January 13, 2019, 6:10 pm
January 1483 BCE: Birthdate of Marcus Antonius, who is better known as Mark Antony (often pronounced Anthony). Mark Antony is credited by some with recognizing Herod as a Jewish leader and elevating him accordingly. Later, he would side with Cleopatra in her attempts to claim some of Eretz Israel for her own.1129: Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Troyes was the home town of the great Jewish commentator Rashi who died there a quarter of a century before the council was held. At the time of the meeting, Rabbinu Tam, the most famous of Rashi’s grandson was 29 years old and living at the village of Ramerupt, which was just outside of Troyes. The term “Templar” refers to the Temple of Solomon. In its early days, the Order saw itself as a protector of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. When it broadened its activity the members of the order learned about banking from the Jews. Unlike others related to crusading activities, the Templars did not engage in the wholesale slaughter of Jews.1163: King Ladislaus II brief reign, during which nothing appeared to have been done to diminish the rights of Jews established by King Coleman a half century earlier, came to an end. 1301: Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary. While his predecessor on the Hungarian throne had approved a variety of ant-Jewish rules and regulations, Andrew took a different tact “when, in the privilegiumgranted by him to the community of Posonium (Bratislava), that the Jews in that city should enjoy all the liberties of citizens.” Things went downhill for the Jews of Hungary after Andrew’s death and they were expelled from the kingdom in 1349 under the belief that the Jews were responsible for the Black Death.1484: The first printed edition of Ibn Gabirol’s Mivhar ha-Peninm was published today.1514: Pope Leo X issued a papal bull against slavery. This is the same Pope Leo who clashed with Martin Luther and who offered protection to the Jews at various times including when he reconfirmed the privileges of French Jews despite opposite from the local bishops and banned the wearing of the Jew badge in France 1589: Anglican clergyman “Francis Kett was burned alive by the Church for inferring that the Jews would one day return to the Promised Land, an opinion derived from reading the Bible” and for his heretical belief that Jesus was not divine. 1601: The Church burned Hebrew books and manuscripts in Rome. These book burnings destroyed priceless parts of the Jewish heritage. One of the puzzling questions is why do Christians have this almost pathological fear of Jewish books. 1639: The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut. “No Jew, however, was recorded in colonial Connecticut until 1659 when ‘David, the Jew’, was mentioned in the Hartford legislative records.” Hartford was one of the four cities that were covered by The Fundamental orders.1664: Birthdate of Frankfurt am Main native Johann Jakob Schudt a gentile who wrote ‘a preface to Grünhut's edition of David Ḳimḥi's Commentary on the Psalms in 1712 and published the Purim play of the Frankfurt and Prague Jews with a High German translation 1716” but who also published Judæus Christicida, in which he attempted “to prove that Jews deserved corporal as well as spiritual punishment for the crucifixion” and Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten which “is full of prejudice, and repeats many of the fables and ridiculous items published by Johann Andreas Eisenmenger; but also contains details of contemporary Jewish life, a source for the history of the Jews, particularly those of Frankfurt.”1690: The clarinet is invented in Germany. No, the Jews did not invent the clarinet. But from Benny Goodman, to Artie Shaw to the Kings of Klezmer, can you imagine the clarinet without Jews or Jews without the “licorice stick.” 1711: One of the largest fires that ever occurred in Frankfurt broke out in the Judengasse (Jews Alley). The fire started at about 8 p.m. in the House Eichel (German: Acorn) owned by the senior Rabbi Naphtali Cohen. 1745: Birthdate of Gershom Mendez Seixas, the son of Isaac Mendez Seixas) and Rachel Levy, daughter of Moses Levy, an early New York merchant who gained fame as an American rabbi and fervent supporter of the American Revolution.1750: Elias Levy, who had been born in 1702 and was the son of Benjamin Levy passed away today in the United Kingdom1758: Birthdate of Jacob de Castro, the son of a London rabbi whose career as a comedian included performances at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and the Haymarket Theatre where he led a group of players known as “Astley’s Jews” 1765: Birthdate of Seckel Isaac Fränkel, the German rabbi who led the new Reform Temple in Hamburg when it opened in 1818.1768: Aaron Hart, who is considered to be the father of Canadian Jewry, wed his cousin Dorothea Catherine Judah in Portsmouth, England. After the marriage, Uriah and Samuel Judah who were both his cousins and brothers-in-law emigrated to Trois-Rivières, Canada. The large family included four sons: Moses, Ezekiel, Benjamin, and Alexander (Asher), and five daughters, the latter educated by the Ursuline Catholic sisters in Trois-Rivières. One daughter, Chavah, married a Judah and two others, Sarah and Charlotte, married Samuel and Moses David respectively, sons of Montreal's Lazarus David. Seventeen sixty-eight was also the same year in which Hart joined with others for found Shearith Israel in Montreal.1781: A day after she passed away yesterday, Mrs Treinela bat Moses wife of Lipman ben Joseph was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.1792(19thof Tevet, 5552): Parashat Shemot1792(19thof Tevet, 5552): Six-month old Benjamin Samson, the infant son of Michael and Judith Samson passed way today in the United Kingdom.1794(13thof Shevat, 5554): Judah Leib ben Isaac passed away today after which he was married at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery. 1798: Birthdate of the poet and writer of Isaac de Costa. A Dutch born member of a Sephardic family, de Costa, converted to Christianity. Oddly enough, one of his major ventures into the world of prose was a work on Jewish History entitled Israel and the Gentiles.1799: One day after he had passed away, “Shlomin Moshe Jacob” was buried at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”1803: Birthdate of Eduard Munk, who taught at the Royal Wilhelmsschule at Breslau and at the gymnasium of Glogau but whose academic career was stifled because he was Jewish.1814: Under the Treaty of Kiel which was concluded today, Denmark gave up all its rights to Norway to the king of Sweden which helped to lead to the convening of “a constituent assembly in Eidsvoll” which turned back the clock on the acceptance of Jews that had recently taken place in Denmark and continued the exclusion of Jews from Norway “as part of the clause that made Lutheranism the official state religion, though with free exercise of religion as the general rule.” 1821: Birthdate of Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, the native of Kassel, whose operatic works included “Die Maccaber” or “The Maccabees” which he created with Anton Rubinstein.1828: In Newington, Louis Levy, the son of Woolf and Martha Levy was circumcised today. 1831: The Scottish poet and lawyer Henry MacKenzie who “speculated that the high incidence of biblical place names around the village of Morningside near Edinburgh might have originated from Jews settling in the area during the Middle Ages” passed away today.1842: In Vienna, Leopold Bruer and his wife gave birth to Dr. Josef Bruer the mentor of Sigmund Freud.1842: According to the Jewish Chronicle, at this time Woolwich “had barely a minyan of Jews, consisting of five or six families” who employed their own Shochet. They had held services for this time on Rosh Hashanah, 5601(1840).1851: In Cayuga County, NY, the prosecution rested its case during the trial of John Baham who is charged with having murdered Nathan Adler, an industrious and well-liked Jewish peddler from Syracuse.1853: In a letter published today, Dr. George Bethune described the conditions of the seven or eight thousand Jews living in Rome under “shockingly oppressed” conditions. At that time, as he pointed out, the government of Rome was under the control of the Vatican.1857: Henry Eliezer Symons married Emma Myers at the Great Synagogue today.1858: In Chicago, Sarah (Spiegel) and Michael Greenebaum, a successful merchant gave birth to Hannah Greenbaum Solomon, the founder and first president of the National Council of Jewish Women.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solomon-hannah-greenebaum 1859(7thof Shevat, 5619): Fifty-nine year old Zerline “Lina” Beyfus, the wife of Meyer Levin Beyfus passed away at Frankfurt am Main1859: Three days after she had passed away, Emily S. Raphael, the daughter of Lewis Raphael and Rachel Mocatta, was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery” today. 1860: It was reported today that two Jewish businessmen named Magnus and Guedalla challenged one another to single combat during a heated dispute over who should control a company called the Great Eastern 1861: Birthdate of Mehmed VI the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He came to the throne in the closing days of World War I. His representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres, the peace treaty marking the end of the war for the Ottoman Empire. In signing the treaty, the Turkish sultan recognized the mandates that ended the empire including the British mandate over Palestine that was a key step on the path to creation of the state of Israel. The sultan lost his throne to Turkish revolutionaries who were angered by the signing of the treaty. 1862: Amsterdam native Michael Waas, the son of Henry and Miriam Waas, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.” 1866: In Switzerland, Jewish rights were ratified. Switzerland had been the scene of some of the worst massacres during the Black Plague and a hotbed of anti-Jewish edicts. This legislation was only passed after the United States, Britain and France refused to sign treaties until their anti-Jewish cantons were repealed.1867: Birthdate of Philadelphia pitcher William “Bill” Kling who was mistakenly identified as being Jewish because his brother Johnny had married a Jew and had never denied claims that he was also Jewish.1871: In Hamburg, Germany Charlotte Esther Oppenheim Warburg and Moritz Moses Warburg to Felix Warburg who came to the United States in 1894 where he became a partner at Kuhn, Loeb and Co. as well as a leading member of the American Jewish community.1878: Among the payments made from the New York City Treasury today was on of $7,976.66 to the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society.1880: Birthdate of Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier who was posthumously awarded the title Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 for his efforts to save Jews from the Vichy Government of Petain and Laval as well as their Nazi allies.1881: In Lodz, “Zelman Salomonowicz and Hinda Salomonowicz Zylberberg” gave birth to Abram Bejnysz Artur Salvin Salomonowicz, the husband “of Helena Salvin Salomonowicz”1881: As of today, the price of l'Union Générale had fallen to 2,800 francs marking a loss of 140 francs a share in a week which helped to cause the Bourse to crash – an event that many claim was the cause of a sharp rise in French anti-Semitism that would find its fullest expression at Drancy in WW II.1884(14thof Tevet, 5644): Seventy-six year old Philip Phillips a native of Charleston, SC, who practiced law in Mobile and served in the state legislature and the U.S. House Representatives passed away today. The husband of Eugenia Levy, he was a Union sympathizer who lived in several Southern cities including Washington, D.C.1887L In Poland, Adolph and Natalia Lieberman gave birth to Sigismund Lieberman, the “husband of Mary S. Lieberman” with whom he had two children – George and Norma.”1888(1stof Shevat, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Shevat.1889: Webster Hall, which is owned by Charles Goldstein, is scheduled to host the third annual reception of the Hoffman House Barkeepers.1890: Ninety-year old Father Ignaz von Döllinger author of "The Jews in Europe" passed away today. 1891: “Russian Jews For America” published today described the arrival of about 500 hundred Russian Jewish men, women and children who plan to go on to the United States.1892: In Lippstadt, Heinrich Niemöller and his wife Pauline (née Müller), gave birth to Martin Niemöller, the Lutheran minister whose anti-Nazi views slowly evolved and whose view about Jews was “a mixed bag” at best.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=100073921892: The annual convention of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of America opened this morning at the Lindell Hotel in St. Louis, MO.1892: Mrs. J.B. Eiseman, Mrs. Edward Pels and Mrs. G. Eiseman, of Baltimore, MD, met with Caroline Harrison, the wife of President Benjamin Harrison in Washington, DC at which time they invited her to attend upcoming Hebrew Orphan Asylum Bazar. Mrs. Harrison said that if possible she would attend. In any event, she would “send a donation of flowers from the White House Conservatories.” (President Harrison was engaged in a re-election campaign which might have been the reason she met with the Jewish ladies. In fairness, her refusal to commit to coming may have reflected her weakened condition that came from her battle with Tuberculosis which would take her life in October) 1892: The three days of ceremonies marking the opening of the Jewish Maternity’s facility in Philadelphia, PA, came to a close today.1892: It was reported today that Adolph L. Sanger’s failure to gain election as the President of the Board of Education had nothing to do with the fact that he was Jewish. Rather it was a case that the Tammany “machine” had decided it wanted to the incumbent to retain the position.1894: It was reported today that Dr. Joseph Krauskopf, one of the leading rabbis in Philadelphia, is coming to New York City to deliver an address sponsored by the Young Men’s Association of Ahawath Chesed 1894: President James H. Hoffman presided over the tenth annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical Institute which was held this morning in New York City.1895: Benjamin Oppenheimer, one of the Republican delegates from the 22nd Assembly District was so upset when he heard that reports circulated by those opposing William Brookfield’s continued service as Republican County Chairman because Jews were against him due to his membership in the Union League Club that he has started to campaign among his co-religionist to gain support for Brookfield (The Union League Club had blackballed Joseph Seligman’s son because he was Jewish and the fact that it no longer had any Jewish members was bone of contention among “uptown Jews..”)1896: Birthdate of Hans J. Salter, Viennese trained composer who came to the United Sates in 1937 where he began a thirty year career of creating music for the movies.1896: Four days after he had passed away, “Frank Mozley, the only son of Rosetta and Lewin Barnet Mozely” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemtery.”1896: The inaugural event of this social season hosted by the Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Asylum is scheduled to take place this evening at the Lexington Assembly Rooms in NYC.1897(11thof Shevat, 5657): Seventy-eight year old Leon Sternberger, the “cantor emeritus of Temple Beth-El” passed away today. Born in Bavaria in 1810, he “was a pupil of Solomon Sulzer, the father of modern Jewish religious music.” After serving as a cantor in Warsaw, he came to the United States in 1849, where he first served Anshe Chesed, 1897: It was reported today that in Austria, Christian and Jewish witnesses swear the same oath before testifying. However, Christian witnesses take the oath “before a crucifix between two lighted candles” while Jews take the oath with their right hands on a Bible open to the Ten Commandments.1898(20thof Tevet, 5658): Eighty-nine year old Lazarus Straus, “the senior member of L. Straus & Sons” passed away today. Born in Bavaria in 1809 to a prominent Jewish family, he came to the United States after the failure of the Revolutions of 1848 in which he supported the liberals He arrived in Talbotton, GA in 1853 and, after a series of business ventures in the South moved to New York City 1865. The crowning point of his business career came when his firm acquired controlling interest in R.H. Macy & Co. A generous philanthropist, he was a leader of the Jewish community who actually lit the Eternal Light at Temple Beth-El during the sanctuary’s dedication. His proudest accomplishment may be his family which include his sons Isidor, Nathan who is the President of the Board of Health and Oscar who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.1898: As the Dreyfus Affair continues to inflame France, a group of law students demonstrated in front of the offices of the Aurore protesting the writings of Emile Zola.1899: It was reported today that Magistrate Sims has resolved the trespass charge brought by Mrs. Esther Wallenstein, President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum. The Magistrate agreed that the watchmen employed by the builders who had been hired to remodel the asylum’s building “had no legal right to be on the premises” he only fined the one dollar because they had every reason to believe they had such a right. In other words, they were innocent pawns in a struggle between Mrs. Wallenstein and the builders, John Webber & Sons.1899: Temple Isaiah, a Reform congregation in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated a school building. The structure was attached to the synagogue which had been designed by Dankmar Adler.1900: Today’s Manila Tribune published “the official report” describing the “famous expedition from San Nicolas to Appani, through the heart of Northern Luzon” included mention of Assistant Surgeon Joseph M. Heller who was complimented “for his qualities of perseverance, patience and fidelity to duty” while showing “great courage in ministering to the wounded under fire.”1900(14thof Shevat, 5660): Fifty-seven year old Abraham Baer Dobsewitch, the Pinsk native known for his commentaries and Hebrew writing passed away today in New York.http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Abraham_Baer_Dobsewitch1902: Oscar Straus “was named a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to fill the place left vacant by the death of ex-President Benjamin Harrison.”1902: Daniel Joseph Jaffé “became associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (A.M.I.C.E.)” following which me moved to Hong Kong where among other things, he would build what was, at its time, the largest dam in the Far East.1902: Three days he had passed away, 79 year old Moss Myers was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1903: In San Francisco, prominent socialites Mr. and Mrs. Walter Stettheimer gave birth to Barbara Stettheimer who gained fame as Barbara Ochs Adler, the wife of Julius Ochs Adler.1904: In South Carolina, Rabbi J.J. Simenhoff officiated at the marriage of Abram Pearlstine and Sadie B. Livingston.1904: In Hampstead, London, “Ernest Walter Hard Beady, a prosperous timber merchant and Etty Sisson to the multi-talented award winning Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton who, in 1938, publisher Conde Nast had the courage to fire because of “a drawing contributed by Mr. Beaton to the February 1 issue of Vogue” in which “there appeared comments that were critical of the Jewish race.” (Editor – while the rest of the world turned a blind eye to Hitler and many Englishman flirted with fascism, Nast gets high marks for doing his bit to “change the world.”)1905(8thof Shevat, 5665): Parashat Bo1905: “Fantana,” Sam Shubert’s first original production” “premiered at the Lyric Theatre” today.1905: In St. Louis, “Isaac Newton Hahn, a dry goods salesman, and Hannah Hahn, a free-spirited suffragette” gave birth to journalist and novelist Emily Hahn who most memorable work came while she was writing from China from 1935 to 1941.http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/19/arts/emily-hahn-chronicler-of-her-own-exploits-dies-at-92.html1906: The plans for a bazaar and ball in the Grand Central Palace featuring “professional vaudeville performers” and “the brand from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” that will raise fund “for the assistance of the Jews of Russia” sponsored by the Women Workers for the Self Protection of Jews in Russia” were announced today.1906: The Board of the Berlin Congregation discussed “the admission of proselytes.”1907: The Earthquake that struck Jamaica today destroyed the synagogue there which was part of “one of the earliest Jewish settlements in the Western Hemisphere.1909: In Goldfield, Nevada, Abe Attel retained his world featherweight title when he knocked out his opponent in the tenth round. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)1912(24th of Tevet, 5672): Eighty year old German philologist Salomon Lefmann passed away today at Heidelberg.1912: In Chicago, at the Auditorium Hotel, Isaac M. Bernstein married Pearl Graff, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Barnett Graff today.1912: The funeral of “Bessie Richmond, nee Abrahams, the wife of Albert Richmond and the mother of Leroy and Wilford Richmond took place today at the Free Sons’ Cemetery, Waldheim.1912: In Chicago, at the Metropole Hotel, Rabbi Stolz officiated at the marriage of Casril H. Barnard and Bessie Schumacher.1913: It was announced at the meeting of the Council of the United Synagogue that the selection committee had decided to submit to the Electoral College the names of two candidates only, Joseph H. Hertz of New York and Dr. Hyamson of London, for the office of chief rabbi, coupling with this resolution a strong recommendation in favor of Dr. Hertz.1914: In Camden, NJ, the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Society is scheduled to host its tenth annual reception and ball at Turner Hall tonight.1915: The Industrial Removal Office which was organized in 1900 held it fourteenth annual meeting today in New York City under the leadership of Chairman Reuben Arkush.1915: In Sacramento, CA, Russian-Jewish immigrants Abraham Ellis and Fannie Goodson gave birth to U.C. graduate turned game show producer Mark Goodson. http://www.biography.com/people/mark-goodson-95423031915(28th of Tevet, 5675): Seventy-eight year old Henrietta Francisca Sichel, the daughter of Fanny and Salomon Bernard Sichel and the wife of Joseph Mayer Montefiore passed away today in Sussex.1915(28thof Tevet, 5675): Fifty-four year Abraham Dantzig passed away today after which he was buried at the Sheffield Cemetery in Kansas City, MO.1915:The Red Cross Fund of which Jacob H. Schiff is treasurer increased by $395.75 which included a donation from the Ladies’ Aid Hebrew Temple of Fort Gibson, Mississippi and brought the total to $438, 791.33.1915: The list published today of contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee for Suffers from the War included Chesed Shel Emes, Springfield, Ohio, Temple Beth-El, South Bend, Michigan, Ahavas Chesed Ladies, Mobile, Alabama, Congregation Agudas AChim, Shreveport, Louisiana and Mrs. S. Stern of Des Moines, Iowa.1916: The text of the telegram sent by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War seeking to gain the interest of Rabbis in supporting the day designated by President Wilson to collect funds for the cause was published today including a request that the sermons on the Shabbat before the event include a plea for support.1916: In San Francisco, Samuel Veprin and his wife gave birth to William “Billy” Veprin, the husband of “Tootsie” Veprin with whom he had three children – Harvey, Helene and Susie – and the entrepreneur whose ventures included “starting the first dry-cleaners on Guam” and “own the landmark restaurant Tommy’s Joynt in San Francisco who supported a variety of worthwhile causes including “the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Foundation, the Jewish Home for the Aging and Cedars-Sinai.”1916: It was announced today that the Clothing Jobbers’ League under the leadership of Chairman Emanuel Neuman and Secretary Samuel J. Klein has pledged $1,200 to be sent to the committee collecting funds to aid the suffering Jews of war-torn Europe and Palestine.1917(20th of Tevet, 5677): Eighty-six year old “Solomon Ullmann, President of the Western Synagogue and one time treasurer of the Plymouth Hebrew congregation passed away today.1917: “At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the National Jewish Home for Consumptives, Dr. Adolf Meyer of New York said that unless necessary precautions were taken there was a great danger of tuberculosis being increased in this country by immigration after the war.”1917: “The women’s Proclamation Committee, a national organization for war relief, of which Mrs. Samuel Elkeles is Chairman will send today to the Joint Distribution Committee its check for $5,000 which was pledged toward the 1917 $10,000,000 fund for the relief of Jewish war suffers at the recent meeting in Carnegie Hall.”1917: “Leon Trotsky, a Russian journalist and Socialist, his wife and his two sons, Leon, 11 and Serge, arrived” today in New York “on the Spanish liner Montserrat after having been expelled from Europe for preaching peace.” (Yes, the number two man in the Russian Revolution found refuge in the United States months before the Communists came to power.)1917: “At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the National Jewish Home for Consumptives held this afternoon, Dr. Adolf Meyer of New York said that unless necessary precautions were taken there was great danger of tuberculosis being increased in the United States by immigration after the war.”1917: It was announced today that “preparations for a ‘Week of Mercy’ to be held through the United States” later this month “are being made by the Central Committee for the Relief of the Jews Suffering through the War.”1917: Among the appeals the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society received form persons in the wars zones asking that relatives or friends in the United States be located was one for “J. Pomerantz, 124 Street, Des Moines, Iowa.1918: The Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies started its campaign today to raise $4,000,000 or more for the year’s maintenance of Jewish welfare, relief and sociological activities.”1920: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Danny Bartfield who fought as a featherweight during the 1940’s before fighting a couple of bouts in 1945 and 1947 as a lightweight.1923: It was reported today that “George Barsky, proprietor of the Hotel Allenby located just outside of the Jaffe Gate in Jerusalem” has arrived in New York for a month long stay during which he plans to raise funds to build a new, modern hotel in Jerusalem that will have 500 rooms with 200 baths, a hot water heating system and all of the other amenities that Westerners connect with a first-class hostelry including a restaurant, billiard room and ballroom for dancing. Barsky sees Jerusalem and Palestine as prime travel destinations and has high hopes for the development of the tourist industry in “the holy land.”1926: After losing his last three fights in 1925, featherweight Wilburn Cohen won his first bout of 1926 by a knockout.
1927: Birthdate of Zuzana Ruzickova who “endured three concentration camps in World War Two, including Auschwitz, was persecuted by the Communists in Czechoslovakia in the years that followed and who persevered “to become one of the world's leading harpsichordists.” (As reported by Rebecca Jones)http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/acclaimed-harpsichordist-and-shoah-survivor-zuzana-ruzickova-dies-aged-90/’1928: U.S. premiere of “Love and Learn” a six reel silent film produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky with a script co-authored by Herman J. Mankiewicz.1930: Fifty-seven year old German Egyptologist Émile Brugsch who in 1881 “discovered the tomb at Deir el Bahir” which included the mummy of Ramses II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus passed away today.1930: Rutgers defeated Drexel today thanks to a 26 point performance by Jack Grossman. (As reported by Wechsler)1934: Birthdate of Tunisian native Pierre Darmon, the French tennis player who “was a member of France’s Davis Cup Team from 1956–67, winning 44 of the 68 matches in which he participated.”1936: Reports published today describing the decision of Conductor Wilhelm Furtwaegler, who relies on the Third Reich for much of his work to drop a performance of works by Mendelssohn, who is considered “Jewish” from a performance of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest.1936: In Bucharest, police arrested 71 anti-Semites after the “anti-Semitic supports of Professor A.C. Cuza kidnapped and beat several leaders of the National Peasant party” as they drove to a meeting in Bukovina Province. (Editor’s Note: There has been tendency in the last fifty years to concentrate on the Holocaust and the Nazis which has resulted in a failure to appreciate the wave of anti-Semitism that was sweeping Europe during the 1930’s in a wide variety of counties that included the majority of European Jews.)1937: Despite “a pouring rain” Jews from Haifa to Jerusalem “gave an enthusiastic welcome to the new Chief Rabbi, Dr. J.A. Herzog”, the replacement for the late Rabbi Kook, who arrived today from Ireland where he had served as chief rabbi1937: Birthdate of Leo Philip Kadanoff, the native of New York who became an award winning physicist known for his contribution to “the fields of statistical physics, chaos theory, and theoretical condensed matter physics.”http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/science/leo-p-kadanoff-physicist-of-phase-transitions-dies-at-78.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=11938: In Berlin, Harold and Lily Wolkowitz Kartiganer gave birth to Esther Kartiganer who came to United States at the age of one where she eventually became the senior producer for “60 Minutes” who “became entangled in a controversy over a program that raised questions about President George W. Bush’s military service during the Vietnam War” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)1938: The Palestine Post reported that one Arab constable was shot and another wounded by Arab bandits during a search at Tulkarm and Kalkilya. Arms and ammunition were found and a number of Arabs were brought before the newly established Military Court in Jerusalem and sentenced. According to the Jerusalem correspondent of the Egyptian press, a special committee was appointed by the British government to study the question of the Jewish settlement in Transjordan. Mr. H. St. John ("Hai Abdullah") Philby, the noted British Muslim who resided at Jedda, told the Arab press that he laments the recent growth of hostility between the Jewish and Muslim peoples, despite their common Semitic origin and their friendly relations in the past. He recommended the abolition of the Mandate and the creation of a National Government in Palestine which should permit Jewish immigration, in accordance with the economic and public needs of the country. St. John Philby was the father of the notorious spy, Kim Philby. 1939(23rdof Tevet, 5699): Parashat Shemot1939: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Does Believing in God Mean?”1939: At Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Shall Jews ‘Play Safe’ or Follow Their Conscience?”1939: At the West End Synagogue Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What’s in a Name?”1939: At the Temple of the Covenant, Rabbi Harold H. Mashioff is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Sacred Fire That Does Not Consume.”
1939: “Joseph Baratz of Palestine” is scheduled to be one of the speakers at conference on Palestine beginning today in Washington under the leadership of Rabbi Hillel Silver of Cleveland.1939: Master teacher and pianist Rosina Lhévinne performed in a two-piano recital with her husband to mark the 40th anniversary of both their marriage and their professional collaboration.https://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/14/1939/rosina-lhevinne1940: In “Season In Palestine” published today Dr. Peter Gradenwitz, described recent musical events in the Holy Land including a series of concerts at the Jerusalem “Bezalel National Museum,” the presentation of a full program by the Palestine Symphony Orchestra without a conductor in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and a performance of Smetana’s “Tabor” by the Radio Orchestra which was introduced by Dr. Kadlec, the Jerusalem consul General of Czechoslovakia. The latter took on special significance because of the fate of the Czechs at the hand of the Nazis and Smetana’s relationship to “Hatikvah.”1940: Of 880 Jewish Polish taken prisoner, 100 were shot on the march to prison. The next day approximately 400 more killed while 40 escaped. The day after, almost 150 more were murdered.1941: In Manhattan, attorney Jacob Goldsmith and fourth grade school teacher Dorothy Markowitz gave birth to Susan Jane Goldsmith who gained fame as “Susan J. Tolchin, a political scientist who explored the workings of political patronage, women in politics and, most presciently, the electoral power of voter anger in several popular books, most of them written with her husband, Martin Tolchin” (As reported by William Grimes)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/books/susan-tolchin-political-scientist-who-foresaw-tide-of-voter-anger-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01941(13thof Tevet, 5701): Sixty-year old Austrian entertainer and art collector Fritz Grunbaum died during his second imprisonment at Dachau after having spent time in Buchenwald.http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/grnbaumfritz/ http://artstolenfromfritzgrunbaum.wordpress.com/http://artstolenfromfritzgrunbaum.wordpress.com/the-collection/ 1942(25th of Tevet, 5702): Sixty-six year old German born American songwriter whose hits included “Peg O’ My Heart” and “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine” passed away today1942: The Nazis ordered 1,600 Jews from Ixbica Kujawska, in western Poland to report to a public place of assembly. The Jewish council warned the citizens about what was happening. The Germans shot the entire council. The rest were taken to Chelmno and gassed by the SS, local gendarmes, and Gestapo. Ten transports of about 80 people each were gassed and buried at Chelmno 1943: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President Franklin Roosevelt met at Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss the future Allied invasion of Western Europe. News of the meeting buoys the spirits of Jews, who hope the war may soon be over. Roosevelt, though, proposes to French North African official General Noguès and later to a leader of the Free French Forces, General Giraud that the French government in North Africa should discriminate against local Jews just as Hitler did in the 1930s. Roosevelt specifically states, twice--once to Noguès and separately to Giraud--that "the number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions...should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population." President Roosevelt adds that limiting the number of Jews in the professions "would further eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore toward the Jews in Germany...."1943: Rabbi Menachem Zemba, “called on the Jews of Warsaw to revolt” saying that "we must resist the enemy on all fronts". He also warned that "we are prohibited by Jewish law from betraying others...” Zemba was killed (19 Nissan) a few days after the revolt began. He had refused the offer of Catholic priests to help him and flee with another two rabbis, believing that he must remain until the end with his fellow Jews. Zemba had published over 20 manuscripts. Many others were destroyed in the ghetto.”1943: The Jewish Council members in Lomza, refused to take part in the selection process. The Germans were forced to select for themselves those Jews who should be taken away. 1943: When the Jewish Council and Jewish police in Lomza, Poland, refuse to provide the Gestapo with 40 Jews, Gestapo agents make the selections, and include two Council members. A further 8000 Lomza Jews are deported to Auschwitz. 1943: Birthdate of Dr. Ralph Marvin Steinman, the native of Montreal, who became a noted American cell biologist and Noble Prize winner for his work on the human immune response. (As reported by William Grimes.) 1944: In New York, violinist Roman Totenberg and real estate broker Melanie Shroder Totenberg gave birth to NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg.1945: Ninety-one year old Gerald Balfour, the brother of Arthur Balfour of “Balfour Declaration” fame who in 1906 “failed to get a vote of confidence from his constituents” because he strongly supported the passage of a bill that effectively excluded Russian Jews from immigrating to England, passed away today. 1945: The SS evacuates the remaining prisoners from the concentration camp at Plaszów, Poland. 1946(12th of Shevat): Rabbi Joseph Herman Hertz who had served as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom since 1913 passed away. A native of Hungary he earned a BA from Columbia and earned his Rabbinic designation at JTS, the American flagship training entity of the Conservative movement.http://www.jta.org/1946/01/15/archive/chief-rabbi-joseph-h-hertz-of-britain-dies-in-london-was-educated-in-new-yorkhttp://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Tradition-Today-Remembering-Chief-Rabbi-Hertz1948: Anna "Ans" van Dike a Dutch Jewish Nazi-collaborator was executed at the age of 42.(I cannot find any details about this. If any of you know about this person, please forward the information to me. Thanks.)1948: “A report came in this evening “Arabs were massing in the hills around Kfar Etzion.”1948: A postal delivery truck filled with explosives manned by pro-Arab volunteers was driven into the center of Haifa where it exploded. These volunteers included recently released German POW’s and deserters from the British Army.1948:Department store pioneer Beatrice Auerbach, longtime proprietor at G. Fox and Co. in Hartford, CT, received the Tobe Award for outstanding contributions to public service in the retail field1949: In Miami, FL, Sylvia Sarah and Clarence Norman Kasdan gave birth to Lawrence Edward Kasdan the writer, director and producer who has given us some marvelous films including “The Big Chill” and some not so marvelous including several episodes of “Star Wars.”1949: Dr. Edwin J. Cohn of the Harvard Medical School is scheduled to deliver the Julius Stieglitz Memorial Lecture today at the University of Chicago.1950: The Andrews Sisters version of “I Can Dream, Can’t I?,” “a popular song written by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Irving Kahal became the U.S. Billboard Best Sellers in Stores number-one single.”1950(25thof Tevet, 5710): Parashat Shemot1950(25thof Tevet, 5710): Seventy-one year old David Alexander, the Brooklyn “son of Harris Baruch Alexander and the former Betsy Harris” and the husband of the former Irene Schwab with whom he had had two children who was a graduate of HUC and the University of Cincinnati who had been the “rabbi of the Akron, Ohio Hebrew Congregation since 1919” passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/01/15/121627134.pdf1951(7thof Shevat, 5711): Three people were killed and twenty more were injured when “someone tossed an army hand grenade in the crowded Mas’uda Shemtov synagogue in Baghdad” forcing the Israeli government to implement Operation Ezra and Nehemiah which brought 120,000 Iraqi Jew to Israel in the space of a year.1951(7thof Shevat, 5711): Seventy-four year old Joseph W. Pincus the Russian born American agricultural expert who directed the Jewish Agricultural Society and editor of the Jewish Farmer passed away today.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9D0DE1DB1339E13BBC4D52DFB766838A649EDE1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Soviet Union told the world that nine leading doctors five of them Jewish had "confessed" to the murder of Andrei Zhdanov, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and Alexander Shcherbakov, the secretary of the Moscow Committee, and possibly other Soviet leaders. One of the accused was the chief medical officer at the Kremlin. This announcement was understood as the so-called "Doctors' Plot," a crude attack on Soviet Jewry by Stalin. Fears were expressed that such "revelations" would lead to an anti-Jewish purge and hysteria, and a possible forced "resettlement" of Soviet Jews in outlying areas. While Izvestia had already demanded "a special status for Jews," the free world and Jewish press described the charges as false, "fantastic" and completely unsubstantiated. 1954: Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio. Ms. Monroe would later convert to Judaism and marry playwright Arthur Miller. 1960: Birthdate of Eric Alterman, the creator of the political weblog “Altercation”1961: Ella Fitzgerald completed the recording of the “Harold Arlen Songbook” today which included sounds Broadway classics as “That Old Black Magic,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon” and “Over the Rainbow” which is popularly known as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”1962(9thof Shevat, 5722): Eighty-four year old Washingtonian and Georgetown University trained attorney, Milton Dammann “a partner in the law firm of Dammann, Roche and Goldberg” and the husband of “the former Reta Weil” with whom he had two children and the lawyer “who helped arrange the merger of the American Safety Razor Corporation” of which he became President, passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/01/16/81779689.pdf1962(9thof Shevat, 5722): Seventy-three year old Mir, Russia native Leon Cooper, the 1910 graduate of CCNY, “president of the Cooper Safety Razor Corporation in Brooklyn and husband of Lucy Price Cooper with whom he had two children – George W. Cooper and Mrs. Arthur Kimelfield – passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/01/15/80379386.pdf1964(29th of Tevet, 5724): Seventy-two year old Barney Sedran, the “Mighty Mite” who played for CCNY from 1909 to 1911 and then played for a series of pro teams into the 1920’s passed away today.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sedran.html1967: At the Alvin Theatre, after 127 performances, the curtain came on the Broadway revival of “Dinner at Eight” written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.1971(17thof Tevet, 5731): Seventy-three year old Russian born Abraham Gribetz, the husband of Ida Heller, the father of attorney Judah Gribetz, the grandfather of Bruce and Arthur Gribetz and the “executive vice president of the Hebrew Loan Society an institution “founded in 1892 to help need immigrants” to which he had devoted 53 years of his life passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/16/archives/abraham-gribetz-73-executive-of-hebrew-loan-society-dies.html1971: Operation Bardas 20 took place today, to neutralize a guerrilla base in Lebanon, near Sidon, where about two dozen terrorists were training as frogmen. During the course of the raid, the commandos discovered a house with several women in it, and decided not to blow it up1971: This evening 325 guests attended a dinner honoring Judge Esther Untermann, the widow of William Untermann for her “75th birthday and 50th year of service to B’nai B’rith.”1973: “Mossad found out today about the plan to assassinate Golda Meir, when a sayan, or local volunteer, informed Mossad that he had handled two telephone calls from a payphone in an apartment block where PLO members sometimes stayed.”1973: After 14 performances at the Felt Forum, the curtain came down on “The Grand Music Hall of Israel” a revue in two acts starring Shoshana Damari. 1975: The Soviet Union repudiates 1972 trade agreement with the U.S. in response to passage of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.1978(6th of Shevat, 5738): British athlete Harold Abrahams passed away. Born in 1899, Abrahams gained prominence as an Olympic runner during the 1920 and 1924 games. He gained a wide measure of fame when his youthful accomplishments were featured in the film “Chariots of Fire.” http://www.academia.edu/716562/_Too_Semitic_or_thoroughly_Anglicised_The_Life_and_Career_of_Harold_Abrahams1979: In Brooklyn, NPR broadcaster Robert Siegel and Jane Siegel gave birth to songwriter who commercial for the Topsy Foundation was a Clio Award.1981: “Scanners,” is a science-fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg was released today in the United States.1984(10th of Shevat, 5744): Paul Ben Haim, prominent Israeli composer, passed away at the age of 86. http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/591/Ben-Haim,+Paul1985(21stof Tevet, 5745): Ninety-three year old Dutch born American silent era film actress Jetta Goudal passed away today.http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-16/news/mn-8507_1_jetta-goudal1986:S. Simcha Goldman v. Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, et al in which a Jewish Air Force officer sought to have the right to wear a yarmulke when in uniform was argued before the U.S. Supreme Courtn 1987: Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian targets near the Syrian border today in the fourth raid on Lebanon in 10 days1988: Today an Israeli builder who is directly affected by the loss of his Arab workers sat in a trailer on a nearly abandoned construction site, grumbling about the workers from Gaza who did not show up for work for the 10th day in a row. ''I guess they couldn't get out of the Gaza Strip,'' he said. 1990: At the Lincoln Center theatre, the curtain is scheduled to come down on the Broadway revival of Paddy Chayefsky’s “The Tenth Man” 1990: Ninety-two year old Douglas Geoffrey, the chief assistant to, and official successor of Theodore Hardeen, the younger brother of Harry Houdini, who performed as Hardeen, Jr. after his patron’s death, passed away today. 1992:John Herbert Adler began serving as a member of the New Jersey Senate from the 6th district. 1992: In “Scuds Are Gone, but the Israelis' Fears Linger” Clyde Haberman describes the condition of the Israeli psyche a year after what became known as Gulf War I.http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/21/world/scuds-are-gone-but-the-israelis-fears-linger.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1994(2nd of Shevat, 5754):Grigory Ivanov was stabbed to death by a terrorist in the industrial zone at the Erez junction, near the Gaza Strip. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack. 1995(13thof Shevat, 5755): Seventy-eight year old attorney Albert Hessberg II the Yale football player who was the first member of Skull and Bones passed away toda.http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/26/obituaries/albert-hessberg-2d-albany-lawyer-78.html1998: In “A Jew Stalin Killed Now Symbolizes Rebirth” Alessandra Stanley described the festival being held in Moscow in memory of “the great Yiddish actor and theater director Solomon Mikhoels was slain by Stalin's secret police, spelling the death of the Jewish theater in the Soviet Union.” Stanley provides a full description of the role of Mikhoels in Russian life, the attack by Stalin and the conditions of Jewry in today’s post-Communist Russia.http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/14/theater/a-jew-stalin-killed-now-symbolizes-rebirth.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1999: Today, Jerry Falwell said "the Anti-Christ is probably alive today and is a male Jew." In his speech, he continued: "Is he alive and here today? Probably, because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish. Of course he'll pretend to be Christ. And if in fact the Lord is coming soon, and he'll be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere today."2000: Guitarist Marty Friedman performed for the last time with “Megadeth.”2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A Historyby James Carroll.2002(1st of Shevat, 5762): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 2002: A terrorist, named Raed al-Karmi, the 27-year-old leader of a local Palestinian militia, was killed by a bomb hidden beside a cemetery wall near his house.2002: Herb Gray completed his term as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and retired from Parliament.2004: Former Enron finance chief, Andrew Fastow, pled guilty to conspiracy as he accepted a 10-year prison sentence.2004(20th of Tevet, 5764): A young Palestinian mother, feigning a limp and requesting medical help, blew herself up today at the entrance to a security inspection center for Palestinian workers, killing four Israeli security personnel and wounding seven people, the Israeli military said. The bomber, Reem al-Reyashi, 22, said in video released after her attack that ''it was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of heaven with the skulls of Zionists.'' Ms. Reyashi left behind a son aged 3, and a year-old daughter. 2006(14th of Tevet, 5766): Academy Award winning actress Shelly Winters passed away.http://www.biography.com/people/shelley-winters-9534774http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011400648_pf.html2006: Skater Sasha Cohen won her first national gold medal at the U.S. Championships Saturday night in St. Louis.2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of About Alice by Calvin Trillin, a memoir about his wife Alice Trillin who died at the age of 63 after twenty-five year battle with lung cancer. The Timesalso featured a review of Heist: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, His Republican Allies, and the Buying of Washington by Peter Stone.2007: The front page of the Sunday Chicago Tribune featured an article by Ron Grossman entitled “Echoes of history: Holocaust voices resurface at IIT” that recounted the story of Professor David Boder who went to Europe in 1946 and electronically recorded the experiences of Holocaust survivors. 2008: In Washington, D.C. Journalist Charles Enderlin, the Jerusalem bureau chief for channel France 2, discusses and signs The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the Middle East.2008: Sports Illustrated reported that “Will Bynum ex-Georgia Tech basketball player is in hot water in Israel where he plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He was arrested after allegedly driving into some outside a bar. The victim survived. Bynum says he’s innocent.” In a departure from the tolerance Americans show for such behavior an official of Maccabi Tel Aviv told the media that “Bynum will no longer wear a Maccabi shirt.” The same magazine also published a column entitled “A Changeup for Bud’s Boys” advocating the purchase of the Chicago Cubs by Mark Cuban, the multi-millionaire grandson of Jewish immigrants from Russia.2008: “Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie” co-produced by Ruth Reichl was broadcast for the first time on PBS.2009:The Leo Baeck Institute and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research present a screening of “What If? The Helena Mayer Story” followed by a discussion led by filmmaker Semyon Pinkhasov and James Traub, a journalist specializing in the responsibility of nations toward their citizens. Helena Mayer was a fencing instructor at Scripps College. She became Germany's woman fencing champion in 1930 and won a silver medal in the Berlin Olympics in 1936. She then settled in the US, became a citizen, and won the US Women's National Fencing Championship eight times.2009: The Jewish film festival season kicks off with the opening of the 9thAtlanta Jewish Film Festival and 18th annual New York Jewish Film Festival2009:Israel Radio reported that the IDF was turning up the heat on Hamas this morning, with ground forces progressing slowly to prevent civilian casualties. The IAF had attacked some sixty targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, Israel Radio reported. The targets included 30 terrorists smuggling tunnels, weapons storage facilities and rocket launch squads.2009:Palestinian terrorists continued to attack Israeli civilian areas today, firing 18 projectiles by late afternoon, including a phosphorous mortar shell that hit the Eshkol region. 2009: The New York Times featured a review of Never Tell A Lie by Hallie Ephron.2009: Gottschalks, which founded by German Jewish immigrant Emil Gottschalk in 1904 as a dry goods store in downtown Fresno, California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.2009: The Museum of Memory and Welcome was inaugurated today near Nardo, in southern Italy. Israel's ambassador to Italy and Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, joined local officials for the ceremony. The museum, commemorating Jewish Holocaust refugees, opened near the Italian town that gave them shelter on their way to Palestine. Between 1943 and 1947, as many as 150,000 Jews fleeing Europe for Palestine, then still under British control, found shelter in and around Nardo, in the heel Italy's boot. 2009: The first stage adaptation of My Name Is Asher Lev “debuts on professional stage in Philadelphia, PA.”2009: Three rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon2009: In “Gentlemen and Scholars” published today Dan Laor describes the relationship between Shelomo Dov Goitein and Shmuel Yosef Agnon.http://www.haaretz.com/news/gentlemen-and-scholars-1.2681362010: At the New York Jewish Film Festival, the U.S. premiere of a “Ahead of Time,” a documentary that tells the story of Ruth Gerber. 2010: The 10thannual Atlanta Jewish Festival features a screening of “Breaking Upwards,” an anti-romantic indie comedy described as an Annie Hall for Generation Y that examines a stifled twenty-something New York Jewish couple who, battling codependency, decide to engineer the dismantling of their relationship.2010: Today, Silvyo Ovadya, the president of the Musevi Cemaati, or Jewish community, said the 23,000-member community has no immediate fear, but further tensions could "turn into anti-Semitism."2010: A bomb exploded near a small convoy of vehicles belonging to Israel's embassy in Jordan this afternoon. No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred some 20 kilometers from the border crossing at Allenby Bridge, 2010 Members of the IDF medical teams preparing to spend two weeks in Haiti following a devastating earthquake received vaccinations today to prepare them for the stay in the country which is known for its poor medical infrastructure, Ash said. 2010: The ZAKA delegation arrived in Haiti today after taking part in rescue operations, collection of bodies and identification at another disaster scene – the site of the helicopter crash in Mexico in which Jewish financier and philanthropist Moshe Saba was killed.2010: Goel Ratzon, an Israeli polygamist was arrested today on suspicion of enslavement, sexual abuse and rape. Reportedly he lives with 17 women and has fathered as many as 89 children.2010: The man who shot up the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building in July 2006 was sentenced to life in prison. One woman died and five were wounded when Naveed Haq attacked the Jewish agency. In an address to the court during his sentencing, Haq apologized for the shooting rampage "from the depth of my being," according to the Seattle Times.2011: Shabbat Tzedek celebrating 50 years in pursuit of justice with the Religious Action Center (RAC) is scheduled to begin.2011: Limmud NY 2011 is scheduled to begin at The Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, NY.2011: The head of the Labor Party’s internal court, attorney Amnon Zihroni, decided today to give Labor chairman Ehud Barak and two ministers who seek to replace him until Wednesday to reach a compromise on an agreed date for a key Labor convention that will decide whether to leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition and advance the next Labor leadership race. 2011: “The Dilemma” a comedy produced by Brian Grazer, with a script by Allan Loeb, co-starring Winona Ryder and music by Hans Zimmer was released today in the United States. 2011: As the dispute over conversion bills and the definition of who is a Jew escalates, Pashkevilim were pasted in Jerusalem today that slam “those who promote fraudulent conversions without accepting the yoke of Torah and Mitzvot.” They were signed by most of the senior haredi Ashkenazi rabbis. 2012: In an interview with the German newspaper Der Tagesspiel Hungarian born pianist and conductor András Schiff accused the Viktor Orbán government of racism, anti-Semitism and neo-fascism, and declared that he would never set foot in Hungary again 2012: “Dear Mr. Waldman” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, MA. 2012: “Bachelor Days Are Over” – featuring Sarah Adler - and “Mary Lou” - directed by Eytan Fox – are scheduled to have their New York Premiers at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2012: Today the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. has stepped up contingency planning in case Israel launches a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the report, U.S. defense officials are becoming increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to carry out such a strike. 2012: The 3rdround of the Jordanian-sponsored talks between Israelis and Palestinians resumed tonight in Amman. 2013: Jason Kander completed his service as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives and began serving as the 39th Secretary of State of Missouri.2013: “SENSO” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.2013: “Numbered,” a “film that examines the…relationships of three Auschwitz survivors” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival2013: The National Council of Jewish Women is a co-sponsor of today’s screening of “The Invisible War” which is scheduled to take place at Temple Judea in Tarzana.2013: The Florida Department of Corrections agreed to serve kosher food to Jewish inmates, ending a five-year struggle that saw the US Justice Department file a lawsuit against the state2013: During 2011, Israel’s population grew by 1.8 percent, increasing the population by some 141,500 people to a total of 7,836,600 by the end of the year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics report released today.2013: “Israeli soldiers discovered the opening of a large tunnel in Israeli territory dug from the Gaza strip which officials believe is intended for use in terror activity.” (JTA)2014: “For A Woman” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2014: The state of Israel is scheduled today to name “an Arrow anti-missile facility for the late Daniel Inouye the longtime Hawaii senator who championed Israel in the US Senate.” (As reported by JTA and the Times of Israel)2014(13thof Shevat): Yahrzeit for Kaufmann Kohler, one of the leading Reform Rabbis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 2014(13thof Shevat, 5774): Eighty six year old producer Richard “Dick” Shepherd who changed his name to avoid the stigma of being Jewish passed away today.http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-richard-shepherd-20140116-story.html#axzz2qhGPobF0http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/producer-richard-shepherd-founder-of-artists-agency-dies-at-86-1201059800/ 2014: JTA informed is readers and supporters that “the board of directors has voted to move forward with final steps of a merger with MyJewishLearning.2014: “A right-wing Israeli civil rights organization today petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni be made to respond to a New York court’s request for information in a landmark case filed by families of victims of Palestinian suicide bombings.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)2015: “Mayor de Blasio and Rabbis Near Accord on New Circumcision Rule” published today described attempts by New York City to regulate “metzitzah b’peh.”https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/nyregion/mayor-de-blasio-and-rabbis-near-accord-on-new-circumcision-rule.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=12015: Addressing a vocal crowd of activists and supporters, Isaac Herzog, the leader of the Labor-Hatnua party, this evening touted the newly elected lineup of his party as “the future leaders of Israel.”2015: The Argentinean prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center today accused Argentina’s president and foreign minister of covering up Iran’s involvement in the attack.2015: Marisa Scheinfeld is scheduled to explain the process she used to create “Echoes of the Borscht Belt” a photographic record of the “degradation of some of the most famous Borscht Belt Hotels2015: “Like Brothers” and “The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2015: The London Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Teachers’ Evening: Teaching the Holocaust.”2015: “Life Sucks (Or the Present Ridiculous) written and directed by Aaron Posner is scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.2015: “Man Seeking Woman, a television comedy series from Simon Rich, based on his The Last Girlfriend on Earth, premiered on FXX.”2015: An exhibition “Anne Frank: A History for Today” is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.2015(23rd of Tevet, 5775): Seventy-one year old Mordechai Shumel Ashkenazi, Chief Rabbi of Kfar Chabad passed away today in Israel.http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/2827815/jewish/Rabbi-Mordechai-Shmuel-Ashkenazi-71-Chief-Rabbi-of-Kfar-Chabad-Israel.htm2016: “Art of the Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2016(4thof Shevat, 5776): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeira, the great Sephardic sage and kabbalist known as the Baba Salihttp://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_4.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/RabbiYosefMizrachi/posts/101521721526192482007(16thof Tevet, 5777): Parashat Vayechi; Completion of the reading of the final portion of Bereshit (Genesis). 2017: The chaplains of The Oxford University Jewish Society are scheduled to host the Seudah this evening with a shiur given by Barcuh Zev Galinsky. 2017: “The Women’s Balcony” and “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: The Conference of JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) is scheduled to begin this evening at the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life. 2017: The Paz Band is scheduled to perform on the final night of the Fourth Annual Winter Edition of the Tel Aviv Blues Festival. 2018: “Speaking in Arabic to US-based satellite TV station Alhurra, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said” that “the Israeli military, helped by the “Jewish brain,” had devised a solution that would see all of Hamas’s cross-border tunnels into Israel destroyed.” (As reported by Tamar Pileggi) 2018: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touched down in New Delhi this afternoon, warmly embracing his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in a surprise ceremony at the airport, and celebrating a close personal bond that the two are hoping to parlay into further cooperation between their two countries.” (As reported by Joshua Davidovich) 2018: In Atlanta, GA, the Bremen is scheduled to host a presentation by Hershel Greenblat, a Ukrainian who “survived because of the resourcefulness and determination of his parents in evading the Nazis. 2018: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Ruined House by Ruby Namdar and Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife by Pamela Bannos 2018: The 3rd Annual Jewish Review of Books Conference featuring Jeffrey Rosen, Daniel Gordis, Ruth R. Wisse, Peter Berkowitz, Deborah E. Lipstadt, Amos Yadlin and Elliot Abrams is scheduled to take place today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. 2018: In Wyoming, the Jackson Hole Jewish Community is scheduled to host two screenings of “Rosenwald.” 2018: In Jaffrey, NH, The Park Theatre is scheduled to host two screenings of Aviv Kempner’s “Rosenwald.” 2019: Curator Ilona Moradof is scheduled to lead a tour of the exhibition “Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War” which illuminates the organized rescue efforts that brought thousands of children from Nazi Europe to Great Britain in the late 1930s. 2019: “Seder Masochism” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2019: Today, J.B. Pritzker is scheduled to begin serving as the Governor of Illinois making him the third Jew to serve in the position.
↧
↧
January 14, 2019, 8:08 pm
January 15588 BCE: On the secular calendar, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign. The siege lasts until July 18, 586 BCE69: Servius Sulpicius Galba 6th emperor of Rome (68-69) was killed by Praetorian Guard in the Forum Rome. Following the death of Nero, there was a power struggle. Rome had four emperors in one year of whom Galba was one. This state of anarchy came during the Jewish Revolt against the Romans. The Jews actually had a year in which to improve their military position before the Romans resumed their attacks or to possibly negotiate some kind of peace. The Jews squandered the chance by fighting among themselves, with the religious extremists becoming the dominant force. When the dust had settled Vespasian was the Emperor and he sent his son Titus with reinforcements to crush the Jewish rebellion. 409: Roman emperors Honorius and Theodosius II decree that previous laws against pagans and Jews must continue to be enforced. "The Donatists and the rest of the vain heretics who refuse to be converted to the Catholic communion, including all Jews and pagans, must not imagine that any laws previously issued against them have diminished in force.” (The Donatists were a Christian sect that was seen as a rival to the Church at Rome. In this case, the Jews may have been “collateral damage” as the Roman emperors used the Catholic Church to consolidate their political power)1559: Coronation of Elizabeth I of England. Elizabeth’s experience with Jews and Marranos was uneven, to say the least. By the end of her reign, small Morrano communities existed in Bristol and London. Dr. Nunes, a secret Jew, was the first to bring word of the sailing of the Spanish Armada in 1588. On the other hand, Dr. Lopez, also a secret Jew, was one of Elizabeth’s physicians. He was accused of trying to poison the monarch; a charge which he died. However, after being tortured in Tyburne prison, he confessed and was executed1582: Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. There are reports of Jews living in Estonia as far back as the 14thcentury. The Jewish community Livonia dated back to 1572. This change in “nationhood” had to be good news for the Jews of Livonia and Estonia since the 16th century Poland was a haven for Jews. They were protected by the monarchs, allowed to name a chief Rabbi and were governed by their own communal administration or Kahal. According to one source, during the 16thcentury, three quarters of all the world’s Jews lived in Poland. 1595: Murat III passed away. During his reign as Sultan,the Ottoman Empire continued to be a comparatively good place for Jews to live as can be seen by Murat relying on Izak Amon as an advisor and employing Doctor Domenico Yerushalmi and Doctor Eliezer Iskenderi as court physicians.1630: In Santa Engracia (Lisbon), Simon dias Solis, a young New Christian was seen near the local church (on his way to a rendezvous with a young woman) and was arrested for allegedly stealing a silver vessel from the church. After his hands were cut off he was dragged through the streets, and then burned. The real culprit, a common (Christian) criminal, admitted to the crime one year later. As a result, Solis's brother, a friar, fled to Amsterdam and reconverted to Judaism.1711(24th of Tevet, 5471): After two days, the fire that had burned its way through the Judengasse in Frankfurt came to an end. The fire claimed the lives of four and was so destructive that the Jews who had lost their homes were allowed to rent dwellings outside of the ghetto until new houses could be constructed. The 24thof Tevet became a day of communal fasting to mark the anniversary of this disaster.1746: Isaac Menes Seixas and Rachel Franks Levy gave birth to Gershom Mendes Seixas.1784: Congress resolved "that a triplicate of the definitive treaty [of peace] be sent out to the ministers plenipotentiary by Lieut.-Col. David S. Franks." Franks was a native of England who had settled in Montreal before the American Revolution. He became a supporter of the patriot cause and joined a military unit from Massachusetts. He overcame unjustified charges of treason in the case of Benedict Arnold and went to serve his adopted homeland in several different capacities.1791: In Vienna, Anna Franziska and E. J. Grillparzer gave birth to dramatist Franz Grillparzer author of “The Jewess of Toledo,” a play “based on the alleged relationship between Alfonso VIII of Castile and his mistress Rahel la Fermosa which although not verified by contemporary documents became the fodder for numerous literary endeavors.1803: Birthdate of Nathan Marcus Adler (Natan ben Mordechai ha-Kohen) the native of Hanover who became Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire in 1845. (Date shown in Jewish Encyclopedia. Other sources show January 13, 1803)1815: In Bavaria, Abraham and Pessle Bendel gave birth to Henry Bendel, the husband of Mary Anker Bendel.1817: Birthdate of Elieser ben Meir Landshuth, the native of Lissa, Posen who gained fame as “liturgical scholar and historian” Leser Landshuthhttp://newspaperslibrary.org/articles/eng/Leser_Landshuthhttps://www.virtualjudaica.com/Listing/Details/639179/Siddur-R-Hirsch-Edelmann-Eliezer-Leser-Landshuth-Koenigsberg-18451822: In Baiertal, Simon Rothschild and Rosina Ullman gave birth to Baruch Rothschild.1822: Birthdate of Isidor Bush, the native of Prague who came to the United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848 ultimately settling in St. Louis where he became a leader of the fledgling Jewish community, a supporter of the abolitionist movement and ultimately an expert in viticulture who wrote The Bushberg Catalogue1825: In Bučovice, near Brno, Haus #12, South Moravia Leopold "Löbl" Strakosch, Jünger and Julia Strakosch gave birth to pianist and impresario Moises / Moritz / Maurice Strakosch1837: In Württemberg, Germany, Bernhard Frankfurter, the son of Moses Levi Frankfurter and Mirjam Landauerm and his wife Esther Frank gave birth to Sara Frankfurter,1840: A new Jewish School was opened in Riga with Rabbi Max Lienthal serving as principle. In recognition of the sentiments expressed in the sermon with which Lilienthal opened the school the emperor Nicholas presented him with a diamond ring.1842: Birthdate of Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and early founder of psychoanalysis.1842(4thof Shevat, 5602) Parashat Bo1842(4thof Shevat, 5602): Two year old Raphael Einstein, the son of Abraham Einstein and Helen Moos passed away today.1844:University of Notre Dame received its charter in Indiana. The famous Catholic college is home to the Notre Dame Holocaust Project—an interdisciplinary faculty group that designs educational opportunities for students to engage in the study of the Shoah. Rabbi Michael A. Signer is Director of the Project. For many students, he is the first Jewish religious leader with whom they have had any in depth contact.1848: Birthdate of Bible Scholar Arnold Bogumil Ehrlich, the native Wlodawa who became a citizen of the United States in 1881 whose works included Mik'ra Kiph'shuto ("The Plain Meaning of the Bible").http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1971_23_01_00_stern.pdf1851: Birthdate of Alexander Moszkowski, the Polish born German satirist and science fiction writer whose The Islands of Wisdom published in 1922 “prophetically described mobile telephones and holography and the acceleration of our present-day high-tech information society.”1851: In Cayuga County, NY, the defense presents its case in the People v Baham, a murder case in which the victim was a popular Jewish peddler from Syracuse named Nathan Adler.1851: In Germany, Sara and Isidor Lewin Pinner gave birth to Felix Pinner.1852: One day after she had passed away, the former Rebecca Davids, the wife of David Barnard and the mother of Julia and Benedict Barnard was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.” 1852: Mt. Sinai Hospital was incorporated by Sampson Simson and eight associates in New York City. It was the first Jewish hospital in the United States. A native of Danbury, Connecticut, Simson graduated from Columbia University with a law degree in 1800. Simson was well-known for his charitable contributions to both Jewish and non-Jewish causes. Two years before his death in 1857, Simson was a co-founder of synagogue that would become known Beth Hamedrash Hagadol.1854: Two days after he had passed away, 66 year old Lewis Harris was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1855: Birthdate of Aristides Damalas who was known as Jacques Damala, the non-Jewish husband of Sarah Berhnhardt.1857: Birthdate of Julia Ehrenberg, the native of London who gained fame as concert pianist and operatic soprano Giulia Warwick.http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/whowaswho/W/WarwickGiulia.htm1858: Birthdate of Colonel Archibald Gracie IV the survivor of to leave the Titanic who had spent part of the voyage “discussing the Civil War with Isidor Strauss” who went down with the ship.1859: The Jews of San Francisco are scheduled to hold a meeting today to express their feelings over the kidnapping of the Mortara child and the refusal of the papal authorities to return him to his parents.1861: Today, as Southern states were seceding from the Union and it became apparent that war was inevitable, North Carolina’s Governor John W. Ellis began “the first definite endeavor” to have Major Alfred Mordecai resign from the United States Army and join the Confederate forces. The governor asked fellow North Carolinian, Representative Warren Winslow to offer Mordecai, who was a Tar Heel by birth and who many family members still living in the state, “ ‘a good position and a good salary’ if he would resign from the Army and take on ‘the work of putting N.C. on a war footing.’” Captain Theodore Laidly, a mutual friend of the two men, actually conveyed the offer to Mordecai, an offer the talented ordinance offer would refuse.1862: Birthdate of dance Loi Fuller whose rumored engagement to Jacob Cantor would keep him from being elected to New York’s 15th Congressional District in 1894.1864(7th of Shevat, 5624): Isaac Nathan passed away today in Sydney, Australia in what was the Land Down Under’s first fatal tram accident. Born in 1792 at Canterbury (UK), Nathan was the son of a chazzan who went to a musical career of his own in England and Australia.http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nathan-isaac-25021866: In Switzerland, Jews are finally granted equal rights. It took yet another seven years for the Constitution to be changed.1868: In Philadelphia, the Ladies’ Hebrew Relief Sewing Association held its annual meeting at their rooms on Julianna Street and according to the Treasurer’s Report, the association has “a cash balance of $611.13.1870: It was reported today “that a large immigration of indigent Jews” will soon be on their way from Western Russia to the United States. The Jews, most of whom are poor, are fleeing from persecution.1872: In an article published in Havazelet, Jeshua Heschel Levin of Volozin becomes the first to issue a call for a truly great National Jewish Library. Havazelet was an early Hebrew language newspaper which published articles by Eliezer Ben Yehuda among other notables.1874: In Chicago, Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation held Sunday services at Martin’s Hall. The congregation’s original home had been destroyed during the Chicago Fire and its new home would not be finished until 1876.1876: Birthdate of Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia whose rise to power destabilized parts of the Middle East, who kept his country neutral during WW II and who led his country in the fight against the creation of the State of Israel.1876(18thof Tevet, 5636): Shabbat Shemot; the start of the second book of the Torah1876(18thof Tevet, 5636): Eighty-three year old Max-Théodore Cerfberr the parliamentary deputy who read the rank of Colonel in the French Army and served as president of the Consistoire Central Israelite de France passed away today.1877(1stof Shevat, 5637): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1879: In Tokay, Hungary, Kate Deutsch and Jacob Feuerlicht gave birth to Morris Marcus Feuerlicht, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who became the rabbi of Congregation Ahawas Achim in Lafayette, Indianan. 1879: In New York, Mr. Henry Berg will deliver a lecture to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at Chickering Hall entitled “Humanity and Civilization.”1879: James Levy, a New York Jew described as “a most expert swindler” pleaded guilty to one of the four charges against him – forgery, obtaining money by false pretenses and violation of the Hotel Act - and was sentenced to five years at hard labor in a New York state penitentiary. 1881(15thof Shevat, 5641): Tu B’Shevat1884: Siegmund Mannheimer was appointed preceptor at the Hebrew University College.1885: Sigmund Mannheimer was appointed preceptor at Hebrew Union College.1887: Birthdate of Samuel Plutzik the native of Kovno who came to the United States in 1905 where he eventually “served as spiritual head of the Jewish community in Bristol, CT.”1887: Birthdate of Joseph Pearl, the native of Odessa who came to the United States in 1904 and became a successful hat manufacturer in Chicago, Illinois.1887: Birthdate of Romanian born American dentist and civic worker Maurice Samuel Calman.1888: Four days after he had passed away, 82 year old Jacob Magnus, the son of Lazarus Philip Magnus and Sarah Moses and the husband of the former Caroline Barnett with whom he had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1889 The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta. In 1888, a customer who had a headache came into Jacobs Pharmacy in Five Points which was owned by a prominent Atlanta Jew, Joe Jacobs, “and asked that John Stith Pemberton's tonic be mixed with seltzer water—and Coca-Cola was born." Coke been certified kosher, including kosher l’Pesach since 1935 thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Tobias Geffen1891: Birthdate of Osip Mandelstam Soviet poet and essayist. 1892: It was reported today that the late Cardinal Manning was held in such high esteem by non-Catholics that the Jews of London presented him with an address of praise when he celebrated his ordination jubilee.1892: James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball. A sport born at a YMCA quickly gained popularity with Jewish youngsters. One sports writer even said that the game was uniquely suited to Jews because it called for people who were shifty and good with their hands. (Okay, it ia an anti-Semitic stereotype, but for once it is meant as a compliment.) Jews figured prominently in the early days of the NBA and Abe Saperstein, with the Harlem Globetrotters, was the first person to give a comparatively large number of African-Americans a chance to play basketball for pay.1892: It was reported today that the President of Young Men’s Hebrew Association of America, Alfred M. Cohen has said that he could think of “no better work” for the Association than to provide for the influx of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He expressed special concern for providing proper education for the young immigrants who will need it to meet their “altered conditions.”1893: It was reported today from Tangiers that Mohammed Benivda, the governor in Morocco has been imprisoning Jews and subjecting them to the last before finning them. The Jews have broken no law and the governor is doing this simply as a way of making money. 1893(27thof Tevet, 5653): In New York Dr. Eleazar Phillips, the author of Passages from the Prophets passed away unexpectedly this afternoon. Born at Schiverin (Prussia) in 1809, he came to the United States in 1849 where he lived in St. Louis and Cincinnati before settling in New York where he served as rabbi for Adas Israel for 25 years. Among his survivors is Emanuel Phillips, a grandson who teaches at the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.1893: Members of the Cloakmakers Union held a meeting this evening at the Hebrew Institute in Manhattan. (The choice of meeting places indicates the close association between the Jewish people and the American working class, especially in the garment industry) 1893: It was reported today that in one three room apartment on the Lower East Side a family composed of six Jewish immigrants from Russia shared their space with 15 boarders, most of whom were infected with Scarlet Fever. This was considered to be the most deplorable of the various unsanitary living conditions which were common throughout New York’s tenements. 1893: Birthdate of Sacki Moses one of those listed on “a memorial monument for the fallen Jewish Soldiers of World War I” located at the Jewish cemetery in Kleinsteinach.1894: At a meeting held today In Philadelphia, PA, a new Auxiliary Association of Congregation Rodeph Shalom was formed with the aim of furthering “the religious, educational and moral undertakings of the Congregation…” It replaced the Jewish Cultural Association which had been formed by members of Rodeph Shalom. 1894: Birthdate of songwriter and music scout, Irving Mills. Mills played a key role in the development of jazz because of his willingness to work with talented black musicians. He is credited with “discovering” Cab Callaway and Duke Ellington. His most famous hit was “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got No Swing.”1895: Two days after he had passed away, Eugene Beaver was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1895: In Random, Poland, “Abraham and Johayed (Landau) Verdi gave birth Jekutiel Z. Verdi, the Rutgers University graduate and Petaluma, CA ranch owner whose an active Zionist, member of B’nai B’rith and Histradruth Ivrith. 1895: Due to “the mysteries and intrigue of the Dreyfus affair” Casimir-Perier “hand in his resignation as President of the French Republic” today.1895: “The North German Anti-Semites” are supposed to meet in Berlin today to decide if they shall accept Hermann Ahlwardt as a member since “he wishes to join the Parliamentary group of ‘jew-baiters’ instead of occupying…a seat in the visitor’s row.”1895: It was reported today that the claim that some Jews are opposing William Brookfield’s attempt to be re-elected of the Republican County Committee because of his affiliation with the Union League “does not hold water” as can be seen by the support he is getting from Benjamin Oppenheirmer. (The Union League had blackballed a candidate because he was Jewish and, following the resignation of its remaininh Jewish members was proudly “Jew free’.)1896: In Russia, Hyman and Sadie Stillman Varbalow gave birth to Anna Varbalow and her twin brother Joseph Varbalow, the University of Pennsylvania trained attorney and District Court Judge in Camden, NJ where he and his family, including his wife Dorothy, became prominent members of the Jewish community 1896: Jacob Schiff was among those attending the “fifth annual meeting of the University Settlement Society” which among other things seeks to create “a better understanding between the rich and the poor.”1896: “The Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home gave a reception and dance” this evening at the Carnegie Lyceum.1896: In Dusiat, Lithuania, “Hebrew-Yiddish writer Arye-Khayim Goldin” and his wife gave birth to author Yitskhok Goldin. http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2015/05/yitskhok-goldin.html1898: It was reported today that that there was a renewal of anti-Zola demonstrations in Paris where students “paraded down the boulevard St. Michel shouting: ‘Down with Zola!’ ‘Down with the Jews!’”1898(21st of Tevet, 5658): Seventy-one year old Solomon Latz passed away in New York City. He came to the United States fifty years ago and became a successful real estate dealer. He retired twenty years but remained active in communal affairs serving as President of the B’nai B’rith Home in Yonkers and a trustee for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Montefiore Home and Mount Sinai Hospital.1899: Birthdate of Goodman Ace, American radio/TV actor/writer/columnist/humorist.1899: It was reported today that under a law recently passed by the Imperial Senate, Jews in Russia do not have the right name their own children as they please. Jews are only allowed to use Biblical names and they may not use a modernized form of these. The police have the power to regulate these and other rules which mean Jews may use only the Hebrew or Yiddish forms of names. 1899: Sydney S. Weil of Baltimore who joined the U.S. Navy in 1896 as a Machinist completed his enlistment today.1899: “Untaxed Property Worth $96, 162, 500” published today provided a compilation of the valuations of all of New York City’s tax exempt property including 2 Mt. Sinai Hospital properties, $360,000 and $175,000; Mt. Sinai Dispensary, $96.000; Hebrew Institute, $400,000; Hebrew School on 104th Street, $5,0001900: In Braddock, PA, founding of The Young Men’s Social Club whose members included Israel Rosenbloom, William Altman, Jesse Bachman and Joseph Altman.1902: In South Carolina, Rabbi J.J. Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Nathan Krapp and Blanche Durien.1903: Herzl met with Lord Rothschild. Herzl shows him the correspondence with the British government and asks for three million pounds from the I. C. A. for the Jewish Eastern Company1904: In Belarus, Morris L. and Sara Fay Reznick gave birth to Hyman Reznick who co-founded the Halevi Choral Society in 1926.1904: The American Hebrew reported that Michael Levi Rodkinson who had produced the first English translation of the full Babylonian Talmud had passed away nine days ago.1904: In Passaic, NJ, Michael and Fanny (Levine) Applebaum gave birth to Juilliard trained violinist and composer Samuel Applebaum, the holder of doctorates of music from Gettysburg College and Southwestern College and teacher at several schools including Fairleigh Dickinson, Kean College and Seton Hall who was the husband of Sada Rothman and the father of Lois and Michael Applebaum1906: Birthdate of Heinrich Kratina who was hung at the age of 38 for his membership in the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group.1906: In a brief session of the State Assembly held tonight at Albany, one of the “resolutions reach which went over without debate” was one expressing sympathy for the Jews of Russia.1907: The Executive Committee held its third meeting during the opening of the Convention of the Union of American Hebrew Conventions meeting in Atlanta, GA.1908: Miller v. Oregon was argued before the Supreme Court today in Louis Brandeis” “as additional counsel for the State of Oregon” had “filed a voluminous brief in support of the Oregon law.”1908: In Budapest, pianist Ilona Deutsch and attorney “Miksa (Max) Teller” gave birth to Ede Teller who gained fame as physicist Edward Teller, the father of the Hydrogen Bomb.http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Teller.shtml1908: In Baltimore, “Bessie and Louis Goldstein, Jewish immigrants from Warsaw” gave birth to Johns Hopkins trained electoral engineer Maxwell Goldstein who was a leader in developing anti-submarine technology during WW II.https://ethw.org/Maxwell_K._Goldstein1909: Birthdate of Elie Siegmeister. “Elie Siegmeister is one of the large group of American composers who have productive careers -- as performer and influential educator as well as composer in this case -- but who are hardly known to the public. Siegmeister was born in New York "into an upper- middle-class family of Russian-Jewish origin." His father's enthusiasm for serious music infected young Elie, and he studied music theory and composition first at Columbia, then in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. After four years in Paris, he returned to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. During the 1930s, he was involved with the Composers' Collective of New York, a group whose project was to introduce "classical" music to students and workers. In the 1940s, Siegmeister continued in that vein by incorporating "the American folk-song tradition" in his compositions. ‘Many of his most popular works come from this period and coincide with an overall shift in American composition towards music of simplicity and directness.’" He passed away in 1991.1909: “If Charities Unify They Get $1,000,000” an article published today described the terms of the will of Louis A. Heinsheimer who passed away on January 1 of this year. According to the will, Heinsheimer will contribute $1,000,000 to the Jewish charities of New York if these institutions consolidate to form one organization or form a federation that will collect and distribute funds for the Jewish charities. Regardless of which format is chosen six charities – Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum of the City of New York, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and Country Sanitarium for Consumptives, the Educational Alliance, the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews of New York and the United Hebrew Charities – must all agree to join for them to get the million dollar bequest. The charities have one year to create the new organization. The new organization would not be limited to these six charities and all such similar organizations would be invited to join. Heinsheimer was a supporter of the federation format which is used in many other cities because it enabled the maximum amount of money to be raised with least amount of cost. Failure will mean that United Hebrew Charities will get $100,000 and the Montefiore Home will get $25,000. Heinsheimer left many generous bequests to family members including approximately one million dollars to his brother, Alfred M. Heinsheimer. The estate is reported to be valued at five million dollars. The executors include Jacob H. Schiff, Alfred M. Heinsheimer, Felix Warburg, Paul M. Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff.1911: Birthdate of Berlin native Martin Herzberg, the child actor whose career began in 1922 with “David Copperfield” and ended in 1930 with “The Last Company” and “Father and Son.”1911: Birthdate of Seymour Arnold Feuerman the Brooklyn native who gained fame as Cy Feuer the “American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated, legendary producing duo Feuer and Martin who was the winner of three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.”http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/arts/18feuer.html1911: Burial of 59 year old of Dr. Georg Jellinek the son Rabbi Dr. Adolf Jellinek and Rosalie Jellinek and the husband Camilla Jellinek. 1912: Birthdate of Elise Ashern, the Chicagoan who gained fame as a painter and poet.http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/arts/elise-asher-92-painter-poet-who-blended-images-and-words.html?_r=01912: In Chicago, Sidney B. Heilbrun married Marian Baer, the daughter of Mrs. Rebecca Baer at the Hotel Sherman.1913(7thof Shevat, 5673): Sixty-nine year old “communal worker” Leopold Herman passed away today in New York City.1914: In Amsterdam, Esther “Etty Hillesum, Riva (Rebecca) Bernstein and Levie (Louis) Hillesum gave birth to Esther "Etty" Hillesum, the young Jewess whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943 describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation. She died at Auschwitz in in 1943.1914: In Chicago, Nathan and Eva (Yankovith) Haberman gave birth to U of Texas graduate and Ohio State University Ph.D Sol Haberman, the award winning microbiologist and department director at Baylor University Medical Center who was the husband of Carleta Jeanne Rambo.1915: In Germany, premiere of “Der Golem” which was called The Monster of Fate in the United States, “a silent horror film…inspired by the ancient Jewish legend” directed by Henrik Galeen who also co-authored the script.1915: “Missions Face A Crisis” published today described the additional burdens being placed on religious organizations because of the World War including Jews who “have big burdens in the Near East and a possible Palestine State.”1915: “Palestine Fruit in Aid of Jews” described a plan to sell “half a million dollars’ worth of oranges at $5 per case in the United States, “the proceeds of which will devoted to the relief of suffering Jews in Palestine.”1915: It was reported today that those wishing to buy one or more cases of oranges from Palestine as part of a fundraiser to aid the Jews living there should send their order to Mrs. Maurice Wertheim who is chairing the fund raising committee whose members included Mrs. Louis Marshall, Mrs. J.C. Magnes, Mrs. Leopold Stern, Miss Henrietta Szold, Mrs. Richard Stein, Mrs. Cyrus L. Sulzberger and Mrs. Stephen Wise.1915: The Hahambashi of Turkey protests the creation of schools designed to convert Jews to Christianity. The schools are located in the Haskoy quarter of Constantinople. He is assured the school will be closed, and not reopen. At request of the Hahambashi, the Ministry of Public Instruction cedes the building of the missionary school over to the Jewish community.1916: Birthdate of Amsterdam native and self-made Dutch real estate tycoon Murits “Maup” Caransa whose “Aryan” look helped him escape the Nazi death camps where his parents and three brothers were killed.http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/726-maup-caransa-dead1916(10thof Shevat, 5676): Parashat Bsehalach1916(10thof Shevat, 5676): Seventy-five year old “manufacturer, banker and philanthropist” Max Adler, a retired partner “in the firm of Strouse, Adler and Co.” and “a liberal contributor to Hebrew philanthropies in New England” passed away today in New Haven, CT.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/01/17/100185251.pdf1916: “It was announced” today “by the American Jewish Relief Committee…that the total of the contributions received by committee to date for relief of Jews in war countries had reached $1,145,217.”1916: It was reported today that among the contributions received by the national fund for providing relief to the Jews in Europe was $100 from the Cedar Rapids Ladies; Aid Society, $33 from the Y.M.H.A. of Burlington, Iowa and $50 from the Little Rock Association.1917: Birthdate of Pennsylvania native Louis “Lou” Dymond who played center for the Villanova football team from 1936 through 1938.1917: Four days after he had passed away, 89 year old Herman Boas, a native of Germany who was the husband of Caroline Spears with whom he had had seven children was buried at the Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.1917: It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler has applied the terms “irreligious” and “un-American” “to some of the movements now on foot among Jews” including “Zionism” which “he said embodied views diametrically opposed to the Jewish faith.”1917: In Baltimore, MD, on the evening prior to the start of the conventions of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, “Har Sinai Temple was crowded at the opening religious service” which featured a sermon “by Dr. David Philipson of Cincinnati” who “protested against the Zionistic movement, holding that internationalism alone would enable the Jews to retain their place among the nations.”Dr. David Philipson of Cincinnati is scheduled to deliver a sermon at Har Sinai Temple. 1917: In Germany, premiere of “The Golem and the Dancing Girl” the second in trilogy of horror films based on the myth of the Rabbi controlled Giant.1918: Birthdate of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser was an officer in the Egyptian Army. He helped engineer the coup that ended the reign of the corrupt King Farouk in 1953. The Israelis were hopefully that the new regime would accept the Jewish state and end hostilities. Such was not the case. Nasser became President of Egypt in 1954 and served as virtual dictator until his death in 1970. Nasser was a Pan-Arabist who had a secular version of Bin Laden’s dream. As part of his dream, Nasser was committed to the destruction of the state of Israel. He opened the Middle East to the influence of the Soviet Union and became a virtual client of the Communists in order to get the weapons of war he thought would bring him victory. His greatest miscalculation resulted in the Six Day War of 1967. Nasser did put the conflict with Israel in its true perspective. He said that he did not hate the West because of Israel; he hated Israel because it was of the West. In other words, peace would not come to the Middle East even if Israel were destroyed. Peace would only come when there was an end to Western influence in the swath of land stretching from Morocco to Indonesia.1918: In the Hague, The Jewish Correspondents Bureau learned from sources in Berlin that the “Polish Ministers of Justice and Social Affairs have conferred with Jewish leaders and members of Municipal Councils regard the settlement of the Jewish question in Poland.1918(2ndof Shevat, 5678): Twenty-nine year old Captain Jake Stein of Bessemer, Alabama passed away today at Camp Beauregard.1919: Martin Grove Brumbaugh who in 1916 “issued a proclamation to the people of Pennsylvania call up them to set aside January 27 as a day on which to make donations for the relief of the Jewish people in the various countries at war” completed his services as the 26th Governor of Pennsylvania1919 (14th of Shevat 5679): Rosa Luxembourg Marxist revolutionary and leader of the German Spartacus League was murdered by members of the Frei Korps, a group that later would support the Nazis. Luxembourg was attempting to lead a Communist Revolution in Germany that would follow the lead of Lenin’s successful revolt a year earlier.1919: Birthdate of “Maurice Herzog, a French alpinist who was hailed as a hero in his country in 1950 when he and a fellow climber became the first men to conquer a peak of more than 26,000 feet, that of Annapurna I in the Himalayas…” (As reported by Bruce Weber)1921: After Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent stated that Benedict Arnold had ‘served as a Jewish front,’” today, “leading newspapers” published “a proclamation…in which 121 prominent Americans, including all living former presidents, denounced Ford’s division and un-American campaign.”1921: The Israel Cantor Family is scheduled to “run a dance today at Westminster Hall for the benefit of war sufferers.”1921: London born featherweight David Frush, who fought as “Danny Frush” fought his 41stbout which he won on points.1921: John S. Fine of Denver was “re-appointed assistant district attorney-general of Colorado” today.1922: In Vilnius, Lithuania, Jacob Kowarski, a landlord, and the former Rose Joffe, a dentist gave birth to Mira Kowarski who gained fame as Mira Rothenberg, a “pioneer in therapy for children.”http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/nyregion/mira-rothenberg-pioneer-in-therapy-for-children-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1923(27thof Tevet, 5683): Sixty-seven year old Buffalo born, Boston trained cigar maker Henry Abrahams, the secretary of Cigar Makers’ International Union of America Local 70 in Cambridgeport and Local 97 in Boston and the “president of the Massachusetts State Branch of the American Federation of Labor from 1889 to 1890.1923: In Glasgow, Jack Morris Cutler, “a wholesale jeweler” and his wife gave birth to Isador Cutler the WW II RAF veteran who gained fame as “poet, songwriter and humorist” Ivor Cutler.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1512258/Ivor-Cutler.html1924: New York native Herman Silverberg, the bantamweight who fought under the name of Herman “Kid” Silvers fought his sixth bout.1925: Benny Leonard announced his retirement from boxing today as the reigning World Lightweight Champion because his mother wanted him to. 1926: Birthdate of Herman Ginsberg. Born in Kansas City, MO to Rose and Izzy Ginsberg, Herman grew up in Cedar Rapids, IA. As the longtime proprietor of Ginsberg’s Jewelers, Herman is pillar of the Cedar Rapids business community. A member of Temple Judah, Herman’s contributions and involvement in the Jewish community are too numerous to mention here. But most important of all, today marks the birthdate of man who is a mensch in the truest sense of the term.1927: The City College Club, composed of 1,000 City College (NY) alumnae announced that Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler had been elected President of the organization.1929: Birthdate of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King. Dr. King’s birthdate is a good time to remember the role that Jews and Jewish values played in the American Civil Rights Movement. 1930: Josephine Esther Mentzer married Joseph Lauter. She changed the spelling of the name from Lauter to Lauder and became Estee Lauder.1930: In Danville, PA, Joseph Sherin, “textile worker” and “Ruth Berger, a homemaker” gave birth to Edwin Sherin, the director of the “1987 docudrama, ‘Lena: My Hundred Children’” which was revision of the Israeli documentary “Mea Yeladim Sheli” or in English “My Hundred Children.”https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/theater/edwin-sherin-theater-and-law-order-director-dies-at-87.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01930(15thof Tevet, 5690); Seventy-five year old Ida Cohen, the wife Eduard Cohen passed away today in 1930: Birthdate of David Zelag Goodman, the Manhattan native who became a prolific screenwriter who, with Sam Peckinpah, wrote “Straw Dogs” and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the romantic comedy “Lovers and Other Strangers.” (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/movies/david-zelag-goodman-far-ranging-screenwriter-dies-at-81.html1932(7thof Shevat, 5692): Eighty-four year old Dr. Henry Illoway, the son of Rabbi Bernhard Illoway and Katherine Schiff and the Miami Medical College trained physician who was the “professor of Diseases of Children at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surger and the visiting physician at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati” passed away today.1932: In Chicago, Abie Bain “was an unsuccessful contender for the Light Heavy Weight Championship of the World today when he TKO’d in the first round.1932: U.S. premiere of “Forbidden” a melodrama based on Back Street by Fannie Hurst produced by Harry Cohn with a script by Jo Swerling.1935: Birthdate of Robert Silverberg, American science fiction writer. Silverberg is a multiple winner of the “Hugo”. Science fiction and fantasy author Robert Silverberg is known for such novels as Dying Inside, Son of Man, and Lord Valentine's Castle. His short fiction includes "Nightwings" (later an award winning novel), "A Time of Changes", "Good News from the Vatican", and "Born with the Dead". In his 40 years as an author Silverberg has won five Nebula Awards and four Hugos and is a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Science fiction icon Isaac Asimov once said of him, "Where Silverberg goes today, the rest of science fiction will go tomorrow!" 1935: Birthdate of award winning filmmaker Saul Irwin Landauhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/arts/saul-landau-maker-of-films-with-leftist-edge-dies-at-77.html1936: “Sir Herbert Samuel and Simon marks are scheduled to set sail aboard the Majestic today “on a special mission to the United States in connection with the increasing difficulties” facing the Jews of Germany.1936: The Women’s League for Palestine held its fourth annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria today where it launched a campaign to raise $50,000 to finish building a home in Tel Aviv for Jewish refugee girls from twenty different countries including those fleeing Nazi Germany. Mrs. William Prince, president of the League, sought to raise $25,000 from today’s donor luncheon.1937: Tonight, Heinrich Himmler, “chief of political police” responded to the protests from the Berlin Catholic Diocese over Nazi attacks on Christianity with a broadcast that “we will seek out and persecute” the opponents to Hitler’s State” whoever “they dare to be.”1937: In New Orleans, “unity among Jews and joint responsibility of layman and rabbi as ‘spokesmen’ of the synagogue were stressed today at the opening of the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” which opened with a speech from Jacob W. Mack of Cincinnati, chairman of the Executive Board of the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.1938: Today, the Secretariat of the League of Nations received “a petition signed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise as president of the executive committee of the World Jewish Congress asking” that for an urgent response to “his request that the League of Nations Council fully restore legal rights to Jews in Rumania.1938: Inky Lautman, who may have been the youngest professional basketball player in history scored 10 points as the Philadelphia Sphas defeated the Brooklyn Visitations. (As reported by Bob Wechsler.http://www.mrbasketball.net/instuff/zlargeImages/inkyLautman.html1939: “L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, publishes a homily by Bishop Giovanni Cazzani of Cremona supporting the Italian anti-Semitic race laws because they accomplish something the Church has long sought: to reverse Jewish emancipation.”1939: Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi leader who would be executed after the Nuremberg Trials in 1946 expressed his opposition to a Jewish state in Palestine1939: Today, during the Spanish Civil War Robert Capa, the Hungarian born Jewish combat photographer and photo journalist photographed “civilians from the threatened town of Tarragona on their way to seek refuge in Barcelona, before that city itself had to be evacuated.”1939: Today, during the Spanish Civil War Robert Capa, the Hungarian born Jewish combat photographer and photo journalist photographed “Civilians from the threatened town of Tarragona pushing their wagon on their way to seek refuge in Barcelona, before that city itself had to be evacuated.”http://www.albavolunteer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/capa.png
1939: Today, during the Spanish Civil War Robert Capa, the Hungarian born Jewish combat photographer and photo journalist captured the after-math of war with a photo of “discarded clothing and bedding on the road from Tarragona to Barcelona.http://www.albavolunteer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Capa3.png1939: Birthdate of Bristol born yachtsman Tony Bullimore.1939: Dr. Peter Gradenwtiz reports on the opening of the Palestine Orchestra’s third season. The orchestra was officially launched in December of 1936 with a concert conducted by Arturdo Toscanini. Conductors for this year’s Winter Season, which actually began in November, include Dr. Malcom Saregent, Issay Dobrowen and Georg Szell. Dr. Gradenwitz also reports that the Palestine branch of the International Society for Contemporary Music which was founded in 1938 opened its concert series with a program devoted to the works of Maurice Ravel.1942: Fifty-six year old Oskar Blumenthal was transported from Terezin to Riga today after which he was murdered.1943: In a tribute to the late Dr. Arthur Ruppin appearing the New York Times Book Section, Louis E. Leventhal writes “Dr. Arthur Ruppin, who died recently in Jerusalem at the age of 67, after nearly forty years of intensive but modest labor in promoting the colonization and modernization of the Holy Land deserves an expression of tribute on behalf of the numerous friends and admirers he won in the United States as well as in many other countries.”1943: The Germans emptied the detention camp at Zaslaw and placed the Jews in trains to be sent to Belzac to be gassed. Given neither food nor water, the train remained stationary for three days. All but one of the prisoners was eventually killed. He was Emil Manaster who was able to jump from the train and found sanctuary with his sister Jaffa, with Jozef Zwonarz, a Polish engineer.1943: The first transport of Jews from Amsterdam was sent to concentration camp Vught located in southern Holland.1943: A non-Jewish Polish woman and her one-year-old child are shot at the Pilica River in Poland because the woman has aided Jews.1943: Seventy-seven Jews leap from a deportation train traveling east from Belgium. Most are hunted down and killed by German and Flemish SS troops1944: At the Vught Concentration Camp 74 women were put in 1 cell. Ten died of the overcrowding.1944: The Jews of Belgium were among the latest victims of the German efforts to rid smaller areas of their Jewish population. Most were sent to Birkenau.1945: Birthdate of David John Pleat, the native of Nottingham, “an English football payers turned manager and sports commentator.”https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g187069-d218234-i100495299-Manchester_Jewish_Museum-Manchester_Greater_Manchester_England.html1945 (1st of Shevat, 5705): All Jewish women at the Brodnica labor camp who were too sick or weak to be moved were shot.1945: As the Americans went on the offensive in what was known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Big Red One, including Samuel Fuller, launched its part of the Allied counteroffensive to reduce the Bulge.1945: SS camp officials report that there are almost 54,000 prisoners in the Ravensbrück camp, including nearly 8,000 men.. Ravensbrück had grown into an administrative center for more than 40 subcamps located near armaments factories across east-central Germany. (Jewish Virtual Library) 1945: During its major winter offensive, the Soviet Army freed Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp. As the war came to an end, many Jews had a mistakenly positive view of the Soviet Union because she was seen as the liberator of concentration camps.1948: The issue of the Phoenix Jewish News was published today. By the end of the year, M.B. Goldman and Joseph S. Stocker would become co-publisher, changing the paper from a monthly to a bi-weekly and changing its name to the Jewish Jews of Greater Phoenix1948(4thof Shevat, 5708): A platoon of 35 volunteers - half from Palmach and half from Hish - on its way to reinforce those holding the Etzion Bloc, was ambushed and killed by 100s of armed Arabs. The Jews fought to the last man. 1948(4thof Shevat, 5708): Seventy-two year old Jacob William Mack, who served as chairman of the executive board of the Hebrew Union College, president of Wise Temple, president of the International Garment Manufacturers and chairman of the Mack Shirt Corporation passed away today in Cincinnati, Ohio.1948: Jewish settlers, using aircraft for the first time, beat off a heavy Arab attack on settlements at Kfar Etzion, near Hebron, today. The fight there, and others in Haifa and near Beersheba, produced one of the heaviest daily casualty lists to date, with twenty-nine killed and seventy-five wounded so far.1949: After 23 performances “The Rape of Lucretia” with Kitty Carlisle in the title role and Brenda Lewis as the Female Chorus closed out its first production on Broadway.1949: After 5 performances at the Lyceum Theatre, the curtain came down “The Smile of the World” written by Garson Kanin 1951: Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.1953: The Jerusalem Post was preoccupied with the "Doctors' Plot," the false charges instigated by Kremlin against Jewish physicians, but aimed by Stalin against the entire Soviet Jewry. In Rangoon, at the Asian Socialist Conference, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett said that Soviet charges against Jewish doctors showed the Russians intended to "pursue with vengeance the line of making Jews a scapegoat." The Knesset and numerous Jewish organizations severely denounced this new, most dangerous and unjustified development. The Times of London perceived the possibility that the "Doctors' Plot" would be followed by the creation of controlled anti-Semitism, massive arrests and deportations. 1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Asian Socialist Conference in Rangoon had urged Israel and the Arab states to recognize the existing borders as the first step towards the solving the Palestine conflict and urged the adoption of a similar policy for India and Pakistan1953: A month after premiering in Los Angeles, “The Bad and the Beautiful” starring Kirk Douglas and with music by David Raskin was released in the rest of the United States today.1954: “Knights of the Round Table” produced by Pandro S. Berman was released in the United States today.1955(21stof Tevet, 5715): Parashat Shemot; Start reading the second book of the Torah.1955(21stof Tevet, 5715): Seventy-two year old Baron Louis de Rothschild who headed the Vienna branch of the famed banking house when the Nazi annexed Austria passed away today.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A06E3D8173FE43ABC4E52DFB766838E649EDE1955: A television version “Naught Marietta,” an operetta which was first successfully produced by Oscar Hammerstein in 1910 was broadcast today.1955: Dmitri Shostakovich's "From Jewish Folk Poetry" premiered in Leningrad.1956(2ndof Shevat, 5716): Eighty-year old Rabbi Jacob L. Andron, the Russian born son of Rabbi Samuel I Andron and “Frume Rachel” Andron and the husband of Yetta Andron with whom he had five children—Esther, Judith, David, Philip and Elihu— whose career as an educator included the founding of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School and whose career as a resort executive included ownership of the Prince Michael Hotel in Miami Beach passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/01/17/86501025.pdf 1956: Birthdate of Minnesota native Marc Tressman who for two years served as head coach of the Chicago Bears making him the only Jew to hold such a position; a position from which he was fired after compiling a record of 13 wins and 19 losses.1957: A ranking official of Youth Aliyah, an international agency devoted to the rescue and rehabilitation of Jewish children, expressed sharp concern over what he termed "virulent anti-Semitism" among Hungarian refugees in Austria. The Hungarians, Jew and Gentile alike, had taken refuge in Austria following the failed Hungarian uprising against the Soviets in the fall of 1956.1960(15thof Tevet, 5720): Eighty-seven year old Bohemian born and Prague trained medical doctor Ernest Peter Pick who fled Austria after the Anschluss and settled in the United States in 1939 “where he joined the medical staffs of Columbia University and Mount Sinai Hospital and who was the husband of “the former Margaret Janssen” passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/01/16/119452450.pdf1960: When Israel move’s forces to its northern border in response to Syrian shelling from the Golan Heights, the Soviet Union deliberately seeks to heighten the crisis by misleadingly telling the Syrians that the Israeli’s are massing for an attack. 1962(10thof Shevat, 5722): Sixty-two year old actor Kenneth MacKenna, the grandson of Rabbi Moses Mielziner passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/01/17/89827690.pdf1964(1st of Shevat, 5724): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1964: Birthdate of Bruce Schneier, computer programmer and author.1964: David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” opens on Broadway.1967: An exhibition featuring Chanukah candelabras and lamps is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum in NYC.1968(14thof Tevet, 5728): Sixty-nine year old physicist Leopold Infeld, a colleague of Albert Einstein passed away today.http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Infeld.htmlhttp://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Infeld_Leopold1968: CBS broadcast the final episode of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” the spy-spoof featuring the music of Jerry Goldsmith.1968: After leaving England, the INS Dakar arrived this morning at Gibraltar.1970(8thof Shevat, 5730): Leah Goldberg passed away. Born at Königsberg in 1911, she “settled in Tel Aviv where she worked as a literary adviser to Habimah, the national theater, and an editor for the publishing company Sifriyat HaPoalim (Workers' Library).” This was the first step on road that would led to a career as a “prolific Hebrew poet, author, playwright, literary translator, and researcher of Hebrew literature.”1970: Birthdate of Irina Palina the native or Russia who “won a gold medal in the Women's Team event at the Table Tennis World Cup in 1994.”1970: Israeli archaeologists reported uncovering the first evidence supporting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by military forces of the ancient Roman Empire.1972: Birthdate of Claudia Anne I. Winkleman, a British television presenter, radio personality and journalist. Winkleman is the daughter of Eve Pollard, former editor of the Sunday Express, and Barry Winkleman former publisher of The Times Atlas of the World. 1973: Gene Shalit joins the Today Show panel. The Jewish film critic with the bushy moustache is father of Willa Shalit who has gained artistic fame in her own right.1974(21st of Tevet, 5734): Sixty-seven year old Yosef Serlin a native of Bialystok who made Aliyah in 1933 and became an MK and cabinet minister, passed away today.1974:"Happy Days" begins an 11 year run on ABC. This hit sit-com that presented an idealized picture of post-war America starred two Jewish actors – Tom Bosley as the father and Henry Winkler as the sanitized thug “Fonzie.”1976: Birthdate of Milwaukee native Douglas Mitchell “Doug” Gottlieb, the Notre Dame transfer who starred for the Oklahoma State University Basketball team after which he turned pro before become a television commentator.https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/doug-gottlieb-1.html1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat complained that he got "nothing" from Israeli negotiators and saw no hope for an early Egyptian-Israeli agreement. But foreign ministers of both Israel and Egypt were conducting hectic consultations in order to prepare themselves for the joint meeting of the political negotiating committee, to be held in Jerusalem.1979: Yitzhak Moda’i began serving as Communications Minister\\1981: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Hill Street Blue” the long running police drama created by Steven Bocho.1981 (10th of Shevat, 5741): Representative Emanuel Celler passed away at the age the age of 92. “Manny” Celler was a Congressman from New York from 1923 to 1973. He was a champion of the underprivileged and the working class. He was a stalwart supporter of Civil Rights. As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee he maneuvered the 1964 Civil Rights Act through the House despite opposition from Southern segregationists and their Republican allies. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Celler.htmlhttp://spartacus-educational.com/USAceller.htmhttp://wymaninstitute.org/articles/2004-04-passover.php1982: German police searched for the perpetrators of a bomb attack that ripped through an Israeli restaurant in West Berlin. The blast killed a 14-month old girl and injured 25 diners. Six Palestinians belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were suspected.1982:”Torch Song Trilogy” “a collection of three one-act plays by Harvey Fierstein” that “centers on Arnold Beckooff a torching singing Jewish drag queen” transferred from the Richard Allen Center to the Actors’ Playhouse in Greenwich village “Where it ran 117 performances.1983(3rd of Sivan, 5743): Meyer Lansky passed away, Born Maier Suchowljansky in Russia in 1902, Lansky moved to the United States in 1911. Lansky is probably the most famous of all Jewish mobsters. When faced with charges of tax evasion, Lansky fled to Israel, seeking protection under the Law of Return. Ultimately, the Israeli government gave him up and Lansky came back to serve a prison sentence.http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/16/obituaries/meyer-lansky-is-dead-at-81-financial-wizard-of-organized-crime.html1984: As the body of Major Saad Haddad, the commander of the Israeli backed militia lay in state “hundreds of Lebanese and Israelis paid tribute to him.”1984: Birthdate of Los Angeles native Benjamin Aaron Shapiro who is political commentator and author whose first book was Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth.1986: In Washington, DC, Louis Rubenstein, “a businessman who owns Royal Vending Co., 2615 Evarts St. NE. Rubenstein, 60, was arrested today on charges of theft of government property and conspiring to receive stolen goods” which came to light during a two and half year investigation “of a Washington area drug ring” and the illegal use of gambling machines and sale of counterfeit video games that involved New Jersey mobster Myron Sugarman.1988: After a limited release in December, “Good Morning America” director by Barry Levinson was released throughout the rest of the United States today.1988: Start of the first intifada which was really just another round of Arab mob violence and terror designed to drive the Jews from the land of Israel. Those who saw this as something new apparently missed the Arab Riots of the 1920’s or the Arab Uprising against the British that took place in the years prior to World War II. 1989: Amos Mansdorf, the native of Ramat HaSharon was the runner-up in the tennis tournament at Auckland, NZ1989: In “Maine Rabbi's Specialty Is Helping Counselors” published today Lynn Riddle described the unique career of Rabbi Harry Sky.http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/15/us/maine-rabbi-s-specialty-is-helping-counselors.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1990(18th of Tevet, 5750): Uriel G. Foa, a social psychologist and professor emeritus at Temple University, died of an aortic aneurysm today at Osteopathic Hospital in Philadelphia. He was 73 years old and lived in Penn Valley, Pa. Dr. Foa, a specialist in interpersonal relations, joined the Temple faculty in 1971. He was born in Parma, Italy, and received doctoral degrees from the University of Parma and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a co-founder and executive director of the Institute of Applied Social Research in Jersualem and chairman of the department of psychology at Bar-Ilan University before coming to the United States in 1965. Dr. Foa is survived by two sons, Gad and Ephraim, who live in Israel; four daughters, Ora Tamar Goldstein and Hagar Foa, also of Israel, and Yael and Michelle, both of Penn Valley, and nine grandchildren.1888: “For Keeps,” a “comedy drama featuring Pauly Shore was released in the United States today.1990: Rafeal Pinhasi begins serving as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.1990: An off-duty Israeli soldier was stabbed as she walked along a narrow street in Jerusalem's Old City today, and 30 Palestinians were detained for questioning. The Israeli soldier, identified as Pvt. Halit Avni, 18 years old, of Tel Aviv, was stabbed six times in the back and chest, the police said. She was listed in stable condition at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem.1991: Four hundred Yeshiva University students from New York City who formed Operation Torah Shield have paid $50 each for a seat on a charter flight from Kennedy International Airport so that they could be in Tel Aviv by this morning which coincides with the deadline set by the United Nations for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Iraq’s President Hussein has threatened Israel with missile attacks if the UN should take military action to enforce its deadline.1991: On the day the United Nations set as the deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, the commander of the Israeli Air Force said that the United States and Israel still have no mechanisms in place to coordinate the two nation's military activities. And, Maj. Gen. Avihu Bin-Nun said in a news briefing, Israel has little faith that the United States will give Israel advance warning if Iraq, as it has threatened, fires missiles at Tel Aviv. "We may not have any notice, and the first notice may be when the missile hits," the general said.1993 (22nd of Tevet, 5753):Songwriter Sammy Cahn passed away at the age of 79. One of his most enduring hits was Bei Mir Bist Du Schön. (As reported by Stephen Holden)http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/16/arts/sammy-cahn-word-weaver-of-tin-pan-alley-dies-at-79.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1993: At the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, a Palestinian from Gaza stabbed four people to death including a Lebanese Arab visiting the city. Islamic Jihad took credit for the attack.1998: A revival production of “June Moon” co-authored by George Kaufman who directed the original Broadway production, opened at the Variety Arts Theatre and ran for 101 performances.2001: In an article entitled “New Conflict Begets Culture War by Israeli Artists,” Deborah Sontag describes ''Artists Against a Strong Hand,’’ an exhibit at Tel Aviv’s Beit Haam, that features the work of 70 artists who were asked to produce something specifically related to the current political situation. The works will be sold to benefit Palestinian medical clinics. 2002: The Governor General of Canada granted Herb Gray the title "The Right Honourable", in honour of his distinguished and record-setting contribution to Canadian political life2002: Philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, founder of Steinhardt Partners and chairman of Tel Aviv University was named as one of those investing in The New York Sun, a daily newspaper being started by investors and former members of The Forward. Its editor will be Seth Lipsky, the former editor of The Forward, the English-language descendant of the Yiddish daily, and vice president of the new paper's parent publishing company. 2003(12thof Shevat, 5763): Eighty-seven year old songwriter Doris Fisher passed away today.http://www.ascap.com/press/2003/dorisfisher_012303.aspxhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/25/arts/doris-fisher-87-songwriter-for-films-and-ella-fitzgerald.html2004(21st of Tevet, 5764): Olivia Goldsmith, author of The First Wives’ Clubpassed awayhttp://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_9852/2006: Silvan Shalom completed his term as Deputy Prime Minister. 2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Small Steps by Louis Sachar and The Cosmic Landscape:String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design by Leonard Susskind.2006: Neil Diamond performed a concert on the opening night of the new Stockton Arena in Stockton, California. Diamond had been paid a $1,000,000 fee to perform, but, due to slow ticket sales and inadequate time to promote the event, the city budget suffered a nearly $400,000 loss that resulted in the dismissal of the Stockton city manager several days later2006: The Israel Defense Forces are threatening to declare the Jewish settlement in Hebron a closed military area if settler riots against policemen and soldiers do not stop. Today marks the third straight of rioting. The riots have involved settlers throwing stones as well as eggs and paint balloons at soldiers and policemen. The rioters' goal is to thwart implementation of the army's order to evacuate Jewish squatters from the city's wholesale vegetable market.2007: Sports Illustrated Magazine reported that long distance runner Mushir Salem Jawher was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship because he competed in Israel. The native of Kenya had moved to Bahrain where he was hailed as hero for winning a Silver Medal in the five thousand meter run at the 2006 Asian Games. But when he competed in, and won, the Tiberias Marathon in Israel, the head of the Baharain Athletics Association declared his behavior was “outside the rules.” According to SI, Jawher was “‘very proud’ to have run in Israel and that ‘people should live together in harmony.’”2008: In Washington, D.C., Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg discusses and signs Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning2008: In Rockville, MD, Dennis Ross discusses and signs Statecraft: And How to RestoreAmerica's Standing in the World at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.2008: Israel killed at least 18 Palestinians, most of them Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip; 2009: The New York State Attorney General “issued subpoenas to three investments funds run by Ezra Merkin and 15 nonprofits which they lost money due to Ezra Merkin and Bernard Madoff.2009: The IPO (Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) in Jeans performs at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium2009: The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival features a screening “Strangers” a film about an Israeli kibbutznik and a Palestinian woman who meet serendipitously on their way to the World Cup finals in Berlin which was the Best Drama winner at the Sundance Film Festival.2009: Today, some 25 rockets were fired on southern Israel. 2009: An additional 86 counts of bank fraud, false statements and reports to a bank, money laundering and aiding and abetting and willful violation of orders from the secretary of agriculture were filed against Sholom Rubashkin and Agriprocessors.2010(29thof Tevet, 5770): Seventy-one year old “Michael T. Kaufman, a former foreign correspondent, reporter and columnist for The New York Times who chronicled despotic regimes in Europe and Africa, the fall of Communism and the changing American scene for four decades, died today in Manhattan.”(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/nyregion/16kaufman.html?_r=02010: Friday night services are followed by a pot-luck supper and program that examines the unique philosophy and teachings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and what they mean to modern American Jews.2010:In Washington, D.C., Adas Israel hosts The Ruach Minyan service and dinner in the Miller Chapel.2010:Journalist and filmmaker Naomi Klein discusses and signs her books "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" and "No Logo: 10th Anniversary Edition" at Busboys and Poets (14th St.),2010: The 10thannual Atlanta Jewish Festival features screenings of “Breaking Upwards” and “Berlin ’36.”2010: Two planes are scheduled to land in Haiti today carrying the IDF medical teams and their supplies following Wednesday’s earthquake that devastated the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.2010(29th of Tevet, 5770): Lydia Csato Gasman, sister of Joash Tsiddon, passed away in Charlottesville, VA today at the age of 84.2011: Kol HaNeshama, Israel's largest Reform synagogue celebrates its 25th anniversary tonight2011: The New York premiere of “The Human Resources Manager” is scheduled to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival. The film is based on novel by A.B.Yehoshua entitled A Woman in Jerusalem in which the human-resources manager at a bakery in Jerusalem must get to know one of his employees posthumously after her death in a suicide bombing as he finds himself the unlikely chaperone of the woman’s body to her native Romania. 2011: Stand-up comedian Keith Barany is scheduled to appear on opening night of the 2nd annual Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.2011: Herman Ginsberg, a mensch of the first order, owner of a Jewelry store that is a Cedar Rapids’ institution, leader of the Jewish community, loving father and doting grandfather is celebrated his 85th birthday.2011(10thof Shevat, 5771): Ninety-four year old “Eleanor Galenson, a psychoanalyst and researcher whose work showed that children are aware of their sexuality at very early ages, died today in Manhattan (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30galenson.html2011(10th of Shevat, 5771): Members and friends of Chabad Lubavitch celebrate Yud Sh’vat – The Tenth of Shevat. Yud Shevat or The Tenth of Shevat marks the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok (Joseph Isaac) Schneerson, the Sixth Rebbe as Known as the “the Frierdiker Rebbe” (Previous Rebbe) or the “RaYYatz” and the day on which Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok’s legendary son in law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, the sevenths Lubavitcher Rebbe, assumed the leadership of the Chabad movement.2011: In one of the largest left-wing protests in recent years, some 10,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv today to demonstrate against what organizers called a growing attack on democracy in Israel.. 2011: Harvard graduate Loren Galler-Rabinowitz competed as Miss Massachusetts in tonight’s Miss America Pageant. Her failure to win leaves Bess Myerson as the only Jewish of this long-running beauty pageant.2012: The friends and family of Herman Ginzberg are over-joyed to celebrate his 86thbirthday.2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Hope: A Tragedy” by Shalom Auslander and the recently released paperback edition of “The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy” by Richard Posner2012: “Shoah: The Unseen Interviews” and “Restoration” are scheduled to have their New York premieres at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2012: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to shown at the Glen Rock Jewish Center in Glen Rock, NJ.2012: Israeli and Palestinian envoys met for the third time in Amman overnight today since Jordan began mediating a series of direct talks earlier this month.2012: This morning, the Tel Aviv municipality dismantled the tent encampment in the city's Hatikva neighborhood, where 36 homeless people have been camping since the summer. The municipality said in a statement that it hopes the people in the encampment will leave peacefully “without the city exercising the authority given to it by the court to evacuate by force.” 2012: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters tried today to block roads around Jerusalem’s Kikar Hashabbat (Sabbath Square) in Mea She’arim neighborhood, after six prominent members of the community were arrested earlier in the day in suspicion of financial-related crimes. 2012: “Remember the landmark Woman’s Building published today looks back at the history of the Los Angeles building co-founded by Judy Chicago and Arlene Ravenhttp://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/15/entertainment/la-ca-pst-womans-building-201201152013: Deadline for submitting entries for the Dora and Alexander Raynes Poetry Prize. 2013: “The Gatekeepers” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.2013: The LA Jewish Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to host its Strategic Business Alliance Luncheon2013: Just two days before his 64th his birthday, Howard “announced that he would not be re-offering in the next Nova Scotia general election.”2013: "Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges," is scheduled to open today Tuesday at the National Museum of American Jewish History. It tells the little-known story of Jewish scholars, barred from academic positions by Nazi decrees beginning in 1933, who eventually made their way to the United States, where a small but significant number of them eventually found welcoming homes at historically black colleges. 2013: Family and friends celebrate the birthday of Herman Ginsberg, the patriarch of multi-generational Cedar Rapids family and pillar of the Jewish community who is proves that one can be a successful businessman and a great person. 2013: Funeral services were held today at Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park for computer programmer Aaron Swartz. 2013: “Morsi’s Slurs Against Jews Stir Concern” published today provides a snapshot of the new Egyptian leaders views including “a speech urging Egyptians to ‘nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred’ for Jews and Zionists.http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/saul-landau-documentary-filmmakers-work-took-a-sharp-tilt-to-the-left-20130916-2tuvu.html2013: The Times of Israel has learned that Israel has taken steps that appear to be aimed at restoring its relationship with the United Nations Human Rights Council, 10 months after Jerusalem cut ties with the body over a planned fact-finding mission into the West Bank settlement enterprise. 2013(4thof Shevat, 5773): Ninety-two year old “Daniel J. Edelman, who founded an agency that would go on to become the PR industry's biggest,” passed away today.http://www.prweekus.com/industry-pioneer-daniel-j-edelman-passes-away-at-93/article/276069/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/business/daniel-j-edelman-a-publicity-pioneer-dies-at-92.html?hpw&_r=02014: A bill that would forbid the use of Nazi symbols and labels is scheduled to presented to the Knesset today.2014(14thof Shevat, 5774): Eighty-four year old “entertainment lawyer” Donald S. Engel passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/business/donald-s-engel-persistent-contract-lawyer-to-the-stars-dies-at-84.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=02014: “For a Woman” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2014: It was announced today that “Israeli author/journalist Yossi Klein Halevi won the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award, “the top prize in the 2013 National Jewish Book Award for Like Dreamers “which tells the history of Israel the personal experiences over decades of a handful of paratroopers who helped capture the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War.”2014: Two top Obama administration officials urged Jewish groups not to back new Iran sanctions, calling them “dangerous.” The officials — from the White House national security team and the Treasury Department — spoke today with Jewish leaders in a call convened by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. (As reported by JTA) 2014: Thousands of Israelis continued to visit Anemone Hill today, where former prime minister Ariel Sharon was laid to rest earlier this week. Among the many visitors were war veterans who fought alongside and under the command of Sharon, public figures and citizens who have crossed paths with Sharon over the years. (As reported by Ahiya Raved)2015(24th of Tevet, 5775): Seventy-five year old University of Oklahoma graduate Alan J. Hirschfiedl who led two major motion picture studios passed away today in his native Wyoming.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/business/media/alan-j-hirschfield-79-hollywood-executive-is-dead.html2015: Today, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Sephardic chief rabbi of Jerusalem; Rabbi Aryeh Stern, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem; Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landa, chief rabbi of Bnei Brak, Israel; and Rabbi Abraham Shemtov,regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch in Philadelphia and chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad were among those who paid their last respects to Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi—rabbi of Kfar Chabad, Israel before he was taken “to Tiberias for internment near his parents and siblings.2015: The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group confirmed today that a senior operative in the organization has been apprehended for spying for Israel.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4615692,00.html2015: Michael “ Medved announced during his live radio broadcast that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his radio show to undergo treatment for throat cancer”2015: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a “1-hour workshop that will include a series of activities designed to get” people “thinking, taking and sharing ideas to help in planning for a new regional museum projected to open in 2020. 2015: In Atlanta, GA, The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to host “Gershwin and Bernstein: American Masters” the first of the 2015 Molly Blank Jewish Concert Series2015: “The Deli Man” and “The Dune are scheduled to shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2015: Heller McAlpin’s review of Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil was published today.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-whipping-boy-on-a-40-year-search-for-a-bully-by-allen-kurzweil/2015/01/15/2c304798-8acb-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html?hpid=z3&utm_term=.120cef3023892015(5thof Shevat, 5776): Eight-nine year old Winnipeg born art deal Avrom Isaacs, the founder in 1955 of the Greenwich Art Gallery which was renamed the Isaacs Gallery in 1959 passed away today in Toronto.https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/av-isaacs-leading-art-dealer-in-contemporary-canadian-art-dies-at-89/article28231438/https://forward.com/culture/349789/how-av-isaacs-shaped-torontos-art-scene/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Position-1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-09-17&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday2016: “Israeli saxophonist, bandleader and composer Uri Gurvich” is scheduled to perform this at the Metropolitan Room tonight2016: In a tribute to the vitality of “small town” Judaism , Temple Judah is scheduled to host an “Early Shabbat Evening Service” for the sake of the PreK-2ndGrade students.2016: Shabbat Tzedek is scheduled to begin this evening.2016: Herman Ginsberg turns 90!2017: “Torah in the City” is scheduled to take place at Citi Field.https://www.ou.org/convention/2017: A Middle East Peace Conference which will not be attended by Israel is scheduled to take place in Paris.2017: “The Threepenny Opera” and “The Patriarch’s Room” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2017: The Conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance is scheduled to come to an end today at Lerner Hall in NYC.2017: After four days, the Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end. (Yes, the capital of Louisiana is home to a four-day festival of Jewish movies)2017: In Des Moines, the Judaic Resource Center is scheduled to host an evening in Shalom Hammer, a lecturer of the IDF and contributing editor to the Jerusalem Post.2017: The New York Times includes books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Kaiser’s Last Kiss by Alan Judd and the recently published paperback edition of Thomas Murphy by Roger Rosenblatt as well as a column “On Being Translated Back to Myself” by Boris Fishman.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/books/review/on-being-translated-back-to-myself.html?ref=headline&nl=bookreview&emc=edit_bk_201701132018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to mark the start of Hillary with a Toast the Term party at the Varsity Club.2018: Deadline for submitting papers to be presented at the conference on “Shared Cultural Values of Jews and Muslims in Yemen and Beyond.”http://americansephardi.org/projects/asf-yemen-conference/2018(28thof Tevet, 5778): Seventy-nine year old radio monologist and refugee from Nazi Europe Joe Frank passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/obituaries/joe-frank-spinner-of-strange-radio-tales-is-dead-at-79.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2018: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi signed a series of agreements for cooperation in energy, the film industry, aviation, cyber and investment.”2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to co-host a study session in which Jewish, Muslim and Christian will be used to analyze the issues surrounding “Mercy and Forgiveness.”2019: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host David Gillham in talk about his latest novel Annelies.2019: MaryBeth Muskin, Ph.D., Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Rise of Global Anti-Semitism” at Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, IA.2019(9thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Eliezer Silver.http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_9.html2019: “Black Honey: The Life and Poetry of Avraham Sutzkever is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.https://www.filmlinc.org/films/black-honey-the-life-and-poetry-of-avraham-sutzkever/
↧
January 15, 2019, 7:32 pm
January 1627 BCE: Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. Ten years earlier Augustus had appointed Herod as King of Judea, of whom he said “he would rather be a pig in Herod’s house than one of his family.” For more about why the clash between the Judeans and the Roman Empire did not have to lead to the destruction of the Temple and the end of a Jewish state, see Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations.550: During the Gothic War, The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison. The Ostrogoths was the name applied to the eastern Goths. The Goths were Germanic in origin and and are often thought of as part of the various Barbarian Hordes that destroyed the Roman Empire. Unlike other such groups such as the Visigoths and Vandals, the Ostrogoths, at least under their greatest leader Theodoric the Great, were known for their religious atoleration which was extended to the Jewish people. 929: Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III established the Caliphate of Córdoba. This came during what is called the “Golden Age” Due to their treatment by the rulers, the Jews of Cordoba supported the state and were active in commerce, industry and the study of science.1120: The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. This is the same Nablus that will be a Fatah stronghold at the end of the 20th Century and the same Jerusalem that is the capital of modern day Israel.1232: In London, The Domus Conversorum known in English as the House of the Converts was founded by order of Henry III to provide a home and free maintenance for Jews converted to Christianity. 1412: The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy. According to the Jewish Virtual Library “the organized Jewish communities of Florence, Siena, Pisa and Livorno were political creations of the Medici rulers. And like the Medici Grand Dukedom itself, these communities took shape in the course of the sixteenth century. For more about the unusual relationship between this famousItalian family see: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/medici.html1547: Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia. From the point of view of the Jewish people Ivan deserved to be called “the Terrible.” In 1563, he gave the Jews of Polotsk, Lithuania, the choice of converting or dying. When the Jews refused the cross, Ivan had his soldiers drill holes in the frozen Dvina River and then pushed three hundred Jewish men, women and children through them to their death.1600: The 400 Jews of Verona completed their synagogue after their move into the ghetto. This date was actually celebrated as a "Purim" until the French Revolution, since many felt that the ghetto provided some protection, and since in an unusual move the keys of the ghetto were given to the Jewish leaders.1678: In the colony of Rhode Island, Israel and Mary (Baker) Arnold gave birth to Israel Arnold, the son of the Deputy Governor of the colony.1739: “Saul” an oratorio by George Handel based on the story found in the 1stBook of Samuel was “first performed at the King’s Theatre in London.” 1756(14thof Shevat, 5516): Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk (Yaakov Yehoshua ben Tzvi Hirsch) passed away today at Offenbach, Born at Cracow in 1680, on his mother's side he was a grandson of Joshua of Cracow, the author of "Maginne Shelomoh." While a youth Jacob became examiner of the Hebrew teachers of Lemberg. In 1702 his wife, his child, and his mother were killed through an explosion of gunpowder that wrecked the house in which they lived. Jacob himself narrowly escaped death. He was then called to the rabbinate of Tarli and Lisko, small Galician towns. In 1717 he replaced Ḥakam Ẓebi in the chief rabbinate of Lemberg; and thence he was called to Berlin in 1731. Having displeased Veitel-Heine Ephraim, one of the most influential leaders of the community, by rendering a judgment against him, he was compelled at the expiration of his term of office (1734) to resign. After having been for seven years rabbi of Metz he became chief rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main; but the unfavorable attitude of the local authorities toward the Jews, and the fact that the community was divided by controversies, made his position there very precarious. Soon afterward the quarrel between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschütz broke out. The chief rabbi, because of his opposition to Eybeschütz, was ultimately compelled to leave the city (1750). He wandered from town to town till he came to Worms, where he remained for some years. He was then called back to Frankfort; but his enemies prevented him from preaching in the synagogue, and he left the city a second time. Jacob was one of the greatest Talmudists of his time. He wrote "Pene Yehoshua'," novellæ on the Talmud, in four parts. Two of them were published at Frankfort-on-the-Main (1752); the third, with his "Pesaḳ bet-Din Ḥadash," at Fürth (1766); the fourth, which, in addition to Talmudic novellæ, contains novellæ on the Ṭur Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ and "Liḳḳuṭim," also at Fürth (1780). He wrote also a commentary on the Pentateuch, which is mentioned by the author himself, but has not appeared in print. (As reported by Schechter and Seligsohn)http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_14.html1761(11thof Shevat, 5521): Reuben ben Aaron passed away today after which he interred in the “Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground.”1764: For the next 12 months, starting from today, according to entries in the records of the New York Custom House, there were only 4 “Jewish entries all for Sampson Simpson. His cargoes which included iron, sugar, wine, skins and rum, were sent to South Carolina and the Mosquito Coast. Although his name is unknown to most, he was a highly successful businessman. During the Seven Years, which ended in 1763, he outfitted four ships as privateers. Simpson was the only Jewish member of the “prestigious Chamber of Commerce which was created in 1768.” 1765(23 Tevet, 5525): Isaac Zerahiah Azulai, the father of 18th century rabbinic scholar and author Chaim Joseph David passed away today in Jerusalem.1774: In London, Solomon Salmons and Shirphra Phillip Levy Salomons gave birth Levi Salomons, “the London financier and underwriter” who lived near the Great St. Helen’s Synagogue and passed away in January of 1843.1777: One day after she had passed away, Esther Hamburger, the wife of Abraham Hamburger was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.1781: Abraham Benjamin Cohen married Elizabeth Gompertz today.1794: English historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empirepassed away. Those who think that the acknowledgement of the Jewish origins of Christianity is a twentieth century phenomenon are not acquainted with this classic of ancient history. In chapter 15 of the first volume of this classic, Gibbon makes it quite clear that Christianity is rooted in the Judaism of the first century of the Common Era.1801: Philadelphian Benjamin Solomon began serving as a Midshipman in the United States Navy today.1802: Birthdate of Joel Jolson who was baptized as a Lutheran at seventeen and gained fame as Friedrich Julius Stahl, the German lawyer and politician. 1826: Four days after he passed away, forty-seven year old Aharon ben Moshe was laid to rest at the Bath Jewish Burial Ground1834: Birthdate of Königsberg, Prussia, native and anti-Semitic journalist Otto Glagau.1839: Naphtali Hart married Elizabeth Solomon today at the New Synagogue.1844: Isaac David Walter and Henriette Walter gave birth to their daughter Sophia who became Sophia Beer when she married Julius Beer.1852(24thof Tevet, 5612): Meir Eisenstaedter (Meir ben Judah Leib Eisenstädter) a nineteenth-century rabbi, Talmudist, and paytan) also known as Maharam Asch (a Hebrew acronym for "Morenu ha-Rav Meir Eisenshtadt" meaning "our teacher, Rabbi Meir Eisenstadt") passed away today.1852: Mt. Sinai Hospital, known as Jews Hospital, was founded in New York City1853: General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton who commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Gallipoli Campaign which meant that he was the ultimate commander of the Zion Mule Corps, the first All-Jewish force to take the field of battle since the days of the rebellions against Rome.1853: Adam and Fridoline Kahnweiler Gimbel gave birth to Sallie Gimbel who became Sallie Greenewald when she married Aaron E. Greenwald.1853: In Terre Haute, Indiana, Bernhardt Bischof and Sara Mathilda Wallace gave birth to Theresa Bischof who became Theresa Ezekiel when she married Walter Ambrose Ezekiel and who was active in a number of Cincinnati Jewish organizations including the United Jewish Charities of Cincinnati, the Sick Poor Society and the Council of Jewish Women. 1856: In Baltimore, MD, Charleston native Solomon Nunes Carvalho and Sarah Miriam Carvalho gave birth to Solomon Solis Carvalho1859: The first wife of Joseph Wolff, the son of a rabbi who converted to Christianity and became a “Jewish Christian missonary,” passed away today.1862: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Isaac M Brandon transferred from the Volunteers to the Twelfth United States Regulars.1862: Birthdate of Baden native Elias Elkan Ries, the Cooper Union, the Maryland Institute and Johns Hopkins trained telegraph operator who made “improvements in telephone, telegraph and other electrical apparatus” which meant while developing 150 patents, he “introduced the Ries regulating sock for ‘turning down’ the light of electric lamps,” invented an “alternating current electrical system,” and a “method for electrically welding track rails” while still finding time to marry Helen Hirshberg in 1895.1872: Four days after she had passed away, 67 year old Sarah (Levy) Slowman, the wife of Abraham Slowman with whom she had had seven children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1875: Samuel Lyon married Abigail Jacob in London today.1875: David James played the role of “Perkyn Middlewick” in Henry James Byron’s “Our Boys” which opened at the Vaudeville Theatre. James was the son of Agar and Abraham Julian Belasco who was named David Belasco at birth but changed his name so that he would not be confused with his second cousin and namesake David Belasco.1876(18thof Tevet, 5636): Parshat Shemot; Start the second book of the Torah1876(18thof Tevet, 5636): Seventy-eight year old Aron Emanuel Scharf, the husband of Magdelanna Roos, passed away in Bavaria.1876: It was reported today that The Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris has just published a pamphlet describing the discriminatory conditions under which the Jews of Romania continue to live. The Romanians have successfully circumvented previous attempts to improve the conditions of the Jews, including those resolutions adopted at the Convention of Paris in 1858, by declaring that Jews born in Romania are not Romanian citizens. Since they are not citizens, the Romanians contend it is legal to deny them such basic rights as the rights to own property and vote. 1876: Newman Leopold, a “French Hebrew loan broker” shot himself this afternoon at his home on Adelphi Street in New York. The wound did not prove immediately mortal and the reason for the shooting was not immediately known. 1879: In Paris, Edward de Forest and Juliette Arnold gave birth to Maurice Arnold de Forest who, along with his younger brother Raymond were, after the death of their parents, “were adopted by the millionaire Baroness Clara de Hirsch, née Bischoffsheim, wife of Jewish banker and philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth, and given the surname de Forest-Bischoffsheim. 1879: Mr. Henry Bergh delivered a lecture tonight at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in which he said “it was astonishing” that so little attention had been paid to the treatment of “dumb animals” in the United Sates. He felt that the clergy had not shown sufficient interest in the topic. He expressed his opinion that Christians might learn from the Turks and “old Jewish laws” if they wished to improve the situation.1881: Birthdate of Martha Grassman who cared for painter Fritz Ascher for three years while he hid in Berlin from the Nazis. 1881: “An insane inmate” under the care of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, set the facility on fire. This unnamed individual was the only fatality. 1882(25thof Tevet, 5642): Twenty year old Eugen C. Kahn, a native of Morgan City, LA, passed away today in New Orleans after which he was buried “in the cemetery located in” Berwick, LA.1882(25thof Tevet, 5642): Seventy-four German born poet and linguist Ludwig Wihl whose “hopes for a university career were doomed to failure, because he declined to be baptized” passed away today in Brussels where he had been living in self-imposed political exile.1884: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Levy officiated at the married of Julius Jacobson to Johannah Hoffman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Hoffman. 1884: The orthodox synagogue in St. Apern Straße was dedicated in Cologne 1888: Birthdate of Osip Maksimovich Brik, a Russian avant garde writer and literary critic who “was one of the most important members of the Russian formalist school, though he also identified himself as one of the Futurists.” 1889(14thof Tevet, 5649): Fifty six year old “Russian scientist and publicist” Hirsch Rabinowitz passed away today in St. Petersburg.1890: It was reported today that in the last ten years disbursements by the United Hebrew Charities have more than doubled going from $35,000 to $72,000.1890: It was reported that the past five years the Jewish immigrants arriving in New York included, 18,535 in 1885; 27,348 in 1886; 25, 788 in 1887; 29,602 in 1888 and 23, 674 in 1889. 1890: Birthdate of Karl Freund. In his time, Freund was one of the most famous directors and cameramen. He worked on everything from an early cinematic version of Dracula to episodes of the television sitcom Our Miss Brooks. 1890: Oscar S. Straus is scheduled to deliver “a few informal remarks” at a meeting of the Young Men’s Association of Ahawatch Chesed which is being held at Steinway Hall. 1890: As his health worsened, the children of 87 year old Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler were called to his bedside for one more visit.1891: Lazarus Solomon, the son of Moses and Sarah Solomon was buried today at the “Canterbury Jewish Cemetery.”1891(7thof Shevat, 5651): Isaac Aaron Ettinger, Reb Itzsche, passed away today. Born at Lemberg in 1827, he followed Zebi Hirsch Ornstein as the rabbi of Lemberg in 1888, a position he held until the day he passed away. 1892: “The Nautch Girl,” a comic opera that featured the music of Anglo-Jewish theatre man Edward Solomon closed today after two hundred performances at the Savoy Theatre. 1893: Theodor Kohn, the cleric with Jewish grandparents, began serving as Archbishop of Olomouc. He would eventually be forced to resign from the post. 1893: Three days after she passed away, eighty-eight year old Alice Aarons, the daughter of Aron Aarons who had passed away in 1849 at the age of 78, was buried at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.1893: It was reported today that Joseph Barondess is leading a move to reorganize the Cloakmaker’s Union following its unsuccessful strike against Meyer Jonasson & Co. (Barondess was the son of Rabbi Samuel Barondess and a distant relative of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. His connection with the cloakmakers was so strong that he was as the “King of the Cloakmakers.” 1893: Four days after she had passed away, 52 years old Bloom Cohen, the daughter of Benjamin Woolf and Isabella Phillips and the wife of Levi Cohen, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.1894: In New York City, at the meeting of the Board of Police Superintendent reported that Roundsman Michael Downs and Patrolmen John Kenny and Kerwin Larkin have been suspended from duty and arrested on charges that they extorted money from Jewish peddlers. 1894: As the general economic conditions worsen It was reported today that New York Mayor Gilroy’s Relief Committee had made disbursement’s to various charities aiding the needy including two thousand dollars to the United Hebrew Charities. 1894: It was reported today that the East Side Relief Work has paid $4, 496.26 “for street sweeping and manufacturing” – work which is done primarily by Austrian and Russian Jews. 1894: It was reported today that R.H Macy & Co, which is owned by the Straus family donated another $1,346.26 to the Mayor’s Relief Committee 1894: Dr. C.F. Valentine was defeated in his bid to be elected President of the New York County Medical Association. It had been “hinted” that he was defeated because he was Jewish.1895: Following the resignation of Casimir-Perier in the wake of the Dreyfus affair, General August Mercier who had led the fight to condemn the Jewish officer only got three votes in his quest to lead the next government.1896: It was reported today that last year’s Hebrew Charity Ball raised $12,000 for the Montefiore Home and it is hoped that this year’s ball will raised even more money.1896: It was reported today that 70 per cent of the population living at the settlement area at 26 Delancy Street is made up of Jewish immigrants from Russia. The area which has been inhabited by successive groups of immigrants, the last of which the Irish, is one of the most difficult in which the University Settlement Society has ever worked because of the over-crowding and lack of opportunity. 1898: Birthdate of Irving Rapper, the British born movie director who moved to Hollywood in the 1930’s where “he made his directing debut with the 1941 film “Shining Victory.”1898: In Talsen, Latvia, Liebe (Lemkus) Davidoff and Israel Davidoff, a shoemaker, gave birth Harvard trained physician Dr. Leo Davidoff, “a founder of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine” and the husband of Ida (Fisher) Davidoff.”https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/25/archives/dr-leo-davidoff-surgeon-73-dies-neurological-expert-helped-found.htmlhttps://wwww.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/22725989/Leo_Max_Davidoff:_his_formative_years_and_participation_in_the_MacMillan_Arctic_Expedition_1898: It was reported today that Anatole France and Emile Zola are among a group of “prominent doctors, lawyers’ and writers” who “have signed a petition in favor” of having the Dreyfus decision reviewed because of the “violation of judicial forms and the mysteries surrounding it.” 1898: “The annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls was held” this “afternoon at the school headquarters” on Henry Street.1898: Birthdate of Irving Rapper, the British born American director Irving Rapper whose career began in 1941 with “Shining Victory” and ended with “Born Again” in 1978.http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/29/local/me-48573https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/arts/irving-rapper-101-film-director-dies.html1898: Paris was the scene of another night of violence as “bands of students paraded” denouncing Emile Zola, “shouting…death to the Jews,” smashing café windows, and in a case of mistaken identity, smashing the windows of a house they thought belonged to Zola.1898: “France At Its Worst” published today described the current crisis over Alfred Dreyfus as demonstrating the “degeneracy” of the French people. 1898: It was reported today that there are two factions arrayed against Emile Zola, the editor and author who has taken the lead in defending Alfred Dreyfus. One is made of “those who would support the so-called ‘honor of the army’ at any sacrifice against individual justice.” (In other words, Dreyfus may be innocent but to overturn the verdict would hurt the military.) The other groups are the anti-Semites which including the students rioting in the street a number of those serving as Deputies in the French legislature. 1898:1899: It was reported today that “the few attempts made to incited the populace” of Hungary “against the Jews have been fruitless, which is in marked contrast to the success of the anti-Jewish campaign in Austria. (More for 2014 1899: Herzl writes to Bertha von Suttner, famous Austrian peace activist, to request an audience with the Czar.1899: It was a reported today that in Duluth, a mob of 150 Jews attacked the Coroner when he went to open the grave of Mrs. Wlfound, whom it was claimed was buried alive. The Jews did not approve of what they considered was a desecration of the remains of a co-religionists.1900: In Aachen, Germany, Rosa Stern and Abraham Holländer gave birth to their youngest child Edith, who would become Edith Frank when she married Otto Frank – a union that would produce the diarist Anne Frank.1903: Herzl ate lunch with Lord Rothschild and had a meeting with Sir Thomas Sanderson, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in Downing Street. Herzl submits the itinerary of the Commission and the membership. Sanderson recommends Sir Benjamin Baker, builder of the Aswan Dam, as irrigation engineer. Herzl is concerned about each and every detail.1903: Birthdate of David Shaltiel, the native of Berlin who was “the district commander of the Haganah in Jerusalem” during the 1948 War for Independence. 1903: In Odessa, Russia, David and Clara Berman gave birth to Las Vegas mob boss Donald “Davie” Berman.http://m.bismarcktribune.com/mobile/news/columnists/article_65709558-143c-11e0-9859-001cc4c002e0.html1903: Following the death of Henry de Worms seven days ago, The Jewish Chronicle wrote “Lord Pirbright was for several years president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, but resigned in 1886 owing to objections raised to his having attended the nuptials of his eldest daughter in a church. During his parliamentary career he was a warm advocate of the cause of Jews in lands of oppression, especially Rumania.” 1904(28thof Tevet, 5664): Henrietta Cahn, the native of Wittgenborn, Germany passed away today in Port Gibson, Mississippi.1904: In Hesse, Germany, Salomon and Julie Adler gave birth to Berthold (Bert) Adler, the husband of Ruth Adler.1906: Opening of the Algeciras Conference during which “the US representatives ensured that the Conference documents praised the Sultan's Government for improvements in conditions of Jews and asked it to guarantee to treat all Moroccans equally. 1906: Bezalel, The Academy of Arts and Design, was founded in Jerusalem by Boris Schatz. Born in 1867, Schatz was a painter and court sculptor to King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. He died in 1932. The school was named after biblical artisan Bezalel, son of Uri, who was one of the main architects of the Tabernacle. It has well over 1000 students and offers degrees in art, architecture, and design. 1907: Two days before his 15th birthday Ukrainian born composer Samuel Kaylin “immigrated to the United States…aboard the steamship Neckar.1907: In Atlanta, the two-day convention of the Union of Hebrew Congregations came to an end.1909: Birthdate of Clement Greenberg the most famous American art critic since Bernard Berenson, who was born “to a Yiddish-speaking socialist family and was brought up in Brooklyn and the Bronx.” 1910: The Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association, the purpose of which was helping Jews to settle on farms, was organized today.1913: A meeting of the Lenora Sewing Circle under the leadership of Carrie Metz took place this afternoon at Isiah Temple in Chicago.1915(1st of Shevat, 5675): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1915: “Oppose Immigration Bill” published today told of Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society to host a series of mass meetings in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Providence, Newark and New York to designed to help defeat the Smith Burnett Immigration Bill which contains a literacy test that would hamper Jewish immigration from Russia because the Czar’s government restricts their efforts to gain an education. 1915(1stof Shevat, 5676): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1915(1stof Shevat, 5676): Seventy year old Rabbi Benny Goldman, the son of Wolf and Rachel Goldman lost his battle with bronchial pneumonia and passed away in St. Louis today.1916: It was reported today that starting next semester, Dr. Elias Margolis will teach the first ever offered course in Yiddish offered by Columbia University which has been added to the curriculum, in part “to encourage non-Jews to learn the language in order that they might teach the numerous night classes in New York.”1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee is scheduled to host a fund-raising concert this evening at the Fourteenth Street Armory in New York City.1916: “The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society opened a branch office at the Sackman Street Synagogue near Belmont Avenue, Brownsville,” tonight “to enable Jews to find their relatives lost in the war zone and to help in sending aid to them.1916: “An appeal to all Jews to forget partisanship and differences of doctrine in an effort to conditions of their ‘brethren in the oppressed lands’ was made” today “by Rabbi Samuel Schulman in a sermon on ‘The War and the Rights of the Jews’ which he delivered at Temple Beth-El” at Fifth Avenue and Seventy-sixth Street.1917: Eighty-six year old Solomon Ullman, the former president of the Western Synagogue was buried today at the Edmonton Western Jewish Cemetery.1917: Seventy-nine year old Admiral George Dewey the Spanish American War Naval hero passed away today which led the Council of the Union of American Congregations which was meeting in Baltimore at the time to send a telegram to President Wilson expressing their “profound sorrow” and “deep felt sympathy.”1917: Birthdate of Szerena Abrahamova who was murder at Auschwitz after having been transported there from Terezin in April of 1944.1917: “Between 400 and 500 delegates are expected to attend the 25th council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which opens in Baltimore with Henry Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey and Jacob H. Schiff scheduled to speak at the gathering.1917: The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods which was created in 1913 and now has groups at 150 congregations is scheduled to begin its national convention today in Baltimore, MD.1917: J. Walter Freiburg, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations announces a gift of $100,000 from Jacob H. Schiff for the establishment of a fund to provide for pensioning superannuated rabbis. 1917: “Following an appeal by Adolph S. Ochs, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, fifty seven Jews pledged over $140,000 in a few hours at the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to meet expenses of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati and synagogue and school extension work.”1917: German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. The Zimmerman Telegram by Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman provides one of the best descriptions and explanations of this little known episode in American history that helped lead the United States into World War I.1918: The American Consul in Yokohama reported that Jewish refuges including 1 man, 156 women and 170 children who are “awaiting transportation to the United States” are “poorly fed and living in crowded quarters.”1919(15thof Shevat, 5679) Tu BiShvat 1919” In Detroit, MI, Louis and Belle Horwitz gave birth to Jerome Phillip Horwitz “a scientific researcher who created AZT in 1964 in the hope that it would cure cancer but who entered the medical pantheon decades later when AZT became the first successful drug treatment for people with AIDS…” )As reported by Paul Vitello) 1920: The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified today. Its ban on the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors would present a set of unique problem for Jews who wished to observe the law of the land yet needed wine for Shabbat, Pesach (and other holidays) weddings and circumcision ceremonies. http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf 1921: In Winnipeg, Canada, “Meyer Thompson, a Jewish baker of bagels from Hull England and the former Annette Berman” gave birth to Abraham Thomas Thompson, the man who brought automation to the field of bagel baking.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/daniel-thompson-whose-bagel-machine-altered-the-american-diet-dies-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1921: Salo Stein, who had been serving as rabbi in Jacksonville, FL, today began serving as the rabbi for Anshe Sholem Yehuda Congregation in Middletown, Ohio.1921: “The ninth annual convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fouth annual convention of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue is scheduled to open today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.1921: “The Period of Racial Prejudice,” a protest prepared under the initiative of John Spargo and signed by 119 distinguished American Christians from every walk of life” that began with “The undersigned citizens of Gentile birth and Christian faith view with profound regret and disapproval the appearance in this country of what is apparently an organized campaign of anti-Semitism, conducted in close conformity to and co-operation with similar campaigns in Europe” was made public today.http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1922_1923_8_AJCAnnualReport.pdf1922: In Port Jervis, NY, Russian immigrants Gussie and David Levinson gave birth to Harry Levinson “a psychologist who helped change corporate America’s thinking about the workplace by demonstrating a link between job conditions and emotional health — a progressive notion when he began developing his ideas in the 1950s…” (As reported by Claudia Deutsch) 1923: Birthdate of poet Anthony Hecht. Hecht won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1968 for “The Harder Hours.” He passed away in 2004. 1925: Leon Trotsky was dismissed from the Russian Revolution Military Council as he lost the battle for power with Stalin.1926(1stof Shevat, 5686): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1926: London born American featherweight fought his 79th bout which he won by a TKO.1926: Grigori Sokolnikov completed his service as People’s Commissar for Finance of the USSR.1928: Part II of “Queen Louise” a biopic about a little known Prussian queen produced by Max Glass on which Hans Jacoby served as Art Director was released in Germany today.1929: Birthdate of political activist Allard Lowenstein 1930: Birthdate of Norman Podhoretz. Editor of “Commentary Magazine” Podhoretz has moved from being a liberal to a conservative. 1932: After 260 performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “The Band Wagon” a revue with “book by George S. Kaufman and Howard Dietz, lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz.”1932: Philadelphian Jacob Billikopf, who had been associated with the recently deceased Julius Rosenwald in welfare activities for the last quarter of a century, expressed the opinion today that Rosenwald’s work on behalf of “the American Negro” was one of his most outstanding contributions to humanity. 1932: “Solomon Furth ran an American best 15 4/5 seconds in the 110-meter indoor hurdles” today. (as reported by Bob Wechsler)1933(18thof Tevet, 5693): In Los Angeles, Mamie Klein the widow of Henry Klein, the co-owner of Klein-Norton Co. passed away today. 1933: NBC broadcast the 9th episode of “Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel” starring Groucho and Chico Marx.1933: Birthdate of photographer Nathan Louis Finkelstein whose photographs of Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, and the Velvet Underground would become some of the most famous images of Warhol’s Factory and its revolving cast of characters. 1933: “Madame Wants No Children” a comedy with a script co-authored by Billy Wilder and filmed by cinematographer Willy Goldberg was released in Austria and Germany today.1933: In New York Mildred and Jack Rosenblatt gave birth to Susan Rosenblatt who gained fame as Susan Sontaghttp://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/16/1933/susan-sontag 1935: Rabbi Stephen Wise spoke at luncheon of the Women’s League for Palestine where “it was announced that $21,000 has been received in gifts and pledges toward building a home for needy girls at Tel Aviv.” The home is similar to one already being operated in Haifa and will cost a total of $40,000 to complete.1935: In Boston, Temple Israel is scheduled to begin offering “courses in rabbinical literature, Hebrew and history today.1935: The “sub-conferences” of “the sixth Revisionist World Conference” are scheduled to come to an end today.1935: Leaders of the Jewish National Fund announced that it had raise $20,000 which represents 40% of the goal of $50,000 needed to buy additional land in Palestine “as perpetual national property.”1935(12th of Shevat, 5695): On her 91st birthday, Sophia Beer, the wife of Julius Beer and the daughter of Isaac David Walter and Henriette Walter passed away today in New York.1935: Morris Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), announced today that Sunday, January 20, 1935, has been designated as Palestine Day, with observances planned in more than 400 cities across the United States. 1936: “The Stern Conservatory of Music, founded by a Jewish family in 1850 and operated by it ever since, was turned over to the city of Berlin under orders of Julius Lippert, the Nazi Commissioner of Berlin. (Editor’s note – Anti-Semitism is a good business0 1936: Foreign Minister Josef Beck issued a statement tonight promising “protection to Polish nationals living in foreign countries, regardless of religion or races” which was welcomed by “Jewish Deputies who had complained recently of the persecution of Polish Jews in Germany.”1936: A Magdeburg court sentenced a Jew lawyer named Fliess to one month’s imprisionment for complaining to the Bar Association about the “allegedly insulting manner adopted by” Dr. Kuhlmey “his Nazi adversary in demanding the exclusion of Mr. Fliess on racial grounds.1937(4th of Shevat, 5697): Parashat Bo1937: “Nationalism was declared the greatest threat to world security and peace in a sermon delivered this morning” in New Orleans, by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron of Baltimore at Sabbath services attended by delegates to the joint convention of the Union of American Congregations and the affiliated national temple sisterhoods and brotherhoods/”1937(4thShevat, 5697): Seventy-seven year old Annie Humphrey Johnston, the daughter of Moses and Esther Lazarus, sister of poet Emma Lazarus and wife of John Henry Johnstone passed away today in Venice.1937: In Jerusalem, George Mansour, the secretary of the Arab Labor Federation testified before the Royal Commission that “there was no employment for Arab workers because of the government’s policy which, he alleged, favored the Jews.”1938: Funeral services will be held today for Albert Ottinger, the former New York State Attorney General who lost to FDR in the 1928 gubernatorial race, at his home with burial in Union Field Cemetery.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40B14F93A5A157A93C6A8178AD85F4C8385F9 1938: Birthdate of Robert Lipsyte, “an American sports journalist and author” who “is a member of the Board of Contributors for USA TODAY's Forum Page, part of the newspaper’s Opinion section. 1938: Benny Goodman refused to play Carnegie Hall unless the African-American members of his band were allowed to perform1938: “The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert” was recorded today.1938: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish constable, Shaul Levy, 22, was killed and his companion, Yitzhak Zeldenberg was severely injured by an Arab in the Sanhedria quarter of Jerusalem. The murderer escaped. 1938: The Palestine Post reported Police found a small Arab arsenal in Ein Zeikun village. 1938: The Palestine Post reported that a government trade school had opened in Haifa. 1938: The Palestine Post reported In Romania, Jews were forbidden to employ Christian women under 40. 1939: “Jews emigrating from Germany are forbidden from taking jewelry and valuable items with them. All they are allowed to have is a single piece of dining silver each, wedding rings, and a watch worth no more than 100 Reichsmarks.” (As reported by Austin Cline)1939(25thof Tevet, 5699): Fifty-nine year old Luxemborg born and University of Michigan trained civil engineer Moritz Katz, the son of Joseph and Rosalie Kahn and the husband of Edith Jackson Kahn with whom he had four children who gegan his career with the American Bridge Company and whose contributions to his field included the creation of “pre-case reinforced concrete ships where were used by the English Admiralty in W.W I passed away today in his berth aboard a train traveling from Detroit to NYC.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4930193/moritz_kahn_obit/1939: As the war clouds form over Europe that would become WW II, the physicist Neils Bohr, who was “half-Jewish” arrived in New York en route to accepting a position at Princeton. He told Hungarian born Jewish physicist Leo Szilar that his worst fears had come to pass. Two German physicists had successfully split the uranium nucleus giving Hitler’s government a major edge in what would become the race to build the first Atom Bomb. 1940: A two-day forced march of 880 Polish POWs all whom were Jewish came to an end with 600 of them being shot by the Nazis. (Jewish Virtual Library) 1941: Tonight Axis airplanes raided airfields near Tel Aviv. 1942: Senitsa Vershovsky, a major in the Soviet Army, is shot by an Einsatzkommando unit at Kremenchug, Ukraine, for protecting Jews.1942: The Nazis begin “resettling” the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto to the Chelmno Extermination Camp1943: As the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the major turning points in WW II, reached a climax the Nazis lost control of the Pitomnik Airfield which was a major blow to attempts to supply the Wehrmacht.1943: It was reported today that 64 year old Judah Isdeslon, the rabbi at the Eldridge Street Synagogue who has “held pulpits in Jersey City and Denver” and is “a leader in the Mizrachi movement” will be buried in New York after having passed away in Miami Beach, FL.1944: The acting chairman of the War Labor Board announced “resignation of Robert Abelow as executive director and general counsel for the regional War Labor Board” after which he became “a partner in the firm of Weil, Gotshal and Magnes. 1944: Secretary of the Treasury Henry J. Morgenthau, Jr. presented a report entitled “Report to the Secretary in the Acquiescence of This government in the Murder of Jews” to President Roosevelt. Prepared by several non-Jewish technocrats working at the Treasury Department, “the document cited chapter and verse of the State Department’s ‘procrastination and willful failure to act…even willful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews from Hitler.’” The report concluded ‘Unless remedial steps…are taken immediately…the government will have share for all time responsibility for this [Jewish] extermination.’ The authors of the report recommended that “refugee policy be removed from the State Department jurisdiction.” 1945: Three years after the “resettlement” of the Jews from Lodz began, the Soviets liberate the town and find 870 Jews still alive. 1945: Roy Nielsen from Milorg and Max Manus from Kompani Linge planted ten limpet mines 50 centimetres (1.6 ft) under the waterline along a 60-metre (200 ft) section of the port side of the SS Donau, became known as the "slave ship" after the SS and Gestapo transported 540 Jews from Norway to Stettin, from where they were taken by train to Auschwitz while she was docked in Oslo.1945: The Red Army liberated Czestochowa, including its 800 surviving Jews.1946: Birthdate of Sofia native Lydia Lazarov who along with Zefania Carmel “won the 1969 world title in the Team 420 Sailing Class, at Sandhem, Sweden” making them “Israel’s first world champions in any sport.”1946: Sid Tanenbaum scored 15 points as he led NYU to victory over Cornell.1947: Birthdate of Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Her popularity among some Orthodox Jews would seem to run contrary to the admonitions found in Chapter I, Verse 5 of Pirke Avot concerning avoiding the gossip of women. 1948(5thof Shevat, 5708): Thirty five members of the Haganah set out to bring supplies to the besieged four Kibbutzim known as the Etzion Bloc. Located the Hebron hills, the four Kibbutzim were defended by thirty armed fighters. They had already fought off one attack by hundreds of Arabs who were so confident of victory that they had brought bags to cart off the loot. Due to the lack of equipment which was quite common among the Jewish forces, the thirty five set off without a radio. According to information gathered later, the column was given inaccurate directions by a local Arab who then alerted those who were besieging the Etzion Bloc. The Arabs fell upon the Haganah column and killed all of them. Their bodies were found and brought into the Bloc whose defenders now realized that they were completely on their own. 1948(5thof Shevat, 5708): Seventy-two year old Jacob W. Mack, a former chairman of the Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a brother of the later Judge Julian W. Mack passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio. (As reported by JTA) 1948: In New York City, Ernst and Miriam (née Brudno), Reichl to “American food writer” Ruth Reichel. 1949: Elias Sassoon and King Abdulla met today to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange between the Israelis and the Jordanians before the armistice negotiations had been completed at Rhodes.1950: Birthdate of American stand-up comedian, Robert George "Bob" Schimmel.1951: Laborite MP Ian Mikardo whose Jewish parents had escaped Czarist Russia, commented on an article he had written which included a suggestion for Britain to have a military base in Israel. 1952: “Scandal Sheet” a film based on The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller and storyline developed by Sidney Buchman was released in the United States today.1952: U.S. premiere of “The Light Touch” directed by Richard Brooks (born Reuben Sax) who also wrote the screenplay.1953: The Jerusalem Post reported Soviet Jewry's fears that a major anti-Jewish policy statement was being prepared and would soon be announced in Moscow. Four knowledgeable Jewish Communist leaders fled from East Germany in anticipation of the oncoming persecution. The Israeli government stopped the distribution of the Communist daily Kol Ha'am to soldiers and warned that unless the newspaper stopped "naming the poor Jewish doctors in the Soviet Union as murderers and spies, it will be closed as endangering public security." The Histadrut Executive, by 27 votes to one, banned Communist members from participation in any trade-union activities. 1954: “His Majesty O’keefe,” co-starring Abraham Sofaer, produced by Harold Hecht and with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United States today.1956: Egyptian President Nassar pledged to re-conquer Palestine. The immediate result of this boast was the Israeli victory in the Sinai Campaign of 1956.1958: One of Israel's fondest dreams was fulfilled today with the opening of a new highway linking Elath and Beersheba.1961: The production of “Conquering Hero” with a book by Larry Gelbart opened at the ANTA Playhouse.1963: A week after firing coaching legend Paul Brown, Art Modell named on the assistant coaches to the Head Coach position.1964(2ndof Shevat, 5724): Fifty-nine year old Bronx-born World Flyweight Champion Pincus “Pinky” Silverberg passed away today.http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20121013/NEWS/3101399651964(2ndof Shevat, 5724): Sixty-two year old Aharon Zisling, Israel’s first Minister of Agriculture and member of the first Knesset passed away today.http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=5901964: David Merrick’s musical ''Hello, Dolly!'' starring Carol Channing opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.1965: The recording of Al Kooper and Irwine Levine’s “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lews & the Playboys hit #65 on this week’s top 100 Billboard Chart.1968(15thof Tevet, 5768): According to the NYT, today and not yesterday is the date when 69 year old Dr. Leopold Infeld, the associate of Albert Einstein passed away.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/17/88922287.pdf1968: At midnight, the INS Dakar set sail from Gibraltar. After submerging, the Israeli submarine was supposed to sail across the Mediterranean to Israel.1972: Terrorist killed one American and injured 3 others during an attack at Gaza today.1974: “Mark Lutsker, a 25 year old mathematics student, expelled in 1972 from Voronezh University for wanting to emigrate to Israel, was arrested today at Kiev OVIR when enquiring about his emigration permit, sentenced to two years imprisonment for alleged evasion of military service and sent to camp near Kutaisi, Georgia.”1975(4thof Shevat, 5735): Eighty-six year old Israel Abramofsky, the native of Kiev who settled in Toledo, Ohio where he became a leading artist of the 20th century passed away today.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=c_ROAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MQIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7455,5340386&dq=israel-abramofsky&hl=enhttp://artistsoftoledo.com/2014/09/06/israel-abramofsky-award-of-the-temple-congregation-shomer-emunim/1976: Lidiya Nisanova of Derbent who had tried to make Aliyah in 1975 went on trial in the Soviet Union on charges of “speculation” and after having been found guilty was sentenced to 18 months in prison.1977: Shlomo Hillel begins serving as Interior Minister1977: Birthdate of Bnaei Brak native Ariel “Arik” Ze’ev Israel’s black belt in Judo who won the Bronze Medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.1977: The Marx Brothers were inducted into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt and the US, agreed to hold a "political conference" in Jerusalem.1981: Harold H. Saunders who played a key role in the creation of the Camp David Accords, completed his service as the 12th Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs.1981: Two days after its release in the United States ‘Scanners” directed and written by David Cronenberg with music by Howard Shore was released in Canada today.1983: Jan Peerce who was recovering from a stroke that had left him partially paralyzed on the right side of his body, was forced to postpone a concert that had been scheduled for today.1984: Prime Minister Yithak shamir, Defense Minister Moshe Arens and IDF Chief of Stat Moshe Levy are scheduled to attend the funeral of Major Saad Haddad in Lebanon.1985(23rdof Tevet, 5745): Sixty-three year old photographer Ruth Orkin passed away today.http://www.orkinphoto.com/photographs/europe-and-israel/http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/ruth-orkin-1921-1985-iraqui-jewish-refugees-5123335-details.aspxhttps://www.pinterest.com/pin/150026231307475169/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/17/nyregion/ruth-orkin-photojournalist-and-film-maker-dead-at-63.html1991(1st of Shevat, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat1991: Zubin Mehta, the music director of the New York Philharmonic, who was to fly back to New York from Munich today changed his mind and headed for Tel Aviv instead. "He felt he needed to be in Israel" to demonstrate his affection for the country during the Persian Gulf crisis, said Neil Parker, a spokesman for the Philharmonic. Mr. Mehta, who was born in Bombay, has also been the music director of the Israel Philharmonic since 1968. In 1981, the orchestra named him music director for life. He had been in Austria to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic, then had driven to Munich for a flight to Paris, where he was to board the Concorde and return to New York. In Paris, he changed plans and flew to Israel instead. "He feels that the entire country has adopted him and that it was not possible to be anywhere else at this moment but Israel," Mr. Parker said1992: Birthdate of Diana Golovanov, the Russian born Israeli singer and actress.http://www.dianagolbi.com/1993: NBC broadcast the last episode of “The Powers That Be” a sitcom created by David Crane and Martin Kauffman for which Norman Lear served as executive producer.1993: Rabbi Kenneth Klaristenfeld officiated at the wedding of his nephew “Edward J. Klaris, an associate at the New York law firm of Lankenau Kovner & Kurtz” and Yale graduate Robin Pogrebin, a staff reporter at the New York Observer who is thedaughter of attorney Bert Pogrebin and Letty Cottin Pogrebin, “a founding editor of Ms. Magazine.”1994: After opening in March of 1993, the curtain came down today on the final performance of Paul Rudnick’s Off-Broadway hit “Jeffrey.”1995(15thof Shevat, 5755): Tu B’Shevat1995: Funeral services are scheduled to be held for real estate developer and civic leader Monte Henry Goldman at Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.1995: Malcolm Irving Glazer purchased the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise and then named his sons Bryan, Joel and Edward co-chairman.1996(24thof Tevet, 5756): Ninety-two year old author and music critic Marcia Davenport, the daughter of Bernard Glick and Alma Gluck passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/20/nyregion/marcia-davenport-biographer-is-dead-at-92.html1996:President of Israel, Ezer Weizmann, gave a speech to both Houses of Parliament of Germany. He gave this speech in Hebrew to the Germans, fifty years after the Holocaust, and in it he beautifully summed up what Jewish history is. He said:"It was fate that delivered me and my contemporaries into this great era when the Jews returned to re-establish their homeland ... "I am no longer a wandering Jew who migrates from country to country, from exile to exile. But all Jews in every generation must regard themselves as if they had been there in previous generations, places and events. Therefore, I am still a wandering Jew but not along the far flung paths of the world. Now I migrate through the expanses of time from generation to generation down the paths of memory..."I was a slave in Egypt. I received the Torah on Mount Sinai. Together with Joshua and Elijah I crossed the Jordan River. I entered Jerusalem with David and was exiled with Zedekiah. And I did not forget it by the rivers of Babylon. When the Lord returned the captives of Zion I dreamed among the builders of its ramparts. I fought the Romans and was banished from Spain. I was bound to the stake in Mainz. I studied Torah in Yemen and lost my family in Kishinev. I was incinerated in Treblinka, rebelled in Warsaw, and emigrated to the Land of Israel, the country from where I have been exiled and where I have been born and from which I come and to which I return.” I am a wandering Jew who follows in the footsteps of my forbearers. And just as I escort them there and now and then, so do my forbearers accompany me and stand with me here today."I am a wandering Jew with the cloak of memory around my shoulders and the staff of hope in my hand. I stand at the great crossroads in time, at the end of the twentieth century. I know whence I come and with hope and apprehension I attempt to find out where I am heading. "We are all people of memory and prayer. We are people of words and hope. We have neither established empires nor built castles and palaces. We have only placed words on top of each other. We have fashioned ideas. We have built memorials. We have dreamed towers of yearning, of Jerusalem rebuilt, of Jerusalem united, of a peace that will swiftly and speedily establish us in our days. Amen."1996(24thof Tevet, 5756): Ninety-two year old music critic and author Marcia Davenport, the daughter of Bernard Glick and Alma Gluck passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/20/nyregion/marcia-davenport-biographer-is-dead-at-92.html1997: Benny Begin completed his terms as Science and Technology Minister1997: Sandy Baron and Sarah Silverman make guest appearances on tonight’s episode of “Seinfeld” entitled “The Money.”1998: “Half Baked” a comedy featuring Laura Silverman, Jon Stewart and Bob Saget was released in the United States today.2000: After 834 performances at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the curtain came down the original Broadway production of “Ragtime” the musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel.2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960sby Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, I’m Not Done Yet! Keeping at It, Remaining Relevant, and Having the Time of My Life by Edward I. Koch with Daniel Paisner and Fire In The Night: Wingate of Burma, Ethiopia, and Zion by John Bierman and Colin Smith.2001: In: “Unorthodox Cinema; An Israeli Filmmaker Imagines the Unimaginable,” published today Deborah Sontag provides a sympathetic review of Joseph Cedar's ''Time of Favor,'' called ''Hahesder'' (''The Arrangement'') in Hebrew, which swept the 2000 Israeli Academy Awards. The film concerns a plan by a brilliant, deranged settler to blow up the Dome of the Rock, which would also blow up the region. Locally, this is the ultimate sensational plot. But Mr. Cedar is rare here, an Orthodox Jewish filmmaker in an art world dominated by secular leftists. And in his hands, the sensational, while still sensational, is grounded in an authenticity that lends a haunting pathos to what emerges as a kind of art-house thriller, flawed but gripping. 2003: Space Shuttle Columbia took off for what would prove to be its final mission. The shuttle was carrying Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut.2004: The Disney Channel broadcast Pixel Perfect by Neal Shusterman for the first time.2004: U.S. premiere of “Along Came Polly” an “American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller.”2004: Publication of “Survival of the Fittest?” Ari Shavit’s interview with Benny Morris.http://www.webcitation.org/5pvy2Rvfw2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman2005: David Klein completed his term as Governor of the Bank of Israel.2006: Shav Glick, legendary sports writer, retired from the LA Times. Glick was known for his coverage of auto racing. He gained early fame writing about Jackie Robinson his classmate at Passadena Junior College.2006: The High Court of Justice rejected Jonathan Pollard's petition to be recognized as a Prisoner of Zion on the grounds that he was jailed by US authorities for spying against his country and not for conducting Zionist activity in a country where such activity is prohibited. 2006(16thof Tevet, 5766): Eighty-two year old “Stanley H. Biber, a small-town Colorado doctor who for decades was internationally renowned as the dean of sex-change surgery, died today at a hospital in Pueblo (As reported by Margalit Fox)http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/21/national/21biber.html?pagewanted=all2007: An exhibition entitled “From the Heart: The photojournalism of Ruth Gruber” opened at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. 2007:Following the conclusion of several months of probes into the summer's Lebanon war, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz announced his resignation. 2008: Avigdor Lieberman completes his term as Deputy Prime Minister 2008: At the 92nd Y in Manhattan Jewish author Carl Bernstein discusses his extensive research on Hillary Rodham Clinton, including her political rise and current campaign, and his most recent book, A Woman In Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bernstein shared a Pulitzer Prize with Bob Woodward for their coverage of Watergate for The Washington Post. 2008: The second episode of “The Jewish Americans” airs on PBS. The three episode series traces the history of the Jews in America starts with the arrival of the first 23 Sephardic Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654 and “ends with Maisyahu, the Chasidic hip-hop star, one of about six million Jews in America today.” For more information see: http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/jewishamericans/2008: Ahawkish faction of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts coalition pulled out of his government today following the start of talks this week over how to resolve the most vexing issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.2008: A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said today. The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig. 2009: The American Jewish Historical Society and the American Society for Jewish Music present:“Ethel Raim and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance: Three Decades of Showcasing Jewish Music as part of the Jewish Music Forum featuring Ethel Raim and Professor Mark Slobin of Wesleyan University.2009: Two Grad rockets fired from Gaza hit Kiryat Gat this afternoon, wounding three people and causing heavy damage. 2009(20thof Tevet, 5769): Eighty year Sherwin “Shy” Raiken the Villanova and NY Knicks basketball player passed away today in Philadlephia.https://basketball.realgm.com/player/Sherwin-Raiken/Summary/1003952009: Guy Cook, an attorney sent an e-mail stating that “Sholom Rubashkin denies all 99 charges…” (Editor’s note - The denial refers to additional charges filed against Rubashkin on Thursday, January 15, 2009.2010: As part of the effort to aid Haiti following the devastating earthquake that struck the country on January 13, a field hospital operated by IDF medical teams became operational today2010: At the New York Jewish Film Festival, the New York premiere of “The Jazz Baroness,” a documentary created by filmmaker Hannah Rothschild that tells the story of her great aunt Baroness Pannonica “Nica” Rothschild de Konigswarter who “abruptly leaves her family and creates a new one among celebrated jazz musicians in postwar New York.”2010: The 10thannual Atlanta Jewish Festival features a screening of “Anita,” film that revolves around terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in 1994 that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more and its impact on the life of Anita Feldman a girl with Down syndrome.2010: The Museum of Modern Art features the first showing of Amos Gitai’s Carmel which opens with“quotes from Josephus on the Jewish Wars of two millennia ago, then segues to present-day Israel and his family, with a focus on the remarkably articulate Efratia, the filmmaker’s late mother, whose letters about life in Israel and abroad are read by Jeanne Moreau.”2010(1stof Shevat, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Shevat2010(1stof Shevat, 5770): Ninety-year old Hungarian born radio host George Jellinek passed away today.http://www.wqxr.org/#!/articles/wqxr-news/2010/jan/18/wqxr-music-host-george-jellinek-90-dies/2011: András Schiff told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he had become "persona non grata" in Hungary and would probably never perform there again "or even visit." This followed charges by Schiff that Hungary was guilty of "racism, discrimination against the Roma, and anti-Semitism…”2011: The Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival is scheduled to present a program entitled“5000 Years of Kvetching – Illustrated with cartoonist, Ken Krimstein” during which the New York cartoonist “will discuss the development of his newly published book, Kvetch as Kvetch Can, full of 90 original cartoons, some of which have been published in The New Yorker, Barrons, The National Lampoon, and The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists2011: The U.S. premiere of the restored version of “Lies My Father Told Me”, a film set in the 1920s Montreal Jewish immigrant community, is scheduled to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival. 2011: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hadassah sponsored a Tu B’Shevat Seder at Temple Judah 2011: “The Social Network” based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg won the Golden Globe award for Best Picture.2011: In Israel the Cabinet is expected this to approve Israel's acceptance of membership in the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman and the recently released paperback edition of The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick2011: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories by Edith Pearlman 2011: There were a number of attacks against Jewish institutions in Montreal sometime between yesterday evening and this morning, local media reported today. Vandals reportedly smashed the windows of three synagogues, a Jewish day school, and a Jewish daycare center in the Côte-St-Luc and Hampstead neighborhoods. Local authorities said that there might be a connection between the attacks and that they may have been perpetrated by the same person or group of people2011(11thof Shevat, 5771): Milton Levine, the co-creator of “Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm which was an instant hit in the fad-crazy 1950s” passed away today at the age of 97 (As reported by Valerie Nelson)2012: “Remembrance,” a film inspired by actual events that depicts a remarkable love story that blossomed in the terror and squalor of a Nazi concentration camp in 1944 Poland, is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2012: Touro Synagogue Weekend of Peace March-MLK,Jr. Parade is scheduled to take place in New Orleans, LA. 2012: The 10th Annual Used Book Sale at Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to come to an end in Alexandria, VA. 2012: An Israel Defense Forces court sentenced a Palestinian man to five life sentences today, after he was convicted of murdering five members of the Fogel family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar in 2011. Amjad Awad, a 19-year-old student, carried out the crime with his cousin, Hakim Awad, who was already sentenced to five consecutive life sentences in October 2011 2012: Hackers shut down both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and El Al’s respective websites today, one day after a hacker network threatened to carry out attacks on both sites. The network, which goes by the name “nightmare group,” was able to cause severe problems for both sites2013: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman2013: “An NFL source told the Chicago Tribuneearly” today that the Chicago Bears would name Marc Trestman as their new head coach tomorrow.2013: At least five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip in the direction of Ashkelon, at approximately 2:00 am today.2013: At The Wiener Library in London, Dr. Joanna Beata Michlic from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute is scheduled to deliver a lecture that “discusses early postwar memories of Jewish survivors and their rescuers concerning wartime rescue in Warsaw and Warsaw province, and the relationships between rescuers and their Jewish charges in the immediate postwar period.”2013: “Aya” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.2013: A week before the January 22 elections, representatives of the eight largest political parties running for Knesset will face off before the English- speaking public at The Jerusalem Great Synagogue tonight.2013: Today the Jerusalem District Court convicted the "Jewish Terrorist" Jack Teitel of murdering two Palestinians and an assortment of other crimes between 1997 and 2008.2014: The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a “Collage Workshop with Irene Neimark.”2014: “Saul Bass Shorts” and “Cupcakes” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival2014: The Daniel Cooney Gallery is scheduled to host the reception which marks the opening of “Inframen” a project of Nir Arieli.2014(15thof Shevat): According to the tradition of the Bene Israel of India, the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven2014(15thof Shevat, 5774): Tu BiShvat 2014(15thof Shevat, 5774): Eighty-nine year old Seattle born producer Harvey Bernhard passed away today.http://www.filmreference.com/film/64/Harvey-Bernhard.html2014: Sirens went off tonight in the Ashkelon region as rockets were fired from Gaza for a second straight night. 2014: Among those nominated for Oscars today were “The Act of Killing”Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen for Best Documentary Feature and Emmanuel Lubezki for Cinematography for his work in “Gravity”2014: The Ministry for Senior Citizens announced today that it canceled its NIS 25,000 ($7,000) support for a remembrance event organized by the city of Ramat Gan for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, after a Ynet report revealed that participants would be charged a NIS 20 ($6) entrance fee, including Holocaust survivors. (As reported by Gilad Morag)2015: Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court opened a preliminary examination of possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, the first formal step that could lead to charges against Israelis today. (As reported by Rick Gladstone and Isabel Kershner)2015: “An Unmarried Woman” is scheduled to be shown at the 92nd Street Y as part of the winter film series.2015: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today blasted the joint Labor-Hatnua party list — now called the Zionist Camp — for being “anti-Zionist” and representing the “radical left,” and said his Likud party would not sit in a future coalition alongside it. (As reported by Marissa Newman)2015: Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath at a kosher supermarket near Paris where four people were killed on January 9.2015: The NIFY Southern Winter is scheduled to begin at Memphis, TN.2016(6thof Shevat 5776): Parashat “Bo.” 2016: “Peridance, a group led by Israeli choreographer and dance teacher Igal Peri” is scheduled to appear at the Salvatore Capezio Theatre.2016: Israeli trumpeter Itamar Borochov is scheduled to perform tonight at the Rockwood Music Hall this evening.2017: In Falls Church, VA, graveside are scheduled to be held 105 year old Hilde Metzger Prins, daughter of Louis and Clara Metger who moved to Palestine in 1933 to escape the Nazis at the same time she sought refuge in Amsterdam after which she moved to New York and married Benajamin Prins in 1940 with whom she moved to Washington 1948 where she raised their daughter Judith, the wife of Larry Lorber.2017: Today, Iraqi forces “retook an area in Mosul” where the Islamic State jihadists had levelled “the Nabi Yunus Shrine which was built on the reputed burial site of the prophet known as Jonah in 2014.2017: The Daily Mail reported today that an Amazon employee who correctly guessed that a customer who purchased her niece was Jewish based on her last name “was fired after allegedly leaving a note in a package for a Jewish customer which read: “Greetings from Uncle Adolf.” (As reported by JTA)2017: A special preview of “Denial” the film based on Deborah E. Lipstadt victory of Holocaust denier David Irving, written by David Hare and starring Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall is scheduled to take place at the Phoenix Cinema under the sponsorship of the UKJF2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a term opening event at the Varsity Club this evening.2017: Jack Alan Markell completed his service as the 73rd Governor of Delaware.2017: “Past Life” and “Such is Life” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2017: In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, the Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a program for the whole family – What’s Your Dream? Including a discussion of What Do You Do With An Idea?2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to dinner where students will have a chance to “learn a bit about something topical and Jewish.”2018: In New Orleans, the Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series is scheduled to host a screening of “Keep Quiet” which tells the “true story of a former far-right, anti-Semitic member of the Hungarian Jobbik party who discovered he was Jewish.”2018: “German authorities said today they were conducting searches countrywide in connection with 10 suspected Iranian spies, with one report saying that the suspects were members of an elite military force that had been watching Israeli and Jewish targets.”2018: “The United States sent $60 million to keep the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in operation but withheld a further $65 million while it urged others to pay more, a State Department official said today.”2018: The IAF announced this evening that “Major T., whose first name is not provided due to security, a 35-yeaer old mother of town has been named the commander of a flight squadron making her the first female pilot to hold such a position2018: “Army sappers detonated a cellphone-operated explosive device that was apparently planted by Palestinians at the entrance to the Joseph’s Tomb holy site in the city of Nablus early this morning, ahead of a visit by approximately 1,000 Jewish worshipers, the army said.”2018: In the District of Columbia, the Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Two Trains Runnin’”2019: Dr. Laurence Sherr, the “composer-in-residence and Professor of Music at Kennesaw State University” and “an internationally recognized Holocaust music lecturer” is scheduled to tell the “compelling stories about the “resistance and defiance often hidden in the artistic work of Jewish musicians imprisoned at Terezin” at the Breman Museum in Atlanta, GA.2019: “Alan Bern and Svetlana Kundish” are scheduled to present “Music from a Vanished World” at the Jewish Museum in London.2019: In Cleveland, the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host a screening of “The Gatekeepers” a documentary by Dror Moreh.2019: “Chasing Portraits” is scheduled to shown this afternoon at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2019(10thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi.http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_10.html
↧
January 16, 2019, 7:09 pm
January 17395: Emperor Theodosius I passed away in Milan. During his reign he instituted several laws that directly impacted his Jewish subject. One “dealt with the obligation of Jews and Samaritans to acts as shipmasters over goods being transported.” A second law “gave the Jewish patriarchs the right to judicial autonomy in their communities…” A third law enacted in 393 forbade the destruction of synagogues. (As reported by Daniel O. McClellan) 1287: King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca, making Minorca a part of Spain, a status that has survived into the 21st century, despite a brief period of British rule in 18th century. Judah Bonsenyor, Notary-general of Aragon, whose language skill enabled him to serve as an interpreter, was among those who accompanied the king during the invasion. Minorca has had a large Jewish population The Letter on the Conversion of the Jews by a fifth century bishop named Severus tells of the conversion of the island's Jewish community in AD 418. A number of Jews, including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. An act of conversion brought about, in fact, within a previously peaceful coexisting community by means of the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of certain Jewish families after the coerced acceptance of Christianity and its supremacy and rule in order to allow survival for those who had not already perished. Many Jews remained within the Jewish faith while outwardly professing Christian faith. Some of these Jews form part of the Xueta community. When Minorca became an English possession in 1713, the English willingly proffered an asylum to thousands of Jews from African cities [citation needed]. A synagogue was soon erected in Mahon. 1377: Pope Gregory XI, the prelate who had ordered the burning of Jewish books a year earlier, ended the Avignon Papacy when he moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon. 1449: In Toledo, Spain, 14 Conversos are put on trial and deprived of their offices because it is believed that their conversion to Christianity was not sincere and that they still cling to their Jewish ways. (Editor’s note – This was a common complaint among Christians who were upset that the Jews who adopted Catholicism were successful and in some instances supplanting them.) 1463: Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth gave birth to Frederick ii, the Elector of Saxony who protected Luther during that period from approximately 1514 to 1523 during which the Christian Reformer spoke positively of the Jews as can be seen from condemnation of the doctrine of “Servitude of the Jews and the essay “That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew.” 1466: King John of Sicily gave formal permission to Benjamin Romano to establish a Jewish University in medicine and law at Syracuse. The idea was not acted upon and 1492 the Jews were expelled by order of the Spanish crown including the 5000 Jews of Syracuse which was approximately 40% of the town’s population. 1504: Birthdate of Antonio Ghislieri, who as Pope Pius V expelled the Jews from Imola, Italy including its most famous citizen, Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph. Born in 1526, Gedaliah, studied under Jacob Finzi, Israel Rovigo and Abraham Rovigo, the noted Kabbalist and wandered around Italy after his expulsion until finally settling in Alexandria where he died in 1587. 1565: “Æquum reputamus” (We consider it equal) was issued by Pius V, the Pope who restored all of the anti-Semitic bulls of his predecessors, persecuted the Jews throughout the Christian world under his influence and eventually banished them from the dominions under his direct control. 1622: Fifty-two year old Ernst of Schaumburg the German count who “granted the first permanent residence permits to Ashkenazic Jews so that they could settle in Altona starting in 1611” passed away today.1658: Birthdate of Samson Wertheimer the native of Worms the chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt who also gained fame as an Austrian financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I. He passed away in Vienna in 1724. 1670 In Metz, Burghers of the city decided that it was financially beneficial to expel the Jews, and so concocted a ritual murder libel. Raphael Levy, a respected member of the community, was arrested, tortured and burned alive. The Royal Council later called it "Judicial Murder" and the Jews were not expelled. 1706: Birthdate of Benjamin Franklin who wanted the great seal to of the United States to depict the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and who responded to a fundraising request from Mikveh Israel with a contribution of £5. Like many of his contemporaries Franklin was a Deist who had his doubts about all organized religions but covered his bases by responding to charitable requests from various Philadelphia religious organizations. 1711: Birthdate of Vienna native Blumele Oppenheimer.1747: Birthdate of Marcus Herz, the native of Berlin who was a pupil of philosopher Emmanuel Kant before becoming a prominent German physician and lecturer who was appointed physician at the Jewish Hospital shortly after earning his MD in 1774. 1763: Birthdate of John Jacob Astor, fur trader and one of early America’s most successful businessmen. There is some question as to whether or not Astor was Jewish or just of "Jewish stock."1766: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Bele Salomon Kalman Asser Shochet,1789: At Göttingen, Emmanuel Mendel and his wife gave birth to David Mendel who converted and gained fame as “German theologian and church historian August Neander.”1792: In Lorraine, France, Mayer Lippmann, the son of Raphaël Isaac Lippmann and Jutelé Lippmann and his wife Madeleine Lipppmann gave birth to Samuel Lippmann 1797: Birthdate of “Austrian physician and writer” Gideon Brecher, “the uncle, by marriage, to Austrian bibliographer and Orientalist Moritz Steinschneider” known for commentary on the "Cuzari" of Judah ha-Levi. 1812: Isaac Isaac who was born in Amsterdam in the 1740’s took the family name of Pampel and became Isaac Isaac Pampel.1815(6th of Shevat, 5575): Sixty year old Isaac Simon passed away in Jamaica was interred a Jewish cemetery “located at Hunts Bay, across the harbor from Port Royal and midway between Kingston and Spanish Town.” The cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery on the island. (As reported by Irwin M. Berg) 1816: Charles Davis married Elizabeth Harris at the Western Synagogue.1818: Jacob ben Nathan Breslau married Rachel bat Mordecai bat Samuel at the Western Synagogue today.1841: Birthdate of German banker and member of the Hamburg Parliament Siegmund Hinrichsen1842: West London Synagogue of British Jews, the U.K.’s oldest Reform congregation, was opened today.1843: In Barcelona, Venezuela, Abraham Baiz and Sarah Naar gave birth to Jacob Baiz, the New Jersey educated businessman and diplomat who was appointed Consul-General of the Government of Honduras by President Marco Aureilo Soto, served as “a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Produce Exchange and the Coffee Exchanged in New York City and was a member of Congregation Shearith Israel and Vice President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society.http://www.jstor.org/stable/430588601847: The board of Congregation Shangarai Chasset met at the Conti Hotel Street in New Orleans under the Presidency of L. A. Gunst. The board unanimously chose Dr. Hermann Kohlmeyer to serve as the congregation’s rabbi. Kohlmeyer would later give up his pulpit for a career in education, becoming professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). The congregation was founded in 1827 as an Orthodox synagogue. In 1881 it merged with Nefutzot Yehudah to form Touro Synagogue, one of the Crescent City’s leading Reform Congregations.1849: Two days after he had passed away, Henry Levien was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1851: In Cayuga County, NY, where Albert Baham is on trial for the murder of Nathan Adler, a popular Jewish peddler, the prosecution completed its summation. The judge delivered the charge to the jury which then adjourned to begin its deliberation. By six o’clock the jury had found the defendant guilty as charged.1852: The New York Times reviewed Disraeli's Life of George Bentick. "It is amusing to see that Disraeli does not forget to do homage to the Hebrew race in his new book, albeit nobody can tell what it has to do with the biography...He still affirms...that the greatest men, past and present are and were Jews. To do him justice, he tries hard to prove it by living examples --whether they are valid or not let the readers of the book determine."1853(8thof Shevat, 5613): Samuel Jesi, the Milan born engraver whose first work was “The Abandonment of Hagar” completed in 1821 passed away today in Florence.1856: Two days after she had passed away Amelia Emanuel, the wife of Mendel Samuel with whom she had had five children, was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”1859: Birthdate of Minna Luise Ascher the wife of Dr. Hugo Ascher and the mother of artist Fritz Ascher.1863: Birthdate of Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian creator of “method acting” who assisted Nahum Zemach in the creation of Habima Theatre.1863: Birthdate of David Lloyd George. Lloyd George was the British Prime Minister from 1916 through 1922. This meant that he led Britain to victory during World War I and was the leader of the peace negotiations. In this latter role he signed the Treaty of San Remo that officially ended the war with Turkey. Under the terms of the treaty “Palestine was declared a mandated territory” to be administered by Great Britain under the terms of the Balfour Declaration. Lloyd George agreed to this despite a great deal of anti-Zionist pressure some of which was generated by American missionary educators with interests in the Middle East. 1867: Birthdate of Minna Luise Ascher (nee Schneider) the wife of dental surgeon Dr. Hugo Ascher and mother of German artist Fritz Ascher who was a protégé of Max Lieberman. 1867: Birthdate of Karl Lämmle, the native of Württemberg who gained fame as Carl Laemmle one of the creators of the American cinema industry and the founder of Universal Studios.https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2017/01/05/carl-laemmle-founder-of-universal-studios-and-humanitarian/1871: A Jewish peddler named Frank who has been plying his ware throughout Queens County was shot this evening while driving from Flushing to his home in Columbusville. The wounded Frank arrived at his home but nothing is known as to who might of shot him. 1873: Birthdate of Russian native Samuel Wolf Addleman who in in 1891 came to the United States where he graduated from the U of Pennsylvania and became a world class chess champion.http://www.edochess.ca/players/p4430.html1874: George Joseph Emanuel, the London born son of Joseph and Jane Emanuel and his wife Elizabeth Emanuel gave birth to Leonard Emanuel1876: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities, “an organization which embraces all the Hebrew charitable associations…and which cares exclusively for Hebrews” is the fifth leading charity in New York City. The association, with a central office at 238 East 5th, provides money, medicines, medical treatment, clothing, shoes and coal to needy Jews. 1882: Aletta Jacobs the first Dutch female physician opened her office. Yes, Jacobs, who was also a champion for the rights of women, was Jewish.1882(26thof Tevet, 5642): Sixty –two year old Hungarian born Austrian journalist Simon Szanto who was the co-founder and editor of the weekly journal "Die Neuzeit," passed away today.1883: John G. M’Kendrick delivered a paper today to the Philosophical Society of Glasgow in which he described the Lippmann electrometer “a device for detecting small rushes of electric current and was invented by Gabriel Lippmann in 1873.” (Lippmann was Jewish; M’Kendrick was not)1885: Alphonzo Taft wrote to Secretary of State Frelinghuysen from the U.S. Legation at St Petersburg regarding reports that the Russian Minister of the Interior had ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Odessa and other cities “holding foreign passports” unless they had “permits of residence” which the government readily gives to non-Jews but rarely give to Jews.1888: Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, wrote Manchester born U.S. educator Henry M. Leipziger praising his skills as a public speaker but cautioning him on the need to strengthen his skills in the field of “Jewish theology.”1889(15thof Shevat, 5649): Tu B’Shevat1890: Three days after he had passed away, Lionel Benjamin Cohen, the son of Benjamin Cohen and Jestina Montefiore who was the husband of Henrietta Rachel Solomon and Bertha Solomon and the father of Florence Justina Cohen was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.” 1890: (20th of Tevet, 5650): Salomon Sulzer passed away at the age of 85. While his name is known to few today, in his time he was a famous cantor and composer. “Born in 1804 in Hohenems, Austria, to a family of rich manufacturers, he was appointed cantor at the main synagogue in his hometown when only 16. He studied music in Vienna where he was chief cantor of the new synagogue from 1825 to 1881. His baritone voice attracted non-Jewish as well as Jewish admirers, among them Schubert, Schumann, and Liszt. In 1868 he was appointed knight of the order of Franz Josef. Sulzer's synagogue compositions became the models upon which congregations based their services throughout the year. His Schir Zion appeared in two volumes and while his music and innovations won only limited acceptance in Eastern Europe, they became standard in central Europe.”1891: In Eichstetten, Leopold and Klara Bock gave birth to Siegfried Bloch.1892: “Ancient Beliefs in Immortality” published today provides a summary of Reverend T.K. Chenye’s Rebuttal to former Prime Minister Gladstone’s contention that the Psalms which he says were written by David offer proof that the ancient Israelites believed in an afterlife. Chenye counters that the Psalms were probably written during the Babylonian exile and that the verses Gladstone attributes to a promise of heaven are actually a promise of a return to the homeland. (Editor’s note – This entry is fascinating for many reasons. First, that a Prime Minister would be engaged in a scholarly debate on such a topic and second the respect with which both of these Protestant leaders show for Jewish faith and traditions) 1892: It was reported today that the police still do not know the whereabouts or fate of David Blumenthal a wealthy Jewish businessman who disappeared in April, 1891. Before his disappearance, Blumenthal had been an inmate at the insane asylum at Amityville. At that time, his older son Henry took him from the asylum, went to the banks where his money was deposited and withdrew it all. The two men then boarded a steamer bound for Bremen where they appear to have disappeared.1892: In San Francisco, “Isadore Zellerbach and the former Jennie Bauh” gave birth to James D. Zellerbach, chairman of the board of Crown Zellerbach Corporation and public servant who was the Ambassador to Italy and the husband of Hannah Zellerbach with whom he had two sons – Richard and James.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/08/04/357167532.pdf 1893: A.E. Greenwald and Chapman Raphiel visited President Grover Cleveland at the White House and invited him to attend the charity that was being hosted by the Jews of Philadelphia on the last day of January. Cleveland responded that he would “make a special effort to be present.” 1893: President Rutherford B. Hayes passed away. Born in 1822,Rutherford Hays was the first President to designate a Jewish ambassador for the purpose of fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to Rumania. President Hays also was the first Chief Executive to assure a civil service employee her right to work for the Federal government and yet observe the Sabbath. (Not working on Friday nights and Saturday?) 1894: Birthdate of Hugo Chaim Adler the native of Belgium who became a successful German cantor and composer whose service in the Kaiser’s Army did not save him from being imprisoned by the Nazis for a year after which he fled to the United States. 1895: Dreyfus began his “trip” to French Guiana tonight when he “was taken from the prison of La Sante and was transferred by rail to La Rochelle where he was then moved to the military prison on the Island of Re. 1895: Edward Lauerbach represented “the Hebrew Charities” at a conference in New York City prior to the announcement of what payments would be made to various charities by the city government. 1896: The Jewish Chronicle published Herzl's first article "A Solution to the Jewish Problem," which appeared a month before Der Judenstaat, and with its editorial, "A Dream of a Jewish State" opened the readers' columns to a discussion of Herzl's plan.1896: The first version of Herzl’s Judenstaat (The Jewish State)was published in the Anglo Jewish Newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle.The Jewish Chronicle in London had a world scoop with a lengthy article on a “Solution of the Jewish Question” by Theodor Herzl. This was 2 days before Herzl finally secured a contract in Vienna for publication of the Judenstaat. Readers of the Jewish Chronicle were the first to have his ideas set out in print and they were cautioned by Herzl that “in this rapid account I run the risk of being misunderstood. My first and incomplete version will probably be scoffed at by Jews. ...I am introducing no new idea; on the contrary it is a very old one. It is a universal idea. …It is the restoration of the Jewish State.” Asher Myers, editor of The Jewish Chronicle had met Herzl a few weeks earlier at a dinner of the Maccabeans, a London club of Jewish professionals and establishment figures. He had been so impressed by Herzl’s views that he encouraged him to write them up for his newspaper. By the end of 1895, Herzl had completed his book and extracted a summary for The Jewish Chronicle. In an editorial entitled “A Dream of a Jewish State” Myers pointed at “the remarkable communication from Dr Herzl, adding that “we may safely assert that this is one of the most astounding pronouncements that have ever been put forward on the Jewish Question.” However, the editorial questioned whether the project would ever be realized. It concluded that Herzl had been prompted by a belief in the inevitability of spreading anti-Semitism. “Foreseeing coming storm all over the civilized world, there is in his view no possible escape from these catastrophes unless the Jews deliberately determine to remove themselves from the storm-laden atmosphere before the irresistible gloom breaks over them.” The Jewish Chronicle could not share Herzl’s thesis. Its Editor maintained that British Jewry did not see itself as victim of anti-Semitism and was convinced that it could insulate itself from its spread in continental Europe. “We find it hard to accept these gloomy prognostications (of universal anti-Semitism). We hardly anticipate a great future for a scheme which is the outcome of despair.” England consistently played a crucial role in Herzl’s efforts to mobilize support for the Jewish homeland. His success in winning the backing of Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, was of lasting significance. Arguably the British government’s decision to involve itself in the search for a Jewish homeland, even though nothing came of it in Herzl’s lifetime, was tantamount to endorsement of the right of Jews to be treated as a nation and was the first step in a sequence that eventually led to the Balfour Declaration. In stark contrast to Chamberlain as well as the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, Britain’s leading Jewish families remained deeply skeptical, even fearful of Herzl’s project. If anything the gulf in Britain was even larger than in Vienna between assimilated middle and upper class Jews and the poor, more recently arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe clustered in London’s East End and a couple of other cities. Again and again Herzl vainly looked for financial commitments from the British branch of the Rothschilds and their wealthy friends. In the expectation that he could somehow persuade them that the investment was worthwhile, he established the headquarters of the Jewish Colonial Trust in London. Herzl did not only focus on the Jewish establishment. In London he also turned to the East End Jews, addressing mass rallies and deriving strength from their enthusiasm for his project. By drawing attention to them he was also warning that a growing influx of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe forming distinctly un-British enclaves was bound to provoke anti-Semitism in England. Herzl thought this would graphically reinforce his case for a Jewish homeland. Only by diverting the immigration flow elsewhere could Britain be kept more or less free of anti-Semitism. Herzl met and recruited some of his most loyal collaborators, including Leopold Greenberg and Colonel Goldsmid in England. He courted and was courted by the British aristocracy and he secured the interest of important political figures like Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Lansdowne and William Gladstone and David Lloyd George who would later become the Prime Minister under whose watch the Balfour Declaration was adopted. Herzl also had the rare privilege as a foreigner to give evidence at the 1902 Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. Above all, England became Herzl’s fall-back in the search for territory after the failure of his long drawn-out negotiations with Turkey to secure Jewish settlements in Palestine. The alternatives - Cyprus, El Arish, East Africa - were in the British Empire. Herzl liked England, was comfortable in English society, admired its commitment to liberty and had great respect for the country as a colonial power. At one point he was on the verge of a permanent move to London as correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse.Herzl’s first contact with England actually goes back to 1888, when he went to the Isle of Wight, to Brighton, to the Thames Valley and to London as part of an extended summer trip to write travel sketches for the Neue Freie Presse. Five of his articles about the English summer scene were published. He also improved his English and learned to smoke a pipe instead of the habitual cigars, which he found far too expensive. He felt so much at home in the country that he hoped “if today the ‘Neue Freie Presse’ needed a London correspondent, I believe they would think of me.” However he was not to return to England until 1895 and the question of a London posting for Herzl did not arise until 1901, when the Neue Freie Presse agreed to his request for a transfer. While his wife Julie for once was in agreement, Herzl’s parents refused to move and Herzl promptly changed his mind. Herzl’s stay in England in 1895 was an all-important staging post in his quest for a Jewish homeland and set the scene for much of his future activities in England. Thanks to his close friend, Max Nordau, he had an introduction to Israel Zangwill, a prominent member of London’s Jewish community. He in turn facilitated a meeting with Colonel Goldsmid, with Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi and with Sir Samuel Montague. He also secured an invitation for Herzl to speak at one of the Maccabean dinners. Herzl was fascinated by the Goldsmid, a well-connected serving British officer who was an instant convert to the Jewish state and became an ally and collaborator. On the other hand, the Chief Rabbi, though hospitable and prepared to listen to Herzl’s arguments, failed to offer support. Responding to long-lingering criticism that he had cold-shouldered Herzl, the Chief Rabbi insisted in a letter published in The Jewish Chronicle in 1899, that “we gave him (Herzl) a fair hearing, discussed his plan in fullest detail and came to the conclusion that the (Herzl’s) proposal was fraught with serious peril and that its execution was impracticable.” Hermann Adler never changed his mind. Sir Samuel Montague at his first meeting with Herzl was a little more forthcoming than the Chief Rabbi, but claimed old age as an excuse for keeping his distance from Herzl’s project. He also warned Herzl to abandon any thought of seeking Jewish settlements in Argentina. Only Palestine could serve as a Jewish homeland. Argentina was struck from Herzl’s agenda. At the Maccabean dinner, according to Zangwill, it seemed as if “an unknown Hungarian dropped from the skies and gave the world the first exposition of his scheme in an eloquent mixture of German, French and English”. His impact on this sophisticated group seems to have been spell-binding. Herzl’s awareness of his ability to move audiences probably stems from this London experience. In his diary, Herzl noted tersely: “Meine Rede hat Beifall. Sie beraten leise unter sich und ernennen mich einhellig zum Ehrenmitglied. Folgen die Einwendungen, die ich widerlege. Die wichtigste: der Englische Patriotismus”. These assimilated Jews wanted nothing to do with any scheme that risked their acceptance in Britain as loyal British citizens. Herzl’s diaries show that in spite of obvious language difficulties, he had no illusions about the wide gulf between his ideas and the attitudes and beliefs of his new Jewish acquaintances in England. Most of them were practicing orthodox Jews who had no difficulty in reconciling their religion with integration into English society. Herzl on the other hand conceived of Jews as a nation; not as a race or as a religious group and no longer believed that assimilation was a solution to anti-Semitism. Writing in his diary about his discussions with Zangwill, he said “Er steht auf dem Rassenstandpunkt, den ich schon nicht acceptieren kann, wenn ich ihn und mich ansehe. Ich meine nur wir sind eine historische Einheit, eine Nation mit anthropologischen Verschiedenheiten. Das genügt auch fur den Judenstaat. Keine Nation hat die Einheit der Rasse.” After his experience with the Maccabeans, Herzl rightly judged that these English Jews saw him as a trouble-maker capable of undermining the secure position they had carved out for themselves in Britain. This however did not deter him from trying again and again to convince them to look at the larger picture of impoverished and persecuted Jews elsewhere in Europe and in need of a safe haven. The Times and other London newspapers were beginning to take some note of Herzl. They asserted that British Jewry was either indifferent or even sneering at him. The Jewish Chronicle also complained. The Jewish establishment was too insular. They “give no thought to their worse-off brethren”. The Jewish Chronicle,argued that “many English Jews seem (wrongly) to assume that to countenance the idea of a Jewish state meant that every Jew in England would be expected to pick up his wallet and join the pilgrimage to Jerusalem” In reality, what is required from British Jewry is solidarity with other Jews and understanding for the wider horizons of Jewish problems. Interest in Herzl’s ideas came from an unexpected source: In May 1896, after reading Herzl’s newly published Jewish State, William Gladstone, no longer Prime Minister but still a voice that counted in British political life, sent a hand-written letter to Sir Samuel Montague, stressing that he had found Herzl’s ideas “most interesting. (It is) not easy for one outside to form an opinion on it; perhaps even impertinent if it (the state) were formed. I am surprised however to see the misery of the Jews so broadly stated. Of course I am strongly anti anti-Semitic.” A year later, in July 1897, Gladstone came out more strongly in support of Herzl, who at that time was still trying to persuade Sultan Abdul Hamid to permit Jewish settlements in Palestine. In a letter to the Jewish Chronicle the grand old man of British politics wrote that “my inclination would be to favour any reassembling of Jews in Palestine under Ottoman suzerainty and under conditions of absolute religious liberty and equality.” Herzl had just been in London in yet another – vain - attempt to raise money from British Jewry in support of his efforts to win the Sultan over to his cause. Sir Samuel Montague made it clear to him that as long as the Rothschilds – and especially the Paris-based head of the family, Edmond de Rothschild – withheld support, British Jews would remain in the sidelines. But Montague made further near-impossible conditions before any substantial financial commitments would be made: Herzl noted in his diary that he would also be expected to secure “Die Zustimmung der Machte” and “dass der Hirschfond (the foundation set up by Baron Maurice de Hirsch) die disponible Summe, also 10 Millionen Pfund, hergebe.” Montague and some of his friends also cautioned Herzl against addressing a rally of Jews in the East End. “Es sei verfrüht und bedeute eine Aufrührung der Massen.” Herzl was undeterred. “Ich sagte, dass ich keine demagogische Bewegung wolle; aber im schlimmsten Fall – wenn die Vornehmen zu vornehm sein sollten – auch die Massen in Bewegung zu setzen.” The meeting in London’s East End went ahead. The Workingmen’s Club was packed. Herzl spoke for over an hour. They cheered him as a new Moses and Christopher Columbus. “Grosser Jubel, Hutschwenken, Hurrahrufe bis auf die Gasse”, wrote Herzl, adding “es hängt wirklich nur von mir ab, der Führer der Menschen zu werden; aber ich will nicht wenn ich irgendwie die Rothschilds durch meinen Austritt aus der Bewegung erkaufen kann.” Herzl added with evident pleasure that : “Im East End bilden sich spontan Komitees fur die Agitation. Programm: der Judenstaat!” A year later, early in October 1898 Herzl was again in London. His main purpose was to incorporate the Jewish Colonial Bank, the instrument which he hoped would attract sufficient capital to launch the Jewish homeland. But he again ventured into the East End to an audience that included a great many new Jewish immigrants. “Today I tell you: the time is no longer distant when the Jewish people will set itself in motion…Do you believe the Jews will go if we get the land?” “Answer me, answer me” Herzl cried. “Yes, yes,” roared the great crowd. The Jewish Chronicle carried two long and enthusiastic descriptions of the East End rally, and both reporters admonished London’s West End Jews – the Jewish establishment – for staying away from the event and not experiencing “what Jewish enthusiasm can really rise to.” At least 7000 people had turned up, many of them foreign Jews. It was “ a concourse of impoverished aliens led by a modern journalist in evening dress … who spoke in the purest of pure German” to an audience that best understood Yiddish or English. Yet “from the first word to the last he held the audience” and at the end they all rose to cheer him and give “Dr Herzl such a reception as, it is safe to say, no Jew ever received before in this country from his co-religionists.” However the significance of the rally was as much marked by the absentees as by those who were present. It had been “a gathering of the Jewish proletariat; while the upper and middle classes…were scarcely represented at all. The great movement seemed hardly to have caused a ripple on the placid surface of their daily life. It was for them as though the (recent) Congress of Basle and Dr Herzl had not been. Official Judaism waved the invader away and most of the clergy including the Chief Rabbi, kept at a distance.” They would have been wiser to come and learn from Dr Herzl “the much needed lesson that we can do with a few real leaders and that there is an enormous power for all kinds of incalculable good to rise at their bidding when they are found.” Editorial comment endorsed these strictures on the absentee ‘West End’ Jewry: They wanted “all the privileges of Englishness… They are not ready to forfeit what they have gained.” But there were clear signs that leading British Jews were misreading the British establishment. Instead of judging him as a mischief-maker, there was a great deal more interest in Dr Herzl’s message than British Jewry appeared to realise. Leading Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, were taking note. So were senior clerics in the Church of England. There was nothing altruistic about this. It was a matter of self-interest: A Jewish state might indeed be the best way to check a fresh spate of unwelcome poor Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Such a state, if it could be established in Palestine might curb Ottoman power and serve the strategic interests of Britain as a colonial power in the Middle East. British media interest in Dr Herzl had been growing steadily. Under the headline “Advent of the new Moses” The Pall Mall Gazette in July 1897 carried a lengthy interview with Dr Herzl. And in a prescient article, The Spectator speculated in September 1897, while the Basle Congress was in session, about the practicability of establishing a Jewish homeland: “We have no doubt the Jews desire it; so why should it not become a leading event of the next century? … It would be to the advantage of Europe by solving anti-Semitism.” But the paper also asked whether sufficient numbers of Jews would go, and whether wealthy Jews would find enough money to pay for the development of Palestine. The Times in one of its editorial comments asked: “If a Jewish state is to be founded, what is the guarantee of its national independence?” Herzl probably sensed the British mood more accurately than British Jewry. At any rate he decided to stage the 4th Zionist Congress in London with the obvious goal of using it to generate publicity and making Britain a firm ally for his cause. He was looking for British diplomatic intervention with Turkey, and if Palestine was unattainable for the time being, then perhaps Britain could be persuaded to offer Cyprus as a Jewish homeland. “England the great England, England the Free, England commanding all the sea – she will understand us and our purpose” Herzl told the 400 delegates. During his stay in London Herzl was warmly received in some of London’s great houses, and he made contacts in high places. This continued the following year in 1901, when he was treated as a celebrity both by the British and the Jewish establishment. “I am awfully dinnered” he wrote in his diary in English. “Society is curious about me. I am a sight not to be missed, a dish on the table; one comes to meet Dr Herzl.” There were no immediate dividends. He again failed to raise the millions of Pounds needed to underpin a Jewish state. But in 1902 events at last conspired both to put Herzl onto the national stage in Britain, and to bring about the meeting with the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain that led to substantive negotiations over Cyprus, El Arish and Uganda/East Africa, and, arguably, was the genesis of the Balfour Declaration. Reacting to growing hysteria over the influx of cheap labour, the majority of them impoverished Jews from Eastern Europe and from Russia, the British government, torn between the same kind of calls for restrictions on immigration that we hear today, and Britain’s traditional open door policy, set up a Royal Commission for Alien Immigration to study the question. Herzl’s British followers proposed him as an expert witness. Lord Rothschild, the only Jewish member of the Commission, tried but failed to prevent the invitation to a man he had openly described as a demagogue and windbag. Rothschild then attempted to instruct Herzl on what to say to the Royal Commission. He should say nothing that might cause the Commission to question the principle of assimilation. Herzl refused to be guided. He would use his appearance to warn Britain that hundreds of thousands of destitute Jews were on the move. Unless they could be found a safe haven, they would move westwards, including England. In spite of this clash, it seemed to Herzl that Lord Rothschild for the first time was taking him seriously. That gave Herzl new hope that Rothschild coffers might after all be opened. On July 7 1902, Herzl appeared before the Royal Commission. Conscious that his broken English was inadequate for the occasion, he told them that the reason why Jews flocked to England and America was “a desire for freedom of life and soul which the Jew under present conditions cannot know in Eastern Europe.” Yet on arriving in their place of exile, Jews often found themselves still as aliens, provoking the very anti-Semitism from which they had fled. Wherever Jewish refugees went, Herzl argued, they created anti-Semitism. The problem could only be solved by finding them a home which will be legally recognized as Jewish. “The solution of the Jewish difficulty is the recognition of the Jews as a people and the finding by them of a legally recognized home, to which Jews in those parts of the world where they are oppressed would naturally migrate…This would mean the diverting of the stream of emigration from this country and America, where so soon as they form a perceptible number they become a trouble and a burden”. Much better to take them “to a land where the true interest would be served by accommodating as many as possible” Once Jews secure “their rightful position as a people, I am convinced they would develop a distinct Jewish cult – national characteristics and national aspirations – which would make for the progress of mankind.” Pressed by the Commissioners whether a policy of assimilation would not be a better solution to the Jewish problem, Herzl described himself as an assimilated Jew. But he went on to argue as much for the benefit of British Jewry as to the Commissioners that history demonstrates that sooner or later every Jew is confronted with anti-Semitism. If immigration continued, it would manifest itself in England too. But were the Jews really a nation, asked one member of the Royal Commission. Herzl’s reply was succinct. A nation – and not only a Jewish nation – is “ a historical group of men of intelligible and visible cohesion held together by a common enemy.” In the case of Jews, “the common enemy is anti-Semitism.” Lord Rothschild, as ever intent on preserving his place in British society, challenged Herzl whether “the fact of a man being a Zionist precluded him from being a good citizen and rendered it imperative that he be excluded from the country (where he has settled)?” Herzl countered that this was a rhetorical question. Rothschild countered: “Therefore the Commission can take it that a Jew or a body of Jews may share your views about Zionism and still be devoted citizens?” Herzl: Yes, and far more so than those who are not Zionists.” British Jewry was not happy with Herzl’s testimony. They felt that he had fanned British fears about the impact of immigration by foreshadowing a mass invasion of destitute Jews. They feared that his remarks had only served to fan anti-Semitism in a country he only understood imperfectly. The Royal Commission led to Britain’s first anti-immigration legislation. More immediately Herzl’s argument that a Jewish homeland would reduce the pressure of immigration helped to persuade Joseph Chamberlain to arrange a meeting with Herzl in October 1902. By then Herzl had reluctantly recognised that the Sultan was unlikely to strike a deal with him over Palestine. Other locations would have to be considered. That first meeting with Chamberlain lasted an hour, and it took Herzl a while to break the ice. Chamberlain’s expression, at first “eine unbewegliche Maske” only lit up after an amusing account of negotiating techniques in Turkey. Then Herzl bluntly turned to territories where England had the power to help – specifically Cyprus, El Arish and Sinai. As Colonial Secretary, Chamberlain was only able to talk with Herzl about Cyprus. And there he expressed immediate reservations. Cyprus had a Greek and Muslim population. They could not be displaced. “Wenn nun die Griechen sich gegen die jüdischen Einwanderen wehrten, wäre die Schwierigkeit fertig” wrote Herzl in his account of the meeting with Chamberlain. “Er (Chamberlain) habe ja nichts gegen die Juden. Im Gegenteil. Und wenn er zufällig einen Tropfen jüdisches Blut in seinen Adern hatte, wäre er stolz darauf. Aber voila; er hatte keinen Tropfen.” Herzl countered naively: Jews, he said, should be invited to Cyprus. Meanwhile a Jewish Eastern Company with a capital of £5million would be established for Sinai and El Arish, and the Cypriots “werden die Lust bekommen, auch den Goldregen auf ihre Insel zu kriegen. Die Mohammedaner ziehen weg, die Griechen verkaufen ihre Landereien gerne und ziehen nach Athen oder Kreta.” Herzl then realized that Chamberlain did not even know where El Arish was located. The ‘Mask’ laughed as they proceeded to look at a map. “Jetzt erst verstand er mich ganz – meinen Wunsch, einen Versammlungsplatz fur das jüdische Volk in der Nähe Palestina zu gewinnen.” Herzl could not detect any warmth in Chamberlain; but nevertheless felt jubilant that he had scored an important goal “Es war wie in einem grossen Trodelgeschäft, dessen Führer nicht ganz genau weiss, ob irgendein absonderlicher Gegenstand in den Magazinen existiert. Ich brauche ein Versammlungsland für das jüdische Volk. Er will mal nachsehen, ob England so was am Lager hat.” “Die kolossale Sache die ich erzielt habe, ist das Joe Chamberlain den Gedanken einer self-governing Jewish colony in der Süd-Ostecke des Mittelmeer zu gründen, nicht a limine abweist.” However having closed the door on Cyprus, Chamberlain decided to pass Herzl on to the Foreign Office to discuss the El Arish option with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne. Herzl prepared a detailed memorandum for the encounter. But when they came face to face, Herzl’s English deserted him, and he continued in French. Lansdowne had no particular interest in the Jewish problem, and he made no commitments beyond asking for Herzl’s memorandum which he promised to pass on to Lord Cromer, Britain’s Consul-General – and virtual ruler – in Egypt. Lord Lansdowne wrote to Lord Cromer that he had been “favourably impressed by Herzl. His idea is to get hold of a tract near El Arish and there to establish a colony of carefully selected Hebrews. I suggested, but not with much effect, that they were unlikely to make good settlers and that El Arish was not exactly the spot upon which to dump Jews from the East End of London or from Odessa. He told me that he and his friends were sending out at once to Cairo a Mr Greenberg to collect information…. I think he should be civilly received by the authorities, although it is impossible for me to express any opinion on the merit of the scheme which seems to me very visionary.” A few days later Herzl received the invitation to dispatch a Commission to the Sinai. He described this as an “historic document”, but Cromer felt that Egyptian nationalism was becoming troublesome enough without injecting a fresh element of tension. Moreover experts warned that water supplies would be inadequate and that it would be far too expensive to divert the waters of the Nile to El Arish. Once Cromer set his face against it, the El Arish project faltered and in April 1903 Herzl was back in London to plead with Chamberlain. The Colonial Secretary, having just returned from an extended trip to Africa had a new idea: he had come across a country that would suit Herzl’s project. It was Uganda (the tract of land he had in mind was actually in Kenya). Herzl, writing an account of the meeting quoted Chamberlain: “An der Küste ist’s heiss; aber im Inneren wird das Klima vorzüglich fur Europäer. Sie können dort Zucker und Baumwolle pflanzen. Da habe ich gedacht, das ware ein Land fur Dr Herzl. Aber der will ja nur nach Palestina oder in die Nähe gehen!” Herzl’s first reaction was indeed negative. As a first priority Jews must have a national home in or near Palestine. “Später können wir auch Uganda besiedeln, denn wir haben Massen von Menschen, die zur Emigration bereit sind.” Further reflection of course convinced Herzl that it would be tactically wiser to explore the “Uganda” option as a way of keeping open the door to negotiations with Britain to secure a firmer commitment to the principle of a Jewish national home. But there was even a more pressing reason for considering the “Uganda” option: coinciding with the Kishinev massacre, Herzl felt the need for rescue was so pressing that any offer of a safe haven, even far from Palestine, had to be embraced. There is no need here to go into the bitter controversy that ensued within the Zionist movement. But it is worth noting that they could have spared themselves much grief, given that British settlers in Kenya were in any event so opposed to the prospect of Jewish immigrants that the Britain could not have imposed the scheme. Herzl’s death in 1904 prompted many eulogies in Britain as much as elsewhere. Here I will give The Jewish Chronicle the last word. “It is hard to believe that this imposing figure, who seemed to personify the romance as well as the travails of his people has passed into eternity… Dr Herzl with his great argument had stirred the race as no internal Jewish force had done for many a year…. He gave Jewish solidarity a new meaning. He made people of this earth realize that there is a Jewish question to be solved” His achievement was that “it has become a matter of practical politics which fills the reviews and opens the mouths of reticent statesmen and prompts offers of Jewish colonies. “Has the great movement run its course?” The organ of British Jewry was pessimistic. “Zionism without Herzl seems as illogical and unthinkable as Zionism without Zion, or a monarchy without a throne.” It turned out that they were wrong.1896: Birthdate of Hugo Chaim Adler the Belgian-born American composer, cantor, and choir conductor who was the father of composer and conductor Samuel Adler.1897: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities has had so many applications for assistance that it will run out of money by the end of the month if it does not receive additional contributions. 1897: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler officiated at the funeral of Leon Sternberger, the cantor emeritus of Temple Beth-El. Following the services which were held at Temple Beth El, interment took place at Machpelah Cemetery on Long Island. 1898: At Marseilles, France a crowd paraded through the streets crying “Death to the Jews” and “Shame upon Zola.1898: During an anti-Dreyfus meeting being held at the Tivoli Vauxhall, “the members of the anti-Semite Committee displayed banners bearing the inscription “Death to the Jews…”1898: As the “Dreyfus Affair” continued to enflame the French, it was reported that Louise Michel and Sebastian addressed a meeting sponsored by the Socialists during which they denounced the secrecy surrounding the recent trial of Count Esterhazy. (He, not Dreyfus, was the French spy who betrayed secrets to the Germans.)1898: It was reported today that during 1897, 699 children ranging in age from 9 to 17 have been admitted to the Sabbath School operated by the Hebrew Technical School for Girls. 1898: It was reported today that William Lloyd Garrison has sent a letter to the President of the Immigration Restriction League criticizing a bill that has been introduced by Senator Lodge that would sharply limit immigration to the United States. (This was one of several attempts to put an end to immigration that would be introduced over the next twenty years. These proposals struck a sensitive chord among the Jewish community which was split on the issue.)1898: Funeral services were held this morning for Lazarus Straus, a New York merchant and philanthropist at Temple Beth-El. Dr. Kaufman Kohler delivered the eulogy, and Dr. Silverman served as the cantor.1899: After a ten day trip from Honolulu aboard the USS Bennington, Commander Edward D. Taussig arrived at Wake Island where oversaw the formal ceremony transferring the island from Spanish to U.S. control after he set sail that evening for Guam aboard the Bennington, a gunboat that had been under his command since August of 1898.1899: Birthdate of Robert Maynard Hutchins no nonsense educator and civil libertarian. When asked about the role big time athletics on the college campus, Hutchins is reported to have replied, athletics is to a college education what bull fighting is to agriculture. Hutchins was not Jewish. But as a major intellectual figure of his time, he presents an interesting paradox in understanding Jewish relations with the non-Jewish world. On the one hand, Hutchins was praised in an article in the Chicago Jewish Historical Society’s publication “Chicago Jewish History” for his willingness to sponsor and hire German Jewish intellectuals fleeing Hitler in the 1930’s. At the same time he was an active member of the anti-war and anti-Semitic America First Movement. As a leader of America First, Hutchins was one of those who dismissed testimony about the savagery of the Germans as lies and Jewish propaganda.1901: Birthdate of Frieda Hajekova who was deported from Prague to Ujazdow in 1942 where she was murdered by Nazis. 1904: Herzl leaves for Italy where his travels will take him to Venice, Florence and Rome.1906: In New Orleans, attorney Edgar M. Cahn and his wife gave birth to Edmond Nathaniel Cohen, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Tulane who lived in New York where he pursued a career as a legal scholar and author.https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03823.htmlhttp://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w6dj5jpjhttp://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3550&context=uclrev1906: It was reported today that as the Senate debates whether or not to send for copies of the instructions given to the delegates attending what is now known as the Algeciras Conference, Secretary of State Root is already sharing them with the pubic including “a special supplementary letter of instructions” concerning the Jews of Morocco” in which he “calls attention to the numerous and harsh discriminations imposed in Morocco against the Jews” and instructs the delegates “to devote their best efforts to obtain the removal of such discriminations.”1909: Dr. Stephen S. Wise the Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, delivered a speech this morning advocating the acceptant of the million dollar bequest by the late Louis Heinsheimer. The bequest was conditional on the formation of a federation of Jewish charities, a move that Wise supported because he thought that it would improve the quality and quantity of services provided to those in need.1909: New York State Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman addressed the annual meeting of the New York Hebrew Infant Asylum at Tuxedo Hall. Lehman called for additional support of the asylum which is caring for 153 Jewish orphans. Due to a lack of an adequate facility this means that 450 Jewish orphans under the age of 5 are being cared for by Catholic and Protestant institutions. Charles Dittman was re-elected as the President.1909: Birthdate of Cornell University and University of Chicago (Ph.D.) trained economist and WW II Army Air Forces officer Oscar L. Altman, one of the “first economist to see the importance of the Eurodollar” and “treasurer of the International Monetary Fund.”https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/12/24/76923387.pdf1911: Birthdate of Moshe Carmel, the native Minsk who made Aliyah in 1924, helped to establish Kibbutz Na’an and commanded the Carmeli Brigade during the War of Independence before pursuing a political career.1913: Today’s meeting of the directors of the Baron Hirsch Woman’s Club at the Auditorium was preceded by luncheon hosted “Mesdames Herman Lesserman, Henry Lewis, Johannah Loeb, Samuel Lorsch, Edward Levy and Max Mildenberg.”1915: The National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives which was organized in 1899 with offices in Denver, CO, held its fifteenth annual meeting in Chicago under the leadership of President Samuel Grabfelder. 1915(2nd of Shevat, 5675): Seventy-two year Bavarian born American Jurist Louis Sulzbacher, “the first continental American appointed as Associate Justice of the newly created Supreme Court of Puerto Rico by President McKinley” passed away today.1915: “The Jewish Race” published today provides Joseph Jacobs’ review of Jewish Life in Modern Times by Israel Cohen.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E03EED7103EE733A05754C1A9679C946496D6CF1916: “The American Jewish Relief Committee received a cablegram through the” U.S. State Department “a cablegram from Ambassador Gerard at Berlin announcing that there was great distress in the sections of the war zone inhabited by Jewish communities.”1916: The information office at new branch office of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society at the Sackman Street Synagogue which was established to help Jews send aid to relatives in the war zone as well as helping them connect with those who have gone “missing” is scheduled to open at 10 A.M. today.1917: In Hoxter, Germany, “Dr. Leo Pins a veterinarian and his wife Ida Lipper” both of whom would be murdered at the Riga Ghetto in 1944, gave birth to Israeli woodcut artist and art collector Jacob Pins who was a protégé of Jacob Steinhardt another German born artist forced to flee from the Nazis. 1917: “Following an appeal by Adolph S. Ochs, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means” 57 Jews attending the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Baltimore pledged over $140,000 “to meet the expenses of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati” and other “school extension work. 1917: Birthdate of Czech-born Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz.1918: The general staff of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies considered extending the drive for another week even though it had met its goal of raising funds and enlisting new members which has led to the democratization of philanthropy in New York.1920: Birthdate of Nora Koreff, the Brooklyn born ballerina known as Nora Kay who married violinist Isaac Stern in 1948.1921: This evening, the New York branch of the United Synagogue of America hosted a banquet for the out-of-town delegates attending the 9th annual convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fourth annual convention of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue.1921: T.E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) told Winston Churchill that Emir Feisal ‘agreed to abandon all claims of his father to Palestine’ since the British had agreed to Arab sovereignty in Baghdad, Amman and Damascus. 1922: Birthdate of Lillian Schuman who at the age of 19 married Sol Goldman and became Lillian Goldman, the benefactress of Yale University Law School.http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/21/nyregion/lillian-goldman-80-yale-law-school-donor-and-advocate-for-women-s-education.html 1923(29th of Tevet, 5683): Seventy-one year old Carrie Bernheimer, the daughter of Samuel Bernheimer and Henrietta Cahn passed away today.1925: Today, “in order to resolve socio-economic difficulties of the Russian Jews and promote agricultural labor among them, the CPSU formally created a government committee, the Komzet, and a complementary public society, the OZET.”1926: Birthdate of Yitzhak Moda'I, the native of Tel Aviv who graduated from the Technicion before starting a long political career.1926: Nine year old violinist Yehudi Menuhin appeared in a recital in New York1927(14th of Shevat, 5687): Seventy-six year old Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted the founder of Shell Transport and Trading Company which later became Royal Dutch Shell, the husband of Fanny Elizabeth Benjamin Samuel and the father of Nellie Samuel Ionides passed away today passed away today.https://www.jta.org/1927/01/20/archive/lord-bearsted-dies-within-24-hours-of-lady-bearstedhttps://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=798601928: In Hammersmith, London, Sephardi Jews Betty and Jack Sassoon gave birth to Vidal Sassoon, who to most people was the noted hairdresser and businessman. But for Jews he is also the 20 year old who in 1948 went to Palestine, joined the Haganah and fought during the War for Independence. “He describes the year he spent training with the Israelis as ‘the best year of my life. When you think of 2,000 years of being put down and suddenly you are a nation rising, it was a wonderful feeling. There were only 600,000 people defending the country against five armies, so everyone had something to do.’ Sassoon's dark brown eyes are on fire when he talks of his war memories. ‘We took a hill and attacked at four in the morning, took them by surprise. It was a hill overlooking a main road where the Egyptian heads of the army were heading. If they had passed this spot they would have been in Tel Aviv in a few hours but we took them.’” (As reported by Chirssy Iley) 1930: Judah Bergman, the English born boxer who fought under the name Jackie “Kid” Berg won “a 10 round decision in a highly publicized non-title bout in New York City.1930: “The Caviar Princess” a silent comedy film directed by Carl Lamac with a script co-authored by Walter Wassermann was released in Germany today.1932: In Brooklyn, celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association1933(19thof Tevet, 5693): Fifty-eight year old Jonas Weil, the son of Isaac and Hannah Weil, the husband of Caroline Sicher Weil and the father of Charlotte and Miriam Weil passed away today after which he was buried at Temple Israel Memorial Park, in Minneapolis, MN.1933: Media mogul and right-wing political leader Alfred Hugenberg who thought he could use the Nazi Party to his own advantage met with Hitler today. 1934(1st of Shevat, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1934: Birthdate of Jack Alster who was transported from Prague to Terezin and then to Auschwitz in 1944 where he was murdered. 1934: Birthdate of Shari Lewis who would gain fame as a ventriloquist and puppeteer who created Lamb Chop.1934: In Clinton, MA, grocery store own Louis Schanberg and the former Freda Feinberg gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning Times correspondent Sydney H. Schanberg whose successful career proves that History Majors can amount to something.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/business/media/sydney-h-schanberg-is-dead-at-82-former-times-correspondent-chronicled-terror-of-1970s-cambodia.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=11935: The American committee responsible for the selection of the United States teams that will compete in the Second Maccabiah announced the schedule for the trials which will be held in New York City and Newark, NJ next month. Pincus Sober chairs the committee selecting the track and field team. Charlotte Epstein chairs the committee selecting the swimming team. Ernest Koslan chairs the committee selecting the tennis team. Ben Levine chairs the committee selecting the boxing team. Nat Osk chairs the committee selecting the wrestling team.1936: In a letter made public today, President Roosevelt expressed his support for the third annual observance of Brotherhood Day sponsored by the National Conference of Jews and Christians which is to be held next month.1936: “Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp was today formally inducted as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Jaffa in the presence of an assemblage of about 100 rabbis of this all Jewish city and vicinity.” (JTA)1936: Dr. Joseph Goebbels delivered a “fiery address” which was greeted by thunderous applause in which he “declared uncompromisingly that the time was coming when Germany must demand colonies” and took issue with “those American who criticize the Nazi Jewish Policy” especially “the American newspapers that are continually deploring the fate of the poor Jews in Germany…”1937: The second in a series of lectures being given as part of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s 50th anniversary which “was devoted to a discussion of the spiritual and cultural aspects of Judaism” was given this evening at the seminary.1937: Eugene B. Strassburger of Pittsburgh presided over today’s session of the joint convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Affiliated National Temple Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods in New Orleans where Dr. Henry Barnston of Houston delivered the invocation and Dr. Samuel M. Blumenfield of Chicago told delegates that the “director ion of the intellectual and spiritual growth of youth is the most neglected phase of Jewish education.” 1937: In Germany, loyal Catholics “were warned against marriage with Protestants” which contravenes the National Socialist contention that the only forbidden marriages are those between Aryans and Jews.1938(15thof Shevat, 5698): Tu B’Shevat1938: In Bucharest, Alexander Cuza who along with Premiere Octavian Goga is the co-leader of the National Christian Party declared that “solution of the Jewish problem ‘demands complete elimination of Jews.’” (Editor’s note – Because of the Holocaust we tend to overlook the virulent anti-Semitism which was part of the landscape in so many parts of Europe.)1938: “The Mayor of Bucharest banned kosher slaughtering at municipal slaughter houses.”1938: The Palestine Post reported that a passerby was injured when a missile was hurled at the Workers' Cooperative restaurant on Jaffa Road, shattering all windows. 1938: The Palestine Post reported that the Soviet government ordered the immediate closing of the Meyerhold State Theater in Moscow as being an institution "alien to Soviet art." Vsevolod Meyerhold, the director, was accused of showing "alien mentality." Meyerhold’s family origins were German Jewish although Meyerhold himself was a Lutheran. In the world of Stalin, Meyerhold could have fallen out of favor because he was “German,” “Jewish” or “both.”1939: Felix Frankfurter was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a voice vote of the U.S. Senate today.1939: In Boston, Ely Chayet, “a judge in Norfolk County, MA” and “the former Blanche Poretsky” gave birth to Harvard Law School graduate Neil Lewis Chayet, the creator of WBZ’s “Looking at the Law” who was the husband of Susan Chayet with whom he had three children, and Martha M. Chayethttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/business/media/neil-chayet-dead-radio-host-of-looking-at-the-law.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01939: The Nazi government issued a decree regarding the expiration of permits for Jewish dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists. 1940: “A strong desire for economic cooperation between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine to overcome common difficulties was demonstrated today when Arab and Jewish citrus farmers and traders met in Petach Tikvaah. The meeting was the first of its kind since the start of the Arab uprising in 1936. The Jewish Farmers Federation sponsored the meeting which was attended by 700 Jews and over 100 Arabs “who represented orange-growing belt of Palestine.” The Arabs included a wide range of political views who were united in a willingness to work with the Jews in “presenting the citrus growers’ grievances to the” British government. “The conference elected a delegation of nine Jews and nine Arabs to meet the High Commissioner. The delegation will go to London if the local government meetings do not bring about meaningful improvement. 1941: Konrad von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin “wrote to Pius XII, noting that "Your Holiness is certainly informed about the situation of the Jews in Germany and the neighboring countries. I wish to mention that I have been asked both from the Catholic and Protestant side if the Holy See could not do something on this subject, issue an appeal in favor of these unfortunates.”1941: When German planes were bombing Tel Aviv tonight, they dropped “a large projectile in an orange grove behind Tel Aviv where it caused a deep crater and other damage.” 1943: Berlin Bishop Konrad Graf von Preysing, the only top German Catholic prelate who consistently opposes the German government's Jewish policies, threatens Pope Pius XII, saying he will resign unless the collaborative behavior of the other German bishops comes to an end. 1943: In Italy, the Battle of Monte Cassino, which was filmed by a Polish military unit that included Michał Waszyński, began today.1944: The Battle of Monte Casino in which Perec Rachman fought with the Allied Forces as a member of the Polish military in the attack against the Nazi position in Italy, began today.1944: Fifty-six year old anti-Nazi Max Sievers who had been forced to leave the United States because he was not granted visa in 1939 was be-headed today at Brandenburg Prison.1945: The Red Army entered Budapest and the remaining 120,000 of the original 470,000 Jews would now be safe from any further disaster. 1945: Final roll call is taken at Auschwitz: 11,102 Jews remain at Birkenau; 10,381 women in the Birkenau women's camp; 10,030 at the Auschwitz main camp; 10,233 at the Monowitz satellite camp; and about 22,800 in the remaining factories in the surrounding region;1945: The Soviets arrest Raoul Wallenberg, whom they cynically suspect is using his humanitarian efforts for the Jews to cover his collaboration with the Germans or the Western Allies (the War Refugee Board was sponsoring him) 1945: The SS Dornau which became known as the "slave ship" after the SS and Gestapo transported 540 Jews from Norway to Stettin, from where they were taken by train to Auschwitz, set sail from Oslo today bound for Drøbak – a journey that she did not complete because she was blown up by explosives planted on the ship by saboteurs. 1945: SS guards at the Chelmno, Poland, death camp play "William Tell" by shooting at bottles placed on the heads of Jewish inmates who have been engaged in demolishing the camp's crematoria. In the evening, the remaining Jews are led from their barracks in groups of five and shot. One of the prisoners, Mordechai Zurawski, stabs an SS guard and escapes despite suffering a gunshot wound to the foot. A second inmate, Shimon Srebnik, also survives after being shot through the neck and mouth and left for dead. Forty-seven other Jewish prisoners at Chelmno, aware that the SS will shoot them before fleeing west ahead of the Soviets, take refuge in a building that is then set afire by the SS. Jews who run from the blaze are machine-gunned; only one of the original 47 survives. The SS abandons the Chelmno camp later in the day. 1945: The Soviet Army entered Warsaw. Only 200 Jews of more than a half a million had survived1945: SS began killing the special Commando group of Jews at Chelmno that was used to help dismantle the camp over the past three months. Forcing them to wear bottles on their heads, the SS took target practice.1945: Birthdate of David Pleat “an English football player turned manager and sports commentator.” 1945: The Nazis began the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces approached. Elie Weisel describes this event in his first book Night. 1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” completed its deliberations in Washington, DC today which had begun on January 4. 1947(25thof Tevet, 5707): Seventy-year old Wilhelm Levison, the “German medievalist” who moved to England after the Nuremberg Laws ended his career passed away today at Durham where had been teaching since 1939.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_and_the_Continent_in_the_Tenth_Century1948: The British brought the mutilated bodies of the 35 Jews to the Etzion bloc where they were to be buried in a common grave. The dead were the members of a platoon of volunteers that had been sent from Jerusalem to reinforce the beleaguered Etzion fighters. 1949: The Goldbergs, starring Gertrude Beg as Molly Goldberg, moves from radio to television as it premiers on the CBS television network.1949: Birthdate of Halifax native and lawyer whose political career began with his election to the Halifax City Council in 1994 after which he “was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the New Democratic Party representing the provincial riding of Halifax Chebucto”1949: Birthdate of Andy Kaufman, actor and comedian, many would come to know him as Latka Gravas in the sitcom Taxi. 1950(28th of Tevet, 5710): Mrs. Aaron (Annie) Goldberg, the paternal grandmother of Sir Martin Gilbert passed away at the age of 78. Born in Poland when it was part of the Russian Empire, she arrived in Great Britain in the last decade of the 19th century. 1951 (10th of Shevat, 5711): At a gathering of Chassidim marking the first anniversary of the passing of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the late Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, delivered a Chassidic discourse (maamar) entitled Basi L'Gani ("I Came into My Garden"), signifying his formal acceptance of the leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. 1951: “Storm Warning” a thriller produced by Jerry Wald and written by Richard Brooks and Daniel Fuchs was released today in Miami Beach.1952: While serving his second term as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress during which he proudly reminds those in attendance of his long support of the Zionist cause and the creation of a Jewish state. 1955: Submarine USS Nautilus began the first nuclear-powered test voyage. This marked a major milestone in Admiral Hyman Rickover’s vision of a nuclear-powered Navy.1955: Chicago born author Frederick Raphael married Sylvia Glatt today after which they had three children -- Paul Simon, a film producer, Sarah Natasha, a painter, and Stephen Matthew Joshua, a screenwriter.1956: The funeral for Rabbi Jacob L. Andron, the husband of Yetta Andron with whom he had five children – Esther, Judith, David Philip and Elihu – is scheduled to take place the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School which he and his father had founded.1957(15thof Shevat, 5717): Tu B’Shevat1959: Birthdate of Susanna Hoffs lead singer with “The Bangles.” 1960: Two days after he had passed away funeral services are schooled to be held for eighty-seven year old Bohemian born and Prague trained medical doctor Ernest Peter Pick who fled Austria after the Anschluss and settled in the United States in 1939 “where he joined the medical staffs of Columbia University and Mount Sinai Hospital and who was the husband of “the former Margaret Janssen”1962: Dancer Melissa Hayden premiered the role of Titania in Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a part created especially for her.1963(14th of Shevat, 5725): Esta Henry, the Jewish antique shop owner “sometimes called ‘Mrs.Scotland” died today in plane crash with her husband Paul (Pinchas Haimovici).1963: It was reported today that “a Soviet newspaper has confirmed that Solomon Mikhoels, noted Yiddish actor and director was murdered by Soviet Secret Police. At the time of his death, it the Communist regime claimed that he had been killed in an automobile accident. In fact, his death was the precursor to a Stalinist ant-Jewish purge that claimed the life of several hundred Jewish writers including David Bergelson. At the time of his murder, Mikhoels was working on a production of “Prince Reubeini” a play by Bergelson that depicted the expulsion of the Jews by the Ferdinand and Isabella. 1965: His Eminence Pierre-Marie Paul Gerlier, Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon who was named a Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 passed away today.1966: Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on Columbia Records. 1966: Zvi Dinstein begins serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.1966: After a B-52 crashed off the coast of Spain, U.S.Navy scientists used information gained from a lecture by mathematician Howard Raiffa in their attempt to recover four missing hydrogen bombs.1970 (9th of Shevat, 5730): The writing of the "Sefer Torah for the Greeting of Moshiach," initiated at the behest of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, in 1942, was concluded 28 years later at a special gathering convened by the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Friday afternoon, the 9th of Shevat, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's passing.1974(23rdof Tevet, 5734): Retired department store executive Ernest E. Ellman, the wife of Adele Heiman a leader of the Arkansas Jewish community and the widow of Jesse Heiman, passed away today. 1978: “The offices of the Federation of Jewish Societies, an association of small social and cultural organizations, were damaged by an explosion” today in Paris. 1978: Janet Maslin reviewed “Operation Thunderbolt” a film about the Entebbe Raid.http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E6DF113EE632A25754C1A9679C946990D6CF&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who arrived in Jerusalem to participate in the deliberations of the Egyptian-Israeli political committee, had brought with him a jointly agreed agenda which included the declaration of principles which would govern the negotiations for a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. The agenda was to provide a guide for negotiations relating to the issues of the West Bank and Gaza (the Hebrew version read "Judea, Samaria and Gaza") and included the elements of peace treaties arrived at by Israel and its neighbors, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 242. Vance had also proposed a plan for a transitional period which would eventually lead to something more close to the "self-determination" of the Arabs in Palestine.1979: “Nosferatu the Vampyre” a horror film produced by Michael Gruskoff who began his career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, was released in France today.1979: After ten years, Marvin Mandel completed his service as the 56th Governor of Maryland.1980: “Suite of Dances” (from Dybbuk Variations), a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins from his 1974 Dybbuk ' premiered at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center;1980: The Olympic Committee of the Presidium of the Second Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry met in London today.1981(12thof Shevat, 5741): Parashat Beshalach1981(12thof Shevat, 5741): Eighty-seven year old Rabbi Solomon Levy, “the former Grand Rabbi of Hust, Czechoslovakia died today while conducting Shabbat services in Boro Park.”https://archive.jta.org/1981/01/21/archive/solomon-levy-dead-at-871982(22ndof Tevet, 5742): Ninety-three year old “Yetta Zwerling, an actress and comedian of the Yiddish theater” passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/19/obituaries/yetta-zwerling.htmlhttp://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/Z/zwerling-yetta.htmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd2vPwv8Hps 1982(22nd of Tevet, 5742): Ninety-three year old “Yetta Zwerling, an actress and comedian of the Yiddish theater” passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/19/obituaries/yetta-zwerling.html 1985: Canada made Raoul Wallenberg its first Honorary Citizen today. 1986: In Queens, NY, Lisa (nėe Kobrin) and Doug Adler gave birth to the Arizona raised actor Max Adler, the brother of Jake Adler and husband of Jennifer Bronstein who may be best known for his performance in the television show “Glee/:1985: Canada designated this date as Raoul Wallenberg Day.1986: After a limited release in December, “Runaway Train” produced by Menahem and Yoram Globus was released in the rest of the United States today.1986: Samuel Hadas was named as Israel’s Ambassador to Spain as Israel and Spain establish diplomatic relations today.1987: Two Israeli helicopter gunships strafed Lebanese guerrillas today who had just overrun a position of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, the police said. 1988: Birthdate of actress Nikki Reed. 1988: “Retracing Jewish History In Austria,” by Paul Hoffman is published on the 330thanniversary of the birth of Samson Wertheimer. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/17/travel/retracing-jewish-history-in-austria.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm 1990: Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1990: The United States criticized Yitzchak Shamir today for his call for a ''big Israel'' to absorb a flood of immigrants from the Soviet Union. 1991: Israel declared a state of emergency early this morning, minutes after word reached here of the American attack on Iraq. The authorities advised all Israelis to stay in their homes, open their chemical warfare kits and make their gas masks ready for immediate use. Iraq has said that it would retaliate against Israel for any allied attack on Iraq. 1991: Iraq fired 8 SCUD missiles on Israel. Israel had agreed that it would not respond and leave the destruction of the SCUD launchers to the Coalition Forces fighting Iraq. This marked the first time in Israel’s history that it relied on others for its defense. 1992: In a “Festival of New Voices From A Changing Israel,” published today, Jennifer Dunning waxes poetic over “Israel: The Next Generation” which she describes as “a festival with a difference.”http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/17/arts/a-festival-of-new-voices-from-a-changing-israel.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm 1993: FOX broadcast the last episode of the “Ben Stiller Show.”1993: The Dance Library of Israel will present its annual Documents of Dance Award to Dame Alicia Markova, the English prima ballerina, today at Tavern on the Green. The late Gower Champion will also be honored, with his son Gregg accepting the award. The event, including a reception, followed by a dinner and entertainment, will benefit archival and educational projects of the library in Tel Aviv 1997: Israel handed over its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians as part of the peace process that began with the Oslo Accords. The entire Jewish population had been forced to abandon its homes in Hebron in 1936 because of Arab violence. In 1968, the Jews returned to this ancestral city. While the Israeli government may have surrendered sovereignty, the Jewish settlers remained.1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma by Ernest Gellner, Ben Shan: An Artist's Lifeby Howard Greenfeld, The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Centuryby David Fromkin and Snow written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz. 2000: Syrian-Israeli negotiations that had been scheduled to resume on Wednesday, January 19, in the United States were canceled today. Apparently the cancellation was the result of conflict between Syrian President Asad and PLO leader Yassar Arafat.2001(22nd of Tevet, 5761): After being “seduced” by a 24 year old Palestinian female who lured him to a remote area, terrorists murdered 16 year old Israeli high school student Ofir Rahum.2001: In “Forced to Leave Homes, Cuban Jews Thrive in Miami” published today Betty Heisler-Samuels described the growth of the Cuban Jewish community in Florida following the rise of Castro.2002(4thof Shevat, 5762): A Palestinian gunman burst into a bat mitzvah celebration in a banquet hall in Hadera, opening fire on the 180 guests with an M-16 assault rifle, killing 6 people and injuring 35 people following which the Fatah Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. 2003: According to reports published today the Toronto Raptors terminated the contract of the rookie center Nate Huffman, saying he had failed to inform the team of a history of knee problems. The 7-foot-1 Huffman signed a three-year, $5.1 million contract with the Raptors over the summer after playing for the Israeli League champion Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv last season. 2003: Two Palestinian gunmen attacked an isolated Jewish settlement near the embattled city of Hebron tonight, killing one Israeli and wounding three others. One of the attackers was killed while the other escaped. In the attack tonight, the two gunmen knocked on the door of what was described by Israeli radio as a trailer home on an isolated hilltop in the Givat Harsina settlement just north of the settlement of Qiryat Arba, known for its strongly Zionist views. An Israeli military spokesman said nine people were inside at their Sabbath dinner around 7:30 p.m. The man who answered the door shot and killed one of the the assailants, but fell dead in the exchange of gunfire. The family's 4-year-old daughter and two other people were wounded. The army said a second assailant escaped and apparently managed to flee into the nearby Palestinian city of Hebron.2004: “Employee of the Month” a comedy co-produced by Iranian born Bob Yari premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 2004: “This Day In Jewish History” which was started as a supplement to the Jewish History Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, first appeared on this date with this single, solitary, entry. “1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody on January 17, 1945. As we will learn when we study about the Jews and World War II, nobody really knows what the Soviets did with Wallenberg or why they did it. What we do know that he was a Righteous Gentile. We know that he was a Swedish diplomat who went to Hungary during the closing months of World War II who used everything from bribes, to threats, to old fashioned Chutzpah to keep boxcar after boxcar filled with Jews from reaching Auschwitz. It is ironic that he should have survived the Nazis and their Hungarian allies only to perish at the hands of the Soviets who were part of the Anti-Nazi coalition. Regardless of why he did what he did and the fate he suffered, he is living that people could have at least slowed down the German killing machine. He is also living proof that one person can make a difference. Because of what he did for the Jews, we must do as he did and stand up for those whom known one else will stand up for. As we will see, studying Jewish history is not just about the dead past, it can be call to action for present and future generations” 2005: In London, survivors of the Lodz Ghetto gathered in London to view the unpublished photographs that Henry Ross had taken of the ghetto. Ross was the official of the photographer of the Jewish Council. Ross hid over three thousand negatives when the Germans liquidated the ghetto and shipped the survivors to Auschwitz. Ross survived the war and moved to Israel where he died in 1991. His son gave the collection of photos to the Archive of Modern conflict in London in 1997. One hundred of the images were published in 2004 in the Lodz Ghetto Album. 2005(7thof Shevat, 5765): Eighty-four year old microbiologist Albert Schatz passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/obituaries/albert-schatz-microbiologist-dies-at-84.html 2005: Today “thirteen cantors in conjunction with the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of America (the Chazzanim Farband), performed in a cantorial concert for the first time in the history” of the Great Synagogue of Rome.2006:Haaretz reported that this year will mark the first time in history that there will be as many Jews living in Israel as in the United States, according to statistics presented at a Jewish Policy Planning Institute conference. 2007: Actor Evan Handler, “the son of New York City secular Jews” and his wife Elisa Attia gave birth to their daughter Sofia Clementina Handler.2007: Dan Halutz announced his resignation as IDF Chief of Staff.2007: New Jersey native, Yale lacrosse player and University of Virginia Law School graduate Douglas F. “Doug” Gansler began his services as the 45thAttorney General for the State of Maryland.2007: As part of its “Jewish Season” The Theater for a New Audience in New York City presents The Jew of Malta.2008(10th of Shevat, 5768): One hundred and five year old actress, director and producer Madeleine Milhaud, the wife of Jewish composer Darious Milhaud, passed away today in her native Paris.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/madeleine-milhaud-actress-wife-of-the-composer-776120.html2008:In Jerusalem at Sergey`s Courtyard in the Metunah Auditorium,The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) presents a World Music concert, a combination of original elements with the traditions of different cultures. 2008: Today, the mayor of Berlin and the head of Germany's Jewish Council denounced an attack on five Jewish teenagers by a group of punks. 2008: Today, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than 40 Qassam rockets and two mortar shells at southern Israel, wounding four people. 2008: “November” a play about a sitting president by Jewish playwright David Mamet opened at the Barrymore Theater in Manhattan.2009: “500 Days of Summer,” a comedy written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival. 2009: Initial screening of “Zion and His Brother,” a family drama set in Tel Aviv, at the Sundance Film Festival.2009: “Victoria Day,” a Canadian film directed and written by David Bezmozgis and starring Mark Rendell premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival. 2009(21stof Tevet, 5769): Jews all over the world begin reading Shemot, the second book of the Torah.2009: Fifth Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”2010: A memorial service is held for Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, at Agudas Achim in Iowa, City. Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, is the mother Kathe Goldstein a pillar the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community. 2010: Robert M. Edsel discusses "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History" (written with Bret Witter) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 2010: The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and the Department of Scandinavian Studies at Augustana College is scheduled to host a screening of “Good Evening, Herr Wallenberg” in Rock Island, Il. January 17th marks the 65th anniversary of the arrest and disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving as many as 100,000 Jews during a remarkable mission to Budapest near the end of World War II. 2010: Sixth Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”2010(2ndof Shevat, 5770): Elementary school teacher Beatrice “Bea” Kaplan Nasaw, the wife of attorney Joshua J. Nasaw and the mother of biographer and historian David Nasaw, mystery writer Jonathan Lewis Nasaw and poet Elizabeth Perl Nasaw passed away today.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=beatrice-nasaw&pid=1386621012010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark Halperin. 2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including '36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction' by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. 2010: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark Halperin. 2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “The Wedding Song,” a film about “two teenage girlfriends, a Muslim and a Jew, who bond intensely during the Nazi occupation of the North African nation of Tunis.”2010: The 139hannual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York premiere of “The Axe of Wandsbek,” a film that was “adapted from the 1947 novel by Arnold Zweig.” Set in 1934, the movie “follows a man who is paid by the Nazis to serve as a public executioner and goes on to be rejected by his community” and forces the viewer to consider “the role that common citizens played in Nazi crimes.” 2010: Pope Benedict XVI said church authorities played an active role in saving Jews during the Holocaust, though "often hidden and discreet." Today, Italian Jewish leaders welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Rome's main synagogue for a visit they said would help strengthen relations between Jews and Catholics 2011: Limmud NY which has been meeting at Hudson Valley Resort, Kerhonkson, NY is scheduled to come to a close. 2011: “Strangers No More”, a documentary about students at an “exceptional school” in Tel Aviv is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2011: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced today that he was leaving the Labor Party — dividing the movement that dominated Israeli politics for decades and setting off a chain reaction that cast new doubts over already troubled peace efforts with the Palestinians 2011: Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog and Minorities Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman all submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today, ending speculation about whether any of the eight remaining Labor MKs would remain in the coalition. 2011(12thof Shevat, 5771) Seventy-six year old “Don Kirshner, the music publisher of Brill Building hits like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,’ ” who later served as a deadpan Ed Sullivan for Kiss, the Ramones and others with his 1970s television show, “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” died today in Boca Raton, Fla., where he lived. (As reported by Ben Sisario)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/arts/music/19kirshner.html?_r=0 2011: András Schiff joined 7 other Hungarian intellectuals and artists “ 2011: Primary Stages, an Off Broadway theatre company announced today that its 2011-2012 season will open with “Olive and the Bitter Herbs,” a work by Charles Busch in which “the title character, Olive, finds herself reluctantly hosting a seder for the neighbors in her apartment building while contending with what she thinks is a ghost that she sees in her mirror.” 2011: Seventh anniversary of what is now known as This Day…In Jewish History2012: Martin Menelsohn, the former counsel to Simon Wiesenthal and the Counsel to Holocaust Survivors in the Trial of John Demjanjuk is scheduled to deliver a noon-time address entitled “Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals in 21st Century Germany” in Washington, D.C.2012: “Three Promises,” a documentary that uses the family photographs of sisters Breda and Matilda Kalef take viewers into the world of Sephardic pre-World War II Serbia and the dramatic story of their flight to safety is scheduled to have its world premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2012: Frank Lautenberg & Thane Rosenbaum as scheduled to appear “In Conversation” at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan2012: Eighth Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945. 2012: A recent string of cyber-attacks against Israeli credit card companies, banks, and government websites was aided by thousands of Israeli computers operated by remote assailants, a top Israeli software security expert said today. 2012: A nuclear-armed Iran could deter Israel from going to war against Tehran's guerrilla allies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli general said today. 2013: “Killing Them Softly” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.2013: The Chicago Bears introduced Marc Trestman as their new head coach, making him the only Jew to hold such a position in the NFL.2013: Southern Jewish Historian Janice Rothschild Blumberg is scheduled to deliver an address entitled “Prophet in a Time of Priests: Rabbi ‘Alphabet’ Browne” 2013: The Red Sea Jazz Festival is scheduled to open at Eilat. 2013: Canada is scheduled to release a postage stamp today honoring Raoul Wallenberg. (As reported by JTA) 2013: The JCCNV is scheduled to host “The Insider’s Briefing” which will prepare attendees for the trip to the state legislature in Virginia known as Jewish Advocacy Day. Currently the most powerful politician in Virginia is Eric Cantor, the lone Republican Jewish member of the House of Representatives who is House Majority Leader and a driving force in the Tea Party. 2013: “Skokie Invaded, But Not Conquered,” a film that “examines the personalities and issues connected to the attempted neo-Nazi March in Skokie in the late 1970s” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. 2013: Ninth Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and has continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It originally was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of Deb Levin who is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do appreciate all of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent over the years. And now it is time to get to work on the start of year ten. 2013: “A rare journal written by an unknown Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising there was unveiled this morning at a ceremony at the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in the presence of President Shimon Peres. In the diary, the writer, a 37-year-old Jewish lawyer, describes life in the ghetto, the Jewish underground fighters who were active there and his march to deportation.”2013(6thof Shevat, 5773): Ethel Dimont, the wife of historian Max Dimont who edited the second edition of her husband’s book Jews, God and History passed away today. 2013(6thof Shevat, 5773): Ninety-four year old Pauline Phillips, known as the creator of the advice column “Dear Abby” passed away today. (As reported my Margarlit Fox)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/business/media/pauline-phillips-flinty-adviser-to-millions-as-dear-abby-dies-at-94.html?hpw&pagewanted=all 2014: The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Hadassah is scheduled to sponsor their annual Tu B’Shevat Seder prior to Shabbat Evening Services at Temple Judah.2014: “White Panther,” a film about the rebellion of Russian immigrant boys when their father dies while serving in the Israeli Arm, is scheduled to be shown in Jerusalem today.2014(16thof Shevat): Yarhrzeit of century Hebrew novelist Perez Smolenskin and century Reform leader Aaron Bernstein two 19th century intellectuals with diametrically opposite views on how to solve “the Jewish problem”2014: Students in the southern city of Ashdod whose schools are unprotected from rockets will stay home today, in light of fears of continued rocket fire out of Gaza. The decision was made following a second straight night of rocket attacks. The closure will affect approximately 3,500 students. (As reported by Joshua Davidovich) 2014: Tenth Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and has continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It originally was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of Deb Levin who is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do appreciate all of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent over the years. And now it is time to get to work on the start the second decade. 2014: Professor and scientist Daniel Schectman, who teaches at The Israel Institute of Technology, announced that he is running for president of Israel today on Channel 1 news. 2015: The Moroccan-Israeli superstar Emil Zrihan is scheduled to perform at Symphony Space.2015: “The Mystery of Happiness” and “Paris is Burning” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2015: “Nearly 200 people gathered in Stockholm today to light candles and mark the 70th anniversary of the disappearance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.” (As reported by Justin Jalil) 2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a performance of “Rabbi Sam” about a cleric “who wants to reinvent American Judaism.2015: In “Why Hitchcock’s Film on the Holocaust Was Never Shown” published today Abigail Jones described the fate of the documentary that the great director made at the end of the Holocaust.http://www.newsweek.com/2015/02/06/why-hitchcocks-horrifying-holocaust-film-was-never-shown-300235.html2015: Eleventh Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and has continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It originally was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of Deb Levin who is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do appreciate all of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent over the years as well as all of the sites that carry this blog and the editors at SEGULA who have provided a monthly format for highlights from the daily publication.2016: Twelfth Anniversary of “This Day…In Jewish History”2016(7thof Shevat, 5776): Thirty-eight year old Dfana Meir “a nurse in the neurosurgery department of Soroka Medical Center in Beesheba and the mother of four was stabbed to death today by a terrorist while she was trying to protect her family when he invaded their home.2016: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest toe Jewish readers including Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma.2016: The Koresh Dance Company, led by Israeli choreographer Ronen Koresh is scheduled to perform at City Center Studios in New York.2016: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Performing Arts Series is scheduled to host “the Washington Balalaika Society which “will perform a concert of Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewish music” today.2016: Pope Francis is scheduled to “make his first pontifical visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue” today making him the third pontiff, after Benedict and John Paul II, to go to the Jewish house of worship on the banks of the Tiber River.2016: “Esther Bubley Up Front” is scheduled to come to an end at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.http://nmwa.org/exhibitions/esther-bubley-front?utm_source=Happy+New+Year&utm_campaign=new+year&utm_medium=email2017: American businessman Fred Philip Hochberg, a son of Lillian Vernon whose corporation he served for two decades competed his as Chairman of the Export-Import Bank today.2017: Joshua David “Josh” Shapiro completed his service as a member of the Montgomery Country Board of Commissioners and began serving as the “50thAttorney General” for the state of Pennsylvania.2017: Registration is scheduled to open for “Demons and the Evil Eye: Folklore of Ashkenaz” a four week course taught by Professor Itizik Gottesman.2017: “The Patriarch’s Room” and “Hummus! The Movie” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: “This Day In…Jewish History” starts its fourteenth year. 2018: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “The AMIA Bombing and the Murder of Alberto Nisman: Is Justice in Sight?” 2018: In London, the JW3 is scheduled to host a workshop on “How to Conquer Age Barriers in the Search for Work.” 2018: David Fishman is scheduled to teach the final session of “The Book Smugglers of the Vilna Ghetto: Jewish Cultural Resistance to Nazi and Soviet Oppression” at the YIVO Institute. 2018: The Breman is scheduled to host another event in its “Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours” with a visit to Congregation Shearith Israel which was founded in 1904 and was led by Rabbi Tobias Geffen who “Koshered Coca-Cola.” 2018(1stDay of Shevat, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 2018(1stDay of Shevat, 5778: Ninety-four year old Dr. Arno G. Motulsky, “a founder of medical genetics” who had been one of the passengers aboard the ill-fated St. Louis in 1939 passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady) 2018: “This Day In Jewish History” which was started as a supplement to the Jewish History Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, with one single entry begins its 15th year. (Editor’s Note – the author had no idea what he was getting into and owes whatever success he might have enjoyed to Deb Levin who created the architecture that took it from history handout to an inter-net creation found at multiple sources.) 2019(11thof Tevet, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Noah Weinberg 2019: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Princeton Historian Yair Mintzker as he discusses The Many Deaths of Jew Suss, his “innovative new book on Joseph Süss Oppenheimer’s notorious trial and execution in 1738 draws on the accounts of four contemporaries, who paint a lurid tale of greed, sex, violence and disgrace.” 2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Senator Joseph Liebrman and Jacob Lew as they discuss the “state of the nation.” 2019: The Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan is scheduled to host the “Wieseneck Symposium on Hebrew Literature.” 2019: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Senator Joseph Liebrman and Jacob Lew as they discuss the “state of the nation.” 2019: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “a one-of-a-kind behind the scenes tour of the Fox Theatre and learn about his founder, William Fox, born Wilhelm Fuchs, and his imprint in the entertainment business as we know it today.” 2019: Today marks the 15th anniversary of the first entry in what has become This Day…In Jewish History which means, just like with Simcha Torah, we get to start over again with year 16. For those of you who have stuck with this through the years, I hope it has been worth your time. We would be remiss if we did not pay homage to Deb Levin, who created the architecture that moved this from a study guide to a blog and who has been patient enough over the years to allow the time to do this as well as never collection to the clutter of books and other materials that have built up over the years.
↧
January 17, 2019, 6:56 pm
January 18360: In a move that demonstrated how Christianity was becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire with all that meant to detriment of the Jews, Roman Emperor Constantius II “decreed that only Catholic Churches will be granted exemptions from state taxes.”532: In Constantinople the Nika riots come to an end with Justinian still holding the office of Emperor. Senators opposed to Justinian took advantage of these riots, which had grown out of a dispute over chariot competition, to try and bring an end to Justinian’s imperial rule. Justinian was ready to flee the city and effectively give up his power. However, his wife refused to leave and give him the courage to stay and defeat the mob and his enemies. History does not record the views held by Justinian’s opponents concerning the Jewish people and Judaism. But it does not seem possible that the Jews could have been any worse off if they had won given Justinian’s anti-Jewish policies. For example, “Justinian ruled that ‘Jews must never enjoy the furits of office, but only its pains and penalties…They shall enjoy no honors. Their status shall reflect the baseness which in their souls they have elected and desired.’” Justinian firmly established the principle of servitus Jadaeorum (servitude of the Jews) and “the hitherto uneven pattern of persecution was systematized” as Christianity and state power became synonymous. 749: According to Michael the Syrian, several ships were sunk off the coast of Palestine and Lebanon as the result of an earthquake.973: A year after a fire raged through Baghdad “that contributed to the decline of the city’s Jewish population and its importance in the Jewish world” Benedict VI, a contemporary of Ibrahim Ibn Ya’kub, began his papacy today.1074: “Henry IV granted the citizens and Jews of Worms, the ShUM-cities and other locations, including Frankfurt, certain privileges relating to reductions in fees and import duties.”1174: Bernard, the third child of Burgundian nobles Tescelin de Fontaine, lord of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, and Alèthe de Montbard, who became the Abbot of Clairvaux and was known as Bernard of Clairvaux, the Benedictine who “condemned violence against Jewish people” was “canonized by Pope Alexander III” today.1562: The Council of Trent reconvenes after a ten year break. The Council of Trent adopted additional books for inclusion in the Old Testament. This meant that the TaNaCh (the Hebrew Bible, or simply The Bible) and Old Testament of the Christian Bible were no longer the same texts. A discussion of the implications of this change is far beyond the scope of this daily summary. 1606: The Governor of Puerto Rico reported one-fifth of the white population of the island was Portuguese. It was said these "white" Portuguese persons were most likely conversos.1689: Birthdate of Charles de Montesquieu the French born political theorist who was uncharacteristically critical of the Jews in Lettres Persanes when he wrote “Know that wherever there is money, there are Jews. Thou inquires what they do here? Just what they do in Persia; nothing can be more like a Jew of Asia than a Jew of Europe.” In the same book he also wrote that “the People of the Book” was “a mother that has brought forth two daughters who have stabbed her with a thousand wounds.” (As reported by Elliot Rosenberg)1701: At Königsberg, Prussia, coronation of Fredrick I who in 1709 appointed Aaron ben Benjamin Wolf “to the office of chief rabbi of Berlin with jurisdiction over all the living in the mark.”1724: Judah Monis,the Italian born Rabbi who converted to obtain a teaching position at Harvard married Abbigal Maret, the sister-in-law of Reverend John Martyn of Northboro, MA, at the First Church in Cambridge1776: Birthdate of Lazarus Magnus, the native of Zwolle, Holland, the husband of Sara Moses with whom he had 13 children at they settled in Chatham, Kent, UK. 1777)10thof Shevat, 5537): Parashat Bo1777 (10th of Shevat, 5537): Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, known by his name's acronym, the RaShaSH, passed away. He was born in Yemen, and as a young man immigrated to Israel. He was quickly recognized for his piety and scholarship, especially in the area of Jewish mysticism, and was appointed to be dean of the famed Kabalistic learning center in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Yeshivat ha-Mekubbalim. He authored many works, mostly based on the teachings of the great kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari. Rabbi Sharabi's most famous work is a commentary on the prayer book, replete with kabalistic meditations. His mystical works are studied by Kabbalists to this very day. He is also considered to be a foremost authority on Yemenite Jewish traditions and customs. http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_10.htmlhttps://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/2444216/jewish/Rabbi-Shalom-Sharabi-The-Rashash.htm1782: Birthdate of American political leader, statesmen and orator Daniel Webster. In 1850, Webster was Secretary of State under President Fillmore. He and his political opponent Senator Henry Clay joined forces to defeat a treaty with the Swiss that would have discriminated against American Jews. The issue was one of religious freedom, and not an attempt to protect American Jews since the American government was working to remove disabilities faced by Protestant Americans doing business with Catholic countries.1788: Leading elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay. According to Dr. Raymond Apple, Emeritus Rabbi of The Great Synagogue in Sydney, “When New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788; among the 751 First Fleet convicts were at least 16 Jews.”1794: Birthdate of Daneil Lessman, the native of Soldin Neumark who interrupted his medical studies so he could fight against Napoleon and gained fame as a German historian and poet.1804: Israel B. Kursheedt “married Sarah Abigail (Sally) Seixas, the eldest daughter of” Gershom Mendes Seixas, who was the cantor’s “favorite child: making Kursheedt “his favorite son-in-law.” (As reported by Yitzchok Levine and M.J. Raphall)http://personal.stevens.edu/~llevine/Israel%20Bear%20Kursheedt_v3.pdf1815: In Charleston, SC, Alexander Solomons officiated at the wedding of Elias Abrahams to Catherine Cohen.1815: Mordecai Moses married Ann Davis at the Great Synagogue today.1821: Birthdate of Theodor Goldstücker, the native of Königsberg who became a leading scholar in the field of Sanskrit and pursued a career in Great Britain after being “asked to leave Berlin during the Revolutions of 1848.”1824: Three days after he had passed away, 9 year old Joseph Gompertz, the son of Benjamin Gompertz and Abigail Montefiore was buried today at the “Hoxton Old Burial Ground.”1824: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Congregation B'nai Israel was formally organized; those in attendance were Solomon Buckingham, David I. Johnson, Joseph Jonas, Samuel Jonas, Jonas Levy, Morris Moses, Phineas Moses, Simeon Moses, Solomon Moses, and Morris Symonds.1826: Moss Laurence married Rayner Andrade today at the Great Synagogues. 1834: Birthdate of Jacob Egers, the native of Halberstadt who “was for more than twenty years a master at the Training-School for Teachers ("Lehrerbildungsanstalt") in Berlin.”1844: James Buchanan, the U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania “introduces a resolution in the United States Senate that the United States be declared a Christian Nation and acknowledges Jesus Christ as America's Savior” which is rejected by “Upper House.” (This is the same James Buchanan, who as 15thPresident of the United States presided over the dissolution of the Union, betraying his oath of office and making him, in the minds of many, the worst President in history)1845(10thof Shevat, 5605): In London, 57 year old Emanuel Aguilar who was suffering from consumption died in the arms of his daughter, author Grace Aguilar:1847: In Bavaria, Sigmund Myers and he gave birth to Herman Myers, the Richmond, VA education Savannah banker and Mayor of Savannah, GA.1851(15th of Shevat, 5611): Tu B'Shvat1851: In Cayuga County, NY, Judge Johnson sentenced John Baham to be hung by the neck until dead. Baham was one of three brothers charged with the murder of Nathan Adler, a Jewish peddler from Syracuse.1851: Alfred Baham, one of three brothers charged with the murder of Nathan Adler entered a plea of guilty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree and was sentenced to serve 5 years and 3 months in state prison. Baham’s plea followed the trials of his two brothers, both of whom were senteneced to death for the same crime.1854(18th of Tevet, 5614): Judah Touro, the great American Jewish philanthropist passed away. Born in 1775 in Newport, Rhode Island, Touro moved New Orleans at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. He became a prosperous merchant and leading citizen. He fought with Jackson’s Army in the famed Battle of New Orleans where he was seriously wounded. “Touro contributed to numerous Jewish and non-Jewish charities. Touro helped found congregation Nefuzoth Yehuda in New Orleans, which followed the Sephardic rituals of his youth. He subsequently built its synagogue and began to attend services regularly, provided the land and funds for its religious school, bought land for its cemetery and annually made up for any deficits incurred. He also founded the city's Jewish hospital, the Touro Infirmary. In the last year of his life, Touro wrote a will which set the standard of American Jewish philanthropy. After modest bequests to family members and friends, Touro donated the bulk of his fortune to strengthen Jewish life. He left $100,000 to the two leading Jewish congregations and Jewish benevolent organizations in New Orleans. Another $150,000 went to Jewish congregations and charitable institutions in 18 other cities around the United States. He directed that $60,000 be dispensed to relieve poverty and provide freedom of worship to Jews in Palestine. He also left bequests to non-Jewish institutions such as Massachusetts General Hospital, which his brother had helped found.”http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/images/Judah_Touro_-PDF.pdf1858: Birthdate of Herman Benmosche, the native of Cairo, Egypt, who served as the “Rabbi of Spital Square Synagogue in London” before taking up a similar post at Congregation Beth-El in Norfolk, VA.1860: Julius Ochs, the son of Nanette and Leser Lazarus Ochs and his wife Bertha Ochs gave birth to Nannie Ochs, the younger sister of Adolph Ochs, of New York Times fame.1861: Birthdate of German chemist Hans Goldschmidt.1864: Two days after he had passed away, 18 year old New Orleans native, the son of Daniel Goodman and Amelia Harris was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.1865: Birthdate of Morris Polsky, the native of Kiev who became a successful realtor in New York and a director of Keren Hayesod.1867: Two days after she had passed away, Esther Davis, the wife of Joseph Davis with whom she had had six children was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.1871: As the Franco-Prussian war comes to an end with the Germans defeating the French, King Wilhelm of Prussia becomes Wilhelm I of Germany as he is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the 'Hall of Mirrors' of the Palace of Versailles. The empire was known as The Second Reich to the Germans. The real power behind the German throne was Otto von Bismarck who engineered the full emancipation of the Jews two years earlier in 1869. Life for Jews in the empire would be a mixed bag with the rise in anti-Semitism paralleling their involvement in all facets of commerce and culture. The creation of the Second Reich is tied directly to the events that led to World War that led to World War II.1875: Isaac Botibol married Jane Angel at Bevis Marks today.1877: Birthdate of Brno native Arthur Biach.1878: Two days after he had passed away, Barnett Joshua Simmons, the son of Joshua Simmons and Ann Levy was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1884: Eight days after she had passed away, the former Elizabeth Helena de Johngh, the wife Edward Dentz was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1887: At Albany, Samuel Gompers, President of the Federation of Labor, praised New York Governor David Hill for the way he “aided in the passage of laws in the interest of labor, signed and executed them in their spirit as well as their letter and did all that a man in his position could do to advance the interests of the workingmen and the workingwomen of” New York.1888(5thof Shevat, 5648): Fifty-two year old Edward Cohen, the Baltimore born son of “Benjamin I and Kitty (Etting) Cohen who moved to Richmond during the Civil War and went from being a stockbroker to President of the City Bank of Richmond and the husband of Caroline Davis passed away today.1890: Birthdate of Kamila Fislova who was deported from Prague in 1942 after which she was murdered at Ujazdow.1891: The B’nai Zion Educational Society whose members included David A. Lourie, Charles, Askwith and Louis Arkin was founded in Boston, MA. 1891((9thof Shevat, 5651): Joseph Abenheim, the native of Worms the famed violinist and orchestra leader who played with the royal orchestras at Stuttgart passed away today.1892: Birthdate of Shevach Samuel Kalinowsky the native of the Ukraine who gained fame as Samuel Kaylin who composed 80 film scores including a Mr. Motto film starring co-religionist Peter Lorre. 1894: An unknown thief stole the book which was the primary source for the upcoming lecture to be delivered by Professor Knapp of Barnard at the Hebrew Institute in New York.1894: Dr. Joseph Krauskopf, leading rabbi from Philadelphia, is scheduled to deliver a lecture tonight entitled “Only A Jew” at Ahwath Chesed.1894: The United Hebrew Charities is one of the organizations that will share in the proceeds from a fund raising concert to be held this afternoon at the Metropolitan Opera House. 1895: In Neustadt, Max and Hedwig Pinkus gave birth to Klaus Valentin Pinkus1895: The officers and directors of what would become the Hebrew Infant Asylum met today and “resolved to make strenuous efforts to obtain a charter.”1895: It was reported today that charitable institutions in New York City, including those supported by the Jews, believe that the new rules for the disbursement of funds are “too restrictive.”1895: It was reported today that Dr. Michael L. Rodkinson has been soliciting funds and assistance for creating the first English language translation of the Talmud. (Editor’s note – Rodkinson was a Russian born American publisher who lived between 1845 and 1904. He did accomplish his goal of creating an English-Hebrew Talmud as well as the printing other works in English, Hebrew and Yiddish.)1897(15thof Shevat, 5657): Tu B’Shevat1897: Sir Louis Jean Bols, who would serve “as Edmund Allenby's Third Army Chief of Staff on the Western front and Sinai and Palestine campaigns of World War I” and “the Chief Administrator of Palestine for the six months of 1920” was promoted to the rank of Captain today.1898: As anti-Semitic mobs roam the streets of France during the Drefyus Affair, it was reported that “the events of the past few days are beginning to produce a feeling of panic in Jewish circles. Both the business and private houses of the Rothschilds and other wealthy Jews are guarded by special detectives and gendarmes 1898: The funeral for Solomon Latz was held at his home on 49th Street in New York City.1898: It was reported today that a crowd of 3,000 people demonstrated in front of the Army Club in Marseilles expressing their support for the army and denouncing Zola and Dreyfus.1898: It was reported today that Oscar S. Straus was so overcome with grief that he fainted as his father’s coffin was being taken from Temple Beth-El for burial at the cemetery.1899: John T. O’Brien came to the offices of the United Hebrew Charities claiming to be an unemployed veteran. He was sent to the Elite Hotel on 7thAvenue where he was to be employed as a porter.1899: The sixteenth annual ball of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society of Brooklyn took places tonight at the Academy of Music.1899: The Schribman – Needle nuptials took place in Charleston, SC1900: In Berlin, Robert Georg Alexander von Mendelssohn and Giulietta von Mendelssohn gave birth to Eleonora von Mendelssohn1902: Birthdate of Massachusetts native David “Dave” Ziff who played end at Syracuse in the 1920’s after which he took his pass catching skills to the nascent National Football League for two years.1903: A number of Moses Lindo’s advertisements and items concerning him that had appeared in the South Carolina which had been collected by Rabbi B.A. Elzas were reprinted today in the Charleston News and Courier.1903(19th of Tevet, 5663):Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore passed away today in London. Born in 1822 to Solomon Sebag and Sarah, eldest sister of Sir Moses Montefiore he succeeded to the estate of his maternal uncle and he assumed the name of Montefiore by royal license. He was one of the leading members of the London Stock Exchange, on which he amassed a large fortune. He was a justice of the peace for Kent and the Cinque Ports and lieutenant of the city of London; and in 1889 he served as High Sheriff for Kent. He was for many years a leading member of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation and was president of the elders of that body. In 1895 he became president of the Board of Deputies, after having been vice-president for many years; and in 1896 he was appointed by the King of Italy Italian consul general in London. He was knighted in 18961903(19thof Tevet, 5663): Seventy-seven year old Henri Blowitz, the Bohemian born French journalist whose colorful career included obtaining “the text of the Treaty of Berlin” and publishing “it at the very moment that the Congress of Berlin was signing it” - an accomplishment for which “he was an Officer of the Légion d'honneur.”1903: Birthdate of Berthold Goldschmidt. Born in Germany, Goldschmidt was enjoying a successful career until the Nazis came to power. At that point, he was forced to flee to Britain where he resumed his career. Oddly enough, he is identified as a “German opera composer” even though the Germans would have sent him to a concentration camp if he had stayed in the Fatherland. 1904: Herzl spends the day in Venice before continuing on to Rome via Florence. He described the day as "a blue Monday" which, in the evening found him choosing to dine at Bauer's Austrian Beer House so that he could the Englishmen at the Grand Hotel.1904(1st of Shevat, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1906: It was reported today that “Jacob H. Schiff, Treasurer of the National Committee for the Relief of the Suffers by Russian Massacres has received from Lord Rothschild a report made by Carl Stettauer” who had “recently journeyed through Russia for the purpose of organizing the distribution of relief funds” which included the conclusions that “there is not the slightest guarantee that similar occurrences are impossible in the future” and “there is grave cause to fear that the systematic incitement against the Jews” are possible at any moment due to the participation of “Russian officials in the pogroms.”1906: It was reported today that “the Police Chief of Rostoff-on-Don has been indicted for not preventing the massacre of Jews.”1907: Birthdate of New York City native C. Irving “Irv” Constantine, the graduate of Curtis High School who played college football for Syracuse University before spending one year with the professional Staten Island Stapletons.https://www.profootballarchives.com/playerc/cons00200.html1908(15th of Shevat, 5668): Tu B'Shevat1908: Samuel Clemens whose pen-name is Mark Twin and Supreme Court Justice Greenbaum will address the annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical School for girls this morning at 15th Street and Second Avenue in New York. Clemens only daughter married a Jewish composer and orchestra conductor.1908: Birthdate of Jacob Bronowsky the famed mathematician and cultural historian who created the widely acclaimed television series “The Ascent of Man” in which he said while standing at Auschwitz: “It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance."1908: In Brooklyn, Anna Gleichenhaus and Isaac Goodman gave birth to Moe Goodman who would gain fame as Martin Goodman the publisher who among other things, created the company eventually known as Marvel Comics. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/11/obituaries/martin-goodman-84-began-marvel-comics.html1909: It was reported today that Dr. D.C. Potter, chief of the Department of Finance in the Charitable Institutions Divisions of NYC, had told supporters of the Hebrew Infant Asylum that there was a pressing need for funds to carry out the work of the institution and to build a new home for the city’s Jewish orphans. Work on this building at 192nd Street and Kingsbridge Road has already begun. 1909: The Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations will meet this afternoon at the Mercantile Club in Philadelphia.1909: Twenty year old Sam Melitzer, the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants scored 20 points “to lead Columbia to…victory over Princeton.”1909: Members of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and their female invitees will meet for dinner at 6:30 in Philadelphia followed by a resumption of the business meeting begun earlier in the afternoon. 1912: The Jewish Chronicle published a letter from author and Zionist leader Max Nordau in which he condemns President Taft’s role in “the abrogation of the Russo-American Treaty.” Nordau ended his denunciation by writing, “The situation for the Jews in Russia will be worse than before and the anti-Semites in America will make the American Jews pay heavily for their manful stand—that’s all.”1912: President Taft received a delegation representing the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers led by Louis N. Hammerling. Mr. Taft said he favored admission of desirable immigrants, but immigration laws should be strictly enforced. The issue of immigration is especially sensitive for American Jews. Attempts to limit immigration from eastern and southern Europe were seen, in part, as an attempt to keep Jews from Russia, Romania and Poland from entering the United States. The term “desirable immigrants” was often used as a code to describe those coming from Western Europe and Scandinavia. To add to the complexity of the issue, Jews of Germanic origins were concerned about the influx of Jews from Eastern Europe. They were afraid that this onslaught of what they considered “the great unwashed” would bring on a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States. 1913: Birthdate of David Daniel Kaminski. Kaminski became Danny Kay, the Brooklyn born comedian, actor and singer starred in several movies and his own television variety program. But he was proudest of being the driving force behind UNICEF.1913: Nathan Straus set sail for Palestine accompanied by two Hadassah nurses - Rachel Kaplan and Rose Landy. Hadassah had raised $2,500 to cover the salaries of the nurses for two years. Strauss paid their travel expenses and agreed to fund a new clinic in Jerusalem. 1914: Bernard A. Rosenblatt, the Honorary Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists, issued a reply to the charges of Dr. Paul Nathan of Berlin that some of the Zionists in Palestine were “stirring up discord.” Mr. Rosenblatt issued a statement in which he traced the growth of the Jewish settlement in Palestine over the last three decades; a growth that has been so successful that the Zionist movement has attracted the support of such important as Louis Brandeis and Nathan Strauss. He then reviewed the creation of a Jewish Institute of Technology at Haifa; a project in which Dr. Nathan said he wanted to be an active participant and which has funded by the Jewish National Fund and Zionist throughout the world. Now, seven years after the project had begun, Mr. Rosenblatt claims that Dr. Nathan held a clandestine meeting of the Board of Trustees that was attended only by his German supporters during which the attendees voted to make German and not Hebrew, the language of instruction at the Institute. Mr. Rosenblatt said that American Zionists would support the actions of Jewish students and teachers designed to make Hebrew the language of the school as had been previously agreed. He expressed nothing but scorn for his German counterparts who are determined to put a Germanic stamp on the efforts to develop a home for Jews from all over the world, regardless of their place of national origin.1914: It was reported today that David Belasco, the English born Sephardic Jew who used the stage name David James left an estate valued at £41,5941914: Joseph Charlack, Secretary of the Poultry Workers’ Union, whose members are now on strike for higher wages and a shorter workday and of the Kosher Butchers’ Union, whose members have gone on strike in sympathy with the poultrymen, announced this evening that the rabbis who kill chickens for kosher consumption have voted to go on strike. He said that this was decided up at a meeting of the representatives of 900 rabbis in the house of Chief Rabbi Margulies on East Broadway.1915: In Upper Hungary, Ernest Länyi, a wealthy landowner and his wife gave birth to György Länyi who gained fame as George Henry Lane reached the rank of Colonel while serving in the British Army as a member of the elite Commandos known as SOE (Special Operations Executive).1916: It was reported today that Mr. Lewin-Epstein, a member of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee has “found a shocking condition in the war-stricken countries” and that many Jews “have died from exposure and starvation.”1916: “The Jewish Theological Seminary reopened today with Dr. Cyrus Adler as temporary President.”1916: Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, completed his service as Postmaster-General in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Asquith.1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee “announced” today “that to date it has collected $1,223,497.68 of which $981,816.46 is in cash and $241,681.22 in pledges.” 1917: “The twenty-fifth council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the second biennial meeting of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods adjourned today after selecting Boston as the meeting place for 1919.”1917: Birthdate of English theatrical and film producer, Oscar Lewenstein. The son of Russian immigrants, Lowenstein passed away at the age of 80. For more about him read his autobiography, Kinking Against the Pricks.1917: The national organization representing Reform Rabbis and their congregations approved a resolution reaffirming “its opposition to the literacy test as a condition for admitting immigrants into the United States as unwise and contrary to the salutary American precedents, particularly as an educational qualification already has been imposed by Congress where it belongs, as a prerequisite for naturalization.”1918: In Odessa, the faculty of the university rejected the three Jewish candidates “for professional posts” and the municipal council adopted a resolution “condemning the action and expressing sympathy with the rejected candidates.1918: The leaders of drive to add 50,000 new members to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies are scheduled to meet at 2:30 so they can finish their business before the start of Shabbat this evening. 1918: In Vienna, accusations that Dr. Braunn was administering drugs to help young Jewish men evand military duty were withdrawn.1919: The Paris Peace Conference opened in Versailles, France. Among other things, negotiations at the conference would result in the creation of a mandatory government for Palestine that incorporated the Balfour Declaration and was controlled by the British. Jews serving in the American delegation pushed for guarantees of full rights of citizenship for their co-religionist living in the new countries that would be established by the Big Four. 1919: Among those present at Paris when the conference began was Joseph Barondess, who was a member of the delegation sent by the American Jewish Congress.1921: The ninth annual convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fourth annual convention of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue came to an end today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.1921: “The eleventh annual meeting of the Brooklyn Federation of Charities is scheduled to be held this evening after the testimonial dinner honoring “Nathan S. Jonas, the honorary secretary and founder of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities.”1922: Birthdate of Yehezkiel Braun. “From the age of two Yehezkel Braun was brought up in Israel, in close contact with Jewish and East-Mediterranean traditional music. The influence of this background is clearly felt in his compositions. He is a graduate of the Israel Academy of Music and holds a Master's degree in Classical Studies from Tel Aviv University. In 1975 he studied Gregorian chant with Dom Jean Claire at the Benedictine monastery of Solesmes in France. His main academic interests are traditional Jewish melodies and Gregorian chant. He lectured on these and other subjects, at universities and congresses in England, France, the United States and Germany. Yehezkel Braun is Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University.” 1925: Birthdate of Solomon Yurick, the Manhattan native was “best-known for the 1965 novel The Warriors (As reported by William Yardley)1928: One day after she had passed away, Leah Ruttenberg, the wife of Marks Ruttenberg, with whom she had had five children was buried at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.1928: U.S. premiere of “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds” a silent comedy produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky which would later become a hit Broadway play in the 1940’s and was remade in the 1950’s with Marilyn Monroe as a co-star. 1929: Fifty-two year old Sophie Irene Loeb passed awayhttp://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/loeb-sophie-irene-simon 1929:"New York Daily Mirror" columnist Walter Winchell made his radio début. 1929: Stalin proposed to ban Leon Trotsky from the Politburo. Trotsky was the apostate who turned his back on Judaism to worship Marx and serve as Lenin’s Joshua. 1929: Mrs. Oscar Straus, the widow of the former Ambassador to Turkey began her expedition to Nyasaland and British East Africa tonight when she set sail aboard the SS Majestic. (JTA) 1930: A delegation of Americans living in Tel Aviv, headed by Nathan Kaplan, an attorney who had moved to Palestine from Chicago, met with Paul Knabenshue, the American Counsel General, in an attempt to get him to help break the impasse that has turned Tel Aviv into a “meatless city.” The British government has resisted all efforts to establish a facility for the slaughter of animals in Tel Aviv. The British have told butchers in Tel Aviv to return to Jaffa where they can practice their trade. In Jaffa, the Jewish butchers work in an area that is surrounded by Arabs and the Jews were not able to get meat during the Arab riots that began in August of 1929. 1930: Birthdate of Shmuel “Sammy” Flatto the Polish born French-Israeli businessman, politician and talk show host. 1931: Dr. Judah L. Magnes, Dean of the Hebrew University, presided over the memorial service held this evening at the Straus Health Center in honor Nathan Straus, of blessed memory. Meir Dezingoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Dr. David Yellin of the Vaad Leumi addressed the large throng praising Straus for his “philanthropic and social contributions to Palestine.” The establishment of the first soup kitchen in Jerusalem and the construction of a health center in Hedera were cited as two examples of his generosity. During the eulogy, Dr. Magnes revealed for the first time, that Straus had purchased land in the Talpioth section of Jerusalem as a site for a university.1932: Featherweight Harry Blitman fought his 70th bout which he lost.1934:Just days before his 20th birthday Harry Mizler, the son of “East End Jewish parents” won the British Board of Control (BBofC) lightweight title at the end of a fifteen round bout at Kensington's Royal Albert Hall 1935: “David Copperfield” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed by George Cukor and produced by David O. Selznick was released in the United States today. 1935: Birthdate of Gad Yaacobi, the native of Kfar Vitkin who served as an MK and held several ministerial portfolios.1936(23rdof Tevet, 5696): Parshat Shemot; the start of the reading of the second book of the Torah1936: In London, George H. Elvin, the organizing secretary for the British Olympic effort “declared that the sports leader of the Berlin Storm Troops had published a book, officially approved, reminding the German people that their sport is ‘built on hatred’ and that ‘National Socialists can see no positive value for our people in permitting Jews to travel through our country and complete in athletics with our best.’” 1936: In Far Rockaway, Queens Jacob Sniderman, an accountant and his wife, the former Gertrude Langfur gave birth to Rhoda Carol Sniderman who gained fame as novelist Rhoda Lerman.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/arts/rhoda-lerman-writer-who-defied-labels-dies-at-79.html1936: “A movement for settling German Jews in South America has been launched with the completion of plans for training the first 125 Jewish youths for colonization.”1937: The Royal Commission, popularly known as the Peel Commission, “ended its work in Palestine” today.1937: In New Orleans, “the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Affiliated National Temple Federations of Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods today went on record as favoring a more extensive use of ancient, traditional symbols, ceremonies and customs by reform Jewish congregations in their Sabbath services” as well that use of a cantor…and “a choir composed wholly of Jewish singers.” (Editor’s note – This would not be the last time that the Reform movement called for a return to “tradition” as can be clearly seen from the perspective of the last 80 years.)1941: The Royal Air Force Middle East Command issued a communiqué today reporting that Italian planes had attacked British airfields near Tel Aviv. 1941: Herman Kruk, who had been active in Yiddish cultural activities in Warsaw and Vilna, recoiled from efforts to stage cultural activities in the ghetto stating, “You don’t make theatre in a graveyard.” 1942: The Nazis arrested Frans Goedhart and Wiardi Beckman, both of whom were journalists who took part in the resistance movement after the German conquest of the Netherlands. Tragically, in a manner of the fate of Anne Frank, Beckman died of typhus in Dachau, on March 15, 1945 when the war was almost over. 1942: After two weeks of constant burial duty of thousands of gassed Jews at Chelmno, Yakov Grojanowski escapes. His diary tells of cruelty, murders, tragedy and suicides. His two weeks were only 14 days of the last 44 days of continual murder via gas-trucks. 1942: Daniel Mahler was buried today in the Jewish cemetery of Kleinsteinach making him the last person to be interred in a burial ground that had been in use since the 15thcentury. 1943: A train from Belgium arrives at Auschwitz; 387 men and 81 women are sent to the barracks while 1,558 people were sent to the gas chamber. 1943: In Warsaw, after 4 months of no transports, the Germans enter the ghetto and begin deportation again to Treblinka. In rounding up people, the Germans went through the homes killing people, throwing them out of windows, and looting whatever they could. 5,000 Jews were rounded up, including 150 doctors. One, Dr. Izrael Milejkowski, commits suicide during the train ride. 1943(12 of Shevat, 5703): Yitzhak Gitterman that native of Horonstopol born in 1889 who “was a director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Poland, and a member of the underground Jewish Combat Organization” was killed today while fighting today in the Warsaw Ghetto.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188 1943: Jewish deportees from Belgium arrive at Auschwitz, where 1087 are gassed. 1943: After a four-month break, Germans resume deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto. Warsaw Jews react with their first acts of overt resistance, expressed in brutal street fighting. 1000 Jews are executed in the streets and 6000 are deported to the Treblinka death camp. An elderly, blind Jewish man is shot by an SS man because he is unable to walk without a guide. 1943: The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began their armed resistance to the Nazis which would culminate in April of 1943 with the famous Warsaw Ghetto. 1943: Nobel-prize winning Polish émigré poet Czeslaw Milosz--a righteous Christian--condemns anti-Semitism and nationalism as "ills that like cancer were consuming Poland." In his poem, "Campo dei Fiori," Milosz laments from Warsaw in 1943--and he's being literal, not figurative--that the carousel's carnival tunes and the laughing crowds in the Catholic area of Warsaw drown out the sounds of the Germans shooting Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.1943: The Second Senate of the Reich Military Tribunal sentenced Lian Berkowitz and Friedrich Rehmer, along with 16 other people from the Red Orchestra, to death today for abetting a conspiracy to commit high treason and furthering the enemy's cause. [For once the Nazis had it right; these were really Germans who had worked against the Third Reich almost from its inception. For more about these true heroes read Red Orchestra by Ann Nelson. 1944: Birthdate of Roger Richman, the son of Washington, DC area rabbi who founded the Roger Richman Agency, that dealt with licensing clients, some of whom were deceased.http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/14/local/la-me-roger-richman-20131015 1944: For the first time in its history, The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert. Among the performers are two Jewish pop music legends – Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. 1944: German armored forces surrounded the forest near Buczac, Poland. They killed three hundred Jews who had been hiding in the forest for the past nine months. Some of the Jews of Buczaz had taken part in armed resistance against the Nazis. This remnant had taken to the woods after the final roundup of Jews in the town. During their time in hiding, they attacked Nazis as well as members of the local populations who had betrayed the Jews to the Germans.1945: As Russian troops approached Auschwitz, Ernest Michel who would cover the Nuremberg war crime trials for a German news agency was evacuated from that death camp today.1945: “Miklós Nyiszli, along with an estimated 66,000 other prisoners, was forced on a death march that took the prisoners into various parts of the Third Reich’s territories including: German occupied Poland (which was part of Greater Germany), Czechoslovakia, Germany proper, present-day Austria and further into various smaller concentration camps in Germany” events that he would later record in Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account 1945: Kazimierz Smolen left Auschwitz today on the last transport of prisoners evacuated by the Germans, nine days before its liberation. “Smolen was a Polish Catholic involved in the anti-Nazi resistance when the Germans arrested him in April 1941 and took him to Auschwitz.”1945: A count was made of remaining prisoners in the assorted labor and concentration camps:- Birkenau; 15,058 Jews remained.
- Auschwitz: 16,226 People remained, mostly Poles.
- Monowitz; 10,233 Jews, Poles and assorted prisoners remained.
- Factories of Auschwitz: Another 16,000 Jews, Poles and prisoners.
1945: Acting on orders from Berlin, the SS begins a massive, on-foot evacuation of all prisoners and slave laborers at the Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz camps and from the Auschwitz region (Upper Silesia, Poland). Of the thousands of marchers, most die from exposure, exhaustion, and abuse on their way to their destinations. Boys evacuated from Birkenau march toward Mauthausen, Austria. Many of the boys are on "cart commando" duty; i.e., harnessed to enormous carts in groups of 20. 1945: “A Song to Remember” a Hollywood version of the life of Chopin directed by Charles Vidor, produced by B.F. Zeidman, written by Sidney Buchman and starring Paul Muni was released in the United States today.1947: The Detroit Tigers sold Hank Greenberg to the Pittsburgh Pirates. 1948: After embarking from Marseille, France today, a ship named the Alexandria reached Israel carrying a group of Youth Aliyah children. This group included a young girl listed on rosters as Nuta Bolestet; in Haifa, she was transferred with a few other children to the Youth Aliyah camp in Ra'anana. Moshe Ya'ari, a Youth Aliyah official, recorded the few available details about the girl. 1949: In Orange, NJ, Erika (Ratzer) and Oscar Michael Stemberg gave birth to Thomas George “Tom” Stemberg who founded, along with Leo Kahn, Staples, Inc.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/24/business/thomas-g-stemberg-co-founder-of-staples-dies-at-66.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01949: In an attempt to improve relations with new Jewish state, the British ordered the immediate release of the remaining Jews who were detained in Cyprus during those years when His Majesty’s government was determined to keep Jews from settling in Palestine. Within a month all them, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, had reached Haifa.1949: “Chicken Every Sunday” a comedy produced by William Perlberg, based on the 1944 play by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein with music by Alfred Newman was released in the United States today. 1951(4thof Shevat, 5711): Forty-one year old Jersey City, NJ, native Robert S. Marcus, the City College and Yeshiva University trained rabbi and hold of doctorate of Jurisprudence from NYU Law School who led congregations in Lawrence and Newburgh, NY before serving overseas as a chaplain with the Ninth Tactical Air Force where he worked with concentration camp survivors and returning to the United States where among other things, he served as the Director of the Department of World Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress while raising two children with his wife Fay passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/01/20/87087942.pdf1951: Today, “it was revealed that several members of the adored double-championship CCNY team had been doing business with gamblers i.e. shaving points and “further investigations revealed that a total of thirty-two players, many of whom were Jewish, at LIU, NYU, Toledo, Bradley, Manhattan and Kentucky had also been in league with the gamblers – a fact which was known to such coaches as Nat Holman and Bobby Sand.1952(20th of Tevet, 5712): Curly Howard, actor, comedian and member of the Three Stooges passed away. 1960: This week’s Play of the Week featured the broadcast of “Lullaby” produced by David Susskin with Eli Wallach playing “Johnny Horton” and his wife Anne Jackson as “Eadie Horton.” 1961: The Chaplain’s Medal for Heroism was awarded to the family members of Reverend George Fox (Methodist), Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode, Reverend Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed) and Father John Washington (Roman Catholic). These were the famous Four Chaplains who acted with such grace and courage when the United States Army Transport Dorchester was sunk by a Nazi U-Boat in 1943. Because of the strict requirements for awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor, this award was created to honor their heroism. 1963: Al Davis began serving as the head coach and general manager of the Oakland Raiders, a date described by his biographer as “probably one of the three or four most important date in AFL history.1964(4thof Shevat, 5724): Eighty at year old Edith Julia Morley, the daughter of a London dental surgeon who was raised as an Orthodox Jews and became “the first woman to be appointed professor at any British University” when she was appointed “Professor of English Languate at University College, Reading” in 1908 passed away today.1965(15thof Shevat, 5725): Tu B’Shevat 1966: Today, Israel Moses Sieff “was created a life peer as Baron Sieff, of Brimpton in the Royal County of Berkshire.:1967(7th of Shevat, 5727): Barney Ross Welterweight Boxing Champ in 1934 passed away at the age of 57. One little known fact about Ross is that he enlisted in Marines during World War II and at the age of 33 won a Silver Star for his actions on Guadalcanal. 1968: “The Happy Time,” a musical produced by David Merrick with lighting design by Jean Rosenthal opened on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre time.1969(28thof Tevet, 5729): Parashat Bo1969(28thof Tevet, 5729): Ninety-three year old Columbia trained architect William Gabriel Tachau whose firm of Pilcher and Tachau designed the structures at Gratz College, Dropsie College and Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/19/90040073.pdf1970: As part of it “Play of the Month series” the BBC broadcast “The Three Sisters” featuring Janet Suzman as “Masha.”1971(21st of Tevet, 5731): Eighty-five year old industrial chemist Leonard A. Levy, the great-grandson of Solomon Bennet, the “Demonstrator in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and Major in the Royal Engineers who co-authored Radium and other Radioactive Elements and Gas Recorders passed away today.1973(15thof Shevat, 5733): Tu B’Shevat 1974: Israel and Egypt signed an agreement for the disengagement of forces in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war. Israel agreed to withdraw from the Suez Canal. 1974: “Soviet Jewish refusenik-scientists Alexander Lerner, Alexander Voronel, Mark Azbel, David Azbel, Venyamin Levich, Alexander Lunts, Victor Polsky, and Victor Brailovsky in open letter to scientific societies and scientists of the world detail persecution of Soviet scientists wishing to emigrate to Israel.” 1976(16thof Shevat, 5736): Seventy-nine year old Friedrich Hollaender, the London born German- American film composer and author passed away today1976: Joseph Papp “one of the most influential men in the American theatre” and the father of New York’s famous Shakespeare Festival married Gail Bovard Merrifield, his “fourth wife” today.1976: Terry Bradshaw threw a crucial touchdown pass to Tight End Randy Grossman as the Steelers defeated the Cowboys in Super Bowl X. Grossman was Jewish; Bradshaw wasn’t. 1977: Eighty-seven playwright and Carl Zuckmayer , the grandson of Protestant church councilor who had converted from Judaism passed away. This maternal ancestor was enough for the Nazis to see him as a Jew; a fact that led him to spend World War II in the United States before returning to Europe after the war had ended.https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/19/archives/carl-zuckmayer-80-satiric-playwright-author-of-captain-of-kopenick.html1978: It was reported today that Jules Jeffroykin, the President of the Federation of Jewish Societies has lodged an official protest with police” calling “on the authorities to their utmost to identify the men or the organization responsible” for bombing their offices yesterday.1979: Twenty-one people were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in a Jerusalem market.1980: Seventy-six year old multi-talented award winning Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton who, in 1938, publisher Conde Nast had the courage to fire because of “a drawing contributed by Mr. Beaton to the February 1 issue of Vogue” in which “there appeared comments that were critical of the Jewish race” passed away today. (Editor – while the rest of the world turned a blind eye to Hitler and many Englishman flirted with fascism, Nast gets high marks for doing his bit to “change the world.”)1980: In Los Angeles, Jillian (Jordan) and Alvin Segel gave birth to Jason Jordan “an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and author, best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.”https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/movies/jason-segel-makes-a-career-u-turn-as-david-foster-wallace-in-the-end-of-the-tour.html?hpw&rref=movies&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01981: Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Solomon Levy, the native of Tosh Hungary and the former Grand Rabbi of Hust, Czechoslovakia who died yesterday while conducting Shabbat services in Boro Park.1983: Eighty-seven year old Walter Ulman Austrian born historian who specialized in the Middle Ages and who left Austria for England in 1939 because his grandparents were Jewish passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/22/obituaries/walter-ullmann-is-dead-at-72-was-scholar-on-middle-ages.html 1985: The government of Menachem Begin announced that elections would be held in six months.1985: “Blood Simple” a crime file “written, edited, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen which was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld” was screened today at the New York Film Festival. 1987: Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, speaking to high school students in Nazareth today, reaffirmed Israel's commitment to keeping control of its ''security zone'' in southern Lebanon. 1987: Israeli troops killed four armed guerrillas tonight after the guerrillas infiltrated into the enclave that Israel calls its ''security zone'' in southern Lebanon. The Israeli authorities did not say to what group the guerrillas might have belonged. The incident took place about 8 P.M., the spokesman said, when Israeli forces found the guerrillas near Baraachit, a village about six miles north of the Israeli border, and opened fire.1989: President Reagan awarded Max Kampelman the Presidential Citizens Medal. 1990: In article published today, Joel Brinkley reported that “as Soviet Jewish immigrants arrive in Israel at a rate now exceeding 1,000 a week, Israeli officials acknowledge that they have still not devised a plan for handling the mass immigration, and construction of even the first new apartment to house the immigrants is months away. Still, Israelis at all levels can hardly hide their delight at the wave of new immigrants, which many people here see as an affirmation that Zionism has not died. ''This is the best thing that could happen to Israel,'' Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said, smiling broadly in an interview this week. ''I am happy every minute.'' And as to the lack of preparations for the new arrivals, he added: ''Israel does not excel in planning. But it does in improvising.''
2016: Employees of Israel’s Mega retail chain are scheduled to go on strike today. 2016: In Tekoa, nineteen year old Othman Muhammad Sha’alan stabbed Michal Froman, the pregnant “daughter-in-law of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, a former rabbi of the community who was known as a peace activist.” 2016: Today, “US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro responded to criticism of his charge last week that Israel appears to institute “two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians” in the West Bank.” 2016: In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to offer half-price admission and “a public tour of the Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition.” 2016: Violinist Israel Gatterer and pianist Eliah Zabaly are scheduled to perform in the “Classic-Rock” Concert at Migdalei haYam haTichon. 2016: Thirty-eight year old Dafna Meir, nurse in the neurosurgery department of Soroka Medical Center, Beesheba who was stabbed to death by a terrorist in her home as she fought to protect her children is scheduled to “be laid to rest” this morning “at the Harmenuhot Cemetery in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. 2017(20thof Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrtzeit of Maimonides 2017(20thof Tevet, 5777: “Border policeman Erez Levi was killed early this morning after being run over by a car driven by Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an 2017: “Khen Elmaleh, a DJ on the Galgalatz Army Radio popular music channel” “was fired today after express support for Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an who killed border policeman Erez Levi. 2017: An unidentified man used a hammer to smash “a window at the Aleph library in Villeurbanne near Lyon in eastern France.” (JTA) 2017: “Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Networks — an affiliate of the Jewish federations of North America, which advises Jewish groups and institutions on security — said 30 threats were called in today to Jewish community centers. Media reported additional threats called into schools and other Jewish institutions.” (JTA) 2017: Eric Paslay is scheduled to give a concert in Chicago, the proceeds of which will go the Illinois Holocaust and Education Center. 2017(20thof Tevet, 5777): Eighty-six year old “coloratura soprano” Roberta Peters the only daughter of Jewish couple from the Bronx passed away today. 2017: “Peshmerga” and “Scarred Hearts” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: Bonni –Dara Michael is scheduled to lead a tour of Yeshiva University Museum’s collection of clothing and textiles that includes “a gold bracelet that belonged to the wife of the Hatam Sofer, a pearl and silver embroidered lectern cover of a Chief Rabbi of Izmir, a custom-made 1950 Hattie Carnegie wedding gown, and a 1969 Ark curtain made by Ina Golub for Temple Beth Ahm in New Jersey.” 2017: Today, Israel’s National Library announced the acquisition of thousands of Hebrew manuscripts and books from the Valmadonna Trust Library which holds a “13,000 book assemblage of Hebrew texts from Amsterdam to Shanghai and a host of historic Jewish communities in between, spanning a millennium, was assembled by the late Jack V. Lunzer, a Jewish British industrialist” who died in December of 2016 at the age of 92. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion) 2017: Peter Hayes a “professor of history and German and Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies (emeritus) at Northwestern University” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on his new book Why?, in which eight questions including: “Why were Jews the primary victims? Why were Germans the instigators? Why did murder become the "Final Solution"? And, why didn’t the international community do more to help? 2018: Peter G. Weintraub is scheduled to teach the next edition of “Introduction to Judaism” at the Streicker Center. 2018: “Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School announced the termination of Rabbi Shmuel Krawatsky’s employment today, following the publication by The Jewish Week of an article featuring allegations against him” concerning charges of child molestation. 2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to offer a Gemara shiur on mesechet Megillah. 2018: In an act of Tikkun Olom, the Oxford University Jewish Society will be leading Homeless People Outreach where participants will be making up and delivering on the streets Oxford small care packages with sandwiches, fruit and water to those “who are sleeping rough night after night in this cold weather.” 2019: Hadassah is scheduled to host its annual Tu B’Shevat Seder this evening in Cedar Rapids, IA. 2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner after Friday evening services. 2019: The New York Jewish Film Festival is dark tonight with plans to continue tomorrow evening.
↧
↧
January 18, 2019, 5:56 pm
January 19570: Birthdate of Mohammed. Mohammed thought the Jews of Arabia would join his new religion. When they did not, he turned on them in much the same way Luther would when the Jews rejected his overtures.639: Dagobert I, the first of the French kings to be buried in the royal tombs at Saint Denis Basilica passed away. During his reign, he proposed driving all Jews who would not accept Christianity from his domain. 973: Benedict VI began his Papacy approximately three years after the death of Hasdai ibn Shaprut while Jews were still enjoying what has since been referent to as the “Golden Age in Spain.” 1180: In France, Phillip August seized all of the Jews living on his estates and imprisoned them. He freed them in exchange for a ransom of fifteen hundred silver marks. 1419: During the Hundred Years' War, Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy. This entry would appear to be loaded with irony from both a secular and Jewish point of view. The successful re-conquest of Normandy brought both the English Kings and the Jewish people back to a common point of departure that had begun in 1066. From the secular point of view, this is called a re-conquest because Henry traced his right to the throne of England on the conquest of William the Conqueror who ruled Normandy in 1066.From the Jewish point of view there is a whole lot more. While reportedly Jews had lived in the British Isles since the time of the Romans, the first written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of the Norman Conquest, mentioning Jews who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066. Jews lived in England from the Norman Conquest until they were expelled in 1290 by King Edward. Many of these Jews found refuge in what is modern day France which would have included Normandy. At this period in history Normandy was a separate kingdom. While we can only speculate as to when the first Jew arrived in Normandy, we know Jews were living there in the 11th century there are written records concerning the persecution of Jews in Normandy in 1007. “At that time a Jewish notable from Rouen, Jacob bar Jeqouthiel, who had initially been imprisoned by Duke Richard II, received authorization to visit the Pope, leaving behind one of his sons as a hostage in the hands of Richard. Pope John XVIII listened to his complaint and sent a message to France requiring that the persecution should be ended. Jacob was not to return to Normandy however. Instead he went to join his family in Lorraine, and died a few years later in Arras. The reign of (Wiiliam) the Conqueror was a period in which the Normandy Jews flourished; they were treated with respect by the Duke, and after 1066, they were encouraged to settle in England and especially in London. But the preparations for the 1st Crusade (1096) in Rouen, as in many regions of Western Europe, were accompanied by veritable pogroms which were violent, but also brief. William Rufus, who reigned in England from 1087 and administered Normandy in the absence of his elder brother Robert Curthose, did not approve of the excesses involved, and was able, fairly quickly, to put a stop to them. The members of the Jewish community of Rouen and their property had, however, suffered cruelly. The construction of the house in Rouen identified as a yeshiva (Talmudic academy) was, without doubt, part of the programme of restoration of this community and its buildings in the year 1100. Under the Plantagenets, the status of Jews in Normandy and in England was on many occasions defined in favorable terms by Henry II, and subsequently by King John. From before the end of the 12th century, written sources of Hebrew origin give the names of many Doctors of Law who taught in Rouen. The importance of Rouen as a centre of Jewish culture is also attested by the fact that a doctor as eminent as Abraham ibn Ezra, at the height of his career, went there to work from 1149 onwards and this is where he wrote, amongst other things, his great commentary of Exodus, the very important text known by its name of Anciennes Règles, (Ancient Rules) which pronounces on the teaching of the Torah. It could have been composed, in its original version, on the occasion of a regional synod that met in Rouen in the 11th century. At the beginning of the 13th century, economic prosperity and cultural activity in the Jewish community had reached a high level; this is the explanation for the effectiveness with which the Jews of Rouen were able to stand up to the trials that were to beset them during this century.” For more on this subject including how the Jews of Normandy fared under rulers who had expelled the Jews from England, see The Jews in Medieval Normandy: A Social and Intellectual History by Norman Golb 1567: Pope Pius V issued “Cum nos nuper,” a bull that forbids Jews from owning real estate. This would not be the last of the anti-Semitic Bulls issued by Pius V.1616: In Worms, under orders of the Bishop of Speyer and with the backing of Frederick's troops, the Jews were readmitted to the city. 1616: The Jews were readmitted by order of the elector palatine and bishop of Speyer. 1629: The reign of Shah Abbas I who in his final years followed the demands of the Shi’a clergy and required “Jews to wear a distinctive badge on clothing and headgear” came to an end today.1657: Thanks to the influence of Abraham Teixeira de Mattos who had lent Frederick III “to fight his wars”, the Danish monarch permitted “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" “to travel everywhere within the kingdom and to trade and traffic within the limit of the law.1733: Rabbi Isaac Ben Zalman Ben Moses Schulhof, the Prague native who was the “rabbi of a small congregation in Ofen, whose wife was murdered and whose “son died in prison at Raab” passed away today.1795: The Batavian Republic was proclaimed in the Netherlands bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The Batavian Republic was a genuine expression of Dutch nationalism but it was also a product of the French Revolution. Following in the path of that revolution, the creation of the Batavian Republic brought total emancipation for the Jews of the Netherlands. 1798: Birthdate of Auguste Comte, the man who “coined the term sociology” a field that Jews have populated from “A” (Raymond Aron) to “Z” (Eviatar Zerubavel) 1803(25th of Tevet, 5563): Marcus (Markus) Herz a Jewish German physician and lecturer on philosophy, passed away. 1805: Wolf Breidenbach succeeded in having the “Leibzoll” abolished in Raisbon and Darmstadt. The Liebzoll was a “toll which Jews had to pay on entering towns where they did not dwell or had no special privileges.” 1808: Birthdate of Moritz Rappaport, the native of Lemberg, a leading physician and poet who wrote an epic lyric poem, “Moses” in 1842.1808(19th of Tevet, 5568): Eighty-three year old Bohemian born Austrian tobacco-manufacturer Israel von Honigsberg, the first Austrian Jew to be “ennobled” passed away today in Vienna. 1809(2ndof Shevat, 5569): Austrian tobacco-manufacturer Israel Honig whose firm held a contract to provision the Austrian Army during the Seven Years War, who found favor with Empress Maria Theresa and who became the first Austrian to be ennobled when in in 1789 Emperor Joseph II conferred upon him the patent of hereditary nobility with the title "Edler von Hönigsberg" passed away today in Vienna.1813: Araon Solomon married Ann Lazarus at the Hambro Synagogue. 1817: In Hamburg, businessman Meyer Wolffson and his wife gave birth to Isaac Wolffson the German Lawyer who was a member of the Hamburg Constituent Assembly, a leader of the Jewish community and the father of Albert Wolffson.1829: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres. According to one critic, Goethe may have disparaged Jews in “Faust,” but he also had no problem ridiculing his fellow Christians. Goethe attributed his anti-Semitism to the prevailing beliefs in the society in which he was raised. His view of Jews changed for the better when he actually may and got to know some. From that time forward he found it difficult to view the creators of theBible and the Song of Songs as some sort of sub-human race. 1839: The British East India Company captures Aden. Jews had been living in Aden since the third century. By the time the British arrived, the Jewish population must have numbered in the thousand since 20 years later, they completed the Grand Synagogue of Aden (the Shield of Avraham) which seated 2,000 and was one of seven synagogues in the colony. 1839: Birthdate of French post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Relax; Cezanne was not Jewish. But he did enjoy a connection to the Jewish people which is illustrative of the state of French society in Pre-World War I France. Cezanne grew up in Aix-en-Provence, where he was a childhood friend of Emile Zola, the novelist who wrote “J’Accuse,” the widely read expose on the framing of Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jewish army officer falsely convicted of espionage. Cezanne was an ardent Dreyfusard and exulted, along with other intellectuals and the French Jewish community, when Dreyfus was finally exonerated. Later in life Cezanne Judaism developed a relationship with Camille Pissarro, a Sephardic Jew and fellow Impressionist with whom he painted side by side in Paris and in Aix-en-Provence.1843: In Venezuela, Abraham and Sarah Miriam Baiz gave birth to Jacob Biaz who after being raised in Elizabethport, NJ, became a successful businessman in Latin America, serving as Consul-General of the Government of Honduras and a member of the Coffee Exchange as well as Vice President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society. 1848(14thof Shevat, 5608): Eighty-one year old Isaac D’Israeli passed away in Buckinghamshire. A leading literary figure of his time, D’Israeli’s real claim to fame is that he was the father of Benjamin Disraeli. As a result of a dispute with Bevis Marks Synagogue, the elder D’Israeli took the advice of a friend and had his children baptized. Thanks to this, “Dizzy” ultimately became Prime Minister. 1851: In Philadelphia, PA, Samuel Fernberger and Lotta Lowenberg gave birth to Henry Fernberger, the husband of Julia Weiller who was a Treasurer of the Jewish Publication Society, a member of the Board of Directors of Congregation Rodeph Shalom and vice President of the Mercantile Club.1859: Lewis Levy married Isabella Levin at the Great Synagogue today.1859: The “Personal” column published described the presentation by “the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Charleston a handsome testimonial to Mrs. Elizabeth Bonnell, for unobtrusive, but signally useful charity bestowed upon a poor Jewish family heavily visited with the fever last summer. The Society also remembered the action of John Drummond, Esq., the father of Mrs. Bonnell, who was intimately associated with her in alleviating the sufferings of the afflicted family.”1862: In Grodno, Abraham and Sara Hoffman gave birth to “gastroenterologist and inventor of surgical instruments” Dr. Max Einhorn, who had come “to the United States as ship’s doctor in 1884 and served in the Army Medical Corps during WW I”https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/09/26/84425674.pdfhttp://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_735243https://www.jta.org/1953/09/28/archive/dr-max-einhorn-noted-medical-authority-dies-in-new-york1863: In Prussia, wealthy liberal politician, industrialist, and estate-owner, Anton Ludwig Sombart and his wife gave birth to Werner Sombart author of Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews and Modern Capitalism) in which he documented “Jewish involvement in historic capitalist development” in which “he argued that Jewish traders and manufacturers, excluded from the guilds developed a distinctive antipathy to the fundamental of medieval commerce” and Deutscher Sozialismus in which he contended that “the antithesis of the German spirit is the Jewish spirit, which is not a matter of being born Jewish or believing in Judaism but is a capitalistic spirit” and the "chief task" of the German people and National Socialism is to destroy the Jewish spirit.”https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-jews-and-modern-capitalism-by-werner-sombart/1865: In St. Petersburg, Russia, Alexander Serov and Valentina Bergman gave birth to Valentin Alexandrovich Serov one of the leading portrait artists of the last half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20thcentury.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Levitan_older.jpg 1867: Achille Fould, the son of a successful Jewish banker, was replaced by Émile Ollivier as the chief advisor to Emperor Napoleon III.1874(1st of Shevat, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1878(15thof Shevat, 5638): Tu B’Shevat1880: Baron Gustave de Rothschild and his wife Cecilie Anspach gave birth to their son Robert who became a civil and mining engineer.1881: Birthdate of John Nathan “Dutch” Levine the Polish born American football player who starred at Phillips Andover Academy, Colby College and Yale before coaching at Davidson College, Auburn University and Transylvania College.1882: Charles VI, a French grand opera in five acts with music composed by Fromental Halevy was performed for the first time today in Mexico.1885: In the Ukraine, “Simcha” and “Esther Handelman” gave birth to “Solomon/Samuel Max Handelman” the husband of Mollie Handelman and the father of Fred and Seymour Handelman.1888: Birthdate of Irving Wexler, who became known as the gangster Waxey Gordon1888(6thof Shevat, 5648): Rabbi Adolf Ehrentheil passed away today in Bohemia.1890: Two days after she had passed away Blanche Rebecca Joseph, the daughter of Louis and Bluma Joseph was buried today in the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1890: It was reported today that of the 360 youths admitted to the House of Refuge on Randall’s House this year, eleven of them were Jewish. 1890: It was reported today that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was one of the organizations that received a yellow silk banner for its participation in the Washington Centennial Parade last spring. 1890: The Trustees of the Hebrew Technical Institute are scheduled to meet at 11 A.M. at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association to elect officers to serve for the rest of the year.1890: “New Publications” published today includes a review of The Unknown God: Or Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races by C. Loring Brace in which the author expresses admiration for the fact “that so few evidences of Egyptian influence are found in the Hebrew faith. The thinks and teachers of the Jews ‘were visited by those higher and purer inspirations which made them the greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history.’” Even though they lived among tribes “of far greater wealth and refinement…the Hebrew leaders preserved themselves from the contamination of polytheism and handed down the faith in a pure religion.’ “The Jews of modern days ought to be forever honored for such progenitors; a race which could produce such men deserves the lasting respect of mankind.” (Brace was a 19th Protestant minister whose work with downtrodden included the famous “Orphan Train” that relocated parentless children from urban slums to the Midwest)1891: Birthdate of Albertina Rasch, the Viennese born American dancer and choreographer who was also the wife of composer Dimitri Tiomkin. 1892: In Vienna, “Rudolph Christians, a well-known German actor, and his wife, Bertha” gave birth to actress Mady Christians, who had left her native Germany because of the rise the Nazis and the treatment of the Jews and ended up being one of the few non-Jews to be Blacklisted, in part for her friendship with such people as Lillian Hellman.1892: Augustus Meyer, a Jew from St. Paul, MN, tried to kill himself this morning in New York City. 1892: Birthdate of Benjamin Percival Schulberg the pioneer film producer and movies studio executive. B.P. Schulberg, as he was known, was the father of Bud and Stuart Schulberg. 1892: Birthdate of Isaac Don Levine, the Russian born American newspaper man who provided testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee in the case against Alger Hiss. 1893(2ndof Shevat, 5653): Mrs. Charles Harris, a member of prominent Jewish family from Cleveland, apparently took her own life at the Marlborough Hotel in New York City.1893(2ndof Shevat, 5653): Sixty-eight year old German native “Julius Eichberg, one of the greatest violin teachers” in the United States “and director of the Boston Conservatory of Music” passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/01/20/106860123.pdfhttps://www.newspapers.com/clip/5075926/julius_eichberg_obituary_in/1894: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Societies is one of three charities that will benefit from an upcoming band competition at the Madison Square Garden. 1894: It was reported today that in Macon, GA, Rabbi Farher has created “the greatest sensation. By forging documents, he has stolen between from one and two thousand dollars from several prominent people including Sam Waxelbaum and Simon Josephson. A recent he widower, he is now engaged to four women, two of whom have acquired trousseaus in anticipation of marrying this father of two children.1895: Of the Four hundred thousand “notices containing instructions to householders about disposing ashes and garbage” that have been printed and are being distributed in New York City, 10,000 are in Hebrew and none are in Yiddish.1895: It was reported today that representatives of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children were among the charitable organizations who met to discuss ways to obtain public funds under the new rules adopted in New York.1895: It was reported today that Robert Olyphant is President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society which is currently caring for 800 children referred to the organization by the state.1896: Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered a lecture entitled “Social Ostracism” at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.1897: One day after she had passed away, 28 year old Fanny Cook, the wife of Barnett Cook, was buried toay at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1896: The Russian American Hebrew Association held its regular meeting today at the Hebrew Institute. 1897: N.S. Rosenau, a manager of the United Hebrew Charities, was among those attending the second monthly conference of charity organizations being held today at the United Charities Building.1898: It was reported today that in Nantes, the shops belonging to the Jews have been stoned as violence sparked by the Dreyfus Affair and anti-Semitism sweep the country. 1898: At the home of the bride’s mother in Savannah, GA, Rabbi I.P. Mendes officiated at the wedding of Jennie Einstein and Jacob Pinkussohn of Charleston, SC.1898: Extra policemen were guarding the homes of Emile Zola and Mathieu Dreyfus tonight as anti-Semitic mobs ranged through Paris. Zola was the editor who had come to Alfred Dreyfus’ defense and Mathieu was the French officer’s brother who worked to free him.1898: Copies of Aurore, the newspaper published by Georges Clemenceau, a non-Jewish supporter of Dreyfus and a critic of the military, were burned by the mob in Bordeaux.1898: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society sponsored its 15th annual charity ball at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.1898: A series of violent anti-Jewish demonstrations took place this evening in Algiers. 1898: Isaac Greenblatt, the owner of a shoemaker’s shop who is president of an Orthodox congregation on East Broadway said that the matter concerning the expulsion of Isaac Rabinowitz for being a gambler in violation of the organizations seventy laws of governance has been referred to their lawyer after papers were served by Louis A. Jaffter the attorney for Rabinowitz who is seeking $2,000 in damages.1898(25th of Tevet, 5658): Seventy-five year old Abraham Schlesinger passed away today. A native of Cassel, he came to the United States in 1848. “Three years later he began” manufacturing “uniforms for the Police Department and has been supplying the members of the force ever since as head of …A. Schlesinger & Sons. He supported numerous Jewish organizations including Mt Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Montefiore Home. A widower, he leaves behind six sons to recite kaddish.1899: Based on reports published today on the number of tickets sold, approximately 1,500 attended the Hebrew Orphan Asylum’s annual charity ball.1899: Simon Wolf, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey now living in Washington, DC, gave a speech to the Jewish Alliance in New York on the future of the Jews in America.1900(19th of Shevat, 5660): Eighty year old Rabbi Moses Ehrenreich or Rome passed away today in the same year (5660) that saw the death of “Rabbi Elie Benamozheg of Leghorn,” known as “the Jewish Plato,” Senator Isaac Artom and 49 year old journalist Attilio Luzzatto 1906: “Mohammed el Torres has informed the delegates” to the Algeciras Conference “that the Sultan is prepared to abolish the laws requiring Jews to prostrate themselves before the mosques and engage in other humiliating practices but the delegates doubt the wisdom of their abolition as it is said the non-performance of the traditional obeisances by Jews would excite an anti-Jewish outbreak.”1906: In Rochester, NY, Rabbi Isaac Kaplin of Congregation B’nai David opened a package he received this morning and “found it contained dynamite and gunpowder” which was intended to be a bomb.1906: The Allgemeine Zeitung Judt reported that the Board of the Berlin congregation had discussed the question of admitting proselytes1906: In St. Petersburg, at today’s meeting of the Constitutional Democratic Congress during which the question of party participation in the Duma, “a Jewish delegate from Vilna pleaded for participation” saying that “as regards the Jews…it was a question of life and death to have a representative in Duma who should” be able to “convey to the nation a presentment of the horrors of persecution the Jews were enduring.1909: Twenty year old Sam Melitzer, the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants scored 20 points “to lead Columbia to…victory over Princeton.”1911: Following its premiere at Vienna in 1908, Die geschiedene Frau (The Divorcée), an operetta in three acts by Leo Fall, was performed in Rome for the first time today.1912: Birthdate of Russian economist Leonid Kantorovich who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1975 and passed away in 1986. 1912: In New York City publication of the first issue of the Yiddish weekly Die Yiddische Wochenschrift,1913: At a time when there was a concerted effort to replace Saturday with Sunday for Sabbath services, Dr. Gerson Levi of the People’s Synagogue Association is scheduled to preach at a service this afternoon at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Chicago.1913: The fourteenth Sinai Orchestral Concert under the direction of conductor Arthur Dunham and featuring tenor William Barlow Ross as the soloist is scheduled to take place this evening at Sinai Temple in Chicago. 1914: Francis de Pressensé a leading French journalist and politician who came from a prominent Protestant family passed away. During the Dreyfus Affair, he sided with the Jewish officer, supporting General Picquart and losing his position in the “Legion of Honour” because he sided with Emile Zola. 1915: During WW I, first German zeppelin attack on England.1915: In Chicago, during today’s joint session of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. Dr. Emil G. Hirsch “assailed the low interest in religious affairs of the congregations today,” advocated “extension of the Jewish faith into every community in the United States where Jewish people reside” and appealed “for a return to the sterner morality taught in the lessons of the prophets.1916: It was understood that most of the aliens who benefited from the bribery scheme for which James Dallas of the Department the Home Office and Noi Yoachim Altans were indicted today in London were “Turko-Spanish Jews” trying to escape from Turkey by pretending to go to Holland but really planning on getting to Great Britain.1916: It was reported today that “Mrs. Solomon Schechter,” the widow of the late President of the Jewish Theological Seminary “has written to Louis Marshall, Chairman of the Board of Directors, to offer, on behalf of herself and children, the Jewish books and manuscripts, including a number Genizah texts, which the library of the late Dr. Schechter, as well as a number of his own manuscripts” along with the academic robes Doctor Schechter was as a member of the University at Cambridge.1917: Bernard M. Baruch, Daniel Guggenheim, Murry Guggenheim, Isaac Guggenheim, Sol Guggenheim, Simon Guggenheim, Adolph Lewisohn and David Hyman were each listed as having contributed $5,000 to the fund for the support of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, while Adolph S. Ochs was shown to have contributed $10,000. 1917: In two speeches delivered today in Washington, DC at the National Geographical Society, former President William Howard Taft “said that after the war, with the financial burdens of the belligerent countries bound to be heave than ever in the history of world, the Jewish banker would have be called in to help solve the fiscal problems involved” while at the same, “one of the blessings that would grow out of the American participation in a League to Enforce World Peace would a constant influence for the betterment of the condition of the Jews” -- “the only people who, for 1,800 years have had no country…yet have retained their religion, their cohesion, their intellectual capacity, their loyalty to ther race and have, whenever there was any pretense of equality of opportunity for them, forged their way ahead into portions of prominence, influence and power in business, in professions, in philosophy, in art, in literature and in government.’1917: The Zimmerman Telegram, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States, was received by the German Ambassador to Mexico today. This ill-considered electronic missive helped pave the road for the U.S. to enter World War I on the side of the Allies. The Zimmermann Telegram by Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman provides a very readable account of this little known piece history where the policies of Germany, Mexico, Great Britain and the United States came together on the world stage.1917: The new officers of the Temple Sisterhoods listed today were Mrs. Abram Simon, President; Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg, Vice President; Mrs. Benjamin Lowenstein, Secretary. 1917: It was reported today that Rabbi Max Heller of New Orleans and Rabbi Martin Zielonka of El Paso, TX are among the rabbis who have signed a resolution asking that action be taken to obtain religious services for Jews in the United States Army and Navy, including a request to appoint Jewish chaplains or if that is not possible, “to place rabbis at points where soldiers are stationed in the greatest numbers.”1918: This afternoon in Baltimore, Felix M. Warburg announced that it appeared the drive for “membership in the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies had netted 36,400 new members bring the societies total membership to 56,400.1919: At today’s final session of the First Jewish Labor Congress which has been meeting at the Yorkville Casino, “the delegates, representing 500,000 members of organized labor throughout the country, adopted a resolution favoring a free republic in Palestine where the Jews will have no more right than any other people until, by immigration or otherwise, they become the majority.”1920: The US Senate voted against membership in League of Nations. With the rejection of the Versailles Treaty and membership in the League of Nations, America withdrew from the affairs of Europe. This withdrawal is seen by many historians as one of the causes of World War II, with all the destruction and tragedy that that meant for the Jewish people. 1920: In Providence, RI, Walter Irving Sundlun and Jennette "Jan" Zelda (Colitz) Sundlun gave birth to Bruce Sundlun, the decorated war hero and attorney who served as the 71st governor of Rhode Island, making him the second Jew to hold this position.1923: Gregory Ratoff, the Russian Jew who became a successful American actor and director married actress Eugenie Leontovich in the United States today.1923: Birthdate of Markus Wolf the German born son of Jewish writer and physician Friedrich Wolf who was regarded as one the “great spymasters of the Cold War” for his leadership in Stasi. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/world/europe/10wolf.html
1924: While visiting New York, Dr. Osias Thon, chief rabbi of Cracow and a member of the World Zionist Organization, said today that “I am most hopeful for Jews in Poland and for Poland as a nation.” Despite the continued manifestation of long standing national friction and “internal discords” Thon expressed the hope “that the time is not too far distant when the leading Polish statesmen will recognize the justice of our demands and there will be a Polish-Jewish peace founded on the basis of full rights for the Jews of Poland.1925: In Detroit, Morris Burros, the son of “Jewish immigrants from Russia” and “a largely unsuccessful furrier and inventor” and “ the former Clara Krellman” gave birth to Marion Ann Burrow who gained as fame as Marian Javits, the wife of New York Senator Jacob Javits, who was part of what was becoming a dying breed – a liberal Republican. (As reported by Sam Roberts.)https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/nyregion/marian-javits-dead.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article1928(26thof Tevet, 5688): Seventy-one year old Julius Lewis Mayerberg, the son of Jacob and Hannaah Lande Meyerberg and husband of Rachel Rae Israel Mayerberg with whom he had five children – Florence, Israel, Sarah, Emil and Samuel – who served as the Rabbi for Oheb Shalom in Goldsboro, NC for 34 years starting in 1890 passed away today.1928: “Despite inclement weather,” “attendance was excellent” at the “first Birthday Ball” hosted by the Mother’s Club of Beth El Congregation in Pittsburgh.1929: The New York Times today “paid tribute to the late Dr. Joseph Goldberger, Jewish martyr to science who died in Washington, stricken during his research work.” (JTA) 1930: The Palestine Court of Appeals continues to be inundated by cases stemming from the riots that took place in August, 1929. Appellants are seeking to have their convictions over turned and/or have their sentences commuted. 1931: In a Jewish triple-header, “You Said It, a musical by Harold Arlen (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics) that uses a musical book by Yellen and Sid Silvers “opened at the Cahnin’s 46th Street Theatre in New York city where it ran for 192 performances. 1931: “Command Performance,” featuring Mischa Auer as “Duke Charles” was released in the United States today.1932: Birthdate of Philadelphian Richard Lester Liebman, the “child prodigy who entered Penn at the age of fifteen and who gained fame as movie director Richard Lester whose work include “Superman II.”1935: Eight days before his 19th birthday, Ed Kweller scored ten points to lead Duquesne to victory over West Virginia.1936: Birthdate of composer Elliot Schwartz creator of "Tapestry," for violin, cello and piano, emotionally charged piece of music. The work commemorates the courageous efforts of Danes in saving Danish Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Here, Schwartz works with melodic fragments paraphrased or borrowed from Jewish composers who were imprisoned at Theresienstadt, and also draws on a well-known Danish folk song that speaks of innocence and serenity.1936: “The educators division of ORT met” today “at the Hotel Pennsylvania to draw up plans for its participation in the organization’s drive to raise $500,000 in this country to finance the work of rehabilitating and training Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.”1936: It was reported today that approximately 100 rabbis attended the ceremony in which “Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp was…formally inducted as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.”1936: Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Cry of the Synagogue” at the Jewish Science Society.1936: Rabbi Milton Steinberg is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Fuehrers, Duces, Prophets – What Makes the Great Human Leader?” at the Park Avenue Synagogue.1936: James Waterman Wise, the associate editor of “The People’s Press” and founder of “Opinion” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “May Jews Be Communist?” at the Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall.1936: Anna Louise Strong is scheduled to deliver an address on “Woman and the Family” at Temple B’nai Jeshurun.1936: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Health and Wealth: Can Christian Science Bring Them to Jews?” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.1937: Joseph C. Hyman, the secretary and executive director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that “needy Jews in Berlin received 77,757 free meal and 21,806 food packages in 1936 from six kitchens” operated by the committee.1937: Speaking at a membership tea of the Manhattan Chapter of the women’s division of the American Jewish Congress “held at the Essex House in honor of Mrs. Sol Rosenbloom” Rabbi Stephen S. Wise cited “the appeal last week of Foreign Minister Josef Beck of Poland for he emigration of Jews and attacks on Jews in the Polish Parliament” as “just reasons for all Americans to unite to help the oppressed.”1937: In Berlin, the Central National Health Office issued a new appeal to all Germans to boycott Jewish physicians in order “to prevent any slackening in the anti-Jewish boycott.1938: Dr. Bernard Joseph, legal adviser to the Jewish Agency for Palestine arrived today in New York today aboard the Cunard White Star liner Berengaria. He has come from Jerusalem to attend the upcoming National Conference for Palestine to be held in Washington, D.C.1938: The Palestine Post reported that Jewish truck drivers repelled an Arab attack on the Palestine Potash convoy, which was on its way to the Dead Sea, 10 km. east of Jerusalem. One driver was severely wounded, but the convoy finally reached its destination. The Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline was again set on fire. 1940: U.S. premiere of “The Blue Bird” an American fantasy film with music by Alfred Newman and featuring Al Shean as Grandpa Tyl.1940: Senator Ellison “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina, who had opposed measures to ease immigration restrictions for Russian Jews during WW I, became “dean of the United States Senate” meaning he was the longest serving member of the Upper Chamber.1940: “You Natzy Spy,” a film starring the Three Stooges premiered. Nine months before the appearance of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” Moe (the Stooge whose name was Moses Howard), portrayed a “Hitler –like dictator” in the fictional country of Moronica. 1941 (20th of Tevet, 5701): Six thousand Jews were killed in Bucharest riots. 1941(20thof Tevet, 5701): Ber Goldberg passed away today and was buried in the Agudath Achim nonagenarianCemetery in Woburn, MA. 1942: Soviet forces recapture Mozhaisk, the closest that German troops had come to Moscow. With this, the Soviet capital is saved from occupation.1942: “An escaped inmate from the Chelmno extermination camp, Jacob Grojanowski, reached the Warsaw Ghetto, where he gave detailed information about the camp to the Oneg Shabbat group,” “which became known as the Grojanowski Report that was smuggled out of the ghetto through the channels of the Polish underground, reached London and was published by June 1942: Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite priest was arrested by German occupiers in Holland for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan." Brandsma had been speaking out against the Nazis since the mid 1930’s. After his arrest, he was shipped to Dachau in where he was the subject of medical experiments. He died of a lethal injection in July, 1942. Brandsma was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul, II in 1985. Since then, the promotion of his cause for sainthood has been in progress. 1943: As Nazis raid the Warsaw Ghetto for the second consecutive day, a crying child is accidentally suffocated by his terrified mother.1943: Over the next three day six thousand Jews from Warsaw are murdered at the Treblinka death camp. 1944: Two weeks after its NYC premiere, “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek’ featuring Julius Tannen as “Mr. Rafferty” was released throughout the United States today.1945: The Death Marches began for the surviving Jews and Poles who were evacuated from Labor Camps and Concentration Camps. Those who were too weak to march were shot by the thousands. As they marched through the severity of winter to new locations, tens of thousands more were shot for any infraction.1945: Soviet forces liberate ghetto of Łódź. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.1948: A company of the 1st Battalion commanded by Assaf Simchoni unsuccessfully attacked a building used by Arab gang in Shefaram.1947: Birthdate of David Bankier, the German born “Holocaust historian and head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem”http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/institute/bankier.asp 1948(8th of Shevat, 5708): Morris Eisenman, president and one of the founders of the Metropolitan News Company and a leader in Jewish philanthropic and cultural organizations passed away at the age of 74. A native of Bialystock, Poland, Eisenman was brought to the United States in 1888 where he would go to work as a newsboy on the Lower East Side. “In the 1890’s, he was co-found of the Abendblatt, a Yiddish newspapers and in 1897 assisted in organizing the Jewish Daily Forward.” He was an active Zionist and a close personal friend of Chaim Weizmann. “He helped organize and finance the Dvir Publishing Company in Eretz Israel which was headed by Chaim Nachman Bilak and Dr. Schmarya Levin and was formed to publish original and translated works in Hebrew.”1949: “Criss Cross,” the film version of the book by the same title direct by Robert Siodmak premiered today in Los Angeles.1949: Cuba recognized Israel.1951(12thof Shevat, 5711): Ninety-nine year old Sidney Phillip Phillips, the London born son of Barnett Phillips and physician who served as a Lt. Col. in the RAMC during WW I passed away today.1951: At the Riverside Chapel, “Rabbi Zev Zahavy of Congregation Shari Zede” and “Rabbi Israel Goldstein of Temple B’nai Jeshurun” officiated at the funeral services for NJ, native Robert S. Marcus, the City College and Yeshiva University trained rabbi and holder of a doctorate of Jurisprudence from NYU Law School who led congregations in Lawrence and Newburgh, NY before serving overseas as a chaplain with the Ninth Tactical Air Force where he worked with concentration camp survivors and returning to the United States where among other things, he served as the Director of the Department of World Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress while raising two children with his wife Fay.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/01/20/87087942.pdf1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the East German police searched Jewish homes and offices, looking for "spies and saboteurs" in a move that placed 2,800 Jews in danger of an immediate arrest. Many East German Jews were trekking to West Berlin fearing the oncoming persecution. In New York the American Jewish Committee charged that in the Soviet Union some half a million Jews, out of the community of two million, faced arrests, deportations and Gulag concentration camps. 1954(15th of Shevat, 5714): Tu B'Shevat1954: In Wilmington, DE, the board of directors adopted a resolution stating that "The Chapel of the new Temple Beth Emeth shall be dedicated to the memory of Milton Kutz and henceforth shall be known and appropriately designated as the Milton Kutz Memorial Chapel of Temple Beth Emeth."1954: In Los Angeles, Boris Sagal, the Russian-Jewish immigrant whose directorial credits included episodes of “The Twilight Zone” and Sara Zwilling gave birth to actress Katey Sagal, best known for her role as Peg Bundy. 1960: As the crisis on the Golan heightens, President Nasser of Egypt sends troops across the Suez Canal, into the Sinai Peninsula in direct violation of the agreements reached at the end of fighting in 1956. 1961(2ndof Shevat, 5721): Sixty-three year old Oscar Straus Caplan, the native of Kovno who came to the United States in 1900 after which he became a lawyer, municipal judge and member of such Jewish organizations as ZOA and the Federation of Polish Jews and was the husband of Sarah Caplan with whom he had a son Mitchell passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/01/21/97650531.pdf 1962: “A View From The Bridge” based on the Arthur Miller play of the same name directed by Sidney Lumet featuring Harvey Lembeck was released today in France.1963: Birthdate of John Simon Bercow, the first Jew to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons 1965: In Chicago Sue (née Sandel) and Donald Pritzker gave birth to billionaire businessman Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker, the third Jewish person to serve as Governor of Illinois. 1966: The Neil Simon, Coleman and Fields' musical "Sweet Charity" premiered 1972 (3rd of Shevat, 5732): Thirty-five year old American violinist Michael Rabin passes away.http://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/20/archives/michael-rabin-violinist-dead-made-carnegie-hall-debut-at-13.htmlhttps://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-rabin-mn00012030691977: Jack Albertson is scheduled to co-host Inauguration eve entertainment gala at the Kennedy Center which will include performances by Beverly Sills and Paul Simon.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt had broken off the Jerusalem talks and that President Anwar Sadat threatened to recall his delegation. He was, however, persuaded by US President Jimmy Carter to keep the door open. In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, at an emergency cabinet meeting, announced at midnight that "As the proposal that the negotiations of the joint military committee continue in Cairo, despite the suspension of the negotiations in Jerusalem, the government will consider this proposal."1979: Four people were injured when terrorists shelled Qiriyat Shemona and Nahariya. 1980 (1st of Shevat, 5740): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1980 (1st of Shevat, 5740): Composer and band leader Richard Franko Goldman composer passed away at the age of 69. Goldman had succeeded his father Edwin Franko Goldman as conductor of the Goldman Band of New York City. He took a break from his musical career during World War II when he served as a member of the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. 1980: Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who ‘wrote that the nomination of Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court had “frightened the Establishment” because he was a “militant crusader for social justice” passed away 1982 (24th of Tevet, 5742): Leopold Trepper, famed World War II spy, passed away in Israel at the age of 77. Born in Poland in 1904, Trepper supported the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. A committed Communist, Trepper moved to Palestine after World War I, where he worked against British occupation until he was expelled in 1928. With the outbreak of World War II, Trepper organized the Red Orchestra, one of the of most storied and successful spy networks in occupied Europe. The Red Orchestra operated in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. One of its greatest accomplishments was tapping the phone lines of the German military intelligence units in occupied France. The Nazis broke the Red Orchestra in 1942 and Trepper hid in Paris until liberation in 1944. Trepper made his way to Moscow where Stalin had him arrested. He was finally freed from a Russian prison in 1955. Trepper worked with the Jewish community in Poland before finally getting permission to move to Israel. You can read more about this Jewish James Bond in his autobiography, The Great Game.1982: “Venom,” a horror film produced by Martin Bregman with music by Michael Kamen was released today in the United Kingdom.1983: Acclaimed author Cynthia Ozick received the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Carrying a stipend of $35,000 per year for five years, the awards were among the largest available to American writers. Though Ozick's first published work was a novel, Trust, published in 1966, the Strauss award was primarily in recognition of her achievement in the art of the short story. At the time of the award, her story collections included The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories (1971), Bloodshed and Three Novellas (1976), and Levitation: Five Fictions (1982). In 1984, the editors of the annual Best American Short Stories called her one of the three greatest living American short-story writers. Ozick's most well-known story is probably The Shawl, published in 1989 and made into a play in 1996. The Shawl depicts the Holocaust in horrific detail. Like most of Ozick's work, The Shawl, deals directly with Jewish themes. In other works, Ozick draws on Jewish texts and the Jewish-American experience to write about Holocaust denial, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish, and the tension between nature and civilization, among other themes. Ozick has been repeatedly recognized as a master fiction writer. In addition to three O. Henry awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Ozick won the first Michael Rea Award for lifetime achievement in short fiction in 1986. Her work is frequently published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review. Her latest book is Heir to the Glimmering World: A Novel.http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/19/1983/cynthia-ozick 1983: Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, was arrested in Bolivia. 1984(15th of Shevat, 5744): Tu B'Shevat 1986: Birthdate of Loren Galler-Rabinowitz, the Harvard graduate who won a Bronze Medal for Ice Dancing in 2004 and competed for the title of Miss America in 2011 as Miss Massachusetts. 1986: Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands. 1986: Spain recognizes Israel.1987(18thof Tevet, 5747): Seventy-six NYU trained criminal attorney Milton Adler, the husband of “the former Miriam Josephs” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/24/obituaries/milton-adler.html1987: The police said four Israeli gunboats rocketed Palestinian guerrilla positions in hills overlooking the southern Lebanese port of Sidon today, wounding at least four guerrillas. The police said the gunboat attack on guerrilla positions around Maghdusheh was believed to be in retaliation for the stabbings of two Israeli Jews in the Arab sector of Jerusalem Saturday. The Israelis were hospitalized. In Tel Aviv, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, ''In response to several questions regarding these reports from Lebanon, we deny any shelling took place today.'' 1987 (18th of Tevet, 5747): Dr. Benjamin G. Levich, an internationally prominent physical chemist who won a six-year effort to emigrate from the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest today at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital at the age of 69. (As reported by Thomas W. Ennis) http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/21/obituaries/dr-benjamin-g-levich-dies-scientist-and-soviet-emigre.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm 1988: The Soviet Union said today that it had agreed to allow an official Israeli delegation to visit Moscow. Western diplomats said the visit, for which no date has been set, would be the first since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The move seemed to be in reciprocity for a prolonged visit to Israel by Soviet consular officials and would allow both sides to have official representatives in each other's capital, although at levels short of formal diplomatic relations. 1988: An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ehud Gol, said in response to the Soviet announcement, ''Israel welcomes the statement of the Government of the Soviet Union by which it will permit an Israeli diplomatic delegation to visit Moscow.'' The spokesman expressed regret that the announcement ''again sets conditions on the renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries.'' The top political adviser to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Nimrod Novick, was in Helsinki today to meet with Vladimir Terassov, deputy head of the Middle East section in the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Israeli officials said. 1990(22ndof Tevet, 5750): Eighty-six author and scriptwriter Viña Delmar whose works included the 1928 novel Bad Girl and the Academy Awarded nominated script for “The Awful Truth” passed away today.http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-28/news/mn-1265_1_awful-truth1991: Abner J. Mikva began serving as the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.1991: Iraq launched a second missile attack against Tel Aviv this morning, military officials said. The Israeli authorities said the missiles carried conventional explosives, like the missiles that hit Tel Aviv and Haifa early yesterday. The Mayor of Tel Aviv was reported on radio and television to have said that two missiles landed in the city in the latest attack and that a few people were slightly wounded. 1991: As Iraqi missiles land in Israel, Topol, who stars as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," left today for his home in Tel Aviv.1991: Western European governments have strongly condemned Iraq for attacking Israel with missiles. But fearful that retaliation by Israel could weaken the anti-Iraqi alliance, they also urged its Government to show restraint in its response. Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd of Britain called the initial Iraqi attack yesterday "a reckless ploy" to widen the conflict. "Israel has a right to self-defense and no one can take that decision from them," he said. "But we believe restraint at this time would be interpreted as strength, not weakness." France also condemned yesterday's attack, but suggested that Israel would be playing into Iraq's hands if it responded to the provocation. Underlining the "overall goal" of driving Iraq from Kuwait, a Government spokesman said Israeli reprisals would "not necessarily be opportune" at this stage. The foreign spokesmen made their comments before a second round of Iraqi missiles struck Israel about 7:30 this morning. Israeli spokesmen said that at least two landed in Tel Aviv.1992: In Beverly Hills, Lisa (née Goldman) and Larry Lerman gave birth to actor Larry Wade Lerman. 1992: "Israel: The Next Generation," a festival of performing arts opens tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a "Salute to Freedom" concert. 1992: “Three bulky goons” came to the home of Richard Penzer allegedly to collect a debt owed to Morris Talansky for the loss he suffered in a real estate deal. 1993: Israel recognized PLO as no longer criminal. 1996: Mark Twain’s granddaughter Nine, the daughter of Clara Clemens and Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the Jewish pianist and conductor, passed away. She was the last known lineal descendant of the great American humorist. 1997: Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli controlled West Bank city. 1997: The New York Times includes a review of Love Invents Us by Jewish author Amy Bloom and The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimilesby Hillel Schwartz. 2000(12thof Shevat, 5760): Hedy Lamarr, the raven-haired Jewish-Viennese beauty who became one of the reigning temptresses in Hollywood films in the 1930's and 40's, especially as Delilah vamping Victor Mature's Samson, was found dead in her home in Orlando, Fla., today. She was 86.http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/20/arts/hedy-lamarr-sultry-star-who-reigned-in-hollywood-of-30-s-and-40-s-dies-at-86.html?scp=1&sq=Hedy++Lamarr&st=nyt&pagewanted=print 2001: Jack Lew completed his service as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position to which he had been appointed by President Bill Clinton.2001: “Green Dragon” a Vietnam War drama filed by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau was released today in the United States.2001: Marshall Hall was rededicated to Louis Marshall and his son, Bob, by SUNY-ESF President2001(24thof Tevet, 5761): Sixty-eight year old real estate tycoon Alfred Koeppel passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/business/alfred-koeppel-68-headed-real-estate-concern.html2003: In an article in The Observer, columnist Jay Rayner reported that the quintessential British dish, Fish and Chips, was a Jewish creation. In 1860, Joseph Malin opened the first business in London’s East End selling fried fish alongside chipped potatoes. The National Federation of Fish Fryers presented a commemorative plaque to Malin’s of Bow in 1968 which attests to the accuracy of this story. 2003(16thof Shevat, 5763): Françoise Giroud, the Swiss born French journalist who co-founded the political weekly L’Express passed away today at the age of 86. . She served as France's first minister of women's affairs. (As reported by Alan Riding)http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/20/world/francoise-giroud-86-force-in-french-media-and-politics.html?scp=1&sq=Francoise+Giroud%2C&st=nyt&pagewanted=print 2004: Today, Israel's prison chief said today that he would not permit Yigal Amir’s request to get married. Amir, who is serving a life sentence for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, is seeking to marry a divorced mother of four. 2005 (9th of Shevat, 5765): Jacob L. Trobe, who directed the care and resettlement of thousands of Holocaust survivors left adrift after World War II, at his home in Haverford, Pa. at the age of 93. (As reported by Jennifer Bayot)http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/obituaries/30trobe.html2006(19thof Tevet, 5766): Ninety-one year old Sadie Reznick, the wife of Bernard Reznick with whom she had three children – Barbara, Robert and Marvin—passed away today.2006: A bomber blew himself up near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv at around 3:45 P.M. this afternoon. Thirty-one people were injured or wounded. The bomber came from the town of Nablus. Islamic Jihad took credit for the terrorist attack. Some Israeli leaders said there was evidence that Iran had been involved in planning or financing the attack. 2007: JTA reported that The Anti-Defamation League had honored an Albanian Muslim family that saved 26 Jews from the Nazis. The ADL posthumously awarded its Courage to Care award to Mefail and Njazi Bicaku, who sheltered Jews in the mountains of central Albania while the Nazis searched the area. The Bicakus already have been recognized by Israel and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, which awarded them its highest honor, the Righteous Among the Nations Award. “In the moral void that engulfed the world in those nightmare days when the cruelty of the Nazis ran rampant, the Bicaku family was among those few shining stars,” said Michael Salberg, the ADL’s director of international affairs. Also on hand for the ceremony was the Albanian ambassador to the United Nations and the president of the Albanian American Women’s Organization. The Anti-Defamation League honored an Albanian Muslim family that saved 26 Jews from the Nazis. 2007: Waiting for the Barbarians, an opera in two acts composed by Philip Glass premiered in America today at the Austin Lyric Opera in Austin, TX.2007: Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community, celebrate the birth of their first grandchild - Lewis Isaac Silber. 2007: “An American Crime” co-starring Ari Graynor was released in the United States today.2007: “In Private,” the first major solo exhibition in the United States of photographer J-F Levy opens at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia, PA.2007: The Washington Post published “Goodbye, My Friends” the last column of Art Buchwald who passed away yesterday.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011900444.html 2008: In Washington, D.C. bookstoreJacob Heilbrunn discusses and signs They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.2008: In Nevada, Republicans and Democrat hold caucuses to choose presidential delegates for their respective national conventions. Since the caucuses are held on Saturday, observant Jews and others who observe the Sabbath on Saturday such as Seven Day Adventists are excluded from the process. There are somewhere between 65,000 and 80,000 Jews living in Nevada, most in the Las Vegas area. South Carolina holds its presidential primary but observant Jews do not have to worry about being excluded since they can vote by absentee ballot.2009: An exhibition of the works of Afula native Yael Bartana on display at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York comes to an end.2009: In Alexandria, VA, this is the second day of the Beth El Hebrew Congregation annual book sale which also features a wide array of CDs, DVDs and tapes2009: Lewis Silber, the brilliant grandson of Dr. Bob & Laurie Silber who are pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community, is now only 11 years from his bar mitzvah as he celebrates his second birthday. 2009: “Why Israel Can’t Win” is the cover story for Time magazine. 2010: The 19th annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the United States premiere of “Leon Blum: For All Mankind,” the powerful documentary that tells the story of a prominent French leader—a Jew who at different times was prime minister of France and a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Blum devoted his life to improving the well-being of French workers and was an early champion of women’s rights. In 1936, he became prime minister; during his time in office, he led the Popular Front. In 1940, his socialist views and Jewish heritage placed him in jeopardy. The Vichy government sentenced him to five years in Buchenwald. After the war, Blum was welcomed home by the French people and was reelected prime minister.”2010: The 10thannual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of ”Zrubavel,” the first feature-length film ever created by Ethiopian Israelis” that tells the story of a family of Ethiopian émigrés is torn between love for homeland and assimilation with Israel.” 2010: In Herndon, VA, Rabbi Steven Glazer is scheduled to discuss business ethics at a meeting of The Hazak Active Retirees Chapter of Congregation Beth Emeth. 2010(4thof Shevat, 5770):: Ernst Cramer, a German Jewish journalist and chairman of the Axel Springer Foundation who explored his country's relations to Israel and the US, died today in Berlin, 10 days before his 97th birthday. Shortly before his death from a heart attack, he established a German-Israeli journalism scholarship program. A week before his death Cramer informed the Jerusalem Foundation that Axel Springer was sponsoring a 10-year scholarship program for German and Israeli journalists. "Such an exchange helps carry forward the German-Israeli friendship into the next generation. That is first and foremost of importance," Cramer wrote in his letter to the Jerusalem Foundation. Cramer, a prolific journalist, played a decisive role in the journalistic history of post-Nazi Germany. In 1938, the Nazis deported him to the Buchenwald concentration camp. While his brother and parents were murdered in the camps, Cramer was able to seek refuge in the United States. In 1944, he returned as an American soldier and helped to rebuild a democratic press in West Germany. 2011: “8 Stories That Haven’t Changed the World” a documentary on the childhood memories of eight Polish Jews born before WWII, is scheduled to have its U.S. Premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2011: “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” a film that follows one year in the life of legendary actress/comedienne/ writer, Joan Rivers is scheduled to be shown at the 2011 Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival2011: Gabe’s in Iowa City is scheduled to show “Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad,” a “refreshing mix of comedy, music, spoken-word and show-stopping burlesque, featuring the gals who learned to smoke at Hebrew School, got drunk at their Bat-Mitzvahs and would rather have more schtuppa than the chupah” 2011: Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham and Rabbi Elliot L. Stevens of Temple Beth Or in Montgomery met with Alabama Governor Robert Bentley two days after his inauguration. Bentley met with the two Rabbis to try and heal the damage done by his statement that "Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother " made while speaking at a service honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at King's first church, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. One of the Jewish leaders who met with Bentley, Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, called the new governor's remarks "a difficult misstep" at the beginning of his administration. But he said he was pleased with the governor's apology and said "I hope and pray we can come together in the next four years." Another rabbi, Elliot L. Stevens of Temple Beth Or in Montgomery, called the meeting with Bentley a positive step. "We are all gathered here at the table in the first days of his administration and we are talking about inter-religious dialogue," Stevens said. 2011: In Massachusetts, Steven Grossman was sworn in today as the state’s 59th treasurer. He recommitted himself to promises made on the campaign trail last fall as he pledged to put the state’s “checkbook” online and move state money out of large banks into smaller local and community banks willing to loan to small businesses.2011(14thof Shevat, 5771): Nathan Batt, owner of a Jewish restaurant located in Al Capone’s home in Chicago which counted celebrities and politicians among its clientele for decades, died today at 93. "He had a great restaurant, but he was a great man," said James "Jimmy" Lemons, a cook for Batt who now owns Lem’s, a legendary barbecue restaurant on Chicago’s South Side. "Me being black, and him being Jewish and white, made no difference. He hired me for my skills - for what I could do and how I could cook. Got to the point he'd say I cooked Jewish food better than most Jewish people!" According to the Chicago Tribune the menu at Mama Batt's restaurant, which closed in the late 1970s, included classic foods such as matzo balls, blintzes, fried kreplach and kasha. Celebrities - including Jerry Lewis, Perry Como, and Danny Thomas – reportedly stopped by, and the late Mayor Richard J. Daley was a regular as well. "If the mayor got a cold, we'd send a big bowl of chicken soup to his office - the Jewish penicillin," said Batt’s son, Harry. Batt was born in Omaha, Neb., and his family opened a diner following a move to Chicago. After graduating from high school in 1935, Batt worked at his father's restaurant. Two years later, he married his childhood sweetheart, Rebecca, who died in 2005 after 68 years of marriage. The location of Batt’s was itself a part of the restaurant’s appeal. It was located in a crumbling hotel that Capone had used as a headquarters, and in its later years was the subject of many attempts at renovation, which eventually failed. Sports Illustrated featured Batt’s in a 1969 feature article on the popularity of tabletop sports games such as Strat-O-Matic Baseball in the era before video and computer games. (As reported by the Eulogize2011(14thof Shevat, 5771): Joseph W. Samuels, publisher of Houston’s Jewish newspaper, the Herald-Voice, and a major supporter of the city’s Holocaust museum, died today at 95. Samuels bought the Jewish Herald-Voice in 1973, when he was 57, fulfilling his father’s dream, his wife, Jeanne, said. "It's a very cohesive community, and we like to contribute to that fact," she said. Samuels was “the epitome of what is good and honorable about journalism." Indeed, the newspaper’s website was full of tributes from past and former journalistic colleagues, as well as friends and family members: “Joe and Jeanne, and now their children and grandchildren, have been the community’s partners in conveying the news and interests of our organizations and institutions,” said Lee Wunsch, president & CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. Samuels was born in Dallas, and was raised in the Jewish Children's Home in New Orleans, after his father died. He attended Isidore Newman School, which had been established to educate children in the home, and which continues today as a college prep school. He worked several jobs as he pursued a degree in communications at the University of Houston, where he met his wife, Jeanne Franklin, whom he married in 1943. Samuels served in Italy and Southwest Africa with the Army Air Corps during World War II. (As reported by Eulogizer)2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced at the start of today's cabinet meeting at the Knesset that a new Homeland Security Ministry would be created to be headed by Independence faction MK Matan Vilna'i. Netanyahu said that such ministries are prevalent around the world, including in the United States2011: The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle announced that Anthony Horowitz was to be the writer of a new Sherlock Holmes novel, the first such effort to receive an official endorsement from them and to be entitled The House of Silk.2011: As violence continues to erupt across Tunisia it was reported today that Roger Bismuth and Khlifa Atoun, the leaders of the Tunisian Jewish community have left the country2012: In “He Made Blood and Guts Familiar and Fabulous” published today Roberta Smith described the exhibition of the works and the impact of Arthur Fellig, the photographer known as Wegee.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/arts/design/weegee-at-international-center-of-photography-review.html?_r=02012: Israeli hackers operating under the name of 'IDF Team' brought down the website of the Arab Bank of Palestine this morning in retaliation for a web attack on Israel's Anti-Drug Authority website2012: Chief Military Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz called on religious high school seniors to enlist with the army today, saying that loyalty to the Jewish state must be unconditional. Peretz's remarks came in response to a petition that was put forth by yeshiva students urging the army to abandon policies of "secular coercion."2012: A dialogue between Dr. David Ellenson and Dr. Daniel Gordis on the subject of “The Jewish Core: What does it mean to be a Jew after modernity?” is scheduled to take place at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El2012: “The Queen of Versailles,” a documentary about David Siegel’s private residence directed and co-produced by Lauren Greenfield premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival2012: “Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA2012: The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans is scheduled to hold the Goldring-Woldenberg Major Donor Dinner. 20132012:” 100 Voices: A Journey Home,” a documentary that looks at Jewish culture in Poland, past and present, through a unique focus—100 cantors from around the world who came together for concerts at the Warsaw Opera House and the Nozyk Synagogue is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2013: The JCCNV Performing Arts series is scheduled to present “Can I Really Date A Guy Who Wears a Yarmulke?”2013: “Barbara” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.2013: In “The Jekyll and Hyde Life of the Man Who Wrote ‘Saturday Night Fever’” published today, Erica Wexler described her tumultuous relationship with her father Norman Wexler.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9787564/The-Jekyll-and-Hyde-life-of-the-man-who-wrote-Saturday-Night-Fever.html2013: The third annual winter version of the Red Sea Festival being held at Eilat is scheduled to come to a close.2013: The Ensemble Millennium is scheduled to perform a string quintet by Mendelssohn and a piano quintet by Schumann at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.2014: Twelve year old Montrealer Lea Glubochansky is scheduled to perform Fritz Kreisler’s Rondo in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a first-place winner of a Crescendo International Music Competition. (As reported by David Lazarus)2014: “Exodus” and “For a Woman” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2014: “The Afterlives of Edgar G. Ulmer,” a film roundtable featuring Arianné Ulmer Cipes, the director’s daughter, Viennese film critic Stefan Grissemann, and New School Professor and author Noah Isenberg is scheduled to take place at the Center for Jewish History.2014: In Alexandria, VA, Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to begin its 12thannual “Gigantic Used Book Sale.”2014: Zaytoun a “story of survival, reconciliation and friendship between an imprisoned Israeli pilot and a 10-year-old Palestinian” is scheduled to be shown City Playhouse under the auspices of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.2014: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Painting Beyond Belief II” in which David Jselit and Thomas Eggerer will explore “issues in contemporary painting since the death of Marc Chagall in 1985.”2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti by Amy Wilenz and Simon Winder’s Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe “where all Habsburg legislation in relation to the Jews was carried out effectively without reference to their needs or any real knowledge of their ideas” as well as a “conversation” with E.L. Doctorow2014: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Israel this afternoon, marking his first official trip to the Middle East and the first visit to the region by a sitting prime minister from the North American country in over a decade. 2014: Tonight Israel began transferring the remains of 36 Palestinian terrorists, who were previously buried in a special cemetery for enemy casualties. The bodies were transferred to the Palestinian Authority, which was to forward them to the relatives.2014: “Israel plans to deploy a new missile shield known as "Iron Beam" next year which would use a laser to blow up short-range rockets and mortar bombs, a defense industry official said today. (As reported by NesMax)2015: “Fires on the Plain” and “I Was Nineteen” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a “sneak preview” of “The Jewish Frontier” which “explores the history of Oregon's Jewish pioneers who helped to build the businesses and civic organizations that shaped the state.”2016: “The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, which brings together European foreign ministers is” scheduled “to approve” today “a proposal that is liable to levy new sanctions against Israeli settlements and undermine their international legitimacy.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner) 2016: The Jewish Historical Society is scheduled “to co-present the documentary Rosenwald” this evening. http://www.rosenwaldfilm.org/?utm_source=Happy+New+Year&utm_campaign=new+year&utm_medium=email2017(21stTevet, 5777): Ninety-two year old Hungarian born Holocaust survivor Paul Ornstein who was reunited with his wife Anna with whom he joined in promoting the theory of self-psychology passed away today. 2017: The UKJW is scheduled to sponsor the final screening of “Time to Say Goodbye” at JW3. 2017: “The Producers” and “Past Life” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: Downtown Jewish Life and the AJHS are scheduled to sponsor “What Do Jewish Look Like To You U?”, “an evening of monologues highlighting Jewish racial and ethnic diversity.” 2017: “Members of the Women of the Wall were denied entry to the Western Wall” this “morning after refusing to submit to body searches as a condition for entering the site – searches that were conducted in violation of “a recent High Court Justice ruling that prohibits them.” 2018: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanuel in Miami Beach for 92 year old Harold Rosen, the former mayor of Miami Beach.” 2018(3rdof Shevat, 5778): Fifty-four year old movie executive “Allison’Alli’ Ivy Shearmur” the wife of film composer Edward Shearmur passed away today. 2018: “The Catcher Was a Spy” the movie version of the book by the same named directed by Ben Lewin and starring Paul Rudd as Moe Berg premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 2018: “President Sergio Mattarella’s office said” today “the he had chosen Liliana Serge, “a woman who was one of the few Italian children to survive deportation to Auschwitz” for the honor of being a senator-for-life “because she had made the nation proud with her social commitment.” 2018: Annie Polland is scheduled to present the final session of “Under the Tenement Rooftops: Immigrant and Migrant Families in New York” at the YIVO Institute. 2018: The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are scheduled to host a screening of “Rosenwald: the Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with African American Communities” at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 2019: Limmud Seattle is scheduled to begin today. 2019: “Life According to Agfa” is scheduled to be shown this evening at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2019: The 8th Annual LaunchHouse Bootstrap Bash, “Cleveland’s premiere party celebrating entrepreneurship” co-sponsored by the Cleveland Jewish News is scheduled to take place this evening.
↧
January 19, 2019, 4:55 pm
January 20250: Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Decius reign came during a fifty year period (235-285) that was marked by “crisis, confusion and deterioration throughout the Roman Empire. In what appears to have been an attempt to assert imperial authority, Decius “ordered the entire population of the empire to report to authorities and prove its loyalty by sacrifice, a libation or some similar sign of participation in the cult of the emperor.” Apparently the early Christians would not participate as a matter of religious scruple and suffered accordingly. For reasons that are unclear, Jews were exempt from the decree. This could have been because the Jews were not seen as posing any threat since they had been defeated in three uprisings by Roman forces, the last of which had taken place more than a century ago in what had become a backwater of the imperial domain.1191: Even though his army was only 12 miles from Jerusalem, Richard the Lionheart decided not to lay siege to the city due to bad weather and fear that his army might be trapped by another force of Muslims coming to relieve the siege. This timidity cost Richard his best shot at capturing the Holy City and sealed the fate of the Third Crusade as another Christian defeat. 1205: Joseph ibn Shoshan who had succeeded his father as Nasi of the Jewish Community in Toledo passed away today.1265: In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster. He is also remembered as the anti-Semite who expelled the Jews from Leister. 1320: Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland. During his reign the Jews continued to be governed under the terms of The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious in 1264. “The statute granted exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish matters to Jewish courts and established a separate tribunal for matters involving Christians and Jews. Additionally, it guaranteed safety and personal liberties for Jews such as freedom of religion, trade, and travel.” The statute was ratified by several Polish kings whose reigns lasted until the middle of the 16thcentury. While many people who only know about “modern Polish history” see Poland as a land of anti-Semitism, at one time it was a home governed by those with a benign attitude toward the Jewish people.1466 (3rd of Shevat): Leon ben Joshua completed the manuscript of Sefer ha-Tadir, a work that included Aramaic and Hebrew texts of the Scroll of Antiochus.1488: In Ingelheim, near Mainz, Andreas Münster and his wife gave birth to German mapmaker and “Christian Hebraist” Sebastian Münster, “a disciple of Elias Levita “who edited the Hebrew Bible accompanied by a Latin translated” and who “in 1537 published a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew which he had obtained from Spanish Jews he had converted.”1569: Miles Cloverdale, a translator of the Bible into English who relied on Luther’s Bible and the Vulgate but who did have some knowledge of Hebrew as can be seen by the fact that “the name of the Diety appears in Hebrew on the Title Page” and that Hebrew characters are used to mark the divisions of the Book of Lamentations” passed away today.1667: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and “the left bank” of the Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusovo. This marked an end to fighting that had begun in 1654 and included the Chmielnicki Uprisingwhich was so devastating to the Jews of Poland. This treaty marks the decline of Poland that will ultimately end at the end of the 18thcentury with the final partition of Poland. The quality of life for the Jewish people would also slide downward until it ended in the morass of the Pale of Settlement.1702: Thirty-eight year old “court Jew” Jehuda Jost "Judah Berlin" Liebmann, the son of Eliezer Liebman and Merle Lippman Ashker and the husband of Malké Hameln and Esther Samuel Liebmann passed away today in Berlin1707: Seventy-five year old Cardinal Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch who advised the King to repopulate Hungary with Catholic Jews from Germany and who “held that the Jews could not be exterminated at once but must be weeded out by degrees as bad coin is gradually withdrawn from circulation passed away today. To that end he called for the enforcement of the decree by the Diet of Pressburg, “imposing double taxation on the Jews” and deny them right to “engage in agriculture” or “to own any real estate.”1782: Birthdate of Archduke John of Austria who helped Moses Sachs submit his “program for the settling of Jews as farmers in the land of Israel under Austrian protection” to the Austrian government which in turn submitted it the Ottomans who rejected it.1790(5thof Shevat, 5550): At Reggio, Italy, Israel Benjamin Bassani, the local Rabbi whose poetic talents found expression in both Hebrew and Italian and who was the son of Isaiah Bassani passed away today.1795: Benjamin Hirsh, the father of Catherine, Ann, Joel, Michael and Woolfe Benjamin, was buried today in the UK.1812: In Charleston, SC, Deborah Cohen and Israel Moses gave birth to Raphael J. Moses, a “fifth generation South Carolinian.1795: Hirsh ben Benjamin Manhausssen, the father of five children was buried today in the United Kingdom.1813: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi E.N. Carvahlo officiated at the wedding of Hannah Hart and Joseph Depass.1834: Birthdate of Adolph Frank, the native of Klotze who in 1862 “received his doctorate in chemistry from the university in Göttingen” whose many scientific contributions led to him being award “The John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1893.”1848(15thof Shevat, 5608): Tu B’Shevat1850: Nathaniel Magnus married Dinah Levy in the United Kingdom today.1853(11thof Shevat, 5613): Forty-eight year old pharmacologist Jonathan Pereira, author of Elements of Materia Medica, passed away today in London.1857: Birthdate of Andre Crémieu-Foa, the Paris born French cavalry officer who fought a series of duels in 1892 after the Libre Parole published a series of articles “on the preponderance of the Jewish element in the French Army.” Among those whom fought (and wounded) was Edoard Drumont, the notorious anti-Semite and editor of the paper.1857: Birthdate of “journalist and Anglo-Jewish historian” Lucien Wolf.1859(15thof Shevat, 5619) Tu B’Shevat1859: Birthdate of Lucius Nathan Lattauer, the native of Gloversville, NY who after graduating from Harvard became the Crimson’s first head football coach and then went to become a successful businessman and member of Congress.1860: In Arnhem, Liepman Phillip Prins and his first wife Henrietta Prins-Jacobson gave birth to their third child, artist Benjamin Liepman Prins.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Prins#/media/File:Prins_benjamin-after_labour.jpghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Prins#/media/File:Prins1.JPG1863: Two and half year after Jews in Sweden were given the right to buy “real estate in rural areas”, an ordinance was adopted that allowed “intermarriage between Jews and Christians.1865: According to a report written today German and English Jews have a monopoly on the cotton trade in New Orleans because they are men without "any country or local attachment" or conscience.1865: As Sherman’s Army marched north to join forces with General Grant, the 27thOhio Infantry Division including Private Jacob C. Cohen took part in a reconnaissance that led to the Salkehatchie River, S.C.,1866(4th of Shevat): Rabbi Asher of Tiktin, author of Birkat Rosh, passed away today.1868: Birthdate of Louis-Lucien Koltz the native of Paris who was a nephew of wealthy silk dealer Victor Kloz and who was the “French Minister of France during World War I.”1872: One day after he had passed away, 72 year old “master jeweler” and “general clothes dealer” Isaac Isaacs, the husband of Fanny Isaacs with whom he had had five children was buried today at the “Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.”1876: It was reported today that when Mme. Rothschild’s physician told her that despite all of his skill, he could not make her young again, she replied, “No doctor, I don’t ask to me made young again; I only ask to continue to grow old.”1877: Captain Levy of the Third Brooklyn Precinct arrested James L. Manker tonight after he tried to spend a two dollar bill that had been altered to make it appear that it was a ten dollar bill. According to police Mr. Manker has done this to other merchants prior to tonight. Mr. Manker professes to be a devout Methodist who writes sermons for M.L. Rossvally “a converted Jew who publishes a weekly paper called The Hebrew Evangelist and Converted Jew.”1878: In Cairo, Egypt, Moise Cattaui and Ida Rossi gave birth to Edgar Cattaui1878: In a case of Jew versus Jew, Mark Arnsteat was arraigned at the Essex Market Police Court on charges of keeping a disorderly house. The charge was based on a complaint filed by his neighbor David Rosenbaum.1879: According to a an article published today “the project proposed some time” ago “in Great Britain by leading Jews of the country to by Palestine is said to have been completed. The Rothschilds, Motefiores and other prominent and wealthy financiers have entire confidence, it is reported, in the success of the undertaking, are moving energetically towards its early achievement.” The article continues with a description of the country of which it says “Those familiar with Palestine will not regard it as specially desirable, for its main features are not very attractive.” The article concludes with “So much has been said for generation of the Jews regaining possession of Jerusalem, that it is agreeable to think that they are like to do so at last. They certainly deserve Jerusalem.” [Editor’s note – I cannot find any other reference to this project. If anybody with an expertise in Anglo-Jewish history has information to share, please do so.]1879: The Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations began meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, today. Fifteen congregations have joined the union of Reform Congregations in the last 6 months. A resolution was adopted instructing the Board of Delegates on Civil and Religious Rights the feasibility of working with Jewish organizations in Europe that are encouraging their co-religionists to take up agrarian pursuits which they follow if they settle in the American West and South. [This was part of a plan to encourage Jews to settle in places other than the large cities of the Northeast.]1883: In Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Julius and Alice Pepperberg gave birth to University of Nebraska graduate and geologist Leon J. Pepperberg, the husband of Rachel F. Carns and the father of Leon E. Pepperberg.
1883: Sixty-eight year old John William Colenso, the native of Cornwall who while serving as Bishop of Natal translated three books of the TaNaCh into Zulu and was convicted of heresy for publicly denying “the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch” and declaring “that Jeremiah was the author of the Book of Deuteronomy.”1886: The Prince of Wales formally opened the Mersey Tunnel which had been built under the direction of Samuel Isaac.1887: Four days after he had passed away, 69 year old Zaleg Walsh the husband of Friederika Walsh was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1891: Birthdate Ukrainian native Moishe Elman who gained fame as violinist Mischa Elman.http://www.thirteen.org/publicarts/violin/elman.html 1891: A meeting of clergymen that included Rabbis Gottheil, de Sola Mendez, Perira Mendez and Jacobs, Rabbi A. M. Radin was pointed Visiting Chaplain making him the first Rabbi chosen to minister to the needs of Jews incarcerated in the reformatories of New York City.1891(28thof Tevet, 5650): Seventy-three year old Lazarus Rosenfeld, a long-time leader of Temple Emanu-El and the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphans Asylum passed away today in New York.1892: It was reported today that a mob at Kasehan, Hungary, attacked a Jewish school “and completely wrecked it.”1892: One day after he had passed away, 89 year old Lazarus Phillips the son of Phillip Phillips and the husband of Ester Rodrigues and Leah Rodrigues was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1892: It was reported today that representatives of the Jewish Colonization Society, headed by Baron Hirsch are being sent to Mexico and Brazil for “the purpose of selecting land” that would be suitable “for establishing large colonies of Russian Jews.” These two countries have shown themselves to be receptive to such a venture which is fortuitous since Argentina, which had been the site for such settlements, has development an “anti-Semitic sentiment.”1892: At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played. Basketball proved to be extremely popular with Jews living in large urban eastern areas. There was such an abundance of Jewish participants that it was referred to as the “Jewish sport.” On commentator observed that “no other sport so required ‘the characteristics inherent in the Jew…mental agility, perception…imagination and subtlety…If he Jew had set out deliberately to invent a game which incorporates those traits indigenous in him…he could not have had a happier inspiration than basketball.’ Describing the Jewish domination, this commentator concluded ‘ever since Dr. James A. Naismith came up with a soccer ball, two peach baskets and a bfright idea…basketball players have been chasing Jewish athletes and never quite catching up with them.’”1893: It was reported today that the body of the late Mrs. Charles Harris is being prepared for shipment to Cleveland. The twenty four year old Jewess was a part of a prominent Jewish Cleveland family, named Fieldheim.1893: As of today, Henry W. Curtis of Hoenninghaus & Curtis, wholesale milliners said that Moses and Julia Levy who owned a millinery store on Broadway owed his firm $6,783.521895: The Sultan is credited with having issued an order to the Governors of Jerusalem and Beirut ordering them to remove all of the restrictions that had been placed on Jews trading in Syria. The Sultan also has declared that the Jews “shall enjoy the same rights, religious and otherwise, as any of the people in the empire.”1895: It was reported today that the Minuet a la Coeur will be danced for the first time in New York City at the upcoming ball sponsored by the Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home.1895: It was reported today that Deputy Boeckel, “the blatant Jew baiter” addressed a meeting of Social Democrats in Berlin which is seen as a sign that the anti-Semites and the Social Democrats are joining forces.1896: Birthdate of George Burns. Born Nathan Birnbaum, Burns was part of the first wave of American Jews who found success in making us laugh. The sound of laughter has been with us since the outset of Jewish history. Remember, Sarah laughed when she heard that she was going to give birth to a son.1896: It was reported that Dr. Joseph Silverman believes that the Jew is a victim of “Social Ostracism.” While “the hand of fellowship is extended to the Mohammedan, the Buddhist and others…there seems to be a universal bar against the Jew.” 1897: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum hosted its 14th annual charity ball at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn.1897: At 304 Meeting Street in Charleston, SC, Rabbi B.A. Elzas officiated at the wedding of Dora Rice and Theodore Solomons.1898: It was reported today that a thousand students gathered at the Panetheon shouting anti-Zola and anti-Jewish slogans. The police broke up the demonstrations, but they re-grouped in various parts of the Latin Quarter.1898: It was reported today that Emile Zola has already begun preparing his defense which will include calling a handwriting expert among his 250 witnesses.1898: It was reported today that students tried to burn an effigy of Emile Zola in Algiers. The police arrested five students whose friends then attacked the police in an effort to free them.1898: It was reported today that there have been anti-Jewish demonstrations in Toulouse, Marseilles, Nantes and Rouen.1898: It was reported today that the 15th annual ball of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society was a financial success that will provide funds for a technical school to be built at the asylum’s facility.1898: During today’s Cabinet meeting in Paris, the Minister of the Interior described the measures that have been taken to prevent further street demonstrations by anti-Dreyfus and anti-Zola forces.1898: It was reported today that Isaac Greenblatt who owns a shoemaker’s shop is the President of an orthodox synagogue on East Broadway which also serves as a burial and mutual aid society and has assets of thousands of dollars1898: “Penuchle And Orthodoxy” published today described a dispute between Isaac Rabinowitz and his co-religionists over his failure to attend religious services and his penchant for playing a card game when gambling was strictly forbidden.1899: It was reported today that Simon Wolfe, the former U.S. Minister to Turkey believes that the future of the Jews in America is a bright one. “Never in the history of Judaism in ancient or modern times has the outlook for the Jewish people been more flattering than in these United States.”1901: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Max Zilzer, “a Hungarian-born German stage and film actor who died in 1943 while being interrogated by the Gestapo and his wife gave birth actor Wolfgang Zilzer “who often appeared under the stage name Paul Andro.”1902: Herzl writes to Israel Zangwill and Joseph Cowen and describes the financial plans regarding Turkey.1902: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi J. J. Simenhoff officiated at the marriage of Morris Kramer and Etta Bernstein.1904: The Jewish Museum was established when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.1905: Birthdate of Isaac “Ike” Danning, the native of Los Angeles who played catcher for the 1928 St. Louis Browns and was the younger brother of Harry Danning who played catcher for the New York Giants.1906: It was reported today that the delegates to the Algeciras Conference have agreed to exclude matters related to “religious subjects” – an agreement that will not exclude the “Jewish Question” since it “can come up not as a religious issue” but as one pertaining to the “protection of the subjects of the Sultan.”1906: It was reported today that Rabbi Isaac Kaplin of Congregation B’nai David of Rochester who had received a package filled with dynamite and gunpowder yesterday had “received an anonymous letter a month ago” saying he must curb his expressions of “sympathy for the persecuted Jews in Russia.”1906: The Women Workers for the Self Protection of the Jews in Russia are scheduled to give a bazar and ball in the Grand Central Palace tonight with proceeds going “to the fund for the assistance of the Jews of Russia.”1906: “Home Life in the Ghetto” published today provided a review of the Contrite Hearts by Herman Bernstein a tale by an author “whose short stories of Jewish life have already attracted attention” which provides a certain credibility to this longer effort that “deals with the tragedy of a simple Jewish family led by Reb Israel an “honest and God-fearing man of highs standing in the synagogue.”1907: Birthdate of Polish native Herman Meyer Pekarsky, who came to the United States in 1921, earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan eventually settling in Newark in 1945 where he served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council in Essex County.1908: Rabbi Chaim Fishel Epstein and his wife gave birth to Ephraim Epstein, the husband of Louise Gorodinsky who was the Rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zedek in St. Louis for thirty-five years.1909: Founding of the Jewish Farmers of Americahttp://jewishfarmersofamerica.wikispaces.com/1911: Michael Newman, “a produce dealer” and his wife Luba whose “father had been a cantor in Russia” gave birth to Oscar nominated conductor and director Emil Newman, the brother of composers Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman, the father of composers Maria, David and Thomas Newman and the uncle of songwriter Randy Newman.1912: Writing in The Outlook, a periodical that reflected his efforts toward social reform, Dr. Lyman Abbott, a celebrated liberal theologian who supported the progressive policies of Theodore Roosevelt, advises an inquirer that he is under no moral obligation to admit Jewish pupils to his school. 1913: Austrian steel tycoon Karl Wittgenstein passed away. He was the grandson of Moses Meyer-Wittgenstein, a successful Jewish businessman and the son of Herman Wittgenstein who converted before Karl’s birth. This was an all too common tale in 19th century Europe.1913: Among those expected to attend the 23rd Biennial Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Cincinnati are J. Walter Freiberg, Jacob H. Schiff, Julius Rosenwald, I.W. Bernheim, Adolph S. Ochs and Harry Cutler.1913: The next regular meeting of the Junior Auxiliary of the Mother’s Aid of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital and Dispensary is scheduled to be held in the vestry rooms of the Isaiah Temple/1914: German born composer and pianist Emil Liebling passed at away at the age of 62. Liebling settled in Chicago in the 1870’s and he spent the rest of his career performing and composing the United States.1914: “The Yellow Ticket” a play that tells the story of Russian Jewess who is trying to get see her dying father when Jews are restricted to their homes” opened at the Empire Theatre.1915: In Chicago, a resolution is scheduled to be introduced at a joint session of the American Hebrew Congregations and the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods praising “President Wilson’s neutral attitude toward the war.”1915: Johanna Kohler, the wife of Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler, daughter of Rabb David Einhorn, the sister of Mathilde Hirsch and the sister-in-law of Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch is scheduled to speak today the at the national meeting of the American Hebrew Congregations in Chicago.1915: Birthdate of English journalist and publisher Harold M. Harris.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harold-harris-1460659.html1915: Martin Grove Brumbaugh who in 1916 “issued a proclamation to the people of Pennsylvania call up them to set aside January 27 as a day on which to make donations for the relief of the Jewish people in the various countries at war” began serving as the 26th Governor of Pennsylvania1916: At Clinton Hall, the Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Suffers hosted a meeting “to celebrate” Mayor Mitchell’s “recovery from his recent illness and return to public duties” at the end of which the may expressed his appreciation saying of the Jewish population, “Of all the races that come from Europe, the Jews stand out for their response to civic duty and responsibility.”1917(26thof Tevet, 5677): Parashat Vaera1917(26th of Tevet, 5677): Avshalom Feinberg passed away. He was one of the leaders of Nili, a Jewish spy network in Ottoman Palestine helping the British fight the Ottoman Empire during World War I passed away today. Born in 1889 at Gedera, Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire Feinberg studied in France. He returned to work with Aaron Aaronsohn at the agronomy research station in Atlit. Soon after the beginning of war, Aaronson founded the Nili underground along with his sister Sarah Aaronsohn, Feinberg and Yosef Lishansky. In 1915 Feinberg travelled to Egypt and made contact with British Naval Intelligence. In 1917, Feinberg again journeyed to Egypt, on foot. He was apparently killed by a Bedouin near the British front in Sinai, close to Rafah. His fate was unknown until after the 1967 Six-Day War when his remains were found under a palm tree that had grown from date seeds in his pocket to mark the spot where he lay. In 1979 a new Israeli settlement in the Sinai Peninsula, Avshalom was named after him. Although it was abandoned following the Camp David Accords, a new village by the same name was founded in Israel in 1990.1917: At Temple Israel in Harlem, Rabbi M.H. Harris is scheduled to deliver a Shabbat morning sermon on “Miracles.”1917: Rabbi Samuel Schulman will deliver the sermon at Temple Beth-El on Fifth Avenue at Sabbath Services which are scheduled to begin at 10:30.1917: Rabbi Silverman is scheduled to deliver a sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El on “Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy.”1918: This afternoon at the first session of the United Synagogue Conference meeting at the Jewish Theological Seminary Dr. Jacob Kohn, Dr. Cyrus Adler, Rabbi Elias Solomon and Rabbi Samuel Kohn were among the speakers who discussed “The Jews in the Small Community,” “What Jewish Womandhood Can Do to Strengthen Traditional Judaism” and “The Synagogical Problems of New York.”1918: Among the contributions listed today by The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War were $121 from Green Bay, Wisconsin, $200 from Sedalia, MO, and $143 from Freemont, Nebraska. (Editor’s note: These contributions from distant and small communities show the connection that Jews felt for their suffering brethren all across the country)1919: “Opposed a Jewish Republic” published today described adoption of a resolution by the First Jewish Labor Congress “favoring a free republic in Palestine where he Jews will have no more rights than any other people until, by immigration or otherwise, they become the majority.”1920: In New York, Esther (Solomon) Landau and Max Landau gave birth to film producer and production executive Ely A. Landau who won a Peabody Award for “Play of the Week.” (As reported by Eric Pace)http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/08/obituaries/ely-landau-producer-73-dies-filmed-plays-for-tv-and-theaters.html1920(29thof Tevet, 5680): General Alfred Mordecai, Jr. passed away.http://www.collectnobel.com/Civil_War_Gillmore_Medal_to_Jew.htmlhttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=428471891920 (29th of Tevet, 5680): Italian sculptor and painter Amedeo Modigliani passed away.http://www.modigliani-foundation.org/1920: The American Civil Liberties Union was founded today. The ACLU's stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." The ACLU is not a Jewish organization but Jews have been associated with it since its founding. For example, Louis Brandies was a mentor to co-founder Roger Baldwin and Felix Frankfurter was among its founding members. As a defender of the rights of minorities, the ACLU has continued to attract Jewish support.1922: In Berlin, the former Sarah Aaronson and Herman Mankiewicz gave birth to screenwriter Dan Mankiewicz whose works included the scripts for the popular television series “Ironsides” “Star Trek” and “Marcus Welby,”http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/movies/don-mankiewicz-film-writer-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01923: Birthdate of David M. Lee, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1996.1924: In Brooklyn, Joseph and Ethel Price Pockriss gave birth to Lee Julian Pockriss who wrote the music for midcentury pop hits like “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” “Catch a Falling Star” and “Johnny Angel.” (As reported by Anita Gates)1924: Bernard Semel, Reuben Branin, Philip Wattenberg, Sigmund Thau and William Edlin headed a committee that is hosting a public reception in honor of Dr. Osias Thon, the chief Rabbi of Cracow, who is visiting New York City.1924: In Sydney, Australia, “the Jewish sporting community” is scheduled to host “a combined sports picnic at Lane Cove” today which is the first of its kind in the country’s history.1927: Featherweight Harry Blitman fought and won his twelfth bout leaving him with a record of 12 – 0 to date.1928: Birthdate of Martin Landau. The Brooklyn born actor first gained fame in the television hit Mission Impossible before carving out a career on the Big Screen as a character actor.1929: This afternoon at the Free Synagogue, Dr. Stephen S. Wise officiated at the funeral services for “late Sophie Irene Loeb, noted author and leader in child welfare work” after which she was interred at the congregation’s Westchester Hills Cemetery. (As reported by JTA)1929: In Brooklyn, Schapiro, an investment broker, and the former Julia Neshick gave birth to Hebert Elliot Schapiro “a writer and teacher whose idea to create a stage play from the collected essays of poor city kids resulted in a hit musical, “The Me Nobody Knows.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)1931: “1914” a film “that focuses on the leadership of the Great Powers in the days leading up to” WW I directed and produced by Richard Oswald and filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum premiered in Berlin “at the Tauentzien-Palast” today.1932: In a Letter-To-The- Editor published in the New York Times, Frank P. Chisholm wrote that “Negroes lost a friend” with the passing of Julius Rosenwald. “No group of people feels more keenly the death of Julius Rosenwald than the Negro. Since 1910, when Booker T. Washington became his friend, some of Mr. Rosenwald's most notable gifts were made to raise the status of the American Negro.”1932: Mayor Jimmy Walker (who wasn’t Jewish) appoints Maurice Deisches (who was Jewish) to the Board of Higher Education.1932: “You Don’t Forget Such a Girl” a romantic comedy directed by Fritz Kortner and written by Hans Wilhelm was released today in Austria and Germany.1933: Birthdate of U.S. diplomat Morton Isaac Abramowitz.1933: “Ecstasy” a drama starring Hedy Kiesler, who would later be known as Hedy Lammar” was released in Czechoslovakia today.1934: “Cy Kaselman scored 17 points to lead the Philadelphia Sphas to victory over the Newark Bears in the American Basketball League.” (As reported by Bob Wechsler)1935: Today was designated as Palestine Day by the Zionist Organization of America. Over 400 cities and towns throughout the United States planned on observing the event with a series of meetings and dinners.1935: “The Catskill Mountain Region of the United Synagogues of America will be organized” today “ “when fifty representatives of twelve communities in that section gather here at Congregation Ahavoth Israel.”1935(16thof Shevat, 5695): Seventy-year old Zemach Shabad, the native of Vilnius who combined a medical career with political and communal activities that including helping to found YIVO, the Institue for Jewish Research.http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Szabad_Tsemah1935: Governor James Allred proclaimed today as Palestine Day in Texas in recognition of the progress “that has been recorded in the modern reconstruction of the holy land.”1936: It was reported today that the educators division of ORT under the leadership of B. Charney Valdeck has made plans to raise $500,000 “to finance the work of rehabilitating and training Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.”1936: It was reported today that police in Munich “have proceeded systematically to invalidate the passports of Jews living in the city” by going from house to house and seizing the documents and the stamping them “invalid for foreign countries.”1937: Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States. He is the first the first president to be inaugurated on January 20. During his second term FDR would continue with many of his New Deal policies which were popular with a majority of Jewish voters. Also during his second term, he would nominate Felix Frankfurter to serve on the Supreme Court to replace Justice Cardozo. FDR’s second term would also see the continuing rise of the Nazis and the outbreak of WW II in Europe. While he opposed the Nazis, he had to move cautiously given the strong isolationist sentiment in the United States. He has been strongly criticized for his failure not to allow more Jews to enter the United States. During the St. Louis Affair, Roosevelt’s government gave strict orders that the ship should not be allowed to dock in the United States.1938: In New York City. Mildred Rickman and Leroy Solomon gave birth to Michael Jay Solomon, “the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the Truli Media Group, Inc., which he founded in 2010.”1938: The Palestine Post reported that David Bialo, a Jewish employee of the Public Works Department, displayed great presence of mind and averted serious injury to himself and his four colleagues when he seized a bomb thrown into their car and hurled it into the roadway. The assailant was later recognized and arrested. Two Arabs were sentenced to death for carrying arms and ammunition and firing at police. The Post's leading article reminded the authorities of the many shooting outrages in Jerusalem's Rehavia, Talpiot and other quarters and asked for greater vigilance.1939: Hitler proclaimed to the German parliament his commitment to exterminate all European Jews1940: In Philadelphia, PA, the former Beatrice Rubin and Benson Schambelan gave birth theatre director to Isaac Hillel “Ike” Shmabelan (As reported by Bruce Weber)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/arts/ike-schambelan-director-who-brought-disabled-artists-to-the-stage-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1941 (21st of Tevet, 5701): Three Jews, Icek Brona, Ita Kinster and Abram Szmulewicz, died from hunger and cold in the Lodz Ghetto 1941: Two thousand more Jews died of hunger in the Warsaw Ghetto.1942: In Berlin a meeting took place at the Wannsee Villa to discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” – the annihilation of European Jewry which became known as the Wannsee Conference.http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/05.asphttp://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206487.pdf 1943: The father of Henri Krascuki “was arrested on charges of sabotage” today and interned at Drancy internment camp” which would be his last stop in France before being shipped to Birkenau where he was gassed1943: Fifty-eight year Leopold Pick old was deported today from Terezin to Auschwitz where he was murdered1943: A train from Theresienstadt arrived at Auschwitz. Of the passengers, 160 women and 80 men were sent to the barracks. The remaining 1,760 Jews were sent to the gas chambers. Of those from the barracks, only 2 would survive beyond the next six weeks of labor. These were all Jews who were already deported to Theresienstadt in 1941 from their homes throughout Austria and Czechoslovakia.1943: In a letter to the Reich minister of transport, SS chief Heinrich Himmler requests additional trains so that the "removal of Jews" from across Europe can be speeded up.“If I am to wind things up quickly, I must have more trains.”1944: The 80,000 Jews still living within the Lodz ghetto were faced with the catastrophe of inevitable starvation.1944: The Nazis deported 1,155 Jews from the transit camp at Drancy, France, to Auschwitz.1944: Today Otto Blumenthal was sent, at his own request, to the "old people's ghetto" Theresienstadt since he had heard that his sister had been sent there in July 1942. When he arrived at Theresienstadt he found that, although his sister had been there, she had died six months earlier. Blumenthal himself died at Theresienstadt after suffering from pneumonia, dysentery and tuberculosis.1944: Hélène Falk and Albert Samuel the parents of resistance leader “Raymond Aubrac's whom he had tried unsuccessfully to convince to leave for Switzerland, were arrested in France, deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp by convoy No. 66 today and died there.1944: The former Erzsebet Salomon, the wife of Hungarian photographer André Kertész became a naturalized American citizen weeks before her husband reach the same status.1945 (6th of Shevat, 5705): The Germans shot 4200 Jews at Auschwitz.1946: In Tel Aviv, Abraham and Zipora Hirschfeld gave birth to Yeshiva University graduated and animal rights advocate Rachel Hirschfeld.1948(9th of Shevat, 5708): Sixty-eight year old archaeologist Ernst Emil Herzfeld whose work included excavation and analysis of what is believed to “Esther’s Tomb” and was forced to leave Germany because of his “Jewish ancestry” passed away todayhttp://www.asia.si.edu/archives/finding_aids/herzfeld.html1948:A memorandum written today from State Department’s policy staff led by George F. Kennan forecast that “Ultimately the U.S. might have to support the Jewish authorities by use of naval units and military forces...It is improbable that the Jewish state could survive over any considerable period time in the face of the combined assistance which be forthcoming for the Arabs in Palestine from the Arab States and in lesser measure from their Moslem neighbors."1949: Harry S. Truman, the man who was so proud of his role in the creation of the state of Israel was inaugurated as President of the United States.1949: In the midst of the Jewish state’s fight for birth and survival we find the struggle between the secular and religious members of the government came to a head over the question of the importation of non-kosher meat. The cabinet voted to place the importation of meat under the joint control of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Religion. This effectively meant that only kosher meat would be brought into Israel. More importantly, this “compromise” showed the disproportionate strength of the religious parties in Israel’s fractured political structure. 1949: U.S. premiere “A Letter to Three Wives” directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Sol C. Siegel, written by Vera Caspery, with music by Alfred Newman and co-starring Kirk Douglas.1950(2nd of Shevat): Philologist Judah Gur passed away today.1950: Birthdate of Edward Hrisch, the Chicago native who nine books of poems including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems published in 2010.http://www.edwardhirsch.com/1951: Birthdate of Shelley Berkley, member of the House of Representatives from the first district of Nevada. BornRochelle Levine, Berkley is the first Jewish woman and the second Jew elected to the House of Representatives from Nevada.1951: Birthdate of Hungarian born conductor Ivan Fischer.1952: Birthdate of Paul Stanley lead singer “Kiss.”1953: Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for his first term as President of the United. Eisenhower would be confronted with one of the greatest challenges of his presidency during the Suez Crisis of 1956.1953(4th of Shevat, 5713):Aaron Goldberg, the paternal grandfather of famed historian Sir Martin Gilbert passed away at the age of 93. Born in Poland when it was part of the Russian Empire, he came to Great Britain in the last decade of the 19th century. He was preceded in death by his wife, Annie (of blessed in memory) who passed away in 1950 at the age of 78. 1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset condemned Soviet anti-Semitism by a vote of 89 to six. The government warned Israeli Communists and their press against backing the current Soviet anti-Jewish campaign. Over 300 Jews were reported to be fleeing East Germany to Western Berlin. The arrest of Dr. Lajos Stoeckler, leader of the Hungarian Jewish community, spread fears among the local Jews. The newly organized Hadassah cardio-surgical department carried out the first two completely successful delicate heart operations. 1955: In France, the first government headed by Pierre Mendès France “fell” 1955: In the revolving door politics of the French Fourth Republic Pierre Mendès France formed a second government. 1955: An exhibit at the Boston Public Library includes ceremonial objects, photographs and mementos of early Boston Jews.1956: Birthdate of Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst. His mother was Jewish but his father was Catholic.1957: Jewish composerMorton Gould's "Declaration" premieres in Washington DC1961(3rdof Shevat, 5721): Sixty-four year old Kovno native Oscar Straus Caplan, a “Judge in Chicago’s Municipal Courts for more than a quarter of century and after retirement “a part-time instructor at the University of Miami Law School who was the husband of Sarah Caplan and the father of Mitchell Caplan passed away today.1961: John F. Kennedy was inaugurated President of the United States. The first Roman Catholic U.S. President, Kennedy had received overwhelming support from Jewish voters. He appointed Abraham Ribicoff as Secretary of H.E.W. and Arthur Goldberg as Secretary of Labor. His administration provided support for the still fledgling state of Israel.1961: As the “official photographer for Kennedy’s presidential inaugural gala” Philip Stern, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, raced “around Washington to five white-tie balls” snapping “memorable images, including Sinatra’s lighting the triumphant president’s cigarette.”1962(15thof Shevat, 5722): Tu B’Shevat1962(15thof Shevat, 5722): Ninety-nine year old Stella Heinsheimer Freiberg who was equally devoted to the cause of Reform Judaism and to raising the level of culture in Cincinnati, Ohio passed away today.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freiberg-stella-heinsheimer1963:83-Year-old Rosina Lhevinne performed with the New York Philharmonic1963: Birthdate of Yishay Levi, the native of Rosh HaAyin and brother of Nati Levi, whose first album “Hafla with Ben Mohes” helped to make him “a superstar in clubs all over Israel”http://www.hebrewsongs.com/search.asp?TransliteratedTitle=&NewSongWords=&PageNo=&SearchThis=ishai+Levi&SearchField=Singer+Name&OrderBy=TransliteratedTitle1965; Francisco Franco met with Jewish representatives to discuss the legal status of the Jewish community in Spain. It was the first such meeting since 1492.1965: Rabbi Judah Schachtel of Houston's Congregation Beth Israel delivered the inaugural prayer for President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C.1966: “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” a comedy with a script by Everett Greenbaum was released in the United States today.1969: David Dubinsky received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.1969: Sheldon Cohen completed his term as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.1972: “To Find a Man” a comedy produced by Mort Abrahams, Irving PIncus and Peter L. Skolnik, written by Arnold Schulman and with music by David Shire was released in the United States today.1973: An “attack on a transit camp in Austria for Jewish immigrants from Russia” was thwarted today and three Arab terrorist were arrested in Vienna. 1974(26thof Tevet, 5734): Eighty-two year old author and founding editor of Broom Harold Albert Loeb, the son of Albert Loeb and Rose Loeb/Goldsmith passed away today in Marrakesh after which he was buried in New York City.1975: At Westminster Hospital in London Sir James Goldsmith and “his third wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest Steward gave birth to their middle child Frank Zacharias Robin “Zac” Goldsmith, the Conservative MP who lost in his bid to be elected Mayor of London.1975: Michael Ovitz started Creative Artist Agency.1975: Birthdate of Shortstop David Eckstein. Eckstein is not Jewish but for some reason he was selected to the Jewish All-American team.1975: In “One of a Golden Dozen,” published today, Time remembers the career of the late Richard Tucker who passed away last week at the age of 60 on the eve of the 30th anniversary of his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,912704,00.html1976: PBS broadcast the first episode of “The Adams Chronicles” written by Millard Lampell today.1977(1st of Shevat, 5737): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1977: “Soviet television premieres an hour long anti-Zionist documentary Traders of Souls, which specifies the names and addresses of Vladimir Slepak, Yosef Begun, Anatoly Sharansky and Yuli Kosharovsky.”1977: Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, the President who would broker the Camp David Peace Accords. 1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that after Egypt broke off the political negotiations held in Jerusalem, US President Jimmy Carter warned that the Middle East might have lost 'a precious opportunity for the historic settlement of the long-standing conflict an opportunity which may not come again in our lifetime.' He asked both Israel and Egypt to maintain the momentum for peace. In Jerusalem Premier Menachem Begin said that the future of negotiations depended on the expected meeting of the US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. 1979: Birthdate of Rob Bourdon drummer with Linkin Park.1980: Tight end Randy Grossman earns his final championship ring as the Steelers win Super Bowl XIV.1981(15thof Shevat, 5741): Tu B’Shevat1981: At his inauguration Ronald Reagan chose to use his mother’s worn Bible when taking the oath of office. He placed his hand on one of her favorite verses, II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Reagan had received 39% of the Jewish vote which was unusually high for a Republican candidate.1981: Stuart Eizenstat completed his service as White House Domestic Affairs Advisor.1983: In New York, Michael Bloomberg and Susan Brown gave birth to Georgina Leigh Bloomberg1984: “Scandalous” a comedy based on play by Larry Cohen who wrote the script along with Rob Cohen who was also the director was released today in the United States and the United Kingdom.1988(1stof Shevat, 5748): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1988(1stof Shevat, 5748): Eighty-five year old Baron Philippe de Rothschild whose exciting life that included being a Grand-Prix race-car driver, movie producer, war hero and wine grower reads more like fiction passed away today with only one flaw – his money and power almost did save him and his daughter from the Shoah and proved unable to save his first wife from being murdered at Ravensbruck concentration camp. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/21/obituaries/philippe-de-rothschild-85-dies-maker-of-chateau-mouton-wine.html1988: The Minister of Police said today that he had no immediate plans to use emergency powers to impose curfews in Arab East Jerusalem or order striking shops there to open. 1989: Inauguration of George H.W. Bush as President of the United States. During the Gulf War, Bush convinced the Israelis not take military action against Iraq. For the first time in its history, the Israelis entrusted their security to forces other than the IDF when they allowed Patriot Batteries to respond to attacks by Scud Missiles. At the end of his Presidency, Bush granted pardons to all of those involved in the Iran-Contra Affair including Elliot Abrams. 1991:Like Israelis, today Palestinians used the first quiet moment after Iraqi missile attacks on Friday and Saturday to stockpile for further siege. But unlike the Jews, the Palestinians say they welcome the missiles, because they believe Israel deserves to be attacked, and because, one way or another, they think war will help create a Palestinian state.1991(5thof Shevat, 5751): Eighty-three year old German born, British physiotherapist who created a method of rehabilitation and therapy known as the Bobath concept in 1948 and her husband and colleague ninety year old Karel Bobath passed away today.http://www.bobath.org.uk/about-us/the-founders-and-history/1991: Mike Burstyn, who portrays Mayer Rothschild in the Off Broadway revival of "The Rothschilds," left today so that he could be in Israel as the war with Iraq continues to take its toll on the Jewish state.1992(15thof Shevat, 5752): Tu B’Shevat1992: “On the fiftieth anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, the site was finally opened as a Holocaust memorial and museum.”1993: Sandy Berger began serving as United States Deputy National Security Advisor.1993: In an unusual break with international practice, the mostly Muslim republic of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia has decided to establish an embassy in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said today. 1995: A memorial service is scheduled to be held at the Aspen Chapel in Aspen, CO to honor the late Oklahoma City real estate developer and civic leader Monte H. Goldman.1996(28thof Tevet, 5756): Parashat Vaera1996(28thof Tevet, 5756): Eighty-eight year old Sidney R. Korshak, the labor lawyer with alleged connections to the Chicago mob and Hollywood insider whose career was the opposite of that of his brother Marshall passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/22/us/sidney-korshak-88-dies-fabled-fixer-for-the-chicago-mob.html1997: William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton is inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States. Clinton’s second term would be dominated by his affair with a young Jewess named Monica Lewinsky. Towards the end of his term he would attempt to broker a peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis by holding a series of meetings with Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat. The efforts failed because Arafat would accept the deal because he said he would be signing his death warrant. At the end of the term, Clinton would cause another minor scandal with his pardon of Marc Rich. 1998 (22nd of Tevet, 5758): Zevulun Hammer, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel passed away. A Sabra, Hammer was born in Haifa in 1936. He studied at Bar Ilan University. He began his parliamentary career in 1969. He chaired several different Knesset committees and was head of the National Religious party. 1998 (22nd of Tevet, 5758: Seventy-four year old statistician and psychologist Jacob Cohen passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/07/nyregion/jacob-cohen-74-psychologist-and-pioneer-in-statistical-studies.html1999: Shaul Amo was made Minister without Portfolio today. 2001: Stuart Eizenstat completed his service as U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.2001: In a move that “stunned law enforcement officials,” President Clinton granted a last-minute pardon to Marc Rich, the commodities trader who had evaded prosecution for 18 years and his former partner, Pincus Green, who have lived in Europe since they fled the United States during an investigation into their oil-trading activities that led to a 1983 indictment on 51 counts of tax evasion, racketeering and violating sanctions against trading with Iran. An amazing number of Jews sent letters urging this action or attesting to Rich’s great qualities including a former head of Mossad. 2001: Sandy Berger completed his service as the 19th United States National Security Advisor.2001: Richard J. Danzig completed his service as United States Secretary of the Navy.2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Kafka Americana by Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz and Home Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora by Larry Tye2002: Today, a senior Israeli military official said Palestinian officials considered to be close to Chairman Yassar Arafat had begun to talk among themselves about replacing him. But he said it was unlikely that they would act as long as Mr. Arafat had some international support and continued receiving financial backing from the European Union and Arab states. ''They won't move until they know they are going to be successful,'' he said. ''It's like Julius Caesar and Brutus.'' Top Palestinian officials insist that loyalty to Mr. Arafat has not wavered.2002: “Returning Mickey Stern,” co-starring Tom Bosley was released in the United States today.2002: During a visit to Israel, today, former President Bill Clinton called on the Palestinians and Israelis to keep working for peace. When talking about attempts by his administration bring peace to the two parties, Clinton but placed “the blame for his peace initiative's failure squarely on Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader.’ ''’Chairman Arafat missed a golden opportunity,’'' Mr. Clinton said in a speech here tonight, ruing Mr. Arafat's rejection of a peace proposal made at Camp David in 2000.” 2003: The seven crewmembers of the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia woke up to the song, Hatishma Koli (Will you hear my voice?)http://www.jewishjournal.com/jewgyver/item/the_re-launch_of_ilan_ramon_20110926/2003 (17th of Shevat, 5763): Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld passed away in New York at age 99.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/theater/al-hirschfeld-99-dies-he-drew-broadway.html?pagewanted=print&src=pmhttps://www.google.com/search?q=al+hirschfeld+drawings&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XyT7ULDxNqno2gWz6oGgDg&ved=0CDoQsAQ&biw=1129&bih=6352004(26th of Tevet, 5764): Eighty-nine year old political activist Roberta Garfield Cohn, the widow of John Garfield, passed away today.http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/26/local/me-cohn262005 (10th of Shevat, 5765): Israeli civilian Gabriel Dwait, a 27 year old immigrant from Ethiopia drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Hezbollah would use his corpse as a bargaining chip in an exchange with Israeli authorities in 2007. 2005 (10 Shevat 5765): The Hon. Dame Miriam Louisa Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist and author passed away at the age of 96.(As reported by Douglas Martin)http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/science/25rothschild.html?_r=0 2005: George Bush is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. Bush saw himself as an unabashed foe of anti-Semitism and a supporter of Israel’s security needs. 2006(20thof Tevet, 5766): Eighty-two year old Alan Budin, the husband of Helen Budin with whom he had three children – Jerry, Shellie and Gail—passed away today,2006: Larry Franklin, the Pentagon analyst who admitted conveying classified information to staffers of the pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC) and to Israeli officials, was sentenced to 12 years of prison and a $10,000 fine at the US District Court in Alexandria Virginia. Larry Franklin, a mid-level civilian employee in the Iran desk at the Pentagon, passed on classified information to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman who were on the staff of Aipac as well as to Naor Gilon, the former political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington.2007(1st of Shevat, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Shevat2008: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of Mark Scroggins’ The Poem of a Life a biography of poet Louis Zukofsky who as “a child of immigrant Jewish parents on the Lower East Side recited Yehoash’s Yiddish translation of Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” on street corners to gangs of Italian boys.”; Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book, a novel based on “the centuries-old Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah”; Fred Wander’s The Seventh Well“a novel about the camps by a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald”; Into The Tunnel: The Brief Life of Marion Samuel, 1931-1943 by Götz Aly; The Jew of Home Depot And Other Storiesby Max Apple; Revolution in the Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysisby George Makari; as well as an essay entitled “The Story of The Night” that answers the question “How did a Holocaust memoir rejected by 15 publishers and largely ignored by readers go on to sell 10 million copies?” and a retrospective look at The Best and the Brightest by the late Jewish author David Halberstam whichthirty-five years ago this week, in January of 1973, was the No. 1 nonfiction title on the best sellers list. 2008: The cover story of TheNew York Times Magazine features Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of whom the author writes “grew up in the small town of Dillon, S.C., at the tail end of the segregation era (in high school he wrote a schoolboy’s novel about whites and blacks coming together on the basketball team). His father and his uncle ran a local drug store. Folks trustingly called them Dr. Phil and Dr. Mort. Ben, who skipped first grade, was obviously smart from the get-go. He played the saxophone, just as Greenspan did, and waited tables two summers and worked construction another. The Bernankes were observant Jews, and Ben’s folks fretted when he got into Harvard that if he strayed from home he might wander from his religious teachings. It was never a risk. Judaism is important to Bernanke, though, as with other personal subjects, he does not discuss it.” Bernanke succeeded Arthur Greenspan who was also Jewish as head of the Federal Reserve. In addition to which “Bernanke’s first exposure to monetary policy was reading the works of Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate,” who was also Jewish.2008: In “Abandoned Torah, Adopted, Is Revived,” published today Julius Charkes describes the amazing story of how a Torah that had survived the Holocaust, was rescued by a group of American students who saw it in the window of Polish pawn shop and brought to the United States to be restored by a Jerusalem-based sofer. 2009: Jack Markell completed ten years of service the Treasurer of Delaware.2009: Jack Markell was sworn in as the 73rd Governor of Delaware.2009: Tony Blinken began serving as the National Security Advisor to the Vice President, Joe Biden.2009: Eric Edelman completed his term as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.2009:The Yeshiva University Museum presents “From Black Death to AIDS: Epidemics and Their Impact on Culture,” an Exhibition Tour and Panel Discussion that examines the impact of disease in shaping culture featuring Doctors Ruth Oratz and Liis-anne Pirofski medical practitioners with backgrounds in the history of science and art history who will facilitate this enlightening discussion blending arts, literature, science and history.2009: Barak Obama is sworn in as President of the United States with several Jewish leaders in attendance including his political confidant and senior adviser, David Axelrod and newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. 2009: IAF planes struck a Kassam rocket launcher in the Gaza Strip this evening; hours after two incidents of gunfire and mortar shell fire were reported against IDF troops in the area. 2009:“Topol in 'Fiddler on the Roof': The Farewell Tour” with Chaim Topol playing Tevye opened today in Wilmington, Delaware. 2010: The 19thannual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness’ that centers around the work of the late Melville J. Herskovits,a Jewish anthropologist, who traced Black cultural roots directly back to Africa. His work instilled pride in many African Americans and helped to fuel the Black Power movement. 2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “The Seven Days.”A follow-up to the acclaimed 2004 drama To Take a Wife, “The Seven Days” takes place as missiles threaten to rain down on Israel during the Gulf War and “revisits a large Moroccan Jewish family rubbed raw by the unexpected death of the eldest brother.” 2010: Bar-Ilan University hosts "Unforgettable Hebrew Women,” a conference that features a presentation of Ruti Glick’s research into the life of Hannah Szenes. 2010(5thof Shevat, 5770): Avrom Sutzkever, died today at the age of 96. He was not only a great Yiddish poet but is acknowledged as being one of the great poets of the 20th century.http://www.forward.com/articles/123891/http://yiddishkayt.org/2012/01/sutzkever/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7252012/Avrom-Sutzkever.html 2011: The New York Premiere of “Vera Klement: Blunt Edge” is scheduled to take place today at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2011: Alison Vodnoy is scheduled to appear in a woman show “In Rehearsal” at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival. 2011: The European Division of the Library of Congress is scheduled to present a book talk by author Anna Porter entitled “The Ghosts of Europe: Journey through Central Europe’s Troubled Past and Uncertain Future2011(15thof Shevat, 5771): Tu B’Shevat2011: The 14thStreet Y invites everybody to wear something green “as we all go green together.” The 14th Street Y is using Tu B’Shevat to focus on issues of greening and sustainability. Several other Jewish organizations have turned what is The New Year of the Trees into a holiday focusing on what in the 70’s was called ecology and now is called the green movement. 2011: The New York Times featured reviews of The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman and A Stranger On The Planet by Adam Schwartz2011(15thof Shevat, 5771): Sonia Peres, or Sonia Gal as she preferred to be called in recent years, passed away in her sleep on today at age 87. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/israel-sonia-peres-wife-of-president-shimon-peres-dies.html2011: The findings of a three-year investigation were published today in an expansive report, titled "The Truth Left Behind: Inside the Kidnapping and Murder of Daniel Pearl." Using "vein matching" technique the investigators were able to verify that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was, in fact, the man who beheaded Pearl.2011: A new monument was unveiled today in eastern Canada marking the country's decision to turn away a steamship carrying Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939. The luxury liner MS St. Louis was first turned away by Cuba, then the United States and finally Canada before returning to Europe just before the outbreak of war. Of the 900 German Jews aboard, almost a third died in the Holocaust. 2011: A film about a Briton, Sir Nicholas Winton, who organized mass evacuations of children to save them from being sent to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps had its world premiere today in Prague, the Czech capital. 2011: The Talmud will be translated for the first time into Italian thanks to an official collaboration between the Italian government and the Italian Jewish community. A protocol launching "Project Talmud" was signed today in Rome by cabinet ministers, the president of Italy's National Research Council, the president of the umbrella Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and Rome's chief rabbi2012: In New Orleans, LA, Congregation Gates of Prayer is scheduled to celebrate Brotherhood/Sisterhood Shabbat.2012: “Minyan in Kaifeng: A Modern Journey to an Ancient Chinese Jewish Community” is scheduled to be shown at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, MA.2012: “Making Trouble,” a documentary that tells the story of six of the greatest female comic performers of the last century—Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein – is scheduled to be shown this morning as part of the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.2012: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present “Topography of Terror: A New Documentation Center on a Historic Site” featuring Dr. Andreas Nachama, director of the “Topography of Terror” documentation center 2012: The Premier Screening of “Wilfrid Israel – The Savior From Berlin” film took place at the auditorium of Kibbutz Hazorea, Israelhttp://www.wilfridisraelfilm.org/ 2012: The chief of the U.S. military held closed talks with the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the Israeli army’s chief of staff today in an effort to coordinate responses to Iran’s nuclear program. (As reported by The Washington Post)2012: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” an American fantasy drama film directed by Benh Zeitlin who co-authored the script and helped write the music was shown for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival.2013: Ariel mayor and former MK Ron Nachman who passed away at the age of 70 is scheduled to be buried today.2013(9thof Shevat, 5773): Seventy year old Larry Selman passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/nyregion/larry-selman-a-shepherd-of-greenwich-village-dies-at-70.html?hpw 2013: An exhibition entitled “Sh’ma/Listen: The Art of David Gelernter” is scheduled to come to an at the Yeshiva University Museum 2013: At the Tricycle, UKJF Members are scheduled to see an exclusive, one-off opportunity preview of the award-winning new Israeli feature drama, Policeman 2013: The Minneapolis Jewish Humor Fest is scheduled to present “Laughter Yoga Workshop” with Esther Ouray and “The History of Ha!” with David Misch 2013: Erica Strauss is scheduled to perform the role of Mimi in the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre production “La Boheme.” 2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including POEMS 1962-2012 by Louise Glück, Black Dahlia and White Rose by Joyce Carol Oates and Goldberg Variations by Susan Isaacs as well as an interview with author Jared Diamond. 2013: President Barak Obama is scheduled to be officially sworn in as President of the United States. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, President Obama has shown his support for the state of Israel by continuing to fully fund all defense commitments most important of which the money that goes to the Iron Dome. 2013: Tony Blinken completed his service as National Security Advisor to the Vice President and began serving as Deputy National Security Advisor.2013: Graveside services are scheduled to held be held at Mt. Sinai Cemetery for Ethel Dimot the author of The Hidden Injury and the widow of Max Dimot for whom she edited the second edition of his Jews God and History2013: The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship. The Patriots are owned by Robert Kraft, the owner who once got the NFL to change a game time so that it would not conflict with Yom Kippur. The Ravens wore a patch honoring the memory of the late Art Modell. Modell was the first owner of the Ravens as well as being a Jewish philanthropist. 2013: Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi faced new charges of extremism today after a religious Zionist website revealed that one of the party’s candidates called for returning Gush Katif evacuees to the Gaza Strip and rebuilding dismantled West Bank settlements. 2013: Shin Bet security agency operatives and Negev police arrested two brothers from a Bedouin village on suspicion of planning to carry out terror attacks on Israeli cities, the agency reported today. Two Jewish Israelis, one of them an IDF soldier, were also arrested on suspicion of providing the brothers with stolen IDF weapons in exchange for drugs.2014: Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom is scheduled to begin a visit to the United Arab Emirates s head the Israeli delegation to the World Future Energy Summit that in Abu Dhabi. 2014: The 12thannual Gigantic Used Book Sale at Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, VA is scheduled to come to an end.2014: “The Jewish Cardinal” and “Ana Arabia” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2014: "People, Book, Land — The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel,” will not open today in Paris as scheduled because UNESCO cravenly gave into objections voiced by the Arab League. “Abdulla al Neaimi, President of the Arab group in UNESCO, had sent a letter to Irina Bokova, president of UNESCO, saying that there was "deep worry and great disapproval" about the exhibit because it showed that Israel and the Jewish people have an ancient connection.” 2014: Police and IDF soldiers were combing the city of Eilat, searching for evidence of rocket explosions in the city, after many residents called police saying that had heard two loud explosions. The explosions occurred at about 7 PM local time. Police suspect that rockets were fired at the city, possibly from Sinai, and were searching for the exploded rockets (As reported by David Lev)2014: Canada supports Israel for strategic reasons but also because it is the correct thing to do, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today, delivering an overwhelmingly pro-Israel speech to the Knesset. (As reported by Lazar Berman)2015: “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” and “The King of Nerac” are scheduled to shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2015: Lassana Bathily, a native of Mali and practicing Moslem who has lived in France since 2006, was made a citizen of France today as a reward for being the “hero” who “helped hostages at a Jewish supermarket hide during last week’s Paris attacks.”2015: In “Say It Like It Is” published today, Thomas L. Friedman takes the Obama administration to task for characterizing the current of attacks as being “Violent Extremism” and refusing to connect to Radical Islam.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/opinion/thomas-friedman-say-it-like-it-is.html?_r=1http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-of-course-it-is-islam-1142772015: Diana Cohen Altman, Executive Director of the Karabakh Foundation; and Rauf Mammadov, MBA, head of US operations for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) are scheduled to present “ALI-Azerbaijan: From 5th Century Jewish Migration to a Strong Modern Day Partnership with Israel” is scheduled to be presented at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia in Fairfax, VA.2016(10thof Shevat, 5776): Ninety-five year old “Dr. Herbert L. Abrams, a radiologist at Stanford and Harvard universities and a founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for its work in publicizing the health consequences of atomic warfare” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/science/herbert-abrams-worked-against-nuclear-war.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02016: The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center is scheduled to host a question and answer center featuring Karl Rove and David Axelrod moderated by Jeff Zucker.2016(10thof Shevat, 5776): Seventy-three year old sports lawyer Michael H. Goldberg passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/sports/basketball/michael-goldberg-death-nba-general-counsel.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02016(10thof Shevat, 5776): Ninety year old “British publishing giant Lord George Weidenfeld” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/books/george-weidenfeld-british-publisher-of-lolita-dies-at-96.htmlhttp://www.aish.com/jw/s/-Lord-George-Weidenfelds-Legacy.html?s=mm2016: “Ben Zaken” and “Tomorrow We Move” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival and Bennry Safdie premiered today at the Sundance 2017: Hours after President Trump took his oath today, the Justice Department issued an opinion saying that his appointment of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior White House adviser would be lawful despite a federal antinepotism law.”https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/politics/donald-trump-jared-kushner-justice-department.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region®ion=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region2017: Gary Cohen began serving as the 11th Director of the National Economic Council today2017: “Person to Person” starring Tavi Gevinson and Abbi Jacobson and featuring Ben Rosenfield and Benny Safdie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival today.2017: Rabbi David Saperstein completed his services as United States Ambassador-at –Large for International Religious Freedom – a post which he was the first Jew to occupy.2017(22ndof Tevet): On the Jewish Calendar, the day was designated as holiday following the miracle of 5558 (1798) an unexpected rain that put out fire when a mobs tried to burn down the Roman Ghetto.2017: Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, is scheduled to offer a prayer at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration today.2017: Eighty-nine year old Washingtonian Charles Brotman, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants is scheduled to participate in NBC’s coverage of the inauguration after having received an e-mail “from the Trump team that after having” served as the announcer for 11 presidents staring with Dwight Eisenhower, he was being replaced. 2018(4thof Shevat, 5778): Parsahat Bo2018: “A small group of demonstrators protested against Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit this evening as he attending prayers at his local synagogue to say Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer, drawing strong condemnation.”2018: LaunchHouse and the Cleveland Jewish News are scheduled to present the 7th Annual LaunchHouse Bootstrap Bash.2018: “Thousands of residents of the southern city of Ashdod protested today against the closure of businesses in the city on Shabbat.”2018: In Jerusalem, Kehillat Ramot Zion is scheduled to host“In the footsteps of the piyyutim of Rav Avraham Ibn Ezrav.”2018: “Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said today he had banned Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi and two others rabbis from participating in military events, after they spoke out against the integration of female soldiers.”2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “The Women’s Balcony,” an Israeli comedy.2019: The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host Marna Chester’s “Paper-Art Workshop for Tu B’Shevat.2019: YIVO is scheduled to host a conference on “Yiddish Anarchism: New Scholarship on a Forgotten Tradtion.”2019: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Itzhak.”2019: Limmud Seattle is scheduled to come to an end today.2019: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “Zine Making – Creative Workshop for Teens.”2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshanna Zuboff and the recently released paperback edition of The Power, a novel by Naomi Alderman and Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat by Jonathan Kauffman.
↧
January 20, 2019, 7:29 pm
January 21763: Thirteen years after coming to power, the Abbasids defeated the Alids at the Battle of Bakhamra, ending this challenge to their Caliphate. The Abbasid Dynasty lasted for approximately 500 and ruled an area extending from Central Asia on the east to North Africa on the west which meant they controlled all of the Jewish communities outside of Europe. They built Baghdad and according to some, power in the Jewish world shifted to those living in this new Moslem power center.1188: After hearing Archbishop of Tyre Josias describe Henry II Plantagenet of England and Philip II of France set aside their differences and agree to “take up the cross” The monarch impose a “Saladin Tax” (one tenth of earnings over the next 3 years) which can be avoided by those who join the Crusade. Of course for the Jews, there is no escape so they will be despoiled by the monarchs as well as by the marauding Crusaders.1189: Philip II, Henry II and Richard Lion-Hearted began gathering the forces for The Third Crusade. The Third Crusade took an exceptionally harsh toll on the Jews of England. Although the third crusade became famous in song and fable, it was a failure. Unfortunately, it did not end the crusading spirit. More crusades would follow which meant more misery for the Jews of Europe and the Middle East.1306: Phillip the Fair of France issued secret orders today for his officials to prepare for the expulsion of his Jewish subjects and the confiscation of their property. Phillip found that his treasury had been depleted by his wars with the Flemish and he saw this as a way of replenishing his treasury. Under the terms of the expulsion any Jews found after the July 22, 1306 (10th of Av) were to be executed1393: The Jews of Majorca were guaranteed protection by the governor who “issued an edict for their protection, providing that a citizen who should injure a Jew should be hanged, and that a knight for the same offense should be subjected to the strappado.”1495: Isaac ben Judah Abravanel and King Alfonso sailed from Naples to Mazzara near Sicily. The city of Mazzazra was given as a gift from Ferdinand of Spain to Alfonso. While there, news reached both Abravanel and Alfonso that Charles VIII had taken Naples. The French rioted against and looted the Jewish community almost wiping it out. Many Jews were sold as slaves, and many were forced to convert to Christianity. Abravanel later wrote, "My entire enormous wealth was stolen."1527: Jakob van Hoogstraten, the Dominican priest who burned Hebrew books belonging to Johannes Reuchlin, a friend of the Jews, passed away today.1596(21st of Shevat): Rabbi Judah Leib Hanlish author of Vaygash Yehuda, passed away1609: Sixty-eight year old Joseph Justus Scaliger, “the Hugenot scholar and professor at the University of Leiden” who “argued that it was only possible to establish the true text and meaning of Scripture gaining an understanding of rabbinic sources” and who “maintained Jews should be permitted to return to western Europe simply because of their economic importance but because of their learning” passed away today.1716: Birthdate “British businessman” and descendant of “Portuguese Sephardic Jews” Joseph Salvador, a supporter of the “1753 Jew bill,’’ the sole Jewish “director of the British East India Company” and active supporter of the colonization of Georgia and South Carolina where a large number of Sephardim settled including his nephew Francis was reputed to have been “the first Jew to be elected public office” what became the United States and the first Jew to die during the American Revolution.1727(28thof Tevet, 5487): Abraham de Fonseca the native of Hamburg who “graduated in medicine from Leyden University” and was the son of Joseph ben Joshua de Fonseca passed away today.1749: Birthdate of Chaim Volozhin, a disciple of the Valna Gaon. Also known as Reb Cahim he was the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, which provided the “template” for similar academies throughout much of what was at that time part of Poland and the Russian Empire.1774: The reign of Mustafa III before who Jewish magician and mystic Jacob Philadelphia performed, passed came to an end today.1793: Prussia and Russia signed a treaty that portioned Poland. All of a sudden, Russia had a large Jewish population, something which her rulers had not bargained for and did not want. 1793: Louis XVI, whose reign saw “uneven” treatment of the Jews of Alsac, was beheaded by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution.1796: Eighty-two year old Jacob ben Abraham Katz was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.1799: Birthdate of Rachel Mocatta, the native of Stratford who married Lewis Raphael with whom she had five children.1803: Two days after she had passed away, Judith Levy, the daughter of Moses Hart, the wife of Elias Levy and the mother of Benjamin and Isabella Levy was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”1812: In Bonn, German David (Tebli) Hess and Hindel Flersheim gave birth to Moses Hess an author, socialist and forerunner of the Zionist movement whose book Rome and Jerusalem published in 1862, expressed the belief that German anti-Semitism was based on race and nationhood and advised Jews to accept the fact and revive their own state in Eretz Israel. Hess, a socialist, had worked with Marx and Engels. He grew disillusioned with the idea that a "progressive society would eradicate anti-Semitism." https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moses-hesshttp://zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_moses_hess.htm1817(4thof Shevat, 5577): Israel Isarel, the husband of Polly Israel and the father of Henrietta Israel passed away today in the United Kingdom.1826: In Prague Judith and Abraham Eidlitz gave birth to Markus Eidlitz who came to the United States in 1846 with his mother after the death of his father, where, as Marc Eidlitz he “founded the construction firm, Marc Eidlitz & Son Builders N.Y.C. in New York, which built the St. Regis Hotel and many other projects.”1829: In Prague, Abraham and Judith Eidlitz gave birth to Markus Eidlitz who emigrated to the United States in 1846 where he gained fame as Marc Eidlitz, a leader in the New York construction industry.1831 (7th of Shevat, 5591): Author Achim von Arnim passed away. Von Arnim was not Jewish but he incorporated the Golem into his works thus helping this Jewish myth to move into the general European culture.1841: Birthdate of Edward Rosenwasser, the native of Bohemia, who gained fame as Edward Rosewater the Republican Party leader and editor of the Omaha (Nebraska) Bee. Rosewater played a minor role in one of the great moments of U.S. History – the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. While serving as the telegrapher at the White House, he was the one who actually sent President Lincoln’s words out over the wires to the world. 1842: The Jewish Chronicle “printed a lengthy account of a turbulent debate at the Wester Synagogue in which Charles Salaman proposed a resolution for improving punctuality and decorum during services.”1846: Edward Benjamin married Flora Alexander in London today.1846 Joseph Solomon married Abigail Pass at the Great Synagogue today.1846: Samuel (Shmaie) Bloch and Jeanette Bloch gave birth to Leopold Bloch the husband of Babette Bloch and Klara Bloch.1847: Birthdate of Lionel Jonas Cohen, oldest brother of famed musician Frederic Hymen Cowen.1852: In Hartford, CT, Leopold Bamberger and Therese Lithauer gave birth to Columbia Law School trained attorney Ira Leo Bamberger, the member of the board of directors of several companies including the Broadway Trust Company, the Counsel for the Brooklyn Teachers’ Association and President of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum who was the husband of Reba C. May.1854: Birthdate of architect John Hemenway Duncan, the designer of a mansion for Jewish investment banker Philip Lehman which gained famed as the “Philip Lehman Masion” which was “designated as a New York landmark in 1981.1858: Birthdate of Joseph Krauskopf, the native of Prussia who came to the United States in 1872 and enrolled in the first class of Hebrew Union College in 1875. 1860: Punchreported that a dispute has broken out between two Jewish businessmen – Lazarus Simon Magnus and Henry Guedalla – over control over the Great Eastern Steamship Company. In one exchange of letters, Mr. Magnus challenged Mr. Guedalla to a duel.1861: David Levy Yulee, the first Jew elected to the United States Senate withdrew from that body when Florida seceded and joined the Confederacy. Yulee, who married a Christian and raised his children in the faith of his wife, then joined the Confederate cause as a Senator.1863: Union General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck wrote to Grant to explain the rescission of the order #11, stating that "The President has no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers, which, I suppose was the object of your order; but as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it." Captain Philip Trounstine of the Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, being unable in good conscience to round up and expel his fellow Jews, resigned his army commission, saying he could "no longer bear the Taunts and malice of his fellow officers… brought on by … that order." The officials responsible for the United States government's most vicious anti-Jewish actions ever were never dismissed, admonished or, apparently, even officially criticized for the religious persecution they inflicted on innocent citizens.1864: Birthdate of Israel Zangwill the noted Anglo-Jewish author and Zionist whose literary career in the United States was launched when he wrote “Children of the Ghetto.1864: Apparently Jews were a significant part of the population of Utah since in a report from Great Salt Lake City, it was noted that “there are two subjects…which Jew and Gentile..consider of more than ordinary importance” when it comes to legislative action – bills concerning mining claims and general corporation.1867: Trieste, Italy, “Giuseppe (Joseph) Morpurgo” was “baronized” today.1868: Birthdate of “German poet, writer and publicist” Ludwig Jacobowski.1871: In Amsterdam, Karel Abraham Wertheim and Henreitte van Heukelom gave birth to Johanna Sarah Wertheim1871: It was reported today that a popular Jewish peddler named Frank who sold to customers throughout Queens County, New York, has died of wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant who shot him while traveling to his home in Flushing. Since nothing has been found missing, authorities assume that the motive was not robbery but no suspects are in custody at this time.1871: Establishment of Emanuel Jewish Cemetery in Des Moines, Iowa. The site is adjacent to the northwest corner of Woodland Cemetery at Woodland and Harding, just northwest of downtown Des Moines.1872: Eighty-one year old Viennese born dramatist Franz Grillparzer the author of “The Jewess of Toledo,” a play “based on the alleged relationship between Alfonso VIII of Castile and his mistress Rahel la Fermosa which although not verified by contemporary documents became the fodder for numerous literary endeavors” passed away today.1872: Three days after he had passed away, 68 year old Michael Emanuel the son of Joel Emanuel and Julia Lazarus and the husband of the former Hannah Levy with whom he had had four children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1874(3rdof Shevat, 5634): Daniel Joseph Jaffe died in Nice, France. Jaffe had settled in Belfast in 1852 where he had become a successful businessman. He was the father of Otto and Martin Jaffe. Martin bought a plot Belfast’s City Cemetery for his father’s internment. This plot was the origin of the city’s Jewish Cemetery. 1874: One day after she had passed away, 36 year old Hannah Levy was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1877: The 25thannual meeting of the B’nai Brit of the United States began in Cincinnati, Ohio with 100 delegates in attendance.1878:Birthdate of Simon Glazer, the native of Lithuania who served as the Rabbi for Congregation Bnai Israel in Des Moines, Iowa from 1902 to 1905 before moving on to congregations in Toledo, Montreal, Seattle, Kansas City and New York City. He passed away in 1938.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9D07E2D61538EE3ABC4B51DFB3668383629EDE1882: The BILU Movement took root in Russia. The Russian students at the University of Khrakov formed their own Zionist group called BILU (initials for House of Jacob Let Us Rise and Go) which called for active settlement of the Eretz Israel by agricultural pioneers. The first group of 14 arrived July 6 the next year, hiring themselves out as agricultural laborers. They believed it was possible to start a worldwide movement to encourage settlement in Eretz Israel.1883(13th of Shevat, 5643): Rabbi Eliezer Landau, author of Dammesek Eliezer passed away.1883(13thof Shevat, 5643): Twenty-eight year old Sallie Gimbel Greenewald, the daughter of Adam and Fridoline Gimbel and the wife of Aaron E. Greenewald passed away today in Philadelphia, PA.1884: Birthdate of Roger Baldwin, the protégé of Louis Brandeis who was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that has been of immeasurable importance to Jews over the decades.1885: In Eichstetten, Leopold and Klara Bloch gave birth to Rahel Bloch1885: Rabbi David Levy presided at the marriage of J.S. Pinkussohn and Miss Ray Foot of Newberry, SC.1886: Birthdate of Jacob Morris Strelitsky, the native of Baku who as John Malcolm Stahl became a director and producer at MGM and “one of the thirty-six founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.1887: Henry M. Stanley left London for Cairo as he prepared to lead “The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.”1887(25thof Tevet, 5647): Alfred Alvarez Newman, the London born founder of the Old English Smithy whose “collection of Jewish prints and tracts was exhibited at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition and who fought to save the old Bevis Marks synagogue because of its historic significance passed away today.1887: Birthdate of Wolfgang Kohler. “Kohler was the only non-Jewish psychologist who ever protested against Germany and the Nazis. He was not afraid to make his thoughts about them very public which could have cost him his life at a very early age. He was lucky that he was not thrown into a prison and killed off for the things he said about Germany and the Nazis”1890(29th of Tevet, 5650): Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler put on his tallit and t’fillin, aided by Joseph Vangelder, his faithful servant for twenty years. He said the Sh’ma with a clear and unhesitating voice and at 8.45 am breathed his last. Born in 1803, he was the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1845 until his death and one of the most prominent 19th century rabbi in the English-speaking world. (As reported by Rabbi Raymond Apple)http://www.oztorah.com/2009/08/nathan-marcus-adler-chief-rabbi/1890: David Abrahams, the husband of Clara Ann Abrahams, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1891: It was reported that “there are not many Jews in the prisons or reformatories” of New York City. But based on the request from a board of local rabbis, a “salaried officer” will be hired to provide for the “spiritual care” the Jews that have been incarcerated.1891: It was reported that “Abraham Tabber, Treasurer of a Hebrew Lodge and Cemetery Association in Elizabeth, NJ” has disappeared along with the funds in his care.1891: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt and her company will be sailing from the French port of Havre for an upcoming performance in New York City.1891: Louis May chaired a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El where the death of Lazarus Rosenfeld, its vice president was announced. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil “was appointed as a special committee of one to draft suitable resolutions expressing the sentiment and sympathy of the board” which will “be published in the American Hebrew, the Jewish Messenger, The New York Times and The New York Herald.1892: A large number of paintings by Thomas Hicks whose works include copies of two portraits of Jews by Rembrandt hanging in the National Gallery of London are scheduled to be auctioned off this evening at the American Art Galleries on Madison Square. (There were those who mistakenly thought that the great Dutch painter was Jewish)1892: As the battle over immigration in the United States intensifies, certain unidentified labor leaders said today “that protests of workingman were directed not against the Jews, in particular, but against further immigration” by any group such as the Chinese “as being hurtful to the welfare of the working classes.”1893: “German-American Reformers” which was published today described the activities of the German American Association, an organization that worked to re-elect President Grover Cleveland which included efforts to attract the support of Russian and Polish Jews. Translations of letters by Carl Schurz and Grover Cleveland that had been addressed to Jews were printed in Hebrew in a quantity of one hundred thousand. Additionally, the association sent Jewish, Russian and German speakers to New York’s east side to address the immigrant voters.1893: Birthdate of Ukraine native Michael Moss Zarchin who came to the United States in 1915, earned a Ph.D from Dropsie College and moved to San Francisco where he worked as a Jewish education and served on the faculty of San Francisco Jr. College.1894: Based on information that first appeared in The Westminster Gazette, it was reported today that Sydney Grundy’s new play, “The Old Jew” which opened at the Garrick Theatre in London “seems to be a failure and is “one of the author’s worst plays. 1894: “A Great Education Work” published today described the twice a week evening lecture series inaugurated by the Board of Education in 1889 as an invaluable resource for elevating the known of the working class, especially among recently arrived immigrant’s. When attendance began to fall, the program was placed under the control of Dr. Henry M. Leipziger , the “well known…lecturer, educator and Director of the Hebrew Technical Institute.” “Since then, under his able supervision, the courses of lectures have prospered marvelously in popularity.”1894: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt will perform in New York for six weeks following a six week stint by Eleonora Duse.1894: It was reported today that the Rothschilds are forming schools to provide primary technical education for Jews immigrating to Palestine. 1895: Solon P. Rothschild represented Annie Winterman on charges that she had defrauded two men who were patrons of her matrimonial bureau.1896: Oscar S. Straus, the former United States Ambassador to Turkey, delivered a lecture on “Religious Liberty” at a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.1897: It was reported that Mr. and Mrs. Moses May led the grand march that opened the 14thannual ball sponsored by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society. May, the society’s President, was fiiling in for May Wurster who had been originally expected to fill this role.1898: Abraham Schlesinger is scheduled to be buried today at Cypress Hills following a funeral at his residence on East 53rd Street.1898: It was reported today that Russian-American Hebrew Association adopted a resolution expressing support for the “patriots of Cuba” struggling to free themselves from “degrading…corrupt rule of the Spanish Government” while expressing “the opinion…that the United States…should not deviate from its policy of strict neutrality…but should take immediate steps to recognize the Cubans as a belligerent power.” (The Russian American Jews emotionally identified with the Cubans as another oppressed people but were savvy enough to know the dangers of expressing belligerency. All of this would be resolved two years later with the Spanish American War.)1898: As ant-Semitic mobs continue to move through the streets of Paris, 500 angry students demonstrated in front of Emile Zola’s house.1898: In Algiers, the troops have cleared the streets of anti-Jewish rioters and made 300 arrests in an attempt to restore law and order.1898: Birthdate of Rudolf Mayer, the native of Kraków who gained fame as “cinematographer, director and producer Ralph Maté.1899: Reports are published that Leopold de Rothschild was hurt when a branch hit his face, breaking his nose and injuring an eye, while the newly elected Member of Parliament was taking part in a hunt.1899: Opel manufactured its first automobile. In 1931, General Motors acquired 100% ownership of the German automobile company. In 1998 General Motors hired historian Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. to investigate the wartime activities of Opel, its German subsidiary, which a group of Holocaust survivors was suing. His research led to the book General Motors and the Nazis: The Struggle for Control of Opel, Europe’s Biggest Carmaker published in 2005. Mr. Turner concluded that although Opel had made the morally dubious decision to produce engines for the Luftwaffe in 1938, by the time the war began General Motors had lost control of the company and therefore had no say in its production of military vehicles or its use of slave labor. 1899(10thof Shevat, 5659): Seventy-one year old Sarah Joseph Ullman the wife of Solomon Ullmann passed away today in Plymouth, UK.1901: Legendary American humorist Mark Twain addressed members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at their Annual Meeting on the issue of female suffrage. Speaking to a packed audience at Temple Emanu-El, Hebrew Tech’s then-President Nathaniel Myers introduced Twain, starting the ceremony off with an update about the school’s ongoing expansion efforts and an explanation of its unique purpose as the single society in New York City offering a vocational education to Jewish girls. Explaining women’s role in society as vulnerable in comparison to men’s, President Myers declared the work of the school to be vital in a world where girls were too often forgotten. When Twain took center stage, he said that he had been an advocate of women’s rights for many years and that he saw in this school "a hope for the realization of a project [he had] always dreamed of.” Women, he felt, were equally competent to vote. He went on to say that women had been making great progress in their crusade against discriminatory laws, but that what was needed next was for women to be the makers and enforcers of laws. As he saw it, men’s corruption in party politics was a disgrace to democracy, but he said he believed that if women were given the ballot, they would use their strength to vote down unworthy candidates and restore the morals on which states are built. Optimistic about the movement’s progress, Twain insisted that if he lived long enough that he would surely see women receive their voting rights and use them to enact positive change.” (As reported by the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women)1903: Harry Houdini escaped from the police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam.1903: Herzl traveled to Paris.1904: Birthdate of Latvian Nazi collaborator Boļeslavs Maikovskis who hid out in Mineola, NY for almost forty years after WW II who was “brought to Justice by Israeli historian, author and Director of the Public Policy Center at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies” Zev Golan.1905(15thof Shevat, 5665): Parashat Beshalach and Tu B’Shevat1905: Birthdate of Harry David “Dave” Sudkin, who played Guard for the NYU football from 1924 through 1926 and after graduating in 1927 played one season of pro-football for the Staten Island Staepletons.1906: In Washington, a mass meeting attended by Senators Patterson of Colorado, Overman of North Carolina and Clark of Arkansas and Representatives Sulzer and Bennet of New York, Rainey of Illinois, Hinshaw of Nebraska, Taylor of Alabama Moon of Pennsylvania and Trimble of Kentucky was held tonight at Belasco’s Theatre to protest the treatment of the Jews in Russia.1906: Birthdate of Isadore Harry Prinzmetal, the Buffalo born lawyer, painter who was also active in Jewish communal affairs.1906: Birthdate of featherweight Maurice Holtzer, the native of Troyes, France whose record was 114-33-8.https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/maurice-holtzer?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=maurice%20holtzer#license1907(6thof Shevat, 5667): Seventy six year old Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli who in 1860 “was appointed professor of linguistics at the Accademia scientifico-letteraria in Milan and introduced the study of comparative philology, Romance studies, and Sanskrit” passed away today.1908: Birthdate of Mordechai Surkis, the first mayor of Kfar Saba.1910: The Angel Island Immigration Station opened today. Prior to the opening of the Immigration Station, immigrants landed directly in San Francisco. Jews immigrated through Angel Island primarily in two waves: in the 1920s from Russia to escape the Bolshevik revolution, and between 1938 and 1940, when German and Austrian Jews crossed Asia to flee the Nazis. In some ways, Angel Island was the Ellis Island of the West. But because of the politics and laws of its time, unlike Ellis Island, many immigrants were detained on Angel Island for weeks or months at a time, particularly Chinese and other Asian immigrants. According to Judy Yung, a retired professor at U.C. Santa Cruz and co-author of a new book about Angel Island’s history, Jewish immigrants had it better. The average stay for Russians and Jews on Angel Island was two to three days, and less than 2 percent were deported. “Overall, the Russian and Jewish experiences on Angel Island were very similar if not better than those of their counterparts on Ellis Island, where their rejection rate was almost twice as high,” she writes. “For the overwhelming majority who were coming to escape religious or political persecution, Angel Island was truly a gateway to the promised land of freedom and opportunity.” However, it wasn’t an easy gateway to pass through. Many immigrants — including Jews — were detained. In some instances, representatives from Jewish and Hebrew benevolent societies felt compelled to come to Angel Island to testify on behalf of Jewish detainees. In 1915, for example, one such representative spoke to immigration officials, telling them that “we always take steps to see that Jewish boys obtain work and do not become beggars.” After this, officials released eight Jewish detainees, according to Yung’s book. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society also stepped in to help, opening a Pacific Coast branch in San Francisco in May 1915 mainly to advocate for the increased number of Jews coming through Angel Island. In 1916, for example, when 17 Jews refused to eat the food served to them in the Angel Island dining hall during Passover, HIAS provided the immigrants with matzah and kosher-for-Passover food they could eat in their rooms. And in 1933, when a 54-year-old widower traveling with his two sons was detained on the island because officials thought he was “emaciated and frail looking,” HIAS offered a hand. HIAS helped round up $1,000 from other family members, and the father, who spent two months on Angel Island, was finally released. In another instance, a shoe-store owner from Vienna and his wife were held overnight because they were suspected of being an LPC, a “likely public charge,” meaning they would need government support to get by. They had come from Shanghai with just $22 to their name. But because they had the foresight to leave Germany with two fur coats worth over $2,000 — the Nazis allowed them to take goods but not money — they were able to convince the officials of their financial stability. “I was really struck by the resourcefulness of the Jewish immigrants,” Yung said during a phone interview.1912: Birthdate of Konrad Bloch. The noted biochemist earned a Nobel Prize in 1964 for his studies of cholesterol 1912: Today, at the 38th annual meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum delivered an address in which he said “there was always a problem of youth – the problem of the boy and the young man” and “that the public should take an interest in, and co-operate with the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and other movements which improve youth and keep the young from temptation and build up character.”1913: At the request of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 156 women from 52 congregations around the country met in Cincinnati, Ohio, to create the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS). 1913: The annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce opened in Washington, DC with S.S. Brill of St. Louis, MO in attendance as a delegate.1913: “The Board of Directors of the Baron Hirsch Co-Workers met” this “morning at the Stratford Hotel.1914: Twenty-five year old Alvah Meyer, a member of the Irish American Athletic Club, set “a world indoor record of 6.4 seconds in the sixty yard in Paterson, NJ.”1914. Birthdate of Myer Samuel Kripke, the Toledo, Ohio native who served as the Rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska, and became friends with Warren Buffet. 1914(23rd of Tevet, 5674): Adolph Krakauer, a pioneer Texas merchant died of a heart attack today in El Paso. Born in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1846, this son of Joel and Babette (Elsasser) Krakauer was educated in the Latin schools and graduated from the Royal Commercial College of Fürth in 1862. He immigrated to New York in 1865 and was employed as a clerk there. In 1869 he moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he went to work for Louis Zork, a leading merchant. He married Zork's daughter Ada and became a member of the firm. Though he was presumably well established, he chose to move to El Paso in 1875, at a time when the town's population was listed as seventy-five Mexicans and twenty-five Anglos. There he clerked in the firm of Sam Schutz and Son and became manager when the business was sold; later he became a partner. In 1885 he sold his interest in the firm and organized the firm of Krakauer, Zork, and Moye with his brother-in-law, Gustave Zork. The company became a leading wholesale hardware dealer in the Southwest, with a branch in Chihuahua, Mexico. Krakauer also became president of Two Republic Life Insurance Company, the Krakauer-Zork Investment Company, and the Mountainside Realty Company and director of the First National Bank and the Rio Grande Valley Banking and Trust Company. He also owned extensive real estate in El Paso. He served as county commissioner and alderman and was elected mayor as a Republican after a bitter election campaign in 1889. He never assumed the office, for it was discovered he had not taken out his final citizenship papers. Krakauer was a leader in Jewish community activities and served as president of Temple Mount Sinai. He spoke fluent Spanish. 1915: As of today, the American Jewish Relief Committee for Suffers from the War has collected $320,097.361915: “Final arrangements were made today for the public hearing President will host on the Immigration Bill tomorrow in the East Room of the White House where the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Hebrew League of Boston will be among those speaking in opposition to the proposed legislation.1915: In Chicago, at today’s final session of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Committee on General welfare “reported than 400,000 Jews are serving in the various armies of Europe.”1915: A delegation of 75 Jewish citizens led by Jacob Magidoff, editor of The Jewish Morning Journal left for Washington today with the intention of presenting “a petition of protest signed by the New York Jews” protesting the proposed immigration bill.1916: “The American Jewish Relief Committee announced” today “that to date it has received $1,233,841.60” in donations and pledges including $75 from the Ladies Society of Columbia, SC and the $200 from the Jewish Alliance of Hamilton, Ontario which were received today.1916: In Paris, Jacques Henri Bloch and Suzanne Levi-Strauss gave birth to Denise Madeleine Bloch who worked as agent with the French Resistance and SOE before being captured and murdered by the Nazis at Ravensbruck. 1917: “A warning that the enthronement of race consciousness among the Jew would result disastrously for them was uttered” today “by Rabbi Samuel Schulman in a sermon on “The Jew’s Business” at Temple Beth-El.1917: Tonight, in Harrisburg, PA, Governor Brumbaugh “issued a proclamation to the people of Pennsylvania calling on them to set aside next Thursday, January, 27 as a day on which to make donations for the relief of Jewish people in the various countries at war.”1917: Dr. Wise is scheduled to preach on “Marriage and Intermarriage” at the Free Synagogue which is holding its services this morning at Carnegie Hall.1917: Dr. Martin Meyer of San Francisco is scheduled to preach on “Sins Against the Jewish People” this morning at Temple Emanu-El in New York.1917: Hadassah issued “an appeal for $75,000 for the equipment and support for one year of a medical unit to be sent to Palestine” which will provide treatment “for Jews, Christians and Mohammedans.”1918(8thof Shevat, 5678): Sixty-four year old Emil Jellinke, the highly successful Austrian businessman who put the “Mercedes” in Mercedes Benz, passed away today.1918(8thof Shevat, 5678): Jerome J. Hirschler, a 21 year old New Yorker serving with the armed forces passed away today Newport, Rhode Island.1918(8thof Shevat, 5678): Forty-eight year old Dr. Albert Kohn, a diagnostician at Mt. Sinai Hospital passed away today in New York City.1918: Starting today, several hundred volunteers from Hadassah “will canvass the department stores and manufacturing houses to secure contributions of shelf worn garments and materials” as part of the drive by the Palestine Restoration Fund Commission to send several tons of clothing to the natives of Palestine, great numbers of whom now have little but to wear but tattered rags.1918:Following the lead of Reform Jewish sisterhoods, and at the behest of Solomon Schechter, Conservative synagogue sisterhoods joined together to form the National Women's League of the United Synagogue. The founding president of the League was Schechter's wife, Mathilde Roth Schechter. 1919: Submission of the Tentative Report of the Intelligence Section of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference 1919: Today, during the fund raising drive of the ZOA the Palestine Restoration Fund received $46,000 from San Francisco and $15,000 from Los Angeles.1919: Two days after he passed away, 81 year old Aaron Green was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1919: While speaking “at the dinner of the sales agents of the American chicle Company at the Waldorf” hotel tonight, Captain William D. Harrigan of the 307thInfantry who was in command of the force “which rescued the famous ‘lost battalion’” said he wished “to say a special word for the American Jews as fighter” because he could “testify to the splendid record by the Jewish members of the 77th Division who “were put to as hard a test as could be met with in modern warfare when we made our 35 mile advance through the Argonne Forest…”1919 In Dublin, “the first meeting of Dáil Éireann” which was supported by Yitzhak HaLevin Herzog who became known as "the Sinn Féin Rabbi" and was the Chief Rabbi of Ireland before become Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Palestine took place today at the residence of the Lord Mayor.1920: Having escaped from the clutches of the “Whites” in Odessa Sholom Schwartzbard arrived back in Paris today.1921: “President Wilson Heads Christian Protest Against Anti-Semitism” published today contains a public petition signed by Presidents Wilson and Taft that begins with “The undersigned citizens of Gentile birth and Cristian faith, view with profound regret and disapproval the appearance in this country of what is apparently an organized campaign of anti-Semitism conducted in close conformity to, and co-operation with similar campaigns in Europe.”1921: Fanz Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber was performed for the first time in Frankfurt.1921: Polish born Nathaniel Phillips, the Jewish lawyer and President of the League of Foreign-born citizens is scheduled to deliver a speech on “The Americanism of Grover Cleveland” this evening “at a meeting of the Cleveland Democracy in New York City.
1921: King Constantine donates 10,000 Drachmae for the relief of Jewish sufferers of the fire in Salonica.1921: Birthdate of Barney Clark,the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart, an operation that was performed at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky.1921: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ida (Fishman) Mikva and Henry Abraham Mikva, “Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine,” gave birth to Congressman Abner Mikvah.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/mikva.htmlhttp://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m0007031923: Birthdate of Annemarie Dinah Gottliebova, the native of Brno, Czechoslovakia, who was shipped to Auschwitz with her mother where she bartered her services as a portrait painter for her life and her mother’s life. After the war, as Dina Babbit, she spent the past several decades trying to retrieve her paintings from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum (As reported by Bruce Weber)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Q-7_jLMs41924(15thof Shevat, 5684): Tu B’Shvat1924: Birthdate of comedian Benny Hill. “Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish If it weren't for Christmas, We’d all be Jewish.”1924: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin Russian leader died of a stroke at the age of 54. Lenin’s death brought a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky to a boil. Stalin would triumph and anti-Semitism would become as much of a staple for the Commissars as it had been for the Czars.1927: Two funeral services were held today for famed philanthropist Lee Kohns. Bishop Thomas F. Failer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Tennessee conducted the first service at the family’s Manhattan home. Dr. Samuel Schulman of Temple Beth-El presided over the grave side service in Beth-El Cemetery at Cypress Hills.1927: Bernard Baruch is among the members of a delegation representing the Board of Directors of City College’s Alumni Association that is attending today’s funeral of Lee Kohns who graduated in 1884.1927: At 10:30 this morning, classes were halted for five minutes at City College in memory of Lee Kohns.1927: The will of Lee Kohns was filed for probate this afternoon after having been read at his funeral. The estate is worth about $3,000,000. While the will the leaves generous bequests to charity, the bulk of the estate will go to his wife and their children.1928(28thof Tevet, 5688): Parshat Vaera1928(28thof Tevet, 5688): Eighty year old Celia Hofheimer Fleisher, the wife of Simon B. Fleisher and the mother of Samuel and Edwin Fleisher passed away today after she was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.1928: While serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill receives a request from Chaim Weizmann for a loan intended to assist the Jewish population in Palestine in a manner consistent the aims of the Mandate. The loan would gain the support of Lord Balfour but would be rejected by the Cabinet in a move that had a whiff of anti-Semitism.1931 (3rd of Shevat, 5691): Composer and pianist Felix Blumenfeld passed away at the age of 67 in the Soviet Union. Born in 1863 Blumenfeld taught Vladimir Horowitz. Blumenfeld’s work was2016: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host “a special theater performance of Amy and Ken Kaissar's ‘A Modest Suggestion,’ followed by a panel discussion with the show's director and actors.” 2017(23rdof Tevet, 5777): Parsahat Shemot. 2017: As of today, in the last 24 hours, “there have been three separate hate crimes targeting “recognizably Jewish” residents of the Edgware district” of London. 2017: On Shabbat, the Women’s March on Washington, a protest that has been endorsed by the National Council of Jewish Women which is “helping to organize ancillary events with other groups that the partner with the Jewish community” is scheduled to take place on the day after President Trump’s inauguration. 2017: “Shalom Rabin” and “Louis-Ferdinand Celine” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Friday night dinner sponsored by the Chaplains that includes “2 fabulous guests – Joshua Blachorsky and Yos Tarshish from the World Union of Jewish Students.” 2018(5thof Shevat, 5778): One-hundred five year old Connie Sawyer, the Colorado born daughter of “Russian Jewish immigrants” and the oldest working actress passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts) 2018: Hadassah Lipsius, a “long-time board member of JRI-Poland, as well as Archive Coordinator for the Warsaw and Tomaszow Mazowiecki Archives” is scheduled to address the Jewish Genealogical Society Monthly Meeting at the Center for Jewish History. 2018: In Wyoming, the Jackson Hole Jewish Community is scheduled to host “Israeli Cooking with Judy.” (Editor’s Note – In Iowa, the home of this blog, it is zero with eight inches of snow on the ground and more on the way. So is the celebration of this tree planting holiday, an act of denial (insanity) or an act of the optimism that is part of the Jewish DNA?) 2019: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to be closed in honor of Martin Luther King Day. 2019: “Fig Tree” and “Brussels Transit” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2019(15thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill – a marvelous historian who had the writing skills of novelist – but who always had time to answer the questions of the most inconsequential of his readers. If you have never had the pleasure of reading his work you might want to start with Israel: A History or Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century or In Ishmael’s House or… well the list is almost endless.
↧
January 21, 2019, 6:49 pm
January 221167(23rdof Shevat, 4927): Ibn-Ezra passed away at the age of 78 in Calahorra which was on the border between Navarre and Aragon. There is no way that any entry could do justice to this Sephardic writer, philosopher, scientist and most important of all, world traveler.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/IbnEzra.html1521: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, opens the Diet of Worms. The Diet of Worms would vote to declare Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest” and require that he be punished as a heretic. Ultimately this would lead to warfare between Charles and the rebellious Germanic princes who supported Luther. This outbreak of fighting would determine who “the real Charles was” when it came to dealing with Jews. Charles wore two hats or should we say, crowns. As King of Spain, he was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, following in the footsteps, the monarchs who brought the inquisition to Spain and expelled the Jews in 1492. But as Holy Roman Emperor “he had issued a letter of protection for Germany’s Jews” and “did not tamper with the privileges extended by previous Emperors to his Jewish subjects. When the fighting broke out, Spanish troops came to Germany to support Charles against the rebellious Protestant princes. When the Jews complained that the Spanish troops were treating them in the “Spanish manner,” the Emperor issued an order to end the molestation of the Jews. So in this instance Charles worse his “German Hat” and ironically it was a better deal for the Jews of that time and place.1561: Birthdate of Sir Francis Bacon. According to one “myth” the Earl of Leicester was Bacon's actual father and he had as his physician the magician and Jew Dr. Frederigo Lopez who was the insipiration for “the Jew of Malta.”1621: William Prynne, the English jurist and political leader who opposed allowing the Jews to return to England graduated from Oxford with a B.A. 1648: Rabbi Shabbetai ben Meir ha-Kohen completed the manuscript for Nekudat ha-Kessef1689: As the British wrestled with the issue of whether or not James II was still their ruler, the Convention Parliament met today. By now Jews had been re-admitted to the kingdom but their numbers were small and they played no active role in the meeting. But the ultimate outcome certainly had an impact on their future as citizens of the United Kingdom. 1729: Birthdate of Gotthold Lessing, German poet, philosopher and playwright. Although a strong believing Christian, he advocated religious tolerance. His plays, such as “Die Juden” which appeared in 1749, portrayed the Jews as decent, admirable people. Lessing was a close friend of Moses Mendelssohn, who provided the inspiration for the character of Nathan in “Nathan the Wise” a play whose sympathetic portrayal of the Jews earned it the distinction of being banned by 18th century Christians and 20th century Nazis.1752(6th of Shevat): Talmudist Rabbi David ben Joseph of Breslau, author of Shoresh Yosef, passed away1755: Birthdate of Abraham Flesch, father of Moravian born businessman Joseph Flesch who “translated several of the writings of Philo into Hebrew.”1755: Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski demolished the Jewish homes built on the outskirts of Warsaw in a community called “New Jerusalem”. After the demolitions were completed, all of the Jews were expelled from Warsaw1775: Pope Pious VI reinforces all existing anti-Jewish legislation as part of his campaign against liberalism. He passed away in 1781.1780: In Nemyriv, Ukraine, Chaya Lane and Rabbi Naphtali Hertz Sternhartz gave birth Nathan Sternhartz, known as Nathan of Breslov, “the chief disciple and scribe of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.1814(1st of Shevat, 5574): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1814(1st of Shevat): Rabbi Eliezer ben Joseph of Alton, author of Mishnat de Rabbi Eliezer passed away today1814(1st of Shevat, 5574): Raphael Bischoffsheim passed away Mayence. A merchant and prominent philanthropist, he was born at Bischofsheim-on-the-Tauber in 1773. He went to Mayence during the French Revolution, and from a small merchant became a purveyor to the army. Bischoffsheim was well thought of by his co-religionist and served as was president of the Jewish community of Mayence.1818(1th of Shevat, 5578): Tu B’Shevat1832: Birthdate of Alonzo Barton Cornell, who while serving as 27thGovernor of New York appointed Meyer Isaacs to serve as a Justice of the Marine Court.1837(Shevat 15): Rabbi Jacob Simon Sofer of Cracow, author of Maor Shemesh passed away.1840: British colonists reach New Zealand. According to Maria Weiss, Jewish merchants began arriving in New Zealand in the 1830’s. By 1840, there were approximately 30 Jews living in the colony including David Nathan who helped found the Jewish community in Aukland and Abraham Hort who helped found the Jewish community in Wellington.1840: Two days after he had passed away, Nathan Bennaton Vallentine, the son of Rosa and Benjamin Valentine was buried today in the UK.1840: In Posen, Marcus Mosse, M.D. and Ulrike Mosse gave birth to Rudolf Mosse1842: In Lattin, County Tipperary, John Keating O’Dwyer and his wife gave birth to their only son Edward Thomas O’Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick, who after meeting with a delegation led by Saul Goldberg, denounced the anti-Semitic pogrom in that Irish city – a denunciation which had little effect since Fr John Creagh CSSR, spiritual director of the Arch Confraternity of the Sacred Heart, the leader of the anti-Semitic riots was beyond his ecclesiastical control. 1851: In NSW, Australia, Julia and Lewis Wolfe Levy gave birth to Benjamin (Benn) Wolfe Levy.1855: In Schweidnitz, “well known Jewish physician Dr. Mortiz Neisser” and his wife gave birth to Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser a German physician who discovered the causative agent (pathogen) of gonorrhea, a strain of bacteria that was named in his honour (Neisseria gonorrhoeae).”1856: Twelve Bavarian, Dutch, and Portuguese Jews, who “had originally organized in 1855 as the United Brethren Society, a benefit society that provided members with medical and burial assistance” met today in Brooklyn to discuss plans for the incorporation of their group as a synagogue. Their efforts would bear fruit in March of 1856 with the founding of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes. (בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת, "House of Israel – People of Truth"), the first synagogue formed on Long Island and “the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Brooklyn.” Today Baith Israel is “commonly known as the Kane Street Synagogue, an egalitarian Conservative synagogue on Kane Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.1858: Frederick I, who appointed the first Jew to a ministerial position and supported Herzl, became Grand Duke of Baden today.1861: The New York Tribune expressed its displeasure with the decision of Hiram Ketchum and Professor Samuel F.B. Morse to invite Rabbi Raphael to deliver an address saying that “when men are out of money they go to the Jews but we never would have expected to find” them “so short of speech as to be obliged to ask Rabbi Raphael to speak for them.”1863: The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement was to liberate the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from Russian occupation. It is estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 Jews participated in the uprising. Approximately 400 of them lost their lives while several hundred more were exiled to Siberia by the Russians when the uprising failed.1864(14thof Shevat, 5624): In Berlin, 70 year old Baruch Auerbach “the founder and life-long director of the Jewish Orphan Asylum” who believed that "Orphans are not merely poor children, but children without parents; to raise and bring them up, an orphan asylum should give those children not merely bread and a shelter, but parental love also, and practical training” passed away today.1867: Birthdate of Indianapolis, Indiana native Louis Paul Dessar, the CCNY and National Academy of Designed trained internationally acclaimed artist.https://americanart.si.edu/artist/louis-paul-dessar-1233https://connecticuthistory.org/artist-louis-paul-dessar-dies-today-in-history-february-14/1868: In Lafayette Parish, LA, William Louis Bendel and Mary Bendel gave birth to Henri Bendel who in 1899 came to New York City where he opened “small millinery shop” that grew into “the women’s specialty shop” that bears his name and is one of the “fashion leaders” in the Big Apple.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/03/23/88645384.pdf1870: Rabbi Lewin conducted the first Shabbat morning service at the newly formed Temple Israel. Services were held in the building owned by the YMCA in Brooklyn. Dr. Samuel Adler of Temple Emanu-El delivered the sermon. The service was conducted in English and the sermon was delivered in German.1870: Ludwig Bamberger co-founded “the Deutsche Bank in Berlin as a specialist bank for foreign trade.”1871: Birthdate of composer Leon Jessel. Jessel died at the hands of the Gestapo in 1942.http://www.naxos.com/person/Leon_Jessel/24533.htm1874: New Jersey authorities took Abraham Levy off of the Hamburg steamer Silesiabefore it sailed this afternoon. The Jewish businessman has been accused by his partner of stealing $2,200 from their Baltimore, MD business.1875: Birthdate of Cracow native Solomon Z. Prokesch who came to the United States in 1892, earned degrees from NYU, Columbia and JTS after which he served as the Superintendent for the Jewish Children’s Home in Boston and chaplain of the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society in Hawthorne, NY.1875: Ferdinand Hitzig, the German student of the Bible who spent 28 years writing commentaries published separately on The Psalms (1835–1836; 2nd ed., 1863–1865), The Minor Prophets (1838; 3rd ed., 1863), Jeremiah (1841; 2nd ed., 1866), Ezekiel (1847), Daniel (1850), Ecclesiastes (1847), Song of Solomon(1855), and Proverbs (1858) and who contended that the 5thand 16th chapters of Isaiah were written by the prophet Jonah mentioned in the Book of Kings passed away today.1876: In Brooklyn, Balbina Rahner (née Bugel) and Gebhard Rahner gave birth to Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner who gained fame as Bess Houdini, the stage assistant and wife of the great Houdini.1878: A Jew named William Yandaw was held as a material witness after he accused Annie Walker of stealing $35 from him.1880(9thof Shevat 5640): Abraham Ashkenazi, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine whom the Sultan named “Hakam Bashi” and who was decorated by Emperor Frank Josef when he visited Jerusalem, passed away today.1882: The Hearts of Oak Company featuring David Belasco as “Mr. Ellingham” performed for the first time at Leubrie’s Theatre in St. Paul, MN.1883: In Seligman, Missouri, named for Joseph Seligman, “a fire broke out at the Exchange Hotel which destroyed it completely along with a large part of the town.”1887(26thof Tevet, 5647): Parashat Vaera1887(26thof Tevet, 5647): Seventy-seven year old Grace Nathan, one of the 14 children of Sarah and Isaac Mendez Seixas Nathan passed away today in her native New York.1889: Founding of the Ladies’ Hebrew Orphan Aid Society in Newark, NJ, whose members included Rose Marx, Helen Straus and Carrie Kempe. 1890(1st of Shevat, 5650): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1890: Birthdate of Frederick “Fred” Vison the Kentucky Congressman who followed Henry Morgenthau as Secretary of the Treasury and who as Chief Justice served with Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter. 1891: Baron Hirsch signed a deed of trust in the presence of the Consul General of the United States in Paris and the Vice Consul that gave control of $2,400,000 to a group of prominent New York Jewish community leaders who would use the funds to aid recent Russian and Romanian immigrants to the United States.1891: Birthdate of painter Moise Kisling. Born in Poland, he moved to France in 1910. Here he developed his style and gained fame and popularity. Kisling was decorated by the French for heroism during World War I. He passed away in 1973. 1891: The first modern ocean-going cruise, which was personally organized and supervised by Albert Ballin, where the pleasure of the voyage was of paramount importance began today when “he SS Auguste Victoria (named after the German empress) set sail to cruise the Mediterranean for six weeks”1892: In Paris, Noemi Allatini Bloch and Adolphe Bloch gave birth to Marcel Bloch, the great French airplane designer who changed his name to Marcel Dassault after suffering the vicissitudes of World War II1892: “Too Much Immigration” published today described the impact of foreign workers arriving in the United States including that in New York, the Russian Jews “had practically crowed the Germans out of the clothing industry by working for lower wages” but who were no in turn were being crowded out by the Italians who were willing to work for even less and that in New England Jews were crowding the “Cannuks” out of the mills by working for less just as the Canadians had crowded out the Irish.1893(5th of Shevat): Seventy-four year old historian David Cassel who was active in “Wissenschaft des Judentums or Jewish Studies which refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions, passed away today.1893: It was reported today that Temple Emanu-El has donated “over 3,500 books, pamphlets and manuscripts” to Columbia to serve as the foundation for the schools “library of Hebrew literature, philology and religion.”1893: John Edelmann, the socialist-anarchist architect who had worked for Dankmar Adler addressed a meeting at the Hebrew Institute in New York City held to protest the Panama Scandal now rocking France1893: Birthdate of actor Conrad Veidt who is remembered for his role of Major Strasser in the famous World War II film, “Casablanca."1894(15thof Shevat, 5654): Tu B’Shevat1894: Professor Knapp of Barnard College was scheduled to give a lecture this evening at the Hebrew Institute.1894: As economic conditions continued to worsen R.H. Macy & Co which was owned by the Straus family sent $1,355.85 to the Charity Organization in New York for the second week in a row.1895(26th of Tevet, 5655): Edward “Teddy” Solomon passed away today six months before his 40thbirthday. An accomplished pianist and conductor, Solomon was a noted composer of comic operas in the manner of Gilbert and Sullivan.1895: Two days after he had passed away, Samuel Lewis Nathan, the husband of the former Eva Joshua and the father of Joshua, Cecil and Percy Nathan was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1896: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn hosted its 13th annual charity ball which was held this evening at the Academy of Music.1897(19thof Shevat, 5657): David Orbansky, Civil War veteran and winner of the Medal of Honor passed away today following which he was buried in Columbus, Ohio.1898: A meeting of anti-Dreyfus and anti-Zola demonstrators is scheduled to be held in Paris’ Latin Quarter today.1898: Sir Lionel Abrahams and his wife, the former Lucy Joseph gave birth to their only son Arthur Charles Lionel Abrahams, the Oxford Graduate who was killed during WW I while serving as a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards.http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/fallen-alumni/lieutenant-arthur-charles-lionel-abrahams1898: Today, “Selah Merrill…a Congressionalist clergyman and a prolific writer on Palestine and archaeological subjects relating to Biblical lands” who “was formerly Consul at Jerusalem from 1882 to 1886” was nominated today by President McKinley to serve a second term in that position.1898: In Riga, which at that time was a part of the Russian Empire, architect Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein, a member of a Jewish merchant family which had convert “to the Russian Orthodox Church and his wife Julia gave birth to Russian and Soviet director Segei Eisnstein best known for the 1925 epic “Battleship Potemkin.”1898: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil delivered an address about “Jewish Immigration” at dinner tonight at Delmonico’s that celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the Legal Aid Society in New York City.1898: “Barnato: The Man’s Life and His Fortune in Diamonds” published today provides a review of Barney Barnato: A Memoir by John Ward.1899: It was reported today that J. Ernest G. Yalden is Superintendent of the Baron de Hirsch Technical Schools and A.S. Solomons is the general manager of the school.1899: Birthdate of Washington, DC native and National University Law School trained attorney Nathan Cayton who when appointed as a Judge of the DC Municipal Court “was the youngest man ever to be appointed to a judicial position in the District of Columbia.”1899: Founding of the English Zionist Federation1899: It was reported today that the Baron de Hirsch Technical Schools, which has limited admission to Russian and Romanian Jewish immigrants are now accepting “Jews of all nationalities.”1899: Birthdate of Czech born American historian Guido Kisch who specialized in the history of the Jews during the Middle Ages. 1899: The Federated Hebrew Trade Unions sent delegates to today’s meeting of a newly formed labor organization known as the Central Federated Union.1899: It was reported today that John T. O’Brien who had been supplied with a job and card for free lodging by the United Hebrew Charities claimed that he been the victim of a “badger game”’; a charge for which there was no evidence. (O’Brien had not been asked to provide any proof that he was Jewish when he applied for assistance, indicating that the Jewish charity supplied people who were not their co-religionists.)1901: King Edward VII followed his mother Queen Victoria to the British throne. Edward counted several Jews among his friends and “inner circle,” something that did not sit well with much of the British aristocracy. Even more important, was Edward’s willingness to intervene on behalf of the Jews of Russia. In a state visit, he approached his cousin, Czar Nicholas II, about the matter. Cousin Nicky ignored “Bertie.” English political leaders expressed dismay at the King’s behavior. But for the Jews, Edward would become a hero. His all too short reign came to an end in 1910.1901: Following the death of Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill wrote to his mother speculating on what changes will take place in the behavior of the Prince of Wales now that he is king. Churchill wonders if King Edward will “scatter his Jews or will Reuben Sassoon be enshrined among the crown jewels and other regalia?” The King would keep his Jewish friends including “the Baghdadi-born Jew Reuben Sassoon.”1901: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Jacob and Bertha Mack gave birth to Richard Jacob Mack.1904: Herzl is received by Rafael Merry del Val the Papal Secretary, who promises to take into consideration the matter of supporting the Zionist aspirations.1905: The Sunday New York Times Magazine publishes the first three chapters of an unfinished novel by the late Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield.1905: Birthdate of Karola Bloch, the German architect, left-wing political activist and wife of Ernst Bloch.1906: Today, Jacob Harry Hollander, the son of “Meyer and Rosa Hollander, who became a full professor at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins marred Theresa Gutman Hutzler with whom he had three children.1906: “Between 5,000 and 6,000 Polish, Romanian, German and Russian Jews gathered at Rutgers Square on East Broadway to mark the first anniversary of ‘Red Sunday’ when thousands of workingmen were shot down in St. Petersburg while endeavoring to submit an appeal to the Czar.”1906: It was reported today that Illinois Congressman H.T. Rainey had delivered a speech condemning the attacks on the Jews of Russia in which he said, “In the opening years of this the greatest of all the centuries the Grand Dukes and their followers who support the tottering throne of the Romanoffs have resorted to the hold methods and this time they are inflaming the populace against the helpless Jews – and already the blood of 100,000 Jews cries out for vengeance” which means “the time may be near at hand when an instrument may be raised up to execute upon the men who are responsible for these inhuman butcheries the old doctrine – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”1907(7thof Shevat, 5667): Seventy-nine year old Dr. Joseph Kopp, the Viennese attorney wrote a book “defending the honor of Judaism” in the wake of the rise of anti-Semitism aft the Tisza Eszlar blood libel passed away today.1907: Salome, Op. 54, an opera in one act by Richard Strauss which he dedicated the opera to his friend Anglo-Jewish financier Sir Edgar Speyer had its New York City premiere.1908: Birthdate of physicist Lev d Landau who won the Nobel Prize in 1962. 1909: Birthdate of South African born physicist and radiobiologist Tikvah Alper.https://jwa.org/people/alper-tikvah1909: Birthdate of Holyoke, MA native Morris Sawdish, the University of Chicago and Yale University linguist who was an acolyte of Edward Sapir.https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1968.70.4.02a000701909: Sleah Merrill, the clergyman who worked as an archeologist for the American Palestine Exploration Society, excavating the second wall of Jerusalem and served as the United Counsel in Jerusalem three times between 1882 and 1907 passed away. “A virulent anti-Semite” he opposed Jewish settlement in Palestine, a view which was adopted by many in the United States State Department.1910: Birthdate of New York City native and University of Pennsylvania graduate Malcom Alan Vendig a U.S. Army Captain who served with 83rd Infantry Division “during WW II and after the war as military governor of Landkreis Dachau, Germany1911: At the annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society several speakers including Jacob Schiff and Judge Leon Sanders condemned the Gardner Immigration bill, which proposed to add an educational test clause to the exclusion laws and severely criticized the special boards of inquiry on Ellis Island.1911: In New York City Agnes Elizabeth Meyer, who was Lutheran and Eugene Meyer, who was Jewish gave birth to Florence Meyer who gained famed as Florence Meyer Homolka, the noted photographer who was the wife of actor Oscar Homolka.1911: Twenty-year old Lily Kronberger won “her fourth consecutive world figure skating championship in Vienna” today. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)1911: Birthdate of Bruno Kreisky, the first Jewish Chancellor of Austria. He died in 1990.1912: Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore, Honorary President of the Federation of American Zionists introduced Dr. Benzion Mossinsohn, a representative of the Gymnasium of Jaffa, who delivered a lecture in Yiddish to a very large audience at Cooper Union tonight on the work of that school, the first strictly Jewish school to be established in Palestine for 2,000 years. 1912: “Y.M.H.A.” Dedicates Heinsheimer Annex” published today described the meeting of the National Young Men’s Hebrew Association where the Louis A. Heinsheimer Memorial Building which was a gift from Felix M. Warburg was dedicated along with the unveiling of a tablet memorializing the late Percival S. Menken “which has been placed at the west end of the swimming pool.1913: In Chicago, Mr. Horace Bridges is scheduled to “deliver a lecture on ‘Eugenics in the Drama’ this evening at the Chicago Hebrew Institue.”1913: The new Hebrew Union College buildings were dedicated at Cincinnati, Ohio.1913: Birthdate of London native Hyman Barnett “Harry” Mizler who along with his brothers Moe and Judah worked in the family fish stall “in Watney Street Market” before become becoming a member of Britain’s 1932 Summer Olympics box team and winning “the British Board of Control (BBofC) Lightweight Title.”1913: The National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods was officially organized today in Cincinnati, Ohio.1913: Birthdate of Avraham Goldberg, the native of Pittsburgh, PA and graduate of both the University of Pittsburgh and JTS who served as Chaplain in the U.S. military during WW II after which he moved to Israel where he earned a PhD from Hebrew University where he became a Professor of Talmudic Studies.1914: Bronx resident Solomon Bloomgarden, better as the poet “Yehoash” whose admirers refer to as the “Yiddish Milton” is scheduled to sail today for Palestine where he plans on living “for the benefit of his health” and to participate in “the ‘Jewish Renaissance’ in the ancient land of the Jewish People.”1915: Birthdate of Samuel J. Popeil, inventor of the Veg-O-Matic. 1915: It was reported today that the Union of American Hebrew Congregations has selected Washington, DC to be the site of their 1917 national meeting.1915: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Hebrew League of Boston and a delegation of Jews from New York are among those who will be attending the meeting in the East Room of the White House where President Wilson will hear the pros and cons of the proposed immigration bill which the Jews oppose because of the literacy test.1915: The trial of Dan H. Lehon, C.C. Tedder and Arthur Thurman who have been indicted for subordination of perjury in matters related to the case of Leo Frank which was supposed to have begun today has been postponed.1915: “Turks and Germans Expelling Zionists” published today described the apparent intention of “Djemel Pasha, the Turkish commander in chief of the army intended for the attack on the Suez Canal” to systematically destroy “the entire of work of Jewish colonization built up by the labors of thirty years and the expenditure of millions of pounds.”1915: It was reported today that more than 5,000 refugees from Jaffa and other parts of Palestine are in Alexandria where they could be joined by almost 80,000 mostly Russian Jews whom the Central Powers seem determined to drive out of the country.1915: According to tonight’s announcement “by the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs of which Louis D. Brandeis is Chairman” about 4,000 Jewish refugees from Jerusalem, Jaffa and Beirut have “fled to Alexandria” with about “5,000 more on their way.”1915: Leo Frank was scheduled to be hung today. (The execution would not take place thanks to a writ issued by the U.S. Supreme Court following arguments by Louis Marshall)1916: In New York City, Jacob H. Schiff delivered a speech in which he said “war will never cease until we have worldwide free trade and the only way to render preparedness unnecessary is to raze the Custom Houses and the tariff walls and have international free trade,” a view that was fully supported by the President of the American Tariff Reform League, “the first national organization to declare for the re-nomination and re-election of President Wilson.1916: Birthdate of Michel Haguenauer, the champion of France in singles senior in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1949 and 1950 who was “arrested by the Gestapo and interned in Montluc Prison” during WWII.1916: It was reported today that when Governor Martin Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation setting next Thursday as special day for making donations to aid the Jews suffering war-torn Europe “he paid tribute to the Jewish people” and suggested that contribution be set to the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C.1916: “The Home Mission Council, which met” in New York “last week was attacked” today “in a sermon by Rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal of Temple Petach Tikvah…for utterances regarding the conversion of Jews to Christian faiths reported to have been made at the council sessions.”1916: Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurum announced today that his congregation had pledged $1,500 for the upcoming Jewish Relief Day.1916: Among the contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee listed today were congregations in Atlantic City, Atlanta and Minneapolis.1917: Rabbi Hyman G. Enelow delivered a lecture on “The Jewish Interest in Jesus” this morning at Temple Emanu-El.1917: President Wilson delivered an address to Congress today which “was intended as an open message to the world of the conditions under which he would urge the United States to enter a world federation to guarantee future peace.” (Editor’s Note – this is a reference to what would eventually become the League of Nations, the international body that would give Britain its mandate to govern Palestine with all that would mean for the Jewish people.)1917: The members of the Medical Advisory Board helping Hadassah to send a medical unit to Palestine include Drs. Harry Friedenwald, Isaac A. Abt, Isaac Adler, Emanuel Libman, Milton J. Rosenau and Miss Lillian D. Wald.1917: Birthdate of Jean-Louis Crémieux, the native of Colombes, France who added Brilhac to his name while serving as a leader of the Free French during WW II. http://www.timesofisrael.com/french-resistance-propagandist-cremieux-brilhac-dead-at-98/1918: Birthdate of Idea Weiner, the wife of Manfred Erich Swarsensk who after being imprisoned at Sachsenhausen concentration camp came to the United States in 1940 where he served as “Rabbi for Temple Beth El, a Reform congregation in Madison, Wisconsin.1918: In Vienna, Ida and Siegfried Reginald Wolf gave birth to Elfriede Julie Wolf.1918: In London, Lord Reading presided over a banquet celebrating the semi-Jubilee of the Jewish Historical Society which was attended by ambassadors from the United States and China as well as by the Lord Chancellor.1918: “Hundreds of men and women solicitors” participating in “the drive to get 50,000 new members for the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies” met this evening at the Hotel Biltmore where they were told that despite their efforts, “the federation still faces a material deficit in the current year’s budget for the 89 welfar organizations which compose it.1918: Moishe Zilberfarb completed an 18 month stint as Deputy-Secretary of Jewish Affairs in the General Secretariat of Ukraine, the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic.1919: General Orders No.16 of the US War Department which described the Heroism of William Sawleson which earned him the Medal of Honor was issued today. (“Hearing a wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machinegun fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when he was killed by a machinegun bullet.”)1920: In Jerusalem, Dr. Samuel Lewin-Epstein, the “son of Eliyahu Ze'ev (Wolf) Lewin-Epstein and Judith Lewin-Epstein” and his wife Madeline Lewin-Epstein gave birth to Professor Jacob Lewis-Epstein, the brother of Noah Lewin-Epstein.1921: In Warsaw, Stanislaw Baczyński, an author with “Jewish roots” and school teacher Stefania Zieleńczyk a zealous Catholic whose Jewish roots led the Germans to treat her and her family as Jews, gave birth to Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński the Polish poet who fought in the Home Army as Jan Bugaj and whose “uncle, Dr. Adam Zieleńczyk, escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto and was killed by Germans in 1943.”1922: Pope Benedict XV passed away. During World War I in response to the request of American Jews to alleviate the suffering of Polish Jews, Benedict issued a letter which was published in “Civilta Cattolica” denouncing anti-Semitism. In 1917, he spent 45 minutes with Zionist Nahum Sokolov discussing the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.1923: The Golden Jubilee Convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations opened at the Hotel Astor in New York City.1924: When the Labor Party in Great Britain formed its first government, Josiah Wedgwood was named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.1926: The House of Representatives District Committee which effectively governs the District of Columbia “decided not to report” the Kosher Law proposed by Congressman Samuel Dickstein which is similar to a law in his home state of New York.1927: After losing two straight bouts, featherweight Wilbur Cohen, a native of Washington, DC, scored a victory on points today.1928: In "Homeland of Habima,"published today, William Schack described the current state of theatre in Palestine. According to him "Palestine is as poor as east side tenement" with a population divided into three linguistic groups speaking English, Arabic and Hebrew. In the past year, the only English performances were by amateurs who stage a few "ace actors." During the same period, the only Arabic offering was a performance of Carmen. Other than that, Schack has not hear of "any Arabic theatre in Palestine."1929(11thof Shevat, 5689): Fifty-seven year old David Pofcher, the son of Michael and Rose Pofcher, who with his wife Mamie had five children, passed away today in Boston, MA.1929: Yehudi Menuhin is scheduled to receive “a Stradivatius and Tourte body” from Henry Goldman, a member of Goldman, Sachs and his wife. (As reported by JTA) 1929: Birthdate of Lotte Therese Newman, the Frankfurt born British physician who “became the first woman and the first Briton to serve as President of the International Society of General Practice” and President of the Royal College of General Practitioners.1929: Flags flew “at half-mast on many public buildings in Newark, NJ” in honor of “merchant and philanthropist” Felix Fuld whose funeral was held today.1930: In Winnipeg, Cantor and Mrs. Alexander Steinberg gave birth to Ben Steinberg, the noted Canadian musician who served as director of music at the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.1931: Birthdate of Canadian Doris Giller who went from being “a secretary with a supermarket chain” to a career in journalism.https://torontolife.com/from-the-archives/for-doris-jack-rabinovitch/https://web.archive.org/web/20091009104037/http:/www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca:80/about.html1931: Sir Isaac Isaacs, the son of a British tailor, was sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.1931: Silent screen star Alma Rubens, whose father was Jewish and whose mother was not, passed away.1932: “Prestige” co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in the United States by RKO.1933: Birthdate of basketball star Leonard Robert "Lennie" Rosenbluth, who played forward on the North Carolina team that won the NCAA Championship in 1957 and went on to a pro career with the Philadelphia Warriors.1934: In the Bronx, Hannah (née Kleiman) and Joshua Charles Azenberg gave birth to Emanuel “Manny” Azenburg, the Bronx native who gained fame as a theatrical producer who worked with playwright Neil Simon for over three decades.1934: “The d'Avigdor-Goldsmid Baronetcy, of Somerhill in the County of Kent, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom created today for Osmond d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Chairman for the Jewish Agency for Palestine in London” who “was the grandson of Count Henri Salomon d'Avigdor, Duke of Acquaviva.”1935: Today when the High Commissioner for Palestine, Brig. Gen. Sir Arthur Wauchope, opened a valve that inaugurated the British section of the gigantic enterprise, crude oil that had been pumped 600 mile through the new desert pipe line from the Iraq oil fields flowed into a tanker moored in the Bay of Acre off the coast of Palestine.1935: Birthdate of American actor Seymour Cassel.1936(27thof Tevet, 5696): Seventy-one year old Nathaniel Vidaver, the Boston born son of “Rabbi Falk Vidaver and Anna Vidaver” and the husband of Nellie Vidaver passed away today.1936: In Berlin, “the ‘Juridical Weekly’ published an article proposing that all marriages between Jews and ‘Germans’ be made the subject of dissolution on the demand of the ‘German’ partner.”1937: “A Doctor’s Diary” directed by Charles Vidor and produced by B.P. Schulberg was released today in the United States.1937: “An official communique today states that by command of King George VV, the British High Commissioner” in Palestine “has invited Amin Abdulhadi, a member of the Moslem Supreme Council and Itshak Bensvi, a member of the General Council of Palestine Jew to represent Palestine at his coronation” and that both men have accepted.1938: An appeal for continued support of the Jewish colonization movement in Palestine in a time of renewed persecution of Jews in Rumania, Germany and Poland was voiced in Washington tonight by speakers before the National Conference for Palestine, meeting in observance of the completion of twenty years of Jewish settlement in the Holy Land.1938: Today’s royal decree “whereby the citizenship of Rumania’s 750,000 Jews was called into question” was seen by some as a violation of the Constitution agreed to at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and “the 1918 Paris minority agreement.”1939: Dr. Israel Goldstein, the President of the Jewish National Fund is scheduled to be honored this evening for his twenty years of service as the Rabbi of Temple B’Nai Jeshurun by Jews and Gentiles including Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Episcopal Bishop William T. Manning, Methodist Bishop Francis J. McConnell and “Dr. Thomas S. Gates, president of the University of Pennsylvania, Rabbi Goldstein’s alma mater.”1940: NBC began broadcasting again “The Guiding Light,” a soap opera created by Irna Phillips which it had cancelled but was forced to bring back to popular demand.1941: “Drive Slows Down” published today that the “fall off in donations for the $60,000 campaign of the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal is causing grave anxiety on the part of the campaign executives including Councilor Max Seigler.1941: Dr. Bernard Joseph, legal adviser to the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the executive body that is cooperating with the British Government asserted that Jews in Palestine “are facing the paradox of supporting Prime Minister Churchill's war effort completely and yet being at odds with British administration” over issues related to the establishment of Jewish homeland including immigration and land ownership.1941: The British army has renewed its recruiting efforts aimed at Palestinian Arabs and Jews. The new recruits will be used for sentry and other similar guard duties which would release other British infantry regiments for use in active combat roles in North Africa.1941: In Lublin, Poland; Hans Frank told his fellow Nazis, "We...cannot be asked to have any consideration left for the Jews."1941: The Iron Guard revolt in Rumania led to the first massacre of Jews there during World War II.1941: The Law for the Defense of the Nation is imposed by Bulgaria, forcing Jews to give up public posts and forcing Jewish doctors, lawyers, and other professionals to forfeit their jobs. Also, a selective tax is imposed on Bulgaria's Jewish shops and homes.1942: Today, fifty year old Rudolf Propper was transported from his last known home in Pilsen to Terezin, which would be his first stop on the way to Izbic where he was murdered.1942: The Hungarians continued their slaughter of the Jews of Novi-Sad in Yugoslavia.1942: “A Time to Kill” a movie version of a Raymond Chandler mystery produced by Sol M. Wurtzel and with music by Emil Newman was released today in the United States.1943: This was Rivka Libeskind first Shabbat in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The women, who had just recently arrived at the camp, lit candles and sang Shabbat melodies. Women who had lived there for years wept and joined the prayer session1943: During Operation Tiger in Marseilles, France, Nazis seized more than 4000 Jews for deportation over a four day period. At nearby Les Accates, 29 Jewish children were seized at La Rose Orphanage. Their guardian, Alice Salomon, insisted on remaining with them. Marseilles had had a reputation as being the Jerusalem of the Mediterranean.1943: The Jewish ghetto at Grodno, Belorussia, is liquidated1943: A death train that originated in Grodno, Poland, on January 17 erupts in violence at the Treblinka death camp when 1000 Jews armed with boards, knives, and razors attack guards. By morning thousands of Jews who had been on the train are dead, killed by Treblinka SS troops armed with machine guns and grenades1944: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9417, establishing the War Refugee Board. The Board is committed to enforcing the policies of the U.S. government regarding the rescue and relief of victims of persecution. 1945(8thof Shevat, 5705): German born Herman Jander, the husband or Ray Jander, the father-in-law of Alvin Friedman and the father of Reba Friedman passed away today in Nashville, TN1945: Crusading journalist Arthur Kasherman was gunned down this evening in Minneapolis in a crime that went unsolved but was always thought to be connected with his exposure of the mob control this half of the Twin Cities.http://www.startribune.com/murder-of-a-minneapolis-muckraker/86628172/https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/who-rubbed-out-arthur-kasherman-noir-the-star-tribune-and-a-senior-thesis-combine-for-multimedia-storytelling/1945(8thof Shevat, 5705): Ralph W. Mack, a leader in the Reform movement and an officer of the American Council for Judaism passed away today in his native Cincinnati.1945 (8th of Shevat, 5705): Seventy-five year old ElseLasker-Schüler passed away in Jerusalem (As reported by Sigrid Bauschinger)http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lasker-schueler-else1946: Birthdate of Malcolm McLaren, the British born manager of the musical group “The Sex Pistols.”1946: Following the “blasting of a British installation” the British imposed a stern, tight sunrise-to-sunset curfew on the entire Hadera district of the Palestine coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa.1947(1st of Shevat, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1947: At Dachau the Flossenburg War Crimes Trial came to an end with “all but 5 of the defendants were found guilty, 15 of whom were condemned to death, 11 were given life sentences, and 14 were jailed for terms of 1 to 30 years.1947: Léon Blum completed his term as the 128th prime minister of France.1947: The British government decided today that it would turn the Palestine Problem over to the United Nations since it could not get the Jews and Arabs to accept a common solution.. However, the British would not make their decision public for another six weeks. 1948: Birthdate of London born historian Bernard Wasserstein, who studied with Anna Freud and whose works include The British in Palestine and Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945.http://history.uchicago.edu/directory/bernard-wasserstein1948: Birthdate of Brooklyn born conductor Sir Gilbert Levine.1949: After renovation The Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre reopened today with its new name “The Mark Hellinger Theatre.1949(21stof Tevet, 5709): Parashat Shemot1949(21stof Tevet, 5709): Fifty year old Henry Ludwig Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett” the Conservative MP, bank director and husband of Amy Gwen Wilson with whom he had two sons and who “having been brought up in the Church of England” “reverted in the 1930s to his family’s original Judaism and became a champion of Zionism passed away today.1949: The divorce of David O. Selznick and Irene Mayer Selznick was finalized today.1949: During a debate in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill, leader of the Opposition, attacked Foreign Minister Bevin for his “astounding mishandling of the Palestine problem” that could only be described as “gross and glaring.”1951(15thof Shevat, 5711): For the first time during the Korean War, observance of Tu B’Shevat.1953: The Arthur Miller drama ''The Crucible'' opened on Broadway1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that East Germany had started probing the 'Jewish descent' of its officials and public figures and that the National Zeitung, an organ of the East German National Democratic Party, warned Jews that they would be punished if they 'ally themselves with American warmongers.' In Moscow the New Times accused Zionists of being the enemies of the Russian people who sought world domination and claimed that the officials of the American Joint Distribution Committee were 'the lackeys of American imperialism.' 1954: Physicist Albert Einstein wrote to physicist David Bohm who had left the United States during the height of the McCarthy period and living in Brazil concerning possible places for him to settle including Israel which he says “is intellectually alive and interesting…”https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/06/000_PR060.jpg 1954(18th of Shevat, 5714): Twenty-nine year old English painter Theodore Garman, known simple as “Theo” passed away today.http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/theodore-garmanhttp://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp59924/theodore-garman1957: Under massive pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union, Israeli forces withdrew from most of Sinai after the Sinai Campaign. The threat of economic sanctions by the United States presented to great a threat for the Israelis not to give ground. President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, gave new life to President Nassar of Egypt. Nasser repaid their support by tying the cause of the Arabs even more tightly to the Soviet Bloc. The promises that the U.N. gave to effect the withdrawal were not honored. And like all other dishonorable acts of peace, war would again be the result. 1958: In St. Louis, Goldie Hogan and her husband gave birth racquetball champion Marty Hogan.1960: In a Jewish comedic double header, Mort Sahl and Eddie Cantor who was making his last television appearance appeared on NBC’s “The Future Lies Ahead.”1961: In its review of Pamela Frankau’s Road Through the Woods, the New York Times wrote that she “has written a tightly knit novel with fine characterizations and moments of real beauty.”1962: Three days after its premiere in France “A View From The Bridge” the cinema version of Arthur Miller’s play directed by Sidney Lumet and featuring Harvey Lembeck and Morris Carnovsky was released in the United States today.1963(26thof Tevet, 5723): Eighty-nine year old Lily Montagu one of the first women to take a leading role in the Reform Movement in the UK passed away today.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/montagu-lily1964(8th of Shevat, 5724): Marc Blitzstein, American composer whose works included “Cradle Will Rock,” passed away at the age of 58http://www.marcblitzstein.com/pages/life/chapters/life02.htm1967 (11th of Shevat, 5727):Robert David Quixano Henriques passed away. Born in 1911, he was a British writer, broadcaster and farmer. He gained modest renown for two award-winning novels and two biographies of Jewish business tycoons, published during the middle part of the 20th century. The following year, he wrote 100 Hours to Suez, and it was around this time, in his late forties, that Henriques began to take an active interest and pride in his Jewish identity. He was won over by the Zionist cause, and made frequent trips to Israel where he bought a small property. In the 1960s, Henriques wrote two biographies. The first one charted the life and career of his wife's grandfather Marcus Samuel, the great oil pioneer and leader of the Jewish community, and the second one described the life of Sir Robert Waley-Cohen1967: Simon & Garfunkel performed live at Philharmonic Hall in the Lincoln Center, New York City. The recording would not be released until July 16, 2002.1970(15thof Shevat, 5730): Tu B’Shevat1973: President Lyndon B Johnson President passed way at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas at the age of 64. One of LBJ’s closest advisors was Abe Fortas who considered himself “a nominal Jew.” When LBJ nominated him to serve as a Justice on the Supreme Court, Fortas, who was one of the few people who could speak candidly to the tall Texan, told him that the Jews would not consider this a Jewish nomination. As President, Lyndon Johnson had the courage (both political and personal) and the skill to enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He also enacted many measures such Head Start and Medicare which had a great deal of support among Jewish voters. At the same time, his support of the Viet Nam War cost him a lot of support among these same Jewish voters. More to the point, he supported Israel in the Six Day War of 1967. Among other things, he kept the Soviets from interfering on behalf of their Arab clients and forced the Russians to quit threatening Israel. Long after he had left the White House, The Associated Press published more information about LBJ’s “personal and often emotional connection to Israel” which is worth reading in its entirety. Based on newly released tapes of the president’s conversations, the news agency pointed out that during the Johnson presidency (1963-1969) “the United States became Israel's chief diplomatic ally and primary arms supplier.” LBJ is quoted in one conversation, “"I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel." Further reports reveal the full extent of Johnson’s actions on behalf of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Indeed, the title of “Righteous Gentile” is certainly appropriate in the case of the Texan. Most students of the Arab-Israeli conflict can identify Johnson as the president during the 1967 war.But few know about LBJ’s actions to rescue hundreds of endangered Jews 30 years earlier, actions that could have thrown him out of Congress and into jail. The Texas congressman’s district had only 400 Jews, but clearly the Johnson family’s Christian teachings had given him a strong affinity for Jews and their return to the Holy Land. Five days after taking office in 1937, LBJ broke with the “Dixiecrats” and supported an immigration bill that would naturalize illegal aliens, mostly Jews from Lithuania and Poland. In 1938, Johnson was told of a young Austrian Jewish musician who was about to be deported from the United States. With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent him to the U.S. Consulate in Havana to obtain a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the world famous musician and conductor, credited LBJ for saving his live. That same year, LBJ warned a Jewish friend that European Jews faced annihilation. Somehow, Johnson provided him with a pile of signed immigration papers that were used to get 42 Jews out of Warsaw. But that wasn’t enough. According to historian, James M. Smallwood, Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle “hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port. Enough money could buy false passports and fake visas in Cuba, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. … Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas. He hid them in the Texas National Youth Administration…. Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, possibly more.” On June 4, 1945, Johnson visited the Dachau concentration camp. According to historian Smallwood, Lady Bird later recalled that “when her husband returned home, he was still shaken, stunned, terrorized, and ‘bursting with an overpowering revulsion and incredulous horror at what he had seen.’” As President, Johnson met with Israel’s Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and undertook to replace the recalcitrant France as Israel’s principal arms supplier, providing Patton tanks and Skyhawk jets and Phantom jets. Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin once asked Johnson why the United States supported Israel when there are 80 million Arabs and only three million Israelis. “Because it is right,” responded the straight-shooting Texan.1973: In a move that would please a majority of Jewish women today in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled “that a woman’s right to choose an abortion was protected by the privacy rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”1976: “The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry charged today that the new Soviet regulations reportedly easing emigration procedures “are merely a smokescreen to cover the new and very real campaign of harassment and terror against Russian Jews seeking freedom.” (As reported by JTA)1977(3rdof Shevat, 5737): Parashat Vaera1977(3rdof Shevat, 5737): Eighty-six year old Abraham Nowak, the holder of degrees from CCNY, Columbia University and JTS and WW I Army Chaplain who organized two congregations in Cleveland before moving to Beth El in New Rochelle and was the husband of Ann Segal with whom he had two sons – Wellville and Peter – passed away today.https://case.edu/ech/articles/n/nowak-abraham1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who a week earlier instructed his delegation to break off the Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations held in Jerusalem, had now announced that he was leaving the door open for renewed talks, but on certain conditions. He demanded that, before any concrete peace negotiations may continue, Israel must agree to a total withdrawal to the pre-1967 frontiers and recognize the Palestinian rights to self-determination. The US sought a new format for political negotiations and urged Israel to resume military talks held in Cairo and postponed by Premier Menachem Begin. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan warned that Sadat's conditions would lead to a dead end and offered no opportunity for progress. 1979: Ali Hassan Salameh, “the head of Force 17 and an operative of the Black September Organization that carried out the 1972 Munich Massacre” was killed today when “a remote-controlled car bomb” was detonated in Beirut. 1980(4th of Shevat, 5740): Ninety-two year old German-born Israeli historian and an expert in medieval Spanish Jewish history Yitzhak Baer passed away.1981: A revival production of “The Five O’Clock Girl” with music by Harry Ruby and lyrics by Bert Kalmar opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre.1982: “The Moscow police dispersed a group that gathered for a Hebrew lesson at the apartment of Irina Shchegoleva.”1984(18th of Shevat, 5744): Sixty-four year old Emmy Award winning producer Jerome Toobin, the husband of Marlene Sanders and the husband of attorney and CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin, passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/23/obituaries/jerome-toobin-64-channel13-s-chief-of-news-programs.html1984: The New York Times features Paul Johnson’s review of The High Walls of Jerusalem: A History of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the British Mandate for Palestine by Ronald Sanders.1986: “Desert Bloom” a movie set in post-WW II Las Vegas co-starring Ellen Barkin and Allen Garfield was released in the United States today.1988: The police imposed a curfew tonight on A-Tur, an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, invoking special emergency powers in this city for the first time since East Jerusalem was captured from Jordan in 1967.1989: Birthdate of Nick Simmons, “the son of Israeli-American musician Gene Simmons.”1990(25thof Tevet, 5750): Ninety-two “Russian American photographer” Roman Vishniac, “best known for capturing on film the culture of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust” passed away today in New York City.http://vishniac.icp.org/1991: El Al Israel Airlines and Tower Air are still flying to Tel Aviv. Sheryl Stein, the manager of public relations for El Al, said it was continuing daily service from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Tel Aviv. She said that the carrier had not reduced its schedule and that it had 17 flights yesterday in and out of Tel Aviv to other parts of the world. In addition, she said the airline was bringing in immigrants daily from Hungary and Romania.1991: After a Scud slammed into a two-story apartment building in a Tel Aviv suburb today, 260 Israelis were forced to move into hotels. Almost 1,000 Israelis, most of whom live in Tel Aviv have already lost their homes because of attack by Iraqi Scuds.1993: Work was completed today on “MY Sam Simon, the fourth vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, named after American television producer and writer Sam Simon, who donated the money to purchase the vessel” which was to be used to disrupt the activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.1994 (10th of Shevat, 5754): Irving B Kahn inventor of the teleprompter passed away at the age of 761995(21stof Shevat, 5755):In central Israel, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blew themselves-up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis. This was just one of the many acts of terrorism that took placed after Rabin and Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn. Despite, them the Israelis would make a variety of territorial concessions. The terror would continue.1996(1stof Shevat, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1996 (1st of Shevat, 5756): Yisrael Eldad, member of the Stern Gang and leader of right wing political groups after the creation of the state of Israel extremist politician, died at the age of 85http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_05733.html1996: When the top awards in children's publishing were announced today, the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Outstanding Literature for Young Adults went to Judy Blume in recognition of lifetime achievement in the field.1997 (14th of Shevat, 5757): Irwin Levine, composer of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” passed away at the age of 58.1998: “A Price Above Rubies” directed and written by Boaz Yakin and co-starring Julianna Margulies was shown for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival.1999(5thof Shevat, 5759): Eighty year old George L. Mosse, the Berlin born British educated historian who began teaching at the University of Iowa before moving to the University of Wisconsin where he made his mark on the academic world.http://mosse.huji.ac.il/default.asphttp://mosseprogram.wisc.edu/http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80-69015/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/31/world/george-l-mosse-dies-at-80-authority-on-nazi-germany.html1999: Steven Grossman completed his chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee2000(15th of Shevat, 5760): Tu B'Shevat celebrated for the first time in the 21stcentury 2001: In talks today Israeli officials unexpectedly revived the idea of some form of joint or international administration for the historic city center of Jerusalem and its holy sites. This trial balloon was simultaneously punctured by the Palestinians, who reiterated their demand for sovereignty over all Arab districts and religious sites in East Jerusalem, and by the Israeli opposition, which objected to any plan for limiting Israeli rule in the city.2002(9thof Shevat, 5762): A Palestinian gunman carried out a terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s central shopping district, raking the area with semiautomatic gunfire that killed two and wounded 20 before being shot dead by the police2004: Sicor becomes the wholly owned subsidiary of Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.2004: Two Israeli cabinet ministers said today that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would have to resign if a bribery investigation eventually leads to his indictment.2004: “A Match Made In Heaven” published today traces the relationship of sculptor Ilan Ashkenazi and his second wife Tirza Moussaieff, the sister of Shlomo Moussaieff.http://www.haaretz.com/a-match-made-in-heaven-1.1117552005: The Washington Post published an op-ed column by Samuel Pisar entitled “Will We ‘Never Forget’?” An international lawyer and author of Of Blood and Hope, Pisar survived Auschwitz. Pisar expressed his concern that as the survivors reach the autumn of their lives, the world has not learned from the horrors of their experiences nor will they really remember what happened in a meaningful manner. 2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Between You and Me: A Memoirby Mike Wallace with Gary Paul, Maimonides by Sherwin Nuland, The Poems of Charles Reanikoff: 1918-1975, edited by Seamus Cooney and Nicholas Miraculous a biography of Nicholas Murray Butler. Regardless of how history views him (and the picture is none too flattering) Butler earns low marks in the American Jewish Experience. As the reviewer says of Butler, “His most creative involvement with the undergraduate college seems to have come in searching for ways to keeps its Jewish enrollment down. He considered having applicants take physicals that would ‘find grounds to eliminate socially unappealing Jews smart enough to have passed the entrance examination,’ and throughout the 1930's he funneled Jewish students into an affiliated two-year college in Brooklyn. Its courses were "taught largely by junior faculty members from Morningside Heights," and the dropout rate was enormous. When it closed after 10 years, Butler at last gave up on ‘the Hebrew problem.’"2006: The New York Times reported on the “four founding mothers of a large chunk of today’s Ashkenazi Jewish population” in an article entitled “Loy you, K2a2a, Whoever You Are” by Amy Harmon, a “direct descendant” of one of these four “bubbes” 2006: The S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program hosted a career fair at the Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem to demonstrate how a Yeshiva University education can benefit them.2007: Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor serving the U.S. Congress moved “to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 52) paying tribute to Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp for their recognition by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority as Righteous Among the Nations for their heroic efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust.”2007: Stephen Arnoff contended that the future of Jewish survival in the United States, depended, in part on older leaders of the Jewish community paying attention to the generation of young Jewish leaders who created projects like Hadar, Storahtelling, Zeek, jewschool, Hazon, Jdub Records and similar Jewish enterprises 2007: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz agreed to appoint Major General (Res.) Gabi Ashkenazi as the 19th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.2008(15thof Shevat, 5768): Tu B’Shevat 2008 (15th of Shevat, 5768): Miles Lerman, the Nazi Camp survivor who helped found the U.S. Holocaust Museum, passed away. (As reported by Dennis Hevesihttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/obituaries/24lerman.html?_r=02009: The International Astronomical Union named a crater on the moon after American physiologist Joseph Erlanger.2009: The final five nominees for the Oscar for best documentary are scheduled to be announced today. Among those being considered is, “Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh”2009: In Germany the scheduled date for the nationwide release of Adam Resurrectedwhich follows the story of Adam Stein, a charismatic patient at an asylum for Holocaust survivors in Israel, in 1961 starring Jeff Goldblum as Adam.2009: The Centro Primo Levi and the Yeshiva University Museum present a lecture by Eva Forgacs on the life and work of István Farkas.István Farkas (1887-1944), a modernist of the École de Paris, whose elusive landscapes fascinated writers and painters alike, returned in 1932 to his native Hungary where his mysterious works ultimately presaged his own death at Auschwitz.2010(7thof Shevat, 5770): One-hundred-two year old pro-choice champion Ruth Proskauer who had followed in the social activist footsteps of her parents passed away today.(As reported by Margalit Fox)https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/nyregion/27smith.html2010: “Catfish,” a documentary about social interaction on the web and not about the traif fish co-directed and co-produced by Ariel Schulman who co-starred in the film along with Nev Schulman premiered today at the Sundance film festival.2010: Mishkenot Sha'ananim is scheduled to present a second round of "A Shortcut In Time," part of series of lectures delivered over the course of seven months by the Weizmann Institute's Professor Illem Gross that place “scientists ranging from Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking under the microscope.”2010: The 10thannual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story,” a “chronicle of the endlessly surprising life of the charismatic newspaperman, Vegas icon and real-life Zelig2011: The New York Premiere of “Miss You”(Te extraño) is scheduled to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival. The film depicts the travail of a middle class Jewish Argentinean family and Javier, a 15-year-old boy who left his home because of the political situation in 1970s Argentina. 2011: Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to present the Sixth Annual Comedy Night featuring Dan Adhoot2011(17thof Shevat, 5771): Frank Lieberman passed away. A native of New York, Lieberman moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. He parlayed his work as an entertainment reporter for the Herald-Examiner into a public relations career where he developed a special relationship with Elvis Presley and represented such show business notables as Sammy Davis, Jr., Phyllis Diller and Tony Orlando.2011: The 2011 Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival is scheduled to present “In Rehearsal – a one woman show by Alison Vodnoy.” 2011(17th of Shevat, 5771):Ninety-one year old Tullia Zevi, a pillar of Italy's Jewish community and an ardent anti-fascist who spent the war years in exile in Switzerland, France and the U.S. passed away today. http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=2047932012: Awkward Moment Productions is scheduled to present “Circumference” written and performed by Amy Salloway at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.2012: 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 “The Balfour Declaration: the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict” by Jonathan Schneer.2012: YIVO is scheduled to present the world premiere of “When Our Bubbas and Zeydas Were Young.”2012: Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) will resign from Congress this week, she announced in a video message posted todayhttp://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10211134-giffords-to-resign-from-congress-after-attending-the-state-of-the-union-this-week2012: Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) threatened today to hold up the defense budget until the issue of soldiers traveling on trains is resolved. Today, a new arrangement between the IDF and Israel Railways came into effect, eliminating free rides on most trains between the hours of 6 and 9 a.m. on Sundays. The arrangement is expected to save the IDF money and to reduce overcrowding during those hours. Mofaz criticized the new arrangement, saying it is unacceptable to turn IDF soldiers into "second-class" commuters in order to save money, speaking with Israel Radio. 2012: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today called on Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to open an investigation into Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein for incitement after he was recorded quoting a passage by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Hadith that calls for the killing of Jews..2012: A day after announcing her intention to resign from Congress, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) completed the "Congress on Your Corner" event that was cut short more than a year ago when a gunman opened fire on her and her constituents in a Tucson parking lot. She and a dozen others were injured in the attack; six people were killed. 2013(11thof Shevat, 5773): Ninety-one year old real estate mogul Sherman Cohen passed away. (As reportedby Charles V. Bagli) 2013: As Israelis are scheduled to vote in today’s election, “the Association of Craft and Industry in Israel is calling for the abolition of the Election Day work holiday, saying it will cost small industrial businesses at least NIS 100 million.” 2013: The JCCNV is scheduled to take representative to Richmond, VA as part of Virginia Jewish Advocacy Day. 2013: Meir Ariel’s Election Tour is scheduled to be shown as part of “Election Day at the Cinematheque.” 2013: Regardless of the outcome of the elections, the big winners today were the country's malls, restaurants, beaches, and parks – with nearly all filled to capacity as Israelis took advantage of a rare weekday off, not connected to a religious celebration, with stores, businesses, and places of entertainment wide open. 2013: In the elections that were held today the Jewish Home won 12 seats 2013: An unlicensed therapist who is a respected member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn was sentenced today to 103 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a young woman, beginning the attacks when she was 12. 2014: The next SermonSlam is scheduled to be held at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, New York2014: Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom is scheduled to end his trip to the United Arab Emirates where he has been attending the World Future Energy Summit. (As reported by Stuart Winer)2014: “Up The Wrong Tree” and “Ukraine Brides: 13 Years Later” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2014(21stof Shevat, 5774): Ninety five year old Mary Gordon Shulman who had been married to author Max Shulman, the creator of Dobie Gillis, for 24 years until his death in 1988 passed away today.2014(21stof Shevat, 5774): Centenarian Psychoanalyst Martin S. Bergmann passed away today.http://vimeo.com/66440579http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/movies/martin-s-bergmann-psychoanalyst-and-woody-allens-on-screen-philosopher-dies-at-100.html 2014: Adina Bar-Shalom, whose father Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was the Shas spiritual leader for over three decades until his death in November 2013, is putting out feelers to see how much support she would have in a bid to replace President Shimon Peres when his term in office ends this year, Maariv reported today. (As reported by Stuart Winer)2014: “The Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun early this morning, killing two men, said by Israel to be terrorists behind some of the missile attacks on southern Israeli towns and communities. The air force said it carried out the strike to stop an imminent attack.”2014: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled “to tour Christian sites in Israel’s north before attending a ceremony at Tel Aviv University, where he will receive an honorary doctorate.” (As reported by Spencer Ho)2015: In Cedar Rapids, Brit Milah ceremony for Amasai Burt, son of Rodney and Queen Burt is scheduled to take place this afternoon.2015(2ndof Shevat, 5775): Eighty-six year old children’s television advocate Peggy Charren passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/arts/peggy-charren-childrens-tv-crusader-is-dead-at-86.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2015: “Federal authorities are expected to arrest New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to on charges of corruption.2015: “The Zionist Idea” and “Above and Beyond” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2016(12thof Shevat, 5776) Ninety-one year old Eugene Borowitz one of the most influential Reform Rabbis of the 20th century passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/us/rabbi-eugene-b-borowitz-reform-leader-dies-at-91.html2016(12thof Shevat, 5776): Eighty-three year old Manhattan bookstore owner Arnold Greenberg passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/nyregion/arnold-greenberg-whose-manhattan-bookstore-fostered-wanderlust-dies-at-83.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02016: In Pennsylvania, “a three-judge panel in superior court dismiss some of the more serious criminal charges, including perjury, obstruction and conspiracy against Graham Spanier the former President of Penn State who still faces other charges stemming from his “handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal.”2016: David Blatt was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA.2016: “Happy Ends” featuring “pivotal moments from 10 films presented at previous editions of the New York Jewish Film Festival” is scheduled to be shown at the 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival.2016: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Hadassah is scheduled to host the Tu B’Shvat Seder at Temple Judah. 2017(24thof Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar yahrzeits of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, “an influential philosopher and dean of students at the Ponovezh Yehsiva and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady and the author the Tanya.2017(24thof Tevet, 5777): Eighty-eight year old “translator and Soviet dissident” Lev Navrozov who in more than one publication claimed that while serving as Israel’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Golda Meir “had given Stalin a list of Russian Jews who would fight for Israel” and who then “disappeared at the hands of Stalin’s organs of state security” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/arts/lev-navrozov-dead-soviet-dissident-translator.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&egion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02017: ““Run for Mem,” a non-competitive road race past sites related to the history of the Holocaust in Rome, took place today. (As reported by Rossella TercatinP2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevailby Jonathan Chait, Class by Lucinda Rosenfeld and The Afterlife of Stars by Joseph Kertes.2017: Jewish philanthropist Robert K. Kraft’s New England Patriots are scheduled to take the field this afternoon in quest of yet another AFC Championship which will lead them to the Super Bowl.2017: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “The Carole King Songbook with Liz Callaway” which is part of the 2017 Molly Blank Concert Series that celebrates Jewish contributions to music.2017: “Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2017: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host Brad Hill, David Fishman, Zachary Baker and Jeffrey Veidlinger who “will discuss the historical importance and context of the Strashun library, its survival during WWII, and its transition to YIVO. Lyudmila Sholokhova and Roberta Newman from YIVO and Lara Lempert from the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will discuss YIVO’s landmark efforts to steward the Strashun library into the 21st century and beyond.2018: “The Alienist” a TNT period television series co-starring Matthew Louis Shear premiered today.2018: Pianist Roman Rabinovich and violinist Asi Matathias are scheduled to join the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in “Poles Apart.”2018: The Wine Temple on Emek Raim is scheduled to host “wine flight” featuring beverages made from the Syrah, “the main gape variety of the Rhone region in southeastern France.”2018: Singer/Songwriter Nathan Goshen is scheduled to perform this evening at Zappa, one of “Jerusalem’s favorite restaurant/bar concert venues.”2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of an “Act of Defiance” in London.2018: “Humor Me” is scheduled to be shown this evening at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.2019: “A Fortunate Man” is scheduled to be shown this evening making it the final film to be shown at the 2019 New York Jewish Film Festival.2019: In the UK, the Oxford Jewish Chaplaincy is scheduled to host a dinner followed by a “Mindfullnes Taster Session” “facilitated by Gidon Fineman who trained at The Oxford Centre for Mindfulness.”2019(16thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Shwadronhttp://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_16.html
↧
↧
January 22, 2019, 6:45 pm
January 23393: Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor. “Under the rule of Theodosius and his sons… the Christian church consolidated its position as the sole power in the empire,” became less tolerant and the Jews “suffered in inverse proportion to the strength of the emperor’s personality.”1002: Otto III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire passed away. No, Otto was not Jewish. But his passing offers an instructive note when studying history, especially Jewish history. A thousand years ago, Otto was the “George Bush” of his day, a major political and military leader. Otto lived in the same century as Rashi, a guy who sold wine in a small town in France. We remember Rashi. Rashi still speaks to us today infusing our lives in ways in which we are not aware. Who remembers Otto?1199: Birthdate of Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf who ordered the Jews of the Maghreb to wear dark blue garments with long sleeves and saddle-like caps. His grandson Abdallah al-Adil made a concession after appeals from the Jews, relaxing the required clothing to yellow garments and turbans.1295: Boniface VIII consecrated as Pope. During his Papacy he will issue “Unam Sanctam” a Bull that “declares there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church” which means that all Jews are denied a portion in “the world to come.”1235: False accusations of Ritual Murder at Baden, Germany resulted in a massacre of the Jewish population.1295: Consecration of Boniface VIII the pope who “objected to the erection of a new synagogue in Trier, Germany,” who in 1297 “praised the queen of Sicily for having expropriated the property of Jewish usurers,” who “in 1300 ordered the expulsion of Jewish and Christian usurers from Avignon” and who made it a matter of Canon Law that “Jews, even minors, once baptized must Christians.”1350: Birthdate of Vincent Ferrer, the native of Valencia, who was responsible for the conversion of an untold number of Jews by methods that were other than just an appeal to faith and who helped to flame the fires of anti-Semitism in Iberia.1490: At Naples, the first printed edition of the Ramban’s “Sha’ar ha-Gemul,” The Gate of Reward, was published by Joseph ben Jacob Gunzenhauser. Gunzenhauser and his son Azriel had moved from southern Germany to Italy where “they produced various books, including a Hagiographa with rabbinical commentaries, Avicenna's medical Canon, and Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch.” Jacob passed away in 1490, the same that they published the Ramban’s seminal work.1492: At Brescia. Italy, Gershon Soncino produced the first printed Chumash with Megilot.1571: The Royal Exchange opens in London. The first Jewish broker was admitted to the Royal Exchange in 1657; the same year a piece of land was purchased for a Jewish cemetery in London.1579: The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands. The treaty that created the union guaranteed religious peace under article 13. As a consequence this, the persecuted Jews of Spain and Portugal turned toward Holland as a place of refuge.1634: Trial of the men implicated in the 'Complicidad Grande' (Great Complicity). Seventeen arrests were made by the Inquisition after a man turned another man in for being "unwilling to make a sale on Saturday," and for not wanting to eat bacon. The man’s possessions were confiscated, more people were implicated, and eventually a total of 81 persons would be locked up and their possessions sequestered. These men were prominent businessmen of the Lima (Peru) community, and their arrests and led to a "widespread commercial crisis" and failure of the community bank.1639 In Lima, Peru, at an Auto Da Fe, more than eighty New Christians were burned, including Francisco Maldonna de Silva (Elia Nazareno), after the Inquisition discovered that they were holding regular Jewish services. De Silva spent 12 years in prison, during which time he managed to write two books using a chicken bone and charcoal. Each book was about 100 pages. He succeeded in putting together a rope out of corn husks but instead of escaping he used it to visit other prisoners urging them to believe in Judaism.1656: French Philosopher Blaise Pascal published the first of his Lettres provinciales. Pascal did not radiate the anti-Semitism typical of so many European intellectuals. Over 300 years ago, when King Louis XIV of France asked, the great French philosopher, to give him proof of the supernatural. Pascal answered: "Why, the Jews, your Majesty -- the Jews." The best proof of the supernatural that Pascal could think of was: "The Jews."1719: Creation of the Principality of Liechtenstein which reportedly provided a refuge for 240 Jews fleeing the Nazis during the Holocaust.1719(8thof Shevat, 5479): Sarah Ashkenazi, the wife of Zebi Hirsch Ben Jacob Ashkenazi and “the daughter of Meshullam Zalman Mirels Neumark, chief rabbi of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck” passed away today.1765: Birthdate of Anton Von Schmid who served as an apprentice to the court printer Joseph Edler von Kurzbeck who provided him with the initial training that enabled him to become a leading printer of Hebrew books.1770: Joseph Abrahams, the son of Abraham Abrahams “was admitted as an attorney of the King’s Bench” today1789: In Washington, D.C., Georgetown becomes the first Catholic college in the United States. Today approximately 650 of Georgetown’s 6,000 are Jewish and a thousand of its 6,000 graduate students are Jewish. The school offers 35 Jewish studies courses and students can major in Jewish Studies. The university also has an active Hillel Chapter.1793: Prussia and Russia sign a treaty that is known as the Second Partition of Poland. Each of these partitions resulted in Russia acquiring large chunks of Poland, which she wanted, and large numbers of Jews which she did not want.1805: Walter Nathan married Sophia Friedberg at the Great Synagogue today.1822: Avigdor ben Benjamin married Frumat bat Abraham today at the Western Synagogue.1828: Judah Casper married Rachel Michael at the Great Synagogue today.1833: Leman Levi married Elizabeth Meyers at the Great Synagogue today.1838: David Judah Alberga married Henrietta Delgado today.1846: “Samuel and Jeanette Bloch” gave birth to Leopold Bloch who married Klara Bloch after the end of his marriage to Babette Bloch.1849: In Albany, NY, Joseph Ehrich and Rebecca Sporborg gave birth to Yale educated art dealer and “hard money advocate” Louis R. Ehrich, the husband of Henriette Minzesheimer and founder of the Ehrich Galleries on New York’s Fifth Avenue.1854: In London, Louis and Rachel Greenbaum gave birth to Samuel Greenbaum who would serve three years as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division in New York.1855: In New York City, a complaint was entered today in "The Mayor's Little Black Book" stating that on Chatham Street "a Jewish drummer is stationed in front of his store insulting passengers as they pass along. The latter nuisance is glaring and intolerable...and calls for intervention of the proper authorities." Chatham Street was the heart of the second-hand clothing “industry” and was equated with Jews in a most uncomplimentary way.1856: In Philadelphia, Morris Rosenthal and Jeanette Wallerstein Ahrndt gave birth to Henrietta Radzinski, the wife of A. Isaac Radzinski and Chicago social activist who served as a member of the national board of the Council of Jewish Women, President of the Baron Hirsch Ladies’ Aid Society and the director of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans.1864(15th of Shevat, 5624): As the United States entered into its first Presidential election campaign during wartime, Jews observe Tu B’Shevat1871(1st of Shevat, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1871(1stof Shevat, 5631): Fifty two year old Samuel (Isaac) Henry Gluckstein, the husband of Hannah Coenraad Gluckstein and the brother of Henry Gluckstein with whom he began a cigar making business in England which he later turned into a cigar manufacturing jointly run with his son Isidore and Montague passed away today.1872: Two days after she had passed away, 30 year old Caroline Abrahams, the daughter of Myer Myers and the wife of Barnet Henry Abrahams with whom she had had two sons – Joseph and Henry [[ was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1873: A large crowd braved a snowstorm to hear a lecture at the Beeckman Street Church by Jewish humorist Raphael De Cordova entitled “The New Clergyman.”1878: Marcus J. Waldheimer, a partner in the firm of Townsend & Waldheimer, denied reports that his father-in-law, Leopold Bamberger, had disappeared. Waldheimer said that Bamberger who has been holding funds in trust that are related to a messy bankruptcy case, has “merely left…temporarily for recreation.”1879: Birthdate of CCNY and NYU Law School graduate Dr. Gabriel Davidson, the managing director of the Jewish Agricultural Society, author of Our Jewish Farmers and an active member of the Jewish community as can be seen by his membership in the American Jewish Historical Society and the American Friends of the Hebrew University”1879: It was reported today that a revised edition of “Hebrew Men and Times from the Patriarchs to the Messiah” by Joseph Henry Allen will be reissued by Roberts Brothers1882: In St. Paul, MN, the Daily Globe reviewed “Hearts of Oak,” an American melodrama co-authored by David Belasco.1883: Fifty-one year old French artist Gustave Doré who illustrated “The Wandering Jew” passed away today.http://www.wikiart.org/en/gustave-dore/the-wandering-jewhttp://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/news/2014/03/21/the-legend-of-the-wandering-jew-illustrated-by-gustave-dore/http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Wandering-Jew-Joseph-Gaer/dp/B0000CKZDK1884: The first four page edition of the Financial and Mining News founded by Harry Marks which became the Financial News appeared today1888(10thof Shevat, 5648): Max Hoffheimer, a member of the board of Hebrew Union College passed away today.1888: In Breslau, Jewish businessman Max Bernstein and his wife Franziska Altmann gave birth to Arnold Bernstein, the German-American shipower who was stripped of his assets and imprisoned by the Nazis before making his way to the United States in 1939. 1889: French painter Alexandre Cabanel, who taught and was the greatest influence on the work of, Jewish painter Solomon Joseph Solomon, passed away.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solomon_Ajax_and_Cassandra.jpg1891: Birthdate of Jonas Bernanke. Born in Boryslav, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he eventually made his way to Dillon, South Carolina where he owned a drug store and raised a son named Ben who would become Chairman of the Federal Reserve.1891: In New York Harry Sachs and his wife gave birth to Joseph Howard Sachs, Harvard Grad class of 1911, an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs and the husband of Eleanor Burtis Sachs.1891: The funeral of Lazarus Rosenfeld who had served as Vice President of Temple Emanu El and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum are scheduled to be held at his home at 139 Madison Avenue starting at 9:30 a.m,1892: It was reported today that the Russian government is taking a variety of measures to avert the repetition another famine including postponing “the enactment of the laws” aimed at the Jews.1892: Birthdate of Moritz Neumann one of the last Jewish inhabitants of Kleinsteinach whom the Nazis shipped to either Izbica or Theresienstadt. 1893: The New York Times featured a review of A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco by Robert Spence Watson. Watson used a letter of introduction from Sir Moses Montefiore to the Chief Rabbi of Morocco “as a passport to meeting Jews” wherever he went. Watson reported that Montefiore’s efforts on behalf of the Moroccan Jews had improved their condition including the comment that “the children of the better class of Jews of Tangiers are taught in English” and use English textbooks.1893: “Heine in his Family Life” published today provides a detailed review of The Family Life of Heinrich Heine written by his nephew, Baron Ludwig von Embden.1893: It was reported today that while Richard Mansfield’s depiction of Shylock vividly portray “his hatred, his vindictiveness” and “his implacable cruelty in the pursuit of revenge” “he is much more successful than any other actor…in this day, in denoting the affection of the Jew for his kind and the intense mental agony he suffers over Jessica. His portrayal is deemed as “less theatrical and more human than others.” (Over the centuries, the portrayal of Shylock has reflected the skill of the actors and, more to the point, the view of Jews in current society.)1893: It was reported that Emma Goldman spoke at a meeting of anarchists who call themselves the Pioneers of Liberty1894: It was reported today that the “stores and fuel yards” that have been provided by Nathan Straus during the current Depression have been “besieged” by the poor and needy.1895: In Brooklyn, at the Academy of Music Mr. and Mrs. Moses May led the grand march at the charity ball attended by 2,000 people that raise over $10,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.1895: In New York, the Young Ladies' and Gentlemen's League of the Montefiore Home sponsored a grand ball to raise funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids. The successful fund raiser was attended by members of “the best circles of Jewish society.” The dances for the Montefiore Home have replaced the Purim Balls which up until two years ago were the great fund raising and major winter social events of these prosperous Jewish citizens1895: It was reported today that “Congregation Shearith Israel has abandoned the idea of selling the synagogue property on 19th Street between 5thand 6th Avenues. 1896: It was reported today that the officers of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society are: Moses May, President; Abraham Abraham, Vice President; Herman Newman, Treasurer. 1896: Notorious German anti-Semitic agitator Hermann Ahlwardt addressed a meeting at Proesser’s in Jersey City, NJ.1897: It was reported today that Scribner’s is ready to publish Professor Charles F. Kent’s second volume of the History of the Hebrew People.1898: An anti-Dreyfus/anti-Zola demonstration was scheduled to take place on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.1898: Ant-Semitic riots continued today in Algiers when “the mob invaded the Jews quarter and pillaged the shops in the Rue Babaoum, driving the Jewish merchants into the streets.”1898: It was reported today that Selah Miller, a Congregationalist Minister from Massachusetts has been reappointed to by the President as U.S. Consul at Jerusalem. He had served in that capacity from 1882 to 1886. 1898: The annual meeting of the Mount Sinai Hospital Society was held today in the Dispensary building on east 67th Street.1898: “A Man Fasts For Twenty Years” published today describes the regiment followed by Morris Fox, a forty year old Jew from Russia who has been living in London for the last twenty years. During that time he has lived exclusively on a diet of six pints of milk, three pints of beer and half pound of Demerara sugar. Physicians in Konigsberg provided this “fast” which has proven to be the only way to cope with effects of an illness that “entirely destroyed his digestive organs.” 1898: One day after he had passed away, 35 year old Mendel Hoffman was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London. 1898: It was reported today that the ant-Dreyfus riots at “Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseilles” and other cities outside of Paris “are frankly anti-Semitic…The mobs have a single purpose which is to outrage, plunder and kill in the Jewish quarters.” Their cries against Zola are based on their belief that he is a “hired champion” of the Jews. (More for 2014) 1898: It was reported today that American correspondent does not think that Sarah Bernhardt will enjoy a successful season this winter when she performs in Paris. 1898: It was reported today that Justice J.J. Cohen, Isaac N. Seligman and Jacob Schiff were among those who attended Legal Aid Society’s 22nd annual dinner at Delmonico’s. (More 2014) 1898 (29th of Tevet, 5658): Yehoshua Yehudah Leib Diskin passed away. Born in 1818, this important rabbi, Talmudist and Biblical commentator was also known as the Maharil Diskin,. He served as a rabbi in Łomża, Mezritch, Kovno, Shklov, Brisk and finally Jerusalem after moving there in 1878, where he became the spiritual leader of a part of the Yishuv haYashan. He was part of a family of rabbis. His father, Binyamin Diskin, served as rabbi in Grodno, Volkovisk and later Łomża. His son was Rabbi Yitzchok Yeruchem Diskin. 1899: Henry Herzberg delivered a lecture at Temple Beth-El tonight in New York entitled “The Soul of Judaism.1899: Three days after he had passed away, 45 year old Walter Bertram Phillips the sone of Barnet Samuel Phillips and Philippa Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1899: The Baron de Hirsch Trade Schools are scheduled to move into a new facility on East Sixty Fourth Street. The school had outgrown its old facility on East 9thStreet that it had occupied for the last five years 1899(12thof Shevat, 5659): Five months before his 50th birthday Bohemian born, University of Vienna trained lawyer Emil Schiff who worked as a journalist while piling up knowledge that he never used for practical purpose including the study of “higher mathematics at Berlin University and graduating from Medical School passed away after which a memorial address was delivered at the Berlin Medical Society.1899: It was reported today that newly created Central Federate Union which has replaced the old Central Labor Union refused to admit delegates from the Federated Hebrew Trades Unions because “they represented a central body and not individual unions.”1899: In Albany, New York state Senator Elsbeg introduced a bill that would the Hebrew Infant Asylum of New York to the list of institutions that are entitled to receive public money.1900(23rdof Shevat, 5660): English born “communal worker” Alfred H. Beddington, a warden of the Central Synagogue and a member of committees devoted to “the Jews’ Free School, the Jews’ College, the Jewish Middle-Class School for Girls and the Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge.”1900: The Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society who members include Alfred Jaretzki, Percy S. Straus, Eugene Meyer, Jr. and Solomon G. Rosnebaum was organized today.1902(15thof Shevat, 5662): Tu B’Shevat1902: In Grass Valley, CA, Polish-Jewish immigrants Fannie (Meyer) and Zalkin H. Rubinstein gave birth to Cecilia Rubinstein who as Cecelia Ager, the wife of songwriter Milton Agar, “was the first female reporter for Variety, a movie critic for PMand contributor to the New York Times” while raising their two daughters -- Laurel Bentley and Shana Alexander. 1904(6thof Shevat, 5664): Sixty-two year old Flaminio Ephraim Servi who had been serving as chief rabbi at Casale-Monferrato (Italy) since 1872, passed away today.1904: Herzl was received by the Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele III. The king showed a serious interest in Zionism. But under the Italian political system, the king reigns but does not rule so it will be to Foreign Minister Tittoni to gain political support in Constantinople. Tittoni asked for a memorandum and promised to write to the Italian ambassador in Constantinople.1906: It was reported today that a mass meeting held in New York to celebrate the first anniversary of “Red Sunday” when thousands of workingmen were shot down in St. Petersburg when they tried to deliver a petition to the Czar there were cries of “Down with anti-Semitism” followed later by a denunciation of “the massacre of the Jews.”1909: Birthdate of Simon W. Gerson, a leader of CPUSA and editor for The Daily Worker.1909: In the UK, Blanche Esther Barnett and Lionel D. Barnett, M.A., Ph.D., CB gave birth Richard David Barnett, the British academic, “an authority on archaeology of the ancient world”, President of the Jewish Historical Society of England, Chairman of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society and the husband of Barbara Barnett.1910: The Board of Directors of Mount Sinai Hospital held their annual board meeting today at the hospital on 100th Street and Fifth Avenue. During the reading of the annual report Isaac Stern, the President, announced that the plan to establish a federation of the larger Jewish charitable institutions of the city, a plan for some time in contemplation, had failed. Mr. Stern said that there were certain disadvantages to the creation of such a federation without the guarantee of “any permanent advantages.” Therefore, the directors considered it “in the best interest of the community not give their consent” to such a plan. Mr. Stern announced that the children of the late Mayer Lehman had donated $78,528 which was to be used to add two stories to the Dispensary Building as a memorial to their late father. In the past year, almost 89% of the nearly 9,000 patients admitted to the hospital were treated without paying a fee. The hospital’s expenditure of $399,170 exceeded income by almost $15,000. Jacob Schiff, who apparently favored the creation of the federation, gave a speech in which he thanked the board and the medical staff for their efforts in the last year. The board’s decision about joining a federation of charitable institutions doomed the idea at a cost of one million dollars. That was the amount that the late Louis A. Heinsheimer had set aside in his will for such an organization, if and when, it should be created. 1912: Hugo Doblin and Herwatch Walden served as best men at the wedding Erna Reiss, a medical student and daughter of a wealthy factory owner to Bruno Alfred Döblin whose works including Berlin Alexanderplatz published in 19291913(15thof Shevat, 5673): Tu B’Shevat1913: The annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC which S.S. Brill of St. Louis attended as a delegate came to an end. 1913: The 3 day ceremonies marking the dedication of new buildings at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, came to an end today. 1913: At today’s session of the 23rd Biennial Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations Simon Wolf of Washington, DC, Chairman of the Board of Civil and Religious Rights delivered a report on his group’s activities which have “dealt with the problems of immigration” and providing clarification for the general public of matters” regarding the unfair discrimination to American citizenship by the Russian authorities in the recent passport legislation.” 1914: Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson will appear for the last time on the New York stage when he plays the starring role in “The Merchant of Venice” at the Manhattan Opera House.1915: Among those listed today as contributors to the Red Cross fund of which Jacob H. Schiff is Treasurer is Congregation B’Nai Israel of Natchez, Mississippi.1915: “The American Jewish War Relief Committee of which Louis Marshall is President and Felix M. Warburg is a Treasurer issued a statement today showing that since December 13 the committee has sent $200,000 to Europe and Palestine” and that to date “the committee’s relief fund” now totals “more than $378,000.1916: In New York City, Jewish immigrants Samuel and Bella Price, who would move to San Diego in the 1920’s gave birth to Sol Price, the founder of Price Club which later merged with warehouse giant Cosco.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/business/16price.html1916: Birthdate of Irwin Witty who played Center for the 1938 NYU basketball team which he led to their first appearance in a “final four tournament” – The NIT.1916: It was reported today that the American Jewish Relief Committee has received to date $1,236,846 including a contribution of $328.32 from the Provisional Executive Committee “for the relief of Jews in Palestine” and $250 form “Minneapolis Jews.”1916: At Carnegie Hall, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue delivered a sermon today in which he defended Zionism from charges that it was un-patriotic and un-American.1916: “United States Senator Martin of New Jersey, Mayor Mitchell, Commissioner of Immigration Frederick C. Howe, New York Congressman Walter M. Chandler and Isaac Siegel, Louis D. Brandeis, Adolph Lewisohn, Samuel Untermyer and Judge Leon Sanders” are all reported to be among the speakers who will address tomorrow evening’s meeting at Carnegie Hall hosted by the Jewish Congress Organization Committee. 1917: It was reported today that Dr. H.G. Enelow, the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El told an audience that included Jews and non-Jews that “Jewish interest in Jesus should be aroused…by the fact that Jesus was a Jew” and that while such writers as Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and George Moore were “brilliant” their views on this topic were “inaccurate” because “they did not know enough about Jesus’ relation to the Jews to fit them for the instruction of others.”1918: In New York Bertha Cohen and Robert Elion, DDS, gave birth to Gertrude Belle Elion. Elion graduated from Hunter College and then earned a Master in Science from N.Y.U. in 1941. In a classic case of sex discrimination, she was unable to obtain a graduate research job which meant she could not earn a Ph.D. Thus the 1988 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ended up working as a lab assistant and high school teacher.https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1988/elion/biographical/1918: The list of the newest members of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee published today including William Fox of New York, Moses A. Gunst of San Francisco, Samuel Lamport of New York City, Joseph Michaels of Rochester, NY, H.B. Rosen from the Harrison National Bank of New York City, Abe Rothstein of New York City, Reuben Sadowsky of New York City, Ben Salling of Portland, OR, Jacob Sperber of New York City and Judge Edward L. Lazansky of Brooklyn. 1918: The Chief Rabbi of Algeria plans a community building which will contain a yeshiva, an assembly hall, a library, shelter for strangers, a mikvah and a bakery for matzah.1919: Birthdate of Patterson NJ native and West Virginia football player Millard Lampell the blacklisted television and movie screenwriter whose first brush with social protest appears to have come from songwriting with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthries.http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/11/arts/millard-lampell-78-writer-and-supporter-of-causes-dies.html1919: In Mannville, Alberta, Max Goffman, and his wife, Ann (née Averbach) gave birth to Frances Goffman who gained fame as character actress Frances Bey who played Fonzi’s grandmother on “Happy Days.”http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/17/local/la-me-frances-bay-201109171919: General Lyautey, the resident General of Morocco visits the Mellah (Jewish Quarter) and urges the Jews to contribute towards its sanitation and enlargement.1921: Birthdate of Gdansk native Justus Rosenberg, a member of Vivian’s Fry’s Emergency Rescue Committee which helped to spirit “intellectuals and artists” out of Vichy France and went on to a career as a Professor at Bard College.1921: The members of the directorate are scheduled to talk about the year’s accomplishment today at the annual meeting of the Bronx Hospital at Temple Adath Israel.1921: In Shanghai, Rabbi W. Hirsch consecrated The Ohel Rachel Synagogue for worship. This marked the culminating achievement of Shanghai's First Wave of Jewish immigrants and it was built to accommodate the community of Baghdadi Jews which at its peak numbered 700.1921: Approximately three students are scheduled to receive their diplomas when “twelve of the largest Talmud Torahs and Hebrew Schools in Manhattan hold joint graduation exercises” today “at Stuyvesant High School after which Israel Unterberg, Samuel C. Lamport, Joseph Levy and Harry H. Liebowitz will host a dinner at the Jewish Center.1923: Birthdate of Dina Gottliebova, the native of Brno who gained fame as Dina Babbit who survived Auschwitz by drawing portraits of Dr. Josef Menegle1923: “The Stone Rider” a silent film starring Lucie Mannheim was released today in Germany. 1923 (6th of Shevat, 5683): Max Nordau passed away at the age of 73. http://www.herzl.org/english/Article.aspx?Item=531 http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/Nordau_Biography.htm1924: Laborite Emmanuel “Manny” Shinwell began his first term as Secretary of Mines under Prime Minister MacDonald.1924: In Paterson, NJ, Sam and Mollie Lautenberg gave birth to Frank Lautenberg who rose to be a United States, a support of the down-trodden and a leader in the Jewish communityhttp://www.jta.org/2013/06/03/news-opinion/politics/new-jersey-sen-frank-lautenberg-dies-at-89 1925: In Rokiskis, Lithuania, Avraham and Devora Harmatz, gave birth to Joseph Harmatz, a Holocaust survivor and comrade of Abba Kovner who plotted to kill German soldiers at WW II passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/world/europe/joseph-harmatz-dead.html?_r=01929: Birthdate of Myron Sidney Kopelman, who, as Myron Cope, would become an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers."1931: “The Man Who Murdered” a crime film directed by Curtis Bernhardt with a script by Henry Koster and Carl Mayer was released today in Germany.1931: Sir Isaac Isaacs was sworn in as the first Australian born Governor General.1931: Ninety-one year old Catholic theologian and author of anti-Semitic polemics August Rohling whose work included Der Talmudjude published in 1871 “which bean a standard work for anti-Semitic authors and journalist” passed away today in Salzburg.1932(15thof Shevat, 5692): Parashat Beshalach; Tu B’Shevat1932(15thof Shevat, 5692): Fifty year old Australian born, Laborite MP Marion Phillips passed away today.https://spartacus-educational.com/Amarion_phillips.htmhttps://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Phillips-Marion1932: Chief Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo of the Court of Appeals was formally endorsed for associate justice of the United States Supreme Court to fill the seat recently vacated by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes at tonight’s closing session of the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association at the Hotel Astor1932: In Manhattan, Sidne Silverman, the son of Sime Silverman the publisher who founded Variety in New York and Daily Variety in Hollywood and former actress Marie Saxon gave birth to their only son Syd who continued the family publishing business.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/business/media/syd-silverman-90-who-kept-variety-boffo-for-30-years-is-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well 1933: Birthdate of composer Joel Spiegelman.1933: At 7:30 p.m., the NBC Blue Network broadcast the 9th episode of “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and Chico, and written primarily by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman.”1934: “No More Ladies” a comedy produced by Lee Shubert and co-starring Melvyn Douglas opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre.1936: Sir Isaac Isaacs, a native born Australian who was the son of Polish Jews, completes his term as the 9th Governor-General of Australia.1936: Senator William H. King of Utah told that the U.S. Senate today “that 600,000 Jews were” being subjected to “ruthless persecution under decrees of the present German regime” and that “Congress must soon face” the need to liberalize the immigration laws of the United States “to permit the admission of Jewish refugees from Germany.”1937: Today, the United Palestine Appeal released an economic survey on “How Many Jews Can Palestine Hold?” by Joseph L. Cohen, “a British member of the advisor of the committee on social insurance of the International Labor Organization” which show among other things that the “Jewish population” in Palestine had “increased from 17 to 30 per cent of the total population during the last few years” and that today, “there are forty-seven Jews to every 100 Arabs.”1937: In Moscow, 17 leading Communists went on trial. They were accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders. Stalin combined Trotsky’s Jewish parentage with traditional Russian anti-Semitism to demonize Trotsky and destroy those opposing his authoritarian rule. Having branded the “Jew, Trostky” as an enemy of the revolution, or the Communist Party and/or the Soviet Union, Stalin would feel to move against the Jews of the U.S.S.R when it fit his needs or his demonic spirit.1938: The Palestine Post reported that two Arabs, implicated in the murder of J.L. Starkey, a noted archaeologist who was excavating in Palestine, were hanged at Acre. The Motza brick and burnt-tile factory was completely gutted by fire. Arson by Arab terrorists was suspected. Ephraim Brin, 19, and Aziz Jacob, 17, both of Jerusalem, were the first Jews to be sentenced, under the newly created Military Courts, to five years' imprisonment for carrying a pistol and a few rounds of ammunition.1940: In Perth Amboy, NJ, Philip Kaplan Cheuse who defected from the Russian Air Force and the former Matilda Diamond gave birth to author and critic Alan Stuart Cheuse.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/books/alan-cheuse-author-and-npr-book-critic-dies-at-75.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article1941: Charles Lindbergh testified before the U.S. Congress and recommended that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler. For those who are perplexed by Roosevelt’s response to the plight of European Jewry, this entry should give you a clue as to the kind of the environment in which he was operating. “The Lone Eagle” was a national monument and, as the leader of the America First Movement, he saw WW II was a European measure. He would only grudgingly give ground on his opposition to war once the bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor. Opposition of this magnitude fashioned all of FDR’s decisions about the war, including how to deal with the Shoah. It is only with the warmth of the myth of America’s Greatest Generation that the United States seems like an ant-fascist monolith in WWII 1941: “Lady in the Dark” a product of “3 Jewish Musketeers” - music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart – opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York 1942(5th of Shevat, 5702): In Novi Sad, Hungary, 550 Jews and 292 Serbs were driven onto the ice and then shelled. All drowned. [Ed. Note: Who says Kaddish for these people?]http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/07.asp 1942(5th of Shevat, 5702): Paul Levinstein was killed in Hadjerat M'Guil a Nazi concentration camp built in remote part of the Sahara Desert in 1941. Upon hearing of their son's death his parents committed suicide in Britain. 1942: Hungarian military units began “cleaning up” the region of captured Yugoslavia which included the massacre of the local Jews. http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/07.asp1943: Italian authorities refuse to cooperate with Germans in deportations of French Jews living in zones of France under Italian control1943: The “father, mother and daughter” of Moshe Hans Jahoda who had escaped to Palestine five months before the start of WWII, “were transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp, where all three were murdered. 1943: The last airfield held by the Nazis fell to the Russian cutting any further supply to the 6th Army which brought victory at Stalingrad ever so much closer1943: Marcia Davenport, the daughter of Bernard Glick and Alma Gluck was a panelist today on a radio panel show “The People’s Platform: when one of the other panelist had a heart attack and passed away. 1944: "Ode to Napoleon" by the Jewish composer Arnold Schoenberg premieres in New York City 1945: Birthdate of Bruce Ratner. Appointed by Ed Koch to the position of Commissioner of Consumer Affairs for New York City in 1978, he became a real estate developer in 1982. He is now the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, his net worth now several hundred million dollars. Ratner is the developer charged with building the New York Times Tower. He is a member of the board of the Jewish Heritage Museum.1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. began its meetings today in London. 1947: Diana Dill and Kirk Douglas gave birth to their second son movie producer Joel Douglas.1947: U.S. premiere of “Johnny O’Clock” directed by Robert Rossen, featuring Lee J. Cob and providing Jeff Chandler (Ira Gorssel) with his appearance in a major motion picture.1949: At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented. A year later, two Jewish stars would dominate the Emmy Awards. The Texaco Star Theatre starring Milton Berle and The Ed Wynn Show starring Ed Wynn would walk off with top honors while Berle and Wynn would each earn awards in their own right.1950: The 3rd edition of Famous 1st Facts by Jewish trivia expert Joseph Kane is published1950: Israeli Knesset resolved that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel1952: Birthdate of Jeanette Ingberman, the Brooklyn born daughter of Holocaust survivors who became a founder of the New York cultural center Exit Art, a hotbed of avant-garde work by artists from around the world. (As reported by Margalit Fox)http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/23/1952/this-week-in-history-january-23-1952-jeanette-ingberman-founder-of-exit-art-is 1953(7thof Shevat, 5713): Zlynka native Solomon Bregman the editor-in-chief of The Book About Jews-Heroes of the War against Fascism who was arrested “with other members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1948” passed away today in jail “after surviving several severe beatings.”1953: The Jerusalem Post reported from New York that the Soviet Union was about to break diplomatic relations with Israel. The first five tons of the copper ore, excavated from Timna mine in the Negev, were sent for industrial tests to Europe.1954: “Killers from Space” a sci-fi film directed and produced by W. Lee Wilder was released today in the United States.1955(29thof Tevet, 5715): Fifty-two year old New Yorker Fanny Levy, a friend of Dr. William Fernhoff and his wife, the former Tola Schwarz died from injuries from an automobile accident in which all three had been victims two days ago.1959(14thof Shevat, 5719): Terrorists killed a shepherd from Kibbutz Lehavot HaBashan.1960: Birthdate of Sheri Miriam Goldhirsch the Brooklyn native who became the “artistic director of Young Playwrights, Inc.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/theater/sheri-m-goldhirsch-who-nurtured-young-playwrights-dies-at-55.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01960: Israeli General Yitzhak Rabin sends an aerial reconnaissance across the Suez Canal to ascertain the position of Nasser’s advancing troops. When the troops cannot be found, Rabin correctly assumes they have crossed the Canal. It turned out that the bulk of Egyptian army was almost at the border with Israel where they would only be opposed by force of twenty or thirty tanks. 1963: The latest installment of the memoirs of Ilya Ehrenberg which describe the Soviet response to the invasion of June, 1941, appeared today. Ehrenbeg depicted a hesitant Stalin whose ever—present picture disappeared from view for months and who did not speak to the nation until November of 1941. This installment also describes how Stalin mobilized Soviet Jews including Ehrenberg, Sergei Eisenstein and Solomon Mikhoels to make broadcasts abroad to gain support for the Soviets in their fight against the Nazis. [After the war, Stalin, like Pharaoh, would know not the Jewish contribution and murdered many of them included Mikhoels.]1963: Recording session began today at Columbia’s Studio A in New York that would lead to “The Barbra Streisand Album.”1963: Lew Pollack’s “Charmaine” was released today Decca Rcords.1964: Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" premiered in New York City. 1968: Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi merged into the Israeli Labor Party and ceased to exist as individual entities.1969: “Hour of the Wolf” the second album of the rock group Hassles whose members included Billy Joel who wrote some of the songs for the LP was released today. 1972: In Caen, France Dr. Jacques Drucker and his wife Martine gave birth to French actress Léa Drucker 1973(20thof Shevat, 5773): A Palestinian terrorist murdered Baruch Cohen in Madrid.1974: “Professor David Azbel announced his intention to hold a hunger strike in support of Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn.”1974: “Izak Tsudikovich Hochberg of Kishinev, the well-known mathematics professor and Corresponding Member of Moldavian Academy of Sciences, was dismissed from his post as head of Department in the Institute of Mathematics after applying to emigrate to Israel.” 1975: "Barney Miller" starring Hal Linden premiered on ABC TV. 1976: It was reported today that even if the Soviet Union is overhauling its emigration procedures, “emigrants to Israel will continue to pay 500 additional rubles ($665) to renounce their Soviet Citizenship…” (As reported by JTA)1976: It was reported today that the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) “has learned of a new Soviet Jewish “Prisoner of Conscience,” Lydia Abatorovna Nisanova the 32 year old native of Derbent who applied to emigrate in July 1975 and who was sentenced recently to a year-and-a-half for speculation.” (As reported today by JTA)1977(4th of Shevat, 5737): Bernard "Toots" Shor passed away. “Toots Shor, a bulky Jewish street kid from Philadelphia, who made and gambled away several fortunes in the big town, was in a sense the original insult comic—crass, coarse, jesting jibes being the prime ingredient of pal ship among all those heavy hitters.” Shor was the premier Saloonkeeper and his New York restaurant was a thing of legend.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/movies/17shor.html 1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet decided to postpone the military talks held with Egypt in Cairo, after the Egyptian delegation broke off political negotiations with Israel, held in Jerusalem. It was expected that this step might influence Egypt to moderate its demands, in tone as well as in contents. The US expressed its disappointment with Israel's sharp reaction to President Anwar Sadat's demands for a total withdrawal to the 1967 borders and the recognition of the rights of the Palestinians. Four hundred and twenty-five Israelis flew to the US under the 'Friendly Force' program designed to promote peace through personal contacts. 1978 (15th of Shevat, 5738): A hundred thousand trees were planted on Tu Bishvat by the Jewish National Fund.1981: Birthdate of Long Branch, NJ, native and UCLA gymnast Alyssa Erin Beckerman who earned a Gold Medal for her performance on the Balance Beam at the U.S. National Championship in 2000.https://web.archive.org/web/20110725154600/http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/w-gym/mtt/beckerman_alyssa00.html1984(19thof Shevat, 5744): Ninety-two year old Pulitzer Prize winning composer and violinist Samuel Gardner, the husband of Henrietta Holtzman Gardner with whom he had two children – Sally and Herbert – passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/24/obituaries/samuel-gardner-92-is-dead-violinist-and-juilliard-teacher.html1986: "Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood" opens at Ritz Theater New York City. 1987: Meir Heth, was appointed today as the new chairman of Bank Leumi L'Yisrael, Israel's biggest commercial bank. The former head of the Tel Aviv stock exchange, Heith was criticized over a 1983 collapse of bank shares. A commission of inquiry last year criticized Mr. Heth for failing to prevent the country's four major banks from manipulating their shares. 1988: As the Arab uprising called the Intifada brings an increase in violence the representative of the Arab League and three other Arab diplomats met with a senior State Department official today to complain about what they considered inadequate United States pressure on Israel to halt the violence against Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 1990(26thof Tevet, 5750): Eighty-five year old Nathan N. Rosen, a graduate of Yeshiva University and Columbia College who served as an Army Chaplain during World War II before beginning a 25 year career as a chaplain at Brown University where he founded the Hillel chapter, passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/obituaries/nathan-n-rosen-rabbi-85.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm 1991. At a briefing this morning, Israeli officials appeared to play down the deaths that occurred when an Iraqi Scud missile evaded two American Patriot air-defense missiles and slammed into a Tel Aviv suburb on Tuesday night, leaving 3 people dead and 96 wounded emphasizing that the three victims had suffered heart attacks. 1991: The first episode of the second season of "Seinfeld" debuts on NBC-TV1994: Coach Marv Levy led the Buffalo Bills to victory over the Kansas City Chiefs which marked his fourth straight victory in the American Football Conference Championship.1997(15thof Shevat, 5757): Tu B’Shevat1998: “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” co-starring Side Caesar and Howard Morris is scheduled to be released today in the United States.1998: “Phantoms” the movie version of the novel by the same name produced by Bob and Harvey Weinstein and starring Live Schreiber was released in the United States today. 1997: Madeleine Albright became the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State. During her term as Secretary of State, Albright found out for the first time that her family was Jewish.1999: Today, Gene Siskeil reviewed “The Theory of Flight” which marked his last on-air appearance with co-host Roger Ebert.2000: The New York Times includes a review of The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker, 1849-1999 by Niall Ferguson.2001: This afternoon, two Tel Aviv restaurateurs and an Israeli Arab friend sat down for a late lunch in Tulkarm, a battle-scarred town rarely visited by Israeli Jews since the West Bank erupted in riotous protests nearly four months ago. The three were seized by armed men who later let the Israeli Arab go, but shot the two Israeli Jews at point-blank range, Israeli officials said. Hamas, the militant Gaza-based Islamic movement, took responsibility for what it called an ''execution'' and said the shooting had been videotaped.2001: The killing of two Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants earlier today interrupted a new round of peace negotiations here, with Prime Minister Ehud Barak condemning the slayings as ''horrendous'' and ordering the three cabinet ministers in the talks to return to Jerusalem.2001: Today, in a talk with high school students on the campaign trail, Ehud Barak appeared to disavow proposals for relinquishing control of the ancient city core of Jerusalem. ''Under any settlement, the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter, and the Mount of Olives, and what is called the holy basin, will remain under Israeli sovereignty,'' Mr. Barak said.2002(10th of Shevat, 5762): Bernard Rothman passed away. Cause of death was a stroke. He was better known as Benny Rothman, “a UK political activist, most famous for his leading role in the Mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932. He was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, in 1911. He is family was so poor that he had to start work at the earliest opportunity rather than take full advantage of a scholarship that he had won. Working as an errand boy in the motor trade, he studied geography and economics in his spare time while his Aunt Ettie introduced him to The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and the works of Upton Sinclair. Increasingly committed to the causes of socialism and communism, Rothman lost his job after getting into some trouble with the law while selling copies of the Daily Worker. During a period of unemployment, with the help of a bicycle salvaged from spare parts, he discovered the nearby wilderness regions of the Peak District and North Wales. The combination of his political activism and interest in the outdoors led to his participation in the mass trespass of 1932, an enterprise that resulted in a spell in prison and further employment difficulties. In 1934, Rothman went to work at Avro in Newton Heath and instantly became an officer of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). At Avro's, he met and married fellow communist Lily Crabtree but his political views became increasingly visible to his employer and he was dismissed. Rothman was active in working with Jewish groups in Manchester to oppose the campaigns of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. In 1936, he started work at Metropolitan Vickers at Trafford Park and was again soon an AEU official.”2002: Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in Karachi, Pakistan. Based on the tape of his murder, Pearl was killed because he was a Jew.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/daniel-pearls-death-10-years-later-an-interview-with-his-father-judea-pearl/2012/02/21/gIQAKChtRR_blog.htmlhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB1014311357552611480.html2003 (20th of Shevat, 5763): Actress Nell Carter passed away. She had converted from Catholicism to Judaism in 1982.2003: The 12th annual Jewish Film Festival comes to an end in New York.2003: As of 10 pm, Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, the holy man of unknown but tremendous age, who was scheduled to visit the Hall of Moses synagogue and then a candlelit graveyard in this Tel Aviv suburb tonight for a rally that mixed mystic ritual with all the grit of Chicago ward politics had failed to make an appearance and the police were forced to disperse the disappointed crowd2004(29thof Tevet, 5764): German born photographer Helmut Newton passed away. (As reported by Suzy Menkes)http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/26/news/26iht-obits_ed3__23.htmlhttp://www.helmutnewton.com/ 2004: U.S. premiere of “The Butterfly Effect” featuring Logan Lerman which was distributed in Israel by Forum Film. 2005: The Squid and the Whale, an American comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach featuring Jesse Eisenberg as “Walt Berkman” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 2005: Stanley Fischer, a widely respected American economist and banker, has agreed to leave the United States and a job as a vice chairman of Citigroup to become governor of the Bank of Israel. 2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including recently published paperback editions of Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life by Michael Korda and Unsettled: An Anthropolgy of Jews, Melvin Konner’s sweeping study that follows a roughly historical outline, from the earliest pre-biblical days to the establishment of the state of Israel, and tracks down far-flung Jewish communities in China, India and Afghanistan. 2006: The Andrew Carnegie Medal for best children's video was given to the producers of Mordicai Gerstein's "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers," winner of the Caldecott in 2004. Mordicai Gerstein was born in Los Angeles in 1935. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Susan Yard Harris, who is also an illustrator, and their daughter, Risa. The award winning illustrator, painter and graphics artist has collaborated on numerous books for children including many with a Jewish motif including Queen Esther the Morning Star, Noah and the Great Flood and Jonah and the Two Great Fish2006: In “Attorney's Perseverance Yields a Legal Masterpiece” published today Anne-Marie O’Connor described Randol Schoenberg’s struggle to re-gain art looted by the Nazis.http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/23/local/me-schoenberg232006(7th of Tevet, 5766): Andrea Bronfman, the wife of Jewish Canadian billionaire Charles Bronfman, was killed in a traffic accident in New York Monday.2007: “Attorney-General Mazuz announced that he would consider charging Katsav with rape, sexual harassment, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, harassment of a witness and fraud.” 2007(4th of Shevat, 5767): Aharon Uzan passed away at the age of 82. Born in Tunisia in 1924, he made Aliyah in 1949 where he became active in a variety of left-wing political parties. He served in the Knesset and held a variety of cabinet posts included Minister of communications and Minister of Agriculture.2007: "Two Hands” a short documentary on Leon Fleisher by Nathaniel Kahn was nominated for an Academy Award for best short subject today2007: Israel’s “Sweet Mud” and Holland’s “Black Book,” a movie about a Jewish woman serving in the Resistance against the Nazis are among 61 foreign language films that may be nominated for an Oscar.2007: Rabbi Andrew Bossov successfully received a kidney from Methodist minister, Reverend Karen Onesti.2008: “Lasting Legacy: Al Malnik” published to described Malnik’s rise from St. Louis teenage gangster to millionaire and south Florida trend setter.http://hauteliving.com/2008/01/lasting-legacy/2109/2008: It was announced today that Randy Lerner had donated £5 million to the National Gallery, the largest single donation that it has ever received, which may accounted for the fact that the ground floor galleries will named “The Lerner Galleries.” 2008: The third and final episode of “The Jewish Americans” airs on PBS. The three episode series traces the history of the Jews in America starts with the arrival of the first 23 Sephardic Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654 and “ends with Maisyahu, the Chasidic hip-hop star, one of about six million Jews in America today.” For more information see http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/jewishamericans/2008: The New York Jewish Film Festival presents “Labyrinths of Memory, a documentary that draws parallels between two very different women united by a search for identity: Maite Guiteras, Mexican born, adopted at birth, and raised in Cuba; and the film’s director, born in Costa Rica to East European Jewish parents and raised in Mexico. Each defies ethnic and geographic boundaries to travel to her ancestral home to claim a place in the world”; “The Unkosher Truth a short documentary in which the filmmaker must muster the courage to tell her father, an Orthodox rabbi and U.S. Army general, that her boyfriend is German and gentile”; “Film Fanatic, in which Ultra-Orthodox Jew Yehuda Grovais rebels against his religious community, and battles the secular cultural establishment in Israel to make Hollywood-style blockbusters on a budget.”2008: In a night time attack, two armed Palestinians affiliated with Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades infiltrated a yeshiva at Kfar Etzion wounding three civilians. The two had just been released from an Israeli prison.2008 (16th of Shevat, 5768): Rami Zuari, a 20 year old Border Police officer was killed during a terrorist attack at an East Jerusalem checkpoint. Border Police officer Shoshana Samendayev sustained moderate to serious injuries in the same attack. 2008: The New York Times featured a review of The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin, the autobiography of Cioma Schonhaus.2009: “Lansky,” a one-man play about Meyer Lansky starring Mike Burstyn opens in an off-Broadway production. “Acclaimed American/Israeli actor Mike Burstyn stars as Meyer Lansky in the New York premiere of a new play by Richard Krevolin and Joseph Bologna about the life of the “little man,” known as the “brains behind the mob,” and his efforts to become an Israeli citizen. 2009: Final showing of “Zion and His Brother,” a family drama set in Tel Aviv, at the Sundance Film Festival.2009: Shiva ended for Sherwin “Shy” Raiken the Villanova and New York Knicks basketball player who had passed away at the age of eighty.2009: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids hosts another creative Musical Shabbat Service.2009: In “The End of a Chicago Tradition: Is absolutely nothing sacred?”, published todaySusan Berger reports on the demise of the Best Kosher Sausage Company while documenting the history of a small slice of Chicago-based Jewish Americana.http://www.bukisa.com/articles/72013_bests-kosher-franks-a-chicago-institution-closed-after-123-years2010: The 19th annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York premiere of “Eyes Wide Open,” a film whose protagonist is an ultra-orthodox butcher living in Jerusalem.2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Protektor,” “a smart, stylish psycho-thriller about a Prague journalist and his part-Jewish wife whose lives are ravaged by the outbreak of WWII.”2010: Israel is looking into adopting Haitians orphaned by January 12's earthquake, Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog told The Jerusalem Post today.2011: Adam “Richman appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America as a judge for a battle with Gruyère cheese as the theme ingredient” 2011: “Another Day” directed by Sam Levinson who also wrote the script and starring Ellen Barkin who also co-produced the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival today.2011: Israeli cellist Amit Peled and pianist Eli Kalman are scheduled to perform this afternoon at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.2011: The 2011 Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival is scheduled to present “Laughter Yoga Workshop with Molly Dworsky” and “An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein.”2011: The Los Angeles Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including J.D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein and the recently published paperback editions of A Strange Death by Hillel Halkin and Where The God of Loves Hangs Out by Amy Bloom.2011(18th of Shevat, 5771): Rabbi Nachum Zev Dessler, a leader at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland for more than 60 years and a nationally known leader in Orthodox education passed away today at the age of 89. (As reported by The Eulogizer)2011(18THof Shevat, 5771): Ninety-year old Stanley Frazen “a longtime film and television editor who was a member of the Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit during World War II,” passed away today at his home in Studio Cityhttp://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/film-television-editor-stanley-frazen-75597 2012: “Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story” is scheduled to shown this evening at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2012: At Wolfson College, Oxford, Penguin Books celebrated the golden jubilee of The Dead Scrolls in English by Géza Vermes 2012: Israeli pianist Alon Goldstein and the Jupiter musicians are scheduled to perform Schubert's celebrated Piano Trio in B-flat Major and the Beethoven "Gassenhauer" Trio at Good Shepherd Church in NYC.2012: On the secular calendar, 10th anniversary of the kidnapping of Danny Pearl. 2013(12thof Shevat, 5775): Eighty-eight year old investment banker Edward M. Kresky passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/nyregion/edward-m-kresky-88-calmed-fiscal-panic.html?hpw 2013: L'ayla Women's Initiative is scheduled to present a lecture by “The Shmuz” also known as Rabbi Bentzion Shafier. 2013: The final performance “The Winter’s Tale” sponsored by the Association of Americans and Canadians In Israel is scheduled to take place this evening in Jerusalem. 2013: The Republican Jewish Coalition is scheduled to sponsor an evening with Lela Gilbert and Jennifer Rubin – “The Real Israel: An American Christian’s Perspective” – at the Park East Synagogue. 2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set out his principles for forming a new government Wednesday, issuing a brief statement in which he listed the needs for a more equitable distribution of the national burden, affordable housing and changing the system of government as his would-be coalition’s three top priorities. 2013: Following the Knesset elections, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Israel Radio today the US government remains committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He also said that Washington looks forward to continued cooperation with the next Israeli government. 2014: Artist Dasha Shishkin is scheduled to provide commentary to “Chagall: Love, War and Exile” at the Jewish Museum.http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/chagall-love-war-exile 2014: As part of the JPS/Skirball Series, Salo Aizenberg is scheduled to introduce his new book, Hatemail: Anti-Semitism on Picture Postcards. 2014: The United Nations Department of Public Information is scheduled to present “The 70th Anniversary of the Deportation of the Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust” during which “the participants will learn how the German Security Police worked with Hungarian authorities to systematically deport Jews from Hungary in May of 1944.”2014: In an appearance that was not listed on the Mayor’s public schedule, Mayor Bill de Blasio gave an unannounced speech at a Manhattan gala of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, assuring its members that “part of my job description is to be a defender of Israel.”2014: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today laid out the dilemma facing his administration when it comes to the Palestinian conflict — the imperative to avoid a binational state encompassing Israel and the Palestinians, but also to prevent a future Palestinian state from becoming an Iranian proxy. “Half of Palestinian society is dominated by Iran’s proxy,” he said in an apparent reference to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. (As reported by Lazar Berman and Adiv Sterman)2014: The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.2014: Four days after his death, a memorial service is scheduled to be at Kehillat Israel Sanctuary in California for ninety year old Princeton Graduate and WW II Army Veteran Jay Douglas Levinsohn, the husband of the former Joyce Salton.2014(22ndof Shevat, 5774): Sixty-three year old Tatyana (Tanya) Edelstein, the wife of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, to whom she had had been married for 33 years, passed away tonight. 2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present the next in the “Excellence-The Future Generation Series” featuring performances by Hanan Becher, Piano, Netta Karni, Piano, Liel Kaplyushnik, Piano, Daniel Fenings, Violin, Salmon Markman, Violin,Yael Koldobsky, Piano, Yael Koldobsky, Piano, Lior Greenwald, Violin, Tom Zalmanov, Piano and Alon Mamo, Piano 2015: “Judy Berlin” is scheduled to be shown at the 92nd St Y as part of the Women on Top series.2015: In “For Auschwitz Museum, a Time of Great Change” published today, Rick Lyman described plans for the gathering to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/world/europe/for-auschwitz-museum-and-survivors-a-moment-of-passage.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/world/europe/for-auschwitz-museum-and-survivors-a-moment-of-passage.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=02015: In Cedar Rapids, the first Musical Shabbat of 2015 is scheduled to begin this evening.2016: Shabbat Shira2016: “Rabin in His Own Words” is scheduled to be shown at the Brooklyn Israel Film Festival. 2016: “Benya Kirk” and “Hot Sugar’s Cold World” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2016: “Restoring Tomorrow” which tells the story of the restoration of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, “one of Los Angeles’s architectural treasures and home to the city’s oldest Jewish congregation” is scheduled to premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center. 2017(25thof Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Moses Levi Ehrenreich the chief rabbi of Rome “who was instrumental in translating part of the TaNaCh into Italian and through whose efforts the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano was reopened in 1887.” 2017: A celebratory Western Wall women’s prayer and Torah reading held by the Original Women of the Wall group this morning tested a recent interim order by the High Court (As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan) 2017: “Dimona” is scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2017: The annual Jewish Leaders Conference met in Brussels today at which the attendees “called on Israel to help them tackle the rising threat of terrorism and anti-Semitism” by providing “vital security assistance against potential attacks.” (As reported by Raoul Wootliff) 2018: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host “An Evening Bernard-Henri Levy” during which the “French philosopher, activist, writer (The Genius of Judaism), and filmmaker Bernard-Henri Lévy offers a special presentation of his two most recent documentaries, Peshmerga and The Battle of Mosul.” 2018(7thof Shevat, 5778): Ninety-two year old University of Texas undergraduate Arnold Gold, “a pediatric neurologist” and the husband of Sandra Gold with whom he founded the Arnold P. Gold Foundation passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir) 2018: “A Kid Like Jake” co-starring Amy Landecker premiered today at Sundance. 2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the New North London Masorti Synagogue who “will be speaking on ‘The launch of the Eco-Synagogue.’” 2018: The final session of “The Jewish Workers’ Bund” taught by Jack Jacobs is scheduled to take place at the YIVO Institute. 2018: The Center for Jewish History and Oxford University Press are scheduled to present Professor David N. Myers speaking on “All Jewish History in Less Than An Hour.” 2019: In Potomac, MD, Beth Sholom Congregation is scheduled to host a presentation of the Silk Road, with an emphasis on its “ancient Jewish Highlights.” 2019: The Oxford University Jewish Student Society is scheduled to host a “Dine and Discuss Event” led by the Chaplains. 2019: The Joyce Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of Jerusalem choreographer Sharon Eyal’s “Love Chapter 2.” 2019: At the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, Cinema J is scheduled to host a screening of “1945.”
↧
January 23, 2019, 5:58 pm
January 24 41: Roman Emperor Caligula is murdered by the Praetorian Guard. Caligula’s treatment of the Jews does not qualify him as an anti-Semite since he was “a certifiable nut case” who murdered several of his family members, reportedly had incestuous relationships with at least of on his sisters and planned to name his favorite horse as a Counsel of Rome. Caligula believed he was a divinity who was to be publicly worshipped. A delegation of Jews from Alexandria, including the famous Philo, went to Rome to plead the Jewish case before Caligula. At first Caligula was hostile to the Jews, but in the end he reportedly dismissed the delegation saying, the Jews are “just a poor, stupid people unable to believe in my divinity.” The real threat came when Caligula took steps to install a statute of himself in Jerusalem that was to be worshipped. Agrippa, King of Judea and Petronious Publius, the Roman governor of Syria were able to stall the Emperor whose subsequent assassination rendered the point moot.76: Birthdate of Publius A Hadrianus 14th Roman Emperor. Hadrian reigned from 117 through 138. Hadrian banned Torah study, Synagogue worships and led the Romans in the defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt.1076: Holy Roman Emperor IV, who had issued an order prohibiting anybody from following in the footsteps of Godfrey of Bouillon who swore to on crusade “only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name 'Jew,' thus assuaging his own burning wrath” wrote a letter today “condemning Pope Gregory VII as a usurper.”1059: Nicholas II who “condemned the persecution of the Jews and who…expressed” his opposition to “compulsory baptism” began his Papacy.1436: In Aix-en-Provence, a riot ensued after a crowd felt that a Jew who insulted the Virgin Mary received too light a sentence 1517: Selim I defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of Ridaniya giving the Ottomans control over Egypt leading to “radical changes in the affairs of” Egyptian Jewry including the abolition of the office of nagid, the creation of independent Jewish communities including the one in Cairo head by David ibn Abi Zimra and the appointment of Abraham de Castro as the master of the mint..1656: Dr. Jacob Lumbrozo, the first Jewish physician in what would be the United States arrived in Maryland 1678(1st of Shevat): Rabbi Solomon Lichtenstein of Bialystok, author of Kokhmat Shelomo, passed away1704: In Metz, France Abraham Schwab found a yeshivah that became the Seminaire Israelite de France
1712: Birthdate of Frederick II, King of Prussia from 1740 until 86. Known as Frederick the Great, the Prussian king’s treatment of Jews was, to say the least, uneven. He did grant special rights to some, including Mendelssohn. However for the most part, he treated them as an exploitable economic commodity. But what can you expect from a man who wished to be buried with his greyhounds, the only living creatures he really loved. 1729: Frederick William I ordered the elders of the community to appoint Moses Ben Aaron as the chief rabbi of Berlin, a move which upset the Jewish community because they felt he was too young.1781: Birthdate of Louis-Mathieu Molé who “served as Napoleon’s advisor on Jewish affairs” including the calling of the Grand Sanhedrin in 1807 and “moderated” his original opposition to the Emancipation of the Jews.1803(1st of Shevat, 5563): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1804: Presbyterian minister and poet Joseph Fawcett passed away. In 1785, he began a series of Sunday evening lectures at the Old Jewry meeting house the popular meeting house for a Presbyterians that took its name from the fact that the area had been the Jewish quarter or ghetto in the days before Edward expelled them at the end of the 14th century. There is no record of how these Christians felt about occupying the territory used by the people they had been persecuting and to whom they still denied the full rights of British citizens.1814: Birthdate of John William Colenso, the native of Cornwall who while serving as Bishop of Natal translated three books of the TaNaCh into Zulu and was convicted of heresy for publicly denying “the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch” and declaring “that Jeremiah was the author of the Book of Deuteronomy.”1821: Elizabeth Mayers, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Mayers was married today in the United Kingdom.1823: In Frankfurt am Main, Zerline Beyfus (Worms) and Meyer (Mayer) Levin Beyfus gave birth to Sigismund Beyfus.1826(16thof Shevat, 5586): Six year old Ann Crawcour, the daughter of David Crawcour and Amelia Barnes was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery after she had passed away this morning.1828: Birthdate of Ferdinand J Cohn, German botanist who is considered a founder of the science of bacteriology. From his early studies of microscopic life he developed theories of the bacterial causes of infectious disease and recognized bacteria as plants. He aided Robert Koch in preparing Koch's famous work on anthrax. Cohn's writings cover such diverse subjects as fungi, algae, insect epidemics, and plant diseases.1828(8thof Shevat, 5588): Seventy-three year old Abraham Flesch, “the Rabbi at Rausntiz, Moravia, who was the father of Joseph Flesch passed away today.1830: Birthdate of Jules Worms, the Paris born physician served the French Army as a surgeon during the Crimean War and was on the staff at Rothschild Hospital from 1865 to 1875.1844: The Second Annual Benevolent Ball of the Israelites of Philadelphia raised $489.79 today.1847: Three days after he had passed away, Abraham Abrahams, the son of Isaac Abrahams and the husband of Rachel Lazarus with whom he had had ten children was buried today at the “Hope Street old burial ground.”1848: James Marshall finds gold at mill that is being built for John Sutter near San Francisco, CA. According to historian Hubert Howe Bancroft this event brought “a medley of races and nationalities, including the ubiquitous Hebrews." According to Stephen Mark Dobbs there were thirty Jews at a Rosh Hashanah services in San Francisco and the number grew to fifty for Yom Kippur. Jews mined for gold but they mined the commercial opportunities and by 1853 their number had grown to 3,000 in San Francisco alone.
1850: “The House of Rothschild made a fifty million franc loan to Pope Pius IX on condition that” the walls of Rome’s Ghetto would be taken down. Not only did the Pope fail to remove the walls, he “re-imposed restrictions on Jews living in the Papal States…brought pressure against other rulers to revoke Jewish rights granted in 1848” and ruled that the kidnapped Jewish Edgar Mortara should be raised as a Catholic.1851: In Cayuga County, NY, Albert Baham was hung for his role in the murder of the Jewish peddler Nathan Adler. After the execution, Albert’s brother John confessed his role which resulted in his death sentence being commuted to life in prison. In point of fact, he was pardoned by the governor after having served 8 years in prison for his part in the crime.1852: In “Zary, Poland,” Abraham and Rebecca Glass gave birth to Herman Glass, the cantor at Congregation Chizuk Amunah in Baltimore and the husband of Rachel Glass.1853: In Furth, Bavaria, Sigmund Max Einhorn, the “son of Karoline and Maier Mendel Einhorn” and his wife, the former Karoline Schloss, gave birth to Max Jakob Einhorn1855: At Columbia, SC, Jacob M. Wolf of Winnsboro, SC married Ellen Graetz of New York.1856 (17th of Shevat, 5616): Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader passed away. (Ed. Note: This comparatively lengthy note is intended to provide those with limited background an introduction to the richly textured, multi-dimensional world of Chassidic Jewry.) Born in 1755, he was the founder of the) Modzitz or Modzhitz Chassidim. This is the name of a Chassidic group that derives its name from Modzice, one of the boroughs of the town of Dęblin, Poland, located on the Vistula River. Followers of this group are known as Modzitzer Chasidim and they are now based mainly in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem in Israel where their Rebbe lives. They also have a smaller following in Brooklyn, New York. The rabbis who lead them have come from a family by the name of "Taub". Rabbi Yechezkel Taub of Kuzmir established yeshivas and a type of Hasidic teaching that was similar to that of the Seer of Lublin, and distinct from the Hasidism of Ger and Kotzk. Upon his death, his son, Rabbi Eliyahu Taub of Zvolin, Poland succeeded him. He excelled in Torah scholarship and creating Hasidic songs. He was called Menagen mafli pla'os Hebrew for "a wondrous musical talent". His first son Rabbi Moshe Aaron succeeded him as Rabbi of Zvolin. His second son Yisrael went on to found the actual Modzitz Hasidic dynasty. Rabbi Yisrael Taub was born in 1849 and in 1891 founded the Modzitzer Hasidic movement in Modzitz, Poland. He created many melodies that are still sung by Hasidim today. When he passed away on November 24, 1920, he was succeeded by his son Rabbi Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub. Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub was born on October 20, 1886. He guided his Hasidim until 1938 when he fled Poland due to Nazi persecution. He made his way to Lithuania, then to Russia, then to China, and then to Japan. Eventually, with the help of some Modzitzer Chassidim, he and some family members reached the shores of San Francisco and then moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1940. It was during his stay in Brooklyn that Rabbi Shaul became popular and helped rebuild Modzitz. He was a gifted songwriter and wrote over 1000 Hasidic melodies. He constantly talked about the coming of the State of Israel. He was unable to see his prediction come true and he passed away on November 29, 1947, the day the UN voted to create the state of Israel. He was succeeded by his son Rabbi Samuel Eliyahu Taub. Rabbi Samuel Eliyahu was born in Lublin, Poland on February 9, 1905. Rabbi Shaul and his son Rabbi Samuel were on a trip to the then British Mandate of Palestine in 1935. While they were there Samuel fell in love with Palestine and asked his father if he could stay there. His father agreed and within a year Rabbi Samuel's wife and their child came over to Israel. In 1947 he succeeded his father and became the Modzitzer Rebbe to be known as the Imre Aish ("Words of Fire") as Samuel Eliyahu is called, and continued the traditions of Modzitz both as a composer and Torah scholar. He passed away on May 6, 1984, when he was succeeded by his son Rabbi Dan Israel Taub. Rabbi Israel Dan was born in 1928 in Warsaw, Poland. He came with his mother to Palestine in 1936 to meet up with his father Rabbi Samuel. For a number of years he headed the Modzitz Chasidim in the city of Tel-Aviv where his father had lived. He moved to a new building in Bnei Brak, Israel on Lag Ba'omer 5755 (May 18. 1995). Like his predecessors he also composes Hasidic melodies and many of them have are sung regularly in Hasidic synagogues. His opinion is highly regarded. The Modzitz Hasidim are well-known for their uniquely inspiring melodies and their devotion to serious learning of Torah and Talmud.1862: In New York City George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander gave birth to Edith Newbold Jones who gained fame as Pulitzer Prize winning author Edith Wharton whose display of anti-Semitism in The House of Mirth which included the depiction Jewish financier name Simon Rosedale has proved to a problem for her at least some of her Jewish fans.”http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/222681/what-to-do-about-edith-whartons-anti-semitism?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=6c738e3ef2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-6c738e3ef2-2066443981862: Bucharest was proclaimed capital of Romania. The Jewish population of Bucharest had grown from 127 families in 1820 to 5,934 persons in 1860. By the turn of the century, the Jewish population would exceed 40,000 people making them almost 15% of the city’s total population.1864: During the Civil War, Joseph Herzog began his service with Company E of the 29thRegiment.1874: Nathan W. Lyman appeared at the Jefferson Market Police Court today and withdrew his complaint that he had been swindled out of $7,000 by a Hungarian born Jew, Dr. Gabor Naphegyi. 1876: Leaders of several New York congregations met at Temple Emanu-El met tonight to discuss the possibility of establishing a college for Jewish students. A committee was established to contact congregations throughout the United States to gain support for the endeavor. Louis May, President of Temple Emanu-El was selected as chairman and Meyer S. Isaacs was selected as Secretary.1877: Five days after he had passed away, “David Viscount de Stern,” a senior partner in Stern Brothers and the husband of Sophia Goldsmid with whom he had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1879: Rosa Sonneschein founded "The Pioneers," a Jewish women's literary club in St. Louis, Missouri. “The club, which met in Sonneschein's home, was modeled after similar Christian women's clubs and was devoted to general literary subjects rather than specifically Jewish literature. Perhaps inspired by this literary circle, in the 1880s Sonneschein began publishing stories in Jewish magazines. She also worked as a correspondent for the German-language press in the U.S., a position for which she was prepared by both her German upbringing and her social status as the wife of a prominent St. Louis rabbi. In 1895, after divorcing her husband, Sonneschein moved to Chicago and founded a magazine specifically addressed to American Jewish women, the American Jewess. Though the magazine ran only until 1899, it was the first English periodical specifically addressed to Jewish women. It sought to document and inspire the activism of an emerging network of Jewish women's organizations that expanded upon the model established by the Pioneers.” 1880: Birthdate of New York political leader and Congressman Meyer Jacobstein. 1882: The Hearts of Oak Company featuring David Belasco as “Mr. Ellingham” performed for the thies time at Leubrie’s Theatre in St. Paul, MN.1887: Birthdate of Alexander Portnoff, the native of the Ukraine who came to America in 1907 where he became a leading painter and sculptor whose models included Sholem Aleichem.1888: President Moritz Loth chaired a special meeting of the Executive Board at 1:30 p.m. where resolutions were adopted praising Max Hoffheimer, the board member who passed away unexpectedly yesterday.1888: In Vienna, Mathide (née Donath) and Hermann Baum gave birth to Austrian writer, Hedwig (Vicki) Baum who is considered one of the first modern bestselling authors, and her books are reputed to be among the first examples of contemporary mainstream literature. She attended Vienna Conservatory to study the harp, later playing the harp professionally and teaching music for several years in Darmstadt. After a number of novels in German, a breakthrough novel, Menschen im Hotel, was turned into a play and then at the instigation of producer Irving Thalberg into the highly successful film Grand Hotel directed by Edmund Goulding. The story details one weekend in a posh hotel in minute detail -- Baum had taken a job as maid to yield realism. The film won Best Picture Oscar. Her time in the United States made her realize it was time to leave Germany, emigrating in 1932. From that point Baum wrote many of her novels in English and took citizenship in 1938. Residing in California, she lived in Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, and then Hollywood, where she died of leukemia in 1960. Among two of her most pithy sayings are, "Pity is the deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman" and "To be a Jew is a destiny.” (Jewish Women’s Archives)1888: In New York City, over a thousand people attended a benefit performance of "King Solomon" at the Roumania Opera House. The event was organized by Mrs. M. Rosendorff who will use the funds to buy meat for needy Jews at Passover time. This is not Mrs. Rosendorff's first foray into fund raising. In 1887, she hosted a ball at the the Webster Hall that paid for meat Passover time.1891(15thof Shevat, 5651): Tu B’Shevat1891: Sarah Bernhardt is scheduled to sail from Harve today so that they can begin performing at the Garden Theatre in New York at the beginning of February.1891(15thof Shevat, 5651): Dutch born “Belgian engraver and sculptor” Leopold Wiener, the Royal Engraver whose interest in music led to his serving as “vice president of the Conservatoire at Brussels” passed away today.
1892: It was reported today that as the famine worsens in Russia Czar Nicholas II has decided to devote all of his energies to dealing with the crisis which means he has “indefinitely postponed” all of the measures aimed against his Jewish subjects.1892: It was reported today that the upcoming Hebrew Charity Ball is the last major festivity of the social season in Philadelphia, PA.1892: It was reported today that in addition to persecuting the Jews, the Czar is now persecuting the Stundists, a Christian sect founded in the 1850’s.1893(7thof Shevat, 5653): Russian author and Hebraist Isaac Mayer Dick passed away today.http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/vilna/vilna_pages/vilna_stories_mayerdick.html1895: “A Dance For Charity” published today described the dances sponsored by the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore home which have replaced the annual Purim Ball as the leading social event “in Jewish social circles.” The change took place two years ago but has not had any effect on the ability to raise funds for the charities that benefit from these social events. (more for 2015)1895: In Portland, Oregon, Ezras Achim which meets on the second Sunday of each month and whose members included Leon Goldenberg and Himan Gertzman was incorporated today.1895: The officers of the Montefiore Home were today reported to be: President – Jacob H. Schiff; Vice President – Louse Gans; Treasurer – Isidor Straus; and Honorary Secretary – Raphael Ettinger.1896: It was reported that while giving President Kreuger was giving a sermon during the ceremonies dedicating a synagogue in Johannesburg, he said “And so I consecrate this building to the worship of the Triune God.” While some Jews minimized this reference to the Trinity, “others maintain that the building has been desecrated and they have built another synagogue…”1896: It was reported today that in Jersey City, forty or fifty Jews who were sitting in the audience during a speech being given by Herman Ahlwardt, the German anti-Semite “threatened to kill him and burn the hall” when he “made some particularly bitter references to them.” The Jews “were ejected by the police and order was restored.”1897: Berlin Zionists Willy Bambus and Theodor Zlocisti addressed a letter to Herzl. 1897: Dr. Lyman Abbott delivered a sermon today on the books of Esther, Daniel and Jonah “all of which he said were fictitious although the book of Esther was based on historical facts and was derived from court records.”1897: One day after he had passed away, 77 year old Louis Rozelaar was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”1898: It was reported today that for the year ending November 30, 1897, Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York treated 2,996 patients with a mortality rate of 9.04 percent. (More for 2014)1898: It was reported today that leaders of the Jewish community in Algiers have advised their co-religionists to remain indoors and stay away from their businesses following attacks by anti-Dreyfus/ant-Semitic mobs. 1898: A mob of approximately 3,000 people surged through the streets of Algiers shouting “Down With the Jews.” 1898: An anti-Jewish riot took place today in St. Malo, a town in Brittany.1898: “A dispatch received from Algiers late tonight says that at 11 o’clock perfect tranquility prevailed” with the troops having cleared the street of anti-Semitic rioters including 300 of whom have been arrested.1898: In New York Max and Jane Walcoff Udell gave birth to City College trained business executive and philanthropist Jerome I. Udell, the CEO of Max Udell Sons and Company, a manufacturer of men’s clothing and a long time “member of the Board of Directors of Beth Israel Medical Center.”https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/10/obituaries/jerome-i-udell.html1899: “The Zionist Movement” published today provided a summary of the report prepared by the U.S. Consul at Beirut that concluded by “saying that the prospects are brighter than ever before for the Jews in Palestine and for the country itself.” 1899: Sarah Ullmann, the wife of Solomon Ullmann, was buried today at the Edmonton Western Jewish Cemetery1899: It was reported today that Henry Herzberg believes “that there never was a period in the world’s history when more potent reasons existed why the essential teachings of Judaism should be faithfully observed. Amid the forces of modern civilization…there is vital need for constructive thought which feeds the moral springs of action.”1899: It was reported today that the population of Palestine is 200,000 of which 40,000 are Jews. This is an increase of 26,000 Jews in the last twenty years. There are 22,000 Jews living in Jerusalem “half of whom” have come from Europe.1899: Birthdate of Robert Leon “Bob” Berman the New York and Fordham University graduate whose major league as a catch and pinch runner consisted of two appearance for the Washington Senators in 1918.1900: In North Rhine-Westphalia, Gustav Cohn the “son of Levi and Eva Regina Cohn” and his wife Paula, gave birth to “Charlotte (Lotte) Cohn1900(24thof Shevat, 5660): Seventy-year old Isaac Artom “Italian patriot, diplomat, financier and author” passed away today at Rome.”1900: Harry Greenblatt married Fanny Gottliffe at “New Synagogue, Chapeltown Road, Leeds.”1901: The Industrial Removal Office was formally created as part of the Jewish Agricultural Society at the Society's Executive Committee meeting. The Society rented a store at 34 Stanton Street in New York and named it "The Industrial Removal Office." The philosophy behind the IRO was to assimilate the immigrants into American Society, both economically and culturally. In 1901, following anti-Semitic decrees by the Romanian government, a large wave of Romanian Jews fled to New York. The Rumanian Committeewas quickly formed in New York to distribute the immigrants to other towns where they might find employment. B'nai B'rith lodges in these towns and cities assisted the refugees upon their arrival. The Romanian Committee rapidly evolved into the Industrial Removal Office, which took over the work on a much larger scale and opened its availability to any unemployed Jewish immigrant, regardless of their origin. The process of procuring work for immigrants was done through traveling agents, who also obtained the cooperation of local Jewish organizations. Local committees, organized primarily by B'nai B'rith, obtained orders for workers and assisted the immigrants on their arrival. The New York bureau noted requests received from the traveling agents and local committees and matched up opportunities from their applicant lists. In the first year of the Industrial Removal Office's existence, nearly 2000 individuals were sent to 250 places throughout the United States.1902: In Skalat, Galicia, Joseph and Hannah Speiser gave birth to “Assyyriologist” Ephraim Avigdor Speiserhttps://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/ephraim-avigdor-speiser/
1902: Birthdate of economist Oskar Morgenstern who enjoyed a successful career in Europe until the coming of the Nazis forced him to flee to the United States, where he pursued his career. 1903: The New York Times reports on the growth and development of the Jewish Theological Seminary including the securing of a $500,000 endowment and the election of Justice Greenbaum, the New York state jurist, to the Board of Directors. 1904: In Bremerhaven, Germany, “Ernest and Helene (Goth) Winn gave birth to Monument’s Man Lt. Col. Eric Ernst Winnhttps://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/first-hand-participants/winn-lt.-col.-eric-ernst1905(18thof Shevat, 5665): Sixty-two year old Edward Einstein, the native of Cincinnati, Ohio who “was elected a Republican from New York’s 7thCongressional District and who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor passed away today. 1905: Henry S. Morais, journalist, educator and rabbi, writes a letter praising Benjamin Disraeli to the New York Times entitled “Why the People of the United States Should Cherish His Memory” in which he reviews Disraeli’s support for the Union during the Civil War when other English leaders including Gladstone “were known to be in sympathy” with the Confederates and which concludes with the statement that this “scion of the famous Israelis of Jewish history…the offspring of a people as old as the ages, will live in the minds and in the hearts not alone of his own, but in those of a liberty loving humanity.”1906: There are reports from Bucharest published today that “massacres of the Jews have taken place in Kishinev and various parts of Bessarabia” and that there are no further details available at this time. 1907(9thof Shevat, 5667): Ninety year old Moritz Steinschneider passed away in Berlin.http://www.steinschneider.com/biography/msteinsch.htm 1908(21stof Shevat, 5668): Leopold Wallach a distinguished New York lawyer who is the father-in-law of Max Morgenthau, Jr. passed away today.1908: In Leipzig, Hans von Halban Sr. a professor of physical chemistry and his wife gave birth French physicist Hans Heinrich von Halban.
1911: Founding of Merchaviya the first Jewish settlement in Emek Yizra'el (Jezreel Valley). Ten years after its founding, Merchaviya would be joined by its most famous member, Golda Meir. The future Prime Minister of Israel would tend chickens 1911: Birthdate of Albert “Reds” Weiner, the four sport (football, basketball, baseball and track) athlete a Muhlenberg who went on to play professionally with the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL.
1913: Franz Kafka stopped working on "Amerika"; it will never be finished1914: Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of Dropsie College Isaac Hassler, president of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and Charles Ellis, the Mayor of Camden, NJ were reported today to be the speakers who address an upcoming meeting designed to launch a fund raising drive to build a communal building for that Camden’s Jewish population.1915: “Jacob H. Schiff while speaking today at the annual meeting of the Hebrew Free Loan Society to which he and members of his family have been among the largest contributors said he believed there was no other institution who work among Jews was so far reaching and urged that steps be taken to broaden its scope and capital 1915: A mass meeting sponsored by the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society to express opposition to the Smith-Burnett Immigration Bill is scheduled to be held this evening at Cooper Union. 1915: David I. Seiffer will serve as Chairman of the mass meeting scheduled to be held at Adas Jeshurun this afternoon for the purpose of raising funds for the “war suffers in Kalisch, Russian-Polan which has been laid waste and is now in the hands of the Germans.”1916: A group of “prominent Jewish women” met at the Hotel Astor this afternoon and chose Mrs. Samuel Elkeles, the President of the Federation of the Sisterhoods to serve as the chairwoman of a newly formed organization to raise funds for the relief of Jewish war sufferers whose members also include Mrs. Harry Kraft, Mrs. David Kass and Mrs. L.W. Zwisohn1916: Chinka Chana Zaid and Yosef Yechiel Zaid, HaKohen gave birth to their daughter Miriam Meir.1916: “The Jewish Congress Organization Committee is scheduled to hold a mass meeting in Carnegie Hall this evening as a demonstration for the rights of the oppressed Jews in Europe” and which “is intended to emphasize the need of Jewish organization as well as to arouse general public sentiment in favor of the move for the attainments of the rights of Jewish people.”1916: “Enthusiastic endorsement of the movement for a Jewish Congress to demand equal rights for the Jewish people, particularly in European countries after the war, was expressed” tonight “by more than 3,000 persons who attended a mass meeting in Carnegie Hall under the auspices of the Jewish Congress Organization Committee” an organization that “includes seventeen national Jewish organizations with a membership exceeding 500,000.”1916: In San Francisco, Elise (née Stern) and Walter A. Haas gave birth Walter A. Hass Jr., the CEO of Levi Strauss and Co., owner of the Oakland A’s, and noted philanthropist who was the husband of Evelyn Danzig Hass with whom he had three children – Robert, Betsy and Walter J.https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/22/obituaries/walter-a-haas-jr-79-leader-of-family-behind-levi-strauss.html1917(1st of Shevat, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1917: Abraham Isaac “Abe” Shiplacoff, the Socialist New York assemblyman “introduced New York's first birth control bill, which would have allowed ‘the dissemination of printed articles describing means of birth control’” today.1918: The SS Tuscania a luxury liner that had been converted into a troop ship, departed Hoboken, New Jersey, with 384 crew members and 2,013 United States Army personnel aboard of whom at least six were Jewish.1918: Birthdate of Newark, NJ, native Bernard Morris “Bernie” Weiner who was an offensive lineman for Kansas State University before playing two years of professional football with the Brooklyn Dodgers.https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WeinBe20.htm1918: The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS). This change is one of the impediments to pinpoint accuracy in dating events in Russian history. Events are marked in different places by Old Style and New Style dates. Unfortunately, some sources do not tell which they are which leads to added confusion. (Yes, this is an excuse for some of the inaccuracies in this document.) 1920 (29th of Tevet, 5680): Amedeo Clemente Modigliani passed away at the age of 35. http://www.isabel.com/gallery/reproduction/m/modiglia/record.html.
1922: Eskimo Pie patented by Christian K Nelson of Iowa. (Nelson was not an Eskimo and he was not Jewish. But those of who live in Iowa don’t get to brag very often, so just laugh and move on. There is a Jewish connection between Iowa and Ice Cream. Many of the products manufactured by Blue Bunny Ice Cream which is located in La Mars, Iowa, are kosher and delicious) 1922: Professor Louis Ginzberg presented a paper on “The Question of Fermented Wines in Jewish Religious Observances” to members of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary who meeting in an executive session today. Following a lengthy and lively discussion the consensus of opinion was that unfermented grape juice may be used for sacramental purposes. This decision will be forwarded to the American Jewish Committee which is collecting information on the acceptability of using grape juice instead of wine when reciting Kiddush, etc. Ginzberg’s belief that the use of unfermented grape juice could be used put him at odds with the writings of Rabi Abraham Klausner. Currently, nobody produces grape juice that meets the standards of Kashrut so adoption of Ginzberg’s view would require the start of a new business venture. [For those of you unacquainted with American History, this issue arose with the start of Prohibition and its attempt to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol in the U.S.]1924: Birthdate of Chaim David ha-Levi, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv.
1924: In the Bronx, Jacob Raiffa, who sold wool products, and the former Hilda Kaplan gave birth to Howard Raiffa “an economics professor whose mathematical formulas for decision making were applied to the search for a missing nuclear bomb and the siting of a Mexico City airport, and were even suggested as a way to resolve a strike by professional hockey players.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/business/howard-raiffa-mathematician-who-studied-decision-making-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01924: Birthdate of character actor Marvin Kaplan.http://www.marvinkaplan.com/meet-marvin1924: Max L. Pine, Secretary of the United Hebrew Trades was the opening speaker at meeting attended by representatives of 136 Jewish labor organizations where plans were made to oppose the Johnson Immigration Bill which Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia said was not an “immigration program” but an “immigration pogrom” (JTA) 1924(18th of Shevat): “Z’ev Jawotz, founder of the Mizrachi movement passed away.1925(28thof Tevet, 5685): Parashat Vaera1925(28thof Tevet, 5685): Adele Bloch-Bauer the wife of Ferdinand Bloch Bauer, the subject of Gustav Klimts’ “Woman in Gold” passed away today.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I#/media/File:Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg1926: In New York City, Louis and Rose Tishman gave birth to John Louis Tishman “a master builder of the 20th century whose Tishman Realty and Construction Company transformed the skylines of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York.” (As reported by David W. Dunlap)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/nyregion/john-l-tishman-builder-who-shaped-american-skylines-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1929: Eighty-four year old Adelaide Brewster Taylor the husband Selah Miller, the American consul in Jerusalem who opposed Jewish settlement in Palestine and was vocal anti-Semite, passed away today.1931(6thof Shevat, 5691): Parsashat Bo1931(6thof Shevat, 5691): Ninety-two year old Judith Adler the daughter of of Rav Yitzchak Dov Halevi Bamberger, The Würzburger Rav. and Kela Bamberger, the wife of Rabbi Immanuel Menachem Adler and the mother of PInchas Adler passed away today in Bavaria.1932(16thof Shevat, 5692): Sixty-four year old Paul M. Warburg, the brother of Felix Warburg, passed away at 6:30 this evening at his home in Manhattan. At the time of his death he was chairman of the boards of the International Acceptance Bank of New York and the Manhattan Company. A native of Hamburg, and a member of one of the most prominent banking family, he was instrumental in providing many of the ideas that culminated in the creation of the Federal Reserve. He was married to Nina Loeb, the daughter of the late Solomon Loeb of the famed financial firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. 1932: Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the birth of author Sigmund Dische in Czernowitz, Romania.1932: Dr. Abraham Schwardon’s gift to Hebrew University was described today as being “A Great Collection of Autographs and Portraits Assembled by the Labors of a Galician Chemist.”1933: In New Haven, CT, Thelma (Wisan) Frankenberger and Bertram Frankenberger, who as a Lt. Colonel in the Army was the commander of Camp Blanding in Florida, gave birth to University of Connecticut graduate and U.S. Air Force veteran Bertam Frankenberger who pursued a career in the financial services the financial services including six years with Deloitte Haskin and Sells. 1933 Jüdisches Museum zu Berlin (1933–1938, opened on Oranienburger Straße a street in central Berlin that was the in the heart of Berlin’s Jewish community before the rise of the Nazis 1933(26th of Tevet, 5693):Charles "King" Solomon a Boston racketeer born in 1884 who controlled New England's bootlegging, narcotics and illegal gambling during Prohibition was killed in Boston's Cotton Club by rival gunmen. http://www.onewal.com/w-solomo.html 1934: Ghazi bin Faisal, the King of Iraq who became pro-Nazi “as the tide of pubic feeling began turning against Iraq’s Jews” “married his first cousin, Princess Aliya bint Ali” today.
1934: A Lutheran minister (name unknown) opposed to the Reich Church is beaten by Nazi thugs. 1935: In Haifa Matilda and Yehuda HaCohen gave birth to Nisim Cohen, a crewman on the ill-fated INS Dakar.1936: Representatives of all three major faiths including Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson, the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El “issued statements endorsing the aims of Brotherhood Day” which will be observed next month.1936: Speaking at luncheon today at the Waldorf-Astoria, Ogden L. Mills, the former Secretary of the Treasury “called upon American Jews and Christians to support the one million dollar rehabilitation fund being raised by the Federation of Polish Jews in America” because “we cannot view the starvation of 2,000,000 human beings anywhere on this earth with equanimity.”1936: Jewish band leader Benny Goodman and his orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" on Victor Records 1937: Dr. Stephen S. Wise “praised Roosevelt’s declaration in his inaugural messages that ‘no group in this county will be regarded as superfluous’” while also telling those at the Free Synagogue service that “the President stands ‘almost alone’ in his rebuke to Poland where it was said recently that 3,000,000 Jews were ‘superfluous’ and must be emigrated.”1938: Birthdate of Hungarian flyweight Gyula Torok who won a Gold Medal at the Rome Olympics in 1960.1938: Birthdate of author Yoram Taharlevhttp://www.taharlev.com/english.asp1938: The Palestine Post reported that a meeting of the General Council (Va'ad Leumi) of Palestine Jews published a manifesto calling for the immediate opening of the gates of the country to the millions of suffering Diaspora Jews. 1938: The Palestine Post reported that one Jew was severely wounded when Arabs shot at a group of workers returning from the Givat Shaul quarry to Jerusalem. 1938: The Palestine Post reported that according to the new Romanian law, all Jews had to appear before the courts in order to prove their citizenship rights. 1939: Hermann Goring, Hitler’s #2, formally appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration and ordered him to speed up the process 1940: Final day of an Aktion begun on January 18 during which 255 Jews were arrested in Warsaw and then murdered in the Palmiry Forest.1940: In Brooklyn, Arthur Kaminsky, “a furrier” and May Kaminsky, “a homemaker” gave birth to published Howard Kaminsky.https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/Obituary/article/74655-obituary-top-exec-at-three-publishers-howard-kaminsky-dead-at-77.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/books/howard-kaminsky-publisher-with-a-best-seller-sense-dies-at-77.html1940: As the Nazi plunder of Poland continues, General Gouvernment ordered registration of all Jewish property. 1941: Birthdate of Dan Schecthman, the Tel Aviv native who is a professor at the Technion and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. . 1943: During the past three weeks, fifteen trains reached the Auschwitz from Belgium, Holland, Berlin, Grodno and Bialystok. Of the new arrivals, 4,000 were sent to the barracks and 20,000 were killed before their luggage could be sorted. To accommodate the rate of killing, four new crematoriums were constructed. 1943 One thousand Jews from Jasionowka were rounded up and deported to Treblinka. 1943: The Nazis incinerated Jewish patients, nurses and doctors at Auschwitz-Birkenau 1943: Hitler ordered Nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death. This militarily stupid command helped seal the fate of the German army and marked the beginning of the end for the Nazi juggernaut. 1944: The SS Meyer London was launched today. This “liberty ship” was named for the American Jewish leader who was one of only two Socialist Party members to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was sunk by a torpedo off the cost of Lybia.
1944: Birthdate of singer Neil Diamond 1944: Birthdate of David Gerrold [Jerrold David Friedman] author of the World of Star Trek. There has always been a strange affinity between Jewish writers and science fiction. Maybe it comes from those Biblical chariots of Elijah, Ezekiel and Isaiah. 1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. continued its meetings for a second day in London.1947: Birthdate of Warren William Zevon, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant and a Scottish/Welsh Mormon who became a noted singer, song writer and musician 1948: Julius Ochs Adler was promoted to Major General in the United States Army.1948: Birthdate Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State and foreign policy expert. 1949: France recognized Israel. 1951: Birthdate of Soviet-born American comedian Yakov Smirfnoff 1952: Twenty-three year old Montreal native Larry Zeidel scored “the winning goal as the Indianapolis Capitals defeated Buffalo in the American Hockey League. (As reported by Wechsler)1953(8thof Shevat, 5713): Parashat Bo1953(8thof Shevat, 5713): Seventy-two year old boxing promoter Michael Strauss “Mike” Jacobs passed away today.http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Mike_Jacobs1956: German born American composer Stefan Wolpe “was appointed to the faculty at the C.W. Post College” today.1959(15th of Shevat, 5719): Tu B'Shvat1959: "Party with Comden and Green" closes at John Golden New York City 1962: Brian Epstein signed a contract to manage The Beatles 1963: Birthdate of Michael Gorlovsky, the native of Dzerzhinsk, who made in ailyah in 1988 following which he joined Likud and was elected to the Knesset from 2003 to 2006.1964: Bob Hope hosted an hour-long TV version of “The Seven Little Foys” which had been written by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson.1965: In Damascus, Syrian police arrested Kamel Amin Th’abet on charges of being an Israeli spy. After being tortured he was hung in a pubic execution. Th’abet was Eli Cohen who successfully penetrated the highest level of the Syrian government and provided intelligence of immeasurable value.http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=205609 1965: Winston Churchill died in London at age 90. Churchill supported the Balfour Declaration. He led the fight against Hitler. At the same time, he stood by and did virtually nothing to rescue the Jews of Europe. And he continued to enforce the White Paper after there was no military reason to do so. Martin Gilbert, his biographer, is Jewish and has written a slim, fascinating volume entitled Churchill and the Jews.1971: Ninety year old Martha Grassmann, the woman who risked her life to hide artist Fritz Ascher during WW II passed away today.1971: Author Susan Brownmiller “helped to organize the New York Radical Feminists Speak-Out on Rape” which took place today.1971:”Zachariah,” a musical directed and co-produced by George Englund was released today in the United States.1971(27thof Tevet, 5731): Seventy-eight year old Chicago native Alvin Robert Cahn, the holder of a “BS from Cornell” and “PhD from the University of Illinois where he served on the faculty who was stationed at Dutch Harbor for three years during WW II passed away today in Tokyo.1973: Hussein Al Bashir, he Fatah representative on Cyprus was killed tonight when a bomb “plant under his bed was remotely detonated.’ 1974(1st of Shevat, 5734): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1975: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Hot I Baltimore” a sitcom featuring Charlotte Ray and Richard Masur with music by Marvin Hamlisch. 1975(12thof Shevat, 5735): Seventy-two year old actor and comedian Larry Fine, one of the Three Stooges passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/25/archives/larry-fine-of-three-stooges-frizzyhaired-comic-is-dead.html1976(22ndof Shevat, 5736): Seventy-one year old Pinchas Lavon passed awayhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Lavon.html1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin told the Knesset that he might reconsider his previous decision, and would send a delegation to the Cairo-held military talks, but warned that this would not happen if Egypt continued to issue statements offensive to Jewish dignity. Begin explained that Egypt broke off the political talks held in Jerusalem despite the fact that President Anwar Sadat was well aware, in advance, of Israel's stand on the Rafiah Sinai salient and on the future of Palestine's Arab people. In Cairo Egypt confirmed that the political peace talks had been frozen, but not terminated. The US insisted that both Egypt and Israel should embark on a useful process that should resume whenever possible.1979(25thof Tevet, 5739): Eighty-five old sculptor Bashka Paeff passed away today in Cambridge.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9B02E0DA1639E732A25755C2A9679C946890D6CFhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashka_Paeff#/media/File:Lexington_Minute_Man_relief_(Basha_Paeff)_-_Lexington,_MA.JP1983(10thof Shevat, 5743): Director George Cukor passed away at the age of 83 after a stroke and a heart attack. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/books/the-man-in-the-glass-closet.html?pagewanted=all&src=pmhttp://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/41936%7C58446/George-Cukor/1984: Birthdate of Tel Aviv native Yotam Halperin, the 6’4” guard for Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Basketball Super League.
1986: In Eilat Laura (née Ehrenkranz), a teacher, and Brian Ullman, a printer gave birth to Ricky Ullman who moved to the United States after his first birthday and became a successful actor and musician. 1988: After the Israeli Cabinet met today Police Minister Haim Bar-Lev told reporters that reports to contrary, there is no policy to beat Palestinians to stop protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He said that the using the word beatings “is an unfortunate term.”1988: Eighty-six year old London born Biblical scholar Hugh Joseph Schonfield whose works included A New Hebrew Typography and host of controversial books about Judaism and early Christianity including The Passover Plot and Jesus: A Biography passed away today.1990(27thof Tevet, 5750): Eighty-six year old Milton Kalischer, the son of Sigismund and Helen Teresa Kalischer, who was an Iowa State University trained refrigeration engineer and Westinghouse employee. 1990: An Israeli court jailed for life plus 40 years a Palestinian known as the ''Tel Aviv Strangler,'' who claimed to have killed seven people to prove he was not a collaborator with the Israelis. Four of his victims were Jews and three were Arabs. Mohammed Halabi, 32 years old, was sentenced today for the murders in October of five women and two men. The Tel Aviv District Court jailed him for 40 additional years for two attempted murders. The police said Mr. Halabi confessed to all the charges. 1991: Israel said it would not carry out an immediate retaliatory strike against Iraq despite the missile attack on Tel Aviv that killed three people. After that decision, another Iraqi missile was destroyed by one of the American Patriot missiles stationed in Israel over the weekend. And it was disclosed that a Patriot had clipped the missile that hit Tel Aviv. 1991: Mayor David N. Dinkins, who has repeatedly criticized the American effort in the Persian Gulf, said today that he would travel to Israel next week in a symbolic gesture of support for Israelis and for American troops. In the tender world of the city's ethnic politics, the visit could prove awkward. It would appeal to Jewish supporters and strengthen his pro-Israel stance, but it might appear too hawkish to some of his anti-war constituents, including many blacks, who still form the base of his support. 1991: In the currency market, the dollar's recovery today, which was partly technical, followed comments by Israel's Ambassador to the United States, who said Tel Aviv would be ready to join in regional arms control efforts and possible peace talks with the Palestinians once the Persian Gulf War ended. 1992: In “A Physical Approach For an Israeli 'Hamlet'” Mel Gussow reviews Rina Yerushalmi's provocative adaptation of "Hamlet" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 1993: A “travel advisory” issued to reported that the American Jewish Congress will be sponsoring 4 “family tours of Israel” this year ‘that include the opportunity to celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and at the Zealot's Synagogue in Masada”1995(23rdof Shevat, 5755): Seventy-seven year old Brooklyn-born southpaw who pitched in two games for the New York Yankees passed away today.1995: “Following an official state visit to Israel by Austrian President Thomas Klestil in 1994, which included a side tour of Kiryat Mattersdorf, Klestil hosted Rabbi Akiva Ehrenfeld at an official reception at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna” today.1996(3rdof Shevat, 5756): In the UK, eighty-one year old Bernard Philips, founder of Bernard Phillips and Company, passed away today.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarybernard-phillips-1317581.html1996: HBO broadcast the first episode of “Tracey Takes On” starring Tracey Ullman.1997: After premiering on Christmas Day, “Mother” a comedy directed by Albert Brooks who co-authored the script with music by Marc Shaiman and co-starring Albert Brooks, Rob Morrow and Lisa Kudrow was released today in the United States. 1999: “Get Bruce!” a documentary that included appearances by Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Roseanne Barr and Paul Reiser was released in the United States today.1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or topics of special interest to Jewish readers including Primo Levi:Tragedy of an Optimistby Myriam Anissimov, The Conversion by Aharon Appelfeld and Reporting Liveby Leslie Stahl.2000: RADWARE Ltd., of Tel Aviv is prepared to make an equity offering 2.5 million shares this week. 2000: “Urbania” starring Dan Futterman premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.2001: As the controversy surrounding the pardon of Marc Rich continues to grow, Jack Quinn, former White House counsel under President Clinton, who is now Mr. Rich's lawyer said in an interview today that the president had given every indication in their conversations on January 19th that he had read the petition and piles of testimonials that had been sent the previous month and that he was eager to discuss the case on its merits. Their conversation was strictly about the “legal merits.” There were no questions about party affiliations or the role of Denis Rich, Mr. Rich's former wife, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and close friend of the Clintons. But now with the pardon drawing so much criticism, Mr. Quinn acknowledged making mistakes and said that President Clinton had every right to be angry with him. ''He should be upset,'' Mr. Quinn said. ''I'm upset.'' Mr. Quinn faulted himself for failing to go public sooner with the rationale for the pardon. Mr. Clinton has been widely criticized for pardoning Mr. Rich, a financier who lived a wealthy exile life in Switzerland for the last 17 years instead of returning to face charges of tax fraud and trading with Iran in violation of sanctions. ''I didn't anticipate well enough the reaction to this,'' Mr. Quinn said. Beyond his kindling a firestorm of criticism more searing than that surrounding any of Mr. Clinton's other last-minute pardons, Mr. Quinn said he was distressed by the perception that he had used connections gained in the years when he was chief of staff to Al Gore and White House counsel to Mr. Clinton to obliterate much of the case against Mr. Rich. 2001: Today, Mr. Bush appeared to be directing attention away from the Israeli-Palestinian talks and toward major Arab countries by placing telephone calls to four leaders: King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, described the calls as an effort to ''underscore the strong relations the United States has with these nations.'' He said they were ''introductory'' in nature and declined to be specific about substance. 2001: In France, premiere of Origine Contrôlée a French comedy starring Ronit Elkabetz the Israeli actress in her first French film. 2001: The cabinet decided tonight Israel will return to peace talks with the Palestinians here on Thursday, after a nearly two-day suspension prompted by the killing of two Israeli civilians in the West Bank. 2001: Peter Mandelson completed his term as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. 2002: In New York, the 11th annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to a close.2002: Professor Schmuel Noah Eisenstadt of Jerusalem delivered the “2ndSimon Dubnow Lecture” at the Old Exchange in Leipzig.2002: “An Israeli helicopter assassinated Bakr Hamdan in the Gaza Strip, the leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which Israeli security official said was responsible for "dozens of terrorist attacks carried out against Israeli civilians and soldiers in the Gaza Strip.”2003: A month after a limited release, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” a film version of a book by Chuck Barris produced by Andrew Lazar, with a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, filmed by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel and featuring Jerry Weintraub was released today in the United States.2003(21stof Shevat, 5763): Seventy-eight year old Auschwitz survivor and French labor leader Henri Krasucki passed away today.http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/26/local/me-passings26.32004(1stof Shevat, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Shevat2004: “A who's who of LA's entertainment world are expected to join Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters in honoring respected entertainment industry executive and producer Mark Canton with the Sydney J. Rosenberg Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th Annual Dinner & Auction Gala tonight at the Century Plaza Hotel.”2004: “Metallica” a documentary co-directed and co-produced by Bruce Sniofsky premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.2004: An exhibition entitled “What Does It Mean To Be Jewish?” opens at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. 2005: In “A Bright Diaspora Star Fails to Dazzle Israel,” published today Steven Erlanger describes the Israeli reaction to American economist and banker Stanley Fischer becoming Governor of the Bank of Israel. 2005: At Columbia University, the Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim “compared Herzl’s ideas to Wagner’s; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism.” (JTA) 2005: Daniel Barenboim discusses music as a bridge for peace in the Middle East.http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&id=1891&con=embedded&br=ais 2006: During the Presidency of Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction 2006: The Los Angeles Times published a column by Joel Stein under the headline "Warriors and Wusses" in which he wrote that it is a cop-out to oppose a war and yet claim to support the soldiers fighting it. "I don’t support our troops....When you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you’re willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism..."2006: Ehud Olmert, in his first major policy address since becoming Israel's acting prime minister, said at the Herzliya Conference that he backed the creation of a Palestinian state, and that Israel would have to relinquish parts of the West Bank to maintain its Jewish majority. 2006: The Antiquities Authority recommended the Meggido Prison be transferred to a new location, after the remains of an ancient church were discovered on the facility's grounds four months ago2007: In what some considered as a major breakthrough in the history of the Holocaust, Haaretzreported that Khaled Abd al-Wahab, a well-to-do Tunisian farmer who died in 1997, was the first Arab to be named as a candidate for a Righteous Gentile award from Yad Vashem. The nomination was based on testimony of Anny Boukris, a 73-year-old Jewish woman from Los Angeles who survived the Axis occupation of North Africa. In a letter sent to the authorities at Yad Vashaem, she described how Abd al-Wahab rescued her and 24 relatives from their hiding place and hid them on his farm until the end of the German occupation. Boukris, who was 11 at the time, related that al-Wahab risked his life when he stopped a German officer from raping her mother. 2007, Moshe Katsav held a press conference at which he accused journalists of persecuting him and judging him before all the evidence was in. 2007: In a talk scheduled minutes after Katsav's speech, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on him to resign from the presidency.
2007: At the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, an exhibition entitled “Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited” comes to a close. By 1966, kingmaker-critics had anointed Morris Louis, the great Washington abstractionist, the greatest painter since Jackson Pollock. 2008: The New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end with showings of Orthodox Stance a documentary about “Dmitry Salita a twenty-something Russian immigrant equally devoted to the seemingly disparate worlds of professional boxing and Orthodox Judaism”; Villa Jasmin, a film about “Serge, a Tunisian-born Jew living in Paris, who takes his wife to see the country he remembers fondly from his childhood. It is based on a novel by Serge Moati, also explores Serge’s parents’ courtship and his father’s activities with the anti-fascist movement in the 1930s”; The Film Fanatic and The Unkosher Truth a short documentary, in which the filmmaker must muster the courage to tell her father, an Orthodox rabbi and U.S. Army general, that her boyfriend is German and gentile.” 2008(17thof Shevat, 5768): : Rami Zoari, 20, from Beersheba, a border police officer, was killed and another female officer was seriously wounded after terrorists approached the entrance to Shuafat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem and opened fire on a group of Israelis. The Battalions of Struggle and Return, a previously anonymous offshoot of Fatah's Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.2008:Two terrorists entered the Mekor Hayim High School Yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, south of Jerusalem, and stabbed two students. The terrorists were killed by two of the counselors in the room. The Izaddin al-Kassam's Martyrs Brigades, the Hamas military wing, claimed responsibility for the attack.2009: “The Pink Panther2,” the 11th of the films in the Pink Panther series, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber premiered at Alpe d’Huez.2009: The 5th annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival continues with Noodle, a comic drama about an El Al flight attendant and a 5-year-old Chinese boy left behind when his illegal immigrant mother is deported. Though they have no language in common, the two build a bond as they search for his mother. 2010:Final performance of The Kosher Cheerleader by Sandy Wolshin at the Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. 2010: “From Verse to Universe: Reading the People’s Torah” is scheduled to open at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum. 2010:An exhibition entitled: “Hyman Bloom: A Spiritual Embrace at the Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to come a close.” 2010: The 19thannual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the United States premiere of the restored print of Bar Mitzvah, a classic of Yiddish cinema, in which a mother miraculously survives a shipwreck and shocks the family by appearing at her son’s bar mitzvah. The film features “the legendary Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance.” 2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present the East Coast Premiere of “The Yankles,” which tells the story of ex-con who is forced to coach an “upstart Orthodox baseball team” as part of the community service sentence imposed by the Judge for a drunk driving conviction. 2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Listener by Shira Nayman 2010: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom. 2010: “3 Backyards, “ “ a film written and directed by Eric Mendelsohn premiered today at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Directing Prize as did Mendelsohn's first feature, Judy Berlin, making him the only director to have won the prize twice.”2011: The 92ndStreet Y is scheduled to present a program entitled “2011: Challenges and Opportunities for American and World Jewry” during which Malcolm Hoenlein and John Batchelor are scheduled to lead “a candid discussion of the dangers and issues facing the Jewish community in the coming year, from de-legitimization to the peace process to Iran globalization.” 2011: The U.S. Premiere of “Convoys of Shame” / “Les Convois de la honte” is scheduled to take place at the New York Jewish Film Festival. “This incisive documentary examines how the SNCF (the French national rail company) used its trains and its extensive infrastructure to transport tens of thousands of Jews, Roma, and members of the resistance from France to Nazi concentration camps from 1940 to 1944. 2011: Today, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar defended his decision to approve the military conversions which are undertaken according to orthodox Jewish law. 2011: Rahm Emanuel should not appear on the Feb. 22 mayoral ballot because he does not meet the residency standard, according to a ruling issued by a state appellate court today. Emanuel told a news conference he would appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court and would ask for an injunction so his name will appear on the mayoral ballot. 2011(19thof Shevat, 5771): David Frye, whose wicked send-ups of political figures like Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey and, above all, Richard M. Nixon, made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died today in Las Vegas (As reported by William Grimes)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/arts/29frye.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=David%20Frye&st=csehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jzOQh-LzyE 2012: “Dressing America: Tales From The Garment Center” – a documentary that explores the post-World War II heyday of the garment district in Manhattan” and “pays tribute to the Jewish immigrant roots of the garment industry” – is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2012: “Footnote” a Hebrew language films about a father, a son, Talmudic studies and the Israel Prize “was nominated” today “for an Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Film.” 2012: YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture by Cur Leviant entitled “The Works of Chaim Grade” one of the 20th century’s leading Yiddish authors. 2012: In Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Holocaust survivor and education Irving Roth is scheduled to speak at Cornell College as part of “Standing With Israel Event.” 2012: Israel carried out four airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight after Palestinian militants fired about six rockets and mortars over the border over the past week, an Israeli military spokesman said today 2012: Conflicting reports emerged tonight about an alleged Iranian plot against Israeli and Jewish targets in Azerbaijan 2013(13thof Shevat, 5773): Eighty-four year old Richard G. Stern, “the best American author of whom you have never heard” passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/books/richard-g-stern-a-writers-writer-is-dead-at-84.html 2013: Professor Dan Michman is scheduled to deliver a lecture “Jewish ‘Headships’ and Nazi Anti-Jewish Policies” at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London. 2013: Leo Baeck Institute and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to present a screening of “Kinderbloch 66: Return to Buchenwald” 2013: Gerhard Loewenberg, University of Iowa professor emeritus and former dean, is scheduled to read from his new memoir, Moved by Politics, at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. 2013: The Wicked Wit of the West featuring Hank Rosenfield on the subject of Irving Brecher is schedule for performance at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival 2013: Four former Border Policemen, accused of abusing a petrified Palestinian man who appeared to be mentally challenged, were in court today to hear the legal arguments over whether or not their actions constituted abuse, Channel 2 reported.(As reported by Stuart Winer) 2013: The nationalist Jewish Home party has risen to become the fourth-largest Knesset faction, with 12 seats, after officials finished counting the votes of soldiers and others this afternoon. The party had been predicted to take 11 seats before the last votes were counted.2014 Harris J. Weingarten Tennis Weekend is scheduled to begin at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston, TX.2014: Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is scheduled to host its first Musical Shabbat of 2014.2014: “Tatiana (Tanya) Edelstein, wife of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein was brought to rest this afternoon at the Gush Etzion Cemetery.”2014: Sixty-three year old Tatiana (Tania) Edelstein, wife of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein who passed away last night was laid to rest this afternoon in the Gush Etzion cemetery2014(23rdof Shevat, 5774): Eighty-five year old Shulamit Aloni passed away today.http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-minister-shulamit-aloni-dies-at-85-2/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/world/middleeast/shulamit-aloni-outspoken-israeli-lawmaker-dies-at-86.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&_r=0 2015(4thof Shevat, 5775): Seventy-four year old historian Robert Herzstein passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/europe/robert-herzstein-historian-who-linked-a-un-leader-to-nazi-war-crimes-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02015: “The Naked City” and “A Child of the Ghetto” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2015: “Hannah’s Journey” is scheduled to be shown at the Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present “The Essence of Schubert” featuring Eliyahu Schulmann, Shmuel Magen and Shlomi Shem Tov.2016(14thof Shevat, 5776): Eighty-year old Turing Award winner Marvin Minsky the Princeton Ph.D. who co-founded MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and husband of pediatrician Gloria Rudisch passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/business/marvin-minsky-pioneer-in-artificial-intelligence-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Yad Day” which will feature an exhibit of the museum’s Torah pointers and chance for children to make their own Yads.2016: “Sirens sounded in communities in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, as a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip”2016: The Atlanta Opera is scheduled to present “Pure vs. Degenerate: The Nazi War on Music” a concert that “will feature cabaret, popular and folk songs, opera, and concert hall music by Jewish composers whose works were declared '"degenerate" by the Nazi propaganda machine.”2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History by Saul David, Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence by Lee Siegel and Ronald Regan by Jacob Weisberg.2017: The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to present a lecture by Esther Wrtschko on “The Viennese Café in New York Exile” where she will explore “the history of Jewish Austrian émigrés who transplanted the music of Viennese cafes to New York City.”2017(26thof Tevet, 5777): Seventy year old Allan H. Steinfeld who helped to “modernize the New York City” and followed Fred Lebow as head of the Marathon passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/sports/allan-steinfeld-dead-new-york-city-marathon.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2017: Dr. Steve Feller is scheduled to present a one hour “overview of his upcoming Coe College Thursday forum on the novels of Chaim Potok with special emphasis on The Chosen, The Promise, My Name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev.2017: “Israel approved the construction of approximately 2,500 homes in the West Bank, most of them in existing settlement blocs it hopes to keep in any peace deal, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced” today.2017: “Marie Curie, The Courage of Knowledge” and “Stefan Zweig, Farewell to Europe” are scheduled to be shown on the final night of the New York Jewish Film Festival.2018: The Center for Jewish History and the Jewish Book Council are scheduled to host the “series premiere” of “First Person: Jewish Stories, Jewish Lives” featuring Tova Mirvis, the author of The Book of Separation.2018: JCC Manhattan is scheduled to a live recording of “Unorthodox” Tablet magazines flagship podcast featuring comedian Judy Gold and Father James Martin.2018: In Little Rock, AR, the Upshernish of Mendel Kramer, the son of Rabbi Yosef and Mushka Kramer and the grandson of Esther Hadassah Ciment, and Rabbi Pinchas Ciment, the leader of Lubavitch of Arkansas and the personification of the term “Lamplighter.” 2019(18thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of Astronaut Judith Resnik who died when the “Space Shuttle Challenger” disintegrated 73 seconds after the launch claiming the lives of all seven of those on board the craft. 2019: A screening of “Rosenwald” is scheduled to take place today at Morehouse College as part of the school’s celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.2019: Monica Monica Leo of Eulenspiegel Puppets in West Liberty, Iowa, is scheduled to present her show "Finding Home," a “trilogy dealing with Monica's father's incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp, her parents' eventual immigration to a small town in Texas where her father was a Lutheran pastor, and her mother's work as a metal sculptor and peace activist” at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, IA.2019: The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the U. of Michigan Hill SHARE and the Copernicus Program in Polish Studies are scheduled to co-sponsor a screening of"The Return,” a film that follows four young Polish women and their experiences discovering their Jewish identity in a place that used to be the center of Jewish society” followed by a discussion with Adam Zucker and Professor Geneviève Zubrzycki, CPPS director.”2019: The Joyce Theatre is scheduled to host a second and final performance of Jerusalem choreographer Sharon Eyal’s “Love Chapter 2.”
↧
January 24, 2019, 8:38 pm
January 2541: Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. “Claudius rescinded Caligula’s provocative decrees affecting Judean and reaffirmed Jewish rights throughout the rest of the Roman world.” Claudius supported the cause of the Jews when they were attacked in separate incidents by the Greeks of Alexandria and the Samaritans. He maintained a life-long friendship with the Agrippa the last Jewish king in Eretz Israel.681: The Twelfth Council of Toledo which approved several canons aimed at punishing the Jews including on that prohibited conversos from returning to Judaism and allowed for the confiscation of Jewish owned goods came to a close.749: Birthdate Leo IV (the Khazar), the Byzantine emperor from 775 through 780 who was known as “the Khazar” because his mother was a Khazar Princess. If the Khazars were Jewish, does this mean that at least one Byzantine emperor was Jewish?750: Caliph Marwan II, whose subjects included “self-proclaimed prophet” and Messianic figure known variously as Abu Isa or Isaac ibn Jacob al-Isfahani , passed away today. 1138: Anacletus II passed away. Known as Pietro Pierleone before his elevation to the Papacy in 1130, Anacletus II was referred to as the Jewish anti-pope because he came from a family that had converted from Judaism to Christianity. “One of his great-great grandparents, Benedictus, maybe Baruch in Hebrew, was a Jew who converted into Christianity.” The appellation of anti-pope is one that is hung on several popes who were elected under controversial circumstances. 1327: Edward III who would re-apply the Edict of Expulsion of 1290 because there were reports of “secret Jews” or conversos who had remained in England and were practicing “the faith of their fathers” became King of England today.1494: Ferdinand I who had provided refuge for the Jews expelled from Spain “in Apulia, Calabria and Naples” passed away following which Charles VII of France invaded his realm which led to an outbreak of a disease known as “French fly” which was blamed on the Jews which led to them being driven from the realm. 1494: Alfonso II became King of Naples. Alfonso continued to rely on the services of Don Isaac Abravanal the refugee from the Spanish expulsion who had acted as an advisor to his predecessor on the throne, King Ferdinand. Alfonso also continued the policy of his predecessor of allowing Jews fleeing the Inquisition to settle in his kingdom.1515: Coronation of King Francis I of France who strangely enough for a French monarch showed an interest in the Hebrew language. After all, no Jew had legally lived in France for over a century. But this King invited August Justiniani, the Bishop of Corsica who was reputed to be a serious student of Hebrew literature to move to France. He also invited Elias Levita, the renowned Hebrew grammarian and poet, to move to France and accept a professorship in the Hebrew language. Levita declined the offer for obvious reasons.1533: Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. Henry had failed in his attempt to enlist the support of Italian rabbis in his futile attempt to get the Pope to annul his first marriage. His marriage to Anne helped move England into the Protestant camp which proved to be beneficial in the Jews’ attempt to return to the British Isles. 1554: Founding of São Paulo, Brazil. As was the case in so many other parts of Latin America, the first Jews to inhabit Sao Paulo were New Christians or Conversos. The first openly Jewish residents of the city arrived from Alsace-Lorraine in the 19th century. Today São Paulo is home to the largest Jewish community in Brazil with about 130,000 people,1569: Phillip II of Spain issued the order to set up an inquisition in the New World. Mexico would be the first five years later.1648: The Khmelnytsky or Chmielnicki Rebellion against the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania began in earnest when Bohdan Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 300-500 Cossacks to the Zaporizhian Sich and quickly dispatched the guards assigned by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to protect the entrance. His defeat of the counterattacking Commonwealth forces coupled with is oratorical skills brought thousands of rebels including the Ruthenians to join his uprising. Jews, who served as the middle-man and administrators for the absentee Polish landlords were an easy target for the rebels. The bloody uprising will mark the long, slow disintegration of the Polish state. The slaughter of the Jews was so great that it would not be surpassed until the time of the Nazis.
1782(10th of Shevat): Rabbi Shalom Sharabi Kabbalist, author of Emet ve-Shalom passed away today.1784: Having passed away on Shabbat. Lezer ben Zelig Rachmonus was buried today at the Alderney Road (Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery.1804: Phineas Moses Samuel married Catherine Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.1823: Levi Emanuel Cohen, the husband of the former Hannah Benjamin and the father of Levy, Rosetta and Abraham Cohen, was buried today in the United Kingdom1826: In Norfolk, Rabbi Seixas officiated at the wedding of Philip I. Cohen to Augusta Myers, the daughter of Moses Myers.1841: In Bridgetown, Barbados, the committee governing the Kaal, agreed to place £ 10 sterling “at the disposal of the London Committee led by Sir Moses Montefiore that is working to alleviate “the suffering of the Jews in the east.”1844: Congregation Shaarai Shomayim u-Maskil el Dol was chartered today in Mobile, Alabama. “Israel I. Jones (1810–1877), a London Jew who arrived early in the 1830s, was president of the congregation for most of his life; one of his daughters married the well-known New Orleans rabbi, James Koppel Gutheim (1817–1886). An auctioneer and tobacco merchant, Jones was active in politics, served as an alderman, was president of the Mobile Musical Association, and introduced streetcars to Mobile”1847: In Kirvany, Comitat Saros, Hungary, Herman Miller and Rachel Friedman gave birth to Morris Miller, the husband of Annie Rich, who came to the United States in 1865, lived in Cleveland, Ohio, Meadville, PA and Kalamazoo, Michigan before moving to Milwaukee in 1881 where he served as the Director of the Milwaukee Agriculture Association and trustee, treasurer, vice-president and president of the Hebrew Relief Association.1849: The West End Synagogue of British which had been formed by Jews who left Bevis Marks in 1841 dedicated its new facility in Upper Berkeley Street.1851(22ndof Shevat, 5611): Sixty nine year old Lewis Wolfe Levy, the son of Martha and Benjamin Wolfe Levy and the husband of Julia Levy passed away today in Rockwood, New South Wales, Australia.http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/levy-lewis-wolfe-40171852: Achille Fould resigned as the French Minister of Finance.1852: French political leader Achille Fould was appointed as a Senator and later rejoined the government as a Minister of State.1854(25th of Tevet, 5614): Filosseno Luzzatto passed away. Born at Trieste in 1829; he was an Italian Jewish scholar; son of Samuel David Luzzatto. His name is the Italian equivalent of the title of one of his father's principal works, "Oheb Ger," which was written at the time of Filosseno's birth. “He showed from childhood linguistic aptitude, and having mastered several European languages, he devoted himself to the study of Semitic languages and Sanskrit.” At the age of thirteen he deciphered some old inscriptions on the tombstones of Padua which had puzzled older scholars. Two years later, happening to read D'Abbadie's narrative of his travels in Abyssinia, he resolved to write a history of the Falashas. In addition to writing several original works, he “translated into Italian eighteen chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, adding a Hebrew commentary. Luzzatto contributed to many periodicals, mostly on philological or exegetical subjects.”1854: “The Will of Judah Touro,”published today described the terms of the late philanthropist and businessman’s final testamentary document. The will was dated January 6, 1854, 7 days before his death. The will appointed four executors, three of whom were to receive $10,000 and a four, R.D. Shepperd who is the “residuary legatee. Touro bequeathed approximately $450,000 to different Jewish and non-Jewish institutions and charities. Among them were $20,000 left to the Jew’s Hospital Society of New York; $10,000 left to the New York Relief Society for Indigent Jews in Palestine; $50,000 left for the agent of “a society dedicated to ameliorating the condition of the Jews in the Holy Land and the securing the enjoyment of their religion” as well as bequests left to Jewish congregations throughout the United States including, but not limited to $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Boston, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Hartford, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in New Haven, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in New York, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Charleston and $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Savannah 1854: Sir Henry Rawlinson wrote to from Baghdad today that “a number of clay cylinders taken from the ruins of what is ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ of Genesis disclosed the fact that a few years” prior “to the fall of Babylon, Nabonnedus had associated his son Bilsharuzur, the ‘Belshazzar’ of Scripture with him in the government” “thus showing the harmony between the Biblical narrative and secular history.”1858: The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia. Felix Mendelssohn is the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn was born to Jewish parents in 1809, Felix’s father, Abraham, had the famous composer baptized as a Lutheran in 1816. 1860: In New York City, Gershom Nathan and Rosalie Gomez gave birth to Columbia University trained attorney Edgar J. Nathan, the scion of several the city’s oldest Sephardic families, and partner of Justice Benjamin N. Cardoza who was the husband of Sara N. Solis and the father of Edgar J. Nathan, Jr the Manhattan Borough President.https://www.jta.org/1929/06/20/archive/funeral-services-today-for-edgar-j-nathan1861: Charles Dyte laid the foundation stone for the historic Ballarat Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue on the Australian mainland.1861: In a letter that an unidentified resident of New Orleans, LA, wrote to a friend in Boston, he described the voting patterns of various groups in the recent election. If you believe his description, most groups voted for one of the Unionist or Compromise candidates. Only "The Jews voted for secession."1865: Dr. William H. Thomson read a paper entitled "What we have to learn in the East" at tonight’s meeting of the American Ethnological Society. A longtime resident of Syria, who traveled extensively in throughout the Middle East, Dr. Thomson reported on “the importance of extensive investigations among the innumerable mounds” found in the area. Examination of similar mounds has provided information about early inhabitants including the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. [Ed. Note – What the doctor was describing are the innumerable “tels” that would become the focal point of archaeological interest in modern day Israel.] 1864: Philadelphian Samuel Rothschild began serving with Company I, Seventy-fourth 1868(1st of Shevat, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1870: The New York Times published an editorial defending itself against charges by “a Jewish newspaper” that the paper is paying too much attention to the “Reform party within the ancient sect.” The editorial cites the creation of Temple Israel in Brooklyn as proof of that there is a significant segment of the Jews that “are anxious to make great and fundamental changes in their doctrines and faith.” The editorial finished by saying that it would publish information about any sect within Judaism that are based on “facts.” [Editor’s note: It is significant that a leading metropolitan daily was publishing stories about Jewish culture and religion that were generally informative at a time when the Jewish population was a rather infinitesimal part of the general population1870: In Chicago, Cecilie and Alexander Pam gave birth to Hugo Pam who earned his law degree at the University of Michigan in 1892 who served as member of the Superior court “for more than eighteen years” who served as Vice President of the Zionist Organization of American and “headed the Platine Restoration Fund in Chicago.”https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15367.html1872: The United States confirmed M.A. Shaffenburg as U.S. Marshall for the Territory of Colorado.1874: “The second constitutional convention of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith” opened today in Chicago, Illinois at the Kingsbury Music Hall. Simon Wolf of Washington, D.C. was elected President. During the afternoon session, a massive gold medal was presented in memory of A.E. Frankland, the Memphis, TN, Jew who worked to ameliorate the suffering in that city’s Yellow Fever Epidemic.1874: Birthdate of San Francisco landscape artist Lionel Louis Edwards who passed away in 1954.https://earlycal.com/products/lionel-edwards-1874-1954-california-plein-air-canvas1874: Reverend Samuel Alman was installed today as the pastor of the Second Mission Baptist Church. Before converting, Alman had been a member of the Stanton Street Jewish Congregation1877: In San Francisco, “Eugene and Josefine Mandelbaum Arnstein” gave birth to Leo Arnstein, the Yale educated Attorney, U.S. Army Lt. Col during WWI and civic leader closely connected with Mayor La Guardia who was the husband of the former Elsie Nathan with whom he had four children – William, Robert, Margaret and Elizabeth.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/08/15/87463870.pdf1879(1stof Shevat, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1879(1stof Shevat, 5639): In Berlin, Harry and Caroline Bresslau gave birth to Hélène Mariane Schweitzer1879: In New York City, “Julius Sachs, an educator” and “Rosa Goldman, the daughter of Goldman Sachs’s founder Marcus Goldman gave birth to Harvard undergraduate and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine trained neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs, the husband of playwright and poet Mary Parmly Koues with he had two son and one daughter.https://www.societyns.org/society/bio.aspx?MemberID=76601879: The Pioneers, a St. Louis literary club for Jewish women, meet for the first time today. 1881: Birthdate of Emil Cohn the native of Breslau who gained fame as journalist and author Emil Ludwig who specialized in writing biographies and who re-identified as a Jew when Walther Rathenau was murdered in 1922.1882 (5th of Shevat): Bilu was founded at Kharkov 1882: The Hearts of Oak Company featuring David Belasco as “Mr. Ellingham” performed for the last time at Leubrie’s Theatre in St. Paul, MN.1885: Five days after he had passed away at Frankfurt, fifty-one year old Abraham Seligman, the husband of Elenore Seligman with whom he had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1885: Herman Ahlwardt wrote a letter today in he said, "Antisemitism is illogical; I have always condemned it, and shall continue to condemn religious intolerance until my last breath." (Ahlwardt would change his views when he failed to find political success among the Conservatives and become notorious anti-Semitic pamphleteer, agitator and member of the Reichstag. 1886(19thof Shevat, 5646): Ninety–one year old Elias Mayer, the French born husband of Abby Mayer with whom he had 13 children passed away today in Philadelphia.1887: Birthdate of Berl Katznelson the Russian native who “ was one the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental to the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and the editor of Davar, the first daily newspaper of the workers' movement.”http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/katznelson.html1890: In Louisville, KY, “David and Frieda (Weiss) Mann gave birth to Louis Leopold Mann, the holder of a BA and MA from the University of Cincinnati, a B.H.L. from Hebrew Union College and Ph.D. from Yale University and the Rabbi of Sinai Congregation in Chicago who was active in numerous cultural and educational organizations including the National League of Woman Voters and the Jewish Chautauqua Society and was the husband of Ruth Cohen with whom he had two children – Mary Louise and Arthur Horace.https://www.jta.org/1966/02/03/archive/dr-louis-mann-leading-reform-rabbi-dies-in-chicago-was-761891: Rabbi Gustav Gustav Gottheil delivered an address entitled “An Earnest Word To Christians” at Temple Emanu-El in New York.1891: Based on information that first appeared in the London Daily Telegraph it was reported today that Baron Hirsch has donated £500,000 for education of “indigent Jews” in various parts of Austria, including Lemberg and Czernowitz. Although intended to provide education for Jewish children, “the Hirsch school will...be open to Christian children” as well.1891: Birthdate of Lazarus Joseph, the native of the Lower East Side and grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, who served as State Senator and New York City Comptroller.1891: In Berlin, Albert Mosse, the of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse and Caroline (Lina) Mosse gave birth to Eric Peter Mosse1892: It was reported today that the delegates from the Hebrew Trades Union would join with others in calling for all labor organizations in the United States “to send delegates to an international labor congress” scheduled “to be held in Chicago in 1893.” 1893: In Arras (Pas-de-Calais) Protestant mining engineer Paul-Louis Weiss and Jeanne Javal a member of an Alsatian Jewish family gave birth to “Louise Weiss was an influential voice in French and international affairs from the 1920s until her death in 1983.”http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/weiss-louise1894: Isaac Bergman, a 30 year old homeless tailor was arrested and imprisoned after he attempted to commit suicide today at the offices of the United Hebrew Charities because he had been told “that there was no work” available for tailors.1895: The Young Ladies and Gentlemen's League of the Montefiore Home hosted a ball at the Carnegie Music Hall to raise fund for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids. 1895: The Monte Relief Society, a charitable and social organization founded by a small group of Jewish women under the leadership of Mrs. Sofia Monte-Loebinger two years ago, is scheduled to host a party at the Terrace Garden designed to raise funds to relieve “distress among the Hebrew poor.”1896: A sub-committee of Board of Alderman in New York met today to discuss whether or not to accept a fountain dedicated to the memory of Heinrich Heine.1897: Aloe Alfred, began his military today as a Private in the United States Army.1897: Starting today, and lasting for the rest of the week Civil Service examinations were administered in New York for the position of Court Interpreter. Hebrew was one of the six languages in which applicants could be tested. (The test for Hebrew would seem to have been a misguided attempt to cope with the large surge of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In reality, most of these immigrants spoke Yiddish, not Hebrew.)1898: Birthdate of Polish native Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski, the Chicago mobster whose moniker of Earl “Hymie’ Weiss led people to think that this Catholic whose burial site is topped by a large cross was Jewish.1898: Cleveland, Ohio, liquor dealer Saul Jacobs was convicted of larceny in the first degree for his part in a scheme to swindle Max Bernstein.1898: It was reported today that troops were called out to help the police respond to anti-Jewish riots in St. Malo. (This was part of the on-going anti-Dreyfus violence sweeping France)1898: It was reported today that in Algiers, “the Governor General narrowly escaped a chair which was thrown at him” as he tried to disperse anti-Jewish mobs. The mob now included “a number of natives” whose only interest was looting and pillaging.1898: At least one hundred people went trial today for their part in the anti-Jewish riots in Algiers, the capital of Algeria which was a French colony. “Eighty of the rioters were condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from three months to year…One who was caught in the act of pillaging was sentenced to five years in prison.”1899(14thof Shevat, 5659): Eighty-seven year old Adolphe d'Ennery the French dramatist who converted some of his plays into successful novels passed away today in Paris.1899: Birthdate of Worcester native Carl Pack, the Brooklyn Law School trained attorney and the Bronx Democratic State Senator from the 22ndDistrict who was “vice president of Temple Beth Elhoim and the husband of “the former Henrietta Langbert” with whom he had two children.1899: Birthdate of Goodman Ace. Born Goodman Aiskowitz, Kansas City, Missouri, he was a writer and comedian who created Easy Aces. The scripts for this long running radio hit would be the source for television shows in the 1970’s. He also created the “You Are There,” the pseudo-news show that helped to launch the career of Walter Cronkite.1900(24thof Shevat, 5660): Seventy-year old Piedmont native, patriot and financer Senator Isaac Artom who took part in the battles of Curtatone and Montanara and served as secretary to Italian leader Count Camillo Cavour, passed away today in Rome.1901(5thof Shevat, 5661): Seventy-two year old Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild the son of Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild of Naples and the husband of Mathilde Hannah von Rothschild, the second oldest daughter of Anselm von Rothschild, a chief of the Vienna House of Rothschilds passed away today in Frankfurt where he was head of the Frankfurt House of Rothschild.1902: Herzl proposes to Franz Oppenheimer the creation of a model cooperative colony in El Arish.1904: Herzl met Pope Pius X and tried to convince him to support the vision of Zionism without any success. The pope totally rejected the idea that Jerusalem would be in Jewish hands. (The papacy still clings to this notion.) Herzl is received by Pope Pius X, who declares, he cannot support the return of the infidel Jews to the Holy Land. ("If you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we want to have churches and priests ready to baptize all of you.")1904: Birthdate of Morris Ploscowe, the native of Libachin, Russia, who came to the United States in 1907 after which he earned a law degree from Harvard and pursued a career that included serving as executive director of the American Bar Association Commission on Organized Crime and an “active member of the American Jewish Community”https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/22/archives/exmagistrate-ploscowe-dies-criminallaw-expert-was-71.html1906: Jews in the United States were absorbing reports coming from Bucharest through Berlin that “massacres of Jews have taken place in Kishinev and various parts of Bessarabia” for which “details are lacking.”1909(3rdof Shevat, 5669): Idudowitz Schore-Riewe drowned today.1909: In Sioux City, IA, Kate Sandwina and her husband birth to heavyweight boxer Theodore “Teddy” Sandwina. 1909: German composer Richard Strauss' opera “Elektra” receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera. Strauss was born in 1864 and passed away in 1949 which means that his last years as an active composer coincided with the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis. Many have been critical of his close association with the Third Reich. His defenders claim that Strauss’ behavior was determined by his need to protect his son and daughter-in-law who was Jewish, In fact, the couple was arrested in Vienna during the war and it took all of Strauss’ best efforts to save them. 1910(15thof Shevat, 5670): Tu B’Shevat1910(15thof Shevat, 5670): Sixty-seven year old Sarah Lazarus, the daughter of Moses and Esther Lazarus passed away today in New York City.1912: The Savannah Section withdraws from the Council of Jewish Women.1913: It was reported today that, “in a dispatch from Jerusalem” The London Daily has said “that the Palestine Exploration Fund workers, Mckenzie and McAllister have unearthed Bethe Sehmesh” the town mentioned in the Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Samuel “in the ruins thirty miles from Jerusalem1913(17thof Shevat, 5673): Parashat Yitro1913(17thof Shevat, 5673): Wilhelm Bacher, a Hungarian rabbi and scholar passed away in Budapest. Born in 1850, he was “a major contributor” to the “Jewish Encyclopedia” as well as close friend of many Jewish intellectuals notably Chaim Nachman Bialik 1913: Birthdate of Chicago native Armand Deutsch, the son Adele Deutsch Levy, the grandson of Sears CEO Julius Rosenwald and the stepson of Dr. David M. Levy whose friendship with the Reagans led to his appointment as a member of the “Presidential Task Force on the Arts and Humanities.”1913: “Yiddish star Boris Thomashefsky and his all-star company” are scheduled give two performances one of which will be a matinee of the new play “Breach of Promise” at the Haymarket Theatre.1913: In Camden, NJ, J.F. Kantor, the head of the of Young Men’s Hebrew Association presided over a meeting attended by more than a thousand at the Broadway Theatre where he delivered a speech designed to impress the audience with ‘the importance and necessity of a Jewish communal building” 1913: Birthdate of Harlem native Moe Frankel who played basketball for the Harlem Hebrew Institute, DeWitt Clinton High School and New York University before playing professional for ABL teams from 1936 through 1947.http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/coach/moe-frankel/1914: “More than a thousand persons crowded into the Broadway Theatre” in Camden, NJ, this afternoon and heard Isaac Hassler of Philadelphia tell them of the importance of constructing the “Jewish communal building” which was being championed by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Camden.1915: A list of contributors to the Hebrew Free Loan Society provide President Julius J. Dukas published today included Jacob Schiff, $1,000; Mortimer L. Schiff, $1,000; Felix M. Warburg, $1,500; Adolph Lewisohn, $500 and Maxwell Guggenheim $100.1915: “Fulton Brylawski, of counsel of Leo M. Frank, under sentence of death for murder in Atlanta, today moved in the Supreme Court of the United States for the advancement of argument in Frank’s appeal for a writ of habeas corpus.”1915: The trial of Dan H. Leon, the southern representative of the W.J. Burns Detective Agency, C.C. Tedder and Arthur Thurman who have been indicted for subordination of perjury that resulted in false testimony being given in the case of Leo Franks is scheduled to begin in Atlanta, GA.1916: “The various committees having a hand in the collections of money for the relief of the Jews perfected arrangements” today for the upcoming “observance of he days especially set apart by the Presidential Proclamation when all may assist Jews in distress in war-stricken countries”1916: Mayor Mitchel did not attend last night’s meeting of the American Jewish Congress but was reported today to have a sent a message of regret “in which he said: ‘The Christian peoples of Europe and America ought to be as one in demanding for Jews equality for the law, no more, no less.”1916: In Boston, Massachusetts Governor McCall issued a proclamation “asking the people of the State to contribute on January 27 to the aid of Jews stricken by the European war in accordance with the recent proclamation by President Wilson?1917: As Americans debate the wisdom of entering the war (with all that will come to mean for the Jewish people) conflicting reports were published today about the deportation of Belgian civilians by the Germans who have been occupying the country since 1914.1918: As the day turns into evening and Jews begin to observe Shabbat Bo, ‘in synagogue throughout” the United States” rabbis are scheduled to “devote their sermons to the impending re-establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine to donate the offering to the Palestine Restoration Fund, the first one million dollars of which is now being raised in the United States. 1918: In New London, Annie Rifkin and Barnett Lubow gave birth to Sylvia Lubow who became Sylvia Lubow Rindskopf when she married future Admiral and decorated war hero Maurice Rindskopf.1918: Vilmos Vázsonyi, the Hungarian leader who fought to gain “official recognition for the Jewish religion” began serving his second term as Minister of Justice.1918: In Bendery, Bessarabia, the municipality intervened “in favor Jewish students enrolled by the heads of local Railway Institute where refused admittance by the other students.1918: In Warsaw, the Jewish Socialist Labor Party (Paole-Zion) held its fifth conference adopted “resolutions respecting Jewish municipal life.”1919: In New York City, Myron Newman, a credit manager and Rose (née Parker) Newman gave birth to NBC newsman Edwin Harold “Ed” Newman, the brother of reporter M.W. Newman and the husband of Rigel Grell.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/business/media/16newman.html1919: Awni Abdul Hadi and Ahmad Qadri met with an unnamed Zionist representative at the Hotel Meurice1919: The League of Nations was founded. British control over Palestine would take its legal form from a Mandate by the League of Nations. The failure of the League to halt the aggression of Japan in China, Italy in Abyssinia and the fascists in Spain is listed as one of the causes of World War II and therefore the Shoah. The League failed as a peace keeper, in part, because the United States refused to join, a mistake it would not repeat at the end of WW II when it joined the United Nations.1920: In Brooklyn, produce merchant Milton Mollen and Esther Mollen gave birth to Milton Mollen, the WW II veteran and head of the Mollen Commission which investigated charges of police corruption in the 1990’s.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/nyregion/milton-mollen-dead-investigated-police-corruption-in-new-york-city.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1920: “Asserting that the suspension of the Socialist Assemblymen is an attack on liberty by political action which has been well prepared through the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, Rabbi Samuel Schulman, preaching at the Temple Beth-El” this “morning on ‘The Dangers to American Liberty,’ said that the present tendency toward paternalism in Government is on which the framers of the Constitution could dream of as possible for free men.”1921: In Brooklyn, Lazarus and Jenny Cohen gave birth to Samuel Theodore Cohen, the Father of the Neutron Bomb.1922: A committee chaired by Rabbi Louis Feinberg of Cincinnati, Ohio, will deliver a report to Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) on the acceptability of using unfermented grape juice for sacramental purposes.1922: Temple Beth El held its 10th Annual Ball at the Elmwood Music Hall in Buffalo, New York.1924: The Hebrew Standard Review of Israel reported that “the combined sports meeting held at the Love Cove” on January 20th was a “success” which established “the new spirit and ideal of Sydney’s Jewish youth…”1925: The former Hahambashi of Turkey, Rabbi Haim Nahoum was elected Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Egypt.1925: Birthdate of John Livingston Weinberg, American banker and businessman.1926: “Tartuff” a film version of the French play photographed by Karl Freund with a script by Carl Mayer was released in Germany today.1927(22ndof Shevat, 5687): Forty-three year old, Dr. Julius Lawrence “Mortimer” Mogulesko, a graduate of Columbia University School of Medicine and specialized in the field of Bacteriology passed away today.1927: Birthdate of Yitzhak Hofi, the native of Tel Aviv who began his career as a member of the Palmach, reached the rank of General in the IDF before serving as the head of Mossad.1927: Birthdate of New York native and NYU graduate Jay Smolens Harrison, the music editor of the New York Herald Tribunehttps://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/13/archives/jay-s-harrison-47-music-editor-dead.html1928: Birthdate of Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder the Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit in 1963. He also was the driving force behind the creation of the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969. He died in auto accident at the age of 79 in 2007.
1929: Birthdate of Robert Faurisson who denies the suffering of Elie Weisel, the Diary of Anne Frank and the reality of the Final Solution.1930: Pinky Silverberg lost a non-title bout to the reigning NBA World Bantamweight Champion in Havana, Cuba.1931: In Brooklyn, attorney and some-times Broadway producer Emil Katzka and his wife gave birth to Gabriel Katzka whose production included the anti-war and very humorous “Kelly’s Heroes” and the original version of “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.”http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/21/obituaries/gabriel-katzka-59-producer-in-theater-films-and-television.html1932: “Warburg a Leader in Banking Reform” published today provided a detailed account of the financier’s life and accomplishment including his criticism of “the present orgies of unrestrained speculation” months before the Crash of 1929 and his role as trustee of Tuskegee College, the “all black college” which was an educational beacon of hope to African-Americans in the days of Segregation.1932: Degrees were awarded to 13 graduates at the first commencement exercises of Hebrew University which was opened in 1925.1934: In Tarnow, Galicia, Israel Mendel Keller and his wife gave birth to Naphtali Keller the short-lived author who wrote in Hebrew.1936(1stof Shevat, 5696): Parashat Vaera and Rosh Chodesh Shevat1936(1stof Shevat, 5696): Sixty-five year old gynecologist Dr. George Gellhorn, the husband suffragette and social reformer Edna Gehllhorn and the father of famed correspondent Martha Gellhorn passed a way today in St. Louis.1936: “New anti-Jewish rioting broke out today in Krakow, Wilno and Warsaw universities…”1936: “A plan to get as many Jews out of Germany as possible was outlined publicly” tonight in St. Louis “by Sir Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner for Palestine and Felix M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb and Co.”1936: Twenty-five year old Ben Kramer, lead LIU to victory today over St. John’s.1937: In another attack on the economic well-being Jews, “the Reich University of Agriculture issued a decree tonight enable it to revoke the licenses of horse or cattle dealers who are to be ‘personally unfitted’ for their business.1937: As of today, “no evidence has been discovered of any incident or development to account for the suspension” by the secret police of a majority of Jewish organizations in Germany including “the Jewish League of World War Veterans, Jewish sport groups, Jewish cultural groups and various occupational schools organized to help Jews prepare for emigration.”1938: Conde Nast, the published of Vogue, “announced today that he had accepted the resignation of of Cecil Beaton, British photographer and artist from the staff of the magazine” because he had submitted a drawing for the February 1 issue that Nast said appeared to contain “comments that were critical of the Jews race” and that he “was particularly distressed that these slurring comments should have been printed in Vogue, especially during these days of cruel, vicious and unreasoning persecution of Jews.1938: In “Miami’s Anti-Semitic Jews” published today Robert Gessner describes a resort where “eighty-percent of all its hotels are owned and operated by Jews” and where “it’s almost impossible for a Jewish boy to get a job.”http://www.unz.org/Pub/NewMasses-1938jan25-00015?View=PDFPages1940: Birthdate of Lt. Col. Avraham "Avi" Lanir one of the most accomplished and bravest pilots in the IAF. On the first day of the Yom Kippur War, Lanir joined with Colonel Oded Marom flew their Mirage jets to the Golan where they engaged four MiGs, shooting down one a piece. Tragically, Colonel Lanir would be shot down by the Syrians who tortured him to death.1940: The Nazi decreed the establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland1941: Warsaw diarist Chaim Kaplan wrote today “Will we be able to survive? This question is on everyone’s tongue.”1942: Hungarian military units under the command of General Feketehalmi-Zeisler, General Bajor-Bayer and Captain Zoldi completed “cleaning up the southern region captured from the Yugoslavs” which included the murder of 1,500 Jews in Novisad.1943: Hans Frank, the Governor-General of occupied Poland delivered a “speech on the need to exterminate Poles.” (Eugene Davidson)1944: Hans Frank, governor-general of Occupied Poland, notes in his diary that approximately 100,000 Jews remain in the region under his control, down by 3,400,000 from the end of 1941.
1945: U.S. premiere of “The Thin Man Goes Home” with a story by Harry Kurnitz and Robert Ruskin who also co-authored the screenplay.1945: U.S. premiere of “I Love A Mystery” directed by Henry Levin.1945(11thof Shevat, 5705): Eighty-five year old Bert H. Prinz, who came to the United States in 1864 with is parents Abraham and Rose Wohlgemuth Prinz where he owned several clothing stores the mos success of which was Printz Company Men’s Clothing and Furnishing with headquarters in Youngstown Ohio, passed away today.1945: Today, two separate recordings of Harold Arlen’s "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" reached the Billboard magazine charts today.1945: Labor camp prisoners from Blechhammer began their five day march to Bergen-Belsen during which about 20% of them died.1945: The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Stutthof concentration camp. In yet another Death March prisoners are sent westward in the middle of driving snow storm. Many would die from freezing. Others were shot or thrown into the icy Baltic Sea.1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. met for a third day in London.1946: “My Reputation” a love story directed by Curtis Bernhardt, co-produced by Jack L. Warner and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.1946: “Whistle Stop” a crime film directed by Léonide Moguy, with a script by Philip Yordan was released in the United States today1948: Mishmar, a paper first published by Hashomer Hatzair in 1943, changed its named to Al HaMishmar (On Guard) today.1948: In Vancouver, British Columbia, Congregation Schara Tzedeck which had been founded in 1907 as “Benei Yehuda” dedicated its new facility which had been completed in September of 1947.1949: Nathan Yellin-Mor and Matityahu Shmuelevitch both of whom were members of Lehi were found guilty of having been leaders of a terrorist organization today.1949: On the same day that he was found guilty Lehi leader Nathan Yellin-Mor, the founder of the Fighters List, was elected to the first Knesset 1949: Ben-Gurion's Mapai party was the top vote getter in Israel’s first election after the creation of the Jewish state. However, the party only gained 35.7% of the vote which translated into 46 seats in the Knesset leaving Ben-Gurion 15 seats short of the majority he would need in the parliament that has 120 seats. This would necessitate the formation of a coalition. This would set the stage for a joining of strange bedfellows which some see as detrimental to the long term stability of the Jewish state.1951: “The Enforcer” co-starring Zero Mostel premiered in New York City.1954: In Jerusalem, Michaella and Yitzhak Grossman gave birth to Israeli author David Grossman whose work included Her Body Knows, a collection of two novellas.1956: The West End production of “Plain and Fancy” a musical comedy with a book by Joseph Stein opened at the Theatre Royal in London.1958: In New York City, actress, director, and writer, Lee Grant (née Lyova Rosenthal), and screenwriter Arnold Manoff gave birth to actress Dinah Manoff1959: Pope John XXIII proclaims Second Vatican Council. This would lead to the greatest improvement in relations between the Church and the Jewish People since the days of Constantine. 1959: Contributions of $132 were received by the annual appeal of the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund from the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.1960: Yitzhak Rabin flew to IDF Southern Headquarters to ascertain the military situation as Egyptian forces stood on the border with Israel. The crisis would pass since neither side was prepared for war. But the crisis of 1960 did help to set the stage for Israel’s response to Egypt’s next foray into the Sinai in 1967.1960(25thof Tevet, 5720): Seventy-nine year old Hungarian born and Rush Medical College trained surgeon passed away today in Chicago.https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5170/431.3https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/11/07/85131581.pdf1960: David Susskind produced and Henry Kaplan directed two plays by August Strindberg – “Miss Julie” and “The Stronger” – as part of the Play of the Week.1961 (8 Shevat 5721): Bar Mitzvah of Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in 1948 he is the fifth and present Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He has led Belz since 1966.1962: In London, June Flewett and Sir Clement Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud gave birth to UK broadcaster and social commentator Emma Vallency Freud.1963: The recording sessions that would eventually produce “The Barbra Streisand Album” next month came to an end today.1965: Sheldon Cohen began serving as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.1965(22ndof Shevat, 5725): Ninety-one year old Frankfurt born economist Moritz Julius Born, the descendant of a family started in the sixteenth century by Aaron Jacob Bonn, who was distinguished academic as well as an advisor to the Weimar government passed away today.http://ieg-ego.eu/en/mediainfo/moritz-julius-bonn-1873201319651966(4thof Shevat, 5726): Seventy-seven year old Dr. Saul Adler, the expert on parasites who translated Darwin’s The Origin of Species into Hebrew, passed away today in Jerusalem. http://english.israelphilately.org.il/articles/content/en/000462http://www.boeliem.com/content/1994/492.html1966(4thof Shevat, 5726): Sixty-three year old University of California Professor of Physiology Dr. Israel Lyon Chaikoff passed away today in Berkeley, CA.http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb629006vt;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00007&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calispherehttp://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9D01E7DC113CEF34BC4F51DFB766838D679EDE1967: After having premiered in the United Kingdom, “Prehistoric Women” co-starring Steven Berkoff was released in the United States today.1967: “The Reluctant Astronaut,” a comedy written by Everett Greenbaum premiered in Houston, TX today.1968: Last transmission is received from the Israeli submarine, Dakar1970: Birthdate of Israeli high jumper Itay Margalit.https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/israel/itay-margalit-83301971: Idi Amin led a coup deposing Milton Obote and became Uganda's president. In his younger days, Amin was favorably disposed towards the Israelis who trained him as a paratrooper. However, in 1976, he would prove himself to be a strong supporter of the PLO as he gave refuge to the terrorists who landed their high jacked aircraft at Entebbe. 1974: “KGB stopped Moscow UPI correspondent G.P. Joseloff on a Moscow street after his interview with a group of Jewish activists and seized written replies to questions he posed to them. “1975: Birthdate of Canadian actress Mia Kirshner, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and the daughter of a Canadian Jewish journalist.1976(23rdof Shevat, 5736): Eighty-four year old German-born English historian Victor Ehrenberg, the brother of Hans Ehrenberg and the nephew of Victor Ehrenberg passed away in London.1977(6thof Shevat, 5737): Eighty five year old motion picture actor, agent and producer Edward Small passed away today.http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9376685http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806448/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm1978: As part of its “Great Performances series,” PBS broadcast “Verna: USO Girl” co-starring Howard Da Silva and featuring theme music by Jerome Kern and George Gershwin.1978: Thirty-three year old David Pleat began managing Luton Town.1981: In New Orleans, LA, Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV.1981: In “Words of a Fallen Soldier,” Hillel Halkin reviewed Self-Portrait of a Hero: The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (1963-1976).http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/25/books/words-of-a-fallen-soldier.html?scp=1&sq=The%20Letters%20of%20Jonathan%20Netanyahu&st=cse1983: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia1985: Release date for “The Falco and the Snowman” directed by John Schlesinger, the product of a middle-class Anglo-Jewish family.1986(15thof Shevat, 5746): Parashat Beshalach and Tu B’Shevat1986(15thof Shevat, 5756): The curtain came down on the fifty year acting career of Lilli Palmer who passed away today at the age of 71.https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/palmer-lillihttp://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/29/obituaries/lilli-palmer-actress-on-tv-stage-and-screen-for-50-years.html1987: Neil Diamond sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXI.1987: Seventy-four year old composer and conductor Henry Krips whose “father was a Jewish convert to Catholicism” which made him Jewish under Nazi racial laws and thus gave him reason to flee his native Austria after the Anschluss, passed away in Australia his haven from the Holocaust.1987: It was announced today that Allison Pines, the daughter of Isidore Pines, the “president of National Foods, Inc.” a company whose divisions include Hebrew National Kosher Foods” which “was founded by the late Isidore Pinckowitz, great-grandfather of the future bride” is engaged to second year med school student Kenneth Klein, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Alan Klein of Chicago.1988: As the latest round of Arab terrorism escalates, Yehuda Genyan, a tailor, seems to be expressing the frustration of many Israelis when he said today of the terrorists, “They walk around here like kings, but a Jew goes to pray at the wall and he gets stabbed.''1991(10thof Shevat, 5751): Seventy-two year old David Hirsh Panitz the rabbi emeritus at Temple Emanuel in Paterson who had previously served as rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, DC where, among other things he officiated at the Shabbat morning service where Avraham Elimelch ben Yosef Dov was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/obituaries/rabbi-david-h-panitz-educator-is-dead-at-72.html1992: Singer Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yeminite Dance Troupe appear in concert as part of “Israel: The Next Generation.”1993: Robert Rubin began serving as the 1st Director of the National Economic Council under President Clinton.1993: The New York Times reported that a United States Senator from Hawaii, the Brooklyn-born chief rabbi of an Israeli West Bank community, and an organization of disabled Israeli war veterans will receive the 10th annual Defender of Jerusalem Awards. The $100,000 prize that will be divided among the recipients will be presented by the Jabotinsky Foundation Thursday at the Plaza Hotel. The foundation is named for Vladimir Jabotinsky, a Zionist, philosopher and mentor of many Israeli leaders. Being honored this year are Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founder of the settlement of Efrat on the West Bank, where he is described as a peace-keeper and arbitrator between Jews and Palestinians, and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, which operates two sports, rehabilitation and social centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa and is building a facility in Jerusalem. The purpose of the prize, said Eryk Spektor, founder and chairman of the Jabotinsky Foundation, "is to honor people who have stood up in the defense of Jewish rights."1995: “The Usual Suspects” a dark crime movie directed by Bryan Singer and filmed by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel premiered at Sundance today.1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including Hitler’s Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht by John Weitz and Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer; translated by Joseph Sherman.1999: Yitzhak Mordechai completed his service as Minister of Defense.2000: U.S. premiere of “The Songcatcher” a fascinating movie about the Hill people of North Carolina and their music co-starring Emmy Rossum as “Deladis Slocumb.”2001: Israel's state-owned power utility said today that it planned to buy more than half of its $3 billion supply of natural gas over the next decade from Egypt, after receiving an offer that was 20 to 30 percent lower than domestic prices.2001: In Toronto, the Al Waxman Fan Club, which had over a thousand members, held a wake for their hero complete with “a New Orleans-style funeral march including a jazz band.2001: After a 48-hour hiatus, Israelis and Palestinians resumed their peace talks today still hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough, though increasingly dubious about a full-fledged agreement before the Feb. 6 election in Israel.2002: A Palestinian suicide bomber wounded more than two dozen people when he blew himself up today in a pedestrian mall in a Tel Aviv neighborhood of populated largely by immigrant workers.2002: In response to today’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, “an Israeli F-16 attacked the Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza located near Yasser Arafat's compound.”2003: On the first day of his trial, an Israeli Arab student denied that he had tried to hijack an El Al jetliner and force it to slam into a skyscraper in Tel Aviv. Tawfiq Foqara, 23, told the court that during the November 17 flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul he had a dispute with a flight attendant who yelled at him. 2003: The Guardian published an article entitled “Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of the revolution; Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in Soviet-era,” in which Nick Paton reviews Two Hundred Years Together by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jan/25/russia.books 2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power by George Soros,Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates, Collect Poems by Paul Auster and a newly released paperback edition of A Saint, More or Lessby Henry Grunwald. 2004: Today Israel's high court suspended for 30 days the state's efforts to expel the Palestinian father of an Israeli soldier, pending a hearing on granting him the right to remain in Israel. 2004: Elyakim Rubinstein completed his service as Israel’s Attorney General.2005(15th of Shevat, 5765): Tu B'Shevat2015: A year after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival “Metallica” a documentary co-directed and co-produced by Bruce Sniofsky was re-released in the United States.2005: As plans are made for a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s “Sweet Charity” today, “the show went into production at the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.”2005: In the U.S. of Representatives Congressman Pete Session rose today “to pay tribute to Mr. Joel David Brooks” who is retiring as the Executive Director of the Southwest Region for the American Jewish Congress after forty years of service.2005: French debut of “To Take a Wife” (VeLakahta Lekha Isha) co-directed by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz who also co-authored the script2006:The Tenafly Jewish community has won a six-year battle with local officials over the right to place symbolic plastic strips on utility poles to create an enclosure that would allow them to perform certain restricted activities on the Sabbath. 2007(6th of Sh'vat, 5767): Sydney Simon Shulemson, DFC, died today in Florida. Born in 1915, he “was a Canadian fighter pilot, and Canada's highest decorated Jewish soldier, during World War II .Growing up in Montreal, Shulemson attended McGill University. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 10, 1939, and graduated from flight school in 1942. He joined RCAF 404 Squadron in Wick in Scotland, flying a Bristol Beaufighter. Shulemson downed a German flying boat on his first sortie. He pioneered techniques for rocket attacks on Axis ships in the North Atlantic. After the war, Shulemson located aircraft and recruited pilots for Israel's growing Israeli Air Force.”2007: In Derby, UK, Holocaust Memorial Day Service2007: Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik became acting President of Israel when President Moshe Katzav took a three month long leave of absence.2008: In Iowa City the funeral is held for orthopedic surgeon Dr. Webster B. Gelman, recipient of the 1985 University of Iowa Alumnae Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award who passed away at the age of 89.2008: First Musical Shabbat Service at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.2008: Rami Zuari, a 20 year old Border Police officer killed during a terrorist attack at an East Jerusalem checkpoint was buried in the military cemetery at Be’er Sheva, his home town.2008: In Great Britain at Friday Prayers the community of Ahmadi Muslims in the UK say the following prayer in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. "Sunday 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day in UK. We pray that people learn to recognize, accept and respect their differences. People of all races and faiths are God’s people. May everyone accept this truth so that the world can look forward to a peaceful future. May God enable people to remain close to their Creator, follow His teachings of peace, and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Amen."2009: Politics and Prose Bookstore hosts a reading from Words that Burn Within Me: Faith, Values, Survival, a collection of notebooks by Hilda Stern Cohen containing poetry and recollections of life in 1930s Germany, which was discovered by her husband, Werner Cohen, after her death in 1997. 2009: Canadian Sharon Fichman defeated her American opponent in a clay court match at Lutz, Florida2009: The 5th annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival closes this evening with a showing of “Children of the Sun,” written and directed by Ran Tal and the winner of Israel's Academy Award for Best Documentary.2009: The New York Times includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Benjamin Disraeli by Adam Kirsch and Ballet’s Magic: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925by Akim Volynsky; edited and translated by Stanley J. Rabinowitz. Akim Volynsky was the pen name of Chaim Leib Flekser who was born in 1861 into an Orthodox Jewish family of booksellers in Ukraine.2009: The New York Times reports that the kosher symbol, intended to show consumers that the contents adhere to Jewish dietary laws, was mistakenly left off 14 million boxes of Thin Mints, the variety that accounts for roughly 25 percent of Girl Scout cookie sales, said Raymond Baxter, president and chief executive of Interbake Foods, the parent company of ABC Bakers of Richmond, Va., one of two approved manufacturers of the cookies. Proofreaders missed the mistake. But a customer noticed in November that the symbol — a circled U accompanied by a D for dairy — was missing, said Brian Crawford, an executive at the Scouts’ New York headquarters. (Some troops sell cookies in the fall, though most sales are held January through March.) ABC Bakers quickly sent letters explaining the oversight (and showing proof of kosher certification from the Orthodox Union) to Scout councils. Rabbi Yisroel Bendelstein of the Orthodox Union, who has fielded perhaps a half-dozen calls about the cookies, said he hoped the letters would “obviate any concerns.” Thin Mints, the rabbi said, are his favorite Girl Scout cookie. 2009 (29 Tevet 5769):Rabbi Leon Klenicki, a pioneer in interfaith relations passed away today according to an announcement from the Anti-Defamation League, where he served as director emeritus of interfaith affairs. A leading figure in efforts to promote Jewish-Christian understanding, Klenicki was made a Papal Knight by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 in recognition of his historic contributions to improving relations between Catholics and Jews. He worked for the ADL for 28 years before his retirement in 2001. Klenicki, a renowned scholar and theologian, wrote numerous books and articles on Catholic-Jewish issues. A native of Argentina, Klenicki was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati. He was a member of an Argentine government commission to investigate Nazi activities in Argentina from 1933 to 1945. 2010: The 19thannual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York premiere “Leap of Faith,” a documentary about the difficulties that four families face when they abandons their traditions and embrace Judaism.2010: The Brooklyn Israel Film Festival is scheduled to close this evening with a screening of the 2008 Israel Academy Award for Best Documentary, ‘Children of the Sun.” 2010 (10th of Tevet): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchok Schneersohn, sixth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement who was also known as the Friediker Rebbe or "Previous Rebbe."One year later, to the day, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Rebbe assumed the leadership position of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement.2010: At the Sundance Festival the first screening of “A Film Unfinished.”2010: The week after Miep Gies, passed away, Elie Wiesel wrote the following about her in Time magazine. Miep Gies entered history without wanting to. She did what many others were too afraid to do: she risked her freedom, her life, in her determination to save Jews from deportation and death.From 1942 to '44, Gies, who died Jan. 11 at 100, helped shelter and feed Anne Frank and her family in an attic in Amsterdam, where at that time Jews were being branded, humiliated and condemned just because they were Jews. Her life remains a moral example for millions to follow. I met Gies much later and was impressed by her sincerity, the simplicity of her comments and the moving quality of her smile. Calm, soft and reserved, she radiated nobility and strength of character. She talked little and quietly, reflecting on the significance of every word. When speaking of the past, she seemed to relive it. Naturally, I knew much about her life. Anne's immortal diary, which Gies found and gave to Otto Frank after the war, was filled with praise for her devotion and sacrifice.I asked her where she had found the courage to defy the Gestapo during the dark days of the occupation, and she protested. "I did nothing heroic or extraordinary," she said. "Human beings were in peril, and I had to care for them." But for the Franks, she represented all that is good and generous. She was the incarnation of hope.2011: The New York Premiere of Black Bus, which “tells story of two young women who chose to leave their close-knit Haredi communities in Israel and are, as a consequence, estranged from their families” is scheduled to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival.2011:David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari with Jane Eisner are scheduled to lead a discussion entitled “Israelis and Palestinians: Poised Between Crisis and Opportunity” at the 92nd Street Y. 2011:To mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2011, the Wiener Library is scheduled to hold a special lecture by Prof Clare Ungerson on The Kitchener Camp, a largely forgotten camp established in 1939 for 4000 male Jewish refugees situated near Sandwich in East Kent.2011: Police Commissioner David Cohen said today that he was concerned by the possibility of ideology-based murders against public officials in Israel. 2011: The international department of the prosecution services failed to obtain the extradition from Peru of former judge Dan Cohen, wanted in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, the government informed the department today. 2011: After a preliminary hearing today determined that the issue should be handled in the courts, the Jerusalem Labor Court will be deciding over the next few months whether rabbinic ordination should be recognized as equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, vis-à-vis the Civil Service Commission’s prerequisites for the position of a supervisor in the haredi educational system. 2011: Nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards, announced this morning, were good for the Jews. Shoo-ins Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) got Best Actress and Actor nods, respectively. James Franco, whose mother is Jewish, also scored a Best Actor nod for his role in “127 Hours.” “Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky earned a Best Director nomination, along with “True Grit” helmers Joel and Ethan Coen. “The Fighter” director David O. Russell, son of a Jewish father and Italian-American mother, also got a Best Director nomination. Jews also ruled the screenwriting categories. Debra Granik scored a nod in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for the brutal “Winter’s Bone,” while Hollywood vet Aaron Sorkin earned his for Facebook docudrama “The Social Network,” as did fellow A-lister Scott Silver for scrappy Boston epic “The Fighter.” In the same category, the Coen Brothers won the Academy’s attention for their highly acclaimed adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel “True Grit.” British improv-drama icon Mike Leigh was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category for “Another Year,” his sobering look at happiness — and the lack thereof — among the British chattering classes. And British-born, Long Island-raised David Seidler got his first Oscar nomination — in the Original Screenplay slot — for “The King’s Speech”. Semites didn’t fare as well in the Best Supporting Actor or Actress categories, though 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld — reportedly the daughter of a Jewish dad and black/Filipino mom — got a nod for her widely lauded turn as vengeful tween Mattie Ross in “True Grit.” 2011: Misaskim reported that Nazi-era RIF soap was handed over to the organization for burial. 2011: Twenty-three year old Jason Bailey, a Jewish hockey player, has sued the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks for religious discrimination and harassment based on religion. Jason Bailey, 23, in a lawsuit filed today in California's Orange County Superior Court, accused the coaches of one of the Ducks' affiliate teams of making anti-Semitic remarks and harassment. Bailey said he was subjected to "a barrage of anti-Semitic, offensive and degrading verbal attacks regarding his Jewish faith" by Martin Raymond, head coach of the Bakersfield Condors. The suit says assistant head coach Mark Pederson also made anti-Semitic remarks about Bailey.The suit claims that Bailey was the victim of religious discrimination, harassment based on religion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation. It asserts that he lost income, benefits and suffered humiliation, according to CNN. Bailey was drafted by the Ducks in 2005, but has not played in the NHL. He was traded last year and now plays right wing for the Binghamton Senators, a farm team for the Ottawa Senators. (As reported by JTA) 2011(20thof Shevat, 5771): Ninety-one year old Daniel Bell, the writer, editor, sociologist and teacher who over seven decades came to epitomize the engaged intellectual as he struggled to reveal the past, comprehend the present and anticipate the future, died today at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91. (As reported by Michael T. Kaufman) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/arts/26bell.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Daniel%20Bell&st=cse 2012: The David Harris Comedy and Variety Show with Special Guests, The Chosen Few are scheduled to appear at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.2012: At the New York Jewish Film Festival “The Silent Historian” is scheduled to have its U.S. Premiere and “Joann Sfar Draws From Memory” is scheduled to have its World Premiere. 2012(1stof Shevat, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 2012: Palestinian Authority officials said today that a fifth meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman scheduled for later in the day would be the final meeting2012: Hackers attacked the websites of two Israeli hospitals today, managing to bring down the sites for several hours in the latest round of the ongoing cyber war between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian hackers2012: Representative “Gabby” Giffords officially resigned from the House of Representatives.2013: The Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm officially announced that Jeffrey Jacob “J.J.”Abrams would be the director and producer of Star Wars Episode VII, the latest entry in the Star Wars film saga2013: “Yossi,” a sequel to Eytan Fox’s “Yossi and Jagger” is scheduled to open in New York City.2013: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, VA.2013: As an indication of the vitality of Yiddishkeit in the Heartland, the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Hadassah Chapter is scheduled to sponsor a Tu B’Shevat Seder and Soup Supper preceding Shabbat Services at Temple Judah. 2013(14thof Shevat, 5573): Ninety-two year old American diplomat Max Kampelman passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/world/europe/max-kampelman-who-led-arms-talks-with-soviet-union-dies-at-92.html?hpw&_r=02013: Austrian parliamentarians and invited guests gathered today to watch the premiere of an opera depicting how Nazis methodically killed mentally or physically deficient children at a Vienna hospital during World War II.2013: Rabbis in Winnipeg have criticized a decision by the Jewish community center in the Canadian city to open earlier on Shabbat.2013: “Jobs” a biopic co-starring Jose Gad as “Steve Wozniak” and featuring Brett Gelman and Lesley Ann Warren premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.2014: The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston is scheduled to host the Houston Choreographers X6 Concert.2014: In Rockville, MD, Congregation Tikvat Israel is scheduled to show “Hunting Elephants” as part of its Israeli Film Festival.2014: Dozens of residents of the city of Lod protested today against the slashing of some 15 car tires in a religious neighborhood in the city over the weekend.2014: Boxes containing pigs’ heads were sent to the Israeli embassy in Rome and the city’s synagogue, Italian media reported today2014: “According to two Israeli researchers” – Dr. Eran Elhaik and Professor Dan Grauer – “the first human walked on earth 209,000 years ago; 9,000 years earlier than what scientists previously thought.”http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4480857,00.html2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel by Anita Shapira and Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud.2015: Bud Selig completed his served as 9th Commissioner of MLB began serving as Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball2015: “Judy G. Russell, well-known as The Legal Genealogist, is scheduled to speak about the ethical considerations underlying genealogy, from privacy issues-how to handle family secrets, what to say about living people - to the courtesies we should extend to other researchers.”2015: “The Green Prince” is scheduled to be shown at Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.2015: “Cry of the City” and “Forbidden Films” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2015: “To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps and Holocaust Memorial Day, the Jewish Museum of London” is scheduled to host Zdenka Fantlova who will speak about her experiences after the Nazis invaded her native Czechoslovakia in 1939.2015: In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a workshop that explores “the work and techniques of Maurice Sendak.”2016: At Tempe Solel, in Cardiff, CA, Dr. Claudia Tornsäufer is scheduled to lecture on “Mendelssohn, Music and the Jews.”2016: The family and friends of Sir Martin Gilbert, led by Lady Esther Gilbert are scheduled to attend the stone setting at Eretz Hachaim Cemetery, Beit Shemesh which is part of the memorialization of Sir Martin Gilbert, of blessed memory.2016: Weather permitting Matan Porat is scheduled to perform “Variations on a Theme by Scharlatti” at Butenwieser Hall.2016(15thof Shevat, 5776): Tu B’Shevat2016(15thof Shevat, 5776): Ninety-one year old “Howard Kaslow, apainter and illustrator who for more than four decades designed many of the most recognizable stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, including a 1994 series depicting famous blues and jazz musicians and 30 stamps depicting coastal lighthouses” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/arts/design/howard-koslow-dies-at-91-artist-designed-stamps-for-40-years.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/uploads/files/dhannum@sbcglobal.net/HLStampSet.pdfa2016: Today, “US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro responded to criticism of his charge last week that Israel appears to institute “two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians” in the West Bank.”2017: Today “German authorities carried out dawn raids against far-right suspects accused of plotting attacks on Jews, refugees and police, federal prosecutors said.”2017(27thof Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of 19th century German Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch.2017(27thof Shevat, 5777): Seventy-one year old Canadian born professor Stephen P. Cohen “who secretly brokered peace talks between Arab and Israeli officials for three decades” passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/world/middleeast/stephen-cohen-dead-mideast-negotiator.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02017: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that the 2,500 new West Bank settlement homes approved a day earlier were just a “taste” of things to come now that Barack Obama is no longer in the White House, and said he would discuss the issue with US President Donald Trump.”2017: Following a screening of “Cloudy Sunday” today “film critic Bergson is scheduled to join JKJF Film Programmer Ni Cohen” in a discussion of the film.2017: “Experience History at its Source” a tour exploring the permanent collection of the High Museum ranging from biblical themes to featured Jewish artists” is scheduled to take place in Atlanta, GA.2018: The Young Professional Committee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to a “live performance by singer/songwriter and actor Tyler Hilton.”2018: Peter G. Weintraub is scheduled to present another session of “Introduction to Judaism
at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center.2018: “Despite the fact that Labour MPs were asked not to support by their leadership,” “both Labour and Conservative parliamentarians led calls” “to designate all of Hezbollah as a terrorist group.”2018: Comedian Judy Gold, best known for “The Judy Gold Show: My Life as a Sitcom” is scheduled to appear at the Buckhill Brewery in Blairstown, NJ.2018: Research was published today “in the prestigious Science magazine” which described the discovery of a “Jawbone fossil in an Israeli cave that resets the clock for modern human evolution.” (As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan)https://www.timesofisrael.com/jawbone-fossil-found-in-israeli-cave-resets-clock-for-modern-human-evolution/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=bfcfb699e7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-bfcfb699e7-53921877https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/science/jawbone-fossil-israel.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2018: “The leading European human rights assembly today endorsed a resolution that called on Ramallah to stop paying salaries to the families of Palestinian terrorists” while also condemning the American decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and calling for an increased European role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.” (As reported by Dov Lieber)2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “the Gemara shiur which will be on mesechet Megillah.”2018: Today “President Donald Trump said Palestinians disrespected Vice President Mike Pence when they snubbed him this week and threatened to cut off assistance to the Palestinians unless they returned to the negotiating table.”2018: In Davos, Switzerland, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed” today “that Israel would retains control over Jerusalem’s holy sites in any peace deal while ensuring ‘complete religious rights for those of all faiths.’” (As reported by Jacob Magid)2018: Stephanie Halpern is scheduled to teach the final class of “The American Jewish Family Drama” at the YIVO Institute.2019(19thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of the Jews of Basle, Switzerland “who were burned alive today in a wooden house erected for that purpose” in what was purported to be the Christian community’s way of responding to the Black Plague.2019: In Memphis, TN, Rick Recht is scheduled to lead a Friday night “Shabbat Alive” service.2019: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Shir Yehudah is scheduled to lead the Musical Shabbat service.2019: Parent’s Shabbat weekend is scheduled to begin at Oxford University.2019 The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host it “2019 International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration” in Washington, DC and on-line.
↧
January 25, 2019, 7:21 pm
1531: Three tremors shake Portugal and numerous houses are destroyed in Lisbon by an earthquake which the Pope and others believe confirm the prediction of suffering made by Solomon Molcho who was seeking relief for Jews and Marranos.
1654: MAJOR DATE IN THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY. With the capture of Pernambuco (Recife) from the Dutch, Portugalretook Peru and Brazil. The Jews, (numbering approximately 5,000) having fought on the side of the Dutch, fled for the most part to Amsterdam. Hundreds also escaped to North America, with 23 eventually arriving in New Amsterdam 1664(28th of Tevet): Rabbi Berechiah Berakh ben Isaac Shapiro of Cracow author of Zera Beirakh passed away 1689:Jean Racine's "Esther" premieres in Saint-Cyr.Racine's last plays, “Esther” (1689) and “Athalie” (1691), each of which were based on Biblical figures were commissioned by King Louis XIV's wife. 1724: Abraham and Sarah Pinto gave birth to Jacob Pinto who fathered seven children with his two wives Thankful and Abigail Pinto. 1736: As the Kingdom of Poland continues to unravel, Stanislaus I abdicated his throne during a period of increasing anti-Semitism. Twenty eight years after the abdication, the Austrians, Prussians and Russians would begin to partition Poland much to the detriment of the Jewish people who had originally been “invited” to settle in Poland. 1755 (14th of Shevat, 5515): Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk Katz passed away. Born in 1680, he was the author of the Talmudic work "P'nei Yehoshua." He served as rabbi of Lemberg (Lvov) in 1718, Berlinin 1730, Metz in 1734 and Frankfurt in 1740. 1761(21st of Shevat): Rabbi Judah Navon, author of KIryat Melekh Rav passed away. 1788: The British First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson, Australia with the goal of establishing the first permanent English settlement in “the land down under.” According to at least one source there 15 Jews on board including Esther Abrahams. 1799: Birthdate of Samuel Gobat, the native of Crémines, Canton of Bern, Switzerland who became the second “Protestant bishop of Jerusalem who supported many noteworthy projects in Palestine including an “orphanage on Mount Zion” and reversed the policy of his predecessor and devoted his efforts to “proselytizing among Christians” instead of trying to convert Jews. 1804: Birthdate of Eugane "Marie Joseph" Sue France, novelist and author of The Wandering Jew. It is a tale of good and evil. This time the villain was a Jesuit clerk, Rodin, who is after the Wandering Jew's treasure, which has been gathering interest over the centuries. The descendants of a man, who once aided the cursed wanderer, are summoned to Paris to receive the fortune. Rodin represents the oppression of Church, the Jew stands for dispossessed laborers and his female counterpart Herodias for downtrodden womankind. 1808: In Australia, the Rum Rebellion began today when troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston deposed Governor William Bligh. Esther Abrahams, who had come to the land down under as part of the First Fleet was Johnston’s common-law wife. (Bligh was the captain of the infamous HMS Bounty) 1814: Edmund Kean opened in the role of Shylock at Drury Lane Theatre rousing “the audience to almost uncontrollable enthusiasm.” 1837: Michigan is admitted as the 26th state in the Union. By the time Michigan joined the union, Jews had been living there for at least three quarters of a century. The first known Jewish settler, Ezekiel Solomon arrived in what is now Mackinaw city in 1761. Chapman Abraham arrived in Detroit a year later. Abraham was a Loyalist who fought on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War. Other early Jewish residents of what would become the Wolverine state were Louis Benjamin who suffered a loss during Detroit’s great fire in 1805 and Frederick E. Cohen, the portrait painter, who had arrived in Michigan by 1837. In reality there were only a handful of Jews living in Michigan at the time of statehood. . The real growth of the Michigan Jewish community began in the 1840’s with the arrival of German Jews the most prominent group of which was the forty-eighters. The first synagogue would be formed in 1850, as Congregation Beth El. For more about the Michigan Jewish community you might consider reading Jews In Michigan by Judith Levin Cantor. 1840: Sixty-eight year old English clergyman Lewis Way, “the founder, in 1808, of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews” who was “convinced that the Jewish nation would again arise, return to its ancestral home, embrace Christianity, and convert the Gentiles” passed away today. 1841: British forces occupy Hong Kong. Hong Kong would not formally become a possession of the crown for another year at which time Jewish merchants including members of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families, opened offices and established a community that would build a Jewish Club and the Ohel Leah Synagogue. 1851(23rd of Shevat, 5611): Trieste native Leon Vita Saraval a bibliophile and author born in 1771 whose “entire library” was purchased for the Breslau seminary in 1853 passed away today. 1855(NS): Birthdate of Vladimir Jochelson, the native of Vilnius, the scion of a wealthy Jewish family and student of the Vilna Rabbinical Seminary who became a socialist and a member of Narodnaya Volya before pursuing a career as an ethnographer. 1856: “Charitable Bequest of the Late Baron Rothschild” published today described the fortune of the Rothschild family, paying special attention to the spending habits and will of the late Amschel Mayer Rothschild, the second child and oldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founding father of the banking dynasty. While Rothschild’s personal habits “were extremely simple” he shared his wealth with Jews and Gentiles. During his life time he distributed at least 50,000 florins per year to 2,600 Christian families. While his mother was alive, he visited her daily in the original family home on “The Street of the Jews’; a home he was never able to convince her to leave so she could take up residence in a dwelling more fitting with her economic status . The Baron’s will which was written in 1849, was intended to dispose of a fortune calculated at sixty million florins when he passed away in 1855. Among other bequests, he left 1,200,000 florins for the establishment of a foundation for the poor of Frankfort intended “to keep up the weekly distribution of alms at the ‘Old Rothschild ‘ house in the Street of the Jews,” 25,000 florins for Jewish hospitals, 5,000 florins for Jewish schools and 20,000 florins “for various Christian charitable institutions.” Two of his bequests have special meaning for those aware of Jewish laws and customs. In an apparent attempt to follow the rules of Maimonides on charity he gave 10,000 florins “to the society for encouraging Jewish traders and workmen. And in an echo of the morning prayer which says that “participating in making a wedding” is one of the things to be done while waiting for the World-to-Come, he bequeathed the interest on 50,000 florins to be used as perpetual fund “to furnish dowers to Jewish maidens.” Baron Rothschild was not the only member of his family to know financial success. According to the article, Baron Charles left an estate of 17 million florins and Baron Solomon left an estate of 48 million florins. 1859: The U.S.S. Brooklyn on which Adolph Marix, the first Jewish graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, would serve on starting in 1882, was commissioned today. 1862: An Imperial ukase was published in St. Petersburg, Russia, “permitting Jews to enter every branch of the State service; permitting Jewish merchants to reside anywhere, and granting other concessions to the Jews.” 1863: In Chicago, Joseph and Mary (Hoffman) Foreman gave birth to Lt. Gen. Milton J. Foreman. 1863(6th of Shevat, 5623): A. Robinson, a soldier serving with the 15th Georgia passed away today. His passing was later commemorated by the Hebrew Ladies Memorial Association of Richmond, VA. 1865: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Isaac W. Phillips began his service with Company K of the 29th Regiment. 1866(10thof Shevat, 5626): Twenty-two year old Sophie “Rosalie” Waldstein, the daughter of Ephraim and Lea Koppel Waldstein and the sister of Zadok Waldstein passed away today in Bavaria. 1868(2nd of Shevat, 5628): Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas land agent and colonizer passed away. 1871: Julia Gottheimer, the daughter of Levy and Leah Zachariah, the wife of Berton Gottheimer and mother of Lavinia and Maurice Gottheimer was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery. 1873: In Albany, NY, founding of the Adelphi Club that meets on the “second Wednesday in January, April, July and October” and whose members included Myer Mandelbaum, Norman Mendleson, Milton Stark and Charles M. Friend. 1873: Three days after he had passed away, 52 year old Samuel Henry Gluckstein, the son of Lehman Meyer Gluckstein and Helena Horn and the husband of the former Hannah Joseph with whom he had had eleven children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.” 1879: Birthdate of conductor and violinist Hugo Riesenfeld, the native of Vienna who from 1917 to 1925 was the director of music for the Rivoli, Rialto and Criterion Theares and in 1937 “earned an Academy Award nomination for “Make A Wish.” 1879: Birthdate of Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, the Christian Oxford trained professor of “Jewish Descent” and Laborite who became a supporter of Zionism. 1881: In Leadville, CO, Morris and Rosa Altman were married. 1881: In Lodz, Poland, “Zelman Salmonowicz and the former Hinda Silberberg gave birth University of Zurich trained physician Arthur A. Salvin, who in 1923 came to the United States where he later becamed an attending surgeon at Sydenham Hospital in New York. 1884: Birthdate of Edward Sapir, German-born anthropologist and linguist. He was on the faculty of the University of Chicago and Yale until his death until 1939. 1884” In Cincinnati, OH, Solomon and Caroline Fox gave birth to Edgar Fox 1890: The annual convention of the Grand Lodge of District No. 1, of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith will open this morning at New York in Vienna Hall (more for 2014) 1891: It was reported today that a story persists that the Jews’ desire to buy the Vatican’s copy of the Hebrew Bible goes back to the 16thcentury. In 1512, the Jews offered to buy the book from Pope Julius for a sum equivalent to $100,000 and may have recently made an offer of $200,000 for the holy book. 1891: Birthdate of Ilya G Ehrenburgprolific Russian writer and journalist. Born into a middle class Jewish family living in Kiev, Ehrenburg was able to navigate the treacherous waters of the Soviet Union pursuing his career even during the days of Stalin’s anti-Semitic outbursts and dying peacefully in 1967. 1891: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil had delivered an address in which he noted “the absence of any united effort on the part of Christendom…to prevent…the persecution of the Jews of Russia.” 1892: A charity ball sponsored by the Jews of Philadelphia, PA is scheduled to take place tonight. The ball is the third and final of the city’s annual charity balls and “has for years been marked by the lavish display of feminine finery and jewelry of the most gorgeous description.” 1892: Four thousand people attended the ball sponsored by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum which was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 1892: “To Aid Russian Refugees” published today described efforts by the Jews of Pittsburg to form a branch of the New York Relief Association which is connected to the Baron Hirsch Fund. The Jews in Pittsburgh plan on collecting sums ranging from $10 to $20 which will help to create a fund to help settle Jewish immigrants in “Western cities” away from New York. 1893: The members and patrons of the Hebrew Technical Institute held their annual meeting tonight at Temple Emanu-El. 1894: “The committee appointed by the Trades and Labor Conference to make arrangements for the upcoming mass meeting at Madison Square Garden’ which will be addressed by Samuel Gompers on the subject of find work for the unemployed during the current economic depression” is scheduled to meet today. 1894: Isaac Bergmann, an unemployed tailor, is being held today after tried to slit his own throat 1895: During his speech at the monthly meeting of the Democratic Club of the City of New York, Senator David B. Hill acknowledged the growing importance of Jewish voters when in his call for party unity he included “Hebrew Democrats” among the other ethnic groups making up the party’s coalition including the Irish, the Italians, the Germans and those living in Harlem. 1896: The members of the Hebrew Infantile Asylum Association met today at the synagogue on east 86th Street. 1896: It was reported this week that Sarah Bernhardt who is returning to the New York stage is “still the same great actress.” 1896: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt will play the role of Marguerite in an upcoming theatrical production in New York. 1896: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil delivered an address this morning at Temple Emanu-El entitled “The Safe Monroe Doctrine.” 1896: New York University Law School professor Isaac Franklin Russell delivered a lecture to members of the Russian-American Hebrew Association at the Hebrew Institute. 1896: “Another Heine Chapter” published today described the History of the Heine Memorial Fountain which has been rejected by “the cities of Mayence and Dusseldorf…for political reasons” and may now be denied a “home” in New York’s Central Park. At least one opponent, Paul Dana denied that “Heine’s works or religion ever figured” in the opposition. 1897: Aaron H. Appel was promoted from Captain and Assistant Surgeon to the rank of Major and Surgeon in the U.S. Army today. 1897(23rd of Shevat, 5657): Fifty-eight year old Pauline Hirschfeld, the daughter of Simon Ausch and Rachel Ausch and wife of Dr. Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld with whom she had four children passed away today. 1898: It was reported today that in Algiers a mob attacked Jews who were riding on an omnibus. 1898: It was reported today that Mrs. Saul Jacobs fainted outside of a New York court room following her husband’s conviction for having been part of scheme to swindle Max Bernstein out of $13,192.75 by passing off a load of painted brass as gold from Siberia. 1899(15th of Shevat, 5659): Final celebration of Tu B’Shevat in the 19th century. 1899: Birthdate of catcher Robert “Bob” Leon Berman whose major league career consisted of appearing in two games for the Washington Senators. 1904(9th of Shevat, 5664): Fifty-five year old Austrian born novelist Karl Emil Franzos passed away. 1904: Theodor Herzl had an audience with Pope Pius X in the Vatican to seek his support for the Zionist effort to establish a Jewish state in Palestine 1905: The New York Times publishes a letter from Henry S. Morias reminding readers of Benjamin Disraeli’s support for the Unionduring the Civil War. Rabbi Morias, the son of Sabato Morais was a well-known Jewish journalist who served in the pulpits of numerous east coast congregations. 1907: A law establishing national quotas in the 515 seat Austrian Parliament would lead to five Jewish deputies (4 Zionist and 1 Jewish Democrat) being chosen in the next national elections. 1908: In Chicago, Aaron Halperin, a Jewish immigrant from Kiev and Julia Halperin gave birth to Robert Sherman “Buck” Halperin who went from playing football for Notre Dame, the University of Wisconsin and the professional Brooklyn Dodger to becoming a medal winning yachtsman after having served gallantly in the U.S. Navy during WW II. 1908: The funeral for Leopold Wallach, who studied law at Harvard, was a “senior member of the law firm of Wallach & Cook and the husband of Theresa Lichtenstadter is scheduled to take place at his resident at 9:30 this morning. 1908: Birthdate of Johannesburg native and Bronze Medal winning bantamweight boxer Harry Isaacs. 1910(16th of Shevat, 5670): Mrs. Freide Katz and Hirsch Storch passed away today after which both were buried in the cemetery at Liepāja. 1912:Aaron Hahn, a delegate from CuyahogaCounty to Ohio Constitutional Convention, suggests a provision be made in the state constitution for prohibition of sectarian religious instruction. A Rabbi named Aaron Hahn had served as the spiritual leader of Cleveland’s Tifereth Israelbut we can find no verifiable evidence that these are one and the same person. 1913(18th of Shevat, 5673): Seventy-year old Civil War and New Orleans, LA merchant passed away today. 1913: Dr. Emil G. Hirsch is scheduled to deliver a sermon this afternoon at services held by the People’s Synagogue Association at the Ziegfeld Theatre. 1913: In Chicago, Dr. Gerson B. Levi officiated at the wedding of “Louis Levy of Gooding, Idahlo” and Rose Alice Nathan. 1913: In Boston, Anshe Slavita dedicated a new facility. 1913: “Yiddish star Boris Thomashefsky and his all-star company” are scheduled to give a matinee and evening performance of the new play “Breach of Promise” at the Haymarket Theatre. 1913: The New York Times reviews The Romance of the Rothschilds by Ignatius Balla a book which the great bankers whose name adorns its title-page allegedly are endeavoring to suppress in Englandand which shortly will be published in this country by G.P. Putnam's Sons. According to Balla, “A passion for old coins and skill as a chess player formed the basis for the most colossal fortune ever conceived in the brain of a romancer or recorded among the facts of history.” 1914: According to a list published today the members of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Camden, NJ, included J.F. Kantor, Dr. William M. Lashman, Benjamin Natal, Max Goldich, Mark Obus Jacob L. Furor, Arnold Weis and Bertrand Schneeburg each of whom was playing a key role in raising funds for a communal building that would include space for a place of prayer a Talmud Torah and “a Sabbath School. 1914: In New York, Louis and Kate (née Lautkin) Wolkind gave birth to Phoebe Wolkind who married Henry Ephron in 1934 and gained game as writer Phoebe Ephron the mother of Nora, Delia, Hallie and Amy Ephron. 1915: The Raid on the Suez Canal, an attempt by a German led Ottoman military force to cross the waterway that was Britain’s lifeline to the East began today. 1916: In Leeds (UK) Lithuanian immigrants Tilly Cohen Newman and Joseph Newman gave birth to Isidore “Izzy” Newman who served with SOE in WW II. 1916: In New York, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Finkelstein gave birth to “Jerry Finkelstein, who made a fortune in business, real estate and newspapers, including The New York Law Journal and The Hill, and for many years was a self-styled Democratic power broker” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden) 1916: Jewish Socialist political leader Morris Hillquit was part of a three person delegation to President Wilson to advocate part of the Socialist Party's peace program, which proposed that "the President of the United States convoke a congress of neutral nations, which shall offer mediation to the belligerents and remain in permanent session until the termination of the war." [Editor’s note: For those of you not acquainted with U.S. history, at this point the United States was not a participant in the Great War and most of her citizens wanted it to stay that way. In the fall, Wilson would be re-elected on a platform of He Kept Us Out of War. It was only after America entered the war and during the Red Scare of 1919 that what Hillquit and others like him expounded would come to be consider ‘un-American’ or treasonous.) 1916: The Governor of Massachusetts has reportedly requested “that all contributions” being collected for Jewish Relief Day “be addressed to the American Red Cross in Washington.” 1916: The Women’s Proclamation Day Committee of the Central Committee is scheduled to announce “the list of the 100 women who will work to make Jewish Relief Day a success” 1916: The Business Men’s League of the American Jewish Relief Committee announced that Salt’s Textile Company and the firm of Victor and Achelis have each contributed $1,000 to the funds being raised as part of the upcoming Jewish Relief Day. 1916: The Central Relief Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee announced today that “Charles L. Huston of Coatesville, PA, Vice President of the Lukens Iron and Steel Company has contributed $1,000” to aid the suffering Jews of war-torn Europe and Palestine. 1916: “San Francisco opened tonight a campaign to raise $250,000 with twenty four hours for destitute Jews in the European war zone with a mass meeting at the new Civic Exposition Auditorium.” 1917: As World War I drags on for a third year it is reported that not one home in the Jewish quarter of Belgrade remains standing undamaged. Large numbers of Jews have immigrated to Greece from various areas in the Balkans. The Americans sent $55,000 to help with relief in Serbia and Greece, after receiving a cablegram for help from the Chief Rabbi of Salonica, Jacob Meir. 1917: Seventy-five years after the opening of the Burton Street Synagogue, The Jewish Chronicle said today that “virtually all the bitterness of the Reform controversy has – Heaven be praised! – passed”, but added a sting in the tail that “Reform has made no important constructive contribution to the religious life of the community”. 1917: The Italian government sent twelve thousand Lire ($2,400) to the Governor of Tripoli for the Jewish poor. 1918: Birthdate of right-hand batsman Louis Collins Jacobson, the native of Dublin who “played twelve times for the Ireland cricket team between 1947 and 1959” and who represented “a British and Irish side at the Maccabean Games.” 1918: President Bernstein of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of New York which “has received the names of person in this country who are sought by friends and relatives in Russia” from the Jewish Relief Committee of Petrograd, said today. That it was important that those sought be found as in many cases the inquirers were in want.” 1918: Birthdate of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Regardless of his other "shortcomings" from a Jewish point of Ceausescu is memorable for his refusal to break diplomatic relations with Israelafter the June, 1967 War. Romania was the only Eastern European country to defy the Soviets which had ordered all of her client states to break relations with Israel. 1919: In Poland, Jewish parties receive about 10% of the votes during the election for the constituent assembly. But the under the electoral system in use, they get only 11 out of 394 seats. 1920:Amadeo Modigliani's mistress jumps out of a window. 1920: Birthdate of Albert Abraham Davidoff, the native of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn who gained fame welterweight boxer Al “Bummy” Davis. 1920: It was reported today that Cooper Union trained engineer and successful Socialist Party candidate for the State Assembly who had been suspended from his position did not address a meeting of Socialists at the Astoria Casino “on advice of counsel.” 1921: Austrian born violinist Erika Morini made her American debut in New York City. 1923: Final session of The Golden Jubilee Convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was held at the Hotel Astor in New York City. 1924: Birthdate of Houston native Annette Strauss who would become the first Jewish female mayor of Dallas, Texas. She was the second woman elected to the position and the second Jew to serve in that capacity. 1925: In Shaker Heights, Ohio, Theresa and Arthur Sigmund Newman, the son of Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn who were Jewish immigrants from Hungary and Poland gave birth to actor Paul Newman who “described himself as a Jew, saying ‘it’s more of a challenge.’” 1926: Birthdate of Stuart Etz Hample, a humorist who entertained children (and adults) as an author, playwright, adman, performer and cartoonist 1928: In Trieste, Italy, an insurance executive named Ottocaro Weiss and the former Ortensia Schmitz, a violinist and a niece of the novelist Italo Svevo, gave birth to Piero Weiss. Weiss fled fascist Italy and came to America in 1940 where he gained fame as a concert pianist and recording artist before turning to musicology where he became an author and co-author of books in the field, including a widely used textbook, and founded the music history department at the Peabody Conservatory. (As reported by James R. Oestreich 1929(15thof Shevat, 5689): Final Tu B’Shevat celebration of the “roaring 20’s.” (For the next 15 years the holiday would be observed in a period of Depression and World War) 1929: In the Bronx, David Feiffer and Rhoda (née Davis) Feiffer gave birth to cartoonist and writer Jules Feiffer whose cartoons ran in Playboy and The Village Voice for decades. Feiffer's work appeared often in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Nation, and was nationally syndicated. In 1986, Feiffer won a Pulitzer Prize for political cartoons, and from 1997-2000 he drew monthly op-ed comics in The New York Times. 1930: Birthdate of A. N. Solomons chairman of Singer & Friedlander. 1933:The Jack Benny Program is broadcast for the last time on CBS Radio. 1934: Germany and Poland sign a ten-year nonaggression pact. This was one of the first steps of acceptance of the Hitler regime by the governments of Europe. Five years later, the Poles would find out that Germans did not really mean it. 1934 Josef Pilsudski signed a ten-year peace pact with Hitler. That same year the Warsaw authorities, observing the impotence of the League of Nations in dealing with the German problem, decided to repudiate the Minorities Treaty signed under duress at Versailles. 1935: In a speech before 3,800 people at the MeccaTemple, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Zionist Revisionist leader urged his listeners to put the development of a Jewish national state in Palestineahead of all other issues related to economic and political development. 1936: “The intermarriage of Jews and persons of other religions is ‘completely indefensible’ and, from the viewpoint of the Jewish people, ‘a dangerous thing,’ Rabbi Milton Steinberg said this morning at the Park Avenue Synagogue” adding that since Judaism is a minority the sanctioning of intermarriage would result in the “complete extinction of Jewish values.” 1936: Dr. Israel Goldstein, Morris Rothenberg and Simon W. Goldsmith were among the speakers who addressed “an all-day meeting at the Astor Hotel” attended by “representatives of 600 Jewish groups” working to increase “reconstruction activity in Palestine to facilitate the absorption of refugees from Germany and other European countries.” 1936: Five hundred leaders “representing sixty-seven local communal agencies from more than fifty cities” meeting at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis “as the National Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds” voted unanimously to adopt “the proposal outline by Sir Herbert Samuel and Felix M. Warburg to finance the emigration of the younger generation of Jews from Germany together with as many of the older generation as might be able to exist elsewhere.” 1936: “The American Jewish Joint Distribution” with headquarters at 7 Hanover Street in New York City, announced today :that religious schools in 130 cities” through the United States had made contributions in 1934 and 1935 “toward the rehabilitation work” designed to aid Jews in Germany, Poland and other part of Eastern Europe. 1937(14thof Shevat, 5697): Eighty-six year old sculptor Ephraim Keyser, the of Moses Keyser and Betty Preiss whose works included “busts of Sidney Lanier, Cardinal Gibbons, Dr. Daniel Gilman, and Henry Harland” and a “statute of Major-General Baron De Kalb” for the United States Government which was “erected at Annapolis, MD” passed away today. 1937: “Dr. Jonah B. Wise, the rabbi of the Central Synagogue and co-chairman of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee campaign issued a special plea today to ‘all men and women who are interested in human rights and saving human life’ to contribute to the immediate assistance of the Jews in Poland in response to their ‘frantic requests for aid.’” 1938: The Palestine Post reported that Mordecai Uhana, the sole Jewish resident of Ramallah, a cobbler who lived had there for 34 years, was shot while at work and badly wounded. The driver and a passenger of a Givat Shaul bus were shot and hit on their way to Jerusalem. Nissim Dorani, a lorry driver, was killed by a bomb, thrown at him at Km. 5 on the Jaffa-Jerusalem Road. Twenty children, eight women and two men, all of them Jewish, were arrested as illegal immigrants at Safed. Three Arab terrorists were executed at Acre. 1938: It was reported today that British photographer and artist had apologized to publisher Conde Nast for sneaking a sketch that contained “comments that were critical of the Jewish race in the February 1st issue of Vogue” saying that it was an “ill-mannered expression of my irritation and annoyance caused by some bad films I had just seen” and he knows that none of his “many Jewish friends will think that” his “silly little joke had any bearing on the standing of their great community.” 1938: A majority of the 2,500 delegates attending the convention of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organization at the Hotel Astor voted in a favor of adopting the Ludlow Amendment, a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States which called for a national referendum on any declaration of war by Congress, except in cases when the United States had been attacked first.” (For those who have made a fetish out criticizing FDR’s response to the Jewish condition in Europe might want to consider the support of a major Jewish organization for this Isolationist Amendment.) 1938: In Rumania, “the Bucharest and Jassy bar associations decided to suspend the activities of all Jews admitted after 1918” which means “that at least 800 Jewish lawyers will be unable to practice during the coming months.” 1939: In light of the news that German scientists in Berlinhad split the uranium nucleus, Leo Szilard wired the British Admiralty, the keeper of his 1935 patent on chain reactions, to disregard his earlier letter telling them to cancel his patent. 1940: At a prison camp in Siberia, Isaac Babel is found guilty of belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyite organization and with spying for France and Austria after a twenty minute trial. He is condemned to death and will be shot tomorrow. 1940: Following today’s raid by British police of the Ben Shemen Youth Village where weapons belong to the Haganah were found, the principal, Dr. Siegfried Lehman “and others were arrested and sentenced to terms from 3 to 7 years.” (As reported by The History of the Jewish People) 1940: Nazis denied Polish Jews the right to travel on trains. One cannot help but see a note of irony in this decree. 1941: Today, Warsaw diarist Chaim Kaplan wrote “He who does not believe in the eternity of the Jewish people could say that the end of Polish Jewry is at hand. But even the Gentiles are awed by our giving strength…But the guardian of Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers and good news comes from the dunes of Africa.” (Editor’s note – this indicates that those inside the Ghetto did have some sources of news from the outside world since this entry would seem to indicate a knowledge of Axis setbacks in North Africa at the hands of the British.) 1942: Seventy-six year old Leopold Bloch was transported today from Pilsen to Terezin where he was murdered. 1942 (8th of Shevat, 5702): At Stari Becej, Hungary, 200 Jews and Serbs were slaughtered. At Titel, 35 Jews killed. At Teofipol, 300 Jews marched naked for three miles and then are shot. 1943: During one the Battle of Stalingrad, a major turning point in WW II, “German forces inside the city “were split into two pockets 1943:230 women of the French Resistance began “began their internment at Birkenau, the main women’s camp at Auschwitz” (For more see A Train In Winter by Caroline Weber) 1944(1st of Shevat, 5704) Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1944(1st of Shevat, 5704): Seventy-eight year old CCNY grad and Columbia trained diagnostician Dr. Morris Magnes who was a Professor of Clinical Medicine at NYU and consulting physician at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the husband of Julia Hirschhorn Magnes passed away today. 1944: Birthdate of Denise Eisenberg who gained fame as Denise Rich who played a key role in obtaining the “mid-night” pardon for her ex-husband Marc Rich by donating millions to charities controlled by William Jefferson Clinton. 1944: As the Germans continue to pursue the Final Solution despite reversals on the battlefield “a handwritten from Heinrich Himmler’s speech today in Posen to Generals of fighting troops reads: ‘Largest stabilization in the G.G. since the solution to the Jewish question. Total solution. Not allowing avengers to rise against our children. (G.G. refers to the Poland and Ukraine, areas which had the largest pre-war Jewish population. “Avenger” is a euphemism for Jews, who if left alive would pose a threat the Aryans.” 1945: In England, Derek and Iris du Pré gave birth to classical cellist Jacqueline Mary du Pré who married Daniel Barenboim at the Western Wall. 1945: In Newark, NJ, “a chemical technician for Shell Oil” and “a legal secretary” gave birth to Syracuse and Parsons School of Design trained artist and “collagist” Barbara Kruger. 1945(12th of Shevat, 5705): Abba Berditchev was murdered by the Nazis. A native of Romania, he was detained by the British when he entered Palestine illegally. He volunteered for service in the British army and he “parachuted into Yugoslavia with Chana Senesh, Reuven Dafni and Yonah Rosen. Berditchev’s mission was to assist the Jews, gather intelligence and help rescue members of the air forces who were captured or had parachuted into Romania. . After two months of fighting in the mountains, Berditchev was captured by the Germans and transferred in December 1944 to Mauthausen along with other captives, where he was brutally tortured before he was murdered by the Nazis.” (As reported by Yad Vashem) 1945: The Virgin Island Daily News reported that Peter de Hemmer Gudme, journalist, Oriental scholar and author of two philo-semtic tomes “From Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler” and “A Sketch of the History of Zionism” died while in the hands of the Gestapo in Copenhagen. Born in 1897, he was the brother of Sten Gudme who has been working in London on behalf of the Free Danish government. [Ed note: The Gudmes were not Jewish; they were just decent human beings.] 1945: One thousand Jewish women interned at the Neusalz, Poland, slave-labor camp are set on a month-and-a-half-long forced march to the concentration camp at Flossenbürg, Germany, about 200 miles to the southwest. Along the way, 800 are beaten and shot. 1946: Birthdate of noted Anglo-Jewish historian Jonathan Irvine Israel. 1946: In Chicago, Russian Jewish immigrants Ida (née Kalis) and Nathan William Siskel gave birth to movie critic, Gene Siskel who was part of the television duo of Siskel and Ebert. 1947: Joseph B. Levin was assigned to the Office of Opinion Writing at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Levin had joined the SEC in 1942 while it was still located in Washington, DC. At the time of his appointment, the Commission had not returned to Washington from its wartime headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. 1948(15th of Shevat, 5708): Tu B’Shevat 1948 (15th of Shevat, 5708): Composer, Ignaz Friedman passed away at the age of 65. Born in 1882, Ignaz Friedman (also spelled Ignace or Ignacy) was a Polish pianist and composer famous for his Chopin interpretations 1949: Switzerland recognized Israel. 1951: Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Miss.became the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a rabbi. 1952: In New York City, “Etyl, a classical pianist, and Paul Leder, a director, producer, actor, writer, and editor of such films as My Friends Need Killing, Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla, and Dismember Mama” gave birth to “the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory,” Miriam Leder whose directorial stint at DreamWorks included “Deep Impact” and “Pay It Forward” and who is the wife of “actor Gary Werntz” with whom she has had one daughter – Hannah. 1952: In Cairo, the main Cicurel Department Store was destroyed by a fire set either by the Muslim Brotherhood or militant nationalists. The store was part of chain started in 1909 by Moreno Cicurel an Egyptian Jew who was both active in Jewish and Egyptian community affairs. 1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the unexpected delay in the ratification of the Reparations Agreement with West Germany upset the Ministry of Finance budget calculations. 1954: Prime Minister Churchill urges the members of his cabinet to support a policy of open navigation through the Suez Canal, which is another way of saying he was calling on the British government to support all measures to force the Egyptian government to open the waterway to ships traveling to and from Israel. 1954: David Ben-Gurion steps down as Minister of Defense, a position he had held since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. 1954: Pinchas Lavon becomes the second person to hold the position of Minister of Defense 1955(3rdof Shevat, 5715): Six after being in an automobile accident that claimed the life of wife Tola and a friend, Fanny Levey, William Fernhoff, the Vienna trained doctor and son of Isaac and Sarah Fernhoff who came to the United States in 1924 died of the injuries sustained in the same traffic wreck. 1955: Sid Gilman was named coach of the Los Angeles Rams. 1958: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Sid Caesar Invites You” starring Sid Caesar. 1959: “An Evening with Fred Astaire” with music by David Rose and his Orchestra and produced by Bud Yorkin was re-broadcast this evening. 1959: Rabbi Marc Schneier and Elisabeth Nordman Schneir gave birth to Yeshiva University graduate Marc Schneir the multiply married rabbi and founder of The Foundation of Ethnic Understanding whose rating as one “one of the top most influential American rabbis by Newsweek” and “one of the 50 most prominent Jews in the United States by Forward” might lead one to assume that 21stcentury Judaism has drifted a long from such rabbis as Telushkin and Heschel. 1968: The film version of Up the Junction starring Maureen Lipman was released today in the United Kingdom. 1968 (25th of Tevet, 5728): The British Admiralty reported the Dakar, an Israeli submarine, was missing and gave the last known position as 100 miles (160 km) west of Cyprus 1969: American businessman and music publisher Allen Klein met with John Lennon today who retained “Klein as his financial representative” in attempt to avoid going broke. 1970: “Can You Top This?” “was briefly revived in syndication by Four Star Television” today featuring “Morey Amsterdam as Executive Producer and regular panelist” along with Paul Winchell and Jack Carter. 1972: “The Hot Rock” the movie version of the novel with same name with a screenplay by William Goldman and co-starring George Segal, Ron Leibman and Zero Mostel was released in the United States today. 1973 (23rd of Shevat, 5733): Famed actor Edward G. Robinson, born Emanuel Goldenberg, passed away. 1975: “Day School Funds for Jews Urged” published today described plans laid out by Rabbi Milton H. Polin, a leader of the Rabbinical Council of America to meeting to meet the “absolutely urgent need “for a “massive infusion of funds” to sustain the network of 473 Hebrew day schools maintained by Orthodox Jews in the United States and Canada” in which approximately “82,000 youths are enrolled.” 1976: Israelopened the "Good Fence" to Lebanon. 1976: David Mamet's "American Buffalo" premiered in New York City. 1976: Birthdate of William “Willie” Adler, guitarist who played with the Lamb of God. 1977: Birthdate of Livingston, NJ, native Justin Jeremy Gimelstob, the Davis Cup tennis player. 1978: In Cairo, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat announced that serious negotiations were going on behind the scenes on the stalled peace talks and that the US officials expressed hope that the current rift with Israel will soon be over. 1980: Israeland Egypt established diplomatic relations 1981:Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz and two other Likud members of the Knesset broke away from the Likud to form Rafi - National List. 1986: Nine days after Spain and Israel established full diplomatic relations, Jerusalem designated Shmuel Hadas, “its unofficial envoy in Madrid to become its first ambassador to Spain.” The Madrid government had already designed Pedro Lopez Aguirrebengoa, its former ambassador to Greece “to head the new Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv.” 1986:''Between the Wars: The Bronx Express, a Portrait of the Jewish Bronx'' comes to a close at the Bronx Museum of the Arts 1988: In “The Day He Caught Walter Johnson” Ira Berkow describes the highlight of 19 year Bob Berman who formed a battery with The Big Train. 1989: This Boy’s Life, a memoir by Tobias Wolff who did not find out that his father was Jewish until he was an adult, was published today. 1991: Flaws are becoming apparent in the Patriot air defense system deployed against Iraqi Scud missiles, with some warheads exploding and wreaking damage even though the missiles themselves are shot down. Those flaws were evident today, after Iraq fired four more Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa. The Israeli military said that Patriot defense missiles destroyed the four Scuds, but that at least one Scud warhead survived the midair collisions and exploded on the ground, causing some damage and slightly wounding two Israelis. 1992: Final performance of in Rina Yerushalmi's adaptation of "Hamlet" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 1995: ABC broadcast the last episode of “My So-Called Life” a television series created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz 1996: “Rent” with Idina Menzel in the role of Maureen Johnson, moved from the New York Theatre Workshop (off-Broadway) to Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre “due to its popularity.” 1996(5th of Shevat, 5756): Thirty six year Gold Medal winning wrestler David L. Schultz passed away today. 1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Moses Mystery: The African Origins of the Jewish People by Gary Greenberg and The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheimby Richard Pollak and Girls Only by Alex Witchel. 1997: The New York Times published “The Antagonist as Liberator” by Amos Elon 1997: In “The Man He Always Wanted to Be” Susan Boxer provides a detailed review of The Creation of Dr. B: A Biograph of Bruno Bettelheim by Richard Pollak. 1997: The Unlikely Spy, the first novel by Daniel Silva who had converted to Judaism when he married Jamie Gangel, which he had begun writing three years ago, “debuted on the New York Times best-seller” today where “it remained for five weeks, rising to number 13. 1998: During what will become known as the Monica Lewinsky ScandalU.S. President Bill Clinton appeared on national and denied having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 2001:''Voyages'', Emmanuel Finkiel's film that deals with the Holocaust opens today at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. 2001(2nd of Shevat, 5761): Eighty-one year old American political scientist Murray J. Edelman passed away. (As reported by Paul Lewis) 2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush by David Frum, AMERIKA (The Man Who Disappeared) by Franz Kafka; translated by Michael Hofmann. An Amazing Adventure: Joe and Hadassah's Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaignby Joe Lieberman and Hadassah Lieberman with Sarah Crichton and newly released inpaperback Einstein’s’ Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time, by MarciaBartusiak. The author, a freelance science writer with a breezy yet careful style, tells of the efforts by scientists to detect and measure gravitational waves, which Einstein predicted would ripple through the fabric of space-time. Her account is ''informative and easy to read,'' DavidGoodstein wrote here in 2000. ''When a gravity wave is first detected, the reader of this book will feel like a participant in the great event.'' 2003: “After 45 performances and 28 previews, the curtain came down on a Broadway revival of “Dinner at Eight,” “a 1932 American play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.” 2006: As part of events leading up to Holocaust Memorial Day observances in Poland, Holocaust survivors mixed with the young at the memorial to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. 2006: The Fifteenth Annual Jewish Film Festival comes to an end in New York. 2006: Hamas, an organization committed to the creation of a Palestinian state in all of the territory stretching from the Jordan to the Mediterraneanwon 76 of the 132 seats in the first parliamentary elections held in the PA in ten years. The Hamas victory means that the terrorist organization can form a government without any coalition partners. For many Israelis who had continued to look for an Arab partner for peace, the election results seemed to doom any hopes of peace. 2006: The board of directors of Hudson’s Bay Co., Canada’s largest chain of department stores, agreed to sell the venerable institution to Jerry Zucker. Born in Israel, Zucker graduated with a triple major from the University of Florida. He is a resident of Charleston, South Carolinaand ranks #346 on the Forbes Four Hundred List of Richest Americans. 2007: In a sign of growing acceptance of an expanded role for Israelis in international organization, The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Margaret Chan, the new director-general of the World Health Organization, has invited Israeli health professionals to contribute their experience and skills to the UN organization. The Chinese born, Canadian educated Chan told the Post that she welcomes from any member country including Israel. 2007: “A reading” of “Bar Mitzvah Boy” was held at the Chelsea Studios in New York City. 2008: Shabbat Yitro – The Giving of the Ten Commandments 2008: In New York City, the 92nd St Y hosts Israeli Folk Dance: Winter Marathon, an “all-night dancing, guaranteed to chase your winter chills away” as part of the Israel at 60 Celebration. 2009:The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History present:
“Stella in the Bois de Boulogne” a dramatic reading of a new play by Jane Wood and Tara Prem that brings alive the historic conflict between Stella Adler of the influential Jewish-American Adler acting dynasty and the controversial artistic director Lee Strasberg, and her subsequent meetings in Paris with Russian director Constantine Stanislavsky in 1934. 2009: Rosh Chodesh Shevat, 5769. 2009: Sports Illustratedreports that Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 for what the NBA called “improper interactions with Denver Nuggets players” during and a game on January 13. Cuban has been fined 14 times by the league for fines totaling almost $1.5 million. 2009: Brad “Ausmus agreed to a 1-year, $1 million deal (plus incentives) to be a back-up catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers 2009:Faced with a decline in their operating budget and a shrinking endowment, the trustees of Brandeis University voted unanimously today to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its collection to help shore up the university’s finances. The museum, founded in 1961, holds more than 8,000 pieces. It is best known for its collection of modern art, including works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. “These are extraordinary times,” Jehuda Reinharz, the president of Brandeis, said in a statement. “We cannot control or fix the nation’s economic problems. We can only do what we have been entrusted to do: act responsibly with the best interests of our students and their futures foremost in mind.” The plan calls for the museum to be closed in late summer and turned into a fine arts teaching center and exhibition gallery. It is unclear how much the collection is worth. The university plans to take all proceeds from the sale and invest them back into the university. Brandeis faces a budget shortfall that could reach $10 million, and the sale of the art is a step to help combat the deficit. The university has already announced a hiring freeze and is considering revamping academic programs to help save money. 2009:Brazilian Jack Terpins was unanimously re-elected president of the Latin American Jewish Congress. A longtime activist in Brazil, Terpins, 61, recently finished his term as president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, Brazil's Jewish umbrella organization. 2009: In an Agriprocessor Doubleheader Leah Rubashkin, 36, wife of former Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin, testified in a bail appeal hearing Monday that cash found in their home during a search was used for living expenses, not to escape the country while Soglowek Nahariya Ltd an Israeli food company has made a $40 million offer for the Postville kosher meatpacking company, which became mired in legal and financial troubles after an immigration raid in May snared about one-third of its work force. 2010: “Bad Biology” a horror film that includes an appearance in front of the camera by James Glickenaus who as a director is usually on the other side of the camera was released in the United States today. 2010: The 92nd Street Y in New York is scheduled to present a program entitled “The Future of Islam” featuring John L. Esposito and Mahmoud Mamdani. 2011: The U.S. Premiere of “Inventory,” a film that tells the story three explorers, who painstakingly deciphered inscriptions on gravestones in the lushly overgrown Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, is scheduled to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival. 2011: Yona Avrushmi, who was convicted of murder after throwing a grenade into a Peace Now rally killing Emil Grunzweig “was granted parole and released from Rimonim Prison” today. 2011:In Columbus, Ohio the Cultural Arts Committee Meeting of Tifereth Israel is scheduled to meet at the home of Cantor Chomsky. 2011: Historian Lisa Jardin appeared in a BBC documentary investigating her the life of her father Jacob Bronowski the history of science in the 20th century. 2011:Today, the Jerusalem District Police released details regarding its investigation into a cell of Palestinian militants suspected in two murders and 19 other security incidents since 1997. The cell is alleged to be behind the recent stabbing of an American tourist and her friend in the Jerusalem hills five weeks ago; the tourist, Kristine Luken, was killed, while her friend, Kaye Wilson, managed to flee the attackers with serious wounds. Police believe that the same cell carried out the murder of 53-year-old Netta Blatt-Sorek, a resident of Zichron Ya'akov, whose body was found a year ago near the Jerusalem-area monastery of Beit Jamal last year.. 2012: “Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort” is scheduled to have its world premiere on the closing night of the New York Jewish Film Festival. 2012: Comedian Jeff Applebaum and Ari Hoptman are scheduled to appear at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival. 2017: “For A Good Time, Call…” a comedy starring Ari Graynor premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 2012: Israeli hackers brought down Iran's Press TV website and two websites belonging to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education today. The hackers, who call themselves "IDF Team," said their actions were a response to a series of attacks on Israeli sites the previous day. 2013: “My Australia” is scheduled to be shown at the 9th annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival 2013: Rabbi Sim Glaser is scheduled to entertain audiences at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival with “Material I Can’t Use In Sermons.” 2013(15thof Shevat, 5773): Tu B’Shevat 2013: Six incoming members of the 19th Knesset will have to give up their foreign citizenship before they are sworn in as new MKs on February 5. 2013(15thof Shevat, 5773): Two Ashdod refinery workers were killed this morning after they were exposed to a lethal dose of highly toxic gas. 2014: Meretz chairman and former Education Minister Shulamit Aloni who passed away on January 24 will be laid to rest this morning at the cemetery in Kfar Shamaryahu (As reported by Tova Dvorin) 2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why I Read by Wendy Lesser, My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel and Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus 2014: “The Light Ahead,” a 1939 cinematic version of Fishke der krumer by Mendele Moyker Sforim is scheduled to shown at the Westside Neighborhood School in Los Angeles. 2014: In New York Temple Israel is scheduled to host “The Complete Guide to the Arab Israeli Conflict” presented by Jonathan Cummings. 2014: If her health permits, Clair Moncreif will appear in “Golda’s Balcony” at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré which will be a benefit for the Jewish Foundation of Louisiana. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News) 2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “America’s Enduring Cantorate” featuring Cantors Jack Mendelsohn and Barbara Ostfeld-Hortowitz. 2014 “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not intend to uproot Jewish settlements anywhere in the West Bank, and will not force any settlers to leave, even under a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians, a well-placed official in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel today” (As reported by Raphael Ahren) 2014: An Israeli documentary, “The Green Prince” (directed and written by Nadav Schirman), won the Sundance Film Festival award in the category of Audience Award for World Cinema: Documentary in Park City, Utah today. (As reported by Marissa Newman) 2015: In “Lone Soldiers’ from Kansas City Serve in Israel’s Army” published today Eric Adler described the life of Jake Fichman who is serving with the IDF. 2016: Matan Porat is scheduled to open 92Y’s Seeing Music festival by providing a live, improvised accompaniment to Buster Keaton’s cinematic masterpiece, The General. 2016(16thof Shevat, 5766): Ninety-four year old character actor Abe Vigoda passed away. 2016: The Hadassah Mission to Jerusalem and the Blooming Desert led by Marlene post is scheduled to being today. 2017:According to IDF data published today, in the 15 months between October 2015 and the end of 2016, 281 terrorist attacks originating in the West Bank were reported throughout the country. Those attacks include 143 stabbing attacks, 89 shooting attacks, 39 vehicular attacks and 9 attacks utilizing explosive devices 2017: The Jerusalem Artichoke Festival which “is being celebrated by more than 50” the capital city’s restaurants is scheduled to come to an end today. 2017: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning at Beth Tzedec Synagogue for Hyman Belzberg, one of Canada’s wealthiest citizens who along with his brothers, Samuel and William, had controlled First City Financial Corp. Ltd.,First City Trust Corp. and numerous real estate and development companies across North America. 2017(28th of Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar “Yahrtzeit of David Nieto the Venetian born physician and rabbi, who led the London Sephardic community from the pulpit of Bevis Marks Synagogue. 2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to observe Holocaust Memorial Day today with a screening of “Son of Saul” followed by a short discussion. 2017: The Intown Jewish Academy in partnership with the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Eternal Life-Hemshech and Mt. Scopus, Hadassah Greater Atlanta are scheduled to host “Behind Enemy Lines” during which ninety-six year old Holocaust survivor Marthe Cohn who became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army and was able to retrieve inside information about Nazi troop movements by slipping behind enemy lines will tell her incredible story of courage, faith and espionage. 2018: OPERATION UNDERSTANDING DC is scheduled to host a virtual luncheon with Aviva Kempner, Director of "Rosenwald" 2018: In Wyoming, The Jackson Hole Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a “‘Tuba’ Shevat Holiday Dinner.” 2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the second a final day of “Parent’s Shabbat.” 2019: “Aviva Kempner” is scheduled to screen “the work-in-progress of The Spy Behind Home Plate this afternoon as “part of the SABR-Bob David's Chapter 48th Annual meeting in Rosslyn, VA 2019: In Memphis, TN, “artist in-residence” Rich Recht is scheduled to lead a special “Tot Havdalah service” this evening followed by a congregational pizza dinner. 2019: In Rockville, MD, Tikvat Israel Congregation is scheduled to host a screening of “Redemption,” “the story of Menachem, a former front man for a rock band, who has become religious and is the father to a 6-year-old girl” whose daughter is diagnosed with cancer. 2019:”Rabbi Aaron Rozovsky, a Chaplain/Captain in the U.S. Army Reserves is scheduled to describe the opportunities and challenges facing Jewish chaplains based on his own experiences in Israel, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay Cuba and other domestic and foreign posts during “the annual Men’ Club-sponsored Military Shabbat at Congregation Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, VA.
↧
↧
January 26, 2019, 6:32 pm
January 27 98: Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. The second of the three Jewish revolts against Roman authority took place at the end of Trajan’s reign. This second revolt took place in the Diaspora. It started in 115 and lasted until 117. The revolt began in Egypt and then spread to other parts of North Africa including Libya, Cyrenaica and the Island of Cyprus. The revolt angered Trajan because it took place while he was campaigning in the East and he saw it as an act of treachery aimed at his rear. Just as the Jews of the Diaspora remained passive during the two revolts that took place in the land of Israel, so the Jews of Israel took no part in this bloody action which resulted in the destruction of the Cypriot Jewish community and the start of the decline of the Egyptian Jewish community.661: The Rashidun Caliphate ends with death of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. Begun in 632, the Caliphate marked a period of conquest that gave Islam control over a large swath of North Africa, the old Persian Empire and the modern Middle East. It was during this period that the forces of Islam defeated the Byzantines thus giving them control over Jerusalem.681: The 28 canons adopted by the Twelfth Council of Toledo which contained a series of “diverse measures against the Jews” were read for the fir time in the Church of Santa Maria in Toledo, Spain.1164(1st of Adar): Poet and philosopher Abraham ibn Ezra passed away1186: Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, married Constance of Sicily. During Henry’s reign Jews would be massacred from the Rhine districts all the way to the Vienna.1197(6th of Adar): Rabbi Samuel ben Natronai, a tosafist, was broken on the wheel and martyred today.1343: Pope Clement VI, who had portions of Levi ben Gershon’s (Gersonides) Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem, ("The Wars of the Lord"), translated into Latin today “issued the Bull Unigenitus Dei filius to justify the power of the pope1349: The Jews were driven out of Burgundy and escorted as far as Montbozon. 1449: New Christians or Conversos were the targets of a riot in Toledo, Spain. The Conversos especially the wealthy ones, were attacked during a revolt against taxation. Three hundred of them decided to band together and defend themselves. During the attack one Christian were killed. In response, 22 Marranos were murdered and numerous of their houses were destroyed.1571: Birthdate of Abbas I of Persia, “the 5th Safavid Shah of Iran during whose early reign the “Jews prospered throughout Persia and were encouraged to settle in Isfahan, the new capital.” As the years wore on, the conditions of the Jews worsened and among other things, they “were forced to wear a distinctive badge on their clothing and headgear..1659: Cornelis Janss Plavier and his wife Geertje Andriesz, who were about to leave for New Amsterdam borrowed 1625 guilders, insurance included, from Amsterdam merchant Abraham Cohen Henriquez. The loan was to be repaid with the sale of beaver shipped in the autumn to Amsterdam. Merchandise and bills of lading for the beaver were to be kept by Asser Levy, or in his absence by Joseph d' Acosta, until proper security could be given by the couple for the shipment for which they were obligated. The borrowers were not Jewish; the others involved were.1695: Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II. Ahmed II had been born in 1643. During his reign he imprison Doctor Hayati Zadi in the Yedikule prison where he died. During the reign of Mustafa II, Belgrade was reconqured and the Jews were allowed to return to the city in 1690. Also, Doctor Nuh efendi, Doctor Levi, Doctor Tobias Cohen and Doctor Israel Koenigland were appointed palace doctors. Mustafa ruled until 1703.1766: In Jamaica, Abigail and Gotchal Levien gave birth to Joicey Levien.1773: Birthdate of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the 6th son of George III who(the one who lost the 13 colonies) who “became a Patron of the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum, later to become the charity known as Norwood” and who supported legislation to remove “the civil liabilities of Jews” passed away today.1774: Two days after his death at the age of 63, Abram ben Tov was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.1775: in the town of Leonberg in the Duchy of Württemberg (now Baden-Württemberg), of Joseph Friedrich Schelling and his wife Gottliebin Marie gave birth to German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling who was a major influence on Rabbi Sekl Loeb Wormser, Talmudist and Kabbalist who was a follower of Rabbi Nathan Adler.1780(20thof Shevat, 5540): Amsterdam native Rebecca bat Rab Meir passed away today in the United Kingdom1781: As the United States garnered allies in its fight for independence, British Admiral Sir George Rodney was informed that Britain was now at war with the United Provinces (Holland) and recommended as "first objects of attack St. Eustatius and St. Martin” attacks that would lead to the worst outbreak of anti-Semitism during the American Revolution1785: Founding of the University of Georgia. According to the January, 2005 issue of “The Jewish Week,” the University of Georgia is emerging as one of the new “hot campuses” for Jewish students. “In 1993 the state of Georgia began paying full tuition to students with a 3.0 average or better in high school who kept a B average or better in college. So now the University of Georgia, which the Chronicle of Higher Education said had been considered a party school 10 years ago, is now a popular destination for in-state Jewish students. It’s 58th on this year’s U.S. News and World Report ranking of state schools for undergraduates, right below Maryland. Now the University of Georgia Hillel gets as many as 130 students at a Shabbat dinner, according to its director Shawn Laing.”1788: “The first of England’s flotilla of convict transports dropped anchor at Sydney harbor, New South Wales.” There were eight Jews among the eight hundred prisoners one of whom was sixteen-year old Esther Abrahams of London, sentenced to an Australian penal farm for stealing a piece of lace. 1790: In France, active citizenship was extended to the "well born" Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux, who promptly bowed out of the fight for equal rights. They looked upon their poorer brothers in Alsace-Lorraine with contempt.1791: The National Assembly grants civil rights to the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine completing the process of emancipation for French Jews.1806: Birthdate of “German philologist and lexicographer” Wilhelm Freund whose four volume Latin dictionary became “the basis for the standard English-Latin dictionaries in the 19th century” Lewish and Short’s A Latin Dictionary1808: Birthdate of German theologian and author David Friedrich Strauss who was a leader of those studying Jesus as a historical figure, which would have included his Jewish origins.https://www.westarinstitute.org/resources/the-fourth-r/david-friedrich-strauss/1808: Jerome Bonaparte granted full civil rights to the Jews of Westphalia1811: Abraham Lima Lamert married Elizabeth Abrahams at the Great Synagogue.1813: Birthdate of Heinrich von Friedberg who became a Protestant and enjoyed a successful legal career in Prussia.1813: Solomon Meyer married Sarah Samuel at the Great Synagogue today.1814: Seventy-two year old Philip Astley, “the father of the modern circus” who in 1786 hired Jacob de Castro, the son of a Hebrew teacher, to perform in “Amphitheatre and Ambigu-Comique” for several years and a group of whose performers were known as “Astley’s Jews” passed away today.1814: Fifty-one year old Johann Gottlieb Fichte the German philosopher who in 1793 “singled out Jews and Judaism as constituting a ‘state-within-a-state’ that was ‘predicted on the hatred of the entire human race’ and ‘spreading thought almost all lands of Europe and terribly oppressing its citizens” yet whose Addresses to the German Nation shows “few traces of such Jews-hatred.”1824: Birthdate of Dutch painter Jozef Israëls. “Descended from a poor Jewish family, Jozef Israëls started taking drawing lessons in 1835 at the Academy Minerva in Groningen….In addition to fishermen scenes and portraits, he expanded his subject matter with peasant scenes, and later in his career he returned to the subject of death and old age, as well as treating Jewish and biblical themes.He traveled extensively and was much honored at home and abroad. Israëls was the most acclaimed Dutch painter in his time, eagerly sought after by collectors in Great Britain, the United States, and other countries. Hailed as a second Rembrandt, he participated in many exhibitions, and his work was disseminated through reproductions.”http://www.nndb.com/people/207/000104892/http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/22/real-jozef-israels-stand-israeli-curators-crack-mysterious-forgery/http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=963http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Isra%C3%ABls1829: Two days after he had passed away, 84 year old Benjamin Zeev Coster was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”1832: In Alsace, Alexander Aron and his wife, the former Charlotte Ascher Lower, gave birth to Clara Aron.1836: Benjamin Marks married Abigail Garcia today at the Hambro Synagogue.1836: Birthdate of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch the Austrian author whose works included Jews and Russians and New Jewish Stories. “He faithfully described the manners of the Polish Jews but he feared that his affection for them might give the impression that he was an Israelite.”1840: One day after she had passed away, Hannah Chapman, the wife of Benjamin Chapman, was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”1842: During the consecration of the first Reform Synagogue in London, Rabbi David Woolf Marks shocked the traditional Anglo-Jewish community by declaring. “We solemnly deny that a belief in the divinity of those traditions written in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud is of equal obligation to the Israelite with the faith in the divinity of the Laws of Moses… These books are human compositions; and, though we are content to accept with reverence, advice and instruction from our post-biblical ancestors, we cannot unconditionally accept their laws. For Israelites there is but one immutable Law – the sacred volume of the Scriptures commanded by God to be written down for the unerring guidance of His people until the end of time.” Every Hebrew congregation must be authorised to take such measures as shall bring the divine services into consonance with the will of the Almighty, as explained to us in the Law and in the Prophets.”1843(26thof Shevat, 5603): Sixty-nine year old Levy Salomons, the son of Shiphra Levy Salomons and Solomon Salomons passed away today in the United Kingdom1847: A ball was held at the Museum Building to raise funds for the establishment of Hebrew school in Philadelphia, PA. Among those in charge of the event were M.H. De Young, Moses Nathans, Isaac Nathans, Benjamin Pincus, S.M. Klossser, and David Van Beil.1850: Birthdate of Samuel Gompers, first president the American Federation of Labor. When asked what does the American working man want, Gompers responded, “More!”http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-People-in-Labor-History/Samuel-Gompers-1850-19241859(22nd of Shevat): Rabbi Menahm Mendel of Kotsk passed away1859: Birthdate of Kaiser Wilhelm II who served as German emperor from 1888 until his abdication in 1918. Wilhelm played many complex roles in the lives of the Jews of Europe. He missed one opportunity to alter Jewish history by not supporting Herzl when he sought the Kaiser’s help in creating a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. Despite the thousands of Jews who fought and died in his Army, Wilhelm was an anti-Semite who blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat helping to give rise to the canard about Germany having been defeated by “the stab in the back,” a stab delivered by the Jews.1860: Birthdate of Sir Charles Solomon Henry, an Australian merchant and businessman who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1906-1918.1861: Three days after he had passed away, 64 year old Philip Benjamin, the husband of Frances Benjamin and the father of Deborah Benjamin was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1863: Sixty-eight year Edward Robinson, the American biblical scholar who is considered the “Father of Biblical Geography” passed away. The American Protestant journeyed to Palestine with Reverend Eli Smith where they identified many of the sites described in the Bible. Among them was the tunnel dug during the reign of King Hezekiah. An arch dating back to Herod’s rebuilding of the Second Temple was named Robinson’s Arch in his honor. In 1839, Robinson became the first person to describe Tell el-Hesi., a site later excavated by Flinders Petrie.http://www.timesofisrael.com/despite-detente-ancient-hebrew-text-proving-jewish-ties-to-jerusalem-set-to-stay-in-istanbul/1864: During the American Civil War, the Richmond (VA) Examiner published an article today about those who have are deserting the southern Confederacy for the safety of the North with Jews being the only group identified by their religion. According to the paper, a “great underground route to the North is now open through to Washington, D.C, via the track of the York River Railroad. This route, so generously left open by the Confederate Government, is patronized daily by scores of the principal of substitutes in search of more healthful localities -- Jews and blockade-runners carrying out gold and running in goods…” 1869: Twelve year old Jacob Bibo, the younger brother of Isaac R. Bibo, who had been placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in March 1867 after his mother died, “left the institution” today “and went to work with a pawnbroker on the Bowery.1872: Birthdate of Weaverville, CA native Julius C. Lang who was one of the delegates from Seattle Washington at the 1919 convention of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America.1873: In Russia, the recently promulgated Ukase concerning recruiting sailors and soldiers for the Czar’s military went into effect. Among the change in the new law was the termination of the exemption from service that had been given to Jews who had converted to Christianity. This is one of dozens of exemptions that were terminated. Now an exemption may be purchased upon payment of 800 silver rubles to the government.1876(1stof Shevat, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1878: President Henry S. Herman presided over the opening session of District Grand Lodge No. 1 of the Independent Order of the B’nai Brit which was being held at the Nilsson Hall in New York City. District 1 includes New York States, all the states of New England and the Dominion of Canada.1879: A Commission of Investigation was established to examine charges of immoral contact by Monsignor Thomas John Capel. Capel’s behavior would lead to his being sent to the United States where he became a popular speaker who delivered an address on patriotism to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.1879(3rdof Shevat, 5639): Schiee Jaffe, the native of Gnesen who was the son of Samuel and N.N. Jaffe passed away today in Berlin1880(14thof Shevat, 5640): Eighty-five year old German born pianist Jacques-Simon Herz passed away today.1880: Three days after she had passed away, 37 year old Fanny Milligan, the daughter Charles and Sarah (Barnet) Milligan was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1884(29thof Tevet, 5644): Sixty-nine year old Rabbi Gutmann Gumpel Klemperer, the husband of Julie Klemperer, whose intellectual accomplishments included writing “a history of the Prague rabbinate from the death of Yehudah Leib ben Betsal’el (Maharal) through the period ending in 1879” passed away today. 1885: Birthdate of Jerome (David) Kern, one of America's foremost composers of music for the theatre and screen. He is best known as the composer of Broadway musicals like The Cat and the Fiddle (1931) and Roberta (1933). http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C671885: Birthdate of musician and composer Harry Ruby.http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C3081886: In Atlanta, GA, Joseph L. Loeb of Charleston SC, married Stella Jackson the “youngest daughter of the late J.J. Cohen of Rome, GA” at the “residence of her brother, L.L. Cohen.”1887: Henry M. Stanley, the leader of the expedition to save Emin Pasha, the apostate Jew turned Christian, turned Moslem, arrived in Cairo. 1888: Birthdate of mineralogist and petrologist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt1888: Birthdate of Sacki Gustav one of the many German Jews from Kleinseinach who died while serving in WW I.1890: In St. Louis, Rabbi Rosentretter presided at the wedding of Fannie Miller, the daughter of A.A. Miller and Morris Elman.1890: In Albany, NY, Davis S. Mann, a Jewish teller, was denied a promotion to cashier of the Albany County Banks.1891(NS): Birthdate of Russian and later Soviet author, journalist and activist, Ilya Ehrenburg.1891: Joseph Kline, the President of a Hebrew Cemetery Society “was put on trial” today “in the Union County charged with larceny and obtaining money under false pretenses from John Leece1892: Birthdate of Ernst Lubitsch “a German-born Jewish film director” whose “urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director” which led critics to say that his films had “the Lubitsch touch".1892: It was reported today that the recent charity ball hosted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music raised approximately $6,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.1893(10thof Shevat, 5653): Russian journalist Nachum Cohen author of “In A Dull Townlet” which “appeared in book form in 1895” passed away today.1893: It was reported today that the average attendance during 1892 at the Hebrew Technical Institute was 138. Seventy-five percent of the 32 students who graduated “have obtained desirable positions.1894: Approximately 200 delegates attended the opening session of the annual meeting of District Lodge No. 1 of B’nai B’rith a the Lexington Avenue Opera House where they heard an address from the retiring President, Judge Goldfogle of the Fifth Judicial District.1895: It was reported today that the 2,000 people who attended a charity ball in Brooklyn last week raised over $10,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.1895: Birthdate of Joseph Rosenstock, the native of Cracow who conducted orchestras in Poland, Japan, Germany and the United States.1895: “The Navigator Prince Henry” published today provides a detailed review of Prince Henry The Navigator: The Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery in which the author C. Raymond Beazly draws on the accounts of Benjamin of Tudela.1896: It was reported today that Mrs. Wallenstein has been re-elected as President of the Hebrew Infantile Asylum Association. Mrs. Reiser has been re-elected as Vice President.1896: Sarah Bernhardt appeared in the role of Marguerite in “La Dame aux Cemelias” at the Abbey Theatre.1897: Opening session of the Fifth Annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society took place in Baltimore, MD.1897: The Jewish Messenger published a complete report about Henry Herzberg’s speech, “The Soul of Judaism.”1897(24thof Shevat, 5657): Dr. Solomon Deutsch, a leading philologist, passed away today in New York. Deutsch was born in Silesia in 1816 and came to the United States in 1857 after completing his education. He served as a rabbi in several cities including Philadelphia and Hartford before retiring to purse an academic career that included the authorship of Hebrew Grammar, Medical Germanand Biblical History.1897: The Hebrew Union Veteran Association held its annual reception at the Lenox Lyceum in New York City.1897: “Condition of the Poor” published today included Superintendent N.S. Rosenau’s of the United Hebrew Charities description of the “suffering among the poor Jewish people on the east side” which is made all the worst with the combination of bad weather and economic depression. The Jewish fund is “broke” having provided half a million dollars to the destitute “In the three years from October 1893 to the close of 1896.”1897: During today’s debate on the proposed Immigration Bill being considered by the House of Representatives, Ohio Congressman Henry Grosvenor said “he would not vote for a measure framed specialty to restrict the Russian Jews” because such a vote would leave him open to charges that he had voted “against a man on account of his religion.”1898: Two days after he had passed away, 64 year old Isaac Hart was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1898: It was reported today that a lady was wounded by accident when a Spaniard fired at a French non-commissioned officers during today’s anti-Jewish riots in Algiers.1899: A trial opened in the Assize Court in Paris today Mme. Henry, has sued Joseph Reinach, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the editor of the Republic Fracaise for libeling her late husband by calling him “a traitor.” Mme. Henry is the widow of the late Lt. Col. Henry who committed suicide after having confessed to forging documents used against Alfred Dreyfus.1899: In Detroit, Leo Franklin “preached his first sermon as Rabbi of Bethel at the Washington Boulevard Temple” today.1899: Birthdate of football player and manager Béla Guttmann the native of Budapest who “moved to Vienna to escape the anti-Semitism of the Admiral Horthy regime and joined the all-Jewish club SC Hakoah Wien which won the all-league title in 1926.1900: In Przasnysz, Russian Poland, Abraham Rickover and the former Rachel Unger gave birth to Chaim Godalia Rickover who gained fame as U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the atomic and later nuclear powered Navy. He, more than any other single individual, was responsible for the creation of the submarine fleet that gave America its strategic edge over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.http://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/09/obituaries/rickover-father-of-nuclear-navy-dies-at-86.html?pagewanted=allhttps://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/hyman-g-rickover1901: Birthdate of Abraham Cantarow, the native of Hartford, CT, who served on the faculty of Jefferson Medical College.1902: Birthdate of Yosef Sapir, the native of Jaffa who served as mayor of Petah Tikva , an MK and a member of the government that guided Israel through the Six Day War.1902: Birthdate of Alberto Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, Portugal’s Chargé d'Affaires in Budapest in 1944 who risked his life to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.http://vidaspoupadas.idiplomatico.pt/en/1904: In Mulhouse, Baruch Kahn and Constance Lange gave birth to Edmond Kahn.1904: Herzl received a telegram from Leopold Greenberg that described a definitive offer from the British Government that would allow for a Jewish homeland in Nandi, a territory in the colony of Kenya. Greenberg advised immediate acceptance and the sending of an expedition. Greenberg was a British Zionist and publisher of the Jewish Chronicle.1906: “Joseph Hartigan, President of the senior class” presided over “a mass meeting and conference held by the New York University Relief Association” tonight ‘at the Educational Alliance in East Broadway” where “the massacres of the Jews in Russia were denounced and protest was ordered sent to President Roosevelt.”1907(12thof Shevat, 5667): Ninety-year old Moritz Steinschneider who overcame anti-Semitism to become a noted bibliographer and Orientalisthttp://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Steinschneider_Moritz1908: “Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream),”an operetta by Oscar Straus opened today at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.1909: Birthdate of box Lou Halper. http://boxrec.com/boxer/131711909: Eight days after she had passed away at Nice, Emily Isaacs, the daughter of Samuel and Ann Isaacs and the widow of David Falcke and John Nathaniel Whitmore was buried today at the “Balls Road Jewish Cemetery.”1910(17thof Shevat, 5670: Mrs. Chaie Schore Schaker passed away today in Liepaja1911: Birthdate of Blanche Margaret Meagher, who served as the Canadian ambassador to Israel from 1958 to 1961 making her the first woman to serve as a Canadian ambassador.1912: In New York City, President Taft attended a ball sponsored by the Daughters of Jacob, an organization established in 1895 to fund a home for aged Jewish citizens.1913: Twenty-four year old Alvah Myer who won a Silver Medal at the 1912 Olympics ran what he thought was “a world-best time in the 100 meters at the Lyceum Games in New York” which the AAU would later disallow. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)1913(19thof Shevat, 5673): Fifty-three year old City Magistrate Moses J. Harris passed away today in Brooklyn.1915: During a series of campaigns that would result in the British holding Palestine, one part of the German-led Ottoman troops cut the road between El Arish and Qantra Road while another unit attacked “near Qantara in the northern sector of the Suez Canal and near the town of Suez in the south” 1915: Birthdate of basketball player Edward L. “Ed” Keller who played for Duquesne before turning professional and playing two seasons with the NBL.1915: Among those listed today as contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee were the Sewing Circle of Memphis, TN, the B’nai B’rith Lodge of Meridian, Mississippi, the House of Israel, Hot Springs, Arkansas and Temple B’nai Israel, Natchez, Mississippi1916: Citizens of the United States responded generously today, which President Wilson and several governors had officially proclaimed as Jewish Relief Day as a way of aiding the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War reach their 1916 fund raising goal of five million dollars. In response to a Congressional Resolution asking him to do so, President Wilson had issued a proclamation proclaiming January 27 as Jewish Relief Day and urged people to donate to the committee or send contributions to the American Red Cross to aid the Jews in war-torn Europe and Palestine.http://blogs.yu.edu/library/2016/01/26/president-woodrow-wilson-world-war-i-and-jewish-relief-day-january-27-1916/1916: As a twenty-four fund raising effort that began last night in San Francisco continued today, Governor Hiram W. Johnson of California urged “Californians to aid in the work.”1916: In response to the fund raising efforts on Jewish Relief Day, “employees in factories has contributed their dinner money” to the cause including a large number of Italians working on the East Side.1916: In Richmond, VA, Governor Henry Carter Stuart, Mayor George Ainslie and Right Revered Dennis J. O’Connell, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Richmond were among the speakers at meeting attended by Jews and Christians under the auspices of the Jewish War Relief Committee during which almost $17,000 was raised 1916: Across the United States, “many workmen are giving their day’s pay and many business men are contributing a part of their proceeds on Jewish Relief Day.1916: As part of Jewish Relief Day, in Cincinnati, $50,000 has been contributed and another $50,000 pledged to the American Jewish Relief Committee.1916: As part of Jewish Relief Day, the Fruit and Produce Merchants’ Committed raised $8,207 at a fruit auction today.1916: Nobody was exempt from the thousands of volunteers participating in the Tag Day fundraising event today including President Wilson who bought two tags – one from Dr. David S. Sola Pool and one from Miss Ruth V. Kahn.1916: Albert Lucas, the Executive Secretary of the Central Committee sent the following telegram to President Wilson: “The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering Through the War respectfully desires to express its grateful appreciation of your action in proclaiming today as Jewish Relief Day. Entirely apart from the immense sum of money which will doubtless be raised through the efforts of thousands of volunteers of all sects and creeds that are devoting to for the aid of the stricken Jewish people your Excellency has the assurance that we are convinced that day be reckoned as the dawn of another emancipation day.”1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee announced today that, to date, it has received $1,262,700.78 of which “$1,070,748.56 was in cash and $191,952.22 in pledges.”1917: As World War I drags on for a third year it is reported that not one home in the Jewish quarter of Belgrade remains standing undamaged. Large numbers of Jews have immigrated to Greece from various areas in the Balkans. The Americans sent $55,000 to help with relief in Serbia and Greece, after receiving a cablegram for help from the Chief Rabbi of Salonica, Jacob Meir.1917(4thof Shevat, 5677): Eighty year old Rabbi Moses Samuel Zuckermandl, a student of Samson Raphael Hirsch, passed away today in Breslau.1918: “At the annual meeting of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies held tonight at the Manhattan Opera House, officers reported great success during the first year of the federation and the members cheered the announcement of full victory for the two week’s drive to get 50,000 new members, pledged to the maintenance of the 89 welfare bodies embraced in the organization.”1919: “Oh, Joy!” the English version of the Jerome Kern musical “Oh, Boy!” opened in London at the Kingsway Theatre.1920: The Palestine Military Railways, the British operator of the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway began rebuilding the line today, widening to “standard gauge” today.1922: Two days after she had passed away, 83 year old Rachel (Toms) Kaufmann, the wife of Jacob Kaufman with whom she had had four children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1924: Birthdate of Harvey Irwin Shapiro, the Chicago born poet who became an editor of the New York Times (As reported by Margalit Fox)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/books/harvey-shapiro-poet-of-new-york-and-beyond-dies-at-88.html?_r=01925: London born, American featherweight David “Danny” Frush who fought under the name “Seaman Clarke” lost his bout today in Paris by a Knockout.1926: Birthdate of journalist, broadcaster and humorist Fritz Spiegl. Born and educated in Austria, Spiegel and his family fled when the Nazis annexed Austria. He settled in England where he lived and worked until his death in 2003.1929: Rabbi Israel Efros, the “Dean of the Baltimore Hebrew college was formally installed as the rabbi of Temple at banquet attended by “Saul Tschernichowsky, one of the greatest of contemporary Hebrew poets, Solomon Goldman, one of America's outstanding rabbis” and toastmaster Charles Dautch 1929: Birthdate of German-born American chess champion Hans Berliner.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/business/hans-berliner-master-chess-player-and-programmer-dies-at-87.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=11929: “Marquis Preferred” a comedy featuring Mischa Auer was released in the United States today.1929: Birthdate of Richard Ottinger, a New York Democratic Party leader who served in the House of Representatives and then pursued a career with the Pace University School of Law.1930: According to reports published today, “there are more than 213,000 volumes in the Hebrew University Library.” During 1929, 22,000 volumes were added to the library’s collection. The library includes the ‘only medical library of note in the entire region.’” The Library has expanded its locations as well as it collection. Based on the demand of physicians in Palestine, the library has established a branch medical library at the Nathan Straus Health Center in Jerusalem and another such facility in Tel Aviv.1931: Birthdate of author Mordecai Richler. A native of Montréal many Americans know him as the author The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz which was later turned into a film of the same name. His first novel, The Acrobats (1954), is about a young Canadian painter in Spain with a group of expatriates and revolutionaries. Richler was a sharp cultural critic, and his books The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959), St. Urbain's Horsemen (1971), and Joshua Then andNow (1980) all deal with greed and success. He wrote a collection of humorous essays titled Notes on an Endangered Species and Others (1974), and a series of children's books. He said, "Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials."1934: “Bedside,” drama produced by Samuel Bischoff was released in the United States today.1936: Supreme Court Justice McCook, who had been hearing a suit brought S.S. & B Live Poultry Corporation to restrain the Kashruth Association of New York from proceeding against it for failing to use leg band, “handed down a decision” today “upholding the right of the association, a semi-official organization of laymen and orthodox rabbis to declare a ban against all poultry not killed under the supervision of the organization and not bearing leg-bands or seals sold by it.”1936: The National Conference of Jewish Federations and Welfare Fund ended its annual meeting today after having agreed that American and British Jews were committed “to the withdrawal of the younger generation of Jews from Germany” after “it was revealed that” the plans involved “no incidental benefits to Germany such as withdrawal of Jewish property in the form of German goods to be sold and accepted by Jews in abandonment of the boycott” already in place.1937: Delegates to the annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations who represented 125,000 women engaged in a variety of Jewish communal activities “pledge their support to the Child Labor Amendment which was designed to that children are “not called upon to do the work of adults.”1937: While discussing “the problems facing the Jews of the world” today Rabbi Stephen S. Wise “decried the threat recently made by the government of Poland ‘to compel 3,000,000 Jews to emigrate from that country’” which “he added was in violation of the covenant under which that country” had been created “under the Treaty of Versailles.”1938: A special issue of the Stuermer, the anti-Semitic newspaper published by Julius Streicher – a favorite of Hitler – on sale today included a demand that Jewish men and Aryan woman “found guilty of having relations” should be subject to the death penalty.1938: The Palestine Post reported on the plight of the Jews in Romania. Under the new restrictions over 200,000 Jews had lost their trading licenses and one hundred thirty Jewish lawyers at Yassy had been expelled from the bar. 1938: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A0CE7D81E3EE03ABC4051DFB7668383629EDE1938: In a greeting to the National Council for Jewish Women meeting in Pittsburgh, Albert Einstein urged the attendees to remember that “Mutual assistance is” the “one weapon” in the “bitter struggle” of the Jews “for existence” and that although “weakened through dispersion in countless factions” the Jews ‘remained united through this fairest of all duties – the duty of selfish mutual aid.”1938: The Palestine Post reported that Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach opened a picturesque garden on the seven-dunam oval island at Zina Dizengoff Circle. 1939: It was announced from Berlin today that “the negotiations between George Rublee, American chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees and Dr. Helmuth Wohlthat of Germany regarding the evacuation of Jews from” Germany “are progressing satisfactory.” (Editor’s Note – These words, have, to say the least, a hollow ring to them as we observe Holocaust Memorial Day.)1940 (17th of Shevat, 5700): Based on information that became public in the 1990’s, today is the day on which author Isaac Babel was shot to death after being found guilty of belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyite organization and with spying for France and Austria during a 20 minute trial that had been held the day before. Babel had been arrested by Stalin’s NKVD in 1939 and shipped off to a Siberian labor camp. Two of Babel’s more famous works were Red Cavalry based on his experiences as a cavalry officer fighting against the Whites and Odessa Tales which describes the richly textured Jewish society of Odessa. Babel was rehabilitated in the 1950’s by Khrushchev.1941: The fund raising campaign of the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal is scheduled to come to a close tonight.1942: In New Haven, CT, Michael Weinberg who would change the family name to “Wynn” and his wife gave birth to Stephen Alan Weinberg, the University of Pennsylvania graduate who gained fame as luxury hotel developer and Republican Party leader Steve Wynn whose reputation was “tarnished” following charges of “sexual misconduct.”https://www.timesofisrael.com/iowa-u-to-drop-steve-wynns-name-from-building-after-sexual-misconduct-charges/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=7a1178dbaa-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-7a1178dbaa-539218771942: Gussie Schwebel and her son Jack delivered three dozen of her knishes to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt at her house located at 49 East 65th Street in Manhattan.1943: Simon Attali, “a self-educated person who achieved success in perfumery ("Bib et Bab" shop) in Algiers” and Fernande Abécassis, the parents French economist Jacques Attali nd his sister Fabienne were wed to in the French North African colony.1943: Members of the 'Amitié Chrétienne’ held an emergency meeting at the home of Swiss Protestant pastor Roland de Pury to try and find a way to warn Jews that the Gestapo was watching the offices of the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF),where they were going to get false documents. They decided to have Germaine Ribière pose as a cleaning lady, who, while cleaning the stairs would warn the Jews not to end the building. Germaine Ribière was a Catholic member of the French Resistance who was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for her efforts to save Jews from the Nazis. The 'Amitié Chrétienne’ was founded in Lyon, France, in 1941 with the goal of saving Jews and others from the Nazis and the Vichy Governments1944: SS Morris Hillquit, a liberty ship named after the Jewish Socialist who opposed the United States entering World War I, was launched today. Like so many other supply vessels that survived the war, it would be sold to a private entity in 1947 and finally be scrapped in 1968. Not bad for a ship that was built in 34 days.1945(13thof Shevat, 5705): Parashat Beshalach1945(13thof Shevat, 5705): Fifty-seven year old “Dr. Karl Elias Landuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, who after seeking refuge from the Nazis in Sweden and the Netherlands ended up being murdered at Bergen-Belsen today.1945: The Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. It is estimated that at minimum 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million were murderedhttp://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/liberation-of-auschwitzhttp://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/14.asp1945: The Red Army entered Birkenau and found it almost entirely empty of human inhabitants. One survivor found in the hospital was Anne Frank's father, Otto. Anne had died there months earlier from decease. (Otto would return to Amsterdam to find the famed diary.) Though most of the storage facilities were already destroyed, the Russians discover 836,255 women's dresses, 348,000 sets of men's suits and 38,000 pairs of men's shoes.1945: After Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz today Salamo Arouch, a Greek-born Jewish boxer who survived the death camp by winning fight after fight against fellow prisoners, began searching other liberated camps for any family members who might have survived. During the search he found Marta Yechiel, a girl from his home in Greece. The two moved to Palestine, married and raised a family that included four children and 12 children at the time of his death.1945: Tzipora Shapiro, whose “father, grandfather, brothers, aunts, and uncles all died in the Lodz Ghetto,” and whose mother was gassed at Auschwitz “walked out of the gates” that same death camp today. (As reported by Yardena Schwartz)1945: “Up in Central Park” a music with a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields and a score by Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Fields, choreographed by Helen Tamiris opened on Broadway at the New Century Theatre where it ran for 504 performances.1946: Four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle to attend the wedding of Holocaust survivors Lilly and Ludwig Friedman’s wedding. Lily wore a wedding gown that had been created from a parachute acquired from a former Nazi pilot by an unknown seamstress. For Lilly “the dress symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the world descended into madness.” The dress would eventually go on display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.1947: As part of “Aliya Bet,” the Chaim Arlozoroff set sail from Trelleborg, Sweden, carrying 664 survivors of the European death camps. Most of those on board, who were labeled illegal immigrants by the British, were women. When the ship finally arrived in Haifa, a struggle ensued at the end of which the British transferred the former camp inmates to detention camps at Cyprus.http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/february/14.asp1952: Birthdate of Brian Gottfried, Baltimore born tennis star who won the Wimbledon Doubles in 19761953: The Jerusalem Post reported that over 2,000 frightened refugees, including many Jews, escaped the purges in East Germany and crossed over from East to West Berlin. Israel got an urgently needed one-year loan of $16 million from an American group of banks, headed by the Bank of America. 1955: At the Boston Medical Library an exhibit of Jewish medical leaders, including medieval manuscripts and awards presented to Jewish physicians.1955: “Plain and Fancy,” a musical comedy co-authored by Joseph Stein opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre for the first of 461 performances.1956: “The Court Jester,” a musical comedy directed and produced by Melvin Frank who also co-wrote the script and starring Danny Kaye was released in the United States a month after it had premiered in Japan.1957(25th of Shevat): Yiddish poet Zishe Weinper passed away1958: Birthdate of Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams.http://www.jta.org/2014/10/24/news-opinion/united-states/rabbi-dr-judith-abrams-pioneering-online-talmud-teacher-dies-at-561959: Birthdate of Keith Olbermann former TV sportscaster and former MSNBC host.1961: "Sing Along with Mitch" featuring Mitch Miller premiered on NBC TV1960: Sixty-five year old Brazilian statesman Osvaldo Aranha the “President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 during the UNGA 181 vote on the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, in which he postponed the vote for three days to ensure its passage” and for which he was nominated for a Noble Prize passed away today.1962: “A Family Affair” a musical about Chicago Jewish wedding with a book by James Goldman and William Goldman, lyrics by James Goldman and John Kander, and music by Kander all of whom share a suburban Chicago Jewish upbringing opened on Broadway today at the Billy Rose Theatre with a cast that included Shelly Berman, Larry Curt, Morris Carnovsky and Linda Lavin1964: Red Buttons married Alicia Pratt, his third and last wife today.1964(13th of Shevat, 5724): Lieb Glantz, famed chazzan and composer, passed away at the age of 651965(24thof Shevat, 5724): Eighty-six year old Siberian born American Modernist painter Abraham Walkowitz who may be best known for his drawings of Isadora Duncan passed away today.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Walkowitz#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_Isadora_Duncan_29_-_Abraham_Walkowitz.jpghttp://www.askart.com/artist/Abraham_Walkowitz/30115/Abraham_Walkowitz.aspxhttps://americanart.si.edu/artist/abraham-walkowitz-52141965: Up the Down Staircase, a best-selling novel written by Bel Kaufman was published today. Writing must be in her blood since she is the granddaughter of Shalom Aleichem, something not mentioned in any of the education classes that I took where this book was mandatory reading. 1966: “Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment” a comedy starring David Warner in the title role was released today in the United Kingdom.1966(6thof Shevat, 5726): Sixty-five year old New York real estate executive and philanthropist Solomon N. Petchers, who served on the board of the American Association for Jewish Education and helped to fund the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Central Library for the Blind in Jerusalem passed away today.1968(26thof Tevet, 5728): Parashat Vaera1968: Sixty-three year old Norman Gerstenfeld, the British born long-time rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation and husband of the former Louise Mundheim with whom he had four children passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/28/89318887.pdf
1968: A radio station in Nicosia, Cyprus, received a distress call on the frequency of the INS Dakar's “emergency buoy, apparently from south-east of Cyprus, but no further traces of the submarine were found.”1968: Congregation Shaar Hashomayim began the dedication of its new chapel with a Sabbath Service.1969(8th of Shevat, 5729): Nine Jews were publicly executed in Damascus Syria1969(8thof Shevat, 5729): Seventy-eight year old Leon Pines, the native of Vilna who moved to the United States in 1907 where he pursued a career in manufacturing and who was a member of several Jewish organizations including the American Friends of Hebrew University passed away today in Miami Beach.1969: A day after Beatle John Lennon retained Allen Klein as his new financial representative in an attempt to stave impending economic ruin, the two met with the other Beatles who opted to remain with their own money managers.1970(20thof Shevat, 5730): Eighty-three year old Maurice Samuel Calman, the Romanian born American oral surgeon who served on the Board of Alderman passed away today.1971(1st of Shevat, 5731) Rosh Chodesh Shevat1972: “The Winter Soldier,” a documentary co-created by Barbara Kopple was released today in the United States.1972(11thof Shevat, 5732): Eighty four year old mathematician Richard Courant, co-author of What is Mathematics? who was forced to flee Germany even though he had fought for the Kaiser, passed away today. (As reported by Harry Schwartz)http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=940DE2DC103DEF34BC4151DFB7668389669EDE1973(24th of Shevat, 5733): Actor John Banner passed away. Best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Schultz in the television hit “Hogan’s’ Heroes,” Banner was born on this date in 1910.1974: “Lorelie” a musical with “lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne” which was based on “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” opened at Broadway at the Palace Theatre.1975: “The Main in the Glass Booth” a film adaptation of a novel and play that old the story of bringing Adolf Eichmann to justice, directed by Arthur Hiller, produced by Ely Landau and featuring Luther Adler was released today in the United States.1976(25thof Shevat, 5736): Seventy-eight year old Benjamin Tietelbaum the Yiddish novelist who used the pen-name “B. Demblin” and who with his wife Sylvia had one daughter, Miriam passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/30/archives/b-demblin-author-of-yiddish-novels.htmlhttps://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/demblin-benjaminhttp://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=325211977: Broadcast of the first episode of “Lanigan’s Rabbi” based on the novels of Harry Kemelman featuring the character of “Rabbi David Small.”1977:“Operation Thunderbolt,” known in Israel as Mivtsa Yonatan, (literally "Operation Jonathan"), a 1977 Israeli film based on an actual event – the hijacking of a flight and the freeing of hostages (Operation Entebbe) at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976, directed by Menahem Golan and starring Klaus Kinski, Yehoram Gaon, and Sybil Danning was released in Israel today.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt embarked on a massive diplomatic effort to explain why it had broken off peace talks with Israel. 1978(18thof Shevat, 5738): Seventy-nine year old Viennese actor Oscar Holmoka who, among other things was nominated for an Oscar for his role in “I Remember Mama” which was a reprise of the same part he played in the Broadway version of the play.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A02E1DE1E3EE632A2575AC2A9679C946990D6CF1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Jerusalem Municipality had begun the installation of a sewerage network at the Anatot Refugee Camp, despite UNRWA's objections that this would violate the camp's protected status as a "refugee camp of implicitly temporary nature." UNRWA had previously objected to the installation of such a network, despite the 1970 cholera outbreak. (This should provide a slightly different slant on the "refugee problem" and how these poor souls are being exploited.)1982: In an example of “The Bible on Broadway,” "Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat" opened at the Royale in New York City for the first of what would be a total of 747 performances. 1982(3rdof Shevat, 5742): Seventy-nine year old Alexander Abusch who joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1918 and survived the Nazi years by living in Mexico and returned to serve as the Minister of Culture of East Germany passed away today1986(17thof Shevat, 5746): Eighty-one year old American artist Edward Biberman passed away.http://www.lacma.org/art/installation/edward-biberman1988: After having been finally granted an exit permit, “refusenik” Alexander Lerner, “his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter” emigrated to Israel today.1989: “Parents,” a “black comedy horror film directed by Bob Balaban” was released today in the United States.1991: In the midst of Iraqi attacks on Israel 74 year old Alexander Goldberg, a retired aeronautical engineer from Hempstead, Long Island, will join more than 100 other Americans, both Jews and Christians, for a flight tonight to Israel, where they will be put to work at army bases, hospitals and collective settlements, or kibbutzim. Some will pick fruit or help maintain army tanks; others will work in a factory that makes protective gear for chemical warfare. In the midst of Iraqi attacks on Israel1992: Singer Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yemenite Dance Troupe appear in concerted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.1993: During the Intifada, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian terrorist.1994(15th of Shevat, 5754): Tu B'Shevat1994(15thof Shevat, 5754(: Eighty-one year Ruben Mattus, the Jewish immigrant who along with his wife Rose created “Haagen-Dazs ice cream” passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/29/obituaries/reuben-mattus-81-the-founder-of-haagen-dazs.html1994: The second season of “Homicide: Life on the Street” produced by Barry Levinson and co-starring Yaphet Kotto and Richard Belzer came to an end this evening.1995: U.S. premiere of “Miami Rhapsody” written and directed by David Frankel with a cast that included Sarah Jessica Parker, Paul Mazursky, Jeremy Piven and Ben Stein.1996(6thof Shevat, 5756): Eighty-six year old Israel Eldad the native of Galicia who became a leading member of the Irgun and winner of the Bialik Prize passed away.1996: Germany observed its 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day1997(19thof Shevat, 5757): Ninety-six year old Saginaw, Michigan born composer Gerald Marks best known the hit “All of Me” passed away today in New York.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-gerald-marks-1278362.htmlhttps://www.allmusic.com/artist/gerald-marks-mn00006531991997: FOX broadcast the final episode of “Ned and Stacey” a sitcom starring Debra Messing.1997: It was revealed today that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by the Nazis.1999: Moshe Arens begins serving as Defense Minister.1999: An e-mail sent today that “ultimately reached White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal” detailed “a Dartmouth College Jewish studies professor’s defense of” charges that President Clinton had committed adultery because “According to classical Jewish law, President Clinton did not commit adultery; adultery is defined as a married man having intercourse with a married woman, and Monica Lewinsky is single,” (As reported by Lazar Berman)2000: An off-Broadway revival of “The Time of the Cuckoo” by Arthur Laruents opened at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater today.2001: “Manic” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was released today at the Sundance Film Festival.2001: Survivors of Auschwitz have gone on a poignant march past the gas chambers which claimed their fellow prisoners as Europe marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Today, Shabbat, 700 people, including camp survivors and local Jewish leaders, walked from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp's Gate of Death to its giant memorial wall, past the remains of the gas chambers and the crematoria. The Nazis killed 1.5 million people in Auschwitz, the highest number at any camp, before hastily retreating from an advancing Soviet army which liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, regarded as the world's largest Jewish burial ground, now houses a museum and is little changed from the day Red Army troops freed its last inmates. Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek told the participants in a letter that they were the "guardians of this tragic heritage of mankind." Ceremonies from London to Lithuania marked the 56th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp's liberation. Britain and Italy held their first-ever Holocaust memorial days, while survivors, spiritual leaders and politicians across the continent pledged to remember a grim historical lesson about the consequences of intolerance. "Not everyone who survived has the strength to share," said Auschwitz survivor Hedi Fried, speaking at a forum in Stockholm, Sweden. "We who can have an extra obligation. We owe it to our murdered parents, the 6 million Jews, 500,000 Gypsies and countless homosexuals, Russians and Poles who died." Britain observed its first national Holocaust Memorial Day with ceremonies across the country and a London service that also honours victims of other 20th-century genocides. The guest list for the memorial at Westminster Central Hall in London included Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster and Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. The ceremony included tributes to survivors of violence in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda. In Germany, where a sharp rise this year in violent attacks on minorities gave the annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism added resonance, Parliament president Wolfgang Thierse issued a warning about the dangers of neo-Nazism. Germans must show "commitment to democracy and against raging right-wing extremism," he told Deutschland Radio. "This isn't about remembrance without consequences."Six million Jews and five million others, including communists, homosexuals, gypsies and the mentally retarded, perished under the Nazi regime. Italy also marked Holocaust Memorial Day for the first time, with a ceremony in Milan organised by Italian unions and a moment of silence during evening soccer games. Padua, in northern Italy, was honoring Giorgio Perlasca, a butcher credited with saving more than 5,000 Italian Jews by pretending to be a Spanish diplomat. Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi acknowledged Italy's blame in the Holocaust, calling Benito Mussolini's racial laws a betrayal of the country's founding principles. "But numerous Italians knew how to further the demands of their conscience against the violence of the dictator," he said. About 7,000 Jews were deported from Italy during the Holocaust, and 5,910 of them died. Lithuanian Jews gathered in Vilnius to mark the anniversary, and in Sweden, Prime Minister Goeran Persson was attending a ceremony at a Stockholm synagogue. The Jewish Museum planned a lecture, music and a reading from Anne Frank's diary. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was to give the keynote speech in Sweden on Monday at an international conference on ethnic and religious intolerance. 2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Responseby Bernard Lewis and Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness by Alan Rabinowitz.2002: In Great Britain, a Holocaust event, organized by the Holocaust Education Trust, takes place in Bridgewater Hall. Extracts of the event will be broadcast by the Granada group of television companies during the week following the event. The second UK Holocaust Memorial Day takes place in Manchester involving the participation of survivors from the Holocaust and victims of contemporary racism and prejudice, young people and a range of community representatives.2002(14thof Shevat, 5762): Ninety-five year old Nettie Konigsberg, the widow of Martin Konigsberg and mother of Allan Stewart Konigsberg better known as Woody Allen passed away today.2002(14thof Shevat, 5762: Eighty-one year old Pinhas Tokalti was murdered and more than a hundred were injured today when a female terrorist “worked for he Palestinian Red Crescent in Ramallah” “detonated a 22 pound explosive device at the entrance to a “shoe store located on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem2003: In the United Kingdom the main Holocaust Memorial Day event took place in Edinburgh with a theme of “Children and the Holocaust.2003: Polls published today affirmed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel is likely to retain his post in elections on Tuesday, and then to face the complex challenge of assembling a durable coalition from a fragmented Parliament. 2004: An event establishing January 27 as memory day for Greek Jews and Holocaust victims was held at the Athens Concert Hall's convention center today, under the auspices of the foreign ministry. 2004:Israel honored 9 Greeks for their efforts to save Jews during WWII. Today, Israel’s ambassador to Athens presented that country’s influential “Righteous Among the Nations” award to nine Greek nationals who saved persecuted Jewish compatriots during the Nazi occupation of Greece (1941-44). Ambassador Ram Aviram presented the awards the same day as the recently enacted Greek Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan. 27), with a relevant event held at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) as well. According to a press release by the Israeli embassy in Athens, the “Righteous among the Nations” awards are given by “Yad Vashem”, an institute created by the Israeli state to perpetuate the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust. They are bestowed to individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Second World War. More than 200 Greek citizens have been honored by the Yad Vashem Institute, including the late Archbishop of Greece during the occupation, Damaskinos, the Greek chief of police at the time, Angelos Evert, the Metropolitans of Zakynthos and Dimitrias at the time, Chrysostomos and Loakeim, respectively, the one-time mayor of Zakynthos, Loukas Karrer, and many other unsung Greek heroes of World War II. This year’s awardees are Dimos and Theodora Vevelekos, Michalis and Eleni Mavridis, Smaragda Sarafianou, Ioannis and Tasia Spentzos as well as Ilias and Angeliki Kazantzis. The president of the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities, Moses Konstantinis, also participated at the ceremony.2004, Modena Municipality, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, the Istituto Storico di Modena and the Jewish Community of Modena and Reggio Emilia organized a Study Convention in memory of Angelo Donati and an exhibition with photos2005: The Fourteenth Annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end.2005: Arno Lustiger, the historian who documented “Jewish resistance under Nazi rule” and Wolf Bierman whose father was a member of the resistance who was murdered because he was Jewish spoke before the German Bundestag. 2005: At a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the former Foreign Minister of Poland Władysław Bartoszewski delivered a speech in which he paid honor to Jan Karski when he said, "The Polish resistance movement kept informing and alerting the free world to the situation. In the last quarter of 1942, thanks to the Polish emissary Jan Karski and his mission, and also by other means, the Governments of the United Kingdom and of the United States were well informed about what was going on in Auschwitz.” (While his comments about Karski are true, there are those who would say he provided a distorted picture of the Polish Resistance movement’s treatment of the Jews.)2005: Holocaust Memorial Day in Great Britain. Holocaust Memorial Day is a national event in the United Kingdom dedicated to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. It was first held in January 2001, and has been hold on 27 January every year since. The chosen date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945. This year’s major event took place in London with a theme of “Survivors, Liberation and Rebuilding Lives.2006: The following column in the Jerusalem Post explains the importance of the First annual "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Last November the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as an annual "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust." With 104 co-sponsors, including Israel, the historic UN resolution selected that date as it is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. During the 1950s the Knesset debated which date to establish as Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Chief Rabbinate had already designated the 10th of Tevet - an existing fast day marking the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem that culminated in the destruction of the Temple - as the date of "General Kaddish" for Holocaust survivors who did not know the date of death of their fallen family members. The ultra-Orthodox rabbinate suggested adding - as had been done to signify the destruction of Jewish communities by marauding Crusaders - additional piyyutim (liturgical poems) relating to the Holocaust to the lamentations recited on Tisha B'Av itself, the solemn fast day commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temples. While incorporating the Holocaust within existing fast days marking national calamities reflected the traditional view that the Holocaust was yet another chapter in a long story of Jewish suffering through the ages, others argued that the Holocaust needed to be commemorated on its own.After long debate, the Knesset established the 27th day of Nisan as "Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevura," literally "Holocaust and Heroism Day." The date marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which in fact began on the 15th day of Nisan (April 19, 1943). Since the actual beginning of the uprising coincided with Pessah, the Knesset, as a compromise, chose a date that falls a week after the end of Pessah and a week before Yom Hazikaron, our Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, and Independence Day - but within the span of the nearly month-long uprising. As a further compromise, the legislation provided that if the 27th day of Nisan impinged upon Shabbat (i.e. fell on a Friday or a Saturday), the commemoration would be moved to the following Sunday. In effect, both sides of the debate in Israel in the 1950s wanted to place the Holocaust within an established context, either the traditional suffering of the Jew or the heroic Zionist model of the "new" Jew. Neither wanted to face the enormity and senselessness of the tragedy, especially in the first decade after World War II.In its infancy, Israel could not bear the image of Jews as victims being "led like sheep to the slaughter" and, accordingly, latched on to the heroic (if doomed) resisters in the Warsaw Ghetto as the proper "Israeli" model on which to base Holocaust remembrance. Moreover, the placement of Holocaust Memorial Day as a prelude to Independence Day conveyed the "Israel-centric" message that the Holocaust was a stepping stone in the founding of the State of Israel, the proverbial "darkness before the light" of national redemption. But this focus on the perceived heroic aspects of the Holocaust to fit our tough (but vulnerable) sabra self-image, together with the implicit message that the Holocaust's true significance lies in its happy ending - Israel's establishment - has had unfortunate repercussions. Sadly, most Israelis don't mark Yom Hashoah in any meaningful way. For its part, the ultra-Orthodox community has always opposed, on halachic grounds, the imposition of a day of mourning during the joyous month of Nisan, which commemorates the birth of the Jewish nation and its exodus from bondage in Egypt. Sandwiched between Pessah and, to most Israelis, the more significant Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel's Wars and Independence Day, Holocaust Memorial Day has traditionally not been given the undivided attention it deserves. The Holocaust deserves to be viewed honestly and in depth as a unique historic event. Adopting January 27 as Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day would: signify Israel's appreciation of the unusual step taken by the UN; ensure that the worldwide Holocaust Memorial Day will not be a passing fad since Israel's annual ceremonies can serve as the focus of global attention and as a model for other national commemorative events;· indicate that Israel has "grown up" since the 1950s to appreciate that Jewish victimhood in the Holocaust is not something shameful that must be obscured in the celebration of Jewish heroism;· unite the Jews in Israel, both observant and secular, to commemorate, discuss and ponder in an unhurried and thoughtful manner the manifold aspects of a tragedy that does not easily fit into any previous category of Jewish or world history. The UN has finally acknowledged the global historical significance of the Holocaust. Israel should support this development for its own good as well as that of the world. 2006: In Poland, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day observances a 1940’s tram marked with the Star of David - like the ones that used to travel through the ghetto - is seen again on the streets of Warsaw. It is empty, with nobody getting on or off. It will be empty. Nobody will get on or off. 2006:Rick Recht takes Cedar Rapids by storm as he leads the Jewish Community in a celebration of “Shabbat Alive.”2006(27thof Tevet, 5766): Ninety year old solicitor Lord Mischson, the Brixton Rabbi Arnold Mishcon passed away todayhttps://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/30/guardianobituaries.mainsectionhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509163/Lord-Mishcon.html2006: “Author Howard Jacobson described his new novel Kalooki Nights as ‘the most Jewish novel that has ever been written by anybody, anywhere.’”http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1730_howard_jacobson_talk.htm2006: “The New World” a historic drama filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and edited by Saar Klein was released today in the United Kingdom.2007: “Dirty Girl,” a play based on the experiences of Ronnie Koenig, the former editor in chief of Playgirl Magazine, finished its initial run in New York City.2007: In the UK, the main National Holocaust Memorial Day event is hosted at Newcastle with a theme of “The Dignity of Difference.”2008: In “The Capa Cache,” published todayRandy Kennedy describes the fate of “the suitcase — actually three flimsy cardboard valises — that contained thousands of negatives of pictures that the Hungarian born Jew Robert Capa, one of the pioneers of modern war photography, took during the Spanish Civil War before he fled Europe for America in 1939, leaving behind the contents of his Paris darkroom. Capa assumed that the work had been lost during the Nazi invasion.” The negatives were in fact “hidden for more than half a century until last month… they made what will most likely be their final trip, to the International Center of Photography in Midtown Manhattan, founded by Robert Capa’s brother, Cornell.” 2008: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Alfred Kazin: A Biographyby Richard Cook2008: International Holocaust Memorial Day – light a light, kindle a candle – Holocaust Memorial Trust website http://www.hmd.org.uk/2009: In Manhattan’s East Village, third part of a four part series“The Comedy and Kabbalah of Relationships”featuring Rabbi YY Jacobson2009:As part of Holocaust Remembrance Day, The Centro Primo Levi, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian academic institutions in NY under the auspices of the United Nations present Giorno della Memoria (Day of Memory) including a reading the names of the Jews deported from Italy and the Italian territories on Park Avenue at 68th Street in front of the Consulate General of Italy and a discussion of the Fascist Racial Laws and the socio-political conditions, the indifference, and collaborationism that allowed their promulgation in 1938.2009: In his new book We Must Rise From Its Ashes, Avraham Burg advocates commemorating the Holocaust three times during the year. “By observing it on January 27, the international day of Holocaust remembrance, Israelis would never lose sight of the fact that the Shoah was a crime against humanity, not just against the Jews, and that preventing further genocide is the business of the entire world. Commemorating it May 9, the day on which the former Soviet republics — and Israel’s immigrants from those countries — mark the victory over Nazi Germany, would symbolically embrace the many immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish under Jewish law. Finally, celebrating it on the Ninth of Av would express the Jewish particularity of the genocide, while incorporating the Shoah into that day’s remembrance of the destruction of the Temples would place it within the historical continuum of Jewish suffering rather than consider it wholly unprecedented.2009: The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said today that it planned to conduct a detailed review of Brandeis University’s surprise decision to sell off the entire holdings of its Rose Art Museum, one of the most important collections of postwar art in New England. The decision to close the 48-year-old museum in Waltham, Mass., and disperse the collection as a way to shore up the university’s struggling finances was denounced by the museum’s board, its director and a wide range of art experts, who warned that the university was cannibalizing its cultural heritage to pay its bills 2010: Sara Hurwitz was given the title of “rabbah,” (sometimes spelled “rabba”) the feminine form of rabbihttp://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/27/2010/sara-hurwitz2010: Dorit “Beinisch was moderately hurt when a 52-year-old man named Pinchas Cohen hurled his sneaker at her during a hearing on medical marijuana, hitting her between the eyes, breaking her glasses and knocking her off her chair.”2010:The recently discovered 29 blueprints depicting the layout of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in chilling detail, with gas chambers, crematoria, delousing facilities and watch towers drawn to scale are scheduled to go on display in Jerusalem today.2010:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to be at Auschwitz to take part in a ceremony marking the 65th liberation of the death camp by the Soviet Red Army.2010: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet at Temple Judah where attendees will discuss Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. De Rosnay's novel is set against a backdrop of the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, and then transported to Auschwitz. 2010: International Holocaust Memorial Day.2010:Bundled tightly against the cold and snow, elderly Auschwitz survivors walked among the barracks and watchtowers of Auschwitz and Birkenau on today, many clad in scarves bearing the gray and blue stripes of their Nazi prison garments decades ago2010(12 Shevat, 5770):J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died today at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.2010 (12 Shevat, 5770):Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history, died today in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.2011: The Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival is scheduled to open tonight “with three episodes from Season 2 of Srugim, the very popular Israeli television series about the lives and loves of five young Jewish singles living in the hip Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem, as they navigate the frequently contradictory worlds of contemporary Israeli romance and traditional observance.”2011: ASF is scheduled to present “Behind the Scenes: An Intimate Video Visit to Morocco”which is part of the year-long series, "2,000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco: An Epic Journey", presented Under the High Patronage of His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, and made possible through the generous support of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation.2011: A program entitled The Holocaust and Justice: How Do You Prosecute Unprecedented Crimes is scheduled to be held at the University of Iowa Law School. The program will included a screening of the film “Night and Fog” followed by a discussion by UI Law Professor Mark Osiel2011: International Holocaust Memorial Dayhttp://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=2055412011: In Italy, observance of Giorno della Memoria (Day of Memory)2011: Holocaust Memorial Day (UK)2011:The memory of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II was honored around the world today, the day which marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. German President Christian Wulff paid his respects on a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the biggest Nazi concentration camp, where about a million Jews were murdered during the war, accompanied by World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder and his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski. "On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish community and the survivors of the Shoah welcome the fact that President Wulff - who has only been in office for a few months and has already been to Israel - is visibly giving the issue of the Holocaust remembrance such a high political priority,” Lauder declared ahead of the ceremonies in Auschwitz and Birkenau2011: “Copenhagen”a (high) drama with considerable comedy concerning the two Nobel physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and Bohr's wife Margrethe, opened tonight at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The play features performances by Steve and Barbara Feller, pillars of the Temple Judah community.2011:Four hundred rabbis will submit a letter today, demanding Fox News sanction host Glenn Beck for his repeated airing of Nazi and Holocaust imagery, and for putting on his show attacks on WWII survivor George Soros, Reuters reported. 2011:In excerpts of Ehud Olmert’s new memoirs that were published today, the former Jewish leaders says that he and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, were very close to a peace deal two years ago, but Mr. Abbas’s hesitation killed the deal. According to Olmert, at their last meeting, Abbas “said that he could not decide and that he needed more time.” (As reported by Ethan Bronner)2011(22ndof Shevat, 5771): Ninety-year old Joseph Lefkowoitz a native of Patterson, NJ, a World War II veteran who had retired from the Social Security Administration passed away today in Crossville, TN.2012: “With a French Flavor” featuring the wind and string Ensembles from the Buchmann Mehta Music School at Tel Aviv University is scheduled to begin at noon in the Ein Kerem Music Center. 2012: Jack Lew completed his service as Director of the OMB began serving as the 25thWhite House Chief of Staff2012: Today, "I Honor Wall" - Online virtual event on Yad Vashem's Facebook page, invites people to honor the Righteous Among the Nations. When particpants agree to attend the online event, their names and Facebook profile pictures will be automatically connected to the name and story of a Righteous Among the Nations.http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Anti-Semitism+and+the+Holocaust/Documents+and+communiques/Posters_International_Holocaust_Remembrance_Day-Jan_2012.htm2012: International Holocaust Memorial Day2012: Today, Malcolm “Glazer and his family hired long-time Rutgers University head coach Greg Schiano” making him the ninth head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2012:Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical" military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons2012:Israeli officials and academic experts think that Iran’s threats of retaliation to a possible strike against it are a bluff, the New York Times reported today2012: Today, authorities leveled additional charges against a teenager accused in the fire-bombings of two New Jersey synagogues, saying he had plotted a similar attack on a Jewish community center and had conducted Internet searches for building Molotov cocktails and instructions on blowing up buildings.Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said investigators found multiple Molotov cocktails this week in a wooded area near the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, and they traced the evidence to a foiled attack they said suspect Anthony Graziano was planning for January 7. Graziano, 19, was charged today with aggravated arson, bias intimidation and other charges for the planned attack on the Paramus Jewish community center. 2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Insurgents: David Patraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War by Fred Kaplan and the recently released paperback edition of Shalom Auslander’s first novel, Hope: A Tragedy2013(16thof Shevat, 5773): Eighty-seven year old Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and historian Stanley Karnow passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/arts/television/stanley-karnow-historian-and-journalist-dies-at-87.html2013: “The Jews of Algeria,” an exhibition that retraces the history of the Algerian Jews since Antiquity, is scheduled to come to a close at the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to sponsor “Superman at 75: Celebrating America’s Most Enduring Hero” who was the creation of Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel.2013:In Recognition of the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance, the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present “I’m Not Leaving: The Power of Presence, Our Most Valuable Weapon.” 2013: Rabbi Sidney Kleiman of Congregation Adereth El in Murray Hill turned 100http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/legendary-rabbi-turns-100-article-1.12490222013: The World Zionist Organization’s Department for Activities in Israel & Countering Anti-Semitism is scheduled to mark the International Day for Countering Anti-Semitism (International Day for Commemorating the Holocaust) with a special conference on countering Anti-Semitism which will take place at the Mediatheque Theater in Holon.2013: International Holocaust Remembrance Dayhttp://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/ihrd/comment_post.php2013: In the UK, observance of Brent Holocaust Memorial Day.http://www.brent.gov.uk/arts.nsf/Festivals/LBB-212013:The IDF confirmed the deployment of Iron Dome missile defense batteries in the North today, amid an escalation in the Syrian civil war and concerns over Syria’s sizeable chemical weapons falling into radical Islamic hands.2013: Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage from Italy's political left today with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany's lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects been a good leader.2014: While she celebrates the arrival of her grandchild, the friends and family of Debbie Rosenbloom including her husband David Levin celebrate the natal day of the Director of Programs for Jewish Woman International2014: As it has every year since 2006, the United Nations is scheduled to remember the Holocaust that affected many people of Jewish origin during World War II on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.2014: As part of the 2014 observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust” is promoting “The Path to Nazi Genocide” a film “using rare footage that examines the Nazi’s rise and consolidation of power in Germany and explores their ideology, propaganda and persecution of the Jews.2014: “Documents from the Nuremberg Trials recently found in a flea market in Israel are to go on display at the Chabad Jewish Educational Center in Berlin as part of events marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel)http://www.timesofisrael.com/berlin-chabad-to-display-newly-discovered-nuremberg-trials-evidence/2014: “The largest ever delegation of Knesset members will convene overseas, on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau, together with Holocaust survivors, for a historic gathering on combating anti-Semitism and preservation of death camps.2014: As a way to observe International Holocaust Memorial Day, the Reform Movement recommends visiting The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to “Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust,”2014: “Hackers attacked Israeli computers, including one used by the Defense Ministry department dealing with civilians in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli data protection expert said today.”2014: “The UN commemorated the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, with honorees such as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg speaking before the United Nations assembly.” (As reported by Yitzhak Benhorin)2015(7thof Shevat, 5775): Journalist Maurice David Landau who had been the managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and editor-in-chief of Haaretz passed away today.http://forward.com/news/israel/213602/david-landau-provocative-israeli-editor-dies-at-67/2015: As record snow covers her east coast stomping grounds, Debbie Rosenbloom’s friends and family (including her husband David Levin) send her the warmest of best birthday wishes.2015: “Voices of Auschwitz” is scheduled to air on CNNhttp://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/01/08/cnns-wolf-blitzer-to-host-voices-of-auschwitz-jan-27-at-9pm-et/2015: The Czech Republic observes Memorial Day for the Victims of the Holocaust and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity2015: German observes Memorial Day for the Victims of National Socialism2015: In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to show “Liberation and Return Life” a film that “shows liberation and its immediate aftermath through the eyes of the American soldiers who first entered Nazi concentration camps in the spring of 1945, and amateur footage that shows the rebuilding of the personal, political, and religious lives of Holocaust survivors in displaced persons’ camps."http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/liberation-of-auschwitz 2016: In an example of de ja vu all over again, friends and family (including her husband David Levin) gather to settle the birthday of Debbie Rosenbloom as the east coast digs out from a record snow fall.2016: Professor Michael Wildt is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Antisemitism, 'Volksgemeinschaft' and Violence: Inclusion and Exclusion in Nazi Germany” at the Institute of Historical Research in London.2016: In a Radio 4 program on scheduled to be broadcast cast today BBC journalist Gavin Esler will tell the “story of Albert Goering — the brother of Nazi minister and air force chief Hermann Goering — who is said to have saved hundreds of Jews and political dissidents during World War II.”http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-israeli-honor-eludes-goerings-brother-who-heroically-saved-jews/2016: At the Israeli Embassy in Washington, President Obama echoed the words of the late Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds who told his German captors that “We are all Jews here” when they sought to murder his Jewish comrades when he spoke at ceremonies making Robbie “the first American service member to be named Righteous Among the Nations.”https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/middleeast/obama-honor-americans-effort-to-save-jews-the-holocaust.html?_r=12016: The Tel Aviv Cinematheque is scheduled to host screening of “Into the North,” “a Czech-Israeli co-production” sponsored by the Czech and Danish ambassadors to Israel as part of the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.http://www.go2films.com/Family-Social-issues/Into-the-Northhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/chance-discovery-gives-new-life-to-little-known-tale-of-shoah-salvation/2016: In a quirk of the calendar International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on the 100thanniversary of Jewish Relief Day – an event where the people of the United States under the leadership of the President raised funds to provide funds to ameliorate the suffering of the Jews of Europe and Palestine. (Editor’s Note – the irony is that some of the Jews saved by this generosity would perish in the Holocaust.)2017: While others mark the anniversary of the liberation at Auschwitz, the friends and family of Debbie Rosenbloom including her husband David Levin are preparing to celebrate a double portion of nachas – Shabbat and her birthday.2017: Observance of Holocaust Memorial Day which coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviets. For Jews there is a certain irony in the decision to use this date because what the Soviets actually “liberated” were the ashes of a people that the world had turned its back on. 2017: In a moment of irony Bruhilde Pomsel, “the personal stenographer of Goebbels” and survivor Hitler’s bunker passed away on International Holocaust Memorial Day.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/europe/brunhilde-pomsel-dies-obituary-goebbels.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2017: In London, “Denial” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at JW3.2017: As part of Interfaith Week, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to open its Friday night dinner to anybody “who wants to come and experience JSoc.”2017: “And the Waters Subsided,” an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the Arno Flood featuring Jewish books and Judaica objects is scheduled to come to an at the National Library of Florence, Italy.2017: Observance of Holocaust Memorial Day which coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviets. For Jews there is a certain irony in the decision to use this date because what the Soviets actually “liberated” were the ashes of a people that the world had turned its back on.http://hmd.org.uk/page/why-mark-27-january-holocaust-memorial-day2017: While Holocaust International Holocaust Remembrance Day is being observed right wing anti-Semitism in on the rise in Poland and Germany while left wing anti-Semitism is on the rise from London, England to Knoxville, TN.http://www.timesofisrael.com/diaspora-ministry-reports-surge-in-anti-semitism-links-it-to-far-right/2018(11thof Shevat, 5778): “Shabbat Shirah”; 2018: In addition to hearing the Song of the Sea, Debbie Rosenbloom will hear the song “Happy Birthday To You” as offered by her friends and family including most importantly, her husband, David Levin. 2018: “The Testament,” directed by Amicahi Greenberg is scheduled to be shown at the Brooklyn Israel Film Festival today. 2018: Holocaust Memorial Day – The Power of Words 2018: In the UK, Britain’s Channel 4 is scheduled to show “Holocaust: Revenge Plot,” a “documentary featuring long-lost tapes describing how a Jewish group sought to exact revenge for the murder of 6 million.” 2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingInheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Loveby Dani Shapiro and the recently released paperback editions of Eternal Lifeby Dara Horn and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progressby Steven Pinker 2019: International Holocaust Remembrance Day is scheduled to be observed at a number of venues and locations including Auschwitz. (Editor’s note – The date was chosen because in 1945 it was the date on which Auschwitz was liberated. Surely somebody written about the fact that January 27, 1945 was Shabbat and the Torah portion included the description of the drowning of Pharaoh’s chariots in the Red Sea, marking the final act of the Exodus from Egypt) 2019: While much of the rest of the country is caught in an Artic deep freeze, in Washington, DC it is warm and sunny not just because of the fifty degree temperature but because it is the birthday of Debbie Rosenbloom, the wife of David Levin, our most faithful reader. 2019: Patrice Bensimon who has served as Research Director for Yahad-In Unum, a French association founded by Father Patrick Desbois “who has interviewed close to 2,000 eyewitnesses” is scheduled to update” those attending the Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the Illinois Holocaust Museum “on Father Desbois' Holocaust-related work, and describe Yahad-In Unum's efforts to raise awareness of this piece of Holocaust history and to fight against genocide.” 2019: In Arlington, VA, Noam Vinokur is scheduled to lecture on “Jewish History: The Last 175 Years Part 2” which “will cover the first half of the 20th century” including the rise of Zionism and the Jewish-Socialist Bund Movement at Etz Chayim Congregation. 2019: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst are each scheduled to host a screening of “Who Will Write Our History?”
↧
January 27, 2019, 7:01 pm
January 28 814: Charlemagne passed away. The grandson of Charles Martel was one of the greatest European rulers during the Dark Ages. There was nothing Dark about his treatment of the Jews. For the most part, he ignored canon law and the wishes of the Pope and treated the Jews of his realm rather decently. 1077: As a result of an event called the “Walk to Canossa,” Pope Gregory VII lifted he excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. This was part of the struggle between the Church and the temporal rulers as to who would be the final voice of authority in Europe. Jews could not have taken comfort in this apparent success of Gregory over Henry. Gregory was hostile to Jewish interest. This can be seen in his letter to King Alfonso forbidding Jews to hold public office or to “have power over Christians.” Furthermore, he ordered the King to have the Jews pay special “Jew Taxes” throughout his kingdom. Henry was protective of his Jewish subjects. He issued charters to the Jews of Speyer and Worms allowing them to trade in these cities and to practice their religion according to their laws and practices. Furthermore, during the Crusades, he defied Christian doctrine and the Pope, by supporting the right of Jews who had been forced to convert “to disregard their baptism and return to Judaism.”1167(4927):Poet and philosopher Abraham Ibn Ezra, hero of the golden age of Spain, passed away. There is some disagreement about when this sage actually passed away. Some say he passed away in 1164. Others say that he passed away on January 23. Although specificity as to the date of his death may not be possible, there is no doubt about his greatness. This brief blog cannot do him justice so here are two sites where you can at least gain a nodding acquaintance with the life and work of this sage.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/IbnEzra.html http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=11&letter=I1225: Birthdate of Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic Saint who expressed his views on Jews in a “Letter on the Treatment of Jews” written in 1271.http://thomistica.net/letter-to-margaret-of-flanders/http://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/268-aquinasFor more, see Aquinas and the Jews by John Y.B. Hood and Thomas Aquinas on the Jews Steven C. Boguslawski1467: Consecration of Giovanni Battista Cybo who as Pope Innocent VIII passed away when his Jewish doctor’s last ditch attempt to save his life by providing him with a transfusion of human blood failed.1547: King Henry VIII of England passed away. When seeking to divorce his first wife and marry Anne Boleyn, Henry sought to make use of Biblical law in his fight with Rome. He thought that Rabbis, learned in the matter, might be of some help. Since Jews were not supposed to be living in England, Henry was forced to seek out Rabbis living in Italy. While the Rabbis offered some help, they were loathe to give too much assistance to a monarch in faraway England lest they offend and anger the Pope who could make miserable for the Jews of Italy. 1573: Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland. The primary beneficiaries of the document were competing Christian groups – Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox. Jews continued to enjoy the benefits of The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz that had been promulgated at the end of the 13th century.1594(5354): Seventy-nine year old Elia Levita who was “also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Eliahu Bakhur ("Eliahu the Bachelor") and “was a Renaissance-period Hebrew grammarian, poet and one of the first writers in the Yiddish language” passed away today in Venice. He was the author of the Bovo-Bukhthe most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish, which, according to Sol Liptzin, is ‘generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old Yiddish.’”1600: Birthdate of Giulio Rospigliose who as Pope Clemente IX modified the custom of having the Jews run through the streets of Rome as part of the carnival festivities by allowing them to pay heavy fines to avoid the race. This ended two hundred years of humiliation that had been introduced by Pope Paul II in the 15th century. 1668: Pope Clement IX canceled the humiliating forced races known as the Palio. During the Plaio near naked Jews were forced to run through the streets of Rome during carnival time. In return for the revocation the Jews of Rome had to pay a special cancellation tax of 200 ducats. This tax was paid for almost 200 years.1717: Birthdate of Mustafa III. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire continued to decline as a world power and became less accepting of non-Moslems. Mustafa personally helped to enforce the decrees regarding clothing that could be worn by his subjects. “In 1758, he was walking incognito in Istanbul and ordered the beheading of a Jew and an Armenian seen dressed in forbidden attire.”1721: A fire broke out in the Judengasse at Frankfort which destroyed over a hundred homes. Christian looters took advantage of the situation and it took the intervention of Emperor Charles VI for the Jews to be compensated for their losses. The fire gave Jews a chance to legally live outside of the Ghetto for 8 years. By 1729, they had all been forced back into their narrow confines.1780: One day after she had passed way, Rebecca Leib was buried today in the “Hoxton Old Jewish burial Ground.” 1788: In Smyrna, which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire, Rabbi and kabbalist Jacob Pallache “and Kali Kaden Hazan” gave birth to Haim Palachi, the author of works in Hebrew and Ladino and the Chief Rabbi of Smyrna who married Esther Palacci with whom he had three sons all of whom were Rabbis – Abraham Palacci, Isaac Palacci and Joseph Palacci.1789: Lieutenant Colonel David Salisbury Franks, one of the highest ranking Jewish officers to serve in the American Army during the revolution was granted four hundred acres in recognition of his military service. Franks was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of Revolutionary war veterans. 1790: The French National Assembly granted full and equal citizenship to the Portuguese and Avignonese Jews. The Jews of Alsace would have to wait until 1791 to be granted these same rights. France was the first European country to pass such liberal legislation.1790: When Joseph II revoked the decrees protecting the Jews, “the citizens of Pesth, Hungary, took measures to expel the Jews because they were business competitors.1793: Lord George Gordon, the English nobleman who converted to Judaism and took the name Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon was returned to his prison cell today because would not accept his character witnesses at the hearing where he should have been freed because they were Jewish.1796: In Lorraine, France, Mayer Lippmann and Madeleine Lippmann gave birth to Isaïe Lippmann, the “husband of Esther Julie Lippmann.”1800 (2nd of Shevat, 5560): Chasidic Master Rabbi Meshulam Zusha of Anipoli passed away. While there is much to say about this sage, most know him because of the following story or one of its variants. “Reb Zusha was on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One student asked his Rebbe, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham." Reb Zusha answered, "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?'”1803: In Frankfurt am Main Caroline Stern and Freiherr Salomon Mayer von Rothschild gave birth to Anselm Salomon von Rothschild the founder of the Viennese bank Creditanstalt. 1809: Birthdate of Theodor Benfey, “the son of a Jewish trader from Nörten in Lower Saxony who chose a career as a philologist over being a doctor.1810: Birthdate of Aron Mendes Chumaceiro, the native of Amsterdam who became Ḥakam of Curaçao, Dutch West Indies and who was the father of four prominent sons -- Abraham Mendes Chumaceiro: Attorney at law; Cantor Benjamin Mendes Chumaceiro; Dayyan Jacob Mendes Chumaceiro and Rabbi Joseph Chayyim Mendes Chumaceiro.1814(7th of Shevat, 5574): Rabbi Dovid of Lelov passed away. He was the first Grand Rabbi of the Lelover Dynasty. The Lelovers moved from Poland to Jerusalem in the late 1840’s or early 1850’s.1842: Today The Jewish Chronical “carried the letter from Sir Moses Montefiore, President of the Board of Deputies, to the wardens of all the London synagogues conveying the resolutions of a meeting of the Board, synagogue wardens and the Chief Rabbi” that “ordered the reading of the cherem promulgated by the Chief Rabbi…”1848: In New York, Benvenida Solis and Leon Ritterband gave birth their sixth child, Moses Maness Ritterband. 1849: Isaac Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag on the abolition of capital punishment.1851: Emma and Philip Salomons gave birth to Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons, who gained fame as an author, scientist and barrister. 1851: Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in the state of Illinois. For our family, the two most famous graduates of Northwestern are Dr. Jacob Levin of blessed memory who earned his masters and Ph.d. from the Evanston institution and Betty Levin. http://www.jewishstudies.northwestern.edu/1853: Birthdate of Vladimir Solovyov the Russian theologian and philosopher who “profoundly disagreed with the views of novelist Dostoevsky about the Jews” because he did not “see Judaism…as the antithesis of Christianity but as a force that could help reconcile the peoples of Eastern Europe and revitalize Christianity”1856: Birthdate of Russian painter Isaac Lvovich Asknazi whose works included “The Poet Jehuda Halevi,” “Sabbath Eve,” “The Bridegroom Examined by the Rabbi” and “Bad News,” “a picture of Jewish life.”1860: Fifty-year old Joseph Addison Alexander the Princeton University Professor a Hebraist whose works including The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah (1846), The Later Prophecies of Isaiah (1847), and The Psalms Translated and Explained passed away today.1860: The community of Kingston, Jamaica, “which is composed chiefly of Jews” have been making contributions for the relief of their suffering brethren of Morocco. They have managed to collect large sums in spite of the prevailing poverty. 1860: “Relief of the Jews in Austria” published today reported that “from Austria, amid the echoes of Hungarian dissatisfaction, and Tyrolese boldness, come the reports of promised reform. It is stated as a certain fact that in a few days the Emperor will issue a decree, relieving the Jews from many disabilities under which they now lie. The law which forbade a Jew to have a Christian servant is already repealed; and the emancipated Israelite can now rejoice in the possession of a cook who hasn't a conscientious objection to getting up and making a fire, of a Saturday morning. The expected decree will abolish the old law, by which no one of the three witnesses required for a Christian's will could be a Jew -- a blind provision, which has been the source of more trouble to Christians than Jews. Then the rule, still on the statute-books in Austria, that a Jew's evidence in a civil case against a Christian should be considered as "doubtful," will be done away; as also the present prohibition, which prevents any but a Christian from filling the office of Notary. This last provision is no older than 1855. Before that year Jews were allowed to be Notaries, and it is said that there is a Jewish Notary in Prague, who was appointed under the old law, and holds his office still. It is proper that the Government should concede these rights to an oppressed class; but one cannot but notice how, through these reforms, it hopes to escape more pressing and important demands from its subjects. Hungary demands her constitutional rights, and the Emperor grants a couple of reforms to Venice. Tyrol desires her ancient and guaranteed privileges, and he emancipates the Jews at Prague! No matter -- the day is coming.”1862: In New York, Herman S. Bachman and Fanny S. Obermeyer gave birth to Hannah Bachman who married William Einstein and became Hannah Bachman Einstein an activist for child welfare in both Jewish and secular settings. Einstein “was raised in New York City's Temple Emanu-El, a German Reform congregation. As an adult, she remained active in the Temple, and in 1897, she became president of the sisterhood, a position she held for twenty-five years. One of Einstein's activities as sisterhood president was visiting the homes of recent immigrants. She soon became convinced that the private relief provided by the Temple would never be sufficient to alleviate the problems of this group. Only government action, she decided, could address the myriad social problems that immigrants and other impoverished people faced. Joining with other activists, Einstein lobbied the New York State legislature for widowed mothers' pensions, which would enable widowed women to care for their children without working outside the home. In 1913, she was appointed chair of the state committee to investigate the issue. Her committee wrote what became the Child Welfare Law of 1915, which became the national model. By 1920, nearly all the states had passed similar legislation. In the wake of her committee's success, Einstein became president of the New York State Association of Child Welfare Boards, served as the first woman on the board of the United Hebrew Charities, and helped found the National Union of Public Child Welfare Officers. Einstein died in New York City in 1929.1865(1stof Shevat, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1865: Birthdate of Emma Eckstein, the native of Vienna who was a patient of Sigmund Freud and who became the first female psychoanalyst. http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2015/11/dr-fliess-patient.html1867(22ndof Shevat, 5627): Seventy year old Philip Salomons, the eldest son of Levi Salomons passed away today. A resident of Brighton, he married Emma Montefiore, the daughter of Jacob Montefiore, one of the leaders of the Sydney Jewish community.1867: Birthdate of Reggio Emilia native Angelo Modena, the decorated Italian officer rose from the rank of second lieutenant of the Alpine troops in 1887 to the rank of general in 1927 after having served as a Colonel during WW I.1871: Leo Frankel was among those serving as a member of the National Guard when Paris surrendered to the Prussians today….. This marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War. From the point of view of history, this was the first of a three act play. The second act was World War I and the third act was World War II, including the Holocaust. 1872: Four days after he had passed away, Abraham Crawcour, the son of “Isaac Crawcour and his wife Simha” and the husband of Charlotte Florance Levy and then Catherine Rebecca Hart was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1873: Lewis J. Cohen and Henry Lehman, the Jewish proprietors of a store on Chatham Street, were sentenced to a month in the Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary after having been convicted of verbally abusing a visitor to their shop named Robert J. Quinlan. 1873: B’nai B’rith held its annual meeting at Masonic Hall in Manhattan tonight. According to the treasurer’s report, the society has $58, 961.76 in assets. Founded 14 years ago, the society has 6,096 members.1874: Rabbi S.M. Isaacs officiated at the wedding of Jacob Schnizter and Cordelia Menken, the daughter of the late Solomon Menken. 1874: In Chicago, Illinois, The B’nai B’rith adjourned the third day of its national convention at 7 o’clock this evening.1874: In Chicago, Illinois, delegates to the national B’nai B’rith convention attended a banquet at the Sherman House.1875: Gratz Nathan, a prominent 30 year old New York lawyer who had served as the Assistant Corporation Attorney, attempted to commit suicide in his office tonight. Nathan gained a certain kind of unwanted notoriety when his uncle, Judge Cardozo, was impeached.1876: In Cincinnati, OH, Solomon and Caroline Fox gave birth to Jessie Fox who became Jessie Mack when she married San Francisco born jurist Julian William Mack,1876: Birthdate of Irving Lehman, New York lawyer and jurist.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00617FC3B55177A93C1AB1782D85F418485F91877: The New York Times featured a review of John Peter Lange’s “Commentary of the Holy Scriptures” which focuses on the period of Persian rule when the exiles returned from Babylonia. The commentaries are tied to the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.1878: The annual convention of the District Grand Lodge No.1 of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rit came to a close today after a second day of meetings. The delegates will attend a banquet at Nilsson Hall this evening to mark the end of the event.1880(15thof Shevat, 5640): Tu B’Shevat1880: Birthdate of Herbert Max Finlay Freudnlich, the German chemist who served the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from 1919 until his forced retirement in 1933. His father was Jewish. His mother was not. He passed away in 1941 in Minneapolis, MN.1881: Birthdate of Berlin born theatre critic and author Siegfried Jacobsohn.1884(1stof Shevat, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1886: In Cincinnati, Ohio, “Louis and Hattie Goodhart Falk gave birth Harry Louis Falk, the husband of “Miriam Martha Danziger.”1887: In Lodoz, Polish city which at that time was part of the Russian empire “Felicja Blima Fajga (née Heiman) and Izaak Rubinstein,” the owner of a textile factory gave birth to pianist Arthur Rubinstein.https://www.allmusic.com/artist/arthur-rubinstein-mn0000681511/biographyhttp://movies2.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0128.html1888(15thof Shevat, 5648): Tu B’Shevat1888: Birthdate of mathematician and recipient of the Royal Society’s Sylvester Medal Louis Joel Mordell, the native of Philadelphia who became a naturalized British citizen after completing his studies at Cambridge.1889: In Cincinnati, Ohio, “William S. and Rose Lowenstein” gave birth to Robert S. Marx, the captain of the University of Cincinnati Football team, the school where he earned his law degree who served as a Captain in 357th Regiment of the AEF, was general counsel for Schenley Distillers, a Superior Court Judge and the co-founder and first commander of the Disabled American Veterans.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/07/99869403.pdfhttps://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ucinlr29&div=23&id=&page1890: Rabbi Mendes of Shearith Israel officiated at the wedding of Corinna Friedman, the daughter of Colonel Max Friedman to Leo Strassburger, the son of the former Mayor of Montgomery, Alabama.1890: Rabbi Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the wedding of Belle Strouse, the daughter of Abraham Stouse and Hugo H. Hahlo which took place this evening at Delmonico’s.1890: Several hundred thousand dollars in deposits, including $180,000 belong to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company will be withdrawn from the Albany County Bank today in response to the Board of Directors decision to choose a local lumber deal over Davis S. Mann as Cashier of the bank. Mann has worked for the bank and his supporters attribute his rejection to the fact that he is Jewish.1890: It was reported today that David Saltzman, a Jew who converted to Christianity, refused to A.A. Miller’s demand that he leave his daughter’s wedding. The enraged father responded by beating him with his fists and his cane.1891: In New Jersey, the trial of Joseph Kline, the President of a Jewish cemetery society, who is charged with larceny and obtaining money under false pretenses entered into its second day.1891: Birthdate of Barney Sedransky, the basketball player who shortened his name to Barney Sedran and was nicknamed “Mighty Mite.”https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sedran.html1892: Three days after he had passed away, 81 year old Samson Wertheimer, the Bavarian born husband of Helena Cohen and father of Charles and Asher Wertheimer was buried at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.” 1893: Birthdate of Abba Hillel Silver, the native of Lithuania, who became a leading Reform Rabbi, Zionist and champion of the rights of the American working man. 1894: In “Chrzanów, Małopolskie, Poland,” Hyman and Fannie Gerstner gave birth to Harold Solomon Gerstner, the first husband of Sarah Blumberg Parnes whom he pre-deceased. 1894: The annual meeting of District Lodge No.1 of B’nai B’rith was scheduled to end today. 1894: It was reported today that the new officers for B’nai Brith are: President – Samuel D. Sewards; First Vice President – Joshua Kantrowitz; Second Vice President – Bernard Metzgar; Treasurer – Solomon Sulzberger. 1894: A musical competition designed to raise money for charities including the United Hebrew Society that will include John Phillips Sousa’s band will take place today at the Madison Square Garden. 1896 “Bernhardt as Marguerite” published today described Sarah Bernhardt’s performance in “La Dame Aux Camelias” as “a veritable triumph….Bernhardt has rarely given a more careful or more inspired portrayal in this great role.” 1896: Three days after she had passed away, Florence Caroline Cantor, the daughter of Simeon and Alice Cantor was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery. 1896: “New Theatrical Bills” published today described the successful performance of “A Woman’s Reason” produced by Charles Frohman which is now appearing at the Empire Theatre in New York. 1897: It was reported today that Mindel Brown, acting on behalf of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Corps, has presented a set of colors to the Hebrew Union Veteran Association. 1897: It was reported today that the newly elected officers of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society are President – Morris Goodhartz; Vice President – Maurice A. Herts; Treasurer – Isaac K. Cohn; 1897: “Oldest Benefit Society” published today provides a brief history of the early Jewish community in New York and the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society which was organized in 1826 when there approximately 300 Jewish families living in the city most of whom “lived below Canal Street and east of the Bowery.” 1897 The closing session of the Fifth Annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society to place today in Baltimore, MD. 1897: Using information that first appeared in The Hebrew Journal, “Too Much Reform” published today described what is seen as a retreat from “the work of iconoclasm” by the reformers and turn towards “preaching and teaching what they consider good and praiseworthy in rabbinical Judaism.” 1897: Two days after she had passed away, fifty-eight year old Pauline Hirschfeld, the daughter of Simon Ausch and Rachel Ausch and wife of Dr. Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld with whom she had four children was laid to rest today in Vienna. 1898: Two day after he had passed away, 58 year old Joseph Symons was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.” 1899: As of today, the entire 6th Virginia Volunteer Infantry had been mustered out of U.S. Service including Matthew N. Levy, Jr. of Norfolk who had been mustered into U.S. Service on August 8, 1898. 1899: Private Ehrenberg, a bandsman with the 2nd Louisiana Volunteer Infantry from New Orleans was discharged today. 1899: Governor Theodore Roosevelt addressed today’s meeting of the University Settlement Society today. During his speech TR said that “there is nothing better than the way in which the Jew and Gentile…are striving together to accomplish just such things as this society set out to accomplish.” Roosevelt’s positive view of Jews stands in stark contrast with the European experience (anti-Semitic riots in France and the anti-Jewish policies of the Czar) and are all the more significant since within the next couple of years he would be Vice President and then President of the U.S. 1899: It was reported today that in his recently published Story of France, Thomas Watson includes a description of the Christian massacre of the Jews in response to “the frightful ravages of the bubonic plague in 1348.” 1899: It was reported today that Monsieur Guerin, the President of the Ant-Semite League led a mob that entered the Place Dauphine at the back of the Palace of Justice where the libel trial brought by Mme. Henry was being heard. The mob roared with shouts of “Death to the Jews!” After being dispersed by the police the mob re-formed on the Place du Chatelet where it howled “Spit on the Jews!” (All of this stemmed from the attempts to reverse the conviction of Dreyfus) 1899: A proposal was made today in the Chamber of Deputies “to have the Dreyfus Cased heard by a Supreme Court of Appeals, with all three chambers sitting jointly.” 1901: Count Ioseif (Joseph) Gurko, who while serving as the military commander of the region around Warsaw in the 1890’s sought permission to expel the Jews from the western zones of Poland, passed away. 1902: Herzl authorized Leopold Kessler’s leadership of the expedition to El Arish where he and others including Dr. Selig Soskin an agricultural expert, Dr. Hillel Joffee and Colonel Albert Goldsmid would consider the possibility of this area of the Sinai Peninsula as a possible site for Jewish colonization 1903: Herzl appoints Leopold Kessler as leader of the commission "for the exploration of the feasibility of settling in the northern half of the Sinai Peninsula. 1904(11thof Shevat, 5664): Fifty-five year old Austrian novelist Karl Emil Franzos, passed away today. 1905: Birthdate of Barnett Newmann, an American artist who is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters 1906: The protest letter drawn up at conferenced held by the New York University Law School Russian Relief Association which is to be sent to President Roosevelt published today read, “We the undersigned students of law of the New York University, feeling that it is our just privilege and sacred duty to do so, do appeal to and petition you, as the protector of our country, to use your good offices to bring about a cessation of Russia’s policy of prescription and persecution against her defenseless Jewish subjects.” 1906: A full report of the speeches exchanged between the Czar and a deputation of the reactionary League of Russian Men…published today” quoted one speaker as saying “the league’s watchword was orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality” which that “Jews, even converts were rigorously excluded” from the league. 1912: A description of President Taft’s appearance as guest of honor at The Daughter of Jacobs Ball was published today. The President was greeted by a throng of between 12,000 and 15,000 who had come together to raise funds for the Infirmary of the Daughters of Jacob on East Broadway. In his speech, Taft praised the Jewish people for “their perfect system of charitable institutions to look after their poor and infirm.” The President left the ball as the band played Boola-Boola. 1912: Birthdate of comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey 1913: In Chicago, “the K.A.M. Auxiliary” is scheduled to “observe ‘photography studio day’ this afternoon at the William Koehne Studio under the leadership of Mrs. Samuel Flitz. 1914(1st of Shevat, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Shevat 1915: Jacob Schiff of New York wrote a letter to Max Warburg today in which he mentioned Bernhard Dernburg, the liberal German politician and banker whose father Friedrich Dernburg had become a Lutheran and who had married Luise Stahl, the daughter of a Lutheran minsters and Bernhard’s motherl 1915: In New York, Florence Worms married Abraham Sachs. 1915: “The Reverend C.B. Ragsdale testified today that he signed a false affidavit in which he swore he overheard the negro “Jim” Conley confess to killing Mary Phagan; that after signing this affidavit $200 was paid to hum through Arthur Thurman and C.C. Tedder and that a voice over the telephone, ‘like the voice’ of Dan S. Lehon promised him $10,000 more ‘if the thing went through.’” 1915: An act of Congress merged the Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service creating 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."1915: The total contributions received by the American Jewish Relief Committee as of today totaled $412,658.66.1916: President Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court. Brandeis was the first Jewish member of the court. Although there was opposition to a Jewish justice in some quarters, Brandeis was followed by two more distinguished Jewish Supremes - Benjamin Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. Brandeis was an active member of the American Jewish Community. He was an early an ardent Zionist. Unfortunately he did not live to see the creation of the modern state of Israel.1916: Workers using adding and coin counting machines under the direction Treasurer Harry Fischel, Albert Lucas, Mrs. Samuel Elkeles and Mrs. Harry Kraft are busy tabulating the contributions that were received yesterday, Jewish Relief Day, include $200,000 from San Francisco, $65,000 from Cincinnati and $10,000 from Richmond, VA.1916: A check was received in the mail today at the headquarters for Jewish Relief Day for $100 from Douglas Robinson, the brother-in-law of Former President Teddy Roosevelt.1916: During the trial of a Jews in Galicia, the Polish Assistant Public Prosecutor alleged “that the Jewish religion teaches that revenge on non-Jews is justified” which will lead the Zionist organiations protesting to the government against this libel and demanding a inquiry into the matter.1917: Among the gifts acknowledged by the American Jewish Relief Committee were $10,000 from the Chicago Committee and $1,000 each from committees in Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, Indiana, Des Moines, Iowa and Corsicana, TX. (Editor’s note: the list of Committees outside of the Northeastern United States should serve as a reminder that there were thriving Jewish communities in a wide variety of locations.)1917: James Malcom, an Armenian businessman and advocate for an independent Armenian state, introduced Chaim Weitzman to Sir Mark Sykes. Sykes was a protégé of Lord Kichner and a dominant, if not the dominant, force in forming British policy in the Middle East. Weitzman was seeking Sykes’ support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine after World War I1917: Dr. Schmarya Levin is scheduled to “address the Harlem Forum in the Wadleigh High School” this morning.1917: The Commissioner of Foods and Markets is scheduled to “speak at the Evening Forum of the Free Synagogue” this evening.1917(5thof Shevat, 5677): Rabbi Avraham Eliezer Alperstein the native of Belarus who was of the teachers at REITS and was one of the founders of Agudath Harabbonim passed away today in New York.http://www.crcweb.org/rabbis/Alperstein%20Avraham%20Eliezer%201853-1917.pdf1918(15th of Shevat, 5678):Tu B'Shvat1918(15thof Shevat, 5678): Seventy-five year old Mrs. Jacob Panken, he mother Jacob Panken, the Socialist-pacifist Judge of the Municipal Court, passed away suddenly tonight after suffering a heart attack which was thought to have been “brought on by the excitement” stemming from upcoming appearance before a draft board in the Bronx where she was going to plead for a military exemption for her 25 year old son Novie.1918 In Jerusalem, the cornerstone is laid for Hebrew University.1918: In the United Kingdom, a special conference of the labor movement is scheduled to consider a special memorandum recommending “that Jews in all countries enjoy the common elementary rights of tolerance, freedom of residence and trade and equal citizenship and that Palestine be set free from the oppressive government of the Turk and formed into a free State, under international guarantee, to which such of the Jewish people as desire to do so may return.”1918: Leon Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein) became leader of “the Reds.”1919: Beatty v. Guggenheim Exploration Co., a US trusts law case, concerning the test for the imposition of a constructive trust best known for a quote from the leading opinion by Justice Cardozo -“The constructive trust is the formula through which the conscience of equity finds expression. When property has been acquired in such circumstances that the holder of the legal title may not in good conscience retain the beneficial interest, equity converts him into a trustee” was decided today.1920: A mass meeting of Socialists including Louis Waldman is scheduled to take place this evening in Madison Square Garden to show support for those who were suspended from the New York State Assembly.1922: The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan in Glasgow launched the SS Athenia, the first British passenger vessel sunk by a German U-boat in World War II which counted among the survivors was Kalmen Kaplansky.http://www.historyofrights.com/bios/kaplansky.html1923: The First "Reich’s Party" (NSDAP) forms in Munich. These are the Nazis.1924: In the Bronx, Charles Ledner, “a furniture salesman” and “the former Beulah Levy gave birth to Albert Charles Ledner, the WW II veteran and graduate of the Tulane School of Architecture.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/obituaries/albert-ledner-architect-with-a-quirky-sense-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=region®ion=region&WT.nav=region1924: Charley Phil Rosenberg, who had spent part of his childhood in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, suffered a rare defeat on his way to winning the Bantamweight World Championship in 1925.1926(13th of Shevat, 5686): Kaufman Kohler, the German born American leader who was one of the great leaders of Reform Judaism, passed away today in New York at the age of 83.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70913FB395D13738DDDA00A94D9405B868EF1D31928: Birthdate of Hal Prince, American stage producer and director.1929: The British government is reportedly planning on building a road to the Megiddo Excavation which is being funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1930: Today, Albert Einstein sent a letter to Issa El-Issa, the editor of Falastin, “a Palestinian newspaper based in Jaffa founded in 1911” in which he said, in part, “I am convinced that the devotion of the Jewish people to Palestine will benefit all the inhabitants of the country, not only materially, but also culturally and nationally” and “I believe that the Arab renaissance in the vast expanse of territory now occupied by the Arabs stands only to gain from Jewish sympathy.”1932: In Chicago, Jackie Fields won a ten round decision “to regain the world welterweight title he had lost last year.” (As reported by Bob Wechsler).1934 (12th of Shevat, 5694): German Chemist Fritz Haber passed away at the age of 65. Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918. 1934: Morris Margolies and Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein are scheduled to speak at a “symposium on ‘Zionist Policies in Palestine’ at the Jewish Fellowship” today.1934: In St. Louis Joseph and Zelma Bosse Feldman gave birth to Tulane grad Martin Feldman who began serving as a Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2010.1935: Barney Ross won a ten round decision in Miami today “to retain his world junior welterweight title.” (A reported by Bob Wechsler)1936(4thof Shevat, 5696): Thirty year old Richard Loeb, of Leopold and Loeb infamy, was murdered today by fellow convict James E. Day at Stateville Penitentiary after having spent the day with fellow killer and prison pal Nathan Leopold.1936: German mathematician Issai Schur, who had been dismissed from his position because he was Jewish accepted an invitation to lecture in Switzerland.1936: Fearing an outbreak of rioting that authorities in Prsytyk, Poland, “suspended the holding of market days for four weeks” as a result of the anti-Semitic Enek party’s campaign to boycott Jews.1936: A reception was held tonight at Temple Emanu-El by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in honor of Sir Herbert Samuel and Simon Marks where the attendees had pledged “to supply its share of fifteen million dollar fund to be raised throughout the world” as long there are no plans to “aid or facilitate the export of German goods” which some had been pushing as a quid pro quo for improving the conditions for Jews living under the Nazis.1936: As Poland continues in the grip of a wave of anti-Semitism, almost 100 Jews in Truskolaz were beaten today “following rumors that a Jew had committed a sacrilege in a church.1937: In Chicago, “Sam Sotonoff, a machinist, and Jessie Berger, a homemaker” gave birth to Bette Lee Sotonoff who gained fame as author Bette Howland whose works included Blue in Chicagohttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/obituaries/bette-howland-author-and-protege-of-bellows-dies-at-80.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well1937: In an open letter to Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Samuel Margoles, editor of The Jewish Day, Felix Poplawski, president and Thomas Jachimiak, secretary of the New York District of the Guild of Polish Newspapermen in America took the two Jewish leaders to task today for their recent criticisms of Poland’s policy toward her Jewish citizens saying that “they considered it unjust to hold the Polish Government responsible for anti-Jewish acts and sentiment.”1937: “For the first time an Austrian court adopted the Third Reich’s anti-Semitic ‘race’ principles today when Judge Mifka decreed a divorce between two German nationals – a Protestant and a Jewess – both Austrian residents on the husband’s plea that the difference in ‘race’ between a German Protestant and a German Jewess was itself grounds for divorce.”1937: Jewish students attempting to enter Warsaw University grounds today were turned back Fascist pickets and those “who insisted on entering were pushed out and beaten.”1938: Collier’s magazine published “The Fall in America 1937” H.G. Wells’ laudatory article about “I’d Rather Be Right “a musical with a book by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers.1938: In Geneva, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Viscount Cranborne, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs brought pressure to bear on Rumania’s Foreign Minister, Istrate Micescu to improve the condition of the country’s Jews by reminding him of the clauses of the Treaty of 1919 that guaranteed that Jews would be treated as full-fledged citizens.1938: The Palestine Post published a major study on the extent of the 'Octopus of Nazi Propaganda in Syria.' There were two major German propaganda centers in the Middle East: one in Cairo for Egypt, Sudan, Palestine and Transjordan, and the second in Baghdad, for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The Germans proved to be masters in the art of propaganda and anti-Semitic incitement spread by their well-trained agents and maintained a number of exclusive, influential clubs in major cities. Large bribes were handed over for the 'Arab victims of the Jewish aggression in Palestine. 1939(8thof Shevat, 5699): Parashat Bo1939: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Our Synagogue Should Be Today” at Temple Emanu-El.1939: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Jesus ben Sirah” at the Central Synagogue.1939: Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Vision of the Beautiful” this morning at the West End Synagogue.1939: Rabbi Alexander Segel is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Does God Harden Human Hearts?” this morning at the Fort Washington Synagogue.1939: Rabbi Harold H. Mashioff is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “We Have Not constituted Ourselves the Messiahs” this morning at the Temple of the Covenant.1939(8th of Shevat, 5699): Louis Cohen a New York mobster who murdered labor racketeer "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and was an associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was killed today shortly before he was to testify against Buchalter.1939: U.S. premiere of “They Made Me A Criminal” starring John Garfield, with music by Max Steiner and produced by Benjamin Glazer and Hal Wallis1939(8thof Shevat, 5699): Irving Friedman, alias Danny Field, a New York mobster, was murdered shortly before he was to testify against Louis “Lepke” Buchalter as part of deal with D.A. Thomas Dewey.1941: Edward L. Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the “fathers of modern public relations,” writes a letter to the New York Times opposing a proposal by Dr. Harwood L. Childs of Princeton University that the U.S. should create a national propaganda ministry. 1941: “Quiet City” a “composition for trumpet, cor anglais, and string orchestra by Aaron Copland” which had its root in “the incidental music” for Irwin Shaw’s “Quiet City” which premiered in 1939, “was premiered” today by “the Saidenberger Little Symphony in New York City.1942: 1942, Gussie Schwebel appeared on the front page of the Forverts the day after she had delivered “three dozen knishes” to Eleanor Roosevelt ‘at her house, 49 East 65th Street.”1942: In a sign of its increasingly closer ties with the Allies, Brazil severed diplomatic relations with all three Axis powers – a move that would eventually lead to a declaration of war that in turn would result in Lt. Col. Waldemar Levy Cardoza commanding a battalion of Brazilian artillery in the Italian campaign.1943(22ndof Shevat, 5703): Sixty-six year old Vincennes, Indiana native and Vincennes University graduate Jacob Gimbel who in 1910 “financed an expedition which explored rivers of British Guiana and studied the life habits of the symnotide, cell-like fish” passed away today in Santa Monica, CA.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/30/87410740.pdf1943: Over the next 3 days, ten thousand Jews from Pruzhany, Belorussia, are deported to Auschwitz.1944: Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah" premiered in Pittsburg.1945: The weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board, states that the United States would permanently close its War Refugee office in Turkey. The outgoing representative stated, "Inadequate sources of information and communication channels render impossible the orderly organization or direction from Turkey of any rescue activities...."1945: The USS Everglades, a destroyer tender, on which Paul L. Krinsky, the future superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, served as navigator when he went on active duty with the U.S Navy, was launched today.1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. began its second week of meetings today in London.1947: Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel gave birth to Dr. Peter Gabel the associate editor of Tikkun.1948: Birthdate of Shimon Ullman the Jerusalem born professor of computer science and co-founder of Orbotech1948: Birthdate of Laurence Moody, the Cambridge graduate who became an English television director. 1949: Israel was recognized (diplomatically) by Australia, Belgium, Chile, Great Britain, Holland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. 1949: “Admiral Broadway Revue” “an American live television variety show” created and directed by Max Liebman who wrote for the show along with Mel Brooks and Mel Tolkin and starring Sid Caesar was broadcast for the first stime1950: Birthdate of Barbara Klein who gain fame as Barbi Benton, friend of Hugh Hefner, Playboy Bunny and regular on the television country comedy hit, “Hee Haw.”1950 (10th of Shevat, 5710): On the secular calendar the date on which Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn or Friyerdikker Rebbe ("Previous Rebbe" in Yiddish) or Rayatz) passed away. There is no way that this blog can do justice to his life of accomplishments.http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/425/jewish/The-Rebbe-Rayatz.htmhttp://www.whoislog.info/profile/joseph-isaac-schneersohn.html1952(1st of Shevat, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1952: Birthdate of writer and director Richard Glatzer. (As reported by Ashley Southall)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/movies/richard-glatzer-co-director-of-still-alice-dies-at-63.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=11953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Soviet-controlled Hungarian regime was deporting Jews to work camps in a Soviet-inspired anti-Semitic campaign, resembling that of the Nazi era. In a similar manner Czechoslovakia started purging Jewish doctors in order 'to prevent the threat of a repetition of the murder of Soviet leaders.' The Knesset approved vastly increased customs duties on a series of commodities, including the food parcels sent to Israelis by their relatives from abroad. This increase was expected to cover at least a part of the budget deficit, which stood at IL 5.6 million, as claimed by the government, or IL 25m. as claimed by the opposition 1958:Dore Schary's "Sunrise at Campobello" premieres in New York City.1958(7thof Shevat, 5718): Seventy-year old author Elma Ehrlich Levinger passed away today.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levinger-elma-erlich1959: Sixty-two year old Johannes Kleiman, “one of the Dutch citizens who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Nethrlands” passed away today in Amsterdam.1959 (19th of Shevat, 5719): Joseph Sprinzak,Speaker of Israel Knesset from 1949 until 1959, passed away. A dedicated Labor Zionist Sprinzak was one of the unsung founders of the early Zionist movement who dedicated their lives to creation of the Jewish homeland.1960(28thof Tevet, 5720): Eighty-eight year old Orientalist Lionel David Barnett, the son of Baron Barnett and Adelaide Barnett and husband of Blanche Esther Barnett with whom he had two children passed away today.https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/93E11399C980BEE964D977602A5660FC/S0041977X00151286a.pdf/div-class-title-lionel-david-barnett-div.pdf1962: David Morgenstern, prominent Hebrew scholar and president of the Herzliah Hebrew Teachers Training Institute, was honored tonight at a dinner in the Pierre Hotel in recognition of his 25 years of “dedicated service to the furtherance of Hebrew education.” (JTA)1964(14thof Shevat, 5724): Sixty-four year old Kiev trained cantor and Zionist who lived in the United States before settling in Israel in 1954 where he continued his literary career passed away today.http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2015/08/leyb-glants-leib-glantz.html1965: Three days after the death of Winston Churchill, “Halina Neuman, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, wrote to The New York Times” expressing her feelings about Britain’s war time leader. To Neuman, for those trapped in the darkness of Nazi Europe, Churchill’s speeches and the sound of his voice were a light, a beacon of hope and proof “that the world was not coming to an end.”1967(17thof Shevat, 5727): Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, the native of Tiberias who was the only Sabra to sign the Israeli declaration of independence and who has served as the Minister of Police since 1948 passed away today.1967(17thof Shevat, 5727): Forty-five year old virologist Alick Issacs passed way today1967: The dedication of the nave windows created by Marc Chagall which were described as “the most successful and beautiful exhibition of his genius in this country” took place today at “Union Church, in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Pocantico Hills.”http://forward.com/culture/353658/rediscovering-marc-chagalls-least-known-american-windows/1968: Following yesterday’s Shabbat services, the new chapel at Shaar Hasomayim was formally dedicated today.1968: Ya’acov Ra’anan, commander of the INS Dakar, had wanted to enter his home port today but was told to stick to the original schedule and dock the boat on January 29 as planned. 1969: In the ever shifting sands of Israeli party politics, the Labor Party and Mapam created a political alliance called the Alignment.1970: “The Molly Maguires” directed by Martin Ritt who co-produced the film with the scriptwriter Walater Bernstein was released today in the United States.1972: Clifford Irving and his wife Edith confessed that the “biography of Howard Hughes” was a fraud.1976(26thof Shevat, 5736): Seventy-one year old Shreveport native and Harvard School trained attorney, Joseph Harrison, the former lecturer at Rutgers University Law School and Republican political leader who served as a “judge of the Essex County Court” and who married “former Francis Boehm Ginsberg” after the death of his first wife “the former Amy Harvey” passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/01/30/75570470.pdf1977: “Cross of Iron” a WW II movie set on the Eastern Front with a screenplay by Julius Epstein was released in Germany today.1983(14thof Shevat, 5743): Forty-eight year old Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan passed away today.http://bible.ort.org/books/help.asp?action=displaytext&type=1&id=21984: A month-long show featuring 43 painting by expressionist Chaim Soutine is scheduled to come to an end at the Galleri Bellman in New York City.1986 (18th of Shevat, 5746): The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members: flight commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; Gregory B. Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. “Among the seven crewmembers killed was Judith Resnik, the first American Jewish astronaut in space. Resnik joined the space program in 1978 after graduating from Carnegie-Mellon with a B.S. in electrical engineering and the University of Maryland with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Prior to the 1986 Challenger tragedy, Resnik served as the mission specialist on Discovery's maiden voyage in 1984, logging 144 hours 57 minutes in space. Resnik was the second American woman in space (after Sally Ride) and the fourth worldwide. Before joining the space program, Resnik worked in the radar division of RCA, as a biomedical engineer in neurophysics at the National Institute of Health, and finally for the Xerox corporation. She was accepted into the NASA program, along with five other women, in 1978. An Akron, Ohio, native, Resnik was a classical pianist and a gourmet cook, and also enjoyed running and bicycling. She was active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the IEEE Committee on Professional Opportunities for Women, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of University Women.” 1979(29thof Tevet, 5739): Two were killed and thirty-four more were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in a Netanya market.1983(14thof Shevat, 5743): Forty-eight year old year old New York native Aryeh Kaplan, the physics researchers who changed his life when he became “a practicing rabbi” in 1965 passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/02/obituaries/rabbi-aryeh-kaplan-48-dies-wrote-books-on-jewish-topics.html1986(18thof Shevat, 5746): Ninety-year old Yetta A. Wirtschafter Salzman, the daughter of Frank and Rose Klein Wirtschafter and the wife of Samuel Salzman passed away today after which she was buried in the Glenville Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.1987: Valerian Trifa, the Iron Guard leader who later served as archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in America and Canada died today. Trifa was exposed and brought to justice thanks to the efforts of Zev Gola 1988: The BBC broadcast the final episode of “Yes Minster” a satirical political sitcom co-created and written by Jonathan Lynn.1991: Iraq fired another missile with a conventional warhead at Tel Aviv tonight, the seventh attack in 12 days. But this time the army said the Scud was defective and disintegrated as it fell back to earth. No one was hurt, and there was no property damage. The missile had fallen apart even before any Patriot air-defense missiles could be fired at it. 1992: As part of “Israel: The Next Generation,” a performance is given of “‘Jabar’s Head,a cabaret show presented in Arabic, Hebrew, and English by the Beit Hagefen Theatre” 1992(23rd of Shevat, 5752): Eighty-six year old Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad who led the team that found the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/14/world/nahman-avigad-an-archeologist-and-biblical-scholar-dies-at-86.html1992: In New York, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham gave birth to actress and poet Grace Dunham.1993: At New York’s Plaza Hotel, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, which operates two sports rehabilitation and social centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa and is building a facility in Jerusalem, receive the 10th annual Defender of Jerusalem Awards from the Jabotinsky Foundation. 1993(6thof Shevat, 5753): Fifty-two year old Hannah Wilke an American painter, sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist passed away today in New York.http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/arts/art-view-an-artist-s-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold.html1996 (7th of Shevat, 5756): Jerry Siegel noted cartoonist and creator of Superman passed away at the age of 81. Whether it is highbrow (see next entry) or lowbrow, there always seems to be a Jew somewhere creating American Culture. 1996(7th of Shevat, 5756): Joseph Brodsky passes away at the age of 55. Born in Russia in 1940, the famed poet would survive persecution in his native and exile to the United States to win the 1987 Nobel Prize for Literature and become Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991.1996: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” closed at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre after 116 performances.2000: “The Three Faces of Eva” published today described the challenge Eva Moskowitz, a member of the City Council is having to do with a check from “her mother Anne, who fled Europe during the Holocaust.”http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/the-three-faces-of-eva/2000: “Isn’t She Great” a biopic directed by Andrew Bergman, “with a screenplay by Paul Rudnick based on a 1995 New Yorker profile by Michael Korda” starring Bette Midler, with music by Burt Bacharach was released today in the United States.2000(21stof Shevat, 5760): Seventy-seven year old London born actress Joy Shelton who converted to Judaism after she married actor Sydney Tafler passed away today in Richmond upon Thames.2001: In Chicago, “Roman Vishniac: Children of a Vanished World” featuring 50 pictures taken by the photographer “during the years 1935 through 1938” in which he “turned his camera lens on Jewish life in Eastern Europe, in the hope of focusing worldwide attention on its declining condition at the brink of destruction” opened at the Spertus Museum.2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Newest Place in the World by Suzanne Ruta, Rethinking the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer and the Jewish Confederates by Robert N. Rosen.2002(15th of Shevat, 5762) Tu B'Shevat2002(15thof Shevat, 5762): Today Mark Sokolow, who escaped without injury from the second tower of the World Trade Center during the attack on September 11, was walking with his family in the scarred central shopping district here when a Palestinian bomber set off an explosion that resounded throughout Jerusalem, killing herself and an 81-year-old man and wounding 113, most of them slightly. ''I was a lot luckier last time,'' Mr. Sokolow, a 43-year-old lawyer from Woodmere, N.Y., said as he recovered in a hospital here from shrapnel wounds to his face and leg. ''This one involved my whole family.'' After a frantic search for his wife and two of his daughters, he learned at the hospital that most of their wounds were also slight, though one girl, Jamie, 12, had shrapnel in her right eye. She was likely to retain her sight, doctors said. The blast scattered burning body parts across Jaffa Road and sent a cloud of swirling dust and circling pigeons into the air, witnesses said. The attack was steps from where a Palestinian gunman raked the area with semiautomatic gunfire last week, killing two and wounding 20 before being shot dead by the police. If the bomber in the attack today intended to die, she would be the first female suicide bomber to strike in Israel since such attacks began here in 1994, the police said. 2003: Ariel Sharon emerges victorious in Israeli elections today which included the defeat of Amram Mitzna, the leader of the Labor Party. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his rightist party, Likud, crushed Israel's Labor Party in parliamentary elections, as voters vented their doubts about any prompt, secure end to the bitter conflict with the Palestinians. 2004: Soviet dissident Alexander Podrabinek was summoned by the FSB to come for interrogation today, but refused to answer the questions2004: In northern Greece, in the presence of US Ambassador to Athens Thomas Miller, Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel and representatives of the city's political and cultural sectors, the memory day for Greek Jews who lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau was honored by the Jewish community in Thessalonica.2005: “Barenboim Comments Sparks Anger As Controversy at Columbia” published today described the behavior of Argentine-Israeli conductor Barenboim and the environment which some Jewish students have to deal with at Columbia University.http://www.jta.org/2005/01/28/archive/barenboim-comments-spark-anger-as-controversy-at-columbia-builds2006(28th of Tevet, 5766): Kabbalah sage Rabbi Yitzhak Kedouri passed away at the Bikur Holim hospital in Jerusalem. His precise age was unknown, but estimated to be somewhere between 106 and 113 years old. Rabbi Kedouri was born in Iraq at the turn of the 20th century. He began his studies in Jewish mysticism in his youth, before coming to Israel in 1923. Kaduri, known as "the senior Kabbalist," is the last of a generation of Sephardic Jewish mystics. His close circle of friends and family say he was one of the few known living Kabbalist who used "practical Kabbalah," a type of Jewish magic aimed at affecting a change in the world. More rational schools of Judaism are skeptical about Kaduri's powers. Nevertheless, few doubted Kaduri's righteousness and vast knowledge of both conventional and more esoteric Jewish thought and law. For most of his life Kaduri was unknown to the general public. He led a modest life of study and prayer and worked as a bookbinder. During the past decade and a half he served as the head of Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Bukharan quarter.2006: The Hallmark Channel broadcast “Hidden Places” featuring Tom Bosley and co-produced by Larry Levinson.2006: “Nothing Lasts Forever” a comedy produced by Lorne Michaels in 1984 that was not released to the public, co-starring Mort Sahl, Sam Jaffe and Eddie Fisher with music by Howard Shore was screened today at the Eastman House's Dryden Theatre in Rochester, New York.2007: Maccabiah U.S.A. (MUSA) held its annual meeting in Newark, New Jersey.2007: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren. 2007: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for Godby the late Carl Sagan. 2007: Raleb Majadele was appointed Minister without Portfolio making him Israel’s first Muslim cabinet officer. 2007: The Los Angeles Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Little Book of Plagiarism byJudge Richard A. Posner. 2007: The Times of London featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including of Imposture by Benjamin Markovits. 2008:An American adaptation of the Israeli television series “BeTipul” or “In Therapy” entitled In Treatment premiered today on the American cable network HBO 2008: In Seattle, Washington, the final performance of “The Westerbork Serenade.” “The Westerbork Serenade” is a one-person play which tells the true story of Jewish cabaret performers held by the Nazis in the Dutch transit camp of Westerbork. From 1942-1944, some of Berlin's greatest stars performed at Westerbork, thereby delaying their transport to death camps. Most, however, were killed before the end of the war. The play contains period songs, sketches and accounts. “The Westerbork Serenade” is the title of an acerbic love song about camp life written by Dutch singing duo, Johnny and Jones, in 1944, just months before their deportation to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen death camps.2008: U.S. News & World Report features an article entitled “New Taste for Kosher Food” that begins “Not only Jews look for the kosher symbol on food these days. In a surprising turn of events, "kosher" has become the most popular claim on new food products, trouncing "organic" and "no additives or preservatives," according to a recent report. A noteworthy 4,719 new kosher items were launched in the United States last year—nearly double the number of new "all natural" products, which placed second in the report, issued last month by Mintel, a Chicago-based market research firm. In fact, sales of kosher foods have risen an estimated 15 percent a year for the past decade. Yet Jews, whose religious doctrine mandates the observance of kosher dietary laws, make up only 20 percent of those buying kosher products. What gives? "It's the belief among all consumers that kosher food is safer, a critical thing right now with worries about the integrity of the food supply," says Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior analyst at Mintel a Chicago based market research firm.2008: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama saidPalestinian refugees belong in their own state and do not have a "literal" right of return to Israel. "The outlines of any agreement would involve ensuring that Israel remains a Jewish state.” His statements of support for the Israeli position on refugees came on the heels of scurrilous charges that Obama is secretly a Muslim who received a radical Wahabi education. 2008: Israeli officials said today that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks in Paris last week with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf even though their countries have no diplomatic relations. The two men first met by chance in the hotel where Barak was staying and spoke briefly, a spokeswoman from his ministry told AFP. 2008 (21 Shevat, 5768): In Iowa City Dr. Michael Balch, Associate Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Iowa and a longtime member of the Jewish community passed away. Michael earned a BS in Engineering Science from Pratt Institute in 1960 an MS from New York University in 1962 and a PhD in Mathematics from New York University in1965. His areas of expertise were Economic behavior under uncertainty and Theories of deterrence, arms control, and war.2009: Jack Lew began serving as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. 2009:The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a lecture by Yedid Kanfter entitled: “The Lodz Towers of Babel: Industry and Religious Politics in Lodz Before the First World War” in which the Yale University professor explores the link between Lodz and religious infrastructure, between industry and Orthodox politics. 2009: The Jerusalem Conference “the unique annual forum co-sponsored by Arutz Sheva for the discussion of Israel's national priorities, social values, and aspirations” hosts its concluding session. 2009: “Stumbling Stone,” a documentary study of the artist Gunter Demnig and his continuing Holocaust memorial project is shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.2009: James Steinberg began serving as the 16th United States Deputy Secretary of State.2009: “Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh” opens today in Manhattan. 2009:Israel's chief rabbinate severed ties with the Vatican today to protest a papal decision to reinstate. Bishop Richard Williamson, who told Swedish TV in an interview broadcast last week that evidence "is hugely against 6 million Jews being deliberately gassed." He said 300,000 Jews were killed at most, "but not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber."2010: In New York City, closing day of "Laba’s Guests" at Laba Gallery, New York 2010: Walter Isaacson is scheduled to discuss and sign his new book, American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane, at Barnes & Noble in Bethesda, Md.2010: Novelist Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season and Wickett's Remedy, is scheduled to “chat” about "The Story Behind the Stories" at the D.C. Jewish Community Center. This event, co-sponsored with George Washington University, is the launch of the JCC's new series, "Authors Out Loud."2010: Elisa New is scheduled to discuss and sign her new memoir, "Jacob's Cane: A Jewish Family's Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of London and Baltimore," at Barnes & Noble in Rockville, Md.2010: “Thunder Out of China” published today examines the importance of work of Theodore White, who was a reporter in China who was a victim of the “Red Scare” long before he gained fame as the author of “The Making of a President” series.https://ucsdmodernchinesehistory.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/112/2010:Israeli drip irrigation giant Netafim opened a new factory in Turkey today despite recent diplomatic tensions between the two countries. 2010(13th of Shevat, 5770)Seymour Bernard Sarason, professor emeritus of psychology at Yale University passed away in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of 91. (As reported by William Grimes)http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08sarason.html2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to host its Shababa Bakery where children of all ages can “squish, roll and braid” their own challah to take home and bake for Shabbat.2011: Ezra Rosenfeld is scheduled to lead a guided tour of “the amazing mountain palace and fortress of Herodion” that many consider King Herod's "Piece de Resistance."2011: Rabbi Edward Feld, the senior editor of the new Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) High Holy Day Mahzor was not able to deliver his lecutre about “Why Words?”—a discussion of how we relate to words in a prayer book at Congregation Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, VA because of a snow storm and power outage.2011:Paraguay joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state. 2011(22ndof Shevat, 5771):Gerry Faier, a longtime gay activist in New York who returned to Jewish practice in her later years, passed away today at 102. http://jwa.org/weremember/faier-gerry2012: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber” is scheduled to be shown at the Brotherhood Film Festival sponsored by Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York and the Virginia Peninsula Jewish Film Festival in Williamsburg, Va. 2012:Rachel Feinstein is scheduled perform on the final night of the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival. 2012: In Iowa City, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Support Mitzvah Day 2012” a fund raiser sponsored by the Tikkun Olam Committee. 2012:Opposition leader and Kadima party head Tzipi Livni called for tougher sanctions against Iran today, saying that it is the responsibility of the entire world to stop Tehran’s quest for the bomb. 2012:Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said today that “Israeli intransigence” was behind the failure of the January Israeli-Palestinian talks in Jordan. 2012(4thof Shevat, 5772): Fifty four year old Steven Leiber, a San Francisco art dealer and collector who became an expert in artists’ ephemera and built an archive that became an important resource for scholars and curators” passed away today. (As reported by Roberta Smith)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/arts/design/steven-leiber-dealer-in-artists-ephemera-dies-at-54.html?_r=02013: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “Laughing All the Way to Freedom” featuring Professor Emil Draitser, author of Taking Penguins to the Movies. 2013: This evening “a suspicious object” was found on the road leading to Erfat, which turned out to be “a fake bomb” that “had been planted on the road.2013: Jerusalem expressed "surprise and astonishment" today at a decision by Iran and Argentina to set up a "truth committee" to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people.2014: “When You Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness,” an exhibition that “documents the experiences of students while visiting the former Nazi concentration camps established in Poland during WW II, is scheduled to open at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library2014: “Yitzhak Bergel, the 47 year-old Jerusalem resident who allegedly spied for Iran on behalf of extreme anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect, was sentenced by the Jerusalem District Court today to 4.5 years in prison.” (As reported by Tova Dvorin)2014: Twenty-three year old Abur Sara and 30 year old Abu Nagma were indicted today on charges that they “were planning a terror attack on Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem and the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.” (As reported by Aris Yashar)2015: Showtime broadcast the last episode of “Web Therapy” starring Lisa Kudrow.2015: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in collaboration with the Institute for Historical Research, supported by the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London are scheduled to present “Remapping Survival: Jewish Refugees and Rescue in Soviet Central Asia, Iran and India.”2015: The United Nations commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day which had been postponed due to predictions of an unprecedented snow storm which had cause the Mayor to “close down” New York is scheduled to take place today.2015: A celebration of the release of “Toyznt tamen: A Thousand Flavors, a new recording by Yiddish singer and songwriter Miryem-Khaye Seigel” is scheduled to take place the Museum at Eldridge Street.2015: A verdict is expected to be rendered today in the case of three defendants who are trial for an arson attack on the Wuppertal Synagogue last July. (As reported by JTA)2016: In Tel Aviv the five day long “360 degrees music festival” is scheduled to come to an end.2016: The 92ndStreet Y is scheduled to host an evening with former CBS News anchor Michelle Gielan, the author of Broadcasting Happiness. January 28, 2017(1st of Shevat, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Shevat; Parashat Va-ayrah; 2017: “Stormy weather washed several dozen explosive fuses up onto beaches in Tel Aviv and Herzliya today, police said warning the public to exercise caution.”2017: An exhibition “WOMEN: New Portraits Annie Leibovit” is scheduled to continue its ten city tour with an opening in Zurich.2017: Russ and Daughter’s is scheduled to host its first “Lox Without the Lines” a pre-paid Shabbat brunch at the Jewish Museum that is both kosher and in keeping with Jewish Sabbatical laws.2017: After years of service to the Jewish Community of Iowa City and the University of Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a farewell Kiddush for Jerry Sorkin.2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the Seudah Shlishit featuring a talk by Chaplain Michael Rosenfeld-Schueler 2018: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “International Ladino Day: A Celebration of Story and Song.”https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/31329322018: Sara Aharaon is scheduled to lecture on The Jews of Afghanistan: History, Culture and Muslim-Jewish Relations at the Hudson Yards Synagogue.2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to co-host a presentation by Murry Sidlin, President and Creative Director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation that provides an overview of about twenty composers who created many works at Terezin, the "model" ghetto/concentration camp established by the Nazis outside of Prague. 2018: The final screening “An Act of Defiance,” the winner of the Dorfman Best Film Award in 2017 is scheduled to take place today at Reel Borehamwood2018: The curtain is scheduled to come down “A Sick Day for Morris McGee” which Yedioth Ahronoth described as “a work full of charm and ingenuity” at the New Victory Theatre.2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff and The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Ageby David N. Schwartz2018: Final day for registering for Tablet’s January Book Giveaway.http://www.tabletmag.com/giveaways/january-2018-book-giveaway?lucky=222302019: The American Sephardi Federation and Associate are scheduled to present the second day of “The Jewish Africa Conference: Past, Present and Future.”2019: The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host “curator Jacob Wisse as he leads a tour of ‘Lost and Found,’ exploring the remarkable story of a pre-war family photo album that was owned by a woman who was deported from the Kovno Ghetto in 1943.”2019: Following yesterday’s approval by Israel’s cabinet of “a law to allow exports of medical cannabis” supporters such as Shai Babad, the director-general of the finance ministry, will have their chance to that “the new law would ‘lead to the development of the economy, agriculture, industry and medicine in Israel.’”2019: “Houston-Tiillotson University in Austin, TX” is schedule to host “a screening of ‘Rosenwald’” today followed by “a panel discussion with Aviva Kempner” and two historians from the school.2019(22ndof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of Rabbi Meanchem Mendel of Kotzk.http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_22.html
↧
January 28, 2019, 7:13 pm
January 29904: Sergius III began his papacy during which Jews first began settling at Mayence, Germany in 906.1258: “The Mongols under Chinese general Guo Kan laid siege to” Baghdad today as part of a successful invasion Persia which led to the abolishment of “the inequality of dhimmis” which meant that all religions, including that of the Jews “were declared equal.”1421(17th of Shevat, 5181):The Jews of Sargossa, Spain were spared from slaughter at the hands of King Alfonso V , thanks to the fact that a handful of synagogues beadles had acted on the advice given to them by the Prophet Elijah in a dream shared by each of them. The resulting salvation on the 17th of Shevat was celebrated by Saragossan Jews, and dubbed "Purim Saragossa." A Hebrew Megillah (scroll) was penned, describing the details of the miraculous story. To this day, this scroll is read in certain communities on Purim Saragossa.1478: “The Washington Haggadah,” the creation of Joel Ben Simeon was completed today. “In addition to the full text of the Passover night liturgy, the Washington Haggadah features stunningly intricate illuminated panels and a series of Passover illustrations that include depictions of "The Four Sons,""The Search for Leaven," and "The Messiah Heralded." The enduring popularity of Joel ben Simeon's miniatures is reflected in the many reproductions of his work that have appeared over the years in anthologies of Jewish art and manuscript painting. In 1991, the Library of Congress published a facsimile edition of the Washington Haggadah, accompanied by a companion volume with a detailed scholarly description, analysis, and assessment of the manuscript.”1482: Pope Sixtus V addresses a “severe letter” to Ferdinand and Isabella censuring the conduct of the Inquisition. “In this letter the pope admitted that he had issued the bull for the institution of the Inquisition without due consideration.”1581: Baptism of Sir Rowland Cotton, the English MP who learned Hebrew from Hugh Broughton.1676(OS): Tsar Alexis I of Russia passed away. “During his reign a considerable number of Jews lived in Moscow and the interior of Russia. In a work of travels, written at that time, but published later, and bearing the title, Reise nach dem Nordenthe author states that, owing to the influence of a certain Stephan von Gaden, the czar's Jewish physician, the number of Jews considerably increased in Moscow. The same information is contained in the work, The Present State of Russia by Samuel Collins, who was also a physician at the court of the czar. 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. Thus, in 1672, the Jewish merchants Samuel Jakovlev and his companions were commissioned at Moscow to go abroad and buy Hungarian wine.” Another edict “instructed a party of Lithuanian Jews to proceed from Kaluga to Nijni-Novgorod, and as a protection they received an escort of twenty sharpshooters.” The Czar’s attitude towards the Jews was a mixed bag as can be seen from his expulsion of “the Jews from the newly acquired Lithuanian and Polish cities” – Mohilev, Wilna, and Kiev. Altogether, taking into consideration the hatred of foreigners among the Russian population of his time, it is evident that Alexis was kindly disposed toward the Jews.”1689: The Convention Parliament adopted a resolution declaring England to be “a Protestant Kingdom” and that only a Protestant could be King. This effectively removed James II from the throne and paved the way for William and Mary to come to the throne. The Jews had already returned to the British Isles, but the Protestant monarchs would prove to be sympathetic to their cause which helped with the peaceful growth of the nascent Anglo-Jewish community.1735: Sixty-eight year old George Granville, the British playwright adapted “The Merchant of Venice” into the “Jew of Venice” in 1701 passed away today.1780: Today, “Jonas Levi, an American Jew who had been capture by the English the previous year and sent back to France” and who had been given a passport by Benjamin Franklin so he could return to America along with “ninety-six livers” appeared before a notary today where he gave a deposition describing how three French soldiers had attacked him at inn at Trappes and stolen his money after which members of the Swiss Guard told him to go to Versailles and pursue his complaint.http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1975_27_01_00_doc_roseman.pdf1790: "The Jews of Paris obtained a certificate, couched in most flattering terms, and testifying to their excellent reputation, from the inhabitants of the district of the Carmelites, where most Jews dwelt at this time.”1791: During the French Revolution, a Jewish delegation dressed in their uniforms as National Guardsmen and bearing certificates of ‘good behavior’ from the Christian citizens of Paris appeared before the Commune seeking support for their demand to be granted full rights as citizens of France. 1794: Ezekiel Hart, one of the early leaders of the Canadian-Jewish community married Frances Lazarus. She was the niece of Frances Noah and her husband Ephraim Hart, a successful New York merchant.1800: “In a joint patent issued today in Vienna, the Habsburg Emperor Franz II appoint Rothschild and Amschel his Imperial Crown Agents.”1061803(6th of Shevat, 5563): Jonas Phillips passed away. Born in Germany in 1736, he was the first of the Phillips family to settle in America. A founder of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, Phillips was the father of twenty-two children and the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.1803: In Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife Caroline gave birth to Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, an Austrian banker and a member of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family.1808: Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Canadian parliament but was prevented from taking his seat because as a Jew he could not take the oath "on the true faith of a Christian." Though reelected in May 1808, and in April 1809, he was again prevented from being seated. Only in 1832 was legislation passed allowing Jews to hold public office and giving them full civil rights. Born in 1767, Hart passed away in 1843.1815(18thof Shevat, 5577): Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of Isaac Henriques Henriques Valentine and Simha Mandil and wife of Solomon da Silva Solis passed away today in London1817(12thof Shevat, 5577): Sixty year old Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables and assistant of the Mayor of Bordeaux passed away in Bordeaux.1817: Israel Helbert married Adeline Cohen at the Hambro Synagogue.1819: Sir Stamford Raffles establishes at a post at Singapore. By 1830, there at least 9 Jewish traders living at the British outpost and by 1840, the Sassoon family with all that that meant for the growth of the colony and the Jewish community.1820: King George III, whose life had been saved by a Jew in 1800 and who had his first conversation with a Jew when he spoke to boxer Daniel Mendoza passed away1830: The date for the congregation charter for Nidce Israel, in Baltimore which became the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. 1832: In St. Petersburg, Maria Ivanovna Maltsova and Captain Pavel Nikolayevich Ignatyev gave birth to Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who was appointed Minister of the Interior by Alexander III who fomented pogroms and who was the driving force behind the issuance of the infamous May Laws.1843: In Niles, Ohio, William and Nancy (née Allison) McKinley gave birth to William McKinley, Jr. who appointed Oscar Straus to serve as United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire.1848: In a speech at the annual Thomas Paine Dinner, suffragist and anti-slavery activist Ernestine Rose declared "superstition keeps women ignorant, dependent, and enslaved beings. Knowledge will make them free."http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/29/1848/ernestine-rose1849: Isaac Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag where he called for the abolition of capital punishment.1849: Birthdate of Odessa native Adolph Zederbaum, the Berlin trained physician who served on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society headquartered in Denver, CO.1851: In Charleston, SC, Leopold Cohen married Elizabeth Cohen, “the eldest daughter of Nathan A. Cohen.’1852: Birthdate of Frederick Hyman Cohen, the native of Kingston Jamaica, who would gain fame as the Composer, Conductor, and Pianist, Sir Fredrick H. Cowen.1856: Birthdate of Elisheba (Bathshebabai) Wargharkar, the wife of Moses Shalom Bapuji Israel Wargharkar with whom she had 11 children.1856: Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross. Frank de Pass was the first Jew to be awarded Britain’s highest award for valor. He earned it for action on the Western Front on November 24, 1917. The award was made posthumously since he was killed the next day.1859 (24th of Shevat, 5619):Passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Born in 1787, he was renowned Chassidic leader, and forerunner of the "Ger" Chassidic dynasty.1860: Birthdate of Russian author Anton Chekhov. Unlike other Russian literary lions, Chekhov fully opposed anti-Semitism. He was a supporter of Dreyfus, publicly declaring his innocence and supporting Zola when he came to the defense of the French Colonel. When Alexsi Suvorin, his longtime friend and literary colleague, attacked Zola as an agent of the Jews, Chekhov ended their professional and personal relationship.1861: Kansas became the 34th state of the Union. One of the unique aspects of the history of the Jews of Kansas was the Jewish agricultural colonies that were established on the High Plains during the 1880’s. The Jewish Agriculturists' Aid Society of America seven Jewish agricultural colonies in places with such Biblical and or Jewish names as Beersheba, Montefiore, Lasker, Leeser, and Touro, Gilead and Hebron. For more about this interesting attempt to create what Zionist would come to call The New Jew in America’s heartland see "Jewish Farming Communities Enriched Kansas Cultural Heritage" at http://www.kshs.org/features/feat1201.htm. Today there is a thriving Jewish Community in Kansas, much of it centered in Overland, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb.1866: Philadelphian Aaron de Haan completed two years of service with Battery A of the 112th Regiment –Second Artillery.1869: Birthdate of David William Edelman, the native of Los Angeles and NYU trained physician who became the “chief of staff of the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital” and “a member of the national committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/08/07/99837292.pdf1872(19th of Shevat, 5632) Fifty-four year old Jacob Israel passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.1872: Two days after she had had passed away 37 year old Sara (Kosman) Lang, the wife of Jacques Lang and the mother of Judith, Alice and Charles Lang was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1873: In Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Sophie and Nathan and Baruch Rothschild gave birth to “Ike” Rothschild who would only live for a week.1874: In Elgin, Illinois, Charles and Leonora (Goldman Bachrach gave birth to Benjamin Charles Bachrach, the holder of an A.B. from Notre Dame and an LL.B from Kent College of Law in Chicago and the husband of Martha Hartman whose success as a criminal lawyer can be seen by his successful defense of accused murders Alderman Thomas O’Malley, Baron von Biedenfeld and David Rosenbaum as well as his representation of Heavyweight Champion Jack Jackson and “thrill killers” Leopold and Loeb.1874: Two days after she had passed away, 49 year old Leah Moses, the wife of Moses Moses with she had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1874: Birthdate of Arthur Lenz who would die in Nazi held Berlin in 1944.1875: Two days after he had passed away, William Phillip De Jongh, a native of Amsterdam, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1876: In Patterson, NJ, Gustave Theodor Ernst Zittle and Bertha Morganthau Zittle, the husband of the former Martha Beatrice Bernstein with whom he had two children – Madeline and Carl -- known as Zit who worked for a number of Hearst publications, “owned the Central Park Casino during the administration of Mayor Jimmy Walker” and published Zit’s Weekly, a show biz weekly, for over twenty years.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/31/88513430.pdf1877(15thof Shevat, 5637): Tu B’Shevat 1877: After studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary at Breslau, David Kaufmann was ordained as a Rabbi. He had received his Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig 3 years before his ordinated.1877: It was reported today that according to an unconfirmed rumor, the Ottoman government is so desperate for money that it has offered to sell the Pashaluk of the Holy Land, which is effectively Palestine, to any candidate acceptable to the Jews in return for a loan. If the Jews are not interested, the Turks might make a similar offer to Brigham Young since agents of the Mormon have been reported making similar inquiries during the past year.1878: Three days after he had passed away Stephen Joseph Spyer, the son of Joseph and Sophia Spyer who was the husband of Rosetta de Metz and Eliza Nathan was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1878: Birthdate of Dr. Alexander Marx, the native of Elberfield, Germany who became the director of libraries and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.1880(16thof Shevat, 5640): Twenty-eight year old Elias Abendana passed away after which he was buried at the New Jewish Cemetery in London.1882: Seventy-one year old General Alfred von Henikstein, “the youngest son of the Jewish banker Ritter Joseph von Henikstein, who was baptized as a child” and who was” chief of staff before the battle of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War” passed away today.1888: Two days after she had passed away Floretta Maria Ascher, the daughter of “Joseph Ascher and Maria Carter” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1890: It was reported today that Professor Felix Adler officiated at the wedding of Gertrude Hiller and Gustave Leve in New York City.1890: Forty year old Mrs. Basche Gersohnfeld a Russian Jewess and her four children ranging in age from eleven to two arrived at Castle Garden where she was met by her husband Moses who had come to American before her with their son Joseph and was working as butcher.1890: Commissioner Stephenson denied Basche Gershonfeld and her young children the right to leave Castle Garden because even though her husband Moses was earning $12 a week as a butcher and her son Joseph was earning $9 a week he was not sure that they would not become public charges.1891: It was reported today that the 200 year old Wells Mansion which is believed to be the oldest house still standing in Boston, MA, has been purchased by a Jewish millionaire named Ratchesky. (This may be Abraham “Cap” Rashesky who founded the A.C. Ratchesky Foundation.1892: Two days after he had passed away, Solomon Isaacs, the son of Isaac Isaacs and Elizabeth Davis, and the husband of Esther Hart and then Jane Abrahams and then Esther Abrahams was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1892(29thof Tevet, 5652): Sixty three year old Benjamin Russak, a partner in Harris and Russak, a “fur-manufacturing house” passed away today. A native of Posen, he came to the United States in 1848 and opened a retail hat, cap and fur store with his brother-in-law, Henry Harris. The firm prospered and was one of the first to enter into the fur-seal trade. Russak was active in several organizations including the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Technical Institute.1892(29thof Tevet, 5652): Eight year old Liebmann Adler, the native of Lengsfeld, Germany who came to the United States in 1854 to lead a congregation in Detroit, MI, before becoming the Rabbi at the Ḳehillath Anshe Ma'arabh ("Congregation of the Men of the West"), of Chicago in 1861 passed away today.1892: Birthdate of German –born American director Ernst Lubitsch. 1895: It was reported today that the mid-year exams, including tests in Hebrew, will begin this week at Columbia College in New York,1896: It was reported today that the American Jewish Historical Society will be holding its fourth annual meeting in Philadelphia.1897: Captain Ferdinand Forzinetti, the commandant of military prison, who was “one of the first to be convinced of the innocent of Dreyfus” received a letter of commendation from the Ministry of War “for having taken part in a panel that reviewed the regulations concerning the serving of military justice.” Later in the year, he would be relieved of duty when his support for Dreyfus became a matter of public record.1897: “Our Jewish Population” published today included a summary of paper presented by Philadelphian David Sulzberger at the annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society which described the growth of Jewish population in the United from 3,000 in 1812 to its present level of 500,000 “of whom 140,000” live in New York City. 1897: Rabbis Kohler and Kleeberg will co-officiate today at the funeral of Dr. Solomon Deutsch, the author of Essays on the Talmud1898: Lucien Millevoye delivered an anti-Dreyfus speech tonight in Bordeaux.1898: “Fortunes in Antiquity” provided a review of The Art of Getting Rich in which Henry Hardwicke uses the story of Cain and Able as evidence that “the first occupations of mankind were sheep industry and tillage.” Furthermore, as can be seen from the fact that “the wealth of the patriarchs…consisted principally in their flocks” the “pastoral life…seems to have been more…profitable among the Hebrews than tillage.” 1899: Birthdate of Harold W. Carmely, the native of Wolkowysk, Poland, who came to the United States in 1922 where he served as the Superintendent of the Daughters of Israel Home in New York and Director of Keren Hayesod.1899: “Homer and Jewish Rites” published today noted the similarity between the Jewish rituals concerning the washing of the hands and the prayer uttered in the Iliad, “Now pray to Jove what Greece demands: Pray in deep silence and with the purest hands.”1899:The meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee in Vienna came to an end.1899: Mr. Green introduced a bill in Albany today that would exempt “the real property of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of New York City from all taxes commonly known as ‘land taxes.’”1899: It was reported today that Governor Theodore Roosevelt has chosen Jastrow Alexander to serve as State Inspector of Gas Meters. “In Mr. Alexander, the Governor believed he had found another Maccabee – a Jews who had come to this country from Germany while a young man, had become thoroughly imbued with the American spirit, had enlisted when the civil war broke out, and by reason of conspicuous courage had been advanced to be an Adjutant General.”1903: Herzl and the Actions Committee in Vienna work out the outline of a Charter which is taken to Cairo by the expedition and delivered to Leopold Greenberg.1903: In New York, Ike ("Charlie Hoey") and Jennie A. Guerin Croter gave birth to Alvina Croter who gained fame as Viña Delmar “the American playwright and screenwriter” who “was nominated for an Academy Award for 1937 for her screen adaptation of the Arthur Richman play, “The Awful Truth.”1903: Birthdate of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the Riga born intellectual who made Aliyah in 1935 and whose career both in depth in breadth is beyond my ability to even begin to describe.http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/19/obituaries/yeshayahu-leibowitz-91-iconoclastic-israeli-thinker.html?pagewanted=print&src=pmhttp://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/19/obituaries/yeshayahu-leibowitz-91-iconoclastic-israeli-thinker.html?pagewanted=print&src=pmhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/yleib.html1904: In Warsaw Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the originator of Esperanto and his wife gave birth to their youngest daughter Lidia Zamenhof who died in Treblinka.http://bahai-library.com/dale_lidia_zamenhof1904: Two days after he had passed away, Abraham Bermon was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1905: Carl Jung made an entry in the records of the Burgholzli Hospital in which he described his treatment of Sabina Spielrein whom he described as “oriental” and “voluptuous.” The young Jewess went from being a patient of Freud and Jung to being a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. (As reported by Karen Hall)1905: Three days after he had passed away, 64 year old Isaac Gabriel, the husband of Sophia Morris and then Julia Gabriel was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1906: It was reported today that when “a deputation of the reactionary League of Russian Men” told the Czar, “We are convinced that the present sedition is the work of the Jews’ hands” and “therefore entreated the sovereign not to grant equality before the laws to the Jews” the Emperor replied “I shall think it over.”1906: As of today Louis S. Brush is President of the Choral Society for Ancient Hebrew Melodies and Mrs. Solomon Schechter, the wife of the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the founder of the society is the vice president.1906: “A special international congress of Jews” meeting under the auspices of the Zionists which will discuss action to be taken to protect the Jews of Russia is scheduled to open today in Brussels and will be attended by a delegation selected by the Federation of American Zionists.1913: The British Consul in Jerusalem, P.J.C. McGregor wrote a dispatch assuring his government that he had talked to one of the leading Zionists in Palestine who denied reports in some British papers that the Palestinian Jews were pro Turk and pro German. This un-named leader assured the British diplomat that the Zionist sought the protection of the Union Jack since it was the only force that would support their goal of a Jewish home in Palestine. 1913: Birthdate of Daniel Taradash, the Louisville native and graduate of Harvard Law School before becoming a director and screenwriter who won the 1953 Oscar for writing the script for “From Here to Eternity.”1913: Birthdate of Nina Zimet Schneider, anative of Antwerp, Belgium, who grew up in the United States where she combined forces with her Husband Herman to write dozens of books for children “that deftly explained the intricacies of stars, plants, the human body and even the networks of pipes and cables below the city streets…” 1913: In Chicago, Samuel Kadish and his wife gave birth to American sculptor Reuben Kadish. (As reported by Roberta Smith)http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/22/obituaries/reuben-kadish-79-a-sculptor-of-works-evoking-the-ancient.html1913(21stof Shevat, 5673): Ninety-one year old “communal worker” Louis Lewengood passed away in New York City.1913: Churchill sends a letter to the Reform Club announcing his resignation because Baron de Forest, his Jewish friend and Member of Parliament had been blackballed in his bid for membership.1914: Leading members of the AZK (the Anti-Zionist Committee which had been established by the Association for Liberal Judaism) including Bernhard Breslau, Hermann Coehn, Eugen Katz, James Simon and Hermann Veit Simon were asked to prepare a declaration “to be published in the most prestigious papers” on the “danger of Zionist activity in German1915: “With the evidence of the negro Jim Conley, the principle witness against Leo M. Frank when the latter was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan and that of Herbert Hass, of counsel for Frank, Solicitor Hugh Dorsey, late this afternoon rested the case of the State against Dan S. Lehon, C.C. Fedler, and Attorney Arthur Thurman, representatives of the W.J. Burns Detective Agency, who are accused of subornation of perjury in the effort to get a new trial for Frank.” 1915: Following his death last week, Louis Sulzbach who “was the first continental American appointed as Associate Justice of the newly created Supreme Court of Puerto Rico” was honored by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico in a Memorial Resolution” today.1915: In Philadelphia, PA, Arthur Kaufman and Henrietta Berkowitz Stern gave birth to historian and rabbi, Malcolm H. Stern.http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0626/ms0626.html1916: Four years after having originally premiered in the United Kingdom, “The Miracle” a British silent film based on a play by Max Reinhardt premiered in Argentina. 1916: The opposition in the Senate yesterday to the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis of Boston to the Supreme Court of the United States appears to have been softened overnight. One Democratic Senator, who is especially well placed for knowing the drift of sentiment on the subject, said today that twenty-four hours ago he would have estimated that two-thirds of the Senate was against Mr. Brandeis.1916: In Argentina, premiere of “The Miracle” a British silent film treatment of Max Reinhardt’s play of the same name.1916: As of today, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War has “received $1,746.588 of which $1,104,966.24 was in cash and $641,621.76 in pledges.1917: At Temple Emanu-El in New York, Dr. H. G. Enelow is scheduled to deliver a lecture today entitled “The Jewish Heritage of Jesus.”1917: “A roof garden, built as a memorial to Mrs. Louis Marshall, for the use of children is scheduled to be dedicated this afternoon at the Lenox Hill Settlement.1917: “Daniel Goldberg, Secretary of the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee announced today that $5,000, mostly in $5 to $25 contribuitons had been added to the $50,000 subscribed and pledged at the meeting that had been held at the Academy of Music.1917(6thof Shevat, 5677): Esther Kantrowitz, the mother of Meta Itskowitz, who raised her grandson Eddie Cantor from the time he was two because both of his parents had passed away died today.1918: Hugo Guttman, a German-Jewish Lieutenant in the Kaiser’s Army began serving as “Adolf Hitler’s direct superior.”1918: Birthdate of Morton Schindel the Wharton School graduate who turned books into animated films.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/media/morton-schindel-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01918: A letter dated November 27, 1917, from David Fenik to Rabbi Jacob Bernstein of Newport, RI, excerpts of which were published today said that “the day before the British entered” one of the Jewish settlements in Palestine, “Turkish troops” armed with knouts “drove out most of the inhabitants and robbed and pillaged the homes of the refugees.”1918: Two days before his death, Zionist leader Dr. Jechiel Tchlenow wrote a letter to the convention of the English Zionist Federation which was to take place four days later in which he stated that the convention was of the greatest historical importance; that Great Britain is the traditional friend of the small nations and that history would record in letters of gold the English promise to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine.1921: Harold Brand was “appointed second lieutenant in the United States Army” today.1921: Alexander Berkowitz was “appointed captain in the medical administrative corps of the United States Army” today. 1921: Ralph Eli Fleischer was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.1921: Sidney Ginsberg was “appointed a second lieutenant” serving in the infantry of the United States Army today.1921: Benjamin Lester Jacobson was “appointed major in the finance department of the United States Army” today.1921: Simon Jacobson was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.1921: Robert Scott Israel was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army today.1921: Arthur Louis Koch was “appointed captain in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.’1921: Louis Lehman Korn was appointed major in the Judge Advocate-General’s Department of the United Sates Army” today.1921: Samuel Marcus was “appointed captain the medical administrative corps of the United States Army” today.1921: Today, Herbert Block Mayer was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.1921: Alfred Mordecai was “appointed lieutenant in the medical corps of the United States Army” today.1921: Today, Eustace Maduro Peixotto was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.1921: Today, Harvey Israel Rice was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.1921: Today, Harry Isaac Rosen was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.1921: Today, Frederick Buchanan Rosenbaum was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.1921: Today, Nathan Rosenberg was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the medical corps of the United States Army.1921: Today, Louis Bernard Saxe was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.1921: Today, Philip Schneeberger was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the air service of the United States Army.1921: Today, Charles Eugene Schwartz was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.1921: Today, Max Weinberg was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the medical administrative corps of the United States Army.1921: Today, Arthur Henry Wolf was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.1921: Today, Samuel Israel Zeidner was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.1921: Birthdate of Eugene V. Klein the American businessman, supporter of candidates as varied as Pierre Salinger and Richard Nixon whose sport’s endeavors include ownership of the Seattle Supersonics and San Diego Chargers.http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-13/sports/sp-260_1_san-diego-chargers1922: In Newcastle, UK, Henry Morris Cohen and Eva Sussman Cohen gave birth to Gabrielle Cohen who became Gabrielle Blake when she married Leonard Blake.1923: Birthdate of writer Paddy Chayevsky. Chayevsky created works both for the big screen and television. Some of his more famous efforts included Marty, Hospital and Network. “Television is democracy at its worst.”1924(23rdof Shevat, 5684): Seventy-nine year old Frederick Salomon van Nierop a Dutch lawyer who was Chairman of the Supervisor Board of the Amsterdam Bank, a member of the Amsterdam Main Synagogue and President of the Committee of the General Affairs (a Jewish communal organization) passed away today.1927: Today, President Coolidge appointed twenty-eight year old Nathan Cayton to serve as a Judge of the Municipal Court in the District of Columbia, making him, after his unanimous approval the Senta, the “youngest man ever to be appointed to a judicial post in the Nation’s Capital.”1928: The New York Times reported on improving economic conditions in Palestine. For example, at Petakh Tikvah, an additional fifty Jewish workers have been hired and “the Arab lessees of local orange groves have promised to take on 200 more Jews within the next few days.”1929: U.S. premiere of “The Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, filmed by cinematographer Harold Rosson based on a story by Samuel Ortiz.1929:Birthdate of Richard Lawrence Ottinger who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York before he went on to pursue a career as a law school professor.1928: When asked by an interviewer in an article published two days before his 80thbirthday “When should one commence giving?” Nathan Straus replied, “As soon as one has a little more than he actually needs. At first it is hard. But afterwards it grows into a pleasure and there is nothing more satisfying, nothing to make one happier than to give in order to relieve the distress of others.” By “others” Mr. Straus means “men women and children of all races and creeds.” He has “the deep seated feeling that all humanity is one blood whatever the accident of birth or the circumstances of religious faith. We are all brothers and should help each other to the full extent of the opportunities that the one God of all mankind gives to each of us.1929: “The Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, with a story by Samuel Ornitz was released in the United States today.1930(29thof Tevet, 5690): Seventy-two year old Louisville native and graduate the University of Louisville Law School Moses N. Sale who moved to St. Louis in 1881 and where he served as Judge of the Circuit Court passed away today.https://www.jta.org/1930/02/02/archive/judge-moses-sale-of-st-louis-dead-at-72 1931: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Hyman “Hy” Cohen the Chicago Cubs pitcher who was also a coach for the Birmingham Braves.https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cohenhy01.shtml1932: In New York City, the Julien Levy Gallery owned by Julien Levy hosted “the landmark multi-media Surrealist exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, and the introduction of Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory owned by Levy who “also championed the surrealist work of Leon Kelly.”1932: French premiere of “Comradeship” the Franco (La Tragédie de la mine)-German (Kameradschaft) film starring Alexander Granach as “Kasper.”1932: The American Hebrew appeared for the last time. It would merge with the New York Jewish Tribune and re-appear as American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune1932: In London, England, celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of famed composer, conductor and pianist Sir Frederic H. Cowen.1933: Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. The Nazis did not come to power through a coup or putsch. They came to power legally, using the German political and electoral processes.1934: Pierre Van Passen is scheduled to deliver a lecture this evening at the Brooklyn Jewish Center on “European Dictatorships and the Jew.”1934: The “Conference of the Women’s division of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights” sic scheduled to meet this after the Hotel Plaza.1936: Today’s decision by the Hungarian Ministry of Justice “refusing permission to Hungarian Jew to marry a German girl in Hungary” was seen as evidence that Hungary is applying the Nuremberg Laws as a sign of friendship for Germany.1936: Rabbi B. Leon Hurwitz represented the Jewish community at memorial service honoring the late King George V held at the Hotel New Yorker.1936: When Hans Frank told the German Academy’s economic council “We do not care what the wolrd says about our Jewish legislation” it was Germany’s way of serving “notice that she would continue her unrelenting drive against Jews” in what was part of a “strong restatement of Nazi principles on the third anniversary of Hitler’s assumption of power.1937: “You Only Live Once,” produced by Walter Wagner, with music by Alfred Newman and starring Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow) was released today in the United States.1937: “The Good Earth” the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name produced by Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin, filmed by Karl Freund winner of the Oscar for Best Cinematography and starring Paul Muni and Luise Rainer winner of the Oscar for Best Actress was released in the United States today.1937: In Geneva, Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck told reported Clarence K. Streit that the pressure from his country to force Jews to emigrate was not based on anti-Semitism but on the changing nature of the Polish economy.1938(2th of Shevat, 5698) Parashat Mishpatim1938: Rabbi Benedict Glazer is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El1938: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Organized Foreign Born and Democracy” this morning at the Central Synagogue.1938: Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Shall We Teach Our Children?” this morning at the West End Synagogue.1938: Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Laws of God and the Ordinances of Man” at Temple Israel.1938: Rabbi Wendell A. Phillips is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Slaves to Convention” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.1938: Rabbi Alexander Segal is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Value of Freedom” at Fort Washington where services will be followed by a meeting of the congregations Junior League.1938(27thof Shevat, 5698): Sixty-seven year old Eugene Hugo Paul, who worked with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. for 48 years and was active in several Jewish organizations including the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=950DE6D61E3EE03ABC4850DFB7668383629EDE1938: Speaking at re-union dinner at the Hotel Astor tonight, Morris R. Cohen, the retiring Professor of Philosophy at City College said that there was a real danger in the fact that “the proportion of non-Jews at the college was becoming negligible” because the friendships formed when the student body contained significant numbers of Catholics and Protestants’ would cease to exist and this could lead to a form of “segregation” in New York City.1939(9thof Shevat, 5699): Sixty-six year old Sir Laurie Hammond, “who was a member of the Peel Royal Commission which in 1937 recommended tri-partition of Palestine as the only solution of the Arab-Jewish conflict” passed away today.(EDITOR’S NOTE- THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS SERVE AS A REMINDER OF A TIME WHEN SOME WISHED TO OBSERVE SHABBAT ON SUNDAY)1939: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How Men Enslave Themselves” at Temple Emanu-El.1939: Sir Ronald Storrs who began serving as Governor of Jerusalem in 1917 as soon as Allenby had taken the city is scheduled to deliver talk on “The Problem of Palestine: England, Arab, Jew” at the service of the Free Synagogue being held in Carnegie Hall.1939: The West End Synagogue is scheduled to host a “lecture forum” where Rabbi Hyman Judah Shacthel will deliver “an address on ‘A Way of Life.’”1939: At Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver “an address” on “Hitler’s Six Years: What Have They Cost Jews, Germans and the World?”1941: Mrs. Tehilla Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver an address on “A Formula For Courage” at the Jewish Science Society on West 85th Street,1941(1st of Shevat, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1941(1st of Shevat, 5701): At the Lodz Ghetto, Bluma Lichtensztajn committed suicide and painter Maurycy Trebacz died of hunger. (He was one of five thousand Jews who will die of hunger over the next six months.)1942: This week’s issue of the Sentinel, Chicago’s Jewish Weekly was published todayhttp://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16614coll14/id/68555
1943: Germans execute 15 Poles at the village of Wierzbica for aiding three Jews. One of the victims is a two-year-old girl.1943: The “Nazis ordered all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.”1944: In London, unwed Australian Jewess named Oldham gave birth to Andrew Oldham, the “manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967.”1944: In Trieste, the Nazis conduct a roundup of Jews aimed the old and sick people including those living in facilities for the aged. 1944: A Nazi court in Kraków, Poland, sentences five Poles to death for aiding Jews. One of the accused, Kazimierz Jozefek, is hanged in the public square.1944: In Lithuania, Soviet led partisans including Jews from the Kovno and Vilnius ghettos attacked Koniuchy which was later described a pro-Nazi town from which Germans launched attacks against partisans. According to various reports several civilians were killed in the action which has led to it being described as a “massacre.”1945(15thof Shevat, 5705): Tu B’Shevat1945(15thof Shevat, 5705): Seventy year old Olympic Gymnast Gustav Felix Flatow died of starvation today at Theresienstadt. http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/GustavFlatow.htm1945: Today, President Roosevelt nominated Herman B. Baruch who “had been working with the Foreign Economic Administration in Latin America” and who is the brother of Bernard Baruch to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.1945: Birthdate of Paysach J. Krohn, rabbi, mohel and author of the “Maggid” series of books for ArtScroll.1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. continued its meetings today in London1947: Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" premiered in New York City1948: Birthdate of Canadian Gerald Barry Falovtich who gained fame as singer-songwriter Yank Berry, “the philanthropist who along with his friend and partner Muhammad Ali has fed over 954,000,000 documented meals to the needy around the world over the last twenty years.”1948: The colleagues and friends of Dr. Alexander Marx will hold a reception in the reading room of the JTS Library so that they can celebrate his 70thbirthday and congratulate him on his 45 years of service to the academic institution which is the flagship of Conservative Judaism.1948: At its annual meeting in the Commodore Hotel, the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College approved an $8,000,000 "Blueprint for the Future."1948: “A Woman's Vengeance,” “a 1948 American film noir drama mystery film directed and produced by Zoltán Korda was released in the United States today.1950: Birthdate of South African native Jody David Scheckter, “the 1979 Formula One World Drivers' Champion.”1951: “Where’s Charley?” featuring music and lyrics by Frank Loesser began a second Broadway run today when it opened at The Broadway Theatre.1953: “Dreaming Lips” with a script by Paul Czinner and Carl Mayer was released in Germany today.1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Mapam, by a vote of 228 to 22, expelled from the party one of its veteran Zionist leaders, Dr. Moshe Sneh. According to the Post's leading article there was no room in Mapam for two groups which justified the new Soviet anti-Semitic policy and this explained why Sneh, and his more extreme "Left Faction," were expelled. They were expected to join the Communists.
↧
January 29, 2019, 6:50 pm
January 301349: The Jews of Freilsburg Germany were massacred.1592: Clement VIII began his papacy during which he enacted numerous anti-Jews moving including the issuance of Cum Saepe Accidere, a papal bull that “forbade the Jewish community of the Comtat Venaissin of Avignon, a papal enclave, to sell new goods, putting them at an economic disadvantage” and Caeca et Obdurata, a papal bull that “banned Jews from living in the Papal states outside the cities of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon” which among other things had the effect of expelling the Jews from Umbria and Bologna. Last but not least, he issued Cum Hebraeorum militia a papal bull that “forbade the reading of the Talmud.”1648: Spain and the United Netherlands sign The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück marking the end of the eighty yearlong Dutch revolt against Spanish rule. The treaty guarantees the independence of the Protestant Netherlands from the rule of Catholic Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. It means that the Jewish community in the Netherlands, which includes many Sephardic refugees and Marranos, will be able to grow and flourish.1649: King Charles I was beheaded. One of those who took part in the trial was Isaac Dorislaus, the son of Dutch Reform minister who has been misidentified by some as being Jews. There was a “converso community” living in England but the Jews would not be formally re-admitted until after Oliver Cromwell came to power following the King’s death.1667: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceded Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to the Tsardom of Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo. According “to the treaty...arranged with John the Jews, who then lived in the towns and districts that became Russian territory, were permitted to remain "on the side of the Russian czar," under Russian rule, if they did not choose to remain under Polish rule. Jewish wives of Greek Orthodox Russians were permitted to remain with their husbands without being forced to change their religion.1770: In England Rabbi David Segal and his wife gave birth to Aaron Levy (Aaron ben David Segal Levi)1808: In London, Sam Elias, the professional boxer known as Dutch Sam, and his wife gave birth to Young Dutch Sam who followed in his father footsteps and became “a welterweight champion in the 1820’s.”1805: Emmanuel Isaacs married Maria Magnus at the Great Synagogue today.1807: Sir Robert Grant was “called to the bar” and began the practice of law. This was but one step on the ladder that led to Grant’s successful career as a member of the House of Commons. Grant was not Jewish. Robert Grant was a strenuous advocate for the removal of the disabilities of the Jews, and twice carried bills on the subject through the House of Commons. They were, however, rejected in the Upper House, which did not yield on the question until 1858, twenty years after Grant’s death. 1817: Nine days after he had passed away, Israel Israel, the husband of Polly Israel and father of Henrietta and Harriet Israel, was buried today.1817(13th of Shevat): Rabbi Yom Tov Netel, author of Tehor Ra’ayonim passed awayhttp://thefoundationstone.org/en/bible/161-portion-of-the-week/2650-tehor-raayonim-beshalach.html1823: Birthdate of Ida Warburg the future wife of Eduard Wolf.1825: Isaac Barnett married Sarah Joseph today at the Great Synagogue.1827: “L’artisan” (The Craftsman) “an opéra comique by Fromental Halévy, was staged at the Opéra-Comique, in Paris1831: In Paris Edmond Rochefort and his wife gave birth to Victor Henri Rochefort allied himself with anti-Semite Edouard Drumont and the infamous Hubert-Joseph Henry during the campaign to convict Dreyfus and then to destroy as much of the Jewish community as possible.1834: In Elllerstadt, Germany, Salomon Weil, a local merchant and the former Helena Lea Meyer gave birth to Abraham Weil who served “as a royal Bavarian tax collector.”1839(15thof Shevat, 5599): Tu B’Shevat1839: In Charleston, SC, Jacob Levin of Columbia, SC married Ann Sampson, “the eldest daughter of the late Samuel Sampson.”1842: Solomon Nathan married Hannah Abrahams at the Great Synagogue today1842(19thof Shevat, 5602): Sixty-five year old Branca Brendel Bernisse Hartog Kann the daughter of Jacob Hirsch Pinto and Levia Leonora Liebe Pinto and the wife of Hirschel Eliazer Kann passed away today in Nederland. 1846: Two days after he had passed away, 56 year old Abraham Levy was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”1852: The horribly mutilated body of Jacob Lehman was found today in the Delaware River. Lehman was the son of Aaron Lehman, a German Jewish peddler living in Philadelphia. When last seen, Jacob had in his possession $200 worth of watches, jewelry and other items that constituted most of his father's inventory. 1852: A jury in Philadelphia rendered the following verdict: "That the lad Jacob Lehman came to his death at the hand or hands of some person or person to the Jury unknown." Lehman was the son of a German Jewish peddler whose gruesomely dismembered body had been found floating in the Delaware River1854(1st of Shevat, 5614): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1854: Seventy-four year old Anglican clergyman John Oxlee whose studies of rabbinical and Hebrew literature led to “conclusions at odds with both Christianity and Judaism” and who was the author the three volume The Christina Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation contended that “the concept of the trinity could be found in the Talmud” passed away today.1854: In Riga, Eleazar Frommer and his wife gave birth to Jacob Frommer the Rabbi of Congregation Bikur Cholim Bnay Abraham, New Haven, CT.1855: Henry Fitzroy, the husband of Hannah Rothschild and the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild completed his term as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department.1857: The will of Marcus Cone was offered for probate today. Included in the will were instructions for establishing Cone's German Human Benevolent Society of New York, Cone's German Human Benevolent Society of Syracuse and Cone's German Human Benevolent Society of Albersweiller, the Germany city in which he was born. Cone wanted to establish the two societies in the United States because neither of these cities had any organized way to provide aid for their indigent Jewish citizens.1860: It was reported today that "In England, astonishment is expressed” that Emperor Napoleon has not appointed the Duc de Persigny to the Foreign Ministry. Unbeknown to the public M de Persigny will not join the cabinet because he refuses to serve with Achille Fould, the Minister of State. M Fould is a favorite of the Empress who “absolutely clings” to him “as the only man competent to” serve as “Minister of State and of the Household of the Emperor.” Furthermore, M Fould is Jewish, a millionaire and is connected to “other rich Jews” through his banking connections.(“Nearly all the millionaires of Paris at this moment are Jews.”) The Emperor is reportedly “afraid to offend so important” a component needed to ensure the stability of his government. “There are people malicious enough to suggest that the Empress' wish in the matter goes for very little, however, and that she is made to bear the blame because that is more convenient in these personal matters than a reason of State.”1861: In Gollantsch, Germany, Meyer Rosentreter and his wife gave birth to David Rosentreter, the President of the Washington Bank National of St. Louis who was the first treasurer of the St. Louis Jewish Hospital association and the founder of the Jewish Farmers’ Colony in Washington County, MO.1863(10thof Shevat, 5623): Phineas Mendel Heilprin passed away today in Washington, D.C. Born at Lublin in 1801, he moved to Hungary in 1842 and then left in 1848 when the revolutionary movement failed. He arrived in the United States where he gained a reputation as a scholar and author. His son Michael, who was born in 1823 came to the United States after the failure of the Kossuth led revolution. On the eve of the Civil War, he refuted Rabbi Raphall’s position on slavery in the United States describing it as being immoral and contrary to the teachings of Judaism. He continued to espouse liberal cause until his death in 1888.1863: In Philadelphia, PA, Polish born “painter, lithographer, draftsman and etcher” Max Rosenthal and Helene Caroline Rosenthal gave birth to Albert Rosenthal the American artist who was the husband of Henryetta Rosenthal.http://www.artistsandart.org/2010/05/albert-rosenthal-1863-1939-american.html1863: In Warsaw, Talmud scholar Marcus Jastrow and his wife gave birth to American psychologist Joseph Jastrow.http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/10/americas-first-pop-psychologist.html1865: Philadelphian Morris Schlesinger began serving as Adjutant of the 210thRegiment.1867: Two days after he had passed away, 38 year old Rosetta (Benjamin) Joseph, the wife of Raphael Joseph and the mother of Sarah, Mark and Elizabeth Joseph was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1867(24thof Shevat, 5627): In Bristol, UK, Joseph Abraham the London born son of Moses Abraham and the brother of John Abraham with whom he worked as a wine merchant and who served as both the President of the Bristol Hebrew Congregation and Mayor of Bristol passed away today.1871: Birthdate of Pressburg Yeshiva graduate Aaron Tanzer, the holder of a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin and the “chief rabbi of Tyrol and Vorarlberg who served as Jewish Chaplain on the Eastern Front with the German Army during WW I.1872: Birthdate of Eduard Bloch the native of Frauenberg who “until 1907 was the physician of Adolf Hitler’s family.”1873(2ndof Shevat, 5633): “French ship-builder and philanthropist Jacques Isaac Altaras, a native of Aleppo who tried to help settle Russian Jews in Algeria and who “founded a school for Jewish children at Marseilles, passed away today.1874: Nine days after he had passed away in Nice, France, Daniel Joseph Jaffe, the wife of Friederike Jaffe with whom he had had four children including Sir Otto Jaffe, was buried today at the Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.1875: The London Punch has a cartoon of Disraeli shaking hands with Gladstone and saying: "Sorry to lose you. I began with books; you’re ending with them. Perhaps you're the wiser of the two." Disraeli is Benjamin Disraeli the English Prime Minister who began as an author. Gladstone was his political opponent who held the post of Prime Minister.]1876: It was reported today that Jews had joined with Gentiles to raise twelve thousand dollars for the Woman’s Christian Home in St. Louis, MO. 1876: It was reported today that a Jewish synagogue has been opened in Toronto, Canada.1877: The Downtown Hebrew Benevolent Society is schedule to host a ball tonight as part of the New York City 1876-1877 Ball Season. 1878: It was reported today Marcuse Woodle has been elected President of the Literary Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and Samson Lachman has been elected Vice President.1879(6thof Shevat, 5639): Fifty-nine year old Abraham Treunefels the son of Rachel and Gershon Hirsch Treuenfels passed away today.1880: Birthdate of New York native and Boston attorney H. Murray Pakulski, a “delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Massachusetts in 1908 and 1912 and the husband of Ada S. Feldman whom he married in 1904.1882: Birthdate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. Roosevelt’s New Deal created a variety of career opportunities for a whole generation of newly college educated generation of Jewish professionals. For several generations of Jews, FDR was a near-saint. Starting in the 1970’s, questions were raised about Roosevelt’s failure to do more to rescue the Jews of Europe. The problem with criticizing Roosevelt is the need to come to grips with the level of anti-Semitism that existed before, during and after the war. This reality played a part in Roosevelt’s dealing with the furor of the Holocaust.1883: In Lübeck, Esther Adler, the daughter of the former rabbi of Lübeck, Rabbi Alexander Sussmann Adler and Lübeck's then Rabbi Salomon Carlebach gave birth to their eighth child Joseph Hirsch (Tzvi) Carlebach who married “his former pupil Charlotte Preuss” in 1919 and despite his service in the German Army during WW I was murdered at “the Nazi concentration camp Jungfernhof.”1885: Twenty-one year old pianist Fannie Bloomfield-Zeiser, the Silesian born daughter of Solomon and Bertha Blumenfield and future wife of Sigmund Zeisler made “made her New York debut performing with the New York Orchestra.}”1886: Birthdate of Bloomington native and 1908 graduate of the University of Indiana Howard Kahn, the “crusading editor in St. Paul who “received the Cosmopolitan International’s Distinguish Service Medal” for his work in ending the corruption in that city”https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/03/30/89785885.pdf 1889: In Kiel, Germany, Jewish businessman and communal leader Julius Frankenthal and his wife Cäcilie, née Goldmann., gave birth to Käte Frankenthal who gained fame as a psychiatrist and a socialist political leader who served on the Berlin City Council and in the Prussian State Parliament during the days of the Weimar Republic.1889: Crown Prince Rudolph who had previously promoted the career of his Jewish mistress Eleconore Kolmann committed suicide today.1892: The SS Massilia arrived in New York with “250 Russian Jews among her steerage passengers.” After having been expelled from Russia they sailed to Palestine where the Ottoman authorities issued orders banning them from landing at Jaffa. A Jewish society then paid for their passage to America. The Superintendent of immigration said that the refusal of the Turks to let them land would not influence his decision as to whether or not they can enter the United States. 1893: Birthdate of Rabbi Yitzhak-Meir Levin a Haredi, politician, member of the Kensett and one of 37 people to sign the Israeli declaration of independence.1893: Charles Barton’s production of “The Outsider,” a play whose villain is a Cockney Jew, is scheduled to open at the Park Theatre in New York.1894: Isidor Straus began serving “as a U.S. Congressman from New York’s 15thcongressional district” today.1894(23rdof Shevat, 5654): Eighty-six year old mathematician Moritz Abraham Stern, “the first Jewish full professor at a German university” who worked with “Ferdinand Eisenstein in formulating a proof of the quadratic reciprocity theorem” passed away today.1894: In Pennsylvania, Isadore Engel and Emelia (Molly) Schwartz gave birth to Dorothy Engel, the future wife of Herman Maltz who owned and operated Maltz Furniture Store in Los Angeles.1894: Samuel Gompers and Henry Weisman are scheduled to address a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden sponsored by the Trades and Labor Conference. 1894: When his father passed away today Yissachar Dov Rokeach became the third Belzer Rebbe,1894: Members of the Hebrew Typographical Union No. 317 are among those who will join in a march led by the E.H. Wade Post of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, whose members were all Civil War veterans) which is scheduled to held this evening in New York City to call attention to the plight of the unemployed during the worst economic depression to hit the United States that started in 1893.1895: Hermann Gustloff and his wife gave birth to Wilhelm Gustloff, the found of the Swiss Nazi Party whose murder was one of the excuses for Kristallnacht. 1895: Birthdate of Vienna native William Isaiah Teichner who in 1913 came to the United States where he studied engineering at Brooklyn Polytech and CCNY, became “an engineer for the New York Board of Transpiration and the Transit Authority” and “vice president of the Sea Gate Jewish Congress which raising his son Dr. Victor J. Tecihner with “his wife Sonya.”https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/06/99794504.pdf1896(15thof Shevat, 5656): Tu B’Shevat1896: “What’s In A Name” published today described campaign being conducted by the sister of the late Abraham Hayward to disprove “the damnatory suspicion” that the two of them have “some mixture of Jewish blood.” The efforts which have included a letter writing campaign to the London Athenaeum are proof that there “is the existence of …prejudices in the British Islands.”1896: In Philadelphia, President Oscar Straus is scheduled to preside over the opening session of the 4th annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society1897: It was reported today that the Municipal Library at Leipzig has a manuscript entitled “The Tree of Life” written by Jacob Ben Judah. The manuscript is date 1287 and “it contains the liturgy of the Jews in England and their hymns.1897: Rabbi de Sola Mendes is scheduled to deliver a sermon at West End Synagogue entitled “The Truth About Jonah” 1897: Based on information that first appeared in The American Hebrew, it was reported today that Rodef Shalom has selected Dr. Rudolph Grossman to serve as it next Rabbi, a move “that seems strange for an old conservative congregation” since he was trained at the Hebrew Union College, the Cincinnati based school that trains Reform rabbis.1898: It was reported today that police had to be called when a riot broke out following an anti-Jewish speech by Lucien Millevoye in Bordeaux.1898: The Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Circle of the Auxiliary Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Social Orphan Asylum held its regular monthly meeting this afternoon.1898: The Hebrew Infant Asylum Association held its third annual meeting this afternoon.1898: It was reported today that next month’s Purim Ball sponsored by the Purim Association will be held at the Waldorf-Astoria 1898: Three days after he had passed away, 45 year old Isaac Feinstein was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1898: Doctors Richards, Greenfield, Taubenhaus and Singer were among those who addressed a group of Jews in Brooklyn tonight as part of a campaign to gain support for the construction of a Jewish hospital in Brooklyn1899: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil preached a sermon at Temple Emanu-El this morning in which he praised the value and role of daily newspapers.1899: “The Jews in Palestine” published today provides a summary of the report submitted in December of 1898 by U.S. Consul General B. Bie Randal in which he said that “960 families, numbering 5,000 souls inhabit 22 Jewish colonies in Palestine which have been founded and subsidized by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, representing the Alliance Israelite Universelle..” Jacob’s Memorial (Zikhron Ya'akon) is the largest of the colonies with a population of 1,600 people. The colony includes a synagogue, a school with five teachers and 4,000 acres on which the settles are growing fruit, mostly grapes, honey and mulberry leaves which is part of a plan to raise silkworms. (More 2014)1899: It was reported today that of the four bills introduced in the New York legislature seeking a exemption from property tax, on was seeking such relief for the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.1899: Rabbi Isaac C. Noot, principal of the Hebrew Free Schools delivered a lecture today at Temple Beth-El on “Thou shalt not bear false witness against the neighbor.”1899: In Ilford, Essex, UK, Alexander and Jane Bernstein gave birth to media mogul Sidney Lewis Bernstein who was elevated to the peerage as Baron Bernsteinhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-bernstein-1471201.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/07/obituaries/lord-bernstein-94-of-granada-television.html1900: Birthdate of Russian composer Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky.1901: Birthdate of Yalowa (Grundow), Russian Poland native Oscar Serlin best known as the producer of Broadway hit “Life With Father”http://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/28/archives/ocarsbrlin-70-produger-isdead-stage-hit-life-with-father-i-made-him.html1902: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Emanuel “Manny” Sacks, the executive at Columbia Records and RCA Victor, who played an integral role in the careers of such stars as Harry James and who played a major role in promoting the acceptance of the LP record.http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/487 1902: Three days after he had passed away, Eleazer Tubb was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1902: Birthdate of Nikolaus Pevsner, the native of Leipzig who became a noted British expert on art and architecture. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/09/nikolaus-pevsner-life-harries-review1903: Leopold Greenberg, Herzl's representative in London, left for Cairo to carry on political negotiations.1903: In Poland, Albert and Ernestine (Rayner) Caro gave birth to Marcus Rayner Caro who in 1912 came to the U.S where he earned a B.S. in 1925 and a M.D. in 1927 and pursued a career in dermatology while being married to Adeline B. Cohen with whom he raised two children – Ethel and William.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/5276301904: Herzl finished his visit to Italy. 1906: This evening “the Choral Society for Ancient Hebrew Melodies” whose aims included the restoration of congregational singing in synagogues using “old Hebrew music” and the introduction of it “in the simpler forms in Sunday schools” is scheduled to hold its regular meeting this evening at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association1906: In New York, the School Board for District Number 39 heard further testimony in the case of Frank F. Harding the Principal of P.S. 144, a school in a Jewish neighborhood, who is charged with having attempted to proselytize the students at last year’s Christmas entertainment. 1907(15thof Shevat, 5667): Tu B’Shevat1908: Caught up in the dispute between the Territorialists and the Jews who will only settle for a homeland in Palestine, Churchill drafted a letter at the behest of British Zionist, Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster. Seeking not to offend either party, Churchill expressed his support for the Zionist dream of settling in Palestine while allowing that a temporary refuge may have to be found if such is the wish of the Jewish people. The Territoralists were those Jews were willing to accept the British offer of a homeland in Uganda or Kenya as an immediate solution to the suffering of the Jews in Russia. The Russian Jews were among those who were the strongest opponents of the solution.1909: Birthdate of activist and author Saul David Alinsky1911: Birthdate of right-handed pitcher Robert Clyde “Bob” Katz who appeared in six games for the Cincinnati Reds in 1944.1912: In response to an appeal by Dr. J. L. Magnes the New York City Jewish community announces subscriptions amounting to over sixty thousand dollars annually for five years for Jewish education in New York City.1912: In Brooklyn, N. Y, The Atlantic Union Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist convention adopts resolutions protesting against the recent massacres of Jews in Russia and outbreaks of anti-Jewish feeling in so-called Christian countries as un-Christian and affirming their belief that the Jew is entitled to religious and civil rights.1912: In New York City investment banker and philanthropist Maurice Wertheim and his wife Alma Morgenthau, the daughter of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. gave birth to Barbara Wetheim whom after she married Dr. Lester R. Tuchman was known as Barbara Tuchman a prolific popular historian who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Guns of August a book that President Kennedy urged people to read so that his generation might avoid the folly which led to World War I. Ms. Tuchman won a second Pulitzer for Stillwell and the American Experience in China, a very readable tome that uses the experiences of Stillwell's career in Asia to explain the events that would ultimately lead to the victory of the Communist Chinese. Although she was Jewish, Ms. Tuchman wrote only one book related to Jewish History - Bible and Sword (England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour). Ms. Tuchman passed away in 1989 at the age of 77.Born in New York City, New York she is best known for her book The Guns of August (1962), a history of the outbreak of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China, (1970). She won Pulitzer Prizes for both books. Tuchman's father was a one-time owner and publisher of The Nation, as well as the founder of the Theatre Guild. Her maternal grandfather was the ambassador to Constantinople under President Woodrow Wilson, and her uncle was the Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She said, "The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell without being heard." Tuchman never went to graduate school, and never took a single course in writing. In deciding to write, she said, "The single most formative experience, I think, was the stacks at Widener Library where I was allowed to have as my own one of those little cubicles with a table under a window, queerly called, as I have since learned, 'carrels,' a word I never knew when I sat in one. Mine was deep in among the 940's (British History, that is) and I could roam at liberty through the rich stacks, taking whatever I wanted. The experience was marvelous, a word I use in its exact sense meaning full of marvels. It gave me a lifelong affinity for libraries, where I find happiness, refuge, not to mention the material for making books of my own.” Tuchman said, "Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library." She also said, "Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."1913(22ndof Shevat, 5673): Eighty-eight year old Joseph Sanson, who had worked as an official court interpreter passed away today in Philadelphia, PA.1915: The Paris correspondent of the Manchester Guardian sent a dispatch to his paper today that includes a description of the treatment Jews by the Russian Government from The Bund Committee of the Lithuanian, Polish and Russian Jews1915: Clara Michaelsohn, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Israel Michaelson of 383 Grand Street became engaged to Mitchell Fligel today.1915(15thof Shevat, 5675): Tu B’Shevat1915: In Atlanta, the defense rested this afternoon in the case of Dan S. Lehon, CC. Felder and Arthur Thurman who are on trial subornation of perjury in an effort to secure a new trial for Leo Frank who was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan.1915: From Berlin, the Overseas News Agency reported that in Russia, “Jews ae being prosecuted officially and demonstrations against them are being organized by the government.”1916: Miss Amy Schechter and her brother Frank were among the two thousand people who attended a memorial service for their father Dr. Solomon Schechter at the First Rumanian Congregation where Dr. Henry Moscowitz, the President of the Civil Service Commission, delivered the principal address.1916: Assemblymen Nathan T. Perlman and Meyer Levy and State Senator Irving Joseph were among the hundreds of people who attended the dance sponsored by the Madison Republican Club at the New Harlem Casino which raised hundreds of dollars “for the benefit of war sufferers.”1916: A report issued today by the American Jewish Committee signed by President Louis Marshall and Executive Committee Chairman Cyrus Adler described the suffering of the Jews in war-torn Eastern Europe, the need to provide them aid and the work that must be done to protect the civil and religious rights of the Jews while alleviating the consequences of persecution.1916: Rabbi J.L. Magnes is scheduled to speak at a mass meeting in Philadelphia organized by Dr. Cyrus Adler where it is expected that $200,000 will be raised to provide relief for the Jews in war-torn Europe.1916(25th of Shevat, 5676): Sixty-one year old Sydney native Joseph Jacobs, the “Australian literary and Jewish historian who was a writer for the Jewish Encyclopedia and a notable folklorist, creating several noteworthy collections of fairy tales passed away today.http://www.mainlesson.com/displayauthor.php?author=jacobs1916: The list of speakers published today for the upcoming “non-sectarian mass meeting” designed to raise funds “for the relief of Jews in the warring countries of Europe included Jacob H. Schiff, the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, Louis Marshall, Rabbi J.L. Magnes, Rabbi Nathan Krass and Joseph Barondes.1917: It was reported today the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee is sending out 25,000 letters to Brooklynites as part of the campaign to raise two hundred thousand dollars that will go to the national fund being raised to aid the Jews of Europe.1917: It was reported that thirteen percent of the money sent to provide relief for the Jews of the Vilna District has to be turned over to the occupying German authorities and that in spite of all the aid American Jews have sent, unless a great deal more is done immediately, it will be increasingly difficult to keep the population “alive through the Winter.”1918: As celebrations take place for the upcoming 70th birthday of Nathan Straus, it was announced that “in his honor 15 teams will start a special Nathan Straus birthday drive to raise $10,000 each in ten days for the Palestine Restoration Fund” of which he is the chairman.1918: In New York City, Joseph Opatovsky, who gained fame as Yiddish author Joseph Opatoshu and his wife gave birth to David Opatovsky who gained fame as actor and screenwriter David Opatoshu.1919(29thof Shevat, 5679): Meyer Benjamin, the husband of Henrietta Cohen Foster with whom he had three children, passed away today at Pittsburgh, PA following a surgical operation.1919: The Versailles Conference decided that the Arab provinces should be wholly separated from the Ottoman Empire and the newly conceived mandate-system applied to them. This decision clashed with the expectation of Faisal's Arab delegation that his state would include Palestine, and the conditional understandings reached in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement.1919: Louis Graftman, one of the first three students from Hebrew Union College “to enlist at the outbreak of” World War I who completed his training as a Marine at Paris Island and served at Guantanamo Bay was “was released from service” today at Galveston, TX.1920(10thof Shevat, 5680): Henriette Goldschmidt, the wife of Rabbi Abraham Meyer Goldschmidt, who was a social worker, educator and one of the founders of the Women’s Educational Association passed away today in Leipzig.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldschmidt-henriette1921: Today’s annual meeting of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives at Denver being held at the Cleveland Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio is of special importance because the attendees will elect a new president to replace the late Samuel Grabfelder.1922(1st of Shevat, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1923: In Newark, NJ, Jacob Israel Gersten and Henrietta (Henig) Gersten gave birth to Bernard Gersten, the Executive Producer of Lincoln Center Theater.1924: Birthdate of Kurt Rübner, the native of Brastislava who emigrated to Palestine in 1941 without his parents, sisters and grandparents all of whom were murdered by the Nazis and gained fame Tuvya Ruebner, the poet, editor, photographer and member of Kibbutz Merhavia. 1925: “I Love You,” a silent film directed by Paul L. Stein, was released today in German1926(15thof Shevat, 5686): Tu B’Shevat1927: Birthdate of Zeev (Heinz) Raphael, a native of Germany who escaped to safety in Sweden three days before the German invasion of Poland.1927(27thof Shevat, 5687): Rabbi Joseph Israel Deutsch passed away today.http://www.balassagyarmatizsidosag.hu/en/deutsch-jozsef-izrael1928: Birthdate of Irwin Michnick who gained fame as Mitch Leigh, “an American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer best known for the musical Man of La Mancha.”1928: Birthdate of Harold “Hal” Prince, Tony Award winning theatrical producer and director. 1929: Temple Emanu El in Dothan, Alabama was charted today.1930(1stof Shevat, 5690): Rosh Chodesh Shevat1930(1stof Shevat, 5690): “Prominent philanthropist in colonial India, Alice Edith Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading GBE, née Alice Edith Cohen the daughter of London merchant Albert Cohen, the first wife of Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading passed away today.1930: Simcha Hinkas, a Jewish policeman, went on trial in Tel Aviv. He is accused of leading a crowd of Jews who reportedly killed five adults and wounded two children in an Arab family on August 25, 1929 during the Arab Uprising. According to the government, while Hinkas was on duty at a crossroad on Herzl Street during the Arab riots he saw a truck filled with Jews fired on by Arabs who killed four and wounded five. Hinkas allegedly went back to his barracks, got his rifle and led a Jewish mob in an attack on an Arab house. A government witness identified the bullets in the dead Arabs as having come from a government issued rifle, but could not tie them to the gun belonging to Hinkas. Two Arabs later identified Hinkas from a group of 13 Constables, but other Arabs identified different Constables. Alfred Riggs, assistant superintendent of the police “declared that Hinkas was one of the mildest and best of the police” but, “for reasons of his own,” the British police official seemed certain that the Jewish policeman was guilty.1930: Today, “Comzet, the government department for settling Jews on the land, announced that the government had cut the budget” which means that “the Jewish colonists in the Ukraine will not get a single penny from the Soviet government” during 1930.1930): Today in Warsaw, “the famous Chasidic Rabbi ‘Chafetz Chaim’ presided at a great rabbinical assembly” which was attended by “Chassidic rabbis of Ger, Amschinow, Cracow, Tarnpole, Petrikov and other Polish cities” where the attendees discussed “the new law regulating the Jewish religious communities which the government is proposing.1931: Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" premieres at Los Angeles Theater.1931: In the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Jules Weinberg, who “helped run his family’s newspaper distribution business” and the former Elka Heller gave birth to Linda Natalie Weinberg who gained fame as art historian Linda Nochlin.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/obituaries/linda-nochlin-groundbreaking-feminist-art-historian-is-dead-at-86.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=region®ion=region&WT.nav=region&_r=01933: Author Joseph Roth “left Germany when Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor today.1933: Nazi Machtergreifung or “Nazi seizure of power” took placed to when President Paul von Hindenberg appointed Adolph Hitler to the Chancellorship of Germany and members of the Nazi Party were appointed to “several other high-ranking cabinet posts.”1933: On the day that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Eli Boschwitz, a judicial abriter came home and told his wife, 'We are leaving Germany forever.'" Boshwitz was the father of 5 year old Rudy Boschwitz the future Republican leader who would eventually serve 12 years as U.S. Senator from Minn. 1933: Youth Aliyah opens its offices in Berlin. The previous year Recha Freier, a rabbi's wife decided it would be a good idea to send young people from Germany to Kibbutzim. She founded the Juedische Jugendhilfe organization to help facilitate the work. That same year it became a department of the World Zionist Organization under Henrietta Szold. Five thousand adolescents were rescued before the war and another 15,000 after the war. 1933: “Symphony of Six Million” a film based on the “Night Bell” by Fannie Hurst which “concerns the rise of a Jewish physician from humble roots to the top of his profession and the social costs of losing his connection with his community, his family and with the craft of healing” produced by Pandro S. Berman and David O. Selznick, co-starring Gregory Ratoff with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.1934: The American Economic Committee is scheduled to host a discussion on “Arab Benefirts from Jewish Enterprise in Palestine” following a dinner at the Royal Hotel.1934: WEVD broadcast the first in a series of programs hosted by Herman Bernstein “o important current topics affect the lives of Jewish people.”1934: Two days before he was scheduled to retire and become rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Hyman G. Enelow “sailed for the Mediterranean aboard the Empress of Australia.”1934: Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Chasan of the Bronx announce the engagement of their daughter Shulamith Chasan to Theodore S. Chazin, son of Cantor and Mrs. Hirsch L. Chazin. Mr. Chazin is a practicing attorney and the secretary of the Jersey City Zionist District. 1934: Moses Mendel Penn, the oldest patient ever cared for at Montefiore Hospital for Chronic Diseases, will observe his 109th birthday there today. He has partly recovered from a stroke that paralyzed one side of his body eight months ago. Mr. Penn entered the hospital on the application of the Bronx Young Men's Hebrew Association, of which he is the oldest living member.1935: “Three Men on a Horse,” a comedy starring Garson Kanin and Sam Levene opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre where it ran for 835 performances.1935: Birthdate of Albert “Albie” Louis Sachs, the South African born son of Lithuanian Jews who fought against Apartheid and was appointed a Judge of the Constitutional Court by Nelson Mandela.http://whoswho.co.za/albert-sachs-5369http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/judges/justicealbiesachs/index1.html1936: At today’s session of its 16th annual convention, the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations adopted “resolutions approving the boycott of German products, opposing the sending of American athletes to the Olympics in Germany and urging a neutrality law that will keep” the United States out of war. (Editor’s note – This is a leading national Jewish organization that is in effect supporting the isolationism of the 1930’s All the critics of FDR, might want to consider this before rendering judgments on his behavior before Pearl Harbor.)1936: At Long Beach, Long Island, Rabbi Stephen Wise announced plans for a “Boycott Day” to mark the third anniversary of “Hitler’s persecution of the Jews.”1937: Rabbi Samuel Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Can Any One Be Rich?” at Temple Emanu-El1937: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon comparing the four years under Hitler and Roosevelt at the Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall.1937: Rabbi Israel Goldstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Hitler’s Anniversary, Roosevelt’s Inaugural and Poland’s ‘Superfluous Citizens’” at B’nai Jeshurun. (Editor’s note – 1937 was the first year that the Inauguration took place in January instead of March. The Polish government had refused to its Jewish citizens as “superfluous.)1937: At Rodeph Sholom, a guest speaker from Tel Aviv is scheduled to lecture on “Is there a Solution for the Jewish Problem?”1937: Rabbi Morris Lichentenstein is scheduled to deliver the sermon at the Jewish Science Society.1938: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish constable, Mordechai Schwartz, who was charged with the premeditated murder of Police Constable Mustapha Khoury, was sentenced to death. The court refused to accept evidence that the previous murder by Arabs of two Jews in Karkur had influenced Schwartz to an immediate act of reprisal. Schwartz continued to claim his innocence.1938: Rabbi Nathan A. Perilman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Protection From Our Friends” at Temple Emanu-El.1938: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Five Tragic Hitler Years” at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall.1938: Seven hundred representatives of “many Jewish organizations” attending a meeting of the Council of the Fraternal and Benevolent Organizations heard a speech by I. Edwin Goldwasser who said “this is a time when the Jew, in his personal conduct, should consider himself not only an individual but a representative of his people.”1938: George Gordon Battle was one of the speakers at tonight’s dinner at the Manhattan Opera House where the 400 attendees celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Federation of Polish Jews in America.1938: While addressing a meeting of the Middle Atlantic States Regional Conference in Atlantic City, David J. Schweitzer, European vice chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, said that while anti-Semitism is being offered as a “cure-all for political and economic ills in many countries” including Poland and Rumania, in the end “when put into effect” these policies intensifies the problems “and causes additional suffering among the general population.”1938: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Discovery of Scripture; We Wrote the Bible” at the Community House on East 62nd Street.1938: Rabbi Louis L. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Can Hitler Last Another Five Years in Germany? Will Cuza and Goga Last in Rumania?” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.1938: Premier Octavian Goga today echoed King Carol’s assurance to the world that Rumania would stirve to meet is Jewish problem “without inhumanities” but there has not been any “modification of the government’s anti-Semitic program.”1938: Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “When Nerves Become Restless” at the Jewish Science Society. 1939: Hitler, in his anniversary speech in Berlin, talked about the event of war, "The result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe." Hitler also spoke in warm terms about its friendship with Poland.1940: The Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA), a special committee created by the Joint Distribution Committee signed a contract with the Trujillo regime that was part of plan to settle Jewish refugees in that Central American country. 1940: “At a conference today, it was decided that all 30,000 Romani living in Germany proper were to be deported to former Polish territory” which meant they would die alongside the Jews in the gas chambers of Treblinka.1942: In a speech at the Sports Palace in Berlin, Hitler told of his confidence in victory and his hatred for the Jews. "The hour will come when the most evil universal enemy of all time will be finished, at least for a thousand years." By the spring, four labor camps would be converted to death camps for the purpose of extinguishing the Jews; joining Chelmno were Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz.1942: In Cincinnati, “Catherine Eugenia (nee Talbot) Buchwald, who was an Episcopalian and Joseph Buchwald who was Jewish gave birth to Marty Jerel Buchwald who gained fame as Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/obituaries/marty-balin-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries1943(24thh of Shevat, 5703): Sixty-seven year old Patterson, NJ native Carl Florian Zittle, the son of Gustave and Bertha Zittle and the husband of the former Martha Beatrice Bernstein with whom he had two children – Madeline and Carl -- known as Zit who worked for a number of Hearst publications, “owned the Central Park Casino during the administration of Mayor Jimmy Walker” and published Zit’s Weekly, a show biz weekly, for over twenty years passed away.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/31/88513430.pdf1943 (24th of Shevat, 5703): In Letychiv, Ukraine, German Gestapo commences mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp were ordered to undress and were shot with machine-gun into a ravine. Some 7,000 Jews were murdered in Letychiv. For those with a sense of irony, this was Shabbat and the Torah reading was Yitro.1943: The SS Pierre Soule, a liberty ship, was launched today 45 days after its keel was laid. The ship was named after Pierre Soule a Louisiana political leader who was an ally of Judah P. Benjamin, and according to one story in the New York Times, was Jewish. 1944: Seven hundred Jews are deported from Milan, Italy, to Auschwitz.1945: Hitler gives his last ever public address; a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power.1945: In Kehrson, two Holocaust survivors gave birth to Meir Hubermann, the grandson of Holocaust victim Ber Erlich Sloshny, whom they took to Israel in 1950 where he gained famed Meir Dagan, the Director of Mossad who according to uncredited sources played a key role in derailing the Iranian nuclear program. (As reported by Isabel Kershner)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/world/middleeast/meir-dagan-former-mossad-director-dies-at-71.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=01946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. continued its meetings today in London.1948: Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist. While Gandhi was a figure revered by many, some Jews have their reservations about this proponent of civil disobedience and non-violence no matter what the threat. After Kristallnacht Gandhi wrote, "If the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary sacrifice, even the massacre I have imagined by Nazis could be turned into a day of thanksgiving that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of a tyrant...the German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity." Apparently Ghandi lacked any concept of the evil that was Hitler. But even after the war when the total horror was known, Gandhi said that the Holocaust was "the greatest crime of our time, but the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from the cliffs....It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany." 1951: Birthdate of Harvard and Penn alum Laurence Jacob Kotlikoff, the economist who “is a William Warren Fair Professor at Boston University” and feels strong enough about his theories to have actually considered running for President in 2012.https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/#4bc90ebe9bbahttps://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/08/boston-university-economics-professor-laurence-kotlikoff-wants-to-change-your-retirement.html1953(14thof Shevat, 5713): Eighty-nine year old geologist and geographer Alfred Philipson who survived 3 years in Theresienstadt, passed away today.http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=4754951953: The Jerusalem Post reported from Bonn that the West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, assured Israel that his country would pay the first installment of 47 million marks of the German-Israeli Reparation Agreement within the next two months. 1953: The DuMont Television Network broadcast the final episode of “Steve Randall” starring Melvyn Douglas.1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that IDF patrols had beaten back two attacks by Jordanian marauders at two points along the armistice lines, inflicting heavy casualties. Jordan falsely claimed that a number of Israeli soldiers were killed in both encounters. Both sides complained to the UN Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission. 1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that traces of copper were found near Jenin. 1958: “Sunrise at Campabello” the play written by Dore Schary that provided a dramatic depiction of FDR’s struggle with Polio premiered at the Cort Theatre in New York City.1964(16thof Shevat, 4724): Writer and theatrical producer Allen A. Adler passed away today in New York City at the age of 47. Adler was part of a famous Jewish theatrical family. His grandfather was actor and producer Jacob Adler. His father was theatre manager and owner, Adolph Adler. His uncle was Luther Adler and his aunt was Stella Adler.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FB0A17FB3E5415738DDDA80894DA405B848AF1D31966(9thof Shevat, 5726): Eighty-eight year old banker Rudolf Löb, who served as Chairman of Mendelssohn & Co before the Nazi broke up the bank passed away today in Boston, MA.http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=4800811969(11thof Shevat, 5729): Austrian born, American actress and singer Fritzi Massary passed away today.http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/fritz-massary.pdf1970(23rdof Shevat, 5730): Marjan (or Maryan) Rawicz one half of the piano duo of Rawicz and Landauer that played together for forty years passed away today.1971: Carole King's “Tapestry” album is released. This recording by Brooklyn born Jewess Carol Klein would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.1971: “Abbie an' Slats” a comic strip created by Al Capp was published for the last time today.1973: “Three Arabs were arrested in Italy at the border with Austria” thwarting “a planned attack on a transit camp in Austria for Jewish immigrants from Russia.”1974: The Mayor and City of West Berlin hosted a reception to mark the 85thbirthday of Dr. Kate Frankenthal. A psychiatrist and socialist political leader during the Weimar Republic she fled Germany in 1933 and settled in the United States in 1936 where she became a consultant to the Jewish Family Service of New York. 1974(7th of Shevat, 5734): Sixty-four year old Pittsburgh native and California trained lawyer Murray Chotiner, the original political mentor of Richard Nixon passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/31/archives/murray-chotiner-nixon-mentor-dies-campaign-aide-since-46-and.htmlhttps://spartacus-educational.com/JFKchotiner.htm1974: PBS broadcast a performance of “June Moon” co-authored by George S. Kaufman.1975: The final part of the Agranat Commission’s report was published today. The commission had been set up after the Yom Kippur War to find out why the IDF had failed to perform as expected prior to, and during, the hostilities.1976: NBC broadcast the first episode of “The Practice” co-starring Didi Conn with music by David Shire.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Jimmy Carter sent a sharp note to Prime Minister Menachem Begin, complaining over the plan to establish Shilo, a new West Bank settlement. 1978(22nd of Shevat, 5738): Mordechai Yehuel, 27, of Ramat Gan was stabbed and killed in Ramallah. 1979: The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return from exile in France. The subsequent Islamist revolution would end the reign of the Shah, a regime which was much friendlier to Israel than the government that would follow. In retrospect, one can draw a straight line between the French decision and the Iranian nuclear threat that the West and Israel face in the 21st century.1979: Max Moses Heller completed his term in office as the 29th Mayor of Greenville, SC.1979: “The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal” a film about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire directed by Mel Stuart and co-starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Tovah Felshuh was released in the United States today.1980: Birthdate of Albany Law School grad and U.S. Army veteran Lee Zeldin who served in the New York State Senated before being elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 1s District.1981: “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” directed by Joel Schumacher and co-starring Charles Grodin was released in the United States today.1982: U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig “filed a reported with President Reagan that revealed” his “fear that Israel might, at the slightest provocation, start a war against Lebanon.”1990: The Israeli Government said today that it had no official policy of settling Soviet Jewish immigrants in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir dismissed the debate over the issue as an ''artificial storm'' created by panicked Arab leaders.1984(26thof Shevat, 5744): Seventy-six year old Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser, “the spiritual leader for fifty years of the Forest Hills Jewish in Queen” and the author of such books as Judaism: Profile of a Faith and Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel who was the husband of Kallia Halpern Bokser with whom he had two children – Miriam and Baruch – passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/02/obituaries/ben-zion-bokser-76-a-rabbi-and-professor.html1986(20thof Shevat, 5746): One police officer was killed and two civilians were wounded when terrorists began shooting today in Jerusalem.1987: “Outrageous Fortune,” a comedy directed by Arthur Hiller and co-starring Bette Midler was released today in the United States.1987: Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold,” a movie version of the novel produced by Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan was released today in the United States..1990: After having originally premiered at the Tokyo International Film, “Unsettled Land” an “Israeli drama directed by Uri Barbash” was released in France today.1991(15th of Shevat, 5751): Tu B'Shvat1991: The New York Times reviews The Smile of the Lamb by David Grossman; translated by Betsy Rosenberg.1991: In Amman, around 3,000 Jordanians demonstrated in favor of Iraq, burned American and Israeli flags and urged Mr. Hussein to fire chemical weapons at Israel. The demonstration reflected Jordan's tilt toward Baghdad throughout the gulf crisis. "O Saddam, hit, hit Tel Aviv!" some chanted. "With chemical weapons, O Saddam!" others replied. Jordan's population is more than half Palestinian, and many have voiced support for the Iraqi leader as a champion who will lead them to statehood. 1991: The Young Professionals of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University is sponsoring a black-tie cocktail party and dance, at Stringfellows to benefit the Adopt-a-Student Endowment Fund at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University.1992: Publication date of “Hideous Kinky, an autobiographical novel by Esther Freud, daughter of British painter Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud.1992: "ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD," by Tom Stoppard, adapted by Yosef Brodski, staged by Yevgeny Arye and featuring the Gesher Theater Company is scheduled to be performed in Brooklyn, NY.1992: As Israel presses the United States for loan guarantees to cope with a projected huge influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, officials here said today that the immigrant flow this month had sunk to its lowest in almost two years and could dwindle even further 1993 “During fiscal 1992” which ended today, Younkers which had been founded by Lipman, Samuel and Marcus Younker in Keiokuk, IA in 1856 “had net earnings of $17.6 million on net sales of $473.4 million.”1998: Premier performance of Paul Simon's "The Capeman."1998: U.S premiere of “Zero Effect” a detective move directed and written by Jake Kasdan.1998: Evelyn Lieberman, “the first woman to serve as deputy chief of staff to a president” “testified before a special grand jury” today that Monica Lewinsky “had displayed ‘immature and inappropriate behavior,’ was ‘spending too much time around the West Wing,’ and was ‘always someplace she shouldn’t be’” which had led her to decide “to get of her because of the appearance that it was creating” and not be because “she had heard…rumors linking the president and Ms. Lewinsky.”1999(13thof Shevat, 5659): Ninety-three year old Professor Mirra Komarovksy the Russian born daughter of “Zionists and land owning Jews” who came to the United States where she became a leading authority in the field of Women’s Studies passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/01/us/mirra-komarovsky-authority-on-women-s-studies-dies-at-93.html2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Einstein’s German World by Fritz Stern and The Greenspan Effect:Words That Move the World's Markets by David B. Sicilia and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank.2001: Two people were injured during at the Tayibe Bridge bombing for which Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.2001(6thof Shevat, 5761): Eighty-five year old pioneer neurosurgeon Joseph Ransohoff, passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/12/nyregion/joseph-ransohoff-a-pioneer-in-neurosurgery-dies-at-85.html2001: Prime Minister Ehud Barak saw 20 immigrants' representatives inside his Jerusalem office and then presided tonight over a modest support rally at the city's convention center as he continued his campaign against Ariel Sharon. 2003: In “A Burst of Light Provides Privacy,” published today Elaine Louie discusses the work of Ayala Sefaty of Tel Aviv who designed her own underwater restaurant in Eilat.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/garden/currents-architecture-a-burst-of-light-provides-privacy.html2003: “The Israeli experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia has accomplished its goals of studying the effects of dust storms on weather and recording electrical phenomena atop storm clouds, scientists said today. 2004: Airing of the 13th episode of “Boston Public” co-starring Fyvush Finkel, Michael David Rapaport, Anthony Heald, Jessalyn Gilsig and Joey Slotnick following which it was announced that the series would be cancelled due to low ratings.2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lot’s Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and Women's Quest for Authority by Robert M. Polhemus and the newly released paperback editions of Growing Up Fast by Joanna Lipper and Oracle Night by Paul Auster2005: In “The Observant Reader,” Wendy Shalit provides a prescient synopsis of the varying ways in which Orthodoxy is portrayed in contemporary literature.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0DA1038F933A05752C0A9639C8B632005: A Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures” which had opened at Studio 54 in 2004 closed today2005: In “The Nation; One Clear Conscience, 60 Years After Auschwitz,” published today Roger Cohen tells the story of Miecyslaw Kasprzyk, an unsung hero of the Holocaust.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE0D7143BF933A05752C0A9639C8B632006(1st of Shevat, 5766): Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, author of the Heidi Chroniclesand The Sisters Rosensweig passed away at the age of 55.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/theater/31wasserstein.html?pagewanted=all&_r=02007: It was announced today that Michael Abraham Levy who had been named Baron Levy, had been “arrested by police on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice regarding the cash for peerages investigation and immediately released on bail” Six months later he would be cleared of charges related to a scandal regarding charges of granting life peerages in exchange for political contributions.2007: “The hardcover edition” of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, a distant relation of David O. Selznick, was released today.2007: “Farce of the Penguins,” an American direct-to-video parody of the 2005 French documentary film March of the Penguins with the two main characters voiced by Bob Saget (who also wrote and directed the film) and Lewis Black” was released today in the United States.2007(11thof Shevat, 5767): Eighty-nine year old former supermarket executive Benjamin Saget, the father of Bob Saget, passed away today.2007(11thof Shevat, 5767): Eighty-nine year old novelist Sidney Shelton passed away today in Ranch Mirage, CA.http://web.archive.org/web/20061231180647/http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/sidneysheldon/meet_ss.html2007: The House of Love and Prayer, a new multi-lingual musical based on the life of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, had its final performance at the JCC in Manhattan 2007: In Derby, UK, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day observances a screening of 'Into the Arms of Strangers,” for students from the Millennium Centre, with a Q&A session to follow with Steven Mendelsson who traveled on the “Kindertransports.”2008: Today, “the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied John Demjanjuk’s request for a review” as he continued to fight the 2006 decision order his deportation.2008: In Manhattan, the 92nd St Y presents Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in debating “Does God Exist?” Two of today’s most provocative voices as debate the ultimate religious question: Is there a God? Best-selling authors Christopher Hitchens and Shmuley Boteach pull no punches as they discuss organized religion and its place in American life.2009: Maira Kalman started a new illustrated blog in the New York Times called “And the Pursuit of Happiness” about American democracy today2009: Lillian Hellman’s “Scoundrel Time” opens at the City Lit Theatre in Chicago.2009:“Batsheva Dance Company, one of the most inspirational and sought-after companies in the dance world, presents its acclaimed production, ‘Three’ at the Performing Arts Center in Purchase, New York. 2009: A swastika was discovered today at Congregation Shaarey Tphilohan Orthodox synagogue in Portland, Maine which claims to be Portland's oldest Jewish congregation.2009 (5thof Shevat 5769: Milton Parker, who brought long lines and renown to the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan with towering pastrami sandwiches and a voluble partner who kibitzed with common folk and celebrities alike, passed away today at the age of 90. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/nyregion/05parker.html?_r=02010: The Museum of Modern Art is scheduled to present a musical event featuring Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler with the New York Chamber Soloists.2010: The JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, NJ, is scheduled to observe Tu B’Shevat with a program of stories and songs led by Miki Rahav, of Kibbutz Yagur entitled “Celebrating 100 years of Kibbutz Life with Stories and Songs.”2010(15thof Shevat, 5770): Tu B’Shevat2010(15thof Shevat, 5770): Eighty-seven year old British historian Jack Richon Pole, the son of Ukrainian Jews who had found refuge in the UK, whose most famous work was Political Representation in Britain and the Origins of the American Republic passed away today.2010(15thof Shevat, 5770): Aaron Ruben, who was a producer, writer and director for some of the most popular television comedies of the 1960s and ’70s, notably “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” and “Sanford and Son,” passed away today at his home in Beverly Hills, at the age of 95. (As reported by William Grimes)http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/02/04/aaron_ruben_tv_producer_for_andy_griffith/2010: Joëlle Alexis won the World Cinema Documentary prize for Editing tonight at Sundance for her work on Yael Hersonski's “A Film Unfinished.” The movie examines an unfinished Nazi propaganda film about life in the Warsaw ghetto.2011: Blood Relation, a documentary film by Noa Ben Hagai is scheduled to shown on the final day of the Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.2011: At the 92nd Street Y Drawing on a compendium of more than 600 New York Times articles on the Civil War, Harold Holzer and Craig L. Symonds are scheduled to discuss revelations about America’s great conflict that are still affecting Americans today.2011: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit is scheduled to sponsor Super Sunday, the community wide telethon to benefit the Federation's 2011 Campaign.2011: “Return to Haifa” is scheduled to have its last performance at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater, Washington DCJCC2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 by Irving Kristol, Panorama by H.G. Adler and Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety by Gideon Rachman2011:Cyprus has recognized a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said on today, following similar recent declarations coming mostly from South American states.2011(25thof Shevat, 5771): Eugene Lubin, whose men and boys clothing store in suburban New York provided bar mitzvah suits for decades, and who was a longtime leader in Jewish organizations, passed away today at the age of 88. The store, Lubin's Men's World, has operated in several locations throughout Westchester County, just north of New York City. In 2010 it opened an operation within Rothman’s, an upscale men’s clothier in Scarsdale. “What happens when upscale specialty men’s clothier Rothman’s invites Lubin’s, the 56-year-old young men’s clothing institution (it has dressed generations of bar mitzvah boys), to move into his Scarsdale shop? Y-chromosome clothing kismet. From boys to men, all are suitably attired here at this brilliant -- and stylish -- pairing of retail roomies,” a Westchester magazine raved. Eric Schoen, who is active with the Jewish Council of Yonkers, said that “Gene Lubin was a man who cared greatly about the city of Yonkers and was involved in its business, civic, religious and philanthropic community." But, like others, Schoen also returned to Lubin’s bar mitzvah suits. "He also cared that bar mitzvah boys and anyone celebrating a special occasion looked perfect," Schoen said. "People traveled far and wide to get that perfect fit." Lubin was a former president of the Westchester Jewish Council and was a member of the Yonkers citizen budget commission in 1993. (As reported by the Eulogizer)2011(25thof Shevat, 5771): Meyer O'hayon Tapiero, a Morocco native who was among the founders of the new Jewish community of Marbella in Andalusia, Spain, passed away at the age of 94. Tapiero and and his wife came to the resort town of Marbella in 1955 on a holiday from their home in Casablanca, where they had a successful men’s clothing business, and decided to set up their home and family in the Spanish region because he “felt the political change coming in Morocco and decided to look at new prospects beyond its borders.” His wife had come to Morocco from Berlin, which she fled in 1942. Tapiero convinced two brothers to join him in Spain, and they and other family members from Morocco built a synagogue and helped redevelop the community, which had been devoid of Jews since the Inquisition. The community is now a popular destination for Jewish tourism and has a Chabad house and other Jewish services (As reported by the Eulogizer)2012: The 92ndStreet Y is scheduled to host “Terezin Between Celebration and Investigation” a frank and challenging discussion about the dual function of the art of Terezín led by Hanna Arie-Faifman and Michael Beckerman.2012: The Israel Prisons Service parole board decided today to reduce the sentence of former minister Shlomo Benizri, a member of the Shas party who was recently sentenced to four years in prison for bribery and other offenses. The parole board decided to cut Benizri's sentence down by a year and four months, so the former minister is due to be released in April. 2012: The Jewish Federation of Arkansas announced today that President Bill Clinton will receive the Tikkun Olam Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas a February 4 ceremony in Little Rock marking its 100th anniversary celebration dinner. 2013: The Library of Congress is scheduled to host a presentation on the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design featuring Professor Ezri Tabari, the founder and former chair of the Bezalel MA degree program in industrial design2013: Jori Slodki is scheduled to teach a two hour class “Oy Vay! A History of Yiddish” at (of all places) Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City, Iowa.2013: The ORT Braude Academic College of Engineering in Karmiel is scheduled to host the opening session of “From There to Here,” a month long event that will give 15 Oleh artists living in northern Israel showcase their works.2013: Yeshiva University Museum with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Jewish Theological Seminary are scheduled to present a panel discussion featuring David G. Roskeis and Naomi Diament, the co-authors of the newly published Holocaust Literature: A History & Guide 2013: Former Representative Gabby Giffords gave a brief emotiaonal opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee that was holding hearings on gun violence.2013: Israeli forces attacked a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border today, sources told Reuters, after Israelis warned their Lebanese enemy Hezbollah against using chaos in Syria to acquire anti-aircraft missiles or chemical weapons.2013: Beitar Jerusalem soccer club welcomed Muslim Chechen players Zaur Sadayev and Gabriel Kadiev to the team in a press conference today attended by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and dozens of foreign reporters.2014: “Nazi-looted paintings recovered by the Allies platoon known as the Monuments Men are scheduled to be sold at auction in New York” today. The four lots will go on the block at Sotheby’s in New as part of a sale of Old Master paintings and sculpture. Some of the works were owned by the Rothschild family. Two of the family’s paintings to be auctioned were placed in the private collection of Nazi leader Hermann Goering, Reuters reported.” (As reported by JTA)2014: Joan Dodek (Past President, Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry) and Marcia Weinberg (Former Chair, Soviet Jewry Committee of Jewish Community Council) are scheduled to discuss their daring trips to visit refuseniks in the Soviet Union and involvement in the struggle to free Soviet Jewry at Washington Hebrew Congregation.2014: In New York, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host an evening of entertainment “featuring a live performance by Mirah” to mark the upcoming closing of “Chagall: Love, War and Exile.2014: Rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit in an open area in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.2014: Oxfam accepted actress Scarlett Johansson’s resignation as a global ambassador, calling the role “incompatible” with her work for the Israeli company SodaStream.“Oxfam has accepted Scarlett Johansson’s decision to step down after eight years as a Global Ambassador and we are grateful for her many contributions,” the global anti-poverty charity said in a statement issued today. “While Oxfam respects the independence of our ambassadors, Ms. Johansson’s role promoting the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam Global Ambassador.” (As reported by JTA)2014: The editors of an ultra-Orthodox daily newspaper today accused the State of Israel of encouraging anti-Semitism throughout the world, claiming that lax religious adherence in the nation and “harassment” of the Haredi community were to blame.2015: Today, “after a week of intense political pressure and dwindling support, Sheldon Silver submitted his resignation as Speaker, effective February 2, while retaining his position as Assembly Memberand vowing to fight the charges against him.”2015: Ernst Lutisch’s “Angel” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Cinematheque2015: “Born Yesterday” is scheduled to be shown at the 92nd St Y as part of the Women on Top series.2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present “Piano Games” featuring Ariel Halevi, Dror Semmel and Michaek Serzekel.2016: “Over 3500 selflessly committed and highly talented women including 4 from Arkansas are scheduled to spend Shabbat in New York, as part of the annual Chabad-Lubavitch International Kinus Hashluchos (conference of Chabad women representatives and their guests) which is held each year, at this time on the calendar, in conjunction with the yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Rebbe whose yahrzeit is the 22nd of Shevat.”2016: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present “The Best of Chamber Music - Essence of Piano Trios” featuring the Alexander Trio.2016: The first of the two-part annual exhibition Illustrators 58 being held at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators featuring the work of Merav Salomon is scheduled to come to an end today.2016: Shabbat Yitro – reading of the Ten Commandments2017(3rdof Shevat, 5777): Eighty-eight year old “art historian and critic” Dorea Ashston, the daughter of Dr. Ralph Shapiro and Newark News reporter Sylvia Smith, passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/arts/design/dore-ashton-art-critic-who-embraced-and-inhabited-modernism-dies-at-88.htmlhttp://www.artnews.com/2017/02/02/in-memorian-dore-ashton-1928-2017/2017(3rdof Shevat, 5777): Ninety-five year old Holocaust surviving pianist Walter Hautzig passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/arts/music/walter-hautzig-dead-flee-nazis.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02017(3rdof Shevat, 5777): Ninety year old Tulane Graduate Harold Rosen, the engineer responsible for what has become our modern communication network passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/business/harold-rosen-dead-engineer-satellite.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=02017: In Boca Raton, FL, supporters of US Holocaust Memorial Museum from South Florida are scheduled to hold their annual luncheon where “Wendy Holden, author of Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope, will interview Eva Clarke, one of the infant survivors whose mothers are featured in the book.”2018: As part of the observance of Holocaust Memorial Day, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to “Women in the Holocaust, “a talk by Holocaust historian Dr. Zoe Waxman, the author of Writing the Holocaust: memory, testimony, representation (2006), Anne Frank (2015), and Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History of the Holocaust (2017), as well as numerous articles relating to the Holocaust and genocide who teaches in the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford.2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Tu B’Shevat Seder this evening.2018: Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University is scheduled to lecture on “Anti-Semitism Past and Present” as part of the History Matters “a new lecture series at the Center for Jewish History.”2018: Leonard Stein is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jewish Spain in American Tongue: The Sephardic Return of Emma Lazarus” at the Center for Jewish History.2018: As part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration “Father Sam Argenziano of Winnipeg’s Holy Rosary Parish Church is scheduled to speak on the role the Catholic Church played during the Holocaust.2018(14thof Shevat, 5778): Ninety-one year old cardiologist and author Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/obituaries/dr-isadore-rosenfeld-high-profile-cardiologist-dies-at-91.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well2019(24thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, date on which “the prophet Zechariah predicted the rebuilding of Zion.”http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_24.html2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host an “evening featuring former CIA analyst and renowned scholar Kenneth Pollack, the author of Armies of Sand in conversation with Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune” during which they will discuss the “changing Arab military threat to Israel.”2019: In Memphis, members of Temple Israel are scheduled to “with the Community Shlicah Meitave” for a conversational Hebrew class that will help attendees build on their “existing foundation of Hebrew while exploring contemporary news, music and other aspects of Israeli culture.”2019: In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Not Our Kind: A Novelby Kitty Zeldis.2019: Observance of National Croissant Day. Oddly enough the croissant and the bagel – two signature “breads” – are connected to the same event in history. According to legend when the Ottomans were laying to siege in Vienna in 1683, “the bakers of Vienna, who worked in the basement storerooms, heard the sound of Turks digging tunnels and alerted the” military authorities. For their vigilance, the bakers received high honors and thanks for their assistance in outwitting the Turks. In celebration, they baked their bread in the shape of a crescent moon—the symbol of the Ottoman Empire. After the Turks were defeated, it became custom to serve morning coffee with the crescent-shaped pastry! According to another legend , bagels were invented during the same siege by a Viennese baker trying to pay tribute to the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski” who “had led Austria (and hence Poland as well, since it was part of the empire) in repelling invading Turkish armies. Given that the king was famous for his love of horses, the baker decided to shape his dough into a circle that looked like a stirrup -- or beugel in German. (As reported by Ari Weinzeig and “Days of the Year”)Those living in Cedar Rapids who observe the dietary laws can take part in the observance those to Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s both of which carry kosher versions of the golden, flakey, delicacy.
↧
↧
January 30, 2019, 4:32 pm
January 31314: Sylvester I whose name is “the Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations” began his papacy“The Israeli term for New Year’s night celebrations, “Sylvester,” was the name of the “Saint” and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea (325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic “Saints” are awarded a day on which Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory. December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day – hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are dedicated to Sylvester’s memory. (As reported by Jewlicious)439: Promulgation of the Code of Theodosius II in the Byzantine Empire. This was the first imperial compilation of anti- Jewish laws since Constantine. Jews were prohibited from holding important positions involving money including judicial and executive offices and the ban against building new synagogues was reinstated. Theodosius was the Roman emperor of the East (408–450) The Code was readily accepted as well by Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III (425-455).579: The reign of Khosrow I (or Chosroes I) who “protected the rights of Christian and Jewish minoirites” when he “destroyed Antioch” in 540 came to an end today.1253: Henry III of England ordered that Jewish worship in Synagogues must be held quietly so that Christians should not have to hear it when passing by. In addition Jews were not to employ Christian nurses or maids, nor was any Jew allowed to prevent another Jew from converting to Christianity.1419: Pope Martin V issued a Bull that abolished the oppressive laws promulgated by antipope Benedict XIII and granted the Jews those privileges which had been accorded them under previous popes.1493: Jews fleeing Spain were no longer allowed to enter to enter Genoa. During the previous year Jews fleeing Spain were allowed to land in Genoa for three days. As of this date the special consideration was cancelled due to the “fear” that the Jews may introduce the Plague.1504: France ceded Naples to Aragon. Jews had lived in Naples in comparative freedom but began to suffer persecution when the French conquered the kingdom in 1495. Conditions worsened when the Spanish began to rule the southern Italian land and by 1541 the Jewish community ceased to exist.1674(24th of Shevat): Rabbi Abraham Auerbach of Coesfeld, Germany instituted an annual fast in commemoration of his expulsion on this date.1684(Shevat, 5444): Benedict (Baruch) Nehamias de Castro, who was so successful in practicing medicine in his hometown of Hamburg “that in 1645 he was appointed physician in ordinary to Queen Christina of Sweden” passed away today.1796: In Kingston, Jacob Bueno Henriques and Sarah Henriques gave birth to Joseph Gutteres Henriques who settled in London where he married Eliza Henriques with whom he had two children.1812: Birthdate of Frederick David Goldsmid, the MP for Honiton.1813: Birthdate of Dutch physician, pharmacist and philanthropist, Samuel Sarphati. “One of the great Amsterdammers of the 19th century,” Sarphati, was a promoter of public housing, an organizer of municipal services such as garbage collecting, and the builder of a bread factory that provided better and cheaper bread for the city. He also built the Amstel hotel. Sarphati is seen by Dutch history as a great philanthropist. Nobody ever knew he was Jewish—until the Germans authorities changed the name Sarphati Street into “Muiderschans”.1820(15thof Shevat, 5580): Tu B’Shevat is observed for the last time during the Presidency of James Madison.1828: Abraham Joseph married Eliza Wolf in the United Kingdom1830: Birthdate of James G. Blaine, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for U.S. President who while serving as Secretary of State was presented with “a petition signed by 413 Jewish and Christian leaders including John and William Rockefeller, calling for an international conference on the Jews and Palestine.”1830: In South Moravia Löbl Strakosch and Julia Schwarz gave birth their daughter Josefina Strakosch.1838: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Poznanski officiated at the marriage of Samuel Sampson to Catherine Goldsmith, “the only daughter of the late Isaac Goldsmith.”1842(20thof Shevat, 5602): Seventy-seven year old Emanuel Deutz who had been serving as Chief Rabbi of France since 1810 passed away today.1842: In St. Mary’s, Camden Country, GA, Lieutenant Levi Charles Harby married Leonora R. D’Lyon the daughter of Levi S. D’Lyon of Savannah, GA at the residence of Dr. Francis O. Curtis.1845: The government Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler permission to leave Hanover so that he could move to London and assume the position of Chief Rabbi.1846: After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown were incorporated to form the modern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Four years prior to this, the families of Solomon Adler, Isaac Neustadt, and Moses Weil settled in the city. As proof of the vibrancy of the young community, during the 1840’s the first Rosh Hashanah services were held at the home of Henry Newhouse and the first Yom Kippur Services were held in a building containing Pereles grocery store. For more about the history of the Jews of Milwaukee consider a visit to the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee or reading "One People, Many Paths: A History of Jewish Milwaukee," by John Gurda.1841(9thof Shevat, 5601): German Jewish music teacher Moses Budinger who “edited the Jewish ritual for festivals with a grammatical commentary in Hebrew and the penitential prayers with a commentary” passed away in Cassel today.1848: Birthdate of Nathan Straus who the wealthy American businessman and philanthropist who owned R.H. Macy & Company and Abraham and Straus. Born in Otterberg, Germany, Strauss moved to the United States with his family in 1854 where they first settled in Georgia before moving to New York City after the Civil War where young Nathan worked in his father’s firms L Straus & Sons. In the 1880’s he began a life of philanthropy and public service that included leading the fight against tuberculosis and a major effort to improve the public libraries. His philanthropy extended to developing a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel following his first visit to the area in 1912. His support is memorialized by the fact that a street in the Jerusalem is called “Rehov Straus” and that the modern Israeli city of Netanya, founded in 1927, was named in his honor1849: One day after he had passed away, Joshua bar Jacob was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”1851(28th of Shevat, 5611): David Spangler Kaufman passed away. Born in 1813,Kaufman was the first Jewish United States Congressman from Texas. No other Jewish Texan served in Congress until Martin Frost in 1979. He was born in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania. After graduating with high honors from Princeton College in 1830, he studied law under John A. Quitman in Natchez, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar. He began his legal career in Natchitoches, Louisiana, five years later. In 1837 Kaufman settled in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he practiced law and participated in military campaigns against the Cherokee Indians. He was wounded in an encounter in 1839. Between 1838 and 1845 he was a member of the Republic of Texas's congress. He served in the Republic's House of Representatives from 1838 to 1842, and was Speaker of the House in the last two years. He was a member of the Texas Senate from 1843 to 1845, when president of Texas Anson Jones named him chargé d'affaires to the United States in February 1845. After the Texas Annexation,Kaufman represented the Eastern District (District 1 of Texas in the United States House of Representatives from 1845 to 1851. While in Congress, Kaufman argued unsuccessfully that Texas owned lands that are now parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. He encouraged Governor of Texas Peter Hansborough Bell to have Texas troops seize Santa Fe, New Mexico, which never occurred. He also played a role in the Compromise of 1850, as one result of which the national government assumed the debts of the former republic. Kaufman was a Freemason and a charter member of the Philosophical Society of Texas. He died in Washington, D.C. while attending the Congress, and was originally buried in the Congressional Cemetery there. In 1932 his remains were moved to the State Cemetery in Austin, Texas. Kaufman County, Texas and the city of Kaufman, Texas are named for him.1853: In Woodville, MS, Jacob Schwartz and Judith Morritz Schwartz gave birth to Lazarus “Lazar” Schwartz, the husband of Texan Sophia Weyl Schwartz with whom he had three children – Lucille, Edgar and Florence.1856: F.W. Evans delivered a lecture tonight entitled "Shakerism" during which he described numerous similarities in the beliefs and/or practices of the Shakers and those of the Jews. This positive view Jews may be one of the reasons that systemic European style anti-Semitism never took firm root in the United States.1860: In Prague, Simon Heller and Mathilde Kassanowitz gave birth to Maximilian Heller, the Rabbi at Temple Sinai in New Orleans who was the husband of Ida Annie Heller.1863: In Marietta, GA, Barnet Phillips, the son of Isaac and Sarah Phillips and his wife Josephine Phillips gave birth to Henry Myers Phillips1864(23rdof Shevat, 5624): Fifty-one year old Bavarian lawyer Fischel Arnheim whose legal reputation led to his election four times to the Bavarian Legislature from the cities of Hof and Munchberg.1864(23rdof Shevat, 5624): Fifty-five year old Rabbi Michael Sachs who was enlightened enough to be “one of the first Jewish graduates from the modern universities” but who “so strongly opposed the introduction of the organ into the Synagogue that he retired from the Rabbinate rather than acquiesce” which led him to a literary life that included a new translation of the Bible passed away today.1865: The House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment today paving the way for it to be sent to the States for ratification. 1866(15thof Shevat, 5626): Tu B’Shevat1869: One day after he had passed away, 78 year old Edward Van Weerden, the husband of Caroline Van Weerden was today buried in the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”1870: Birthdate of German author Dr. Eduard Fuchs whose works included Jews in Caricature and who was “violently attacked by the Nazi regime” and forced to flee Germany “because his second wife, the former Grete Alsberg was a Jewess.”1876: In the village of Longdowns, Cornwall, Thomas and Jane Hocking Spargo gave birth to John Spargo, the author of The Jews and American Ideals in which he “attacked the problem of anti-Semitism, and exposes the un-American nature and its positive danger to American ideals and institutions.”1871: It was reported today that the Russian government has issued an imperial decree exempting Jews from military service once they reach the age of 32. Christians are exempt once they reach the age of 23. Any Jew who converts will not have to serve in the military – another example of “proselytism by main force.”1874: In the United Kingdom, start of the general election in which Benjamin Disraeli’s Conservatives would win a majority of the seats in the House of Commons.1881: As of today, the books of the Board of Endowment of the Grand Lodge of the order Kesher Shel Barzel, District No.1 showed a deficiency of $2,996.36 which would later be attributed to embezzlement by President Oettinger.1881: Three days after she had passed away, 85 year old Hannah Simmons was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemtery.”1884(4thof Shevat, 5644): Thirty-nine year old German orientalist Siegfried Goldschmidt who fought in the Franco-Prussian War and died today of spinal consumption before he could assume his duties as a professor at the University of Strasburg.1885: Twenty-one year old pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler made “her New York debut came today with a performance of Anton Buinstein’s Concerto in D Minor1886: Birthdate of Lev Shestov.Lev Isaakovich Shestov, born Yehuda Leyb Schwarzmann was a Russian - Jewish existentialist philosopher. The Kiev native fled to France in 1921 seeking to escape the society created by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution. He lived in Paris until his death in 1938.1890: Henry A. Jackson, the Secretary of the Emigration Commission received a letter from Charles Frank, the Superintendent of the United Hebrew Charities attesting to the ability of Moses Gershonfeldt to be able to provide for his wife and four children who were being held at Ward’s Island because Commissioner Stephenson had arbitrarily denied them admission even though Moses, a butcher who earned $12 a week and his son Joseph who earned $9 a week had come to his office, described their financial condition and sought to leave with his wife and remaining children whose passage he had paid so that the family could be reunited. 1891: Twenty-nine year old “Edward Lawrence Levy” won “the first British amateur weight lifting championship today.1891: During the Congressional Investigation of the management of the Barge Office, Colonel John B. Weber the former Superintendent Weber testified as to how the United Hebrew Charities had offered to care for a poor Englishwoman that Dr. Drum and the “powerful and wealthy Episcopal church” had to turned its back on leading Weber to say that he “prayed if he was to be born again he should be born a Jews for then he would have somebody to care of him if he should ever be in need.”1892: In New York City, Meta and Mechel Iskowitz gave birth to Edward Israel Iskowitz the orphan who was raised by his grandmother Esther Kantrowtiz and gained fame as Eddie Cantor.http://eddiecantor.com/1892: It was reported today that six members of the senior class at Rutgers are studying Hebrew, “the study of which is increasing in” the United States.1892: Birthdate of Moritz Guttman the native Kleinsteinach who fought in the German Army during WW I.1892: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs of B’nai Jeshrun officiated at the funeral of Benjamin Russak which was held at his home and followed by burial at Cypress Hills. The police were on hand to deal with the large number of carriages that brought a throng of the city’s leading business leaders and prominent members of the Jewish community.1892: Charles Spurgeon, the English Reformed Baptist Minister who expressed his disgust for the Czar’s treatment of his Jewish subjects, passed away. “If I had all the health and strength that could fall to the lot of man, I should be quite unable to express my feelings on reading of Russia’s intolerance of the Jews…The Czar is greatly injuring his own country by driving out God’s ancient people. No country can trample with impunity.”1892: “The Russian Exiles” published today described efforts by the Jewish community to meet the needs of the swelling tide of immigrants that is arriving from Europe. According to the United Hebrew Charities 62,574 Jews arrived in New York last with five-sixths or 54,194 of them coming from Russia. The total included 26,891 men, 16,393 women and 19,290 children. Only 195 of the immigrants were sent back to Europe by the U.S. government while 46,029 have remained in the city with the rest having been provided transportation to other cities.1893: The Jewish community of Philadelphia is scheduled to host a charity ball today to which President-elect Grover Cleveland was invited by A.E. Greenwald and Chapman Raphael.1893: “L’Amico Fritz” Mascagni’s second opera is scheduled to be performed at the Music Hall tonight under the direction of Walter Damrosch with the proceeds going to the Hebrew Educational Institute.1893: Charles Frohman “signed a contract” today” under which his comedians will open at the Garden Theatre” in September.1893: In Indianapolis, Harry and Hannah (Schiff) Efroymson gave birth to Abram Efroymson, a member of the United States Army Field Artillery during WW I and President of the Terminal and Refrigeration Corporation who was leader of the Cleveland Jewish community and the husband of Sylvia Spira with whom he had two children – Alan and John.1894: Birthdate of Otto Gunstling who was transported from Prague to Ujazdow to Majdanek where he was murder in 1942.1895: Isaac Spectosky of the Hebrew Institute was among those who attended today’s meeting of the Federation of East Side Workers.1896: In Philadelphia PA, the American Jewish Historical Society held the final day of it fourth annual conference during which Dr. Cyrus Adler present a paper on “Notes on the Inquisition in Mexico and the Jews”; Max Kohler presented a paper on “The Jews and the American Anti-Slavery Movement” and Professor Morris Jastrow presented a paper on “Documents Relating to the Career of Colonel Isaac Franks.”1897: Dr. Emil G. Hirsch was among those who attended a conference of South Side Charities in Chicago, Illinois.1897: Two days after she had passed away, Fanny Lyons, the daughter of Henry and Maria Nathan and the wife of Aaron Lyons with whom she had had four children was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1897: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil preached a sermon entitled “Rights and Wrongs of Rich and Poor” at Temple Emanu-El this morning.1897: The Jewish Socialists’ Convention continued its meeting for another day at the Walhalla Hall on Orchard Street.1897: Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil “delivered the fifth and last course of his on ‘The Geography of Palestine’ at Temple Emanu-El” this evening. Gottheil is the son of the congregation’s rabbi and the college professor who helped found Zeta Beta Tau.1897: Twenty-four year old Montgomery, Alabama native I.O. Schiff, the son of Rabbi Abraham J. Schiff and a member of the New York firm of Schiff Bros. married Stella Newmark with whom he had three children – Ruth, Stanley T. and Roslyn Schiff.1898: It was reported today that Mrs. Esther Wallenstein has been elected President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum Association and that Maurice Untermyer has been elected Vice President 1898: It was reported today that arrangements are being completed for a debated between representatives of the Jewish Technical School, the Hebrew Institute and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.1898: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil views newspapers “as the recorders and distributors of the world’s daily history” which provide information that will break down prejudice. 1898: It was reported today that the committee that is trying to building the first Jewish hospital in Brooklyn has selected four potential sites. The committee’s officers are: President – Robert Strahl; Vice President – Sigmund Wechsler; Secretary – Charles Levy1899: The seventh annual meeting of the Hebrew Free Loan Association was held this evening at the Educational Alliance on East Broadway1899: It was reported today that the officers of the Union of Jewish Religious Schools are: President-Richard Gottheil; Vice Presidents – Miss Julia Rachman and Dr. Kaufmann Kohler; Honorary Treasurer – A.F. Hochstader; Honorary Secretary – Rabbi Stephen O. Wise1899: Daniel P. Hays presided over a dinner given by the Judeans to honor Dr. Cyrus Adler who is the newly elected President of the American Jewish Historical Society.1904: In Germany, Samuel and Malchen Jeselsohn gave birth to Albert Jeselsohn1906: Birthdate of Benjamin Frankel, the London born composer who was “the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.”http://www.musicweb-international.com/frankel/1906: “School Principal’s Answer” published today described the hearing held today by District School Board No. 39 to determine if Principal Frank Harding’s references to Christ last December at an assembly at Public School 144 were an attempt to proselytize students at the school in a neighborhood “inhabited almost entirely by Jews” as first alleged by a student Augusta Herbert.1906: “Cossacks Massacre Jews” published today described the attacks on the Jews of Gomel by Cossacks whose efforts “to obtain evidence of revolutionary activity” degenerated into an orgy of drunken looting and murder.1906: Maurice Arnoff and Adolf Spiegel of Temple El Chaim officiated at the wedding of Solomon Levin who manufacturers wax images and Mollie Mogilewsky, the daughter of east side banker Rubin Mogilewsky which was held at the Attorney Street Synagogue.1906: The engagement of Benjamin Mogilwesky, the son of east side banker Rubin Mogilewsky to Rebecca Thomas as announced today.1907: “Miss Hook of Holland” a two act musical comedy “with music and lyrics by Paul Rubens” who co-authored the book “opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre” today where it would run for 462 performances.1909: Birthdate Yosef Burg, “a seminal Israeli political figure who was a Cabinet Minister for 35 years as a head of the religious Zionist movement…” (As reported by Deborah Sontag)http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/16/world/yosef-burg-90-zionist-leader-served-in-many-israeli-cabinets.html?scp=1&sq=Yosef+Burg&st=nyt&pagewanted=print1910: Birthdate of Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian who, with the collaboration of official diplomats, posed as the Spanish consul-general to Hungary in the winter of 1944, and saved 5218 Jews from deportation to Nazi Germany death camps in eastern Europe.1911(2ndof Shevat, 5671): Sixty-seven year old Paul Singer, a leading German Marxist and a co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party passed away.1913(23rdof Shevat, 5673): Sixty-year old Alfred Cohen, a “Councillor at the Supreme Court of Justice, passed away today in Munich.1913: Moses and Beila Scheindlinger gave birth to Samuel Scheindlinger, the graduate of NYU Law School and Manhattan resident who served as a Commissioner of Deeds.1915: Birthdate of Altoona, PA native Maurice Howard “Babe” Patt the Carnegie Tech tight end who played professionally the NFL Detroit Lions and Cleveland Rams before spending WW II in the U.S. Navy.http://blaircountysportshof.com/wp-content/uploads/1989-Maurice-Patt.pdf1915: “New Jewish Magazine” published today described the publication by the Intercollegiate Menorah Association of the first issue of The Menorah Journal a bi-monthly under the guidance of editor in chief Henry Hurwitz which includes the following articles: “A Call to the Educated Jew” by Louis Brandeis; “Jewish Students in European Universities” by Harry Wolfson; “The Jews in War” by Dr. Joseph Jacobs and “Days of Disillusionment” by Samuel Strauss.1915: In Atlanta, GA, “the jury in the case of Dan S. Lehon, C.C. Tedder and Arthur Forman charge with subornation of a perjury in an effort to obtain a new trial for Leo M. Frank, convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan, brought in a verdict of not guilty at 1:50 this afternoon.”1915: “If Leo Frank obtains his freedom from the United States Supreme Court, it was announced today that Solicitor Dorsey would make an effort to have him indicted by the Grand Jury on one of two other charges” and that “Solicitor Dorsey said he intended to fight the case to the bitter end.”1915: “Another batch” of refugees from Palestine have arrived at Alexandria aboard “the United States warship Tennessee which has been fitted up as transport” and have provided information that shows “the inability of the Turks to anything that is effective against Egypt1915: It was reported today that “the Russian Government is now seeking to re-establish the autocracy as it existed before granting of the constitution” and has returned to its practice of organizing demonstrations against the Jews.1915: “Refugees who have arrived in Egypt from Palestine report that conditions go from bad to worse” with “relations between the German and Turkish officers have reached a stage of acute tension.”1916: While developments today with respect to the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court did not change the rather general opinion among Senators that the nomination would be confirmed, it became more apparent that confirmation would not be accomplished without a struggle.1916: It was reported today that New York Assemblymen Nathan Perlman and Myer Levy were among those who attended the dance held “by the Madison Republican of the Twenty-Sixth Assembly District for the benefit of war sufferers.”1916: In a sign of the non-sectarian nature of the fund raising efforts on behalf of the Jews of Europe, it was reported that Senator Boise Penrose and Congressman William S. Vare were among those who spoke at the Philadelphia Mass Meeting organized by the American Jewish Relief Committee.1916: Sendel and Riva Grynszpan, the parents of Herschel Grynsapan (the alleged assassin of Ernst von Rath) gave birth to their third child and second daughter, Esther.1916: As a measure of the worsening conditions in Russia, “many commercial and technical associations have adopted resolutions declaring the restrictions placed up the Jews are the reason for Russia’s commercial backwardness.”1916: Among those who paid tribute to Dr. Joseph Jacobs “the noted Jewish scholar and editor of the American Hebrew” who passed away yesterday were Cyrus L. Sulzberger, “Dr. Frank H. Vizitelly, the scholar and author associated with Dr. Jacobs in many of the publications issued by Funk and Wagnalls” and Louis Marshall.”1916: “The National Jewish Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights announced” today “that it will submitted to Congress document expositing atrocities practice on the Jews in the warring countries of Europe.”1917: In a move that will bring the United States into World War I, Germany announces it will resume its policy of allowing U-Boats “attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sighted in war-zone waters” – a practice popularly referred to as “unrestricted submarine warfare.”1917: As the debate over immigration continued to rage across the American political spectrum, Max J. Kohler, the son of Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler wrote today that “No doubt a very large portion of the thoughtful and patriotic citizens of our country hope that Congress will sustain the President’s veto of the Immigration bill and particularly is that true of those who, like the Jewish citizens of the United States, love our hallowed American precedent of right of asylum for the persecuted…1918(18th of Shevat, 5678): Dr. Jechiel Tchlenow, the Moscow physician who was a major leader of the Zionist movement passed away. In 1917, Tchlenow had come to London “where he took an active part in the diplomatic negotiations that have resulted in official declarations by Great Britain” favoring the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.1919: Birthdate of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball when he played with the Brooklyn Dodgers. . Robinson was befriended by Hank Greenberg, the Jewish slugger who had had to deal with bigotry during his career. According to Jonathan Eig, the only friends that Robinson had in Brooklyn during his first year “were Jewish people.” “The Jewish community clearly recognized a kindred spirit here, someone who had to prove himself. The war had just ended, [and] anti-Semitism was running high. Blacks and Jews both, after the war, felt they had some work to do to establish more respect."1921: The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Victor Berger. Berger had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. In overturning the conviction the Supreme Court found that the presiding Judge, Kennesaw Landis (the future Baseball Commissioner) had improperly presided over the case after the filing of an affidavit of prejudice.1923: In Long Branch, NJ, “Isaac Barnett Mailer, an accountant born in South Africa” and the former Fanny Schneider gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning author Norman Mailer.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/books/11mailer.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/10/books.booksnews1924: Birthdate of Marion Ruth Abitz, the wife of Irving Abitz1924: In Pontiac, Michigan, Fannie Ester Blustin and Philip Taubman gave birth to mall developer Adolph Alfred Taubman.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/business/a-alfred-taubman-shopping-mall-tycoon-involved-in-price-fixing-scandal-dies-at-91.html1925: Birthdate of Charles Eliot Silberman, the native of Des Moines, Iowa, who gained fame as “a journalist whose books addressed vast, turbulent social subjects including race, education, crime and the state of American Jewry.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)1928: Nathan Straus, prominent philanthropist, celebrated the eightieth anniversary of his birthday today at his home, 580 West End Avenue. He will spend the day quietly with members of his immediate family. Among those sending congratulatory communications are President Calvin Coolidge and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker. While Straus has gained great honor for his humanitarian efforts, he was proud of his business acumen and some of his unique accomplishments which, according to him, included the introduction of rest rooms and medical care employees. His philanthropic contributions in Palestine were made with the understanding that they would be available to all regardless of race, religion, creed or nationality. Everybody knows about his support of Jewish settlers, but how many people are aware of the fact that he gave funds that were to be used by Arabs so that they buy modern agricultural equipment? How many people known that when Palestine was struck by an earthquake, and Arabs were the chief victims, he sent a substantial sum earmarked for their use? 1928: Mrs. Hertha Fuerth Lasker, a Viennese artist who was married last August to Edward Lasker, one of the leading chess players in the United States and a cousin of Albert Lasker, former Chairman of the United States Shipping Board, was a passenger on the Hamburg-American liner which arrived in New York tonight.1929:Stalin expelled Leon Trotsky Russia. Trotsky took refuge in Turkey.1930: The Golden Ring, a romantic operetta, set in Tel Aviv, premiered at the National Theatre on Second Avenue in New York City.1930: The trial of Simcha Hinkas, the Jewish policeman charged with leading a Jewish crowd which killed a family of Arabs in Jaffa on Aug. 25, 1929 continued today in Jaffa with the prosecution presenting what it consider to be its strongest witnesses. 1930: The Times“reported from Jerusalem today that the Palestine government” has proposed the establishment of an “agricultural bank…with a capital of $2,500,000.”1931: Dr. William H. Hechler, a Protestant clergyman and teacher who was an early supporter of Theodore Herzl and his Zionist program passed away today at the age of 86. Among other things, Hechler arranged for Herzl to meet Kaiser Wilhelm in those pre-war days when it was thought that the German monarch could persuade the Ottomans to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine.1932: The New York Times reported that Miss Freda Berson of Warsaw who is one of the best discus throwers in Poland and Miss Heda Bienenfeld of the Vienna Hokah, an outstanding Austrian swimmer will be competing in the upcoming Maccabiah.1932: In Boston, Samuel Joseph Bernstein and Jennie Bernstein gave birth to Burton Bernstein, the younger brother of musician Leonard Bernstein.1933(4thof Shevat, 5693): Heinrich Oppenheimer, the German born physician who moved to Britain where he pursued a medical career and, after obtaining an LL.B combined his two areas of interest to produce “The Criminal Reasonability of “Lunatics: A Study in Comparative Law” and “The Rational for Punishment” passed away today in Nice.1933: On the day after they had dined together in Washington Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron resigned the German Ambassador to the United States resigned and called German-Jewish Lin Feuchtwanger not to return to Germany.1934: Birthdate of “Alfred Appel Jr., a scholarly expert on Vladimir Nabokov, whose lecture course he attended at Cornell and the author of wide-ranging interpretive books on modern art and jazz.” (As reported by William Grimes)http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E3DA163DF934A35756C0A96F9C8B63&scp=1&sq=Alfred+Appel%2C+Jr.&st=nyt1934(15th of Shevat, 5694): Tu B'Shevat1934: Zionist District No. 29 is scheduled to host “a gala Palestine celebration of Chamisha Asar Beshavat” this evening at the Burnside Manor in the Bronx.1934: Jacob Landau is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Germany As I Saw It” “at the fifth anniversary celebration of the Jersey City Jewish Community Center this evening”1934: Dr. Sidney S. Goldstein is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Translation of the Ideals of Social Justice Into Social Action” at this afternoon’s meeting of the New York Board of Jewish Ministers.1935 (27th of Shevat, 5695); David Trietsch, an expert on the agriculture and economy of Palestine, as well as “one of the founders of the Zionist movement” passed away today. The 65 year old native of Germany died of heart failure at Rmat Ayim, near Tel Aviv. Trietsch believed that a Jewish homeland would be created through “practical colonization” as opposed to political negotiations. When the Ottomans sought to halt Jewish settlement in Palestine, Trietsch supported the settlement of Jews in Cyprus so that they would be poised to move to Palestine quickly as soon as there was a change in the political climate.1935: “The Good Fairy” a romantic comedy directed by William Wyler and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr. premiered in New York Ctiy.1935: In Croatia, Mane and Helen Hochwald gave birth to Branko Hochwald, who would come to United States in 1944 where he gained fame as Raymond B. Harding, the leader of New York State’s Liberal Party. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)1936: “The suffering of the Jews in Germany has brought into focus the necessity for an all-inclusive brotherhood of Jews and Gentiles in the city and nation,” according to the 1935 Report of the Greater New York Federation of Churches which was made public today.1937: Five days after he had passed away, eighty-six year old sculptor Ephraim Keyser, the of Moses Keyser and Betty Preiss whose works included “busts of Sidney Lanier, Cardinal Gibbons, Dr. Daniel Gilman, and Henry Harland” and a “statute of Major-General Baron De Kalb” for the United States Government which was “erected at Annapolis, MD” was laid to rest today.1937: In Baltimore, MD Ida (née Gouline) and Benjamin Charles Glass, a record store owner, gave birth to composer Philip Morris Glasshttp://www.philipglass.com/1937: Ben-Zion Mossinson of Tel Aviv delivered an address at New York’s Rodeph Sholom entitled “Is There A Solution for the Jewish Problem?”1938:Muriel Rukeyser established herself as a poet of enduring impact with the publication of U.S. 1, her second book of poems.1938: The Palestine Post reported that three large Arab bands abducted nine Arab supernumerary policemen from their police post near Acre, and shot their corporal dead in cold blood. The Arab policemen were disarmed and beaten, warned to leave the force and released. At another police post in the South arms and ammunition were stolen. 1938: The Palestine Post reported that Romania officially denounced the Minorities Treaty into which it had entered upon gaining independence at the Peace Conference at Versailles, and claimed that the Jewish question was now "a purely internal matter" over which the League of Nations had no more jurisdiction. This meant that Romania now felt free to implement still more severe anti-Semitic discriminatory measures. 1938: The Palestine Post reported on the rise of anti-Jewish feelings and vandalism in Yugoslavia including the fact that "local Nazis" had smashed the windows out of the Sephardic synagogue of Belgrade.1940: In New York, Dr. Eugene Hevesi, a Hungarian-born leader in the American Jewish community who served as foreign affairs secretary for the American Jewish Committee and as representative to the United Nations for several Jewish NGOs and his wife gave birth to Alan Hevesi, the New York Democrat who served as Comptroller of New York City and State Comptroller for the state of New York. He is also the brother of New York Timesman Dennis Hevesi who creates literary gems for the obituary page.1939: “During the parliamentary debate” today in Budapest “on the anti-Jewish bill, the president of the Association of Hungarian Industrialists, Alexander Knob, said Hungarian economic life would be gravely endangered by ‘proletarization’ of 6,000 to 7,000 Jews.”1940: Birthdate of Alan G. Hevesi “a Democratic politician who served as a New York State Assemblyman from 1971 to 1993, as Comptroller of the City of New York from 1994 to 2001, and as State Comptroller for the State of New York from 2003 to 2006”1941(3rdof Shevat, 5701): Twenty-four year old Bulla (Bubbles) Blumenson was killed by enemy action today after which she was interred at the Rainham Jewish Cemetery.1941: Three thousand Jews were taken from their villages and moved into the Warsaw Ghetto. Another 70,000 Jews would be uprooted and moved into the Warsaw Ghetto by the end of March.1941: U.S. premiere of “Come Live With Me” starring Hedy Lamar.1941: Birthdate of Leningrad native Lev M. Bergman, the Israeli mathematician “most known for the Bregman divergence named after him.”1942 (13th of Shevat, 5702): Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah passed away in New York. Wife of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneerson, and mother of the sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah lived through the upheavals of the first half of the 20th century. She fled the advancing front of World War I from Lubavitch to Rostov, where her husband passed away in 1920 at age 59. In 1927, she witnessed the arrest of her son by Stalin's henchmen the night he was taken away and sentenced to death, G-d forbid, for his efforts to keep Judaism alive throughout the Soviet empire. After Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's release, the family resettled in Latvia and later, Poland; in 1940, they survived the bombing of Warsaw, were rescued from Nazi-occupied city, and immigrated to the United States. 1942: Einsatzgruppe A commanding officer, Franz W. Stahlecker, sent a detailed report about activities in the Baltic and White Russian countries. It stated that between July 23 and October 15, 1941, 135,567 Jews were killed. Eichmann sent out a letter making official the conclusions of the Wannsee Conference, "The evacuation of the Jews . . . is the beginning of the final solution of the Jewish problem."1942: By the end of January, at least 160,000 Jews were living in the Lodz ghetto.1943(25thof Shevat, 5703): Fifty-nine year old Elizabethgrad native and Brooklyn trained lawyer Leon Dashew, the husband Esther Dashew and father of Ruth, Stanley and Betty Dashew passed away today.1945 (17th of Shevat, 5705): Fritz Freund, husband of Mathilde Freund, died at Buchenwald just three months before the camp was liberated. In the first decade of the 21st century Mathilde Freund would sue France’s government owned railroad, Societe National des Chemins de Fer Francais over its role in the deportation of her husband and thousands of other French Jews to the death camps.1946: Having resigned from the RAF Mordechai "Modi" Alon returned to Palestine and enrolled as an architecture student at the Technion. Allon would gain fame as one of the first fighter pilots in the IAf and the first one to shoot down an enemy aircraft.1946: “The citation for Captain Isidore’s MBE that concluded ‘For his courage and devotion to duty during his two clandestine missions in Occupied France, it is recommened that Captain Newman be appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division)’ was gazetted today.”1947: In the House of Commons, during a debate about Britain marinating the Mandate in Palestine, Churchill, leading the Opposition, calls for the Government to end the Mandate. Two weeks later, the Labor Government will adopt this as policy. 1948: Birthdate of poet Albert Goldbarth.1948:J D Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" appears in New York City.1949: After hearing Churchill’s speech in Parliament denouncing the logic of the Labor Government’s policy towards Israel and calling for recognition of the new Jewish state, Sir Simon Marks, a leading Jewish businessman and philanthropist, wrote to the former PM assuring him that Chaim Weizmann would find great comfort in his words.1949: The U.S. which had recognized Israel on a de factor basis on May 15 recognized Israel on a de jure basis today.1950: In Larchmont, drama critic Walter Kerr and author Jean Collins Kerr gave birth to John Kerr, “an editor, literary muse and confidant for a generation of Freudian scholars and the author of A Most Dangerous Method, the book that became the basis for a play and a movie directed by David Conenberg about the famous feud between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung1950: President Truman revealed that he had ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb. This decision might have been called Dueling Jewish Physicists. On one side was Dr. Oppenheimer father of the A-Bomb who opposed building the hydrogen bomb. On the other side was Dr. Teller who had worked on the A-Bomb and favored building the H-Bomb. Teller won out. Oppenheimer’s opposition was one of the causes of him losing his security clearance during the 1950’s. This was an injustice that Teller did not support and that President Kennedy would rectify.1951: Birthdate of Dr. Harold Alan Pincus, the Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and father of Zachary Pincus-Roth the Princeton educated writer and journalist.1952(4thof Shevat, 5712): Seventy-eight year old Herbert Loeb, Sr., “the son of Rosa and Adolph Loeb” and husband of Rose Regenstein Loeb passed away today in Chicago.1954: In Copenhagen, father, Marcus Melchior, who “helped orchestrate the escape of over 7200 Danish Jews during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, and served and the country's chief rabbi until his death in 1969” and his wife gave birth Rabbi Michael Melchior, who made Aliyah in 1986 and served as an MK and cabinet officail1955: Egyptian authorities hanged two Jews in Cairo – Dr. Moshe Marzouk and Samuel (Shmeul) Azar – who had been found guilty of spying for Israel. Eight other Jews had been given long prison sentences for the same reason.1957: Martin Landau married Barbara Bain today.1958: Lieutenant General Haim Laskov is serving as IDF Chief of Staff as the Egyptians and Syrians prepare to form the United Arab Republic which will increase the threat faced by the Jewish state.1960: World Sephardi Federation meets in Madrid, Spain. Some members complain they did not want Spain to be the site of the meeting, as they did not want to return to Spain for any reason.1960:Songwriter Adolph Green marries actress/singer Phyllis Newman in New York City.1961: David Ben-Gurion resigned as premier of Israel.1961: A 3.5 kilometer tract of land southwest of Mount Kidod was chosen today as the site for the city of Arad.1961: Joseph Rosenstock returned to the Met today to conduct Tristan und Isolde.1965: CBS broadcast the first episode of “For the People” a “legal drama” created by Stuart Rosenberg, produced by Herbert Rodkin and starring William Shatner and Howard Da Silva.1967(20thof Shevat, 5727): Seventy-year old sculptor, Virginia Morris Pollak, the wife of Leo Pollak passed away today.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9901E4DF1439E53BBC4953DFB466838C679EDEhttp://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pollak-virginia-morris1968: At sunset, all non-Israeli military units gave up the search for the INS Dakar, an Israeli submarine that had been first been reported missing on January 26.1970: After 546 performances on Broadway, the curtain came down Howard Sackler’s “The Great White Hope.”1970(24thof Shevat, 5730): Seventy-six year old Samuel Feldman, the husband of Stella Feldman of Long Beach, NY, passed away today in Miami Beach.1970: In Washington, DC, “Judith Plotz, an English professor at The George Washington University, and Dr. Paul Plotz, researcher at the National Institutes of Health” gave birth to “David Plotz, an American journalist and is currently the CEO of Atlas Obscura, an online magazine devoted to discovery and exploration” who is married to Hanna Rosin, “a co-founder of Slate magazine’s DoubleX.1973: U.S. premiere of “Steel Yard Blues” produced by Julia Phillips 1974: Linda McCartney and her husband “appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone today, making her the only person to have taken a photograph, and to have been photographed, for the front cover of the magazine.”1974(8th of Shevat, 5734): Hilda Winifred Lewis (nee Maizels), the Whitechapel born historical novelist who was the wife of Dr. M.M. Lewis, the Director of the Institute of Education at the University of Nottingham, the sister of Montague Maizels and Miriam Wright and sister-in-law of Professor Samson Wright passed away today.1974 (8th of Shevat, 5734): Samuel Goldwyn, a major force in the creation of the motion picture industry, passed away at the age of 91. The evolution of Goldwyn’s name is microcosm of the experience of European Jews who came to America. Born Schmuel Gelbfisz, he changed his name to Samuel Goldfish when he moved to Great Britain because that sounded more English. After he moved to America he went into partnership with two Broadway producers whose names were Selwyn. In naming their partnership they combined their two last names to create Goldwyn. Sam liked the American sound of it so much that he changed his name for the third and last time. What is amazing is the role that this Jewish immigrant from Poland played in creating modern American culture. Among other things, he discovered that quintessential American hero, Gary Cooper and won the Oscar for best picture with his production “The Best Years of Our Lives.” Goldwyn may have been. When Louis B Mayer a former partner turned commented on Goldwyn’s death he said, “The reason so many people turned up at his funeral is that they wanted to make sure he was dead." However Goldwyn’s last production marked him as a man of moral fiber. In his final film made in 1959, Samuel Goldwyn brought together African-American actors Sidney Poitier Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and singer Pearl Bailey in a film rendition of the George Gershwin Opera, Porgy and Bess. The film won three Oscars. Samuel Goldwyn's lack of English language skills led to many of his malapropisms being frequently quoted such as:- "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on."
- "Include me out."
- "What we need now is some new, fresh clichés."
- "Anyone who would go to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined!"
- "Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg."
- "Flashbacks are a thing of the past."
- "A wide screen just makes a bad film twice as bad."
1978: Israel turned 3 military outposts in the West Bank into civilian settlements1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann left for Cairo for the second round of the interrupted military discussions. One of his specific aims was reported to be to influence the Egyptians so that they would modify their position of "not giving up even one inch of Sinai."1979(3rd of Shevat, 5739): Celia Adler passed away today at the age of 89. Known as the “First Lady of the Yiddish Theatre” she was part of Jewish theatrical dynasty that included her parents, Jacob and Dinah Shtettin, her half-sister Stella Adler and her half-brother Luther Adler.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40B16F73B5D12728DDDAB0894DA405B898BF1D31980: The New York City Ballet premiere of “Fancy Free,” a ballet by Jerome Robbins “took place today.”1980: Seventy-three year old Irving Loeb Goldberg “assumed senior status” on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 1981: Jean-Marie Lustiger was enthroned as Archbishop of Paris. He had been born Aaron Lustiger and converted at the age of 13 in 1940. His mother died at Auschwitz.1982: NBC broadcast “World War III,” a mini-series directed by Boris Sagal.1986: “Youngblood” a dramatic film edited by Stephen E. Rivkin who would later gain fame for his “work on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’” was released in the United States today.1986: “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” a comedy directed and co-produced by Paul Mazursky and co-starring Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfus was release today.1987: In “Poignant Look-back At Holocaust In 'Beloved'” published today Kevin Thomas reviewed Manfred Kirchheimer’s “We Were So Beloved.”http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-31/entertainment/ca-2432_1_german-jews1987: As more information came out about what would be known as The Iran-Contra Affair, Yaacov Nimrodi, said today that Israel's Defense Ministry had approved the sale of $50 million worth of Israeli-made weapons to Iran almost two months before the first reported American request for Israel's help in approaching Teheran.1988(12thof Shevat, 5748): Eighty year old, Blanche Leo Ullman, the daughter of Leo Emanuel Ullman and Blanche Heller passed away today in her home town of Richmond, VA.1988: A Jewish settler was severely burned today when his car was firebombed in an area near the Ofra settlement north of Jerusalem.1988: ABC broadcast the first episode of “The Wonder Years” a comedy-drama co-created by Neal Marlens and narrated by Daniel Stern.1989: Birthdate of Israel Bar-On “an Israeli singer, who won Israel's Kokhav Nolad (A Star is Born) song contest in 2008.”1990: Yuval Ne'eman resigned from the Knesset today and was replaced by Gershon Shafat.1992: Tonight’ performance of the Gershwin musical "Crazy for You" at the Shubert Theater is a benefit designed to raised funds for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. 1993: Broadcast of the first episode of Barry Levinson’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” co-starring Yaphet Kotto and Richard Belzer.1993: The Dallas Cowboys, who had counted on the play of Alan Veingard during the regular won Super Bowl XXVII even though he had been “declared inactive for the game.”1995(30THof Shevat, 5755) Rosh Chodesh Adar I1996: Alan Binder completed his service as the 15th Vice Chairperson of the Federal Reserve.1996 (10th of Shevat, 5756): Mathematician Gustave Solomon passed away at the age of 65.1997: “Meet Wally Sparks” a comedy written by and starring Rodney Dangerfield was released in the United States today.1997: “Waiting for Guffman” with a screenplay co-authored by Eugene Levy who also co-starred in the comedy along with Bob Balaban was released in the United States today.1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or topics of special interest to Jewish readers including Playing For Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made
by David Halbestram and The Burden of Responsibility:Blum, Camus, Aron and the French Twentieth Century by Tony Judt. 2002: For the second time in a year Tayibe was the target of a terrorist attack which this time Hamas claimed credit.2004: “Talmud: in the Art of Ben-Zion and Marc Chagall,” an exhibit at the Center Art Gallery at Calvin College that brings together the Biblical work of two of the most important Jewish artists of the 20th Century that features 18 intaglio prints by Ben-Zion and 25 color lithographs by Marc Chagall comes to an end.2004: Joelle Fishman, the daughter of Jewish immigrants who was born in 1946, “addressed the Communist Party’s conference on the 2004 elections in New York.2007: Haim Ramon was convicted of “indecent assault” and sentenced to community service.2007: The Times of London reported that Lord Levy (Michael Levy) the Prime Minister's personal friend and fundraiser, is the second person close to No 10 Downing Street to be questioned by police under suspicion of perverting the course of justice in the ongoing cash-for-honors investigation. 2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that the recently launched Yad Vashem Farsi site has been well received by the target audience. Since the Persian site went on-line last week, some 11,000 hits have been recorded, including 2,242 visits from Iran. That figure is just 1,000 hits short of the total number of visits the Yad Vashem Web site received from Iranians in the whole of 20062008: June Muriel Brown “made history by being the first and so far only actress to carry an entire episode single handed in the history of British soap, with a monologue looking back over her past life, dictated to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke.”2008: Avi Geffen performed at Bush Hall in London.2008: In Manhattan, the 92nd St Y presents “Praise, Grumble, Schmooze, Lament: The Voices of 21st Century Jewish Poetry.” The program features readings by established and emerging Jewish poets, including Alicia Ostriker, Rodger Kamenetz, Robin Becker, Jacqueline Osherow, Dan Bellm, Patty Seyburn, Philip Terman, Scott Cairns, Jay Michaelson and Richard Chess. 2008: The Washington Post featured a review of Sacha Baron Cohen the Unauthorized Biography: from Cambridge to Kazakhstan by Kathleen Tracy 2008: It was announced that Neil Diamond will appear at the upcoming Glastonbury Festival in the UK.2009: The 92ndSt Y presents a musical evening featuring the Tokyo String Quartet and Jerusalem born pianist Benjamin Hochman.2009: The Jewish Federation of Howard County (MD) presents Yom Hadash Community Concert.2010: Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) said today that Israel would allow the ultra-Orthodox community to continue to run their private bus lines segregated by gender, but could not officially recognize the practice on public bus lines. The minister was responding to a petition sent by the Israel Religious Action Center and a women's rights group to the government and to the Egged and Dan transportation companies. Katz declared in his response that Israel does not disapprove of buses which separate between men and women to accommodate the Hardi community, but that segregation could not become institutionalized. 2010: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain by Matthew Carr and 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fictionby Rebecca Newberger Goldstein2010: The Tenth Herzliya Conference is scheduled to open this afternoon on the Campus of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya in Israel.2010: The Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Museum Milwaukee invite the Jewish community to attend “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: A Jewish Night at the Museum” which will include a tour of the “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible” exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum and recitation by Museum President and CEO Daniel Finley of the real story of how the exhibit came to the Museum.2010: Opening session of The Tenth Herzliya Conference, “Israel‘s primary global policy annual gathering, drawing together Israeli and international participants from the highest levels of government, business, and academia to address pressing national, regional and world strategic issues.”2010: An exhibition at the Krasdale Gallery in White Plains, NY, entitled “Pages de Guerre” featuring the works of Avigdor Arikha comes to an end.2010(16th of Sh'vat, 5770): David V. Becker, a pioneer in using radioactive materials to diagnose and treat thyroid disease and an expert on the thyroid damage caused by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986, passed away at his home in Manhattan. (As reported by Mathew Wald)http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/02/13/david_v_becker_86_pioneer_in_thyroid_disease_treatment/2011: Dr. Ron Taffel is scheduled to present a program entitled “Childhood Unbound: Confident Parenting in a World of Change” at the 92nd Street Y in NYC.2011: “A cornerstone laying ceremony was held for four apartment buildings with a total of 24 homes that are the beginning of the new Jerusalem community of Beit Orot on the Mount of Olives Ridge.”2011: Rami Feinstein is scheduled to presents a concert featuring songs from his two albums—a combination of rock, folk, and funk- in Jerusalem. 2011: NYC based Israeli choreographers Deganit Shemy and Netta Yerushalmy, are scheduled to perform this evening in an event intended to raise funds for the 1st Contemporary Israeli Dance Festival in New York, coming in June 2011.2011: Last day for submitting recipes for the 2011 Man-O-Manischewitz Cook-Off. 2011: The Jerusalem Post reported today that “The Sundance independent film festival over the weekend followed the Oscars and Golden Globes in recognizing the Jewish and Israeli contribution to world cinema by handing out awards to two Israeli filmmakers. The world cinema dramatic screenwriting award went to Erez Kav-El for his film, Restoration. Talya Lavie received an Inaugural Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Film-making award which recognizes and supports emerging independent filmmakers from around the world.2011: Right-wing activists have exploited Facebook's protocol that prohibits organizations from opening personal profiles to report and block the profiles of several leftist groups, Haaretz learned on today. The move, initiated by activists linked to the far-right leader Baruch Marzel, has thus far led to the blocking of the profile pages of left-wing groups including Machsom Watch, Yesh Gvul, and Anarchists against the Wall.2011: Grad rockets landed near the cities of Netivot and Ofakim in the western Negev today, causing damage to a car and leading to four people being treated for shock. One rocket hit Netivot, which is 9 miles east of Gaza, and the second exploded in Ofakim, 15 miles from Gaza.2011:American Sephardi Federation presents an evening with Edwin Black author of “The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust.”2011: Thanks to the efforts of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and the British Christian Zionist Movement an appropriate tombstone was placed what had been the unmarked gravesite of Reverend William Henry Hechler, a Protestant clergyman who was an early ally of Herzl and a supporter of the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine.2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Southwest Florida Jewish Film Festival in Fort Meyers, FL.2012: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto, Canada. 2012: Alan Zweibel will be signing copies of Lunatics, a novel, he co-authored with Dave Barry, following his scheduled interview with Mo Rocca at Buttenwieser Hall at the 92nd Street Y. 2012:Iran's "evil" leaders cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, President Shimon Peres said today, calling the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions the world's single most important issue 2012:Turnout for the Likud party's primary elections was unusually low today. By mid-afternoon, only 14 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballot to elect a new party leader and central committee. 2013(20th of Shevat, 5773): Seventy year old children’s author Diane Wolkstein passed away.(As reported by Paul Vitello) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/nyregion/diane-wolkstein-author-who-sparked-a-storytelling-revival-dies-at-70.html?hpw&_r=0http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=65378http://dianewolkstein.com/2013: PBS is scheduled to broadcast a documentary entitled “Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope” which ”tells the remarkable true story of Colonel Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, and the miniature Torah scroll he carried from the depths of Hell to the heights of Space.”http://www.bethelnj.org/sites/default/files/flyers/IlanRamon-PBS.pdf2013: Award-winning, bestselling author Edwin Black is scheduled to chronicle the centuries of intersection between Islam and Jewry that led to the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad in 1941 and the ensuing Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust in a major address at Fordham University this evening. ”Black's presentation is based on his recent bestselling and critically acclaimed book, The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust 2013: Rabbi Gil Marks, “noted chef and cookbook author” is scheduled to deliver a lecture “From Schmear To Eternity” at Agudas Achim in Iowa City. 2013: Composer Phillip Glass turns 75. http://forward.com/specials/forward-50-2012/philip-glass/?no-mobile-redirect2013: The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) was once again the beneficiary of a winter storm today as rain poured down upon the Land of Israel, causing power outages around the country. 2013: Mt Hermon will be closed to the public today as well. Hermon Administration has announced another 20 cm of snow at the bottom of the ski lift. 40 cm have piled up at the bottom of the ski lift since the beginning of the current storm2014(30tth of Shevat, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar I2014(30thof Shevat, 5774): Fifty-two year old humanitarian Anne Heyman passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/world/africa/anne-heyman-rwanda-rescuer-is-dead-at-52.html?hpw&rref=obituaries2014: Eighty-five year old Mike Flanagan who had an Irishman serving with the British army who participated in the liberation of Bergen-Belson and who “smuggled two Cromwell tanks to the Haganah in 1948” passed away today.2014: After 20 years, David Stern stepped down as Commissioner of the NBA.2014: It was reported by Israel’s Channel 2 News tonight that the Israeli government secretly channeled 148 million shekels (over $42 million) to the local city councils that administer settlements across the West Bank in recent years, to “compensate” them for city taxes they did not receive because of a government-imposed settlement-building freeze in 2009-2010. 2014: The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down at least one of two Grad rockets fired at Eilat from the Sinai Peninsula this evening. 2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present “Chamber Music for Flute, Bassoon and Piano featuring Esti Rofe, Mauricio Paez and Ana Kaiserman.2015: In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila is scheduled to host its Fourth Annual Comedy Night of “Sweet Laughter.2015(11thof Shevat, 5775): Shabbat Shirah2015(11thof Shevat, 5775): Eighty-six year old CBS news producer Sandy Socolow passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/business/media/sandy-socolow-cbs-newsman-during-heady-days-dies-at-86.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/sandy-socolow-news-producer-for-walter-cronkite-at-cbs-dies-at-86/2015/02/02/5824b2a8-aaf1-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html2016: Radio Kol Hamusica is scheduled to broadcast “one piece by Israeli composer Emanuel Vahl” this afternoon.2016: Laura Apelbaum is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “Soviet Jewry: The Movement that United Our Jewish World” in Rockville, MD.2016(21stof Shevat, 5776): Ninety-two year old historian Elizabeth Eisenstein the author of The Printing Press as an Agent of Change passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/books/elizabeth-eisenstein-historian-of-movable-type-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai edited by Robert Alter, Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary by Richard A. Posner and Thomas Murphyby Roger Rosenblatt. 2017(4thof Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of the Moroccan born Sephardic Rabbi, Yisrael Abuchatzeira, known as the “Baba Sali” who is buried in Netivot.2017: Israeli singer/songwriter Noa Fort is scheduled to perform at the Cornelia Street Café.2017: In the UK, “Denial” is scheduled to be shown for the last time at JW3.2017: Gil Shwed, the CEO of Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point, the winner of the Israel Prize in technology and innovation spoke “at the Cybertech Israel Conference and Exhibition in Tel Aviv” today.2017: Today, “at least 17 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats in the third wave of such mass disruption this month.” (JTA)2018(15thof Shevat, 5778): Tu B’Shevat2018: “A Walk With Mr.Heifetz,” a play based on violinist Yashac Heifetz’s concert in Palestine in 1926 is scheduled to begin performances at the Cherry Lane Theatre.2018: The University of Iowa Hillel and Congregation Agudas Achim are scheduled to Tu B’Shevat Seder at Brix Cheese Shop and Wine Bar.2018: At Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, NY, architect and art historian, Bruce Levy is scheduled to deliver a lecture on Jewish Architects including “Kahn, Eisenman and Liebeskind.”2018: Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea Football Club which “has launched a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of anti-Semitism to it players, fans and staff” is scheduled to play a Premier League against Bournemouth today2019: An interfaith discussion during which a Biblical topic is examined “through looking at texts from three Abrahamic traditions” is scheduled to take place at Oxford University.2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Across the (Political) Divide), a candid and constructive “about Israel across the Aisle.”http://emanuelstreickernyc.org/events/across-the-political-divide/2019(25thof Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yisrael Salanterhttp://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_25.html2019: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host “a panel to celebrate the publication of Marc Dollinger’s Black Power Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s with the author and special guests Including April Baskin (The Union for Reform Judaism), Cheryl Greenberg (Trinity College), Ilana Kaufman (The Jews of Color Field Building Initiative) and Rivka Press Schwartz (Associate Principal, SAR High School and Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America). 2019: Yiddish New York’s “2018 Visual Arts Exhibition curated by Deborah Ugoretz and Tine Kindermann” at the City Lore Gallery is scheduled to come to an end today.http://www.yiddishnewyork.com/visual-arts-exhibition/
↧
January 31, 2019, 2:33 pm
February 1682: Visigoth King Erwig pressed for the "utter extirpation of the pest of the Jews," and made it illegal to practice any Jewish rites in an area that corresponds to much of modern day Spain. This put further pressure on the Jews to convert or emigrate1119: Callixtus II began his papacy. In 1120, Calixtus II issued the first of the bulls called “Sicut Judaeis” (As the Jews) which in his case was intended to protect Jews from the consequences of the First Crusade “during which over five thousand Jews were slaughtered in Europe.”1225: Today “a papal order was issued granting certain commercial privileges to a Jewish merchant named Sabbatinus Museus Salaman, who is mentioned as the business associate of several Romans in the Papal States and in Sicily.”1327: Coronation of English King Edward III who borrowed 140,000 florins “on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War” from a consortium led by Vivelin of Strasbourg, “an Alsatian Jewish financier” who was thought to be “one of the richest people living in the Holy Roman Empire.”1593: For the 17th time since 1592, Lord Strange’s Men performed “The Jew of Malta.”1605: Birthdate of Aboab de Fonseca, the Portuguese born Dutch Rabbi and Mystic. In 1642, when Brazil was under Dutch control the 600 Jews of Recife established a synagogue where they could worship in public. They recruited de Fonseca, who was living in Amsterdam, to come to Brazil and serve as their Hocham or spiritual leader. This means that Aboab de Fonseca was the first congregational rabbi in the New World. In 1654, when the Portuguese defeated the Dutch and seized Recife, he joined a group of Jews returning to the Netherlands and successfully said back to Amsterdam. Aboab was held in high esteem by his former Amsterdam congregants, that he was reappointed as hocham in the synagogue and made teacher in the city’s Talmud Torah, principal of its yeshiva and member of the city’s bet din, or rabbinic court. He died in 1693 at the age of 88, having served the Jewish community of Amsterdam for 50 years after his return from Recife. While Aboab spent his final years as a man of letters, engaged in teaching and spiritual contemplation, “the adventuresome Isaac Aboab de Fonseca had been, from 1642 to 1654, America’s first rabbi, first Hebrew poet and a man who risked his life for Jewish religious freedom.” (One can only wonder what would have happened if Aboab had joined the group of Jews who left Recife in 1654 and ended up in New Amsterdam. Would he have been the first rabbi in New York/)1627: Rodrigo de Castro, the Lisbon born physician who escaped the Inquisition by moving to Antwerp with his family and the moving on to Hamburg when the Spanish re-took the Netherlands passed away today after which he was “buried in the cemetery of the Jewish-Portuguese congregation of Altona.”1682(5442): Asser Levy, the "founding father" of North American Jewry passed away.. He was survived by his wife Miriam (aka Maria). Though Levy and the "Levy" family of New York are thought of as Sephardic with roots in Holland and even further roots in Spain, he might have been the son of Benjamin Levy, an Ashkenazi shochet from Recife, Brazil.1733: King Augustus II of Poland passed away. Born in 1670, Augustus II was the Elector of Saxony (Germany) before gaining Augustus gained the Polish throne. His rise to power was facilitated by his “court Jew” and financier Issachar Berend Lehmann. August II was a contemporary of the Besht who was making his public personna known at about the same time as the Polish King passed away. 1765(10thof Shevat, 5525): Rebecca Mendez Furtado, the first wife of Benjamin D’Israeli, the grandfather of his more famous namesake, passed away today.1790: The U.S. Supreme Court, which would not have its first Jewish Justice until 1916 when Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis, “convened for the first time today.1779(15thof Shevat, 5539): Tu B’Shevat1796: The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York. Jews did not settle in Canada until the British defeated the French in 1760, at which time the French ban on Jewish settlement in the area became null and void. By the time of this move, the Jews had already built their first synagogue, The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal also known as Shearith Israel which was established in 1768.1798(15thof Shevat, 5558): Tu B’Shevat1799: In Denmark, Isaac Levy and his wife gave birth to Zacharias Levy, the husband of Bolette Salomonsen with whom he had three children – Isaac, Arnold and Herman.1799: The French army under Napoleon left for Palestine to forestall a Turco-British invasion through the Palestinian land-bridge.1809: Moshe ben Michael Kopf married Sarah bat Yehuda Leib HaLevi at the Great Synagogue.1809: This evening, in Charleston, SC, Mary Joseph married Levi Moses.1810(27 Shevat 5570): Rabbi Mechel Scheuer passed away. He was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1739. His father was Rabbi David Tebele Scheuer and he led his father's Yeshiva in Mainz as its Rosh Yeshiva during the years 1776 and 1777. In 1778 he became rabbi of Worms and in 1782 was appointed rabbi of Manheim. At the time of his death, he was the rabbi of Coblence.1813The Common Council of New York City passed an ordinance restricting the right to sell kosher meat to butchers licenses by Congregation Shearith Israel.1823: Birthdate date of Simon Bacher, a descendant of Jair Hayyim Bacharach the 17thcentury rabbi at worms and the Maharal of Prague, the “Hungarian Neo-Hebraic Poet” who served as treasurer of the Jewish community of Budapest from 1876 until his death in 1891.1826: Philadelphian Joseph Cohen began serving as a Midshipman today.1827: Two days after he had passed away, Simon Levy, the husband of Hannah Levy, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”1827: In Paris James Mayer de Rothschild and Betty de Rothschild, the daughter of Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (Austrian Branch) gave birth to Alphonse de Rothschild, French banker, philanthropist and member of the French branch of the fabled Rothschild family whose wife Leonora was from the English House of Rothschild.1828: Birthdate of Meyer Guggenheim the Swiss born patriarch of the Guggenheim family who came to the United States in 1847.1832: David Haes married Sarah Samuel at the Hambro Synagogue today.1836: Birthdate of Francis Lewis Cardozo, the Charleston, SC native who was the son of Lydia Weston, a free black woman and Isaac a Sephardic (Portuguese) Jews.1839: Birthdate of James A. Herne who staged the first American production of Israel Zangwill’s “The Children of the Ghetto.1840: In what would be the opening of the Damascus Blood Libel, “Father Thomas, a Roman Catholic priest and a” long-time resident of Damascus “suddenly disappeared today.1842: In Bavaria, Rav Yitzchak Dov Halevi Bamberger ZT"L the Würzburger Rav and Kela Bamberger gave birth to Rabbi Nathan Bamberger of Würzburg1844: Birthdate of Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes, the Danish economist.1848: Birthdate of British author Arnold Henry White who went from blaming the Jews for the problems in East End from a “virulent anti-Semite” who opposed Jewish immigration to the United Kingdom.https://archive.org/details/modernjew01whitgooghttp://jewishstudies.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/docs/Kennedy_awards/KennedyAward2005%20Shacham.pdf1854: In Posen, Prussia, Dr. Marcus Mosse, a German born physician and his wife Ulrike Mosse gave birth to Emil Mosse1856: Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College. Today Auburn has 60 Jewish students out of an undergraduate population of 19,000 students. Auburn does not offer Jewish studies classes but does have a Hillel Chapter. 1860: Rabbi Morris Raphall becomes the first Jewish clergyman to opena session of the House of Representatives. Raphall’s son-in-law would serve in the Union Army and after he had committed some unspecified infraction, Lincoln pardoned him. Raphall’s letter thanking Lincoln is still in existence today.1861: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise published an article in The Israelite entitled “No Political Preaching” in which he explained why he had refrained from preaching a sermon on January 4, 1861. President James Buchanan had designated that date “‘as a day of feasting and prayer, that God might have mercy upon us and save this Union.’” [This was just about the only action that Buchanan took to preserve the Union!]1862(1st of Adar I, 5622): Rosh Chodesh Adar I1862: The will of Samuel Samuels was admitted to probate today. According to the terms of the will, Samuels left $100 to the Jewish congregation, "Bnai Jeshurun," on Greene-street, and $100 for the benefit of the Orphan Asylum under the charge of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.1864: Quartermaster Sergeant Alan Weinbach began his service with Company A of the 113th Regiment that served as the 12th Cavalry.1864: Philadelphian Aaron de Hann who had been born in February of 1844 began a two year enlistment with the 112 Regiment – 2nd Artillery.1865: “A new law abolished the compulsion for Jews to enroll with one of Hamburg's two statutory Jewish congregations, so the members of the New Israelite Temple Society were free to found their own Jewish congregation.1865: In Newark, NJ, founding of Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society whose members included Bernard Strauss, Reuben Trier, Joseph Goetz and G. J. Kempe which held its meetings on the first Thursday of each month.1868(8th of Shevat, 5628): Isaac Leeser passed away. Born in 1806, he “was an American Jewish minister of religion, author, translator, editor, and publisher; pioneer of the Jewish pulpit in the United States, and founder of the Jewish press of America. He produced the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English to be published in the United States. He is considered one of the most important American Jewish personalities of the nineteenth century America.”1872(22ndof Shevat, 5632): Fifty-three year old Polish born German actor Bogumil Dawison whose signature roles included Mark Antony, Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear, passed away in Dresden.1873: Birthdate of historian Israel Zinberg “best known for his nine-volume History of the Literature of the Jews which was published in Vilnus starting in 1929.http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tsinberg_Yisroel1874: In Vienna Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner and an Austrian–Italian bank manager, Hugo August Peter Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal gave birth to Austrian “man of letters” Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal, the great-grandson of Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, “a Jewish merchant ennobled by the Austrian emperor.”1878: George Cruikshank the British illustrator who created “Fagan” in his cell passed away.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cruikshank_fagin_cell.jpg1879: It was reported today that the Purim Association of New York will resume hosting a masked ball after a hiatus of 10 years. The ball is scheduled to be held on Purim night.1879: Wilhelm Marr, the man who popularized the term “anti-Semitism” published his pamphlet “Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum” (The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism. Toward the end of his life he would publish “Testament of an Antisemite” in which he would renounce the view that the Jews were the corrupters of German and European civilization.1880: In St. Louis, the Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized.1882: “The French Catholic newspaper La Croix publishes an article by Father Francois Picard, head of the Assumptionist order behind the journal, declaring that Jewish bankers and that they are behind all of Europe’s problems,”https://messianicjewishhistory.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/1-february-1882-french-catholic-paper-complains-against-jews-otdimjh/1882: “Early in the course of the Russian persecutions a mass-meeting of New York's most representative citizens was held at Chickering Hall” today.1882: In London a meeting was held at Mansion House which resulted in the creation of a fund of more than “£108,000 for the relief of Russo-Jewish refugees” in the United Kingdom 1883: Theodore Hoffman was arrested this evening and charged with the murder of Zife Marks, a Jewish peddler whose body had been on the road outside of Port Chester, NY. (Hoffman would eventually be found guilty and executed for the murder.)1885(16thof Shevat, 5645): Peretz Smolenskin, the Russian born Jewish novelist whose works in Hebrew including A Wander on the Path of Life (Ha-toeh be-darkhe ha-Hayyim, התועה בדרכי החיים) passed away today.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0018_0_18751.html1886: Dr. Solomon Eppinger retired from Hebrew Union College and was succeeded by David Davidson.1886: H.U.C. conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on Aaron Hahn.1887: In Montreal, Katherine Harris and Jacob Scherman gave birth to Harry Scherman, American economist, author and co-founder of the Book of the Month Club.http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079308/1887: Claude Marks married Caroline “Carrie) Hoffnung today at the West London Synagogue.1890: Birthdate of Sadie Plutzik, the wife of Samuel Plutzik, both of whom are buried under a common headstoe at the Old Montefiore Cemetry1890: Mrs. Moses Gersohnfeldt and her four young children ranging in age from two to eleven continue to languish in the custody of the immigration authorities because the Immigration Commissioner has decided that they might become pubic charges despite the fact that her husband and oldest son have come forth and shown that they are employed and earning enough money to see to it that they are properly cared for.1890: “Castle Garden’s Autocrat” published today described Commissioner Edmund Stephenson’s capricious and semi-dictatorial control over the lives of immigrants, including Jews escaping the Czar’s tyranny, to whom he showed distinct hostility.1891: Jacob A. Brenner, the son of an Orthodox Rabbi and William J.G. Bearns “opened their own law offices on Court Street under the name of Bearns & Brenner, specializing in civil and real estate law” today.1891: In Brooklyn, Philip Schmalheiser and the former Rose Lewin gave birth to Edward Schmalheiser who as Edward Small carved out a fifty year career producing movies and television shows that ranged in quality from such classics as “The Count of Monte Cristo” to the highly forgettable “Ramar of the Jungle.”http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/edward_small.htm1891: It was reported today that Mr. Rheinherz an agent of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who testified before the Congressional Committee investigating the operation of the Barge Office which was the main immigrant processing center in New York City.1891: In Brooklyn,“Austrian-born Philip Schmalheiser and Prussian-born Rose Lewin” gave birth to Edward Schmalheiser who gained fame as movie producer Edward Small.1892: It was reported today that Moritz Cohn, Morris Hertz, Max Jacob, Ignatz Boskowitz, Henry Rice and Simon L. Duetsch had served as pall bearers at the funeral of Benjamin Russak.1893(15thof Shevat, 5653): Tu B’Shevat1893: “Theatrical Gossip” published today described the success of “The Girl I Left Behind Me” which is being produced by Charles Frohman at the Standard Theatre.1895: It was reported today that the Federation of East Side Workers “consisting of the pastors, priests and rabbis of the churches and congregations in New York south of 14th Street and east of Broadax…expresses its grateful appreciation to the chairman and members of the Tenement House Committee…” (Compare the active, positive role played by Rabbis in the United States with the anti-Semitism found at the same time in Russia, Germany and France).1897: “The Future of Palestine” published today provided the views of Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil’s views on the Jewish settlement in this part of the Ottoman Empire. Gottheil contended the Jews could again become “agriculturists” and that Palestine could “support a large agricultural and industrial population.”1897: As of this date, the officers of the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York say they will no long be able to respond to all of the demands of the needy without additional funds. They received 250 applications a day, many of which come from people who have never applied before and they need at least $15,000 just to provide minimal aid.1897: “Harm Done By Alarmists” published today includes the views of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil who expressed his sympathy for the working man, opposition to Socialism and defense of the expendiures of the wealthy as exemplified by the upcoming Bradley Martin-Ball1897: It was reported today that Dr. Emil G. Hirsch said the work of the Jewish charities in Chicago has been complicated by the problems created by the influx of Jews flee the Czar who have taken “refuge in the larger cities of America.”1897: It was reported today the delegates attending the Jewish Socialists Convention had voted to start a newspaper of their own after the managers of the Abendblatt, a Jewish socialist paper that had been founded in 1894, had made known their decision not relinquish control of the paper. 1899: The USS Bennington commanded by Edward Tausig fired a 21 gun salute as the United States flag was raised over Guam marking the end of almost 300 years of Spanish rule and Commander Tausig becoming the first American to control the islands “governmental and administrative affairs.”1899: It was reported today that Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil of Columbia University read a “paper by Albert Ulmann on the Jews in New York during the Dutch colonial period. Mr. Ulmann gave as the earliest date when Jews this city as 1652, when some Jewish farmers were sent over from Holland to serve a year’s time a soldiers…” He also “described the fight the Jews had to make against the religious bigotry of Stuyvesant.” 1899: “Dr. Gottheil’s Successor” published today relied on information that first appeared in the New York Tribune to report that Dr. Gustav Gottheil is preparing to retire after serving as Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El for the past 25 years and that went to provide a brief history of the Reform movement in the United States.1901: A Memorial Service for Queen Victoria was held at the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Samuel Salant officiated at the service which was so well attended that local police were called to control the crowd. 1902: Birthdate of Polish native Benjamin Zemach, the graduate of Moscow’s Institute of Engineering who came to the United States in 1927 where he blazed new trails in choreography and modern dance.http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/30/arts/benjamin-zemach-95-dancer-worked-in-theater-and-films.htmlhttp://www.israeldance-diaries.co.il/wp-content/issues/articles/ISRAEL%20DANCE%20ANNUAL%201986-%20BENJAMIN%20ZEMACH-FROM%20DARKNESS%20TO%20LIGHT%20BY%20NAIMA%20PREVOTS.pdf1902(24thof Shevat, 5662): Seventy-year old Salomon Jadassohn, the German pianist and composer whose career suffered because he would not convert which meant he could not get many church related commissions and because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the second half of the 19th century passed away today.1904(15thof Shevat, 5664): Tu B’Shevat1904: Birthdate of Sidney Joseph Perelman. Better known as S. J. Perelman, he was a humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is primarily known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker magazine. His most famous cinematic venture was writing the script for the Academy Award-winning screenplay Around the World in Eighty Days starring David Niven.http://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/18/archives/sj-perelman-humorist-is-dead-sj-perelman-humorist-dead-at-75.html1905: In Tivoli, Italy, Giuseppe Segrè, a businessman who owned a paper mill, and Amelia Susanna Treves, Emilio Segre, the Italian born physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959.http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/24/obituaries/dr-emilio-g-segre-is-dead-at-84-shared-nobel-for-studies-of-atom.html1906: It was reported today that five persons have been executed in the Citadel at Warsaw, “bringing the number shot in the past fortnight to sixteen” fifteen of whom “were Jews.”1910(22ndof Shevat, 5670): Schlome Katz passed away today after which he was buried in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery.1910: Birthdate of Michael Kanin, the native of Rochester, NY who shared an Oscar with Ring Lardner Jr for writing the script for Woman of the Year” and was nominated along with his wife Fay for an Oscar for the script for “Teacher’s Pet.” 1912: Peter H. James of Jersey City, NJ, was “promoted to the staff of the Quartermaster General of the State of New Jersey with the rank of Major.”1913(24thof Shevat, 5673): Parashat Mishpatim1913: In New Leipzig, ND, Louis and Rebecca Katz Katcher gave birth to Irving Simon Katcher, the husband of Nettie Kathcer.1913(24thof Shevat, 5673): Sixty-two year old newspaper correspondent Leon Strauss passed away at Turin, Italy.1913: It was reported today the “two trained nurse who have been to Palestine by” New York “women Zionists” are “the vanguard of an entire corps of nurses” who “will work among the women and children of the Holy Land.1913: This evening, Armand J. Lande and Miss Jessie Plotke are scheduled to lead the grand march at the Informal Dancing Party sponsored by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of Temple Sholom in the Lincoln Park Casino 1913: “According to information received by the Federation of American Zionist, Nachum Sokolow should have arrived today to begin a two month tour of the United States1914(5thof Shevat, 5674): Mrs. H. Bertha Myers, the widow of “49er” Harris Meyers, who was “vice President of the Oregon Chapter of the Council for Jewish Women and President of the Judith Montefiore Society passed away today in Portland, Oregon.1915: British soldiers braced for an attack from an Ottoman force that was determined to seize the Suez Canal – a seizure that would have short-circuited the later British campaign that led them to Jerusalem with all that that would mean for the Jewish people.1915: A dispatch from the London Daily News datelined Cairo, based, in part on reports from “Vladimir Jabotinsky, a well-known Moscow journalist” describes the deteriorating conditions faced by the Jews living under Ottoman rule in Eretz Israel. Mr. Jabotinksy “entertains the graves fears for the safety of the 15,000 colonists in Galilee, Judea and Samaria should the Turkish army in Syria” suffer a defeat since the Turkish government will blame it on the Jews. The government “is doing its utmost to stir up feelings against the Zionists. The Turks have declared Zionism to be a revolutionary, anti-Turkish movement “which must be stamped out.” The Anglo-Palestine bank has been liquidated which will lead to ruin for many of the Jewish settlers. A large number of Jewish refugees have fled to Alexandria among them “1,000 young men who have have declared their eagerness to join the British army.” The report closes with expression of concern for the 5,000 Jews and 12,000 Christians living in Jerusalem who are trying to survive on American relief supplies described as “insufficient to maintain life.”1915: William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs) found the Fox Film Corporation today.1915: In response to a petition from the counsel of Leo M Frank who is under sentence of death for the murder of a factory girl in Atlanta, in 1913, The United States Supreme Court advanced the on his case to February 23; an action to which the state of Georgia has assented.1915: “Plan to Pursue Frank” published today described the plans of the prosecution to indict Leo Frank on one or two other unspecified charges if he his appeal to the Supreme Court overturn the murder conviction thus granting him his freedom.”1916: “Dr. Joseph Jacobs” published today bemoaned the fact that New York “city and the world of letters as a whole has lost a brilliant and versatile writer” who found “few subjects…with which his mind and his pend di not busy themselves…with an even uniformity of erudite scope and depth.”1916: As of today, the American Jewish Relief” is reported to nearing its goal of two million dollars having collected $1,815,737.33 in cash and pledges.1916: Dotty Hammer who had “volunteered her services for Jewish Relief Day” wrote from Newark, NJ today to express her “heartfelt respect as well as admiration for all those who gave because they felt that in a time of grief and dire need religion was no barrier.”1917: Supreme Court Justice Cohalan granted the “right of incorporation” “o the Association for the Promotion of Sabbath Observance which works “to develop among its members and others a clear conception and understanding of Orthodox Jewry” including observing the Sabbath on Saturday. (Editor’s Note: This came at a time when the Reform movement was trying to shift observance of Shabbat to Sunday)1917: Today “Karl Klein, a Jewish accountant from Vienna was recruited to serve in the Austro-Hungarian Army.1917: In the wake of Germany’s announcement of unrestricted submarine Felix Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee expressed the concern that worsening relations with Germany would impede the war relief work in eastern Europe which is under the control of Germany and that contributions to aid those suffering from the war would fall off just when the need was greatest.1917: “At Warren Street, in the Portobello area of Dublin, Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe Henry Levitas and Leah Rick who had been married in the Camden Street Synagogue gave birth to Maurice “Morry” Leviatis the political activist who took part in the “Battle of Cable Street” and who “became a senior lecturer in the sociology of education at Durham University.1918: The Jewish Congress decided to “raise money to repatriate Galician Jews stranded in or around the city” of Berdichev. 1918: Russia adopted the Gregorian Calendar. Russia’s comparatively late adoption of the calendar used by most of the western world makes precise dating of certain events all the more difficult.1918: “The Jewish National Fund received a check for 250,000 crowns from an anonymous woman” which was “to be cashed after peace” ended the World War.1918: “As a result of a series of conferences, Dutch Jewish leaders formulate” a list of demands “to be presented at the peace conference including emancipation of the Jews; recognition of national rights in nation states; national concentration of Jewish people in Palestine; the cessation of contemptuous and oppressive treatment of Jews.”1918: Today, French Foreign Minister Pichon is a statement to the press in which the government “gave its endorsement to the British declaration” on Palestine.1918: In Edinburgh, Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell) and Bernard Camberg, an engineer gave birth to Muriel Sarah Camberg who gained as award-winning Scottish novelist Dame Muriel Spark.1918(19thof Shevat, 5678): Gaston Lelouch, the recipient of the War Cross died today.1918(19thof Shevat, 5678)1918: In Berdichev, “the Jewish Congress decided to raise money to repatriate Galician Jews stranded in or around the city.1919: Harvey E. Wessel completed a seven month assignment with the Jewish Welfare Board during which time he performed the services usually done by a Jewish chaplain and a social worker while being stationed at the Naval Training Camp at Pelham Bay Park in New York City.1919: The First Congress of the Muslim-Christian Association began its deliberations in Jerusalem.1920: Thirty-nine “Turkish elders of the Sephardi Community formed the Sephardic Community of Los Angeles” today which became known as the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel.1920: Adolphe Danziger De Castro “was one of the thirty-nine founders of the Sephardic Community of Los Angeles (La Comunidad Sefardi) and was elected the first president of the congregation.”1920: It was reported today that “the American Zionist Medical Unit at Jerusalem” will be establishing a school for chauffeurs in Palestine that aims “to rain men as capable motor drivers and mechanics in an effort to eliminate the acute shortage of chauffeurs” which has been brought about by the lack of railroads thus necessitating an increase in the use of automobiles.1921: Birthdate of Brooklyn College graduate Joseph Dames, “the director of special gifts of the American Jewish Committee’s Appeal for Human Relations and the husband of Lucille Dames with whom he had two children – Tamar and Lisa.https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/19/archives/joseph-dames-dies-jewish-appeal-aide.html1921: Felix M. Warburg, the President of the Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies is scheduled to deliver a report describing the “critical conditions that face organized Jewish philanthropy in the coming year” this evening at annual meeting of the Federation being held at the Hotel Pennsylvania.1921 First German translation of The International Jewhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/ford.html1922: Westmorland Davis, who in 1919 had urged “citizens, irrespective of race or creed, to contribute liberally” to the Jewish relief campaign” completed his four year term of service as Governor of Virginia today. 1923: Birthdate of Canadian businessman Benjamin Weider who “was the co-founder of the International Federation of Body Building and Fitness (IFBB).”1923: “A Glass of Water,” a “German silent historical film” with a script co-authored by Adolf Lantz was released today.1924: “Nanon,” silent film based on the operetta of the same name directed by Hanns Schwartz was released today in Germany1924: Automobile magnet Henry Ford who bankrolled the anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent which published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion entertained Nazi Kurt Ludecke at his Michigan home.1924: Frederick Salomon van Nierop, the son of A.S. Nierop and Rachel Salvador, who was a director of the Amsterdam Bank and was a member of both the Amsterdam City Council and the Provincial Council of North Holland was buried today in the Jewish cemetery in Muiderberg. 1925: Today, Sophie Udin and six other women who had been active in the labor Zionist organization Poale Zion, created the Pioneer Women’s Organization of America which was renamed Pioneer Women in 1947 and Na'amat (a Hebrew acronym for "Movement of Working Women and Volunteers") USA in 1981.1925: WMCA which Peter Straus took over in the late 1950’s began regular transmissions today.1926: In New York City, Maria Jaussaud Justin, and Charles Maier gave birth to photographer Vivian Maier.http://www.vivianmaier.com/http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/113385/vivian-maier-jewish-chicago1926: “The Mill at Sanssouci,” produced by Karel Freund premiered today in Germany.1927(29th of Shevat, 5687): Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Nathan Zevi Finkel) the native of Lithuania known as the Alter of Slabodka passed away in Jerusalem1928: Birthdate of Representative Tom Lantos, the California Democrat who took his seat in Congress in 1981 and is the only survivor of the Holocaust serving in Congress. 1928: “The Prince of Rogues,” a silent film directed by Curtis Bernhardt who co-authored the script was released today in Germany.1928: Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Mitchell May, a Jewish Democratic Party leader and friend of movie mogul Harry Cohn officiated at the wedding of movie director Frank Capra and Lucille Warner, the daughter of Myron Warner.1929: “The Broadway Melody,” “the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture produced by Irving Thalberg and Lawrence Weingarten premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.1930(3rdof Shevat, 5690): Parashat Vaera1930(3rdof Shevat, 5690): Forty-nine year old Police informant Julius Rosenheim was gunned down today allegedly by members of the “Capone Gang.” 1930: Birthdate of Ping Pong or Table Tennis Champion, Marty Reisman.1932(24thof Shevat, 5692): Twenty-three year old Hyman Hirsch, Jr, the son of Hyman and Miriam Phillips Hirsch passed today after which he was buried at the Dispersed of Judah Cemetery, “the second oldest Jewish cemetery to be built in New Orleans” which was located on land “donated by Judah P. Touro.”1932: Birthdate of Batsheva Esther Eliashiv, the Jerusalem native who was the daughter of Rabbi Shalom Elisahiv and who became Rebbetzin Batsheva Esther Kanievskey when she married Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.1934: Hyman G. Enelow became rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El on New York.1935: At the annual convention of the Palestine Jewish Farmers Federation, Moshe Smilansky, veteran farmer economist, poet, writer and journalist, shocked the assembled gathering when in his opening address as president he announced that in the present circumstances in Palestine Jewish farmers and colonists should employ only Jewish labor.1936(8thof Shevat, 5695): Parashat Bo1936: Rabbi Jacob Tarshish is scheduled to deliver a sermon “How Can We Find Happieness?” at Temple B’nai Jeshurun1936: English historian Dr. Cecil Roth is scheduled to lecture on “Will Hitlerism Spread?” this morning at Temple Rodeph Sholom.1936: Rabbi Milton Sternberg is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Does Morality Require Religion?” at Park Avenue Synagogue.1936: “Rudolf Saudek, a well-known Leipzig Jewish sculptor and a Czechoslovak citizen protested through the Czechoslovak Legation in Berlin against a ruling by the Reich Chamber of Culture forbidding him to make tombstone for Jewish graves” – a business he went into after the Reich government had ended his career sculpting busts, many of which had been placed in the local university and libraries.1937: In Washington, DC Secretary of State Cordell Hull met with a delegation representing the Arab National League which expressed the hope that the United States “will turn a sympathetic ear to the voice of the Arabs of Palestine.”1937: It was reported that the junior division of the United Palestine Appeal has adopted a resolution urging Great Britain to permit Jews from Germany, Poland and other parts to Europe to immigrate to Palestine without any interruption.1938: U.S. premiere of “Mad About Music” directed by Norman Rae Taurog and produced by Joe Pasternak.1938: In Rumania, the Finance Ministry’s Alcohol Department has demanded that the licenses of Jewish innkeepers be restored following an investigation into the unfounded claims of Prime Minster Goga that the Jewish innkeepers were “poisoning the nation.”1938: In Berlin, the Ministry of the Interior published a new law today empowering “German courts to revoke previous rulings permitting Jews to changes their names” which means that “a Jew who changed his name years ago can be compelled to resume his original names.1938: The German government published a decree officially notifying banks “that any company that has one Jewish director” or in which Jews have a 25 per cent ownership stake “must be classified as a Jewish concern.”1938: A court in Westphalia issued a decision “denying a license to sell intoxicating liquor to a café proprietor whose family had social relations with a Jewish family.”1938: The funeral for “Eugene H. Paul who was for forty-eight years connected with Kuhn, Loeb” and “a leader in Jewish philanthropic circles” in New York City is scheduled to “be held at Temple Home” this morning followed by burial in Mount Neboh City.1939: In Hamilton, Bermuda tonight, the Governor, General Sir Reginald Hildyard told the English Speaking Union that Hitler “has drawn America and Great Britain even closer than they were before” in part because “our hatred of what he has done our hatred of the way he has treated the Jews, has made us very close.”1941: Prime Minister Churchill instructed his Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, to send a warning to Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu telling him “that we will hold him and his immediate circle personally responsible in life and limb” if the Iron Cross did not stop their murderous attacks on the Jews.1943: Most of the 1,500 Jews remaining in Buczacz who had not been sent to Belzac were murdered. One survivor, Netka Goldberg, lost three sisters, two brothers and her mother. Her father would be killed seven months later.1946: Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations. Lie was head of the U.N. when Israel was created and was supportive of creating the Jewish state.1947(11thof Shevat, 5707): Parashat Beshalach1947(11thof Shevat, 5707): Sixty-two year old Russian born American attorney David Louis Podell who drafted major New Deal legislation passed away today.http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0DE0D91E3EE53ABC4A53DFB466838C659EDE1947: In Kennett Square, PA, “Florence Goldberger, a navy nurse and David Savitch , who ran a clothing store gave birth to American television journalist Jessica Savitch.http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/25/obituaries/jessica-savitch-of-nbc-tv-killed-in-car-accident.htmlhttp://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/the-legacy-of-jessica-savitch/2003201947: In Nicosia, Cyprus Bronia Rosenberg, originally from Łódź, and a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and Fishel Brand, from Biłgoraj, who had been a resistance fighter during World War II gave birth to Moshé Michaël Brand who gained fame as Israeli “pop star” Mike Brant.1948: The Arabs bombed the Palestine Post (a.k.a. Jerusalem Post) building in Jerusalem 1950(14th of Shevat, 5710): French sociologist. Marcel Mauss passed away.1951: During the Presidency of Harry Truman, Monnett B. Davis was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.1951(25thof Shevat, 5711): Seventy four year old Annie Morris, the wife of Hyman Morris, the first Jewis Lord May of Leeds, passed away today.1952: Three years after being released in the United Kingdom, “The Small Room” which Emeric Pressburger co-directed, co-produced and co-wrote opened in New York City today.1952: “Invitation” based on “the short story ‘R.S.V.P.’ by Jerome Weidman, directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, produced by Lawrence Weingarten and featuring Ruth Roman and Michael Checkhov was released in the United States today.1952: The day after he had passed away funeral services were held for seventy-eight year old Herbert Loeb, Sr., “the son of Rosa and Adolph Loeb” and husband of Rose Regenstein Loeb.1952: SN (Samuel Nathaniel) Behrman's "Jane" premiered in New York City. Behrman,was a popular and prolific dramatist who tackled a number of topics in his works including what it was like to grow up Jewish in a small town as the 19thgave way to the 20th century.1953: CBS broadcast the first television episode of “You Are There” which had originally been created for radio by Goodman Ace and whose directors included Sidney Lumet. 1955: Lord Rothschild wrote to Churchill “thanking him for the fact that in Jerusalem in 1921 ‘you laid the foundation of the Jewish State by separating Abdullah’s Kingdom from the rest of Palestine. Without this much-opposed prophetic foresight there would not have been an Israel today.’”1955: “Abdullah the Great,” a comedy directed and produced by Gregory Ratoff and co-starring Gregory Rafotff was released in France today.1956: In the UK, ITV broadcast the first episode of “Colonel March of Scotland Yard” produced by Hannah Weinstein.1958: Egypt and Syria announced plans to merge into United Arab Republic. This was one of those failed attempts at pan-Arabism that was really a military alliance designed to destroy Israel. The U.A.R. was neither united or a real republic. The Syrians pulled out in 1961, but the name lingered on for many years after.1959(23rd of Shevat, 5719): Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise passed away. He “was an American Rabbi and leader of the Reform Judaism movement, who served for over thirty years as rabbi of the Central Synagogue in Manhattan and was a founder of the United Jewish Appeal, serving as its chairman from its creation in 1939 until 1958.”1959(23rdof Shevat, 5719): “Three civilians were killed by a landmine near Moshav Zavdiel”1961(15thof Shevat, 5721): Tu B’Shevat observed for the first time during the Presidency of John Kennedy.1963: Publication of the first issue of The New York Review which Barbara Epstein helped to found with the encouragement of her husband, “Jason Epstein, a vice president at Random House.”1964: Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics won his “800th game as an NBA coach” today. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)1965: “Kelly” a musical with songs by Mark Charlap “began previews at the Broadhurst Theatre today.1966(11thof Shevat, 5726): Seventy-six year old Louisville, KY, native Louis Leopold Mann the HUC ordained Rabbi with a Ph.D. from Yale who was an active member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Jewish Chautauqua Society and the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a way today in Chicago.https://www.jta.org/1966/02/03/archive/dr-louis-mann-leading-reform-rabbi-dies-in-chicago-was-761966: In “The Trefa Banquet” published today John J. Appel described the 19thcentury Cincinnati affair where shellfish were part of the menu.https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-trefa-banquet/1968: In Hollywood, CA, Mitzi Shore (née Saidel), who founded The Comedy Store, and Sammy Shore, a comedian gave birth to Paul Montgomery Shore who gained fame as comedic actor Pauly Shore best known for his role in “Encino Man.”1969: Birthdate of jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman son of a legendary jazz musician and Jewish dancer from Russia.1969: Birthdate of publisher Andrew Breitbart, the adopted “of son of Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively” whose Jewish upbringing included a Bar Mitzvah and a life-long identity with the Jewish people.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/business/media/the-life-and-death-of-andrew-breitbart.html1967: In New York, as part of their confrontation with the unionized bagel bakers, owners shut the doors to their bakeries claiming “that they did not have enough work.”1970: Elie Abel, who has most recently been working as a correspondent for NBC, is scheduled to become the new Dean of Journalism at Columbia University effective today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/20/78549813.pdf1970(25thof Shevat, 5730): Dorothy Horowitz Germber, the wife of the late Newcomb Gerber passed away today in Clifton, NJ.1970: Oil was pumped for the first time in the newly completed 42 inch Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline1970: The New York Times includes a review of Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow.1974: For the third time “University College, Oxford, elected Professor Venyamin Levich, the eminent Soviet Jewish scientist, as a visiting fellow1976(30thof Shevat, 5736): Rosh Chodesh Adar I1976: Four days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon for seventy-one year old Shreveport native and Harvard School trained attorney, Joseph Harrison, the former lecturer at Rutgers University Law School and Republican political leader who served as a “judge of the Essex County Court” and who married “former Francis Boehm Ginsberg” after the death of his first wife “the former Amy Harvey.”
1976: "Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series based on the work of Irwin Shaw, premieres on ABC TV.1977(13thof Shevat, 5737): Seventy-four year old Warsaw native Samuel Arthur “Sammy” Weiss the first Jew to be named captain of the Duquesne University football team who went on “to represent Pennsylvania's 30th, 31st, and 33rd Districts in the United States House of Representatives” before serving as a Common Pleas Court Judge passed away today after which he was buried at B’nai Israel Cemetery in Pittsburgh.http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/235261978: Director Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. The father of the Polish born director was Jewish. His mother died in a concentration camp. Polanski avoided being trapped in the ghetto and spent the war wandering the woods of Poland.1979: The first staging of “Fugue in a Nursery” by Harvey Fierstein opened at LaMama today.1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile. This marked a major turning point in the Islamic world as religious fundamentalists began coming to power. There are those who would say that there is a direct line between the success of Khomeini and the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections in 2006. After 28 years, Iran boasts a leader who denies the Holocaust happened and calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.1980: “Fatso” a comedy featuring Estelle Reiner as “Mrs. Goodman” was released in the United States today.1980: The last public interview given by Sir Cecil Beaton, who had been fired by Conde Nast in the 1930’s for slipping an anti-Semitic message into one of his drawings, was broadcast by the BBC today.1984: In Wayne, PA, “Susan Komm, an artist, and Alan Jacobson, a graphic designer” gave birth to Abbi Jacobson, the “co-creator and co-star of the Comedy Central series ‘Broad City.’1984: Daniel Stern became NBA commissioner. Jews seem to gravitate to the position since at one point the commissioners of most major sports were Jewish: Commissioner of Major League Baseball: Bud Selig, Commissioner of the National Basketball Association: David Stern and Commissioner of the National Hockey League: Gary Bettman. According to one Urban Legend, there was a move to get Commissioner of the National Football League: Paul Tagliabue to convert to Judaism so that it would be four for four! 1985: Morton I. Abramowitz began serving as President Reagan’s Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.1985: In Leadville, CO, The Harvey/Martin Construction Company convey the Temple Israel property to William H. Copper whose family trust would convey it to the Temple Israel Foundation1987(2ndof Shevat, 5747): Sixty-one year old Sala Burton, the widow of Congressman Philip Burton and a “member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 5th district” passed away today.1988: Two Palestinians were shot dead today near Anabta in a confrontation on the Nablus road north of Jerusalem that involved demonstrators and settlers. Military authorities said settlers were trapped at roadblocks by stone throwers and drew their guns and opened fire. Soldiers also shot at the demonstrators. Another account said a convoy of 75 settlers returned when the trouble subsided and vandalized a score of Arab cars. 1989(26thof Shevat,5749): Eighty-nine year old Marie Syrkin, an author, editor and teacher who was active in the Zionist cause for many decades, died of cancer today at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. (As reported by Glenn Fowler)http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/03/obituaries/marie-syrkin-89-author-and-teacher-promoted-zionism.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1991(17thof Shevat, 5751): Eighty-two year old Herzl Rosenblum who served as editor of Yedioth Ahronoth for 35 years and who signed Israel’s declaration of independence as Herzl Vardi passed away today.1991: “Vandals attacked the Lomita, CA home of Dr. Shlomo Elspas, the executive governor of Chabad South Bay today “spray-painting a swastika and the slogan ‘white power’ on it.”1992(27thof Shevat, 5752):U.S. District Court Judge Irving R Kaufman, who presided at the Rosenberg Spy Case, passed away at the age of 81.1993: Gary Bettman becomes the NHL's first commissioner.1996: “A Fair County” written by Jon Robin Baitz “premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater” today.1998: “A Daughter Seeks Her Olympian Father” published today described the tortured relationship between clinical psychologist Julie Jaffe Nagel and her father Irving Jaffee, the Gold Medal Olympian speed-skating champion.http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/01/sports/sports-of-the-times-a-daughter-seeks-her-olympian-father.html1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time by Gershom Scholem and Selected Poems by Harvey Shapiro1999(15thof Shevat, 5759): Last celebration of Tu B’Shevat in the 20thcentury.1999(15thof Shevat, 5759): Eight-four year old Benjamin Elazari Volcani the native of Ben-Shamen, who discovered life in the Dead Sea and pioneered biological silicon research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego” passed away today.http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb1r29n709&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00076&toc.depth=1&toc.id=2002(19thof Shevat, 5762): Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal was beheaded today.http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,212284,00.html2002: After having premiered in London two months ago “Gosford Park,” a clever who-done-it that was the brain-child of Bob Balaban who co-produced and co-starred in the film was released in the rest of the UK today.2003(25th of Tevet, 5771): The Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere killing the crew of six including Israel’s first man in space, Ilan Ramon. Ilan Ramon was born in 1954. He was a combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force. He was a graduate of Tel Aviv University and held the rank of Colonel at the time of his death. Ramon was a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, one of the first Israeli pilots to fly the then new F-16 jet and was part of the group that destroyed the Iraqi nueclar reactor before it could go on line.2004: Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the FBR Open2004: The New England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Liberated Bride by A.B. Yehoshua; translated by Hillel Halkin and The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind.2005: At Madison Square Garden this evening, “a handful of the 25,000 people there taking part in the 11th Siyum HaShas Daf Yomi celebration recalled some of the more unusual settings in which they have demonstrated their commitment to the daily study of Talmud, which was completed — and renewed for a new seven-and-a-half-year cycle — this week. Daf Yomi, or daily page, was introduced in 1923 at the First International Congress of Agudath Israel in Vienna by a young Polish rabbi, Meir Shapiro, as a way to bring uniformity to the worldwide study of Shas, an acronym for the names of the six orders of the Mishna, on which the Talmudic sages recorded their commentaries around 200 C.E. Agudah said 120,000 North American Jews were taking part in the celebration this year.”2006: Despite violent protests, Israel successfully completed the evacuation of the West Bank outpost of Amona. This is in line with the policy of the Sharon government provide security for the state of Israel and ensuring that Israel remains both a democratic nation and a Jewish homeland. The withdrawal policy has the support of the majority of Israelis.2007: The Sarah Silverman Program premiered on Comedy Central2007: The first exhibition of female architects in the history of Israeli architecture entitled "The feminine presence in Israeli architecture," opened at the gallery of the Union of Architects in Jaffa. Twenty-two female architects participated and displayed works they have planned in the past few years and which have since been built.2007: As part of a kosher cooking contest, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a proclamation naming this date as Simply Manischewitz Cook-off Day. Candace McMenamin, a non-Jew from Lexington, S.C. won with her sweet potato encrusted chicken. Only in America2008(25thof Shevat, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Holocaust survivor Rubin Partel, the father-in-law of New York born neurologist Leonard S. Schleifer, “the founder and chief executive of the biotechnology company Regeneron.,2008: In New Jersey, Barnet Hospital which had been founded in 1908 by Nathan Barnet announced that it would closing due to a lack of funding2008: “Things We Lost In The Fire” directed by Susanne Bier with a script by Allan Loeb was released today in the United Kingdom.2008:Six gunmen opened fire on the Israeli Embassy inMauritania early this morning, trading fire with guards before fleeing screaming "Allah Akbar," witnesses said. The six men arrived by car and regrouped in front of a discotheque that is just beside the embassy, said Hamza Ould Bilal, a taxi driver who was parked outside the club, called the VIP. He saw them pull out their automatic weapons and scream "God is Great!" in Arabic, before assailing the embassy, he said.2008: After having premiered at Cannes last May, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” directed by Julian Schnabel was released today in the United States.2008: “Praying With Lior,” a new documentary about a Philadelphia boy with Down syndrome preparing for his bar mitzvah opens at the Cinema Village in New York.2009: At Yale University, CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America presents “Palestinian Issues in Israeli Journalism: A conversation with Khalid Abu Toameh, a journalist who writes for the Jerusalem Post”2009: The New York Times and the Washington Post each featured a review of Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle Eastby Martin Indyk, the assistant secretary of state for near east affairs during the Clinton Administration and the first Jewish American to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.2010: The Center for Jewish History and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation is scheduled to present “Diplomacy and Genocide: Challenges for the Future” during which a distinguished panel of policy makers, diplomats, and scholars discuss the issues and opportunities in diplomatic approaches to the prevention of genocide in the contemporary international community.2010: Yehuda Weinstein replaced Menachem Mazuz as Attorney General of Israel.2010: Two barrels of explosives were discovered on Israeli beaches today, which were dispatched into the sea as part of a large-scale Palestinian terror attack against Israeli navy ships. 2010: Seven American and European scientists were named winners of Israel's prestigious $100,000 Wolf Prize today. The Wolf Foundation said its prize in medicine went to Axel Ullrich of Germany for groundbreaking cancer research that has led to development of new drugs. Sir David Baulcombe of Cambridge University was awarded Wolf Prize for agriculture research in defending plants against viruses. The physics prize was shared by US professor John F. Clauser, Alain Aspect of France and Anton Zeilinger of Austria for their work in quantum physics. The mathematics prize was shared by two US-based professors: Shing-Tung Yau for geometric analysis, and Dennis Sullivan for contributions to algebraic topology and conformal dynamics. The Wolf Foundation was founded by the late German-born Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, philanthropist and former Cuban ambassador to Israel. The private nonprofit foundation's council is chaired by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar. 2010(17thof Shevat): Ninety-two year old Selma G. Hirsh, a humanitarian and an author who was associated with the American Jewish Committee for many years, passed away today at her home in Stamford, Conn. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/nyregion/25hirsh.html?pagewanted=print2011: Virginia Jewish Advocacy Day is scheduled to take placed in Richmond, VA.2011: The Leo Baeck Institute and American Council on Germany are scheduled to present a lecture by Joschka Fischer and Norbert Frei entitled "The German Foreign Office and the Nazi Past"2011: At Tulane University, Dean Carole Haber announced that Prof. Ronna Burger, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, has been appointed at the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Chair in Judeo-Christian Studies. This chair was endowed through of generous gift of Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman..2011: Six Senate Democrats rejected a deficit-driven proposal by a new Republican senator to cut United States aid to Israel. In a letter sent today to the top House Republicans on the Appropriations and Budget committees, the Democrats said aid to Israel, the only democratic nation in the Middle East, is imperative. They backed the $3 billion in foreign military assistance that the U.S. provides annually to Israel. Republican Sen. Rand Paul said last week that the nation faces a fiscal crisis and argued that the U.S. cannot give money away, even to allies, as the debt grows.2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant today that they have cancelled his upcoming appointment to the post of Israel Defense Forces chief. The announcement comes after months of scandal surrounding his appointment due to allegations that he had seized public lands near his home in Moshav Amikam in northern Israel. Galant was designated to succeed current IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi this month.2011: A Tunisian Jewish leader said today that the burning of a building that served as a synagogue in the South of the country was not an attack on the local Jewish community. Roger Bismuth, the president of the Jewish community in Tunisia, told The Jerusalem Post that the fire that broke out at a makeshift Jewish place of worship in the town of Ghabes was probably not an act of anti-Semitism, but one of vandalism2011(27thof Shevat, 5771): Seventeen year old Mitchell Perlmeter, the son of rabbi Rex Perlmeter and Rabbi Rachel Hertzman, passed away today in his home at Montclair, NJ.2012: “Mamele” is scheduled to be shown at Congregation Etz Chaim in Toledo, Ohio.2012: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at temple Jeremiah in Northfield, Illinois.2012: Liel Leibovitz is scheduled to moderate a presentation by New York Times columnist David Brooks at the 92nd Street Y.2012: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told President Shimon Peres today he was worried about the possible military aspects of Iran's nuclear program, laid out in a recent IAEA report, and called on Iran to prove that the program is peaceful. "2012: Israelis are in danger of waking up one morning to a different Israel, Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni said at the Herzliya Conference today. Livni asserted that Israelis today are not debating the true issue - that the state's relgious minority will impose its will on the Zionist majority. 2012(8thof Shevat, 5772): Eighty-six year old Robert B. Cohen, the president of the Hudson County News Company passed away today. (As reported by Denis Hevesi) 2013: Students and members of the Jewish community are scheduled to present poems by Jewish poets including works by Yehuda Acmichai following a Friday night Shabbat dinner at the Hillel at the University of Iowa.2013: Tenth anniversary of the Columbia Shuttle disaster which claimed the lives of all on board including Israeli Astronaut Ilan Ramon. The event is the subject of a special documentary entitled "Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope" which is scheduled to be aired today on Iowa Public Television. 2013: “Not By Bread Alone” is scheduled to be performed at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.2013: On the secular calendar, 11th anniversary of the beheading of Daniel Pearl.2013(22ndof Shevat, 2013): Eighty-eight year old Edward Koch, three-time mayor of New York passed away today on the same day that a documentary of his life opened in New York City theatres.(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/nyregion/edward-i-koch-ex-mayor-of-new-york-dies.html?hpw&pagewanted=printhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/ed-koch-remembered-by-israeli-envoy-as-one-of-us/2013: “The Gatekeepers” opened in U.S. movie theatres2014: In Rockville, MD, Tikvat Israel is scheduled to show “Lost Islands” as part of its Israeli Film Festival.2014: In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila, is scheduled to host its Third Annual Comedy night of “Sweet Laughter.”2014(1stof Adar 1, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar I2014(1stof Adar 1, 5774): Eighty year old Gordon Zacks, the Ohio businessman who was active in the Republican Party and “served as an adviser to President George H.W. Bush (Bush I) passed away today.http://www.timesofisrael.com/republican-jewish-coalition-founder-gordon-zacks-dies/2014: An Egyptian jihadist group said today that it fired a rocket at the Red Sea resort of Eilat which was intercepted by Israeli air defenses, its second in a fortnight2014: Finance Minister Yair Lapid ordered a halt on all money transfers to the settlements pending the clarification regarding their specific use, a statement on his behalf said this evening.2014: “Three Molotov cocktails were thrown this evening towards a private home in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood. No injuries were reported and light damage was caused to furniture in the house.”2014: At the Writers Guild of America Awards ceremony, Mel Brooks presented Pau Mazursky with the Screen Laurel Award, which is the lifetime achievement award of the WGA. 2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Girl From Human Street: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family by Roger Cohen and the recently published paperback edition of A Replacement of Life, Boris Fishman’s first novel about the forgery of Holocaust restitution claims.2015: In London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host an exhibition “From Generation to Generation” featuring the word of Gideon Summerfield.2015: The New England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.2015: Gary Bettman is scheduled to “mark his 22nd year as National Hockey League Commissioner” today.2015(12thof Shevat, 5775): Eighty-nine year old M.I.T. professor Irving Singer passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/us/irving-singer-mit-professor-who-wrote-the-nature-of-love-dies-at-89.html?rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article&_r=02015: “Renewal,” film that “profiles a group of dancers—the Vertigo Dance Company—in their pioneering eco-arts village on the outskirts of Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown at Lincoln Center in New York.2015: In New Orleans, funeral services are scheduled to held at the Old Beth Israel Cemetery on Frenchmen Street for Irvin Samuel Smith “who was a member of the CCJN’s close-knit family.”http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/irvin-smith-retired-record-store-owner-promoter-dies-at-92/2016: Some of the 6,000 Jews in Iowa are scheduled to join their fellow Hawkeyes in the first-in-the nation caucuses where the candidates include Bernie Sanders, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Hillary Clinton whose son-in-law is Jewish and Donald Trump whose daughter Ivanka is Jewish.2016: The award winning exhibition, “Voices of the Vigil” is scheduled to move from Rockville, MD to Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, VA.2016(22ndof Shevat): On the Jewish calendar “yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Rebbe.”2017: Physicist Persis S. Drell, the daughter of Sidney Drell, who has been serving as Dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering since 2014 is scheduled to begin serving the Provost of Stanford University today.2017: Today the Senate Finance Committee approved Steven Mnuchin’s nomination to serve as Treasury Secretary by a vote of 11-0 with all Democrats boycotting the vote, sending the nomination to the Senate floor2017: David Shulkin testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs during hearings on his nomination to serve as U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs.2017 (5thof Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter, “the leader of the Ger Chassidic dynasty, author of Sfas Emes.2017: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel Cantorial Soloist Abbie Strauss is scheduled to lead “Musically Speaking” with sessions for both youngsters and adults.2017: In New York, the Batsheva Dance Company is scheduled to perform Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s “Last Work.” 2017: The Yeshiva Museum is scheduled to host a special tour focused on the work of Hugh Mesibov.http://www.mesibov.net/hugh/2018: On a day when it is offering students a meal of “sweet chili beef and chicken noodles”,The Oxford University Society is scheduled to host a Gemara Shiur. 2018: Comedian Judy Gold is scheduled to perform at the West Hollywood Library. 2018: The Quad Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of Amos Gitai’s “West of the Jordan River.” 2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “An Act of Defiance.” 2018: In Des Moines, IA, the grand opening of the Hillel House at Drake University is scheduled to take place. 2019(26th of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi David HaLevi Segal 2019: In Jerusalem, Nirit Loftus, senior guide at the Bible Lands Museum, is scheduled to host a tour of “the museum’s exhibits that tell stories of the ingenuity, shrewdness and daring of queens, goddesses, and ordinary women who once lived and worked in the ancient Near East. 2019: In a rare musical treat, Cantor Joel Caplan, the son of Dick and Ellen Caplan, pillars of the “corridor Jewish community” and the father of another sweet singer of Jewish Song, Ilan Caplan, is scheduled to lead Friday evening services at Agudas Achim in Coralville, IA.
↧
February 1, 2019, 7:05 pm
February 2 506: Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgated The Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum) a collection of Roman law that included the sixteen books of the Codex Theodosianus complete with all of its anti-Semitic laws.450: Birthdate of Justin I during whose reign as Byzantine Emperor the Beth Alpha synagogue was built “at the foot of the northern slopes of the Mt. Gilboa near Beit She’an.962: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Gershom ben Judah, who will gain fame as Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile") had been born two years earlier in Metz. Mainz, the city he would move to as an adult, was already the center of Talmudic learning in this part of the Holy Roman Empire with Yehuda ben Meir serving as its leading scholar at this time. 1208: Birthdate of James I of Aragon.King James I of Aragon was the monarch who forced Nachmanides, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, to participate in a public debate, with the Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. Unlike what usually happened, Nachmanides chose to respond aggressively. His brilliant defense of Judaism and refutations of Christianity's claims served as the basis of many such future disputations through the generations. Because his victory was an insult to the king's religion, Nachmanides was forced to flee Spain. There were those who wanted the sage killed, but James let him escape; a silent acknowledgement of the strength of the Rabbi’s arguments.1484: The first printed edition of tractate Bezah of the Babylonian Talmud was published in Soncino Italy1499: The Jews were scheduled to be expelled from Nuremberg but the expulsion was delayed until “Laetare Sunday, 1499.” 1536: Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina. As in so much of the rest of Latin America, the first Jews to settle in Argentina were conversos. When Argentina gained its independence in 1810, the Inquisition was abolished and this marked the beginning of the development of the modern Argentinean Jewish Community. The first Jewish wedding in Buenos Aires took place in 1860. Today Buenos Aires has a Jewish population of about 200,000 souls. The city supports a variety of Jewish institutions including a campus of the Convservative JTS and one of the last remaining daily Yiddish newspapers. Unfortunately, Buenos Aires was also the site of one of the worst terrorist attacks outside of Eretz Israel.1499: The expulsion of the Jews from Nuremberg was scheduled to take place but was postponed until Lætare Sunday, 1499.1592: Consecration of Clement VIII, during whose Papacy Jews were forced to attend “conversionist sermons,” prohibited from “dealing in new articles of clothing” and forced to allow copies of the Talmud to be burned in 1601,1644: Birthdate of Isaac Chayyim Cantarini, also known as Isaacus Viva, the native of Padua who was a physician by training but who ‘also taught in the Yeshiva, officiated as a cantor” and served as “judge” in cases requiring a deep knowledge of Halacha.1648(17th of Shevat, 5408): Rabbi Chaim ben Benjamin Bechner of Cracow, author of Or Hadash passed away.1653: Incorporation of the city of New Amsterdam under Dutch rule. The first Jews would arrive in 1649: Birthdate of Domincan month Vincenzo Marco Orsini who as Benedict XIII issued bull describing the “necessary conditions for imposing baptism on a Jew” and forbidding Jews to sell “new goods.”1654. In other words, there really is a valid reason for thinking New York and New York Jew in the same breath. (New Amsterdam became New York when the English took the colony and named the city in honor of the Duke of York.) 1697: In Great Britain, a site is acquired for the first Ashkenazi cemetery.1701(24thof Shevat, 5461): Fifty-one year old “German Orientalist” who “published a translation of the Targum on Chronicles” and translated a book on “the travels of Benjamin of Tudela” passed away today.1709: In London, Elias Lindo and Rachel Lopes Ferreira were married at Bevis Marks Synagogue – a moment which was celebrated by the creation of a silver Chanukah menorah by John Ruslen known as the Lindo Lamp, the “earliest known English menorah.”1718(1st of Adar, 5478): Rabbi Gabriel ben Judah Loew Eskeles of Nikolsburg, Moravia passed away. He was the great-grandson of Rabbi Sinai Liva, the brother of the Maharal of Prague and the patriarch of the Eskeles “clan.”1729: Despite the opposition of the Berlin Jewish community, Frederick William I repeated the order that Moses ben Aaron be appointed to serve as the city’s rabbi.1740: In Zülz, Silesia, Seligmann Pappenheim, the town’s associate rabbi and his wife gave birth to Solomon Pappenheim whose works include a “book on Hebrew synonyms.”1763:Löb Wertheimer (son of Samson Wertheimer and Frumet Brülle) and husband of Sarchen Halberstadt passed away today.1769: Seventy-five year old Pope Clement XIII who in 1759 took a stance against the blood libel when he “proclaimed that the Holy See had examined the grounds on which rested the belief in the use of human blood for the feast of Passover and the murder of Christians by Jews, and that the Jews must not be condemned as criminals in respect of this charge, but that in the case of such occurrences legal forms of proof must be used” passed away today. 1790: The United States Supreme Court meets for the first time. It would be one hundred and twenty six years before a Jewish jurist would be named to the High Court. 1797: In the United Kingdom, George Isaacs and Kitty Levin experienced the tragedy of having a stillborn child.1814: Gershom Mendes Seixas of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York gave a sermon saying that because the United States has declared war, it is the duty of Jewish Americans to "act as true and faithful citizens, to support and preserve the honor, the dignity, and the independence of the United States of America!" Gershom asked the people to pray to God for protection and a strengthening of faith and to get rid of the evil that is around them. He discusses the horrible conditions that many people have been faced with and the numerous deaths that have occurred.1815: Friedrich von Gentz, “the secretary of the Congress” of Vienna who “was in constant commuction with Dr. Buchholz “on the rights of the Jews during the Congress, mentioned today dining at the home of Leopold Herz, a Jew who was one of the Royal Bankers along with such notables as the Duke of Wellington and Prince Metternich.1816: Birthdate of Jacob Herz (Heart) the native of Bayreuth who was a successful physician in Erlangen but found his career stymied because he would not convert.1820: Walter Jacob Levi married Rebecca Hart today in the Great Synagogue. 1825(14thof Shevat, 5585): Seventy-four year old Isac Hartvig Rée the husband of Sara Wulff Wulff von Essen and the father of Thamar Ree passed away in Altona, Germany.1827: Birthdate of Jewish scholar Solomon Buber the Lemberg native who was the son of Isaiah Abraham Buber and the grandfather of Martin Buber. 1831: Gregory XVI began his papacy today during which he granted an audience to Raphael Meir ben Judah Panigel who “was the Sephardi chief rabbi of Jerusalem” until his death in 1893.1835: In Gnesen, Posen, Joseph Chayyim Caro and his wife gave birth to historian Jacob Caro.1837(27thof Shevat, 5597): Hungarian rabbi Moses ben Menahem Kunizter, a descendant of Rabbi Lowe, passed away today.1840: “A report was spread” in Damascus that Father Thomas and his servant “were last seen in the Jewish quarter of the city” which “was sufficient to excite the wrath of” those “who had long nourished a bitter animosity against the Jews” and resulted in the arrest of Jewish barber. After having received “500 blows” and the promise of a pardon “if he would disclose the names of his co-religionists who had” murdered the pair, the barber “denounced seven persons who had required human blood for the Passover festival.” (Modern versions date these events as having begun on February 5. This is based on an account published in 18831848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed ending the Mexican-American War. There are limited records of colorful Jewish characters who showed up at different places where the war was fought (Remember, it covered a swath of territory including California, New Mexico, Arizona and the Republic of Mexico). They include: Jacob Frankfort a tailor living at Taos, New Mexico; Nathan Appel, a trooper with Phil Kearny’s Dragoons, Solomon and Thomas Farnham who were with the American Army at the Battle of Chapultepec (and later made their fortune in California) and Jacob Frankfort, a tailor living in Los Angeles who went to work for the U.S. Army when the troops arrived.1852: “Shocking Murder Near Philadelphia” published today described the discovery of the mutilated body of Jacob Lehman, a German Jew, who had been robbed before he was killed and dumped into the Delaware River.1852: Forty-nine year old Francis Mary Paul Libermann (born Jacob Libermann) “a 19th-century Jewish convert to Catholicism who was a member of the Spiritan order and who is best known for founding the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which later merged with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost” passed away today in Paris.1854: A second dinner was held in Philadelphia designed to raise funds for Jewish charities.1855: In Eisenstadt, Austria, Rabbi Dr. Azriel Hildesheimer and Henriette Jettchen Hildesheimer gave birth to Rabbi Hirsch Hildesheimer the husband of Rosa Therese Hieldesheimer 1858: In Pest, Hungary Wilhelm Diamant married Johanna Theres Diamant.1860: "Oliver Twist," a dramatization of Dickens' novel by the same name, was performed at the Winter Garden in New York City. J.W. Wallack played the part of Fagin the Jew1861: In Philadelphia, PA, Meyer Guggenheim and Barbara Myers gave birth to Solomon R Guggenheim the husband of Irene Rothschild and a second generation member of the Guggenheim family that made its fortune mining and metallurgy, Guggenheim is best remembered for endowing the Guggenheim Foundation which funds and runs the Guggenheim Museum. Guggenheim’s brother Benjamin died on the Titanic and it was his daughter Peggy who joined her uncle as a patron of the arts.1862: Birthdate of Rabbi Joshua A. Joffe, The Jewish Theological Seminary's second Talmud instructor. He joined the Seminary as Preceptor of Mishna and Gemara in 1893, and retired in 1917. As one of only two full time paid instructors at the Seminary when he arrived (the other was Bible instructor Bernard Drachman) Joffe taught all of the Seminary's early graduates. He was also in charge of the library, and he took part in the students' Literary Society, lecturing in Hebrew to the group that met every other Saturday evening. In addition to his work at the Seminary, Joffe taught students in his home (one of these private students was Stephen Wise), and from 1893 to around 1908 he taught Hebrew and Jewish ethics at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on Amsterdam Avenue between West 136th and 138th Streets. Joffe was born in Nesvizh, Minsk, Russia on February 2, 1862. He studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva, and received smicha(Orthodox rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Isaac J. Reines in 1881. He then went to Berlin and attended the liberal Hochschule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentums from which he received a second rabbinic ordination in 1888. Joffe's education also included a period, 1886-1890, at the University of Berlin where he studied philosophy, history, and Semitics. He served as rabbi to congregations in Vishnove, Russia, in 1880, and Moabit, a suburb of Berlin, 1889-1892. In 1892 Joffe left Germany and came to the United States. After twenty-four years at the Seminary, Joshua Joffe retired in 1917 after a period of ill health. He then returned to Europe with his wife and daughter and died in Freiburg, Germany on December 23, 1935. His family returned to the United States after his death. 1866(17thof Shevat, 5626): Fifty-six year old Rosanna Osterman, the wife of “silversmith and merchant Joseph Osterman” who moved to Galveston in 1838, died today “in the explosion of the steamship W. R. Carter on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, and was buried in the Portuguese Cemetery in New Orleans” after which she “left an estate valued at over $204,000, much of which she bequeathed to charitable organizations.1869: The will of the late James Disraeli “was proved” today by Benjamin Israeli.1870: Birthdate of Dr.William Salant, the 1899 graduate of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, the pharmacologist who taught at Cornell University.https://library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/william-salant1871: Baron Jozsef Eotvos, Hungarian statesman and who supported the emancipation of the Jews passed away today while serving as Minister of Religion and Education of Hungary.1871: Gustavus Cardozo, Chief of the Ordinance Bureau in New York City has issued orders to all householders to immediately clear the snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their houses and from their rooftops.1873: In Olmütz, bandmaster and composer Mortiz Fall and his wife gave birth to Leo Fall who gained fame for composing a series of operettas. 1873: It was reported today that a benefit performance has raised $5,200 for the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews.1874(15thof Shevat, 5634): Tu B’Shevat1874: In Philadelphia, PA, Herman Reizenstein and Louise Woernitz gave birth to Milton Reizenstein the recipient of Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and husband of Rose Hollander who served as the Assistant Superintendent of the Educational Alliance and whose writings included the Economic History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.1875: Birthdate of violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler. There are several different views as to whether or not Kreisler was Jewish. As the following note shows, even his family did not agree on the answer to the question. “Amy Biancolli's recent biography Fritz Kreisler: Love's Sorrow, Love's Joy (Amadeus Press, Portland Oregon, 1998) contains an extensive discussion of Kreisler's Jewish background, which he never acknowledged and which his wife adamantly denied (see Chapter 8: "Kreisler the Catholic, Kreisler the Jew"). Biancolli cites a 1992 interview by David Sackson of Franz Rupp, Fritz Kreisler's piano accompanist in the 1930s. Rupp states that he once asked Kreisler's brother, the cellist Hugo Kreisler, about their Jewish background, to which Hugo responded simply, "I'm a Jew, but my brother, I don't know." According to Biancolli, Kreisler's father, Salomon Severin Kreisler (also called Samuel Severin Kreisler), a physician and amateur violinist from Krakow, was almost certainly Jewish. Fritz's mother, Anna, was a Roman Catholic, and probably an "Aryan." According to Louis Lochner's 1950 biography Fritz Kreisler, Kreisler was reared as a Roman Catholic. However, according to unpublished parts of the manuscript uncovered by Biancolli in the Library of Congress, he was baptized only at the age of twelve. The bottom line seems to be that Kreisler was at least half-Jewish and his reticence on the subject primarily an attempt to placate his highly anti-Semitic wife Harriet. ("Fritz hasn't a drop of Jewish blood in his veins!" she is said to have vehemently responded to an inquiry from Leopold Godowsky. Godowsky retorted: "He must be very anemic.")”1875: Six year old Alice Kate Dreyfus, the daughter of Arthur Dreyfus and Harriet Broomfield was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”1876: The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball which we know simply as the National League, the first and oldest of baseball’s two Major Leagues is formed. Lip Pike may have been the first Jewish major leaguer. He had begun playing before the creation of the National League. Reportedly, his first stint was with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1876 he played with the National League team in St. Louis, thus making him the first Jewish baseball player to play in baseball’s senior circuit.1878: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger has taken issue with those who feel they must respond every time somebody expresses negativity regarding Hebrews as individuals are as a group. Those making these statements are “petty assailants” from whom the Hebrews need no defense.1879: Birthdate of Johana Handgriffova who was transported from Prague in October, 1942 to Ujazdow where he was murdered.1879: In Prague, Dr. Otto Pribram and Fanny Pribram gave birth Ernst August Pribram the Austrian Army Veteran, the serologist and bacteriologist who settled in Chicago where he also taught at Loyola.1882: Birthdate of Irish author James Joyce. Joyce was not Jewish, but Bloom the protagonist in his most famous novel, Ulysses was Jewish.1883(25thof Shevat, 5643): Seventy-two year old Rabbi Yisroel Salanter passed away. He was the father of the Mussar movement in Orthodox Judaism and a famed Rosh yeshiva and Talmudist. The epithet Salanter was added to his name due to the influence on his thinking by Rabbi Yosef Zundel of Salant.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/salanter.htmlhttp://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1700-1914/traditional-jewish-life/Musar_Movement/Salanter.shtml1883: Birthdate of S. Z. Sakall. Born Eugene Gero Szakall in Budapest Hungary, he used the first two initials of his last name to create his professional persona. The chubby cheeked actor was also known as “Cuddles.” One of his most famous roles was as the round faced waiter in Casablanca who tells Rick that he could “kiss him” after he lets a desperate young couple win enough at the casino to avoid the clutches of the lecherous Claude Raines.http://www.moviefanfare.com/s-z-sakall/1888: Birthdate of London born classical pianist Irene Scharrer.http://www.naxos.com/person/Irene_Scharrer/13517.htm1890: At Neuilly, France, verbal attacks were made against the Jews in general and the House of Rothschild in particular which was denounced for its “German origins” and its alleged role in the collapse of the l'Union Générale. 1890: “Religious Census” published today described the denominational makeup of Hartford, CN, a city of 48, 179 which includes 1,158 Jews.1890: “Gods Who Are Kinsmen” published today provided a detailed review of Lectures on the Religion of the Semites by Cambridge professor W. Robertson Smith1891(24thof Shevat, 5651): Philadelphian Ellen M. Phillips who was a benefactress of various Jewish charities including the Jewish Theological Seminary, passed away today.1891: “Art Notes” published today described exhibition at the Hotel Cluny in Paris of “a collection of objects” used by Jewish during the 13th, 14thand 15th centuries. The collection had been donated to the Cluny Museum by Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild and was made up of items that had originally belong to Isaac Strauss, who served as conductor during the reign of Napoleon III (more for 2014)1893: “The Century for February” published today described the articles in this month’s edition of the magazine including “A Voice From Russia” in which Pierre Botkine, the secretary to the Russian Legation in Washington, DC provides his government’s version of its treatment of the Jews.1893: Birthdate of Cornelius Lanczos the Hungarian mathematician and physicist who served as an assistant to Albert Einstein and while working for the U.S. National Bureau of Standards developed “the Lanczos algorithm for finding eigenvalues of large symmetric matrices and the Lanczos approximation for the gamma function.”1894(26thof Shevat, 5654): Seventy-eight year old Maro Mortara, the native of Viadana who graduated from the rabbinical college of Padua in 1836 before starting to serve as the Rabbi to Mantua in 1842 passed away today leaving behind his son Lodvocio Mortara who was the father of statistician Giorgio Mortara.1895(8thof Shevat, 5655): Sixty-four year old Adelaide Cohen Montefiore, “the daughter of Louis Cohen and Rebecca Floretta Keyser, the wife of Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore and the daughter-in-law of Solomon Sebag and Sarah Montefiore passed away today after she was buried at the “Sephardi New Cemetery” in London.1895(8thof Shevat, 5655): Sixty-eight year old French painter Benjamin Eugène Fichel passed away today.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Fichel#/media/File:Eugene_fichel_painting_1.jpg1896: The Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s Circle of the Auxiliary Society of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum was formed today in New York City.1896: Alexander Lewis Simmons, the son of Joseph and Annie Simmons, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”1897(30thof Shevat, 5657): Rosh Chodesh Adar I1897(30thof Shevat, 5657): Author Abraham Kaplan passed away1897: The Young People’s Association of the West Synagogue is scheduled to meet today at the home of Dr. H.P. Mendes. 1898: During today’s court session where the libel suit that Joseph Reinach has brought against Henri Rochefort, the audience began shouting “Down with the Jews!”1899(22ndof Shevat, 5659): Sixty-three year old Samuel David Klauber, the husband of Charlotte Klauber 1899: Based on information that first appeared in La Presse it was reported today that Captain Alfred Dreyfus was so angry when he learned that Captain Lebrun-Renault had claimed that he had confessed at the time of his trial that he refused to answer any more of the questions put to him by the Court Cassation unless he is returned to France.1899: Birthdate of Benny Rubin the Boston born actor, comic and writer whose career would span over 70 years and include work on the stage, film and television.1899: Captain Albert W. Lilienthal completed his service with the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, six months before he would re-enlist with the 40thU.S Volunteer Infantry.1899: It was reported today that “the latest victim of the anti-Dreyfus party is the Grand Rabbi, Zadok Kahn, who is being denounced as ‘the ringleader of the infamous Jewish conspiracy against France…’”1901: Birthdate of famed violinist, Yasha Heifetz. Born in Russia, Heifetz was a child prodigy. He soloed for the first time at the age of four. Considering the fact that he died in 1987, this means that Heifitz was a performer for eighty-two years. He became "a violin virtuoso of worldwide acclaim." He won several Grammies in the 1960s for his recordings of chamber music. Heifetz is one of a long list of Jewish violin virtuosos including Yehudi Menuhin and Conductor Eugene Ormandy. There are those who think of the violin as “the Jewish instrument.” Why, the comedian asked, do so many Jews play the violin? Because, the violinist answered, it is a lot easier to carry than the bass fiddle when you are being chased out of a country.1901: The 35thAnnual Convention of the Independent Order of the Free Sons of Israel is scheduled to open in New York today.1902: One day she had passed away, 45 year old Sophia Kuit, the wife of Meir Kuit, was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.1902: Birthdate of Israeli political leader and government official Eliyahu Sasson1903(5thof Shevat, 5663): Morris Tuska who had served as Vice President of the United Hebrew Charities of the city of New York passed away1905: Birthdate of Alissa Rosenbaum who gained famed as author and philosopher Ayn Rand. Born in St. Petersburg, Rand was the daughter of a pharmacist – a professional and member of the middle class which was quite an accomplishment in the anti-Semitic world of Czarist Russia. The family lost everything in the Bolshevik Revolution. She managed to finish her education in the early days of Lenin’s Soviet Union and the immigrated to the United States. It was during the immigration process that she took the first name of Ayn (rhymes with Pine) and the last name of Rand as in Remington Rand, name of her favorite typewriter. After a checkered career, Ms. Rand published her two famous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. These novels and the film made from one of them espoused her philosophy of “Objectivism.” Rand “glorified the self-made man who aggressively demonstrated his superiority over the masses through his business acumen.” Her personal life was at odds with her philosophy when you consider the fact that her husband was a financial failure and much of her financial base came from her unconventional relationship with Nathan Blumenthal. The name “John Galt”, the hero of the Fountainhead became a code word among her followers in the 1950’s. She was the philosopher to a movement that found its voice in the Goldwater wing of the Republican Party. Alan Greenspan, the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, is a great fan of her philosophy. Although Rand died in 1982, her books continue to sell well and her philosophy which, according to some, glorifies selfishness as a virtue and condemns altruism as a vice enjoys periodic periods of revival and popularity.1906: In Volkovysk, Yerucham Warhaftig and Rivka Fainstein gave birth to Rabbi Zorach Warhaftig who made Aliyah in 1947 and served in Israel’s first nine Knessets. Most important of all he worked with he worked with Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese Vice-Counsel in Kaunas to save the entire Mir Yeshiva.1906: It was reported today that of the sixteen people executed in the Citadel at Warsaw in the last fortnight, 15 of them were Jews.1906: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Harold Rosenberg, the leading “art historian and critic.”https://www.theartstory.org/critic-rosenberg-harold.htm1906: Letters from Gomel appearing in St. Petersburg newspapers all agree that the “anti-Jewish outrages in that town were perpetrated with the open connivance of the authorities” with the Cossacks and dragoon leading the way with acts of arson and plunder.1908: In Freedom, PA, “Abel and Rebecca (Gordon) Finn gave birth to Ohio St. alum Sidney Bernard Finn, the award winning Harvard trained dentist who was the husband of Irma Harriet Rubens with whom he had two children – Catherine and Andrew.1909: Adolf Stoecker, a prominent Lutheran theologian and court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm II who was a leading anti-Semite passed away today.1909(11thof Shevat, 5669): Seventy year old Prague native Leopold Karpeles who was “awarded the Medal of Honor as a Sergeant in Company E, 57th Massachusetts Infantry” for rallying the troops under fire during the Wilderness Campaign in 1864 passed away today in Washington, D.C. after which he was buried in the cemetery of Washington Hebrew Congregation, the oldest Jewish congregation in the nation’s capital.1909(11thof Shevat, 5669): Eighty-five year old Julius von Gomperzes the Austrian industrialist who was President of the Bron Trade and Commerce Chamber and a leader of the Brno Jewish community passed away today.1910: Birthdate of Syracuse, NY, native Alexander "Mine Boy" Levinsky whose nine year career in the NFL included playing on two Stanley Cup championship teams.http://mapleleafslegends.blogspot.com/2010/06/alex-levinsky.html1911: Birthdate of Hilde Metzger, the daughter of Louis and Clara Metzger, who moved to Amsterdam in 1933 when her parents “moved to Palestine escape the Nazis” and who became Hilde Metzter Prins when she married Benjamin L. Prins in New York in 1940.1912: Chief Rabbi Franco of Jerusalem protests to the Turkish Minister of Justice and Public Worship over the removal of seats at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Governor ignores his protest.1913: Rae D. Landy, the Cleveland trained nurse arrived in Palestine today after having been recruited by Henrietta Szold “to begin a visiting nurse program in Palestine.”1913(25thof Shevat, 5673): Fifty-seven year old Judge Henry M. Steinert of New York City passed away today.1913(25thof Shevat, 5673): Seventy-five year old Nathan Goodman passed away today in Newburgh, NY.1913: At a time when some in the Reform Movement were trying to make Sunday the day for Shabbat services, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch delivered the sermon this morning at services at Sinai Temple on Chicago’s South Side.1913: Rabbi Joseph Stoltz is scheduled to deliver a sermon “The Memory of the Righteous” at Chicago’s Isaiah Temple which will coincide “with the annual memorial services of the B’nai B’rith Lodges of Chicago.1913: Dr. Stephen S. Wise delivered a sermon ln “What is Wrong with the Jew?” at the Free Synagogue today.1913: The New Jersey Conference of Charities and Corrections of which Newark, NJ Rabbi Solomon Foster served as a member of the Executive Committee began meeting in Plainfield, NJ today.1914: Less than a year after having the British Featherweight Championship, Ted “Kid: Lewis (born Gershon Mendeloff) won the European Featherweight Championship “at London’s Premierland” today. 1915: Birthdate of Abba Eban. Born Aubrey Solomon Eban (he would later Hebracize his name after the creation of the state of Israel), in South Africa, raised in England and educated at Cambridge, Eban was a major figure in the creation of the Jewish state. At Cambridge he “read” Classics and Oriental language. This educational background meant he knew Arabic and had an appreciation of Arab culture, knowledge that would be useful during World War II when he served as an intelligence officer with the British Army. It was while serving with the British Army in Egypt that he met his future wife. She came from a prominent Sephardic family. There are those who contend Eban’s political fortunes would later suffer because of his marriage to a Sephardic Jew. Eban served at the United Nations during the Partition Debate and worked to gain early American recognition for the Jewish state. After the War for Independence Eban was both Ambassador to the U.N. and Israeli Ambassador to the United States. In these dual roles, Eban played a critical role in gaining popular and diplomatic support for the embattled state of Israel. This sophisticated, Cambridge educated intellectual speaking English in the same oratorical tones as Winston Churchill was a one-man public relations machine, the value of which we can hardly comprehend today. After his time in Washington, Eban returned to the rough and tumble world of Israeli politics. He held a number of responsible positions, including Foreign Minister, but the top job of Prime Minister always eluded. Eban produced several works on Jewish History and Civilization including Heritage which was the basis for PBS series narrated by Eban. Yes, what you have read is biased. I heard and saw Eban several times as youngster growing up in Washington. In a post-Holocaust world, with the survival of Israel a daily question-mark, and genteel anti-Semitism still an accepted part of the American landscape, the voice and presence of Abba Eban was a source of pride and comfort to a whole generation of Jews. Regardless of what his critics might say, in his case, the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.1915: During WW I, Jamal Pasha, the military governor of Palestine, began battling the British under General Maxwell with the intent of taking the Suez Canal.1915: It was reported today that “nearly all of the Jewish refugees in Alexandria come from Jerusalem and other large towns” including over 1,000 young men “who refused to become Ottomans” and have declared “their eagerness to join the British Army.1915: It was reported today that the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs chaired by Louis D. Brandeis “will deposit $10,000 with the American Consul at Alexandria” for the aid of Jewish refugees.1915: It was reported today that “the distress among the 5,000 Jews and 12,000 Christians left in Jerusalem is acute” and that “the American relief supplies” are “insufficient to maintain life.”1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee announced that it had raised $2,050,082 thus surpassing the goal of raising two million dollars set for Jewish Relief Day.1916: Albert Lucas, representing the American Jewish Relief Committee, called on Secretary of State Lansing and Secretary of the Navy Daniels and arranged that a naval collier “laden with medicine” would sail for a Mediterranean port next week where the cargo will then be delivered to those living in Palestine. 1916: “A report to the committed from Philadelphia” today” said that the local committee there had $330,000 pledged and that the committees of businessmen would keep at work until at least $500,000 had been pledged.”1917: The State Department received a cable from Ambassador Elkus that a group of refugees from Jerusalem, Aleppo and various parts of Lebanon, all of whom are women and children, are on their way to Beirut with plans to board the USS Des Moines and Caesar while at the same he has discovered another 1,000 Americans in the region who “are anxious to return to the United States. (Editor’s note: Yes, this is the same region that is facing a refugee crisis 100 years later)1917: Premiere of “The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach” a German silent moved filmed by cinematographer Karl Freund.1917: Birthdate of Jule Rivlin, the native of Pennsylvania who played basketball at Marshall where he coached from 1955 to 1963>1918: Margaret Seligman married Sam A. Lewisohn, son of Adolph Lewisohn, benefactor of City College and other major New York cultural institutions.1918: Governor Whitman, Colonel Harry Cutler, Chairman of the Welfare Board for Jewish Soldiers and Sailors’ Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein of the Institutional Synagogue, Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Maurice H. Harris of Temple Israel were among the speakers at tonight’s celebration marking the 75t anniversary of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.1918: As it prepares to embark for the Front, The British Legion, a Jewish military unit serving in His Majesty’s forces, was ordered to London to march through the East End before proceeding to Southampton.1919: Birthdate of Tullia Zevi, Italian journalist, writer and who was the daughter of an anti-fascist Jewish lawyer. 1919: Belarus native Rabbi Harry Hirsch Davidowitz married Ida Chaya Bloom in Philadelphia, fifteen years before he moved to Tel Aviv where he lived until his death in 1973.1920: France occupies Memel. Memel was one of those cities that had changed hands many times throughout the centuries. In the 20th century it was passed back and forth between Germany and re-born Lithuania. “The French Governor, who ruled the region on behalf of the Entente, cancelled all restrictions which had been imposed upon the Jews, and thus all the Jewish inhabitants of Memel and the region received citizenship. The Governor nominated a committee of four members, two of them Jews, Moritz Altschul and Leon Rostovsky, as well as one German and a French officer as chairman, to deal with requests for citizenship, as a result of which the number of Jews in Memel increased quickly. The port, the developing commerce, the convenient conditions for developing industry, the possibility to learn a trade and the easing of permission to leave for the west and to Eretz-Israel, motivated many Jews to settle in Memel. The Lithuanian Government, having annexed Memel and the region to Lithuania in 1923, was pleased with the increase of the Jewish population, because the Jews together with the Lithuanians reduced the influence of the German majority.”1922: In Jerusalem, Priscilla Lee, daughter of Dr. Henry J. and Josie Wolfe married Joshua Lipavsky.1922: Birthdate Shmuel Agmon, the Tel Aviv born mathematician “known for his work in analysis and partial differential equations.”http://www.emetprize.org/english/Product.aspx?Product=22&Year=20071923: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern Turkish Republic declared, “Our country has some elements who gave the proof of their fidelity to the motherland. Among them I have to quote the Jewish element; up to now the Jews have lived in happiness and from now they will rejoice and will be happy.”1923: “Nora” a silent film co-starring Fritz Kortner was released today in Germany.1926: Arshag Mahdesian, an expert on Armenia wrote today challenging William E. “Pussyfoot” Johnson’s description of Turkey in which described “the Jews” as “aliens who live on the bounty of the Turks1926: In Breslau, Rudolf Stern, “a physician, medical researcher and a veteran of the First World War” and “Käthe Brieger Stern,a noted theorist, practitioner, and reformer in the field of education for young children” gave birth to Fritz Richard Stern an “American historian of German history, Jewish history and historiography” whose family had been forced to leave Germany even though “his family had converted to Christianity in the 19th century.1927: “Rio Rita” a musical orchestrated and conducted by Max Steiner “premiered on Broadway” today “at the new Ziegfeld Theatre.”1927: The Ziegfeld Theater opened at 6th Ave & 54th Street in New York City. After Flo Ziegfeld’s death, Jewish showman Billie Rose would buy the theatre and turn in into his headquarters. In 1927, the Ziegfeld was the site of the premiere performance of “Showboat”, the musical which owed its lyrics, tunes and literary inspiration to American Jews.1927: Birthdate of jazz great, Stan Getz, premier tenor “sax man.” The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Getz was born in Philadelphia but raised in New York. His father bought Getz his first saxophone at the age of thirteen. Getz gained fame among mainstream music fans when he won a Grammy for his recording of "The Girl from Ipanema" in 1963. 1927: Birthdate of Herbert Kaplow, the Manhattan born son of Jewish immigrants who became a leading reporter for NBC and ABC television news.1928: In Tel Aviv, Sir Alfred Mond, the Jewish chemist who became a Member of Parliament, says that despite the current level of unemployment, there is no economic crisis in Palestine, since the rate of unemployment is “constantly decreasing.” After noting growth in the agricultural sector, Mond predicted that the construction of the Haifa harbor would have a positive impact on the country’s economy. Others living in Palestine do not share Mond’s optimism, claiming that without an infusion of capital to develop the country’s industrial capacity, the employment situation will worsen.1929(22ndof Shevat, 5689): Albert Steinrück who played Rabbi Lowe in the early German film classic Golem passed away at the age of 56. Considering what was about to happen to the Jews of Europe, there is a certain sense of irony in this choice of material for a film.1930: “Modern Home for the Blind To Be Built in Palestine” published today described “a meeting of the Palestine Lighthouse, a New York organization devoted to aid the blind of Palestine” at which plans for the erection of a completely modern Institute for the Blind” which “will be built on the outskirts of Jerusalem” were completed.1930: The funeral for Lady Reading, the wife of Lord Reading is scheduled to take place to “at Goldersgreen Jewish Cemetery.1931: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native Judith Viorst the author best known for her children’s books and the wife of fellow Rutgers alum and author Milton Viorst who was on Nixon’s enemies list and whose late-blooming interest in Zionism and the Middle East can be seen in 2016 work Zionism: The Birth and Transformation of an Ideal1931: The first Siyyum of the Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students.1931: An announcement was made today at a meeting of “Jewish athletic clubs and youth organizations” held at the 92nd Street Y.M.H.A., that the “first world-wide Jewish Olympic games will be held in Tel Aviv next summer and that these groups had come together to “organize the first American chapter of the World Maccabee Union.”1933: Hitler met the high command of Germany's officer corps for the first time. Hitler needed the support of the Army. The Prussian officer corps looked upon Hitler as an untrustworthy upstart. They also feared that he would replace the army with the SA, his private army of brown shirted thugs. Hitler would later make a deal with the high command. He would get rid of the SA and they would support him. This gave rise to the Night of Long Knives when Hitler literally killed off the SA and the German military machine embraced Hitler. Neither World War II nor the Final Solution could have taken place without this alliance of Hitler and the High Command.1933: In response to Hindenburg’s appointing Hitler to the post of Chancellor, theFamilienblatt a Jewish weekly newspaper, “declared, that it can hardly stand the idea, that an outspoken anti-Semite is appointed head of government.”1933: “Morgenrot” a WW I German submarine movie starring Camilla Spira, the daughter of actor Fritz Spria who died in the Ruma concentration camp in 1943, was released today in Germany three days after Hitler came to power1934(17thof Shevat, 5694): Eighty-four year old Columbia University Professor Julius Sachs, a member by birth and marriage of the Goldman-Sachs clan and the founder of Sachs Collegiate Institute passed away today.1934: In a letter published today Zionist leader Louis Lipsky criticizes an article published in the Good Gray Lady on January 21 which endorsed the proposal to create Arab and Jewish cantons as the solution to the problems in Palestine. The Arab canton would include Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa while the Jewish canton would be limited to Tel Aviv and a narrow strip of land that would include the malarial swamps around Lake Hula. Furthermore, Lipsky contends that the details of the plan which had been published in the Palestine Arab newspaper, Falstin, violate the spirit and letter of the Balfour Declaration to a point where it whittles it down to meaninglessness.1934: Journalist and Zionist Jacob de Haas is scheduled “to speak at a forum of the Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst” this evening in Brooklyn.1934: U.S. premiere of “Hips, Hips, Hooray!,” a comedy directed by Mark Sandrich (Mark Rex Goldstein) with a script by Bert Kalmar, Edward Kaufman and Harry Ruby.”1935: “Red Hot Tires” a crime drama written by Dore Schary was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.1935: Sam Winograd, the CCNY grad would become the school’s Athletic Director, led his basketball team to victory over Temple.1936: Elfriede Spiro, a Jewish woman whose family had come from Ostrowo in East Prussia, but had fled to Breslau when East Prussia became part of Poland after World War I and then fled to Italy after the rise of Hitler and Italian physicist and Noble laureate Emilio Gino Segre “were married at the Great Synagogue of Rome” – creating a marriage that lasted until October of 1970 when Elfriede passed away and that produced three children (Claudio, Amelia Gertrude Allegra and Fausta Irene)1936: In Washington, D.C., Simon Marks, Sir Herbert Samuel and Lord Bearsted are scheduled to address a conference being held to deal with the challenge of settling persecuted European Jews in Palestine.1936: Today, the National Conference for Palestine unanimously approved “a complete boycott of all Nazi goods and services” and a pled to support a campaign designed to raise three and half million dollars for building “the national home in Palestine” and providing aid to German Jews seeking to settle there.1936: A review of Adventures in Palestine by Marion Rubenstein which provides “a detailed picture of the new life which is being built in the Jewish communities in modern Palestine” as seen through the eyes of three little girls who are refugees from Germany was published today.1936: Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Conquest of Troubles” at the Jewish Science Society.1936: Rabbi Morton M. Berman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Need Jews Be Communists?” at the Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall.1936: In Cincinnati, Alfred M. Cohen, president of B’nai B’rith presented his annual report to the executive committee in which he “declared that Palestine offers the one substantial hope for the salvation of German Jewry.”1937: Birthdate of wrestler Boris Gurevich, the native of Kiev who a gold medal in Mexico City at the 1968 Summer Olympics.1937(21stof Shevat, 5697): Russian native Ida Einstein Abelson, the wife of Abraham Abelson and the mother of Myer, Hyman and Isadore Abelson passed away today after which she was buried at Agudath Achim Cemetery in Altoona, PA.1938: The Palestine Post reported that British troops, assisted by aircraft and police, started a major anti-terrorist campaign in the hills around Jenin. Two British soldiers and some 45 Arab brigands were killed. There were also various shooting incidents in Jerusalem.1938: The Palestine Post reported that at the Revisionist Conference, held in Prague, Vladimir Jabotinsky opposed partition and urged Britain to recognize the whole of Palestine as a Jewish country. "There is plenty of room," he argued, "for both Jews and Arabs to live together."1938: In Warsaw, General Wilczynski, the head of the Physical Education Bureau said that the “Aryan paragraph recently introduced in the by-laws of several sporting organizations excluding Jewish clubs from membership in national organizations” was “unsportsmanlike” and declared it illegal saying that a numerous clause limiting membership based on population percentage should be used instead.1938: The Palestine Post reported that The Association of Romanian Architects and Engineers expelled all Jewish members. 1938: The Premier of Rumania, Octavian Goga, issued a written statement today in which “he asserted that anti-Semitism would continue even if he were removed from” office because anti-Semitism which has been part of the National Christian Party for the last fifty years is an “enduring feature of Rumanian policy.”1939: In Prague, “two far reaching decrees – one aimed at depriving most Jews of their Czecho-Slovak citizenship and the other at forcing all immigrants to leave the country within six months – are scheduled to be proclaimed today by the government” which will have a devastating effect on the 10,000 Jews who have become naturalized citizens since 1918.1939: Ten year old Zvi Dershowitz, the future rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, “along with his parents Aaron and Ruth and sister Lili” emigrated to New York from Brno.1940(23rdof Shevat, 5700): Forty-one year Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov, the Soviet journalist and NKVD agent who made the mistake of criticizing Stalin’s purges was shot today at the same time that “his third wife Maria Osten was also sentenced and shot.”1940: U.S. premiere of “I Take This Woman” starring Hedy Lamar, produced by Louis B. Mayer with a script by Ben Hecht and music by Artur Guttmann.1940(23rdof Shevat, 5700): Seventy year old composer and conductor Arnold Volpe, the husband of Marie Michelson passed away today.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/02/03/92864040.pdf1942: Churchill ordered Lord Moyne to release the 793 illegal immigrants on board the Darien and allow them to settle in Palestine. 1942: Birthdate of Barry Diller former head of Paramount Studios and founder of Fox Television Network. 1943: Four days before Max Mannheimer's 23rd birthday, he, his mother, father, brothers Ernst (Arnošt) and Edgar, his 15-year-old sister, Katharina (called Käthe), and his 22-year-old wife, Eva (née Bock) were arrested and deported to Auschwitz” where “his parents, sister and wife were taken in the first selection” and where his brothers Erich and Ernst were murdered shortly thereafter.1943: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held for fifty-nine year old Elizabethgrad native and Brooklyn trained lawyer Leon Dashew, the husband Esther Dashew and father of Ruth, Stanley and Betty Dashew.1943: Final surrender of German forces at Stalingrad. This marked the turning point in the war on Eastern Front. Now the Soviets would go on the offensive. One of the by-products of the Soviet advances over the next two years would the liberation of several concentration camps including Auschwitz. The defeat at Stalingrad had a negative impact on Hitler’s relationship with the General Staff. Ideological steadfastness would now become more important than military skill. 1943: Two days after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to held at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Brooklyn for Selma Manheimer Rosenwasser , the daughter of Robert and Getta Manheimer and the wife of Maurice Rosenwasser. 1944: Thirty-four days its keel was laid down, the SS Morris Sigman was launched today. The ship was named after Morris Sigman who served as president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union from 1923 to 1928. 1944(8thof Shevat, 5704): Ernst Alexander died today in Berlin.1944: Edward Chodorov's "Decision" premieres in New York City1944: Allied planes drop bombs on a German shipping port and accidentally kill Jews on the Island of Rhodes in the Jewish quarter.1945: An unknown number of inmates attempted to escape from Mauthausen concentration camp. Located in Austria, Mauthausen was opened in 1938. It was liberated in May, 1945. As to the risks and consequences of escaping consider the following account from a camp survivor, ““When someone tried to escape from Mauthausen during the winter, people were forced to march to the camp center where they were forced to stand outside all night in their ragged clothing. Other times when the person who tried to escape was caught, during the winter they would pour water over him and force him to stay out in the freezing cold weather.” When I asked my grandfather if his father ever tried to escape, he replied, “No, he didn’t escape - nor did he try. There was practically no way to escape from those camps, and if they did escape, then the Sudeten people would chase them through the fields. Most of the time they would catch them.” 1946: The Jewish Chronicle published the citation appointing Captain Newman a Member of the Order of the British Empire” for “his courage and devotion to duty during two clandestine missions in Occupied France.”1947(12thof Shevat, 5707): Sixty-three year old David Louis Podell the native of Odessa, who was the son of Mordecai and Minnie Landa Podell passed away today in New York City.1949: The Israeli Government in Tel Aviv announced that West Jerusalem was no longer ‘occupied territory’ but an integral part of Israel under civil administration.1949: Immigration fever reached its height with approximately one thousand new immigrants a day reaching the shores of Israel.1949: Birthdate of Brent Spiner, the actor who plays Commander Data on “Star Trek.”1949: "The British military administration in Libya allowed Libyan Jews to travel to Israel. This brought an end to travel restrictions that had been in force since the start of the Israel War of Independence. According to Haim Abravanel "on the first day of legal emigration: 'It was snowing for the first time in Tripoli and under the white flakes blown by the wind thousands of poor Jewish wretches ran towards the street where the polices were...to get their passports at last" and sold all of their possessions including "furniture, businesses assets and work tools." In the next few days, 8,000 passports were issued to Jews who had no idea how they would reach Israel.1950(15th of Shevat, 5710): Tu B'Shevat1951: U.S. premier of “The Steel Helmet” a Korean War movie directed and produced by Samuel Fuller.1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Jordan, following a border clash during which an Israeli patrol expelled marauders, accused Israel of "aggression” and invoked the Jordanian-British Treaty of 1948 for protection.1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Soviet media embarked on a concentrated “spy and saboteurs hunt," and a "merciless struggle" against the Ukrainian "Jewish bourgeois nationalism and Zionism." (One thing that was left our during the memorial ceremonies commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz last week was any mention of the virulent ant-Semitism that gripped the Soviet Union almost immediately after the war. If Stalin had not died, the fate of Russian Jewry would have been much different,)1954: President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb. The debate over whether or not to build the H-bomb featured two famous Jewish physicists; each leading a different faction. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the A-bomb opposed the building of the H-bomb. Edward Teller, who was Oppenheimer’s junior and not nearly as illustrious a scientist led those in favor of building the bomb. Teller’s side won and the rest is history.1955: Pinchas Lavon resigned as Israeli Minister of Defense after bitter disagreements with David Ben Gurion, chief of staff Moshe Dayan, and Director General of his office, Shimon Peres. What became known as the Lavon affair concerned a controversial Israeli operation within Egypt. The question of who had prior knowledge was to plague the Israeli political establishment and Ben Gurion in particular for years to come. The Lavon Affair and its investigation commission eventually led to the fall of the government and brought about Ben Gurion's resignation in 1963.1957: Producer Mike Todd and actress Elizabeth Taylor got married. Ms Taylor converted to Judaism. Todd was the creator of a form of wide-screen cinema called Todd-A-O. “Oklahoma” and “Around the World in 80 Days” were both filmed in this manner. 1957: The UN adopted a resolution calling for Israeli troops to leave Egypt. This was the beginning of the end of the 1956 Sinai Campaign. This resolution marked one of the few times in the Cold War when the U.S. and the Soviet Union found common ground. The Eisenhower Administration resurrected the career of Nasser, the Egyptian dictator by forcing the Israelis to back down. The Americans would do the same to the British and the French in what would be an example of the law of unintended consequences. The Americans told their two European Allies that the American nuclear umbrella would not cover them if they did not give into the Russians. The French gave in, but swore they would never find themselves in this situation again. This was the driving force behind the French development of their own nuclear weapons and eventual departure from NATO. As we have said many times before, Jewish history takes place on the stage of world history.1959: “The Pride and The Passion” a big screen epic sent during the Napoleonic wars in Spain directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, co-starring Theodore Bikel as “General Jouvet” and with an opening title sequence designed by Saul Bass was released today in Finland.1960: Birthdate of Robert Smigel, a comedy writer, performer, and puppeteer best known as the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a character he created for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and writer for SNL for twenty years.1960: David Susskind produced “Juno and the Paycock” broadcast as “The Play of the Week” co-starring Walter Matthau in the role of “Joxer Daly.”1962: “Swifty the Great” published today provides a profile of Swifty Lazar, the super-agent who beats out MCA, William Morris and General Artists for clients on a regular business.http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,829005,00.html1963 (8thof Shevat, 5723): Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel passed away.1965: In Chicago, “Robinn Schulman, a nurse whose family owned the company that manufactured Shane Toothpaste (now known as AloeSense), and Joseph Steiner, a figurative painter and art instructor, David Steiner, a Zionist and filmmaker who died in an bus crash in Uganda after which he was posthumously ordained as a Rabbi.https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chicago-filmmaker-david-steiner-killed-in-uganda-bus-crash/1966: “Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, immediately accepted an invitation that was extended today “by Canada’s Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson to confer with the Dominion leader at Ottawa.”1966: “A spokesman for the John Birch Society today denied the Society fostered anti-Semitism as charged by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League…” claiming that “many our members are Jewish.” (JTA)1968: Today, the ill-fated INS Dakar was scheduled to enter her home port; a rendezvous she did not keep.1970: The funeral of Frederick Cohen son of Isidore and Leah Cohen is scheduled to take place this afternoon at The Riverside.1970: The funeral of Abraham Cahan, husband of Flora Cahan and father of Sanford Cahan and Marjorie Rosenbloom is scheduled to take placed this morning at The Riverside.1972(17thof Shevat, 5732): Fifty-eight year old WW II Army Air Corps veteran and department store executive Herbert Marcus, Jr. one of the sons of the co-founder of Dallas’ legendary Neiman-Marcus passed away today.https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/03/archives/herbert-marcus-jr-dead-at-58-served-new-york-liie-in-dallas.html1972: After having premiered in New York City and after having been released in the United Kingdom in January, “A Clockwork Orange,” directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick who also wrote the screenplay and featuring Miriam Karlin was released today in the United States.1974: As Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sought to bring a truce to the Middle East, Syrian guns shelled Israeli military position and civilian positions near the Golan Heights.1974: Barbra Streisand's 1st #1 hit, "The Way We Were"1975: Two people were injured in a terrorist bus bombing in Jerusalem.1977: After their F-4E Phantom II was hit by an Israeli artillery shell David Noy and Ilan Erster were recovered after having ejected from their aircraft.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Europe was on an alert as Arab terrorists boasted of having poisoned Jaffa oranges. 1978: “The Boys in Company C” an early Vietnam era war film co-starring Michael Lembeck was released in the United States today.1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli seamen extended their two-week strike to ships with vital cargoes. 1978: The first staging of International Stud part of a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein opened today at La MaMa, E.T.C., an Off-Off-Broadway theater, where it ran for two weeks1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the indirect behind-the-scenes Israeli-Egyptian negotiations and the face-to-face military negotiations came to a halt with both sides remaining far apart in their search for a political 1980 (15thof Shevat, 5740): Tu B’Shvat1980 (15thof Shevat, 5740): William H Stein, US biochemist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1972 passed away at the age of 68. 1985: Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” closed out its world premiere run which had begun on December at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.1987(3rdof Shevat, 5747): Seventy-eight year old American record executive Alfred Lion passed away today.https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=1121987: A memorial service is scheduled to be held in NYC for Grete Mosheim, a leading Berlin and West German stage actress whose husbands included actor Oscar Homollka and financier Howard Gould and who had fled Germany when Hitler came to power.1988: In Randolph, VT, “actress Lindsay Crouse” who was Buddhist and playwright David Mamet who was Jewish gave birth actress Zosia Russell Mamet, the actress who identifies with her father’s Judaism.1988: In Itamar Yitro Asheri and his wife gave birth to Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri who was murdered by terrorists belonging to the PRC in 2006.1989(27th of Sh'vat, 5749): Marie Syrkin, author, editor, poet, teacher, and outspoken activist for Israel, died at the age of eighty-nine.1991(18thof Shevat, 5751): Parashat Yitro1991(18thof Shevat, 5751): Sixty-nine year old Howie Rader, who played basketball with his twin brother Lenny at Long Island University before serving in WW II and going on to a career in the pros passed a way today.1991: New York Mayor David Dinkins was scheduled to leave on his trip to Israel today. The trip is designed to show support for Israel during the Persian Gulf War.1992: A theater performance benefiting the Tel Aviv Foundation, which helps Russian artists settling in the Tel Aviv area, was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this evening "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," an adaptation of the Tom Stoppard play by Joseph Brodsky, the poet laureate of the United States, was performed in Russian by a Soviet émigré troupe, the Gesher Theater Company, with simultaneous translation into English. A reception honoring Mayor Shlomo Lahat of Tel Aviv followed the performance. 1993(11thof Shevat, 5753): Eighty-four year old Lithuanian born American violinist Alexander Schneider who was a member of the Budapest String Quartet passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/04/arts/alexander-schneider-violon-virtuoso-dies-at-84.html1994(21stof Shevat, 5754): German born Dutch photographer Annemie Wolff whose husband, architect Helmuth Wolff committed suicide as a part of a failed suicide pact and who compiled a photographic of Dutch suffering under the Nazis passed away today.http://archives.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2015/03/03/annemie-wolffs-1943-portraits-of-jews-in-amsterdam-are-more-powerful-than-words1995(2ndof Adar I, 5755): Eighty-six year old physicist and radiobiologist Tikvah Alper who overcame prejudice against women and Jews and who opposed Apartheid in her native South Africa passed away today.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-tikvah-alper-1610123.htmlhttp://cshlwise.org/wise-wednesdays/2017/8/23/tikvah-alperhttps://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Alper-Tikvah1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingBehind the Oval Office Winning the Presidency in the Ninetiesby Dick Morris, For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman by Jonah Raskin and Arnon Grunberg’s Blue Mondays about “a jaded young Jewish man gets kicked out of high school and spends his days in bars, getting fired from jobs, rejecting his parents and his religion, and dropping most of his money on whores before deciding to become one himself.”1997(25thof Shevat, 5757): Ninety-one year old Sanford Meisner the actor and acting teacher who founded the Meisner/Carville School of Acting passed away today.http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/04/theater/sanford-meisner-a-mentor-who-guided-actors-and-directors-toward-truth-dies-at-91.html1998(6thof Shevat, 5758): Eighty-six physicist Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber passed away today. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/06/us/gertrude-scharff-goldhaber-86-crucial-scientist-in-nuclear-fission.htmlhttp://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldhaber-gertrude-scharff2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Welcome to Heavenly Heightsby Risa Miller and What I Saw Reports From Berlin, 1920-1933 by Joseph Roth; translated with an introduction by Michael Hoffman2004: Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad and three other terrorists in a Gaza raid.2006 (4 Shevat, 5766): Paratrooper Yosef Goodman, a member of the elite Maglan unit died in a training accident. Goodman aged 20, originally from New York, lived in Efrat with his parents and siblings. The price of a Jewish state is indeed expensive.2007: Israeli author David Grossman was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.2007: The Jewish Daily Forward published “The Joys of Cedar Rapids.” http://www.forward.com/articles/10009/2008(26thof Shevat, 5768): Eighty-two year old Joshua Lederberg who “was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes” passed away today.2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at Temple Judah kicks off the weekend with Super Bowl Shabbat. The traditional minyan combines Tefillah and Tailgating by observing Shabbat Mishpatim followed by a Kiddush featuring pizza and assorted football munchies.2009: At NYU, the David Project Center for Jewish Leadership cosponsors “Tribalism in the Middle East,” a lecture by Mordechai Kedar, professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at Bar-Ilan University and an expert on Arabic and Muslim Society.2009 (8thof Shevat, 5769): Eighty-nine year old Ralph Kaplowitz, who appeared as a member of the Knicks in what is considered the National Basketball Association’s first game in 1946, when Jewish players were often showered with anti-Semitic catcalls, passed away at his home in Floral Park, Queens today.(As reported by Vincent Mallozzi)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/sports/basketball/15kaplowitz.html?pagewanted=all&_r=02009: Opening session of the 9th annual Herzliya Conference2010: Members of the Little Rock Jewish Community are scheduled to meet at The Center of Jewish Life under the auspices of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment and join their co-religionists around the world in the second JLI course titled Portraits in Leadership: Timeless Tales for Inspired Living.2010: The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan is scheduled to show “Una Storia Romana” (An Italian Story), a documentary that centers on the round-up of Jews in Rome in 1943 and Jewish attempts to raise the 50 kilos of gold that German demanded as ransom.2010: Maggie Anton, author of the trilogy about Rashi’s Daughters is scheduled to speak at The Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Ontario.2010: A number of Israel’s leading “Wikipedes” came to the Knesset today, where they reaped the laurels of their efforts, but also leveled a certain amount of criticism toward a lack of government cooperation with their efforts to compile a free online Hebrew-language encyclopedia 2010: First broadcast of PBS’s service documentary “Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness” which examines how Melville J. Herskovits a Jew who grew up in El Paso, TX came to be considered “the inventor of African American Studies. 2010: Ninety-one year old Donald Wiseman, the “biblical scholar, archaeologist and Professor of Assyriology at the University of London” passed away today.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7252002/Professor-Donald-Wiseman.html2010: Security forces searched Israel's coastline and closed beaches in the south today after two barrels of explosives washed up on the shores of Ashkelon and Ashdod, north of Gaza. 2011: The 92ndSt Y is scheduled to present “The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry: Pivotal Figures from a Heroic Era” during which political advisor Richard Perle and Gal Beckerman, author of When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, are scheduled to discuss the dramatic Cold War period when American Jewry first became politicized as Jews and Jews behind Russia's Iron Curtain took grave risks in order to win their freedom and emigrate to Israel or the United States.2011: Mike Brown signed a three year extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs.2011: Esther Friedman, matriarch of a pro-active Zionist family from Netanya and Jerusalem wh died last night at age 94 after several years of serious illness, was buried today on the Mount of Olives.2011: The Knesset Constitution Committee approved a modified version of a bill today that would allow some small communities to maintain admissions committees to screen candidates for residency. 2012: Professor James Kugel is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “In the Valley of the Shadow: Some Thoughts on Serious Illness at Shearith Israel in New York City.2012: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Miryem-Khaye Seigel entitled “The Broder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish Theater.”2012: About 200,000 missiles are aimed at Israel at any given time, a top Israel Defense Forces officer said today, adding that Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons was solely dependent on the will of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 2012: During his visit to Gaza today, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon urged “the people from Gaza to stop firing rockets into the Israeli side. Indiscriminate killing of people, civilians, is not acceptable, for whatever reasons. Eight rockets were fired into Israel on the eve of Ban’s visit, the IDF said. 2012(10thof Shevat, 5772): Seventy-year old Zalman King, “a filmmaker who mixed artistic aspiration, a professed empathy for female sexuality and gauzy photography to bring soft-core pornography to cable television” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/arts/television/zalman-king-creator-of-soft-core-films-dies-at-70.html?_r=02013: Israel’s No. 1 box-office hit, “The World Is Funny” is scheduled to be shown at the opening of The 13th Annual Broward County Jewish Film Festival, at the Posnack JCC, in Davie2013: The Israel String Quartet is scheduled to perform two string quartets by Beethoven at the Eden-Tami Music Center. 2013: As the בולטימור רייבנס prepare to square off against the סן פרנסיסקו 49, the traditional minyan at Temple Judah is scheduled to host its annual Super Bowl Shabbat service.2013: The Syrian state broadcasters showed the aftermath images of last week's alleged Israeli air strike on the sprawling Jamraya site north-west of Damascus. 2013: The Los Angeles Times reported that the top contenders in the city’s mayoral race “share strong ties to the Jewish community.” (As reported by Seema Mehta)http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jewish-20130202,0,4056368,print.story2013: Turkey’s foreign minister blasted Syrian President Bashar Assad for not responding to an alleged Israeli strike on targets in Syria. (As reported by Yoel Goldman)2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including An Officer and a Spy, a novel about the Dreyfus Affair by Robert Harris and Trieste, a novel that focuses on the fate of Jews of this city that has belonged to so many nations by Dasa Drndic as well as a “conversation” with Gary Shteyngart, author of the recently published Little Failure.2014: Among the ads scheduled to be shown during the Super Bowl is a commercial for “Noah,” director Darren Aronofsky’s cinematic treatment of the “the righteous man in his generation.” (It will be interesting to see how his version squares with what he learned growing up Jewish in Brooklyn) 2014: In the UK, scheduled final showing of “Children of the Sun” a documentary about “the children who were part of Israel’s first kibbutzim.”2014: It was announced on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” today “that Bill Kristol would be a contributor for ABC News and to that program2014: “Mike Flanagan, a former British soldier who smuggled two Cromwell tanks to the Haganah in 1948, was buried in the Sha’ar HaAmakim cemetery alongside his wife and son today. (As reported by Marissa Newman)2014: “threeASFOUR: MER KA BA” is scheduled to close today.http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/three-as-four2014: “Chagall: Love, War and Exile” is scheduled to close todayhttp://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/chagall-love-war-exile2014: Ynet News reported today that “Rabbi Mordechai “Motti” Elon, an Israeli Modern Orthodox leader, will not appeal his conviction on two charges of sexually assaulting a minor.”2014: With Israeli politicians pouncing on US Secretary of State John Kerry for allegedly encouraging a boycott against Israel, the State Department issued a statement today urging that Kerry's words be portrayed "accurately."2015: In Miami Beach, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by Genie Milgrom, “How to Find and Prove your Jewish Ancestry from Catholic Inquisition Sources.”2015: In New York, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Echoes of the Borscht Belt” featuring contemporary photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld.2015: During an awards ceremony today where the IDF honored many of those who fought “in last summer’s conflict in Gaza” a Distinguished Service Medal was awarded posthumously to twenty-four year old Lt. Eitan Fund “who famously rushed into a tunnel to try and stop the kidnapping of Hadar Goldin during an ambush near Rafah on August 1, 2014.”2015, “Seven Stories Press published Art Shay's final book, My Florence, a picture book chronicling his late wife Florence's life in 20th-century Chicago.”2015: Pianist Roman Rabinovich and Violinist Itamar Zorman are scheduled to perform with Jupiter Chamber Players at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.2015: Anat Gov’s play “Oh God” is scheduled to open at the JCC Manhattan’2015(13thof Shevat, 5775): Ninety-two year old screenwriter Stewart Stern passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/movies/stewart-stern-92-screenwriter-of-rebel-without-a-cause-dies.html?_r=02016: “The Metropolitan Klezmer” is scheduled to perform at the 92nd Street Y.2016(23rdof Shevat, 5776): Ninety-year old breast feeding advocate Dana Raphael passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/nyregion/dana-raphael-proponent-of-breast-feeding-and-the-use-of-doulas-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=12016: An Off-Broadway revival of “Buried Child” co-starring Nat Wolff is scheduled to begin today.2016: The 92ndStreet Y is scheduled to host “Trials and Error: The NFL Concussion Settlement.” 2017: Journalist Paul Martin is scheduled to speak at today’s Learn and Lunch hosted by the Oxford University Jewish Society.2017: Coe College is scheduled to host the first session of “The Conflicted Jewish World of Chaim Potok” under the leadership of award winning Physics Professor Steve Feller.2017: Lebanon is scheduled to begin an auction for energy rights in an area of the Mediterranean Sea that is claimed by Israel.2017: It was reported today that “the White House issued an unexpected statement appealing to the Israeli government not to expand the construction of Jewish settlements beyond their current borders in East Jerusalem and the West Bank” saying that such expansion, “may not be helpful in achieving” the goal of peace.”2017: Richard A. Shweder is the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Human Development at the University of Chicago, David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute, Mark Yudof is Board Chair of the Academic Engagement Network and Milan Chatterjee is one of two recipients of the American Jewish Committee’s inaugural Campus Courage Awards, are scheduled to take part in a panel discussion about BDS on College Campuses at the Streicker Center2017:Susan Bachrach, Curator of the special exhibition The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to take part in a discussion “Sports and Politics, Then and Now” at the California African American Museum2017: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host the opening “Black Panther Got Loose from the Bronx Zoo: An Exhibition by Ido Michaeli”http://www.ajhs.org/black-panther-got-loose-bronx-zoo-exhibition-ido-michaeli#overlay-context=user2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Kabbalat Shabbat service followed by dinner at the beginning of Parents’ Shabbat. 2018: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its Tu B’Shevat Seder and Soup Seder. 2019: Limmud Helsinki is scheduled to begin today. 2019: Today’s observance of Ground Hog Day can include a viewing of the corny cult classic “Ground Hog Day,” directed by and co-produced by Harold Ramis who co-authored the screenplay with Danny Rubin. 2019: Limmud FSU St. Petersburg is scheduled to continue for a second day. 2019(27th of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of “Joseph Sanalbo who was burned at the stake in Rome” today.
↧
