a pharmaceutical company and finally a “contractor of medical goods for the Russian Army.” In 1861, Goldberg was a founder of Chovevie Zion (Lovers of Zion), one of the forerunners of the modern Zionist movement. In 1897 he was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress. He was a founder of the Jewish Colonial Trust and editor of Haolom, “the official organ of Russian Zionism” which was published in Vilna, Lithuania. Following the failed Revolution of 1905, Goldberg was imprisoned for remarks in the paper that were critical of the government. After being released, he served as President of the Russian Zionist organization from 1912 until 1914. Throughout this period and during the World War, Goldberg was a generous, though often anonymous, benefactor to the Zionist cause. In 1902, Goldberg donated “a large area of land on Mt. Scopus” to the Jewish National Fund which was that agency’s first acquisitions of territory in Eretz Israel. From 1903 until 1915, Goldberg served on the General Council of the World Zionist Organization during which time he founded Achiasaf, one of the great Jewish publishing houses. Goldberg’s commitment to Hebrew language and culture was further exemplified by his founding of Haaretz and generous contributions to the Hebrew Institute for Culture and Language. Goldberg made Aliyah in 1919. As a resident of Tel Aviv he continued to serve as a director of the Jewish Colonial Trust, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the Palestine Land Development Company. Tragedy struck in 1929 when Mr. Goldberg’s son, Benjamin was killed during the Arab riots. In April of 1935, the grieving father donated “28 dunams of thickly wooded land for a city park” to be built in Tel Aviv and to be named in his son’s memory.
1935: The Seventh Nazi Party Rally came to an end at Nuremberg.
1935: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Joseph Chaikin, the Des Moines, Iowa, raised Drake University drop-out who went on to career in acting and directing “experimental theatre.” (As reported by Ralph Blumenthal.
1936(29th of Elul, 5696): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1936: Tonight, at the Brooklyn Hebrew Home for the Aged at Howard and Durmont, 108 year old “‘Grandpa’ Abraham Ginsburg will make his customary round to utter the New Year greeting – ‘Mayest thou be inscribed in Happiness for the New Year’ – to the other 262 residence” with the only difference being that this year he will be wheeled around in invalid’s chair” instead of walking around.
1936: “At Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson delivered a sermon on ‘When Is Worship Spiritual?’”
1936: At the Institutional Synagogue Annex on Broadway Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein spoke on “The New Year and Peace” emphasizing “the need for a plebiscite before war is declared.”:
1936: At Central Synagogue in Manhattan, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise “stressed in his sermon Israel’s loyalty to America” saying “Loyalty to Judaism is loyalty to American ideals” and that “no happier union of loyalties could be desired…”
1936: At the Free Synagogue at Carnegie Hall, “Dr. Stephen S. Wise spoke on ‘As a Watch in the Night’” saying “In Nazi German the world had beheld in these days at Nuremberg a veritable orgy of primitive and bestial hatred the aim of which was to confound the Jews of the world with and to make them seem responsible for communism.”
1936: At the Mount Neboh Temple, Rabbi A. L. Feinberg delivered a sermon on “Fear – America’s Enemy.”
1936: “Rabbi Wendell A. Phillips conducted special services at Rodeph Sholom.
1936: At the HIAS building, the home of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, services were held for unemployed and homeless” Jews.
1936: “The Jewish Theological Seminary of America issued a message from its president, Dr. Cyrus Adler in which he stated that ‘the intensive pursuit of purely scientific knowledge by universities and individual scholars is not making for eventual breakdown of all religious conviction, but is steadily leading toward wider acceptance of a belief in God and the truths of religion.’”
1936: “The Struemer, Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic weekly announced that the Reich Justice Minstry has instructed public prosecutors to demand more severe punishment for Jewish ‘race defilers’ – Jews convicted of having had relations with ‘German women.’”
1936: “The Committee for Special Jewish Interests with headquarter” in Amsterdam “issued a protest signed by prominent Netherland Jews against the speeches of German Ministers at the Nuremberg Nazi congress.”
1936: “Several organizations made public a message addressed to the Jews of New York by Fiorello La Guardia in which he said: ‘As Mayor of the City New York, and personally, it gives me pleasure to extend to the citizens of the Jewish faith my sincerest greetings on the eve of the observance of the coming holy days. It is my fervent hope that the year 6579 of the Jewish calendar will bring with it progress toward the rapid dissipation of existent prejudice and discrimination of the world. The Jews of the world have contributed more than their share to the civilization. Civilization will thwart the efforts of any tyrant determined to destroy this great people.”
1936: In Kaunas, Lithuania, attorney Zvi Brick and his wife Leah who was a teacher gave birth to Aharon Brick, the survivor of the Kovno Ghetto who as Aharon Barack became President of the Supreme Court of Israel in 1995.
1936: In “Jews Protest Nazi Talks” published today the World Jewish Congress took issue with Hitler’s propaganda machine by asserting that “it was not world Jewry but ‘German militarism which during the World War facilitated the rise of Bolshevism to power.’”
1936: A public funeral will be held today in Detroit for Ossip Gabrilowitsch at Orchestra Hall following which his body “will be sent to Elmira, NY, to be buried in the Clemens family plot” near the body of his father-in-law, Mark Twain.
1938: During the ongoing outbreak of Arab terror and violence the Rabbinate in Palestine “proclaimed today as a day of fasting for throughout the world because of the situation in” Eretz Israel.
1939: Salomon Gluck, a French doctor and future leader in the Resistance, returned from London and enlisted in the French Army today.
1939: U.S premiere of “Dust Be My Destiny” produced by Hal Wallis, starring John Garfield with a script by Robert Rossen.
1940: Sam Rayburn becomes Speaker of the House of Representative. A Democrat from rural Texas, Rayburn defied convenient stereotyping. Rayburn was an internationalist and a supporter of the New Deal. In 1941, isolationist forces attempted to end the newly enacted peacetime draft that was enabling the U.S. military to build its forces prior to Pearl Harbor. Rayburn turned back the attempt. If he had failed the Army would have been reduced to a comparative handful of soldiers at the time of the Japanese attack and leaving American truly vulnerable to defeat at the hands of the Axis. The consequences for Jews would have been disastrous. In 1943, when a group of Four Hundred Rabbis marched on Washington to demand American action to help the Jews of Europe, Rayburn was one of the national leaders who publicly greeted them. In 1948, unlike many Southerners, Rayburn supported Israel’s friend, Harry Truman, in his bid for re-election.
1940: Slovakia enacted laws establishing authority for the Aryanization of the country.
1941: The 45th Infantry Division in which Raul Hilberg would serve with during WW II was shifted from state control as it became part of the regular U.S. Army.
1941(24th of Elul, 5701): Jews from the town of Uman were brought to ditches at the airfield upon the excuse of taking a town census. SS officers systematically went down the line with pistols and shot each of the Jews - men, woman and children alike. The death toll was an estimated 22,000.
1941: Those in camps in Bessarabia. Including 118, 847 Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and the Dorohoi district began to be deported to the region between the Dniester and the Bug rivers called Transnistria, from which the Germans had withdrawn, handing control over to the Romanians under the Tighina agreement.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1942: Paramount Pictures released “The Major and the Minor” the first American movie directed by Billy Wilder.
1942(5th of Tishrei, 5703): Six thousand Jews from Jedrzejów, Poland, are murdered at the Treblinka death camp.
1942(5thof Tishrei, 5703): Forty-nine year old Mendel Dyner, a former resident of Prague, was murdered today at Majdeanek.
1943: More than 37,000 Italian Jews come under German rule.
1943: "The first consignment of two dozen Jews was shipped from a town in northern Italy to Auschwitz. Among them was a six year old child who was gassed upon arrival."
1943: The Nazis deported the first Italian Jews from the town of Merano With Mussolini no longer running the Italian government; Germany had taken control of 95% of Italy. With the Nazis in direct control of Italy, conditions worsened for the Jews as can be seen from what would be the first of many deportations to the death camps of Eastern Europe.
1944: The Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF) were among the Allied Forces that took Massaora, Italy. Among those serving with the BEF was Lt. Col Waldemar Levy Cardoso who served as the commander of an artillery battalion.
1945(9th of Tishrei, 5706): Erev Yom Kippur
1945: At the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise preached a sermon “Banished from the Brotherhood of Man.
1945: At Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman preached a sermon on “Repentance, Prayer and Charity.
1945:”Rabbi Henry Raphael Gold, a physician who is a member of the staff of Bellevue Hospita” delivered the sermon at Yeshiva College on Amsterdam Avenue.
1945: At Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbi Israel Goldstein preached a sermon “Spiritual Reparation.”
1945: At Temple Israel on West 91st Street, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum preached a sermon on “The Majesty of Humility.”
1945: At the West End Synagogue, Rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger preached a sermon on “What It Means to be Religious.”
1945: British Prime Minister Clement Attlee harshly rejected President Truman’s plea that 100,000 Jewish displaced persons be admitted into Palestine immediately.
1948: George Hawkins and Frederick Sylvester, two British officials of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation went on trial for second time. They were charged with acts of espionage, including passing information to the Arabs
1948: Count Folke Bernadotte the "U.N. mediator on Palestine" recommended that the Israel Negev "should be defined as Arab territory" and made part of Transjordan. He also supported the unconditional or Arab refugees to the state of Israel. He had previously recommended that the port of Haifa should be placed under international control and turning control over Jewish immigration to the United Nations. The following day Bernadotte was assassinated by members of a group founded by Lehi also known as the Stern Gang. Following the shooting, the government ordered the disbanding of the Irgun and arrested 200 members of Lehi. This was not the first assassination by members of Lehi. As can be seen by the arrests, the tactics of the Stern Gang were rejected by the Yishuv (the Jewish community).
1948: In Paris, Île-de-France, France Donald Bloomingdale married Bethsabee de Rothschild
1949: “"I Can Dream, Can't I?", “a popular song written by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Irving Kahal” “first reached the Billboard charts’ today.
1949: Birthdate of Motti Lerner, the native Zihron Ya’akov who gained fame as a “playwright and screenwriter.”
1951: The Greater New York Committee for the Israel Bond Issue kicks off its fall campaign at Straus Square on the Lower East Side. David Horowitz, director General of Finance of the Israeli government is a featured speaker.
1951: The 37th annual convention of Hadassah opens with 3,500 delegates in attendance. Opening day speakers include Senator Hubert Humphrey and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett.
1951: Despite the on-going food shortages, Israel’s economy showed growth and vitality today “when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion formally opened the new plant of the General Tire and Rubber Company” located near Petah Tkiva. By the end of 1952 the plant is expected to producing 2,500 tons of tires annually which will be sufficient to meet local needs and leave extra product for export. Ben-Gurion called on Israeli’s to show the same spirit in the developing the Jewish state as had been demonstrated by the American pioneers. Ben Gurion reiterated his dream of Israel becoming an industrial center capable of meeting the needs of nations in the near, middle and Far East.
1953: “The Robe” a “biblical blockbuster” directed by Henry Koster, with a screenplay co-authored by Albert Maltz and Gina Kaus with music by Alfred Newman was released today in the United States by 20th Century Fox.
1953: “Madame De” a film version of the film directed by Max Ophuls who co-wrote the script and music by Oscar Straus was released in France and Italy today.
1956: In Paris, Romanian-Jewish social psychologist Serge Moscovici and of the Polish-Jewish psychoanalyst Marie Bromberg-Moscovici gave birth to French political leader Pierre Moscovici.
1956: Birthdate of magician David Copperfield.
1959(13th of Elul, 5719): Harpsichordist and composer Wanda Landowska, who was credited with the 20th-century revival of harpsichord music, passed away.
1959: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled this afternoon at Temple Emeth in Teaneck, NJ, for Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg.
1960: Pitching in relief of starter Don Drysdale, Larry Sherry gains his 14th victory (Sherry was Jewish; Drysdale was not. According to an oft repeated baseball tale, Drysdale, years later pitched in place of Sandy Koufax who had taken off for Yom Kippur. Drysdale did not have a good night and as he came off of the mound after an unsuccessful inning he turned to manager Walt Alston and supposedly said, “I bet that tonight you wish I was Jewish.”
1961(6thof Tishrei, 5722): Shabbat Shuva observed for the first time during the Presidency of JFK.
1963(27thof Elul, 5723): Fifty-six year old Polish native and University of Michigan graduate who served as director of the Federal Relief Administration in Kentucky before become exuctive director of the Jewish Community Council of Essex Country, NJ passed away today.
1964(10thof Tishrei, 5725): Yom Kippur observed for the first time during the Presidency of LBJ.
1965(19thof Elul, 5725): Seventy-three year old Casper Platt, the Danville, Illinois, native and WW I veteran who became a United States federal judge passed away today.
1965: NBC broadcast the first episode of “The Dean Martin Show” written by Canadian-Jewish writer Stan Daniels.
1966: First baseman Mike Epstein made his major league with the Baltimore Orioles.
1968(23rdof Elul, 5728): Seventy-three year old Henry Landers Bostick “(born Henry Lipschitz)” who played one season for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League passed away today in Denver where he had gone to college at the University of Denver.
1969: Birthdate of Justine Frischmann, guitarist and daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
1972(8thof Tishrei, 5733): Shabbat Shuva
1972: Following the Munich Massacre, Israel launched Operation Extended Turmoil 4 against bases in southern Lebanon, containing an estimated 600 guerrillas. “Golani forces reached the Litani River in the east, while Paratroopers reached Juwaya just south of the river. Most of the guerrilla forces did not engage the Israelis and chose to retreat, although over 40 of them were killed.”
1973(19thof Elul, 5733): Seventy-six year old Kiev native Albert “Al” Sherman, the songwriter whose hits ironically included a song praising Charles Lindbergh and who was the father songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman passed away today in Los Angeles.
1973: “A memorial service for Dr. Ernst Papenk…a professor of education psychology at Queens College” is scheduled “to be held this afternoon.”
1977(4thof Tishrei, 5738): Seventy-six year old General Frank L. Lazarus, the West Point graduate and WW II veteran turned New York realtor and politician passed away today.
1977: Moshe Dayan returned to Morocco where he met with the Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister, Hassan Tuhami. Tuhami made it clear that Sadat was prepared to negotiate directly with Israel, that he did not insist on a conference with other Arab States and that he would accept an Israeli withdrawal from Sinai in return for a peace treaty. Sadat would not require settlement of any other issues as condition to signing the peace treaty. This meeting set the stage for the Camp David negotiations that would take place in the following year.
1980: In Baltimore, MD, “Rodger Kamenetz, author of The Jew in the Lotus and other books on spirituality, and Moira Crone, fiction writer and author of Dream State and A Period of Confinement” gave birth to birth to columnist Anya Kamenetz author of The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing–But You Don’t Have to Be
1982: A meeting between U.S. diplomats and Israeli officials was held at the Ministry of Defense concerning the entry of Phalangists into the Shatila Refugee camp.
1983(9thof Tishrei, 5744): Erev Yom Kippur and Erev Shabbat
1984: U.S. Premiere of “Amadeus” the screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play produced by Saul Zaentz.
1985(1st of Tishrei, 5746): Rosh Hashanah
1988: Joan Micklin Silver's "Crossing Delancey," the story of love between a professional Upper East Side woman and a pickle seller from the Lower East Side, was released in theaters.
1990: The New York Timesreported that Brandeis University, which has a large Jewish enrollment, and the College of the Holy Cross, a Roman Catholic institution in Worcester, are teaming up in a comparative-religion study program that officials hope will promote understanding between students of the two faiths.
1991(8thof Tishrei, 5752): Eighty-year old Viennese born America pianist Robert Goldsand pass away today.
1991: A memorandum of this date provides proof that the “KGB intervened… to stop an investigation into” the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. “The memorandum from the Swedish Embassy in Moscow cites the former head of the Soviet "Special Archive," Anatoly Prokopenko, as telling Swedish diplomats that the KGB instructed him to stop a search for documents by researchers working for the first International Wallenberg Commission.”
1992: On Black Wednesday George Soros became immediately famous when he sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England’s reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchanges.
1992: “The Frontier” a Chilean film with a script by Jorge Goldenberg was released today in Canada.
1993(1st of Tishrei, 5754): The first observance of Rosh Hashanah after the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13; an event that has cause many rabbis to change their high holiday sermons.
1993: As a result the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13 Rabbi Shelton Donnell of Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana, was scheduled to switch his Rosh Hashanah sermon from one discussing the use of time to a talk on the new prospects for peace.
1993: At the Conservative Congregation Eilat in Mission Viejo, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is scheduled tell prayer-goers that if the Israelis and Palestinians can make peace, Americans can also overcome seemingly insurmountable problems of racism, homophobia and poverty.
1993: At Irvine's Orthodox synagogue, Beth Jacob, Rabbi Joel Landau is scheduled to speak about sacrifice, offering the peace accord as an example of "people sometimes making tough decisions in order to do what's right."
1993: NBC broadcast the first episode of season five of “Seinfeld.”
1996(3rdof Tishrei, 5757): Tzom Gedaliah
1996: Judith “Sheindlin’s ongoing syndicated court show, ‘Judge Judy,’ debuted” today.
1997: Samuel “Sheinbein and Aaron Benjamin Needle, a former classmate at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Aspen Hill, Maryland, killed Alfredo Enrique Tello, Jr. after which they dismembered and burned his body.
1998: “Permanent Midnight” the film version of Jerry Stahl’s autobiographical novel in which the author makes a cameo appearance was released in the United States today.
2000(16thof Elul, 5760): Parashat Ki Tavo
2000(16thof Elul, 5760): Fifty-three year old Manhattan born actress Dori Brenner and sister of author Ellen Levine passed away today.
2001 (28th of Elul, 5761): Eighty three year old Samuel Z. Arkoff, a native of Fort Dodge, Iowa and an American lawyer turned film producer, passed away.
2002(10thof Tishrei, 5763): Jews observe Yom Kippur for the first time in the Post 9/11 era
2002: Premiere of “Obsessed” co-starring Lisa Edelstein.
2003: “The Boys from Oz” an Australian musical that Martin Sherman Americanized began its pre-Broadway run at the Imperial Theatre.
2004(1stof Tishrei, 5765): As John Kerry battles President Bush for the White House, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah
2004: A self-appointed “ethics watchdog” “filed a complaint with the Nevada Commission on Ethics, this time asking the commission to clarify Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's affiliation with his son Ross's law firm.”
2005(12thof Elul, 5765): Eighty-five year old physicist Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/gordon-gould-85-figure-in-invention-of-the-laser-dies.html
2005: The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz reported on the Ariel Sharon’s speech to the United Nations. Sharon took the same take as two other soldiers turned Prime Minister, in proclaiming himself as a champion of peace in the Middle Easter, recognizing the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own.
2006: In the evening, Selichot Services, as Jews prepare for the High Holidays.
2006 (23rd of Elul, 5766): Helen Deschmaps Adams, member of the French Resistance during World War II passed away at the age of 85 at her home in Manhattan. As Helen Deschmaps (Adams was the name of her American husband) “she saved American parachutists from capture…and helped Jewish families escape to Spain…She…posed as a secretary at the headquarters of the Milice…the force known as the French Gestapo. She stole the records of people marked for execution including Jews and resistance fighters…" In one of her memoirs entitled Spyglass, this righteous person asks the question “If you had to renounce family, friends, and any kind of normal lifestyle to fight a fierce enemy, would you?”
2006: Jack Kirby was among the artists honored in the exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor.
2006: In article entitled Faith changes in Banglatown, but our social enrichment stays the same” published today Rabbi Jonathan Sacks traces the recent history of the Jews of London.
2007((4 Tishrei, 5768): Fast of Gedaliah observed. Normally the Fast of Gedaliah is observed on the third of Tishrei
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured reviews of The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life by Robert B. Reich, the Jewish economist who served as Clinton’s Secretary of Labor and The Zookeeper’s Wife, a story about saving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto from the Final Solution, by Diane Ackerman.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt and James L. Kugel’s How To Read The Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now which the author says “is intended as a guide to, and a tour through, the Hebrew Bible. In it, he has tried to write down most of what he knows about the Bible, its past as well as its present. That makes it a little different from other books on the subject.”
2007: “Camille Pissarro: Impressions of City and Country” opens at the Jewish Museum of New York.
2007: At the Jewish Museum in New York an exhibition entitled,“The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend” comes to a close.
2008: Release of Indignation, Philip Roth's twenty-ninth book, a story of inexperience, foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual discovery, courage, and error set in the early days of the Korea War.
2008: In Washington, D.C.,Richard Michelson discusses his latest work, A Is for Abraham: A Jewish Family Alphabet (encompassing a history of Jewish customs).
2008:The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a lecture by Joshua Rubenstein is the Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA and an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University entitled “The Neglected Massacres: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories. Rubenstein will speak about his newest book, The Unknown Black Book, which recounts the testimonies by survivors of the German massacres that took place in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and the Baltic Region.
2008(16th of Elul, 5768): Ninety-eight year old Avraham Biran, an archaeologist of biblical sites who excavated Tel Dan, an ancient city along Israel’s northern border, and uncovered an unexpected stone fragment bearing what might be the earliest reference to the House of David, died today in Jerusalem.(As reported by Jeremy Pearce)
2009:Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee a joint project of the Tennessee State Museum in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, Jewish Community Federation of Greater Chattanooga, Knoxville Jewish Alliance, and Memphis Jewish Federation, with the participation of other Jewish communities around the state is scheduled to come to an end today. As can be seen from the following description, the exhibit provides living proof of the vitality of the Jewish community outside of the major urban areas of the United States.
2009:There are now 7,465,000 people living in Israel, the central bureau of statistics reported today. The figure represents a rise of 1.8 percent over last year. The study, released ahead of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, find that 75.4 percent of the population is Jewish, 20.6 percent are Arab, and the rest are identified as others. The study also found that thousands of people left Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the last year, in order to seek cheaper housing outside of Israel's two largest cities. According to the study, the Israeli populace is relatively young compared to that of other countries, with 28.4 percent of the population under the age of 14, in contrast to the average of 17 percent among Western countries. The percentage of Israelis over the age of 65 stands at 9.7%, as opposed to the average in the Western world, which stands at 15%.
2009: “The Other Woman,” a film version Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelete Waldman, co-staring Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow and Scott Cohen premiered at the Toronto Film Festival today.
2009: The 92ndSt Y presents “This American Life: Behind the Scenes with Ira Glass and Others.”
2009:At Jerusalem’s Khan Theater the second and final performance of "La grande magica" (Grand Magic) a play written by de Fillippo in 1949 which is enjoying its first Israeli staging.
2009: The Jewish Studies Program at Tulane University, under the direction of Brian Horowitz, presents a screening of “Waltz With Bashir” as part of the Colloquium and Film Series that is devoted to the subject of “Cultural Judaism” Experience, Concepts and Rival Perspectives.”
2009(27th of Elul 5769): Eighty-two year old shopping mall mogul and professional basketball aficionado Melvin Simon, passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2010: A screening of “Anita” is scheduled to take place at the 14th Annual Jewish Film Festival of Dallas. The film tells the story of Anita Feldman, a young woman with Down
syndrome living in Buenos Aires, working in shop, whose live is torn apart by the terrorist bombing of the nearby Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.
syndrome living in Buenos Aires, working in shop, whose live is torn apart by the terrorist bombing of the nearby Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.
2010: "Black Tide,” Dana Melamed's 3rd solo show at Priska Juschka Fine Art is scheduled to open in Chelsea, NYC.
2010:Wall painting of Tyche, Greek goddess of fortune, was exposed during 11th season of excavation carried out by University of Haifa. A wall painting (fresco) of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, was exposed during the 11th season of excavation at the Sussita site, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, according to a University of Haifa statement released today.
2010:US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today she is convinced that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are trying to seek common ground in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
2010: The upright piano used by Irving Berlin when he composed such hits as “I Love a Piano” in 1915 was removed from the Ascap’s headquarters today. It had resided there for 15 years on loan from Berlin’s family. The piano is being moved to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia where it will be part of an exhibition called “Only in America.” (As reported by James Barron)
2011: The 14th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival is scheduled to come to a close.
2011: Following a traditional Friday night services at the 6th& I Historic Synagogue, Mort Fertal is scheduled to deliver an after-dinner lecture entitled “Dating Smart” followed by questions from the audience.
2011: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said today that the Palestinians plan to approach the United Nations Security Council for full recognition, clarifying that they are seeking to delegitimize the occupation, not Israel, by taking the UN route for Palestinian statehood.
2011: - New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced today that New Zealand will boycott the Durban III conference on September 22 because the anti-racism event is plagued by anti-Semitism.
2012: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the Collington Retirement Community in Mitchellville, Maryland.
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf, The End of Men: And the Rise of Women by Hanna Rosin and The Fish That Ate the Whale, Rich Cohen’s biography of Samuel Zemurray
2012: In the evening, Erev of Rosh Hashanah, 5773
2012: Ryan Braun hit his 200th career home run today followed by another homer which was his 40th of the year. (At the time, nobody knew that he was doing this with the assistance of banned substances)
2012: Showtime broadcast the final episode of “Weeds” a “dark comedy drama created by Jenji Kohan” co-starring Alexander Gould.
2012: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned today that Iran was just six to seven months away from being able to build a nuclear bomb
2013: The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center is scheduled to co-sponsor “Introduction to Jewish Texts: A Melton Sampler.”
2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to sponsor a lecture entitled “Making History: The Proliferation and Impact of Modern Jewish Archives.”
2013(12thof Tishrei, 5774): Eighty-six year old Rabbi Philip Berg, the head of Kabbalah Center International, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: “The Croatian version, of Israeli drama “BeTipul” titled Na terapiji, premiered today Croatian Radiotelevision
2013: “The growth rate of the settler population in 2012 was five percent, which means that the number of Israelis in the West Bank increased at a pace almost three times as fast the nation’s 1.9% growth rate last year, according to numbers released today by the Central Bureau of Statistics” (As reported by Tovah Lazaroff)
2013: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State John Kerry last week that he should try to reach a deal with Russia to confiscate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal as an alternative to a threatened US strike on the Assad regime, the Wall Street Journal reported today.”
2014: “Inside the Mind of a Nazi Perpetrator: The Search for the Rosenberg Diary” is scheduled to open in Philadelphia, PA this evening.
2014: TCM is scheduled to present the third in the series – The Jewish Experience on Film – featuring “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer,” “Sallah,” “A Sword in the Desert” and “Exodus”
2014: The Skirball Center is scheduled to host a discussion with Rabbi David Wolpe the author of David: The Man Behind the Myth
2014: Fearing disapproval by the Russians “a Foreign MInstry special panel” vetoed “a defense Minstry-approved deal to sell drones to the Ukraine.(Times of Israel)
2014: The IDF confirmed that a mortar shell was fired from the Gaza strip this evening, “the first since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect” in August. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014: A fire that broke out today on de la Clinque Street in Anderlecht near Brussels was caused by arson.
2014: The Julliard School in New York “disclosed” the death of American actor Darrell Zwerling who had died in April at the age of 85.
2014: All UN peacekeepers withdrew from their posts on the Syrain side of the Golan Heights and moved into Israel because the Syrian fighers were seen as “a direct threat to their safety and security.” (As reported by Adiv Sterman)
2015(3rdof Tishrei, 5776): Fast of Gedaliah
2015: Behind-the-scenes tensions at Carnegie Hall erupted into public view today after Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire businessman who became chairman of the Carnegie board this year, sent an email to his fellow trustees accusing the organization’s executive and artistic director of a “troubling lack of transparency” and criticizing the board for failing to provide “appropriate oversight.” (As reported by Michael Cooper)
2015: Jewish Museum London’s third crowd-sourced exhibition which will explore the theme of Sacrifice through personal mementoes, historic artefacts and fine art is scheduled to open today.
2015: The rains that brought an end to “the dark and yellowish week that shrouded Israel” is forecasted to continue into this evening.
2016: “A small city in northeast Portugal,” Covilha “unveiled for the first time” today “a 400-year-old Torah scroll that a local contractor had found 10 years ago at a demolition site and kept wrapped up in linen.”
2016: Today, “the State Department branded” Fathi Hammad, “the senior Hamas leader a specially designated global terrorist.”
2016: Columbia Law School, the Center for Israeli Legal Studies and Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies at IDC Herzilya are scheduled to host a daylong conference “Innovations in Fintech” Considerations for Emerging Israeli and American Fintech.”
2016: “US filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner” said today “those who support Donald Trump for president are aiding and abetting racism.”
2016: Shai Secunda, the Jacob Neusner Professor in the History and Theology of Judaism at Barb College is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “You May Not Communicate Oral Matters in Writing” Writing and its Absence in the Transmission of Rabbinic and Zoroastrian Texts” at the University of Iowa Main Library.
2016: A Democratic Party campaign ad featuring Joel Sollender, a WW II POW who was offended by President Trump saying that John McCain was not a war hero because he had been a POW, aired today on National Prisoners of War Remembrance Day>
2016: The Jewish National Fund Conference is scheduled to open with Friday Night Shabbat Dinner with Alan Dershowitz.
2016: The New York Times announced today “that it was reviving the title of managing editor and naming” 52 year old Pulitzer prize winner Joseph Kahn, the son of Staples found Leo Kahn, to fill the position.
2017: QB Josh Rosen is scheduled to lead undefeated UCLA against Memphis State University.
2017: Tony Levine, the special team’s coordinator is scheduled to take the field as Purdue plays Missouri.
2017: “Legendary British singer Robbie Williams” is scheduled to perform tonight at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv.
2017: “Oktoberfest” which “was invented by Jews” began today in Germany.
2017(25thof Elul, 5777): Nitavim and Vayelilech; in the evening Selichot;
2017: In Memphis, Temple Israel is scheduled to host Havdalah followed by Selichot
2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “the Midwest Premiere of ‘Who Will Write Our History’,” Robert Gorssman’s documentary about the creation of Emanuel Ringelblum’s Oyneg Shabes Archive.
2018: “Esther Crain, writer of the award-winning ‘Ephemeral New York’ blog and author of The Gilded Age in New York” is scheduled to lead ‘Exploring Ladies Mile,’ a walking tour presented by the Center for Jewish History, the American Jewish Historical Society and Leo Baeck Institute that provides ‘a look at the merchants who built New York’s grand emporiums and the fashionable women who shopped there.’”
2018: In response to the devastation of Hurricane Florence, in Chapel Hill, NC, Kehillah Synagogue canceled today’s scheduled Talmud Class.
2018: The Toronto Film Festival, which featured a screening of “Vox Lux” starring Natalie Portman is scheduled to come to close today.
2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley who “was almost always the only Jewish person in” his “classes growing up” including his “highs schools in tenth and eleventh grade” where he “was the first Jewish person to attend.”
