March 11
222: Serverus Alexander began his reign as Roman Emperor during which a table in Intercisa (Hungary) was inscribed as follows: “To the Eternal God! For the salvation of our Lord; the pious, felicitous Emperor Severus Alexander and the Empress Julia Mamea, mother of the Emperor; Cosmius, chief of the Spondilla customhouse, head of the synagogue of the Jews, gladly fulfills his vow.” (Raphael Patai)
1344: In Speyer, a year after the Jews had been the victims of an Easter Time blood libel the citizens “requested the king's permission to confiscate the houses of these Jews for the benefit of the city” – a request which was granted
1415: Pope Benedict XIII banned the study of the Talmud in any form and tried to restrict Jewish life completely. The town of Tortosa, Spain, was the scene of a disputation between Christians and Jews from 1412 through 1414. These disputations were always rigged so that the Christians would win. The Pope (or as he described by some the anti-Pope) was enraged by the lack of conversions which was the cause of the ban.
1513: Leo X elected Pope. Leo X succeeded Julius II, the Pope who paid for the painting of the Sistine Chapel. “To Martin Luther, Leo was the functioning head of a “kingdom of Antichrist.’” Even his admirers might say that Leo was more a man of the Renaissance than a Vicar of Christ. He respected learning, even when that learning was Jewish. In a dispute concerning the Talmud, Leo took the side of Johann Reuchlin one of the Christian scholars who could read Hebrew. He defended the Talmud, saying that it did blaspheme Jesus or Christianity. Despite the pressure on him to burn the Talmud to the opposed tact and had a Christian printer produced the text in its entirety, without censorship. Leo banned the requirement of the Jew Badge in his French possessions and refused to enforce it in his Italian holdings.
1638(25th of Adar I, 5398): Simon Auerbach, the son of Rabbi Meshullam Solomon Fischhof-Auerbach and his wife Miriam Lucerna and the bother of Rabbi Menahem Mendel Auerbach, “who at the age of twenty three wrote a penitential poem on the occasion of epidemic that broke out among children in Vienna in 1634,” passed away today at Eibenschütz
1670: Birthdate of John Toland, Anglo-Irish author and philosopher who in 1714, at a time when Jews were still considered to be outsiders by many Englishman, wrote “Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews” in which he advocated “full citizenship and equal rights for the Jewish people
1704:Clement XI issued “Propagandae Per Unicersum,” a Papal Bull that “confirmed all the benefits given to converts under Paul II and expanded them to include giving them the rights over properties owned by non-converted members of the their families.” (As reported by jewishhisotry.org)
1762: Although Rhode Island was considered more liberal than other states, and although a few Jews had been previously granted citizenship, the state refused to grant citizenship to Aaron Lopez and Isaac Eliezer. The court stated that “no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free of this colony.” Lopez was granted citizenship by Massachusetts, and the sentence “upon the true faith of a Christian” was excluded from the oath. Lopez was probably the first Jew to be granted citizenship in Massachusetts.
1763: Birthdate of Baruch Schottlander who gained fame as Benedict Schott, the itinerant teacher who served as a “tutor in the house of Herz Beer, the father of composer Jacob Mayerbeer and as an author who petitioned Napoleon on the matter of improved education.
1770: In Birtsmorton Court, Malvern, Worcestershire, William and Elizabeth Huskisson, gave birth to one of four sons, MP William Huskisson who supported toward full emancipation of the Jews and in 1830 “presented a petition signed 2,000 merchants from Liverpool” calling for the removal of all civil disablilites.
1787(21st of Adar): Rabbi Elimelekh of Lizhansk, author of Noam Elimelekh, a commentary on the Torah, passed away today. He was the brother of Rabbi Zušya, of Hanipol (one of my favorite Chassidim) and a student of the Maggid of Mezeritch the successor to the Baal Shem tov.
1800(14th of Adar, 5560): First Purim of the 19th century
1801: Paul I of Russia is assassinated, leading the way for his son Alexander I to accede the throne. Paul’s death was no loss to the Jews of Russia. At the time of his death, Paul was preparing to implement the recommendations contained in a report entitled, “An Opinion on How to Avert the Scarcity of Food in White Russia Through the Curbing of the Jews’ Avaricious Occupations, Their Reformation and Other Matters.” Alexander I began his reign by adopting a series of policies that were designed to further degrade and impoverish the Jews. As the threat of Napoleon loomed on the horizon, Paul’s policies towards the Jews softened and improved. The first Lubavitcher Rebbe urged Jews to support Alexander in the fight against Napoleon. After the Napoleonic threat disappeared Alexander’s treatment of the Jews became increasingly less sympathetic. By the time of his death, he had returned to the reactionary views that had marked the start of his reign.
1812: Prussian Jews were granted civil rights. The price of citizenship included the adoption of family names in the Western style. Although later reaction revoked most of this freedom, the discrimination never returned to the level existing in the "Middle Ages." That is, until the rise of Hitler.
1827: Birthdate of Moritz Ellstätter the native of Karlsruhe and “son of a Jewish furniture trader who served as minster in the government of Baden.
1829: James Graham Lewis married Harriet Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1831: Birthdate of Adolf Neubaur, the native of Hungary and student of rabbinical literature who worked in the Austrian Consulate at Jerusalem where he began publishing articles about the Jews of that city. Eventually he made his way to Oxford where he enjoyed a distinguished career as a reader in Rabbinic Hebrew and sub-librarian at Bodelian Library. Besides his extensive cataloguing work, this unsung intellectual hero edited the Aramic text of the Book of Tobit and discovered a Hebrew fragment of the wisdom text of “Ben Sira.”
1833: In Amsterdam, Aron Mendes Chumaceiro, who served as the “chakam of Curacao in the Dutch West Indies” and his wife gave birth to Jacob Mendes Chumaceiro who “was inspector of the Jewish schools of Amsterdam, head and librarian of the bet ha-midrash Ets Haim, and editor of Het Israelietisch Weekblad.”
1838: Birthdate of Leo Blumenstock von Halban, native of Cracow, the Austrian trained physician who became “chair of forensic medicine in 1881.”
1838: Abraham Marks married Phoebe Simmons at the Great Synagogue today.
1841: In Venice, birthdate of Luigi Luzzatti who “served as the 31st Prime Minister of Italy between 1910 1911; making him the second Jew to hold this position.
1852: In “Benjamin Disraeli” published today described the various views, most of them negative, on the appointed of Disraeli to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Much of the criticism was based on Disraeli’s career as the author of several novels. Apparently being a man of letters should have disqualified him for such a post. According to the author of the article, Disraeli’s literary background gives him unique qualifications for public life. Besides which, he was the most capable member of his party serving in the House Commons where the Conservatives were in need of leaders.
1852: Joel ben Alexander married Ziporah bat Joseph at the Great Synagogue today.
1853(1stof Adar II, 5613): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1853: The Jewish Disabilities Bill came up in the House of Commons for a second reading. Mr. Ernal Osborne argued “that religious liberty was violated in the exclusion of Jews from Parliament and thought the question not one of Jewish disabilities, but of the right of Christians to be represented by whom they pleased.” Several Members of Parliament “totally opposed the bill on Christian grounds.”
1853(1stof Adar II, 5613): Sixty-eight year old Pinchas Selig Rubino passed away
1857: Moritz Jacobi of Florence, SC married Charlotte Phillips at Timmonsville, SC.
1857: Moss Emanuel married Fanny Cohen today at the Great Synagogue.
1861: In Bakau, Romania, Leib Ehrlich and Sarah Kaufman gave birth to Joseph Ehrlich the multi-lingual fresco painter who “came to the United States in June of 1889, where he eventually became the United States Immigrant Inspector at the port of Philadelphia while serving as the secretary of the Hebrew Literature Society and as the director of a Chevra Kadisha in the City of Brotherly Love.
1861: Birthdate of S. Kutner, the native of Poland who became Director of the Jews’ Deaf and Dumb Home in 1894 where his wife served as a matron and who authored several books including Kutner’s Aid to Solid Geometry.
1865(13thof Adar, 5625): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim
1865: Corporal Jacob Kaufman began his service with Company A of the 101stRegiment.
1872(1stof Adar II, 5632): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1873: In a letter written today, W. Archdall O’Doherty stated that it was a year ago to the day that he had delivered “control of the Erie Railway to a little London Jew of the name of Bischsoffsheim.” The letter continues with his explanation of the financial machinations that the new owners have engaged in since the sale. [Editor’s Note – The reference is to Bischoffsehim and Goldschmidt, British bankers, who were the leaders of a group of English shareholders seeking to oust Jay Gould from his controlling position of the railroad which he was ruining for his personal financial gain. Gould was one of the villains of the Robber Baron Era. The letter was written by a shadowy figure whose role was emerging during the multiple investigations that were being conducted. His resort to an anti-Semitic smear was not unusual in certain circles at that time
1874(22nd of Adar, 5634): Sixty-nine year old James Bondi, a native of Dresden who came to the United States where he served as rabbi of “the Norfolk Street Synagogue” in New York and proprietor/editor of The Hebrew Leader.
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Ball which has been held for several years at the Academy of Music did not take place this year. No reason was given for the change which came as a surprise because it was so popular with both Christian and Jewish citizens of New York.
1884(14thof Adar, 5644): Purim
1884(14thof Adar, 5644): Seventy-three year old Levi Herzfeld the historian and rabbi who, while personally strictly Orthodox, favored “moderate” reforms passed away at Brunswick, Germany
1886: In Chicago, Rabbis Lesser, Anexter and Oalperstein officiated at the appraisal of four casks of wine and liquor shipped from Jerusalem for using during the upcoming holiday of Passover. According to the appraiser, the wine will carry a duty of three dollars a gallon. The wine looks liked “ordinary Rhine wine and tastes like hard cider.” After the Appraiser finished his work, the religious leaders sealed the casks and recited the appropriate prayers over them.
1887: In South Carolina, Rabbi Rubin officiated at the marriage of Harris Frank and Sarah C. Isear.
1889: U.S. Secretary of State James G. Blaine took up the case of Herman Kempinski a Russian born American citizen who had been imprisoned by the Czar’s government went he returned to his native land on a business trip.
1890: Birthdate Albert Lorch “Al” Loe who played Center for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team in Atlanta, GA “where he was nicknamed ‘The Yiddish Wildcat’”
1890: “Found Dead In A Cellar” published today described the events surrounding the discovery of a female corpse in a building that is used as a dry goods store by Moses Levy on the ground floor and as a school by Aitz Chaim, a Talmud Torah occupying the second and third floors under the direction of Isaac Libermann and Hermann Rothstein.
1891: Ignatz Klein swore before Coroner Levy that a girl that he had seen the United States named Rose Kohlmeyer was in fact Esther Soloymis, the girl he was accused of murdering nine years ago in Hungary as part of an alleged blood libel.
1892: Authorities are investigating reports of patient neglect at North Brothers Island, the site where numerous typhus fever, many of whom are Russian Jewish immigrants, are supposed to be held until they regain their health or pass away.
1892(12th of Adar, 5652): Sixty-two year old Mason Hirsh, an umbrella manufacturer from Philadelphia, passed away today New York after being hit by a car two days ago. He was the Treasurer of the United Hebrew Charities of Philadelphia.
1894: “The Treaty in the Reichstag” published today described the debate taking place in the German parliament over the adoption of a Russian-German Commercial Treaty; a debate filled with ant-Semitism. Baron von Hammerstein and Lieberman von Sonnenberg called the treaty “monstrous” because it would allow Russian Jews to enjoy all the privileges of Germans while avoiding military service. They “warned the government that these Russian Jews would inevitably overrun and monopolize entire villages and absorbed the prosperity of the provinces.
1896: Herzl meets Reverend William Hechler chaplain to the British Embassy in Vienna. Hechler was tutor in the household of the Grossherzog von Baden. He knows the German Kaiser and thinks he can get Herzl an audience.
1897: Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum, the Montefiore Home, the Home for Aged and Hebrews are each to receive bequests of three thousand dollars from the late Simon Goldenberg. The United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Technical Institute each will receive bequests of five thousand dollars.
1897(7th of Adar II, 5657): Seventy-seven year old lexicographer Daniel Sanders who “published a translation in verse of the Song of Songs in 1866” passed away today in Strelitz, Germany.
1899: “Africa” published today provides a review of The Redemption of Africa in which Frederic Perry Noble includes a description of the impact of Abraham’s journey to Egypt on the continent’s religious and social development.
1899: “The Best of Histories” published today listed 143 works that should be purchased by anybody forming a historical library including The Story of the Jews by J.K. Hosmer and The History of the Jews by Josephus Falvius translated by William Whiston
1900: In Konitz, West Prussia, 19 year old Ermst Winter, the son of an architect from Prechlau who going to school in Konitz did not return to his boarding house. It was assumed that he had fallen through the ice and a search was begun. Unbeknownst to everybody, including the Jews of Konitz, this would mark the start of Konitz Affair, a 20thcentury blood libel.
1903: Zionist leader Oskar Marmorek returns to Vienna. While few may know his name today, the Austrian born architect was an early convert to Zionism joining Max Nordau and David Wolffsohn as one of Herzl’s key supporters.
1903: In New York, Mortimer Schiff and Adele (Neustadt) Schiff gave birth to Dorothy Schiff who “was an owner and publisher of the New York Post for nearly 40 years.”
1904: Birthdate of leading childhood obesity and anorexia researcher Hilde Bruch. Raised in a small German town, Bruch originally wanted to become a mathematician. An uncle convinced her that medicine was a more practical career for a Jewish woman, and she earned her doctorate in medicine at the University of Freiburg in 1929. After giving up her academic career for private practice in response to anti-Semitism within the university, Bruch fled Germany altogether in 1933, immigrating to England. After a year in London, she moved to the United States, where she began working at Babies Hospital in New York City. Bruch began researching obesity in children in 1937; her work in this area would prove to be groundbreaking. Yet she left this research in 1941 to study psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University. Returning to New York in 1943, she both established a private psychoanalytic practice and joined the faculty at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. In New York, and at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where she joined the faculty in 1964, Bruch's research increasingly focused on the underlying causes of anorexia nervosa. She published both scholarly and popular articles on eating disorders, and continued to see patients until her eightieth birthday. Her collected work, published as Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa and the Person Within in 1973, is still considered a definitive work on the subject. Bruch died in Houston in December, 1984.
1906(14th of Adar, 5666): Purim
1906: In “Most Interesting Educational Experiment In New York” published today described efforts of Miss Olive M. Jones and Miss Julia Richman to educate the children of Russian Jewish immigrants.
1906: During a service held today in the Alexandrovsky Monastery sponsored by the League of the Russian People, “the orators openly summoned their followers, the ‘Black Hundreds’ to kill the Jews…”
1906: The West End Synagogue is scheduled to host “an entertainment for the Sunday School in the synagogue at Amsterdam and 82nd Street.
1906: This afternoon the Hebrew and Sunday School of Congregation Beth Israel Biku Cholim are scheduled to host a Purim celebration at Lexington Avenue and 72nd Street.
1906: The Jewish Endeavor Society is scheduled to host a Purim celebration this afternoon for 150 religious school students.
1906: “The Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Consumptives’ Sanitarium in Denver, Colorado” is scheduled to host a bazaar and Purim Ball tonight at the Grand Central Palace.
1906: In a column entitled “Talk With Josef Lhevinne,” the Jewish pianist who is visiting the United States discussed a wide range of topics including the impact of Anton Rubinstein on his career, his love and admiration for America and his disappointment that he will not be able to go fishing while in this country. “Fishing is favorite diversion, aside from tennis which he plays constantly to keep down his weight and to diversion to the muscles of his arms.”
1907(25th of Adar, 5667): Seventy-four year old Prussian born Kentucky attorney and uncle of Justice Louis Brandies, Lewis Naphtali Dembitz who was one of those who placed Lincoln’s nomination in at the Republican Convention in 1860 and was an early supporter of the Zionist movement passed away today in Louisville.
1908(8th of Adar II): Hebrew novelist Isaiah Bersadsky passed away
1909: Birthdate of Jules Engel “a Jewish-Hungarian American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher.”
1909: Birthdate of Sidney “Sid” Goldin the Georgia Tech basketball player who won a Bronze Star while serving in the United States Navy during WW II and worked for Shell Oil for 40 years.
1910: Birthdate of physicist Henry Solomon Lipson, the native of Liverpool who “was the co-inventor of the Beevers-Lipson Strip, a calculating device in crystallography.
1911: Birthdate of Haim Cohen, the Lübeck, born Israeli legal scholar and jurist who wrote The Trial and Death of Jesusin 1968 in which he argued that it was the Romans, not the Sanhedrin, who tried and executed Jesus.
1913(2nd of Adar II, 5673): Forty-two year old Chicagoan Victor B Strelitz, a member of the firm of Strelitz Brothers and the husband of Sarah Strelitz passed away “suddenly in New York City” today.
1913: The funeral of Pauline Phillips, the wife of Herman Philips is scheduled to take place today followed by burial at Waldheim Cemetery.
1915: The Red Cross Fund which Jacob Schiff serves as Treasurer now totals $467,779.75.
1915(25th of Adar, 5675): Eighty-four year old Leopold Caspari, a French-born businessman and politician from Natchitoches, Louisiana who in 1884 while serving as state representative pushed for the establishment of Northwestern State University.
1915: It was reported today that more than $200,000 has been sent to aid Jews in Russia suffering from the effects of the Great War while another $150,000 has been by American Jews to aid their co-religionists “to that part of Poland now held by the Germans.”
1916: Mr. and Mrs. Isaac W. Brill who moved to Chicago from Cincinnati to live with their daughter Mrs. Samuel Hoffman celebrated their golden wedding this evening at the Metropole Hotel.
1916: The New York Warheit published an interview city editor Isaac Gonickman conducted with Jacob H. Schiff where the leading member of the American Jewish Committee expressed concerns about the upcoming congress to be held in Philadelphia of the danger presented by Zionists who might attend and because of a “possible loss of the respect and good-will which have shown to so great an extent” to the Jewish people.
1916(6th Adar II, 5676): Parshat Vayikra
1916(6th Adar II, 5676): Samuel Dalkowitz a merchant, passed away today in San Antonio, TX.
1917: In Manhattan, services are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Beth-El Temple where the sermon will be on “Priest, Prophet and Mystic.”
1917: At the Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall, Dr. Herbert S. Bigelow is scheduled to preach on “What Shall We Do With Our Millionaires!”
1917: In New York Dr. Silverman will deliver a sermon at Temple Emanu-El on “What the World Should Know About the Idealism of the Jews.”
1917: During World War I Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude. Those welcoming the British included, “red-fezzed oriental Jews in misfit European clothing…” Baghdad was part of the Ottoman Empire. According to General Maud, Jews, not Moslems, made up the majority of the city’s population. Maude probably overstated the actual number of Jews. But he did not overstate the economic role the Jewish population played in an area that children of Israel had lived in since the days of the Babylonian exile. According to Martin Gilbert, for several years afterwards, their arrival was celebrated by the Jews of Baghdad as "a day of miracles."
1918: Mrs. Felix Warburg opened her home on New York’s Fifth Avenue, for a reading by Miss Jenny Mannheimer which was intended to be fundraiser for the War Relief Fund.
1919:Grigori Yakovlovich Sokolnikov began serving as a “full member of the ‘the 7th Bureau and the 7th Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party.’”
1921: The British C-I-C for Palestine quashed all military proceedings against Jabotinsky and 19 of his comrades for what came to be seen as self-defense measures taking during the Arab riots in Jerusalem.
1921: Birthdate of Elisabeth Jenny Jeanne Meynard who gained famed as Elisabeth Maxwell, the wife of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell.
1922: Bernard Baruch and Henry Morgenthau were among those who pledged to raise $100,000 for the Woodrow Wilson fund of $1,000,000 which is to be used in the establishment of annual prizes for meritorious public service.
1926: The Jewish Agricultural Society issued a report today compiled by Gabriel Davidson, the general manager of the society that showed that during the last 25 years, “the Jewish farm population in the United Sates has grown from one thousand to seventy-thousand” with Jews farming “approximately one million acres.”
1926: “An announcement was made today by Felix M. Warburg, the honorary Chairman of the $6,000,000 United Jewish Campaign of New York, of a contribution of $30,000 from Louis D. Beaumont, the American banker and philanthropist.
1927: Samuel Lionel "Roxy" Rothafel opened the theatre that bears his name – Roxy Theater- in New York City. Six years later he would open an even more famous venue – Radio City Music Hall – that feature the “Roxyettes” who were later known as the “Rocketts.” (And you thought those leggy gals were named after a missile.)
1929: Seventy-seven year old Joseph Toole, who while Governor of Montana laid the cornerstone for Temple Emanu-El in Helena passed away today.
1929: As the world of movies entered the era of “the talkies” “Asphalt” – one of the last silent films directed by Joe May – was released in Germany.
1929: A year before moving up to the Light Heavyweight Division, twenty two year old Abie Bain won his third straight lightweight bout each of which ended with knocking out his opponent in the first round.
1931: Birthdate of media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch’s mother was Jewish.
1932: In the UK, Joan Elisa Davis and commodity-trader Ralph Lawson, the son of Gustav Leibson, gave birth to Nigel Lawson, the Conservative Party leader and journalist who would become the Lord Lawson of Blaby
1932: At NYC City Hall, Mayor Jimmy Walker met with 10 of 13 of the athletes who will be participating in the Jewish Olympics before they set sail this evening on SS Majestic. The mayor praised the group saying that the co-ed cohort of athletes would bring honor and glory to the United States and New York City.
1933: In New Orleans, LA, Isadore Rosen, a dentist and Anna Rosen gave birth to Benjamin “Ben” M. Rosen the Chairman and Acting Chief Executive Officer of Compaq Computer Corporation and “co-founder of the Sevin Rosen Funds” who was the husband of Donna Perret Rosen.
1933: Jewish-owned department stores in Braunsshweig were looted.
1933: Florence and Aaron Zacks gave birth to Gordon Zacks who became Chairman of the Board of R.G. Barry Corporation in 1979.
1936(17th of Adar, 5696): Seventy-one year old Russian born New York realtor, Zionist and philanthropist Morris Polsky passed away today.
1936: “The Federation of Polish Jews in America made public tonight a telegram to the Polish Ambassador at Washington that charged local authorities of Przytyk, Poland, with collusion in anti-Semtic riots there and demanded that the officials involved be punished.”
1936: “The ant-Semitism in some countries of Europe is due to the efforts of the ruling groups to conceal from the masses their failure to cope with critical economic conditions, Soviet Ambassador Alexander A Troyanovsky.” (Editor’s note – It would be interesting to hear his explanation for anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.)
1937: As Arab violence continued to mount, The Palestine Post reported that armed Arabs attacked Jews who plowing fields near Afula. Two Kfar Tavor farmers, Jacob Kizler and Shlomo Rothenstein, were seriously injured during the attack by armed. Stanislav Sluga, the 46-year-old Pole who was shot in a Ness Ziona orange grove, died after being taken to the hospital. Dogs tracked his alleged Arab assailant.
1937: In Berlin, the Ministry of the Interior announced plans for “a further intensification of the anti-Jewish boycott in Germany”
1938: Birthdate of Petr Klager who was deported from Prague in 1942 to Ujazdow where he was murdered.
1938: The German army entered Vienna. Austrian Jews were instantly deprived of all civil rights. Physical and mental oppression of Austrian Jews began and Austria ceased to exist as in independent state.
1938: Birthdate of Joseph Kaplan, the native New Yorker who gained fame as song and jingle writer Joseph Brooks whose works include “You’ve Got a Lot to Live” for Pepsi and “Good to the Last Drop Feeling” for Maxwell House coffee the producer of the famous Passover hagadah.
1938: As the prowess of Szapsel Rotholc continued to grow, “the Idishe Bilder newspaper ran a front-page headline proclaiming "Our Szapsel, the boxing hero." The article went on to point out that Szapsel the Yiddish version of the Hebrew name Shabtai, means sheep, but his army of fans saw him as a far more dangerous animal. "Who would ever have imagined," the correspondent waxed, "that the Jewish people, the People of the Book, would take the sport of boxing to their hearts? After all, Jews - who are, by their very nature, gentle souls - have never been thought capable of such things." The article went on to describe Rothholc as "our jewel, who made the Germans eat dirt."
1939(20th of Adar, 5699): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah
1939: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Seeing God in Retrospect” this morning at Temple Emanu-El.
1939: Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Living on the Heights” this morning at West End Synagogue.
1939: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Our Affirmations as Jews Today” this morning at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1939: Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon “My Reasons for Hope” this morning at Temple Israel.
1939: Rabbi Alexander Zegel is scheduled to deliver a sermon this morning on “A Foretaste of Paradise” at the Fort Washington Synagogue.
1939: The Fort Washington Synagogue is scheduled to its annual reception this evening at the American Woman’s Association in Manhattan.
1939: Rabbi Harold H. Mashioff is scheduled to deliver a sermon “No One Has a Monopoly on Brotherhood” this morning at the Temple of the Covenant.”
1939: Rabbi Asher Block is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Idle Worshippers at Temple Gates of Israel.
1940(1st of Adar II, 5700): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1940(1st of Adar II, 5700): Charles Polakoff, the former president of the Jewish Federation of Buffalo passed away today.
1942: Birthdate of Binghamton, NY native producer David Weisman whose works included “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Ciao! Manhattan” and who is the brother of director Sam Weisman.
1942: The Gestapo used Jews for target practice at Janowska labor camp. Chief Dibauer and Lieutenant Bilhause would pick them off from their window as they carried loads of rocks.
1943: Birthdate of Robert Bryant “Bob” Plager the Ontario native and son of a hockey official who played in the NHL for the Rangers and the St. Louis Blues.
1943: “The Sephardic Jewish community of Monastir, historically the largest Jewish community in Macedonia was deported…In cooperation with the Germans, Bulgarian military and police officials rounded up 3,276 of Monastir's Jewish men, women, and children, deported them to German-controlled territory and turned them over to the custody of German officials. The Germans transported the Jewish population of Monastir and environs to their deaths in Treblinka as part of their plan to murder all European Jews.”
1943: “Bulgarian police monitored by SS rounded up the entire Jewish population of Skopje, Bitola and Štip.The population was sent to temporary detention center in the state tobacco warehouse known as "Monopol" in Skopje. Among 7,215 people who were detained in warehouses there were:
539 children less than 3 years old,
602 children age 3 to 10 years
1172 children age 10 to 16 years
865 people over 60 years old
250 seriously ill persons (tied to the bed)
4 pregnant women who have given birth in the detention camp
4 people died at the arrival in the camp.”
1943: Birthdate of Mark R. Cohen, “a leading scholar of the history of Jews in the Middle Ages under Islam.”
1944: The plan of Captain von Breitenbach to carry a pistol into a staff meeting and shoot Hitler today was thwarted by “a Führer directive excluding junior officers from Führer briefings.”
1945: Birthdate of Mark Steinvocalist/organist and founder of Vanilla Fudge.
1946: Birthdate of Antony Lerman, “a British writer who specializes in the study of anti-Semitism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in society.”
1946: “I Am a Fugitive” a Spanish language comedy with a script co-authored by Hans Wilhelm was released today in Mexico.
1947: Levy Shklonik, the secretary of the Tel Aviv Labor organization told its members today “that the time would come when the labor movement would have to undertake a bloody anti-terrorist struggle. His message echoed the words of Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard Movement) which called on the Federation of Jewish Labor to join in the fight against terror and kidnapping.
1947: “The American League for a Free Palestine distributed an announcement in the name of the American Sea and Air Volunteers for Hebrew Repatriation which identified itself as the organization that had had recruited the volunteer crew of the Ben Hecht.”
1947: Kibbutz Yakum (He Shall Rise) was established on the Plain of Sharon north of Tel Aviv. The collective was founded by members of the Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard Movement).
1947: A group of American, Rhodesian and South African Jewish war veterans who had served variously with the American military, the British Army and South Africa’s Sixth Armored Division have founded Maayan Baruch (Spring of Barch), a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee near the borders with Syria and Lebanon. The kibbutz is named in honor of Bernard Gordon of blessed memory who had served as vice president of the South African Zionist Federation and who had left half of his large estate to the Jewish National Fund.
1948(30th of Adar I, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1948(30thof Adar I, 5708): Arabs bombed the headquarters of the Jewish Agency. The explosion of the car bomb in the courtyard of KH-UIA's building, tragically claiming the lives of Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal's Director, Leib Jaffe and 11 other Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal employees.
The Jewish Agency was the unofficial government of the Jewish Community (the Yishuv) in what was to become the state of Israel. This attack was part of the unofficial war waged by the Arabs designed to "drive the Jews into the sea" prior to the British leaving Palestine in May, 1948.
1948: Today “President Truman declared that a story by a columnist whom he did not name writing in The New York Mirror, quoting him” as saying “that New York Jews were disloyal was ‘vicious’ and ‘a lie out of the whole cloth’” after which Drew Pearson issued a statement identifying himself as the columnist and standing by his story.
1948: “Forty-one Democratic members of the Senate and the House of Representatives” made public a letter to Secretary of State Marshall in which among other things they expressed their surprise at “the unilateral course adopted by” the United States “prohibiting the export of arms to the Middle East thus increasing ‘the odds against the Jewish defenders’ while Arab bands, supported by neighboring Arab states were being supplied with stocks of weapons, some of which were coming from current British shipments.”
1949: The first Israeli troops reached the Gulf of Aqaba where a white bedsheet with a hand drawn blue Star of David is hoisted as a sign of the Jewish state’s claim to the area around Eilat.
1950(22nd of Adar, 5710): Dr. Mordecai Elash, Israel’s Ambassador to Great Britain, passed away today.
1950: “Perfect Strangers” a comedy produced by Jerry Wald and featuring Thelma Ritter and Ned Glass was released in the United States today.
1950: “The visiting Istanbul Fenerbache soccer players were carried off the hield on the shoulders of Israeli fans today after they had whipped the Tel Aviv Hapoel 3 to 0 in the first mach of their Israel tourney.” The enthusiastic demonstration was probably the result of Turkey’s announcement this week that it was recognizing the state of Israel, making Turkey the first Moslem country to do so.
1950: Birthdate of film director Jerry Zucker. “Ghost” and “Ruthless People” were two of his more notable films.
1951: Birthdate of MK Aryeh Gamliel
1952(14th of Adar, 5712): Final Purim observed during the Presidency of Harry S Truman
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Medical Association warned that the "deteriorating nutrition situation was inherently dangerous." The Minister of Agriculture, Levi Eshkol, voiced full support for "Magen David Yarok" the planting of vegetables in home gardens. Urgent steps were taken to solve the problems of theft, pilferage and smuggling in the Haifa port which assumed dangerous proportions.
1953: “My Three Angels” “a comedy by Samuel and Bella Spewack…opened on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre” today.
1954: “The Golden Apple,” a Jerome Moros musical opened today at the Phoenix Theatre where it “was one of the first musicals produced “Off-Broadway.”
1955(17th of Adar, 5715): Anna Freud, a sister of Sigmund Freud, passed away.
1955: Archibald Maule Ramsay the former British military officer and Member of Parliament who was such a rabid anti-Semite and so sympathetic to the Nazis that he became the only member of the House of Commons “to be interned under Defense Regulation 18B which allowed the government to suspend habeas corpus to imprison Nazi sympathizers.
1957: The 1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament which would be dominated by Lennie Rosenbluth and the North Carolina Tarheels opened today in Kansas City.
1959: Premiere of “Raisin In The Sun” the controversial play produced by Philip Rose who personally raised the money to bring the drama to Broadway.
1962: In New York City, Sally and Laurence “Larry Berg” gave birth to actor and director Peter Berg.
1964: Birthdate of actor Peter Berg,best known as Dr. Billy Kronk on TV's Chicago Hope. Berg’s father is Jewish and his mother was Catholic.
1964: Release date for “Becket” with a script by Edward Anhalt and music by Laurence Rosenthal.
1968: Birthdate of singer and songwriter Lisa Loeb.
1969(21st of Adar, 5729): Robert “Bob” Briscoe the son of Lithuanian immigrants who served in the Irish Parliament for almost thirty years passed away today.
1971: “The Law Man,” a western directed and produced by Michael Winner, with music by Jerry Fielding and co-starring Lee J. Cobb was released in the United States today.
1971: “A New Leaf” a comedy written and directed by Elaine May (in her first directorial role) who co-starred alongside Walter Matheau was released in the United States today.
1972: Birthdate of Benjamin Cohen the French singer no known Benjamin Diamond.
1973: Today, the New York Times “reported on dwindling enrollments at Jewish day school” which “was somewhat odd” because this was “at a time when ‘a reordering of priorities seems to have been taking place in Jewish life as mounting concern about Jewish cultural survival was metropolitan areas Jews to place greater importance on Jewish education
1975(28th of Adar, 5735): Fifty-two year old former MK Meanchem Cohen passed away.
1975(28thof Adar, 5735): Sixty year old Ella Drori, the St. Petersburg born daughter of Alexander Govorkovski and Ester Goverkovsky and wife of Amnon Drori passed away today in Tel Aviv.
1975(28th of Adar, 5735): Victor Perlmutter, a native of Russia who came to the United States in 1920 and became a leader of the Jewish community in Washington, DC, passed away today in Miami Beach.
1976: “Robin and Marian” an off-beat look at aging Robin Hood and Maid Marian with a script by James Goldman was released today in the United States.
1977:The Jerusalem Postreported from Washington that Hanafi Moslem terrorists held more than 100 mostly Jewish hostages in three buildings and threatened to chop off their captives’ heads, unless their demands were met. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was pleased with US President Jimmy Carter¹s definition of peace and with his distinction between "defense lines" and "legal borders." But he forecast a tough clash with the US over Israel¹s final borders.
1977: More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations. The B’Nai Brit building was one of the three buildings which the Muslims had seized.
1977(21st of Adar, 5737): Palestinians killed 34 Israelis on the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway.
1978(1stof Adar II, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1978: The Palestine Liberation Organization carried out a massive terrorist attack in Israel. PLO terrorists from Lebanon first killed Gail Rubin, an American Jewish photographer.
1978: Eleven Palestinian terrorists landed in Zodiac boats on a beach just outside Ma'agan Michael and from there ventured towards Tel Aviv in a hijacked bus in what has become known as the Coastal Road massacre where 39 Israelis were killed.
1978: Terrorists killed 45 Israelis during an attack on a mail truck at Tel Aviv.
1980(23rdof Adar, 5740): Mikhail Abramovich Kaufman, the native of pre-Revolution Bialystok who gained fame as a cinematographer and photographer passed away today in Moscow.
1980: In the Moscow Igor Guberman was the defendant in the “anti-Zionist” trial that began today.
1982: In an article entitled “The Dance: By Pola Nirenska,” New York Times correspondent Anna Kisselgoff described the travailed filled life of this accomplished dancer and choreographer whose life took her from pre-war Poland, through the days of the Holocaust to a new life in America.
1983: “10 to Midnight” a crime-thriller filmed by cinematographer Adam Greenberg was released in the United States today.
1984:In the “The British and The Beginnings of The Jewish State” published today J. Robert Moskin provided a detailed reviews of The High Walls of Jerusalem by Ronald Sanders that examines the origins of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate in Palestine.
1985: Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who promised “a policy of openness (glasnost) and restructuring (perestroika) was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party today.
1986: The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Leo Frank a pardon, citing the state's failure to protect him or prosecute his killers, though they stopped short of exonerating him.
1987: Secretary of State George P. Shultz today called the Israeli spy case ''very disheartening'' and said a decision by the Israeli Government to investigate would have ''a cleansing effect.'' Testifying before the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Mr. Shultz also confirmed reports that all United States officials in Israel had been ordered to have no contact whatever with Col. Aviem Sella or with the Tel Nof Air Base, which he commands. Colonel Sella has been indicted by a Federal grand jury on charges of espionage in the case of Jonathan Jay Pollard, a United States Navy employee who has been sentenced to life in prison for giving intelligence information to Israel.
1989: In Leningrad, “Irina (née Korina) and Viktor Yelchin, a pair figure skaters who were celebrities as stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15 years” gave birth to Russian-born, American actor Anton Yelchin.
1989: “Eighteen years after Yuli Edelstein first applied for an exit visa to Israel, he and his family finally left the Soviet Union.” (As reported by Laura Bialis)
1990(14th of Adar, 5750): Purim
1992(6thof Adar II, 5752): Seventy-nine year old screenwriter and director Richard Brooks whose versatility enabled to create films about inner city teenage delinquents and decadent southerners passed away today.
1992(6thof Adar II, 5752): Eighty-seven year old “Laslo Benedek, a cameraman, screenwriter and director whose directing credits include "Death of a Salesman" (1951) and "The Wild One" (1953), passed away today at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.”
1993: Silent Screen, “an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse” owned by Sonny and Leah Ray Werblin died today in Lexington, KY.
1994: U.S. premiere of “The Hudsucker Proxy” directed by Joel Coen, produced by Ethan Coen with a script by the Coen brothers and Sam Raimi and starring Paul Newman
1997: A revival of “Lady in the Dark is a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart” opened “on the West End at the Royal National Theatre” starring Maria Friedman.
1997(2nd of Adar II, 5757): Eighty-four year old composer Hugo Weisgall passed away today. (As reported by Paul Griffiths)
1999: In ceremonies at New York City's 92nd Street Y, Rachel Adler was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. The award recognized “Engendering Judaism: A New Theology and Ethics,” which set forth a new model for integrating modern feminism with traditional Jewish theology.
2001(16thof Adar, 5761): Shushan Purim
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “Martyrs' Crossing” by Amy Wilentz and “Paradise Park” by Allegra Goodman.
2001:A Class Act, “a quasi-autobiographical musical loosely based on the life of composer-lyricist Edward Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987” “ transferred to Broadway today at the Ambassador Theatre, where it ran for 30 previews and 105 regular performances.”
2001: In New York, premier performance of “I Will Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer” by Victor Klemperer; adapted by Karen Malpede and George Bartenieff; translated by Martin Chalmers.
2002: Israel lifted Yasser Arafat's three-month confinement in West Bank.
2004: Seventy-one year old “Gordon Zacks is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of R.G. Barry Corp. after 50 years with the company.”
2004 The Colloquium “Jacques Faitlovitch and the Jews of Ethopia being held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv came to an end today.
2004: In “in the first modern Islamist attack on European soil 191 people were killed and another 1,857 were injured when a series of terrorist bombs were detonated today in Madrid.
2005: The United States government reached a $25.5 million settlement with the families of Jewish Hungarian Holocaust victims in the so-called Nazi "Gold Train" affair and will acknowledge the U.S. Army's role in commandeering a trainload of the families' treasures during World War II.
2006: A London revival production of “Once in a Lifetime” written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman came to an end today.
2006: Spain began a somber remembrance of the Madrid terror bombings on this, the second anniversary of the attacks - with plans for Christians, Muslims and Jews to join in prayers for peace, and for silence to descend at a memorial set up for victims.
2007 In Nagoya, Jewish professional wrestler Matt Bloom and Travis Tomko defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Ōmori to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
2007: After 117 performances the curtain came down on a revival of the “The Apple Tree with music by Jerry Bock and Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick which had been produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company.
2007: The Central Conference of American Rabbis, a 1,500 member group representing Reform Rabbis opened its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
2007: An exhibition entitled “Biblical Art in a Secular Century: Selections, 1896-1993” featuring that includes the works of such Jewish artists as George Segal and Ben-Zion Weinman, as well as outstanding non-Jewish artists, at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art comes to an end.
2007: The Reconstructionist movement formally names Rabbi Toba Spitzer to head its Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Spitzer is the first avowed Lesbian to lead such a Jewish group.
2007: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Gospel of Food:Everything You Think You Know About Food Is
Wrong”by Barry Glassner and “At the Same Time”by Susan Sontag 2007: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Waiting for Daisy” by Peggy Orenstein.
2008: The 92nd Street Y presents “Dennis Prager: The Case For Judaism,” featuring the popular radio talk show host and author.
2008: In Jerusalem famous Israeli singer Ronit Shahar performs in an acoustic concert at Beit Shmuel, singing many of her hit songs.
2008:The Belgian government and banks agreed to pay €110 million ($170 million) to Holocaust survivors, families of victims and the Jewish community for their material losses during World War II.
2008: A Kuwaiti newspaper published unprecedentedly harsh criticism of the terror attack which killed eight students at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. "The attack at the yeshiva was a barbaric murder of eight children who were engaged in religious study," read an op-ed in the daily Al-Watan. "This odious and inhuman terror attack exemplifies the extremist and inhuman path of the terror organizations Hamas and Hizbullah." The writer goes on to assert that "the terror attack must prompt the free world to comprehend the magnitude of terrorism and its threats and to realize that a clear and unequivocal stance must be assumed against it. There can be no negotiations with terrorism that indiscriminately aims itself at students, women and babies without any consideration for the means and the targets." Contrasting the terror attack with the IDF's operations in the Gaza Strip, the writer explains that "there is no link between a murderous terrorist act and the inadvertent killing of civilians in response to the firing of rockets by Hamas."
The piece presented a stark contrast to the main current in the Arab press, which presented almost sweeping praise for the "heroic operation."
2008: Jewish American playwright David Mamet announced a shift in political view and allegiance with an essay in The Village Voice, “Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'.”
2009 (15 Adar, 5769): Shushan Purim
2009(15thof Adar, 5769): Physicist David Medved, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants whose “interest in science” stemmed from a chemistry set he received for his Bar Mitzvah and who almost made it as an astronaut going to Mars passed away today.
2009: In Sterling, Virginia, Rabbi Bonny Grosz of the Community Rabbi Foundation leads the first of three study sessions on "Turning Torah: Studying the Weekly Torah Reading Using Different Approaches."
2009: This evening two Palestinian Authority Arab men attacked Jewish soldiers and civilians in the Binyamin region.
2010: Construction began on Barclay’s Center, the pride and joy of Bruce Ratner
2010: At the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, The Jewish Studies Centers is scheduled to present “Judaism and Islam: Mirrors and Echoes - Tales from the Koran and Torah” during which Afroze Mohammed and Stephanie Lowitt will trace the stories about Joseph, or Yusuf, through both scriptures, and you’ll learn how this always fascinating character is pivotal to both Jewish and Muslim traditions.
2010: United States Vice President Joe Biden warned Israelis in a direct address from Tel Aviv today that the status quo in the Middle East was not sustainable, and vowed that the United States would do everything in its power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
2010: The New York State Attorney General appointed Judith Kaye as an independent counsel to investigate allegation that the Governor had violated ethics laws.
2010: “The Sherman Brothers (Richard and Robert) were presented with a Window on Mainstreet Disneyland in Anaheim, California in honor of their contribution to Disney theme parks.
2011: After snowing throughout the day yesterday, the snow was expected to taper off last night with rain in the north forecast for today.
2011: The “women building a bridge” festival at the Valley of Springs near Ashdot Ya’acov is scheduled to be held on the Jordan River banks near the border between Jordan and Israel today.
2011: The Song of Songs minyan is scheduled to come together for a community Kabbalt Shabbat at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay as part of The Jewish Music Festival.2011(5th of Adar II: Anniversary of Moses’ last day as leadership of the Jewish people. According to Chabad, this took place on 5th of Adar 1273, BCE.
2011: Hours after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami struck Japan today, Jewish and Israeli humanitarian groups pledged to help relief efforts in the island nation. Today, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) announced it was collecting funds for relief efforts and has reached out to the Japanese Government to offer its expertise in earthquake and tsunami-related response. Meanwhile, IsraAID-FIRST, an Israeli umbrella group of relief organizations, said this morning it was preparing to send a team of experts to the island nation to assist in relief efforts. “We’ve been looking past few hours at the damage and the needs,” IsrarAID head Shahar Zehavi said. “Our main agenda is to send a delegation of earthquakes specialists and water purification experts to the region.” Zehavi said the delegation should arrive in Japan by tomorrow morning but that its schedule depends on air traffic to and from Japan.
2011(5 Adar II, 5771): Five members of an Israeli family were killed tonight when a suspected terrorist broke into their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar and stabbed them all to death. According to police, the suspect broke into the house armed with a knife and stabbed the mother, father and three children, aged 11, three and an approximately one-month-old baby. Magen David Adom rescue services arrived at the scene and found them all dead. The victims of the brutal murders are Rabbi and IDF tank unit officer Udi Fogel, his wife Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, four-year-old Elad and three-month-old Hadas.
2011(5 Adar II, 5771): Eighty-seven year old Danny Stiles a New York disc jockey who styled himself as the “King of Nostalgia and “The Vicar of Vintage Vinyl” passed away today. (As reported by the Eulogizer)
2011(5 Adar II, 5771): Eighty-two year old Stan Ross, the producer-engineer who co-founded Gold Star Studio passed away today in Burbank, CA.(As reported by Valerie Nelson)
2012: Major General Nitzan Alon is scheduled to officially take up his post as head of the Central Command at the headquarters in Jerusalem.
2012: Dan Shapiro and Julie Fisher are scheduled to be honored at tonight’s JPDS-NC Purim Ball, sponsored by the only Jewish Day School in Washington, D.C.
2012: “Ahead of Time” is scheduled to be shown at the Sacramento Jewish Festival in Sacramento, CA
2012: “Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades” is scheduled to be shown at the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival in Vancouver, CA.
2012: Stephen Stern is scheduled to moderate “Modern Judaism Wrestles with Spinoza” featuring Rabbi Lyle Fishman and Joel Schwartz as part of the backstage events surrounding the performance of “New Jerusalem.”
2012: The Eliat Chamber Music Festival, which will include an appearance by violinist Valery Soklov, is scheduled to open tonight.
2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Escape Artists: How Obama’s Team Fumbled the Recovery” by Noam Scheiber and “Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times” by Eyal Press. “Beautiful Souls” contains a vignette about Paul Grüninger, a Swiss police commander, who “broke the law to help Jewish refugees flee from Austria” after the Nazis annexed the country.
2012: Residents of southern Israel suffered another day under siege today as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired about 50 more rockets at the Negev. (As reported by Gili Cohen, Yanir Yagna, and Ave Issacharoff)
2013: Rabbi Sidney Kleiman’s 100th birthday on the Today Show
2013: In Brooklyn, Judge Eric Vitaliano “rejected a Jewish attorney’s request to exclude Jews from a jury involving a client facing charges of lying about joining the Taliban” ruling “that it would be unconstitutional to bar a prospective juror because of religion.” The attorney is Frederick Cohn who is representing Abdel Hameed Shehadeh
2013: An 11 day mission to Israel sponsored by The Jewish Federation of North America’s
Network of Independent Communities is scheduled to being today.
2013: NASHIM Annual Women's Seder is scheduled to begin at 6:00pm
2013: Publication date for Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
2014: Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host “Food for thought- Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy with Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of MesorahDC
2014: In Denver, CO, Temple Emanuel is scheduled to host “The Dishes of Our Lives: Jewish Cookbooks, Jewish Stories”
2014(9thof Adar II, 5774): Seventy-two year old Judge Edmond Levy, a retired member of the Israeli Supreme Court and author of the Levy Report, passed away today.
2014: Three terrorists from Islamic Jihad were killed by an IAF strike while an IDF UAV crashed over Gaza following “a technical malfunction.”
2014: Dutch political leader Onno Hoes began serving as Chairman of the Dutch Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI)
2014: The IDF insisted today that Raed Zeiter, a Jordanian citizen who was shot dead yesterday morning at the Allenby crossing into Israel, had attacked soldiers and tried to grab a weapon before he was shot dead. (As reported by Gil Ronen)
2014: The Knesset passed the amendment to the Basic Law on The Government known as the “Governance Law,” with 67 in favor, and none voting against or abstaining. The law limits the number of government ministers to 18 and stipulates that all ministers will have portfolios. It also raises the electoral threshold required for a party to enter the Knesset to 3.25% of the total votes cast in national elections.(As reported by Gil Ronen)
2015: Mandolin star Avi Avital is scheduled to join the Venice Baroque Orchestra in an evening almost pure Vivaldi at Carnegie Hall.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Echoes of the Borscht Belt” with Marisa Scheinfeld.
2015: Professor Daniel J. Schroeter is scheduled to deliver a lecture on "There Are No Jews in Morocco, Only Moroccan Subjects Responding to Vichy's Anti-Jewish Laws in Colonial Morocco during World War. II.2015: Bruce Guenther, recently retired Chief Curator of the Portland Art Museum, and Susan Winkler, author of Portrait of a Woman in White are scheduled to discuss “Looted Art: The Unfinished Business” at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
2015: Annie Cohen-Solal and Met Curator Marla Prather are scheduled to discuss the works of Mark Rothko at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2015: The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies is scheduled to host “an historic conference on the topic of the contemporary Jewish scene in Britain, with four distinguished speakers.”
2015: “Owners of the Leviathan field said that the Palestine Power Generation Company had canceled a $1.2 billion agreement, signed in 2014, to buy 4.75 billion cubic meters of gas over 20 years.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2015: “Speaking on HuffPost Live today, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, seemed open to the idea of a pot-infused ice cream after a viewer asked about it.” (As reported by Julie Wiener)
2015: Comedian Sarah Silverman posted a message on the internet today calling on supporters of Meretz to vote in Israeli elections scheduled to take place on March 17. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2016(1stof Adar II, 5776): Rosh Chodesh 2, Adar II
2016: “The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer” is scheduled to be shown this afternoon before the start of Shabbat at the Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2016: “Shari Redstone Prepares for Battle to Control a Media Empire” published today profiles the daughter of media mogul Sumner Redstone.
2017(13thof Adar, 5777): Parashat Tetzaveh; Shabbat Zachor; Erev Purim.
2017: Tonight, Ahmed Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier responsible for the 1997 killing of the Israeli schoolgirls” including “13 year old Adi Malka” was released from jail today after serving a sentence of 20 years.
2017: In Paris, the symposium “The Holocaust in Ukraine. New Perspectives on the Evils of the 20th Century,” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host its annual “Purim Extravaganza” complete with the traditional Megila reading followed a “Purim Partaaay!”
2017: In Atlanta, the Breman is scheduled to host a preview party introducing its newest exhibition “Atlanta Collects Contemporary” featuring unique items that “normally reside in private Metro Atlanta homes.
2018: The Beth Chai-Jewish Humanist Congregation of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a screening of “Rosenwald” at the Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda, MD.
2018: JW3 is schedule to host a screening of “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story.” (Yes, in the list of the many things they did not tell us when were kids was the fact this femme fatal was as Jewish as Ruth or Esther)
2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World by Joshua B. Freeman and the recently released paperback editions of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Filmsby Molly Haskell and The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story Darpa, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World by Sharon Weinberger
2018: In honor of Israel’s 70th anniversary, The Breman Museum and The Atlanta Jewish Music Festival are scheduled to partner with the Israeli Consulate to bring one of Israel’s hottest acts, Yemen Blues,withRavid Kahalani to Atlanta.
2018: “Destination Unknown” is one of the films scheduled to shown at the 5thannual JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival.
2018: The Goldring Family Foundation and Morton Katz are scheduled to be honored today in New Orleans Jewish Endowment Foundation “Annual Event” at the Westin Hotel. (As reported by Crescent City Jewish News, the source and resource for all things Jewish in Cajun Country)
2018: “The Ancestral Sin,” “The Rock in the Red Zone,” “Starting Over Again” and “The Band’s Visit” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Sephardic Film Festival.
2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “A Celebration of Jewish Books” – “a day filled with Jewish storyteller” and more than fifty “Jewish storytellers.”