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This Day, January 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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January 25



41: 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 “Claudius rescinded Caligula’s provocative decrees affecting Judean and reaffirmed Jewish rights throughout the rest of the Roman world.”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).  He was Byzantine emperor from 775 through 780.  He 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?

 
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. The appellation of anti-pope is one that is hung on several popes who were elected under controversial circumstances.

 
1327: Edward III becomes King of England. During his reign King Edward III 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.”

 
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.

 
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 Spainissued the order to set up an inquisition in the New World. Mexicowould 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

 
1844:Congregation Shaarai Shomayim u-Maskil el Dol was chartered today in Mobile, Alabama. “Israel I. Jones  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 . 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”

 
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.

 
1852: 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 philanthopist 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

 
1858:The Wedding Marchby 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 aLutheran in 1816.

 
1861: 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 long time 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.] 

 
1868(1st of Shevat, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Shevat

 
1872: The United States confirmed M.A. Shaffenburg as U.S. Marshall for the Territory of Colorado.

 
1870: 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 infittesimal part of the general population

 
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: 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 Congregation.

 
1879(1stof Shevat, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Shevat

 
1879: The Pioneers, a St. Louis literary club for Jewish women, meet for the first time today.

 

1882: Bilu was founded at Kharkov

 
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.

 
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.”
 
1891: 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.

 
1892: 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.” 

 
1894: 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: 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: 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:  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.

 
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 Jerusalemwould 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 Palestineand settle your people there, we want to have churches and priests ready to baptize all of you.")

 
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.

 
1912: The Savannah Section withdraws from the Council of Jewish Women.

 
1913(17th of 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

 
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.

 
1919: Birthdate of NBC newsman Edwin Newman.

 
1919: Awni Abdul Hadi and Ahmad Qadri met with an unnamed Zionist representative at the Hotel Meurice

 
1919: 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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
1928: 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.

 
1932: “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.

 
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.”

 
1940: 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, Poland

 
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: 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.

 
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.

 
1954: Birthdate of Israeli author David Grossman whose work included Her Body Knows, a collection of two novellas.

 
1958: Birthdate of actress Dinah Manoff.  She is the daughter of screenwriter Arnold Manoff and LeeGrant who was Lyova Haskell Rosenthal before she began her acting career.

 
1959:  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: 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 (8th of 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.

 
1965: Sheldon Cohen began serving as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

 
1966(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.

 
1968: Last transmission is received from the Israeli submarine, Dakar.
 
1971: 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.

 
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 borth of Hans Ehrenberg and the nephew of Victor Ehrenberg passed away in London.

 
1981: In “Words of a Fallen Soldier,” Hillel Halkin reviewed Self-Portrait of a Hero: The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (1963-1976).

 
1983: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia

 
1985: Release date for “The Falco and the Snowman” directed by John Schlesinger, the product of a middle-class Anglo-Jewish family.

 
1987: Neil Diamond sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXI.

 
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.'' In the wake of international criticism over Israel’s response to Palestine protesters, Prime Minister Shamir seems to echoing Genyan when he states, ''We are not allowed to kill, we are not allowed to expel, we are not allowed to beat,'' Prime Minister Shamir said. What are Jews allowed to do - Only to be killed, only to be wounded, only to be defeated.''

 
1992: Singer Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yeminite Dance Troupe appear in concert as part of “Israel: The Next Generation.”

 
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."

 
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.

 
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. Israel Electric said it would enter detailed negotiations to buy the gas from Eastern Mediterranean Group, which involves Israel's Merhav Group and Egypt's state-owned oil company. Other gas will come from an Israeli supplier. The purchase could establish the strongest economic tie between the two nations since they signed a peace treaty in 1978.

 
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 February 6 election in Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Barak told an Israeli business group today that he did not believe there would be an agreement before the election, in which he is being challenged by the hawkish Ariel Sharon. But Israeli and Palestinian negotiators greeted each other warmly after a two-day suspension of talks and immediately began more intensive bargaining.

 
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.

 
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. He said he had been humiliated by the flight attendant who he said picked on him because he was an Arab. He testified that he pulled a penknife out of his pocket and grabbed her arm when the plane approached Istanbul, but was immediately overpowered by passengers. Mr. Foqara faces up to five years in prison if convicted of attempted hijacking.

 
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.
 [Ed. Note: The article is reproduced in its entirety to provide a sense of what one of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th century had to say about Jews. He seemed to comprehend the fact that Communists like Trotsky had rejected Judaism and to remind us that for Jews, Russia is a good place “to be from” regardless of who is in charge]


 
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 Less by 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.

 
2005(15th of Shevat, 5765): Tu B'Shevat

 
2006: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.  By a 5-0 vote, the Borough Council of Tenafly agreed to allow the strips to be used to create an enclosure known as an eruv.

 
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 Service

 
2007: 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 Citythe 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 TempleJudah 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 Britainat Friday Prayers the community of Ahmadi Muslims in the UKsay 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: 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 Timesincludes 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 Timesreports 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 19th annual 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.”Yael Hersonski’s powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film—the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work, with no soundtrack, quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these “everyday” scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate. Hersonski relentlessly screens each reel as ghetto survivors and (amazingly) one of the original cameramen recall actual events, investing the cryptic scenes with detail, complexity, and authority. Rigorous in its regard for human tragedy and the power of images, A Film Unfinished indicts both the evil and the astounding narcissism of the Nazi state.

 
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. “The Kitchener camp, a derelict site which had previously been an army camp, was taken over by the Council for German Jewry at the beginning of 1939 as a result of pressure from the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland to rescue threatened Jews from Germany and Austria. Conditions for admission were that inmates must be aged between 18 and 40 and that they have a definite prospect of emigration overseas. The camp began receiving refugees in February 1939 and ended with the outbreak of war in September after which most of the inmates chose to enlist in the British army. Three young English Jews, Jonas and Phineas May and M Banks, who were later to become commissioned officers in the Pioneer Corps, were put in charge of the management of the camp.”  Located in London, the Wiener Library describes itself “The World’s Oldest Holocaust Memorial Institution.” 


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: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(20th of 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)


 

2012: The David Harris & 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(1st of 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 meeting, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.

 


2012: 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 hackers.

2012: 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 saga


 
2013: “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: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.


 
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.

 

This Day, January 26, In Jewish History by MItchell A. Levin

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January 26


 
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, Portugal retook 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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
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 Synagouge.

 
1851(23rd of Shevat, 5611):Leon Vita Saraval passed away. Born at Triest in 1771, he was a bibliophile and author whose “entire library” was purchased for the Breslau seminary in 1853.

 
1856: “Charitable Bequest of the Late Baron Rothschild” an article 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.

 
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(6thof Shevat, 5623): A. Robinson, a soldier serving with the 15thGeorgia passed away today. His passing was later commemorated by the Hebrew Ladies Memorial Association of Richmond, VA.

 
1868(2nd of Shevat, 5628):Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas land agent and colonizer passed away.

 

1881: In Leadville, CO, Morris and Rosa Altman were married.

 
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.

 
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. (More for 2014)

 
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.” (more for 2014)

 
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.

 
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.

 
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: 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.


1912:Aaron Hahn, a delegate from CuyahogaCountyto 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: In Boston, Anshe Slavita dedicated a new facility.


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: 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.


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.)


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 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


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: Birthdate of actor Paul Newman.  Newman’s father was Jewish.  His mother wasn’t


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: Birthdate of cartoonist and writer Jules Feiffer. Jules Feiffer's 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.


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.


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: Nazis denied Polish Jews the right to travel on trains. One cannot help but see a note of irony in this decree.


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.


1943:230 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: 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.


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(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: Birthdate of movie critic, Gene Siskel.  He was part of the t.v. 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 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


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


1973 (23rd of Shevat, 5733): Famed actor Edward G. Robinson, born Emanuel Goldenberg, passed away.

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.


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


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.


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.”


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 Onlyby 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.


1998: During what will become known as the Monica Lewinsky Scandal, U.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.''


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.


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: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. .


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 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: 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: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.

 

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.

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.

This Day, January 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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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 Africaincluding 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.


1164(1st of Adar): Poet and philosopher Abraham ibn Ezra passed away


1186: 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.


1349: 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.


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.



1785: Founding of the University of Georgia. According to the January, 2005 issue of “The Jewish Week,” the University of Georgiais 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 Hillelgets 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 Sydneyharbor, 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.


1808: Jerome Bonaparte granted full civil rights to the Jews of Westphalia


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.”

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.”


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.”



1850: Birthdate of Samuel Gompers, first president the American Federation of Labor.  When asked what does the American working man want, Gompers responded, “More!”


1859: Birthdate of Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Wilhelm 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.



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.


1863: 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.


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.



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(1st of Shevat, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Shevat



1878: 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.



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/C67


1885: Birthdate of musician and composer Harry Ruby.

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 Goldschmidt


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 Leece


1892: 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: 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: “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 German and 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 Representative’s, 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: 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.


1900: Birthdate of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover was 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 Americaits strategic edge over the Soviet Unionduring the Cold War.


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.


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.


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.


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.


1924: Birthdate of Harvey Irwin Shapiro, the Chicago born poet who became an editor of the New York Times (As reported by Margalit Fox)


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: 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."


1938: The Palestine Postreported 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: The Palestine Postreported that Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach opened a picturesque garden on the seven-dunam oval island at Zina Dizengoff Circle.


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.


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 Governments


1944: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: 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 murdered


1945: 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.


 
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 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.

1952: Birthdate of Brian Gottfried, Baltimore born tennis star who won the Wimbledon Doubles in 1976


1953: 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: U.S. release date for “The Court Jester,” a musical comedy starring Danny Kaye


1959: Birthdate of Keith Olbermann former TV sportscaster and former MSNBC host.


1964(13th of Sh'vat, 5724): Lieb Glantz, famed chazzan and composer, passed away at the age of 65


1961: "Sing Along with Mitch" featuring Mitch Miller premiered on NBC TV


1965: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.  http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/27/1965/bel-kaufman


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.”


1969(8th of Shevat, 5729): Nine Jews were publicly executed in Damascus Syria


1971(1st of Shevat, 5731) Rosh Chodesh Shevat


1973(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.


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: 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 & the Amazing Dreamcoat" opened at the Royale in New York City for the first of what would be a total of 747 performances. 


1986(17thof Shevat, 5746): Eighty-one year old American artist Edward Biberman passed away.

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 Israel


1992: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'Shevat


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 Day


1997: It was revealed that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by the  Nazis.


1999: Moshe Arens begins serving as Defense Minister.


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 Auschwitzon 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 Londonto 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."Britainobserved 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 Londonincluded Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminsterand Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. The ceremony included tributes to survivors of violence in Cambodia, Bosniaand 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 Milanorganised 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 Vilniusto 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 LastVillage:A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wildernessby 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 Granadagroup of television companies during the week following the event. The second UK Holocaust Memorial Day takes place in Manchesterinvolving the participation of survivors from the Holocaust and victims of contemporary racism and prejudice, young people and a range of community representatives.



2003: 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. Although corruption scandals dented the commanding lead of Mr. Sharon's right-of-center Likud Party and almost 30 parties took part in the campaign, it has generally been pallid -- a reflection, politicians said, of the dismal economy and voter cynicism that any leader can achieve peace with the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's promises of peace and security remain unfulfilled, but Israelis generally place their trust in him and the blame elsewhere.


2004: An event on 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.  Greece's Parliament had unanimously adopted recently a relevant legislation. Today’s event was attended by Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis, Foreign Minister George Papandreou, Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou, Deputy Interior Minister Nikos Bistis, the New Democracy party's Parliamentary representative Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Communist Party of Greece's Parliamentary representative Achilleas Kantartzis, Coalition of the Left party Deputy Fotis Kouvelis, a representative of Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos and many ambassadors in Athens.  Papandreou said in a speech that the unanimous ratification by Parliament of the bill setting a Holocaust anniversary date is ''confirmation of the collective sensitivity of the Greeks and of the fact that Greece is an open society, a society of tolerance and of respect of all its citizens.''  He added that ''democracy must defend the citizen. Exclusion of any kind constitutes our moral failure. The decision we took honors us all. It helps us to keep historical memory alive and it will serve as valuable help for the generations to come.''  Emerging from the Concert Hall, the foreign minister said ''we must remember the past and be taught by it'' and reiterated the need for ''respect for the right to be different.'' 


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.


2005: 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 Rapidsby storm as he leads the Jewish Community in a celebration of “Shabbat Alive.”


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 Newcastlewith a theme of “The Dignity of Difference.”


2008: In “The Capa Cache,” Randy Kennedy described the discovery of “three flimsy cardboard valises that “contained thousands of negatives of pictures that 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.”

2008: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Alfred Kazin: A Biography by Richard Cook. “Whenever anyone writes about the “New Yorkintellectuals” — the group of male Jewish writers who came to prominence in the years after the Second World War — Kazin’s name is near the top of the list. And yet he wasn’t a typical member of the tribe. If you were drawing a composite sketch of a model New Yorkintellectual, you’d make him an atheist, largely unconcerned with spiritual questions; a partisan of European literary modernism; and a creature whose political thinking had been forever marked by 1930s debates about socialism and Communism. Kazin, by contrast, was God-haunted (“I want my God back” is the next-to-last sentence of his 1978 memoir, “New York Jew”); unquenchably fascinated by American literature and American history; and politically radical, but in a fashion that owed less to Marx than to Whitman — Kazin’s radicalism was democratic, generous, angry and thoroughly in the American grain.”


2008: International Holocaust Memorial Day – light a light, kindle a candle – Holocaust Memorial Trust website http://www.hmd.org.uk/


2009: In Manhattan’s EastVillage, third part of a four part seriesThe Comedy and Kabbalah of Relationships”featuring Rabbi YY Jacobson


2009: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 areading 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 Templeswould place it within the historical continuum of Jewish suffering rather than consider it wholly unprecedented.


2009: Former Agriprocessors official Sholom Rubashkin can be released from jail, a federal judge ruled. Judge Linda Reade of U.S. District Court in Northern Iowa ruled today that although Rubashkin is a flight risk, reasonable measures could be taken to ensure his appearance at trial, the Des Moines Register reported. Reade required that Rubashkin post $500,000 bail and confine himself to Allamakee County, Iowa. She also barred him from any contact with potential witnesses in the case.

2009:The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said today that it planned to conduct a detailed review of BrandeisUniversity’s surprise decision to sell off the entire holdings of its RoseArt Museum, one of the most important collections of postwar art in New England.

 

2010: Sara Hurwitz was given the title of “rabbah,” (sometimes spelled “rabba”) the feminine form of rabbi

2010: 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 ago. Moving later into a heated tent to escape the minus 12 Celsius (10 Fahrenheit) temperatures, they heard Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vow that his country would never allow anyone to erase the memory of the victims of Nazi Germany's death camps. ''We sit in a warm tent and remember those who shivered to death, and if they didn't freeze to death, they were gassed and burned,'' Netanyahu said in a solemn ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army. Some 150 Auschwitz survivors and European leaders were on hand for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, one of scores around the world marking the global day of commemoration established by the United Nations in 2005. ''From this damned ground of Auschwitz and Birkenau and the other death camps rise the voices of millions of our brothers and sisters of our people who were suffocated, burned and tortured in a thousand different and unusual deaths,'' Netanyahu told the crowd in Hebrew. After brief remarks in English, Netanyahu switched into Hebrew, saying he wanted to use ''the newborn language of the people whom the Nazis sought to exterminate'' and chanting the first line of the Jewish prayer for the dead. ''My murdered brothers and sisters and brothers who survived the inferno, I came here today from Jerusalem to say to you we will never forget,'' Netanyahu said. ''We will not allow Holocaust deniers and desecrators of grave stones to erase or distort the memory.'' Netanyahu's remarks were a clear reference to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad, who has called for Israel's demise and questioned the extent of the Holocaust. In Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's supreme leader, predicted the destruction of Israel in comments posted on his Web site Wednesday, in some of his strongest remarks about the Jewish state in years. ''Definitely, the day will come when nations of the region will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime,'' Khamenei was quoted as saying. ''How soon or late (Israel's demise) will happen depends on how Islamic countries and Muslim nations approach the issue.'' President Barack Obama, in a video message, thanked Holocaust survivors for finding ''the strength to come back again, so many years later, despite the horror you saw here, the suffering you endured here, and the loved ones you lost here.''''We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here -- how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the worst instincts of man and rationalized mass murder and one of the most barbaric acts in history,'' Obama said. Obama also thanked Polish leaders and the people ''for preserving a place of such great pain for the Polish people, but a place of remembrance and learning for the world.'' Poland's President Lech Kaczynski recalled the pain of the Polish nation, which was occupied by Nazi Germany throughout the war, but also acknowledged the unique suffering of Jews, who were targeted for extermination. ''Jews were being murdered only because they were Jews,'' said Kaczynski, a strong supporter of Poland's reviving Jewish community. ''Many others were killed only because they were Poles or Russians, Ukrainians or Belarusians. But there was no death sentence for the whole nation.'' Survivors passed under a replica of the infamous sign at the main entrance to Auschwitz, which bears the Nazi slogan ''Arbeit Macht Frei'' -- or ''Work Sets You Free.'' The original sign was stolen last month but recovered by police in a nationwide hunt after three days. The thieves had cut the sign into three pieces, however, and it is undergoing repairs. Jadwiga Bogucka, an 84-year-old non-Jewish Pole, was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 for taking part in the Warsaw uprising against the Germans. Before the ceremony, she told The Associated Press that Wednesday's weather was similar to that on Jan. 27, 1945, when she woke up and found the Nazis had fled the camp. ''It was all covered in snow and it was very cold. There was no gong as usual for breakfast that morning, but the previous night there had been the usual terror, or even worse -- the roll call, the screaming of the SS men,'' said Bogucka, who was 19 at the time. ''I left the barrack to see what was going on (and) there were dead bodies everywhere, because the Germans had shot anyone still able to move or who tried to flee,'' she said. The Nazis opened Auschwitz as a concentration camp in the summer of 1940 after they invaded and occupied Poland. Its first prisoners were non-Jewish Poles and others. Because of its central location, Germany soon turned it into a center for implementing the ''Final Solution,'' the plan to kill Europe's Jews. By the end of World War II, at least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, but also non-Jewish Poles, Gypsies and others, had died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau or from starvation, disease and forced labor. Some 6 million Jews overall were killed in the Holocaust. In other commemorations, German-born Pope Benedict XVI spoke at the Vatican of ''the horror of crimes of unheard-of brutality that were committed in the death camps created by Nazi Germany.'' Israeli President Shimon Peres addressed the German parliament, calling for the surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust to be brought to justice. ''Across the world, survivors of the Holocaust are gradually departing from the world of the living,'' Peres said. ''At the same time, men and women who took part in the most odious activity on earth -- that of genocide -- still live on German and European soil, and in other parts of the world,'' he added. ''My request of you is: Please do everything to bring them to justice.'' In Hungary, government officials promised to pursue efforts to criminalize Holocaust denial and drew parallels between the rise of pro-Nazi groups in the 1930s and the current strengthening of far-right parties. ''The struggle against extremists begins with remembrance,'' said Csaba Molnar, head of the prime minister's office. Historians say about a third of those killed in Auschwitz were Hungarians.


2010(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 entitledThe 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 Osiel


2011: International Holocaust Memorial Day

2011: 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 Birkenau. “Clearly, Germany's political leaders have learnt the lessons of the past, but much remains to be done throughout Europe to keep the memory of the darkest chapter in history alive, in order to prevent a future Holocaust.” Wulff's official delegation also comprises several Holocaust survivors, the leaders of Germany's Jewish community, and members of parliament. Together with his Komorowski, Wulff will visit the International Youth Meeting Center at Auschwitz. Events were held in capitals across the world. In Rome, a ceremony was set to take place this evening at Rome's Great synagogue, organised by the local Jewish community and Jewish youth movements including World Bnei Akiva. At least 1000 people, Jews and non-Jews, participated including Rome's Mayor, Minister and Representatives of the Italian Prime Minister will participate, together with the Chief Rabbi and Jewish community leaders. At the same time, a study published today that showed Israeli, Polish and German citizens believed that Israel should take part in funding the preservation of the former Nazi camp, whose buildings and artifacts are in need of restoration.  “All the participants were very supportive of preservation,” Gila Oren of the College of Management said. “Both Israelis and non-Israelis believe Israel should take part in the preservation, which to date it has not even though former Prime Minister Yitzhack Rabin promised NIS 100,000 years ago and that’s been forgotten. The question is whether Israel should or shouldn’t have to pay to preserve the former Nazi concentration camp, and that’s an interesting question.” The data was collected from a survey of 310 participants in major cities in Israel, Poland and Germany. In particular, the study attempted to identify financial aspects relevant to the site preservation. Additionally, the findings highlight participants’ positive response towards personally donating towards the site's preservation. The average amount of money people are willing to donate is close to $10. Israelis are willing to donate up to $16, while Germans and Polish are willing to donate on average $ 8.5.


2011: “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. The letter also urged Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp which owns Fox, to get an apology from Roger Ailes, the Fox News.  In the letter, which the rabbis paid $100,00 to have published in News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal, the rabbis claimed that Beck unfairly attacked Soros, a billionaire financier who grew up in Nazi-occupied Hungary. According to the rabbis, Beck has made "literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom he disagrees," calling American politicians he disagrees with Nazis and saying that putting the "common good" first leads to "death camps.""You diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit an individual or organization you disagree with," the letter said. "That is is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only 'left-wing rabbis' who think so."


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(22nd of 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 25th White House Chief of Staff


2012: 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.

2012: International Holocaust Memorial Day


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 weapons.

2012: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 today.
 
2012: Today, authorities leveled additional charges against a teenager accused in the firebombings 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.


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 Tragedy


2013(16th of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-seven year old Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and historian Stanley Karnow passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

 

2013: “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 Judaïsme


2013: 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 100

2013: 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 Day

2013: In the UK, observance of Brent Holocaust Memorial Day.

 
2013: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 International


2014: 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)

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,”

This Day, January 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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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.

 
1225: Birthdate of Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic Saint who expressed his views on Jews in a “Letter on the Treatment of Jews” written in 1271.
For more, see Aquinas and the Jews by John Y.B. Hood and Thomas Aquinas on the Jews Steven C. Boguslawski

 
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 far away 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):Elia Levita passed away. Born in 1469, he was “also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Eliahu Bakhur ("Eliahu the Bachelor"). He “was a Renaissance-period Hebrew grammarian, poet and one of the first writers in the Yiddish language. He was the author of the Bovo-Bukh the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish, which, according to Sol Liptzin, is ‘generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old Yiddish.’”

 
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.

 
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.

 
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.

 
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?'”
 
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.

 
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. 

 
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: An article entitled “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:Birthdate of 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 Shevat

 
1865: Birthdate of Emma Eckstein, the native of Vienna who was a patient of Sigmund Freud and who became the first female psychoanalyst.

 
1867(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.

 
1871: Paris surrendered to the Prussians.  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. 

 
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 lat 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: Birthdate of Irving Lehman, New York lawyer and jurist.

 
1877: 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(15th of Shevat, 5640): Tu B’Shevat


1880: 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.


1887: Birthdate of pianist Arthur Rubinstein


1888(15th of Shevat, 5648): Tu B’Shevat


1890: 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.


1892: Birthdate of German –born American director Ernst Lubitsch.

 

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: 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: “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. Hertz; Treasurer – Isaac K. Cohn; (check for more names)

 
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 thye consider good and praiseworthy in rabbinical Judaism.”

 
1899: Governor Theodore Roosevelt addressed today’s meeting of the University Settlement Society today.  During his speech TR  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 Monseiur 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 heared 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

 
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

1912: The New York Times published a description of President Taft’s appearance as guest of honor at The Daughter of Jacobs Ball. 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.


1914(1st of Sh'vat, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat


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 Fiedlerwho “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 80thbirthday, 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."


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.

 
1917: James Malcom, an Armenian businessman and advocate for an independent Armenian state, introduces Chaim Weitzman to Sir Mark Sykes.  Sykes is a protégé of Lord Kichner and a dominant, if not the dominant, force in forming British policy in the Middle East.  Weitzman is seeking Sykes’ support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine after World War I.

 
1918(15th of Shevat, 5678):Tu B'Shvat

 
1918 In Jerusalem, the cornerstone is laid for Hebrew University.

 
1918: Leon Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein) became leader of “the Reds.”

 
1923: The First "Reich’s Party" (NSDAP) forms in Munich.  These are the Nazis.

 
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.

 
1928: Birthdate of HalPrince, 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.

 
1934 (12th of Shevat, 5694): German Chemist Fritz Haber passed away at the age of 65.  Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918.

 
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: 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(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(8thof Shevat, 5699): Irving Friedman, alias Danny Field, a New York mobster, was murdered shortly before he was 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. 

 
1943: 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...."

 
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 Orbotech

 
1949: Israel was recognized (diplomatically) by Australia, Belgium, Chile, Great Britain, Holland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.

 
1950: 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.

 
1952(1st of Shevat, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Shevat


1953: 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


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.


1965: 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 signed the Israeli declaration of independence and served as the Minister of Police from 1948 until he passed away 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 allicance called the Alignment.


1983(14thof Shevat, 5743): Forty-eight year old Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan passed away today.

 
1984: 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.”

 
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 Golan

 
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): Nahman Avigad, Israeli archaeologist, passed away at the age of 86.  Avigad led the team that found the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter.


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.


1996 (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


2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingThe 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'Shevat


2002: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.


2003: Ariel Sharon emerges victorious in Israeli elections today which included the defeat of Amram Mitzna, the leader of the Labor Party.

 

2004: 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.


2006(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.


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 PresentbyMichael B. Oren.


2007: The Washington Postfeatured 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: 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 Reportfeatures 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.” He reiterated his support for a two-state solution, but said, "We cannot move forward until there is some confidence that the Palestinians are able to provide the security apparatus that would prevent constant attacks against Israel from taking place." 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. The following day, Musharraf invited Barak for a meeting and the two talked for about an hour, focusing on Iran s nuclear program, she said.



2008 (21st of 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.  In the years before WWI, the industrial city of Lodz was a center of Jewish religion in Russian Poland.



2009: The Jerusalem Conference a 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: “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 a bishop, Richard Williamson, who publicly denied 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
 
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: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)


2011: 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 has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.


2011(22nd of 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-gerry


2012: “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 on 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. He made his remarks in Ramallah during a conversation with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, who is expected to meet tomorrow with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.


2012(4th of Shevat, 5772): Fifty four year old Steven Leiber, “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)


2013: 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 Library

This Day, January 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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January 29



904: Sergius III began his papacy during which Jews first began settling at Mayence, Germany in 906.


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.”


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 Norden the 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 who adapted “The Merchant of Venice” into the “Jew of Venice” in 1701 passed away today.


1790:"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.


1803(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: Birthdate of Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, who was an Austrian banker, and a member of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany to baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife Caroline.


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.


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 away

1830: The date for the congregation charter for Nidce Israel, in Baltimore which became the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.


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-rose


1849: Isaac Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag where he called for the abolition of capital punishment.


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:  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 long time 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.


1877(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: 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.


1890: It was reported today that Professor Felix Adler officiated at the wedding of Gertrude Hiller and Gustave Leve in New York City.


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(29thof Tevet, 5652): Sixty-three year old Benjamin Russak, a partner in Harris & 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.


1893: It was reported today that Oscar Hammerstein has announced the upcoming concerts that will be performed at the Manhattan Opera House including a performance of “The Jewess.”


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 convincedof 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 the 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 Talmud
 
1898: 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.”  (more for 2014)


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 Alexendar 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 thoroughy 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: 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.





1904: In Warsaw Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the originator of Esperanto and his wife gave birth to their youngest daughter Lidia Zamenhof who died in Teblinka.

 

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)


1911: Birthdate of composer Bernard Herrmann.  Among other works, he composed the music for “Citizens Kane,” “Torn Curtain,”  “The Trouble With Harry” and “Psycho.”


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 Nina Zimet Schneider.  A native of Antwerp, Belgium, Schneider 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: 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.


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.


1918: Hugo Guttman, a German-Jewish Lieutenant in the Kaiser’s Army began serving as “Adolf Hitler’s direct superior.”


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: 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.


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.”


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: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.
 
1932: French premiere of “Comradeship” the Franco (La Tragédie de la mine)-German(Kameradschaft) film starring Alexander Granach as “Kasper.”


1932:The American Hebrewappeared for the last time. It would merge with the New York Jewish Tribuneand re-appear as American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune


1932: 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.


1937: American release date of “The Good Earth” the cinematic treatment of Nobel Prize winning author Pearl Buck’s novel of the same name starring Jewish actor Paul Muni. The Jewish connection continued with Luise Rainer winning the Oscar for Best Actress  and Karl Freund winning the Oscar for Best Cinematography.


1941(1st of Shevat, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Shevat


1941(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.)


1943: Germans execute 15 Poles at the village of Wierzbica for aiding three Jews. One of the victims is a two-year-old girl.


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’Shevat


1945: Birthdate of Paysach J. Krohn, rabbi, mohel and author of the “Maggid” series of books for ArtScroll.


1947: Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" premiered in New York City


1948: 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."


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. 


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Juan Peron said that the gates of Argentina stood wide open to any Soviet Jew who wished to find shelter there. The offer was also valid for Jews from other Soviet-dominated countries.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Ministry of Interior closed the Communist daily Kol Ha'am for 10 days for publishing articles threatening the public peace.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that arson damaged the Russian bookshop in Jerusalem.


1954: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer sent a telegram requesting a hearing before the Atomic Energy Commission which had suspended his security clearance in response to charges that he was untrustworthy because of associations with Communists.


1962:  Violinist Fritz Kreisler passed away.  According to at least one source, Kreisler’s father was Jewish, but he was not.  Reportedly Kreisler’s wife was an Austrian anti-Semite whose reactions to Kreisler’s ethnic origins have helped to cloud the issue.  At least one of Kreisler’s brothers is reported to have said that he was Jewish but the same could not be said of Fritz.


1964(15th of Shevat, 5724): Tu B'Shevat


1964: Birthdate of Ruhama Avraham, the Sephardi native of Rishon LeZion who was first elected to the Knesset in 2003.


1964: Premiere of Stanley Kubrick's anti-war dark comedy, "Dr Strangelove"


1967 "Let's Sing Yiddish" closed at Brooks Atkinson in New York City NY after 107 performances.


1968(28thof Tevet, 5728): Eighty-five year old J. B. S. Hardman, born Jacob Benjamin Salutsky who was a leader of the Jewish Socialist Federation of the Socialist Party passed away today.


1969: Birthdate of Dov Charney CEO of the garment company American Apparel.


1969(10th of Shevat): Max Weinrich a founder of the Yiddish Institue (YIVO) and author of History of the Yiddish Language passed away


1970(22ndof Shevat, 5730): Areyh Ben-Eliezer, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, a member of several pre-state organizations including Hebrew Committee for National Liberation, The American League for a Free Palestine and the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, passed away


1970:Gideon Patt, a sabra born in Jerusalem during the British Mandate, began serving in the Knesset following the death of Areyh Ben-Eliezer.


1975: Alan King hosted the First Annual Comedy Awards of the Year.  Considering the number of Jewish comedians going back to the early days of vaudeville, the choice of the Jewish King is doubly appropriate.


1975: Birthdate of actress Sara Gilbert.  Sara is the younger sister of Melissa Gilbert who starred in “Little House on the Prairie.”  Sara starred in the sitcom “Roseanne” a twentieth century version of the family unit which provides a interesting counterpoint to the 19th version of the family shown on Little House on the Prairie.


1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin had reversed his earlier decision and recommended to the cabinet that the Israeli military delegation return to Cairo to resume negotiations. He hoped that the joint Egyptian-Israeli Political Committee would eventually resume its meetings in Jerusalem. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a direct appeal to US Jewry and complained "that the behavior of the Israeli government had been negative and disappointing." Egypt, according to its Foreign Ministry statements, would never bargain over its territory and will always defend the rights of the Palestinians.


1983(15thof Shevat, 5743): Tu B’Shevat


1989: The New York Times reported that a Holocaust museum is to be built on the National Mall in Washington, DC has received thousands of artifacts, including letters, diaries, arm bands and secret coded communications between inmates.


1989: The New York Times reported that a Jewish institute plans to donate $100,000 for training black South African medical workers. The grant will be presented to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.


1990: Yuli M. Vorontsov, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, met with the head of Israel's consular delegation in Moscow, Aryeh Levin. Mr. Vorontsov was quoted as saying, ''We oppose any use of citizens' leaving the Soviet Union, at great risk to them, to push Palestinians off land belonging to them.'' Soviet displeasure over the settlement debate is also threatening an agreement reached between El Al and Aeroflot for direct flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv. The head of the Soviet consular mission in Israel, Georgi Martirosov, told reporters on Monday that ''recent Israeli statements have hindered any possibility of moving this process forward.''


1991: After several days of growing frustration over the slow pace of allied efforts to eliminate Iraq's Scud missile launchers, Israeli officials warned today that Israel may not wait much longer before it attacks. An Israeli television interviewer offered a sentiment common among Israelis when he told Defense Minister Moshe Arens this evening: "The Americans keep bombing launchers but haven't been terribly effective. Meanwhile, Americans are watching the Super Bowl, and Israelis are sitting in shelters and sealed rooms." Mr. Arens responded: "The situation you described isn't going to continue -- not two months, and not a month. I simply estimate that a situation in which we'll be neutral or not active, and their ability to launch missiles against us isn't eliminated, it won't continue for a long time."


1991: In a meeting with a visiting French politician today, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is reported to have said that Israel wants to play an active role in the battle against Iraq but is constrained by limits imposed by the United States. Mr. Shamir said he hoped the limits would be lifted soon. Iraq has fired 26 missiles at Haifa or Tel Aviv on seven occasions over the last 12 days, killing four people and wounding nearly 200. More than 2,000 apartments have been seriously damaged or destroyed. Elementary schools remain closed because there are too few teachers to help children put on gas masks quickly when the missile alert sounds. Productivity in business and industry is off. Much of the nation is traumatized. For the first time, Israel is under attack and unable to respond.


1991: Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman will share a stage in New York today when they team up to honor Zubin Mehta. The three violinists will appear at the annual lunch that benefits the orchestra. Last week, Mr. Mehta turned around en route to New York from Europe and flew to Tel Aviv on the eve of the war in the Persian Gulf as a show of support for Israel, where he is musical director of the national orchestra.


1992: Gila Almajor, performed a one-woman play entitled “The Summer of Aviya” which she wrote as part of “Israel: The Next Generation.”


1992: The daughter of Abie Nathan the Israeli philanthropist and peace campaigner, Sharona Nathan El Saieh, accepted the Abraham Joshua Heschel Peace Award from the Jewish Peace Fellowship today on behalf of her father because Mr. Nathan is in prison in Israel. In October, he was sentenced to 18 months for violating an Israeli law prohibiting contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization. He had met with the P.L.O. chairman, in Tunis in July. The award, named for the late theologian and educator, also went to Yehudi Menuhin,the violinist, and Dr. Jane Evans D, executive director emeritus of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. The Jewish Peace Fellowship was founded 50 years ago to promote conscientious objection among Jews.


1993: Feeling bolstered by a seal of approval from the country's High Court of Justice, Israel renewed its diplomatic offensive today to stave off United Nations sanctions over its deportation of more than 400 Palestinians to Lebanon.


2000(22nd of Shevat, 5760):Harold H. Greene a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia who was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 passed away.


2001: Eric Edelman completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Finland.


2001: Prime Minister Ehud Barak campaigned inside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he spoke to a small group of disabled Israelis and some youth advocates.


2002: In the battered center of Jerusalem, beefed-up police squads guarded sidewalks and street corners today as weary shopkeepers opened for business and workers repaired the stores damaged by a bomb set off yesterday by a Palestinian woman. Along the main street, Jaffa Road, where two terrorist attacks in six days have killed three Israelis and wounded dozens, the routines of daily life became a test of bravery. Shmuel Kapash waited for customers in his empty shoe shop as an employee peered warily out the front door. Going back to work this morning was no easy matter, they said. ''I'm scared, but I have to make a living,'' Mr. Kapash said. ''I can't stay home, but I think twice before going out of the store for some fresh air. I try not to step out.'' After yesterday’s  attack, the Israeli Merchants Association demanded that the government give shopkeepers in urban centers that have been targets of attacks tax breaks similar to those granted to businesses in communities along Israel's borders. In downtown Jerusalem, the disappearance of tourists and many shoppers has drastically cut sales. At the Freiman & Bein shoe store, a Jerusalem institution for more than 50 years, Yoach Freiman stood in the debris left by the bomb, which went off just outside the front door. The store has functioned continuously on Jaffa Road, through war and peace, since 1947, and it was not about to close now, Mr. Freiman asserted. ''We don't have the right to close down or to be frightened by such incidents,'' he said of the latest bombing. ''We owe it to our customers, who have been coming here for four generations. The principle is to continue our normal lives.''


2004: A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 10 Israelis in Jerusalem today.


2004: As she was returning to her home in Rehavia after having left her child at kindergarten, award winning-Israeli author Zeruya Shalev was severely injured when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a near-by bus.  Shalev is the daughter-in-law of Israeli playwright Aharon Megged and the cousin of award winning author Meir Shalev. [Meir Shalev’s latest literary effort is “Beginnings,” a must read for anybody interested in the TaNaCh and Jewish philosophy and history]


2004: Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah carried through with their deal to exchange prisoners and war dead today, in a trade greeted in Israel by a spare ceremony for three fallen soldiers and in Lebanon by a day of national celebration. Besides the soldiers -- Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Sawayed -- Hezbollah also freed an Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, kidnapped by Hezbollah in October 2000. Unlike the returning Lebanese, Mr. Tannenbaum, who said he had been treated well in captivity, did not receive a hero's welcome. He was permitted a brief reunion with his family at the airport, and was then taken away for a medical check and questioning by the Israeli authorities about possible illegal activities, Israeli officials said.


2004: The Thirteenth Annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end.


2005(19thof Shevat, 5765): Eighty- year old Ephraim Kishon passed away


2006:  A day after International Holocaust Memorial Day, the new Chancellor of Germany met with the acting Prime Minister of Israel.  In one of those amazing turnabouts in history German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would have no contact with Hamas until it disavowed terrorism and recognized Israel and all agreements signed with it. This declaration comes in the face of the recent electoral victory by Hamas, an organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel and death to the Jewish people.


2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Vertigo:Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocquevilleby Bernard-Henri Lévy

2007: Haaretz reported that according to the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism this past year saw a substantial rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries. In an annual press conference, the forum explained that 2006 was characterized by escalation in the number and violent nature of attacks on Jews, proliferation of Holocaust denial and increased comparison of Israel to the Nazi regime. The Global Forum - a joint effort of the Jewish Agency, the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office - counted 360 anti-Semitic incidents in France in 2006, compared to 300 in 2005. In the United Kingdom, the report listed a yearly decrease from 321 incidents in 2005 to 312 incidents in 2006. Russia recorded 300 incidents in 2006 compared to 250 the preceding year, and Austria saw a jump from 50 incidents to 83 last year. The Scandinavian countries saw 53 incidents in 2006, substantially more than the previous year's 35. The report cited a 60-percent rise in incidents in the Berlin area, although it did not include figures for all of Germany.


2007(10thof Shevat): A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip blew himself up today inside a bakery in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, killing all three people inside. The two owners of the bakery, Amil Elimelech, 32, and Michael Ben Sa'adon, 27 were killed in the attack as well as one of their employees, Israel Samolia, 26. Elimelech was married with two children while Ben Sa'adon was married with one child. Samolia was an immigrant from Peru. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, each took credit for the bombing.


2008: In New York City, the 92nd St Y hosts “Commando Krva Maga: Israeli Self Defense” where attendees learn defense skills developed by the Israeli military, now popular with civilians.


2008: In Iowa City, the funeral is held for Dr. Michael Balch, Associate Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Iowa and a long time member of the Jewish community. 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.  He passed away on January 28, 2008 (21 Shevat, 5768).


2008: Barnard College named as its next president Debora L. Spar, a Harvard Business School professor who has written about the economics of the human fertility industry and the evolution of the Internet but has not previously been affiliated with a women’s college. Professor Spar, 44, whose appointment is effective July 1, will succeed Judith R. Shapiro, president since 1994, the college announced. “We never expected to have anybody until March or April or May, but she was too good to pass up,” said Helene L. Kaplan, a Barnard trustee and one of two leaders of its presidential search committee. “She’s bright, she’s lively, she’s young and she’s very energetic.”


2009:Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former (now emeritus) president of George Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Educationat the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville, Md.


2009: An American appeals court today dismissed a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors who alleged the Vatican bank accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court ruling that said the Vatican bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts. Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia had filed suit against the Vatican bank in 1999, alleging that it stored and laundered the looted assets of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia. They sought an accounting from the Vatican, as well as restitution and damages. The court didn't rule on the allegations.

 

2009: “The Wedding Song,” Karin Albou’s story of a friendship between a Muslim man and a Jewish woman, set in Tunisia during the Nazi occupation is featured tonight at the New York Jewish Film Festival.


2010: An exhibition entitled Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin is scheduled to have its final showing at the JCC in Washington, D.C.  Siona Benjamin is a painter originally from the Bombay Jewish (Bene Israel) community now living in the United States.


2010:The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to celebrate Tu Bishvat from a bit of a different angle, with parents and children and having a chance to learn about the connection between planting trees and global warming.

 

2010: The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to sponsor a Tu B'Shevat Seder and Shabbat Services at Temple Judah.


2010:US President Barack Obama's national security adviser cited a heightened risk that Iran will respond to growing pressure over its nuclear program by stoking violence against Israel. The adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, said today that history shows that when regimes are feeling pressure they can lash out through surrogates. He said that in Iran's case that would mean facilitating attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas


2010: Pei Xiong provides a description of the academic efforts of Jane Eisner in “Jane Eisner ’77 Teaching a New Generation of Writers.”


2011: A screening of The Matchmaker directed by Avi Nesher is scheduled to take place at the Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.


2011:Internationally recognized rising star, Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to join Orpheus for the first time in a performance of Prokofiev’s hauntingly beautiful second violin concerto at Carnegie Hall.


2011: “A Musical Mitzvah Evening” the Mitzvah Day fundraiser for Agudas Achim is scheduled to take place in Iowa City, IA.


2011: Israel watched fearfully today as anti-government unrest roiled Egypt, one of its most important allies and a bridge to the wider Arab world. The Israeli prime minister ordered government spokesmen to keep silent. Officials speaking anonymously nonethless expressed concern violence could threaten ties with Egypt and spread to the Palestinian Authority.
 
2011:An official at Cairo International Airport said today that El Al was trying to arrange a special flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of Egypt. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media.


2011: At Coe College in Cedar Rapids, the final performance of “Copenhagen” in which Barb Feller played Margrethe Bohr and her husband Steve played Niels Bohr


2011: Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”


2012: “The Religion Thing” is scheduled to have its final performance at Theatre J in Washington, D.C.


2012: A display featuring a selection of 32 Chanukah lamps selected by Maurice Sendak is scheduled to come to a close today at the Jewish Museum in New York.


2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Boulder JCC in Boulder, CO.


2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Ida” by Gertrude Stein, “Stanzas in Meditation: The Corrected Edition” by Gertrude Stein, “Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition” by Marni Davis, “The Street Sweeper” by Elliot Perlman and “God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World.”


2012:An Israel Defense Forces Heron-class drone crashed in central Israel, Army Radio reported today, with no injuries reported. According to initial reports, the drone went down near Kibbutz Hafetz Haim located by the town of Gedera.

2012: Anger and despair gripped many residents of the town of Harish today, the day after a local synagogue was found completely gutted by a fire that broke out early yesterday morning on Shabbat. While police said today they are sure the fire was caused by an electrical short, some residents say they believe it was intentionally set by unknown assailants looking to threaten the Breslov hassidic community that worships at the synagogue.
 
2013: In London, The Wiener Library’s Young Volunteers are scheduled to host a special interactive discussion workshop for 16-25 years during which they will discuss the advantages and disadvantages in using Social Media to raise awareness and promote learning about the Holocaust and Genocide.


2013: “Numbered,” a film directed by Urial Sinai and Doan Doron is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan


2013: Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today that he will step down as Israel's central banker on June 30, two years before the end of his second five-year term.http://www.jpost.com/Business/BusinessNews/Article.aspx?id=301407


2014: The Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership at NYU is scheduled to present its inaugural Fritzi Weitzmann Owens memorial lecture with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, titled "Dignifying Difference: The Next Generation of Multifaith Leadership."

This Day, January 30, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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January 30



1349: The Jews of Freilsburg Germany were massacred.


1592: Clement VIII began his papacy during which 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.


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(13th of Shevat): Rabbi Yom Tov Netel, author of Tehor Ra’ayonim passed away


1831: 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.
 
1839(15thof Shevat, 5599): Tu B’Shevat


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 River


1854(1st of Shevat, 5614): Rosh Chodesh Shevat


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: The New York Times reported 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.”


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 itas being immoral and contrary to the teachings of Judaism. He continued to espouse liberal cause until his death in 1888.


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.


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.


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. Also, the critics apparently have no sense that until 1943 the Allies were losing the war and hard as it may be to come to grips with, the need to defeat the Axis including the Japanese was the primary driver behind all behavior.


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: 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: 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.


1896(15thof Shevat, 5656): Tu B’Shevat


1896: “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 Society


1897: 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 Cinncinnati 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: 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 Brooklyn


1899: 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.”


1900: Birthdate of Russian composer Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky.


1902: Birthdate of Nikolaus Pevsner, the native of Leipzig who became a noted British expert on art and architecture.


1903: Leopold Greenberg, Herzl's representative in London, left for Cairo to carry on political negotiations.


1904: Herzl finished his visit to Italy.


1907(15thof Shevat, 5667): Tu B’Shevat


1908: 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 Alinsky


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: Birthdate of Barbara Tuchman.  Ms. Tuchman was 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."


1916(25th of Shevat, 5676): Joseph Jacobs passed away. Born in 1854, he “was an Australian literary and Jewish historian who was a writer for the Jewish Encyclopedia and a notable folklorist, creating several noteworthy collections of fairy tales.


1915(15thof Shevat, 5675): Tu B’Shevat


1918: Birthdate of actor David Opatoshu.



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.


1922(1st of Shevat, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat


1923: In Newark, NJ, Jacob Israel Gersten and Henrietta (Henig) Gersten gave birth to Bernard Gersten, the Executive Producer of Lincoln Center Theater.


1926(15thof Shevat, 5686): Tu B’Shevat


1927: Birthdate of Zeev (Heinz) Raphael, a native of Germany who escaped to safety in Sweden three days before the German invasion of Poland.


1928: Birthdate of Harold “Hal” Prince, Tony Award winning theatrical producer and director.


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 superintendant 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.


1931: Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" premieres at Los Angeles Theater.


1933: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.


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.


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.


1937: Rabbi Samuel Goldenson delivers a sermon entitled “The Ten Commandments and Social Problems” during Saturday morning services at New York’s Temple Emanu-El.


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.


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.


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: Birthdate of Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane.


1943 (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.


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." 


1953: 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 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.


1971: Carole King's “Tapestry” album is released. This recording by Brooklyn born Jewess Carol Klien would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.


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.


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.


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.


1982: U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig “filed a report 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.


1991(15th of Shevat, 5751): Tu B'Shvat


1991: 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: "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. According to the agency's provisional figures, 5,800 immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived so far this month, with 600 more expected before the start of February, a lower figure than those recorded during the Persian Gulf war, when Iraqi Scud missiles fell on Tel Aviv and other places. The last time the figure fell below 7,000 was in February 1990. Since late 1989, when the wave of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union began, some 350,000 immigrants have arrived in Israel. The wave peaked in December 1990, when, according to the Jewish Agency, more than 35,000 arrived, making 1990 a record year.


1998: Premier performance of Paul Simon's "The Capeman."


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)


2000: 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 Marketsby David B. Sicilia and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank.


2001: 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 an article entitled “A Burst of Light Provides Privacy,” 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.html


2003: “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. Researchers from Tel Aviv University said their Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment had gathered solid information on the plumes of dust and other aerosol particles blown from deserts by storms before being carried worldwide by high winds. The particles affect rain production in clouds, deposit minerals in the ocean and scatter sunlight that affects global warming, the scientists said.. Aside from the successful science, the mission is important to Dr. Joachim Joseph because Colonel Ian Ramon is carrying a keepsake, a small Torah scroll used at Dr. Joseph's bar mitzvah almost 60 years ago while he was in a concentration camp in Germany. The elderly rabbi performing the ceremony, who died soon afterward in the camp, gave the Torah to the boy and told him to tell people what had occurred there. Dr. Joseph said Colonel Ramon saw the Torah when visiting his house and was so moved by the history that he asked to take it into space as a tribute. In an interview from space last week with Israeli officials, the astronaut displayed the Torah. ''This represents more than anything the ability of the Jewish people to survive despite everything from horrible periods, black days, to reach periods of hope and belief in the future,'' the colonel said. Because of the gesture from space, Dr. Joseph said, he feels he has finally fulfilled his promise to the rabbi.”


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 Auster


2005: In “The Observant Reader,” Wendy Shalit provides a prescient synopsis of the varying ways in which Orthodoxy is portrayed in contemporary literature.

2005: In an article entitled “The Nation; One Clear Conscience, 60 Years After Auschwitz,” Roger Cohen tells the story of Miecyslaw Kasprzyk, an unsung hero of the Holocaust.

2006(1st of Shevat, 5766): Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, author of the Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig passed away at the age of 55.


2007: 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 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: 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 today. The first entry chronicled her visit to Washington, D.C. for President Barack Obama's inauguration. Kalman's work is also featured on Rosenbach Museum and Library's 21st Century Abe project. Maira Kalman, born in 1949, is an American illustrator, author, artist, and designer. Born in Tel Aviv, Kalman came to New York City with her family at age 4.
 
2009: 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.  Three, choreographed by Artistic Director Ohad Naharin,is a collection of three dances: "Bellus,""Humus" and "Seccus."

2009: A swastika was discovered today at an Orthodox synagogue in Portland, Maine which claims to be Portland's oldest Jewish congregation.
2009 (5th of 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=0


2010: 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’Shevat
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 DCJCC


2011: 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, Panoramaby H.G. Adler and Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxietyby Gideon Rachman


2011: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 92nd Street 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. The board made the decision after seeing his behavior and lifestyle during his imprisonment, ruling that he is not a problematic inmate.

2012: The Jewish Federation of Arkansas announced that President Bill Clinton will receive the Tikkun Olam Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas which  will bestow the honor at a February 4 ceremony in Little Rock marking its 100th anniversary celebration dinner. “[President Clinton] has exemplified tikkun olam in Arkansas and throughout the world,” said Scott Levine, the federation's president. “He has been a strong advocate for the State of Israel and for justice for all people. He is most deserving of this honor, and we are grateful for his commitment to improve global health, strengthen economies worldwide, promote healthier childhoods and protect the environment.” Clinton, who will be attending the dinner, will join 12 other community members in receiving the annual tikkun olam award. (It was not announced if Marc Rich or his ex-wife will be attending the event)


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 design


2013: 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.


 

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

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January 31



314: 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).


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.


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


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.


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 Georgiabefore moving to New York Cityafter 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 Israelfollowing 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 city of The modern Israeli city of Netanya, founded in 1927, was named in his honor


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 a 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.


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.


1865: The House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment today paving the way for it to be sent to the States for ratification. 


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.”


1886: 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.


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.




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: 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 discuss 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.


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: 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.


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.(for 2014 quote last paragraph


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 Levy


1899: The seventh annual meeting of the Hebrew Free Loan Association was held this evening at the Educational Alliance on East Broadway


1899: 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. Wise


1899: 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.


1906: Birthdate of composer Benjamin Frankel.


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)


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.


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: 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.


1917: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.


1918(18th of Shevat, 5678): Dr. Jechiel Tchlenow, the Moscowphysician 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: Birthdate of author Norman Mailer. Born in Long Branch, NJ, The future Pulitzer Prize winner’s family soon moved to Brooklyn “later described by Mailer as ‘the most secure Jewish environment in America.’”


1925: 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.  


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.


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)


1934(15th of Shevat, 5694): Tu B'Shevat


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: 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)


1937: In Baltimore, MD Ida (née Gouline) and Benjamin Charles Glass, a record store owner, gave birth to composer Philip Morris Glass.


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.


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.


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."


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.


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.


1950: 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.


1954: Birthdate of Rabbi Michael Melchior, the native of Copenhagen who made Aliyah in 1986.


1955: 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.


1968: 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.


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 settlements


1978: 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.

 
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.


1987: 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: A Jewish settler was severely burned today when his car was firebombed in an area near the Ofra settlement north of Jerusalem.


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.


1995(30THof Shevat, 5755) Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1996: 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.


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. 


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 Londonreported 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. After amassing a fortune in the recording industry, Levy became a major fundraiser for the Labor Party and Tony Blair as well as various Jewish and Israeli charities.


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 2006. Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari said that none of the Farsi-language posts translated so far had been negative”


2008: 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: 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 Postfeatured 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
92nd St
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. .


2010: The New York Times featured 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 Fiction by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein


2010: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)


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: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 recipesfor 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. "Thank you to the shuttles in Sundance," Kav-El joked on receiving the award. Restoration depicts the rich texture of modern Israeli society telling the story of Yakov Fidelman who is forced to deal with his estranged son when he discovers his antique furniture-restoration shop is in grave financial difficulty. Talya Lavie received an Inaugural Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Film-making award which recognizes and supports emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. Her film, Zero Motivation, is a sometimes comic, often dramatic look at the power struggles of three female clerks over one year in an administrative office at a remote army base in the Israeli desert.”


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 nove, 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.

2013(20th of Shevat, 5773): Seventy year old children’s author Diane Wolkstein passed away.(As reported by Paul Vitello)



 

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.”

2013: “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust: Art in the Service of Humanity” is scheduled to come to an end today.



2013: 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.

2013: 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 storm


2014(30th of Shevat, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


 

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

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February 1


682:  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 emigrate


1119: 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.”


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/)


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 Hollandand 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(10th of Shevat, 5525): Rebecca Mendez Furtado, the first wife of Benjamin D’Israeli, the grandfather of his more famous namesake, passed away today.


1796: 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.


1799: The French army under Napoleon left for Palestine to forestall a Turco-British invasion through the Palestinian land-bridge.


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.


1813(The Common Council of New York City passed an ordinance restricting the right to sell kosher meat to butchers licenses by Congregation Shearith Israel.


1827: Birthdate of Alphonse de Rothschild, French banker, philanthropist and member of the French branch of the fabled Rothschild family.


1828: Birthdate of Meyer Guggenheim the Swiss born patriarch of the Guggenheim family who came to the United States in 1847.


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.


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.


1856: AuburnUniversity is chartered as the EastAlabamaMaleCollege. Today Auburn has 60 Jewish students out of an undergraduate population of 19,000 students.  Auburndoes 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 I


1862: 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.


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.”

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.

1878: George Cruikshank the British illustrator who created “Fagan” in his cell passed away.

1879: 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” publishedhis 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.


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(16th of Shevat, 5645): Peretz Smolenskin, the Russian born Jewish novelist whose works in Hebrew including A Wander (Ha-toeh be-darkhe ha-Hayyim, התועה בדרכי החיים) on the Path of Life passed away today.

1887: Birthdate of Harry Scherman, American economist, author and co-founder of the Book of the Month Club.


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.


1890: 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: 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.


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(15th of Shevat, 5653): Tu B’Shevat


1893: “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: “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-Ball


1897: 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: 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. Gottheheil’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. 


1904:  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.

1905: Birthdate of Emilio Segre.  The Italian born physicist worked on the Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959.


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.”


1915: A dispatch from the London Daily Newsdatelined 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 a 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.”


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.


1919: The First Congress of Muslim-Christian Assocations began its deliberations in Jerusalem.


1923:Birthdate of Canadian businessman Benjamin Weider who “was the co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB).”


1924: 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.


1921 First German translation of The International Jew

 
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

 

1925: WMCA which Peter Straus took over in the late 1950’s began regular transmissions today.


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 Jerusalem


1928: Birthdate of Representative Tom Lantos.  This California Democrat took his seat in Congress in 1981.  He is the only survivor of the Holocaust serving in Congress.


1930: Birthdate of PingPong or Table Tennis Champion, Marty Reisman.

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.


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 Jewish labor only


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 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:  Birthdate of American television journalist Jessica Savitch.


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.


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 19th gave way to the 20thcentury.


1955: Lord Rothschild wrote to Churchill “thanking him for the fact that in Jerusalemin 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 Israeltoday.’”


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 Sh'vat, 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.”


1968:  Birthdate of 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.


1967: 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: Oil was pumped for the first time in the newly completed 42 inch Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline


1970: The New York Times includes a review of Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow.

1976: "Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series based on the work of Irwin Shaw, premieres on ABCTV.


1978: Director Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled to Franceafter 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: 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.


1984: Daniel Stern became NBA commissioner.

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 Foundation


1988:Two Palestinians were shot dead today near Anabta in a fracas 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)

1992(27th of 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


1998: 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 Shapiro


1999(15thof Shevat, 5759): Last celebration of Tu B’Shevat in the 20thcentury.


2002(19thof Shevat, 5762): Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal was beheaded 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 Open


2004: 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'Neillby Ron Suskind.


2005: One of the highlights of the completion of the most recent Talmud cyle of study was the Siyum HaShas celebration at Madison Square Garden. 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 Central


2007: 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 America


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 funding


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: “Praying With Lior,” a new documentary about a Philadelphiaboy with Down syndrome preparing for his bar mitzvah opens at the CinemaVillagein New York.


2009:  At YaleUniversity, CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in Americapresents “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 Posteach 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. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) was investigating the discovery of the explosive devices, described as barrels of explosives, with a particular emphasis on the detonator and type of explosives.

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. Each category carries a $100,000 prize, which is then divided if there is more than one recipient. The Wolf Foundation said that 38 past winners have gone on to win Nobel prizes. The winners will receive the awards in a ceremony on May 13. 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. Ninety-two year old


2010(17th of Shevat): Ninety-two year oldSelma 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=print


2011: 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. Prof. Burger’s intellectual path has taken her from an early interest in the Bible and its interpretation to Greek philosophy and most recently to the question of the relation between them. This path is reflected in her scholarly pursuits and her teaching at Tulane, where she has found an intellectual home for over three decades. After receiving her PhD in philosophy from the New School for Social Research in 1975, a Mellon Fellowship in New York, followed by a Humboldt Fellowship in Tübingen allowed Burger to turn her dissertation into her first book, on Plato’s Phaedrus (Alabama 1980), and go on to her second book, on Plato’s Phaedo (Yale, 1984; St. Augustine’s Press, 1999). Over many years of study and teaching, Burger became increasingly struck by the deep Platonic roots of Aristotle’s thought, and a fellowship at the Siemens Foundation in Munich offered the opportunity to bring that understanding to fruition in Aristotle’s Dialogue with Socrates: on the Nicomachean Ethics (Chicago, 2008). Plato and Aristotle provided a foundation for Burger to explore the thought of Maimonides and his response to the confrontation between Greek philosophy and the Bible, which she has addressed on several occasions, including two papers presented at the American Philosophical Association. Burger’s philosophic background has enabled her at the same time to open up new lines of interpretation of the Bible, from a Platonic reading of the story of Adam and Eve to reflections on the biblical account of Moses as legislator and founder, which she has presented at numerous college campuses. Her interests converged in a recent lecture Burger gave in Munich on the problem of the holy in Plato’s Euthyphro, soon to be published in English with a German translation. Burger was the recipient of Tulane’s SLA Faculty Research Award in May 2010.


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.

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 vandalism.

2011(27th of 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 92ndStreet 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. Peres told Ban that the problem with Iran extends beyond its nuclear program, noting that weapons from the Islamic Republic were making their way into Gaza.


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 minority will impose its will on the Zionist majority. Due to a fear of opening this debate, she stated, "we are in danger of waking up one morning" to a different type of state. "The worst part is that this group, the Zionist majority, that talks about threats from outside, and also about reaching an agreement with the Palestinians - a group that understands that the Jewish State of Israel is Jewish and Zionist and not haredi (ultra-orthodox) - this group is disappearing, and we are left with a small window of opportunity to make decisions and create a vision that represents the essence of Zionism," warned Livni. Differentiating between two groups, she explained that in Israel there exist two visions for the state, that are entirely different to each other. One of these states is a "national home for a Jewish nation...where citizens are equal, a Jewish state that respects all its citizens, all streams of Judaism, where anyone can exercise their Jewishness with the understanding that Israel is a state of law." This type of state, she added, is part of the free world, and is not isolated.

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, 11thanniversary of the beheading of Daniel Pearl.


2013(22nd of Shevat, 2013): Eighty-eight year old Edward Koch, three-time mayor of New York passed away today (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
He passed away on the same day that a documentary on his life arrived in U.S. Theaters (as reported by Renee Ghert Zand)

2013: “The Gatekeepers” opened in U.S. movie theatres


2014: David Stern is scheduled to step down as NBA Commissioner.


 2014: 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(1st of Adar 1, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar I




 


 


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

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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 thesixteen books of the Codex Theodosianus complete with all of its anti-Semitic laws.

 
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 Aragonwas 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 Italy

 
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.

 
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 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.


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.”

 
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. 


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.


1827: Birthdate of Jewish scholar Solomon Buber the Lemberg native who was the son of Isaiah Abraham Buber and the grandfather of Martin Buber.

 
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 1883)

 
1848: 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: An article published today entitled “Shocking Murder Near Philadelphia” 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.

 
1854:  A second dinner was held in Philadelphia designed to raise funds for Jewish charities.


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 Jew

 
1861: Birthdate of Solomon R Guggenheim.  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.Joshua A. Joffe was 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.

 
1869: The will of the late James Disraeli “was proved” today by Benjamin Israeli.

 
1871: Baron Jozsef Eotvos, Hungarian statesman and emancipator of the Jews passed way.

 
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: It was reported today that a benefit performance has raised $5,200 for the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews.

 
1874(15th of Shevat, 5634): Tu B’Shevat

 
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.")”

 
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 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.

 
1882: Birthdate of Irish author James Joyce. Joyce was not Jewish, but Bloom the protagonist in his most famous novel, Ulysseswas Jewish.

 
1883(25th of 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.




1884: Birthdate of S. Z. Sakall.  Born Eugene Gero Szakall in BudapestHungary, 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.


 
1890: 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.  More 2015

 
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 Smith.

 
1891(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.

 
1896: 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.

 
1897(30thof Shevat, 5657): Rosh Chodesh Adar I

 
1897(30thof Shevat, 5657): Author Abraham Kaplan passed away

 
1897: 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: 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 Bostonborn Rubin’s career as an actor, comic and writer would span over 70 years and include work on the stage, film and television.

 
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.

 
1902:  Birthdate of Israeli political leader and government official Eliyahu Sasson

 
1903(5thof Shevat, 5663): Morris Tuska who had served as Vice President of the United Hebrew Charities of the city of New York passed away

 
1905:  Birthdate of author and philosopher Ayn Rand. Born Alissa Rosenbaum 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 Randdied 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 Yeishva.

 
1909: Adolf Stoecker, a prominent Lutheran theologian and court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm II who was a leading anti-Semite passed away today.

 
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.”

 
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 Amabassador to the U.N. and Israeli Amabassador 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.

 
1918: Margaret Seligman married Sam A. Lewisohn, son of Adolph Lewisohn, benefactor of City College and other major New York cultural institutions

 
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.

 
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 Memelincreased 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.”

 
1923: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of the modern TurkishRepublic 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.”

 
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 Philadelphiabut 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(22nd of 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.

 
1931: Birthdate of author Judith Viorst who is best known for her children’s books.

 
1931: 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 92ndStreet 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.”

 
1934: In a letter published in today’s New York Times, 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.

 
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: The Palestine Post reported that The Association of Romanian Architects and Engineers expelled all Jewish members.

 
1942: Churchill ordered Lord Moyne to release the 793 illegal immigrants on board the Darienand allow them to settle in Palestine. 

 
1942: Birthdate of Barry Diller former head of Paramount Studios and founder of Fox Television Network.

 
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. 

 
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: Edward Chodorov's "Decision" premieres in New York City

 
1944: Allied planes drop bombs on a German shipping port and accidentally kill Jews on the Island of Rhodesin 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 Sudetenpeople would chase them through the fields. Most of the time they would catch them.”

 
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'Shevat

 
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.


1960:  Birthdate of Robert Smigel.  Smigel was a writer with “SNL” for twenty years. As a comedy writer, performer, and puppeteer Smigel is best known as the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a character he created for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.


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 Swifty Lazar, the super-agent who beats out MCA, William Morris and General Artists for clients on a regular business.

 
1963 (8th of Shevat, 5723): Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel passed away.


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
 
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"


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 Jaffaoranges.


1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli seamen extended their two-week strike to ships with vital cargoes.


1978: 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’Shvat


1980 (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.


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: 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.


1997: 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.”


2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller and What I Saw Reports From Berlin, 1920-1933 by Joseph Roth; translated with an introduction by Michael Hoffman


2004: 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.”

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=0



2009: Opening session of the 9th annual Herzliya Conference



2010: 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. The Knesset’s Science and Technology Committee invited Wikipedia contributors and users to join in the morning meeting, which was held to mark the publication of the online encyclopedia’s 100,000th Hebrew-language entry.

 


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: 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: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.
 
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)


2013: 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 Davie
2013: 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)
 
2013: Turkey’s foreign minister blasted Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday 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: “threeASFOUR: MER KA BA” is scheduled to close today.


2014: “Chagall: Love, War and Exile” is scheduled to close today

 


 

This Day, February 3, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 3



19(12th of Adar, 3779): According to some sources today marks the dedication of the Temple built by King Herod the Great at Jerusalem


1112: Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.  According to archaeological evidence, Jews had been living in both Barcelona and Provence since the first century of the Common Era.The earliest documentary evidence for the presence of Jews living in Provence dates from the middle of the fifth century in Arles. They were to be found in large numbers in Marseilles at the close of the sixth century.”  The Jewish population in certain parts of Provence would grow in the 14th century when the Jews who had been expelled from France found refuge in Provence which at that time was independent from France.  A group of these refugees would be referred to as the Pope’s Jews. Berenguer would pass away in 1131 the same year that Sheshet Benveniste, the “philosopher, physician, diplomatist, Talmudist and poet” who become the leader of the Barcelona Jewish community until his death in 1210 was born.


1451: Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire. He conquered Constantinoplein 1453. The oppressed Jews were relieved to see him occupy the city. He allowed Jews from today's GreekIslands and Crete to settle in Istanbul. Mehmed II’s declaration read as follows: "Listen sons of the Hebrew who live in my country...May all of you who desire come to Constantinopleand may the rest of your people find here a shelter".  Mehmed II invited the Ashkenazi Jews of Transylvania and Slovakia to settle in the Ottoman Empire. The synagogues Ahrida, Karaferya, Yanbol and Cuhadji which were damaged due to a fire were repaired on his order. Based on surviving documents, the Sultan employed at least five Jewish doctors as palace physicians.


1468: Johannes Gutenberg, father of modern printing, passed away.  Gutenberg was not Jewish.  But the invention of the printing press was a boon to Jewish study and culture.  The people of the book had much easier access to the World of Books.


1740: Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invited the Jews to return to Sicily in hopes that this would restore flagging trade and commerce industries. Approximately 20 families heeded the call but due in part to an inhospitable welcome by the local community, most soon left.


1747:A deed dated with today’s date conveyed a half-acre of land in the Township of Lancaster, Pennsylvania from Thomas Cookson to Isaac Nunus Ricus and Joseph Simons "in trust for the society of Jews settled in and about Lancaster, to have and use the same as a burying-ground."“At this time there were about ten Jewish families at Lancaster, including Joseph Simon, Joseph Solomon, and Isaac Cohen, a physician.” The deed is the earliest record of Jewish settlement in Lancaster which was an early and important settlement during the Colonial and post-Revolutionary period of American history.


1749:  Sicily, invited Jews to return to the island ending a three hundred year ban.  The Sicilians believed that the Jews would restore trade to the island and improve its diminished economic conditions.


 

1760(16th of Shevat): Rabbi Jonah Nabon, the son of Hanun Nabon part of a distinguished Turkish and Jerusalemite  family that included Rabbi Ephraim ben Aron Nabon who died at Constinople in 1735 and Rabbi Isaac Nabon son of Judah Nabon and the author of Nepah ba-Kessef passed away today


1761(29th of Shevat): Eliezer ben Samuel Avila, the nephew of  Talmudist Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar and the rabbi at Rabat Morocco who authored Ozen Shemuel passed away.


1807(25th of Shevat): Meir Posner of Danzig, the rabbi of the Schottland Congregation in Danzig and the author of Bet Meir a commentary on the Shulchan Aruk  passed away


1809:   Birthdate of Felix Mendelssohn.  This famous composer was not Jewish and that is what makes him significant in terms of Jewish History.  His grandfather was Moses Mendelssohn, the founder of Reform Judaism.  Felix was baptized and raised as a Protestant. His detractors point out that he wrote oratorios for the Church instead of music for the synagogue.  Others see him clinging to a vestige of his Jewish roots in choosing to write an oratorio called Elijah  and setting Psalm 100 to music.  Ironically, the German composer Richard Wagner cited Mendelssohn when he attacked the Jewish influence on German music.  Hitler and the Nazis were not the first Germans to see the Jews as a race for whom conversion to Christianity was not a solution to "the Jewish Problem."  Regardless of any sentimental attachments Moses Mendelssohn may have felt for the faith of his grandfather, he died in 1847 as a Protestant.  The Jewish line of Mendelssohn had disappeared.


1810: Birthdate of Ludwig August von Frankl, the Bohemian born Austrian author and poet.


1816(4th of Shevat): Rabbi David ben Mordecai of Brody, author of Yefe Einayim passed away today.


1821:The government of the grand duchy of Baden asked Aron Chorin, a Hungarian rabbi who was an advocate for Reform “for his opinion about the duties of a rabbi, and about the reforms in the Austrian states. Chorin answered by writing Iggeret Elasaf, in which he stated that the Torah comprised religious truths and religious laws, the latter partly applicable only in Palestine, partly obligatory everywhere. These may be temporarily suspended, but not entirely abolished, by a competent authority, such as a synod. Only ordinances and precautionary laws which are of human origin may be abrogated in conformity with the circumstances of the time. As for mere customs and usages (minhagim), the government, after having consulted Jewish men of knowledge, may modify or abolish them; but in no other way may it interfere with religious affairs. Chorin also pleaded for the establishment of consistories, schools, a theological seminary, and for the promotion of agriculture and professions among the Jews.

 

1830:  The sovereignty of Greece was confirmed in a London Protocol marking the end of the Greek War of Independence which had raged from 1821 until 1829. “By supporting the Ottoman Empire, the Jews curried disfavor with the Christian Orthodox Greeks. Thousands of Jews were massacred alongside the Ottoman Turks. The Jewish communities of Mistras, Tripolis, Kalamata and Patras were completely destroyed. A few survivors moved north to areas still under Ottoman rule.”  The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki dated from the 17th century and would become one of the largest Jewish communities as Greece developed its national identity during the rest of the 19th century.


1830: Birthdate of Lord Salisbury, who became an ally of Benjamin Disraeli and who as Foreign Secretary represented the UK at the Congress of Berlin where he worked to make sure that Romania honored its commitment to give equal rights of citizenship to the newly created kingdom.


1834: The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina establishes the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute, today known as Wake Forest University. Based on recent statistics, there are 80 Jewish students among the 4,000 undergraduate student body.  The school offers 21 Jewish studies courses.  Jewish students use the Hillel at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.


1842(23rd of Shevat): Abraham Stern an inventor of mechanical calculators and one of the few it not the only Jewish member of the Warsaw Society of Friends passed away. He is buried at the Bródno Jewish Cemetery which “was opened in 1780 by Szmul Zbytkower, a Polish Jewish merchant and financier, who donated the land for that purpose.”


1843: Today’s edition of The Voice of Jacob provided information about London financier Levi Salomons who had passed away in January of 1843.


1851: Brigadier General James Totten and his wife gave birth to Charles A.L. Totten the graduate of West Point and Yale University professor  who “engaged in a genealogical exercise, attempting to prove the Davidic ancestry of the British royal family” and who supported “the project of restoring Palestine to the Jews…through the medium of an international conference.”


1853: Today, Hyam Joseph, one of the earliest Jewish settlers of the Sandwich Islands, sent a letter with a business order to San Francisco, CA


1854: In "American Slavery" published today, Henry Ward Beecher draws a distinction between slavery as practiced among Abraham and the Jews and American Slavery. "Hebrew slavery admitted that a slave was a man with all appropriate human responsibilities and made ample provision for his civil and religious instruction."  American slavery stands upon the fundamental idea that a slave is chattel, not a man; and it makes teaching him to read a penitentiary offense."  Beecher was the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Slave owners and their supporters used the Bible as one of their defenses for that "peculiar institution" saying that if slavery was acceptable in the Bible it was acceptable today.  People like Beecher, who knew their Bible and something of ancient Israelite culture quickly challenged this bogus comparison.


1858: "The Last Moments of Rachel" published today quotes a letter from French author Mario Uchard to dramatist Victorien Sardou in which he described the final days and death of Rachel Félix the Alsatian born Jewess better known as Mademoiselle Rachel, the famous  French actress.


1860: Today's review of "Oliver Twist," the dramatic version of Charles Dickens novel of the same name reported that "the most salient triumph of the play, however, it must be said, is won by" Mr. J.W. Wallack, Jr., "who makes Fagin the Jew the fearful, odious and miserable creature that Dickens, working then in the May-time of his genius, summoned into being. The scene in which the wretched Fagin's driveling despair at the advance of death is painted by Mr. Wallack rises far above the level of melodrama. It is eloquent with the results of close and sincere study, vivified by the intense light of a quick and vigorous imagination." [Dickens'"Fagan" is seen by some of being symptomatic of 19th century British anti-Semitism.]


1860: The New York Times reported that “The Vienna Gazette has published an Imperial decree, enacting that the testimony of Jews, in future shall be regarded of the same value as that of Christians. The measure is considered preliminary to according them full civil and political rights. "


1863: During the Civil War,” a fishing smack, containing three Jews,” was seized tonight on Lake Pontchartrain as it made its way to Ponchatoula, a Louisiana town still held by the Confederates. The boat contained “a large quantity of medicines for the rebels” and letters from forty or fifty leading citizens in New-Orleans which were addressed to persons of authority in the Confederate Government.

 
1865: Birthdate of Dutch painter Isaac Israëls, the son of Jozef Israëls who was also a Dutch painter.

1866(18th of Shevat, 5626):Joseph Bach passed away in Budapest. Born in 1784, he was a Hungarian rabbi. After I. N. Mannheimer, he was the first German preacher of a Jewish congregation in Austria-Hungary.mIn Alt-Ofen, his birthplace, he began to ground himself early in life in the study of the Talmud. Without the aid of a teacher he studied several foreign languages; after which he attended the University of Prague, remaining there 12 years. Then he returned to his home town, where he married the daughter of a wealthy family, and settled down as a merchant. It was not long, however, before he lost his entire fortune and was left penniless. Destitute of the means of subsistence, he was constrained to accept a situation as teacher. In 1827, despite having never studied homiletics, and had never heard or read a sermon, he was appointed first preacher at the newly organized synagogue of Pest, where he officiated for over thirty years. Many of his sermons have been published. An autobiography, with a preface by Kayserling, was published by his son in Budapest.


1872: Salomon Jacobs, a Jewish peddler, was sentenced to six months in the penitentiary for picking the pocket of a sewing girl in New York City.


1874: Birthdate of American modernist writer Gertrude Stein.


1875: It was reported today that the committee that has been investigating the management of the Hebrew Benevolent Asylum has concluded that Mr. Meyer Stern and his colleagues were guilty of the charges made against them. While the committee has no legal standing, its investigation has resulted in putting an end to the practices of which they were accused.


1876: The trial of Pesach N. Rubenstein, a Polish Jew charged with the murder of his cousin Sara Alexander, was scheduled to resume today.


1878: “Ceremonies of Judaism: Their Meaning and Observance,” a lengthy article that described the ceremonial practices of the Jewish people including their Biblical origins was published in the New York Times. [One could hardly imagine an article like this appearing in major European daily.]


1879: In New York, the Controller appeared at today’s meeting of the Board of Apportionment and reported that the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Association was one of the charities that had made application to receive a portion of the excise moneys collected in 1878.


1879: Birthdate of Guy Gillette, the United States Senator from Iowa who became an outspoken supporter of the Zionist cause and served as President of the American League for a Free Palestine. [In those days, references to Palestine were Jewish, not Arab.  I am still researching the path that led a person from the small northwest Iowa town of Cherokee to support the creation of the state of Israel especially when you consider that in Iowa, unlike some of other states,  there was no “Jewish vote” of any major importance.]


1887: Famed explorer Henry M. Stanley, the man who “found” Dr. Livingston, left Cairo to day so that he could join the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and assume his role as active leader. Emin Pasah had been born into a German-Jewish family who named him Isaak Eduard Schnitzer.


1880: It was reported today that the Russian government is planning to change the law so that Jews have the same rights of other citizens as part of measures to be enacted as part of the Silver Anniversary of the Czar’s coming to the throne.


1880: The German Women’s Society for Aiding Poor and Sick Widows and Orphans held their annual meeting this afternoon at Steinway Hall.  Originally, the organization had been limited to Lutheran members. By the time of this meeting membership had been opened to include Jews as well as members of other Christian denominations.


1890: “The Jews of France” published today cites claims in Fiagro and Gaulois that anti-Semitism in France  is based on a belief that Republican Government favors the Jews and that the Rothschids were responsible for the “ruin of the Union General.” 


1891: It was reported today that 160 Jewish families from Russia are scheduled to arrive in the Twin Cities this week.  They are planning on forming an agricultural colony that has the financial backing of Baron Hirsch.


1891: Sarah Bernhardt and her company are scheduled to open their four week long “American season at the Garden Theatre” this evening with a performance of “La Tosca” which “will be followed by performances of “Cleopatra,” “Theodora,” “Fedora” and “Jeanne d’Arc.”


1892: Russia closed down Yeshiva of Volozhin.


1893: The will of the late Simon Davidson, a retired Jewish merchant whose home had been on East 56th Street in Manhattan was filed for probate today.


1894: A group of unemployed Jews clashed with police outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London today.


1895: “Russia’s Jewish Problem” published today provides a detailed review of The Russian Jews; Extermination or Emancipation by Leo Errera. (He was a Belgian born Jewish botanist who works on anti-Semitism “under the pseudonym "Un vieux juif” which is German for "an old Jew"


1898: It was reported today that a decision will not be made for at least week in “the libel suit brought by Joseph Reinach against Henri Rochefort who charged Mousier Reinach with intending to prove Alfred Dreyfus’s innocence by means of forged documents.” The judicial proceedings took place for spectators who quickly turned into a mob of jeering anti-Semites.


1899: It was reported today Israel Zangwell is expected to speak at the opening session of the Hebrew Fair which will be held at the Tuxedo.


1899: In New York, founding the Yiddish daily the Jewish Abend-Post


1901: Herzl sets out on a journey to London and Paris that will last until the 15th of the month.


1901: The Huvra Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter was the scene of a standing room only memorial service for Queen Victoria led by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Samuel Salant.


1902: In London Suzannah and Herbert Bentwich gave birth to Joseph Bentwich who made Aliyah in 1924 when he began teaching the Herzilya Hebrew Gymnasium.  He spent almost three decades at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa as a teacher and principal. He passed away in 1982.


1904: Herzl telegraphs back that he can take up the British proposal of new territory in Nandi only after the most careful investigation.


1906: The American Jewish Committee was formed. It was headed by Judge Mayer Sulzberger, a leader in the fight for liberal immigration laws. Its aims included the protection of civil and religious rights of Jews all over the world. Among its founders were Dr. Cyrus Adler, Louis Marshall and Jacob H. Shiff.


1907: Birthdate of author James Michener.  Michener was not Jewish.  But his novel, The Source, is one of the least painful ways to gain an overview of Jewish History


1909: In Paris, two Alsatian Jews – Saolomea and Dr. Bernard Weil gave birth to French mystic and Resistance fighter Simone Weil.


1910(24th of Shevat, 5670): Sixty-three year old Josephine Lazarus, author of The Spirit of Judaism passed away.


1912(15th of Shevat, 5672): As the Jews celebrate the New Year of the Trees, American politicians begin to gear up for a New Political Year – the presidential elections of 1912.


1913: Birthdate of Milton Lipson, a lawyer and investigator who, as a Secret Service agent from 1938 to 1946, was a personal bodyguard for Presidents Roosevelt and Truman


1915: Ottoman forces attempt to cross the Suez Canal but are repelled by the British. The Turks then turn towards Beershebain Palestineafter suffering near 2000 casualties.


1915:  In what would prove to be one of the opening rounds in the battle for the control of Palestine, Turkish troops arrive at the Suez Canal after having marched 130 miles through the Sinai Peninsula.


1917: During the second to the last year of World War I, British troops occupied Baghdad. After suffering heavily by forced conscription, torture and extortion by the Turkish ruled government, local Jews celebrated their freedom by declaring it a holiday (Yom Ness). Their freedom lasted until 1929 when the British granted independence to Iraqand all Zionist activities were prohibited.


1917: Birthdate of William Frankel, the son of Isaac Franekl, the beadle of an Orthodox London Synagogue, who became editor of the “Jewish Chronicle,” a British weekly newspaper.


1918:  Birthdate of Joey Bishop.  Bishop's career spans the entire spectrum of a Jewish comic's life - Vaudeville, Burlesque, the Catskills, Las Vegas, Movies, and Television.  Many remember him as one of ABC's attempts to imitate the popular Johnny Carson Show.  The shows only lasting contribution was introducing Regis Philburn to America.  His other claim to fame was being part of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack which included another famous Jewish entertainer, Sammie Davis, Jr.


1919: Today, Chaim Weizmann, the leader of the Zionist delegation, presented the case for a Jewish homeland together with a map of the proposed entity. The statement supported the creation of a mandate entrusted to Britain and described the Jewish historical connection with the area. It also declared that the proposed borders and resources were “essential for the necessary economic foundation of the country” including “the control of its rivers and their headwaters”.


1920(14th of Sh'vat, 5680): In New York, Rabbi Isaac C. Noot passed away at the age of 80.


1921: Birthdate of Ralph Ahser Alpher physics professor at Union College, mathematician and provider of the model for the Big Bang Theory which was the subject of his 1948 Ph.D. dissertation.


1922: Residents of Bridgeport, CT heard a broadcast carried by WDY and KDKA that included the singing of Eddie Cantor in one of his first, if not his first venture, into the world of Radio.


1926: Birthdate of Shelly Berman.  Berman was part of a group of early monologists who along with Mort Sahl and Bob Newhart,created a golden age of stand-up comedy.  Berman's specialties included a "series of neurotic schlemiels" and "benign Lenny Bruce characters." He also appeared in a few short-lived comedy series. 


1926: Birthdate of Vivien Wax Nearing, the New York attorney who dethroned Charles Van Doren as champion on “Twenty-One” the popular quiz show on NBC.  She survived as champion for four weeks.  Ms Nearing was one of fourteen contestants who were exposed for cheating during subsequent investigations into the quiz show scandal.


1931: In Brooklyn, Arthur Levitt, Sr. and his wife gave birth to Arthur Levitt, Jr. who served as Chairman of the S.E.C. from 1993 to 2001.


1931: It was reported today that the Zionist Executive Committee has sent a message of condolence to the family of the Reverend William H. Hechler who has just passed away at the age of 86.  Hechler was a Protestant minister who was an early supporter of Zionism and the work of Theodor Herzl.


1933: Influential art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen, “was raised to the peerage as Baron Duveen.”  He was the oldest child of  Sir Joseph Joel Duveen, the Dutch born Jew who had settled in England where established a firm that dealt in the trading of antiquities. 



1934: Jesuit Father M. Barbera reviewed Alfred Rosenberg's Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (The Myth of the Twentieth Century) for La Civiltà Cattolica. The book, published in Germany in 1930, had strongly endorsed Article 24 of the Nazi Party Program of 1920, which said that the party "stands for a new `positive Christianity.'" This new cult would abolish the "Jewish" Old Testament, purge the New Testament of humanitarian and pacifist themes, and create a German church anchored in blood, race, and soil. The party program and the book itself constituted a direct challenge to Catholics and Protestants alike, and Father Barbera was not delicate in his response. Because of the book's emphasis on the superiority of the pure "Aryan" race and its distortions of Christian history and teachings, he unequivocally rejected it as a "subversion of the very foundations of Religion and the Christian State." He did not mention Rosenberg's anti-Semitism.


1935(30thof Sh’vat, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1938: The Palestine Post reported that the third British soldier was killed in the battle near Jenin. While more than 50 Arab terrorists were killed, the number of their wounded could not be estimated. In Safed Arabs refused to attend the funeral of an Arab policeman branded as a traitor and murdered by Arab terrorists. The Palestinegovernment approved the Post's suggestion that both Arab and Jewish buses should be of the same color, to make them indistinguishable and less prone to Arab terrorist snipers.


1941: Esther "Etty" Hillesum, young Jewish women whose diaries about life in Holland under Nazi occupation were published posthumously, went to serve as "model" to the psycho-chirologist Julius Spier, at the Courbetstraat 27 in Amsterdam.


1943:  The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester was torpedoed by a German sub and went down with a loss of 600 lives. As it sank, four chaplains calmly ministered to the needs of their comrades-in-arms and gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rabbi Alexander Goode, Father John Washington, Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), and Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day."http://www.legion.org/library/6245/bravery-four-chaplains


1944: The 67th train in eighteen months left Drancy for Birkenau. Upon their arrival 985 of the 1,214 deportees were gassed; of them 184 where children under 18 year of age.


1944: Sydney Shumelson, a 29-year-old junior officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), was part of a Buffalo Beaufighter Squadron that successfully attacked a Nazi convoy off the coast of Norway. On the way back, Shumelson engaged in a running dogfight with a Messerschmitt for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. “Six months later, Sydney participated in another sortie in which he and his comrades sunk two heavily defended warships in the Bay of Biscay. As a result of his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and became the highest decorated Canadian Jewish serviceman in World War II.”


1945: Colonel Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal led the entire Third Division, an armada of 1,000 B-17’s, on a raid on Berlin.


1946: The Royal Air Force reported that “six uniformed men held up an RAF medical rehabilitation unit in Tel Aviv tonight and stole eighteen weapons.”


1946: In Jerusalem, “police and military authorities announced today that the curfew that had barred pedestrians from streets in Jewish quarters would be lifted tomorrow.  The curfew has been in effect for sixteen nights.


1949: The Provisional State Council which acted as the legislature for the state of Israel until the election of the first Knesset held its last meeting today.


1951: In Philadelphia, President Harry S. Truman dedicated a chapel in the honor of “The Four Chaplains” in Philadelphia.  The chapel was moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 2001 and after being repaired in 2004 was renamed “The Chapel of the Four Chaplains.”


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported on the Ministry of Labor plans to develop communications and queries, expand irrigation and agriculture and move people from towns to villages all of which should help in lowering the unemployment rate and hasten the closing of the transit camps for recent immigrants.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Arab states had dropped their plans for a boycott of Germany after the Bonn government has ratified the Israeli Reparations Treaty.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Czechoslovakia and Hungary joined the Soviet Union in spreading false anti-Semitic accusations and started identifying and purging their Jewish officials.


1954: The IDF officially began employing “a new doctrine of combining armored and motorized infantry units” developed by Yitzhak Pundak who was promoted the rank of Brigadier General.


1958(13th of Shevat): Benzion Katz passed away

1959(25th of Shevat): Joseph Pearlman passed away


1970: The funeral for Bella Bergoffen, the widow of Samuel Bergoffen is scheduled to take place this afternoon at Riverside Chapel


1970: The funeral for Dorothy Horowitz Gerber, the widow of Newcomb Germer is scheduled to take placed at the Higgins Home for Funerals followed by internment at the Children of Israel Cemetery in South Plainfield, NJ>


1971: Birthdate of Tobias Jacob "Toby" Moskowitz “an American financial economist and a professor at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business. He was the winner of the 2007 American Finance Association (AFA) Fischer Black Prize, which is awarded biennially to the top finance scholar under the age of 40 in years when one is deemed deserving.”


1973: Judge Justine Wise Polier retired from the New York Family Court after 38 years spent trying to use the bench to assist children and redress discrimination.


1974: After only 65 performances a Broadway revival Adler and Ross’ “The Pajama Game” co-starring Hal Linden, closed today.


1974: The Syrian Foreign Minister announced that his country was carrying out a ‘continued and real war of attrition’ that aim of which was to keep ‘Israel’s reservers on active duty and paralyzing its economy.’


1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that mercury was found in Spanish oranges as a poisoning scare cut into sales of Israeli citrus in Europe. In the third week of their almost total strike, Israeli seamen threatened to wreck their ships to prevent their sale, as threatened by the Zim management. The US was contemplating a package deal: a joint sale of American jet fighters to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.


1985: Physicist Frank Oppenheimer, younger brother of Robert Oppenheimer, and veteran of the Manhattan Project, passed away..


1988: In Yorkton, Saskatchewan Rick and Carol Schwartz gave birth to Mandi Jocelyn Schwartz the Yale hockey player whose struggle with leukemia would inspire thousands of people to volunteer to be bone marrow donors.”  (As reported by Thomas Kaplan)


1988:Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin visited Nablus today and found the streets deserted except for his own soldiers. He chatted with them in the narrow twisting streets. Some residents could be seen peeking at the minister through the slats of their closed shutters as he walked with bodyguards, a squad of soldiers and an entourage of journalists. ''I more than believe that we are going to put an end to it,'' he said of the protests. ''When, I don't know.''


1989(28thof Shevat, 5749): Seventy-three year old Academy Award winning American movie music orchestra leader, composer and arranger Lionel Newman, passed away.

1991:After a long and angry debate, the Israeli Cabinet today voted to accept as a new member of the Government a small right-wing party that advocates expelling all the Palestinians from the occupied territories. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir pushed through the appointment of the Moledet Party -- the Hebrew name means homeland -- over the opposition of senior members of his Government to expand his coalition to 66 seats in the 120-seat Parliament. That is considered a safe governing majority. No longer will any but the very largest of the minor parties have the power to bring the Government down. Several of the most senior members of the Government -- the Ministers of Justice, Health, Finance, Defense and Foreign Affairs -- voted against the new coalition agreement or abstained, participants at the meeting said. Vote totals from the closed meeting were not disclosed. In several cases, dissenting ministers said they considered the Moledet Party to be racist. And they openly worried that the move would jeopardize Israel's new-found international standing as a result of its military restraint in the face of Iraqi missile attacks.


1991:  The army announced that it had decided to begin large-scale distribution of gas masks to Palestinians in the West Bank.


1991:Mayor David N. Dinkins arrived in Tel Aviv “today from New York City for a lightning visit to show solidarity with Israel. His Israeli hosts wasted no time pressing a gas mask kit into his hands, and then whisked him away for a discussion on chemical weapons with Israel's Foreign Minister. Israeli officials who greeted Mr. Dinkins in the first rush of meetings during his 24-hour visit had nothing but praise for the Mayor. From the President down, Israelis were pleased with Mr. Dinkins's decision to come here at a time when air-raid sirens are wailing almost every night. But that was in direct contrast to the feelings of some of Mr. Dinkins's black constituents. In New York, some black leaders have accused him of using the trip to bolster his popularity among Jewish voters while neglecting the problems of his black supporters. While Mr. Dinkins's visit to Israel has been praised by Jewish leaders in New York, some blacks have objected to the trip because they believe it may align the Mayor too closely with supporters of the Persian Gulf war and could make him appear too hawkish, particularly among blacks who in some opinion polls have been shown to lag considerably behind whites in support of the war. Since the hastily arranged trip was announced 10 days ago, Mr. Dinkins has repeatedly tried to deflect the criticism by characterizing the visit as a humanitarian gesture of support for Israel at a time of great adversity. But aides who came with Mr. Dinkins acknowledged that, along with the show of solidarity, the Mayor's visit was intended as a modest, if early, pitch for Jewish votes in the 1993 election. This appears to be at least part of the reason that Mr. Dinkins has not scheduled any meetings with Palestinians during his trip, though virtually all visiting American politicians make a point of meeting with prominent Arabs. The Mayor's aides said Mr. Dinkins wanted only to express sympathy for Israel and not to take on larger political issues. Such visible support for Israel could be useful if Andrew J. Stein, the City Council President, who could be expected to have wide Jewish support, decides to run against Mr. Dinkins. After being fitted for a gas mask in the airport arrival lounge, Mr. Dinkins, looking weary from his long flight, said: "Wisdom and prudence dictate that we learn how to put on a gas mask. But I'm not afraid. I'm 63, and God has been good to me and taken care of me over the years."


1992:Ezer Weizman, the former Israeli Defense Minister and air force commander who became an ardent advocate of peace with the Arabs, announced his retirement from politics today, warning that the Government was leading the country toward war. An architect of the 1978 Camp David peace accords with Egypt and an outspoken supporter of talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mr. Weizman said he was leaving public life because he could no longer influence national policy. Addressing Parliament, Mr. Weizman, who is 67 years old, said he was resigning as a member of Parliament from the Labor Party. "After serious consideration I have decided to resign my post in the Knesset and to leave political life," he said. "I leave concerned for the fate and image of the State of Israel in the years ahead. I am troubled by the grave feeling that the path we are taking does not lead to peace, but to an impasse behind which is the horror of war." Farewell May Not Be Final Mr. Weizman said later that he felt he could "no longer contribute" to peace efforts. Acquaintances said he had become disillusioned by the Government's conduct of Arab-Israeli negotiations and by what he saw as the inability of his own party to present credible policy alternatives. While he insisted that he was abandoning parliamentary politics, Mr. Weizman did not rule out a proposal by some legislators that he serve as President, a mostly ceremonial post. His uncle, Chaim Weizman, became Israel's first President in 1948.


1992(29th of Shevat, 5752: Eighty –five year old “Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar” Theodore H. Gaster passed away today.

1997: Newly installed U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced the uncovering of her Jewish origins.


2000: The U.S. Senate voted 89-4 to confirm Alan Greenspan for a fourth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.


2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingShouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age by Alan M. Dershowitz


2006: Actor Al Lewis, best known for his role as Grandpa on the television show “The Munsters” passed away.


2007: ט"ו בשבט or Tu B’Shevat and Shabbat Shirah.  In Cedar Rapids a special Tu B’Shevat and Tailgating Kiddush celebrating the New Year of the Tree’s and Sunday’s Super Bowl.


2008: “Camille Pissarro: Impressions of City and Country” closes at the Jewish Museum of New York.


2008: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review ofArtists in Exile: How Refugees From Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Artsby Joseph Horowitz, Swimming in a Sea of Death David Rieff’s account of his mother’s (Susan Sontag) final illness and Eli Gottlieb’s second novel, Now You See Him.


2008: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons by Jacob Heilbrunn and Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg.


2008: Super Bowl Sunday: In Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots who are owned by Jewish businessman and philanthropist Robert Kraft.


2009: Dr. Avi Bitzur, Israel's Director General of the Ministry, "gave details of the new Israeli campaign for compensation of seized property and assists as at a panel entitled 'A Matter of Historic Justice: Jewish Refugees From Arab Countries,' held at the Ninth Annual Herzliya Conference.


2009: The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism presents the second annual Professor William Prusoff Honorary Lecture, "1948 as Jihad" featuring Professor Benny Morris of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.


2009:German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a stern rebuke today to Pope Benedict XVI, accusing the Vatican of giving "the impression that Holocaust denial might be tolerated" by welcoming a disgraced bishop back into the church. Benedict, the first German pope in 500 years, has faced a fierce backlash from his home country for reversing the excommunication of a bishop who has questioned whether the Nazis systematically killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. Several leading German Catholics have joined in the criticism in recent days, openly wondering whether Benedict and the Vatican knew what they were doing in rehabilitating the bishop, Richard Williamson, who has not backed away from his comments on the Holocaust.

2009:Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon today and Israel retaliated with airstrikes against smuggling tunnels and a Hamas outpost in southern Gaza, as Egyptian-brokered talks for a sustainable cease-fire continued in Cairo with no obvious progress.

2010: The 10th Annual Herzliya Conference is scheduled to come to a close.


2010: Maggie Anton, author of the trilogy about Rashi’s Daughters is scheduled to speak at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park, Michigan.


2010: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is schedule to present “Taste of Israel: Ethnic Cooking at its Best” featuring six Israeli women from the Partnership Community of Beit Shemesh-Mateh Yehuda who will be at the JCCNV to cook foods from different origins including Morocco, Iraq, India, Kurdistan, Persia and Egypt.


2010:Elie Wiesel told Haaretz today that he is using his ties with world leaders and heads of state and appearing at international conferences to warn of Ahmadinejad's intentions. More than 40 Nobel Prize winners from various countries have added their signatures to a full-page ad denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that is due to be published in The New York Times and International Herald Tribune in the next few days.

 


2010:The daily Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace reported today that vandals have defiled a Jewish cemetery in the city of Strasbourg with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans.  The swastikas were smeared on about 20 tombstones, while the German phrase 'Juden Raus' (Jews, get out) was scrawled elsewhere in the cemetery.

2011:TheCenter for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present: “Chamber Music of Schubert, Bach, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff and Zaretsky” performed by the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.


2011: Professor Jean Seaton is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Reporting the Holocaust - As it was Happening” at the Wiener Library in London, UK.  The lecture will examine “the way in which the media in Britain - and especially the BBC, reported the news of the Holocaust during the Second World War. 

2011: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a bullet shot into her brain, will not be attending this year’s National Prayer Breakfast which is scheduled to take place today. Congresswoman Giffords had invited her rabbi, Stephanie Aaron of Congregation Chaverim, to attend the event with her.


2011:Police officers stumbled on a large stash of jugs and coins dating back from the Second Temple era in the Galilee village of Mazara today, during an arms raid.

 

2011: Rabbi Steven Kushner officiated at the funeral of Mitchell Reuben Perlmeter  at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, N.J. Perlmeter who passed away two days ago at the age of 17 was the son of two rabbis.


2012:IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz ordered a full inquiry into the incident that saw a soldier with the 188th Armored Brigade accidently left behind in the Palestinian village of Budrus. The inquiry will be headed by Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brigadier-General Hagai Mordechai.

2012: "The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed," Teheran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today. He promised that "Iran would assist any country or organization that would fight the Zionist regime, which is now weaker than ever," he said. Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said that Iran has helped Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas in their fights against Israel. The crowd met the statement by chanting "Death to Israel."


2012: Rabbi Alexander Goode, Reverend George Fox (Methodist), Reverend Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed) and Father John Washington (Roman Catholic) are remembered on Four Chaplain Day.

2012: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host another of its fabulously popular Friday Night Musical Shabbats


2012: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff is scheduled to speak at Friday night services at Washington Hebrew Congregation as part of the commemoration of Four Chaplains Day.
 
2013: 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 Lion Is In by Delia Ephron


2013: As part of the Temple Judah 90th anniversary celebration, historian Mark Hunter is scheduled to deliver an illustrated talk on the history of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community.


2013: Rebekka Helford and Bruce Bierman are scheduled to lead the music and dancing at the Klezmer Jam Session and Dance hosted by The Talking Stick in Venice, CA.


2013: Final performance of “Not By Bread Alone” is scheduled to take place at the Skirball.



2013: Today marks the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the Dorchester, a U.S. Army transport ship, torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II. During the sinking 4 chaplains, including Rabbi Alexander Goode sacrificed their lives to save others answering in the affirmative to the age old question of “Am I my brother’s keeper.” (Special thanks to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington for assembling so much valuable information about this event)

2013: Today, Israel’s army chief landed in the United States for talks with his American counterpart, amid tension with Syria following a reported Israel airstrike there last week. He arrived as Israel’s defense minister insisted that Israel “means what it says” about preventing advanced weaponry being moved into Lebanon as Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus loses control. (As reported by Michal Shmulovich)


2013: As Americans watch the Super Bowl, this is the story of the commercial you will not see.

2014: An exhibit at La Galeria at Boricua College in Washington Heights featuring works from “Intermarriage” is scheduled to close today.



2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “Iranian Jewish Identity.”


2014: The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to “Lea and Daria,” a film about two Croatian “Shirley Temples.”

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

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February 4



211: The reign of Septimius Servus, the Roman emperor who outlawed conversions to both Judaism and Christianity in an attempt to unify his crumbling empire, came to an end.


362: Roman Emperor Julian promulgates an edict that recognizes equal rights to all the religions in the Roman Empire. Known as Julian the Apostate, Julian effectively undid the edicts of Constantine that had made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. He brought back the old religions of the Empire including those that were tied to Hellenism, the spiritual path that he favored.  Julian was sympathetic to the Jewish people and was prepared to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, he was murdered by a Christian Arab soldier who may have been angered by Julian’s decision to deny state support to Christianity.


1194: Richard The Lion Hearted bought his freedom by paying his ransom to Leopold, an Austrian Duke.  In collecting the ransom, the Jews were forced to pay 5,000 marks.  They were taxed at three times the rate as that paid by their Christian countrymen. 


1428(17th of Shevat): Purim of Sargosa

 


1616(16thof Shevat 5376): Samuel Pallache, a Moroccan Jewish merchant passed away in The Hague while serving as the diplomatic representative of the sultan Zidan Abu Maali in negotiations with the Dutch Republic designed to establish an alliance to fight their common enemy – Spain. Born in Fez in 1550, he was the son of a rabbi from Codroba whose family had fled Spain following the Reconquista.


1657: Oliver Cromwell granted the right of residence in England to a Jew, Antonio Fernandez Carvajal. According to some, this is the earliest official British act of tolerance in favor of the Jews.


1657: Thomas Burton, an MP who was a comrade of Cromwell and kept a diary on the proceedings of Parliament wrote today that "The Jews, those able and general intelligencers whose intercourse with the Continent Cromwell had before turned to profitable account, he now conciliated by a seasonable benefaction to their principal agent [Carvajal] resident in England."


1683: Birthdate Judah Monis, the son of Portuguese conversos born in Algeria who would become the first college Hebrew instructor in North America and the author of the first Hebrew textbook published in North America.  The price of his position at Harvard would be conversion to Christianity; a price many others, such as James Schlesinger,  would pay for academic


1738(14thof Shevat,5498):Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, a noted banker and court Jew was led to the gallows. He had been falsely accused of a variety of crimes and only “confessed” after being tortured. Even as he faced death by hanging, he refused to convert to Christianity, a move that might have saved his life. “Hanging inside a human-size cage, surrounded by a huge crowd of spectators, his last words - while a rope was tied around his neck - were those of the central prayer of Judaism, ‘Shema Yisrael.’"


1782: Jewish physicians in Galicia were granted permission to treat Christian patients.


1789: George Washington was unanimously elected first President of the United States.  Because he was the first President, Washington’s actions set the tone for the new nation and for his predecessors.  Washingtonoffered assurances to American Jews that they would enjoy full rights as citizens of the new republic where every man will sit under his fig tree and “none shall make him afraid.”


1792:  George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College. Washington’s treatment of the Jews set a national tone that would help make the Jewish experience in America a unique one.


1807: In France, The Great Sanhedrin, a creation of Napoleon Bonaparte, met at the Hotel de Ville in the City Hall of Paris.


1810(30th of Shevat): Rabbi Reuben Horowitz author of Dudaim ba-Sadeh passed away


1810: The Royal Navy seizes Guadeloupe.  At this time there were no Jews living on the Island. Jews were first recorded living in Guadeloupe in the late 14th century. In 1391, in a surge of anti-Jewish riots that began in Spain, the most of the Jews were murdered. The community, however, began to revive during the mid-15th century. In 1485, the local inquisitor, Nuño de Arévalo, forbid all Jews from living in Guadeloupe. Prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492, the Jewish community sold the land of the old cemetery to the local bishop. Many Jews were forced into converting to Christianity; the Conversos in Guadeloupe lived together in a specified street in the former Jewish quarter. In 1489, two monks Diego de Marchena and García Capata, were burned at the stake for converting to Judaism. In 1654, three shiploads of Jewish refugees from Brazil settled in Guadeloupe. During that time, the Jews were welcomed by the French owner of the island. Even the capital of Guadalupe, Pointe-a-Pitre was named after a Brazilian Jew, called Pietre who started a fish processing plant in the city. The Jews established sugarcane plantations, which ultimately became the country’s leading export. In 1685, however, King Louis XIV issued “The Black Code” expelling all Jews from Guadeloupe.  During the latter part of the 20th century, many Jews began to arrive from North Africa and France. In 1988, the Jewish community consecrated the first synagogue in Guadeloupe, Or Sameah. Later the congregation added a Talmud Torah, community center, kosher store, and Jewish cemetery. Today, approximately 50 Jews live in Guadeloupe.


1836: Dade County, Florida is formed. According to 2000 census data, Dade County, which includes Miami, had a Jewish population in excess of 125,000 souls. The vibrant Jewish community there has far too many institutions, organizations and cultural events to list here. 


1838: Together with a dedicated group of Philadelphia Jewish women, Rebecca Gratz established the first Jewish Sunday School.


1848(30th of Shevat, 5608): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1842:  Birthdate of George Morris Cohen Brandes, influential Danish literary critic and historian.  “Poor is the power of the lead that becomes bullets compared to the power of the hot metal that becomes type.”

 

1852:Over eight hundred people attended the annual Ball of the Jew’s Hospital that was held this with the proceeds of the event providing funds to maintain this medical facility.


1854:  The New York Times reported that the population of Cape Town, South Africa, totaled 30,000 of which 3,000 were either Jews or Moslems.


1855: Nahum J. Steiner, "a converted Jew who has been laboring for several years among the Jews" of New York City was scheduled to give an address tonight at  the Stanton Street Baptist Church etntitled "Israel's Return and The Future Glory of the Messiah."  [Early attempts to convert Jews in America to Christianity were largely unsuccessful.  For those who did not want to remain Jewish, it was easy enough in America's fluid environment to just being a Jew without taking any formal action.]


1855:  Soldiers shot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela.


1859: The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt. The Codex was one of several ancient texts or resources discovered starting at the end of the 18thcentury and continuing into the 20th century including the Rosetta Stone, the Cairo Genizah and the Dead Sea Scrolls that shed light on ancient civilizations. They gave Jewish scholars a better understanding of the ancient Israelites and the Biblical text which are the cornerstone of Jewish faith and culture.


1863(15thof Shevat, 5623): Tu B’Shevat


1863: During the Civil War, three Jews went on trial before Judge Peabody in New Orleans, LA.  They had been seized by Union authorities while crossing Lake Pontchatrain headed to Rebel held territory in a boat loaded with medicines and letters from several leading citizens in New Orleans.  The Judge delayed passing sentence on the accused until the letter writers had been arrested per the order of General Nathanial Banks.


1864: Union General Benjamin Butler, one of those chosen for his political clout and not his military acumen, replied to a complaint from N.S. Isaacs over the general’s use of the term “Jews” when describing the capture five people trying to smuggle supplies to the Rebels.  The General said that he used the term without thinking and was merely dictating from the dispatches submitted by his subordinate. He used the term Jews as he would Germans, Italians or Irish men i.e. a term of nationality not religion. While appearing to defend himself of a charge of being an anti-Semite the General wrote, I “have always considered the Jews a nationality, although possessing no country. The closeness with which they cling together, the aid which they afford each other, on all proper, and sometimes improper occasions, the fact that nearly all of them pursue substantially the same employment, so far as I have, known them -- that of traders, merchants, and bankers -- the very general obedience to the prohibition against marriage with Gentiles, their faith, which looks forward to the time when they are to be gathered together in the former land of their nation, -- all serve to show a closer the of kindred and nation among the Hebrews, and a greater homogeneity than belongs to any other nation, although its people live in closer proximity. So that while I disclaim all indention of any reflection upon, their national religion, which was the foundation and typical of that of the Christian World, and, holding to the doctrines of Christianity with reverence for the Saviour, no one can stigmatize all Jews -- yet one may be reasonably permitted in speaking of that nation, to suppose there may be in all the Jaws of the South, two of whom certainly are in the Confederate Cabinet, at least five, who might attempt to carry on a contraband trade. Because, it may be reverently remembered that when, the Saviour, aided by Omniscience, undertook to choose twelve confidential friends from among that nation, he got one that "was a thief and had a devil." 


1874(17thof Shevat, 5634): Yakir Gueron, the sixth member of his family to serve as the rabbi in Andrianpole who had resigned his position two years ago passed away today in Jerusalem.


1874: It was reported today that the Hebrew Young Ladies’ Charitable Union will sponsor a dramatic performance at the Lyceum Theatre in New York in order to raise funds for the Home of Aged Hebrews.


1875: The Downtown Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society – Mothers of Israel – will sponsor its first annual festival ball this evening at Turner Hall in New York City.


1876: In Kings County, New York, the trial of P.N. Rubenstein who has been charged with murdering his cousin Sara Alexander heard testimony from several witnesses including the defendant’s brother, Louis.


1877: It was reported today that the in New York, the Purim Association will celebrate the festival this year with a Calico Masked Reception at Delmonico’s.  The event is a fund raiser and attendance will be limited by the number of tickets available.


1877: It was reported today that the Ladies’ Bikur Cholim Society of the School of Industry will host an event on February 15th at Ferrero’s Assembly Rooms in New York. [Editor’s Note – Bikur cholim refers to the mitzvah of visiting the sick.  Societies to further that goal have been a part of Jewish communal life since the Middle Ages.]


1877: “Compassionate Israel” published today described the manner in which the Jewish community cares for the less unfortunate including the creation of the Hebrew United Charities, the building of the Jew’s Hospital now known as Mt. Sinai and the opening of the Aged and Infirm Hebrews on the grounds of what used to be the Astor estate.


1879: It was reported today that among the private institutions caring for New York’s impoverished orphans that are receiving public funds as proscribed by law is the Hebrew Orphan Asylum which is scheduled to received $32,450 to help toward the care of 295 youngsters


1884: Leaders of the New York Jewish community met at the Nineteenth-Street Jewish Synagogue to discuss plans for commemorating the upcoming 100thbirthday of Sir Moses Montefiore with a permanent monument.  Projects under consideration including building housing for poor Jews, a reformatory and a mission designed to provide education for recent Russian immigrants.


1890: The sale of boxes for the 29th annual ball sponsored by the Purim Association which will be held next month took place this evening at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.


1891: The trustees of the fund which was created with money donated by Baron de Hirsch met at the home of Jesse Seligman where they re-elected their old officers and finalized the method for gaining access to the Baron’s largesse which help Jewish immigrants to pursue occupations other than peddlers such as mechanics or farmers.


1892: During an address by American author and journalist Poultney Bigelow on the persecution of “Christian Jews” in which he described the Czar as “a kindly man” a Russian Jew named Copik rose from the audience and said “that the Czar was a savage and a tyrant” and went to provide several examples based on his personal experience.


1892: The will of the late Benjamin Russak was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office in New York City.  “The estate is valued at about a million dollars.”


1892: The Chamber of Commerce met today in New York City in an attempt to raise funds to alleviate the Russians who are suffering through a famine.  Jewish members expressed their support for raising the money but expressed concern that raising such funds would express approval for the government of the Czar which was persecuting their Russian co-religionists.


1893: It was reported today that the late Simon Davidson has bequeathed $500 to Mount Sinai Hospital.  He also “returned six buildings and the loan bonds for $1,000 which he held against” the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum to that institution.


1894(28th of Shevat): Louis Lewandowski, the first Jew to be admitted to the Berlin Academy of Arts passed away


1894: It was reported today, that after police drove 250 unemployed Jews from the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, they regrouped at Trafalgar Square, “where an impromptu meeting was held.”


1898: During the Dreyfus Affair, the French Army High Command brings an action of criminal libel against Emile Zola for his accusations of knowing collaboration on the part of the French general staff in convicting Dreyfus based on false information.


1899: In New York, the Shaaray Tefila  Young People’s Association hosted an evening of entertainment in the lecture room of the congregation located on West 82nd Street.


1900(5th of Adar I, 5660): Rabbi Jacob Aron Mendes Chumaceiro of Amsterdam passes away at the age of 67.


1900(5th of Adar I, 5660): Rabbi Israel Benamozegh at Leghorn passed away at the age of 76.


1902:  Birthdate of Charles Lindbergh.  Lindbergh is the famed “Lone Eagle,” the first person to fly across the Atlantic from New York to Paris.  Unfortunately, Lindbergh’s skill as an aviator surpassed his political aptitude. “As World War II began, Lindbergh became a prominent speaker in favor of non-intervention, going so far as to recommend that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany during his January 23, 1941testimony before Congress. At an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941, he made a speech titled "Who Are the War Agitators?" in which he claimed that Americans had solidly opposed entering the war when it began, and that three groups had been "pressing this country toward war" -- the Roosevelt Administration, the British, and theJews, and complained about what he insisted was the Jews'"large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government." He made clear however his opposition to anti-Semitism, stating that "All good men of conscience must condemn the treatment of the Jews in Germany", further advising "Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation."


1903:  Birthdate of famed mathematician Sir Alexander Oppenheimer. Interestingly enough, even though Oppenheimer was born in Salford, Lancashire it is reported that his first language was Yiddish. After graduating from Oxford in 1927, he earned PhD from the University of Chicago in 1930. After a year of lecturing at EdinburghUniversity, he accepted a professorship at the Raffles College, Singapore. During the war he was a prisoner at the Changi camp. After the war he returned to RafflesCollege, retiring in 1967. He then became a professor at ReadingUniversity(1966-68) and head of the mathematics departments of the University of Ghana(1968-73) and Benin, Nigeria(1973-77). He passed away in 1997.


1908: Birthdate of trumpeter Emmanuel "Manny" Klein.


1912: Birthdate of conductor Erich Leinsdorf.


1914(8thof Shevat, 5674): Fifty-five year old Romanian born Yiddish comedian and actor Sigmund Mogulesko passed away today.


1915:  Dr. Joseph Goldberger began his experiments on prison volunteers in Jackson, Mississippi in order to find the cause of the deadly disease pellagra..  He proved that pellagra is caused by poor diet and launched the biological age of nutrition research which linked diseases with a lack of essential vitamins.


1915:  Turkish troops attempt to cross the Suez Canal as part of plans to start an anti-British uprising in Egyptand close the vital waterway connecting India with the British Isles.  The seriousness of the attack will lead to an aggressive campaign that will ultimately end with the British in control of Eretz Israel.


1920(15thof Shevat, 5680): Tu B’Shevat


1921: At a conference in Salonica, Greek Zionists adopt a resolution stating that Jewish education at the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools is not in tune with their national views and aspirations.
 
1921: Birthdate of Betty Naomi Goldstein, the Jewess from Peoria, Illinois, who would gain fame as BettyFriedan author of The Feminine Mystique.


1922: “Radio Operators Hear a Good Concert” published today in the Bridgeport (CT) Telegram described a recent radio broadcast that including songs sung by Eddie Cantor.


1925: In Brooklyn,  Harry and Henriette Koeppel Karnow gave birth to Stanley Karnow, “the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist who produced acclaimed books and television documentaries about Vietnam and the Philippines…” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


1927: “The Jazz Singer,” the first talking motion picture, starring Al Jolson, was released.


1931: In Philadelphia, PA, David and Rose Feinstein gave birth to Barry Feinstein, “a photographer who chronicled the lives of seminal rock ’n’ roll stars of the 1960s, and who was perhaps best known for the stark portrait of Bob Dylan on the cover of the 1964 album “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” (As reported by Paul Vitello


1933: Birthdate of David Golomb, Israeli political leader and Knesset member.  A native of Tel Aviv, he is the son of Eliyahu Golomb, one of the early leaders of the Haganah. 


1935(1st of Adar I, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1935(1stof Adar I, 5695): Fifty-five year old,Nathan Mileikowsky, the Lithuanian born rabbi who made Aliyah in 1920 and was the patriarch of the Netanyahu clan that included his son historian Benzion and grandsons Benjamin and Yonatan of blessed memory, passed away today.


1936: Bronislaw Humberman, a prominent Polish violinist announced this afternoon that a symphony orchestra is being formed in Palestine that will be known as the Palestine Orchestra Association. Many of those in the orchestra will be residents or former residents of Germany who cannot work that Nazi nation.  Huberman reported $25,000 has already been contributed to help the orchestra with its initial organizational activities.


1936: David Frankfurter, a Jewish Yugoslav medical student, killed the Swiss Nazi Gauleiter Wilhelm Gustoff. Though the German government demanded the death penalty, he was sentenced to eighteen years. Some historians believe that his action served as a model for Hershel Grynzpan whose assassination was used by the Nazi party for an all-out attack on Jewish property and synagogues known as Kristallnacht.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that Mordechai Nahman, a Jewish guard at the ShellBridgein Haifa, was stabbed and badly injured by two Arabs, who succeeded in escaping.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that Dr. Chaim Weizmann, upon his departure for England, stressed the Yishuv's and world Jewry need for unity, and said that some people "can only succeed in placing obstacles on our path, but they will never stop our work."


1939: Martha and Waitstill Sharp set sail for Europe today in the first step of their plan to help rescue Jews in Europe.  The behavior of these two quintessential WASPS (he was a Unitarian minister who traced his lineage back to the original settlers of New England) defies logic and serve as a reminder of the good truly religious people can in the world.  They have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.


1939(15th of Shevat, 5699): Edward Sapir passed away.  The son of a rabbi, Sapir gained fame as an anthropological linguist while teaching at the University of Chicago and Yale.


1941: As they made their way to Palestine, artist Marcel Janco who co-invented Dadaism and his family arrived Turkey having left Romania following the Bucharest Pogrom of January, 1941.


1941: In response to a request from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide morale and recreation services to uniformed military personnel six civilian agencies including the National Jewish Welfare Board formed the United Service Organization popularly known as the USO.


1943(29th of Shevat, 5703): The Germans killed Eberson, Buber, Kimmelman, and Chigier four of the remaining 12 members of the Jewish Council of Lvov. Six others were sent to Janawska concentration camp.


1945: This afternoon, a British constable was seized by a shark while he was swimming in the Mediterranean off the coast of Tel Aviv.  “A passing RAF pilot saw the commotion in the water beneath him and dipped down to investigate.  The roar of the motors frightened the shark away and the constable swam to shore safely.”


1945:  Birthdate of comic and television talk show host David Brenner.


1946: The Anglo-American Palestine Inquiry Commission is scheduled to leave for Germany today to begin a month’s study of the Jewish situation in Europe. 


1949: At a public meeting David Ben-Gurion stressed the need for a ‘partnership’ between the state of Israeland the Jews of the Diaspora.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that a train was derailed north of Kalkilya, as the result of a carefully planned operation by Jordanian saboteurs who blew up a section of track opposite Tulama village. The line was later repaired and reopened, but only after military attaches of foreign embassies visited the site. Israel submitted another complaint on Jordanian infiltration to the Mixed Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Commission.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that a Farm Settlement Bill passed its first reading in the Knesset.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The High Court upheld the Interior Ministry's order closing the Communist daily Kol Ha'am for 10 days for endangering the public peace by publication of articles justifying the current Soviet anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli propaganda, lies and fabrications.


1956: Birthdate of Kati Marton “an American author and journalist. Her career has included reporting for ABC News as a foreign correspondent and National Public Radio, where she started as a production assistant 1971 in her 20s, as well as print journalism and writing a number of books.She is the former chairwoman of the International Women's Health Coalition, and a director (former chairwoman) of the Committee to Protect Journalists and other bodies including the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch and the New America Foundation. She has received several honors for her reporting, including the 2001 Rebekah Kohut Humanitarian Award by the National Council of Jewish Women, the 2002 Matrix Award for Women Who Change the World, the George Foster Peabody Award (presented to WCAU-TV, Philadelphia in 1973) and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary—the country's highest civilian honor. Marton is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Marton was born in Hungary, the daughter of UPI reporter Ilona Marton and award-winning AP reporter Endre Marton. Her parents survived the Holocaust of World War II but never spoke about it. Her parents served nearly two years in prison on false charges of espionage for the U.S. and Kati and her older sister were placed in the care of strangers. Raised a Roman Catholic, she only learned late in life and by accident from a third party that her grandparents were Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp. Among the many honors her parents received for their reporting on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was the George Polk Award. The family ultimately fled Hungary following the revolution and settled in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where Marton attended Bethesda Chevy Chase High School.


1957: Rheinhold Nieburh expressed his views on the Jewish state in “Our Stake in the State of Israel” which was published today.

1959: For the first times since ancient times, Israel began exporting copper ore from the King Solomon mines.


1962: Birthdate of Ethan Berkowitz, a leader of the Democratic Party in Alaska.


1967(24thof Shevat, 5727): Czech born Jewish cartoonist Stephen Roth passed away



1968: At sundown, Israeli forces ended their search for the INS Dakar.


1969: Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat was committed to a Palestinian state from the “River to the Sea.”  Despite all of the grins and handshakes associated with the Oslo Agreements, Arafat’s behavior at and after the Camp David Peace Talks sponsored by President Clinton proved that he really never deviated from this goal.


1973: Israel unveiled the Reshef, its newest missile boat.


1986: Israeli fighters intercepted a Libyan passenger plane.


1987: Marcel Marceau performs before a crowd of 2,074 fans in Iowa City, IA.


1988:Jozef Gierowski, the scholar, who heads the Research Center of Jewish History at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, said at a dinner tonight that Poland will soon acknowledge ''political error'' in 1967-68, when thousands of Jews were purged from the Communist Party. He said the Polish leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, had authorized him to deliver the statement, which read, in part, ''The Polish political leadership accepted the decision of recognition of the great contribution of the Polish Jews to our heritage. In the next weeks it will publish an official decision on the political error committed in 1967 and 1968, with a condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism and discrimination.'' Such discrimination is contrary to ''the tradition of Polish tolerance'' and is also ''contradictory to the Marxist ideology,'' he said. The Polish authorities plan to increase the research on the history of Polish Jews, the statement said. Professor Gierowski would not elaborate on the statement. It is estimated that 9,000 Poles lost their positions in 1967 and 1968 in a purge involving a power struggle in the Communist Party, and many of the 30,000 Jews in Poland left for the West. Estimates of the number of Jews remaining in Poland today do not run much above 10,000. At about the time of the purge, Poland, like other Soviet-bloc nations, broke off relations with Israel after the 1967 Middle East war. But last year, Poland became the first Soviet-bloc nation to establish a diplomatic interests section in Tel Aviv.


1988: A four-day conference, sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jews attended by 300 scholars including more than 80 Polish scholars came to an end. The 150 presentations given during the conference encompassed the entire history of the Polish Jews, covering subjects ranging from Jewish literature and philosophy to relations with the Roman Catholic Church and Jewish political organizations. The main presentation was about ethical problems concerning the Holocaust and Poland.


1989: France won the doubles and took an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Israel today in Davis Cup play. Guy Forget and Yannick Noah defeated Amos Mansdorf and Shahar Perkis, 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 6-3, 13-11, in a match that lasted three and a half hours. Forget and Noah staved off three match points in the fifth set, which lasted 1 hour 20 minutes.


1990:Ten Israeli tourists were murdered near Cairo. Israeli military officials speculated this evening that the attackers of an Israeli tourist bus near Cairo were members of a guerrilla organization that sent assassins across the Egyptian border into Israel in December.


1991:Mayor David N. Dinkins is scheduled to return to New York today after having made “a lightning visit to” Israel. Dinkins had said that the visit served “to reaffirm our historic solidarity with the State of Israel, our concern for the safety of the people of the Middle East who are caught up in this conflict, and of course, our support for the men and women in uniform who are risking their lives for freedom."


1992(30th of Shevat, 5752): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1992:Israel's Ambassador, Zalman Shoval, returned to Washington today with what Israeli officials described as pragmatic counterproposals to an American position stated by Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d on January 24 concerning $10 billion in loan guarantees The Bush Administration had told Israel that it would consider its request for $10 billion in loan guarantees that are to be used for the construction of housing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.


1995: In the following article David Gonzalez describes the growing involvement of Orthodox Jewish women in advanced graduate level Jewish Studies which could be a harbinger of further change in the role that Orthodox women play in communal life.


1997: En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.


1997: Secretary of State Madeline Albright announced she had just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish.


2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingThe Bible Unearthed Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Textsby Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman,A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC-AD 1603by Simon Schama and Under His Very Windows:The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy by Susan Zuccotti  

2002: Ann F. Lewis was appointed National Chair of the Democratic Party's Women's Vote Center.

2004: Mark Zuckerberg “launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room.”


2006: (6th of Shevat, 5766): Betty Friedan passed away on her 85th birthday.
(As reported by Margalit Fox)

2007: An exhibition entitled “The ‘Jewish’ Rembrandt” closes at Amsterdam’s Jewish Historical Museum. The ‘Jewish’ Rembrandt is part of the key programs designed for the Rembrandt-400 celebrations, a national festival organized by museums and public bodies to celebrate the 400th birthday of the Dutch painter Rembrandt.


2007: A review of Matters of Honor by Louis Begley entitled “A Jew at Harvard” appeared in Sunday New York Times book section.  In Begley’s seventh novel, the author describes the attempts of Henry White, a/k/a Henryk Weiss from Krakow, “to navigate in a culture where the term “Jew” is used “with restraint,” where it’s “an embarrassing word to utter in polite company. ... not unlike ‘homosexual.’ ”


2007(17 Shevat 5767):Kurt Schubert, the founder of Austria's first Jewish museum after 1945 passed away at the age of 83. .Schubert died after a long illness, according to a statement posted on the Web site of the Austrian Jewish Museum in Eisenstaedt that he founded in 1972.


2007: Roni Bar-On withdrew his candidacy for the position of Justice Minister


2008: (28th Shevat): On the 28th of Shevat, 134 BCE,, Antiochus V abandoned his siege of Jerusalem and his plans for the city's destruction. According to the “Megilat Taanit,” this day was observed as a holiday in Hasmonean times.


2008: At the Community Synagogue in New York, The New Yiddish Rep presents “The Essence,” an overview of Yiddish Theater from Abraham Goldfaden to the present day created by Allen Rickman, performed by Allen Rickman, Yelena Shmulenson and Steve Sterner. The narration is in English and the songs and scenes are in Yiddish with English supertitles.


2008 (28th of Shevat 5768): A Palestinian suicide bomber killed one woman and wounded 11 other people when he blew himself up in a crowded mall in the southern Israeli city of Dimona at 10:30 A.M.  (8:30 A.M. GMT). A second suicide bomber was killed by a policeman before he could detonate his explosives belt. The woman killed in the attack was 74-year-old Razdolskya Lyobov, a Dimona resident from the former Soviet Union. One of the wounded, a man, was in "critical condition."


2009: The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism presents a lecture with Dr. Mordechai Kedar entitled "Islamism, Genocidal Anti-Semitism and the Place of the Other."


2009: At Columbia University, the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies presents a lecture entitled, "Statecraft in the Middle East," with Ambassador Dennis Ross


2009:Dutch Police  found two bullet holes from a shooting aimed at a mental health clinic run by the Amsterdam Jewish community, in what may be a further escalation in anti-Semitic attacks in the Netherlands since Israel launched an operation in Gaza in December.


2009: The 9th Annual Herzliya Conference comes to a close.


2010: The 14th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open in New York City.


2010: Maggie Anton, author of the trilogy about Rashi’s Daughters is scheduled to speak at Congregation B'nai Tzedek in Cincinnati, Ohio.


2010:Heavy snow was falling on Mount Hermon and on the higher areas in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights today, while rains, hailstorms and strong winds were felt from Israel's North to the Negev. Rains caused flooding in the Dead Sea area, and the Ze'elim Bridge was closed down.
 
2011: “Wandering Eyes” a documentary that tells the story of “Gabriel Belhassan …the next big thing in the rock music world, former Orthodox Jew and recently diagnosed manic depressive directed by Ofir Trainin is scheduled to be shown at in New York City.


2011:Hadassah Attorneys Ladies who Lunch! Gather at Eli’s, a kosher restaurant in Washington, D.C.


2011(30th of Shevat, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


2011:Mass flash flooding triggered by Cyclone Yasi caused severe damage to Jewish community buildings in Melbourne. Wild floods stormed through several suburbs heavily populated by Melbourne’s 50,000-strong Jewish community this prompting the closure of the Sephardi Synagogue on Shabbat. At least two Jewish schools were also flooded, with Bialik College – one of the largest Jewish schools in the country – reportedly closing for two days this week due to damage. The offices of theAustralian Jewish News were also partially flooded, according to Yossi Aron, the newspaper’s religious affairs editor.


2011: Alan Gross was charged by the government of Cuba today with "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state," a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. The U.S. State Department identified Gross as a U.S. government contractor who was in Cuba to assist Cuban Jews in learning how to communicate with other Jewish communities using the Internet. (As reported by JTA)


2012: Professor James Kugel is scheduled to deliver two lectures at Shearith Israel – “Why Did Moses Do Wrong? The Mystery, and History, of Massah and Meribah” and “How Our Ancient Interpreters Understood the Song at the Sea”


2012: In Little Rock, the Jewish Federation of Arkansas is scheduled to present President Bill Clinton with the Tikkun Olam Lifetime Achievement Award at an event marking its 100th anniversary celebration dinner.

2012: Electile Dysfunction: The Kinsey Sicks For President!(Because Sometimes It's Hard Being a Republican) is scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.


2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Temple Judah Traditional Minyan takes on a triple header – Super Bowl Shabbat, Shabbat Shirah and Four Chaplains Shabbat


2012: In Iowa City, Defunct Books is advertising a first ever for that college town – a poetry reading featuring Yiddish poetry. Well known Cedar Rapids poet and playwright Murray Wolfe will be reading some of his own original works as well as reciting from the works of Avrom Sutskever


2012:A shell from the British Mandate era was discovered this morning during construction work at Tel Aviv University. Additional shells were unearthed at the site about two months ago. Police sappers, who neutralized the shell, expect to find additional weapons that were apparently planted in the area during the British Mandate era.


2012: As reports about the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure continue to escalate, Iran's oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear program even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported today.

 

2013: In Rockville, MD,  Magen David Congregation is scheduled to host a presentation by Professor Anat Berko entitled “A Smarter Bomb; Women and Children as Suicide Bombers.”


2013: The 16th Annual Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come a close.


2013: In Florida, “Nicky’s Family,” a film that “pays tribute to” Sir Nicholas Winton who has been dubbed “Britain’s Schindler” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th annual Broward County Jewish Film Festival


2013: Funeral services for the Ed Koch, the former Mayor of New York City are scheduled to be held at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Israeli consul general are among those scheduled to speak at the funeral.  Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to attend as the representative for President Barak Obama.


2013: New research published today found that “school textbooks in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority largely eliminate one another’s existence in maps, although the Israeli curriculum is more balanced and self-critical than the Palestinian.


2013: Israeli threats to strike Iran's nuclear program and send shock waves throughout the world are "unhelpful," and Jerusalem should lower its profile on the issue, director of the Institute for National Security Studies, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, said today.


2013: The IDF has arrested a number of senior Hamas figures in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said today.


2014: Graveside services for Jacob L. Horowitz, the son of Miriam Landsman and Steven Horowitz are scheduled to take place this afternoon at Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City, IA.


2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host an evening of Israeli Dance with instructor Ethan Halpern.


2014: Keren Katz is scheduled to discuss Israeli cartoonists as part of the New York Comics & Picture –story Symposium.


2014: Professor Ezra Zohar, the 92 year old physician who was one of the founders of the School of Medicine at Tel University and who passed away yesterday is scheduled to be laid to rest at Mt. of Olives Cemetery this afternoon.


 


 


 


 

 

 

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

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February 5



1265: Clement IV began his papacy during which he “authorized the Spanish Inquisition to investigate the live of Jewish people, especially those who had chosen to join the Catholic Church.” 

1428: King Alfonso V, ordered Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons.


1523: The first printed edition of Zeror ha-Mor, a popular commentary on the Pentateuch by Rabbi Abraham Sebag was published in Venice.


1576:  Henry of Navarre, who will become Henry IV, converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. Although there were no Jews living in France at this time, Henry reportedly was acquainted with one, a man named Manuel Pimentel whose Jewish name was Isaac Abenacar whom the French king called the “king of players.”  Pimentel or Abenacar would be the first person to be buried at the Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk, near Muiderberg, not far from Amsterdam.

1631: Roger Williams emigrated to Boston.  A believer in religious toleration, Williams would be forced to leave Boston which populated by the intolerant Puritans.  In Rhode Island, Williams would practice the religious toleration that became part of the American fabric and would make the United States a unique experience for the Jews.

1678(13th of Shevat): Yuspi Shammah of Worms passed away

1718: Adriaan Reland the professor of Oriental languages at the University of Utrecht who “taught Hebrew Antiquities passed away today. He was a contemporary of Willem Surenhuis another Dutch Hebraist who published a completed Latin translation of the Mishnah from 1698 to 1703.

 
1778: During the American Revolution South Carolina became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, which was the first document of national governance for the newly created United States of America which was still fighting Great Britain to gain its independence. Francis Salvador, who had served as a delegate to the Provincial Council that had voted for independence was not present for this vote since had been killed by Indians while fighting against the British. But most of the Jews, including David Cardozo and Joseph Solomon who were members of a “Jewish company” were probably quite supportive of the ratification since they supported the cause of American Independence.


1791: As the Jews worked to gain full citizenship in Hungary, Judge Stephen Atzel read the following at today’s session of the Diet: “In order that the condition of the Jews may be regulated pending such time as may elapse until their affairs and the privileges of various royal free towns relating to them shall have been determined by a commission to report to the next ensuing Diet, when his Majesty and the estates will decide on the condition of the Jews, the estates have determined, with the approval of his Majesty, that the Jews within the boundaries of Hungary and the countries belonging to it shall, in all the royal free cities and in other localities (except the royal mining-towns), remain under the same conditions in which they were on Jan. 1, 1790; and in case they have been expelled anywhere, they shall be recalled."


1782: The Spanish defeated British garrison on Minorca and captured the island.When Minorca had become an English possession in 1713, the English willingly offered “asylum to thousands of Jews” who responded in large enough numbers to justify the building of at least one synagogue. However, when the English left the island after this defeat, the Jews left too. After all, Spain was still the land of the Inquisition.


1801: In Frankfurt, Benedikt Moses Worms and Schönche Jeannette Rothschild gave birth to Salomon Benedikt Worms the grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild  who became a leading member of the Anglo-Jewish community as the 1st Baron de Worms.


1819: Birthdate of Rabbi Bernhard Gotthelf who served as a Chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War.


1840: The Damascus Affair started with the disappearance of Father Thomas, a Franciscan superior. The French consul accused the Jews of ritual murder and extracted a "confession" by torture in which one of the victims died. The consul then requested permission from Mahemet Ali to kill the rest of his suspects. Others, including sixty children, were arrested and starved to convince their parents to confess. Sir Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Cremieux and Salomon Munk intervened on behalf of the Jews and the charges were dropped.


1848(30th of Shevat, 5608) Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1852: “Otto Goldschmidt married the world-famous soprano Jenny Lind. To please his wife, he converted to Protestantism.”


1852(15th of Shevat, 5612): Tu B'Shevat

1855: French artist Eugène Delacroix wrote the following description of the deteriorating condition of Fromential Halevy, the French composer who was the son of a cantor. “I went on to Halévy’s house, where the heat from his stove was suffocating. His wretched wife has crammed his house with bric-a-brac and old furniture, and this new craze will end by driving him to a lunatic asylum. He has changed and looks much older, like a man who is being dragged on against his will. How can he possibly do serious work in this confusion? His new position at the Academy must take up a great deal of his time, and make it more and more difficult for him to find the peace and quiet he needs for his work. Left that inferno as quickly as possible. The breath of the streets seemed positively delicious.”


1859: Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state. When the Jews failed to provide financial support for Cuza, he “inserted in his draft of a constitution a clause excluding from the right of suffrage all who did not profess Christianity.”


1864 (30th of Shevat, 5627): In a decree from the Sultan, brought about by the intervention of Moses Montefiore, the Jews of Morocco were ordered not to be harmed, and to be treated in accordance of the laws of Allah. However, it was reported many Jews became "arrogant and reckless" after hearing this ruling, especially the Westernized Jews who worked the ports.


1864; “Physician, children’s health advocate, and community activist Dr. Zemach Szabad was born today in Vilna. Szabad began his career as a doctor providing care and support to Jews whose shtetlach were devastated by World War One. When the war ended, Szabad played an active role in public life, quickly becoming one of the most prominent figures in the city, working to improve the health of the Jewish community—especially children and women—and participating in numerous cultural projects and organizations.” (As reported by Yiddishkayt)


1867 (30th of Shevat, 5627): Salomon Munk, German-born French Orientalist passed away. Born in 1803, Munk had a thorough Jewish education before pursuing secular interest.  He was unique among Europeans and Jews of his time because he was fluent in Arabic.  Munk “devoted himself to the study of the Judæo-Arabic literature of the Middle Ages and to the works of Maimonides, more especially the latter's Moreh Nebukim or Guide to the Perplexed." This enabled him to publish his three volume Arabic edition of the Moreh in the years from 1856 to 1860.  This accomplishment is all the more amazing because it was done after Munk had lost his eyesight in 1850 while cataloguing manuscripts written in Hebrew and Sanskrit.  Munk was a leader of the French Jewish community.  His position of prominence in the community along with his Arabic linguistic skills enabled him to serve as one of the three Jewish leaders who went to Egypt to deal with the Damascus Affair. Munk’s Yahrzeit should help us to remember that Maimonides was a Jewish scholar who belonged to the Arab world as well.


1875(30th of Shevat, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1879(12th of Shevat, 5639): Moses S. Cohen passed away unexpectedly today at the age of 70.  A prominent New Yorker, he had served as President of B’Nai Israel on Stanton Street and as Master Mason. A native of Holland, he had lived in the United States for almost fifty years.


1881: Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. Jews played a prominent part in the development of the Arizona Territory in general and Phoenix in particular from early pioneer times. For example, Michael Wormser, the poor son of a butcher, who made his fortune in the Arizona territory donated the land for the Phoenix Beth Israel Cemetery before his death in 1898. Sol Lewis and Martin Kaltes established the National Bank of Arizona in Phoenix. The Goldwater family is the Jewish family many think of when they hear of Phoenix.  From a Jewish point of view, this is not such a point of pride since the most “famous son” was Barry Goldwater. Senator Goldwater was raised as a member of the Episcopal Church.


1881: Thomas Carlyle passed away. While many remember him as the historian who chronicled the French Revolution and the life of Frederick the Great others remember as an author “Negro hating,” anti-Semite who believed in the superiority of the Teutonic Race. T. Peter Park examined Carlyle’s anti-Semitism In an article entitled “Thomas Carlyle and the Jews.”


1885:In Philadelphian, PA, The Young Women's Union which “was originally a branch of the Hebrew Education Society,  “ was organized today through the efforts of Mrs. Fanny Binswanger. “The object of the union was to educate the younger children of immigrant Jews. It maintained a kindergarten, day-nursery, sewing-school” and other such programs under the Presidency of Mrs. Julia Friedberger Eschner.


1890(15th of Shevat, 5650): Tu B’Shevat


1890: Rabbi Zeev Yavet, one of the founders of the Misrachi movement, took his students to plant trees at Zichron Yaakov.  The Jewish Teachers Union adopted this custom in 1908.  This is also the origin of the JNF Tree Planting Drive which is tied to the modern observance of Tu B’Shevat.


1890: Based on information that appeared in the 15thannual report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children during 1889, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society provided care for 149 children that the New York Society had placed with them.


1890: It was reported today that Jesse Seligman, J.H. Schiff, Simon Schafer and Henry Rice were among the prominent members of the Jewish community who have bought boxes for the upcoming Purim Ball, a major fund-raising event.


1892: It was reported today the late Benjamin Russak made bequests of $500 each to Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, United Hebrew Charities, Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Hebrew Technical Institute. He made bequests of $250 each to B’nai Jershurun, the Bikur Cholem Society, and the Hebrew Free School.


1892: As the Chamber of Commerce made plans to raise funds to help alleviate those suffering from the famine in Russia, Jacob H. Schiff, said, “he belonged to the race which had suffered so much at the hands of the Czar’s government” and while the Jews would be generous in supporting the effort, they would not support any effort that sent money to the Russian government.  The money must go directly to those who were suffering.


1892: Samuel J. Cohn was arraigned this morning on charges of fraud. Specifically he solicited funds while falsely claiming to be a collector for the United Hebrew Charities.


1892:”Mr. Bigelow Talks on Russia” published today included a description of a dispute that broke between Poulteney Bigelow and a Russian Jew named Coplik.  When describing the persecution of the “Christian Jews” in Russia, Bigelow described the Czar as a kindly man, Coplik rose from the audience and said that “the Czar was a savage tyran and went on to prove it” by providing several anecdotes to support his statement.


1893: The first of the series of Sunday Grand Opera Concert’s at Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House is scheduled to take place today.


1893: In New York City, the Central Labor Union endorsed several resolutions including one that called upon the state legislature “to take action in regard to alleged misuse of the Baron Hirsch Fund by the United Hebrew Charities.”


1894: The Cincinnati Enquirer described the marriage ceremony of Maurice Bear and Miss Bertha Levy of Birmingham, Alabama at her home.  The bride and the groom, who is a successful businessman, are each about four feet tall.


1899: It was reported today that Senor Castelar, the Spanish Republican political leader has expressed his concern with the political situation in France including what he sees as “as a tendency…to go back to the barbarous old-time expulsions of the Jews”  “when Jews have to be protected from massacre by the armed intervention of the Government…”


1899: It was reported today that in defending the Zionism, Professor Richard Gottheil has stated that “Palestine is the place where we can live that Jewish life we are called upon to live and only there can we take up the greater work for preparing for the Messianc time….We Zionists are the most ideal of all Jews because we want to prepare the basis upon which the building, seen by our prophets in visions may be reared.” (What may make this sound surprising to some is that Gottheil was a professor at Columbia and the son of on America’s most prominent Reform Rabbis.)

 
1901:Herzl met with the French banker Reitlinger in Paris and discussed the idea of buying the Turkish Public Debt as a way to negotiate for the Charter for a Jewish Homeland in Eretz Israel.


1902:Herzl begins a trip Constantinople where he is scheduled to arrive on the 14th so that he may begin negotiations for the creation of Jewish homeland.  


1902: In South Carolina Rabbi B.A. Elzas officiated at the marriage of James Dundas and Rebecca Bownam


1903: Funeral services were to be held this morning for Morris Tuska at his home in Manhattan followed by burial in Salem fields.  A native of Hungary, the seventy-two year old Tuska passed away two days ago.  He found success in a wholesale upholstery supply business which he operated from 1857 until 1871.  He was a co-founder of the United Hebrew Charity Organization, founder of the Hebrew Technical Institute, President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum and an active member of Temple Emanu-el for 45 years.


1904: Sixty-three year old  “French microbiologist and chemist” Émile Duclaux who was “a vocal supporter of Alfred Dreyfus” passed away today.


1905: Birthdate of Mirra Komarovsky, the Russian born American Sociologist.

1908: At Setatt, Morocco two days of riots and killings riots and massacres have devastated the Jewish community.


1915: Birthdate of Robert Hofstadter, American atomic physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1961.



1915: In “Brandeis,” published today Felix Frankfurter described the impact of the nomination of distinguished lawyer to the Supreme Court.

1917: Birthdate of Rephoel Baruch Sorotzkin, the native of Lithuania who was the son of Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin and became the Rosh Yeshiva of Cleveland’s Telz Yeshiva.


1917(13th of Shevat, 5677):Paul Alfred Rubens an English born song writer who found success in composing works for musical comedies in the UK and the USA passed away today at the age of 41.


1917: The Congress of the United States overrides President Wilson’s veto of the Immigration Act of 1917, which contains a literacy test, making the act the law of the land.  This override marked the end of a twenty yearlong battle that had begun in 1897 when President Grover Cleveland vetoed an immigration act passed by Congress.  President Taft vetoed a similar bill in 1913.  Jewish groups opposed the act, especially the literacy test, because they saw it as a thinly veiled way to exclude Jewish immigrants from eastern and southern Europe from coming to the United States.  Jewish immigration to the United States peaked in 1906 when 150,000 Jews made their way to the United States.  In 1914, even with the war having broken out in, 140,000 Jews came to the United States.  By 1917, only 14,000 Jews were admitted to the United States.


1919: Birthdate of comedian and actor Red Buttons.  Born Aaron Chwatt, Buttons got his first name from the color of his hair.  The last name was a reference to the shiny buttons on the coat he wore as waiter while waiting tables before his career took off. Bronx New York NY, comedian/actor (Sayonara, Poseidon Adventure).


1919: Charlie Chaplin joined three other Hollywood stars in starting United Artist Studios, one of the early giants of the motion picture industry.  It was unique, because as its name indicates, this studio was owned and controlled by the creative people.


1922: Birthdate of newsman and commentator Bernard Kalb.


1925(11th of Shevat, 5685):Julius Fleischmann, the son of Charles Louis Fleischmann and mayor of Cincinnati, passed away.


1926: In New York City, Arthur Hays Sulzberger and Iphigene Bertha Ochs gave birth to  Arthur Sulzberger, Sr., Chairman of the Board of the New York Times from 1965 to 1991.


1927: Birthdate of Marshall Rosenbluth, the American plasma physicist who won the National Medal of Science.


1930:  Fifth Aliyah begins. The Fifth Aliyah, which some sources say actually started in 1929, marked a ten-year period when approximately 250,000 Jews settled in pre-War Palestine.  This new wave of Jewish immigration was sparked by a number of causes including the restrictions on immigrations adopted by the United States in the 1920’s, the end of the Arab Uprising of the 1920’s and the rise of Hitler which brought a wave of German immigrants to the Jewish homeland.  The arrival of the Germans changed the nature of the Jewish community, because unlike the previous immigrants they were not from Russia and they were not committed Zionists eager for life on the Kibbutz.


1930:After a half-hour’s deliberation the death sentence was imposed today upon the Jewish Constable, 22 year old Simcha Hinkas. The jury had found him guilty of the premeditated murder of an Arab family in the August, 1929. “Not more than ten minutes after the verdict was pronounced, large crimson printed notices appeared pasted on trees and signboards at Tel Aviv where the accused lived and where a spirit of deep mourning now prevails…Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv said today: ‘When I contrast the death sentence imposed on this Jewish policeman with the acquittal of twelve Arabs accused of murdering seven Jews at Macleff House in Motzah, it makes me weep.  What? Is this human justice?’”


1931: Eddie Cantor appeared on The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour starring Rudy Vallee which “led to a four-week tryout with NBC’s The Chase and Sanborn Hour.  (Cantor and Fleischmann were Jewish; Vallee was not)


1933: In Germany All Communist Party buildings and printing presses were expropriated by Hitler’s new Nazi government.  Hitler would equate his war against the Communists with his war against the Jews. 


1935: After merging with the New York Jewish Tribune, the American Hebrewappeared today as the American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune.


1936: Charlie Chaplin’s first “talkie,”  "Modern Times", was released.


1937: In an article published in the Evening Standard, Winston Churchill “continued to issue his warnings about the growing menace of Nazi tyranny.”  The Baldwin government would ignore him and Europe would continue on the path that led to the Holocaust.


1941: “A diplomatic note from Chinune Sugihara” the Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania,to Japan's then Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka” states that “he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles.”  This was only part of the picture of a man who should be called “a Japanese Schindler.”


1941:The first week-day religious school sessions under the Coudert-McLaughlin Law passed last spring at Albany, permitting students to be released from public school classes an hour a week for religious training, were held on this date.  The law was passed in response to the wishes of certain Catholic leaders; not Jewish educators.


1942: In a letter today, Martha Dodd “told her Soviet contacts that her husband should be brought into their network.”  Dodd was the daughter of William Dodd, the first U.S. Ambassador to Germany who tried to warn America about the menace of Hitler.  Martha’s husband was Alfred Stern, the investment broker who had been married to the daughter of Julius Rosenwald.  Dodd, like many during this period, saw the Soviets as allies in the fight against Fascism.


1943(30thof Shevat, 5703): Rosh Chodesh Adar 1


1943(30thof Shevat, 5703: Sigmund Freud’s sister Esther Adolfine (Dolfi) died at Theresienstadt


1943: For 14 hours the Jews of Birkenau stood in place, in the snow, during a roll call. Then each was beaten, chased or sent to the gas chamber.


1943: For one week Germans are greeted with an armed uprising as they try to deport the final group of Bialystok Jews. By February 12th, 18,000 were in hiding. Another 10,000 would end up in Treblinka.


1943: Birthdate of Oscar nominated director, producer and writer Michael Mann.


1943: Rutka Laskier, a fourteen year old living in Bedzin, Poland wrote in her diary:The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter. Next month there should already be a ghetto, a real one, surrounded by walls. In the summer it will be unbearable. To sit in a gray locked cage, without being able to see fields and flowers. Last year I used to go to the fields; I always had many flowers, and it reminded me that one day it would be possible to go to Malachowska Street without taking the risk of being deported. Being able to go to the cinema in the evening; I'm already so "flooded" with the atrocities of the war that even the worst reports have no effect on me. I simply can't believe that one day I'll be able to leave the house without the yellow star. Or even that this war will end one day ... If this happens, I will probably lose my mind from joy. But now I need to think about the near future, which is the ghetto. Then it will be impossible to see anyone, neither Micka, who lives in Kamionka C, nor Janek, who lives in D, and not Nica, who lives in D. And then what will happen? Oh, good Lord. Well, Rutka, you've probably gone completely crazy. You are calling upon God as if He exists. The little faith I used to have has been completely shattered. If God existed, He would have certainly not permitted that human beings be thrown alive into furnaces, and the heads of little toddlers be smashed with butts of guns or be shoved into sacks and gassed to death ... It sounds like a fairy tale. Those who haven't seen this would never believe it. But it's not a legend; it's the truth. Or the time when they beat an old man until he became unconscious, because he didn't cross the street properly. This is already absurd; it's nothing, as long as there won't be Auschwitz ... and a green card ... The end ... When will it come? ...”


1946: George Arliss passed away.  Arliss was not Jewish, but he won an Oscar for portraying Disraeli in a film of the same name.  For many people of that era, the Arliss portrayal was synonymous with Disraeli and with English Jews.


1948: Dr. Alexander Marx will be the guest of honor at dinner being held at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to recognize his 45 years of service to JTS as a teacher and librarian.


1948: Birthdate of actress Barbara Hershey


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet held an extraordinary meeting, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, to consider the recent frequent outbreaks of violence and infiltration across the Jordanian border, including the derailing, of a goods train near Kalkilya,.


1956: Birthdate of Weizman Shiry. A native of Beersheba, this son of Iraqi Jews served in the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party.


1958: United Artists released “The Quite American,” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name which was written and directed by Joseph L.Mankiewicz.


1971: Seventy-eight year old Hungarian communist politician who repudiated his Jewish faith passed away today.


1977(17th of Shevat, 5737): Swedish physicist, Oskar Klein passed away.


1977: (17th of Shevat, 5737): Russian born chess player Izaak Boleslavskipassed away at the age of 67


1980: The Egyptian Parliament voted to end the boycott of Israel.  This was one of the “fruits” of the Camp David Peace Accords. 


1983: Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to trial.


1984 (2nd of Adar I, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Manès Sperber an Austrian-French novelist, essayist and psychologist born in Austrian Galicia in 1905, passed away today in Paris. (As reported by Herbert Mitgang)

1987:An Italian prosecutor's report contends that a 1985 airport attack here was planned in Syria and carried out by the Abu Nidal organization, according to senior judicial officials. The report says the four gunmen in the attack intended to seize an Israeli airliner and blow it up over Tel Aviv, but were foiled when Israeli security men opened fire, the officials said. The report does not charge direct Syrian involvement although it notes evidence of links with the Abu Nidal group, the officials said.


1989 (30th of Shevat):Ninety-year old  artist, publisher and art patron  Charles Z. Offin passed away today.

1989: The New York Times features a brief review of Past Continuous by Yaakov Shabtai, translated by Dalya Bilu.


1990: Ninety-four year old Père Marie-Benoît a Capuchin Franciscan friar who helped smuggle approximately 4,000 Jews into safety from Nazi-occupied Southern France passed away.  He had been named as one the “Righteous Among the Nations.”

1990:The Israeli Army said its troops had killed five heavily armed Arab guerrillas in the western Negev region of Israel after chasing them for a short distance. The army said the guerrillas had crossed into Israel from Egypt through the Sinai and apparently had timed the infiltration to coincide with the second anniversary of the Palestinian uprising. But it was not clear then to which organization the guerrillas belonged.


1990:Prime Minister Shamir will face nine different parliamentary motions of no confidence, from both left- and right- wing opponents today in Jerusalem.


1992(1st of Adar I, 5752): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1993 (14th of Shevat, 5753): Joseph L Mankiewicz, director and writer, passed away at the age of 83. (As reported by Peter Flint)

1993 (14th of Shevat, 5753):Hans Jonas, who fled Nazi Germany and became an influential philosopher, passed away at his home in New Rochelle, N.Y. at the age of  89. (As reported by Eric Pace)

1996(15th of Shevat, 5756): Tu B’Shevat


1997:  The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.


1999(19th of Shevat, 5759): Wassily Leontief Russian born American Nobel Prize winning economist, passed away.


1999: The Times of London features a review of The World’s Banker: The history of the House of Rothschild by Niall Ferguson


2004(13thof Shevat, 5764): Eighty-five year old “Samuel M. Rubin, who was known as "Sam the Popcorn Man" for making popcorn almost as popular in New York City movie theaters as jokes and kisses,” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2006: Irwin Cotler completed his term as Minister of Justice in Canada.


2006: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Tattoo for a Slave, Hortense Calisher's elliptical memoir that stretches across two centuries, and wrestles with a grim legacy as she comes to believe that her family — Southern, German and Jewish — may have been slaveholders.


2007: Defense officials told settlers that it was still likely that the security fence would be constructed in the Judean Desert, even though work there had been halted last month due to environmental concerns.


2007: The board of NBC Universal named Jeff Zucker as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer.


2008:  In New York, the 92nd St Y sponsors The Beir Lecture Israel at 60 featuring Michael B. Oren who discusses the 60-year history of Israel and its quest for peace.

2008: Three Kassam rockets were fired at southern Ashkelon this evening. The rockets landed in the national park near the industrial zone of the city, causing no casualties. Hamas claimed responsibility for the shooting. Today's rocket barrages were the heaviest since Hamas breached the border with Egypt two weeks ago. The Israel Defense Forces believes that should the escalation continue, a large-scale ground operation in Gaza will become more likely.


 


2008:Pope Benedict has ordered changes to a Latin prayer for Jews at Good Friday services by traditionalist Catholics, deleting a reference to their "blindness" over Christ, the Vatican said on Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano published the new version of the prayer in Latin and said it should be used by the traditionalist minority starting this Good Friday, March 21. Apart from the deletion of the word "blindness," the new prayer also removes a phrase that asked God to "remove the veil from their hearts". But the new prayer hopes that Jews will recognize Christ. Jewish groups had protested against the old prayer and had asked the Pope to change it. According to an unofficial translation from Latin, the new prayer says in part: “Let us also pray for the Jews. So that God our Lord enlightens their hearts so that they recognize Jesus Christ savior of all men.” It also asks God that "all Israel be saved.” Jewish groups complained last year when the Pope issued a decree allowing a wider use of the old-style Latin Mass and a missal, or prayer book, that was phased out after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.Good Friday is the day Christians commemorate Christ's death.Only some several hundred thousand traditionalists follow the old-style Latin rite and will use the Latin prayer. The overwhelming number of the world’s some 1.1 billion Catholics attends mass in their local languages. They would use a post-Second Vatican Council missal, which includes a Good Friday prayer for Jews which asks that they "arrive at the fullness of redemption”. Benedict’s decree, issued on July 7, authorized wider use of the old Latin missal, a move which traditionalist Catholics had demanded for decades but which Jews and other Christian groups said could set back inter-religious dialogue. Implementation of the decree has been difficult. The Pope's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said recently the Vatican was preparing a document on how it should be introduced around the world. Before the Second Vatican Council, Catholic mass and prayers were full of elaborate ritual led in Latin.Many traditionalists missed the Latin rite's sense of mystery and the centuries-old Gregorian chant that went with it. Some denounced Council reforms that included a repudiation of the notion of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and urged dialogue with all other faiths.


2008: A Simchah - Eli Sherman arrives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Mother and father are doing fine.  Rabbi and Rabbi are doing fine as well.


2009(11thof Shevat, 5769): Eighty-nine year old Canadian director, producer and writer Leo Orenstein passed away today.

2009: Opening of the 13th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival


2009:The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism presents a lecture by Professor Jeffrey Herf, Department of History; University of Maryland entitled "Nazi Propaganda in and towards the Middle East during World War II and the Holocaust"


2009; The CUNY Graduate Center and the European Union Center of NY present a lecture and presentation marking 50 years of Israel's relations with the European community by Benjamin Krasna, Deputy Consul General of Israel entitled "Israel and Europe: An Insider's Perspective"


2009: The UN staff discovered five rockets north of the southern Lebanese town of Nakoura which ready to be launched against Israel. Milos Strugar, a UNIFIL spokesman, said the rockets were discovered along with a launching pad by a patrol of peacekeepers near Nakoura, where the UN force is headquartered.


2009:David Miliband “made a statement to the House of Commons concerning Guantanamo Bay detainee and former British resident Benyam Mohammed.


2010: David Samuel Goyer announced he would be stepping down as FlashForward showrunner to focus on feature films and directing


2010: “Eyes Wide Open,” a film set in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, is scheduled to have its New York debut at the Cinema Village in Manhattan.



2010:Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon arrived in Munich for an annual security meeting which was also attended by Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal.



2010:British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today called the record number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United Kingdom last year "deeply troubling", urging Britons to exercise greater vigilance. Brown's comments come as the Community Security Trust reported that 2009 was the worst year for anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since the Jewish group first began tracking them in 1984. The trust said today that it had recorded 924 anti-Jewish incidents in 2009. It says much of them were attributable to anger over Israel's offensive against Gaza; it says a large proportion occurred during the conflict and many included references to Israel and Gaza. The latest figure is more than 50 percent higher than the previous record, set in 2006, the year Israel invaded Lebanon.



2010(21st of Shevat, 5770):Harry Schwarz, a South African Jewish leader and lawmaker who as an attorney defended Nelson Mandela, has died. Schwarz, who escaped the Nazis and came to South Africa from Germany in 1936, died today following a short illness. He was 86. As an opposition member of Parliament from 1974 to 1989, he was among the most vociferous campaigners against apartheid, according to a statement from the South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies. Schwarz in Parliament forcefully denounced the government's racial policies and spoke out strongly against anti-Semitism, the statement said. From 1990 to 1994, although still in the opposition, Schwarz served as South Africa's ambassador to the United States. As an attorney, he served on the defense team of Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists during the1963-64 Rivonia Trial. For his services to South Africa, he was awarded the Order for Meritorious Service: Class 1, Gold. Schwarz was active in Jewish communal affairs, serving from 1983 to 2000 on the National Executive, Management Committee and Gauteng Council of the Jewish Board of Deputies. He served as a navigator in the South African Air Force during World War II



2010(21st of Shevat, 5770):Beth Shulman, 60, a lawyer, author and union leader who fought for improving conditions for low-wage workers throughout her career, died today of complications from brain cancer at Georgetown University Medical Center. (As reported by Patricia Sullivan)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803776.html
http://www.bethshulman.com/



2010:Chancellor Arnold Eisen sent an e-mail today that The Jewish Theological Seminary is eliminating the position of dean of its cantorial school as part of a major reorganization and consolidation at Conservative Judaism’s flagship seminary. Chancellor Arnold Eisen said that the restructuring would take place in lieu of closing the cantorial school — the course of action recommended by an outside consultant.



2010(21st of Shevat, 5770):Frank N. Magid, 78, the television "news doctor" whose survey research and advice to local television stations in the 1970s resulted in co-anchors who chatted between stories, fast-paced graphics, sports tickers and live shots, and a heavy reliance on both crime coverage and feel-good segments, died of lymphoma today at Santa Barbara [Calif.] Cottage Hospital. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/us/14silberman.html?_r=0



2011:Yoav Gal’s “Mosheh,” an opera loosely based on the life of Moses, is scheduled to have its last performance tonight in New York City.



2011(1stof Adar I, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Adar I 



2011(1stof Adar I, 5771):Eighty-six year old Charles E. Silberman, a journalist whose books addressed vast, turbulent social subjects including race, education, crime and the state of American Jewry, died today in Sarasota, Fla, He was 86. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/us/14silberman.html?_r=0



2011(1stof Adar I, 5771): Sixty-one year old “Miriam Hansen, a scholar of cinema who studied not only film itself but also the early 20th-century creation known as the film audience” passed away today in Chicago. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/arts/13hansen.html



2011: The Quartet – the UN, the US, the EU and Russia – “refused to heed the Palestinian call for unilateral statehood and instead continued to throw its support behind a negotiated solution, when it met today in Germany. ‘Unilateral actions by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,’ the group said in a statement it issued after the meeting.”



2012: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present a recital by The Loewenberg Piano Trio



2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Thinking the Twentieth Century” by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder, “No One Is Here Except All Of Us by Ramona Ausubel  and the recently released paperback edition of J.D. Salinger: A Life” by Kenneth Slawenski



2012: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by  Jewish authors and/or of special  interest to Jewish readers including “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander



2012:Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai is today expected to call for increased investment to protect Israel's cities and national infrastructure.

2012:Amid growing reports that Israel is planning to attack Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and increased economic sanctions, Iran will attack any country whose territory is used by "enemies" of the Islamic state to launch a military strike against its soil, the deputy head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards told the semi-official Fars news agency today   

2012: Israel has not and is not interfering in the political crisis in Syria, Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said today, adding that he did not think radical Islam would take over the country in case Syrian President Bashar Assad is ousted.

 

2013:Rabbi Riccardo Shmuel Di Segni, M.D., Chief Rabbi of Rome, Italy is scheduled to deliver an address entitled "The Jews of Italy, the Jews of Europe : an Overview and Update" Congregation Magen David in Rockville, MD.


2013: The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ) are scheduled to host an Israeli Wine-Tasting Reception in Washington, D.C.


2013:Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said today two individuals with links to Lebanon’s Shi’ite group Hezbollah were involved in a bomb attack on a bus in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last July and a Bulgarian national. (As reported by Jerusalem Post)

 
2013:The IDF stationed a third Iron Dome air defense battery in northern Israel today, amid escalated tensions following last week's reported air strikes in Syria. (As reported by Jerusalem Post)


2013: Six incoming members of the 19thKnesset will have to have given up their foreign citizenship by today, the day when new MK’s are scheduled to be sworn as members of Israel’s parliament. (As reported by Jerusalem Post)

2013: “Obama Plans Visit to Israel This Spring” published today described the plans of President Obama to make his first visit to Israel since moving into the White House although he had visited the country while he was a United States Senator

2013: Based on information supplied by Chabad today marks the start of 32nd round of studying the 982 chapters of The Mishne Torah.


2014: Virginia Jewish Advocacy Day is scheduled to take place in Richmond, VA today.


2014: The Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel is scheduled to make its debut appearance in the United States at Bergen, NJ.


2014: Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston is scheduled to “Woman to Woman: The Power of the Arts to Transform Lives.”

This Day, February 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 6



337: As the "Bishop of Rome" seeks to become the supreme authority for Christians, Julius I began his papacy during which “he officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25thof December.”  The various internal squabbles among Christians would have an indirect, and often negative impact, on the Jews of Europe and Asia Minor.

 
1095: Henry IV of Germany who issued a charter to the Jews and a decree against forced baptism. He desired to protect the Jews even during the Crusades and granted favorable conditions wherever possible. He also permitted forcibly baptized Jews to return to Judaism. He did this partly because he viewed the Jews as valuable property. The Church criticized his actions.



1190: In England, the Jews of Norwich were massacred by a mob following a similar attack in Lynn.


1283: In England, a Justice of the Jews named Hamo Hauteyn, set up a commission to investigate charges against Jews accused of selling plate made of clippings or silvered tinplate to foreign merchants.

 
1298: King Jaime II had a Jewish man's property confiscated. Moses Avencurel of Elche was punished for taking part in an anti-royalist rebellion.

 
1413:The first sitting of a “disputation” in which the Jews must listen to the Treatise of Geronimo De Santa, a convert to Christianity, contend that the Talmud recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This disputation was ordered by Pope Benedict XIII and would last until November, 1414 with a total of 68 sittings.

 
1481: The first auto-da-fe by the Spanish Inquisition took place in Seville, Spain.  The term "auto-de-fe" means "act of faith."  It was a ceremony that culminated in burning at the stake heretics discovered by the Inquisition.  There heretics were Jews who had been forced to convert and were guilty of practicing their Judaism in secret

 
1481: Several affluent men of the community in Seville, led by Diego de Susan, plotted to strike back at the Inquisitors.  He stated to his co-religionists: "Are we not the principal men of this city in standing, and the best esteemed of the people? Let us assemble troops; and if they come to take us, let us start an uprising with the troops and the people; and so we will kill them and avenge ourselves on our enemies!"

 
1508: Maximilian I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In the first decade of his reign, Maximilian would put an end to the attempts by some German nobles to banish the Jews from their realms.  Maximilian did this, not so much because he loved Jews, but because he saw these attempts at banishment as an encroachment on his imperial authority.  Wherever they lived in the empire, the Jews were the subjects of the emperor and not of any local lord.  Therefore only he could banish Jews.  Maximilian feared that if he gave way on his control over the Jews, who knew what power the nobles might try and take from him next. 

 
1521: Suleiman the Magnificent, whose reign was one of the highpoints for Jews living in the domains of the Ottomans, led his army west with the intention of conquering Hungary.

 
1640(13th of Shevat): Rabbi Israel Samuel Kalihari, author Yismah Yistrael passed away

 
1647(1st of Adar): Rabbi Azariah Figo (Picho) author of Giddulei ha-Terumah passed away

 
1649: King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain by the Parliament of Scotland. While on the throne, Charles showed his support for the Jews.  In 1660, when Thomas Violet introduced a petition to have the Jews expelled again from Great Britain, a “Royal message” was sent “Parliament them to take the protection of the Jews into consideration.”  Violet’s petition was rejected.
(The Great Trappaner of England': Thomas Violet, Jews and crypto-Jews during the English Revolution and at the Restoration by Ariel Hessayon)

 
1664: Birthdate of Sultan Mustafa II.  During his reign Ottoman forces conquered Belgrade again in 1690 and Jews were allowed to return to the city.

 
1685: James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II. For once, a change in monarchs turned out to be a “win-win” situation for the Jewish people.  While still in the Netherlands, prior to regaining the throne, the Anglican “Charles had assured Amsterdam Jews that their coreligionists had no reason to fear his reemergence in England.”  How much of this was promise was due to personal beliefs and how much was the product of the substantial financial support the soon to be crowned monarch received from Dutch Jews is immaterial.  The fact is, he kept his word.  A group of London merchants who wanted to limit their competition petitioned the king to keep the Jews out of the country to protect the religion and welfare of his subjects.  “The targeted Jews” sought the King’s protection which he granted. In 1673, 13 years after Charles II’s coronation, “a grand jury…responded to anti-Semitic rabble rousing by indicting Jewish communal leaders for worshipping in public. When Jews threatened to leave England rather than endure loss of religious freedom, Charles had an order in council issued to halt the legal proceedings. And to make sure it did not happen again, King Charles gave orders “not to cause any more anxieties to Jews.”  During the first year of his reign King James II put an end to the custom of requiring the Jews to pay “the mandatory tax imposed on those who failed to attend the established church.”  The King declared that he did not want the Jews to be troubled about this ever again and only wanted them be able to “quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion.”  What makes this all the more remarkable is that it took place against a backdrop of religious wars fought between English Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants.  While the Jews became victims of the religious wars on the Continent, in England they were able to survive and thrive.  This may account for the affection which Jews came to hold England and its later iteration as Great Britain.
 
1693: Royal charter granted College of William& Mary, at WilliamsburgVA.  Currently the most famous alumnus of this storied academic institution is Jon Stewart, award winning host of “The Daly Show” and featured speaker at the William and Mary’s commencement ceremonies in 2004.

 
1756: Birthdate of Aaron Burr, Jr. one of America’s less distinguished “founding fathers.”  Burr’s greatest claim to fame is his participation in a duel with Alexander Hamilton, whose mother was Jewish. Burr also played a role in the career of Sampson who was one of the founders “Jews Hospital” which became Mt. Sinai.  Born at Danbury, CN, he studied under Burr who was a New York lawyer before he went to become one of New York City’s first Jewish lawyers. 

 
1756: In response to King George II”s order that today be observed as a period fasting and penitence Isaac Nieto, the Cha-Cham of Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, the Spanish and Portuguese congregation also known as Bevis Marks Synagogue preached a “Sermon Moral” that was “published in Spanish and English in London, 1756.”  The English monarch proclamation was probably issued in connection with the Seven Year’s War.  The positive response of the kingdom’s Jewish community was an indication of how quickly it had become a part of the UK’s social and political environment.

 
1776: Solomon Isaac, a Jew living in Philadelphia, enlisted as private in the Sixth Pennsylvania Battalion, part of the Rebel forces fighting the British.

 
1778: In Paris the United States and France signed treaties of alliance that, among other thing, provided French aid for the fledgling republic.  This helped to guarantee the success of the American Revolution which helped to create the site for the most prominent Jewish community in the diaspora.  The aid would also helped bring financial ruin to France.  This financial ruin was a catalyst for the French Revolution which had a major impact of Jews throughout Europe.

 
1788:  Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. Solomon Franco a Sephardic Jew was reportedly the first Jew to come to Massachusetts.  He settled in Boston in 1649. Judah Monis, a descendant of conversos is the next person of Jewish lineage connected with Bay State to appear on the scene.  He filled the chair of Hebrew in Harvard College from 1722 until his death in 1764. When and why Monis became identified as a Christian is a bit cloudy.  Could he be the first example of a Jew who swam through the baptismal font to secure a position in American academia?  The first significant Jewish settlers made their homes in “Massachusetts when the Revolutionary War drove the Jews from Newport. In 1777 Aaron Lopez and Jacob Rivera, with fifty-nine others, went from Newport to Leicester, and established themselves there; but this settlement did not survive the close of the war. A number of Jews, including the Hays family, settled at Boston before 1800. Of these Moses Michael Hays was the most important. In 1830 a number of Algerian Jews went to Boston, but they soon disappeared. The history of the present community begins with the year 1840, when the first congregation was established.”

 
1799(1st of Adar I, 5559): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
 
1822(15th of Shevat, 5582): Tu B’Shevat

 
1838: Birthdate of Sir Henry Irving, the English actor who gained fame for his portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells,” a version of Erckmann-Chatrian's Le Juif polonais by Leopold Lewis, a property which Irving had found for himself.

 
1838: Birthdate of Yisrael Meir Kagan also known as the Chofetz Chaim. He passed away in September of 1933.

 
1839: Birthdate of Ferdinand Forzinetti, one of the first French officers to come to the conclusion that Captain Dreyfus was innocent.

 
1840:  Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the document making New Zealand a British colony.  By this time, there were at least 30 Jews living in the area.  David Nathan is credited with founding the first Jewish community at Aukland, in the same year that New Zealand became a colony.

 
1841(15th of Shevat, 5601): Tu B’Shevat

 
1845: In Ottenberg, Germany, Lazarus Strauss and his second wife Sara gave birth to Isidor Strauss, the first of their five children who would become co-owner of Macy’s and die when the Titanic sank.

 
1849: In Worms, Germany  wedding of Abraham and Clara Kuhn.

 
1849: In Worms, Wilhelmine "Mindel" Freudenberg and Nathan Blun gave birth to Rosalie Ida Blun who gained fame as Ida Straus, the wife of Isidor Straus, the co-owner of Macy’s.

 
1855: It wasreported today that "two German Jews" were arrested and charged with "stealing two pieces of black silk with a value of $131.00 from the Importing House of Henry E. Leyrain in New York City. According to the charge, one of the men would appear to be pricing an item while the other would be hiding an item in his coat.  After appearing before a judge at the Tombs, the two were bound over for trial. [How the Times discovered their religion is one question. Why the two are identified by their religion is another question since such practice was not common with those belong to other religious groups.]

 
1870: In Brixton, a suburb of London, James Yalden and his wife gave birth to James Ernest Grant Yalden who became head “of a special new school to prepare Jewish immigrants for jobs” in American which was the brainchild, and supported by, the trustee of the Baron de Hirsch fund in America.”

 
1872:Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the U.S. Counsel at Bucharest wrote to the Secretary of State that reports describing the attacks the Jews had suffered in several towns in Bessarabia and Romania as a result of which hundreds of Jews had fled across the Danube to seek refuge in Turkey.

 
1872: Birthdate of German-born author Theodor Lessing.  After the Nazis came to power, Lessing fled to Czechoslovakiawhere he was murdered in broad day light by Nazi supporters.

 
1873: The Hebrew Charity Ball took place this evening at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, PA.

 
1875(1stof Adar I, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Adar I

 
1876: It was reported today that Rabbi Brown addressed the Indianapolis (Indiana) Young Men’s Christian Association on the subject of the “Harmony of all creeds on the Principle of Love.”

 
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Association will host a ball at Delmonico’s on March 7.  The association expects a larger crowd than in the past due to its recent decision to increase its membership.

 
1876: According to reports published today, the Jews of New York are planning on issuing a call for a national meeting to discuss plans for creating a college designed to teach the Hebrew language and literature and to establish a system of Jewish education.

 
1879: It was reported on Zebulon Baird Vance’s last day as Governor of North Carolina that he has pardoned the only Jewish person imprisoned in the state’s penitentiary.  This unnamed Jew had been sentenced to serve 10 years for manslaughter.  Of the pardon, Vance wrote that he took pleasure in issuing the pardon as recognitions of the good and law abiding character of the state’s Jewish citizens.  According to Vance, this episode was “the first serious case ever brought to my notice on the part of any of that people.”

 
1880: It was reported today that Isaac Adolphe  Cremieux, the Jewish-French, political leader  is seriously ill.  He currently is serving as a “life Senator.”

 
1881: In Edinburg, Scotland, Professor Robertson Smith delivered a lecture on the “Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.”  He believes that the “Canticles’ (another name for the Song of Songs” is simply a love poem and that the Book of Job was written after the Exile and should not be viewed as historical literature.

 
1883(29thof Shevat, 5643): Raphael Jonathan Bischoffsheim passed away. Born at Mayence in 1808, he gained fame as a Belgian financier and philanthropist (As reported by Singer, Bloch & Weill)

 
1887: Birthdate of Ernest Henry Gruening, the Senator from Alaska who joined in Wayne Morse in being the only two to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

 
1888 (24th of Shevat, 5648):Rebbetzin Menuchah Rachel Slonim, daughter of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch and granddaughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, passed away. She was born on Kislev 19, 5559 (1798 on the secular calendar) -- the very day on which her illustrious grandfather was freed from his imprisonment in the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petersburg; she was thus named "Menuchah", meaning "tranquility" (Rachel was the name of a daughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman who died in her youth). The Rebbetzin's lifelong desire to live in the Holy Land was realized in 1845, when she and her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Culi Slonim, who passed away in 1857,led a contingent of Chassidim who settled in Hebron. Famed for her wisdom, piety and erudition, she served as the matriarch of the Chassidic community in Hebron until her passing in her 90th year in 1888.

 
1890: The Hofburgtheater produces Herzl's comedy "Die Dame in Schwarz" - "The Lady in Black". The play is condemned as hokum by the critics.

 
1891: Herzl's best friend, Heinrich Kana, commits suicide in Berlin. After Herzl receives the message, he sets out for a three week journey to Italy and South France.

 
1893: Following today’s scheduled performance of “Lady Windermere’s Fan” produced by Charles Frohman at Palmer’s Theatre, the cast of the production will sent on the road “under Frohman’s personal management.
 
1893: It was reported today that of 1,100 inmates at the workhouse on Blackwell’s Island, 5 of them are Jews.  Of the 800 prisoners in the Kings County Penitentiary, 7 are Jews. In the whole state of New York, which has the largest Jewish population of any state in the United States, fewer than 350 of those in prison are Jews.

 
1893; It was reported today that the Jewish Ministers’ Association in New York, “has published a sketch of the work its prison chaplain, Rabbi Adolph Radin.”

 
1893: Samuel J. Cohn, who had been a successful lace merchant, was still being held today on charges that he had collected over $500 by posing as an agent of the United Hebrew Charities.

 
1893: It was reported today that the Central Labor Federation has “received a letter from the International Typographical Union asking why the Federation had protested against the issuance of a charter to the Hebrew Typographical Union.”

 
1893: “Central Labor Union” published today described allegations by that body that the United Hebrew Charities has used money from the Baron Hirsch Fund “to import thousands of poor and persecuted Hebrews, who in turn underbid American workmen in the labor.”  (For those not acquainted with the immigration and labor battles of the 19th and 20thcenturies, this is the double whammy – “The Jews” are using their money to take jobs from American workers and give them to foreigners.)

 
1894: Among those charities that benefited from today’s distribution of the theatrical and concert license moneys were: Montefiore Home, $500; Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, $350; Beth Israel Hospital,

 
1897(4thof Adar, 5657): Fifty-eight year old Morris Goodhart, a prominent New York lawyer, passed away today.  Born in Amsterdam in 1838, he came to the United States in 1846 and graduated from Yale Law School in 1867.  In 1869, he married the daughter of Philip J. Joachimsen, a prominent jurists and leader of the New York Jewish community.

 
1897: A significant number of Jewish men and women attended a meeting at the New York Presbyterian-Hebrew Church Mission on Forsyth Street where they expected to proposals about how to deal with the poor living on the East Side.  Many of the Jewish attendees were unemployed tailors who were suffering do to the economic downturn.


1899: The Hebrew Fair which will feature a speech by author Israel Zangwill is scheduled tonight at the Tuxedo in New York City.


 

1899: The U.S. Senate ratified the peace treaty ending the Spanish-American War.  There were fifteen Jewish crewmen aboard the battleship Mainewhen she blew up in 1898 in Havanaharbor.  This was the “cause” of the war.   Approximately 5,000 Jews served in the war.  In 1898 there were reportedly four thousand requests for furloughs at the time of the High Holidays.  The first trooper in the famed Rough Riders was Jewish.

 
1901: Herzl travels to London and tries to win Rothschild for his plan. Despite the efforts of British Zionists, Rothschild refuses to receive him.

 
1902:  Birthdate of famed attorney and author Louis Nizer

 
1902: Young Women's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City. According to the Jewish Women’s Archive, “Bella Epstein Unterberg held a meeting in her New York City home to discuss the founding of the first Young Women's Hebrew Association. At the meeting, at which she was unanimously elected president of the new association, a decision was made to establish a sister organization to the YMHA, a community center dedicated to the uplift—both social and spiritual—of young Jewish women.”

 
1909: Birthdate of Russian-born American composer Israel Citkowitz.  Citkowitz had an impact on the careers of Aaron Copeland and Elmer Bernstein.

 
1914 (10th of Shevat, 5674):Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneerson passed away. She was born in Lubavitch in 1833; her maternal grandfather was Rabbi DovBer, the 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. In 1849 she married her first cousin, Rabbi Shmuel, who later became the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe. For many years Rebbetzin Rivkah, who survived her husband by 33 years, was the esteemed matriarch of Lubavitch, and Chassidim frequented her home to listen to her accounts of the early years of Lubavitch. She is the source of many of the stories recorded in the talks, letters and memoirs of her grandson, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe). The Beth Rivkah network of girls' schools, founded by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak in the 1940's, is named after her.

 
1917:The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) was founded today “by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and affecting the Jewish communities of the Diaspora.”

 
1917: Edouard A. Drumont, French anti-Semitic journalist, dies at 72.  His book La France Juive (Jewish France) attacked the role of Jews in France and argued for their exclusion from society. His newspaper “La Libre Parole,” played a leading role in whipping up anti-Semitic passions during the Dreyfus Affair.
 
1918: Austrian painter Gustav Klimt passed away. Klimt was not Jewish but many of his patrons were.Born in 1862, by 1898, Klimt had “managed to become the portraitist of the Jewish haute bourgeoisie in Vienna who, since the Jews had reached legal equality in 1867, had become a thriving force in commerce, finance, industry and art. Klimt's patrons were financiers, industrials and other members of the liberal (in the European sense) haute bourgeoisie. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (see Klimt's portrait of his wife below) was dominating the Austrian-Czech sugar industry. Karl Wittgenstein, another of his patrons, was often referred to as the "Austrian Krupp" and the creator of the steel cartel. August Lederer was the leading figure in the alcohol business in Central Europe. In the 1920s, he was considered ‘the richest man in Austria after Rothschild’".  Several of the works Klimt painted for his Jewish patrons were seized by the Nazis.  The recovery of these art works became a part of lengthy, difficult litigation in the post-War years.

 
1920:  Birthdate of Congressman James Scheuer who represented New Yorkin the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1993.

 
1921: "The Kid", starring Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan was released. (Coogan was not Jewish.)

 
1922: Birthdate of Academy Award winner, Chicagonative, Haskell Wexler, one of the ten most influential cinematographers of the 20th century.

 
1923: Birthdate of Judge Harold H. Greene.

 
1927: The Atlanta Journal reproduced the receipt of Major Rafael Jacob Moses (CSA) from 1865 for $40,000 of bullion which he was supposed to get to the remnants of the Confederate Army to pay for food and munitions.

 
1933: Time magazine published “Hitler Into Chancellor” an article that provides a contemporaneous account of the German leaders rise to power and plans for the immediate future.

 
1934: In France, Jewish political leader Leon Blum, chairman of the Socialist Party, promised to stand with Premier-designate Daladier as right wing paramilitary gangs battered at the doors of the Chamber of Deputies. This attempt to impose a fascist regime on France came before Vichy but explains why so many Jews were so quickly shipped to Drancy, the doorway to Auschwitz.   

 
1935: Birthdate of New Jersey political leaders Loretta Weinberg has served as a member of the New Jersey Senate from the 37th Legislative District and was an unsuccessful candidate for Lt. Governor in 2009
 
1936:  In Washington, DC, Nehemiah Cohen and Samuel Lehrman opened the first Giant supermarket on Georgia Avenue and Park Road, NW.  Giant would grow to become a major supermarket chain in the Washington metropolitan area. In the 1950’s, Giant would be the first grocery chain in Washington sell challah in its in-store bakery.

 
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Ezekiel Altman, 22, a Jewish supernumerary constable, was found guilty of firing at an Arab truck on December 27, 1937, and was sentenced to death by the
Military Court
in Jerusalem. The prisoner heard the sentence with equanimity.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that in Tel Aviv, High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope inaugurated the first automatic telephone exchange. Romaniastarted the expropriation of Jewish private land properties in Bukovina.

 
1943: Upon arriving in “liberated” Algiers, Churchill discovered that the Vichy laws restricting the rights of the Jews of Algeria were still in force and insisted that they be repealed at once.


1943: Himmler received a report on the quantity of garments collected from Birkenau. The list included: 97,000 sets of men's clothing, 76,000 sets of women's clothing, 132,000 men's shirts, 155,000 women's coats and 3,000 kilograms of women's hair. The hair filled an entire railroad car. Children's items included 15,000 overcoats, 11,000 boys' jackets, 9,000 dresses and 22,000 pairs of shoes. The clothing filled 825 freight cars. Included in this inventory was also close to a half of million in American currency and $116,420 dollars in gold.


1943: Fifteen trains of deportees reached Birkenau from Holland, Drancy (Paris) and from Berlin. Five thousand on board were gassed.


1943: Rutka Laskier, a fourteen year old living in Bedzin, Poland writes in her diary: “Something has broken in Me. When I pass by a German, everything shrinks in me. I don't know whether it is out of fear or hatred. I would like to torture them, their women and children, who set their doggies on us, to beat and strangle them vigorously, more and more. When will this day arrive which Nica talked about ... that's one matter. And now another matter. I think my womanhood has awoken in me. That means, yesterday when I was taking a bath and the water stroked my body, I longed for someone's hands to stroke me ... I didn't know what it was, I have never had such sensations until now ...I met Micka today. I don't know with what these "dubious" lovers attract her, to the point that she refuses to get into a quarrel with them. They are so dazzled by her and think that every boy should be in love with her. Of course, I ascribe this to Janek, but Janek finds her disgusting (I don't know why). I think Janek likes me very much. But it doesn't matter to me, either way. Today, I recalled in detail the day of Aug. 12, 1942. I'll try to describe that day so that in a few years, of course if I'm not deported, I'll be able to remember it. We got up at in the morning. We had a great breakfast (considering it was wartime): eggs, salad, real butter, coffee with milk. When we were ... ready, it was already half past 5, and then we left. There were thousands of people on the road. Every once in a while we had to stop, in order to let the crowd in front of us proceed. At half past 6, we were in place. We managed to get quite good seats on a bench. We were in a pretty good mood until . Then I looked beyond the fence and I saw soldiers with machine guns aimed at the square in case someone tried to escape (how could you possibly escape from here?). People fainted, children cried. In short--Judgment Day. People were thirsty, and there was not a single drop of water around ... Then ... it started pouring. The rain didn't stop. At Kuczynsky arrived and the selection started. "1" meant returning home, "1a" meant going to labor, which was even worse than deportation, "2" meant going for further inspection, and "3" meant deportation, in other words, death. Then I saw what disaster meant. We reported for selection at . Mom, Dad and my little brother were sent to group 1, and I was sent to 1a. I walked as if I were stunned ... The weirdest thing was that we didn't cry at all, AT ALL ... Later on, I saw many more disasters. I can't put it in words. Little children were lying on the wet grass, the storm raging above our heads. The policemen beat them ferociously and also shot them. I sat there until 1 o'clock at night. Then I ran away. My heart pounded. I jumped out of a window from the first floor of a small building, and nothing happened to me. Only my lips were bitten so bad that they bled ... When I was already on the street, I ran into someone "in uniform," and I felt that I couldn't take it anymore. My head was spinning. I was pretty sure he was going to beat me ... but apparently he was drunk and didn't see the "yellow star," and he let me go.


Around me it was dark like in a closed cabin. From time to time flashes of lightning lightened the sky ... and it thundered. The journey that normally takes me half an hour I did in 10 minutes. Everybody was at home except Grandma, whom Dad released and brought home the next day ...



Oh, I forgot the most important thing. I saw how a soldier tore a baby, who was only a few months old, out of its mother's hands and bashed his head against an electric pylon. The baby's brain splashed on the wood. The mother went crazy. I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army experienced in cruelty. But I'm young, I'm 14, and I haven't seen much in my life, and I'm already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see "uniforms." I'm turning into an animal waiting to die ...Now to everyday matters: Janek came by this afternoon. We had to sit in the kitchen ... I told him that I had given away all my photographs. He got very upset. We were joking around; we spoke about "Nica and the gang." While we were talking he suddenly blurted out he'd like it very much if he could kiss me. I said "maybe" and continued the conversation. He was a bit confused; he thought I was Tusia or Hala Zelinger. I would have allowed [myself] to be kissed only by the person I loved, and I feel indifferent towards him. Then Dad sent me to deal with something. I had to leave. Janek accompanied me. While going downstairs I asked him, is kissing such a pleasant thing? And then I told him that I had already kissed before, what a taste it has (that's completely true). He burst out laughing. (He has a nice laugh, I must admit.) He said he was curious too. Maybe, but I won't let him kiss me. I'm afraid it would destroy something beautiful, pure ... I'm also afraid that I'll be very disappointed.” For more about a young Jewess who has been compared to Anne Frank, another diary writer see:

http://judicial-inc.biz/6_5_rutka_laskier.htm



1944: Birthdate of actor Michael Tucker. Born in Baltimore, Marylandhe is best known for his role as the nebbish tax attorney, Stuart Markowitz on the television series, “LA Law.”


1944(12th of Shevat, 5704 ): Poet and editor Philip Max Raskin, author of New Songs of a Jew and editor of TheAnthology of Modern Jewish Poetry, passed away.

 
 

1946: Two Jews who were plowing a field near Ramle were wounded by an unknown number of attacking Arabs.


1946:After one of their men had been killed tonight during an attack on the headquarters of an East African soldiers' camp just south of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, British soldiers stormed into the near-by Jewish community of Holon and began firing at “anything that moved.” Apparently the soldiers were not content to fire their weapons since of the fatalities was a 15 year old boy who had been stabbed to death.


1946 (5th of Adar I, 5706): Fifty-year old Ben Zion Shenkar, the director of a knitting mill and the vice chairman of the Community Council in Cholon was murdered by ramapaging British troops who shot up the town after an attack on their headquarters. There are no records of anybody being held accountable for his death.


1947: Birthdate of Daniel Yergin, the Los Angeles born author, economist and co-founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel told Britain and the US that Jordan was entirely responsible for the current border unrest. The Mixed Israeli-Jordanian Armistice Commission censured Jordan for mining Israeli railway line near Kalkilya.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had contributed to "Watershood 1953," the Dutch Welfare Fund for the victims of the recent terrifying floods which claimed over 1,300 dead in Holland.

1955: Birthdate of Avraham “Avram” Grant the Petah Tikva native who became a successful “football” manager. (In the U.S. this football is called soccer)

1956(24th of Shevat): Composer Joseph Rumshinsky passed away.


1967(26thof Shevat, 5727): Seventy-five year old Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who served as 52ndU.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1934 to 1945 passed away today.





1972(21stof Shevat, 5732): Seventy one year old Gavriel Mullokandov regarded by some “as the greatest Bukharin Jewish singer and musician” passed away


1972: A ground breaking ceremony was held today in Reno for Temple Emanu-El's new building. The dedication ceremony would take place in March of 1973.


1980: In a letter-to-the editor published today, Zachary Saletan, President of Moriches Duck Farm, takes issue with derogatory comments made by Patricia Wells in an article published on December 19 entitled “So You Want to Buy a Duck” about ducks sold by Empire Poultry.  Saletan contends that it was unfair to compare kosher ducks (Empire) with non-kosher fowl since the kosher birds have to slaughtered and dressed in conformity with the laws of Kashrut.  This requires a process which would account for the different appearance, texture, etc of the final product.  Saletan is doubly upset because Moriches supplies Empire with its ducks.


1983:The New York Times publishes“Hebrew Poetry In Its Israeli Phase,” Edward Hirsch’s review of The Static Element:Selected Poems of Natan Zach; translated by Peter Everwine and Shulamit Yasny-Starkman


1985(15thof Shevat, 5745): Tu B’Shevat


1985(15thof Shevat, 5745): Eighty-four yeard Shelomo Dov Goitein, Jewish Arabist, historian and author of the 5-volume work A Mediterranean Society, passed away..


1988(18thof Shevat, 5748): Seventy-two year old Marghanita Laski, the author and critic who was part of distinguished family of Anglo-Jewish intellectuals passed away.


1989(1st of Adar I, 5749): Seventy-seven year old Pulitzer Prize winning historian Barbara Tuchman passed away (As reported by Eric Pace)


1990: The Egyptian authorities said today that the men they suspected of killing nine Israelis in a rifle and grenade attack on a tour bus near here on Sunday were Palestinians. That has come as no comfort to a dwindling minority of 40,000 Palestinians whose roots here, once firm, have weakened with time.


1990(11th of Shevat, 5750): Eighty-one year old attorney and Treasury Department official Bernard Bernstein passed away today.



1991: Today an Arab traveling on a bus got up and attacked a soldier with a knife.


1994(25th of Shevat, 5754): Seventy six year old Jacob Kurtzberg, the son of Austrian immigrants who gained famed as Jack Kirbypassed away. He was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."


1997(29thof Shevat, 5757):Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Ezer Weizman attended funerals and visited grieving families while thousands of Israelis went to pray at the Western Wall and assemblies were held at schools nationwide as Israel observed a national day of mourning for the 73 Israeli soldiers who died on February 4 when two Sikorsky helicopters collided.


2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Trouble With Principleby Stanley Fish and a newly published paperback edition of Kaddish by Leon Wieseltier


2001: Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide over Ehud Barak.


2002(24th of Shevat, 5762): Max Perutz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, passed away.


2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Unholy Alliance Radical Islam and the American Left” by David Horowitz
2005:  The New York Times reported that two sisters who were separated in Budapest in 1944 were re-united.  Unbeknownst to each other, they had made their separate ways to Israel in 1948 and had been living 45 miles from each other.


2005: Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, received the Vince Lombardi Trophy, as his team won their third super bowl in four years. 


2005 (27th of Shevat, 5765): Russian born pianist Lazar Berman passed away at age 75 in Florence, Italy.


2005 (27th of Shevat, 5765):  Karl Haas, award winning host of the radio show “Adventures in Good Music” passed away.


2006: Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, the head of the Jewish community in New Delhi who “is the Honorary Secretary of the Judah Hyam Syagogue,  “was a key participant in the 15thInternational Conference on Human Integration which took place at Kirpal Bagh.” He was “a recipient of the Mahavir mahatma Award for preserving Jewish heritage and culture in India.”


2006: In one of the largest restitutions ever of art seized by the Nazis, the Dutch government announced that it would return more than 200 old-master paintings to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a wealthy Dutch Jewish dealer and collector who fled Amsterdam ahead of advancing German troops in May 1940.


2006: British Jewry was stunned and outraged over a surprise decision by the Anglican Church's General Synod to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel in the territories. The synod backed a call by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem to divest from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation," such as Caterpillar, which makes bulldozers that Israel is using to build the separation fence. Several Protestant churches in the United States have adopted similar resolutions over the past two years. John Benjamin, who heads an umbrella organization for British Jews, told Haaretz that a check with the church's investment arm revealed that the resolution will have no practical implications. Nevertheless, he said, "we are worried by the way the General Synod adopted the resolution, without conducting a serious debate and without discussing alternatives to the boycott weapon."


2007: Nine Star Hotel, winner of the 2006 Wologin Award for Israeli Cinema at the Jerusalem Film Festival will begin being screened in movie theatres in several Israeli cities. Nine Star Hotel is a 78 minute documentary about a group of young Palestinians working illegally in Israel and building the city of Modi'in. They hide in the hilltops surrounding the city, and live in the shadow of police chases, arrests, and stakeouts.


2007: In Cedar Rapids, Harold Becker, Chairman of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company and pillar of the Jewish Community, was surprised with a reception celebrating his 85th birthday and marking his 35 year tenure as Chairman.  Mr. Becker is driving force behind the Jewish Welfare Board, the community umbrella organization for the Jews of Cedar Rapids and surrounding communities.


2007: A Holocaust denier who gave his name as “Eric Hunt” wrote on an anti-Semitic website explaining why he had attempted to kidnap Eli Wiesel from an elevator in San Franciscoon February 1.  Police would later issue an arrest warrant for what is described as a “New Jersey” man for on charges including kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime.


2008: Rosh Chodesh Adar I 5768


2008: The headsof one of the largest Palestinian clans in Hebronmet with the Kiryat Arba local council chief and prominent leaders of the Jewish community in Hebronin what both sides described as a meeting of reconciliation. Sheikh


2009: An exhibition entitled Woman with a Camera: Liselotte Grschebina: Germany, 1908 – Israel, 1994 appearing at the Ticho House Gallery of the IsraelMuseum comes to an end.German-born Liselotte Grschebina was an avant-garde photographer in Karlsruhewhose work was exemplary of the energizing spirit of cultural innovation during the time of the WeimarRepublic. In 1934 Grschebina immigrated to Palestineand opened a studio in Tel Aviv, where she established a reputation for this new genre of photography. Grschebina’s talent developed without major recognition until after her death, when a body of work was discovered in a hidden storage niche in her son's apartment. In 2000, he gave the entire archive – including some 1,400 photographs – to the IsraelMuseum. The exhibition showcases Grschebina’s distinctive oeuvre and illuminates the phenomenon of émigré avant-garde artists who arrived in Palestine following the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany


2009: A day after a Hamas delegation left Egypt without an agreement on a long-term Gaza truce, terrorists in the Strip fired two rockets at southern Israel. One of the rockets landed near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, while the other hit an open area south of Ashkelon.


2009: Eddie Schawartz, “the king of overnight radio in Chicago from the late 1970’s to the mid-1990’s …was laid to rest after graveside services at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Forest Park.


2010: Sidney Ferris Rosenberg returned to WFAN to host a special Super Bowl preview show from Miami.


2010: In an article published in today’s LA Times, Megan Strack describes the ordeal of Alexei Vaitsen, one of the few Jews who escaped from Sobibor, and has lived to be able to bear witness against concentration camp guard, John Demjanjuk.


2010: At Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, IA, Super Bowl Shabbat combines Tefillah & Tailgating with the Reading of the Ten Commandments.


2010: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan are scheduled to perform tonight at the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.


2010: “A Matter of Size” is scheduled to shown this evening as part of the 14th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.


2010:Tony Copti, a supporting actor in the Oscar-nominated Israeli film Ajami and brother of Ajami co-director Scandar Copti, was arrested this evening along with another brother for allegedly assaulting police officers during a brawl in Jaffa, and released several hours later.


2010:In a rare occurrence, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon shook the hand of Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal during the annual security conference in Munich today. The handshake was preceded by the prince's attempts at avoiding participation in a panel alongside Ayalon, a consequent uproar and a sharp American condemnation of the Saudi behavior.

 

2011:"Hitler and the Germans — Nation and Crime," an exhibition at the German Historical Museum that juxtaposes the Nazis' propaganda images and artifacts such as 1930s Hitler busts with footage and documentation on the regime's brutality and Germans' involvement in it is scheduled to come a close today.


2011: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a program entitled “Tableau Vivant: The Berberisca Ceremony (A Living Picture)” 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.”


2011: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L’Oréal, and the Blemished History of Looking Good by Ruth Brandon and The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah, a novel “inspired by the largely unknown story of 1,500 Jews who fled Europe only to be imprisoned in Mauritius from 1940 to 1945 after their ship was refused entry into Palestine (then under British rule)” that “recounts the heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a Czech orphan, and Raj, an Indian-Mauritian grieving for the two brothers he lost in a flash flood.”


2011:As the Pittsburgh Steelers prepare to take on the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, there will be at least one Jew rooting for the Steelers - Randy Grossman the tight end who earned four Super Bowl rings while playing for teams from “the Steel City.” On the other hand, according to Andrew Muchin, the Green Bay Packers might not have existed if it had not been for the unheralded efforts of Nate Abrams, a five foot, four inch “Jewish cattle dealer” who helped finance the Packers and who played  for them in their first season.


2011:A colorful procession of dancers and musicians walked down the aisles and took the stage tonight at Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium, the venerable music venue where the sounds of Bach and Mozart are more often heard than the blares of huge Korzai trumpets and bangs of Doyra drums. In the stands some 2,800 Bukharan Jews and dignitaries – a handful of whom were dressed in the colorful traditional garb of the Central Asian community – clapped and cheered on the occasion of the Bukhara Jewish Congress’s 11th annual gathering.


2012: Israeli violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi, pianist Seymour Lipkin and the Jupiter musicians will perform Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493; the Beethoven String Quintet in C minor, Op. 104; and Clarinet Quartet No. 2 inC minor by Bernhard Crusell, Finland’s first great master of chamber music at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
 
2012: Actor Mandy Patinkin who has star of stage, film and television, is scheduled to appear “in conversation with Than Rosenbaum” at the 92nd Street Y.


2012:Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini today announced that the general strike in support of contract workers will begin in two days.

2013(28th of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-two year old bridge champion Ira Rubin passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2013: Sylvie Simmon and Liel Leibovitz are scheduled to discuss the life of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place.
 
2013: “The Other Son” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th Annual Broward County Jewish Film Festival.


2013(28th of Shevat, 5773): Eighty-nine year old Menachem Elon, the former Supreme Court passed away today and was buried in Jerusalem.


2013:Officials in charge of Bosnia’s national monuments said today they rejected an offer by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to exhibit one of Bosnia’s most prized relics, a 600-year-old Jewish manuscript that remains locked in a museum which closed because of a lack of money. (As reported by Times of Israel)


2013:New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today spoke up for academic freedom amid controversy over an event at a public college, despite stressing his distaste for the cause at hand. (As reported by Times of Israel)


2013:U.S President Barack Obama wants to host a summit between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit here this spring, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said today. (As reported by Times of Israel)


2014: Anniversary of the birth Isaac Zaretski, “a Yiddish linguist, lexicographer and educator…who was one of the major figures of the movement to reform and standardize the Yiddish language in the Soviet Union.” (As reported by Yiddishkayt)


2014: The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture’s 24th annual Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.


2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a panel discussion “Jews, Cities, Culture: Hamburg, New York, Kiev.’


2014: Michael Steinlauf of Gratz College is scheduled to deliver a lecture in Yiddish on “Y.L Peretz in a Time of Revolution.
 
2014: The Third Annual Reelabilities: Greater DC Disabilities Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.


2014: The Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel is scheduled to make its first New York appearance at the Lehman Center for the Performing of Arts in Bronx

This Day, February 7, In Jewish History by MItchell A. Levin

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February 7


 
457: Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. As can be seen from this decree, Leo was no friend of the Jewish people. "Therefore We, desiring to accomplish what Our Father failed to effect, do hereby annul all the old laws enacted with reference to the Hebrews, and We order that they shall not dare to live in any other manner than in accordance with the rules established by the pure and salutary Christian Faith. And if anyone of them should be proved to, have neglected to observe the ceremonies of the Christian religion, and to have returned to his former practices, he shall pay the penalty prescribed by the law for apostates."Jews who converted in public but were found practicing “the faith of their fathers” faced a variety of punishments including loss of estates and possession, loss of the right to transfer property to their heirs and/or loss of life.

 
1413: In Aragon (Spain), Vincente Ferrer returned and assisted by an apostate Joshua Lorki (Geronimo de Santa Fe), known to the Jews as Hamegadef (the blasphemer) convinced Anti-Pope Benedict XIII to stage a disputation at Tortosa. It was presided over by the Pope himself and lasted for a period of twenty-one months in sixty-nine sessions. The Jews, led by Vidal Benvenisti and Joseph Albo, were faced with an opening salvo by Benedict when he made the expected outcome clear. Hamegadef attacked the Talmud as anti-Christian and urged its banning. None of the Jews' counter-arguments were officially recorded.

 
1497: The bonfire of the vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy. For once, the books of the Jews may have been spared since Savonarola, had expelled the Jews from Florence earlier in the decade.

 
1550: Julius III becomes Pope.  Julius had mixed record where it concerned the Jewish people which made better than most of his contemporaries or others who served as Pope. Julius confirmed the rights of the Jews in Ancona.  “He condemned the blood libel and forbade baptism of Jewish children without parental consent.”  At the same time, he was unable to stand up against the power of the Holy Office.  Under pressure from the Inquisitor General he collected copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books and burned them.

 
1569: The Inquisition is established in South America. About a half a century after the Spanish landed in South America, the Inquisition reared its ugly head.  Unlike the English colonies founded in North America in the next century and half, there was no place for religious toleration in New Spain.  Rather the hunt for all manner of backsliders including Marranos, Conversos or Secret Jews became part of Spanish culture in the New World.  When we study the history of Jews in the New World, hopefully we will have time to take a side trip to the little known secret Jewish communities in what later became Arizona and New Mexico.


1624:  The JamestownCity (Virginia) Census demonstrated that 38 year old Elias Legardo, a Jew, came to America in 1621 on the ship Abigall. Legardo was one of the earliest Jews in the Colonies.

 
1791: Having passed the “De Judaeis law” which regulated the treatment of the Jews of Hungary, the Diet today appointed “a commission to study”  ways to ameliorate the conditions under which the Jews of Hungary lived.

 
1812: Birthdate of Charles Dickens.  The author of A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield was not Jewish.  But he did portray Jewish characters in at least two of his works.  The most famous was Fagan in Oliver Twist.  Eliza Davis, a Jewish acquaintance of Dickens, whose husband had purchased Dickens’ London residence, wrote a famous letter complaining about the Jewish characterization of Fagan.  Dickens saw himself as a friend of the Jews.  In his response he wrote, “Fagin is a Jew because it unfortunately was true of the time to which the story refers that that class of criminal invariably was a Jew.  But surely, no sensible man or woman…can fail to observe that all of the rest of the wicked dramatis personae are Christians and the Fagan is called a Jew, not because of his religion, but because of his race.  I have no feeling toward the Jewish people but a friendly one.  I always speak well of them whether in public or private and bear testimony to their perfect good faith in transactions as I have had with them.”  In Our Mutual Friend, Dickens created “Mr. Riah” a “totally sympathetic Jewish character notable for his gentle nature and great dignity.”  In a case of what some might consider role reversal, Mr. Riah falls victim to a gang of Christian moneylenders.  Mrs. Davis recognized Dickens’ sincerity when she gave him a Hebrew-English Bible as sign that he had “exercised the noblest quality men can possess – that of atoning for an injury as soon as conscious of having inflicted it.”

 
1817: Joel Hart was appointed by President James Madison United States consul at Leith, Scotland, and remained there in that capacity until 1832, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of medicine. He was well known in Masonic circles in New York City. A native of Philadelphia, Hart received the degree of M.D. from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, London and he was one of the charter members of the Medical Society of the County of New York.
 
1845: Birthdate of Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, the native of Kobrin, Russia who served as the Rabbi for several European communities including Vilna before moving to the United States  where he was lected “elder rabbi” by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America and chief rabbi of a Russian-American synagogue in Chicago Illinois.  He passed away in Safed in 1913.

 
1849(15thof Shevat, 5609): Tu B’Shevat

 
1849(15th of Shevat): Rabbi Nehemiah of Dubrovno, author of Divrei Nehemiah passed away

 
1851: Birthdate of Joseph Simon, a German immigrant who serve as U.S. Senator from Oregon and Mayor of Portland, Oregon.

 
1853: The executors of the will of Jonas Fränckel asked Zacharias Frankel to be president of the soon to be opened Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. Funds for this new Jewish institution of higher learning had been part of the late Fränckel’s will
 
1853: "Jewish Plantation of Ireland," an article published today claimed that in 1703, James Harrington, the author of Oceana, had proposed that English Jews should be brought to Ireland where they could farm the land which produce revenues of "about four millions a year."  He claimed that Jews had "always showed their aptitude in all pursuits of agriculture."  How credible is this?  Harrington died in 1677 so it is unlikely that he was making any proposals about Jewish farmers in Ireland in 1703.

 
1862: During a debate in the House of Representatives, Congressman Hale of New Hampshire showed the impact of the Hebrew Bible on American culture when he responded to critics by stating that he would to Lincoln's Administration "as the old Hebrew Prophet said to the King of Babylon: 'Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another, but I will read to the King the writing declared to me and the interpretation of it.'"

 
1870: Birthdate of Austrian physician and psychologist Alfred Adler

 
1876: In Kings Count, the defense is scheduled to continuing presenting its defense in the sensational murder trial in which the state has accused P.N. Rubenstein of murdering his cousin Sara Alexander.

1878: Birthdate of Ossip Gabrilovich the Russian born American composer, pianist and composer who married the daughter of Samuel Clemens and who was the father to the last known lineal descendant of the man most people know as Mark Twain.

 
1876: A decree issued today regulated the behavior of the Jews of Ghent.

 
1878(4th of Adar I 5638): In Vienna twenty-eight year old Pauline Herzl, the older sister of Theodore Herzl, passed away after contracting Typhus.  After the creation of the state of Israel her remains would be laid to rest on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.  Herzl named his daughter after his sister.

 
1883(30th of Shevat, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Adar I

 
1890: Birthdate of Victor Alter, the Russian born mechanical engineer who as a leader of the Bund and the Second International.

 
1891: Myer S. Isaac said tonight that since the New York Trustees had begun receiving contributions from Baron Hirsch, they had been able to found jobs for 3,000 people most of whom were heads-of-households.

 
1891: Joseph Klein, the president of a Hebrew Cemetery Association in New Jersey was convicted of fraud today.

 
1893: It was reported today that President-elect Grover Cleveland is considering appointing Isidor Straus to the position of Post Master General in his cabinet which will be sworn in in March.  The forty-five year old Straus is the brother of Oscar Straus who served as Minister to Constantinople in Cleveland’s first administration and the brother of Nathan Straus the Park Commissioner.

 
1894: “Theatrical License Money Divided” published today provided a list of the charities receiving funds including: the Montefiore Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which got $1,000 in 1893 but only $500 in 1894; Beth Israel Hospital which got $100 in 1893 and the same amount in 1894 and the United Hebrew Charities of New York which got $1,500 in 1893 but only $1,000 in 1894. (The reductions were probably a reflection of the depression that had begun in 1893 and gained momentum in 1894)

 
1895: Based on information from its 6th annual report, it was reported today that the Aguilar Free Library “now has 25,848 volumes”  and that in 1894, it circulated 253,349 volumes.

 
1896: Henry Steinhal, “one of the actors” performing in “The Russian Jew” at Adler’s Theatre “was accidently shot in the leg” when “a piece of wadding” from a blank cartridge went off and “embedded itself in” his limb.

 
1898:  Emile Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse. “J'accuse accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse on February 7, 1898 and was convicted on February 23. Zola declared that the conviction and transportation to Devil's Island of the Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus came after a false accusation of espionage and was a miscarriage of justice. The case, known as the Dreyfus affair, had divided France deeply between the reactionary army and church and the more liberal commercial society. The ramifications continued for years, so much so that on the 100th anniversary of Émile Zola's article, France's Roman Catholic daily paper, "La Croix", apologized for its anti-Semitic editorials during the Dreyfus affair.”

 
1896: Jews were among the melting pot of immigrants who attended James Pryse lecture on “The Masters” at Centennial Hall on New York’s lower East Side.

 
1897: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt will participate in the upcoming ceremonies dedicating the new building housing the Hebrew Technical Institute.

 
1897: It was reported today Reverend Faust, a Presbyterian missionary attempting to convert Jews in New York “said that the distress among the poor east side  Jews was very great…and that he hoped that the wealthy Jews” would join with those who were working and wealthy Christians would contribute to alleviate their suffering. 

 
1897: It was reported today that during a meeting at church on the lower east side about how to relieve the suffering of the poor Reverend John B. Devins of Hope Chapel “thought it best for the poor Jews to apply for relief to the United Hebrew Charities.”

 
1898: A fire broke out tonight at the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society’s building which is home to 835 youngsters.

 
1899: Isaac L. Rice took over the leadership of Electric Storage, a company that was trying to build the first modern submarines that ran on electric power while submerged for the U.S. Navy and changed its name to the Electric Boat Company.  The company operated by the Jewish professor was so successful that it during World War I it would build 85 submarines and 722 sub-chasers. (The company lives on today as General Dynamics.)
 
1904: Twenty eight men from 18 local families in the Champaign-Urbana(Illinois) community met and formed the Champaign-Urbana Hebrew Congregation. Rabbi George Zeppin of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations presided over the meeting.

 
1911: Birthdate of Shimon Koch who as Siegbert Avidan served in the Palmach and led the Givati Brigade during the 1948 War of Independence.

 
 1914:  Charlie Chaplin's signature character, "The Tramp," debuted in a film called "Kid Auto Races at Venice"

 
1914: Birthdate of U.S. poet David Ignatow.

 
1916: Birthdate of Floyd K. Haskell, the U.S. Senator from Colorado who was the husband of Nina Totenberg.  She was Jewish – he was not.

 
1917(15thShevat, 5677): Yosef Levi passed way in Paris. Levi was an archeologist and philologist of African and oriental languages. Born in Adrianoplein December 15, 1827, he went on to write 33 books during his career.

 
1919(7th of Adar): Rabbi Isaac Jacob Rabinovitz, author of Zekher Yizhak passed away.

 
1924(2ndAdar I, 5684): Rabbi Henry Berkowitz passed away.  Emily Nepon, his great-great-great-granddaughter described him in the following words. Born in 1857, Rabbi Henry Berkowitz was the “Beloved Rabbi” of Mobile, Kansas City, Missouri and Philadelphia. He is best known for being the founder of the Jewish Chautauqua Society in 1893, and was one of four members of the first graduating class of Reform rabbis in the United States.  Rabbi Henry Berkowitz was an activist, philanthropist, counselor, community leader, voracious learner, teacher, prolific writer and speaker. And, in keeping with mainstream Reform Judaism of his day, Berkowitz was also anti-Zionist.

 
1933: The London Gazette reported that the King has conferred “the dignity of a Baron of the United Kingdom upon Sir Joseph Duveen…and the heirs males of his body lawfully begotten…”

 

1934: During the Stavisky Affair, a night of rioting fomented by right-wing parties came to an end.  The right failed in their effort to overthrow the Third Republic, but the event was a harbinger of the social rot that would lead to the quick defeat of the French in World War II and the rise of Vichy.

 
1934: The Halevy Singing Society is schooled to move into new quarters at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism at 15 West 86thStreet. (As reported by JTA)

 
1934(22nd of Shevat, 5694):Abraham I. Shiplacoff “sometimes called the Jewish Eugene V. DebS”, passed away today in Brooklyn “after a long struggle with kidney disease. Born in Chernigov, Russia in 1877, he “came to the United States with his parents at the age of 13 in 1891. For several years he worked long hours in a garment shop and studied at night. During this period he married Henrietta (Yetta) Zwickel, and they eventually had three children, Frederick Engels Shiplacoff, William Morris Shiplacoff, and Lydia Shiplacoff Greene. Beginning in 1905 he taught school at P.S. 84, Brooklyn, served as a clerk in the customs service, was briefly labor editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. In 1914 he became secretary-treasurer of the United Hebrew Trades. Politically active in the Socialist Party, he was elected as the first Socialist Assemblyman from New York City in 1915, re-elected in 1916 and 1917, and led the Socialist delegation in the Legislature in a campaign of strong opposition to World War I. He also supported the dissemination of birth control information, curbs on police power and other controversial causes. When, as a street-corner orator, he denounced U.S. military intervention in Russia shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, he was indicted under the wartime Espionage Act; the indictment was later quashed. He was elected to the Board of Aldermen from Brooklyn in 1920, managed the mayoral campaign of Norman Thomas in 1925, chaired the Sacco-Vanzetti Liberation Committee in 1927, and became a vigorous participant in Socialist battles with the Communist Party. During the twenties and early thirties he served as general manager of the Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the International Pocketbook Workers Union. He had a longstanding interest in Palestine and Zionism, and became national chairmen of the National Labor Committee for Palestine in 1933. He was actively involved in many Jewish philanthropic and cultural organizations, and served as executive director of the Deborah Sanitarium, Browns Mills, NJ.”

 
1935: Birthdate of Herbert “Herb” Kohl, United States Senator from Wisconsin.

 
1937: George F. Pelham, the Canadian born American Architect who in 1905 “designed a new synagogue building for Brooklyn's Beth Jacob Anshe Sholom, based on Arnold Brunner's West Side Synagogue building on Manhattan's West 88th Street” passed away today.

 
1938: The Palestine Post reported that according to the London Daily Herald, the Mandatory government planned to erect a 20-foot-high barbed-wire barricade along the northern border in order to prevent the movement of the gun runners, smugglers and terrorists between Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

 
1938: In a leading article on the elections to the Jerusalem Communal Council (Va'ad Hakehila), The Jerusalem Post expressed the hope that the people serving on the  council would be able to cast away heavy obsolete traditions, eliminate inefficiency and stand up to vested interests.

 
1942: In the aftermath of the release of the Jews on board the Darien, Lord Moyne continued to protest Churchill’s arguing that the Prime Minister’s decision would undermine the Mandatory Government.  Churchill had already tried to assuage Lord Moyne’s fears by reminding him that there was little risk of any mass immigration of Jews since most of Eastern and Southern Europe were under Nazi control.


1943: The first armed struggle between Jews and Nazis takes place in the Warsaw ghetto.   Most people connect the Warsaw Uprisings with Pesach (April) of 1943.  Actually, the first fighting took place in February. Unsettled, by Melvin Konner has an interesting chapter (entitled Smoke) that deals with the issue of Jewish resistance in Europeduring World War II. 


1946: While taking part in two month speaking tour with self-proclaimed anti-Semite, Gerlad L.K. Smith, Father Arthur W. Terminiello of Mobile, Alabama, a self-styled Father Coughlin of the South, delivers an address at the Chicago’s Veeran Hall in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Albany Park that resulted in a riot and in his subsequent conviction on charges of disturbing the peace.  Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision in a major freedom of speech case.


1946: The Palestine Information Service issued a statement today describing yesterday’s failed attempt to attack a British military camp and seize weapons for the fight to create a Jewish state.


1946: Arabs in Lebanon protested the British “decision to permit 1,500 Jewish immigrants to enter Palestine” each month by staging a general strike today.


1947: This date marks the official founding of the Jewish Agency, a world-wide organization centered in Israel. It is dedicated to the establishment of Israel as the Jewish Homeland, and to the encouragement and fulfillment of Jewish Aliyah from around the world.

 
1950: Arnold Eidus gave a recital at Carnegie Hall that “featured the debut and only public performance of jazz/pop composer Raymond Scott's Suite for Violin and Piano (which reportedly was composed as a showcase for Eidus) during the composer's lifetime.”

 
1952(11thof Shevat, 5712): Forty-two year old Phillip G. Epstein died of Cancer a decade after having co-authored the Academy Award winning script for Casablanca, which Time magazine called the greatest movie of all times.  Epstein’s grandson, Theo, broke Bambino’s Curse and brought world series victory to the Boston Red Sox.

 
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that two policemen who found safety on a rock were saved by a helicopter, but the third was missing, when a captured Lebanese vessel they were towing to Haifa broke up in a heavy storm off the northern coast.

 
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Moscow's press was intensifying its drive against the Jewish and "bourgeois" influence in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

 
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that An airlift of immigrants from Iran was stopped, following the intervention of the Egyptian government.

 
1955(15thof Shevat, 5715): Tu B’Shevat

 
1961: Mortimer Caplin began serving as The Commissioner of Internal Revenue
1967(27thof Shevat, 5727): Sixty-eight year old Saul Adler passed away in Monroe, LA. Born in Russia he served in the U.S. Army during World War I. The Saul Adler Community Center in Monroe was named in his honor.
1968:  Arthur Miller's "Price" premiered in New York City


1974: Mel Brooks'"Blazing Saddles" opened in movie theaters across America


1976(6thof Adar I, 5736): Sixty-three year old rabbi and author Avraham Eliyahu Mokotow who made Aliyah in 1936 whose works include Chassidim v’Anshei Ma’aseh, a five volume collection of Chassidic stories passed away today.


1979:  War Criminal Josef Mengele who as the concentration camp doctor was known as the Angel of Death, reportedly drowned.


1985: "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City. "New York, New York" is a song from the 1944 musical On the Town. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.


1987:According to reports published today, Israel's universities, the reputation and achievements of which have been a source of national pride, are facing a severe financial crisis. The causes are multifaceted. They include the Israeli economic policies of the last two years, which have succeeded in restraining what had been triple-digit inflation and what the state comptroller described as the universities' own extravagance and mismanagement.


1990(12th of Shevat, 5750): Nathan Wartels, Chairman of the Board of Crown Publishers, passed away at the age of 88.


1991 (23rd of Shevat, 5751):Lieutenant Colonel Amos Yarkoni , a legendary officer in the Israeli Defense Forces, one of six Israeli Arabs to receive the IDF’s third highest decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service and the first commander of the Shaked Reconnaissance Battalion of the Givati Brigade died of cancer at the age of 71.


1993:The United States has protested to Israel over the treatment of three Palestinian-Americans who have been jailed on suspicion of having ties with a militant Islamic group in the occupied territories, a United States Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv said today. Israeli authorities said they had evidence the three detainees were helping to rebuild Hamas and to finance terrorist activities after scores of Hamas leaders were deported to southern Lebanon by Israel in December. The authorities said the two of the men had been found with more than $100,000 and with plans from Hamas leaders in the United States.


1994: “Tzomet MKs Segev, Esther Salmovitz, and Alex Goldfarb split from their party to form the Yiud faction.”


1995: The INS Hanit, a Sa'ar 5-class corvette, was commissioned today.


1999; The New York Times book section featured reviews of A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B. Yehoshua; translated by Nicholas de Lange and Preempting the Holocaust by Lawrence Langer.


1999: Bruce Fleisher won the Royal Caribbean Classic with a score of 205


2004(15thof Shevat, 5764): Tu B’Shevat


2005: Ian Livingston “the fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago became CEO for Retail of BT Group.


2005:Rabbi Raymond Apple “marked his retirement today after 32 years at the helm of Sydney's Great Synagogue.The NSW Governor, Marie Bashir, and the Premier, Bob Carr, joined representatives from Sydney churches and hundreds of well-wishers at a tribute to Rabbi Apple at the Art Gallery of NSW. Great Synagogue president Herman Eisenberg said Rabbi Apple had always represented his congregation and the wider Jewish community with great dignity. ‘He has been a spokesman for Jewish ethics and values, a bridge between diverse religions and cultures and a moderating voice both in the Jewish community and in wider society,’ Mr. Eisenberg said.”


2006:Seeking a leader to guide a much-disputed 9/11 museum into existence at ground zero, officials announced  that they had settled on Alice M. Greenwald, an associate director for museum programs at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.


2006: “A few days before the theatrical release of a “Curious George” motion picture the body of Alan Shalleck who produced “more than 100 short episodes for the Curious George television series” was found in his Florida home, the victim of an apparent robbery/homicide


2006: The day after Betty Friedan passed away, The Guardian publishes “The Betty I Knew” by fellow feminists Germain Greer who raises questions about the importance of Ms. Friedan’s role in the “Women’s Movement.” (You can decide if this is Lshon Hora.)


2007: Publication of “America’s First Torah Scholar: Israel Baer Kursheedt” by Dr. Yitzchok Levine


2007: In an article entitled “Sold on a Stereotype” the Washington Post reported on the growing popularity in China of “a genre of self-help books that purport to tell the secrets of making money ‘the Jewish way.’”  Volumes include The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish, The Legends of Jewish Wealth, and The Jewish People and Business: The Bible of how to Live Their Lives.  While some of the volumes tout the success of the Lehman Brothers and the Rothschilds, others miss the mark when the identify J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller as Jews.


2008: Scholar Michael B. Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, discusses and signs copies Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Presentat the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.


2008: In Bethesda, Maryland, Open Arms, the women's giving circle of the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA), hosts its first annual "Meet the Author" evening with novelist Elinor Lipman, author of The Inn at Lake Devine, Then She Found Me(the basis of a feature film opening in May) and, most recently, My Latest Grievance, at the Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum. 


2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival opens with a showing of “Got No Jeep and My Camel Died.”


2008: The Washington Post featured a review of A Lost Letter, A Remarkable Discovery,and The First Amendment in an Age of Terrorismby Alan Dershowitz


2008: First Day of Adar I (2nd Day Rosh Chodesh Adar I 5768)


2009: An exhibition entitled Blue and White Pages: Documenting the History of Israel has its final showing at the Israel Museum.

 
2009: Suzane Adam’s tour of the United States designed to promote her award winning new book Laundry comes to an end. “Suzane Adam was born in Satu Mare, Transylvania, and came to Israel at age 10. She is the author of Mayamiya and Janis’s Mother, which was awarded Israel’s Kugel Literary Prize.

2009: Shabbat Shirah, 5769



2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including For The Soul Of France:Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus by Frederick Brown and Where The God Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom.


2010: As the כּוֹלץ   square off against the סאינתס in Super Bowl XLIV their fans will be able to enjoy kosher food. Kosher Sports Inc. (KSI), a New York-based kosher concessions provider geared to the sports industry has signed a contract to provide kosher food to this year's Super Bowl games at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida. This is the first time kosher fare will be available at The Super Bowl. Kosher Sports is under the kosher supervision of the Star-K Kosher Certification, based in Baltimore, Maryland.


2010: A Jewish former banker was elected the vice president of Costa Rica today. Luis Lieberman will become vice president after Costa Rican voters elected Laura Chinchilla as the Central American country's first female president by a wide margin. Lieberman's parents immigrated to Costa Rica from Poland before World War II. He is the grandson of a mohel. Lieberman told Ynet that his being Jewish did not affect his candidacy. He said Jews are very active in Costa Rican politics. Jews have served in previous governments.Approximately 3,000 Jews live in Costa Rica.


2010:The CSSO convened two emergency meetings today and, in response to the upset, JTS’s provost, Alan Cooper, took the unusual step of sending a letter on that same day to the cantorial faculty, reassuring them of its commitment to the school.
 
2010(23rd of Shevat, 5770): Eighty-nine year old Phillip Klass the science fiction writer who used the pseudonym “William Tenn” passed away today.  (As reported by Gerald Jonas)

 

2011: The New Yorker published “The Wave” in which Francisco Goldman “wrote about his wife’s death and their relationship.” Goldman, born in 1954 is the Boston born son of a American-Jewish father and Guatemalan –Catholic mother who is a professor of literature and author whose “first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction”


2011: John Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, 4thgeneration owners of Russ & Daughters are scheduled to “demystify caviar in an evening that is educational and unpretentious at the Astor Center in New York City.


2011:Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich and the Jupiter musicians are scheduled to “perform works by American composers including Aaron Copland at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.


2011(3rd of Adar I, 5771): Eighty-year old Jerry James, a longtime contributor to the art of tap dance, and ‘a teacher and choreographer ‘known for his airy, balletic style and eclectic approach’” who had been born Jerome Howard Abrams, passed away today.  (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2011(3rd of Adar I, 5771): Maria V. Altmann, a Jewish refugee who in her 80s waged a successful legal battle all the way to the United States Supreme Court to force the Austrian government to return paintings by Gustav Klimt that had been seized from her family by the Nazis, passed away today at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 94.

 
2012: Iowa PTV is scheduled to broadcast “Lost in History: Alexander Clark” which is produced by Marc Rosenwasser, the son-in-law of Ellie and Ed Spector (and Nancy’s husband).  The Spectors have brought  joy, delight and warmth to a numerous Jewish communities including Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


2012: Nathan Englander’s “third book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, short story collection, was released today. Born in 1970, Englander was raised in an Orthodox Jewish community, lived in Israel for five years and graduated from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa.


2012: In Columbus, Ohio, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host its HAZAK Tu B'Shevat Seder


2012:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to presents “The Jewish Antifascist Committee and Its Foreign Delegation” a lecture by Gennady Estraikh that focuses on the role of the JAc including visits to the United States by Solomon Mikhoels who would later be murdered in one of Stalin’s purges.


2012: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber” is scheduled to be shown at the Golda Meir Chapter of Hadassah in New York.


2012:Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today for the “very important message” recent sanctions on Iran have sent. Lieberman, who made his first official visit to Washington this week since 2010, spoke of the significance of further sanctions against Iran in his meetings at the State Department and on Capitol Hill.


2012:MK Zahava Gal-On was elected as Meretz chairwoman today, winning 60% of the votes. Gal-On won 506 votes, beating MK Ilan Ghilon, who received 306 votes, and Ori Ophir, who only obtained 23 of the votes.

2013: Yiddish copy editor Louis Katz “left the Forward today, half a century after joining the newspaper as a typesetter.” (As reported by Paul Berger)

2013: Stefanie Fischer is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled “Economic Trust and Anti-Semitic Violence at The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide in London.


2013:The Center for Jewish History and the Jewish Book Council is scheduled to present, “Emerging Writers/Contemporary Literary Landscapes” that will examine the works of Nadia Kalman, Austin Ratner, Francesca Segal and Adam Wilson.


2013: In Washington, DC, Dr. Peggy Pearlstein, former Society President and Head of the Hebraic Section at Library of Congress is scheduled to conduct a tour titled “Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress,1912-2012”

2013: “Ezekiel’s World” a play based on the life of Abba Kovener, is scheduled to premiere in New York City. 


2013:The Jerusalem District Attorney today filed two indictments in the magistrate’s court against four Betar Jerusalem fans for making racist statements against Arabs and Muslims, including new players that had joined the team.


2013:Residents of the mixed religious/secular neighborhood of Ramat Sharett in Jerusalem are furious over the municipality’s approval of three yeshivas on the edge of their neighborhood at last week’s city council meeting. Today, the residents will hold a planning meeting with City Councilor Rachel Azaria (Yerushalmim) to try and submit a petition to the city’s Administrative Court to stop the yeshiva’s creation


2013:Tonight’s anti-Israel event sponsored and endorsed by the Brooklyn College political science department will take place on that school’s campus, but it now appears certain that the atmosphere of intimidation and distrust generated by that academic department did not begin, and will not end, with this event.


2014: “The Monument’s Men,” based on book by the same name that beings with the story of the Ettlingers, a Jewish family from Karlsruhe and describes the work of tells the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program is scheduled to be released to theatres today.


2014: Violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi is schooled to perform in the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.


2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” a movie that “tells the story of four generations of the Russ family - and how they took their business from a tiny storefront stocked with herring barrels to the famed smoked fish emporium it is today” is scheduled to be shown at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.

This Day, February 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 8



421: Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire serving as co-Emperor with Honorius. Constantinius only reigned for 7 months, but during his long tenure Honorius was no friend of the Jews as can be seen by his promulgation of “a new law requiring any taxes collected by Jewish leaders from the Jewish community to be sent to the imperial treasury.


1250: During the seventh crusade, King Louis IX of France faces Ayyubid forces at the 3 day Battle of Al Mansurah.  The entire crusading period was a debacle for the Jewish people.  As to Louis, Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York says, he “was an ideal medieval king: he was chivalrous, religious, ascetic, and hostile to Jews

1291: Birthdate of King Alfonso IV of Portugal who increased the taxes paid by the Jews, load to “reinstituted the dormant requirement that Jews wear an identifying yellow badge, and restricted their freedom to emigrate.”  


1349: In Worms, Bishop Frederick ordered that “the Jewish community should pay 20 florins each year on St. Martin’s Day when a new “Bishop of the Jews” – the head of the 12 member council that governed the internal affairs of the Jewish community – each year on St. Martin’s Day.


1693:  The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.  According to recent figures there are approximately 385 Jewish students attending the school with a student population of approximately 7,700.  The school offers eight Jewish studies courses and is home to William and Mary Balfour Hillel whose mission is “To inspire every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life and enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.”


1725: Peter The Great, Russian Czar, passed away at the age of 52.  Peter’s determination to keep the Jews out of his realm and his treatment of Russian Jews was not the picture of “enlightenment.” From the point of Jewish history he certainly was not the “Great.” 


1795: Birthdate of Hungarian-born journalist and author, Moritz G [Moses] Saphir.  Saphir moved to Bavaria to further his career.  In 1832 he was expelled but was permitted to return by the king later that year.  Eighteen thirty-two was also the same year that Saphir became a Lutheran.


1831: Louis Philippe of France, successor to Charles X, ratified a motion putting Judaism on a par with Christianity, granting State support to Synagogues and their Minister of Religion. This meant that France extended financial support to Jewish religious institutions on par with Christian institution

1833: Birthdate of Baron Horace Günzburg who was “one of the founders of the Society for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia…”


1843: Health officers in Frankfort-on-Main issued an order stating “Israelite citizens and inhabitants, must employ the services of competent persons" when having their sons circumcised.


1858: Birthdate of Pauline Koch, who as Pauline Einstein gave birth to physicist Albert Einstein.


1860(15th of Shevat, 5620): Tu B'Shevat


1860: An article entitled “A Mistaken Philanthropist” published today describes the efforts of "‘Captain’ Moses, a gentleman we presume of Abrahamic stock,” to raise funds and outfit a ship that would provide relief for “the Christian and Jewish refugees, who had been constrained to flee almost naked from Morocco to Gibraltar ‘to escape the knife of the savage Bedouin of the desert.’” Unfortunately for Captain Moses, he misrepresented his credentials when he went to Philadelphia to continue his efforts and ended up being be jailed because authorities saw him as a “swindler” and “imposter” rather than “an indiscreet philanthropist.”


1863: An article published today entitled “Beauregard and the Jews” quoted a letter that the P.G.T. Beauregard had written in 1861 when he was commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in which he explained why could not grant leave to Jewish soldiers to observe the High Holidays. He is sure that “the Hebrews” serving with the army will understand that military necessity makes it impossible to grant a request that he would otherwise comply with quite willingly.


1866: Birthdate of Moses Gomberg, Russian-born American chemist


1867: The Ausgleichresults in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Ausgleich refers to the compromise document that changed the Austrian Empire into the dual monarchy that put Hungary on level playing field with the previously dominate Germanic (Austrian) element of the Hapsburg Empire.  The reform came about as a result of Austria’s defeat at the hands of Prussia. (Yes this gets complicated; but if you want to understand the fate of the Jews of Europe you have to understand European history.)  Following the Law of Unintended consequences, The Ausgleich had a profound effect on the Jews living under the rule of the Habsburgs. “With the “Ausgleich” between Austria and Hungary in 1867, Jews finally gained full citizen rights. Vienna was now the city in the Habsburg Empire with the largest Jewish community (40,000 or 6.6 percent). Most of the Viennese Jews were of Bohemian, Moravian and Hungarian origin, while others were from the poor area of Galicia. Jewish communities in other parts of the Empire developed, even in cities that have not had any Jews for a long time, such as Salzburg (part of Austria since 1816).”  Today we seem to have forgotten the prominent role that Vienna played in European and Jewish culture.  Within a few decades of each other, for example, Vienna was home to Herzl, Freud and Hitler.  Imagine what might have happened had Hitler been one of Freud’s patients.


1871: During an inquest being held today at Union Hill, NY, to determine the cause of death for Charles Kraft, a Jew named Nathan Berg was identified as one of three men who might have been involved in a fatal beating of the deceased.


1872: Birthdate of Theodor Lessing, the “German Jewish philosopher… known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his classic on Jewish self-hatred (Der jüdische Selbsthaß)…in which he tried to explain the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred - Jewish intellectuals who incited anti-Semitism against the Jewish people, and regarded Judaism as the source of evil in the world. A Zionist, he moved to Czechoslovakia after Hitler came to power. The move did not save him since he “was assassinated by Nazi agents in the summer of 1933.”


1878:  Birthdate of Martin Buber.  Buber almost defies definition. He gained fame as a theologian, philosopher, teacher and Zionist.  His life and teachings are too rich and complicated to be encapsulated in this brief item. Born in Vienna, Buber spent his youth living with his grandfather who was a distinguished rabbinic scholar. Buber returned to Vienna for his secular education.  He was attracted to Zionism in its earliest days, but saw the need to add a uniquely Jewish cultural and spiritual component to Herzl’s political ideas.  After dabbling with various forms of mysticism, Buber began to study the works of the Chassidic Masters.  Eventually he developed a philosophy based on their lives and teaching which has been described as Neo-Chasidism.  Buber moved to Jerusalem in 1938 and joined the faculty of Hebrew University. His most famous work I and Thou which described the I-Thou and I-It relationships was published in 1923.  Other works available in English include, but are not limited to, Good and Evil, On Judaism and The Legend of the Baal Shem.  Buber understood the relationship between Judaism and Christianity but knew the difference between the two as well.  His works and philosophy has had an impact on people of many different beliefs.  In the words of Buber: “The God of history and the God of nature cannot be separated and the land of Israel is a token of their unity.”  “There is no opposition between the truth of God and the salvation of Israel.”  "To him who knows how to read the legend, it conveys more truth than the chronicle.”  “The Jew carries the burden of an unredeemed world.  He cannot concede that redemption is an accomplished fact for he knows it is not.”


1878: In the Pale of Settlement a Hebrew scholar named Ezekiel Baevski and his wife, Koona Dubrusha, née Shur gave birth to Simcha Myer Baevski who would gain fame as Sidney Baevski Myer “the Jewish-Australian businessman and philanthropist, best known for creating Myer, Australia's largest chain of department stores.”


1879(15thof Shevat, 5639): Shabbat and Tu B’Shevat


1880: Rabbi De Sola Mendes officiated at the funeral of John D. Phillips which was attended by several prominent Jewish leaders including Albert Cordozo, Jesse Seligman and Emanuel B. Hart.


1882(19thof Shevat, 5642): Twenty days before his 70th birthday, German-Jewish author Berthold Auerbach passed at Cannes, France.




1883(1st of Adar I, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1889(7thof Adar, 5649): Eighty-three year old author and social work Anna Maria Goldsmid who was the daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, passed away today.  Born in London in 1805 she first gained fame for her work as the translator of Dr. Gotthold Salomon’s sermons from German into English.  She helped from the Jews’ Infant-Schools and took an active role in the Jews’ Deaf and Dumb Home.


1889: Achad ha-am organized the Zionist Order Benei Moshe


1890: Birthdate of Herbert S. Goldstein, a prominent American rabbi and Jewish leader, who passed away in 1970. “He was the only person in history to have been elected president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Rabbinical Council of America (first presidium), and the Synagogue Council of America.”


1891: It was reported today that at the request of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, several well-known leaders of the New York Jewish community have undertaken the management of a philanthropic scheme of “great practical utility.” They have consented to act under a deed of trust, by which Baron Hirsch places in their control the sum of $2,400,000 to be used in improving the condition of the poor Hebrew immigrants that are continually coming here from Russia and Romania.
 
1891: It was reported today that funds provided by Baron Hirsch and his supporters in the United States four new schools have been opened in New York City to help provide training for the newly arrived immigrants from Russia.  These include a technical school, an evening school for girls who work during the day and two schools that prepare youngsters for entering the public schools.


1891: It was reported today that Joseph Klein, the President of Hebrew Cemetery Association received a suspended sentence from a court in Union County, New Jersey, after having been convicted of defrauding a co-religionist out of $60.


1891: “Unleavened Bread,” published in today’s Atlanta Constitution reported that “Cincinnati bakers have been busy for three months preparing for Passover.” (Editor’s note – The story is notable on 2 counts – it was published in a paper in Atlanta, GA, hardly a bastion of Jewish settlement and the matzo was being produced by Manischweitz, which continues to supply a wide variety of Jewish products in the 21st century)


1894: Birthdate of Ludwig Marcuse German-born author and philosopher.


1896: At two o’clock, Henry Steinhal, an actor appearing in “The Russian Jew” who had been accidently wounded when a blank pistol misfired, left the Adler Theatre with a limp  and with a question – would he get damages from management?


1896: The Berlin monthly "Zion" publishes a friendly review of Herzl's London article.


1896: Herzl discusses his Zionist ideas after a lecture by Chief Rabbi Güdemann in the "Jüdische akademische Lesehalle" with some Jewish students.



1896: The Jewish community in Vienna wants to prevent the publishing of Herzl's "Der Judenstaat”


1897: It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise will co-officiate at the upcoming funeral of Morris Goodhart.


1898: Newspapers in Paris published today provided an account of the way Maitre Fernand Gustave Gaston Labori, Emile Zola’s senior defense council dealt with the government witnesses during the first session of the Seine Assizes.


1898: It was reported today that firemen who arrived at the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society’s orphanage were not dealing with a serious fire.  Four boys had secretly gathered to light a homemade lantern made from a cigar box and a candle.  When another boy saw the flame, he told Superintendent Louis Fauerbach and he sounded the fire alarm. The boys involved are awaiting disciplinary action.


1899: During this evening’s meeting of the People’s Club, Reverend Walter Bentley offered to let the group meet at the St. Mark’s Parish House.  A young, unnamed Jewish man said that “he was positive that no respectable Jew would belong to a club which met in a building connected with a church.” Several Jews said he was mistaken and Reverend Bentley’s offer was acceptable.

1906: Birthdate of Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleep.


1906: Birthdate of Arthur Balsam, Polish born pianist, who was an accompanist for Yehudi Menhuin.
 
1907: The Jewish community of Kingston, Jamaica issues an appeal for help in rebuilding three synagogues laid in ruins by an earthquake. Many Jews were killed during the disaster. The Jewish community in England responded with an offer of assistance.


1910: The Hahambashi is formally asked if he has any recommendations for the Turkish authorities over the subject of Ottoman Jews in Persia. At the time the Persian ambassador to Turkey, Prince Mirza Riza Khan utilized the Hahambashi as the final decider of Jewish law.


1911: Supporters of Sigmund Freud attack Alfred Adler and his followers at a meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The Freudians believe “that sexual feelings and sexual repression are the primary motivations of human behavior” while “Adler insists that feelings of inferiority, mostly on the subconscious level, combined with compensatory defense mechanisms (like overcompensation) become the primary forces behind behavior - especially pathological behavior.”


1920: The Illustrated Sunday Herald, a popular British Sunday newspaper, published an article by Winston Churchill urging the Jews of Russia and beyond to choose Zionism over Bolshevism.  In one sense, Churchill saw Zionism as anti-dote for Jews who would otherwise be drawn the Communist cause.

1921: Birthdate of Immanuel Jakobovits, the native of Konigsberg, Germany who became the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.


1923: The Völkischer Beobachter ("Völkisch Observer") the newspaper of the National Socialist German Workers' Party or Nazi Party was published as daily for the first time.


1925: Kaufman and Berlin's "Coconuts" premiered in New York City.


1930: "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1.


1931: In Cairo, King Faud opened the Museum of Modern Art which was located in a mansion that had been purchased by Elie Mosseri and donated to the government.  Mosseri was a leading member of the Egyptian-Jewish community.


1934: Birthdate of Louis Katz, the long serving Yiddish copy editor of the Forward. (As reported by Paul Berger)


1935 (5th of Adar I, 5695):  Max Liebermann leading German impressionist painter and graphic artist, passed away at the age of 87.  Some of his works are on display at the Jewish Museum in New York.  Once you see a Liebermann you want to see more.


1940: The first ghetto was set up by the Nazis in Lodz. The idea was to bring in all Jews from the surrounding areas in order to make it easier to proceed with the "Final Solution." By the first of May, 160,000 Jews would have been herded into the Ghetto.


1940: Edzia Abbe and her family were among the Jews forced to move into what would become the Lodz ghetto.


1940: Birthdate of Ted Koppel, ABC newsman and host of Nightline.  Koppel was born in England where his parents had fled to escape Hitler’s Germany.  According to one source, Koppel’s proudest possession is a family Torah Scroll.


1941: Lord Moyne, the British leader who would be murdered by Lehi in 1944, began serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies in the cabinet led by his friend Winston Churchill. He also assumed the leadership position in the House of Lords per the appointment of Churchill who as commoner served in the House of Commons.


1942: Herman Barron defeated Henry Picard by two strokes to win the Western Open in Phoenix, AZ.  This made him the first Jewish golfer to win a PGA Tour event.
 
1942: Birthdate of actor and comedian Robert Klein.


1942: Much to the disappointment of the Nazis only 359 Jews (137 women) from the Kovno ghetto arrived in Riga. The German Civil Administration in Lithuania had originally requested 1,000 male Jews.


1944(14thof Shevat, 5704): Seventy-seven year old “Sir Elly (Eleaszer Silas) Kadoorie, Bagdad-born Jewish philanthropist, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese in Hong Kong” passed away today. (As reported by JTA)


1944: The Nazis deported 1,000 Jews from Holland to Birkenau, including 268 hospital patients.


1946: In Palestine, Jewish newspapers respond to an attack on a British military installation followed by a British rampage aimed at the Jews of Cholon by publishing  editorials calling on the Jewish population to reject the tactics of terrorism in their quest to create a Jewish homeland regardless of British or Arab provocations.  An editorial in the Palestine Post calls on the Jews to “ferret out extremists” and to remember that “lawless violence will generate lawless violence—from which the innocent invariably suffer more than the guilty.  In its editorial, Haaretz“declared these incidents had given the Jewish people an ‘opportunity of reminding itself that forces are being let loose that cannot after be controlled…We have to pursue the difficult struggle against British policy and there many ways of doing it.  Our fight is against British policy, not against British soldiers.’”


1949: Formation of Shabak or Shin Bet, the Israel security service

1951: Birthdate of Deborah Lynn Friedman, who as Debbie Friedman would change the face of Jewish music in the last half of the 20th century.


1952(11thof Shevat, 5712): Eighty-four year old Max W. Wallenstein, one of the four children of Esther and Solomon Wallenstein passed away.


1958: Birthdate of actor Barry Miller.


1960: “Tiger at the Gates” co-produced by Henry Weinstein, co-directed by Harold Culman and featuring David Hurst as the “Poet Propagandist” was broadcast today as “The Play of the Week.”


1966(18thof Shevat, 5726): Eighty two year old Russian-born American mathematical physicist Paul Epstein passed away today.


1971: The NASDAQ stock market index, which Bernie Madoff helped to create, makes its debut. According to some, the confidence that Madoff built up in his role with NASDAQ, would become a tool in the creation of the largest Ponzi Scheme in history.


1973(6th of Adar I, 5733):  Max Yasgur, the owner of the farm where Woodstock took place, passed away.


1975: Opening session of the Second National Conference in Solidarity with Chile co-sponsored by Herbert Aptheker, the youngest child of wealthy Jewish family from Brooklyn who became a leading Marxist.


1976: The first recorded meeting of what would become the Women's Rabbinic Network took place.


1982(15thof Shevat, 5742): Tu B’Shevat


1983(25thof Shevat, 5743): Eighty-four year old “Alfred Wallenstein, the conductor, cellist, classical music pioneer on radio and former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic” passed away today. (As reported by Allen Hughes)


1983: The Kahan Commission released its report today.


1988: A commission of historians charged by the Austrian Government to look into President Kurt Waldheim's wartime record reported today that he must have been aware of atrocities committed around him and did nothing about them, and that he tried to conceal his military past. But the panel said it had no evidence that Mr. Waldheim himself was guilty of war crimes.


1990: Herb Gray, a member of the Liberal Party, began serving as Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian Parliament today.

1991:Victor Erlich, the grandson of Henryk Erlich was informed that according to a decree passed under Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Victor Alter, together with Erlich had been "rehabilitated" and the repressions against them had been declared unlawful. Victor Alter had been a Jewish leader of the Bund who was arrested by the NKVD and eventually executed by Stalin as part of his plan to murder any of those who might work for a non-Communist Poland after the end of the War.


1991: Israeli media reported that three soldiers had been wounded when Jordanian gunmen sneaked across the border and threw a hand grenade at a military bus. A few hours later, an Israeli guard in Jerusalem shot and wounded a Palestinian who attacked him with an ax.


1992: Yiddish Art Theatre actor Baruch Lumet passed away at the age of 93.  Lumet was the father of Sidney Lumet the filmmaker responsible for such hits as Serpico and Network.


1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern Worldby Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw and the newly released paperback edition of Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger by Elizabeth Ettinger


2001(15thof Shevat, 5761): Tu B’Shevat


2002: In an article entitled “Jewish involvement of Patriots' owner extends to Israel” by Jacob Horowitz, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Robert Kraft may or may not have said the Shehechiyanu when his New England Patriots scored the game-winning field goal in Sunday's Super Bowl, but there was no mistaking the elation of this Jewish businessman and philanthropist.The team owner nearly leapt through the glass window of his sky box at the Superdome in New Orleans as the clock ticked down and the 20-17 victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams brought the team its first Super Bowl title.

 

2004(16th of Shevat, 5764):  Julius "Julie" Schwartz American comic book and science fiction editor passed away.He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various times he was primary editor over the company's flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman.


2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including An End to Evil:How to Win the War on Terror
by David Frum and Richard Perle and Someone To Run With by David Grossman; translated by Vered Almog and Maya Gurantz.


2005:  Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt.


2006: Haaretz reported that IDF confiscated a stolen seventh-century synagogue mosaic. An archaeologist said the mosaic seized from Palestinian antiquities thieves appears to have been cut from the floor of a previously unknown synagogue that dates back to the 7th century.

 

2006: In Hebron international observers end their decade-long presence following attacks by Palestinians.

2007: The 11th annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival closed after a week long run.  This year’s theme is Sephardic Voices in Israeli Cinema.


2008: At the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. Daniel Mendelssohn, author of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million participates in a PEN/Faulkner event entitled "Imagination as Subversion: The Role of Imagination in Memoir & Nonfiction."

2009: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
 special interest to Jewish readers including The Jerusalem FileJoel Stone’s adamantly anti-heroic novel about a former Israeli security officer who has lost his will to live,”The Samaritan’s Secret,Matt Beynon Rees’ latest thriller which “finds the protagonist Omar Yussef in Nablus, helping his friend Sami Jaffari, a lieutenant with the national police, investigate the theft of a priceless Torah scroll (said to be the oldest book in the world) from a Samaritan sect’s synagogue” and the recently released paperback version of The Conscience of a LiberalbyPaul Krugman.


2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann, the English author who is the son of two Jewish immigrants and Is God A MathematicianbyMario Livio a Romanian born Jewish astrophysicists who was educated in Israel, served with IDF and is currently the senior astrophysicist at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore


2009: This evening, Hila Plitmann, the 36-year-old Israeli operatic soprano, won her Grammy for Best Classical Performance as vocalist on a recording of Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000), an original composition for full orchestra and amplified soprano by John Corigliano using the lyrics of Dylan and performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by JoAnne Falletta.


2010: The New York premiere of “Salvador: The Ship of Shattered Hopes” is scheduled to take place tonight at the 14th New York Sephardic Film Festival is schedule.

2010:In Washington, the DCJCC is scheduled to present a program entitled “Sanctuary in Israel: The Plight of African Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Israel Today.”


2010:Eleven people were arrested as Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren was repeatedly interrupted while trying to deliver an address tonight at the University of California, Irvine.
 
2010:Unknown assailants torched a building housing a Conservative synagogue in Arad tonight, a year after a failed attempt to burn the shul. The Shira Hadasha synagogue is one of 60 Conservative shuls in Israel, and the only non-Orthodox synagogue in Arad.


2010: Chancellor Arnodl Eisen and JTS Provost Alan Cooper met with about 100 students, faculty and alumni to discuss the recent announcement that the position of deal of the JTS cantorial school has been eliminated.


2010(25 Shevat, 5770): Ninety-four year old Rabbi Bernard Lander, founder and president of Touro College, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2011: Members of Maryland’s Jewish community are scheduled to meet with the Governor, Lt. Governor and state legislators as part of The Maryland Jewish Community 2011 Annapolis Advocacy Day.


2011: Opening night of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.


2011: Two Kassam rockets slammed into a field and a parking lot in a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council at around 11 a.m. A vehicle was damaged in that attack. Two more rockets were fired at the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council three hours later, shortly after 2 p.m. The Islamic Jihad terrorist organization said it had fired four projectiles at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.


2012(15thof Shevat, 5772): Tu B’Shevat


2012: Based on a previous announcement by Ofer Eini, chairman of Histadrut, a general strike in support of contract workers is scheduled to begin today shutting down banks, the Bank of Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), buses, railways, the courts, national parks, local authorities, and government ministries will be shut down.

 

2012: Lilith Editor in Chief Susan Weidman Schneider and Michelle Brafman, a writer and fiction teacher at GWU and the Johns Hopkins MA in Writing program, are scheduled to facilitate an evening devoted to discussing the influences of naming practices on the identities of Jewish women.



2012: Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan kicked off a new movement calling for changes in the political system today by warning that the current system could result in faulty decision-making on key issues like Iran. Dagan, who cannot run for the next Knesset due to a three-year cooling-off period for former top security officials, spoke about the vision of his new movement called "Yesh Sikui" (there is a chance) at its founding conference at Tel Aviv's Diaspora Museum.

 


2012: Gilad Schalit, the IDF soldier held in Hamas captivity for five years before being released in October, was welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the Élysée Palace in Paris on today.

 

2013: “Excellence” a concert featuring the Young Piano Masters of the Aldwell Institute of the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music and Dance is scheduled to take place at the Eden-Tamir Music Center


2013: An IISHJ (International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism) Seminar, “Matzah Without Dogma: Four Centuries of Secular and Humanistic Judaism,” featuring Rabbi Adam Chalom is scheduled to begin at Silver Spring, MD.


2013:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today condemned an arson attack at Betar Jerusalem soccer club's offices overnight, calling it "disgraceful."


2013: As snow began falling across the Northeastern US today, ushering in what was predicted to be a huge, possibly historic blizzard — and sending residents scurrying to stock up on food, and gas up their cars — some synagogues announced they would be canceling weekend services. At least two synagogues in Providence, R.I., called off Shabbat services this weekend in light of the expected severe weather. More than two feet of snow were expected in Providence, one of the highest predicted snowfalls on the East Coast this weekend.


2013:A British judge ordered Google to help identify people who may have defamed a London rabbi accused of inappropriate conduct toward women. Justice Elizabeth Gloster of Britain’s High Court in London ordered the American Internet company to identify the authors of online comments said to have defamed Rabbi Chaim Halpern, the Jewish Chronicle reported today.

2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host the “Ninth Annual Comedy” night featuring Monica Piper


2014: “The Attack” is scheduled to be shown at The David Posnack JCC’s 14thannual Jewish Film Festival


2014: “The Girl on the Train” is scheduled to be shown at the 24th annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival


2014:For its Joyce Theatre debut, the company created by talented Israeli choreographers Lee Sher and Saar Harari is scheduled to perform the New York premiere of Grass and Jackals, a dance piece and light spectacle.


This Day, February 9, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 9



474: Zeno was crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.The feeling of Emperor Zeno towards the Jews is illustrated by a remark made at the races of Antioch. After a mob murdered many Jews, threw their corpses into the fire, and burned their synagogue Zeno commented, ‘They should have burned the living ones also.’”


1119: Calixtus II was named Pope.  During his twenty five years on the papal throne, Calixtus II “provided a considerable amount of protection for Roman Jews.”


1267: The Synod of Breslau ordered Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.


1288(4th of Adar): Pola, a female copiest who belonged the Avanim family from Rome completed working on a book of the Bible as can be seen from the colophon which revealed “the name of her father, her forefathers, her first husband and the date of completion.” (as reported by Renee Levine Melammed)


1404: In Constantinople, Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragaš gave birth to Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine Emperor who would lose his capital to the Ottomans led by Mehmed II in 1453. This would mark the end of Christian domination in parts of eastern Europe and Asia Minor, a change which would have incalculable effect on Jews living in the region as far west as Spain.

1517: Isabel Lopez, the daughter of Maria Lopez offered an expanded rebuttal of the charges made against by the Inquisition. “She never observed Shabbat or wore special clothes except in honor of a Church holy day, a baptism or wedding ceremony. She recited the Ave Maria, the Pater Noster, the Creed and the Salve Regina. She had no idea what the sciatic nerve was, but was a clean woman who ate all types of fish and animals. She asked the tribunal to restore her honor and reputation. In August, she stated that the evidence was false and invalid. She was a good Christian; nothing she did was heretical. If she cleaned her meat, it was because she was meticulous; she never dressed up on Friday or Saturday and had no special lamps in her home.” (As reported by Renee Levine Melammed)


1621: Gregory XV was elected Pope. Gregory’s support of the censorship of Jewish books can be seen in the fact that during his brief papacy (1621-1623) at “least three expurgators of Hebrew books were appointed by the Roman Inquisition: Vincentius Matelica, 1622, "auctoritate apostolica"; Isaia di Roma, 1623, "per ordine di Roma"; and Petrus de Trevio, 1623, "deputatus" (officially appointed to revise books).”


1749:Benedict XIV issued a papal bull, “Singulari Nobis consoldtioni” that prohibited marriages between Jews and Christians.


1807: Napoleon convened the French Sanhedrin. The first meeting in Parisof the Napoleonic Sanhedrin was under the leadership of The Assembly of Jewish Notables. It opened amid great pomp and celebration under the direction of Abraham Furtado. The Sanhedrin was modeled on the ancient Tribunal in Jerusalem and consisted of 71 members - 46 Rabbis and 25 laymen. Rabbi David Sinzheim of Strasburg was its President. They were presented with 12 questions regarding the positions of Jewry regarding polygamy, divorce, usury, other faiths, and most important whether they considered Franceto be their Fatherland. Needless to say, they received "guidance" from the emperor as to the general formulation of the answers.


1808: In Westphalia, a large delegation of Jews visited King Jerome, the brother of Napoleon to express their thanks for his granting them full emancipation.  During the audience he told them: Tell your brothers to enjoy the rights that were granted to them.  They can depend upon my protection on a par with the rest of my children."


1825: For the first, and so far only time, the House of Representatives chose the President of the United States when it elected John Quincy Adams to the Presidency during which he responded to a letter from Major Mordecai Manuel Noah by saying “I believe in the rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.”


1852: Today’s “News by the Mail” column reported that “Rabbi Raphall is lecturing at Albany on the Poetry of the Hebrews.”


1854:  Birthdate of Aletta [Henriëtte] Jacobs, activist for the rights of women and the first Dutch female physician.


1857(15th of Shevat, 5617): Tu B’Shevat


1860: “The Temple of the Reformed Jews” on Twelfth street, between Third and Fourth avenues, was among the buildings damaged by a gale described as a "winter tornado" that swept across New York City this evening.


1860: The Philadelphia North Americanreported that it is unlikely that “Captain Moses” will end up in jail.  The man who had been previously described as “a Hebrew” had been charged with swindling those wishing to make donations to aid the destitute Jewish and Christian refugees from Morocco who had taken shelter at Gibraltar.  There will be no trial because there is no real evidence to substantiate the charge.


1864: In a report published today, the Richmond Examiner highlighted the presence of Jews among those seeking to escape from the Confederacy and find refuge in the North. The Examiner reported that “it is reliably estimated that during the past week over 100 Jews, principals of substitutes and others, have come...to Richmond from the South, put up at the hotels, and disappeared by the various underground routes to the North. How they go is known only to themselves and their agents, but it is true they have gone and are still going. Ten Jews left one of the principal hotels on Sunday morning. They are mostly of the wealthy class, and $10,000 is frequently tendered for a safe passage to the Potomac.” Farmers who have brought goods to the Confederate capital reportedly smuggle the refugees North in their empty wagons. Those caught trying to leave have been imprison in the Castle Thunder Prison.  Jews have been able to escape from the prison by pretending to be dead and having their embalmed bodies taken “through the lines, en route to bereaved relatives in the North.”


1864: N.S. Isaacs of New York wrote to Union General Benjamin Butler concerning his use of the term “Jew” in a disparaging manner in his recent dispatches about a group caught trying to smuggle contraband to Confederate forces.


1865:Professor John W. Draper the first in a series of lectures on "The Historical Influence of Natural Causes." In his address tonight on “The Influence of Climate” he said that that “climate does change men” as can be “seen in the Jews, who come of a common stock. In northern Europe they are fair, with blue eyes, while in Palestine they are tawny, and in Malaga, almost black.”


1873(12th of Shevat, 5633): Sixty-seven year old Jewish German orientalist Julius Furst passed away in Leipzig.

1875: In New York, the hat store on Third Avenue that belonged to a Polish Jew named Abraham H. Keinski burned tonight.



1876: Today’s session of P.N. Rubenstein’s trial for the murder of Sara Alexander in Kings County lasted from 10:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon.


1879(16th of Shevat): “Markus Edinger, the first Jew in Mayence to serve as a juror, passed away today


1879: Both sides rested during the trial Abraham D. Freeman and Charles Bernstein who were accused of complicity along with Abraham Perlstein in setting to the house on Ludlow Street.  Perslstein has already been convicted and sentenced.  In his charge to the jury, Judge Barrett spoke strongly on the matter of prejudice, telling all concerned that it had no place in the decision making process. As of midnight, the jury had not reached a verdict.


1879: It was reported today that modern day London and its suburbs cover an area of 700 square miles with a population that includes more Jews than are found in all of Palestine.


1880: It was reported today that Hebraica, which has been published as a monthly supplement to the Jewish Messengerwill now be published as a weekly featuring articles on Hebrew literature and the science of the Bible.
 
1881: Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky passed away. To the world he is the author of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.  For Jews, he was a skilled author who was also a vocal anti-Semite.  He freely disparaged them as “Yids”  who “have everything to gain from every cataclysm and coup d’état…and only profit from anything that serves to undermine gentile society.”


1885: Birthdate of Austrian composer, Alban Berg.


1889: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is established as a Cabinet-level agency. Former Kansas Congressman Dan Glickman who served as USDA Secretary from 1995 to 2001 is the only Jew to head this department of the U.S. Government.


1890: Grand Master J.E. Lowenstein presided over the opening session of the Grand Lodge, No.1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel at Webster Hall in New York City.


1890: A memorial service in honor of the late Seligman Solomon was held today at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City.


1890: It was reported today Princeton University Professor Arthur Frothingham presented each of the students in his Hebrew Class with a new Hebrew Lexicon and a volume containing the text of Genesis. The course was an elective.  Frothingham was one of the first professors of art history and an archeologist who got in trouble with President of Princeton over his choice of courses.  I have not been able to find out why he was teaching a course in Hebrew, except for the face that his academic training had been foreign languages.


1891: A deed of trust signed by Baron Hirsch and those who have been named to oversee the $2,400,000 grant designed to improve the lot of Russian and Romanian immigrants to the United States was filed in the Register’s office in New York


1895: The mid-year examinations in Hebrew are scheduled to be given at Columbia College today.


1895: William G. Morgan invents volleyball at YMCA in Holyoke, MA.  Jewish  volleyball players include the Brazilian women’s star Adriana Brandão Behar, Aryeh ("Arie") Selinger the Polish born Israeli who coached the Dutch Men's Team to the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and Avital Haim Selinger, a 48 year old Sabra, who, before his retirement, played for two different Dutch teams in the Summer Olympics.


1895(15th of Shevat, 5655): Tu B’Shevat


1895: William G. Morgan creates Mintonette which we know as volleyball a game which has produced Jewish players in Brazil, the old Soviet Union and Israel.


1897: The funeral of 58 year old Morris Goodhart, the President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Orphan Asylum  will take place this morning at Temple Beth El followed by interment at the family plot at the Washington Cemetery.

1898: “Hebrew Charities Building to be Incorporated” published today described New York State Senator Cantor’s introduction of a bill in the state legislature that would allow for the incorporation of the Hebrew Charities Building in New York City.  “The object of the corporation is to establish and maintain a building in which Hebrew benevolent institutions can have their headquarters, and at which all applicants for aid may apply.”  The building will also include a public library “with a special department of Judaica.”


1899: It was reported today that Ida Silverman was among those chosen to serve on the Executive Committee of the People’s Club in New York City.


1900:  Davis Cup competition is established. The most prominent American Jewish player in Davis Cup competitor was Aaron Krickstein. He was a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1985-1987 and also was a member of the 1990 squad. He compiled a 6-4 record in singles play during Davis Cup ties. The highlight of Krickstein's Davis Cup career came in 1990 when he scored two hard fought victories in a World Group Quarterfinal tie against Czechoslovakia leading his team to a 4-1 win. Israel first competed in Davis Cup play in 1949. Shlomo Glickstein and Eleazar Davidman are two of the most prominent members of the Israeli teams over the last half century.


1900: Birthdate of Friedrich Mandl, the Austrian fascist armaments manufacturer  whose wives included Jewish actress Hedy Lamar and Monika Brücklmeier, the daughter of one of the men executed for his role in the plot to kill Hitler in July of 1944.


1904: Sir Matthew Nathan completed his term as the 20th Governor of the Gold Coast, the British colony that became the independent nation of Ghana.


1904: As some Zionist leaders consider temporary alternatives for a Jewish homeland, Leopold Greenberg cables to accept the offer of the territory in Nandi without delay because a governmental change was impending. Under this pressure Herzl writes back the demanded consent. On the next day he cables Greenberg again to undertake nothing until he received Herzl's written instructions.


1910:  Birthdate of the influential modern dance choreographer Anna Sokolow.


1917: The 600-year-old synagogue of Congregation Shaari Zedek in Tuniswas destroyed by fire.


1925(15th of Shevat, 5685) Tu B’Shevat


1925: The Technion opened in Haifa. “As Israel's oldest and premier institute of science and technology, the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology has been an active and leading participant in Israel's establishment and development. With supreme effort and unyielding dedication, deserts have bloomed, swamps have been transformed into fertile agricultural valleys, and sand has given way to silicon. Israel is now recognized as one of the world's most prominent high-tech innovators, and has been called the second Silicon Valley.”  After some years of intense pioneering activities, with which Prof. Albert Einstein's deep involvement, the Technion opened its doors in the 1920’s becoming Israel’s first modern university. The first undergraduate class consisted of 16 students in two areas of instruction; Civil Engineering and Architecture. After serious debate, the language of instruction was chosen to be Hebrew, as opposed to German. The impact of the first Jewish university in an embryonic Jewish state brought about a vital link between the two. The faculty has had an impact in a variety of fields and has one numerous international honors. In 2004, “Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Faculty of Medicine received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of the crucial role of ubiquitin in the process of protein breakdown in cells.”  The accomplishments are all the more amazing when one considers the political, economic and cultural milieu in which the Technion was developed – limited funding, terrorism, and the constant threat of national annihilation.


1925: The children of Jerusalem planted trees on Tu B’Shevat


1934: The funeral for Abraham Shiplacoff, a veteran labor leader and the first member of the Socialist Party to be elected to the New York State Assembly is scheduled to be held today at the Daily Forward Building in New York City.


1938: The Jerusalem Post reported that a British sergeant was killed while pursuing an Arab gang near Tulkarm.


1938: The Jerusalem Post reported that Arab terrorists cut telephone wires, shot at and stopped an Arab bus near Hebron, killed one passenger and took away the uniform of an Arab constable, warning him to leave the force.


1938: The Jerusalem Post reported that in elections to the Jerusalem Communal Council (Va’ad Kehila) out of 9,404 votes cast, Labor won 1,417, Revisionists 877, General Zionists 416, Mizrahi 413, and the rest was divided among 13 small political parties.


1939: Birthdate of South African actress Janet Suzman.


1940: William E. Dodd, the American historian who served as Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 passed away.  Dodd was the first American ambassador who served under the Hitler régime. He tried to warn the State Department and the American people about the danger but his warnings fell on deaf ears. (For more see In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, a history book that reads like a novel.)


1940(30th of Shevat, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1941: Dutch Nazis sparked the first anti-Jewish riots in Amsterdam. Among other damage, the Nazi collaborators destroyed the pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam. Alcazar refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front of café.


1942: Birthdate of Carole King.  The famous singer and song writer was born Carol Klein in Brooklyn.


1943: Birthdate of Joseph E. Stiglitz, American economist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics.


1943, G R Barnes, the director of talks at the BBC “complained about an interview which strayed into forbidden territory by discussing anti- Semitism: 'Personally I don't want to touch the subject, except by implication in talks on other subjects,' he wrote.” His complaint was emblematic of an anti-Semitic mentality at the BBC that “led to a policy which suppressed news about Germany's attempt to exterminate European Jews.”


1944(15thof Shevat, 5704): Tu B’Shevat


1944: The Lodz Ghetto received machinery and a factory was set up that helped to secure survival for a while longer for many Jews. Unknown to them, the machinery came from Poniataw, where the Jewish population had been obliterated in November, 1943.


1945: Churchill sends Ibn Saud, the Saudi Monarch, urging him to meet with FDR who is on his way back to the United States after the Yalta meetings.  Churchill mistakenly believes that FDR will provide leverage for the settlement of Jews in Palestine after the war.


1948: The Stern Gang blew up two Arab owned building in Jerusalem from which Arab snipers had been shooting at Jews.


1948: During the fight for Jerusalem, the Haganah attacked the Arab village of Sur Bahir from which snipers had been shooting at the residents of Talipot.


1948: The Supreme Court, including Justice Felix Frankfurter began hearing oral arguments in the landmark anti-trust cast – United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (Paramount was the creation of a cadre of Jews including Zukor, Frohman, Lasky, Goldywyn, et al)


1951(3rd of Adar I, 5711): Pianist and society band leader, Eddy Duchin passed away. Born in 1910, in Cambridge, MA, this son of Jewish immigrant parents trained as a Pharmacist before pursing his musical dream. He was a musical genius who began leading his own orchestra in 1931 when he was only 22. He was 41 years old when he died of acute myelogenous leukemia. He was the father the even more famous Peter Duchin.  The Eddy Duchin Story, a film with Tryone Power playing the title role and Kim Novak playing  his High Society first wife, made no mention of Duchin being Jewish or the challenges that must have presented as he pursued his career among those who if not anti-Semitic certainly were not partial to having Jews around.


1952: John Demjanjuk , a guard at Sobibor who Michael Hanusiak, editor of the Ukrainian News would list as a Ukrainian suspected of collaborating with the Nazis, his wife and child arrived in New York aboard the USS General W.W. Haan


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that by six votes of Mapai and Ha’oved Hatzioni against two of Mapam, and one member of Mapam abstaining, the Histadrut decided to ban Communists from the organization.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that three marauders were killed and eight captured along the Jordanian border.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet had decided on the establishment of the State Bank, agreed to hold the Conquest of the Desert Exhibition and allocated land for the Hebrew University Givat Ram development.


1954: Birthdate of Salah Tarif, a Druze Israeli politician who served in the Knesset for fourteen years.  His service in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon made him the first non Jew to serve as a government minister in Israel.
1964: Thanks to the work of their manager Brian Epstein, the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, three days before they were to appear at Carnegie Hall as a result of a deal work out between Epstein and impresario Sid Bernstein.


1966 (19th of Shevat, 5726):  Sophie Tucker, the last of the Red Hot Mommas, passed away.


1968 (10th of Shevat, 5728): Sydney Silverman, Labour MP, foe of the death penalty and a supporter of Jewish causes passed away today.


1969: Today, over a year after the INS Dakar sank with all hands on board, a Palestinian fisherman found her stern emergency buoy marker washed up on the coast of Khan Yunis, a Palestinian town southwest of Gaza.


1972(24th of Shevat, 5732): Bella Fromm passed away.  Born in Bavaria in 1890, she became a successful journalist who sought refuge in the United States in 1938. In 1942, she published an account of her time spent covering the Nazis in a bestseller entitled “Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary.”


1973(7th of Adar I, 5733):Max B. Yasgur, an American farmer, best known as the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held passed away.
1975: The Second National Conference in Solidarity with Chile co-sponsored by Herbert Aptheker, came to an end.


1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat succeeded in persuading US President Jimmy Carter to adopt a more active role in peace negotiations. In New York, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan denied that Israel had violated pledge given to the USon the settlement issue and sharply attacked Sadat¹s negotiating stance. In Geneva, meeting Jewish leaders, Prime Minister Menachem Begin warned that the sale of US arms to Egypt and other Arab countries endangered peace.


1987:Kidnappers holding four Western hostages reiterated that they would kill their captives at midnight tonight unless 400 Arab prisoners were freed by Israel, then, as the deadline passed, announced that it had been extended ''until further notice.'' Between the kidnappers' statements, a car-bomb explosion killed 17 people and wounded 80 in a densely populated Shiite Moslem suburb of Beirut. A hand-written letter signed by three American hostages had said the kidnappers, Islamic Holy War for the Liberation of Palestine, ''will execute us at midnight because Israel is refusing to release 400 Palestinians from its cells.'' The statement, delivered to a Western news agency in Moslem-controlled West Beirut, was accompanied by a photograph of one hostage, Alann Steen. Three other teachers - Robert Polhill and Jesse Turner, both Americans, and Mithileshwar Singh, an Indian national - were also abducted by gunmen from Beirut University College last month. The Israelis indicated that they might consider the demand for the release of the 400 Palestinians, but they have not taken up an offer by the leader of the Lebanese Shiite militia Amal, Nabih Berri, to exchange an Israeli Air Force navigator being held by Amal for the 400 prisoners in Israel.


1987:  Israel's Defense Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, said tonight that Israel would consider any American appeal to swap 400 Arab prisoners for hostages held by kidnappers in Beirut. But he, Prime Minister Shamir and Foreign Minister Peres emphasized that the United States had not asked Israel to get involved. ''If and when the U.S. will turn to us, we'll consider what to do,'' Mr. Rabin said. Mr. Peres said Israel did not know which 400 prisoners the kidnappers wanted released.


1990:Unrepentant, the Israeli peace campaigner Abie Nathan was released from prison today. He vowed to continue the activities for which he was jailed four months ago.


1991:A new Scud missile attack on Israel left 20 people slightly wounded in Tel Aviv, the military said.Iraq fired a single Scud missile armed with a conventional warhead at Israel early this morning, and the authorities said it was hit by a Patriot missile over Tel Aviv.
 
1992:The "Schwarzkopf March," which was composed by Abraham Sternklar in honor of General Norman Schwarzkopf, is scheduled to have its premiere at the North Shore Jewish Center in Port Jefferson Station. As a 12 year old living in Tel Aviv in 1943, Sternklar had composed a march  in honor of British General Bernard Montgomery entitled “Montgomery’s March.”


1993: Launch of the INS Eilat (501) a Sa’ar 5 – class corvette.


1994: Israeli minister Shimon Perez signed a peace accord with PLO's Arafat.


1994: Poet Kenneth Koch, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia, was named winner of the Bollingen Prize in Poetry by Yale University.


1994:In Israel, two portfolio managers, Vladimir Saar and Arye Shafir, have been detained on suspicion of a multimillion-dollar stock market manipulation scheme on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the police said today. Press reports said they were suspected of violations involving more than $26 million. Reports of the arrests led to a slide in the exchange's blue-chip index, which closed 3.5 percent lower. Dealers reported particularly sharp drops in shares of eight companies whose prices the two men were said to have manipulated. Last year, the prices of some of those companies rose as much as 700 percent. Police officials said the arrests were the result of an investigation by the Government's Securities Authority, an oversight group. Stock exchange and Securities Authority officials declined to comment on the case while it was still under investigation.


1994 (28th of Shevat, 5754): Taxi driver, Ilan Sudri was kidnapped and killed while returning home from work. The Islamic Jihad Shekaki group sent a message to the news agencies claiming responsibility for the murder.


1996(19th of Shevat, 5756): Rabbi Albert J. Amateau, founder of the Brotherhood of Rhodes, and the Sephardic Brotherhood, an offshoot of the Salonican Brotherhood, passed away.


1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Reichmanns Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & Yorkby Anthony Bianco and French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial by Serge Klarsfeld


1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Journey to the End of the Millenium by A.B. Yehoshua and Preempting the Holocaust by Lawrence L. Langer.


1999: Journalist Claudia Dreifus highlighted her expertise in a talk on the art of the political interview given at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.


2000(3rd of Adar I, 5760):Stephen Robert Furness  a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers' famed Steel Curtain defense who earned four Super Bowl rings passed away.


2001:Arthur Levitt, Jr. the twenty-fifth and longest-serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission stepped down from his position today.


2001(16th of Shevat, 5761):  Nobel Prize winning economist Herbert Simon passed away.


2002:In today's broadcast of Verbatim, Rabbi Raymond Apple described his early life in Melbourne (including his early experience of a Catholic kindergarten) from short pants to long 'Bar Mitzvah' trousers and the steady development of his religious vocation. “Since 1972, Rabbi Apple has been the Senior Rabbi at the magnificent Great Synagogue in Elizabeth St, Sydney. Rabbi Apple's distinguished career has and has had many facets, encompassing his interests in such matters as religious education, ecclesiastical law and the history of the Jews in Australia. He has had a long association with the Australian council for Christians and Jews and serves as the Senior Rabbi to the Australian Defense Forces.”


2003: The Times of London featured a review of Charlotte and Lionel by Stanley Weintraub


2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lost In America: A Journey With My Fatherby Sherwin B. Nuland and Genuine Authentic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren by Michael Gross.


2006(11thof Shevat, 5766): The Indian film star known as Nadira passed away today in Mumbai after a long illness.  There is some confusion as to her age – she was either 73 or 75.  That is not the only confusion.  According to one source her name was a native of Palestine named Florence Ezekiel who moved to India in the late 1940’s to begin a career in films.  Another source said her name was Farhat Ezekiel Nadira and she was the daughter of Baghdadi Jews.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/arts/10nadira.html?scp=1&sq=Nadira&st=nyt


2006: The United States confirmed the appointment of Eric S. Edelman as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.



2007: Haaretzreported on a study conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University that found between 6 million and 6.4 million Jews live in the United States, about 1 million more than was previously thought.

 

2008: The 12th Sephardic NY Film Festival continues with “A Tribute to Israel at 60” featuring the North America premiere of “Exodus, Ada’s Dream” which is “based on the true story of Ada Sereni who became a leader of Aliyah Bet helping the underground Jewish Brigade bring survivors to Palestine in 1945” followed by the New York Premier of “Family Heroes” or “Le Heros de Famille.”


2008: In the following article The New York Times reported that Conservative Rabbis plan to vote on a resolution criticizing the Pope’s revision of prayer recited on Good Friday.

 The revision of a contentious Good Friday prayer approved this week by Pope Benedict XVI could set back Jewish-Catholic relations, Conservative Judaism’s international assembly of rabbis says in a resolution to be voted on next week.



 The prayer calls for God to enlighten the hearts of Jews “so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.”


 The draft resolution states the prayer would “cast a harsh shadow over the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration that has marked these past four decades, making it more difficult for Jews to engage constructively in dialogue with Catholics.”


 On Tuesday, the pope released new wording for the prayer, part of the traditional Latin, or Tridentine, Mass.


Before the Second VaticanCouncil, also known as Vatican II, the Good Friday Mass in Latin prayed for the conversion of Jews, referring to their “blindness” and calling upon God to “lift a veil from their hearts.”


 An unofficial translation of the new prayer reads: “Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.”


 Lay Jewish groups this week called the change insufficient.


Rabbi Joel H. Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative rabbis’ group, said leaders from the Reform and Reconstructionist movements had also been in touch with him about issuing a joint statement on the papal revision.


 “We have been very much involved in interfaith activities and dialogue for years, and relationships with the Catholic Church are really quite good,” the rabbi said. “I think it really turns back the clock a bit and reverts to some sense that the church is pulling back from the positions it took in VaticanII.”


 Most Catholics worship in the vernacular,and their prayers will not be affected. But last year, the pope made it easier for traditionalists to celebrate the Latin Mass that was the norm before Vatican II.


 At a meeting in Washington from Sunday to Thursday, the Rabbinical Assembly will vote on a draft resolution, which, while subject to revision, says the group is “dismayed and deeply disturbed to learn that Pope Benedict XVI has revised the 1962 text of the Latin Mass, retaining the rubric, ‘For the Conversion of The Jews.’ ”


 The Rev. James Massa, executive director of the secretariat of ecumenical and interreligious affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Friday that the prayer would be heard by “a tiny minority of Catholics and they will hear it in Latin.”


 “The publication of the prayer and its interpretation by some of our partners in the Jewish community does lower the temperature a bit,” Father Massa said, “but we have persevered other controversies in the past and at the end of the day we are all at the table of dialogue.”


2008: An article published by The New York Times reporting that the selection of Israel as guest of honor at this spring’s International Book Fair in Turin has set off a furious debate among Italian, Israeli and Arab authors and intellectuals, including calls to boycott the event, Italy’s largest annual gathering of the publishing world provides portrait of the double standard to which Israel and Israelis are subjected.


2009(15thof Shevat, 5769): Tu B’Shevat



2009:At NYU, the Taub Center for Israel Studies cosponsored a briefing and Q&A session with Ambassador Asaf Shariv, Consul General of Israel.


2010: The 14th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Pillar of Salt,”a film “based on the autobiographical novel by sociologist Albert Memmi” which “captures the cultural richness and social complexity of a Jewish boy's life in Tunisia.”


2010: The 92nd Street Y in New York is scheduled to present “Those Who Trespass Against Us: A Dialogue on Murderous Neighbors” a program featuring Philip Gourevitch author of We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, and Jan Gross the author of Neighbors, an extraordinary account of the day in 1941 when the Jews of Jedwabne, Poland, were brutally killed by their fellow townspeople, discuss this question and its dreadful consequences.


2010: In Washington, D.C., Maina Chawla Singh is scheduled to present "Being Indian, Being Israeli: Migration, Ethnicity and Gender in the Jewish Homeland."


2010: Joel Chasnoff’s memoir The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A skinny Jewish Kid From Chicago Fights Hezbollah is scheduled for release today by its publisher Free Press.


2010:Well-known Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel relayed his efforts to speak out against both the Iranian regime and the Goldstone Commission's report today. The prolific author has put together a petition denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, signed by some 50 other Nobel Prize winners, which will run as a full page advertisement in newspapers such as the New York Times.

 

2010(25thof Shevat,5770):Ninety-three year old Dr. Albert M. Kligman, a dermatologist who invented the widely used acne medication Retin-A but whose experiments involving prisoners raised ethical questions that dogged his career, died today in Philadelphia (As reported by Denise Gellene)


2010: A memorial service for 86 year Samuel Hirsch, “a life-long labor and civil rights activist who served in the U.S. Army will be held today NYU’s Tamiment Library.


2011: “The Socalled Move,” a film that “charts the personal quest of an obsessive personality as he excavates, then deconstructs his Jewish musical heritage to create an illuminating union of cultures” is scheduled to be screened at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.


2011:The Eleventh Annual Herzliya Conference is scheduled to come to an end.


2011: Tony Kushner. The Professor of Jewish/non-Jewish relations in the Parkes Institute and History Department, University of Southampton whose research interests includes British Jewish history, immigration issues and responses to the Jews, is scheduled to be one of those delivering a lecture entitled Refugees in the Media: Then and Now at the Wiener Library in London.


2011: NewCAJE is scheduled to present a webinar by Rabbi Anne Brener entitled "Reflections on Life, Death and Debbie Friedman."


2011:Kadima launched a new campaign today highlighting the faults of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and calling for early elections.


2011(5thof Adar I, 5771):Eva Lassman, a Holocaust survivor who became prominent in the Spokane, Wash., area for her frequent appearances at schools and events where she spoke against hatred and bigotry, passed away today at the age of 91. Lassman and her family arrived in Spokane in 1949, but she began speaking publicly only after attending the inaugural gathering of Holocaust survivors in Washington, D.C., in 1983. In the following years she appeared repeatedly at Spokane-area community events, met frequently with schoolchildren, helped organize a major exhibit about Anne Frank at Gonzaga University, and appeared at a human rights rally to counter a hate march by white supremacists in nearby Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Her awards included a presidential commendation from Whitworth University, an honorary law doctorate from Gonzaga and the Carl Maxey Racial Justice Award from the area’s YWCA. In 2009 she became the first recipient of an award named for her, the Eva Lassman Award, from Gonzaga’s Institute for Hate Studies, to recognize individual achievement in combating hatred. George Critchlow, an associate law professor at Gonzaga and a founder of that institute, said Lassman “was so committed to educating about the Holocaust.”Lassman was born in Lodz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw following the Nazi invasion. After the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, she was sent to Majdanek death camp, where she did forced labor. “They took everything from us. I could not take my ring off of my swollen finger. They cut it off with pliers," she told students in 2001. "The air smelled of burning flesh. It was a scene that no human being should ever have to witness.”  She met her husband, Walter “Wolf” Lassman, at a refugee camp after the war. They had two children in Europe and went to Spokane in 1949 under the sponsorship of the Spokane Jewish community. Her husband, a tailor, ran a clothing shop there until he died in 1976. The Spokane newspaper editorialized about Lassman after her death: “She labored to make sure this and future generations never underestimate the consequences of hate. She made hundreds of presentations, mostly to children, and her powerful message made the Holocaust chillingly real for thousands." The editorial added that "the Inland Northwest, tainted as it has been by Hitler worshipers, is a better, more ethical region as a result of her efforts.” (As reported by the Eulogizer)


2011: PechaKucha was held again in Hangar 11. Some 4,000 guests streamed in and out of the warehouse for the back-to-back performances at 7 p.m.and 8 p.m.


2011: The Daily Mail published an article entitled Poles 'plundered mass graves and turned Jews over to the Nazis', controversial book claims” that describes the controversy Golden Harvest by Jan Gross and Irena Grudzinska in which the authors “claim some actively profited from the persecution of the Jews – and would turn them in to the occupying forces for a reward.”


2012: Marc Caplan is scheduled to deliver the Podbrodz Memorial Lecture sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research entitled Belarus in Berlin/Berlin in Belarus: Moyshe Kulbak’s Raysn and Meshiekh ben-Efrayim


2012: At the JCC of Northern Virginia,The ReelAbilities Film Festival part of a week-long festival dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with various disabilities is scheduled to come to a close.


2012: Significant steps forward were taken today in talks between the Finance Ministry and the Histadrut Labor Federation to end Israel’s general strike. According to the agreement under discussion, a few thousand out of 300,000 contract workers will become state employees, whose salaries and social benefits will improve significantly. These positions will be offered up through tenders by the accountant general at the Finance Ministry. In parallel, the number of inspectors that are meant to oversee the conditions of employment of the contract workers will increase by one hundred.

 


2012: The State Comptroller’s report on the December 2010 Carmel fire will place “special” responsibility with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Interior Minister Eli Yishai for failures that led to the disaster, and “general” responsibility with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, observers said today.The final draft of the report was presented to government ministers and officials today. Recipients will be given three weeks to comment on the report. 

2013: The Ensemble Millennium is scheduled to perform “The Russians” a concert featuring the works of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky at the Eden-Tamir Music Center in Jerusalem.


 
2013: In Frederick, MD, Beth Sholom Congregation is scheduled to host its Second Annual Casino Night.


2013: As a near record blizzard batters the Northeastern United States, “at least two synagogues in Providence, RI, called off Shabbat services. “Due to the impending blizzard all worship services have been canceled Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” said a recorded message at Providence’s Temple Beth-El yesterday afternoon. Newport, RI’s Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the country, will reportedly not hold services this Shabbat for the first time in years. Nearly 99% of Aquidneck Island, where Newport is located, lost power, according to the Providence Journal. (As reported by JTA and AP)


2014: “The Mexican Suitcase,” an exhibition of the photographs of CHIM (David Seymour) is scheduled to come to a close at Museo San Ildefonson in Mexico City.


2014: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host David Weinstone and The Music for Aardvarks Band


2014: Rabbi Cahim Seidler is scheduled to present “Exile: The Secret of Jewish Survival” at Temple Emanu-El’s Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.


2014: “The Dybbuk” made in Poland in 1937 with a “screenplay by Yiddish novelist Alter Kacyzne,and cantorials by Gershon Sirota is scheduled to be shown at the Westside Neighborhood School in L.A.


2014: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Sex After: Women Share How Intimacy Changes as Life Changes by Iris Krasnow, Last Train to Paris by Michele Zackheim and Alena by Rachel Pastan as well as an interview with Rachel Kushner http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/books/review/rachel-kushner-by-the-book.html?ref=books

This Day, February 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 10



1163: Baldwin III, the first so-called King of Jerusalem to have been in “the Holy Land” passed away.  None of these Crusader monarchs were rightful heirs to the crown worn by David, Solomon and their successors. His successors would so bungle things that 25 years later Saladin would take the city which was a boon for the Jewish people.


1258: Mongols overran Baghdad, burning it to the ground and killing 10,000 citizens. This marked the beginning of the Il-khan (Mongol) Dynasty in Persia.  The Dynasty lasted until 1335. With the conquest of Baghdadby the grandson of Genghis Khan, the Mongol dynasty replaced the Abbasids. The Mongols were for the most part tolerant of Judaism. An Arab writer reported that on the eve of the Mongolian invasion there were 36,000 Jews living in the city and that they supported 16 Synagogues. Most of the city was destroyed during the siege. It is during this period that Judeo-Persian literature flourished specifically the poetry of Shahin whose most famous work was Sefer Sharh Shain al Hatorah.


1660(28thof Shevat, 5420): Saul Levi Morteirapassed away.  Born in 1596, he was a Dutch rabbi of Portuguese descent. In a Spanish poem Daniel Levi de Barrios speaks of him as being a native of Germany ("de Alemania natural"). When in 1616 Morteira escorted the body of the physician Elijah Montalto from France to Amsterdam, the Sephardic congregation Bet Ya'aob elected him akam in succession to Moses ben Aroyo. Morteira was the founder of the congregational school Keter Torah. He taught Talmud and Jewish philosophy to the older students. He had also to preach three times a month.. Among his most distinguished pupils were Baruch Spinoza and Moses Zacuto. Morteira and Isaac da Fonseca Aboab (Manasseh ben Israel was at that time in England) were the members of the bet din which pronounced the decree of excommunication ("erem") against Spinoza. Some of Morteira's pupils published Gibeat Shaul a collection of fifty sermons on the Pentateuch, selected from 500 derashot written by Morteira.


1763: The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement marking the end of the Seven Years War which those living in North America called the French and Indian War.  As part of the agreement, France ceded Quebec to the British.  This opened the way to Jewish settlement in Canada since French law had prohibited Jews from settling the colony.  Under “the law of unintended consequences,” the war left Britain with a debt that it looked to the North American colonies to help pay off.  The taxation levied on the 13 colonies was a cause of the American Revolution which helped to create the nation that has become home to one of the leading Jewish communities in our history.


1755: Sixty-six year old French author and political philosopher Charles Louis De Secondat Montesquieu, simply known as Montesquieu passed away.  A product of the Age of Reason, the optimistic Montesquieu’s most famous work is De l'esprit des loiswhich is known in English as The Spirit of the Laws, published in 1748.  Montesquieu did not just believe in religious toleration.  He believed that the state had a responsibility to see to it that religious groups leave each other in peace.  In the Spirit of Laws he writes, “’I cannot help remarking by the way how this nation (the Jews) has been sported with from one age to another: at one time their effects were confiscated when they were will to become Christians; and at another, if they refused to become Christians they were ordered to be burn.’” He described the Jews as a “’a mother that brought forth two daughters who have stabbed herewith a thousand wounds.’”  As befitted his optimistic views, Montesquieu believed “’the Jews are at present safe; superstition will return no more, and they will no longer be exterminated on conscientious principles.’” Unfortunately, History would prove him wrong.


1779: Jews were granted right of residence in Stuttgart, Germany(As bad as all the bad things that happened to the Jewish people were, one often considers some of the good things also bad - Anon). The Jewish experience in the Germanic states was a mixed bag.  Emancipation and anti-Semitism co-existed in an uneasy alliance that produced great culture but ended in the ashes of the Shoah.


1791: Birthdate of Reverend Henry Hart Milman who published History of The Jewsin 1829, which was the first work by an English clergyman that “treats Jews as an Oriental tribe.”  Milman based his work on “documentary evidence” and minimized the mythological approach that was used in earlier such works. In a world where the Bible and Science were clashing, his view was upsetting to many Christians and delayed the advancement of his career.


1795: Birthdate of Dutch born French painter Ary Scheffer.  Scheffer was not Jewish but one of his famous paintings “Ruth & Naomi” is based on the Book of Ruth.


1799: Duke Karl Eugene decreed that no Jew should be deprived of the right of residence in Stuttgart, Germany


1800(15th of Shevat, 5560): Tu B’Shevat


1800(15th of Shevat, 5560): Benjamin Cohen - the maternal grandfather of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands – passed away. Born in 1725, Cohen was a successful businessman, Jewish teacher and supporter of William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau, the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic.


1802: In London Isaac D’Israeli married Maria Basevi, the daughter of Anglo-Jewish merchant whose family originally came from Italy.  This union produced five children the most of which was Benjamin, the future Prime Minister and Earl Beaconsfield.


1804: Birthdate of Joseph Zender, the German Jewish bibliographer who became librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in 1845.


1824: Simon Bolivar named dictator by the Congress of Peru. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Jews of Curacao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight for the independence of Venezuela and Colombia from their Spanish colonizers. Two Jewish men from Curacao distinguished themselves in Simon Bolivar’s army, while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge for him and his family.


1829: Leo XII, the Pope who in 1826 ordered that the gates of the Ghetto at Ancona be replaced and that the “old time persecutions” be resumed, passed away today.


1831: Birthdate of Dr. Isaac Rülf, a German rabbi who supplemented his income as a newspaper editor and became an early supporter of the Zionist cause.


1836: Dr. Albert Moses Levy completed his service chief surgeon in the Texas Volunteer Army that had fought against Mexico.


1840: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three years before the wedding Victoria had “knighted Moses Haim Montefiore” and a year after her marriage she made Isaac Lyon Goldsmid a  baronet, making him the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. According to one source, “Prince Albert may have had a Jewish father.”  According to this report, “Albert's mother was dismissed from the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha for having an affair with the Jewish chamberlain, the Baron von Mayern.”


1852: An article entitled "The Revolution in Northern Mexico" published today reported that the Mexican revolutionaries are opposed by foreign merchants in Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico.  They are led by an English Jew named Charles Uhde a man with major business interests "south of the border" and who is the editor of the Brownsville Flag.


1853: Birthdate of Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt, German mineralogist. Goldschmidt made important studies of crystallography. His books The Index of Crystal Forms and The Atlas of Crystal Forms are considered classics of mineralogy.


1858: Lord John Russell's bill that would modify the oath of office so that Jews could serve in Parliament was "debated and read for a second time" in the House of Commons.


1868(17th of Shevat): Rabbi Chaim ben Jacob Polani author of Lev Chaim passed away


1869: Twenty-seven year old Myer S. Isaacs, who would go on to become a distinguished jurist and President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, married Marie Solomon, the daughter of B.L. Solomon. 


1869:Twelve years after founding The Jewish Messenger with his father and seven years after being admitted to the Bar, 27 year old Myer S. Isaacs married Marie Solomon, the daughter of New Yorker B.L. Solomon. She would pass away in 1888 leaving him with six children including I.S. Isaacs and Louis Isaacs.  He would on to become a judge and President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.


1874: Baron Mayer Amschelm de Rothschild, late Member of Parliament for Hythe was laid to rest this morning at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden.  According to an article in the Pall Mall Gazette,“the funeral cortege consisted of a hearse drawn by four horses followed by thirty mourning coaches and a large number of private carriages.”
 
1876(15thof Shevat, 5636): Tu B’Shevat


1876: In Kings County, the trial of P.N. Rubenstein who is charged with the murder of Sara Alexander, was scheduled to resume this morning at 10 o’clock.


1877: It was reported from Belgrade that the Serbians have refused to discuss granting equal rights to the Jews and Armenians living in their realm.  The opposition is led by merchants in Belgrade who do not want any new business competitiors.


1879: Dr. William M. Taylor will deliver a lecture on “Walter Scott” to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association who are holding a social at the Chickering Hall. 


1880(28th of Shevat, 5640):Adolphe Crémieux, a French statesman and leader of the Jewish community, passed away. A lawyer and political leader he championed the rights of the less fortunate in general and the Jews in particular. Born before the first French Revolution, he came to power following the Revolution of 1830. He fought to end the death penalty for political offenses and the abolition of slavery in France’s colonies. Crémieux worked tirelessly to improve the conditions of the Jewish community.  “In 1827, he advocated the repeal of the More judaico, legislation stigmatizing the Jews left over from pre-revolutionary France. He founded the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris in 1860, becoming its president four years later. In 1866 Crémieux traveled to Saint Petersburg to successfully defend Jews of Saratov who had been accused in a case of blood libel.”


1881: “La Civilta Cattolica, an official Jesuit publication founded by Pope Pius IX and published under the direct control of the papacy, publishes an article in a 36-part series of anti-Semitic pieces. Father Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo Stefano, one of the journal's founders, argues that pogroms against the Jews are a natural consequence of Jews demanding too much liberty”


1888: In the Ukraine, Adel and  Akiva Brodetsky, the beadle of the local Synagogue, gave birth to Selig Brodetsky, a “British Professor of Mathematics, a member of the World Zionist Executive, who served as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and was the second president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.” He passed away in 1954.


1890: Birthdate of Boris Pasternak, the Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist and poet, author of Dr. Zhivago


1890: The Grand Lodge, No. 1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel met for a second day at Webster Hall. Among the attendees were David Keller, S.B. Hamburger, Aaron Stern, Harry Jacobs, Gabriel Marks and Benjamin Baker.


1890: It was reported today that Edward Lauterbach delivered a speech eulogizing the late Seligman Solomon, the Jewish philanthropist who was the driving the force behind the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The memorial service is an annual event held at the asylums building on Tenth Avenue.


1891: Birthdate of Lessing Julius Rosenwald, an American businessman who was the son of Julius Rosenwald of Sears & Roebuck fame.


1891: It was reported today that very few of the Jewish immigrants from Russia who have received assistance from a fund established by Baron Hirsh settle in the southern United States.  Many of them settle in the West, while smaller numbers settle in the Middle Atlantic States or New England.


1891: According to the first paragraph of trust agreement signed by Baron Hirsch which was made public today, his reason for establishing a charitable fund is that he has “observed with painful interest the suffering and destitution of the Hebrews dwelling in Russia and Rumania where they are oppressed by severe laws and unfriendly neighbors, and have determined to contribute to the relief of such of my brethren in race who have emigrated or shall emigrate from these inhospitable countries to the Republic of the United States of America.”


1892: “A New Loan Commissioner” published today described the appointment of Edward Jacbos to the position of Loan Commissioner in New York by Governor Roswell P. Flower.  A native of Buffalo, the 38 year old Jacobs is a lawyer who has never held office but is a member of the Tammany Society (Ed. Note – Yes the Jewish lawyer belonged to the Irish Catholic political organization) Jacobs is an active member of several Jewish charities and social organizations including the Hebrew Sanitarium, the Sons of Israel and B’nai B’rith.


1894: Meyer Markowitz remained in custody on charges that he had broken the lock off of an icebox and tried to steal the contents to feed his family.  Markowitz is a tailor who has been out of work for several months due to the Depression.  He had exhausted all other sources of assistances, including asking for aid from the United Hebrew Charities. The arresting officer was sympathetic to his plight but the law against theft had to be reinforced.


1895: “Charity and Pleasure” which was published today traces the history of the Purim Association which was formed in 1862 by ten young Jewish men – Moses H. Moses, Herman H. Stettheimer, A. Henry Shutz, Solomon B. Solomon, Joseph A. Levy, Louis G. Schiffer, Solomon Weill, Adolph Sanger, Lionel Davies and Myer S. Isaacs.  The men decided to combine the celebration of the holiday with fundraising by hosting an annual ball that would provide funds for a growing listing of agencies that now includes Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, United Hebrew Charities, the Russian Emergency Fund and many, many more.


1895: “For Sick Poor Children” which was published today provides a history of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The organization grew out of a meeting in the Spring of 1877 at which Dr. S.N. Leo and John J. Davis decided that the children of Jewish parents would benefit from a series of outdoor excursions each summer.  The first excursion took place in August of 1877 and provided a riverboat excursion for between 700 and 800 children and their mothers. These events have become part of the summer time activities for underprivileged New York youngsters thanks to the fundraising activities of Jewish leaders including Abraham Ettinger, Leonard Lewinson, Mrs. A.M. Kohn and Mrs. Julius Hart.


1896: Herzl reads Auto-Emancipation by Leon Pinsker.  Leon Pinsker was a Russian born physician who became a Zionist years before Herzl had his “vision of a Jewish state. ’Auto-Emancipation was a pamphlet Pinsker published in 1882 “in which he urged the Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness.”


1897:  Freedom of religion granted in Madagascar.  This “liberal sounding statement” was actually the product of French imperialism. France conquered the island in 1895 and the Chamber of Deputies voted to annex it in 1896.  The extension of Freedom of Religion, including securing the rights of French Jews who might settle there, was part of the law of unintended consequences.  Madagascar would enter into Jewish history as the site where the Nazis offered, before World War II to deposit the Jews.  This was the so-called Madagascar Plan.


1898: Birthdate of French journalist and author, Joseph Kessel


1901:  Birthdate of actress and teacher of thespians, Stella Adler.  Adler was part of a major theatrical family.  She began her career on the Yiddish stage before making the transition to Broadway.  Her fame as an actress was exceeded only by her fame as an inspiration for aspiring actors and actresses at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York City.  She passed away in 1992 at the age of 91.
1903: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild, reports about the commission and asks for a meeting in Paris.
1903: Birthdate of Russian born composer, Matvey Isaakovich Blatner.


1911(12th of Shevat, 5671): Madame Fakima Modiano, a prominent philanthropist from Salonica, passed away.


1910: Forty-nine year old Jules Guérin the anti-Semitic journalist who helped to found the Antisemitic League of France and was active in the campaign to smear Captain Dreyfus passed away today.


1911: At the request of the Hahambashi, the Turkish Minister of War directs his officers in every Army Corps to provide money for Jewish soldiers to buy Matzah and kosher food during the 8 days of Passover.


1913: Birthdate of Charles “Charlie” Thompson a native of Brookline, MA who helped to smuggle three surplus B-17 Bombers into Israel as she prepared to fight for her independence.. The story of how he and Al Schimmer did this sounds like the stuff of a fictional spy-thriller but it really happened.  These three planes were the only heavy bombers the Israelis had during the war with the invading Arab armies who were supported by modern aircraft.  He was imprisoned by the U.S. for 18 months for doing this but was pardoned posthumously by President Bush in 2008


1914: The completion of the first English translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew by a body of Jewish scholars representing all shades and schools of Jewish thought and learning was celebrated at a dinner in the great hall of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America tonight. Jacob H. Schiff gave the main address praising the work of the translators.
 
1914: Birthdate of one of the world’s greatest harmonica players, Baltimore born Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler.


1914: Birthdate of Wausau, Wisconsin native Benjamin Walter Heineman, the “lawyer and corporate leader who took over railroads, created one of the nation’s first conglomerates and became a close confidant and adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson…”(As reported by Denise Grady)


1917(18th of Shevat, 5677): Raphael “Al” Hayman, the business partner of Charles Frohman with whom he established the Theatrical Syndicate, the dominant theatrical booking agency of its day passed away. Frohman, one of three Jewish brothers from Ohio who made it big in the world of New York entertainment, has died two years earlier when he was on board the RMS Lusitania.


1918:  Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan passed away.  Sultan Abdul-Hamid II's is famous for his refusal to allow Dr. Theodore Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to settle Palestinewith Jewish colonists. Herzl offered to buy up and then turn over the Ottoman Debt to the Sultan's government in return for an Imperial Charter for the Colonization of Palestine by the Jewish people.   Herzl probably thought that he was offering the Sultan a bargain, knowing that the Sultan's dearest wish was to rescue the empire from the indebtedness it had fallen into as a result of easy European loans.  While some saw this as a form of anti-Jewish bias others contend that Abdul Hamid’s response was based on internal nationality problems that were already troubling the empire.  Hamid had enough problems with indigenous groups without bringing a new nationality problem to his tottering empire.


1932(3rd of Adar): Yiddish author Mordecai Rabinowitz (Ben-Ammi) passed away today.


1923: Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas. Today, Texas Tech boasts a small, but vibrant Hillel about which you can find out more by seeing http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/hilleljewishsociety/.


1925(16th of Shevat, 5685): Jacob “Jay” Pike, the brother of Lipman Pike, passed away today. Lipman was a famous baseball player. Jay played in only one major league. In 1877, he got a hit while playing in the outfield for the Brooklyn Hartfords who on that day beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings.


1927: Birthdate of Austrian born British novelist, story-writer and memoirist Jakov Lind author of Landscape in Concreteand Ergo.


1928: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported today the District Court of Jaffa ruled that “compulsory Sabbath observance is in contradiction with Article XV of the Palestine Mandate that states: “The mandatory shall see that complete freedom of conscience and the free exercise of all forms of worship, subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals are assured to all.  No discrimination of any kind shall be made between the inhabitants of Palestine on the ground of race, religion or language.  No person shall be excluded from Palestine on the sole ground of his religious belief.”   The District Court was overruling a decision by a Tel Aviv magistrate who had fined a Jewish shopkeeper named Altschuler for violating the city’s ordinance regarding the observance of the Jewish Sabbath.


1929: Birthdate of Jerry Goldsmith the prolific composer who wrote hundreds of film scores and television theme songs, including music for the films Patton and Basic Instinct and television's The Twilight Zone. He passed away at the age of 75 in 2004.


1929: Birthdate of Elaine Edna Kaufman, founder of owner of Elaine’s, the famed restaurant on the Upper East Side that she made into a New York landmark.


1930: In Manhattan, Beulah and Adolph Lobl gave birth to Elaine Lobl who gained fame as award winning children’s author E.L. Konigsburg. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


1936: With the unification of the police and the SS, the Gestapo became the supreme police agency of Nazi Germany. Gestapo Law was enacted in Prussia, giving them exclusive right to make arrests, and entitled to investigate all activities considered hostile to the state. The same law gave the Gestapo complete independence from the courts.


1938: The Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, made a clear reaffirmation of the British desire to proceed with the partition, as recommended by the Peel Report and the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. Gore repeated that partition was the best means to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that a British Army sergeant was killed by an Arab terrorist near Tulkarm.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that he final allocation of 31 seats at the Jerusalem Community Council was: Labor 10, Revisionists four, Hapoel Hamizrahi and Sephardim three each, and the rest were divided between nine smaller parties. The total number of votes cast was 9,368.


1939: Pope Pious XI passed away.  The Pope earned high marks from the B’nai B’rith which featured him on the cover of its monthly magazine in 1939 hailing for his stag against fascism and racism. In 1939, The Jewish National Monthly describe him as "the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where fine humanitarian statements by the Pope have been issuing regularly".


1939: Jewish converts were banned from Evangelical-Lutheran churches in Thüringen


1940(1st of Adar I, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Adar I


1944 (16th of Shevat, 5704): Dr. George Bernhard, exiled editor and political economics of pre-Nazi Germany who had been living in the United States since February, 1941 passed away today at the age of 68 from the effects of pneumonia. A native of Berlin, Bernhard was part of a Jewish family that had lived in Germany for centuries.  Bernhard’s enjoyed a successful business career before devoting his time to government service and the publishing industry.  “Dr. Bernhard’s Pariser Tageblatt was considered the world’s first anti-Nazi daily” and “was read all over the world by German speaking Nazis” before the Nazis took control of it in 1936.  Bernhard stayed one step ahead of the Nazis, publishing in Paris until it fell in 1940 and then moving on to Marseilles before had to leave Vichy France in 1941.  Dr. Bernhard who had been a deputy member of the Agency for Palestine as a representative of the German Jews and was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish World Congress  was a member of the staff of the Institute of Jewish Affairs from the time he arrived in the United States until his demise.


1944(16thof Shevat, 5704): Yiddish author Israel Joshua Singer brother of two other Yiddish writers, Esther Kreitman and Isaac Bashevis Singer, passed away.


1944: The first ship to break the British blockade of Palestine arrives in Eretz Israel. Worldwide publicity of "illegal" immigration of Jews to Israel was an important factor in England's ultimate decision to give up the mandate. Most of you know the story the “Exodus” which Leon Uris used as basis for novel of that name that later was a big screen Hollywood event.  The story was based on an actual event that took place in 1947.  However, it was only one a series of blockade runners seeking to bring Jews from Europe to Palestine despite the White Paper banning immigration and the military might of the British Royal Navy.


1944:Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored today for her work in helping to rehabilitate 40,000 refugee children in Israel. More than 1,000 persons attended the meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where she received the first citation and cash award given for humanitarian work with children by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, in memory of the late Henrietta Szold, founder of the organization.


1944: Birthdate of Georffrey Alderman the British historian whose works include The Jewish Community in British Politics and Modern British Jewry. He is the father of British authoress Naomi Alderman who was born in 1974.


1947: Dov Rosenbaum, Eliezer Kashani and Mordecai Alkoshi were convicted by a British court of carrying firearms.


1948:The Central Committee of the Communist Party indicted Dimitri Shostakovich and other leading Soviet composers as "formalists," enemies of the people. This bogus charge and all that flowed from it caused one critic to describe 1948 as “the worst year of Dmitri Shostakovich's life;” a year in which the Stalinist government would fire him from two teaching positions, ban his works and take away his livelihood.  Shostakovich, who was not Jewish, responded to all of this travail by setting eleven texts from "Jewish Folk Poetry" -- a collection of Yiddish folk poems published the year before in Russian translation -- for soprano, alto, tenor and piano. This musical work would gain fame as "From Jewish Folk Poetry." Shostakovich's orchestration of the cycle would not be heard in public until 1955, two years after Stalin’s death. [Ed. Note: Shostakovich was not Jewish and I do not now why he chose this way of thumbing his nose at Stalin at a time when the Soviet dictator’s anti-Semitism was reaching a new crescendo]


1949: Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater.  How Jewish was Arthur Miller?  He was Jewish enough that when Marilyn Monroe married him she converted to Judaism.


1949: Lehi Leader Nathan Yellin-Mor was sentenced to 8 years in prison after having been guilty of being part of the leadership of a terrorist organization for his role in the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte.


1950: Seventy-seven year old, French sociologist Marcel Mauss, the nephew of Émile Durkheim, passed away today in Paris.


1950: Birthdate of Mark Spitz, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist.


1951: Birthdate of Robert "Bob" Iger, “the president and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company.”


1950(23rd of Shevat, 5710): French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss passed away.  Mauss was the nephew and intellectual heir of Émile Durkheim.  His most famous work is The Gift.


1952: Birthdate of Zvika Greengold the native of the Kibbutz of the Ghetto fighters who earned Medal of Valor for his heroics during the Yom Kippur War.

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that a strong explosion shook the Soviet Legation building in Tel Aviv, injuring three members of the staff. Israelexpressed "horror and detestation" at this cowardly act. The owner of a Soviet bookshop in Jerusalemwas threatened. This violence came as a wave of anti-Semitism swept across the Soviet Union


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Haifa Technion opened a faculty of agricultural engineering.


1954: Birthdate of Peter Wennik Kaplan, the Manhattan born Harvard graduate who spent 15 exciting years as the editor of the New York Observer. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
 
1962: Ray Lichenstein’s first solo exhibition which included the canvas “Look Mickey” opened today.

1963: In Montreal, Ray and Moishe Applebaum gave birth to their third child, Michael Mark Appelbaum, the future mayor his native city.


1966(20th of Shevat, 5726): Billy Rose composer and band leader passed away. Born William Samuel Rosenberg in New York City, he began his career as a lyricist.   Two of his most famous efforts were "Me and My Shadow" and “It’s Only a Paper Moon." 


1974: Birthdate of Ivri Lider, one of Israel’s most popular pop rock singer-songwriters.


1970(4th of Adar I, 5730): Just 4 months shy of his 100th birthday, Rabbi Tobias Geffen, “the Coca Cola Rabbi” passed away in Atlanta, GA.


1971:The House of Blue Leaves,” directed by Mel Shapiro, opened today Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, where it ran for 337 performances with a cast that included Harold Gould,


1977: In the Bronx Yehonathan Netanyou Lane was named in honor of the Bronx-born Israeli soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid in 1976.  Netanyou was the only Israeli soldier to die in the daring rescue mission.  His brother would build a political career based on the fame garnered from being Jonathan’s surviving brother


1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin rejected the US position that the Jewish settlements in the administered areas are illegal and an obstacle to peace. He said that Israel offered Palestinians a local autonomy which was "more than anything they had been offered by the Arab states which ruled them in the past ­ Jordan and Egypt."


1979(13thof Shevat, 5739): Sixty-two year old Rephoel Baruch Sorotzkin, the Rosh Yehsiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Clevland, the husband of Rochel Bloch, passed away today which was the same date on the Hebrew calendar on which he was born.


1980(23rdof Shevat, 5740): Nathan Yellin-Mor, the leader of Lehi who had been born at Grodno in 1913 and whose political transformation led  him to become “a radical pacifist who support negotiations with the PLO” passed away today.


1990(15thof Shevat, 5750): Tu B’Shevat


1990: The New York Times reported that based on a poll created by Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York, and by the study's sponsor, the Israel-Diaspora Institute, a Tel Aviv-based public policy center that deals with relations between Jews in Israel and elsewhere officials of American Jewish organizations, although highly distrustful of the Palestine Liberation Organization, say that Israel should talk to the P.L.O., a national survey has found. In a group of 780 officials in major Jewish community, religious and philanthropic agencies who responded to a questionnaire, 74 percent approved of private discussions between Israeli officials and those P.L.O. officials who are considered ''moderates.'' Almost as many, 73 percent, approved of talks with the P.L.O. on the condition that the Palestinian group recognize Israel and renounce terrorism, while talks ''with no preconditions'' were endorsed by a plurality of 46 percent, with 42 percent opposed. More than three-quarters of those who responded opposed annexation of the West Bank, expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank and increased deportations of Palestinians from there. Three out of four favored ''territorial compromise in the West Bank and Gaza in return for credible guarantees of peace.''


1990: On Off-Broadway revival of “The Rothschilds,” a musical based on Frederic Morton’s biography opened at the American Jewish Theatre.


1991: An American official said today that Air Force F-15's had destroyed a Scud surface-to-surface missile launcher in western Iraq, but it was not the one that lobbed another projectile into Tel Aviv, Israel, wounding 26 people.


1991: During Desert Storm, the Israeli Army allowed some West Bank and Gaza Palestinians to return to their jobs in Israel today for the first time in three weeks.


1994 (29th of Shevat, 5754):Naftali Sahar a citrus grower, was killed by blows to his head. His body was found in his orchard near Kibbutz Na'an.


1995:Eli Rosenbaum has been named director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Jo Ann Harris, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, announced today. OSIis the unit of the Criminal Division that identifies and takes legal action against those who participated in persecutory activities of the Nazi regime during World War II.  "


1996(20th of Shevat, 5756):Seventy-five year oldHaskell L. Lazere, who was executive director of the New York chapter of the American Jewish Committee from 1969 to 1989 and helped found various human rights coalitions in New York City, passed away at his home on the Upper East Side.(As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

2001: Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" was presented to a crowd of 18,000 men and women at Madison Square Garden.


2001(17th of Shevat, 5761):  Abraham “Abe” Beame, first Jewish Mayor of New York City passed away. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback edition of James Atlas'Bellow: A Biography, the encyclopedic portrait of the writer Saul Bellow  in which the author beat all the bushes to trace his personal life and achievements, drawing on more than a decade's worth of research.


2003(8th of Adar I, 5763): Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary for Richard Nixon during the Watergate Scandal passed away. (As reported by Tina Kelley)


2003(8th of Adar I, 5763):Antoinette Feuerwerker, a French jurist, veteran of the WW II Free French forces and the wife of Rabbi David Feuerwerker, passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of 90.


2005(1st of Adar I, 5765):  Playwright Arthur Miller passed away.(As reported by Marilyn Berger)


2006: In “Beating Swords Into Photographs” published today, Menachem Wecker reviews the wrong of David Seymour.


2006:  Sheloshim ends for Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin) of blessed memory.


2006: An animated film, Curious George, based on the character created by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey featuring Will Ferrell as the voice of the originally unnamed Man With the Yellow Hat, was released. (The Reys are Jewish- Ferrell is not)


2007: “Musical Genius” Chen Halevi performs together with five musicians from the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble in a Classical-Romantic-Modern program featuring works by Mozart, Dvorak and Paul Ben-Haim at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv.


2008: The Sunday New York Times featured a review of Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Againby Jewish author David Frum.


2008: The Sunday New York Times featured a pre-Valentine’s Day interview with Ben Karlin, Wisconsin alum and former member of Hillel based on his book Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me


2008: Jerusalem Post on-line reported that “anger boiled over in Sderot  as residents took to the streets, demanding that the government take stronger steps against the rocket fire from Gaza following a Kassam strike that shattered one local family's Shabbat. Two brothers from Sderot, aged eight and 19, were seriously wounded and two other members of their family were also hospitalized when a rocket fired from northern Gaza- one of almost four dozen launched this weekend - struck two meters from where the boys were standing. Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Quds Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.


2008: At the Tucson Jewish Film Festival in Tucson, AZ a showing of “Samuel Bak:
Painter of Questions,” a documentary that explores Bak's work and life through the lens of his childhood experiences.


2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings of “Sallah Shabati,” “Souvenirs,” “Operation Mural: Casablanca 1960,”The Jews of Lebanon” (le Petite Histoire des Juifs de Liban) and “My Love (Aviva Ahuvati).”


2009:Adelphi University Cultural Events Lecture Series presents a presentation a lecture entitled “Israel and the United Nations”  by Ambassador Danny Carmon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations followed by a Q & A session.


2009: In Little Rock, Arkansas, the Chabad-Lubavitch Center for Jewish Life, under the dynamic leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment, presents a lecture on the power of prayer by Dr. Lisa Aiken, entitled, “Dear G-d, is anyone listening?”


2009:  Israelis go to the polls in the only free, democratic elections (in the western sense of that that term) held in that part of the world. Kadima captures 28 seats and Likud captures 27 seats in the inconclusive race to control the 120 seat Israeli Parliament.


2009: Eighty-nine year old Leo Alan Orenstein, who directed and produced over 150 television shows at the CBC will be laid to rest today at Mount Pleasant emetry


2010: Maggie Anton, author of the outstanding trilogy about Rashi’s Daughters, is scheduled to speak at Milken JCC in West Hills, CA.


2010: The 14th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York Premiere of “Azi Ayima” (Come Mother), “a story of transition, cultural crisis, social survival and also lots of faith, optimism, joy and dignity, told for the first time by Moroccan women of the first generation to immigrate to Israel.” 


2010(26thShevat, 5770):First-Sgt. Muhammad Ihab Khatib, 26, was stabbed to death at the Tapuah junction on this afternoon by Mahmoud Hattib, a Palestinian Authority police officer from Yabed.  Khatib was waiting in his Sufa jeep in a queue of traffic when he was stabbed in the chest through an open window. In the soldier's attempt to speed away, the vehicle overturned. Khatib was evacuated to Petah Tikva's Beilinson Hospital, where he succumbed to the knife wounds. The soldier is survived by a father, a mother, two brothers and three sisters. Several years ago, his uncle was killed in action. In the Second Lebanon War, his aunt was killed when a Katyusha rocket fired by Hizbullah hit her house.


2011: “Five Brothers,” “The Loners” and “There Were Nights” are scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.


2011: Opening night of the Jewish Film Festival in San Diego, CA.


2011: Laura Cohen Apelbaum, Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and Archivist Wendy Turman are scheduled to present an illustrated lecture of Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City, detailing Civil War-era personalities and events in Washington and Alexandria.


2011: Dr Nathan Abrams is scheduled to deliver an illustrated lecture entitled “(Jewish) men and (gentile) women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way” based on romantic comedy, “When Harry Met Sally.”


2011:At a ceremony for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an audience today in the United Nations General Assembly hall that “an independent, strong, thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead.”

 
2011: It was announced today that three authors who attended the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop are among five finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize in fiction for Jewish Literature. They are Allison Amend for “Stations West,” Julie Orringer for “The Invisible Bridge” and Austin Ratner for “Jump Artist.”   Top prize is $100,000 and a $25,000 Choice Award will be given to the first runner-up. Established in 2006, the annual prize honors the contribution of contemporary writers in the exploration and transmission of Jewish values. It is intended to encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest in the future. Fiction and non-fiction books are considered in alternate years. Other finalists, announced by the Jewish Book Council, are Nadia Kalman for “The Cosmopolitans” and “Joseph Skibell for “A Curable Romantic.” Finalists will meet with the judges March 15 in New York, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter. The 2011 award ceremony will be held in New York City on May 31.


2011(6thof Adar I, 5771):Tel Aviv University Professor Michael Harsegor, one of Israel's most-prominent historians, passed away today at the age of 87. For decades Harsegor taught history at Tel Aviv University and was considered an expert on Late Middle Ages European History. He was most well-known to the Israeli public for hosting the long-running Army Radio program "historical hour". Harsegor was a native of Romania, but moved to Israel in 1949 at the age of 25. In Romania, he was sentenced to 20 years hard labor for being a member of the HaShomer HaTzair Zionist youth movment, but was released in 1944.After arriving in Israel, following a short imprisonment by British forces in Cyprus, Harsegor became a member of Kibbutz Zikim, and also gave the kibbutz its name. (As reported by Ben Hartman)


2012: In New York, an exhibition of the work of Ilan Averbuch, an Israeli artist who creates sculpture using wood, stone, copper and steel is scheduled to come to an end.


2012: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a Tu B’Shevat Dinner this evening.


2012: Jews around the world can participate in the International Young Israel MovementMishloach Manot Campaign 2012 starting at 10:AM www.iyim.org.il/mishloach-manot/ 


2012: Israel's Defense Ministry said this morning that it had conducted a successful test of the Arrow 2 missile defense system. In a statement released shortly after the test, the Defense Ministry said the test examined "the improved capabilities of the new Green Pine radar-guided detection system."

2012:The Knesset's Judicial Selection Committee approved Justice Asher Grunis as the new Supreme Court President today after the veteran judge stood at heart of a months-long political storm. Seven of the committee's nine members supported the nomination, with MK David Rotem abstaining.
 
2012: A general strike in Israel's public sector will continue today, after negotiations between the Histradrut Labor Federation and the Finance failed to resolve the gap between the two sides late yesterday.


2013: In Washington, DC final scheduled day for “Matzah Without Dogma: Four Centuries of Secular and Humanistic Judaism” featuring Rabbi Adam Chalom, North American Dean of the IISHJ


2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to present “The Queen of H Street, a one-woman show that tells the true life story of Anna Shulman, her arrival in the U.S. and in Washington, and her impact on the H Street neighborhood, home to Jewish merchants in the 1920s and 1930s


2013: At the Grammies, “The Jewish Canadian singer Drake won an award for Rap Album of the Year and the indie pop band “fun” whose leader singer Antonoff is Jewish won the Song of the Year with “W Are Young.” (As reported by JTA and The Jewish Press)


2013: The Baltimore Zionist District and United Against a Nuclear Iran are scheduled to join forces today with more than a dozen other organizations — Jewish and non-Jewish --  in front of the Baltimore Convention Center during the Motor Trend International Auto Show to call upon auto manufacturers to stop doing business with Iran.


2013: “Orchestra of Exiles” a film about Bronislaw Huberman, the man who saved 1,000 musicians, their families and their friends, is scheduled to be shown in Iowa City, Iowa.


2013:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Posen Foundation are scheduled to present: “Jews and Words: A Celebration of Jewish Writing, Language, and Expression” – a series of panel discussion including such literary luminaries as Jonathan Sarna and Dora Horn.


2013: Four hundred police officers and 200 private security guards were on hand at Teddy Stadium in the capital as Beitar Jerusalem played a high-tension match against Arab squad Bnei Sakhnin tonight.


 2013: Barack Obama will be making his first presidential visit to Israel next month primarily in order to tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in person to hold off on any military intervention in Iran, it was reported today


2013:A float satirizing local politicians dressed as Nazis holding canisters of Zyklon B gas is to take part in a carnival parade in the Belgian city of Aalst which is scheduled to take place today. (As reported by JTA and Forward)


2014: A version of “Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue” based on the exhibit at the Walter’s in Baltimore is scheduled to come to a close at Yeshiva University.” (As reported by Menachem Wecke)



2014: The Tulane University Jewish Studies Department led by its chair Dr. Brian J. Horowitz is scheduled to host a lecture by Jennifer Richard entitled “Passover and Politics: Remember the Jewishness of Hannah Arendt.”


2014: “Putzel” is scheduled to be shown at the 14th annual the David Posnack JCC Jewish Film Festival.


2014: “Five Hours from Paris” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at UK Jewish Film Festival.

This Day, February 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 11



55: Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome clearing the way for Nero to become Emperor Would things have been better or worse if Britannicus had ruled instead of Nero?  Nobody can say for sure since there is no record of his views on the Jewish people, Judea or Jerusalem. . Nero’s record regarding the Jews is a mixed bag (at least he did blame them for burning down Rome), he did appoint four inept governors to rule over Judea and appointed Vespasian to put down the Jewish Revolt when it began in 66. Given the rest of Nero’s behavior, the world (including the Jewish world) would have been better off with Britannicus.


1147 (24 Adar): The Jews of Wurzburg were attacked without warning by a band of Crusaders.  “More than twenty among them met a martyrs death including Rabbi Isaac ben Eliakim…The humane Bishop of Wurzburg assigned a burial place in his own private garden for the bodies of the martyrs and sent the survivors to a castle near Wurzburg.”


1201: In Worms, the Jews took up arms to fight alongside the city's non-Jewish residents against an attack by Otto. At that time, Jews were still permitted to bear arms in various cities in Germany, although this privilege was soon to be abolished


1250: During the Seventh Crusade, the three day Battle of Al Mansurah comes to an end with the French forces under the command of the anti-Semitic King Louis IX suffering a crushing defeat.


1349: Jews of Uberlingen, Switzerland were massacred.


1482: By a Papal order, seven new Inquisitors were nominated, among them Tomas de Torquemada who led the Spanish Inquisition that brought an end to the fabled Spanish Jewish community.


1490: In Spainit was declared that no Jew or convert ever be allowed to rule over any Muslims. This was part of Spanish/Muslim negotiations leading up to the eventual surrender of Granada, the last Muslim territory in Iberia.


1491:Isaac ben Judah ibn Katorzi produced the first printed copy of at Naples the Sefer ha-Shorashim a lexicon by Rabbi David Kimhi, known as RADAK.


1531: King Henry VIII is recognized as head of the Church of England, thus helping to unravel papal control of the British Isles, weaken the control of the Catholic Church and help the forces of what might be loosely called Protestant Christianity.  Over the long haul, this was beneficial to the Jews since the rise of Protestants in the Netherlands and England would prove to be beneficial to their acceptance and provide escape from the Church approved Inquistion that had driven them out of Iberia and kept them from New World Settlements in Latin America and French controlled Canada.


1535: Birthdate of Niccolò Sfondrati who as Pope Gregory XIV followed the comparatively benevolent policies of his predecessor Sixtus V.


1673: In England, According to the Conventicle Act of 1664 any prayer meeting of more than five persons not according to the Book of Common Prayer would be considered seditious. The act had been originally designed as a device against the Puritans but soon Jews were prosecuted as well. The Jews requested from the King to either allowed freedom of worship or be allowed to leave the country with their possessions. Charles II ordered the Attorney General to desist from prosecuting the “offenders”.


1689(21st of Shevat): Rabbi Moses ben Galante of Jerusalem, author of Zevah ha-Shelamim passed away


1795:“Sheva, the Benevolent,” an adaptation of English playwright Richard Cumberland's “The Jew; or the Benevolent Hebrew”, the first English language play to feature a Jewish moneylender as the benevolent hero of a stage comedy had its American premiere in Philadelphia, PA.


1812(28th of Shevat, 5572): Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim passed away.  According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, Sinzheim was born in 1745.  He was the son of R. Isaac Sinzheim of Treves and brother-in-law of Herz Cerfbeer and the first rabbi of Strasburg. He was the most learned and prominent member of the Assembly of Notables convened by Napoleon I. He was entrusted with task of answering the questions laid before the assembly by the imperial commissioner; a task which he accomplished in such an admirable fashion that he won the approval of the Emperor himself.


1814: Norway's independence is proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union, the union of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.  As part of its declaration of independence, Norway acquired its first constitution. “This document was relatively liberal, but in §2 it stated that the official state religion was Lutheran Protestantism and that Jews and Jesuits were forbidden from entering the kingdom. The lobbying to change this paragraph was led by the national poet, Henrik Wergeland. In 1851 the ban was indeed reversed, six years after the Wergeland's death.”


1826: University College London is founded under the name University of London. As the first university to open its doors to Women, Roman Catholics and Dissenters, UCL was also the first to admit Jewish students. This traditional link of the College with the Anglo-Jewish community is very much alive today.UniversityCollegeLondonhouses the largest department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies in Europe. The department is the only one in the UK to offer a full degree course and research supervision in Jewish Studies at the BA Honours, MA, MPhil and PhD levels in every subject of Hebrew and Jewish Studies - philology, history, and literature - covering virtually the entire chronological and geographical span of the Hebrew and Jewish civilization from antiquity through the Middle Ages to the modern period. Degrees can be completed on a full- or part-time basis.


1837:Eliezer Eduard Hirschel Kann and Hyacintha Kann gave birth to Dorothea Jacobson.


1841: Hannah Weil and Benjamin Bloomingdale gave birth to Lyman Gustavus Bloomingdale the co-founder of Bloomingdale’s Department Store.


1846(15thof Shevat, 5606): Tu B’Shevat


1859: The New York Times reported that Jews of San Francisco were scheduled to hold a meeting to express their feelings over the kidnapping of “the Mortara child” and the refusal of the papal authorities to return him to his parents. [The Mortara Affair had a galvanizing effect on Jewish communities throughout the world, especially in Western Europe and the United States.  The public displays and attempts to get governments to act on behalf of Jewish victims, which is commonplace today, was almost unheard of one hundred and fifty years ago.]


1859: Heidenheimer, TX, which was named in honor Sampson Heidenheimer who along with his brother  Isaac owned grocery stores in Galveston was located along the Santa Fe railway which was chartered today to join Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, with Santa Fe, New Mexico 


1861: Edwin Booth appeared as Shylock for the first time at The Winter Garden in New York City. According to the reviewer, “first to last, Mr. Booth preserved with thorough faithfulness the varying passions which from time to time usurped the heart of the Jew.”  In playing Shylock, Booth was following in the footsteps of his father Junius Brutus Booth who had previously this creation of Shakespeare’s pen.  


1865(15th of Sh'vat, 5625) Tu B'Shvat


1868: Birthdate of Nachman Syrkin, the Russian-born American Zionist leader.  He may have been the only American to have attended the First Zionist Congress and the Versailles Peace Conference. He was an early advocate of what became the Kibbutz Movement.


1868:In Savannah, GA, Mikveh Israel, a synagogue that had followed the Sephardic Minchag began its shift from the Orthodox to Reform Judaism today “with the addition of a musically-accompanied choir and the elimination of observance of the second day of festivals.”


1869: Jeannette and Aaron Schüler gave birth to Jewish German poet and playwright Else Lasker-Schuler


1874: Birthdate of George Alexander Kohut an Hungarian-born American writer and bibliographer. He was educated at the gymnasium in Grosswardein, at the public schools in New York, at Columbia University (1893–1895), Berlin University, and the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums (1895–97). In the year 1897 he became rabbi of the Congregation Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas, a post which he occupied for three years. In 1902 he became superintendent of the religious school of Temple Emanu-El in New York, and was assistant librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Kohut was the author of: The Index to the Italian words in the "Aruch,""Early Jewish Literature in America,""Sketches of Jewish Loyalty, Bravery, and Patriotism in the South American Colonies and the West Indies,""Martyrs of the Inquisition in South America," and “A Memoir of Dr. Alexander Kohut's Literary Activity," and many other monographs on historical subjects and on folklore. He also edited "Semitic Studies in Memory of Dr. Alexander Kohut". Kohut established a library of Judaica at Yale in 1915, an important collection made by his father, Alexander Kohut, and the "Kohut Endowment" to maintain and improve the "Alexander Kohut Memorial Collection". He passed away in 1933.


1874(24thof Shevat, 5634): Eleanor Ezekiel passed away in Philadelphia, PA


1874: Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis Cohen a Sephardic Jew who served with Union forces during the Civil War before returning to Philadelphia signed the death certificate of Eleanor Ezekiel.


1875: Abraham H. Keinski, a Polish Jew, was arraigned at the Yorkville Police Court on charges that he was responsible for burning down a hat store that he owned which was located on Third Avenue. The prisoner was released after posting $5,000 in bail.


1880(29thof Shevat, 5640): Asher Bijur passed at 4 o’clock this afternoon at his home on West 53rd Street at the age of 54.  He was born at Posen in 1825 and came to the United States when he was 20 years old.  He began his business career by manufacturing cigars and then moved into the leaf tobacco trade. He leaves behind a widow and two sons.


1881: Mr. Arbuckle, a pianist who had been engaged to play a benefit performance at the Park Theatre for the benefit of synagogue in Brooklyn explained his side of the conflict with another pianist named Joseffy.
 
1881: Birthdate of Louis Ginsberg.  Born in Russia, he came to the United States at the age of 22.  After working in West Virginia and Illinois, he settled in Marietta, Ohio, where he established the Producers’ Supply and Tool Company and became a pillar of the community serving as Secretary of B’Nai Israel, President of the Local Jewish War Suffers’ Society, Director of the Hebrew Immigration Society and a generous supporter of the Red Cross.
 
1884(15thof Shevat, 5644): Tu B’Shevat


1886: A charity ball sponsored by the Purim Association will be held this evening at the Metropolitan Opera House.


1889(10th of Adar I, 5649): Simon Mussina, merchant, newspaper editor, and attorney passed away. [This lengthy entry is intended to provide a sense of what American Jewish life was like for those who lived outside of a few major metropolitan areas.] Born in 1805, to Zachariah and Nancy Mussina in Philadelphia, PA, Simon learned the mercantile business from his father. In 1821 Simon and his father took a business trip to Mobile and Clark County, Alabama, where Zachariah drowned while crossing a swollen creek. The family fortune of gold disappeared in the drowning, and Simon was left to support his mother and several younger brothers and sisters. He set up a mercantile store in Clark County, then moved to Mobile, where he developed one of the largest mercantile businesses in the South. Before 1836 a fire burned his savings, and that year he moved to Matagorda, Texas, with his family. He bought the Matagorda Bulletin and edited it until 1840, when he moved to Galveston, where he edited the National Banner to advertise his vast holdings of West Texas lands. When Austin became the state capital, Simon sold the Banner and returned to Matagorda to assume editorship of the Bulletin. He subsequently moved to Galveston, where he established a large drugstore. When the Mexican War started he went to Matamoros, bought land at Point Isabel on the Rio Grande, acquired controlling interest in a Matamoros newspaper, the American Flag, and developed it into one of the most popular newspapers of the time. At the end of the war he served as one of the surveyors who laid out the town of Brownsville. Mussina became a close friend of Sam Houston, who encouraged him to become the chief plaintiff against Judge John C. Watrous, charged with corrupt decisions on land claims in and about Brownsville. The litigation lasted most of Mussina's life. In 1868 he moved to Austin and began proceedings for the La Vega land grant, an eleven-league grant that embraced a part of eastern Waco. This case, too, stayed in litigation. In his sixties Mussina became a member of the State Bar of Texas and established himself as one of the most astute land attorneys in the state. From 1870 to 1873 he served as president of the board of trustees for the state blind and insane asylums and in 1871 he served as alderman for the city of Austin. Mussina never married, but he reared his father's family.” His sister, who had married a Presbyterian minister of Galveston, buried him from that church in Galveston.


1890: Isaac Jacobs was fired from his job as a janitor at Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life), a Hebrew School of which Isaac LIbermann and Hermann Rothstein are the trustees.


1890: A meeting took place at Temple Beth El this evening during which the young people discussed ways of helping the city’s poor Jews many of whom “live on the east side between 42nd and 86th streets from 5thAvenue to the River.”


1890: Among the recipients of the theatrical license fund which was distributed today was the United Hebrew Charities which received $1,500 out of total of $38,200.


1890: This and final day of the annular meeting of Grand Lodge, No.1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons Israel. The Jewish fraternal order’s newly elected officers are: Grand Mater – Louis B. Franklin; First Deputy Grand Master – Joseph Steiner; Grand Treasurer – Raphael Lehman; Grand Secretary – H.I. Goldsmith.


1892: In New York, the authorities expressed their concern today “over the worst outbreak of typhus…that has occurred since the organization of the Health Department.”  The outbreak was most severe among recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia.


1894: Birthdate of Isaac M Kolthoff, the Dutch born chemist who was considered by some to be the “Father of Analytical Chemistry.”  He passed away in Minnesota in 1993 a month after his 99th birthday.


1894: It was reported today that the fifth and final volume or Ernest Renan’s History of the Jews “has had a unique reception in Paris.  “In an interview, Pere Henri Didon speaks tenderly of Renan, and almost approvingly of this closing work” which was published posthumously.


1894: “Diminutive Bride and Groom” published today described the nuptials of Maurice Bear and Bertha Levy, a leading member of the Birmingham, Alabama, Jewish community, both of whom are no more than four feet tall.


1894: On Sunday, Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a talk on “The Mistakes of Ingersoll About Moses” at Temple Emanu-El.


1895(17thof Shevat, 5655): Mrs. Hannah Steinberger, the wife of William Steinberger who teaches Hebrew and German, was found dead “in the miserable quarters” she occupied with her three children in a tenement on the Lower East Side.


1898:  Birthdate of Physicist Leo Szilard.  Born in Hungary, Szilard was a refugee from Hitler’s Europe who first sounded the alarm about the need to build an Atomic Bomb.  He worked with Einstein on the letter that Einstein would take to FDR in 1939.  This effort led to the Manhattan Project.


1902: Birthdate of Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect and designer.


1903:In a letter to the Grand Vizir, Herzl summarizes his proposal – the Ottomans will allow Jewish colonization in Palestine in exchange for a loan of 2 million Turkish pounds.


1905: Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer nos.Vehementer Nos was a papal encyclical by the French law of 1905 providing for the separation of church and state, it denounced the proposition that the state should be separated from the church as "a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error". It is safe to assume that what Pius really meant was that there could be no separation of state from the Catholic Church since he only recognized the validity of the Catholic Church. His view towards Jews can be seen in his response to Herzl’s 1904 request for Papal support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine Pius X responded: We are unable to favor this movement …. The Jews have not recognized our Lord; therefore, we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”


1909: Birthdate of writer and movie director Joseph L Mankiewicz


1909: Birthdate of Max Baer, American boxer.  Baer was a heavyweight fighter who knocked out Max Schmeling, the German champion and symbol of Hitler's Germany, in 1933.  Baer had a Mogen David sown on his shorts.  However, he may really not have been Jewish.  According to some, his mother was a Christian and his father was only "a nominal Jew."  For more on the subject of Max Baer, and Jews in sports, you might want to read Ellis Island to Ebbets Field.


1910: The Turkish Council of State approves statutes, which will allow a Jewish bank to be opened in Salonica.


1910 (2nd of Adar I, 5670): Moshe Leib Lilienblum, Russian born scholar, teacher and philosopher passed away. Following the pogroms that began in 1881, Lilienblum took the unusual stance, for an Orthodox rabbi, of supporting the settlement of Palestine by the Jewish people as the only realistic course of action if Jews were ever to be safe.  This is yet another example of Zionism that pre-dated Herzl.


1911(13th of Shevat, 5671): Baron Albert von Rothschild of the Austrian branch of the House of Rothschild passed away at age 66.


1912(23rd of Shevat, 5672): Fifty-six year old Washington Seligman, the “son of James Seligman who founded the banking firm of J&W Seligiman & Co and brother of Mrs. Benjamin Guggenhieim and Jefferson and De Witt Seligman” took his own life today.  He left a note saying “I am tired of being sick all my life” – a reference to the illnesses that he has confronted over the last quarter of a century.


1914(15th of Shevat, 5674): Tu B’Shevat celebrated for the last time before the start of World War I which opened a four decades of world-wide cataclysm


1914:Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel completed his first term as Post-Master General in the cabinet of Prime Minister Asquith


1916: Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control


1916: Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel completed his second term as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.  His replacement would be Edwin Samuel Montagu, another prominent member of the Anglo-Jewish community.


1917: Birthdate of author Sidney Shelton. Sheldon won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in1947 for writing The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, a Tony Award in1959 for his musical Redhead, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on I Dream of Jeannie, an NBC sitcom. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 89.


1918: Ronald Storrs, the British governor of Jerusalem, approved a plan put forth by British army engineers designed to alleviate the water shortage in Jerusalem.


1920: Birthdate of King Farouk I.  Farouk was the last king of Egypt.  He was the king who led Egypt into its ill-fated war with Israelin 1948.  There are those who say that if Egypthad refused to join the other Arab states, there would never have been a war in 1948.  When Farouk was ousted in 1952, the Israelis thought the new reform government would want to end hostilities.  Unfortunately, the leader of the “Colonel’s Revolt,” Nasser, made destroying Israel the rallying cry for his Pan-Arab Movement.


1925:The White Star liner Olympic with Chiam Weizmann and Bernard Rosenblatt on board, arrived today from Southampton and Cherbourg twenty-four hours late because of the fog off the American coast.


1927(10th of Adar): Fifty-eight year old Composer Joel Engel passed away. Born at Berdyansk in 1868 he moved from Berlin to Palestine where he became “"the true founding father of the modern renascence of Jewish music."


1929: Dedication of the Nathan and Lina Straus Health and Welfare Center in Jerusalem.


1929:Pope Pius XI signs a Concordat and Lateran Treaty with fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini. The pope agrees to discriminate against Jews and Protestants while gaining the assurance that Catholicism would remain the sole and official religion of Italy.”  (Pious was, if anything, not consistent in this matter.  Later he would condemn fascism and racism and support efforts to rescue Jews.)
 
1932: Birthdate of pianist Jerome Lowenthal.


1935: Birthdate of Emanuel Zisman the native of Bulgaria who made Aliyah in 1949 and returned to his native land as Israel’s Ambassador to Bulgaria in 2000.


1936: Richard Tucker married Sarah Perelmuth, the only daughter of Levi and Perelmuth who were also the parents of Yakob Perelemtuh who would gain fame as Jan Peerce.


1937: George Gershwin performed his Piano Concerto in F in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of French maestro Pierre Monteux” during which he “suffered coordination problems and blackouts during the performance” which were symptomatic of the brain tumor that would claim his life a few months later in June of 1937.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that an agreement was signed in Genevaproviding for the status of German refugees who were to be furnished with travel documents, resembling Nansen passports, allowing them to work in the countries where they had been living for more than five years.


1938: The Palestine Post published a special Reporter's Report, a reproduction of a broadcast made on the Palestine Radio by Gershon Agron, the founder and editor of this newspaper, on the tragic situation of Jews in Romania where an authoritarian, anti-Semitic regime was deeply entrenched and had the solid backing of the king.


1939:  Physicist Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Fritisch published a paper on nuclear fission in the hour “Nature.”  Her work contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Meitner was the daughter of a Viennese Jewish family.


1941:Birthdate of Avraham Hirchson, an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1981 and 1984, and again from 1992 until 2009. “He also held the posts of Minister of Communications, Minister of Finance and Minister of Tourism. He resigned following allegations of corruption, and was ultimately convicted of stealing close to 2 million shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation while he was its chairman.”


1941: A pitched-street battle took placed between the NSB, a pro-Nazi Dutch movement and Jewish self-defense groups on the Waterloopein, a square in the center of Amsterdam.


1942 (24th of Shevat, 5702): Flight Lieutenant Michael Weizmann of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, the 25 year old son of Chaim Weizmann, was shot down over the Bay of Biscay.  His body was never found.


1943: The Nazis deported 123 children under the age of twelve without their parents from Paris to the chambers of Birkenau.


1948: Birthdate of Dr. Arthur Gould Schatzkin, “an epidemiologist whose investigations into the connections between diet and cancer yielded new analytic tools and led to the discovery that eating fiber did not prevent the recurrence of polyps in the colon.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)


1948(1st of Adar I, 5708): Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein passed away.


1948(1st of Adar I, 5708):Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs GCB GCMG QC passed away, Born in 1855, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, he was an “Australian judge and politician, the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post. He is the only person ever to have held both positions of Chief Justice of Australia and Governor-General of Australia. He also was an anti-Zionist.


1948: Oral arguments in the case of U.S. v Paramount Pictures, Inc, which had begun on February 9 came to a close.


1952(15thof Shevat, 5712): Tu B’Shevat is observed for the last time under the Presidency of Harry S. Truman.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that 19 persons were detained in Tel Aviv in an intense hunt for culprits responsible for the bombing of the Soviet Legation.


1953: The Soviet Union broke diplomatic relations with Israel.  The Soviet Union competed with the United Statesto be the first to recognize the fledgling state of Israel in 1948.  Stalin hoped the new Jewish state would help to undermine the power of the British Empire in particular and Western democracy in general.  Also, there were some in the Soviet Union who thought that Israel's socialists would lead the new nation into the Eastern Bloc.  Since nobody really can say with total certainty what propelled Stalin and his associates behavior, we can only assume that the decision to break relations in 1953 was a combination of the anti-Semitism which was running rampant in the Soviet Union and/or the realization that the Arabs and not the Israelis would be a better foil to foster Soviet imperialism in the Middle East.


1953:  President Eisenhower refused clemency appeal for convicted spies, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg


1958: Seventy-year old Alfred Ernest Jones a British neurologist who was the first the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud’s biographer passed away. In 1919 he found marital bliss when he wed Katherine Jokl “a Jewish economics graduate from Moravia” who had been a classmate of Freud’s daughters.


1960(13th of Shevat, 5720): Victor Klemperer passed away.  Born in 1881, he “was a businessman, journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specializing in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life, successively, in the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and in the German Democratic Republic were published in 1995.”


1961: The trial of Adolf Eichmann began in Jerusalem


1968: Border fighting broke out between Israeli and Jordanian forces.


1970: In a sign of how the “poor food of eastern European Jewish immigrants” has become chic and trendy, bagels, seedless light rye and “a new marbled bread combining twists of black and regular pumpernickels  are among 113 different varieties of breads, from nine Old-World-Style bakers, at Bloomingdale's Bread Basket, which opens today in the delicacies department.


1976 (10th of Adar I, 5736): Actor Lee J Cobb passed away at the age of 64.  Some of Cobb’s most famous roles were in 12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront and Death of a Salesman.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Lee_Cobb.html



1976: Adlene Harrison became the first Jewish female mayor of a major American city when she was appointed mayor of Dallas.


1979:Under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi is swept from power with the success of the Islamic Revolution. Khomeini. When Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi held power, Iranwas the world's biggest buyer of Israeli arms. The Islamic fundamentalist government which succeeded the Shah militantly damned Zionism up and down and hung a prominent Iranian Jew for "spying for Israel." In 1980, however, when the Iraq-Iran war began, Iranian representatives met in Paris with Israel's deputy defense minister and worked out a "Jews for arms" deal. Iran permitted Jews to emigrate and Israelsold Iranammunition and spare parts for Chieftain Tanks and US-made F-4 Phantom aircraft. Channeled through a private Israeli arms dealer, this particular agreement appropriately ended in 1984, when Iran was slow in paying its bills.  At the same time, under the Ayatollah and his successors, Iranwould arm and train Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.  Nothing is ever straight forward in the swirl of the Middle East.


1981: Birthdate of Michael Andrew “Mike” Seidman who played tight end for UCLA, the Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts.


1986:  Having been released from imprisonment by the USSR, Anatoly Sharansky leaves the country and begins his journey to Israel.

1988(22nd of Shevat, 5748):Rabbi Israel Raphael Margolies, “who spoke out on a variety of social issues and was a longtime civil rights advocate, died of complications from hypoglycemia” at his home in Teaneck, N.J. at the age of 72. Rabbi Margolies grew up in the Williamsburg and Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn and graduated from the Jewish Institute of Religion in Manhattan, a seminary for the education of conservative and reform rabbis He served at Temple Emanu-el in Engelwood, N.J., from 1937 until 1953 and at Beth Am The People's Temple in Manhattan, from 1953 to 1981 From his pulpit, Rabbi Margolies frequently called for equality for minority group members and for women. He was a supporter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and once marched alongside him in a civil rights parade in Englewood Rabbi Margolies was often quoted for his opposition to the Vietnam War and for his belief in peaceful protest, and he was a founding member of the New Jersey chapter of SANE, a Washington-based organization that opposes nuclear weapons.”



1989 (6th of Adar I):Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary ("Rashag") passed away. He was born in 1898. His father, a wealthy businessman and erudite scholar, was a leading Chassid of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn. In 1921, Rabbi Shmaryahu wed Chanah Schneersohn, the oldest daughter of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.When Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak passed away in 1950, there were those who saw Rabbi Shmaryahu -- an accomplished Chassidic scholar and the elder of the Rebbe's two surviving sons-in-law -- as the natural candidate to head of the movement; but when the younger son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was chosen as Rebbe, Rabbi Shmaryahu became his devoted Chassid. Rabbi Shmaryahu served as the executive director of Tomchei Temimim, the world-wide Lubavitch yeshiva system -- a task entrusted to him by his father-in-law -- until his passing on the 6th of Adar I in 1989.


1991: Israel's Defense Minister, Moshe Arens, in a hastily arranged one-day visit to Washington, told President Bush today that Israel was suffering heavy "destruction" from Iraqi missile attacks and that its willingness to refrain from retaliating was wearing thin. In a 30-minute meeting with the President in the Oval Office, Mr. Arens reportedly detailed the effect of Iraq's missile attacks on Israel, telling reporters later, "We see sights of destruction in Israel that have not been seen in a Western country since World War II.


1991: This evening Iraq fired a scud aimed at Tel Aviv. It was the 12th attack against Israel since the start of the Persian Gulf War.  Debris from the attack appeared to fall harmlessly in an unpopulated area causing no injuries or property damage.


1993: The Oslo Talks, which were being conducted in strictest secrecy, were resumed for another two days.  Yossi Beilin sent Dr. Ron Pundak and Dr. Yair Hirschfeld  “to a second round of talks at Sarpsbourg, Norway.


1994(30th of Shevat, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Adar


1994: Sheldon Silver assumed office as the 119thSpeaker of the New York State Assembly.

2001(17th of Shevat, 5761):Screenwriter, author and producer Sy Gomberg passed away at the age of 82. Born in New York City, he received an Oscar Nomination in 1951 for the script he wrote for “When Willie Comes Marching Home.” He also wrote and produced “The Law and Mr.Jones,” a legal sit-com in the 1960’s. Gomberg organized a Hollywood contingent to march with Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights protests. 


2001: The Chicago Tribune published “Holocaust Suit, Book Claim IBM Aided Nazis.”


2001: In the following article entitled IBMTechnology Aided Holocaust, Author Alleges”
Michael Dobbs describes the efforts of Edwin Black to connect IBM to the Final Solution in IBM and the Holocaust.


2002: Israel attacked Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza City in response to unprecedented Palestinian rocket fire and a shooting attack on Israeli civilians.


2004: In what may be an explanation for the poverty suffered by Palestinians, “French prosecutors reveal that they had opened a money-laundering probe into the transfers of millions of dollars to accounts held by Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It had been discovered that nearly $1.27 million had been transferred with some regularity from Switzerland to Mrs. Arafat's accounts in Paris.”


2005:  The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that playwright Arthur Miller had passed away on February 10 at the age of 89.  The Gazette, along with several other newspapers, was able to report on the life of this famous dramatist without once mentioning that he was Jewish.  This despite the fact that one of Miller's first dramatic works dealt with the topic of anti-Semitism and that Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism when she married Miller.  (They always mention the Monroe part.)


2007: Woodwind player Ned Rothenberg, whose newest release is “Inner Diaspora,” on the Tzadik label, performs at the New Art Center in Newtonville, Massachusetts.


2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section features a review of Arianna Franklin’s A Mistress of the Art of Death, a novel set in Medieval Cambridge where the Jews are accused of killing Christian children and an Italian female doctor must discover the truth.


2007: “Wonder Wheel” recorded by the Klexmatics competed for a Grammy for best world of music album.


2007:The Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism is scheduled to convene today with an address by the Foreign Minister in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem.


2008 (5th of Adar I, 5768): Eighty-year old Tom Lantos the only Holocaust Survivor to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives passed away. (As reported by David Herszenhorn)


2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with the New York premiere of “Black Over White.”


2009: Tel Aviv born magician Uri Geller “purchased the uninhabited 100-meter-by-50-meter Lamb Island off the eastern coast of Scotland, previously known for its witch trials, and beaches that Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have described in his novel Treasure Island”


2009:The Department of Academic Affairs offers an exclusive seminar with Dr. Asher Susser, past director and senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.


2009: Gaza terrorists fired three mortar shells at the Eshkol region, and the IAF responded by bombing a Hamas outpost in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. The army said that over 40 rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles had been fired at the South since both Israel and Hamas declared short-term cease-fires at the end of Operation Cast Lead in mid-January.


2009:Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to take refuge in the Hillel office tonight as anti-Israel protesters banged on the glass doors, chanting, "Die, bitch, go back to Israel," and "Die, Jew, get the hell off campus."


2010: The first class of the David Project which is designed to educate and equip people with knowledge about the Arab/Israeli conflict is scheduled to begin at Beit Shalom Synagogue, the Jewish Congregation of Maui.


2010: The 14th New York Jewish Sephardic Festival is scheduled to come to an end with New York premiere of “Children of the Bible,” a film about the “complex situations facing Ethiopian-Israeli youth.”


2010:Ihad Khatib, the IDF officer who was stabbed to death yesterday by a member of the Palestinian Authority, was laid to rest in his Druze community of Maghar today. Khatib, 28, a non-commissioned logistics officer in the elite Kfir Brigade, was attacked at Tapuach Junction, south of Nablus. Hundreds of people attended the funereal, including Major Tomer Levi, Khatib's direct commander, as well as the commander of the Kfir Brigade, Colonel Oren Abman.


2010:After a media blackout was lifted today, the defense establishment revealed that the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) had foiled a Hamas attempt to kidnap an IDF soldier in December, 2009 when five Hamas men were arrested while trying to infiltrate Israel from Egypt, carrying explosives, a gun, a silencer and $15,000 in counterfeit bills, according to the announcement. 


2011(7th of Adar I, 5771):Ninety-two year old Roy Gussow, an abstract sculptor whose polished stainless-steel works with swooping contours gleam in public squares and corporate spaces, died today in Queens. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2010: An exhibition entitled “Our Struggle: Responding to Mein Kampf” opened today at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco.


2011: Release date for “Just Go with It” with a screenplay co-authored by Allan Loeb starring Alan Sandler who also co-produced this remake I.A.L. Diamond’s “Cactus Flower.”


2011: “Surviving Hitler: A Love Story” and “Ingelore” are two documentaries scheduled to be shown at The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.


2011: “Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment” is scheduled to be shown at the 21st Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.


2011: Temple Judah is scheduled to host a Musical Shabbat in Cedar Rapids, IA.


2011:In initial statements, Jewish groups congratulated Egyptians on ousting Hosni Mubarak today and expressed hope for continued peace with Israel. "

2011: The last in a series of three concerts featuring the works of John Cage and Morton Feldman took place at Carnegie Hall. They were a unique duo – a Jew from New York a California transplant who dabbled in all sorts of eastern religions.


2012: In Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila Congregation is scheduled to host a Community Erev Shira in Celedbration of Tu B’Shevat.


2012: The Anat Cohen Quartet, featuring works by Israeli woodwind virtuoso Anat Cohen, is scheduled to make its debut performance at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre in New York City.


2012: IAF aircraft struck four terror targets in the Gaza Strip tonight, in response to a Kassam rocket that was fired from Gaza a few hours earlier at the Eskol Council area.


2012:As the body count rises in Syria, a group of activists held a candlelight vigil tonight outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to protest Moscow’s defense of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

2013: Temple Shaaray Tefila is scheduled to host “The Feminine Face of Spirituality” which will explore essays and poetry that will help to “reveal the feminine voice (bat kol) embedded in Jewish traction.” 


2013: Speaking in the Knesset for the first time since becoming an MK, Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid lambasted the ultra-Orthodox community, saying the country’s Haredi minority can’t hold the rest of the country hostage.


2013(1st of Adar, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Adar


2013: Four veterans of the battle for Jerusalem ensured a monthly female prayer service, complete with prayer shawls, went ahead undisturbed at the Western Wall for the first time in 24 years. Then the former fighters departed, and the women were arrested (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)


2014: The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El is scheduled another lecture by Dr. Daniel Rynhold on “Rav Kook and the Heroism of the Holy.


2014: “Aftermath” and “Brave Miss World” are scheduled to be shown at  the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture’s 24thannual Jewish Film Festival.


2014: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Masterpieces & Curiosities: A Medieval Aquamanile.

This Day, February 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 12



553: Byzantine Emperor Justinian ordered the public reading of the Greek translation to Parshat Hashavuah (weekly Torah portion) on Shabbat morning and prohibited Rabbis from giving drashot on the Torah portion.


1130: Innocent II was elected Pope. He presided over the Second Council of the Latern which did not issue any canons aimed at the Jews.  But it did issue one that forbade Christians from lending money for interest which would have a long-range impact on the Jews.


1481: The first Auto de Fe took place in Seville, Spain. Six Morrano men and six women were burned for allegedly practicing Judaism. These practices could include not eating pig - for whatever reason, washing hands before prayer, changing clothes on the Sabbath, etc. Over two thousand Inquisitions are said to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies. The number of victims in Spain alone is estimated at 39,912.


1486: Over 750 people would be mandated to participate on this very cold day as prisoners in an auto-de-fe in Toledo. They were forced to march barefooted and bareheaded through the streets. Many people came from the countryside to howl and scorn at the prisoners. Among some of the many stipulations of punishment, was the fining of 1/5 of their property, to which the funds went to battle the Muslims in Granada, as well as public self-flagellation over six consecutive Fridays.


1049: Beginning of the papacy of Leo IX, one of the major players in the creation of the Schism of 1054 that would result in the official split of Christianity into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.  Over the next several centuries, Jewish communities would get caught in the cross-fire between these completing Christian sects resulting in death and destruction.  One example was the Great Cossack Uprising that would pit Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians against their Polish Catholic masters.  The worst example is World War I which started, in part, when the Tsar saw himself as the protector of the Serbs who were Orthodox against the Austrians who were Roman Catholics.


1541: Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia. One of those accompanying de Valdivia was a Converso named Rodrigo de Orgonos. Any “Jews” settling in the lands of the Inquisition would have been Conversos so lineage can be a difficult thing to establish.


1663: Birthdate of Cotton Mather the famous Puritan minister who wanted the Jews to convert to his brand of Christianity but who was not an anti-Semite willing to use secular power to bring this about.


1689: The Declaration of Rights which had been drawn by the Convention Parliament was finalized today.  The Declaration created the legal fiction that would protect the rights of Protestants in England and pave the way for William and Mary to ascend to the throne.  The latter event was in the best interest of England’s fledgling Jewish population.


1699:A committee consisting of António Gomes Serra, Menasseh Mendes, Alfonso Rodrigues, Manuel Nunez Miranda, Andrea Lopez, and Pontaleão Rodriguez signed a contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the construction of a building that would serve as a new synagogue in London at a cost of £2,750. Avis would later decline to collect his fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto had taken charge of a congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews or Sephardim who met in a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane. A significant growth in the Jewish community had made it necessary to find larger quarters for the congregation.  The result of this quest was this new construction which would eventually take place on a tract of land at Plough Yard in a section called Bevis Marks; hence the synagogue came to be known as the Bevis Marks Congreaton.


1737:Prince Carl Alexander, the duke of Württemberg, declared in a decree today "that the privy councillor of finance Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was a faithful servant of his prince and of the state, and was intent in every way upon the welfare of both, for which he deserved the thanks of all. Since instead he was persecuted by envy and ill-will to such an extent that attempts were even made to bring him into disfavor with the duke, the latter accorded him his especial protection and expressly forbade the continuation of such attacks." This was the Duke’s way of protecting Oppenheimer.  The protection would end with the Duke’s death.


1804: German philosopher Immanuel Kant passed away. Like many other philosophers of the Enlightenment Kant had less than positive things to say about the Jews. While this should not be the full measure of the man he did “note in a lecture on practical philosophy, ‘Every coward is a liar; Jews for example, not only in business, but also in common life.’"  In “German Idealism and the Jew, Michael Mack, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, argues there is a deep affinity between modern anti-Semitism and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest thinker to emerge from the Enlightenment.”  According to Mack, “for Kant, motives could only be good if they were not aimed at any material benefit. He saw Judaism as an inherently materialist religion, based upon a quid pro quo between God and His chosen people. In order to fully define the formal structures of his philosophy (autonomy, reason, morality and freedom), Kant almost unconsciously fantasized about the Jews as it’s opposite. He posited Judaism as an abstract principle that does nothing else but, paradoxically, desire the consumption of material goods.”


1809: Birthdate of Charles Darwin, the naturalist who developed The Theory of Evolution.  For the most part Jewish leaders have been able to harmonize Darwin with the Bible. One of the exceptions is Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who opposed the  theory of evolution and issued rulings forbidding the reading of text on evolution.


1809: Birthdate of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States. Jews made up a comparatively miniscule part of the American population during the Age of Lincoln.  When Lincoln was born there were approximately seven million people living the United States of whom approximately 2,000 were Jewish. By 1850, when Lincoln’s political career was extremely active, there were approximately 50,000 Jews living among a population of over 23 million Americans.  In Illinois, the Jewish population could not have numbered much more than 200, most of whom lived in Illinois.  By the time Lincoln was elected President, there were approximately 150,000 Jews living among 31,000,000 Americans.  Of the 1,700,000 people living in “the Land of Lincoln,” approximately 1,500 were Jewish.  Given these comparatively miniscule numbers, there was a surprising close connection between Lincoln and the Jewish people on both a personal and communal basis. At the personal level, Abraham Jonas of Quincy, Illinois, the brother of Joseph Jonas, the first Jewish settler of Cincinnati was one of Lincoln’s closest friends and earliest supporters.  According to the City of Quincy Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Jonas arrived in Quincy I838 and was the town’s first Jewish citizen. The friendship between Jonas and Lincoln began that same year and was to last for the next quarter of a century.  Their personal bond was cemented by a politics when the two served together in the Illinois legislature during the 1840’s. Jonas and Lincoln were early members of the Republican Party and Jonas “handled arrangements for his friend’s arrival for the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate in Quincy.”  Jonas and his law partner, Henry Asbury, may have been the first two to “float” Lincoln’s name as Presidential candidate.  When Horace Greely, the powerful New York newspaper publisher spoke in Quincy in December of 1858, the two proposed that the eastern powerbroker might want to consider Lincoln as candidate for the top spot on the Republican ticket in 1860.  Jonas did go to the Republican convention in 1860 where “he worked the floor to help secure the nomination” for his long time personal and political friend. Louis Naphtali Dembitz a twenty-eight year old lawyer, civic leader and prominent member of the Louisville, KY. Jewish community was one of the three delegates who placed Lincoln’s name in nomination at the Republican Convention held in Chicago. Dembitz was the uncle of Louis Dembitz Brandeis who was four at the time of the convention and who would become the first Jewish Justice to sit on the Supreme Court.   Abraham Kohn, City Clerk of Chicago, was another Jew who was an early supporter of Lincoln and who worked at the Republican Convention to secure his nomination.  After Lincoln’s nomination, Kohn gave him a flag that included the following verse from the Book of Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Other early, ardent supporters of Lincoln included the philanthropist Moses Dropsie, founder of Dropsie College and Sigmund Kaufman a German-Jewish newspaper publisher in New York “who worked furiously and successfully to deliver the German immigrant vote to Lincoln.”  Kaufman also served as one of the electors for the State of New York and as such helped turn Lincoln’s popular vote lead into an Electoral College victory.  In 1863, following the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lincoln visited the hospital bed of the mortally wounded hero Lt. Col Leopold Newman, and personally presented him with his commission of appointment as a brigadier general in the Union Army. At the communal level, Lincoln was the first President to make it possible for Rabbis to serve as military chaplains. He signed the 1862 Act of Congress which changed the law that had previously barred all but Christian clergymen from being chaplains. Lincolnshowed his support for Jews in the face of European anti-Semitism.  He appointed a Jew to serve as Counsel in Zurich as a way of letting the Swiss know that the United States government would not tolerate discrimination against American Jews doing business in Switzerland and that the United States Government did not look favorably on the discriminatory treatment of Swiss citizens who were Jewish. But Lincoln’s most famous moment in dealing with the Jews came when he countermanded Grant’s infamous Order #11. The vast majority of Jews were loyal supporters of the Union even in those dark days when the Copperheads and their allies called upon Lincolnto “let our wayward sisters depart in peace.”  Of course, Lincolncame to be viewed as an American Moses who led the African-American Slaves to freedom. Ironically, Lincoln was killed during Pesach, the Jewish holiday of freedom that provided so much of the liberation motif for the work of the Great Emancipator.


1818: Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción. According to the Virtual Jewis Library“The Inquisition was abolished with the establishment of Chilean independence in 1818. Many Jewish citizens or descendants of Converso families were involved in the country's struggle for independence, including General Jose Miguel Carrera, who traced his lineage back to Diego Garcia de Caceres. Carrera was nominated to be the first president of Chile, although Manuel Blanco Encalada actually became the Chilean leader. Diego Portales, father of the 1833 Chilean constitution, also claimed descent from Caceres. Many non-Jewish leaders of the revolution had close ties with Jewish individuals. The first president of the Republic of Chile, Bernard O'Higgins, spent time in the home of Juan Albano Peyreyra, possibly of Jewish ancestry.”


1837(8thof Adar I, 5597): Fifty-year old Karl Ludwig Börne the German author and political philosopher who had changed his name from Lion Baruch when he became a Lutheran, passed away today.


1842: Birthdate of Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu author Les Juifs et l'Antisémitisme; Israël chez les Nationswhich was translated as Israel Among the Nations: A study of the Jews and Antisemitism  by Frances Hellman and published by Putnam andL'Antisémitisme in 1897.


1849: An article published in Wetumpka Daily Standard published was critical of Judge Solomon Heydefeldt's plan to put an end to "unlimited slave immigration" in Alabama.  Heydefeldt  was no abolitionist. He was afraid that "the state would become impoverished through the uncontrolled 'dumping' of slaves in Alabama."  His critic claimed that the Judge's plan would cause the price of slaves to soar and would deprive "the poor who hoped ... to become slave owners of any expectation of economic advancement.


1855: Birthdate of Yankev P. Adler, a native of the Russian Empire who, as Jacob Adler would gain fame as an actor and a star of the Yiddish Theatre in Odessa, London and New York City.


1855: Michigan State University was established. According to recent figures, MSU has 3,000 Jewish undergrads out of a total of 36,000 students and 500 Jewish grad students out of a total of 10,000 graduate students.  MSU offers approximately 25 Jewish Studies courses as well as a Major in Jewish Studies. The university offers a study program in Israel and is home to a Hillel chapter.


1860(19thof Shevat, 5620): Seventy-one year old Isaac Baer Levinsohn, the Russian leader of the Haskalah whose seminal work was Bet Yehuda published in 1837, passed away today.


1864: During the Civil War, "the Confederate Congress voted in secret to create "bodies for the capture destruction of the enemies' property."  Officially known as the Bureau of Special and Secret Service, the unit was funded by the Department of State which was headed by Judah P. Benjamin who now "took on the most dangerous assignment Jefferson Davis had given him, that of spymaster."


1870: Women gained the right to vote in Utah Territory. At this time, the Watters family, Ichel and his new bride Augusta were active members of the community.  According to one account, “Augusta thrived on the challenge of frontier life, becoming a hardy pioneer and eventually a mainstay of the Salt Lake City Jewish Community.


1873(15thof Shevat, 5633): Tu B’Shevat


1874: The Young Ladies’ Charitable Union is scheduled to host a fund raiser at the Lyceum Theatre for the Home for Aged Hebrews.


1877: It was reported today that the Ottoman government “will not press its condition regarding the treat of the Jews of Serbia.”  [Editor’s note: This has little to do with the Jews and everything to do with the Great Powers jockeying for control over the Ottoman Empire.  In an attempt to discredit the Constantinople Conference at which the great powers began slicing up the European portions of the empire, the Turks announced the adoption of a constitution that included a declaration of equal rights for all religious minorities in the Islamic Empire.  This brief statement, which proved to be true, was the Porte’s way of saying that the Christians of Serbia would not have to grant equal rights to the Jews which the Sultan hoped would be a way of guaranteeing Serbian loyalty.]


1880(30th of Shevat, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Adar


1882: It was reported today that the Times of London has published an article written by a mysterious Russian woman known as “O.K.” in tone that offers an apology for the treatment of the Jews living in Russia. The veracity of this author is questionable since she also extols the virtues of Siberia which she described as a land of promise which will soon be over-run by Russian emigrants seeking to live there.


1883:The United States State Department sought Adolphus Simeon Solomons’ advice and assistance regarding the distribution of charity funds to Americans in Ottoman Palestine. Solomons was as a Sephardic Jew born in New York in 1826 who moved to Washington, DC where he made several influential friends and was important enough to have been offered the position of Governor of the District of Columbia by President U.S. Grant.  Solomons did not accept the offer.


1884(16th of Shevat): German author and religious reformer Aaron Bernstein passed away


1884: Birthdate of Max Beckmann, German-born post-modernist painter


1885: Birthdate of vicious anti-Semite Julius Streicher, the Nazi leader who created such publications as Der Strumer


1886: Ha-Yom, the first Hebrew daily newspaper was published in St. Petersburg



1890: A summary of the activities of the United Hebrew Charities for the month of January published today described the aid given to 963 families containing 4.4042 members for the month.
 
1890: “Among the East Side Hebrew Poor” published today described a meeting at Temple Beth-El attended by a large number of young Jews as well as prominent leaders including Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler and Mark Ash of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association where “plans were formulated “ to create an organization to aid the Jews living “on the east side between 42nd and 86thStreets and from Fifth Avenue to the River.”


1890: It was reported today that Rudolph Grossman, the assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth El has been elected president of newly form organization designed to bring aid to the poor Jews of the East Side from their wealthier coreligionists.  Charles S. August has been elected Secretary.


1892: As New York public health officials start to deal with an outbreak of typhus it was reported that some of the first victims were fifty-seven Jewish men, women and children who had been “driven out of Russia” who finally made their way to Marseilles where they board the SS Massilia.  They arrived in New York after twenty nine days at sea.  These public health officials connect the outbreak of typhus with conditions aboard the ship and debilitated conditions of the immigrant passengers.


1893: It was reported today that at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Jastrow has begun teaching a special course in Hebrew designed primarily for (Protestant) clergyman.  (Editor’s note: Professor Jastrow is Morris Jastrow, Jr., who the librarian-in-chief at the school and the son of Marcus Jastrow, the rabbi at Philadelphia’s Rodeph Shalom.)


1893: “Priests and Pigeons” published today described a humorous episode during a Sunday school lesson being taught to youngsters about Haggai and Zachariah.


1893: “Interesting News From Other Schools And Colleges” published today described newly created Harvard Semitic Museum which included Hebrew “rolls of the law and rolls of the prophets” as well as “some translation of the Hebrew Bible into Arabic.


1894: “Ingersoll Praised and Censured” published today summarized the disagreement that Rabbi Joseph Silverman has with agnostic Robert Ingersoll over the latter’s views on Moses. Silverman does not blame Ingersoll for his mischaracterization of the Jewish sage because “The spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures can never be translated.  A man, to read the Bible rightly must hot only understand the language in which it was written, but he must know the customs and traits of the people.”
 
1895: The Purim Association will sponsor a performance of Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the Metropolitan Opera House. The associated has been sponsored an event like this each at Purim time since 1868.  Since 1874 each of these events has raised on the average of $15,000 in net proceeds which go to a variety of charities including Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. 
 
1895: The district of B’nai B’rth that includes the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia opened its annual convention in Atlanta, GA today.
1896: Herzl writes a "Literary Testament".


1897: During today’s dedication of the new building belong to the Hebrew Technical Institute; Joseph B. Bloomingdale presented the key to the building to James H. Hoffman, President of the Institute.


1897: In the course of his talk at the dedication exercise of the Hebrew Technical Institute, Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt explained that he had a duty to see to it that Herr Alwardt, the German anti-Semite could speak publicly and that he was fully protected by the police.  To that end, Roosevelt “selected a cordon of forty officers to preserve the peace, and they were all Hebrews, and what is more, they did preserve the peace.” (Editor’s Note: This  year, an episode of “Blue Bloods” a television show featuring Tom Sellick as the NYC Police Commissioner drew on this event to resolve part of it plot line.)


1897: Birthdate of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Known as "Czar Lepke," Buchalter was a product of the Brooklynunderworld.  During the 1920's he formed the notorious gang called "Murder Incorporated."  The gang specialized in the protection racket.  They began with furriers and leather goods and eventually branched out into the entire garment industry.  During the 1930's, Murder Incorporated was being a small fortune by the movie studios in Hollywood.  Lepke's two decade long reign of terror came to an end when Thomas Dewey went after a variety of gangsters during the late 1930's and 1940's.  Lepke was convicted of murder and electrocuted in March, 1944.  Yes, there were other Jewish gangsters.  But they were a small part of the Jewish population and their criminal activities were never a source of pride.


1897: It was reported today that Secretary Edward T. Devine has said that “The Department of Charities finds no material increase of destitution this year…except among the” Jews because so many of them worked in the garment making industry which is in a slump.  The Department sends all of the “destitute” Jews to the United Hebrew Charities which takes care of them.  (These comments came during a debate about the advisability of providing free food to the poor, something Devine and others opposed)


1897: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El delivered the opening prayer at today’s dedication of the new building that will be part of the Hebrew Technical Institute on Stuyvesant Street.


1898: Professor C.H. Toy delivered the second in a series of lectures on “The Dawn of Literature” entitled “The Dawn of Literature in Babylonia and Egypt” which included numerous comparisons between these two cultures and the literature created by the Jews that is preserved in the Bible.


1899: Among the bills introduced in the New York State Legislature seeking tax exemptions was one brought forward by Mr. Sanders, “exempting the real estate now owned or which may hereafter be acquired by the Beth Israel Hospital Association in the City of New Yorkk”


1901: Herzl meets Lady Battersea, Rothschild's cousin in the apartment of Israel Zangwil.


1903(15thof Shevat, 5663): Tu B’Shevat


1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded. Henry Moskowitz a Jewish physician, and civil rights activist, was one of the six co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Jewish attorney Jack Greenberg played a prominent role in one of the most famous moments in the history of the N.A.A.C.P.He was Assistant Counsel from 1949 to 1961 for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and then, from 1961 to 1984, he succeeded Thurgood Marshall as Director Counsel. Greenberg was one of the attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court as co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Thurgood Marshall.


1912: Arrangements were made today by the family of Washington Seligman to move his body from the Hotel Grand where he had shot himself to Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue.


1912(24thof Shevat, 5672): Louis Heilprin, the Hungarian born historian and encyclopedia editor who was a follower of Lajos Kossuth passed away.  He was part of an intellectual family including his brother Angelo, his grandfather Pinchas and his father Michael who was an editor for the American Cyclopedia and a contributor to The Nation.

 


1915: Birthdate of Canadian actor Lorne Greene.  Greene’s most famous role was that Ben “Pa” Cartwright on Bonanza.  Considering the fact that Little Joe was also played by a Jewish actor, half of America’s favorite cowboy family were MOT- “The Ponderosa” as western homeland for the Jews.


1916: Birthdate of Dutch born actor Max Geldray.  Born in Holland and living in France and touring under such names as "Mac Geldray and his Mouth-Accordion Band", Van Gelder fled to England during the early days of WWII and was injured participating in the Normandy landings in 1944. Tragically, his sister died in a concentration camp during the war. After the war Geldray continued his career as a jazz harmonica player. He was part of the original cast of the 1950's radio show The Goon Show sharing the stage with Peter Sellers.  He stayed on the show for its entire run of nine years. Afterwards, he retired to California, playing at gigs in Renoand Los Angeles, later volunteering at the BettyFordCenterand similar institutions.  He passed away in 2004. 


1922: Achille Ratti is formally installed as Pope Pius XI. Early in his papacy, Pius did sign concordats with various fascist governments.  But he must have had a change of heart.  By the time he died he spoken out against fascism and racism and called for measures to protect Jews .


1923: Twenty-five year old Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass) married Betty Claire Kalb


1924: George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'' premiered in New York City.


1924: George Kaufman's "Beggar on Horseback" premiered in New York City.


1925:”The Estonian government passed a law pertaining to the cultural autonomy of minority peoples. This was a logical step forward in the national policies of the Estonian Republic. The Jewish community quickly prepared its application for cultural autonomy. Statistics on Jewish citizens were compiled. They totaled 3,045, fulfilling the minimum requirement of 3000 for cultural autonomy. In June 1926 the Jewish Cultural Council was elected and Jewish cultural autonomy was declared. The administrative organ of this autonomy was the Board of Jewish Culture, headed by Hirsch Aisenstadt until it was disbanded in 1940.”


1925: After arriving in New York yesterday, Dr. Chaim Weizmann reports on the vibrant condition of the economy in Palestine and of “the numerous business opportunities of which Americans may take advantage.”  Weizmann said that while in the United States he will be seeking a loan of $2,000,000 at seven per cent interest designed to pay for development in Tel Aviv and four large near-by settlements.  The government in Palestine had already given its approval for Weizmann to try and raise the funds.


1926(28thof Shevat, 5686): Fifty-six year old René Worms, a scion of the distinguished French family whose accomplishments including the establishment of the"Revue Internationale de Sociologie”,  the "Bibliothèque Sociologique Internationale," the Institut International de Sociologie and the Société de Sociologie de Paris which earned him being named a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, passed away today.


1929: “The Christian and the Moslem communities of Palestine were urged to lend their best cooperation to the efforts of the Jewish people in the rebuilding of the Holy Land by John Haynes Homes, pastor of the New York Community church, was the guest of honor at a reception given to him today by the municipality of Tel Aviv at City Hall.


1929: Birthdate of Gyorgy Braun, the native of Mateszalka, Hungary, who survived the Holocaust and made a new life for himself in Los Angeles as George Brown


1930: Birthdate of Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.  During the twentieth century, most Jewish office holders were Democrats.  Specter was unusual because he rose to prominence as a Republican.  Today, there are a record number of Jews serving in the U.S. Senate.  For most Americans, Jewish public officials are such an accepted fact of life that both Senators from Californiaare Jewish.  And places like Minnesota, hardly a state with a large bloc of Jewish voters, elect Jews to Congress (As reported by Peter Jackson)


1932: Birthdate of economist and author Julian Simon.


1932: Birthdate of pianist Jerome Lowenthal.


1935: The first Palestine-owned ships of modern times will start service here today, restoring to the Jewish people a profession in which they have had little part since the ancient Phoenicians.  Two new ships Mount Zion and Tel Aviv sail between Palestine, Constananza and Trieste.  While the ships are of “British naval design” they will have Jewish skippers and crews.


1936: Birthdate of American actor Paul Shenar described as being of Turkish and Jewish ancestry. Count this as a maybe.


1936(19th of Shevat): Yiddish historian and journalist Peter Wiernik passed away


1936: Birthdate of Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer, a native of Iraq who made Aliyah in 1950.  He served in the IDF from 1954 through 1984 and then entered into a successful political career that included service as the Minister of Defense and Deputy Prim Minister.


 1938: German troops entered Austria in an event known as the Anschluss.  After the war, Austrians tried to present themselves as the first victims of the Nazis.  The cheering crowds that greeted Hitler at that time tell a different story.  The Austrians were quick to adopt the German attitude toward Austrian Jews. 


1938: Birthdate of author Judy Blume. “Her most famous book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; focused on an 11-year-old girl being brought up by Jewish and non-Jewish parents, and the difficulties she faced in trying to decide which religion to follow.” Blume grew up with two Jewish parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey.


1938: Hitler met with Chancellor Schuschinigg of Austria, claiming that the acts of Austria were treasonous. Hitler put forth extreme written demands designed to make way for Nazism in Austria. Hitler threatened to end a civil relationship between their two countries.


1939: Birthdate of Leon Richard Kass the Chicago born son of “Yiddish speaking, secular, socialist” Jewish immigrants whose exciting life has included everything from Civil Rights Summer with his wife Amy Apfel to serving as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics during the George Bush’s first term in the White House.


1940: The British War Cabinet discussed the 1939 White Paper to limit Jewish land purchase in Palestine.  Despite a protest from Churchill, the land limitation regulations would be put into force.


1941: The Nazis established the Jewish Council for Amsterdam under Abraham Asscher, prominent Amsterdambusinessman and David Cohen, a professor of ancient history at the Municipal University of Amsterdam.


1941: In Amsterdam, German soldiers, assisted by Dutch police, encircled the old Jewish neighborhood and cordoned it off from the rest of the city by putting up barbed wire, opening bridges and putting in police checkpoints which meant that this neighborhood was now forbidden for non-Jews effectively making it a Ghetto.


1941: Occupation Police arrested the "Jewish Foursome"


1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): The Nazis rounded up and murdered 3,000 Jews in the Ukrainian town of Brailov. The Jewish community in the Shtetel of Brailov can be traced back at least to the start of the 17th century. After the war Brailov was the subject of a 52-minute documentary called “Judenfrei: A Shtetl Without Jews.”


1942: Birthdate of Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel.


1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): Avraham Stern was killed after being captured by British authorities in Tel Aviv.  Stern was the leader of Lechi a Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Cherut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", לח"י - לוחמי חירות ישראל) also known as the Stern Gang.  The Polish born Stern had become progressively more violent as he moved from the Haganah, to the Irgun, to his own Stern Gang.  Stern reportedly approached the German and Italian regimes offering to swap helping them in defeating the British for the creation of a Jewish state.  Needless to say, the leaders of the Yishuv disowned Stern and his gang, labeling them as terrorists operating in a way unacceptable to the Jewish community.


1943: Aizik Feder smuggled a letter out of Drancy, France, to his wife. "Tomorrow I am leaving. . . Courage! Courage! Courage!" The next day he is one of 1,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz. He and 311 others were tattooed with a number. The rest were killed. Only 20 of the 311 would survive the war.


1944: Incendiary bombs that exploded simultaneously in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv tonight damaged immigration offices in all three cities.  The bombings were thought to be the work of those who sought to destroy the buildings where the anti-Jewish immigration policies are given practical application.  “Responsible Jewish” leaders expressed their disapproval of the “criminal methods of fighting the immigration issue.”


1947(22nd of Shevat, 5707): Dr. Kurt Lewin, German born social psychologist, passed away.  A believer in Gestalt psychology, Lewin, a veteran of the Kaiser’s Army, came to United States in 1933 and became a U.S. citizen in 1940.


1947(22nd of Shevat, 5707):Moses Gomberg passed away. Born in Russia, he was educated in the United States and became a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan. “In 1896–1897 he took a year's leave to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Baeyer and Thiele in Munich and with Victor Meyer in Heidelberg, where he successfully prepared the long-elusive tetraphenylmethane.”


1949: An unidentified aircraft bombed Jerusalem.  Based on various sources the plane might have been Egyptian or British.


1950: Albert Einstein warned against the building of the hydrogen bomb.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that 20 persons were injured in the course of a Communist demonstration held in Tel Aviv by the Israel-USSR Friendship League. Skirmishes broke out, outside the previously bombed Soviet Legation, between Communists and Israelis outraged by the recent vicious anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli Soviet campaign. The Soviet Ambassador, Mr. Pavel Yershov, received Mr. S. Mikunis and Dr. Moshe Sneh, in the presence of reporters, an unusual diplomatic occurrence. Israeli police arrested 27 persons in connection with the bombing of the Soviet Legation. Moscow radio accused Israeli police of a "clear connivance" in the bombing.


1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in his address to UN officers, Syrian Colonel Ghassan Shabib, a senior Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission delegate had declared, "This country has no room for both peoples. There should be either Jews or Arabs."


1956: Birthdate of Paula Zahn, CNN news anchor


1964: The Beatles performed at a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall arranged by impresario Sid Bernstein who repeated the same success later with the Rolling Stones.


1969: In Brooklyn, public school teachers Charlotte and Abraham Aronofsky, who are Conservative Jews of Ukrainian Jewish descent gave birth to film director Darren Aronofsky


1973(10th of Adar I, 5733): British composer Benjamin Frankelpassed away at the age of 67.  Born to Polish parents who had moved to England,  the first major work to bring Frankel to wider public attention was the Violin Concerto dedicated " In memory of the six million'", a reference to the Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust.


1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, called on Israelto cease all settlement activities in the administered areas and dismantle the existing ones in the Rafiah salient.


1979(15thof Shevat, 5739): Tu B’Shevat


1980(25th of Shevat, 5740):Muriel Rukeyser, poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism, passed away. “Her poem To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said ‘astonished’ her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.”


1986:After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released. The amnesty deal was arranged by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a summit meeting three months earlier. Scharansky was imprisoned for his campaign to win the right for Russian Jews, officially forbidden to practice Judaism, to emigrate from the USSR. Convicted of treason and agitation, Soviet authorities also labeled him an American spy. After his release, he immigrated to Israel, where he was given a hero's welcome. Later, as a member of Israel's parliament, he was an outspoken defender of Russian Jews.


1990: In the following article entitled “As Jerusalem Labors to Settle Soviet Jews, Native Israelis Slip Quietly Away,” Joel Brinkley describes Israel’s attempts to deal with the challenge of Yoradim.


1991: In the early morning hours Iraq carried out its 13th Scud attack. The Scud was hit by the Patriot over a populated section of Tel Aviv and flaming missile parts slammed into the city. At least seven people were lightly injured. The Army reported extensive damage to houses and businesses. Rescue workers, firemen and ambulance crews rushed to the scene and set up barricades to keep curious neighbors away from the damaged area. The light injuries were typical of those sustained by hundreds of Israelis in three weeks of Scud missile attacks by Iraq. Most people have been hurt by shrapnel, flying glass, falling furniture or shock. One man was killed when his house collapsed during an early Scud attack, and three elderly Israelis died of heart failure during another assault


1991: The first Lincoln Prize, funded by Lewis Lehrman, was awarded today to “film-maker Ken Burns for his Civil War Series on PBS” that was narrated by Shelby Foote.  (Lehrman and Foote were Jewish; Burns was not)


1991: The Knesset passed a law whereby a Knesset member who changed political parties while still able to serve and vote in the Knesset itself, could not be made a Minister or a deputy minister and could not be promised a seat in the next Knesset.


1994(1st of Adar, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Adar


2002(30th of Shevat, 5762): Rosh Chodesh Adar


2002(30th of Shevat, 5672): One hundred eleven year old Theresa Bernstein, the Krakow native who became a leading American artist passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2004: Mattel announced the split of Barbie and Ken. Barbie and Ken were named for the children of Jewish businesswoman Ruth Handler, the guiding light behind Mattel who gave the world these iconic toys.


2006: Professional Indian-Jewish cricketer played for Saurashtra in their match against

Maharashtra



2006: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lovers & Players by Jackie Collins (Jewish father, Anglican mother)
 
2007: Bar-Ilan University is resisting pressure to fire history professor Ariel Toaff for writing a book arguing that there is a factual basis to some of the blood libels against the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, university president Moshe Kaveh's media consultant said today. The university administration says it will not restrict the Italian-Israeli professor's academic freedom or take any action against him, despite the condemnations of his book and the anger it has generated. Still, university officials noted that "Pasque di Sangue" (translated variously as "Easter of Blood" or "Bloody Passovers"), which was recently released in Italy, was published privately, without any connection to Bar-Ilan.


2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings “Italian Jewish History & Identity,” presented by Centro Primo Levi


2008:James L. Kugel, a professor of Hebrew at HarvardUniversity from 1982 to 2003, discusses How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.


2008: The social component of the Oscar award season kicked off for Beaufort with a screening and reception sponsored by the Israeli consulate and the entertainment division of the Jewish Federation.


2008: The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this afternoon to designate as a landmark what is believed to be the oldest structure in Queens built as a synagogue. Estée Lauder once worshiped there, and Madonna once lived at a former yeshiva nearby. The synagogue, Congregation Tifereth Israel, at 109-18 54th Avenue in Corona, was built in 1911, when only 20,000 or so of New York’s 1.5 million Jews lived in Queens, according to a report by Kathryn E. Horak, a researcher at the commission. Designed by Crescent L. Varrone, the two-story, wood-frame synagogue combined Gothic and Moorish design with Judaic ornament: pointed-arched windows, a roundel with a Star of David in colored glass, and a gabled parapet. The original wood stoop and railing have been replaced with a brick porch with an iron railing, and the wood clapboard siding has been covered with stucco. The congregation, established in 1906 or 1907, primarily served Jews who had moved to Queens from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and its design mimicked that of synagogues in the neighborhood, which had been shoehorned into narrow tenement lots, similar in scale and material to neighboring tenements and commercial buildings, and featured symmetrical tripartite facades, with a central entrance and corner towers. According to Ms. Horak, there were two Jewish neighborhoods in Corona in the early part of the 20th century: an older and poorer one along Corona Avenue, where Jews managed shirtwaist factories, and a newer and more prosperous one along Northern Boulevard. Josephine Esther Mentzer, later known as Estée Lauder, the cosmetics pioneer who died in 2004 at age 97, was a member of Congregation Tifereth Israel as a young woman. An affiliated yeshiva, on 53rd Avenue, closed in the 1970s and was converted into a residence and music studio; Madonna lived there from 1979 to 1980. The synagogue continued to be used by a dwindling number of congregants until the 1990s, but fell into a state of disrepair, although a small community of Bukharan Jews from the former Soviet Union began meeting there in the mid-1990s. In 2002, the synagogue was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Estée Lauder once worshiped at Tifereth Israel and Madonna once lived at a former yeshiva nearby.


2009: The American Friends of Tel Aviv University present a lecture by Professor Asher Susser, one of Israel's foremost policy analysts and a director of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies entitled "After the Vote: What's Next for Israel?"


2009: Eric Weissberg joined the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College orchestra and chorus, along with the Riverside Inspirational Choir and NYC Labor Choir, in honoring Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday at the Riverside Church in New York City.


2009: By a voice vote, the New York State Senate confirmed the appointment of Jonathan Lippman as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.


2009:One Hundred Years Ago today, WEB Dubois, Julius Rosenthal, Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Stephen Wise and Henry Malkewitz formed the NAACP

 

2010: The Winter Olympics are scheduled to open in Vancouver, Canada. Israel will field a team of three in Vancouver: Mykhaylo Renzyhn, an alpine skier originally from Latvia, and the brother-sister duo Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky, born in Belarus, who compete in ice dancing. Chicago native Ben Agosto, a 2006 Olympic silver medalist, is returning to compete in the ice-dancing pairs. Steve Mesler, a bobsledder from Buffalo, N.Y., is back for his third Olympics.  Laura Spector, 22, had qualified for the U.S. Olympic biathlon team that will be competing this month in Vancouver.


2010: "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim" an exhibition featuring the work of Tel Aviv native Dror Benshtrit is scheduled to open at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York City.


2010:The Israel Defense Forces thwarted an attempted stabbing attack by a Palestinian in Hebron today.


2010: IDF soldiers opened artillery and gun fire on a group of four Palestinians rigging explosives near the Gaza border.


2010: Anders Hogstrom was arrested today in Stockholm for allegedly ordering the theft of the metal sign reading “Arbeit macht frei” from the front gate at Auschwitz.  He was reportedly acting as angent for an unnamed British Nazi sympathizer who wanted to own the sign.


2010(1 Adar, 5770):  Rosh Chodesh Adar


2010(1 Adar, 5770): Seventy-one year old AllanKornblum, who helped steer the F.B.I. into the post-J. Edgar Hoover era by drafting guidelines for its surveillance operations in the 1970s, and whose testimony helped convict the murderer of a black man in a celebrated civil rights case revived nearly 40 years after the event, died  today in Gainesville, Fla. (As reported by Patricia Sullivan)


2010: The Art Market Monitor reported that The Jewish Museum in New York went shopping in London last week, where it bought a 1913 painting by Vuillard at Christie’s.


2011:The Matchmaker, “enchanting coming-of-age drama that tells the story of a relationship between an Israeli teen and a Holocaust survivor who makes ends meet by brokering marriages and has been nominated for 7 Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film, is scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
 
2011: “The Yankles” and “Army of Crime” are scheduled to be shown at the 21st Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.


2011:Egypt's ruling military reassured its international allies today that there would be no break in its peace deal with Israel following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, and it lay out the first tentative steps to keep Egypt's economy and state functioning while it figures out how to overhaul the country for greater democracy.
 
2011(8th of Adar I, 5771): Ninety-six year Sofia Cosma the concert pianist who survived the Gulag, passed away today.


2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “All The Time In The World: New and Selected Stories” by E. L. Doctorow.


2012: “Ahead of Time” and “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” are scheduled to be shown at the Athens Jewish Film Festival in Athens, GA.


2012: As we celebrate the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, Edmon Rodman, has suggested that we take some time to remember Alfred W. Stern a Jewish clothing manufacturing executive who was “one of the greatest private collectors of works about Abraham Lincoln.   (As reported by Edmon J. Rodman for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency)


2012:A man was killed and three others were injured in an attack by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in the Gaza Strip today, described as retaliation for a cross-border rocket launch, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

 


2012:The Israel Air Force may stop the production of the Iron Dome and David Sling missile interception systems in 2012 as a result of insufficient funds, a military budget breakdown revealed today.
 
2013: A multi week-course entitled “The Supreme Court in the Age of Holmes and Brandeis” is scheduled to being this afternoon. How the scion of a prominent New England family and Kentucky-born son of Jewish immigrants came to make common bond on the High Court should make for a fascinating trip through the legal and social history of the United States.


2013: “The Final Journey of King Herod the Great” is scheduled to open today at the Israel Museum. (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)


2013: Prisoner X,” who hanged himself in an Israeli jail in 2010, was an Australian citizen who worked for the Mossad but apparently committed a heinous crime, perhaps treason, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported today.
 
2013: Emergency services were in Jerusalem were placed on high alert today due to intelligence reports of a terror threat to the capital.


2014: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to present “Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue.”


2014: “Zaytoun” and “Aftermath” are scheduled to be shown at the 14th Annual Jewish Film Festival at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center


2014: “The Eleventh Day – The Survivors of Munich 1972” – a documentary in which the seven Israeli Olympians who survived the massacre tell their own story – is scheduled to be shown at San Diego’s Jewish Film Festival.
 
2014: “Some of France’s most esteemed culinary artists, including the head chef at the official residence of the French president, are scheduled to join the kitchens of some of Israel’s most popular restaurants, from Haifa to Beersheva, for a week of special menus and fusion cuisine.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/creme-de-la-creme-of-french-chefs-in-israel-this-week/

2014: One hundred fifth anniversary of the founding the NAACP, America’s leading Civil Rights organization whose founding 6 members included Dr. Henry Moskowitz





 

This Day, February 13, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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February 13



515 BCE (3rd of Adar, 3245): Completion of the construction of the Second Temple at Jerusalem.


1195: This day marked the Speyer (German) ritual-murder libel.  Although there was no proof of any wrongdoing, the Rabbi's daughter was dismembered and her body was hung in the market place for a few days. The rabbi, along with many others, was killed and their houses burned.


1130: The Papcy of Honorius II came to an end. Honorius took no action that directly affected the Jewish people.  However, he did take an active role in the affairs of Eretz Israel as the ultimate leader of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crusader-established entity that the Christians used to control the homeland of the Jews.


1349: Jews were expelled from Burgsordf, Switzerland.


1349: During the Black Plague, the newly chosen Town Council of Strasbourg, gave orders to arrest all the Jews in the city so that they could be put to death.


1469: Birthdate of Elia Levita, early Hebrew grammarian and Yiddish author.


1633:Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome so he can stand trial before the Inquisition for heresy. According to at least one source this episode highlighted a basic difference between Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church “There is no scientific fact regarding the natural world that in itself stands against any of the principles of Judaism.” (As reported by JewishHistory.org)


1689: William and Mary are proclaimed joint sovereigns of Great Britain following the Glorious Revolution. By now, Jews had officially returned to Great Britain. According to some sources, Jewish financiers provided support for the cause that brought the new monarchs to the throne.  Eleven years after they began their reign, the Act for Suppressing Blasphemy which made practicing Judaism legal, was enacted.  King William would knight Solomon de Medina making him the first Jewish peer of the realm.


1728: Cotton Mather passed away.  Like many Puritans, he saw his people as the modern day Israelites.  For more on this see Cotton Mather and the Jews by Lee Friedman and “The Three Jewish Children At Berlin: Cotton Mather’s Obsession” by Linda Munk


1776: A decree was issued forcing Jews who had moved out of the Ghetto of Frankfort to return


1815: Birthday of critic and anthologist Rufus Wilmot Griswold whose marriage to South Carolina Jewess Charlotte Myers in 1845 was either unusual or scandalous depending on which version one chooses to believe.  In a day before the term “cougar” was in use, the 33 anthologist’s marriage to the 42 year well-to-do matron raised eyebrows.


1824: The will of Samuel Simons, a Jew living in Charleston, SC, was "proved today."  He left most of his estate "to relatives and institutions in London."  The one exception was “a bequest to his 'House Keeper Maria Chapman, a free woman of Colour" in the amount of "fourteen hundred dollars, two Negroes...with the issue and increase of the females and also two bedsteads bedding and chairs."  According to Sarna and Mendelssohn, a bequest of this size and nature would indicate that she was his mistress and not just a servant.


1824: In London, Mr. and Mrs. Zakok Aaron Jessel, gave birth to Sir George Jessel an influential jurist who was the first Jew to serve as the Master of Rolls, the most senior judge in England and Wales with the exception of the Lord Chief Justice


1829:Birthdate of Edmund Burke Wood the Canadian lawyer  who made a famous summation after presiding over the case of Kieva Barsky, one of a large group of Jewish refugees who had settled in Winnipeg in 1881 and 1882 after fleeing persecution in Russia. Barsky had been the victim of a vicious anti-Semitic attack while working on the Canadian Pacific Railway, narrowly escaping death when a certain Charles Wicks attacked him with an iron bar. Wood spoke of the contribution of the Jewish people to human history and said that it “...was wholly out of keeping with Canadian justice and surely not in keeping with the asylum that should be offered to persecuted Jewry” that this sort of act should be tolerated


1833(24th of Shevat): Rabbi Ezekeiel Feivel be Ze’ev Wolf, the Maggid of Vilno author of Musar Haskel passed away


1847: Sharon Turner the English historian and friend of Isaac D’Israeli passed away today.  It was Turner who provided the advice to the Anglo-Jewish intellectual that led to the baptism of his children including the future Earl of Beaconsfield.


1847(27th of Shevat): Rabbi Zundel, author Kenaf Rananim passed away


1849: Birthdate of Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Sir Winston Churchill.  Unlike many of his class, according to the great historian Martin Gilbert, Churchill “was noted for his friendship with individual Jews.” Lord Randolph had so many Jewish friends that he was the butt of jokes at his clubs. Of course the Jews with whom Churchill associated were men of his economic and social class such as the Rothschilds and Sir Ernest Cassel, a close personal friend of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward). According to Gilbert who was Sir Winston’s official biographer, the younger Churchill’s Jewish friendships were originally an attempt to show support for his father and gain the paternal approval he so longed for.


1862: Birthdate of musician Karel Weis who composed “The Polish Jew.


1864: Union General Benjamin Butler responded to a second letter from N.S. Isaacs in which he had complained about the General’s negative characterization of Jews, stating that they were smuggling supplies to Confederates in Louisiana and then describing them in classic anti-Semitic terms. In defending himself, the General wrote, “I admit that my experience with men of the Jewish faith or nation has been an unfortunate one. Living in an inland town in Massachusetts before the war, I had met but few…”


1866: Birthdate of Lev Isaakovich Schwarzmann, the Russian born philosopher who gained fame as Lev Isaakovich Shestov.  He was forced to flee after the October Revolution and found refuge in France where he died in 1938.


1870: In a town near Wilno, Anna and Maciej Godowsky, gave birth to pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky.

1871: In Omaha, Nebraska, Leah and Edward Rosewater gave birth to Victor S. Rosewater who followed in his father’s footsteps as editor and publisher of the Omaha Bee and a leader in Republican party politics.


1874: It was reported today that Glad Tidings, a Jewish journal is being printed every Friday in Calcutta using “the Arabic language and Hebrews characters.”


1875(7th of Adar I, 5635): Rabbi Zacharias Frankel passed away.  The scion of a rabbinic family from Prague, Frankel “was the founder, in Germany, of Historical Judaism, the forerunner of Conservative Judaism in America. A member of the first generation of modern rabbis, Frankel fashioned a multifaceted career as pulpit rabbi, spokesman for political emancipation, critic of radical religious reform, editor, head of the first modern rabbinical seminary, and historian of Jewish law.”


1876: An article published today tracing the history of cremation from ancient times to the present reported that “the early Christians followed the custom of the Jews, which was bury, not to burn the dead.  The Rabbis gave the text, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return’ as a reason for burial and refused to burn the deceased members of the community.”  The great historian Tacitus was apparently well acquainted with Jews and their customs since he noted that among the Jews, “it is their practice – ‘corpora condere quam cremare’---‘to bury rather than to burn.’ (Tacitus, History, Volume 5)


1876: In a testament to futility, it was reported today that Abraham Joseph Levy who is currently in Cincinnati, Ohio working to convert Jews to Christianity visited approximately 600 hundred Jewish families in 1875 and succeeded in converting one family of six to Christianity.


1880:1st of Adar, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Adar


1880: The funeral of Asher Bijur, a prominent New York tobacco merchant and leader of the Jewish community is scheduled to take place at his home on West 53rdStreet followed by burial at Cypress Hill.


1881: The synagogue in Neustettin burned down today, a few days after Ernst Henrici had delivered an “anti-Semitic diatribe.” While the Jews thought it was anti-Semitic inspired arson the authorities thought differently and five members of the Jewish community convicted on charges of arson so they could get the insurance money.  The verdict was overturned on appeal.


1881(14th of Adar): Rabbi Gershon Tanhum of Minsk author of Elano d’Hayei passed away


1881: Rabbi E.B.M. Browne of Atlanta, GA, delivered a lecture at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City on the subject of “The Talmud” during which he explained the origins and history of this compendium of Jewish law while dispelling many of the myths surrounding it.  Browne wore many hats and served several pulpits.  Browne was the founder and editor of The Jewish South, “a weekly edited first in Atlanta and later in New Orleans” which he described as “the only Jewish Journal this side of the Mason and Dixon Line.”


1882: It was reported today that the annual masquerade ball of the Purim Association will taking place on the evening of March 2nd.


1882 In London, Anglo-Jewish author Benjamin Farjeon and his wife Maggie who was not Jewish gave birth to award-winning author Eleanor Farjeon.


1885(28thof Shevat, 5645):Seligman Solomon passed away.


1887: Rabbi Alexander Kohut of Ahawath Chesed left for Baltimore this afternoon where he is scheduled to marry Rebekah Bettleheim.


1889: Birthdate of Leontine Schlesinger, the Austrian born actress and director the world would know as Leontine Sagan.


1890: The Russian Jews, who arrived in New York yesterday from Hamburg on board the SS Rugia, will probably be placed in quarantine at a building on Clinton Street which the Board of Health uses for emergency purposes.  The Jews are suspected of having contracted typhus fever which has an incubation period of from 18 to 21 days.


1890: It was reported today that the brass band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum under the direction of Mr. Wiegand will perform “Philadelphia March” in its premiere performance at the upcoming reception hosted by the Seligman Solomon Society.


1891: The will of Philadelphian Ellen M. Philips who had passed away on February 2 was admitted to probate today.


1892(15thof Shevat, 5652): Tu B’Shevat


1893: Charles Frohman’s comedic performers are appearing at the Standard Theatre in New York in “The Girl I Left Behind Me.”


1895: The Hebrew Institute hosted a meeting where the issues of tenement house improvements and “the single tax” were discussed.


1895: It was reported today that an autopsy will be need to be held to determine the cause of death for Mrs. Hannah Steinberger whose friends claim she took he own life.  They blamed her action on the cumulative mistreatment of her by her husband who was arrested last October for assaulting his wife.


1895: In Atlanta, GA, a grand ball will be held this evening in Concordia Hall, for the delegates attending the district convention of B’nai Brith. (Editor’s Note – The Concordia Association was formed by Hungarian and German Jews in 1867 and was the site of Atlanta’s first Jewish wedding.  The Association morphed into the Standard Club in the 1900’s)


1897: It was reported that Theodore Roosevelt, President of the Board of Police Commissioners delivered the main address at the dedication Hebrew Technical Institute’s new facility which had been held on Lincoln’s Birthday even though the building was actually ready for use on January 4.  Other speakers included Max Lowenthal who “delivered an address for the alumni of the institute and …Professor Morris Loeb, Chairman of the Instruction Committee.”


1897: Dr. E.G. Hirsch of Chicago conducted Shabbat morning services today at Temple Beth-El in New York; the congregation served by Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler.


1898: “The Dawn of Literature” published today summarized the views of Harvard Professor C.H.Toy’s regarding the relationship between Egyptian and Babylonian literature and Hebrew literature. He contends that the account of the flood was “engraved on clay tables about 2000 B.C,, long before the Hebraic account was written and…the Biblical account was founded on the Babylonian.”  He also said that he Jews took the stories of Ruth, Jonah and Esther from the literature of the Egyptians.


1899: The Union of Judæo-German Congregations which had been founded in 1869 was officially incorporated today.


1901: In Vienna, Sophie and Robert Lazarsfeld gave birth to sociologist Paul Felix Lazarsfeld,the founder of Columbia University's Bureau for Applied Social Research.


1910(4th of Adar): Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, founder of the Yeshiva in Telz Lithuania passed away today.


1912: “W. Seligman Kills Himself In A Hotel” published today described the events surrounding the suicide of Washington Seligman, the son of banker James Seligman, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to take his life in May of 1903 by slashing his throat with a razor.


1913: The Council of Jewish Women in Los Angeles, California opened a day nursery for children of working mothers of all nationalities.


1913(6th of Adar): Author Yehiel Michael Pines passed away
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_15791.html



1917: In Hudson, NY, Russian Jewish refugees Isaac and Ella Miler Slutzky gave birth to Orville Andrew Slutzky “who with his brother founded the Hunter Mountain ski resort in upstate New York, known in the 1960s for its celebrity clientele and in the 1970s.” (Paul Vitello)


1918:  The Kaiser told “a War Council…that there was a world-wide conspiracy against Germany, the participants in which included…’international Jewry’…He made no mention of the fact that as many as ten thousand Jews…had already been killed fighting in the ranks of the German Army..”


1920: “The Jewish Chronicle” published an article taking exception to Winston Churchill’s characterization of a Jewish relationship to Bolshevism in an article he had published in the

 “Illustrated Sunday Herald.” 



1923: Birthdate of Yifrah Neaman, the Lebanese born British violinist.


1930(15thof Shevat, 5690): First Tu B’Shevat of the Great Depression


1931: “A huge flood…burst” the “Zero Canal” devastating the first power plant “to create electricity for the entire north of Palestine.” (As reported by Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am)


1931: In the wake of a British white paper aimed at limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine, today Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald wrote the famous “Macdonald Letter” to Chiam Weizmann.  ,http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/macdonald.html 
The limitation on immigration had been brought on by violent Arab riots in 1929.


1934: In Great Neck, NY Fannie Blanche Segal (née Bodkin) and George Segal, Sr., a malt and hop agent gave birth to actor and some-time banjo player George Segal.


1938: The Palestine Post reported that two Arab brothers were shot and killed by Arab terrorists near Nablus. The Haifa-Kantara-Cairo train was delayed by sabotage attributed to Arabs taking part in the uprising.


1939: Gone with the Wind director George Cukor was fired by Producer David O. Selznick. Selznick objected to the slow pace of filming, and star Clark Gable had personal conflicts with Cukor. Cukor was replaced the next day with Victor Fleming, who won that year's Academy Award for Best Director for the film. If you have trouble going to sleep, instead of counting sheep, try counting the Jews involved in the making of “Gone With the Wind.”


1939: In “German: Reactions to Hitler” Time magazine reported that Every time Fiihrer Adolf Hitler gets ready to make a speech the world gets scared. Every time he gets through making a speech the world is relieved that he has not immediately plunged it into war. Much the same sense of relief was evident last week after the Dictator finished his annual Reichstag address. Because he announced no troop movements, made no mention of forthcoming invasions and delivered his address in rather more subdued tones than usual, many correspondents, editorial writers, even statesmen called the speech "mild." Those who took the trouble to wade through the long, formless address, however, discovered that it was actually one of the most sensational and threatening talks ever made by the head of a State. Excerpts: "Surely no one can seriously assume that, as in the case of Germany, a mass of 80,000,000 intelligent persons, can be permanently condemned as pariahs or be forced to remain passive forever by having some ridiculous legal title [to colonies], based solely on former acts of force, held up before them."


"In time of crisis one single energetic man outweighs ten feeble intellectuals."


 "Europe cannot settle down until the Jewish question is cleared up."


 "If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then 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."
 
 "We shall protect the German clergy in their capacities as God's ministers, but we shall destroy clergy who are enemies of the German Reich."



 "Let us thank Almighty God that He has granted to our generation and to us the great blessing of experiencing this period of history and this hour."


Remarks like these gave Neville Chamberlain "the impression that it was not the speech of a man who was preparing to throw Europe into another crisis." Not a few other popular spokesmen on both sides of the Atlantic failed to share this view. Said Commentator Dorothy Thompson of the New York Herald Tribune: "Hitler never delivered a more ominous speech or one more cunningly calculated to befuddle his opponents and create dissension in democracies. The speech boils down to a declaration of intention to reapportion the distribution of the world's wealth among nations." James G. McDonald, chairman of President Roosevelt's Committee for Refugees, thought the speech was a threat to peace, that it heralded the Nazis' use of the Jews for expansion purposes. Osservatore Romano, semi-official organ of the Roman Catholic Church, challenging the Fiihrer's statement that no religious persecution exists in Germany, declared that "liberty has lost all meaning in the ecclesiastical and religious fields in the Third Reich."


1941: Nazi leaders attacked the Dutch Jewish Council.


1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): In the Minsk Ghetto, Germans killed the leaders of the Jews deported from Hamburg.


1943: Twelve young Jews who had escaped from the Bialystok ghetto deportations attacked a German police unit at Lobpowy Most.


 1943: Jews in Salonica were prohibited from walking on the street at night, nor using any telephone, private or public.


1944: Birthdate of Sheldon Silver the graduate of Rabbi Jacob Joseph High School and Yeshiva University who began serving as Speaker of the New York State Assembly in 1994.


1944:  Birthdate of sometime politician and disreputable television host, Jerry Springer


1945(30th of Shevat, 5705):Henrietta Szold, American-Jewish women's leader and the founder of Hadassah, who had been seriously ill in Hadassah University Hospital on Mount Scopus since December, died today at the age of 84. She will be buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives tomorrow.


1945: On the day before the night bombing of Dresden, Victor Klemper assisted in delivering notices of deportation to some of the last remaining members of the Jewish community in Dresden. Fearful that he too would soon be sent to his death he used the confusion created by Allied bombings that night to remove his yellow star, join a refugee column, and escape into American-controlled territory.”

1945: During World War II, the Red Army takes Budapest, Hungary from Wehrmacht forces. Reportedly 100,000 Jews were still alive when the Soviets freed the city from Nazi control. 


1946: Birthdate of Richard Blumenthal, an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has served Attorney General of Connecticut.


1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conduct of the Boston Symphony arrived in Israel where he will be giving 16 concerts between now and March 27.


1952: Birthdate Irene Dische, an American writer born and raised in New York's Washington Heights district. Her parents were Viennese Jews, and the neighborhood was home to so many German Jews that it was known as "the Fourth Reich." That German Jews would refer to their new surroundings in this way explains, in part, Dische's unusual world view, which sees isolated individuals living in a shadow realm of confounded cultural identities. Her works include Strange Trafficand The Empress of Weehawken.


1952(17th of Shevat, 5712): German born musicologist Alfred Einstein passes away at the age of 71.  Einstein is one of a long list of intellectuals who fled Hitler’s Germany and made their home in the world of American Academia.


1955 Israel acquired four of the seven Dead Sea scrolls. Between 1947 and 1956 thousands of fragments of biblical and early Jewish documents were discovered in eleven caves near the site of Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea. These important texts have revolutionized our understanding of the way the Bible was transmitted, and have illuminated the general cultural and religious background of ancient Palestine.


1959: Mattel began selling the Barbie doll.  Ruth Handler, President of Mattel, was the major force behind the creation and marketing of this American cultural icon.


1960(15thof Shevat, 5720): Tu B’Shevat 


1965: The Italian government prevented a private theatre in Rome from staging a production of Rolf Hochhuth’s play “The Deputy” which deals with Pope Pius XII’s response to the murder of the Jews.


1975(2ndof Adar, 5735): Seventy-seven year old silent screen actress Dagmar Godowsky passed away on the 105th anniversary of the birth of her father Leopold Godowsky.


1991(29th of Shevat, 5751): Bernard Sauer Yiddish actor suffers a fatal heart attack at the age of 67. “He appeared on Broadway in 1966 in "Let's Sing Yiddish," starring Ben Bonus. He also performed in "Light, Lively and Yiddish" and in "Sing Israel Sing." He was also part of a Yiddish repertory company that performed in 1971 at the Anderson Theater in Manhattan. He was the president of the Hebrew Actors Union for the last five years and a board member of the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance. He was born in Buenos Aires and attended drama school there. His first theatrical appearance was in 1945 in Joseph Buloff's "Yoshke, the Musician."”


1994 (2nd of Adar, 5754):Noam Cohen, age 28, a member of the General Security Service, was shot and killed in an ambush on his car. Two of his colleagues who were also in the vehicle suffered moderate injuries. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack.


1994:The New York Timesannounces the reissuing of two classics: the intriguing, elegantly narrated Freud’s Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in which the author, a historian, analyzes Sigmund Freud's book Moses and Monotheism, arguing that despite its unorthodox approach, the work can still be read as a celebration of Judaism and , in paperback, A History of the Jews in America by Howard M. Sachar


1996(22nd of Shevat, 5756):  Actor Martin Balsam passed away at the age of 76.


http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/14/nyregion/martin-balsam-is-dead-at-76-ubiquitous-character-actor.html



1997:  In what some might see as Jewish musical chairs Janet Yellin replaces Joseph Stiglitz as Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.


2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingEmpires of the Sand The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923by Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh and The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Mythsby Sherwin B. Nuland


2003(10th of Adar I, 5763): Walt Whitman Rostow, U.S. economist, and one of the famous Rostow brothers who served as foreign policy advisors to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, passed away. (As reported by Todd S. Purdum)


2004: Grace Brothers stores were rebranded as Myer. Myer, the largest department store chain in Australia, was started by Sidney Myer a Russian Jew who came to Melbourne in 1899.


2005: The Chicago Tribune reported that the descendants of the Frieder Brothers and those saved from the Holocaust through their efforts related the stories of survival during a public program at the Plum Street Temple in downtown Cincinnati. The Frieder Brothers were Cincinnati Jews who ran a family-owned cigar factory in the Philippines where they helped Jews from Hitler's Germany and Austria take refuge.  They enlisted the help of the first Philippine President Manuel Quezon and the U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines Paul McNutt in their efforts to save thousands of Jews.  Quezon and McNutt were also being honored for their efforts.  Details of this self-less act of courage can be in found in Ephraim's Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror, a book that chronicles their rescue efforts. The Frieder family was very modest.  My sister, Judy Levin Rosenstein (of blessed memory) went to college with Judy Frieder where they began a life-long friendship.  “Frieder” nor any of her family members ever mentioned this episode. 


2005:  The Chicago Tribune reviewed The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss, a biography of Lev Nussimbaum, one of those fascinating, colorful characters who populate the periphery of history.


2005:  The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingRight Turns: Unconventional Lessons From a Controversial Lifeby Michael Medved and My Guardian Angel by Sylvie Weil.  Written for children, this historical novel describes the events that surrounded the arrival of the Crusaders at the town of Troyes, France in 1096.  The tale is told through the eyes of a twelve year old girl named Elvina who is the granddaughter Rashi.  We all know about Rashi's daughters and grandsons.  Here is a chance to learn about his granddaughter and the fate of the Jews of France and Germany during the time of the First Crusade.


2006: Tu B’Shevat – the New Year’s of the Trees.


2007: Gabi Ashkenazi became the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Born in Hagor in 1954, he joined the army in 1972 as a member of the famous Golani Brigade and saw his first combat in the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.


2007: “In the Loop” published today described the comings and goings in the federal government including the hiring of Dan Shapiro by Timmons and Company.


2007: Richard Pearlstone, a member of the prominent philanthropic Meyerhoff family, has been nominated to a possible eight-year term as chair of the Jewish Agency's board of governors, beginning in June.The Meyerhoff family of Baltimore donates millions of dollars a year to various charitable institutions in the U.S. and Israel. Pearlstone himself is affiliated with dozens of institutions and is former national chair of the UJA. He is also former chair of the Agency's budget and finance committee. The Meyerhoff family owned Monumental Life Insurance Company was bought by the AEGON, a Dutch insurance conglomerate. 


2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings of “The Last Jews of Libya,” the U.S. Premiere “Leaving Paradise: The Jews of Jamaica,“ the New York premier of “Ladino – Five Hundred Years Young,” and the North American premier of “Goodbye Mothers” (Adieu Mères).
2008:Israeli author Amos Oz and former U.S. vice president Al Gore are among the recipients of this year's Dan David Prize for influential scientific, technological, cultural or social achievements, the prize administrators announced in Tel Aviv.
 
2008: In a dinner speech given at a meeting of members of France’s Jewish community President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that beginning next fall, every fifth grader will have to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust.



2009:Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center today, a week after surgery to remove a tumor on her pancreas, the court announced.


2009:IAF aircraft struck in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis this afternoon, Palestinian medical officials said, after two Kassam rockets were earlier fired at southern Israel.

 

2009:Amy Siegel won first place at the third annual Manischewitz Cook-Off with her Marvelous Mediterranean Sliders. At the Third Annual Simply Manischewitz Cook-Off six finalists, amateur cooks whose recipes were selected from among thousands of submissions whipped up their easy-to-make dishes at the Marriot Marquis in New York as they competed for the $25,000 grand prize.
 
2010: The JCC On the Palisades is scheduled to host an evening with Nachum Heiman, recipient of the 2009 Israel Prize for Music.


2010: Dan Naturman, Tommy Savitt, Gregg Rogell, Sunda Croonquist and Joe Marks are scheduled to appear in The Raging Jews of Comedy at the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.


2010:"Zubin and I" is scheduled to broadcast this evening, as part of the Cultural Heroes series. “Zubin” is Zubin Mehta. “I” is producer Uri Sivan. It is Israeli. But it is not about war, or Yiddishkeit or any of the other mundane items that seem to grab the headlines and mistakenly define what it means to be Jewish.


2010: In an article describing how  people coped with the record snowstorms in the Washington metropolitan area entitled “Churches, worshipers also feel storms'” Michelle Boorstein writes about Tamara Miller, 62, who was expecting to go to synagogue on Wednesday, the third anniversary of her father's death, to say the mandatory annual prayer for the dead. Miller knew the synagogue would have the quorum of 10 Jews required under Jewish law for certain obligations, including the reciting of the mourner's prayer. When she saw the blizzard, however, she thought of the 1990s TV show "Northern Exposure," about a Jewish doctor living in Alaska, and the episode in which residents of the mostly American-Indian community scatter across a vast area to help him get the quota -- called a "minyan" -- so he could pray for his dead uncle. Miller, who has lived in her Northwest Washington neighborhood for a couple years, sent a plea via the listserv of her 300-unit condo building. Within minutes, she had a few replies. One was from a neighbor who was in Philadelphia, saying he was also in mourning and offering to recite the prayer on her behalf at a synagogue there. By sundown, she had 11 people in her living room-- the 10 required Jews and one non-Jewish neighbor with a cheesecake. "Perhaps our paths will never cross again. Maybe, just maybe, we shared a moment of faith on the worst blizzard in a hundred years," Miller, a rabbi and spiritual counselor, wrote in a letter of thanks. "The act of giving is an act of faith."


2010:A bomb that was detonated in this evening in a crowded café in Pune, India, killed nine people and injured 57 was likely meant for the nearby Chabad House, Indian authorities said. The bakery is located several dozen yards from the city's Chabad house. Pune is 125 miles southeast of Mumbai, where in November 2008 a major terrorist attack in the city at several sites simultaneously, including the Chabad house, killed 179 people, with them six Jewish victims at the Jewish center.


2010(29th of Shevat, 5770):Robert J. Myers, an actuary who helped to create the Social Security program and to set America’s official retirement age at 65, died today at his home in Silver Spring, MD at the age of 97. (As reported by Mary Williams Walsh)


 2011:  Among the films scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival are “Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray,” “Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny” and “100 Voices: A Journey Home.”


2011: “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story” is one of several movies scheduled to shown today at the 21st Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.


2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including J.D. Salinger:A Life by Kenneth Slawenski and In the Valley of the Shadow: On the Foundations of Religious Belief by James L. Kugel.


2011: Ninety-year old “Raymond D’Addario, an Army photographer whose images of Hitler’s top henchmen during the Nuremberg war crimes trials put their faces before the world as it became increasingly aware of Nazi atrocities passed way today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet unanimously approved the appointment of Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz as the Israel Defense Forces' 20th chief of staff.


2011(9th of Adar I, 5771): General Al Ungerleider passed away today at the age of 89.


2011(9th of Adar I, 5771): Alan F. Segal “a leading scholar known for his comparative studies of how religions view the afterlife” who had retired as the Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College in December of 2012, passed away today at the age of 65.


2011(9th of Adar I, 5771):Irving Schlossenberg, the oldest living Marine Corps combat correspondent at the time of his death, and a newspaper photographer who once goaded President Franklin Roosevelt at a baseball Opening Day, died today at 92 in Overland Park, Kansas. Schlossenberg rejected his initial 4F classification, underwent foot surgery, and made it into the Marines as a combat correspondent in World War II. He took part in five major campaigns, four of which were first wave landings, was awarded four bronze stars and became a Master Sergeant. Schlossenberg never received some of the medals he earned for his service, including a Presidential Unit Citation presented to his division for operations in the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943. Last November, his son and nephew obtained the medals, which were delivered two days before Schlossenberg's death. Prior to the war, he was a photographer at the Washington Post. On Opening Day of the 1940 baseball season, Schlossenberg convinced FDR to throw out the Opening Pitch a second time, so he could get a better shot. The resulting wild pitch smashed Schlossenberg’s camera. Schlossenberg was born in Baltimore and raised in Washington. He became a copy boy at the Washington Post and then a photographer. After the war he sold Encyclopedia Britannica and eventually became executive assistant to the company president. He was a founder of Temple Kol Ami in Prairie Village, Kansas.


2011(9th of Adar I, 5771): Herschel W. Leibowitz, a Penn State University psychologist who was among the first scientists to explore how the mind can misinterpret what the eye sees at night, a phenomenon that contributes to traffic accidents passed away today in State College, PA at the age of 85 (As reported by Benedict Carey)


2011: In “Jews in U.S. Are Wary In Happiness For Egypt” Laurie Goodstein described the mixed feelings that American Jewish leaders have concerning the current political upheaval in the Land of the Pharoahs.


2012: Nathan Englander, author “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” a work of fiction that reportedly has nothing to do with the life of one of the Holocaust’s most famous victims, is scheduled to appear at the Historic 6th& Synagogue in Washington, DC.


2012(20th of Shevat, 5772): Ninety-four year old “Lillian Bassman, a magazine art director and fashion photographer who achieved renown in the 1940s and ’50s with high-contrast, dreamy portraits of sylphlike models, then re-emerged in the ’90s as a fine-art photographer after a cache of lost negatives resurfaced” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)

2012: “The Cantor’s Son” is scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in Atlanta, GA


2012:The wife of an Israeli diplomat was moderately wounded today when a car bomb exploded outside of Israel's embassy in the Indian capital of New Delhi. Also today, a Georgian worker employed by the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi alerted police after noticing a strange object attached to a car assigned to the Israeli envoy to the country.


2013:Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present: “It's a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond.”
 
2013: American Jewish Historical Society to present “The Sixties and Jewish Celebrity”


2013: Leon Wieseltier, noted writer and literary editor of The New Republic, is one of five recipients of the 2013 Dan David Prize, the foundation committee announced.


2013: The exposure in the Australian media this week of alleged former Mossad agent Ben Zygier, who reportedly committed suicide in Ramle’s Ayalon Prison two years ago, could have very dramatic repercussions for ongoing Mossad operations, Israeli media reported tonight


2013: Today Israel’s state prosecution asked the Jerusalem District Court to sentence a man dubbed the “Jewish terrorist” to two back-to-back life sentences plus 70 years’ imprisonment for his crime of double murder, saying society should to take away Jacob (Jack) Tytell’s freedom “until the end of his days.” Tytell, an American-born Israeli Jew who was convicted in January of murdering two Palestinians and wounding two Israelis in a series of violent acts, “trampled, in his actions, every possible value human society is founded upon,” prosecutor Sagi Ofir explained during the sentencing hearing


2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Loyalty Betrayed: Jewish Chaplains in the German Army during the First World War” during which Peter Applebaum will discuss the role of the 30 Jewish chaplains who ministered to the 100,000 Jewish soldiers fighting for the Kaiser.


2014: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Hard Talks: Is Psychoanalysis a Hoax?” moderated by author and communications scholar Liel Leibovitz, featuring Daphne Merkin, a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and Tablet Magazine and Ben Kafka, Associate Professor of Media Theory and History at New York University


2014:  In “Israel: Life on the Kibbutz – Past, Present & Future,” Ido Rakovsky is scheduled to talk about his life on Kibbutz Ein Hashoftet” at the JCC of Northern Virginia.


2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Unresolved History: Jews and Lithuanians after the Holocaust,” a roundtable discussion about the challenges facing Litvaks in the 21st century.

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